Mobiflock’s parental control service is now also available for Android phones, version 2.1 and beyond. This means the Mobiflock child safety service is now available for almost 60%* of the global smartphone market. Mobiflock helps to make smartphones safer for children by giving parents visibility of how their children are using their phones, as well as providing blocking and alerting capabilities to protect their children from harm.
Although child safety and parental control services are established good practice in the computer world, they are only now also becoming available for the mobile device. A Carphone Warehouse and YouGov study in the UK showed that 85% of parents don’t use parental control services on their children’s phones. In addition, nearly half of all parents were unaware that adult content can be accessed by mobile phone.
Mobiflock has been specifically designed for the mobile environment and its particular challenges. Some of the existing dangers children might encounter, including bullying, accessing inappropriate content and sexual grooming, have spread to the online mobile environment. In addition, newer risks to children are emerging thanks to the popularity of the mobile phone, such as sexting, mobile chat or being online late into the night. What’s more, a mobile phone is a very personal device and is often carried by the child 24/7 – further exacerbating the impact and potential of these threats.
“The digital generation gap that exists between children and parents today is unprecedented. This is impacting moms’ and dads’ ability to be effective, proactive parents,” said Patrick Lawson, Mobiflock’s founder. “As a first step, parents need to learn about how their children use their smartphones so that they don’t over-, or under-, react if the child does encounter a dangerous situation. This way parents can educate their children about how to cope with online threats.
“And until children are old enough to cope by themselves, parents need to protect their children from the dangers that do exist, while still giving them the benefits of having a mobile phone.”
Mobiflock encourages parents to discuss the use of the service with their children, and a small icon appears on the handset when Mobiflock is active so the child knows they are protected.
* Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, June 9, 2011. Based on unit shipments, IDC estimates Android will capture 38.9%, and Symbian 20.6%, of the global smartphone market in 2011.
Do you want to work for a company that Jason Calacanis described as: “Off the charts great. This is a great, great concept, and I love the branding.” (Watch the video below from about 16 minutes to see more).
Do you want to pioneer safety and security in the mobile space, not just for children, but for adults and businesses?
Are you more than just a coder, understanding how development impacts a business and its customers?
Do you want to do all this in the shadow of Table Mountain?
Then let’s chat.
Mobiflock is looking for both a senior PHP developer and a junior PHP developer to develop new products and help tackle the development challenges that any rapidly evolving company faces.
We’re looking for developers who are not afraid to get their hands dirty. You need some MacGyver-style problem solving skills, and you need to be passionate about excellence, starting with your code and all the way through ease of use for the customer, and absolutely mind-blowing customer service and support.
Follow the links above for the job requirements, and to apply send a CV and covering letter to jobs@mobiflock.com
You must:
Save the CV with your name in the file name to save us much admin head scratching when we start reviewing the CVs.
Send source code and work examples with your application.
Mobiflock, the child safety service for smartphones, is available for download from the Ovi Store as well as the Mobiflock site. You can either access the Ovi Store via a desktop web browser and send the app to your child’s Nokia, or access the Ovi Store via the phone itself. Either way it’s a simple matter to download and install the service, and so ensure you are protecting your child from any dangers they might encounter when they are online.
Ultimately, of course, you’ll be able to teach your children how to cope with these threats themselves, armed with the knowledge that Mobiflock mobile parental control service provides you.
Google Apps for Business: the answer for your small or medium business’s office IT requirements at a fraction of the cost of Microsoft and with a heap of additional benefits. Right?
Of course it is.
But what is the best way to implement Google Apps for Business, or to migrate from your current service, and what are the pitfalls to avoid?
Here we take a quick look at how small and medium businesses can benefit from choosing Google Apps for Business. And why you should save yourself time, money and head-scratching by getting a helping hand with setting up and running the service.
8 February 2011 – Ever feel like there wasn’t enough time in the day? You just about find time to eat, sleep, work, and make sure everyone else is doing what they are supposed to be doing. And then the weekend arrives and it’s tax-filing season, back to school, the leaking roof still hasn’t been fixed since winter, the oil mark under your car is doubling in size every day, and you still haven’t booked your Easter holiday.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bit of a helping hand while you are working your way down your to do list? Freeing up your time for things that are a bit more fun and relaxing, as well as being able to give yourself a pat on the back for being so organised?
Now Capetonians do, with the help of Toodu, www.toodu.co.za. Toodu is a new service that transforms your online to do list into introductions to local service providers who can help you complete your tasks. Not only that, the service providers want your business so will provide all the information you need and do their best to impress you.
How Toodu works
Go to Toodu.co.za (It’s free)
Fill in your Toodu items
Take a break
Start receiving the information, quotes, prices or proposals you need. (Toodu lets you know by email when you have received a response, so you don’t have to keep checking back).
Choose who you want to work with and get in contact with them. Toodu doesn’t share your details with the suppliers so you won’t get any pesky spam.
Tick the item off your to do list.
Toodu has some pretty rigorous service standards, and any supplier that doesn’t live up to these doesn’t last long.
Toodu is the brainchild of South African entrepreneurs, Lee Hartman, Richard Hartley, and Nick Goossens who were convinced that there was a better way to find and interact with day-to-day service providers.
“We realised that although searching the Internet was great for finding lots of information, it wasn’t that good for finding specific products and services that met your individual requirements,” said Hartman, Toodu CEO. “Then, once you found the correct contact details, getting information, prices or quotes and deciding who to deal with is time consuming and often frustrating. We decided that finding and engaging with businesses shouldn’t be this hard.”
Toodu is currently a beta service and only available in Cape Town and its suburbs, but is coming soon to other South African cities.
About Toodu
Toodu is more than just a to do list. Adding an item to your Toodu list activates a non-intrusive introduction to the people and companies that have put up their hands and said they can help you get what you need to do, done.
Stop searching and get what you need to come to you.
And if you want to know more about the SAB Kickstart programme which I mention in the Kickstarting innovation blog post, you can read the case studies I wrote here: SAB Kickstart anniversary case studies
I recently had the honour of interviewing some of the brightest young business people in South Africa and writing up case studies on their achievements. This was for a publication commemorating the 15th year anniversary of the SAB Kickstart project, a great initiative that aims to give a hand to young entrepreneurs from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.
Being part of telling these inspirational stories has been one of the highlights of 2010 for me. At the end of every conversation I had a smile on my face and a spring in my step thanks to the inspirational stories and immensely positive attitudes of these South Africans.
SAB Kickstart has posted the case studies to Facebook and here are the links to the ones I wrote:
Stop wasting your time sifting through CVs – and get the candidates you want
8 March 2010 – According to the 2010 Grant Thornton International Business Report, lack of availability of a skilled workforce is South African business owners’ largest (34%) constraint to growth, for the fourth year in a row. Yet, employers have been trying to chase down these scarce skills using the same ineffective recruitment tactics for years.
The founders of JobCrystal, the only interactive talent management portal in South Africa, decided that there had to be a better, faster and cheaper way to recruit than the way they had always done it. When they couldn’t find one, they decided to invent it, and the outcome was JobCrystal.
JobCrystal changes the way companies recruit by putting employers directly in touch with a 60,000-strong pool of top tier candidates. It then gives them the in-depth analytical tools to quickly identify the most appropriate candidate for the position and their organisation. A scientific combination of some clever analytics and a sophisticated referral network is used to match candidates and employers. In addition, candidates are matched to the company’s culture as well as on skills and experience, further improving the hiring success rate.
Because companies can talk directly to candidates themselves via JobCrystal, it bypasses the lengthy, costly and inefficient process involving recruitment agencies. Once logged into JobCrystal, it takes as little as five minutes to be put in touch with suitable candidates.
“I am sure many companies would agree that traditional recruitment is seldom more than a crude game of snap, with employers wasting their time and money interviewing inappropriate candidates unsuitable for the organisation and position. What’s more, they probably had to wait a number of weeks to get their hands on the CVs in the first place,” said Kevin Laithwaite, Managing Director of JobCrystal.
“We remove the fuzziness in the recruitment process by making the filtering and matching process scientific. Our aim is to deliver employers 10 exceptionally strong candidates, three of whom they interview, and one of whom they hire, in the shortest possible length of time. We’re so confident the system works, that we offer a six-month money back guarantee!”
JobCrystal focusses on candidates looking to earn R150,000 per year and more. It charges a flat fee per successful placement, with no upfront charges. Companies including Allan Gray, Protea Hotels, Santam and Foschini are using JobCrystal to source candidates.
- ENDS -
About JobCrystal
JobCrystal turns traditional hiring on its head by placing employers directly in touch with a pool of passive jobseekers. The online service is highly automated and cleverly matches candidates with employers, making using the interactive talent management portal faster, cheaper and more effective than any other way of recruiting. Founded by Kevin Laithwaite and Karl Westvig and launched in August 2009, JobCrystal is already being used by companies including Allan Gray, Santam, Foschini and Protea Hotels.
Marketing a small or medium business has its own set of challenges and opportunities. The last thing you want to do is waste time, money and the chance to stand out by merely cutting and pasting a big company strategy onto a small company requirement.
Here are five issues to consider when you set out to create a marketing strategy and plan for your small or medium-sized business. These apply equally well to start-ups.
1. SKILL SET
Be clever about getting the right skill set on board. As a business owner, you need to focus on what you do best and not be distracted by writing brochures or press releases. You need to bring in the right specialist skills and the correct level of experience, at the right price.
Be careful about appointing a junior general marketer who will need a lot of hand-holding from you, and won’t have the breadth and depth of experience to cope with your company’s specific requirements.
You need a range of strategic and implementation skills, to work with someone who can manage themselves, and also look to the future to lay the foundations for growth. They also can’t be loath to get their hands dirty, down in the trenches.
If you take the agency route, which is a good option for getting a range of skills with a single price-tag, watch out for agencies used to working with the resources and expectations of a large company.
Ideally appoint an agency or a consultant used to dealing with smaller companies and their requirements. Hiring a freelancer who works for more than one company is a great way to get the experience and skill set you require, at a price that suits your pocket. An added bonus is the potential synergies with the contractor’s other clients.
2. FOCUS
You will be presented with a range of typical and not-so-typical activities and channels to reach your customers. Choose two or three of the activities and channels that make most sense, and then focus your marketing efforts on owning these.
Also keep your customer front of mind. Twitter might be the hottest topic in social media and marketing at the moment, but if your customers are mostly reading text email using a dial-up connection – you’ll be better off sending them a simple email newsletter, letting them know about special offers.
Keep sales and marketing tightly connected and focussed on the same thing. You can’t waste valuable budget on teams not being aligned and chasing the same goal.
3. MESSAGING ON THE FLY
You will end up creating branding and messaging on the fly. It’s not ideal, but it’s inevitable. As a start-up or a smaller company you need to get out there, talking to the market, and can’t afford to spend three months sitting around a board-room table, fine-tuning the most exquisitely crafted message and brand strategy.
However, don’t let your need for speed mean you don’t ever take time out focus on your branding and messaging to make sure it’s coherent, accurate and on track. Spend time once a month to reflect on how your messaging and brand is developing, and if you need to tweak, change track or emphasise any aspects.
4. KEEP IT UP
Understand that building and marketing a brand is not an overnight activity, nor can it be turned on and off like a tap. You need a sustained, coherent programme of activities that builds momentum.
So don’t be tempted to opt for quick wins. It will be more cost-effective in the long run to run a steady strategic PR campaign that builds momentum over three to six months, than to dedicate all your resources to a high profile advert that has a shelf life of less than a month, if it gets seen at all.
5. DUCK, DIVE AND HAVE FUN
Embrace the benefits of being small, nimble and able to react quickly by experimenting and trying something out of the ordinary. If it doesn’t work out, you can quickly correct the situation with minimum exposure, and if it’s a great success, you can do more of the same. Don’t act like a lumbering, slow to change direction oil tanker, when in fact you are a nippy speedboat.
SaleSearcher was an online specials and promotions listings site that allowed retailers to drive more customers to their stores by highlighting current sales.
Twokats Communications helped launch the site to retailers with a media outreach project targetted at retail and marketing publications. This is a great example of how a B2B media outreach campaign can quickly and effectively be implemented, on a tight budget. In both press releases, it was key to use third party endorsements in order to enhance the credibility of a new entity.
Mobiflock’s parental control service is now also available for Android phones, version 2.1 and beyond. This means the Mobiflock child safety service is now available for almost 60%* of the global smartphone market. Mobiflock helps to make smartphones safer for children by giving parents visibility of how their children are using their phones, as well as providing blocking and alerting capabilities to protect their children from harm.
