New wearable device offers protection from Zika-Spreading mosquitoes

February 3, 2016

Researchers have touted a new wearable device to be an effective tool for preventing the spread of the now famous Zika virus.

The Zika virus according to reports, originated from Uganda in Africa. It causes a usually mild illness known as Zika fever in humans. It has also been linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains.

The World Health Organization is worried that Zika is spreading far and fast, with devastating consequences. The alarming and disturbing infection, is spreading through the Americas. Some areas have declared a state of emergency over the infection.

However an “OFF Clip-On” device has been found to combat the spread of the virus efficiently, recent findings in the Journal of Medical Entomology say.

The wearable device works majorly by preventing bites from the Aedes aegypti mosquito – the primary vector of Zika, chikungunya, dengue, and yellow fever.

It repels mosquitoes by releasing a vapour form of insecticide through a battery-powered fan, forming an insecticide “cloud” around the wearer of the device.

In order to test the effectiveness of the device, Christopher Bibbs and Rui-De Xue of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District in Florida, US carried out a study to see how the device performed against hungry Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

The study was carried out outdoors in order to replicate real-world conditions. The team found that the OFF! Clip-On device caused high mosquito mortality.

It recorded impressive knockdown rates of up to 0.3 metres from the device, enough to protect a single person wearing the device.

The effectiveness of the device came as a pleasant surprise to the researchers.

“In vector control, we see more often than not that tools available for consumers do not work for the intended purpose,” Bibbs said.
“Just look at all the bug zappers, repellent bracelets, sonic bug repellents, and other zany creations that wax and wane in popularity. Skepticism is inherent to the trade. But it was nice for a change of pace that one of these devices could actually do some good,” Bibbs noted.

The device is available in Walmart and other online stores. It has a price tag of around $12 (that’s about 2,500 Naira).

ONAGOfly: A Tiny Selfie Drone you don’t need to Register with FAA

Jia Khan

January 27, 2016

An economical hand-sized drone named ONAGOfly is a GPS-supported selfie drone. ONAGOfly is capable of clicking images automatically by employing smile and obstacle identification technologies.

The drone features inbuilt obstruction detection sensors that help it to avoid running into something. ONAGOfly sports quite a few features that are usually seen in high-end, bigger drones. The palm-sized drone features a 15MP snapper, throw and fly ability, HD 1080p video capturing, wind resistance and live streaming.

ONAGOfly can also be controlled via an iOS or Android device for about 66ft distance. In order to use this feature, the drone must be connected to WiFi.

Generally, the FAA demands registration for unmanned or automated aircraft systems. Approximately 300,000 individuals owning a drone have registered themselves and their drones since the Government brought in this law in January. But this tiny shooter is so small in size, weighing a mere 0.3lbs, that it does not need to be registered.

In comparison with the bigger more expensive drones, ONAGOfly cannot generate its own WiFi hotspot. However, the other features definitely make it worthy of its price.

It is worth mentioning here that according to Federal Aviation Administration law only those drones should be registered that weigh more than 250 grams. ONAGOfly, being less in weight, does not fall into this category.

Till now, ONAGOfly has made more than $1.8 million over IndieGoGo from more than 9000 supporters with a few number of days still left in the end of the campaign. As an incentive, those who are supporting this campaign have been affirmed of a comparatively prompt delivery date for the month of March.

As far as the pricing and features of this bite-sized drone are concerned, it is currently being offered for $199. However the pricing will change and it will carry a price tag of $299 once the campaign ends.

Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 with Windows 10 launches on January 26

January 25, 2016

The Chinese electronics company Xiaomi has announced that it will be releasing the Windows 10 model of its Mi Pad 2 on 26^th January. The tablet will be available for purchase in two color choices including Champaign Gold and Dark Grey.

Previously, in November last year, Xiaomi had affirmed the rumors of a tablet in the making. Now, the device is being offered for purchase to the customers.

The Mi Pad 2 by Xiaomi flaunts a capacitive touch screen of 7.9-inches. The display comes with 2048×1536 screen resolution.

This latest Xiaomi tablet is driven by Atom X5-Z8500 SoC by Intel with a quad-core processor clocked at 2.24GHz. As per the storage specs, the device packs in 2GB of RAM.

The latest Xiaomi slate comes in two built-in memory variants. The internal memory for Windows 10 version is 64GB, however, the users who will opt to go the Android way will have 16GB internal memory available.

It is worth mentioning that both the versions do not support memory expansion which remains one the major drawbacks of this tablet.

In terms of connectivity, the Mi Pad 2 by Xiaomi flaunts WiFi 802.11ac and also supports USB Type C connectivity. In addition, the device features an 8MP rear shooter along with a 5MP front-facing snapper for selfies.

Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 sports 6190mAh battery backup which is expected to provide approximately twelve hours of video playback. In addition, the Mi Pad 2 design depicts an excellent metal finesse which gives this tablet an elegant touch.

The product will hit the markets with a price tag of CNY 1,299 which is equivalent to Rs. 13500. This cost is quite the same as that of the 64GB Android model. The 16GB variant running windows 10 will set back the users by CNY 999.

Gameloft launches Office in Nigeria

Emmanuel

January 22, 2016

Leading digital and social gaming specialist, Gameloft, has increased its expansion in Africa with the launch of a new office in Nigeria.

The Nigeria office is the second Gameloft Africa office after its 2012 launch in Johannesburg, South Africa. The office is expected to boost the firm’s presence in Africa and its fast-growing mobile telecommunications market. The expansion will also allow it to tap into the potential of the market, which at the moment has more than 367 million users.

Africa is considered to be the most dynamic region in terms of mobile telephony in the world. This has made the region the third-largest global market in terms of mobile subscribers

“The opening of a new trade office in Africa will allow us to take advantage of the considerable potential of a market that already includes more than 367 million users,”

Gameloft’s Sales Director for Africa, Vincent Brezillon, said.

“The success that we’ve experienced since the opening of our Johannesburg office, and surging sales in Africa over the last two years, completely justify the opening of a subsidiary in Nigeria, which is Africa’s strongest economy. In addition, this presence will facilitate interactions with our current and future local partners,” he added.

Gameloft since 2012 has existing partnerships with MTN, Orange, Vodafone, Safaricom, Ooredoo, and Etisalat. This partnership allows it to enjoy a presence in South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Algeria, and other African countries.

The Nigeria launch is also expected to make it easy for the firm to sign up new key distribution partnerships, thus extending its reach to other African countries such as Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Since its launch in Johannesburg in 2012, Gameloft’s revenue has increased by 536% because of the partnership offers it has with local telephone operators and manufacturers.

Also, the increasing entry of affordable smartphones in Africa makes it attractive for digital and social media firms such as Gameloft.

HP Sprout Pro launched at Rs. 150,000

Emmanuel

January 21, 2016

American global IT firm, Hewlett Packard, has announced an upgrade to its creative Sprout computer, tagged the HP Sprout Pro.

The HP Sprout, launched nearly two years ago, is HP’s effort toward re-imagining the venerable personal computer by merging a 3D scanner and projector with an all-in-one PC to create an ensemble it hopes will rekindle industry interest.

The computer is meant for product designers, sporting a touch-sensitive mat, and ability to measure 2D and 3D objects that are placed on it. It however is not limited to designers alone and has many other uses.

The new variant offers specifications upgrade over the original Sprout, coupled with a range of suites. It has a starting price of $2,199 (roughly 450,000 Naira) and will begin shipping in select regions as from next month.

The HP Sprout Pro sports a 23-inch full-HD display (1920×1080 pixels) with support for 10-point touch. The PC is powered by a sixth-generation Intel Core i7-6700 processor with Nvidia GeForce GT 945A (1GB GDDR5) graphics card and 8GB of DDR4-2133 SDRAM- which is expandable up to 16GB. The Pro version of the HP Sprout also comes with 1TB SATA solid state hybrid drive with an 8GB flash drive. A 1-megapixel webcam was also added to the mix.

Other features of the computer include the HP Illuminator, a built-in projector sporting up to 14.6-megapixel camera and the Intel RealSense 3D camera which is expected to instantly capture 2D and 3D objects.

There’s also a 20-inch mat called the ‘HP Touch Mat’, which features 20-point touch-enabled feedback with an ultra-resistant top coating. It serves as a second monitor as well as keyboard and mouse input devices. The company also offers the Adonit Jot Pro stylus to write and draw. The PC runs Windows 10 Pro out of the box.

The HP Sprout Pro supports 10/100/1000 Base-T Network, Bluetooth 4.0, and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n featuring dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) 2×2 MIMO technology. There are two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and an HP 3-in-1 media card reader on the desktop computer.

HP also announced a range of new apps that will go along with the HP Sprout Pro. One of them is HP Scan, which brings professional-level document scanning, and HP External Display Mixer.

BBM design contest launched in Nigeria; winner to get N500k

Emmanuel

January 20, 2016

Blackberry Limited in a move to add distinctly local chat icons (aka Stickers) to the BBM messaging app has launched a BBM design contest in Nigeria.

In order to participate, interested candidates only need to create their signature stickers and enroll in the contest. The designs will then be subjected to votes and twenty packs with the most votes will be selected. A BBM jury will be appointed to select 3 top winners and 10 runners-up out of the pack.

To stand a chance of coming out tops, candidates can encourage their friends and family to vote online for their sticker pack. They can also promote what they have created via social media. Interested candidates are required to register on or before February 12, 2016. Voting will begin on February 8 and end on February 19. The winners of the contest will be announced on February 22.

First prize winner will cart home NGN 500,000 while the second and third place winners will be awarded NGN 250,000 and NGN 125,000 respectively. The 10 runners-up will receive NGN 25,000 each while NGN 10,000 worth of recharge card will be awarded to 20 voters. Also, all top 3 winners will be featured on the BBM Sticker Shop and receive sales revenue.

Senior VP at BlackBerry, Matthew Talbot, is expecting a huge turnout.

“In Africa, the BBM Shop gets over 20 million views each month and has tallied 60 million total stickers sent and received,” he said.
“This contest opens the doors for more talented artists and designers to make their own unique stickers come to life in BBM, and we are hoping to see huge enthusiasm in Nigeria,” he added.

Interested candidates can visit the BBM Stickamania page to learn more, read the design guide and register.

The contest was held in South Africa last year and winners . The winners won exciting prizes including iMac, MacBooks and Blackberry Z10.

Sony PlayStation VR Headset gets Priced in Switzerland

Jia Khan

January 20, 2016

2016 is definitely going to be the year of VR. With Oculus, HTC and Valve unveiling their VR headsets at CES 2016, the show was dominated by VR.

In the midst of this VR hype, Japanese multinational Sony is set to release its PlayStation VR headset later in 2016. Thus far, Sony has maintained a strict radio silence on the pricing as well as the launch date of this headset, codenamed Morpheus.

The surprise came in from Switzerland, where the Sony PlayStation VR headset was spotted on the websites of three online retailers. The website listings give out the price of the Sony VR headset.

Sony PlayStation VR headset will be available for purchase at 498 Swiss francs which is equivalent to £347. This implies that Sony PlyStation VR headset will be competitively priced because the listed price is considerably less than that of Rift VR which is priced at £499.

The website also revealed that Sony VR headset will be available for purchase from 30^th June.

The recent leaks signify that Japanese tech giant is nearing the announce of a release date for PlayStation VR ensuing pre-order of the RIFT in the previous month.

In addition, a NeoGAF user also released screenshots of the bill for the PlayStation VR, with cost around €450 to €500. The price is in accordance with what professionals have already predicted for the device.

Sony’s CEO (entertainment section) reported last year that the device would cost same as any fresh gaming platform. The recently revealed price tags are in accordance with the statement. Sony said previously that

“VR rewrites the rule book on how you can create games. You’re seeing a large amount of interest and work happening among smaller teams, because it’s possible to create something in VR that is very simple but still very magical.”

Since the company is still silent regarding the VR headset price, the costs mentioned on these websites could serve as an educated guess.

Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System is live

Emmanuel

January 12, 2016

Installation of the Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS), which started in July 2015, has been completed and the system has now gone live.

The infrastructure was built following a tripartite partnership between leading telecoms and network service provider, MainOne, Cameroun’s Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, and Huawei Marine Networks.

The submarine cable system which connects Lagos in Nigeria and Kribi in Cameroon was built to address increasing demand for reliable broadband connectivity in Cameroon. It is also a key component of the country’s plan to provide internet access to its citizens via a National Broadband Network.

The six-pair 1,100 kilometer repeater submarine cable system is expected to deliver up to 12.8 Tbps to broadband users in Cameroon and was lit with a 40 GB capacity from Day 1.

The system is also expected to boost Cameroon’s extremely low broadband penetration which is currently estimated at five percent (5%).

“The NCSCS system enables us to provide users with faster bandwidth connectivity at a significantly lower cost,”

General Manager of Cameroon Telecommunications Corporation (CAMTEL), David Nkoto Emane, said in a press release.

“By providing direct connection to Nigeria, the cable system will also serve to enhance Cameroon’s position as the major bandwidth hub in the region and internationally to Europe and beyond,”

he added.

MainOne’s Regional Executive for West Africa, Kazeem Oladepo, corroborated this assertion.

“Nigeria’s South-South region and Cameroon now have the platform to leverage the same quality of access to the Internet to catalyze social, economic and technological development,”

he quipped.

“As part of our strategy to boost West Africa’s economic and commercial development, we will continue to make deliberate and significant investments in connectivity projects that will facilitate increased access to broadband,”

he added.

The submarine cable system was built with branching units for extension of its connectivity into Nigeria’s Escravos in Delta State, Qua Iboe in Akwa Ibom State, and Bonny Island in Rivers State.

Also, plans for a distribution hub in Port Harcourt has been concluded. The hub will be designed to bridge the technology gap between the South-South and the rest of Nigeria.

Silver Internet Holdings budgets $10m for African tech startups

Emmanuel

January 12, 2016

South African company, Silver Internet Holdings (SIH), has announced that it is setting aside $10 million to invest in African Startups in 2016 through its investment arm, Silvertree Capital.

The company has an array of eCommerce platforms including Click ‘n’ Compare, Healthcart and PriceCheck which it recently acquired from Naspers. These platforms helped the Cape Town-based firm to have a successful year 2015.

SIH managed to close the year at a 330% p.a growth with a 25 million consumer base. This brought the revenue it has made since it began operation- which is just shy of two years, to $10 million.

The company is now looking to invest the $10 million it has made in upcoming talented online companies to join its fast-expanding owner-operator portfolio.

Managing Director and Founder of SIH, Manuel Koser, is looking forward to more acquisitions.

“Our meteoric growth in 2015 has been driven by execution-focused delivery across all of our portfolio companies, as well as a number of company acquisitions that are already delivering positive returns,”

he proclaimed.

“Our job now is to build on this momentum to maintain our aggressive growth trajectory and cement our dominance in the African eCommerce and price comparison markets,”

he said.

“We are in the business of building businesses, through accelerated, highly targeted investment and growth strategies, with proven businesses,”

SIH co-founder Peter Allerstorfer pointed out. According to him, the company is neither an incubator nor a VC.

“We are entrepreneurs who invest in like-minded entrepreneurs. Our search for young, dynamic, hungry talent who want to scale faster and outpace their competitors, will be a key focus for us in 2016,”

he said.

The South African Company looks to invest in tech-powered, niche commerce companies, first in South Africa and then spreading to other emerging markets in Africa.

“Searching for top tier talent to invest in and work with will be a key focus for the Silvertree team in 2016, starting in South Africa, but with an eye on other emerging markets on the continent, specifically Nigeria and Kenya,”

Silvertree founder and MD, Paul Cook said.

Nikon announces D5 and D500 DSLRs, KeyMission 360 Action Cam

Jia Khan

January 9, 2016

Japanese multinational Nikon’s press event at CES 2016 featured the company’s latest baby- action snappers.

Dust had not even settled over Nikon’s previous disclosure of the D5, the latest 4K DSLR flagship, when the new surprise was revealed.

KeyMission 360 is a 360-degree, 4K resolution action shooter constructed with virtual reality approach. The company has confirmed that a new line of action cameras is on its way.

Although detailed information is yet to be divulged, Nikon KeyMission 360 encapsulates a cuboid design.As compared to GoPro Hero4 Session, the size of KeyMission 360 is a bit on the larger side.

The Nikon KeyMission 360 is shockproof to 6.6 ft (nearly 2 meters) and is also water-resistant up to 100ft. The design of the camera is such that it can be seated on different platforms.

As per the specifications on the cover, it appears that this latest action camera from Nikon will come with an inbuilt Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options, apparently to allow a tablet or a smartphone to act as the camera’s viewfinder.

Nikon D5 and D500 are also inline. These flagships are company’s two latest digital SLR cameras. D5 flaunts a FX format CMOS 20.8MP sensor that comes with an ability to capture 4K UHD 30P videos.

The Nikon Camera also features an auto-focus Multi-CAM sensor module. Other specs include 100% inclusion viewfinder, Ethernet for quick file transferring and double memory card support.

D500 on the other hand comes with a DX-Format 20.9MP CMOS sensor. The device also encapsulates an ability to shoot 4K UHD videos and sports auto-focus multi-CAM 20K sensor module.

In terms of price, the D5 (only body) will cost around $6500 whereas D500 (only body) will set back its users around $2000.

The details regarding battery life, pricing and market launch of KeyMission 360 action camera are yet to be revealed.

The action camera arena has largely been dominated by Go Pro. Inclusion of big wigs like Nikon will toughen up the race.

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