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  • Young Entrepreneur Brings Openmoko to Africa

    A young entrepreneur in South Africa has teamed up with Openmoko to distribute the Neo Freerunner to Africa.

    Nyasha Mutsekwa spoke to Biz-News.com at the sidelines of Mobile Web Africa conference in Johannesburg of his mission.

    Mutsekwa believes that the biggest challenge in Africa is not short of skills but lack of latest technologies that can be harnessed to empower people.

    “In Africa I think its not skills shortage but rather lack of access to latest technologies, this is why we are going all out to bring all the technologies available to Africa,” he said

    The Neo Freerunner is an open-source phone, which allows developers and enthuasists alike access to the source code and hardware schematics to customize the device to their hearts content.

    Nyasha Mutsekwa

    Mutsekwa through his company Engineering Ideas is optimistic of their business venture across the continent saying they have received favourable response in countries that they have a footprint.

    Openmoko is a project dedicated to delivering mobile phones with an open source software stack. This technology allows the users to freely choose to run any operating system on their Openmoko smartphone.

    Besides running the Openmoko software and applications, users can also run the following distributions: Qt Extended Improved, Debian, Gentoo, Google Android, Hackable: 1, neovento.

    “With this smartphone user have the ability to create their own African Mobile environments using a tried and tested open source platform,” Mutsekwa added.

    Mutsekwa, who previously worked for Oracle Africa as the e-School Business Development Manager teamed up with friends in 2008 to start Engineering Ideas, a private limited company serving the technology and intellectual capital needs of small to medium size business clients in Africa.

    Speaking about the regulatory environment on the continent, Mutsekwa said that his company hasn’t faced much challenges as there is an identical regulatory environment within their sphere of operation.

  • Transformational Impact of Server Virtualization on IT Infrastructure

    A recent IDC survey investigating server virtualization deployments in various organizations reveals that the technology is transforming server, storage, and networking infrastructure and even more so the way their datacenters are and will be built and managed.

    "The accelerated adoption of virtualization is making the technology a crucial factor, changing buying behavior and deployments of customers throughout Europe," said Nathaniel Martinez, program director for IDC’s European Enterprise Servers group.

    According to him, customers are not only rapidly exploiting new and emerging virtualization functions such as high availability and VM mobility, they are also slowly adapting their infrastructure to virtualization requirements.

    “This in turn drives the acquisition of richer configured servers, expansion in fiber channel SANs, increased spending on iSCSI-based storage, and a boost in NAS adoption in large hosting environments," Martinez added.

    The survey also suggests that many users are pushing their virtual server environments to the limits, which is causing several problems, such as virtual server sprawl and storage I/O bottlenecks.

    22% of all survey respondents claim to have had I/O problems within the past six months and this number jumps to 40% of respondents that fit into the early adopter category.

    "Costs are obviously an important factor, but many storage administrators are looking for ways to ensure that storage supporting virtual server environments can meet current and future performance needs," said Eric Sheppard, program director for IDC’s European Storage service.

    The study, Status of x86 virtualization in European Organizations is based on a survey conducted among current server virtualization users in the U.K., Germany, and France.

  • Panasas Announces the World's Highest-Performance File Storage System

    Panasas intoroduced the ActiveStor Series 9 parallel storage system, which is believed to be the highest-performance file storage system in the world, as the company claims.

    "This is an exciting performance breakthrough for our industry," said Randy Strahan, CEO of Panasas.

    The new company’s system achieves its unprecedented performance by using multiple storage technologies via a synchronized architecture combining three tiers of storage — cache, SSD, and SATA — on each blade.

    It utilizes the Intel® X25-E Extreme SATA SSD for meta-data operations and smaller user files. Larger files are handled by cost-effective, large-capacity SATA disk drives.

    Unlike single-dimensional storage solutions, which offer either high-bandwidth performance or optimized IOPS, the ActiveStor uses multiple storage technologies in a synchronized architecture to produce both.

    A single 42U rack configured with the new Series 9 system is capable of delivering an estimated 80,000 NFS operations per second, as well as 6 gigabytes per second of throughput. Additional performace can be gained in a linear fashion simply by adding additional Panasas shelves or racks to a configuration.

    This unique "no compromise" combination of performance and expandability allows Panasas to deliver industry-leading throughput, as well as IOPs performance as much as 80 percent higher than most competitive storage systems. In addition, the new Panasas system can achieve these results with fewer disk drives than others, the company claims.

    According to Strahan, this new system expands Panasas’ ability to help customers save money across their storage infrastructure by increasing their ability to consolidate a wider variety of applications and workloads in a single storage architecture, including high-performance clustered applications, single-client applications, and technical and commercial applications running NFS and CIFS file protocols.

    "Panasas has now upped the ante in terms of performance relative to footprint and is allowing customers to reduce management costs and increase productivity by consolidating on a single platform," said Terri McClure, senior analyst at analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group.

    "Inadequate performance of storage is a major inhibitor of the compute environment to perform with enough speed to support the data intensive problems companies are required to solve today."

  • T-Mobile to Offer First 3G BlackBerry with Voice Calling over Wi-Fi

    RIM announced the upcoming availability of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 with Wi-Fi Calling from T-Mobile.

    It will be the first 3G-powered BlackBerry available through T-Mobile USA, and also the first smartphone from RIM that includes built-in support for both 3G connectivity and voice calls over Wi-Fi, according to T-Mobile.

    T-Mobile customers can continue to get mobile coverage and nationwide Wi-Fi calling with the company’s Unlimited HotSpot Calling service or, for business customers, the new Wi-Fi Calling with MobileOffice solution.

    Wi-Fi calling will require Unlimited HotSpot Calling mobile plan or Wi-Fi Calling with MobileOffice service, qualifying rate plan, broadband internet connection and wireless router.

    T-Mobile’s Unlimited HotSpot Calling is an add-on feature to qualifying mobile plan that enables unlimited nationwide calling over Wi-Fi from home and from all of US T-Mobile HotSpot locations across the country. It starts from $9.99. Regular plan minutes are used when call does not originate on Wi-Fi network.

    Rumored as the Onyx, Bold 9700 comes with new BlackBerry OS 5.0, 624 MHz processor, 2.44” light-sensing display, 256MB Flash memory, built-in GPS and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and video recording, full-QWERTY keyboard, touch-sensitive optical trackpad and micro SDHC 2GB card.

    It includes support for 3G HSDPA networks around the world and provides all well known RIM’s mobile e-mail and messaging solution, and access to social networking applications.

    Many applications from BlackBerry App World are readily available directly on the 9700, such as Slacker Radio (free music), TeleNav GPS Navigator (turn-by-turn directions), and visual voicemail.

    The new BlackBerry smartphone is expected to be available in November.

    By the end of the year T-Mobile’s 3G network is planned to be available to approximately 200 million people across the U.S.

  • Smartphone Faces Security Threat

    The pervasive nature of the mobile world has made it difficult to successfully curb security threats on smartphones and other mobile devices offering internet access, says Alain Rollier, founder of AXSionics.

    In an interview with Biz-News.com this week, Rollier gave a detailed account of how security threat on mobile devices was shifting from the traditional devices that offer Internet Access.

    “Mobile phones become or in many cases are already as powerful as any other Internet Access device, therefore the known security issues on the PC and Laptops will appear on mobile.

    “So all the problems of laptop/pc world are heading the way of the smartphone, plus a few more as a direct result of the pervasive nature of the mobile world,” he said.

    The security expert dispelled myths that certain operating systems were more secure than others. He said the crux of the matter was the operating environment more than anything else.

    Alain Rollier

    Rollier said his company has developed solutions that work on all operating systems as well as networks.

    “I don’t think it’s really a question of only the operating system. I think the more important question is the operating environment. We have developed a solution that does not rely on the security of the operating system or the network or the access devices and still delivers complete security for transactions and identity management, Rollier explained

    Biggest threat to security on a smart phone

    Security issues around the smartphone are crucial because the device already accounts for 25 percent of the cellphone market. Given their current growth rate and the number of new devices, smartphones will account for an increasing share of the overall market with some sectors predicting as much as 40 percent over the next five years. This would be at a minimum 400 million devices per year.

    Rollier is of the opinion that security threats to smartphones are similar to those found on PCs or Laptops, but acknowledges that the use of many interfaces will be problematic on security.

    “Smart phones have all the issues around security that a pc or laptop has, plus a couple more which come from the additional interfaces like SMS and SIM cards. By nature, having a lot of interfaces is not helping to secure devices; one challenge is to have two independent channels on the same device – internet browser and communication. I think a shift in thinking is required,” he said

    Rollier said all devices including the smartphone would be impossible to fully guarantee security but noted that emphasis must be on ensuring secure identities and transactions.

    “The smartphone, laptop or pc will always be impossible to fully secure. The question we have to answer is ‘how do we make sure that identities and transactions are always secure when this is the case?’

    “This is what has driven our thinking at AXSionics, and we have developed a solution that provides this security regardless of how unsecured all the elements in the chain are,” he said.

    Enterprise security policies on mobile devices

    Biz-News.com enquired from Rollier if it was possible for companies to implement security polices on smartphones as much as they did on desktop computers.

    The security expert was quick to point out that some firms had already implemented policies to that effect but acknowledged that due to the nature of the mobile world it would always be a challenge for these to be a success.

    “Some companies also implement PKI type solutions which can, in very controlled environments, help. However, in the pervasive word of mobile communications, these solutions are not sufficiently scalable and hence cannot be successful.

    “Allowing companies to implement their current enterprise security policies on mobile devices will not solve the problem,” he said.

    On data theft, he explained that companies and individuals must be wary of data that was not on the smartphone but could be accessed by the device.

    Rollier pointed out that enterprise data, e-Banking, commerce transactions, identity data and username/password combinations that are available and that can be accessed and used by cyber criminals should be of concern to everyone.

    “I think a mobile security product is one part of the answer but we must stop thinking of these devices as anything more than a pc or laptop, only much more pervasive and much more vulnerable,” he said.

    Affordable and accessible security solutions

    On the question of availability and how companies and individuals can afford security solutions, the founder of AXSionics said their solution worked effectively on both secure and insecure operating systems on smartphones.

    “We provide solutions that work regardless how secure or insecure the operating system of the smart phone is. We use the smart phone and the internet connection only to transport encrypted information from the service provider to the AXSionics Internet Passport. It’s very secure, doesn’t drive usage costs and is very convenient for the user,” he said.

    AXSionics has in recent past won several awards for its innovation, concept and design. These included the Red Dot Design Award, the Red Herring Hot 100 Europe Award and the European Innovation Award in Identity Management.

    Rollier said despite the product being new, it was currently in use in a number of high security areas including defence and in volume use in retail banking. It has many innovations built in to ensure it is scalable, easy to use and convenient.

  • Collecting Testimonies of Violence Using Mobile Internet

    Kenya has taken a leading role in Africa by embarking on effective use of Mobile Internet to expose acts of political violence, murder and torture, Ory Okollo the founder of Ushahidi.com told Biz-news.com

    In an interview on the sidelines of Mobile Web Africa conference in Sandton recently, executive director of Kenya’s Ushahidi, Ory Okolloh, said her organization was primarily established to expose crisis situations to empower Africa.

    “In brief, Ushahidi means testimony. The name was derived from Swahili language and Ushahidi was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post election fallout at the beginning of 2008.

    “This is basically about creating technological platform to enable anyone from around the globe to capture reports by mobile phone, web or email. With time, we would want this to work with other online tools,” said Okolloh.

    Ory Okollo

    She said Ushahidi was an open source application which could be downloaded, used or implemented, to bring awareness to regional crisis prevailing on the continent.

    Already some countries such as Uganda, war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi and Zambia are tapping into Ushahidi project to improve and track near real-time stockouts of medical supplies at pharmacies.

    Even renowned international television channel, Al Jazeera, is reportedly using some of the technology from Ushahidi in its work to expose elements of violence from around the globe.

    Ushahidi.com site collects “testimony” on violence as people see it. They can send reports using cell phones and computers to the site.

    The information is logged and registered according to the type of violence (riots, deaths, property loss, rape, looting, etc.) using Google Maps.

    In places and moments when reporting is dangerous and difficult, this kind of program uses information from ordinary citizens to record violence as its happening. Ushahidi was put together by a lawyer/activist, Okollo and a small group of Kenyan, blogger/techies while the post-election violence in Kenya was going on in the early part of 2008.

    It was then used in South Africa to track xenophobic attacks against foreigners, and then in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All these instances can be viewed on the website.

    In addition to offering a method of tracking violence, Ushahidi also serves as a bloggers’ space to talk about new uses of technologies in Africa. Videos produced on the spot that can be uploaded also add to the testimony. It is cutting edge technology married to a citizen empowerment project.

    The collected data is useful for all kinds of people and purposes from NGOs, media, human rights workers, aid organizations to ordinary citizens who want to know what is happening in times of crisis.

  • VideoWeb Introduces World First Hybrid HDTV Satellite Receiver

    VideoWeb has developed a receiver that combines HDTV broadcasting, internet TV and numerous internet applications in a single unit.

    The VideoWeb S500 brings WebTV programmes directly onto a TV screen and at the touch of a button on the remote control the television will screen an internet broadcast, in the same way as a conventional TV channel.

    It provides a wide range of internet services like Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, Twitter or Google Maps through the VideoWeb TV portal. The satellite receiver has the ability to receive all unencoded standard-definition and high-definition TV programmes.

    Doris Kucera, Press Officer of VideoWeb gave Biz-News.com reporters a short introduction to the company as well as a live demonstration of Plus X Award-nominated WidoWeb S500.

  • What Do Consumers Do With Their Phones?

    A recent Canalys consumer study, which surveyed over 3.000 people across France, Germany and theUK, looked at what features consumers are using on their phones.

    The first conclusion is that the use of data services is limited outside of smart phone owners and that customers on SIM-only contracts consume more data than their pre-paid counterparts. “The results go some way to quashing the expectations that SIMonly customers will only use voice and text,” says Canalys.

    When comparing the usage habits of respondents with pre-paid contracts versus those with SIM-only contracts, usage was higher in every category for individuals with SIM-only packages.

    For example, 27% of SIM-only users regularly browsed web sites on their handsets compared with just 14% of pre-paid users. Equally, the number of customers accessing social networking services on their mobile phones was considerably higher among SIM-only users (16%) when compared with pre-paid users (7%). The use of e-mail was also greater among those who subscribed to SIM-only deals (23%) versus consumers on pre-paid tariffs (16%).

    According to Canalys, operators will hope that the uptake of data services will steadily increase across their subscriber bases. “The major challenge that operators face is ensuring there is a sufficient penetration of handsets that are capable of accessing connected services, a questionable factor, especially looking at the difference in usage between handset brands across data services,” the report says.

    The other conclusion is that social networking on mobile phones remains a relatively small, but growing service. The research shows that despite the large usage figures quoted by companies such as Facebook, usage of social networking in the mass market remains limited.

    Only 10% of end users regularly accessed this type of service from their mobile phones. iPhone users were by far the most active, with almost half regularly accessing social networking services. Figures for BlackBerry (27%) and HTC (23%) users were lower than those for Apple, but were still significantly above the average.

    “These results show that usage of social networking services is higher among smart phone users, and as the market leader in the smart phone market, it is fair to assume that usage on Nokia’s flagship products would be similar. Usage of social networking services across all of its products, however, was only 7%,” says Canalys.

    When looking at e-mail usage on mobile phones, BlackBerry owners were the most active with 68% regularly using e-mail on their handsets. Owners of handsets from Apple (67%) and HTC (53%) also used e-mail far more regularly than those who owned handsets from the leading vendors, where on average only 15% of end users were regularly using e-mail on their phones.

    Web site browsing also revealed contrasting usage patterns: 73% of iPhone users regularly browsed web sites on their handsets; 60% of BlackBerry owners and 56% of HTC owners had similar habits.

    Conversely, just 8% of Motorola owners regularly browsed web sites on their phones and, though web browsing was higher on phones from LG (18%), Samsung (17%), Nokia (16%) and Sony Ericsson (16%), it was still significantly below that of iPhone users.

    Navigation services were cited by 36% of end users as a feature that they wanted on their next mobile phone that they did not have today. The majority of respondents were keen to have an in-car turn-by-turn solution on their next phone.

    “But as many navigation solution providers are now discovering, it is not good enough just to supply the software. For in-car navigation to be successful on mobile phones the experience of portable navigation devices (PNDs) needs to be matched or exceeded. This means that car kits or cradles need to be supplied alongside the software at the time of purchase. In addition, events such as incoming calls and other alerts need to be handled in a way that provides minimal disruption to the navigation experience,” analysts conclude.

  • StromPhonie Powerline Telephone Technology from AGFEO

    VIDEO INTREVIEW.
    AGFEO, the Germany-based developer, manufacturer and distributor of ISDN/IP solutions, displayed Plus X Award-nominated AGFEO StromPhonie at this year’s IFA.

    The StromPhonie is an integration into the Powerline technology within AGFEO Telephone Systems and therefore does not require any telephone wire installation. With the aid of IP based ASIP (AGFEO System IP) technology system phones can be connected to the telephone system by using the standard 230 Volt mains socket.

    Lars Husemann, Product Manager for AGFEO gave us a short introduction to the company’s star products and a demonstration of the StromPhonie system.

    AGFEO assures they paid particular attention to the Apple community. They also claim the AGFEO’s StromPhonie is the first telephone system which offers system telephony in connection with a fully Apple compatible CTI solution, including the synchronisation with an iPhone representation.

  • Large-Sized LCD Panel Business Becomes Profitable Again

    After a year of losing money or generating zero return, the global large-sized (10” or larger) LCD panel business returned to profitability in the third quarter, according to iSuppli’s latest research.

    In an example of market trends, the 32-inch HDTV LCD, which is the most popular dimension for large-sized panels, generated a 13 percent profit for the LCD industry in the third quarter. In contrast, the 32-inch panel incurred losses of 12 percent in the second quarter of 2009, 31 percent in the first quarter of 2009 and 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

    The last time the LCD industry cut a profit on 32-inch HDTV panels was in the second quarter of 2008, when they generated a 19 percent return.

    Analysts say the main reason LCD panels have not been profitable for so long is the market’s extreme state of oversupply, which resulted in LCD panel pricing that was below manufacturing costs. However, reductions in production and utilization rates, combined with better-than-expected panel demand from China’s television market, helped spur the return to profitability in the third quarter.

    A shortage of glass used to make LCD panels also contributed to the tightness of the panel market during the third quarter, further boosting prices and profits.

    Worldwide shipments of large-sized LCD panels amounted to 148.3 million units in the third quarter, up 14.3 percent from the second quarter of 2009, and up 28.9 percent from the third quarter of 2008. iSuppli expects to revise this estimate as more companies report third-quarter results.

    LG Display was the world’s largest seller of large-sized LCD panels in the second quarter of 2009, accounting for 25.3 percent of shipments. This put LG just slightly ahead of chief rival, Samsung, which had a 24.6 percent share. Preliminary indications show LG and Samsung were engaged in a tight battle for the market’s No.-1 position during the period.

    iSuppli predicts that rising fab utilization rates and decreased panel demand following the Christmas purchasing season will drive the large-sized LCD panel market to oversupply in the fourth quarter of 2009, conforming with normal seasonal patterns. However, the reductions in prices and shipments are expected to be only moderate compared to those of a year earlier, in the fourth quarter of 2008.

    Many panel suppliers, having just returned to profitability, are maintaining tight control of their inventories and have little motivation to cut pricing drastically at this time, according to the research.