Private sector solution?

From the spice groves and palm-fringed beaches of Zanzibar to the great plains of the Serengeti and the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania can not only claim the greatest variation in altitude on the continent, but also some of its most exotic locations. But despite the richness of culture, landscape and wildlife, Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and faces a serious environmental crisis. With the best rangelands increasingly cultivated to feed a population that has tripled in the last forty years, Tanzania's vast herds of zebu cattle are being forced onto marginal land that is over-grazed to the point of becoming desert. Traditional cattle owners are unwilling to reduce their herd sizes, which for them are the equivalent of life-savings, pension and children's inheritance, and their way of life is threatened by imported concepts of land ownership, as well as pressure from their government to give up their nomadic existence and 'settle down'.
Agro-economy

When Tanzania gained independence in 1967, agriculture was at the centre of the country's development plans, on the basis of the 'Ujamaa' communal land ownership system. However, support for independence movements in other countries stretched Tanzania's financial reserves, and worse was to come. In the late 1970s global commodity prices began falling, and over the last 30 years approximately 85% of the real value of Tanzanian agricultural exports per capita has been lost, from an average US$64 in 1966-9 to $9 in 1992-6. Despite this, agriculture continues to contribute around 80% of export earnings, and most industry in the country is also linked to the agricultural sector, whether producing farm inputs such as fertilizer and farm tools, or processing agricultural products: cigarettes, canned meats, beer and pyrethrum.
Crop patterns

Most Tanzanian farmers are smallholders; few families cultivate more than 2 hectares, and even those who have access to more land struggle to benefit from it, lacking all but the most basic hand held tools. Only around 20% of farmers make use of animal traction for ploughing. In terms of crops, maize dominates much of the country, particularly the highlands in north and south. The lush tropical coastal belt, always warm and humid, is dominated by cassava, with rice also grown in an area spreading westwards from Dar es Salaam. Drought resistant millet and sorghum are grown in the central plateau where temperature and rainfall are highly variable, although aside from these arid plains, rainfall is fairly well spread throughout the year, peaking between March and May, with another, shorter rainy season between November and early January.
Sisal estate near Tanga
Sisal estate near Tanga
Having such a diversity of climatic and geographical zones, it is no surprise that Tanzania's farmers grow a huge variety of fruit, vegetable and spice crops. Zanzibar, once a leading source of spices for the global market, continues to produce large amounts of cloves. Coffee, grown both on estates and by smallholders, is a major export crop, earning a mighty 17% of the country's foreign exchange, and cotton, cashew nuts and tobacco are also grown for export by smallholders. In addition to these export crops, Tanzania is impressively self-sufficient in food production, with over 90% of food consumed being 'home grown'. Yet ironically, the producers continue to suffer chronic poverty; less than 30% of people in rural areas have access to safe water, and malnutrition is reported to have doubled in the last 25 years.
Although Tanzania's rangeland resources would seem a major asset, in reality 60% of this area is infested with tsetse fly and, as a result, animals are concentrated in the arid and semi-arid centre and north of the country. An erosion in land quality has been the inevitable result of over-stocking, and grazing is not the only resource to suffer such a fate. Diminishing government support for animal health provision has left veterinary services badly needing succour. While pastoralist communities tend to attract most attention, in fact most farmers in tsetse-free areas raise both crops and livestock. Many keep cattle for milk, but production has not kept pace with population growth, and on average Tanzanians only drink half the quantity of milk drunk by their Kenyan neighbours.
Private sector solution?

Last year the government began formulating an Agricultural Sector Development Strategy, and identified the following constraints to the sector: inappropriate technology, inadequate research and extension services, over-dependence on rainfall, low utilisation of improved technologies, poor infrastructure, especially roads and market networks, lack of financial services in rural areas, limited processing capacity and technology, low and declining prices of most export commodities combined with barriers to trade in developed countries, and HIV/AIDS. Government spokespeople are happy to advocate the need for a revolution in agriculture and related rural activities, and are pushing for private sector supply of inputs, credit, information and marketing services, with a 'facilitative tax regime' the main draw. However, the private sector currently lacks the experience and resources to meet the challenge, and the ultimately any revolution in Tanzania is going to depend on the willingness or otherwise of the international donor 

Private sector solution?

From the spice groves and palm-fringed beaches of Zanzibar to the great plains of the Serengeti and the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania can not only claim the greatest variation in altitude on the continent, but also some of its most exotic locations. But despite the richness of culture, landscape and wildlife, Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and faces a serious environmental crisis. With the best rangelands increasingly cultivated to feed a population that has tripled in the last forty years, Tanzania's vast herds of zebu cattle are being forced onto marginal land that is over-grazed to the point of becoming desert. Traditional cattle owners are unwilling to reduce their herd sizes, which for them are the equivalent of life-savings, pension and children's inheritance, and their way of life is threatened by imported concepts of land ownership, as well as pressure from their government to give up their nomadic existence and 'settle down'.
Agro-economy

When Tanzania gained independence in 1967, agriculture was at the centre of the country's development plans, on the basis of the 'Ujamaa' communal land ownership system. However, support for independence movements in other countries stretched Tanzania's financial reserves, and worse was to come. In the late 1970s global commodity prices began falling, and over the last 30 years approximately 85% of the real value of Tanzanian agricultural exports per capita has been lost, from an average US$64 in 1966-9 to $9 in 1992-6. Despite this, agriculture continues to contribute around 80% of export earnings, and most industry in the country is also linked to the agricultural sector, whether producing farm inputs such as fertilizer and farm tools, or processing agricultural products: cigarettes, canned meats, beer and pyrethrum.
Crop patterns

Most Tanzanian farmers are smallholders; few families cultivate more than 2 hectares, and even those who have access to more land struggle to benefit from it, lacking all but the most basic hand held tools. Only around 20% of farmers make use of animal traction for ploughing. In terms of crops, maize dominates much of the country, particularly the highlands in north and south. The lush tropical coastal belt, always warm and humid, is dominated by cassava, with rice also grown in an area spreading westwards from Dar es Salaam. Drought resistant millet and sorghum are grown in the central plateau where temperature and rainfall are highly variable, although aside from these arid plains, rainfall is fairly well spread throughout the year, peaking between March and May, with another, shorter rainy season between November and early January.
Sisal estate near Tanga
Sisal estate near Tanga
Having such a diversity of climatic and geographical zones, it is no surprise that Tanzania's farmers grow a huge variety of fruit, vegetable and spice crops. Zanzibar, once a leading source of spices for the global market, continues to produce large amounts of cloves. Coffee, grown both on estates and by smallholders, is a major export crop, earning a mighty 17% of the country's foreign exchange, and cotton, cashew nuts and tobacco are also grown for export by smallholders. In addition to these export crops, Tanzania is impressively self-sufficient in food production, with over 90% of food consumed being 'home grown'. Yet ironically, the producers continue to suffer chronic poverty; less than 30% of people in rural areas have access to safe water, and malnutrition is reported to have doubled in the last 25 years.
Although Tanzania's rangeland resources would seem a major asset, in reality 60% of this area is infested with tsetse fly and, as a result, animals are concentrated in the arid and semi-arid centre and north of the country. An erosion in land quality has been the inevitable result of over-stocking, and grazing is not the only resource to suffer such a fate. Diminishing government support for animal health provision has left veterinary services badly needing succour. While pastoralist communities tend to attract most attention, in fact most farmers in tsetse-free areas raise both crops and livestock. Many keep cattle for milk, but production has not kept pace with population growth, and on average Tanzanians only drink half the quantity of milk drunk by their Kenyan neighbours.
Private sector solution?

Last year the government began formulating an Agricultural Sector Development Strategy, and identified the following constraints to the sector: inappropriate technology, inadequate research and extension services, over-dependence on rainfall, low utilisation of improved technologies, poor infrastructure, especially roads and market networks, lack of financial services in rural areas, limited processing capacity and technology, low and declining prices of most export commodities combined with barriers to trade in developed countries, and HIV/AIDS. Government spokespeople are happy to advocate the need for a revolution in agriculture and related rural activities, and are pushing for private sector supply of inputs, credit, information and marketing services, with a 'facilitative tax regime' the main draw. However, the private sector currently lacks the experience and resources to meet the challenge, and the ultimately any revolution in Tanzania is going to depend on the willingness or otherwise of the international donor 

PDF Expert 5: Well Designed PDF Management App with Text-to-Speech

PDF Expert 5 is a well designed PDF management app for the iPad. The app includes many useful features that allow you to read, edit, and annotate PDF documents easily. Unlike some other feature -rich apps, PDF Expert 5 does not feel cultured. The elegant design makes the app easy to use. PDF Expert is an assistive app because of its text-to-speech integration with the added benefit of extra features.

One caveat, while the app is good for non-disabled and dyslexic users, I would not recommend the app for VoiceOver users because of some VoiceOver problems I have found. Readdle, the maker of the app, should work on fixing these VoiceOver problems so blind and visually impaired can also benefit from the app.

PDF files can be imported from numerous cloud storage services including Google Drive, Drop Box and SkyDrive or using the "open-in" feature of many other iOS apps. You can also view other file types, but the built in text-to-speech reader is only available for PDF documents. Files can be organized into folders or dragged and dropped into different sections.

PDF Expert's text-to-speech function works with any PDF with digital text. It does not work with PDF documents that have text within images. To read a compatible PDF, turn on text-to-speech in the reading mode menu and then press play. You can start reading at the middle or end of a page by highlighting a word and pressing "read from here." Text is read with the default iOS voice that many may recognize as the voice of Siri. Unfortunately, you cannot purchase additional higher quality voices. The app also requires you to re-enable text-to-speech every time you switch PDF documents. This is inconvenient if you switch are between PDF documents quickly.

Click read more below to continue reading about PDF Expert.

Viewing a PDF document is also a breeze. PDF Expert includes a quick scrolling mode and thumb nail view to allow you to easily navigate large PDFs. You can also change the background to sepia or night for easier viewing.

Aside from the text-to-speech features PDF Expert includes a number of editing and annotation features. Annotation options include highlighting, underlining, shapes, strike-through, stamps, signatures, and text. These annotation options are intuitive to use and you can easily can the color of highlights and other annotations. If you would like to add text to a PDF document you do not need to worry about overlapping any original text because the app automatically wraps your text so it will not overlap. Unfortunately, the app will not read your text annotations back to you using the built in reader, but you can always use the built in Speak Selection feature.  

PDF Expert also includes a review mode which allows you to edit and markup existing PDF documents. To learn more about this feature see the below video.

With PDF Expert's easy to use annotation and editing features and its built in text-to-speech reader PDF Reader is an ideal app for any iPad user who wants increase productivity. PDF Expert 5 is compatible with iPads running iOS 6 or higher and is available for $9.99 in the App Store.

Livescribe 3 Smartpen: Do More With Your Written Notes

By combining the ease of hand writing, the power and accessibility of Apple's iOS devices, and audio, the Livescribe 3 Smartpen is a powerful tool.  With the smartpen you can start writing on a pad of paper and see your handwriting appear on your iPad or iPhone almost instantly. 

When taking notes It can record audio that is linked to your handwriting, allowing you to easily hear what was happening exactly when you were writing.  It can easily search through notebooks of handwritten pages to find the right note in an instant, and it allows you to share your notes with anyone without copying or scanning.

The Livescribe 3 Smartpen is not just a refinement of last year's Sky Wifi Smartpen. The Livescribe 3 Smartpen adds new functionality by pairing it with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. The Livescribe 3 is still capable of syncing handwriting and audio, but instead of recording the audio from a built in microphone, the recording happens on an iPhone or iPad paired to the pen with Bluetooth. With the pen connected to an iOS device using Bluetooth, features like handwriting recognition and cloud based storage options are handled by the iOS devices. Most of the pens functionality is handled with the free Livescribe+ app that seamlessly manages the Smartpen.

Read on to find out more about the Livescribe 3.

Hardware and Requirements

The Livescribe 3 is a sleek and streamlined device that is about the same size as some thicker standard pens. The pen twists open to reveal the ball point tip. No more forgetting to turn on your pen, it turns on automatically when the tip is out. At the bottom is a special camera that allows the pen to track its location on the page. At the top of the pen is a stylist tip. The stylist tip hides a micro-USB charging port. Speaking of charging, Livescribe claims the pen gets 14 hours of battery life. At the top there is also an indicator light that shows the status of the pen. The Livescribe 3 uses advanced Bluetooth to connect to the companion app. The pen only supports Apple devices because they have the widest compatibility with the new Bluetooth standard. Livescribe may support Android devices when advanced Bluetooth is more widely available. The pen is compatible with iPhone 4S and newer, iPad 3rd generation and newer, and iPod Touch 5th generation. The companion app requires iOS 7.

The Livescribe 3 requires a special dot paper that Livescribe sells on their website. Some may think of this a negative, but the Livescribe notebooks come in a variety of sizes and are competitively priced.

Livescribe+ App

The Livescribe+ app is the brains of the Livescribe 3 smartpen. The pen sends your notes to the app over Bluetooth and then processes the handwriting and turns it into digital text. The app makes it easy to review notes in a page view or list view. Because the app turns handwriting into digital text, it is simple and fast to search through your notebook. You can search by keyword and easily find all associated notes. Once your handwriting has been converted to digital text you can use the built in iOSSpeak Selection feature to have your note read aloud with text-to-speech.

The handwriting recognition was amazingly accurate even with my sloppy handwriting and if it does make a mistake you can manually correct it. If you write down a phone number or an address you can save the information as a contact with one tap. If you write down a homework assignment you can save it directly into your Reminders list which is a nice touch. Using an iOSdevice as the brains of the smartpen allowed Livescribe to remove the screen, speaker, microphone, and wifi which considerably slimmed down the pen. Using an external microphone eliminates the writing noise that the Sky Wifi Smartpen picks up.

Taking the microphone out of the smartpen does not come with out compromise. Because the smartpen relies on the iOS devices microphone you can not record audio without an iOS device nearby. You can still capture your written notes and sync them next time you have your iOS device handy. For some who don't always have their device close by, but still want to record audio the Sky Wifi Smartpen is a great option. If you always have your device close by this won't be an issue.

Sharing your notes is one area where the Livescribe+ app really shines. Using the standard iOS 7 share sheet you can share your notes to any app that supports PDFs. This includes Evernote, Dropbox, Google Drive, and many others. Currently recipients of your documents that don't own an iOS 7 device can only view your handwriting and cannot play back the audio and linked notes known as a pencast. It is really unfortunate that the ability to view pencasts on desktops and Android devices was not present at launch. 

Benefits

The Livescribe 3 can benefit many people who need to keep useful notes for work or school. It can be especially useful for students with learning disabilities who struggle to take or keep notes. For example if a teacher is talking about graphing points and the student gets distracted, he can easily go back in his notes and listen to the audio at a later time.

Teachers and special educators who have multiple students who get class notes provided as an accommodation can easily use the Livescribe+ app to share the note instantly with everyone in the class. This eliminates the need for hard-to-read carbon paper or delays due to photo copying. For people who struggle with organization, the ability to search for notes maybe enough of a reason to purchase the pen. Using a conventional ball point pen for writing is much easier than using a stylus to write on an iPad. The Livescribe 3 gives you the ability to write with a ball point tip while still getting all of the benefits of having your notes on your iPad.

Possibilities

The Livescribe 3 Smartpen and Livescribe+ app have really solid features that have benefits right out of the box. If you decide to buy the pen you should decide to because of the features currently available, but with very capable hardware and the flexibility of an iOS app Livescribe could and should continue to improve the product. One feature that I would like to see added is the ability to speed up and slow down audio playback. Variable playback speed makes it easy listen to more audio in less time. With the Sky Wifi Smartpen this was an option, but it is not currently available in the Livescribe+ app. Audio transcription is another feature that would be a great addition to the Livescribe+ app. Imagine listening to a lecture and having the entire text transcript of the professor even if you weren't able to write everything down.  With improving speak recognition software this feature is probably technically possible.

Pricing and Availability

The Livescribe 3 starts at $150 for the starter edition. A pro edition with a darker finish, larger leather starter notebook, replacement ink, one year premium Evernote access sells for $200. Both editions are avalible from Livescribe's website.

Instagram rolls out Live Video broadcast feature globally

Instagram launched Live Videos to its app’s Stories feature back in December 2016. At launch the feature was exclusive to individuals residing in US. Approximately a month later, the Facebook owned company is finally rolling out the feature globally.

It might seem that both Facebook and Instagram are offering the same feature but the mode of delivery is totally different. Instagram Live Videos are different from Facebook Live Videos in that they totally vanish once the live broadcast is terminated. The video will no longer be visible on Instagram once you end the live broadcast.

Another important point is you will only be able to record live video up to a maximum of 60 minutes which is essentially one hour. In layman’s language, one session of live video broadcast can last for a maximum of only one hour.

How to Start a Live Video

Note that you will need to update your Instagram app to version 10.0 and above.

1. Launch your Instagram application
2. Tap the camera icon in the top left corner of the screen.
3. Alternatively, swipe right from anywhere in feed.
4. Tap Live at the bottom of the screen.
5. Then tap Start Live Video.

Your followers will likely receive a notification when you start a live video.

The number of viewers appears in the top right of the screen and comments appear at the bottom. To add a comment simply tap the Comment option. You can also pin a comment to the top so that viewers can see it more easily. To pin a comment, you simply tap and hold on it.

In case you want to turn off comments, Instagram has got you covered. You only need to tap and select Turn Off Commenting. To end your Live Broadcast is as simple as tapping End in the top right. A screen will appear asking you to confirm if indeed you wish to terminate your broadcast. Tap again to confirm.

Uber takes on mapping the planet.

Uber is mapping the planet. The ride-sharing company has shown its commitment to having its own mapping data by rolling out map-cars in Singapore. This is one of 5 other countries that the mapping vehicles have been put in all 5 major continents.

The cars are cryptographic driver rides with mapping tech on top to collect data on real trips. According to the company, Uber will not keep imagery from the end points of your trip thus eliminating the issue of privacy. The data collected will also not be made public.

The company is a long way to getting its own comprehensive mapping data with mapping hardware only available in one country per continent outside North America. This though is an important step to reaching that goal. Uber relies on google for its regular mapping and has a strong incentive to develop a mapping product of its own.

Last year, it was reported that Uber planned to spend at least $500million on the ambitious mapping project. Additionally, the company has taken to poaching some of Google’s brightest mapping talent including Amit Singhal, Manik Gupta and Brian McCledon, all engineers involved in the core making of google maps.

The data collected will reflect the harder-to-pinpoint aspects of routes such as which side a building is facing. This will also be a major asset in Uber’s plan to roll out self-driving cars especially in Singapore which has embraced autonomous technology at a fast pace. The mapping investment by Uber is likely to pay off hugely when robotic ride-sharing is commonplace.

“Over the past decade, mapping innovation has disrupted industries and changed daily life in ways I couldn’t have imagined when I started,” said Manik Gupta, head of product at Uber. “That progress will only accelerate in the coming years especially with technologies like self-driving cars.”

The mapping cars are currently operating in US, Mexico, Canada, the UK, South Africa Australia and Singapore.

IBM and Ericsson have announced a research breakthrough that could accelerate the launch of 5G communications networks

BM and Ericsson have announced a research breakthrough that could accelerate the launch of 5G communications networks and support new mobile enterprise and user experiences enabled by very high data rates, including IoT, connected vehicles, and immersive virtual reality.

The companies have created a compact silicon-based millimeterWave (mmWave) phased array integrated circuit operating at 28GHz that has been demonstrated in a phased array antenna module designed for use in future 5G base stations.

2017 has been described as a defining year for 5G. More countries and governments are opening up new frequency portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, including portions known as millimeter wave bands, which are more than 10 times higher than the frequencies currently used for current mobile devices, offering a new source of bandwidth for cellular networks that are being made available for 5G networks.

Scientists at IBM Research and Ericsson reached their breakthrough as a result of a two-year collaboration that set out to develop phased array antenna designs for 5G. IBM’s expertise in highly integrated phased array mmWave IC and antenna-in-package solutions, together with Ericsson’s expertise in circuit and system design for mobile communications, helped the team reach several new technological milestones.

“There has been a lot of encouraging progress in 5G standardization last year including the beginning of live field trials. Big efforts in research and development are key to this and our collaboration with IBM Research on phased array antennas can help operators to effectively deploy radio access infrastructure necessary to support a 5G future. New use cases and applications that span human machine interaction, Virtual Reality, smart home devices and connected cars will depend on innovative technologies that can bring the promises of faster data rates, broader bandwidth and longer battery life to reality.”

– Thomas Noren, Senior Advisor, Business Unit Network Products, Ericsson

“The development of this 5G millimeterWave phased array is an important breakthrough, not just because of its compact size and low cost, which make it a very commercially attractive solution for network equipment companies and operators, but its potential to unleash and inspire brand new ideas and innovations we haven’t yet imagined, thanks to a fully networked society.”

-Dr. Dario Gil, Vice President of Science & Solutions, IBM Research

Making 5G a Reality

The first release of the 3GPP 5G specification is targeted to be ready by 2017/2018, but there has already been much progress in the industry with field tests and demonstrations of new user experiences and capabilities made possible by the higher bandwidth, lower latency, greater density and lower energy requirements of 5G networks.

5G is expected to support data rates exceeding 10Gbps in certain scenarios. New capabilities are designed to allow users to download a full-length HD movie in seconds, provide very high bandwidth and uninterrupted live streaming experiences in highly dense environments such as sports or concert venues, experience ‘life-like’ response times to enable remote surgery or fully immersive virtual reality experiences, as well as see battery life of 10 years for remote cellular devices that may be part of IoT environments.

About the Phased Array Antenna Module Breakthrough

For future 5G phased array deployments to be commercially viable the size, weight, cost and performance of the component are important factors. The IBM and Ericsson team’s result, the world’s first reported silicon-based mmWave phased array antenna module operating at 28GHz, is a significant step towards meeting this challenge. The module, which consists of four monolithic integrated circuits and 64 dual-polarized antennas, measures approximately 2.8” by 2.8”, or about half the size of a typical smartphone. Achieving this compact form factor is necessary to support the vision of this technology’s widespread deployment, especially in indoor spaces and dense downtown areas.

Another performance advance reported by the team is the demonstration of concurrent dual-polarization operation in transmit and receive modes. This capability enables one phased array antenna module to form two beams simultaneously, doubling the number of users to be served at the same time and so improving the overall value and economics of the technology.

A major hurdle for the use of mmWave signals in mobile communications is achieving sufficient range between radios to support target applications. At 28 GHz, each antenna is tiny and individually would support short communication distances, but combining multiple such tiny antennas not only increases the range but also enables steering of signals in specific directions. The IBM and Ericsson team’s phased array design supports beam-steering resolution of less than 1.4 degrees for high precision pointing of the beam towards users.

IBM Communications Circuits & Systems Innovation

IBM Research has a long history designing and developing integrated circuits and phased arrays, and were pioneers of the first monolithic mmWave radio in 2006. In 2013, the team presented results of a highly integrated mmWave phased array transceiver for both mobile communications and radar imaging applications that laid the foundation for this latest scientific work. The IBM scientists have also explored how mobile handsets will communicate at new mmWave frequencies, showing a path for how mmWave 5G radios could be implemented in mobile phones.

A paper describing the IBM Research and Ericsson team’s work, “A 28GHz 32-Element Phased-Array Transceiver IC with Concurrent Dual Polarized Beams and 1.4 Degree Beam-Steering Resolution for 5G Communications,” was presented on February 7 at the 2017 International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.