Would you get paid to act as a third passenger in a vehicle so the car could drive into a congestion-restricted area? How about signing up to pack people into crowded subway cars? Dress up as a zebra and walk the streets, preventing cars from running red lights?
Siena is a lioness who recently got severely mauled by a buffalo. It’s so bad that looking at her standing up with her leg almost ripped off her body looks like a surreal scene from a zombie movie. Happily, the vets rushed to save her life so she could take care of her cubs. WARNING: VERY STRONG IMAGES.
A coalition of 100 investors announced plans to build a "Chinese-controlled economic zone" populated by skyscrapers and luxury residences. Their new city will be in Kenya, but the goal is to "match the glamour of Dubai." What would motivate investors to go to the trouble of building a massive new city in a country other than their own? It’s pretty simple, actually.
A 2003 article in the Military Review has proven darkly prescient with last weekend’s terrorist siege of an indoor shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Written by two retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonels, the piece outlines the emergence of modern-day siege warfare tactics, or the invasion of large architectural structures.
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This is incredible. Scientists have found an underground water reserve in Kenya so large that it could meet the entire country’s water needs for the next 70 years. Using satellite, radar and geological technology, scientists found an aquifer—an underground layer of water-bearing material—that contains 200 billion cubic meters of fresh water.
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Remote cameras are useful to wildlife conservationists, but their closed (or non-existent) networking limits the opportunities for tracking animals around the clock. The Instant Wild project’s cameras, however, are designed to rely on the internet for help. Whenever they detect movement, they deliver imagery to the public through Iridium’s satellite network. Anyone watching the cameras through the Instant Wild iOS app or website becomes an impromptu zoologist; viewers can identify both animals and poachers that dedicated staff might miss. Maintenance also isn’t much of an issue, as each unit is based on a Raspberry Pi computer that can run for long periods on a single battery. The Zoological Society of London currently operates these satellite cameras in Kenya, but there are plans underway to expand their use to the Antarctica, the Himalayas, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Filed under: Cameras, Internet
Source: Cambridge Consultants, Edge of Existence
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.
Staying connected to the internet can be a challenge at times, especially for Kenya-based Ushahidi, a non-profit tech organization that battles with power outages and flaky ISPs in Africa. Though the outfit typically makes software used in situations ranging from natural disasters to election monitoring, it’s taking a hardware project to Kickstarter that aims to ease connectivity woes for itself and others. Dubbed BRCK, the solution is a rugged wireless router that connects to the internet via Ethernet, WiFi, 3G and 4G, and can switch its source on the fly if a connection dies. For example, if your home service goes out, it can start using a cellular signal instantly — if you’ve slotted in a sim card, that is. During power outages, the brick can stay online for up to 8 hours thanks to an internal battery. The package can support up to 20 devices on WiFi and has 16GB of built-in storage, which can hold data synced directly from Dropbox, connected devices or other apps.
Filed under: Wireless, Internet
Source: Kickstarter
Following the lead of co-founder Bill Gates Microsoft is taking more interest in Africa, announcing its 4Afrika Initiative with a stated aim of improving the continent’s global competitiveness. There are several plans under way as a part of the project, with one of the first being a new Windows Phone 8 device from Microsoft and Huawei. Pictured above, the Huawei 4Afrika phone is a specially tailored version of the existing Ascend W1 meant as an affordable option (no price announced yet) for first time smartphone buyers that also comes preloaded with apps created by African developers for African consumers, and a subsection of the existing Windows Phone Store that will continue to focus on “locally-relevant” apps and content. It will be available in blue, red, black and white when it launches later this month in Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Another part of the push is a pilot project Microsoft is working on with the Kenyan government and Indigo Telecom which combines solar powered base stations using TV white space technology to offer affordable wireless internet access. Meant to bring broadband to places that currently lack even electricity, the deployment is called Mawingu, connecting a healthcare clinic and several schools in its initial test. After several years of pushing the tech, which takes advantage of unused TV broadcast spectrum, Microsoft hopes to convince other nations to make the legal/regulatory changes to start using it as well. There’s a press release after the break with more details, as well as a video and more information available beyond the source links.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: 4Afrika, Windows Phone Blog
Kenya has a lot of beautiful, rare animals, but unfortunately a lot of people are keen to kill them, and sell bits of them for money. Kenya’s got a new plan to try to keep those poachers in check though, and it’s good old-fashioned text messaging. More »
Kenya has confirmed that they will be turning off counterfeit mobile phones by the time October rolls around, and mobile networks there will also be prevented from activating new “fake” devices that are purchased after October 1st. Government officials claim that this particular move was done so that consumers will be protected from hazardous materials, while safeguarding mobile payment systems in the process. Not only that, this move should also be able to help them track users and limit the possibility of violence before the general election is due to happen sometime next March.
Officially, the statistics claim that up to three million users were talking and texting using counterfeit handsets as of June this year, which is quite a number considering Kenya had 29 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of March 2012. The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) say that fake handsets are “copies of popular brands and models made from sub-standard materials” which have yet to pick up any kind of licensing from the organisation. While this model be adopted by governments throughout Africa? Only time will tell.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Electro-Kinetic Shoe technology said to charge mobile phones, Kenya police site hacked, hacker thought about Mark Zuckerberg,
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