Google translate in more African languages

Google Translate is now available in five more African languages.

Google says in its Africa blog that it has launched nine new languages that span Africa, Asia, and Oceania and have over 200 million native speakers, collectively.

In Africa, Google has added Somali, Zulu, and the three major languages of Nigeria. 

• Hausa (Harshen Hausa), spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 35 million native speakers
• Igbo (Asụsụ Igbo) spoken in Nigeria with 25 million native speakers 
• Yoruba (èdè Yorùbá) spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 28 million native speakers 
• Somali (Af-Soomaali) spoken in Somalia and other countries around the Horn of Africa with 17 million native speakers 
• Zulu (isiZulu) spoken in South Africa and other south-western African countries with 10 million native speakers

This is the largest expansion into African languages to date. Google Translate already  supports Swahili and Afrikaans.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

T-Mobile's Deal With Facebook Is an Important Test

In Facebook's second-quarter conference call, Mark Zuckerberg outlined three main goals for the company going forward. The first was to connect everyone. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) shares this goal with Facebook, and the advertising rivals might end up helping each other.

With a growing number of users accessing Facebook through mobile devices, the company wants to ensure that anyone can access its services. In February, Facebook announced partnerships with 18 carriers in 14 different countries to allow subscribers free or discounted access to Facebook.

The best part about these deals for Facebook is that it isn't footing the bill for data usage.It has helped out with marketing and promotion, but considering its access to one of the largest advertising platforms is all but free, that isn't too much of a burden for the company.

Although the terms of the arrangement with GoSmart were not disclosed, it's likely Facebook has come to similar terms. Considering Facebook's saturation level in the U.S. and the average price per ad in the country, T-Mobile is getting just as good of a deal as Facebook.

Google, on the other hand, is unlikely to make similar deals with carriers. The company's service, by its very nature, sends people to other parts of the web. Instead, Google has taken to setting up free WiFi networks all over the world, including plans for a potential network of balloons or blimps over Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, which could connect an additional 1 billion people.

Google can benefit from Facebook's deals with carriers, however, as more people sign up for data plans once they get a taste of the mobile web. This is what T-Mobile and GoSmart are banking on.

source: www.fool.com

google translates in more African languages

Google Translate is now available in five more African languages.

Google says in its Africa blog that it has launched nine new languages that span Africa, Asia, and Oceania and have over 200 million native speakers, collectively.

In Africa, Google has added Somali, Zulu, and the three major languages of Nigeria. 

• Hausa (Harshen Hausa), spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 35 million native speakers
• Igbo (Asụsụ Igbo) spoken in Nigeria with 25 million native speakers 
• Yoruba (èdè Yorùbá) spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 28 million native speakers 
• Somali (Af-Soomaali) spoken in Somalia and other countries around the Horn of Africa with 17 million native speakers 
• Zulu (isiZulu) spoken in South Africa and other south-western African countries with 10 million native speakers

This is the largest expansion into African languages to date. Google Translate already  supports Swahili and Afrikaans.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

Google Translate in more African languages

Google Translate is now available in five more African languages.

Google says in its Africa blog that it has launched nine new languages that span Africa, Asia, and Oceania and have over 200 million native speakers, collectively.

In Africa, Google has added Somali, Zulu, and the three major languages of Nigeria. 

• Hausa (Harshen Hausa), spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 35 million native speakers
• Igbo (Asụsụ Igbo) spoken in Nigeria with 25 million native speakers 
• Yoruba (èdè Yorùbá) spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 28 million native speakers 
• Somali (Af-Soomaali) spoken in Somalia and other countries around the Horn of Africa with 17 million native speakers 
• Zulu (isiZulu) spoken in South Africa and other south-western African countries with 10 million native speakers

source: www.biztechafrica.com

Dell is out to win over the prosumer

FOR a company moving aggressively towards a software and solutions focus, Dell is making a lot of noise with its new hardware.

At the Dell World conference in Austin, Texas, this week, it made yet another product announcement that signalled a reinforcement of its computer offerings.

The group unveiled its first Chromebook, a laptop using Google’s simplified ChromeOS operating system, targeting the US and UK education markets, and claiming a 10-hour battery life.

The device follows the launch in October of two tablets — the Venue 7 and 8 — running Google’s Android operating system and a further two — the Venue Pro 8 and 11 -running on Microsoft Windows 8.1. And that’s just the beginning.

“We’re launching a lot more devices, a lot more form factors,” Dell executive director of end-user computing, Margaret Franco, told Business Times. “How are all these devices making any sense? In this new world, it starts with the use case of the customer.

“By understanding the end user and the application of the device, you can marry the right device to the right customer.”

Combined with Dell’s growing software and services capability, the wide range of devices appears to make for a solution range rather than merely a device range.

Ms Franco concurs: “If you just had a bunch of devices, you couldn’t drive value. You have to have consulting services, build or outsource applications, and provide enterprise networking and storage infrastructure.

source: www.bdlive.co

Samasource wins google grant

Samasource has announced that it has been granted a $2 million Google Global Impact Award. This funding will be used to create technology-enabled jobs for thousands of youth and women globally, to enhance Samasource's robust technology platform, the SamaHub, and to support expansion of the organization's microwork model by licensing and scaling Samasource's proven approach to poverty alleviation.

"We are grateful to receive this investment from such a forward thinking and leading organization as Google," said Leila Janah, founder & CEO of Samasource. "Being able to benefit from Google's engineering support enables us to effectively and efficiently serve more marginalized women and youth than ever before while also delivering high quality, affordable services to our clients. With this generous support, we will dramatically change the lives of thousands of poor women and youth by providing them with what they want most: fairly-paid work."

To date, Samasource has connected more than 4,000 marginalized people in Africa, India, Haiti and the U.S. to paying work, totaling over $2 million in wages paid out. Samasource's award-winning microwork model brings free, specialized technology training and fairly-compensated digital work to poor women and youth around the world. This approach enables people to gain skills, earn a fair living wage and break the cycle of poverty for themselves and their families. Almost 90% of Samasource workers move up to higher-paying work or higher education.

This award will help Samasource scale its technology platform and operations.  It funds a new initiative to license key parts of Samasource's proven model for job creation to other organizations, including large outsourcing companies and enterprise customers. As a result, they can participate in the growth of the impact sourcing field while delivering high-quality results for their customers and stakeholders.  Thanks to this project, the dynamics of the outsourced job market are poised to fundamentally change since entities with digital outsourcing needs will be able to effectively access and utilize new pools of talent, drawing from the least developed and most impoverished populations globally.  Using this approach, these historically-disadvantaged populations will have access to jobs in the digital economy and can provide business value to those with digital outsourcing needs.

"We are excited about Samasource's unique combination of technology, operations and mission to help reduce poverty around the world," said Chris Busselle, principal of Google.org. "We look forward to supporting Samasource's mission to make an even greater impact on those in need by offering them a sustainable gateway into the digital economy."

source:www.biztechafrica.com

best gadgets for christmas

Gadgets have become the gift of choice for many people, and in 2013 this trend is likely to continue. Sony, Apple, and Google have all launched new gadgets ahead of the Christmas season.

Major retailers in South Africa are already trying to lure consumers to their stores with special offers on TVs, tablets, smartphones and other gadgets.

Online shopping platforms are also gearing up for Christmas season with a wide range of gadgets and technology goods.

Here are some of the gadgets which are likely to put a smile on the face of most people who receive them as presents.

source:www. mybroadband.co

Google books offers huge discounts on meldela's auto/biographies

You  just have to look around the internet to see just how big an impact the passing of Nelson Mandela made on the world. For only the second time in its history Apple has changed its home page to memorialise someone, the first time was for its founder Steve Jobs. The former head of state is one of the most revered individuals in world history, certainly in South African history and as such we think that learning more about the man who helped shape our future is the duty of every South African.

Good thing then that Google Play is having a sale on a bunch of Mandela related biographies and his famous biography, ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’. The Google Play team even managed to pen a small missive on the great man which shows the impact his life has had throughout the world.

It is not enough to say that Nelson Mandela embodied the spirit of democracy: he is in fact an architect of freedom. He lived and suffered fearlessly for peace, for justice, and for equality, and his impact on individuals and nations is more intimate and expansive than any political leader of our time. We pause today to honour his life and share with you his remarkable legacy.

source: www.htxt.co 

Motorola unveils 'affoadable' moto G

 Google-owned Motorola Mobility on Wednesday unveiled the Moto G, aimed at the half-billion consumers around the world, many in emerging markets, who want a smartphone without a high price tag.

The new handset will sell at less than $200 without a contract in the US market and, around the world, will be around one-third the price of top-line Apple iPhones and Samsung devices.

Unveiling the phone in the Brazilian business hub Sao Paulo. Motorola chief Dennis Woodside said: "Half a billion people will buy a phone for under $200.

"Moto G is a smartphone that delivers a premium experience with today's technology at less than one-third of the price of today's smartphones like the iPhone 5s," he said.

The new device is a low-cost version of the Moto X released earlier this year in the United States.

It features a 11.5cm display and all-day battery, and will include the latest versions of the Google Android operating system.

Motorola hosted the launch after Britain's Tesco supermarket chain and Germany's Phone House listed it in their catalogues.

Woodside said the phone would be especially attractive in emerging markets where carrier subsidies for phones are rare and consumers are reluctant to pay $600 or more for a handset.

"Our industry forced consumers to make a choice between two very bad options," he said.

"The first option is to buy an old technology that doesn't work well with applications like Google maps... the second option is to buy an old premium phone that was typically released in the US two or three years ago. We think the industry should deliver more value for the consumer's dolar.

The handset packs in a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 5-megapixel and 1.3-megapixel cameras front and rear.

source: www. news24.com

O3b's "fiber in the sky" to provide broadband to rural , uncovered half of the world

With East Africa being the last region in Africa to receive undersea fiber connectivity in mid 2009, it is largely taken for granted that most of Africa now has access to broadband connectivity. That, however is far from the case. Senior Vice President Commercial for SES Africa, Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, says there are at least 300 million Africans who remain out of coverage of existing broadband technology, and the number could be as high as 500 million to 700 million.

Globally, slightly less than half of the population is estimated to be uncovered by existing networks, leading to the formation of a consortium known as the Other 3 billion, or O3b in short. O3b looks to provide connectivity to the uncovered half of the global population, most of whom are located in the developing/emerging markets of Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The O3b consortium consists of SES, the satellite firm as majority shareholder, with other shareholders including financiers such as the financing arm of Mo Ibrahim Foundation and notable firms such as Google, who is a minor shareholder. Google is notable here for their effort to get Internet to every part of the globe which ensures their advertising network reaches as many eyes as possible.

O3b is looking to tackle the challenges of providing connectivity through current satellite infrastructure by coming up with an innovative set up. Rather than have geostationary satellites - satellites that are fixed in one position providing coverage to a certain area of the globe - O3b plans to have rotary satellites situated around the equator.

The rotary satellites will be in their own orbit and will keep revolving around the earth, such that the portion of the earth's surface covered by each satellite will change every few hours. A number of satellites will be deployed, such that at any one time, the target areas mentioned above are covered by one of the O3b satellites.

By virtue of their positioning and set up, the O3b satellites will be much closer to earth than the current satellites. This may lead to a reduced area of coverage - Ibrahima says each satellite will cover a diameter of 700 kilometres of the earth's surface - though this will be offset by the high bandwidth that the satellites will provide, 700 megabits per second to 1.2 gigabits per second, with the capacity set to rise in the future as technology improves.

source: www.allafrica.com

U.S smartphone buyers moving upscale while others goes cheap

Smartphone prices are falling in every region of the world except North America, as U.S. consumers buy ever more sophisticated handsets.

Market research firm IDC forecast Tuesday that smartphone prices worldwide will fall at a compound annual rate of 7.3% over the next five years. But in North America, it sees average selling prices for smartphones increasing 2.1%. It's the only region where prices are expected to rise, IDC says.

Smartphone prices in the U.S. and Canada are already the most expensive in the world, with an average selling price of $531 this year. But IDC sees that creeping up to $567 by 2017 as consumers upgrade to phones with bigger displays and 4G LTE wireless capabilities. Premium phones from Apple, Samsung and others are seen driving this trend.

We're a market that's moving away from entry-level smartphones and toward higher-end smartphones," IDC analyst Ramon Llamas told IBD. "We're moving more toward LTE, and LTE smartphones usually command a higher price tag than 3G phones. On top of that, you're seeing phones getting bigger and bigger (displays)."

Apple's latest flagship handset, the iPhone 5S, without a wireless service contract, costs $649, $749 and $849 for models with 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes of flash memory.

In the rest of the world, smartphone average selling prices are seen falling rapidly as handset makers produce lower-cost devices for poorer customers. These devices typically use Google 's  free-to-use Android operating system.

Average selling prices for smartphones worldwide, including North America, are seen falling to $265 in 2017 from $337 this year.

In the Asia-Pacific region, prices are forecast to drop 8.9% to $215 over the next five years. In Europe, smartphone prices are seen falling 9% to $259 during that period. In Latin America, smartphone prices are expected to dip 5.7% to $246. And in the Middle East and Africa, smartphone prices are forecast to decline 7.3% to $230 by 2017, IDC says.

Meanwhile, worldwide smartphone unit shipments are seen rising at a compound annual growth rate of 18.4% from this year to 2017, IDC says. The research firm expects smartphone shipments to surpass 1 billion units in 2013, up 39.3% over last year, and approach 1.7 billion units in 2013.

source: news.investors.com

google,s project link the first nail in the African,s telcos coffin

Google recently announced its first infrastructural project in Africa, called Project Link. This initiative, through the building of a fibre-optic network in Kampala (Uganda), enables internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile operators to provide faster connections to their users than ever before. This announcement, which has not really been picked up by the African tech media so far, can be a real game changer for the African digital space.
source: memeburn.com

project link to take faster internet to kampala

Google has announced Project Link, an initiative to build a super-fast, high-capacity fibre network to enable any local mobile operator or Internet service provider (ISP) to connect more people in Kampala to a faster, more reliable Internet. Google says it chose to build in the modern capital of Kampala, Uganda, a dense urban centre where over three million people are currently limited to pre-broadband speeds.

In its Africa blog, Google says Project Link’s network is available to connect providers to long-distance fibre lines, equipping them with near-unlimited capacity to build and expand services to Ugandans.

Google says: “By making this connection, we’re strengthening a crucial piece of the Internet supply chain. Some parts of the chain are already strong: undersea cables are bringing data to Africa’s shores and mobile providers are expanding services across the continent. We’ve now built quality infrastructure in between these points to deliver the speed and capacity that supports the latest and greatest of the web.”

Project Link enables local providers to offer new mobile data plans or high-speed Internet for office buildings and universities, and support newer technologies as they come to market.