Brajeshwar

How to choose the right mobile development framework

Shabda Raaj — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:01:33 +0000

Not so long ago you could only develop in Objective-C (for iOS) or in Java (For Android).

A lot has changed recently and many new mobile app development frameworks have come up. You have PhoneGap, Sencha, jQTouch, jQuery Mobile, Kendo UI, Corona, Titanium Appcelerator, RubyMotion and many others. Among these they allow building apps using Javascript, Java, Lua and Ruby.

So how do you choose what framework to use? Here are few pointers that will help you in your decision.

Do you know programming?

Most of the frameworks expect you to know programming. But even if you don’t know programming a number of app builders allow you to build sophisticated apps in a drag and drop environment. If you are building a game, GameSalad has a intuitive Drag and Drop UI which will allow you to build apps with no coding. If you are building a business app BiznessApps will let you build apps for many common scenarios.

What language do you know?

The “native” languages for IOS is Objective-C and for Android is Java. Even if you don’t know these languages you can build apps in a language you know.

If you know Javascript, you can use Sencha Touch to build a HTML5 app and then compile it for iOS or Android native app using Phonegap.

If you know Lua you can write a cross platform native game using Corona. If you know Ruby, RubyMotion will help you build an iPhone and iPad app. If you know Java but want to build for iPhone, you can use GWT-touch to build your HTML5 app and then compile them using PhoneGap.

How native do you want? How much cross platform do you want it?

There is a tradeoff which some of the frameworks make. Sencha, jQtouch and GWT-touch will create a HTML5 app and then convert them for the platform look and feel. The apps in this case look near-native, but unless you are very careful, not 100% native. In comparison, Titanium and Corona create apps using native UI components. They look 100% native.

The advantage the HTML5 apps have is that they are more cross platform and can be compiled for more platforms. They can also be deployed on the web without making any code changes.

Are you a web developer and want to continue using your old tools?

Another advantage these HTML5 apps have is that a web developer already knows most of the technologies and has most of the tools available. For instance, if you use jQuery Mobile and Phonegap to build your mobile apps, you can use your IDE which you have always been using, you can use Chrome Inspector or Firebug for debugging. If you want to use your trusty tools, use Sencha or jQuery Mobile.

How-to: Numbered Pagination for your WordPress Blog

Brajeshwar — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:06:15 +0000

There are a bunch of awesome WordPress Plugins that can do Numbered Pagination for your WordPress powered blog. However, it may be noted that WordPress have the option to do it without relying on a plugin.

Let’s do a clean, nice and simple numbered pagination as seen on this blog. You can choose to have either the light or the dark version.

Here is the code modified from WordPress Reference doc on Pagination. The code is pretty self-explanatory. Just put it where you want your pagination to appear.

 str_replace($big, '%#%', get_pagenum_link($big)),
        'format' => '?paged=%#%',
        'total' => $wp_query->max_num_pages,
        'current' => max(1, get_query_var('paged')),
        'show_all' => false,
        'end_size' => 2,
        'mid_size' => 3,
        'prev_next' => true,
        'prev_text' => 'Prev',
        'next_text' => 'Next',
        'type' => 'list'
    ));
?>

And here is paginate style module on my site. Feel free to use it this version or tweak it from the original – Pagination Styles Demo (Source on Github). The source have the codes for both light and dark version.

ul.page-numbers {
  list-style: none;
  margin: 1em auto;
  padding: 0;
  text-align: center;
  color: #555555;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  font-size: 90%;
}
ul.page-numbers li {
  display: inline;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers {
  -webkit-border-radius: 3px;
  -moz-border-radius: 3px;
  -o-border-radius: 3px;
  border-radius: 3px;
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  background-color: #676767;
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #f9f9f9), color-stop(100%, #eaeaea));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#f9f9f9, #eaeaea);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#f9f9f9, #eaeaea);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#f9f9f9, #eaeaea);
  background-image: linear-gradient(#f9f9f9, #eaeaea);
  margin: 2px;
  padding: 5px 10px;
  display: inline-block;
  border-top: 1px solid #fff;
  text-decoration: none !important;
  color: #555555 !important;
  font-size: smaller !important;
  text-shadow: white 0 1px 0;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers:first-child, ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers.first {
  margin-left: 0;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers:last-child, ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers.last {
  margin-right: 0;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers:hover, ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers:focus {
  color: #333333;
  border-color: #fff;
  background-color: #fdfdfd;
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #fefefe), color-stop(100%, #fafafa));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#fefefe, #fafafa);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#fefefe, #fafafa);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#fefefe, #fafafa);
  background-image: linear-gradient(#fefefe, #fafafa);
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers.more {
  -webkit-box-shadow: none;
  -moz-box-shadow: none;
  box-shadow: none;
  border: 0 none !important;
  background: transparent !important;
  margin-left: 0;
  margin-right: 0;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers.active {
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  border-color: #505050 !important;
  color: #f2f2f2 !important;
  text-shadow: black 0 1px 0;
  background-color: #676767;
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #5f5f5f), color-stop(100%, #5c5c5c));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
}
ul.page-numbers .prev:before {
  content: "\2039";
  padding-right: 0.5em;
}
ul.page-numbers .next:after {
  content: "\203A";
  padding-left: 0.5em;
}
ul.page-numbers .dots {
  -webkit-box-shadow: none;
  -moz-box-shadow: none;
  box-shadow: none;
  border: 0 none !important;
  background: transparent !important;
  color: #999999 !important;
  margin-left: 0.25em;
  margin-right: 0.25em;
}
ul.page-numbers .current {
  -webkit-border-radius: 3px;
  -moz-border-radius: 3px;
  -o-border-radius: 3px;
  border-radius: 3px;
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  background-color: #676767;
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #5f5f5f), color-stop(100%, #5c5c5c));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  margin: 2px;
  padding: 5px 10px;
  display: inline-block;
  border-top: 1px solid #fff;
  text-decoration: none !important;
  font-size: smaller !important;
  border-color: #505050 !important;
  color: #f2f2f2 !important;
  text-shadow: black 0 1px 0;
}

That’s it. A nice numbered pagination for your WordPress Blog without the need of a plugin.

Congress creates (another) superfluous Task Force to examine possible Government Spectrum Auction

Robin Wilding — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:49:51 +0000

After being told so repeatedly, the U.S House of Representatives thinks they might not be using their wireless spectrum block to its full potential, so like any good bureaucracy — they formed a task force. They assuredly hope it will be more effective than pretty much every other task force the government has ever made, or maybe not. The U.S congress is aiming to free-up government-owned spectrum for airwave-hogging 3G and 4G consumer networks and appliances as wireless spectrum availability becomes a strong issue in the country as available spectrum wanes despite less than half the population having upgraded to high-speed 3G and 4G networks.

This bipartisan task force, dubbed the Federal Spectrum Working Group, hopes to trim the fat from their spectrum use to help solve a good chunk of the spectrum crunch. The U.S government is currently the largest owner of wireless spectrum. The FSWG will focus on freeing-up airwaves, especially on spectrum-hogging departments like the Defense Department, who uses a large bulk of government spectrum in surveillance and, surprisingly, weapons testing.

The task force hopes to find spectrum chunks that are used only sporadically or non-continuously, or that have geographic overlaps.

Without such spectrum auctions the U.S wireless community will face rising wireless prices with lower usage caps with possible coverage shortages in the future. This government spectrum auction is just one of the spectrum bunches being eyed for auction by the Federal Communications Commission who are looking to increase the competitiveness of the telecommunications market by answering market shortages. After February’s payroll tax legislation allowing incentives for spectrum-releasing companies, other spectrum bunches are expected to be put to auction shortly, including 120MHz of broadcast TV spectrum.

February’s legislation notably lacked however a solid plan that committed government spectrum to auction, hence the rather inevitable creation of a public-appeasing task force. Despite the formation of this task force it will likely still be a fair while before any government spectrum is actually auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The delay tactics employed by congress come despite the FCC’s approved 2010 National Broadband Plan that indicated the government could quickly free-up spectrum by making licensing and departmental usage more efficient. It also comes despite Obama asking the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to examine possible government spectrum releases, a request in which he was typically cock-blocked by congress.

The NTIA released a report in March that identified 95MHz of government spectrum that could be freed up once users were transitioned off it. The report also detailed how much of government spectrum could be partially released to the private sector by time-sharing blocks of it.

Personally, the task force creation seems to be a make-work or time-stalling technique by congress who does not want to release their own spectrum, as with reports like those available from the NTIA the task force is more redundant than useful. But then again, most task forces are.

More about Raspberry Pi

Deeptaman Mukherjee — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:34:10 +0000

Early in the 1980s, affordable computing was a craze in the market. However, learning about them was a difficult process to the users. Machines such as Atare 400 and early Apples’ were already helping people in exploring the whole new world; giving rise to some of the pioneers in the computing world including the gaming industry.

That continued, till a lot of inventions took place in the tech world. One amongst them, is the — Raspberry Pi.

This credit card sized micro-microcomputer was developed by a UK based company. It has low power consumption and an incredibly cheap ARM based Linux system. And, the next big thing is, that it comes for a price of $35 excluding the local taxes. The main motive behind this is to help the new generation kids in learning the programming stuffs.

Impact of Raspberry Pi

This capable little PC can be used for displaying high definition videos as the GPU is capable of blu ray playback, using H.264 at 40MBits/Sec and it is trying to bring the concept that nothing is impossible. Weighing just 45g, though it lacks the general processing grunt, the performance can be compared with Pentium 2 with only little “swankier” graphics. And, if you still aren’t convinced what a Raspberry Pi can do for you, you got to read – 5 Things You Can Do With the New Raspberry Pi.

Availability

Featuring 356MB RAM, HDMI and audio outputs, USB port and flash card memory slot, there are two models available. The Model-A has just one USB port and no Ethernet port, while the Model B has two USB ports with an Ethernet port. Available in two outlets, Element14 and RS Components, this device has created a huge buzz in the market.

Having begun its’ delivery, Raspberry Pi has already received a plethora of laurels. Many user communities have tutorials, podcasts and even add-ons that can be added to the hardware part in their blogs.

The Expected Changes

It surely has the capability to bring a change in the open-source software world, for instance Aurduino and Linux are ruling the open-source software market. With the ‘getting started’ guide, the RaspberryPi has got a lot of attraction in the market. Altogether, at least a minimum of 3,50,000 pre-orders have been confirmed till now.

When it comes to educating the students, the RaspberryPi offers more than one field of interest. For instance, there will be some students who will be interested in developing the hardware part, while others may involve themselves in to coding part. The coding part can be done in two means – one can use the embedded level which is directed to the ARM core, and others can write in C or python in the Linux platform.

Scope of Improvement

However, there are not sufficient schools with the right staffs to support in educating the students in this platform. Influencing it in the schools will definitely take time. And once when it enters the class rooms, it has the potential to change the future of computing around the world. Though shipping to customers has started last week, this project has been going well in-spite of lack of optimized software.

Till then, let the competition wake up!

Flex-tronics: The Next Hardware Frontier

Robin Wilding — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:34:32 +0000

If you’re reading this then you’re likely a techie; if you’re a techie then you’ve likely already heard of flexible electronics, aka flex circuits, aka flexible printed circuits. And you surely already know that flex-tronics will be one of the next big things, but did you know that as of 2012 they are a $10B business? Yup, they are a multi-billion dollar industry thanks to the support and start-up capital injected by the Flex Tech Alliance (alliance members include Fujifilm, HP, Qualcomm, Lockheed Martin), “it is an industry that is nascent but will grow rapidly. We’re already starting to see new kinds of applications in plastic memory for toys and sensors for aircraft,” says Flex Tech Alliance chief Dr. Malcolm Thomas.

For any techno-n00bs out there, flex-tronics are electronic devices that are flexible and bendy in nature due to their electronic circuits being printed/painted on with flexible plastic substrates. These substrates are created via photolithographic technology using materials like polyimide, PEEK or a simple transparent conductive polyester film. In simple terms a sort-of printer sprays circuit cells onto a flexible substances, in the same way that a printer sprays ink onto a page to print.

If you’re wondering how the industry made it to $10B a year, the uses for flex-tronics have exploded. In the beginning it was thought they would be useful for replacing wire harnesses on cars, rockets and satellites, in static applications like cameras and dynamic applications like foldable cellphones and OLED smartphone screens, but it turns out the industry has come up with several other newsworthy uses for them:

The healthcare industry could be revolutionized via electronic ‘smart’ Band-Aids and skin patches, which could report on wound healing, vital signs, infections, etc.
Goods manufacturing industry like the garment industry who could create wearable electronic t-shirts, cheaply.
Aircraft design in the aerospace industry, due to its incredible lightweight.
Digital signage, printing and packaging like posters, billboards and containers. There are already a couple projects in the works to create flexible-glass for digital signage that could display digital imagery. (Let’s take a moment to enjoy the irony that the electronic medium that essentially killed print media might assist in its revival).
In e-readers like the Kindle who could make lighter, thinner, flexible e-readers.
In solar energy, as a potential roofing material.
As sensors for soldiers that could monitor their position, heart rate, injuries, stress levels, etc.
Smart trading and playing cards that display changing information on a digital display. I’m personally picturing Settlers of Catan players going ape-shit for this technology.
Printed batteries.
Medical innovations in areas like glucose test strips, neuro-prosthetic devices and many more.
Athlete performance-monitoring gear (hence why Nike and Reebok are investing in the technology).

The undoubted reason for the huge spike in the uptake of flex-tronics technology is that the technology is already readily available, despite its new status, and the flexibility of product manufacturing–often at a lower cost than current manufacturing technologies. “You get much more product flexibility, lower costs, and innovation,” says Thompson. “We’re talking about something that is really low-cost that can be re-purposed.”

(Image Credit: VentureBeat)

Ever wanted to take a Supercomputer for a test drive?

Robin Wilding — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:30:06 +0000

If you’ve ever wanted to take a supercomputer for a test drive, now is your chance. Solve that probabilistic analysis. Figure out some brute force code breaking. Conduct 3D nuclear testing simulations. Or, if you’re more cosmopolitan, do some Molecular Dynamics Simulations. No matter what your supercomputing needs, Cycle Computing will get you there.

Check this out, it’s brilliant: Cycle Computing is a 20-employee company leveraging the cloud computing movement by timesharing virtual supercomputers out to small companies and individuals who would never have had access (read: funds) to such technology. They use virtual clusters by virtually lashing together 50,000 processors from Amazon Web Services, in the cloud, via their own software.

Cycle Computing’s timeshared virtual supercomputer software was recently used by two small drug companies, Schrodinger and Nimbus Discovery, to perform a series of simulations on over 21 million chemical compounds in an attempt to find a binding protein. By using Cycle Computing’s software on timeshared Amazon data center procs the two companies were able to run 12 and a half years worth of calculations in under three hours.

For a cost of less than $5,000 an hour.

“This enables small companies and any researcher that has a grant to do science that they could never do before,” says Cycle Computing CEO Jason Stowe.

None of this is new of course — just impressive — as Amazon Web Services’ cluster comes in 42nd in a world ranking of the top 500 supercomputers. What IS phenomenal about this is the speed and power now available at such a low price; a technology generally reserved for governments and rich Saudi oil sheiks. Even big name pharmaceutical companies haven’t been able to process that quantity of information at those break-neck speeds.

This marks a major shift in supercomputing as ‘supercomputers’ are finagled across multiple data centers, leveraging tens of thousands of processors virtually to empower start-up corporations with the technology that puts them in the big leagues. This little-ization of so-called ‘Big Data’ is both a playing field leveler and a game changer.

AT&T has Secret Arsenal of new Location-based Apps

Robin Wilding — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:30:16 +0000

The uber-creative minds at the AT&T Labs, AT&T’s research contingent, have been busier than Santa’s elves. Their new smartphone technologies geared at automobiles might border on intrusive but are nonetheless genius. From a hands-free, cellphone-leveraging car unlocking method to digital teenage driver monitoring to location-based messaging AT&T has got an interesting lineup of new technologies coming out soon. This new batch of cool shiznit is highly focused on location-and speech-recognition-based APIs so expect it to be slightly encroaching.

Let’s check them out:

A hands-free new method of unlocking your car door, by tapping your cellphone to a car-door sensor. This even works when the smartphone is in your pocket so door-unlocking hip checking might be in order soon.
A vibrating steering wheel that takes directions from your GPS navigator and vibrates when your reach the next turn.
An app that recognizes if you leave any personal possessions behind.
A location-based messaging system called Donde (‘where’ for anyone who missed high-school Spanish class), to become part of their SMS service, that allows you to send messages to other users on their network that will only be delivered once the recipient arrives at a specific geographic location.

Personally, I would use all of those, so well done AT&T.

Driving Safely

Driving Safely is a major project being worked on by AT&T developers in Israel. This new project uses car electronic systems in combo with a smartphone app, that allows for data to be sent back the owners’ smartphones about how their car is being operated. Think: snooping parents checking up on their (new driver) wild teens. Not only will the application monitor car data it can also deactivate smartphone features like texting and calling when the car is in motion.

You might be thinking so what? There are already apps that do this. And you would be right. BUT, Driving Safely does it without the application having to be installed on the victims’ phones. Snooping parents and jealous wives start your engines! Upon entering the phone number of your intended victim the app begins feeding you info on the car, like where it is located geographically, how much fuel is in the tank, how fast they are driving, if they aren’t wearing their seat-belts, and more. You can even set it to send alerts to your phone if any peculiar driving elements occur, like sudden braking. The software can even drill down with the settings to include more detailed information, like finding out if the driver sent a text message immediately before braking or skidding.

This highly intelligent app can even compile information over time to create a ‘driving profile’, with average speeds, braking patterns, seatbelt use, etc.

Let’s hope the insurance companies don’t get their hands on this.

BranchOut – LinkedIn’s Biggest Competitor

Deeptaman Mukherjee — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:30:28 +0000

BranchOut is a popular Facebook application that is used to search new jobs and can connect with professionals across the globe. The BranchOut App is used to recruit employees as well.

About

Launched in July 2010, as of now it has more than 25 million registered users to its credit. BranchOut is backed by the dedicated team strength of 45 employees. It has grown so smart that it poses a challenge to a professional dedicated network that connects professionals — LinkedIn. LinkedIn was launched in the year 2003. It has more than 200 million users which are being benefited from more than 200 countries. The site is available in 13 various languages including English.

How Does BranchOut Work?

BranchOut lets you check your friends and friends’ friends that are working in various organizations which are already registered on Facebook. It is simple to use BranchOut application for Facebook, as the required user data will be graphed from Facebook database. On the other hand, you are required to build professional network by adding new persons one by one. BranchOut has the similar user interface as that of LinkedIn. You will be able to send friend requests and send messages to existing friends as you do through LinkedIn.

Achievements

BranchOut has more than 3 million job listings on its site. It has a product for serious recruiters called ‘RecruiterConnect’ which looks similar to that of LinkedIn’s Recruiter. With more than 13 million unique hits per month BranchOut is one of the most popular applications on Facebook. The reason for the success of BranchOut is the worldwide expansion and adoption by mobile users. Half of the new registrations are coming from US and also the merging of popular job sites such as totaljobs.com and StepStone attributes to this success.

m-BranchOut

BranchOut is also popular on the mobile platform. More than 25% of the site traffic is happening through mobile users. BranchOut is pumping more cash to spread its base. Even though the current 25 million user base is not big when compared with LinkedIn’s user base, BranchOut has a unique advantage to attract crowds from Facebook which has more than 800 million user base. It is also easy for users to opt for BranchOut as it is just a matter of grant of permissions to the application by Facebook users.

Facebook is also the preferred platform for enterprises to promote products and services. They will not hesitate to utilize the services of BranchOut for their recruiting requirements. The seamless integration between BranchOut and Facebook will be definitely an advantageous factor for individuals and organizations.

The Challenges

On the other hand, BranchOut has more challenges in terms of maintenance of consistency. Its 45 employee team has to work hard to reflect the changes made by Facebook. This should be done in a time bound manner. LinkedIn has the advantage to attract users of social networking sites other than Facebook. Being a dedicated social network, it has the advantage to implement new features at any point of time. BranchOut has to take risks with the mainstream Facebook. It has to survive at the mercy of Facebook. If Facebook wants to deploy its own version to connect professionals, BranchOut and its users’ interests will be greatly impacted.

Kenyan Entrepreneurs use technology to boost Trade Opportunities for Low-Tech Farmers

Robin Wilding — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:29:28 +0000

It’s been known for quite some time that the Global South’s, and its people’s, biggest hindrance is not legacies of colonialism or anesthetizing malaise but a lack of substantive trade opportunities caused by an inability to access global markets on any meaningful scale. So when we hear about endeavors like M-Farm, where developing-world entrepreneurs use available technologies to create meaningful trade opportunities for themselves and their compatriots — we should damn well pay attention.

By connecting local and often remote farmers in M-Farm creators’ Jamila Abass and Susan Eve Oguya’s native Kenya, they allow farmers to connect themselves with other farmers and global markets. Sort of a virtual farmers collective. M-Farm leverages SMS-text technology to easily connect small-scale farmers with information critical to succeeding in the global market; information that includes the current regional prices of particular crops and information on farmer collective bargaining for aggregate selling. What this information technology translates into for Kenyan farmers is an ability to use a technology they can afford, their cellphones, to cut out the profit-leeching, inconsistent middlemen. “On a daily-basis about lack of transparency in the market, having middlemen as their only channel of selling their produce, as well as high costs of farm inputs,” points out Abass. Many of these ‘middlemen’ were originally in-person-based farmer collectives that spun out of control (read: corruption) due to lack of regulation and transparency.

The M-Farm technology builds on the basics concepts of companies like America’s Farmigo, another software-based technology connecting small, often organic farmers with consumers, but M-Farm has scaled down the solution to work across non-internet-capable devices.

iCow is another Kenya-based technology initiative supporting entrepreneurial farmers that is worth mentioning. This SMS-based platform, from entrepreneur and agriculturalist Su Kahumbu, also supports remote, low-tech farmers by offering them on-demand information on their mobiles about critical information like new livestock diseases, livestock feeding practices and critical gestation information. The software also allows for distance-spanning veterinarian connections. The iCow platform has already been rolled out to cover 80% of Kenya and in record time thanks to the existing availability of SMS technology.

Perhaps the next key move for these Kenyan startups will be to adopt a more Farmigo-like approach to their technology and introduce a two-sided push/pull strategy that includes access to consumers looking to connect directly with small farmers.

Mobile Phones – A Catalyst for the Future in Education

Deeptaman Mukherjee — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:43:06 +0000

Along with million other uses of mobile phones, the latest upcoming advantage of this device is, it is going to create a revolution in education. Mobile phones are going to have the power to digitally impart education globally. Even the most tech-savvy person would have never dreamt in her wildest dreams, that such a possibility would ever come into being.

It is being believed that while Aptech will be responsible for coming up with all the content for educational purposes; Hungama will work towards transforming all these study materials to suit various delivery platforms such as the internet and DTH. It should not come as a surprise that the above mentioned companies thought of such an innovative collaboration because all of the top technology companies are focusing their interest on the field of education. Education has been the topic of discussion since the ancient times in India. It is only natural that as the nation advances in the technological fields, the demand to find newer ways of educating people will increase. Even the highly reputed companies like Apple are showing their willingness to be involved in some way in the field of education.

Hungama has been known to have huge successes by tying up with many well known entertainment companies in India such as T-series, UTV, Eros entertainment, BIG Music and so on. However, this is the first time it has tried it’s hand at collaborating for the cause of providing education. Most of the telecom services of the country have a long running relation with this company. This gives considerable leverage to Hungama for executing its plans to launch digital education via video content in India.

This program has been popularly named ‘mEducation’, which means mobile education. The courses that have been aimed to be transmitted by several digital channels are said to be simple and uncomplicated so that the common mass can benefit from it the most. About 90 devices will be working 24/7 to develop the specially organized educational content. While the market of education in India is said to be worth about $40 billion, the maximum success of this program is estimated to generate a revenue of around $70 billion by 2020 for mobile service providers. The educational content provided by the mobile devices will be updated at a regular interval to include all the latest happenings in the world. This would make sure that the users don’t miss out on any vital piece of information.

In India, topographical complexities do not allow people to access ample education in their own local areas. In a nation where parents prefer private institutions than government educational facilities, making education available to the public at their fingertips does make a lot of sense. As the provision for internet connections improves in India, people are sure to embrace the idea of obtaining education on the move. Thus, it’s not long before mobile phones will generate educational content than just being modes of entertaining people.

On the contrary, it makes sense to wonder what would traditional education institutions strategize against such ventures. If they sit hand on hand, then the Future in Education belongs to Mobile Phones. But, knowing the kind of people who rule the education market in India, they would not like to lose the race. For sure, I am expecting a “No Holds Barred” battle here.