bura®: July 2015

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Amateur or professional-quality photographs, LG G4 your best bet

The increased availability and heightened utility of smartphone-based cameras has allowed for more people than ever to use photography to express themselves.

Most people now carry advanced digital cameras with them wherever they go, and the power of these devices far outstrips what most sophisticated cameras of the past were capable of offering.

There are around 5.2 billion mobile phones in use around the world today and approximately 83 percent of those phones are equipped with cameras. This proliferation of smartphones (particularly in emerging markets) means that an astounding 90 percent of people who have ever taken a picture have done so on a mobile phone.

Industry insiders and analysts have projected that over one trillion photographs will be taken this year. One trillion may seem like a daunting number, but the increasing capacity of phones to store data (thereby encouraging users to take more photos) over the last several years shows that we have been on course to break the trillion barrier for some time.

One of the largest perks of smartphone cameras is their ability to instantly share photos and videos via text message or on social media. Of the billions of photos taken per day, roughly 1.8 billion are shared on social networks, up from 500 million in just 2013. Shockingly, a mere 93 million of the photos posted online are selfies.

By shrinking the size of the camera and making it easier than ever before to take either amateur or professional-quality photos, the advent of the digital camera has heralded a new age of mass photography. In addition to the powerful cameras on new models, smartphones give users the ability to instantly edit their photos, upload them to social networks as well as store them on a hard drive or in the cloud.

Though the inclusion of advanced digital cameras on smartphones has spelled doom for the previously popular “point-and-shoot” digital camera, smartphone cameras have served as a gateway to photography for millions.

The latest in line of elite flagship smartphones from LG, the G4 is equipped with a number of cutting edge features that make it well positioned to be the most popular LG smartphone ever.

Boasting a remarkable 16mp camera, G4 makes full use of its detailed display and instinctive operation to help users take professional-quality photographs. Expertly tailored to meet the needs of modern consumers, the user-friendly G4 is the perfect phone for today’s mobile photographers.

For the longest time, mobile cameras have lagged far behind more advanced digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) in their ability to capture photographs when there is little natural light. The G4’s camera lens boasts an aperture value of F1.8, making it the brightest smartphone lens on the market and capable of going toe-to-toe with lens used by professionals.

Apart from F/1.8 aperture lens, there are a number of other features that help to set the G4 apart from competition. For instance, in manual mode, the photographer can customize the level of white balance, ISO, shutter speed, manual focus and exposure compensation. When placed in the hands of an expert, these features allow the G4 to shoot capture striking images. Manual mode also gives photographers the ability to select RAW or JPEG as the format for their files.

Additionally, unlike other mobile cameras, retaining high color accuracy is not a problem with the G4 thanks to its advanced color spectrum sensor. If the user is taking a photograph in a dark environment (such as night or in a deep forest) most mobile cams struggle to find the correct color levels because they are unable to distinguish between environments. But the G4’s sensor ensures that its photos always look great regardless of the conditions.

Lastly LG G4’s front-facing camera is comparable to the primary cameras of its main competitors. At 8.0 megapixels it is equal to the iPhone 6’s primary camera and 3MP stronger than Galaxy S6’s. But on top of simply having a back camera quality for front camera shots, selfies are now easier thanks to a user-friendly feature called gesture shot.

AIRBNB CEO BRIAN CHESKY ATTENDS GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURIAL SUMMIT IN NAIROBI WITH PRESIDENTS OBAMA AND KENYATTA

Airbnb, the world’s leading community-driven hospitality company, announced that its CEO, Brian Chesky attended GES 2015 this weekend where he meet with entrepreneurs from around the world and explored the sharing economy’s impact and expansion, particularly on the African continent - which represents a huge opportunity for the company. In the last twelve months alone, Airbnb has more than doubled in size in Africa.

“The spirit of entrepreneurialism is a common thread that unites the Airbnb community across the globe,” said Brian Chesky. “I’m thrilled to meet so many entrepreneurs here at GES who will build and grow this community throughout Africa. And I’m excited to see how Airbnb will empower people across the continent to make extra income while providing travellers with a truly authentic experience.”

As a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE), Brian Chesky joins a group of US business leaders committed to helping to develop the next generation of entrepreneurs around the world. At the GES 2015, he will participate in a roundtable alongside other PAGE members and US Administration officials including US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. He will also participate in a discussion with Steve Case on “Getting Ready for Growth,” and lead a Challenge Hack on the sharing economy.

Airbnb will also sponsor prizes for the winners of the GES Youth and Women Spark the Fire Pitch Competition, providing winners of the African Impact, Top Women-Owned African Business, and other winners with Airbnb travel accommodations to support historically marginalized communities on their entrepreneurial journey.

As a PAGE, Chesky’s signature initiative has been supporting the growth of entrepreneurship in Cuba, where Airbnb launched in April and which has already become its fastest growing market.

Many of the steps taken in Cuba to overcome challenges around internet literacy and mobile payment infrastructure will provide important lessons for Airbnb’s growth in Africa. This week’s trip, which includes a visit to the iHub incubator in Nairobi, is also an opportunity to hear from local entrepreneurs, and understand the opportunities and challenges facing Airbnb and other sharing economy leaders.

In the wake of strong successes in key markets around the world, Airbnb plans to significantly grow its business in Africa, where the company has already seen some impressive growth. In just the last year:

●      The number of listings in Africa has more than doubled

●      The number of people staying in Airbnb listings in the region has increased by 145%,

●      The number of Africans using Airbnb to travel has increased by 139%

To help spur additional growth, Airbnb has also appointed Nicola D’Elia as General Manager for Middle East & Africa. Previously, Nicola was responsible for Facebook’s growth and partnerships in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. D’Elia will build out a team to accelerate Airbnb’s growth in the region.

In Kenya itself, there are currently over 1,400 listings available to book through Airbnb with the greatest concentration in Nairobi (788). Kenyans are also embracing Airbnb as a way of traveling, with the number of Kenyan guests using Airbnb tripling in the last 12 months.

NIC Bank appoints new Directors for Investment Banking and Retail Banking

Investment Banking Director - Jerry

Listed lender NIC Bank Limited has appointed Mr. Jerry Simu into the newly created position of Director of Investment Banking (subject to regulatory approval). Mr. Simu will be responsible for both the investment banking business under NIC Capital and the stock brokerage business under NIC Securities. He will also be charged with expanding the product set available to a growing set of corporate clients.
Mr. Simu, who joins the Bank’s Executive Committee, brings on board 16 years of extensive experience in Investment Banking. Prior to this appointment, he held various senior management positions at HSBC where his last position was Managing Director, Sub Sahara Africa and Head of Africa Representative Offices.

The Bank has also appointed Robert Kibaara as the Director Retail Banking. Mr Kibaara brings on board 21 years of extensive banking experience having held various senior management positions with Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and National Bank of Kenya.

NIC Bank Group Managing Director John Gachora announced the new appointments noting the directors bring on board extensive leadership experience and background to strengthen the banks executive team as well as help drive the banks growth strategy especially in investment and retail banking.

“We have seen a rising appetite in the market for investment banking services, especially capital raising and we want to ensure we are well placed to dominate this business. Furthermore a number of our corporate clients are eager to tap into an expanded product offering,” he said. “Bringing the two subsidiaries under one department the bank could leverage on the synergies between the two and expand product offering to cater for the growing corporate customer base.”

Mr. Simu holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the United States International University (USIU), a MSc. in Corporate Finance from University of Salford, UK, and MSc. International Corporate Finance from University of Reading.

While Mr. Kibaara holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Banking from the University of Sunderland in the UK, a graduate diploma in Marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing in UK and is currently pursuing a Masters of Business Administration degree in Edinburgh Business School.

Director Retail Banking - Robert Kibaara

China Road and Bridge Corporation launches railway technology training centre

China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has launched a railway technology training facility in Voi to improve the capacity of its Kenyan employees. The CRBC Technology Transfer Competence Training Centre will be used to equip Kenyans already engaged in the construction of the railway with new skills required for the Standard Gauge Railway project.
The Centre will be located at the SGR Section 2 campsite in Voi. The employees trained at the centre will be among key personnel in the construction of the new railway. Additionally, the employees will come in handy in sustainably running the new railway after its completed and handed over to Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC).
“The training programme is one of a kind and local employees should take great advantage as they will be the sole beneficiaries of this programme,” said Taita-Taveta County Governor Eng. John Mruttu. “The expertise acquired here will fully equip you the employees to seek even greater positions for other up-coming mega projects not just the SGR.”
Mr. Han Feng Deputy SGR Project Manager of the SGR Section 2 said the the technology centre will aim at providing a comprehensive path for technology transfer, improve local technical level as well maintain skilled manpower for the SGR project.
The first phase of the programme will take three months and Section 2 is expected to train about 200-300 engineers, technicians and artisans in the field of railway construction and maintenance. The number is expected to rise with time...via www.MyGOV.go.ke

Mbai Caves officially opened

On 6th July 2015, the Mbai Caves at Paradise Lost were officially opened to the world by Mrs. Mukami Kimathi wife of the great freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi, in the presence of H.E. William Kabogo 1st Governor of Kiambu County. In her keynote address, Mrs. Mukami narrated her MauMau days spent in the Mbai Caves before the Kenyan Independence. She expressed great love to Kenya as she reiterated to the youth to seek success for a better future.
Paradise Lost has partnered with Kenya Wildlife Service, Ministry of Education and National Museum of Kenya to preserve the Mbai caves and also offer an educational experience to schools, colleges, universities and other institutions.
Visit Paradise Lost and have fun as you learn.

Tuesday 28 July 2015

Wrigley and Mars Inspire African Entrepreneurs at Summit Opened by Barack Obama

Wrigley, a subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated, has been sharing its experience with local entrepreneurs at the sixth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), which was opened by U.S. President Barack Obama in Kenya on Sunday.
The event comes just a few months after Wrigley broke ground for a new $63 million manufacturing plant in Kenya, boosting its business in Africa in response to increased demand in the market.
Daniel Omosa, General Manager of Wrigley East Africa, took part in a panel discussion, which focused on how innovation can drive connections with consumers. Wrigley has worked directly with a new generation of African entrepreneurs through its accelerator initiative, the Maua program. Developed in partnership with Mars Catalyst, Maua aims to expand the reach of the Wrigley business by creating a large network of micro-entrepreneurs and micro-distributors.
Daniel Omosa commented: “The GES is a unique opportunity to join together with experts and entrepreneurs to discuss, learn and inspire. It is especially important that the Summit has taken place for the first time in Sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting the growing culture of entrepreneurship we are seeing in Africa and that we committed to supporting.”
An initiative of the US government, the GES offers a platform for budding entrepreneurs to connect with each other, potential investors, international organizations and governments looking to support them. This year, the Government of Kenya, led by the Office of the President and the Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development, hosted the Summit, which attracted more than 1,000 delegates from across the globe.
About the GES
The GES was initiated in 2010 to foster entrepreneurship around the world, when the U.S. hosted the first Summit in Washington, D.C. Since then, the summit has expanded into a global event and has been hosted by the governments of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Morocco.
About Mars, Incorporated
Mars, Incorporated is a private, family-owned business with more than a century of history and some of the best-loved brands in the world including M&M’S®, PEDIGREE®, DOUBLEMINT® and UNCLE BEN’S®. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars has more than $33 billion in sales from six diverse business segments: Petcare, Chocolate, Wrigley, Food, Drinks and Symbioscience. More than 75,000 Associates across 73 countries are united by the company’s Five Principles: Quality, Efficiency, Responsibility, Mutuality and Freedom and strive every day to create relationships with stakeholders that deliver growth we are proud of as a company.
For more information about Mars, Incorporated, please visit www.mars.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Three simple tips for improving your camera phone photos

Gone are the days when you had to walk around with a bulky camera to capture those ‘Kodak moments’. Thanks to convergence, camera phones have become the fastest growing division of the digital camera market. However, several arguments have been put forward claiming that the quality of the photos taken using these smartphone cameras could never really match up to that of a good old camera. This might partially be as a result of the lower quality cameras on some of the smartphones in the market. It is however possible to achieve breath-taking snaps using a camera phone. Following are 5 tips on how to achieve those ‘real camera’ shots.

1. Get Close

The closer you are to an object, the more control you have over the lighting. You are also able to get a clearer and sharper picture, especially with a phone like the LG G4. This device has an f/1.8 aperture lens which allows for more light to hit the sensor which results in more detailed shots, even in darker environments. The G4 also flaunts a colour spectrum sensor that allows users to capture more accurate colours and nail the white balance, which goes hand in hand with the manual mode feature.

2 Crop, Don't Zoom

You would definitely be doing yourself some justice if you could just pretend that the zoom function on the smartphone does not exist. This is because zooming in noticeably reduces the quality of the image making it ugly, fast. This is because the camera is trying to infer details of what the picture is supposed to look like. Cropping is better alternative because you are sampling pixel information that is already captured and recorded.

Most smartphones have 8-megapixels of resolution and sometimes more on the primary camera. That means you can crop considerably and still have plenty of resolution left for display on the web should you choose to share the photos online. The same goes for selfies, especially when using a camera phone like the G4 that has an 8MP front-facing camera.

3. Edit, Don't Filter

In this age of ‘the gram’, we all feel the need to paint our pictures with the pre-determined filters available on photo editing applications. This is the last thing you should do if you want your images to look unique. These filters are literally used by millions of people across the world and so there is nothing exceptional about such photos. Phones like the Nokia and LG have Additionally, do not add fake blur. Granted, it sometimes is hard to achieve depth of field with a smartphone camera, but applying a uniform blur makes the image look unnatural. If you want the viewer to focus on one specific thing, make it the central object in the frame, making it appear of a more professional quality.

It is with these choices that you begin to create your own style, or even extend the style you've already developed outside of your smartphone. It's a heck of a lot more effective than picking your favourite Amaro filter and slapping it on every photo.

Amateur or professional-quality photographs, LG G4 your best bet

The increased availability and heightened utility of smartphone-based cameras has allowed for more people than ever to use photography to express themselves.

Most people now carry advanced digital cameras with them wherever they go, and the power of these devices far outstrips what most sophisticated cameras of the past were capable of offering.

The latest in line of elite flagship smartphones from LG, the G4 is equipped with a number of cutting edge features that make it well positioned to be the most popular LG smartphone ever.

LG Manual Mode: Take Control of your Photos

What is manual mode? When you’re taking a picture with your phone (or dedicated camera), there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that can intimidate casual users, and automatic mode uses algorithms to tweak the settings of the camera to best suit your shooting scenario so you don’t have to. It finds the most prominent subject and focuses in on it, often blurring the rest of the background and/or foreground. It can lower the shutter speed to take in more light when you’re in a dimly lit room. It adjusts your white balance to accommodate for different shades and color tones. But ultimately, auto settings can only so much, and to take full control over your photos it’s helpful to switch to manual mode, where you tweak these settings.
A Camera Unlike Any Other – Though LG’s has created a smartphone that is widely considered the best in the new generation of smartphones. LG G4 provides the most elaborate suite of manual controls on an Android smartphone camera to full manual control of ISO, focus, white balance and shutter speed
Manual – Part of the reason the G4’s camera is superior to its competitors is that amount of control it gives to the photographer. In manual mode, the photographer can customize the level of White Balance, ISO, Shutter Speed, Manual Focus and exposure compensation. When placed in the hands of an expert, these features allow the G4 to shoot capture striking images. Manual mode also gives photographers the ability to select RAW or JPEG as the format for their files.
The specs tell us it’s a 16MP sensor with an f/1.8 aperture lens and a 1/2.6-inch sensor size, optically stabilized across three axes to correct for up to two degrees of motion and fitted out with a Color Spectrum Sensor for improved white balance, among other things.
One other thing that LG has done right is include a slew of manual controls (using the new camera2 API) built into the camera app. They've put them behind a simple — but effective — interface and made them accessible to anyone, pro and amateur alike. While many of us are used to fiddling with things like exposure settings and white balance, it really is something for the novice to try, too.
Unlike other 3rd party camera apps that feature manual setting adjustments, the LG G4 does a MUCH better job helping users adjust to varying levels of exposure simulation. As settings such as ISO or Shutter Speed are adjusted, the images on the screen will get lighter or darker to give users an accurate preview of their photograph. In addition, LG has included a histogram and light meter in the top left corner of the camera app to further assist the user when customizing shots in manual mode.

Thursday 2 July 2015

Africa Tech Challenge (ATC) Second Season set to commence with an introduction of a Mobile App Challenge

China’s AVIC International Holding Corporation in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is back with the second season of their youth empowerment project, Africa Tech Challenge. The first season was in form of a technical challenge that saw the three most outstanding participants walk away with full master’s degree scholarships in the most prestigious engineering schools in China as well as cash prizes of $1500, $1200 and $900 for the top three teams. The most coveted award was the top two teams (Kabete TTI and Nyeri TTI) signed a commercial contract worth $100,000 to go into local manufacturing of spare parts. In a bid to encourage more youth to take up and utilize their technical and innovative skills, ATC Season Two is back and bigger than ever. There will be two competitions (Technical Challenge and Mobile App Challenge) with cash prizes amounting to 10,000 $ for the Technical Challenge’s top six teams and 8000$ as cash prize for the top three individual winners of the Mobile App Challenge. Our ATC objectives are to empower the youth by upgrading their technical & Information Technology skills to high professional skills that will enable them to get internships and jobs, as we decrease the huge unemployment rate facing Kenyans. Our other objectives are to cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurship and facilitate self-employment among the youth. This will be achieved by the intense training that we will provide in both competitions.

In order to push the youth empowerment agenda, cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship and facilitate self-employment among the Kenyan youth, we encourage the participants to enhance their creativity through developing a Mobile Application that meets a specific criteria in this year’s new competition, the Mobile Application Challenge. It targets the recent graduates and fourth year students with IT backgrounds. Once it’s completed, the Mobile Application will be supervised by a panel of experts to determine the three best applications. The top three winners get a chance to walk away US $5,000, US $2,000 and US $1,000 respectively. The overall winner will also get a six month incubation period with GearBox of i-Hub, one of ATC’s partners. This year’s Mobile Challenge will be taking place at Kenya Technical Teachers College (KTTC) in Nairobi. Fifty applicants will be chosen and they will start the contest on 27^th July at KTTC which will be in the form of training+Hackathlon (Elimination competition) that will last for two weeks, until August 8^th. Applicants are required to apply online via our website, avicatc.org

The second season of the Technical Challenge will begin with an intensive nationwide recruitment process of teams from different technical training institutes and universities around the country undergoing a rigorous training from the Chinese experts on how to use raw materials and machines as well as gaining the best techniques to use during the competition. Marks will then be awarded on skill, accuracy and precision, cost of production and quantity of raw materials used.

Training commences on 27^th July-1^st August 2015, followed by four regional competitions from 3^rd August to 7^th August. There will be twelve finalists who will proceed to Shamberere Technical Training Institution in Kakamega, for final training from 10^th August-29^th August and the final competition will be held at the same school on 30^th- 31^st August. The six winning teams will be awarded with a cash prize and the three most outstanding participants with scholarships to study in the most prestigious Engineering Universities in China.

During the competition, the participants will also have the opportunity to interact with invited business leaders during the ATC Talks. These talks are meant to guide and mentor the participants and will feature different CEO's, Entrepreneurs, Financial Advisers and Business Leaders.