Essays, deep dives, and field notes by Abou Kone, across Medium, Substack, dev.to, and the abou-kone.com archive.https://abou-kone.com/https://dev.to/devakone/i-built-a-personality-test-for-vibe-coding-11cfhttps://dev.to/devakone/i-built-a-personality-test-for-vibe-coding-11cfVibe Coding Profiler reads Git metadata to surface how a developer approaches AI-assisted coding across six behavioral dimensions.Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://medium.com/@abookone/my-review-of-ai-coding-ides-real-world-impressions-f0fa69c9e7e7https://medium.com/@abookone/my-review-of-ai-coding-ides-real-world-impressions-f0fa69c9e7e7Hands-on take on Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and friends — what actually fits a regulated production stack.Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://aboukone.substack.com/p/how-procrastinating-helped-me-shiphttps://aboukone.substack.com/p/how-procrastinating-helped-me-shipThe story behind shipping Sabati: an AI-assisted writing app built around prompts, not auto-completion, born of a procrastination habit.Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://medium.com/@abookone/coding-with-ai-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1fd666f19865https://medium.com/@abookone/coding-with-ai-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1fd666f19865Where AI-assisted coding accelerates a senior engineer, where it backfires, and where it just looks impressive in demos.Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://medium.com/@abookone/thoughts-and-lessons-from-interviewing-for-an-engineering-leadership-role-in-late-2024-404c9af3ad30https://medium.com/@abookone/thoughts-and-lessons-from-interviewing-for-an-engineering-leadership-role-in-late-2024-404c9af3ad30Field notes from a senior engineering-leadership job search: signal vs. noise, what changed in the last cycle, what to push back on.Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/angular-testability-dealing-with-selenium-or-protractor-timeouts/https://abou-kone.com/archive/angular-testability-dealing-with-selenium-or-protractor-timeouts/Running automated integration tests is a crucial element for any serious CI/CD pipeline and within our company, our QA uses Selenium for that purpose. Angular offers Protractor for that purpose, but to each artisan his tool, our Angular apps are just part of a suite that include non Angular apps and it’s easier for the team to test them all using Selenium.Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/a-day-in-the-life-how-a-frontend-developer-solves-a-simple-bug/https://abou-kone.com/archive/a-day-in-the-life-how-a-frontend-developer-solves-a-simple-bug/I have been working lately with junior front end developers, as well as mentoring aspiring developers and one of the questions that they ask me is how to become a better/senior developer. That’s a question that is hard for me to answer quantitatively but the one quality that I know about senior developers is their […]Mon, 24 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/autoplaying-inline-videos-on-iphone-ios-10-using-angular/https://abou-kone.com/archive/autoplaying-inline-videos-on-iphone-ios-10-using-angular/Starting with iOS 10, Safari on mobile (iPhone and iPad) started allowing developers to autoplay videos inline provided the video you are trying to play meets certain conditions. Before that, your video would not auto play inline, and when it would play, it would play full screen only. These changes were in place to prevent […]Mon, 21 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/integrating-opencv-js-with-an-angular-application/https://abou-kone.com/archive/integrating-opencv-js-with-an-angular-application/OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision Library) is an open source computer vision and machine learning software library. It was originally written in C++ and has since been ported to most other major languages and platforms and most recently, with the boost provided by Web Assembly, it has finally crossed into the Javascript world. OpenCV.js is […]Sun, 23 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/going-mobile-wrapping-an-existing-web-application-in-cordovaphonegap/https://abou-kone.com/archive/going-mobile-wrapping-an-existing-web-application-in-cordovaphonegap/Going Mobile: Wrapping an existing web application in Cordova/Phonegap There are many choices to build mobile applications, from native to the growing popularity of hybrid development, with everything in between. In all of these cases, as a developer you would be writing a brand new mobile application from scratch with the ultimate goal of deploying […]Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/understanding-the-developer-ecosystem-in-west-africa-part-ii/https://abou-kone.com/archive/understanding-the-developer-ecosystem-in-west-africa-part-ii/Disclaimer: This is an opinion based on my experience, observations and interactions in the developer ecosystem in West Africa, more specifically Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire. In my previous post I talked in general terms about some of the issues affecting the developer ecosystem in West Africa with a promise to dwell more into the details in a subsequent […]Fri, 21 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/understanding-the-developer-ecosystem-in-west-africa-part-i/https://abou-kone.com/archive/understanding-the-developer-ecosystem-in-west-africa-part-i/Disclaimer: I don’t pretend to give scientific result based on accurate polling or any kind of scientific method (outside of observation). This is just a summary of my observations so treat it as what it is meant to, an opinion based on my interactions and experience. Furthermore as my experience extends to Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire […]Sat, 15 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/discussing-coders4africa-and-its-cote-divoire-chapter-opening/https://abou-kone.com/archive/discussing-coders4africa-and-its-cote-divoire-chapter-opening/Tue, 29 Jul 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/10-tips-for-designing-mobile-apis/https://abou-kone.com/archive/10-tips-for-designing-mobile-apis/10 Tips for Designing Mobile APIs – http://pulse.me/s/jVMoDTue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-startups-raise-1-million-in-crowdfunding-effort/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-startups-raise-1-million-in-crowdfunding-effort/African tech startups raise $1 million in crowdfunding effort – http://pulse.me/s/jLEmhSun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-youtube-use-grows-90-per-cent/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-youtube-use-grows-90-per-cent/African YouTube use grows 90 per cent – http://pulse.me/s/jzrg1Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/interview-the-man-behind-nigerias-answer-to-the-ipad/https://abou-kone.com/archive/interview-the-man-behind-nigerias-answer-to-the-ipad/Interview: The man behind Nigeria’s answer to the iPad – http://pulse.me/s/jyYBrFri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-on-the-rise/https://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-on-the-rise/Africa on the Rise – http://pulse.me/s/fYemSTue, 11 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-gathering-2012-the-wrap-up/https://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-gathering-2012-the-wrap-up/Africa Gathering 2012 was held this year at the ICC Auditorium on the campus of Georgetown University and was hosted by the African Society of Georgetown. . The lineup was excellent as always but unfortunately due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy, some of the speakers could not make it to the podium physically but […]Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-gathering-2013-in-washington-dc/https://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-gathering-2013-in-washington-dc/It’s back in DC this year for the 2013 edition and it’s an event you don’t want to miss if you are interested in keeping up with what’s hot and relevant about the emerging Africa; I am talking about Africa Gathering 2013. I will be there for sure, to cover the event, just as I […]Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-august-12th-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-august-12th-2012/As usual don’t forget to check out the podcast of the African Tech Weekly over at Coders4Africa Radio. We are now available on iTunes and soon in the Zune store. If you are doing something interesting in technology in Africa and you want the world to know about it, reach out! What is Google’s game […]Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-august-5th-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-august-5th-2012/Here are your tidbits for this week.Enjoy! VC4Africa does a feature on Maliyo Games, an interesting company based in Nigeria who produces games based on the “representation of the everyday lives and experiences of Africans”. I am curious to see how it turns out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILq099kbgk A good write up on what VCs are for all […]Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-july-29th-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-july-29th-2012/So what’s new in African Tech News? A bunch of interesting tidbits as usual. But before that, I need you to take some time and head over to Start Some Good and support the 30 Coders Campaign we are currently running to sponsor the training of 33 African software developers. Also don’t forget to tune […]Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-july-22nd-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-july-22nd-2012/Welcome back to another edition! Don’t forget that we still need your help with training the next batch of African Software Engineers. And in Sunday’s African Tech Weekly, we will be interviewing Raindolf Owusu, creator of the Anansi Operating System, the first African Operating System. My story of the week: . Raindolf Owusu is a […]Sat, 21 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-july-15th/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-july-15th/On this week’s African Tech Weekly show we will be discussing the exciting new Coders4Africa social campaign aimed at training 30 African programmers from September to December 2012, following a ‘real life project training model’, 30 African coders will create 5 mobile and web solutions that will impact their communities. Please participate and help make […]Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-july-8th-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-july-8th-2012/The sister program to the African Tech News Tidbits is now live. The African Tech Weekly on Coders4Africa Radio will, as previously announced be broadcast every Sunday at 1:00PM East/17:00GMT from Koun Fayah Koun Studios in Laurel MD. We feature the movers and shakers of the African Tech world, those you have heard about and […]Sun, 08 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-june-28th-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-june-28th-2012/As some of you may already know, last week’s edition of the Coders4Africa Radio show was cancelled due to a quite ironic power outage at the studio in Maryland but everything is back on track so make sure to tune in this Sunday July 1st at 1:00PM Eastern, 17:00 GMT for the show, hosted by […]Thu, 28 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-june-20th-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-june-20th-2012/This week’s African tech news are again full of interesting tidbits. Don’t forget to join me on Sunday June 24th for the first edition of Technofrique on Coders4Africa Radio. I will be presenting the Coders4Africa founding team as well as some of the members from around the continent. Ghana: TopApps is an innovative applications exhibition […]Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-june-13th-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-june-13th-2012/Here are your African Tech News Tidbits for this week. You can follow them on Twitter using #atntidbits and you will soon find them in Audio version on the Coders4AfricaRadio show starting June 24th 2012. Ghana’s MEST Incubator is a program to watch. In this TechCrunch article, we learn about how “MEST is the worlds […]Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/the-first-people-using-your-product-are-an-amazing-breed/https://abou-kone.com/archive/the-first-people-using-your-product-are-an-amazing-breed/The first people using your product are an amazing breed – http://pulse.me/s/a8S0lSun, 10 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/the-african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-june-7th/https://abou-kone.com/archive/the-african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-june-7th/How are we all doing? Here are your ATN Tidbits for this week. By the way, I hope to count you as one of our listeners in my new weekly radio show at Coders4Africa Radio starting June 24th 2012. We will be discussing of course your weekly ATN Tidbits, discovering Coders4Africa and getting to know […]Sat, 09 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-may-30th/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-may-30th/It’s been a month since the last iteration so there is a lot to go over. Let’s not then waste time: This right here is absolutely cool, straight: Teaching algorithms through kente cloth: a case for Culturally-Situated Educational Software Upcoming in December 2012 in Cote d’Ivoire, The WHUB: It’s a yearly conference and exhibition hosted […]Tue, 29 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/the-top-5-startup-trends-in-africa/https://abou-kone.com/archive/the-top-5-startup-trends-in-africa/From VC4Africa, an interesting look at the top 5 startup trends in Africa – http://pulse.me/s/9GHO5Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-developing-its-first-supercomputer-outside-south-africa/https://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-developing-its-first-supercomputer-outside-south-africa/Africa developing its first supercomputer outside South Africa – http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/1AzBcz59CMw/Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/ernst-youngs-west-africa-entrepreneur-awards-opens-for-local-ghanaians-entrepreneurs-business/https://abou-kone.com/archive/ernst-youngs-west-africa-entrepreneur-awards-opens-for-local-ghanaians-entrepreneurs-business/http://business.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201205/87173.phpThu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/the-africa-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-april-25th/https://abou-kone.com/archive/the-africa-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-april-25th/Here is what has been happening in the world of African Tech this week: An interview with Jason Njoku, founder of IrokoTV, known as the “netflix of Africa”. Some good insight in a young business that makes sense because the demand is there on it. On the challenges of growth in Africa, this particular nugget […]Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-april-17th/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-april-17th/A lot happening and since my schedule cleared up a bit, let’s do a quick round of what’s been happening in the world of AfricaTech. First, this is a must read by Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, titled “Will Europe Underdevelop Africa Again?“, on the inequities of the new Economic Partnership Agreements or EPAs being negotiated […]Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/kenyan-startups-as-real-businesses-or-social-impact-projects/https://abou-kone.com/archive/kenyan-startups-as-real-businesses-or-social-impact-projects/In an interesting reflection, Dinfin Mulupi over at HowWeMadeItInAfrica brings up a worry from investors in Kenya that the emphasis on social impact technology is distracting entrepreneurs from building real tech businesses. That’s a good question to ask I believe, and legitimate from an investor point of view. As argued by Nikolai Barnwell of 88mph, […]Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-april-10th/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-april-10th/Back for another session of ATNT, and I got some good reads for you. This week the topics covered include disruptive technology in an African context, startups raising funds, hackathons, and a robbery/kidnapping victime saved by Twitter, yes you can believe it! The always-on-point Will Mutua at AfricanBrains gives us an excellent take on the […]Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/social-entrepreneurship-make-a-difference/https://abou-kone.com/archive/social-entrepreneurship-make-a-difference/In a guest post at Venture Beat, David Gorodyansky, CEO of AnchorFree, which makes Hotspot Shield, a privacy shield for internet users around the world dicusses examples of entrepreneurs around the US that founded startup whose primary mission was effecting social good as opposed to purely commercial ventures. Gorodyansky argues that: It’s time we took […]Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-march-25th/https://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-march-25th/Here we are back again. Another round of African Tech news you might have missed over the past couple of weeks: Forbes has an interview with Magatte Wade, a young senegalese woman who successfully started and ran a $30M business, Adina World Beverages before starting anew with a new venture, Tiossan. If you ever had […]Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/a-list-of-west-african-brilliant-startups/https://abou-kone.com/archive/a-list-of-west-african-brilliant-startups/Memeburn just compiled a list of 30 African startups and it’s an inspiration to see the list of business models and technologies at play. The startup scene in Africa is definitely picking up, and ideas come from all over the continent. Of course South Africa and Kenya are well represented, as well as Nigeria (TruSpot), […]Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-march-5/https://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-tech-news-tidbits-week-of-march-5/Back at it, after taking a little break due to a busy work schedule, let’s see what’s been happening in African Tech: In Cameroon, a young entrepreneur just released the Cardiopad, a medical tablet designed to help with remote diagnosis of heart problems. Saya Mobile in Ghana has released a messaging competitor to WhatsApp called […]Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/cardiopad-a-cameroonian-medical-tablet/https://abou-kone.com/archive/cardiopad-a-cameroonian-medical-tablet/Arthur Zang is a 24 year old Cameroonian who just came up with the country’s first medical tablet, the CardioPad, which is aimed at helping diagnose heart patients. Zang explains that the tablet will help “enable remote medical exams and the transfer of those results without the patients travelling to the city where the heart […]Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/e-learning-africa-2012-to-happen-in-benin/https://abou-kone.com/archive/e-learning-africa-2012-to-happen-in-benin/Tech Event of note on the continent: eLearning Africa is the continent’s largest gathering of high-level policy makers, decision makers and practitioners from education,business and government. It is the key networking event for developing eLearning capacities in Africa. eLearning Africa 2012 will take place from 23rd to 25th May in Cotonou, Benin, which has a […]Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/lessons-in-unsuccessful-african-startup-creation/https://abou-kone.com/archive/lessons-in-unsuccessful-african-startup-creation/In a blog entry, developer Pascal Ehitie Aito from Nigeria shares some insight in the best ways not to create a successful startup. It is funny and definitely makes sense. Highlights: When developing your startup idea, ask yourself, “is what I am creating a solution to a NEED or a WANT?” According to the Nigerian […]Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-tidbits-week-of-february-13th-2012/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-tech-tidbits-week-of-february-13th-2012/It’s the middle of the week, I’ve been busy with life and wanted to post a few articles but never got time, so decided to start a new, hopefully weekly series of articles aggregating articles that I find interesting related to Africa and Tech. So for this week: Over at Forbes, a list of the […]Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/e-book-app-design-help-for-design-averse-developers-from-afriapps/https://abou-kone.com/archive/e-book-app-design-help-for-design-averse-developers-from-afriapps/Afriapps developer Andrew Mugoya is back at it again with a new book offering some designing help to app developers. Titled “Help! I am a developer with no clue about design”, the book aims to help developers integrate minimal design elements to make their apps acceptable not only to the Afriapps app store but also […]Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/website-design-rules-for-the-african-market/https://abou-kone.com/archive/website-design-rules-for-the-african-market/Will Mutua at Afrinnovator writes an interesting article on how to design websites for the African market and supports it with some facts on the ground. Looking at the examples of the most successful websites in Kenya and Nigeria, Will comes down with the following nuggets when it comes to designing for the African market: […]Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/kenyan-startup-mocality-vs-google/https://abou-kone.com/archive/kenyan-startup-mocality-vs-google/It’s kind of interesting, and not frequent to have a mini-scandal going in the African technology scene and the latest one involves Mocality, a Kenyan mobile business directory startup and contractors/employees (???) of Google Africa that used Mocality’s client call list and misrepresented themselves as working with Mocality in order to in fact, steal customers […]Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/a-new-african-middle-class/https://abou-kone.com/archive/a-new-african-middle-class/http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/25/africas-middle-class-hope-continent?cat=world&type=articleSun, 25 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/driving-a-rolls-royce-on-a-dirt-road-how-not-to-create-african-software/https://abou-kone.com/archive/driving-a-rolls-royce-on-a-dirt-road-how-not-to-create-african-software/Herman Chinery-Hesse is Ghanian and runs SOFTtribe, one of Africa’s largest software companies, and he is not a happy camper. In a must read interview with Kernel Mag if you are interested in African software, he details the woes that his business is facing in winning government contracts. Highlights: All too often, the Ghananian software […]Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/west-africa-and-the-push-for-e-government/https://abou-kone.com/archive/west-africa-and-the-push-for-e-government/Slowly but surely, West African countries are following the lead set in East Africa in pushing E-Government. In Ivory Coast, a seminar was held last week (December 14th to the 18th 2011) on the topic of e-government moderated by Mr Georges M’bra, of the government’s scientific committee. The Ivorian government wants to modernize the administration […]Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/e-book-african-apps-in-the-global-marketplace/https://abou-kone.com/archive/e-book-african-apps-in-the-global-marketplace/I ran into this e-book totally by mistake, but nothing happens by coincidence in my book so here you go. It’s an e-book by Andrew Mugoya and you can download it from here on the AfriApps marketplace, which if you didn’t know offers great apps written African Developers. Here is a synopsis of the book by […]Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/have-you-heard-about-konza-city/https://abou-kone.com/archive/have-you-heard-about-konza-city/When it comes to ICTs, Kenya has demonstrated that it is deservedly one of the leaders in the new Africa. I was recently directed to learn about Konza City by Amadou Daffe of Coders4Africa, who came back impressed with the Kenya and its ICT community from a recent trip to Kenya for a conference. What […]Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/mobile-comparative-view-between-kenya-and-south-africa/https://abou-kone.com/archive/mobile-comparative-view-between-kenya-and-south-africa/I’d like to direct you to this article by Mariska Du Preez titled “Mobile Technology: a comparative view between Kenya and South Africa“. Some hard numbers are given from research on the mobile market in both coutries, as well the state of the developer communities. With populations roughly equal (42 M Kenyans to 50M South […]Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/african-mobile-tablets-a-reality/https://abou-kone.com/archive/african-mobile-tablets-a-reality/I ran into this recent article from the sharp African Tech Evangelist Robert Alai discussing the topic of African tablets with Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, an inventor who holds a patent on a microchip used in minimally invasive surgical robots. I’ve first heard about African tablets earlier this year around June from this Engadget article about the Way […]Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-domain-name-soon-come/https://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-domain-name-soon-come/Get ready people, you might be able to snatch a .africa domain name by 2013, as the ICANN is currently accepting applications for new generic top level domains and many organizations are going to put in applications for the .africa gTLD according to this CNN article. DotConnectAfrica, the African Top Level Domains Association, the African […]Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/meet-ingenious-labs-mobile-and-web-development-startup-in-togo/https://abou-kone.com/archive/meet-ingenious-labs-mobile-and-web-development-startup-in-togo/Head over to one of my favorite African related site on the net to check an interview with Togolese entrepreneur and developer Tiyab Konlambigue who created Nomad, an Android app “that allows users to have a digital and social life asynchronously thorugh the Oasis server” (Finalist of the Android Developer Challenge for Africa 2011 competition). […]Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/mobile-app-highlight-dropifi-from-ghana/https://abou-kone.com/archive/mobile-app-highlight-dropifi-from-ghana/From VC4Africa, the winners of the recent Startup Weekend in Accra with their app Dropifi (not be confused with this Dropify, or this one for that matter): “Dropifi is a messaging platform that seeks to bridge the relationship gap between visitors to a website and the business owners. Many websites, if not all, have a […]Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/an-overview-of-the-app-and-mobile-market-in-africa/https://abou-kone.com/archive/an-overview-of-the-app-and-mobile-market-in-africa/Two good reads for you about the mobile market in Africa today. First we start with “The Numbers That Lure Telecom Firms to Africa”, good nuggets in the stats cited there, let’s see: 620 million cell phone connections in Africa corresponding to six out of 10 of the continent’s inhabitants. Africa is home to one […]Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/system-d-or-how-informal-economy-profits-the-mobile-market/https://abou-kone.com/archive/system-d-or-how-informal-economy-profits-the-mobile-market/The website How We Made it in Africa is a must read if you want to keep tracks of tech and other interesting news that are happening in Africa and would otherwise fly under the radar. In a recent article title “How MTN is profiting from Nigeria’s informal economy“, correspondant Robert Neuwirth examines how African […]Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/u-mo-another-mobile-money-solution-in-nigeria/https://abou-kone.com/archive/u-mo-another-mobile-money-solution-in-nigeria/According to Nigeria’s Business Day, another mobile money solution has been launched, directly competing with Paga, the startup i wrote about earlier. Dubbed U-Mo, this initiative is a joint venture between United Bank for Africa and AfriPay and targets Nigeria’s 90 million mobile phone subscribers. The Central Bank of Nigeria recent push for a Cashless […]Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/lions-lair-a-1500-youth-entrepreneurship-contest-by-makingafricawork/https://abou-kone.com/archive/lions-lair-a-1500-youth-entrepreneurship-contest-by-makingafricawork/Making Africa Work is an international social enterprise dedicated to building the capacity of entrepreneurial young Africans and Canadians to create sustainable wealth and employment through internships, training and collective ingenuity. Its mission is to unlock African’s economic potential by enhancing youth oriented global interaction, exposure and partnerships using modern technology and media. To that […]Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/paga-a-mobile-payment-startup-in-nigeria/https://abou-kone.com/archive/paga-a-mobile-payment-startup-in-nigeria/I recently ran into this interesting article from Forbes highlighting Paga a Nigerian money transfer service startup. Paga launched in 2009 and has a current user base of 32000 users and $1.6M processing volume so far, attracting even US investors in the person of Tim Draper. Paga’s founder, Tayo Oviosu explains that there is a current […]Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/why-africa-may-never-produce-a-facebook-a-valid-argument/https://abou-kone.com/archive/why-africa-may-never-produce-a-facebook-a-valid-argument/I came up on this article by Mfonobong Nsehe who also wrote the article that inspired my previous blog post and it created a good Facebook conversation with a couple of friends of mine. From the comment section, you can also see that this has stirred up some passions. Nsehe’s question that serves as the […]Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/self-starters-disruptive-entrepreneurs-at-dcweek-2011-core-conference/https://abou-kone.com/archive/self-starters-disruptive-entrepreneurs-at-dcweek-2011-core-conference/The Disruptive Entrepreneur session was one of the sessions outside of the Mobile track at the DCWEEK Core Conference that I attended because it caught my interest (Music & Politics). This session allowed two presenters to come and talk about their endeavor. The first speaker on the stage was Ruha Devanesan of PeaceTones, who through […]Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMThttps://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-gathering-washington-dc-wrapup/https://abou-kone.com/archive/africa-gathering-washington-dc-wrapup/So I was off to my first event of the Digital Capital Week or better known as DCWEEK this Saturday morning and made it with a thirty minutes delay to the Kenny Auditorium at the SAIS building of John Hopkins University on Massachussets Ave. I got my brother-in-law to tag along for once and we […]Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT