Kenya could lead African Internet

Kenya will have the highest number of Internet users in Africa in the next few years, reports Nationmedia.

Jamii Telecom GM John Kamau says the country needs an infrastructure that allows for faster international communications, and his company had rolled out a multifunctional infrastructure in Nairobi to boost the ICT sector.

The company`s satellite earth station had been commissioned following rules provided by the state regulator - Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) - "to provide international Internet gateway services", he said.

"We have taken seriously the government`s policy of liberalising the ICT sector. Once we were given a licence by CCK, we mobilised resources and entered into partnership with internationally recognised companies to roll-out a satellite earth station. The opening up of the sector to market forces is a good development since competition will lead to a reduction in connectivity costs."

A large number of buyers are returning Motorola`s iTunes music phone, developed with Apple Computer and unveiled last month.

Bloomberg.com reports that as many as six times more customers are returning the Rokr phones than is normal for new handsets.

Motorola CEO Ed Zander said he was disappointed with the phone`s marketing. "We got off to a little bit of a rough start," Zander said in an interview. "People were looking for an iPod and that`s not what it is. We may have missed the marketing message there."

Zander said it wasn`t made clear enough that the Rokr stores fewer songs than an iPod. The phone holds 100 songs and costs $249.99. iPod Nano, introduced the same day, holds 1 000 songs and costs about the same.

Until now, business intelligence (BI) software has been too complex, costly and disconnected from the software tools people use every day to do their jobs, says Microsoft Business Division president, Jeff Raikes.

With the next version of Office, Microsoft is trying to help inspire smarter cubicle dwellers.

The notion of business intelligence, or easy access to critical company data, is one of the key areas for improvement that the company has identified for the next version of its flagship desktop software. This week the company will share some of its plans in that area, including the outlines of a new server-based system for managing Excel spreadsheets, reports CNet.

Microsoft executives say all of the improvements are designed to broaden the number of workers who have access to the needed numbers to understand their business. As part of Office 12, Microsoft will add the ability to store and manage spreadsheets from a central server, allowing companies to create business rules around how different workers can access the data.

The company has said the server-based "Excel Services" abilities will come as part of a future version of the company`s SharePoint technology.