Nokia has a selection of green apps in the Nokia store that can help all our green and eco aware citizens contribute to the battle to save our planet from the ravages of global warming and climate change. For example the recycle map application uses a map application and interface to clearly show where and when you can recycle in your city at.

Climate Mission 3D

The Climate Mission 3D app allows you to play ecologically themed games while discovering how to reduce your own ecological footprint. There are three different games each containing 20 levels. Heaps of fun and lots to learn – all in 3D! Through the game you can also participate in donation campaigns where you can vote for sustainability projects.

Click here to download Climate Mission 3D

Sustainability News Feed

The Sustainability News Feed application from Feedzilla enables you will be able to keep up with all the latest news on sustainability.

Click here to download the Sustainability News Feed app

Heolix

The Heolix application enables you to discover more about the use of wind energy, an ecological sound alternative to fossil fuel consumption. There’s no billing charge to use the Heolix application. You can also follow updates to this innovative site on twitter.com/indtappsguru and facebook.com/indtappsguru

Click here to download the Heolox app

The Earth

The Earth application contains knowledge of the environment, and includes safety steps to saving our environment, recycling and reducing emissions.

Click here to download The Earth app

Cated eco

The Cated eco mobile application provides recommendations towards an efficient and eco-friendly driving experience. The main features of the project include audio and visual reporting of the proper gear towards efficient driving including the reporting of other vehicle parameters such as position, speed and global performance.

You can also log registration of specific routes that can be later exported through tools like Excel for an in-depth analysis. This application is dynamically adapted to your specific vehicle model.

Click here to download the Cated eco app

In the spirit of a successful COP17 conference download some of these entertaining and informative green apps to your mobile and contribute to keeping our planet as GREEN as possible.

Implemented in South Africa by WESSA (Wildlife and environment society) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Eco-Schools accredits those that make a commitment to continuously improve their school’s environmental performance. And more than achieving a more eco-friendly school, the programme engages children to learn about the necessity for sustainable practices – habits that could, in due course, help to change the world.

With some 1300 schools registered, a variety of sustainability projects are implemented, including food gardens, recycling, water and energy conservation and more.  On their own, such initiatives can result in financial savings to the school, produce sources of healthy food and even generate some income. And when a minimum of three projects are effectively maintained and associated lessons given to children, they receive the Green Eco-School Flag.

The coveted Green Eco-School flag. Note the quantity of recycled material collected!

If that sounds a lot like a really worthy cause, that’s what we thought, too. Putting our money where our mouth is, Nokia funds the work of the regional coordinator in the Eastern Cape. This is a crucial task in ensuring that the Eco-Schools projects are not just implemented and forgotten about, but maintain high visibility within the school. The coordinator educates teachers on environmental issues, motivates and facilitates the projects, delivering the support to take initiatives from inception, through to productive application.

Learners with an appreciation for environmental sensitivity.

In addition, Nokia is helping to build capacity by funding a workshop for coordinators and educators, and educating teachers on the topic of e-waste recycling, providing a kit to help pass knowledge on to learners. This is the first step in a 3-phase programme which includes the provision of bins for the collection of old and broken phones for recycling which will be carried out across the Eastern Cape. The phones will go to a Nokia approved recycler in South Africa, while the schools which collect the most will receive rewards.

None of us even thought of recycling our first cellphone. As a result, there are millions of handsets which no longer work – and which should be disposed of in an environmentally-sound manner.

Extending the reach of eco-awareness, we are also supporting a competition where children at each school will create a poster to encourage people in their community to recycle; winners will receive finance from Nokia to purchase educational material.

Teaching the teachers; when educators are equipped to pass on the message to learners, the message is multiplied exponentially.

Knowledge is power; when more people make sound environmental choices a matter of habit, the impacts of modern living can be reduced and managed. When it starts at the school level and becomes second nature, the chance for a cleaner future for all is assured.

Some of the most well known faces from the Stormers and Western Province Rugby teams will be riding scooters to visit five towns along the Garden Route and run coaching clinics to these disadvantaged communities.

One of the most important lessons for the children according to the JAG Foundation is that, “they don’t need to come from private schools or from a wealthy background to achieve their goals in life.”

Players like Adrian Kritzinger, Tiger Baxx, Nick Koster, Tim Whitehead, Marcel Brache, Nick Fenton Wells and Levi Odendaal will be ‘scootering’ from Cape town to Knysna and back to impart some of their rugby skills to both community coaches and the young rugby stars of tomorrow by showing them training techniques actually used by Western Province and the Stormers.

According to Evert Ferreira, Sports Agent for Prosport International, “JAG believes a healthy body leads to a healthy mind and meeting these famous rugby players in person – the same ones the kid’s see on TV every weekend – helps them to realise that whatever they dream, they can also fulfill.”

These players will be taking rugby, “off the beaten track” and into the hearts and minds of local communities in Bonnievale, Oudtshoorn, Knysna and  Hermanus and then back to Cape Town in a round trip of around 1 500 kilometers.

Nokia has donated Nokia N8 smartphones devices to each of the rugby players in the Scooterthon so they can keep in touch and also record each coaching visit in high definition while also keeping followers of the campaign updated through Facebook and Twitter.

Nokia will be assisting with the social media campaign as well by updating followers on the Nokia South Africa blog and the JAG website.

Ferreira says the JAG Foundation wants to raise sports awareness throughout the whole of SA and get as many people and sponsors involved in the campaign as possible.  The JAG Scooterthon will be also be covered by SuperSport on “Let’s Play”, 5 FM Radio by Rob Vember, and the SABC’s Expresso Show.

According to Simon Botes, founder and owner of AppCRAFT, his inspiration for developing the app was the fact that he saw there were no existing applications available for deaf people. As he has a number of deaf friends he decided to develop a sign language application specifically designed to benefit them.

Botes says,” Our earlier research found that there was nothing for the deaf in Ovi Store. It was with this in mind that we created eSign.”

The eSign app aids people in learning the South African sign language SPELLING, using flash card style games. The free version of the app also contains adverts which can help to fund future developments of this nature.

Botes says local application development is, generally speaking, “Alive and well in SA because there are many talented developers locally.” He says it’s great to see other developers following AppCRAFT’s example like Sign That Song & My Pet Signs and he hopes to see many other apps developed for the deaf in coming months.

“The good news though is that not everything is done for a profit and we are currently working hard on an S40 WebApp version which will launch into Ovi by month end. Watch this space for progress.”

Botes says his company has seen just short of 40 000 combined downloads of the free Sign Language apps in 194 countries. “We hope that tapping into the vast S40 market will help us to reach many more people living with hearing disabilities and hope that our applications can benefit the lives of many more in future”.

Nokia’s involvement is significant; it is the leading choice of handset across Africa and it is providing considerable resources and insights which support developers in their creation of apps that people can use to improve their lives. The potential of such facilities is perhaps made clearer by the fact that the mLabs are a result of a private – public partnership (called Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy) between the government of Finland, Nokia, and the World Bank. Such high-profile support does not come unless there are substantial advantages which can be achieved.

Showing just how keen the market is for such a facility, its recent launch drew some 150 people eager to use the facility; equally encouraging was that in addition to Nokia, the mLab has drawn widespread interest from other businesses and even government leaders who recognise the benefits of driving mobile innovation.

mLab is a concept taking hold elsewhere in Africa, too – the Pretoria one is not the first. Its presence is preceded by another in Kenya, opened in June this year, and which similarly provides networking and training opportunities, support for the development of a viable business model, mentoring, subsidised office space, and technical and financial support. These services are aimed at helping mobile entrepreneurs to make it through the most difficult and challenging part of getting into business: the start-up phase.

Of course, Kenyans (and other East African nations) have really taken to the advantages of mobile with the unprecedented success of the M-Pesa mobile payment system. It is just this sort of innovation, which can make life more convenient and easier, which mLab is supporting.

mLab Southern Africa’s activities are aimed at making the region a global hub for mobile innovations that will boost job-led growth and tackle economic and social needs. The facility draws on South Africa’s high bandwidth environment and talented pool of expertise with a view to fostering the development of solutions for all of Africa.

But it’s not just an African thing: the concept is going international with three more mLabs to open in Armenia, Pakistan and Vietnam. All of them will be linked for cross-fertilisation of ideas and innovations.

If you’re a developer (or an aspirant one) tell us what you think of this development – and if you will approach the mLab to get involved…

The majority of our reviewers became so attached to them we gave them  the option of buying their N8’s for less than half of the usual retail price which – surprise surprise – most of them jumped at.

Well, we would like to update you on what we did with the R1999.00 rand a piece that we received from 38 of our participating reviewers.

Nokia has been spearheading a mobile maths learning programme locally for a few years now and closing the digital divide by giving Grade 10 SA learners affordable 24/7 access to maths tuition on their mobile phones, accessible anytime and anywhere.

Phase two of the project  was conducted with 4000 learners and 72 teachers in 30 schools spread across three provinces. The application used MXit for the children to test and practice their maths skills and collaborate and compete with their friends to work out syllabus maths problems.

The program currently has over 10 000 different maths exercises covering all aspects of the Grade 10 maths syllabus. Nokia and its partners are exploring options to roll out the mobile maths project across schools throughout the country and significantly boost maths competency for learners across SA. (Read the full story here)

One of our most hardworking and successful local learners to use and benefit from the mobile maths programme is Godwill Moeng who is in Grade 11 and is  featured in our Nokia mobile maths educational video here.

Because we wanted to help Godwill further realise his scholastic goals we used the money from our 25 reviewers to sponsor his school fees, residence fees and school stationery. We wish Godwill the best of luck and we look forward to updating you on his progress.

Happy New Year everyone! – With your support we are currently receiving over 12 000 visitors a month to our Ringaz blog and website.

Nokia first launched the MoMaths project in conjunction with the Department of Education, MXit, Cell C, MTN and textbook publishers Maskew Miller Longman in 2009, the project is supported by the SAFIPA partnership. 260 learners in Gauteng, the North West and the Western Cape provinces, who formed part of a test project, were encouraged to use their own handsets to access the collaborative learning service for mathematics via MXit.

The second pilot project , currently underway until the end of 2010 has shown even more impressive results by boosting the competency of both teachers and pupils in the onsite schools and showing enormous potential for the future. 4,000 Learners from North West, Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces participated in the 2010 project.

Results from the 2010 project has shown a 14 percent rise in maths competency with 82 percent of learners using their mobile maths tuition application outside of school hours, during holidays and weekends.

Phase two of the project is being conducted with 4000 learners and 72 teachers in 30 schools spread across three provinces. The application is again using MXit for the children to test and practice their maths skills and collaborate and compete with their friends to work out syllabus maths problems.

According to Riitta Vanska, project manager for the initiative and senior manager  mobile and learning solutions in Sustainability operations at Nokia “Most learners do not have access to computers however many of them do have access to a mobile phone. The  initiative gives Grade 10 learners the opportunity to study mathematics anywhere and anytime which in turn gives them the chance to empower themselves.”

Both Cell C and MTN are currently sponsoring the project which enables children to access the mobile maths program for FREE whenever they like. Results have shown the collaborative networking format of the maths application on MXit encourages the children to learn proactively through maths exercises and examples and encourages them to excel by competing with each other on test scores and mobile competency rankings.

Case study results have shown teachers are also assisted by the program because they can immediately see where their class’s weak points lie and boost their competency by encouraging the learners to break maths problems down through mobile maths exercise tuition and repetition until full comprehension and competency is achieved.

The program currently has over 10 000 different maths exercises covering all aspects of the maths syllabus.

Nokia and its partners are currently evaluating the results and findings from the project and looking at options and channels to roll out the mobile maths project across schools throughout the country and significantly boost maths competency for learners across SA.

With the release of the Nokia Comes With Music series of phones in August 2009, some 34 journalists got to choose either a 5530 or 5630 XpressMusic phone. At the end of the review period (12 months), when typically the phones have to be returned, Nokia decided to take a different tack. It let every journo keep the phone, but asked for a donation to be made for charity. The journos got to decide completely on their own how much to pay.

Here’s what Nokia had to say to the writers:

As you know we sent you the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic device to review for just over a year from August 2009 – October 2010.  Sadly, the review period is officially complete and I am sure you have become very familiar with the phone.

If you would like to keep the phone Nokia is willing to ‘sell’ you the device for whatever amount you think the phone is worth and these proceeds will go to New Generations school to buy the children Christmas presents as part of Nokia’s CSI initiatives.

As you will agree, when you start using a good phone, it very quickly becomes personalised to your needs. Changing phones can be a hassle…so, unsurprisingly, the journalists were all very happy to have the opportunity to keep the gadgets which they had geared to their personal preferences. The fact that most of them have used the Comes with Music now Ovi Music Unlimited service, means that they probably have a couple of thousand songs on the phones too.

More than that, they were also more than happy to give generously. To date, over R9000 has been received.

The money collected in this initiative is being put towards a project in which Nokia has been involved for two years now. The company supports the New Generations Combined School in Vlakfontein (near Orange Farm).

As a result of the generosity of the journalists (and it must be said, that of Nokia, too), 322 children at the school are receiving Christmas gifts.

More than that (and further showing its own commitment to making life a bit easier for underprivileged children), Nokia is hosting a party at the Johannesburg Zoo for New Generations’ pupils and staff, at which the kids will receive their presents. As well as a hot dog, gift and food pack on the day.

At Nokia Ringaz, we can only say we think that’s really awesome. Thanks tech journos (and Nokia). You rock!

We will be uploading photos of the Fun Day at the Zoo with the kids and teachers on Monday onto our Facebook page – go a check them out!

The 9th of October dawned and the road trip to Rocking The Daisies began, the festival was already in full swing, having played host to bands like New Young Pony Club and Zebra and Giraffe on Friday.  Arriving at The Cloof Wine Estate in Darling, the sounds of City Bowl Mizers filtered down as we set up our tent, giving an indication of what the rest of the weekend would be like, one full of all round quality entertainment.  A quick walkabout was in order and after which Red Bull Studio Live was in order – or the peanut tent as it was affectionately known – just in time for Voice Tag and some “electronic tongue jazz”.

After finding enough variety with the food and art the stalls to satisfy even the most hardened critic, stumbling upon custom designed Ray Bans by Die Heuwels Fantasties and Van Coke Kartel and soaking up the sun at the dam it was time for a visit The Nokia Ovi tent and it was a sight to behold, a feast for the hippy/global warming fighter inside everyone, with a dedicated area for recycling cellphones as well as the option to charge your cellphone, using solar panels of course, an endeavour I eagerly set about trying. The interactive screens were a showcase to the Ovi Music store and guaranteed interested crowds for the whole weekend.

The rest of the day was spilt between the main stage, where New Holland and Reburn were standout acts and the RedBull Electro Tent where the party never seemed to stop. The Lemon Tree Theatre, or rather the comedy tent, was a laugh a minute with the audience interaction a vital part of many of the comedian’s shows, adding an especially funny element throughout. Wandering down to the Cuervo Nu World Beat Barn I was met with traditional music from the likes of Balkan to African to South American and was transported into another world.

After managing to squeeze in an interview with Boo! it was a privilege watching them, Hog Hoggidy Hog and The Springbok Nude Girls perform; stellar acts like those simply have to be experienced. Taxi Violence who never fail to disappoint, astound or amaze with their live shows went above and beyond, with their very own axle grinder that has become a staple with their festival shows, Flash Republic then took the stage, the last act of the night and proceeded to cause mayhem and magic with crowd, after a performance like that it was only suitable for more time in the Electro tent with Anthea Scholtz and Killer Robot, keeping the groove going until the early hours of Sunday morning.

On the last day of Rocking The Daisies, the 10/10/10, the weather took a turn for the worse, with the wind and rain driving us out of the tent and into the car, causing us to leave much earlier than expected. 10/10/10 also just so happened to be the day of one of the world’s biggest campaigns against climate change and it all felt rather apt that at 10:10 I was leaving Rocking The Daisies after one of the best – and most environmentally friendly – festivals in South Africa. Overall was it a success? I sure believe so.

Lead image by: MyCityByNight

At the up-coming Rocking the Daisies enviro-conscious music festival (in Cape Town) and Rocking the Gardens (in Emmarentia), Nokia is getting involved to help you get rid of it while being nice to Planet Earth. Bring your cellphone junk along; put it into the collection points and play your part in making sure that the lifecycle of the once useful old cellphone comes to a happy conclusion.

Just how happy becomes apparent when you consider just how many mobile phones there are in the world: there are over 4 billion people who use them. How many handsets have you had over the years? Probably more than three. Maybe even more than ten. At three, that’s 12 BILLION phones; if just one per person is recycled, it could save 240,000 tons of raw material and reduce gases to the same extent as taking 4 million cars off the roads. And up to 80% of Nokia phones can be recycled, the rest is used to fire the furnaces in the recycling process. Staggering!

So bring your old cellphones or accessories, regardless of make or model, use them to make a few jokes to impress your mates, then put them into the Nokia collection points. You’ll get a leaf, made out of recycled billboard, to add to the Nokia ‘We Recycle’ tree.

More than just collecting and recycling the phones, Nokia is also going to make South Africa a greener place: for every 20 phones or accessories collected, it will plant a tree. You can play your part in not only Rocking the Daisies or the Gardens, but rocking a cleaner, healthier planet. In addition for your recycling efforts you stand in line to win a Nokia N8!

Rocking the Daisies takes place at the Cloof Wine Estate in Darling in the Western Cape from 8-10 October while Rocking the Gardens is at Emmarentia Gardens, Johannesburg, 9-10 October.

Congratulations to Londeka Thanjekwayo who won a Nokia N8 for recycling her e-waste at Rocking the Gardens