Unisoko Mobile App

Consider a scenario in which you desperately need some extra memory in your computer, or a particular component to fix your sound system, or possibly you have a guitar that you need to get rid of. The obvious thing is to go to a shop, part with lots money and possibly get some help. But you can't do that, seeing as most of your time is spent in class on campus. The next best alternative is to put up a poster, with no guarantee that you'll find what you're looking for at all.

Walking past any notice board, public place or other venue around any campus and one is constantly bombarded by the eyesore that has become the unspoken go to medium of communication-the poster. Stacked on top of each other, strewn across the floor around or just barely pinned/glued to the boards, these posters seem to be in a never ending fight for the attention of some intended audience who just as quickly dismiss them. Their efficacy notwithstanding, posters, flyers and the like are a costly, environmentally unfriendly and a poor medium for communication and feedback

Enter Unisoko...

Unisoko's Home Screen

Designed as a mobile application by Vivian Chenane, Evans Ogola, and Kibet Elkanah, Unisoko, seeks to bridge the gap between buyer and seller by conveniently providing an online marketplace where a seller can post a listing for a particular product they wish to sell with a buyer finding it relatively easy to find what they are looking for. Vivian, taking Bachelors in Mathematics and Computer Science, and Evans and Kibet, who are both taking Bachelors in Computer Technology, developed this app to address this concern. With Unisoko, one is able to browse through various listings, find a particular product of interest and contact the seller from the convenience of their phone.

The Seller's Log in

Product Listing

This application has been successfully uploaded to Ovi store where it is available as a free download and will work on any Nokia phone. Plans are at an advanced stage to have the Android version on Google Play in mid-June. Unisoko was voted as second best in the Mobile Garage Students' Exhibition. It is also under pilot test in campus (JKUAT)  with the aim of capturing how users will take advantage of the app, what they'll use if for and its general reception. Towards this end, the developers are calling on you to download the app and give it a try with any and all comments and thoughts welcome. They also have plans underway to have the app integrated with sms functionality such that one can interact with the service without having to go online i.e. sms query response.

Product Categories

Selling through sms

So like their page on Facebook, check out theirwebsite and go to ovi store and give it a try

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

Fast, responsive, intuitive and beautiful are but a few of the myriad ways to describe the just released Ubuntu 12.04 LTS code named Precise Pangolin. This release comes with a host of new features and tweaks top among them the Linux kernel upgraded from version 3.0 used for Ubuntu 11.10 to the current version 3.2. This of course means even more improvements to the file system, support for more hardware and software configurations, and better memory management which makes the system even more responsive.

The Head-Up Display

Some major eye candy comes in with the HUD (Head-Up Display) which not only looks pretty but also comes packs quite a punch as an alternative way to navigate around the system. It features search and autocomplete to quickly find what you're looking for.

The new video lens feature works with it to quickly find videos either on your hard drive or on most media sites on the internet. This version also continues with the UNITY interface which replaced the more traditional GNOME layout.

A special feature with this long term release version to note is that Canonical has extended support from the typical three year time period to five years.

Privacy Settings Tab

There's a new privacy settings page under the System settings that lets you decide what the system keeps in its history whether from file activity or individual apps therefore enabling one to turn off logs completely or just keep a select few.

 As with all releases of Ubuntu software, the pre-installed apps have been updated to their latest versions, meaning you get Firefox 11 and Libre Office 3.5, among a host of other upgrades. Software Centre has also received some tweaks here and there that make it friendlier to use and navigate around.

Get the latest version of Ubuntu at their official site and give it a spin