Isn’t it always nice to depend on yourself rather than other’s people work? Sometimes it is, sometimes it doesn’t. But Apple is in the first category. Apparently the Silicon Valley company is looking into building their own “multifunction” mobile chipsets, a strategy shift that will not only protect their gadgets from rivals, but will also help bring some exclusive features in the long run.
Rumors have it that Apple has been trying to hire people from many different segments of the semiconductor industry, like Raja Koduri, former CTO of the graphics product at AMD). They want to develop their in-house chips which are expected to consume less power— a huge concern with devices like the iPhone or the iPod Touch, and to possible add better graphics that will lead to real time gaming or high-definition video playback.
That means that Apple not only wants to crush their competition, but they’re doing it by putting the client in the first row.
Of course somethign like this is not easy considering that we’re feeling the financial meltdown even worse these days, but given the recent success on a market that has been going South, Apple could be spot on.
Do you think it’s a good move?
[via WSJ & original image by joi]
Integr8 IT is a leading IT infrastructure supplier with offices across South Africa – today we take a look at their Cape Town office inside the Equinox building in Sea Point. Integr8 has won numerous ICT awards and is South Africa’s largest privately owned national BEE ICT network integration and infrastructure management specialist.
I met Robert Sussman (joint CEO of Integr8) last year at the African ICT Achiever awards (I was nominated for ICT Young Entrepreneur of Africa) where they were nominated for a handful of awards including Best ICT Company to work for – having a look at their offices I can see why!
Our archive of office photos
WeROK is a newly launched Wi-Fi powered mobile portal that allows “low-cost” texting, free mobile email services, free-streamed mobile TV and mobile social network services. Coming to any Wi-Fi enabled Symbian S60 (3rd Editino) mobile phones and PCs, the free to download service is a joint effort by ROK Entertainment Group and WeFi— the community-driven global Wi-Fi network.
“WeROK is a unique development and a giant leap forward in mobile and web convergence,” said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK Entertainment Group.
Running on WeFi’s high-performance global network, WeROK is actually an advertising-supported mobile application that automatically connects your mobile phone to the best Wi-Fi spots whenever available. And in a growing network of over 20 million
access points, it wouldn’t have to be too hard to get the best access points if Internet has already been verified by other devices.
But the best thing is that these guys can and plan to reduce your phone bill each month. Apparently, tests showed that they can save up to 85% on text services compared with the traditional cost of an SMS. That’s the real power of unleashing mobile Internet applications and services over Wi-Fi, don’t you think?
We’re game. Download it at WeRok.net.
“Africa’s talking, are you?”
Afrigator launched moments ago a new product called Gatorpeeps. It was unveiled at BarCamp Nigeria where one of the Afrigator founders, Justin Hartman, is delivering a keynote. Gatorpeeps seems to be a micro blogging service closely modeled off the hugely popular Twitter. (@replies, 140 characters, following)
Gatorpeeps also groups similar posts in ‘communities’ using hash tag functionality – For example you can follow all Gatorpeeps ‘tweets’ (someone coin a phrase, quick) for BarCamp Nigeria here.
Internet strategist Jason Bagley had this to say
Gatorpeeps is a Twitter for Africans so to speak. Will be interesting to watch its adoption rate amongst the Afrigator community. Success seems to be the norm with all Afrigator products, but will Gatorpeeps fly? Only time and user adoption will tell.
UPDATE – Afrigator co-founder Mike Stopforth just blogged about Gatorpeeps
Gatorpeeps is a micro-blogging platform, not unlike Twitter or Pownce (which died), that makes it really easy for existing Afrigator users to connect with other Afrigator users in 140 characters or less, and with all the other cool functionality you’ve come to expect from a micro-blogging platform.
Secondly I can guarantee that Gatorpeeps will either be a huge success or a bit of a flop. And that depends entirely on you, who have supported us so faithfully until now as we evolve this little beast of ours into something really useful, valuable and meaningful to you and the rest of Africa’s digital citizens. Help us make it a success by giving it a go and sending us feedback like you always do.
Say what you want about Mark Zuckerberg, the boy wonder is still a very successful entrepreneur who has started a bit of a revolution in online social networking. However irrespective of how people often try to downplay his assets, everything is going strong with Facebook is all set to invite on board its 200 millionth active user. An achievement to be proud of.
Making a statement in this regard, Zuckerberg stated how he dreamed of creating an opportunity for people to share information, news and views in a richer and faster way when he founded Facebook back in 2004. And the fact that it has been embraced so quickly only shows how millions across the world (3%) are still searching for a medium to voice their concerns.
Zuckerberg also remarks that Facebook has played an instrumental role in campaigns of both U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, and believes that more such social revolutions will be born from this platform.
What is interesting to note though is how he tries to plug-in the “Gift Shop” on Facebook and makes sure to state that the money is going all for charity and that they won’t keep absolutely nothing from it. Let’s just hope Mark has a solid plan when it comes to taking Facebook on the next financial level and make it as much of a success on that front as well. [via Facebook]
One of the first aspects of business where recession has hit, are advertising budgets. And that makes it fun to watch how businesses are going to spend from now on to blow their trumpet and attract consumers. However, this seems to have really taken its tool on the media in general and the U.S. newspaper industry in particular.
According to the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America, the total advertising revenues from both print and online modes, declined by 16.6 percent to $37.85 billion. That is a whooping $7.7 billion less than what the newspapers made from ads in the previous year. With classifieds down by a huge 29.7%. and online advertising down by 1.8%, many of the newspapers are cutting down on costs and shedding of employees to make up for the void.
While online advertising accounts for only 8.3% of the newspaper advertising market, even this small chunk is taking a hit (though not by as much as the print). The trend is all the disturbing when you consider that the loss margins were around 2.4 percent in the second quarter of 2008, which went up to 3 percent in the third quarter showing that the times are only getting tougher.
Just shows that in these times advertisers will be hard to rope in whether you are in the print, electronic or online media!
[via TechCrunch]
If you are currently running Nimbuzz 1.01 on your mobile, then you really need to get down and update it to the brand new Nimbuzz 2.0 for Symbian. The latest from one of the world’s leading mobile messenger services, it offers you a step up from its previous version with greater ease in handling and operation on your mobile as you use it both for making calls and staying connected online with your chat buddies.
Nimbuzz 2.0 boasts a separate tab for chats that is quickly accessible, an option to sort your buddy list with ease, features that allow you to preset ringtones for chats (and calls separately), and also allows you to make Skype Out calls from the phone calls tab without any fuss.
The update allows for an ergonomic setting of all the options in your phone, and as a result you can now hide Nimbuzz by pressing the ‘hang up’ button on your mobile (rather than exiting it altogether). With much improved SIP performance and reduction in having to switch between phone calls and VoIP calls from Nimbuzz, now you can operate your mobile from just one platform for almost everything. And the best part is that the latest 2.0 version for Symbian brings together your chat options, social networking needs and mobile calls all on one platform. Multi-tasking being well and truly redefined …
These guys have been really onto quality stuff lately. They filled the 3G VoIP void for iPhone, partnered with Toshiba and now onto the 2.0 version. Looks really promising!
