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Upcoming Moto Mod could add a 360-degree camera to your phone
Motorola's Moto Z Mods have quite a bit of promise to turn your phone into pretty much anything, including a gamepad, a walkie-talkie, and even a mobile Alexa station. The company has been pushing these pretty hard lately, holding hackathons that produced some pretty innovative add-ons and promising at least 12 of these new peripherals each year. At a small event in Ghana, West Africa, Motorola showed off a few new Mods, including a 360-degree camera, two Marshall-branded audio Mods and a DirecTV Mod, which seems to come with a Chromecast-like HDMI stick to plug into your HDTV. The presentation also included a DSLR Mod, along with a rotatable, GoPro-style action cam Mod.
The human cost of electronic waste
Despite long-standing restrictions on the export and import of electronic waste ("e-waste"), the industry is huge. One town in particular, Guiyu, in South Eastern China, rose to fame after the non-profit organisation Basel Action Network exposed the huge amount of e-waste being dumped there. Sporadic coverage in the media has continued ever since, and in 2013 the town was recognised as the largest e-waste site in the world, although that undesirable title may now belong to Agbogbloshie, a suburb of Ghana's capital. Thousands of tonnes of e-waste makes its way to the dump from western countries after being illegally smuggled into the country.
Microsoft's white space internet aims to improve education in Ghana
Microsoft has long been championing TV white space internet for use in places conventional types of connections don't reach, even in places that don't even have access to electricity. After a pilot program that brought white space broadband to some African universities, Redmond is now making it available to anyone in Ghana. The company has collaborated with local provider Spectra Wireless to launch what it claims is the "first commercial service network utilizing TV white spaces" in Africa. Now, people (specifically students) in Ghana can subscribe to affordable high-speed internet bundles and even internet-enabled devices, presumably phones, tablets and laptops.
Google launches Gmail SMS for text-based email in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya
Smartphones and email-equipped feature phones have proliferated in even the most resource-dry areas of Asia, Europe and North America, but for many subscribers in Africa, SMS is the only option for text-based communication on the go. And, to give residents a more consistent method for reading and responding to email from their mobiles, Google just launched Gmail SMS in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. To sign up, simply head over to the "Phone and SMS" settings page in Gmail, add your mobile number and complete a verification process. Once enrolled, the service will automatically forward all email to devices as text messages. The service could even be useful for those that do have access to Android, iOS or Windows Phone devices -- data outages can cripple smartphones, forcing users to turn to phone calls and SMS to connect with family, friends and colleagues. Geva Rechav, a Google product manager for emerging markets, confirmed in a blog post that Gmail SMS messages will be free to receive, but standard fees will apply for outgoing emails. You'll find full signup details at the source link below.
Ghana man killed by exploding handset?
Truth be told, we aren't exactly inclined to believe this here article is entirely accurate, but nevertheless, Modern Ghana is reporting that a resident was recently killed by an exploding cellphone. Notably, this unfortunate accident wasn't due to a faulty battery, or at least that hasn't been blamed just yet. Rather, the young man simply answered his ringing mobile while it was still plugged into the wall, and seconds later, electricity flowed into the cellphone unrestricted and threw the man back. Reportedly, he was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital, and we're sincerely hoping that investigators get to the root cause of all this if indeed the tale is true.[Via textually]
A quick look at African game development
Unlike the mysterious PS3 demo Afrika, the continent of Africa doesn't exactly come up much in discussions of modern game development. This could change, though, if any of the African game projects detailed on the White African blog manage to catch on with a worldwide audience.Sure, the provided list of African games is pretty short, and is rendered even shorter when you take out American-made but Africa-themed games like Cabela's African Safari. Still, the fact that these games exist at all is news to us. We're particularly intrigued by Africa an ambitious, stalled MMO project set to take place in a 13th century version of the continent. Here's hoping we'll actually get to play it one of these days.
