Thank you to Monique from “She’s the Geek” blog for the great interview!

Last week I attended the Betavine Mobile Developer Day sponsored by Vodafone, Vodacom and the Praekelt Foundation.  Their approach is really interesting.  Betavine has created a web site http://www.betavine.net/home/main/home.html where they encourage three things:

1.  Anyone in any community can mention a challenge faced by that community (For example: “In our area we are experiencing an increase in home break-ins.”)

2. Mobile developers can then propose a solution to the challenge, where they will empower that community to solve their problem using technology. (For example: “Why don’t you install mobile web cams in the area that are motion activated?”)

3. Businesses can offer to support entrepreneurs to take these solutions to market. (For example: “That’s a great idea! Which person would like to run this as their business?”)

Their particular focus is on helping people work together “to create mobile-based Solutions for the developing world by facilitating cooperation between NGO’s, community based organisations, mobile developers and potential sponsors.”  In addition to this, they encourage the use of open source software for development and offer this free of charge from their own software forge site (forge.betavine.net).

The site is full of challenges and anyone can post new ones.  If you are a mobile developer, this is a GREAT place to dip your toes into the development environment and who knows? You could even find the inspiration and funding you need to start a new business!

We love this type of initiative and give kudos to Vodacom and the other sponsors! Here are more links that you may find interesting:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/betavine

Mobile site: betavine.mobi

Software Forge: forge.betavine.net

Web site: www.betavine.net

1. I would like to thank OdinJobs, for  interviewing me in their post on “Mobile Apps – How to develop apps and get paid for it”.  You can read the interview here: http://www.odinjobs.com/blogs/careers/entry/mobile_apps_interview

2. I would also like to thank Matthew Wridgway – my colleague and mobile developing genius – for helping me to restore some lost blogs! After the hacking (which still makes me giggle, thinking someone thought my site was worth tampering with….) so much content was lost. Now thanks to Matt I can repost the most popular ones.

As the ex Product Manager for MWEB mobile, MWEB.mobi is a mobile site that will always be close to my heart.  A dot mobi site is a web site that has been optimised for mobile phones and has to comply with very strict dot mobi regulations.  MWEB.mobi has always maintained high standards and scored highly on the dot mobi testing system.

Once again, Dee, Clairwen and the technical team have delivered a great user experience with the new look – MWEB.mobi site.  This site is great, even if you are not an MWEB subscriber because you get access to weather, news and Internet search right on any Web enabled mobile phone.  If you are an MWEB subscriber, you can access your email on your phone and do some cool things like forward an email as an SMS.  (Not even Google can do that yet ).

MWEB’s main site (www.mweb.co.za) also released a great new look this week.  Good job guys!

When you hear the letter G in a phone or service description such as “3G”, the G refers to the term “Generation”.  As mobile phones and technology advanced, they went from the first generation (1G), to second generation (2G) and so on.  As the technology moved from one generation to the next, the quality of service improved and the speed of information transfer (such as surfing the Web) became faster.

1G:

The first generation of mobile phones was already a great breakthrough in technology. Wow! You had a phone that you could take with you wherever you go! The networks were analogue (not digital) and circuit-switched (which is REALLY slow!)  Voice quality was not that great and sometimes calls dropped when you were traveling.  If you remember that far back, you will think not so fondly of walking around with your enormous old phone in your hand watching the signal strength so that you could find a good spot to make a call.  There is a sweet story of a man who climbed to the top of a high water tower to get signal so that he could call his girlfriend – luckily it wasn’t during a thunder storm or he’d have been a prime target for lightning…  Those were the days of 1G.

Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1G

2G:

The second generation saw the first uses of digital systems.  This was also the time that the GSM (Global System for Mobile) became an industry standard.  The voice quality improved significantly and extra services such as data, fax and SMS (texting) were introduced.  Additional security was also added to the networks.  Some mobile networks around the world are still operating on a 2G platform.  Back then, no one anticipated how popular sending text messages were to become.  Today it is by far one of the most affordable and effective ways to stay in touch.  Can you remember life without SMS?

Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G

2.5G:

While 2G saw the industry advance in many ways, data speeds were still too slow to make mobile Internet access practical.  With 2.5G enhancements to the existing networks saw the launch of HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution).  These saw practical speeds of around 19 – 28 kbps (kilo bits per second) – a significant improvement on the previous 9 kbps.

Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5G

3G:

Well, as our story unfolds, 3G was definitely a high point and I’m sure you can remember all the media hype around it.  For months people wondered what is this 3G? With the third generation networks, suddenly mobile internet was a true reality!  The roll out of 3G was slow because the mobile networks couldn’t simply plug in any extra equipment on their existing infrastructure, they had to remove the old equipment completely and replace it with the new.  These included switching systems, base stations and much more.  3G allowed for much faster data speeds and exciting new Internet experiences such as video streaming, video conferencing, etc.

From this point on speeds are measured in MEGAbits per second!  Effectively 3G offers you 2Mbps.

Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G

This is the first part of understanding mobile/technical terms.

Activation fee

When you take out a contract with a mobile Service Provider or purchase a prepaid starter pack, you may be charged an Activation Fee. These average at about R100 and are network and service provider dependent. This fee covers the administration costs involved with getting your new number registered on the mobile network.

Airtime

Airtime refers to the available minutes or Rand value credit that you have on your phone number. Most contracts offer a number of “minutes” and prepaid numbers work on Rand value.

Any time minutes

This is when the minute allocation of your airtime is not limited to certain time periods. You can use your inclusive minutes at any time of the day or night.

Bandwidth

The best way to understand bandwidth is to think of a traffic highway. The more lanes there are and the better the roads – the faster cars can travel and the more cars can travel at any one point. Bandwidth refers to the speed at which data (information) can travel across a network. Narrowband refers to technologies such as “analogue dial up” that offer really slow speeds. Broadband refers to technologies such as ADSL, 3G and HSDPA which offer much faster speeds.

BlackBerry

BlackBerry is a type of phone. It is also the system that allows email to be “pushed” to your phone so that it arrives on the phone with a notification sound, in the same way that you usually receive SMS messages.BlackBerry devices and the BlackBerry mail platform are very popular in the UK and have enjoyed tremendous success. New technologies do compete and there are a number of new push mail services available that work on many different devices.

Blacklisting

Every phone has a unique serial number that gets picked up by the network as soon as an active phone is within reach of a base station. If your phone is stolen, you must report it to the police to get a case number. This case number must then be submitted to your Service Provider on a blacklist phone. The Service Provider then arranges to have your phone disabled on South African networks so that the thief who took it cannot use it.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless radio technology that allows you to transfer information for free, between two devices.They must be “paired” so that the data transfer can proceed, which means that you have full control over what information you receive.

Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a wireless personal area network (PAN) that connects phones, computers, etc. over short distances without wires by using low power radio frequencies. The great thing about Bluetooth is that you don’t have to line the devices up (the way you did with infra-red) and they don’t even have to be in the same room! Bluetooth allows you to leave your phone in your pocket, or in your briefcase in the boot of your car, while talking on your phone with a Bluetooth headset. You can also exchange contact or scheduling information, images, ringtones and other content with other Bluetooth-enabled phones nearby. Print your pictures immediately from your phone by sending them to a Bluetooth enabled printer.

Broadband

Broadband is like a multi lane highway that allows much more data traffic to pass through a network.Internationally, any speed over 250kbps is considered “Broadband”. In South Africa – we tend to call anything faster than a dial up connection Broadband. You can get fixed broadband (ADSL or Leased Line) and wireless broadband (3G, HSDPA, iBurst)

Browser (Micro-browser)

A browser is simply the application on your phone or computer that allows you to access the Internet. Most popular PC browsers are IE (Internet Explorer), Firefox, Safari (Apple), Flock and Google Chrome. Micro-browsers are specifically developed for mobile phones and allow you to view websites on your mobile device.Beside the ones built into the phones there are other popular browsers such as Opera, Safari Mobile and IE for Windows mobile.

Call blocking

Call blocking is the facility available on some mobile phones that blocks specific numbers from calling to the phone and blocks the phone from calling out to those specific numbers. This is a useful feature when you’re being hassled with unwanted calls.

Call divert

With call divert – all calls made to your cell phone will be diverted to a number that you specify. This is very useful when your phone’s battery is almost flat but you’re waiting for an urgent call. Simply divert your calls to another number and you won’t miss the call. (It is important to know that the diverted portion of the call from your phone to the other phone will be added to your bill.)

Call holding

Call holding allows you to place an active call on hold. While the call is on hold, you can take a second call and when done, return again to the original call.

Call limit service

Call limit services are offered by most Service Providers but it is important to know that this service is NOT guaranteed. With Call Limit, you can set a limit for your monthly bill. When your phone reaches the limit, you will not be able to make any more outgoing calls or messages until the following month when your new allocation starts, or by phoning your Service Provider to have the limit lifted. This is a useful feature when you are paying for a phone that is used by someone else and you want to retain some control over the expenditure.

Call restrictions

Some Service Providers allow you to restrict certain types of calls on your line. For example: you may wish to allow for local calls but not international calls.

Call waiting

Call waiting notifies you while you are on a call that there is another call waiting. You have to activate call waiting on your phone as it is not usually set as a default.

Caller display

Probably the most popular value added service on all mobile phones is caller display and Calling line identity.Caller display sends your number to the phone that you are calling so that they can see that it is you. If you cancel caller display on your own phone, then the person you are calling will see a “blocked” or “withheld” number. Caller display is usually activated automatically by default.

Caller ID

As with caller display, caller ID shows you who is calling you. If the number calling is already in your phone’s address/phone book, your phone may display their name on the screen. If it is a new number, then you will only see the number. In order for this service to work, you need to have CLI activated on your account and the callers must have caller display activated. (See CLI and CLIR)

Cancellation fee

Most mobile phone contracts are signed for 6, 12 or 24 months. Part of the incentive to take the contract is that you are given a mobile handset. The costs of this handset are usually included with the monthly airtime subscription. If you cancel your contract before it reaches the end of its time, you need to pay the balance of your contract (with penalty fees) as a cancellation fee.

Car kit

In South Africa it is illegal to speak on your mobile phone while you are driving unless you have a car kit installed in your vehicle. A car kit contains a speaker and microphone that allow you to receive calls while on the road without having to take your hands off the wheel and your eyes off the road – a much safer option!

Cessions and Transfers (Change of ownership)

You can transfer your mobile phone contract to another person if you decide you no longer want it. Both you and the second person will have to complete transfer documentation and the other person will have to pass the credit vetting criteria of your service provider.

Clamshell

Clamshell is the name given to phones that flip open and closed (similar to the way a clamshell opens and closes).

CLI

CLI stands for “Calling Line Identification”. This feature displays the caller’s phone number on screen of the mobile phone receiving the call. (Also see: Caller display, Caller ID) It is a feature that can be activated or restricted simply by contacting your service provider.

CLR

Calling Line Restriction is a service that prevents the person you’re calling from seeing your number on their phone. (Also called CLIR – calling line identification restriction).

Connection Fee

Very often when you take out a new airtime contract, you will be charged a once-off activation fee. This fee averages at around R120.00 but differs according to the network and service provider. Sometimes you may be offered a special deal where connection is free.

Contract

An airtime contract is taken over 6, 12 or 24 month period. During this time, you have agreed to a service agreement with a Service Provider where you will pay a monthly subscription in exchange for minutes or Rand value on your mobile phone. (Also see: Package) There are many different contract tariff options available and it is very important that you select the right call plan for your calling pattern.

Coverage

Coverage refers to the size of the area where the mobile network can offer signal and service. If there is no coverage in an area, the mobile phone will not work there. Different services have different coverage, for example: HSDPA only has coverage in major business districts, while GPRS covers at least 80% of South Africa.Coverage maps are available on the networks’ websites.

There are so many prophets of doom preaching the dangers of technology that media is riddled with theories about the harm one could suffer from too much cell phone usage.  Very seldom do we see companies harnessing the technology in a useful way that benefits the environment.  One example was the disposable cell phone with a seed inside that you buried when you were finished using it, and the whole thing is supposed to be biodegradable and encourages tree planting.  Great idea.

Today, I’m pleased to tell you about another beneficial initiative that took place right here in liddle old SA.  The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and BULKSMS.com have launched MyCO2Print, South Africa’s first Mobile Carbon Footprint calculator.

This tool allows South Africans to measure their carbon footprint in terms of travel and energy use, so that they can improve it on a monthly basis.  MyCO2Print gives an approximate Rand value based on figures from the Stern Report.

A spokesperson from WWF said in a press release on Media24 that they aim to focus the product toward the youth market by allowing teachers to use it as an innovative tool in the classroom.  It will be an excellent demonstration of the climate change and the environment because it gives local data.

The product was developed by Steven Weiss for WWF South Africa.

If you would like to try the MyCO2Pring calculator, SMS the word “CO2″ to 34017 (message charged at R2.00) from your cellphone, for instructions.

Overall, a great initiative! I’d love to be able to brag about more local companies showing how technology can be used to benefit our environment! (Hey Eskom – what about a wasted electricity calculator?)

Thanks to Glen at BULK SMS for sharing the press release with Cellfhelp.