www.journal-plaza.net & www.freedowns.netwww.journal-plaza.net & www.freedowns.net

URBANKENYA

TECH NEWS ART SOFTWARE GADGETS

KENYAN BEST DIGITAL MAGAZINEISSUE 1.

NIKON D7000 VERDICTS50PAGES

iPad 2

www.journal-plaza.net & www.freedowns.netwww.journal-plaza.net & www.freedowns.net

Yours at 2,074,555 Ksh.

EDITORS LETTER.May 2011/issue 1

Contributers

URBANKENYA.

Hello, my name is kamal and am a softwareholic,my idea came when i started gettting lots of information fromTwitter,Facebook and Rss newfeeds andi thought why should’nt i combine allthis to one great thing “Urbankenya”Kenya is growing very fast in technologyand kenyans deserve the best, from thewide range of gadgets to the bestapplications.cheers.

Christian philip

John Osteen.

Twitter: @urbankenya2011

Lee Ibrahim.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER.

A WEBSITE DESIGNER.

A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

CONTENTSURBANKENYA ISSUE 1/MAY 28/ 2011.

TECH NEWS.

TATU CITY.IHUB.GOOGLE.

ART

GRAFFITI.PHOTOSHOP.ARTIST BIO.

SOFTWAREMOZILAANDROIDCS5

GADGETSTABLETS COMPAREDHARD DRIVEICORE 7

1.

2.

3.

4.

GBS Academy Computer Class

We have now started transmission. GBS and Digital Age Institute together will, over the next 3 months, transmit the GBS Academy Computer Class, where GBS and Digital work together as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility to convey knowledge about use of computers to the Kenyan Citizens.

We will transmit via GBS’s analogue TV-transmission network in Kenya, which has an outreach to 18 million prospect viewers, out of which more than 1 million on a continuous note are watching their transmissions. We will cover business use of IT, with a focus on how to set up computers, how to use editors, calculations in spread sheets, doing presentations in Power Point, assembling a computer with its CPU, screen, keyboard etc., and familiarizing the user with the various ter-minologies. Furthermore is networking, where we have just recorded sessions going through how to connect your computer to the inter-net, to LAN network, how to configure your router and your wireless setup etc. You who are a reader already on the internet of this blog, will most likely have little or no use of these trainings. These trainings are for the people outside of the urban areas, where they have only little ac-cess to training in ICT. We welcome your comments on academy@digitalageinstitute.com and you are also welcome to give us a call on (020) 221 1154 about how we are doing it, or propose ways we can improve on our education. Bear in mind that it is for those who are not so conversant with IT. We will follow up later with professional courses in use of advanced design software such as Adobe Illustrator, Photo Shop etc., and final-ly we will do a top level training in Software Development. The latter will most likely be distributed directly from our offices via Web Cast of Pod Cast on the internet. Time will show.

Have a good day,

TO ADVERTISE

URBANKENYA2011@GMAIL.COMP.O.BOX 45093-00100NAIROBI,KENYA.ANSH PLAZA BIASHARA STREET 0733533515.

www.urbankenya.com urbankenya.wordpress.com

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER@URBANKENYA2011.

ACCESSKENYA.COM

Password Service Warns of Possible Hacking Attack

LastPass, a service for managing passwords, said late Wednesday that out of concern about a possible hacking attack, it would force its more than 1 million users to change their master passwords, which they use to retrieve passwords for other sites across the Web.The news comes in the wake of several recent high-profile hacks of computer-security companies, including another maker of technol-ogy designed to make access to Web sites more secure, RSA Security.In a blog post, LastPass, which offers free and paid products, said that last Tuesday it had detected two “traffic anomalies,” including one leaving the company’s database, and could not explain the causes. That sparked fears that intruders may have made off with user infor-mation.“We’re going to be paranoid and assume the worst,” LastPass said. It said its analysis so far suggests hackers could have acquired users’ e-mail addresses and might be able to decipher their master pass-words using “brute force” methods, if those passwords are simple enough.In addition to requiring its users to set new master passwords, Last-Pass said it would confirm that users of its system are legitimate by matching the numerical Internet Protocol addresses tied to their computers with IP addresses used by them in the past, or by validat-ing them through e-mail.

The password information stored by LastPass clearly makes it a tempting target for hackers.“The data that they store, it’s the keys to the kingdom” for many con-sumers and company employees using LastPass to store passwords for bank accounts and sensitive corporate systems, said Jeremy Con-way, a senior threat researcher at NitroSecurity, who was formerly part of the team defending NASA’s network. “It’s a high-value target.”But security professionals praised LastPass’s swift disclosure and ac-tion to protect users as a model of how to handle a security problem. Security experts have been relentless in their criticism of other com-panies that have suffered hacks recently and were slow to report

Future Drive 13,800 kshThe Hp External Hard Drive (1TB) combines the next gen-eration speeds of USB 3.0 and 1TB of storage space,its all in a portable pocket-sized package.its backup software is an accent to this capable hard drive and ups its overall value. Its very portable 4.5 by 3 by 0.5 inches(HWD) and weigh 226 grams. its only component is the USB 3.0 port, which is backward compatible with USB 2.0 ports.The backup soft-ware HP SimpleSave comes on the harddrive or you can choose to install or just enjoy plug and play experience.

The simple save software takes you to an inentory of your system and determines how much space would be taken up on your hard drive if you copied everything over from your PC. you can pick and choose what file types you want backed up or select individual files .SimpleSave will then back up your PC every 5 min your computer is idle. On our drag and drop file test,the drive was able to transfer a 1.5GB file in less than 20 sec .it blew the other hard drive like the Toshiba 640GB and the SeaGate Free agent 500GB in speed performance.

URBANKENYA

Two security firms, RSA, whose SecurID technology was raided by hackers, and Comodo, whose system for certifying Web site authen-ticity was hit, have come under particular criticism for security fum-bles and slow or incomplete disclosure.Joe Siegrist, LastPass’s chief executive, said that the growing popular-ity of the company’s service has made it more attractive to attackers, and that it would look for ways to make itself harder to hit. For one, he said he would hire a security firm to audit its systems.LastPass’s rapid action also sparked problems for some users. The company was triggering password resets by asking users to enter the e-mail address associated with their account when they entered in their master password, and then sending an e-mail with a link to a site where they would enter a new master password. In a Catch-22, many users found they were unable to get the e-mail because, with-out a working master password, they were locked out of their e-mail accounts. Others ran into different roadblocks trying to reset their master passwords.“Was this mandatory panic thoroughly thought about before being initiated?” asked one anonymous “paying customer” who comment-ed on LastPass’s blog post. “It will take a lot for Lastpass to restore trust in the system, because I am out as soon as this fiasco is over.”LastPass conceded that its systems were overwhelmed by the task of resetting so many passwords and responding to customers running into difficulties. In response, it slowed things down by forcing imme-diate resets only on users visiting its service from unfamiliar IP ad-dresses. And it encouraged other users to wait to reset their master passwords until LastPass prompted them to do so.With the extent of the potential breach unknown, experts said extra-cautious users may also want to change their passwords, especially for sensitive accounts, stored with LastPass. Few kenyans are using lastPass but survey shows people have started being curious about losing their data. Hp[e for the best.

URBANKENYA

GREAT BUYS AT THE SARIT CENTRE SONY SHOW ROOM

ihub -Nairobi’s innovation hub for the technology community

1. ihub lecture by one famous techweez

3. ihub meetings going under.

2. ihub aniversarry was a blast.

Reserve your ticket online at kenyaairways.com

The vision for Tatu City is the creation of a world-class, mixed-use new city, located within Greater Nairobi – East Africa's new eco-nomic hub.

Tatu City is a dynamic mixed-use environment that will be home to an estimated 62,000 residents who will have the opportunity to live, work and play within their community; and another 23 000 day visi-tors!

The site of the proposed development is over 1000 hectares in size.

Part of the land to be developed is currently a producing coffee farm and coffee production will continue during development of Tatu City. In fact the planners have insisted on maintaining respect for the coffee farming heritage as evidenced in the attention shown to the environment planning and design.

ipad 2 features

iOS 4.

The world’s most advanced mobile operating system.iOS 4 is the operating system for iPad (along with iPhone and iPod touch). It lets you browse, read, and see every-thing just by touching the screen. It includes all the pow-erful, innovative, and fun built-in apps you use every day, many times a day. And it’s the platform on which more than 65,000 other amazing apps have been created for iPad. It’s highly secure, stable, and responsive, and it’s made to work seamlessly with the iPad hardware. iOS 4 is the reason no other device has yet come close to iPad.

Instant On.

The fun starts fast.Pick up your iPad, press the Home button, and it wakes from sleep instantly. That’s because iPad features fast, ef-ficient, and reliable flash storage that lets you access data quickly. So everything effortlessly springs to life.

Wi-Fi and 3G.

Two great ways to stay connected.Every iPad is built with advanced 802.11n wireless tech-nology. It automatically finds Wi-Fi networks, which you can join with a few taps. iPad is also available with 3G con-nectivity and Wireless networks. So if you’re somewhere without Wi-Fi, such as outdoors on a camping trip or on the road, you can still surf the web, check email, or get direc-tions.

YOU CAN NOW SUSCRIBE URBANKENYA IN YOUR iPAD

TATU GALLERY1.

GOOGLE EARTH OPTIMIZED FOR ANDROID-POWERED TABLETS

When Google Earth was launched in 2005, most of us were still using flip phones. At the time, the thought of be-ing able to cart around 197 million square miles of Earth in your pocket was still a distant dream. Last year, that dream came to fruition for Android users when we released Google Earth for Android. With the recent release of tablets based on Android 3.0, we wanted to take full advantage of the large screens and powerful processors that this exciting new breed of tablets had to offer.Today’s update to Google Earth for Android makes Earth look better than ever on your tablet. We’ve added sup-port for fully textured 3D buildings, so your tour through the streets will look more realistic than ever. There’s also a new action bar up top, enabling easier access to search, the option to “fly to your location” and layers such as Places,Panoramio photos, Wikipedia and 3D buildings.

Moving from a mobile phone to a tablet was like going from a regu-lar movie the- atre to IMAX. they took advantage of the larger screen size, including fea- tures like content pop-ups appearing within Earth view, so you can see more infor-mation without switching back and forth between pages.

One of my favorite buildings to fly around in Google Earth has always been flying around Nairobi.

CORE i7

Both Dell and Gateway launched Core i7 PCs in time with Intel’s announcement of its new chip family. We don’t know why HP has waited to make the switch, but the announcement of the Pavilion Elite m9600 desktop series, a quad-core Core i7-equipped HP can be yours starting at 80,000ksh.

We’ve found Intel’s Core i7 chips very fast, espe-cially in the most demanding tasks like consumer-level digi-tal media editing and multitasking. Core i7 has also been hailed as an expensive platform, as Intel is the only source for the necessary motherboard chipset, which also requires DDR3 memory, a pricier standard than more common DDR2 RAM. Those extra expenses are largely why AMD’s Phenom and Phe- nom II, and Intel’s own Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad chips are still common in lower-end retail desk- tops, although it remains likely that Intel will continue to ease pricing throughout 2009 to ensure wider Core i7 adoption.Options for HP’s new configurable Pavilion Elite m9600’s are oth-erwise unremarkable. The only exception might be that the default 3D card, an Nvidia GeForce 9600GS, has 768MB of RAM, and all of the step-up models are 1GB cards. And here we’d just gotten used to the proliferation of 512MB cards. The larger video memory allotments won’t guarantee fast PC gaming for all, but they will certainly help.Dell’s Core i7 Studio XPS systems start at 64,000. Dell’s 3D card offerings include only 256MB and 512MB options, so you do lose a step in gaming performance, but if all you want is raw CPU power at the best price, it’s hard to justify the HP’s 80,000 starter price tag when Dell has such an ag-

gressive bargain.

URBANART.

KENYA TALENT HUB.

GRAFITTI,, URBANKENYA

BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK

OS: BLACKBERRY TABLET OSFLASH SUPPORT : YESSCREEN: 7” WIDE SCREEN LCDSTORAGE : 64GBPORTS: USB,HDMI FOR VIDEO OUTPUTWIRELESS: WI-FI, BLUETOOTH,(3G,BLACKBERRY)

URBANART

Acer Iconia Tab A500.

OS: androidFlash Support:yesScreen:10.1” wide screenPorts:Micro HDM,USB,Micro USB.Storage:16GB,Micro SD support 32GB.Wireless:Wi-fi,Bluetooth.

SONY PLAYSTATION® 3

BUY ONLINE AT URBANKENYA.COM

URBAN TUTORIAL.

PHOTOSHOP SCHOOL.

PART 1

WITH kamal URBAN

URBANKENYA

PHOTOSHOP

urbankenya.com

urb

an

ke

ny

a m

ag

az

ine

URBAN GADGETS.

37,000 Ksh

304,000 Ksh

72,000 Ksh

48,000 Ksh

70,000 Ksh

69,000 Ksh

Name:Allan Musumba, aka Price-

occupation Graphic Design Stu-dent/freelance animator/Designer

I have always been interested in art ever since I can remem-

ber I always had a pencil in my hand or at least whenever i got a chance,Until i discovered the world of Computer Graph-ics in Early 2008.

I the wider pos-sibilities out on cu-riosity and the need to re-invent my art production any time I got the chance.

Although there were a few

challenges on the way like access to a decent computer with good graphics cards and the high software costs.

In 2009 I started with photoshop. Although I had heard about it,I

But then i decided to change fully to photoshop because I just loved the user interface was friendly and easy to use.

After using photoshop for a couple of months i stum-

bled upon the world of 3-D

even dream about it because for a long time i had the misconception that to venture into 3-D anima-

machinery and a dedicated team of Animators,with decades of study. Although this is not entirely true. So in the mean time I got some 2D animation software because at that moment it seemed logical to start from this point.

2D animation was good but it was very time consuming,as a

frame by frame animation would

try 3-D because you just make the character / Scene once then you can manipulate everything on a span of some keyfames which is better than drawing frame by frame for me it

and rendering tools. 2d animation also has its advan-tages too,but i will not go into.

I got my

free ware called “3-D Anima-tor”.It

was just a simple animation soft-ware and didn’t have fancy render-

was just simple.

One thing that really boosted my interest in animation was

when I watched visual effects di-rector Pantural’s video on youtube and more recently Patrick Boivin’s iron Baby that came with a making of made me realize animation was achievable it was just a matter of time.

So early last year I met Michael Raphoni,an established 3-D art-

ist and arguably the best animator in these parts,he wanted to organize some artists to form his animation

-though he was working on a com-

He provided the 3-D software and some tutorials about how

the software works,the best thing about 3-D animation is that once you have the concept,you can ap-ply it virtually on any 3-D applica-tion software the only challenging part was the user interface

Once i got started with Carrara i quickly picked up my pace

and got used to the interface the most astonishing things about it

lighting keyframe controls and even a physics engine,something that i couldn’t have imagined. A new dimension was also unveiled

sculpting software like moulding

possibilities became limitless.

This then paved way for the world of visual effects and

compositing,Its very hard to achieve a good animation without these and they greatly reduce work-loads both for you,your 3-D appli-cation and your computer.

From time to time I surf the net to get inspiration for my new

art works Because that’s where I learnt most of the things I know about 3-D animation as I do not go to any school to learn these things. I think its the best resource an artist could ever need from asking questions in forums to tutorials its like every time i go online I learn something new.

For me 3-D animation is a passion,from making the con-

it then animating and adding visual effects its just a powerful tool that can Enable you to really bring out your artistic potential.

NGraphic Design studies and venture into the Graphics world.

50k

URBANKENYA SOFTWARE GUIDE.

Application free at urbankenya.com/apps kenya’s clearest network.

URBAN SOFTWARE.

urbankenya magazineurbankenya

urbankenya.comwww.

kenya’s best digital magazine site

URBANKENYA

TECHNOLOGY ART SOFTWARE GADGETS

KENYAN BEST DIGITAL MAGAZINEISSUE 1.

NIKON D7000 VERDICTS50PAGES

iPad 2

www.urbankenya.com

wMartview

URBANKENYA

Urbankenya

Urbankenya

Company /developerGoogle Inc.,Open Handset Alliance

Programmed in C (core),[1] Java (UI)

Working state CurrentSource model Free and open source software(3.0 is currently still closed source)[2]

Initial release 21 October 2008Latest stable releaseTablets:3.1 (Honeycomb)[3]Phones:2.3.4 (Gingerbread) / 24 February 2011; 2 months ago[3]

Supported platforms ARM, MIPS,[4] x86[5][citation needed]

Kernel typeLinux kernel

Default user interface

AtACC is a complete accounting and inventory management software package that has several features including the following:

Invoice DesignerAudit Log

Multi CurrencyBarcode Label Designer

Counter SalesSales and Purchase Comparison Reports

Cheque Handling FacilityCustomizable Searching Tool

Automatic & Quick Data BackupScreen Lock FacilityBank Reconciliation

Retail Price Based SalesWeighted Average Costing

Bill of MaterialsCost Center

Cash Movement AnalysisAgeing ReportsTax/VAT Reports

Transaction AnalysisMultiple Depot Option

Report Layout with Column PositioningGraphical Analysis

In-Built Chart of AccountsEdit Locks

Negative Stock, Damage StockMultiple Budget Handling

Average Profit MarginatACC has been our prestigious product and it has lots of quality improvement especially improve-ment in speed in a lot of areas. Its huge data accommodation is a very notable attraction amongst

other important features it possesses. The present version, atACC 2.8 1009 has become one of the best accounting software available in the world market capable of competing with world leading software

with the great support of some of our Associates who have been working with us and ATLANTA IT. . To distinguish ourselves from the market, we give immediate attention to all our clients and make

sure all their questions and doubts are answered. We have made such a setup in our organization so that all the emails will be replied within a few hours without considering whether the day is a working day or not. ATLANTA IT already initiated a 24-hour support system because of the huge demand of the

situation.

Our contact address is as below: Musish Ventures

3rd Floor, Ansh Plaza, Biashara Street/Tubman Lane

CBD, NairobiKenya

info@musish.com0702929233

Graphical

LicenseApache 2.0, Linux kernel patches are under GPL v2[6]

Official website android.com

Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. Google Inc. purchased the initial developer of the software, Android Inc., in 2005. Android’s mobile operating system is based on the Linux kernel. Google and other members of the Open Handset Alliance collaborated on Android’s development and release. The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is tasked with the maintenance and further development of An-droid.[12] The Android operating system is the world’s best-selling Smartphone platform. Android has a large community of developers writing applications (“apps”) that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 300,000 apps available for Android. Android Market is the online app store run by Google, though apps can also be downloaded from third-party sites. Developers write primarily in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries.[17]The unveiling of the Android distribution on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 80hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software and open source license. The Android open-source software stack consists of Java applications running on a Java-based, object-oriented application framework on top of Java core libraries running on a Dalvik virtual machine featuring JIT compilation. Libraries written in C include the surface manager, OpenCore media framework,SQLite relational database management system, OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics API, WebKit layout engine, SGL graphics engine, SSL, and Bionic libc. The Android operating system, including the Linux kernel, consists of roughly 12 million lines of code including 3 million lines of XML, 2.8 million lines ofC, 2.1 million lines of Java, and 1.75 million lines of C++.

Designer pack.

Wide raNGE OF SOFTWARES AND TUTORIALS

FOR

DESIGNERS.

WWW.URBANKENYA.COM

Course InformationIVQ 7267 - 22 - City & Guilds Exam SeriesSoftware Development - To mention a few Learn how to make Financial Systems, Mobile Software, Technical Ap-plications, Software for Banking, Insurance, Pension. Large Scale Applications - Micro Level Applications (J2ME), Learn Graphical User Interface, Multi Threading, Invariance, Uni-

L - Transformations, Home Page Servers, Advanced Programming, Integration with existing

Applications, Calculations, PHP-pages, Active Server Pages (Not .ASP!), Database driven Home pages.

Diploma Exams 15 December 2009 78.2% Pass Rate

City & Guilds An examination body based in London, UK. It is in more than 100 countries and has been in operation for more than 130 years.

This is Global On-Line Assessment technology whereby you will not neet to wait and sit for your exams in the exam seasons of June & December etc. The exams are done digi-tally with instant exam results.

Course registration fee is KES 1,500.00 and is non - refundable once paid. Although registration is continuous all year round, major intakes occur in January, May and September annually.

> More Info on Admission turn to back

View Park Towers, 16th Floor, Digital WingOpposite Alliance FrancaiseMobile : 0725 144 711 / 0734 936 145 0750 775 109Tel : 020 221 1154 / 221 3008 / 9SMS : 0725 744 725 / 0751 678 000Email : intake2010@digitalageinstitute.comWebsite : www.digitalageinstitute.com

Diploma & Advanced Diploma Software Development Education

Unite and Conquer!

Web DevelopmentJava Programming C, C++, C# Programming

SQL 2008 RDBMS

CORE COURSES

New Programs in 2010 Academic YearOffering: Professional Certification in Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

Java, MySQLs, Ubuntu, Linux, XML Technologies

Project Package : 001 (Core Practical) A guided training on how to develop software by

taking part in highly marketable projects.

Duration : I - 9 months ** - Depends on Skill & Experience Supervision fees : 55,000.00 Projects shall revolve around but not limited to the following areas.

Java, C++ and C# and GUI making

Software Planning and Documentation

Paradigms, OOP and Multi-threading

Databases, File Handling and Persistence

W P, Ajax

IDEs, Eclipse and Netbeans

Preparing a software development

environment (installing JDK, Eclipse,

Apache, Linux, MySQL, tomcat)

Software packaging, JUnit and Ant

Algorithms and Data Structures

Software Production Lines

PS: Please note that the project package 001 and package 035 are not examined using GOLA.

Exam Fees Exam fees is 180 British Sterling Pounds payable in Kenya Shillings at the current exchange rate at the time of payment.

IVQ 7267 - 22 : This stands for series IVQ 7267 - 22 of the International Vaslo known as Level 2 Diploma for Software Developers.

IVQ 7267 - 23 : Level 3 Advanced Diploma for Software Developers. IVQ7267-22 is a prerequisite for IVQ 7267-23.

For any package options selected, students are required to pay 30% of the total tuition fees before commencing classes, and the rest can be paid on monthly installments.

Exam fees may change by City & Guilds without prior notice