Tag archive: Kenya

It took two years to lay, stretches 17,500 kilometers, and cost $650. But the fiber optic cable operated by Seacom has brought high speed Internet access to East Africa, connecting South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to Europe and Asia, the BBC reports. Due to be launched last month, but delayed by the activity of Somalian pirates, the services were officially unveiled in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. In Tanzania, the… Read More

It doesn’t have a great name – the Livestock Identification Tracking System – but it’s cow chipping by any name. Created by Virtual City using Microsoft technology, it uses radio frequency identification (RFID) to keep track of cattle in Kenya, according to a Microsoft blog post. The tag goes in the cow’s stomach (no word on which one, or how it doesn’t end up coming out again) and keeps information on… Read More

Yes, elephants sending texts might seem like a comedy image. But it happens in Kenya. Whenever elephants wearing collars that contain special SIM cards cross a geofence that’s set up using GPS, the animals automatically send a text to rangers, AP reports. When elephants go after village crops at harvest time, they can take out a lot of food, and villagers can easily lose six months’ income. This way, rangers can rush to the… Read More

As video sharing site YouTube gets closer and closer to consumers' living room television, it's no surprise the service is trying to come up with ways to offer higher quality content than, say, teenagers doing karaoke via a Web cam or eight years-olds staging sock puppet plays. To that end, YouTube has announced Screening Room, a dedicated area of the YouTube site featuring high-quality shorts from independent filmmakers.… Read More

No one really knows how many people live in shanty towns in countries around the globe. They don’t show up on censuses, and their lives are lived under all official radar.   But a newproject from Stanford University, called Mobile Metrix, aims to count the inhabitants and detail their lives.  The idea is that the gathered data will be given to governments and aid groups so they can focus their projects in the areas.  … Read More

Online payment service—and eBay subsidiary—PayPal has announced it has expanded its reach to 87 new national markets, and had finally made its primary site available in three new languages. The new additions make PayPal available in 190 markets around the world. As of today, users will also be able to access the main PayPal site—and all online transaction processes—in Spanish, French, or simplified Chinese.… Read More