Now here’s a cool product! No need to invest thousands of rands to install a solar geyser, simply get it on a “contract” of sorts by having the investment paid off monthly as part of your Cape Town rates bill. Plus – you get a subsidy applied automatically.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be available just yet! Watch this space!
Ever wanted to know how to save a website so that you can read it later on your tablet or mobile device? Of course, you could try to do it with bookmarks, but for whatever reason, synchronising bookmarks across multiple devices still seems to be “hard” to do!
Also, my important bookmarks for sites I frequently access – Email, Calendar, Trello, CapsuleCRM, JIRA – start getting diluted by bookmarks for pages I really only want to read once.
Enter Pocket.
With Pocket, it’s easy to save something in order to “Read it Later”. In my case, I mostly follow links from my Macbook but often am not able to read longer articles while at work.
With Pocket, I simply install an icon for Chrome that looks like this:
When I click on it, Pocket immediately saves it “for later” and displays a confirmation message:
I installed the Pocket app on my Galaxy Note, and when I open it, I can now see the article above synchronized to my phone!
(Caveat: Pocket cannot open PDFs, but will open the file in a browser instead)
Another great feature of Pocket is that it integrates with Android’s “Share” function. I love using stats in presentations I give, so if I see a stat I’d like to keep, I can add it to Pocket and even tag it!
From the menu, I choose “Share This”
And then simply “Add to Pocket”
I came up with an idea for enabling WiFi sharing using mobile apps, rather than special routers (ala Skyrove or Fon)
I tried to raise capital from the Shuttleworth Foundation, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful. (They didn’t think it was possible… and they may be right! But then, entrepreneurs do need to have a healthy disregard for the impossible)
At some point, I might get back on the WiFi horse, but in the meantime, I’m focusing my energies on the education sector. This website will become a “Playground” of sorts, where I’ll test out various web technologies while I learn new skills. I’ll endeavour to publish some of the results and findings and in this way I hope make life a little bit easier for others!
Right now, I’m frantically learning the ins & outs of DFP for Small Business, a behemoth of complexity with extremely poor documentation. It’s also hard to troubleshoot without understanding its sister app: DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA). Unfortunately, there’s no quick & easy “Trial version” you can play with to try and see how DFA and DFP work together.
Welcome to the new ubio! I hope I can help.
Henk
After plenty of work on making a video about Ubio, I’ve finally managed to get in my application for a Fellowship at the Shuttleworth Foundation.
I had to send in my CV, a 5-minute video about my ideas and answer 4 questions:
If you have a great idea that needs funding, have a look at The Shuttleworth Foundation, beautifully explained in the video below.
(The video is by BlinkTower, a Cape Town based Explainer company)
Best, henk
Wow! First post on brand new website of brand new social startup! So much pressure! 
Please bear with me while I get the site up & humming.
In the meantime, I’m posting updates to ubio’s Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/ubioco
