by editor | Jan 1, 2012 | Lifestyle
Free Up Your Hands With My Buggy Buddy Clip
From Kiddymania
29 Dec 11
Award winning website Kiddymania is thrilled to showcase the My Buggy Buddy Clip, designed to give parents an extra pair of hands when out with their little one. This essential piece of pram kit simply clips over the pram handle and snaps securely into place. Multiple shopping bags can be safely hooked onto the clip before snapping into place putting an end to the frustration of juggling shopping and pushing a pram with one hand – argh! We all know that situation far too well.
Whether you are taking your baby for a brisk walk around the park, fitting in some errands at your local shops or whizzing around on public transport, the My Buggy Buddy Clip will allow you to securely fasten your bags to your pram freeing up your hands and limiting any strain of carrying bags awkwardly.
The My Buggy Buddy Clip fits a variety of pushchairs and is also great for shopping trolleys too – another place parents need an extra pair of hands. The secure clip opens and closes with one simple flick. It can hold shopping bags, hand bags and changing bags so you can attend to the task in need.
t’s also idea for days out and securely carrying other items such as camera bags, swimming bags or picnic goodies. A lockable version is also available so you can secure your pram if you need to leave it when out and about.
The My Buggy Buddy Clip is used world wide and is so easy to use. It is lightweight and oh so versatile. Kiddymania believe that once you get hold of this essential pram kit you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. The My Buggy Buddy Clip is available from www.kiddymania.co.uk priced at £5.95
by editor | Jan 1, 2012 | Lifestyle
Latest Touch Screen Technology
Takes Students Behind The Scenes
At The British Museum
20 Dec 11
An investment in new technology sees students swap printed handouts for tablet computers on study visits, thanks to unique partnership between the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies and the British Museum.
Photocopied handouts and clipboards may become a thing of the past on study visits with the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies. The School is embracing the latest tablet computer technologies to help students get the most out of off-site trips.
Dr Janet Marstine and Dr Ross Parry worked with British Museum staff to create an app that takes students on an interactive learning tour of the Museum’s exhibits and galleries. The application is hosted on hand-held tablet computers, and includes video interviews with key staff and curators at the Museum.
The programme is used on study visits to help students think about ethical issues in museums.
The new app allows students to independently explore the Museum whilst simultaneously benefiting from the expertise of British Museum staff. Thanks to a close partnership between the School of Museum Studies and the British Museum, Drs Marstine and Parry were able to call upon key Museum staff to contribute short videos to the project.
Dr Janet Marstine said: “When we go on study visits, the students want to look and experience the place, but they also want to be informed by what the experts have to say. It seemed ideal to have short, taped discussions about ethical issues by Museum staff – then students could bring the tablets with them, hear what the staff had to say, and analyse and engage in the evidence that they saw.”
The School has already taken a group of students to the British Museum to test-drive the new app, with hugely successful results. The students used the app to guide them around the Museum, and recorded their thoughts and impressions using the tablet’s camera function and word processor. Working electronically meant the students could easily share and discuss their work.
“We asked students to email in what they’d been working on by 10 o’clock the next day,” Dr Parry said. “Because they’d been working digitally, it was a lot easier. They were able to put together a presentation for the group by the next morning.”
Both the students and the Museum were impressed with the new app.
“When we did the feedback session the next day, the students were absolutely riveted by it,” Dr Marstine said. “They liked having the technology, working with it in a group, wandering around on their own and having independence to really experience the place.”
Dr Parry added: “The students didn’t blink when we gave the tablets out. For us to give those out five years ago, there would’ve been a lot of discussion about it: have we created a barrier, have we made something unnecessarily complicated, are we expecting the students to have a skill set that they may not have? But it was unremarkable for them. It was completely normal.”
Xerxes Mazda, Head of Learning, Volunteers and Audiences at the British Museum, said: “We are delighted with the result of this experiment, one of the fruits of the strong relationship that exists between the British Museum and the School of Museum studies at the University of Leicester, and the Museum’s drive to use digital technology in many of its public activities, whether with schools, adults, families or local community groups.”
The innovation is the latest in a series of high-tech learning methods implemented in the School of Museum Studies, after they moved to new premises two years ago. At the new site’s learning lab, students bring their laptops to class and can share their work on three flat-screen monitors and via the main overhead projector. Dr Parry also makes use of online video conferencing to allow experts to contribute to lessons via Skype.
Dr Parry said: “I was able to have someone ‘drop in’ for twenty minutes. They came up on Skype on one of the big screens, and we were able to interact with them and talk about what we were doing. We could link desktops and they showed us a few things they were working on. In the past you’d have to pay for someone to come in on the train and they’d wipe out the day.”
“We’ve done a number of things over the years to think about how technology can change the way we teach and can reframe the learning experience,” Dr Parry added.
The new app has proved so successful that the School is considering developing similar applications for other study visits.
“Now we’ve done it with the British Museum, it’s not impossible to think about how we could use this for other study visits,” Dr Parry said.
“There’s no reason why we can’t use the tablet as a way of negotiating a city, taking in six or seven different museums.”
by editor | Jan 1, 2012 | Lifestyle
Kineto Enhances Smart Wi-Fi Application
For Use In Public Wi-Fi Networks
21 Dec 11
Kineto Wireless, the key innovator and leading supplier of Smart Wi-Fi solutions for mobile operators, today announced it has added new capabilities to its Smart Wi-Fi Application that enhance the end user service experience when connected to public Wi-Fi networks, or hotspots.
Smart Wi-Fi is an application provided by mobile operators to their subscribers that enables all mobile services (e.g. voice, SMS, MMS, RCS) to be delivered over existing Wi-Fi networks. To date, operators have focused the use of Smart Wi-Fi on private Wi-Fi networks, such as those at subscriber homes and offices, as a way to address indoor coverage challenges as well as offload their macro network.
However, many mobile operators are now looking to also leverage public Wi-Fi networks to realize additional offload and performance benefits. According to the Wireless Broadband Alliance, 47% of mobile operators surveyed believed further adoption of public Wi-Fi was “either very important or crucial” and that the number of public Wi-Fi access points could increase more than 400% to 5.8 units worldwide by 2015.
In response to this demand, Kineto has added capabilities that improve the Smart Wi-Fi user experience when subscribers connect to public Wi-Fi networks. These new features include:
– Smart Connect – Frustrated smartphone users have learned the hard way that simply attaching to a Wi-Fi hotspot doesn’t necessarily mean they are given Internet access. Quite often, public Wi-Fi networks require additional log-on steps before providing full data connectivity. To address this challenge, Kineto has added a Smart Connect feature that assists users with accessing hotspots when additional log-on information is required.
– Smart Offload – Subscriber usage of public Wi-Fi networks is very different to usage of private Wi-Fi networks. For example, subscribers typically stay connected to home and office Wi-Fi networks for many hours at a time, while time spent connected to any given public network can be very brief. Performance of public and private Wi-Fi can also vary widely. Private Wi-Fi networks typically deliver very good and consistent performance, while public hotspot performance may not be as predictable.
To address these differences, Kineto has added Smart Offload capabilities that enable selective service offloading to specific Wi-Fi networks based on operator policy and subscriber preference. For example, a subscriber may choose to have all their services (e.g. voice, SMS, MMS, RCS-e, Internet) automatically offloaded to their home and office Wi-Fi network, but be asked what services they want offloaded each time they connect to a new public Wi-Fi network (e.g. all services, or just Internet access).
“To date, Kineto’s Smart Wi-Fi application has enabled mobile operators and subscribers to fully benefit from private Wi-Fi deployment at home and office,” said Ken Kolderup, chief marketing officer for Kineto. “With these new features, operators can now leverage Smart Wi-Fi to enhance the public Wi-Fi strategy as well.”
Smart Wi-Fi is available from leading mobile operators around the world, and the Smart Wi-Fi application is available for Android-based smartphones from leading handset manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, Huawei and ZTE.
About Kineto Wireless, Inc.
Kineto Wireless is the key innovator and leading supplier of Smart Wi-Fi solutions for mobile operators. The company’s solutions enable mobile operators to turn more than 200 million existing public and private Wi-Fi access points into seamless extensions of their mobile networks.
With Smart Wi-Fi, subscribers can receive all their mobile services over Wi-Fi instead of the macro network, boosting indoor coverage and improving the mobile data experience, while securely offloading the mobile network. The company’s Smart Wi-Fi products and services, based on the 3GPP GAN standard, have been deployed by mobile operators around the world. Kineto customers and partners include HTC, Huawei, LG Electronics, Motorola, Orange, RIM, Rogers Wireless, SFR, Samsung, T-Mobile and ZTE. For more information, please visit kineto.com, and follow Kineto at twitter.com/kinetowireless.
by editor | Jan 1, 2012 | Lifestyle
Recite Helps Invate to Innovate
With New Web Accessibility
Solution For Disabled Users
21 Dec 11
An innovative North East business that allows dyslexic and sight impaired users to access the web with ease has signed up another regional success story as one of its newest clients.
Gateshead-based Recite, which offers a simple and cost-effective platform that can help users with certain disabilities to use internet sites, is working with Invate, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of specialist products for disabled people, to make its website fully accessible and compliant with government regulations.
“I love the fact that one of our first clients is a business that shares a similar market and outlook to ourselves,” said Ross Linnett, Founder and Managing Director of Recite. “Invate offers a full range of products to people with all types of disability. By using the Recite platform, more of those people will be able to go online, explore the site and order the products for themselves.”
Recite is an easy to use and cost-effective web based solution which provides a set of tools like text- to-speech to read websites out aloud, and adjustable text-only-view to make sites easier to read. The system offers a simple solution to the issue of meeting W3C guidelines, which stipulate that reasonable steps must be taken to make all websites universally accessible. Unlike traditional products, which require downloading and installing of software, Recite can be added using a simple line of code on the client’s website, providing a simple off-the-peg solution.
“As a company that caters to the needs of disabled people, we are always looking for ways to improve the customer experience and I have been hugely impressed by the capabilities of the Recite platform,” said Chris Quickfall, Managing Director of Newcastle-based Invate. “It has not only enhanced the usability of the site, but has also increased our accessibility for visually impaired customers.”
Recite is accessed by a simple button, prominently placed on the client’s website. Once the user clicks on this, a bar will appear at the top of the page giving access to the Recite tools, including magnified plain text view, text-to-speech capability and translation into 52 languages. It’s even possible to change the colour and layout of text to suit certain specific conditions.
“There are over nine million people within the UK who have dyslexia and there are a further 2 million that are registered with visual impairment, so we’ve put a lot of thought into the Recite product, making it simple and intuitive for both website owners and their customers,” added Mr Linnett. “It’s really easy to use, has an intuitive user interface and works on a simple yearly subscription model. When it comes to assistive technology, using Recite could change the lives of people with dyslexia or visual impairment.”
To find out more about Recite, visit www.recite.me or call (0191) 432 8092.
by editor | Jan 1, 2012 | Lifestyle
Samsung Brings Exclusive Angry Birds
Festive Cheer With New Game
Experiences, Levels, Competitions And More
21 Dec 11
Those loveable Angry Birds and the pesky pigs are celebrating the holiday season with fans across the globe, as their new Advent Challenge on Google Chrome launched 25 levels of Winter Wonderland fun. In the run-up to Christmas each day a new level is unlocked with a special 5th December level created thanks to the Samsung GALAXY Note.
Samsung and Rovio first worked together earlier in the year for the launch of the GALAXY S II and have once again come together to offer fans of Angry Birds even more chances to play. Visiting note.angrybirds.com will take you to a Winter Wonderland in which you can send Angry Birds greetings cards, win amazing prizes including a Samsung GALAXY Note and even play an exclusive Angry Birds puzzle game not seen anywhere else in the world.
“It’s so good to team up with Rovio again. Samsung has a had brilliant year and our Galaxy devices are popular all over the world, so to be able to launch a holiday experience inside the most popular mobile game in world is awesome!” said YH Lee, SVP of Global Marketing at Samsung Mobile Communications Business. “To all those Angry Birds fans out there: enjoy yourselves and check out the Galaxy Note for an even better mobile gaming experience!”
In just one week, over 500,000 fans have visited the specially created Angry Birds Winter Wonderland microsite and Samsung will continue to welcome guests throughout the festive period.
“The holiday season is all about giving back and giving thanks, and this year we wanted to thank our millions of fans by giving them some great Angry Birds experiences,” said Peter Vesterbacka, CMO and Mighty Eagle of Rovio. “Not only are they receiving 25 new levels in our Advent game, but they’re also getting a chance to win the best Samsung products around and participate in a fun advent challenge.”
