Archives : July 2008

Solar offers answer for Africa's telecoms electricity shortages

published on 2008/07/30 by Anthony Plewes

Africa has seen a mobile telecoms boom with subscribers numbers ballooning as users access communications services that were denied them by the limited fixed infrastructure. Users in cities have been the main beneficiaries up to now, but African operators hope that base stations powered by renewable energy will help them overcome the lack of electricity supply in the countryside. Electricity supply in Africa is patchy at the best of times and in many rural areas there is no access to the power grid. Operators deploying a rural mobile network need to rely on diesel generators to power the base stations.......

Slim MDM limits iPhone3G for business

published on 2008/07/28 by Anthony Plewes

Amongst all the hoopla surrounding the arrival of the 3G iPhone, it has become clear that it's a credible business performer. But limited mobile device management (MDM) capabilities will make it difficult for enterprises to support or deploy iPhones. Apples' new iPhone 3G has overcome many of the business shortcomings of the original device, such as lack of 3G network connectivity and the inability to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange. Apple is targeting prosumers who want to use the iPhone for work and pleasure and they will be looking to access enterprise applications when in the office. This inevitably opens up......

Beefing up IM with voice

published on 2008/07/23 by Anthony Plewes

Did you ever think your instant messaging experience would be improved by voice? Say2go clearly thinks so and has come up with a voice-powered solution for IM. Instead of typing your message into a text box and waiting for a text response, the solution allows you to speak your message and your colleague will receive both a voice message and text message. The service allows you to review both the transcribed text and voice messaging before sending it off. In theory this sounds promising, as tapping an IM or other text-based message on the move can be slow and difficult.......

Ahead in the cloud

published on 2008/07/21 by Anthony Plewes

Analyst Gartner has been banging the drum again for cloud computing. It defines cloud computing as "a style of computing where massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided 'as a service' using Internet technologies to multiple external customers." The analyst believes cloud computing will be as influential as ebusiness and that it is benefitting from a perfect storm of converging trends. These include the increasing industrialization of information technology (IT), the commoditization and standardization of technology, virtualization, the rise of service-oriented architecture and the ubiquity of the Internet. We've already seen small businesses targeted with cloud computing services, such as Amazon's......