Alireta Nigeria is set to run an anniversary promo from 1st of May till 31st July 2009. The promo is something aimed primarilly at small and medium entreprises, but anyone can take advantage of it.

We are offering two SME Packs at unbeatable prices. Here are details:

SME Pack A
Included:
- Nokia E63 QWERTY keyboard smartphone
- Domain Name Registration
- 10mb Hosting Plan
- 4-page CMS-powered website
Cost: N50, 000.00 only

SME Pack B
Included:
- Acer AspireOne Netbook
- Domain Name Registration
- 10mb Hosting Plan
- 4-page CMS-powered website
Cost: N100, 000.00 only

*Included benefit on each pack is mobile data configuration on the E63 and the Netbook
**CMS: Content Management System: In layman’s terms, this means that after we set up your site, if you need to modify some information, you can do it on your own without having to pay a webmaster. For example, if you want to change your business contact details, its easy. If you can use Yahoomail or Gmail, you can use our very simple CMS.

The promo officially takes off on the 1st of May, but if you are reading this, and you are ready to get yours right away, go ahead and call 08084391076.

We deliver FREE anywhere in Lagos. Outside Lagos orders attract delivery charges.

Promo ends when we run out of stock! Get yours ASAP.
Hotline: 08084391076.

Alireta Nigeria Limited is introducing a mobile phone rental service. For those whose phones need to go in for repairs, or who need an emergency phone for any reason, our Alireta is offering a mobile phone rental service.

For a fee of N700 weekly, qualified individuals and organisations can rent modest mobile phones.

This service is currently available to existing customers of the following business organisatons and services:

1. Alireta
2. DsNet
3. SMEpal
4. Accredited MobilityNigeria members e.g. regular contributors, among others

About 10 other organisations are coming on board this service shortly.

To take advantage of the service, give us a call on 08084391076 and mention your referal business. We will confirm the information and get back to you. Once confirmed, simply send someone over to our office with your payment to pick the rental phone. We can also deliver to you for an extra fee.

Minimum rental deposit is for two (2) weeks i.e. N1, 400. If not used up, a pro-rated refund will be issued.

Released in the last quarter of 2004, the I-mate Jam is one of the several products from HTC, Taiwan. HTC is strictly an outsourcing company commissioned by Microsoft to make windows mobile devices. These devices are usually sold by carriers and resellers with different brand names, so the I-mate Jam is also branded as O2 XDA Mini, T-mobile MDA Compact, Dopod 818, Qtek S100, etc.

Full features:
- Brilliant 2.8 inch TFT display with 320×240 pixel resolution;
- Very compact form factor;
- Alloy casing;
- Fast 416MHz Intel XScale processor;
- WM 2003 phone edition OS;
- WAP/ Web browser;
- Email Client support;
- Standard mini-USB sync port;
- 1.3 megapixel camera;
- Bluetooth, Infrared, USB and GPRS connectivity
- SD/MMS memory slot with support for SDIOs;
- 57.4 MB usable RAM, 7.6 MB usable ROM.

Form Factor, display and Keys
Encased in smooth alloy with rounded corners to give it a sleek look
the I-mate Jam is a compact device that just feels good in your palm. This Pocket PC Phone has a brilliant QVGA resolution on a 2.8-inch screen. The 65k colours TFT display also features a touch screen for commands and data input.

Below the screen are four keys (buttons). These are the red and green phone buttons, a Contacts button, and a Calendar button. These four basic buttons are arranged around the square navigational pad and can reconfigured. The directional pad works quite well, and in the center you will find an Enter button.

The Jam has no keypad and so it uses a virtual input panel that includes several options: a keyboard, Phone Pad, transcriber, block and letter recognizer. A stylus is supplied to aid data input.

OS, Installed Applications and Memory
The I-mate JAM runs on Windows Mobile 2003. This platform includes the standard Windows Mobile applications and utility suite( Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket IE, Pocket messenger, Notes, Tasks, Appointments, Email client, etc) WM2003 supports portrait and landscape display orientations for most applications. This OS also supports compatible third-party applications including older WM 2002 third-party applications and Java midlets.

WM 2003 Pocket IE now supports screen rendering but still lacks multiple windows browsing and a function to save images on web pages. Other browsers like Opera for Windows Mobile, Netfront and Muilti IE can be installed to enhance your browsing experience.

Built-in e-mail client supports POP3 and IMAP4. Downloading of attachments is also possible. Configuration of settings is easy and simple. You can set your device to check for new mails as it suits you: at intervals of 2 minutes, 5 minutes or every hour.

Other programs like Notes, tasks, appointments are available. Tasks, Contacts, Emails and Appointments can be syncronised with Microsoft Outlook on your laptop or PC using ActiveSync program. This program also enables you to browse or explore the phones directories and folders from your PC. You can browse the net on your device if your PC is connected to a LAN by ActiveSync. Conversely, the Jam has an installed application called Wireless Modem that enables you browse the internet on your PC using the device as a modem.

With all these installed applications and third party options, multi-tasking with the Jam is enjoyable because of the fast and powerful 416 Mhz Intel Xscale processor. Though RAM is 57Mb, it is never a problem for running programs if you have installed your applications on a storage card.

The SD slot on the topside of the phone supports memory cards of up to 2GB and a wide variety of SDIO add-ons or peripherals.

Connectivity
Bluetooth, Infrared and USB connections are seamless with other devices. The device can synchronise with your PC through any of these connections. The standard mini-USB port serves as sync port and charge port. The device charges automatically when connected to a PC through this port.

Multimedia
On the back you will find the 1.3-megapixel camera for still and video recording. Windows Media 10 and Album applications handle most of the media playback functions like audio players for wav,mp3, midi and WMA files and video players for WMV, 3GP, MP4 and AVI files. The audio from the speaker is decent and clear, and stereo headphones are included for better listening experience.

Battery Life
The removable Li-on battery is of decent capacity (1200 mAh) for such a small device, and I found it lasting more than trice as long as my Toshiba 2032 does inspite of the Jam’s powerful 416Mhz processor. It takes 90 mins to fully charge the battery and this power can last for a whole day of reasonable multi-tasking.

Other features/programs
- Games – solitaire and Jaw breaker
- Calculator
- Calender
- Truefax
- Midlet Manager
- SIM Manager
- Backup

Conclusion
Though the phone could do with more RAM and integrated Wi-Fi, the I-mate JAM is an incredible device, and I resorted to staying with this compact form factor for a long time.

In february, Mobility Nigeria featured a news item on Armenia and Nigeria leading Mobile Web Growth in 2008.

In that article, our editorial team stated as follows:

But at the current growth rate that Nigeria is pushing, it shouldn’t be long before the West African country shows up on the Top 10 list – and probably climb all the way to the top. Nigeria is currently number 12 on the Top 35 countries (unique users) list.

Approximately two months later, that prediction has come to pass.

In an email update we received from Opera this morning, the company stated that “a surge of Opera Mini usage in Nigeria pushed that country into the top 10, displacing Germany“.

For years, I repeatedly stated that mobile is the future of the web. No; desktops and notebooks won’t go away, but mobile devices will become the de facto means of accessing the web. Today, more people access the web via mobile than via PCs. I am not a prophet. But I did say so – years ago.

Here’s a supporting quote from Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera:

“A mobile phone will be the device most people use to access the Web. As millions of people each month discover the Web through Opera Mini, content providers have an incredible opportunity to seize competitive advantage in this new medium. By simply ensuring their content works on any device, they will open themselves to the next generation of Web users.”

I couldn’t have put it better than that.

Related Links:
1. Mobile Data: Bridging The Internet Divide In Africa
2. A Case for Mobile Data

I have not handled the LG Arena or any other device running LG’s new dust-stirring user interface, quite aptly dubbed “S-Class”. But I haven’t handled the Apple iPhone either. Still there is no contention about the top-notch interface that the iPhone sports.

If the rave reviews that the new LG Arena is getting is anything to go by, an erstwhile underdog has gotten right what the giants are stumbling and fumbling over.

Samsung’s TouchWhiz interface is more of a hit and miss. Nokia’s new S60 5th Edition doesn’t have the fluidity and Waow factor, and stillfumbles in usability here and there. HTC’s TouchFLO is merely a thin layer of icing spread over the dated WinMo OS and interface.

But the LG S-Class UI simply rocks and seems set to become the best thing that happened to mobile phones since the iPhone. LG is getting something right.

A few weeks ago, I purchased a mid-range LG, the KS360 with slide-out QWERTY and touchscreen dialer. It ain’t no Arena and certainly isn’t running S-Class, but even that device left me with a very good experience. Dayo and I are agreed that LG did a good job with such an affordable device. The haptic feedback and responsiveness of the touchscreen dialer is very good. And functionality-wise, LG didn’t pull any punches either. Yes; the device has a couple of niggles, but for its price, its a deal.

Then, there’s the LG Cookie, also getting good reviews here and there. Coincidence? Or has LG struck pay dirt?

Related Article: LG KM900 Arena: A touch of class

Nokia Messaging enables s60 users to quickly set up, access, and use their email on their Nokia devices through a service that is optimized for mobile email. The appplication and service allows users to configure up to 10 email accounts, and supports POP3, IMAP. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and enterprise servers.

How It Works
Signup online, and then download the application to your s60 device.

During signup, you will be asked to configure a primary email account, to which you can later add others.

Once configured, Nokia Email serves as a push service, dropping your new mails into your handset automatically.

The interface is a little more polished than the built-in s60 email client. Unfortunately, when installed, Nokia Email runs as a separate application from the built-in client. This I did not like. That means I have to look in two different places for my messages. I would have preferred that it replaces the built-in client.

I had my Gmail and Yahoo accounts setup and running in no time. I also had a work email account setup too. Mails were dropped in for a while. But then came the niggle…

An Extra Step in the Email Retrieval Process
For quite a number of minutes, Nokia Email’s server could not be accessed. I tried administering it on PC and got an error that the server was currently not accessible. For that period, I could not retrieve new mails.

This leads to the very reason why I personally will not use Nokia Messaging: it introduces an extra step in email retrieval. Now, instead of connecting directly to my mail server, I have to depend on a middleman.

This means that I not only have to count on my ISP/mobile network and my mail server to be online, but I also have to count on a 3rd party – the Nokia Messaging server – to be available in order for me to get my mails.

I also have to share my email login details with this 3rd party. In my opinion, it just compounds matters.

Conclusion
I am sure that Nokia Messaging will be found useful by certain sets of people. But call me a pessimist on this one, I’m just not quite thrilled. The built-in email client on my s60 device does a good job enough of notifying me of new critical mails at an interval of 30 minutes. Unless my job suddenly requires me to receive emails per second, I have no use for Nokia Messaging. For now.

Recently, I had a discussion with someone who was of the opinion that just because a mobile application has a price tag on it, it must be better than any freeware mobile application in its category.

Here is throwing the discussion open. What do you think? Do you agree with this opinion or do you have a different take?

Please note: whichever side you take, kindly provide example(s) to support you argument.

Look forward to hearing from you guys.

This is just a heads-up on something I have in the works: a free guide covering everything you need to know about using mobile internet services in Nigeria.

The ebook will include service providers and their packages, tariffs, and terms, as well as a section dedicated to guiding those new to mobile internet in setting up their phones and getting online.

The guide will be in PDF format and made available for download from MobilityNigeria.com. Yes; the guide will be free to download, but perhaps I should include a PayPal donation button alongside?

Anyone has anything specific you would love to see incorporated into the guide? I’m not making any promises, but at least I will consider every suggestion.

Ever heard of GiCell? GiCell is a new mobile operator with a National Unified Access Service License in its kitty.

GiCell is rolling out to cover locations in “four Local Government Areas in Adamawa State, two Local Government Areas of Borno State, Five Local Government Areas Of Cross Rivers State, Four Local Government Areas of Kwara State and Two Local Government Areas of Oyo State”, and locations in Bauchi State, among others. Source: The GiCell website.

According to this news item on TradeInvest Nigeria, GiCell is a mobile telephone operator offering voice and data services using CDMA technology. It is licensed to provide mobile, fixed telephony, international data access and long distance services. The company is planning its technical launch for 28 April 2009 and is aiming for one million subscribers in its first year of operation.

Designing websites for mobile access is a very painstaking process. There are so many different mobile browsers with different characteristics that it is a miracle indeed that successful mobile-friendly sites exist at all.

A typical mobile web design session at my end includes extensive testing on a variety of devices, and modifications after modifications effecteed till a working and generally satisfactory result is produced.

One of the challanges of mobile web design is that of choosing what route to take in making a website mobile-friendly. I am going to list the options below and ask you, our regulars, to comment from your experiences with browsing via mobile.

1. A Separate Mobile Site

In this scenario, the regular website exists at default.com, and a parallel mobile version is maintained at m.default.com (or mobile.default.com, wap.default.com, etc)

Usually, a link to the mobile site is placed on the main site, or a mobile device detection script is setup to redirect users browsing on mobile to the mobile version.

2. One Single Location Designed to Adapt when Loaded on Mobiles

This has been my default route for years, but it is a very tedious one. Usually, the adaptation is done by manipulating CSS. Unfortunately, different mobile browsers choose differently what CSS specifications to read.

A lot of manipulation and testing goes into making sure that a huge percentage of mobile browsers will load this satisfactorilly.

3. Use Server-side Commands to format the Webpages

In this case, by manipulating HTACCESS files on the server and a bit of PHP prepending and appending, the server spits out a version of the regular website stripped of all CSS formatting.

The results in this case often look bare and without any eye-candy, but it works well, especially if the pages have been semantically structured (Did you guys understand any of this? I understand that this is not a developer community. Apologies).

Which Route?

Okay, maybe you don’t quite get the 3rd one, so let’s stick with options 1 and 2. Which do you prefer when browsing? Getting a site where you are given a mobile-specific address, or the site that simply re-formats to adapt to your device’s screen (as much as possible)?

Mike Rowehl runs ThisIsMobility.com, a blog that focuses on “Ripping mobility from the clutches of telecom”. He is also a developer with 9 years of experience, and in a very interesting article tells how Nokia/Symbian and other manufacturers and stakeholders held the mobile development scen down till Apple stepped up to the plate.

Excerpt:

I’ve been working, for years and years. And years and years and years and years, trying to get out to all those handsets, trying to build applications or websites that were able to hit a critical mass of users on all those handsets out there. Or at least enough users to run a profitable business. Lots of us have been trying to.

And generally we’ve been working at it alone. There’s been little help from handset manufacturers, little help from operating system providers, and really no help at all from carriers (though they’ll be very quick to tell you otherwise). Whenever us developers would complain about it or attempt to change the way things worked there was always some excuse about why things aren’t better. We would ask for more capable browsers and the response was that battery life and network constraints make it impossible to create a browser of near desktop capability on a mobile device. We would ask for development tools that would make it easier to get started developing and make it easier to debug and we were told that mobile development is just too complex to try to make it simple. We would ask for a simple payment system that didn’t result in massive checkout dropoff and everyone would just laugh.

The entire system was deadlocked cause no one with the power to was really interested in shaking it up. We kept getting fed excuse after excuse justifying the general lack of forward progress on all fronts. But then something comes along that makes it easy, often profitable, and frequently even fun to develop for mobile again. Apple has exposed the fact that the lack of progress in mobile wasn’t something inherent in the system. That someone with the right motivation can really shake things up and get the train moving again.

Full article: Please Don’t Mistake My Apathy For A Lack of Understanding

Comments please!

A user of this site recently submitted the following comment:

Yomi

I am getting fed up with all the sub standard internet services being rendered to us in this Country, mainly because of the speed. I started out with glo, it was a frustrating experience. By the way, can you confirm if glo is still rendering 3G services? I really dont think so.MTN was promising at the beginning, now they’ve joined the pack. Now i’m think of dumping MTN for Visa phone internet. I need your advice.

Let me start by saying that sub-standard Internet servicees in Nigeria is the story of our lives. From GSM/3G operators, through their CDMA counterparts, to dedicated Wi-Max/Wi-fi/ and cable ISPs, Nigeria internet users have stories of woes to tell.

Now, on to the questions posed by the commenter.

Yes; GloMobile is offering 3G services, and our experience here at MN is that they currently offer the most stable and reliable 3G/HSDPA service in the country. In our informed opinion, this is largely due to the fact that their bundle plans are available only on a contract basis – meaning that lots of people are not keen on taking it up.

Zain is relatively stable too, if you are lucky to be located within their very limited 3G/HSDPA coverage area.

MTN is undisputedly the worst in the 3G/HSDPA bracket at the moment. Dumping MTN for anything right now is a good move.

On the CDMA front, so far as I know, there is very little difference in quality of service being delivered by Visafone, Starcomms, and Multilinks. And, honestly, that is not saying much. We have too many tales of woes of customers subscribed to EVDO on these networks who are getting basic CDMA 1x speeds as a daily experience inspite of having EVDO coverage at their locations.

Just last week, I was a witness to an individual who so got frustrated with the crawly speeds he was getting on his EVDO connection in the Egbeda area that he went all the way to Yaba hoping to get a better EVDO connection. He was badly disappointed, because all he got was the same old crawly speeds, again inspite of EVDO coverage.

Also note that my responses are qualified with terms like “currently”, “for now”, etc. This is because the tables often turn unexpectedly, and in another few months the presently unreliable service may have found a new lease of life, or the currently stable and dependable service caught the plague. Choosing an internet service in Nigeria is often like walking a minefield.

I must also add that for some odd reason, there are pockets of people here and there who respond with glowing tales of some of the above-mentioned poor services. This means that inspite of the general experience, there is the chance that you can hit a jackpot with whatever service provider you choose to go with.

But since when did it become normal to depend on luck and chance for a service you have duly put down your hard-earned money for? The story of our lives.