2012 was a phenomenal year for Microsoft. We released many new products, and most importantly we re-imagined Windows – the most popular operating system ever. We also released Windows Phone 8 which is expected by analysts to have the highest growth rate in the coming four years.

With the start of the New Year, one of our resolutions is to keep our commitment towards the developer community in Africa. And with the new era of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 stores, we decided to revive Mobile Monday to show Kenyan developers how to build the best apps for the fastest growing app store which is Windows Phone 8.

However, the story doesn’t end here because Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps have a lot of similarities and a lot of shared code base. Therefore, we will give you a glimpse into how easy it is to build Windows 8 apps too. We will also have a cool demo of Kinect,  which has changed the way people play games and experience entertainment

Join us on Monday, 21st of January from 6 – 8 pm at the iHub in a journey of development for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, along with announcements for startups and students plus a quick look at Kinect.

Register now - the seats are limited.

See you on Monday January 21st!  You can also keep in touch with us through the following channels;

Twitter: @microsoftafrica and @AfricaApps

Facebook Groups
Microsoft DPE Nigeria
Microsoft Developer Evangelism – East and Southern Africa
AfricaApps

Blog: AfricaApps Blog

2012 INNOVATION CHALLENGES

ARE YOU A 21ST CENTURY PROBLEM-SOLVER?

To mark the centennial of The Rockefeller Foundation, we are seeking the knowledge and innovative ideas that will solve problems for the next 100 years.

In the face of these 21st century realities, achieving the Foundation’s overall goal to build resilience and more equitable growth, especially for poor or vulnerable people, relies in part on our commitment to a continuing search for, and openness to, new ideas and new ways of building solutions to these complex crises.

As many as 9 out of 15 finalists will be selected by the Foundation to apply for up to $100,000 in grant support to further develop or implement their ideas.

ENTER BY MAY 25, 2012

For more info go to: http://centennial.rockefellerfoundation.org/challenge

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!
Pivot East regional mobile apps. developer competition which will culminate in a pitching conference on 5th and 6th June 2012. The competition has five categories with each having 5 finalists pitching to a rich audience of investors, development partners, telecoms operators and other industry players from East Africa and across the globe. The registration process for developers and mobile entrepreneurs to take part as contestants is now open.
The competition also gives companies the opportunity to showcase their applications to Operators, Venture Capital Community, Angel Investors and the ICT community at large, and at the same time the chance win prize money for their companies and applications.
The eligibility criteria for this year’s competition are laid out here and we have answered some of the questions that have cropped in this section in an effort to make it more interactive.
The Categories are;

1. Financial services category
2. Utilities category
3. Business and Resource Management Category
4. Entertainment Category
5. Mobile Society Category

Eligible applications and services may use one or a combination of the following mobile applications technologies:-

• SMS
• USSD
• Device native mobile apps
• Mobile Web
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Some Important Dates:

• 31st March 2012 – Submission Deadline
• 17th April 2012 - Finalists announced
• 5th – 6th June 2012 – Competition Days

Log onto: www.pivoteast.com
Follow us on Twitter: @pivoteast
Find us on facebook : www.facebook.com/Pivoteast

Join us on the 30th of January at the iHub for our first MOMO meet up of 2012. We will be having a presentation by Dr. Zhen Liu, Head of Nokia Research Centre Growth Economies Lab, which has research teams in Beijing, Shenzhen, Bangalore and Nairobi.

About Dr.Zhen

Before joining Nokia, Zhen was with IBM T. J. Watson Research Center and served as the manager of System Analysis and Optimization group, and the senior manager of the Next Generation Distributed Systems department, and was a master inventor at IBM. Prior to this experience, Zhen worked in Orange Labs (formerly France Telecom R&D) as a Research Associate, and in INRIA (the French national research center on information and automation), first as a Researcher, then became a Research Director.

Continuing in the tradition of executing one of the best if not the best mobile tech events in East Africa, the AllAmber team led by Matthew Dawes are back with Mobile Web East Africa (MWEA) 2012 which will be held on February 22-23rd at the prestigious Southern Sun-May Fair hotel. I had the pleasure of attending and participating in a panel at the first MWEA event back in  2010, and this event is one you cannot afford to miss. This year MWEA takes at a notch higher with a speaker lineup that is worth it’s weight in Gold. The speaker line up includes:

• Emma Kaye, CEO, Bozza
• Paul Kukubo, CEO, Kenya ICT Board
• John Waibochi, CEO, Virtual City
• Mark Kaigwa, Partner, Afrinnovator
• Joseph Sevilla, Director, @iLabAfrica
• Judith Owigar, President, Akirachix
• Paul Stemmet, COO, World of Avatar
• Neil Ahlsten, New Business Development – Africa, Google

This is one of the most dynamic speaker lineup we’ve seen in a long time, and is sure to keep the attendees well informed on the mobile industry not only in Kenya but in Africa as a general. Looking for inspiration to start that mobile business in Africa? then you want to listen to John Waibochi of Virtual City  winners of the Nokia Grand Challenge Competition, wondering how small is the new big? Judith Owigar , President of Akirachix and winner of Anita Borg award,  will tell you how a simple idea can became a community changer. In short this is an event you don’t want to miss.

For more information on how to register and attend the event go to http://www.mobileeastafrica.com/wp/registration/

Android developers in Kenya, here’s your chance to take some high quality code courtesy of Amazon and hack up some interesting apps for the local market. Amazon have just announced that the Kindle Fire source code is available for download. Go here http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200203720

FYI it’s 809MB so patience is a virtue with a lot of wait

Smile it’s Mobile Monday!!

After a 2 month break, Mobile Monday is back. Join us on the 21st of November at the iHub as we network with fellow mobile developers, and entrepreneurs. Our speaker will be:

• Mbugua Njihia–  Symbiotic Media CEO will be talking about Presentation Skills: How to sell your app
• Planet Rackus-  Ma3Racer Game

Excellent opportunity to network with other mobile developers,entrepreneurs and enthusiasts. If you’ve registered before for other events please go ahead and register again .If you’d like to be present during the meet up in December please send us an email at talk@mobilemonday.co.ke and we will set up a slot for you.

For more information check out:

twitter: twitter.com/mobilemondayke
facebook: facebook.com/mobilemondayke

On the 21st of November, we will be having Mbugua Njihia talking about “How to sell your app”. Check out his presentation at Demo Pit and get some few pointers:

As part of our focus on reaching the community more effectively we are on the look out for passionate people who can join our website team and help us push out relevant articles to the community. If you have an existing blog and would like to have your article cross posted please feel free to hit us up on email at talk@mobilemonday.co.ke or on twitter @mobilemondayke, for those of you who just want to post articles and join the team also ping us.