Sydney, Australia and San Francisco, CA: biNu, the platform that enables high-speed, low-data mobile Internet usage, today announced the extension of its platform to include Android devices.

With the launch of a new Android app, biNu now provides for an enhanced Android experience, including mobile internet-speeds 10-times faster than regular browsing with only a fraction of the data-usage. The app also provides access to more than 100 channels, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, books, music and games stores, as well as a broad range of social and messaging services.

biNu’s app has more than 5 million monthly active users, the majority of whom are in fast-growth, high population regions of Asia, Africa, India, South America and the Middle East. In these markets lower cost devices dominate and computer penetration is extremely low so cellphones are usually a person’s only connected device.

Further, mobile Internet speeds in these markets tend to be stifled by congested and lower-bandwidth 2G or 3G networks. With the data-efficiency of the biNu platform, speeds are significantly increased while price-sensitive consumers are able to preserve their precious data plan.

The popularity of Android in these markets has increased significantly and continues to grow at a rapid pace. biNu launched a beta version of the Android app last year and saw rapid uptake, with Android users now representing around 6% of the monthly active user base, with high user ratings (4.2 out of 5 stars).

biNu co-founder and CEO Gour Lentell: “Android is rapidly becoming the dominant global smartphone platform, particularly in high growth markets. With biNu helping overcome the persistent infrastructure issues in these markets, the path for Android becomes even smoother.”

“As a mobile platform it has become imperative that biNu support the growing community of Android user and providing them with a fast, fulfilling and affordable mobile Internet experience.”

Last month biNu opened its platform for third parties to add their content, service or store. Organizations including the US State Department, WorldReader, Harlequin, XX and YY have recently added their apps to the platform. Earlier this month leading African and Middle-Eastern mobile carrier Etisalat announced it would be bundling the biNu app on mobile devices.

About biNu

biNu develops the biNu mobile app platform that dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit high-end smartphone-like capabilities. biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android-devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment. biNu is a privately held company back by Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures, 500 Startups, David Risher, Ronal Lauder, Dick Parsons, Paul Bassat and others.

The end of May saw a major update of biNu for Android from the hard working development team and while most of the updates are primarily behind the scenes including enhanced performance, Version 5.0.1 added smooth scrolling as well as sideswipe for reading books. The smooth scrolling means pages now load dynamically as you scroll down, while the side swipe feature will be familiar to users of Kindle and other e-readers allowing users to flip back and forth between pages.

It also passes the user’s locale on device start-up to automatically set language preferences. As Google’s smartphone operating system continues to grow in use and popularity in the developing world so does the biNu app providing Android users with fast access to social applications, books, sports news and live results as well as low cost messaging on even slower networks.

For more information check out our short YouTube video showcasing the new features for Android.

biNu for Android v5.0.1 is available to download now on Google Play

6 May, 2013. Sydney, Australia & Nigeria

Etisalat Nigeria, the most innovative telecommunications company in Nigeria, today announced its partnership with biNu to bring the popular mobile application to its 15-million feature phone and Android users. The biNu app includes an extensive range of local and international content, messaging and social features and is 10 times faster than a regular browser, while remaining extremely data efficient so data plans stretch even further. Etisalat users can download the Etisalat branded version of the biNu application from http://m.binu.com/etisalat.

biNu is one of the fastest growing mobile apps in Africa thanks to its speed, low-data usage and extensive breadth of services, such as Facebook, books, news, and weather. It also includes the ability to share photos and messages with other biNu users as well as non-biNu users in Nigeria and around the world.

Jeremy George, the biNu VP for Africa said, “biNu’s partnership with Etisalat gives subscribers an affordable way to turbocharge the internet on their mobile phones.”

By providing access to biNu at this special subscription rate, Etisalat is also helping thousands of Nigerians who read free books provided by biNu’s book partner, Worldreader and the very affordable mobile books being sold on biNu by Harlequin, publisher of the well known Mills and Boon romance novels.

Wael Ammar, Chief Commercial Officer for Etisalat Nigeria said: “Etisalat believes that everyone should have access to the huge amount of information and services that are available on the internet. By partnering with biNu we are making this available to more people, at a lower price on a greater range of handsets and at higher speeds.”

Etisalat, the fastest growing mobile network in Nigeria with over 15 million subscribers, is encouraging content owners and developers to get involved in producing Nigerian content on biNu.

George added: “biNu makes it very simple to develop and add applications, so local content owners and developers can easily mould biNu to expand the local content make it even more useful to Nigerian members.”

Etisalat’s special biNu subscription will be available at the end of May, and will be available to all Etisalat prepaid subscribers.

(ends)

About biNu

biNu is a privately held company that develops the biNu mobile app platform which dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit high‐end smartphone‐like capabilities. biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment.

About Etisalat

In just 4 years of operations, Etisalat Nigeria has become a major industry player with a growing subscriber base of 15 million in a highly competitive market. Its portfolio of voice and data-centric products include – easy starter, easycliq, easybusiness, and easyblaze; all tailor-made to meet the needs of its customers.

For its outstanding performance since the launch of commercial operations, Etisalat has won the Nigerian telecoms industry’s first ever ‘Excellent Service and effective Collaboration with the Consumer Affairs Bureau to ensure access to Customer Care Help line’.

The company has also won several other awards which include ‘Brand of the Year’, ‘Best Telecom Customer Service’, ‘Telecom Innovations Company of the Year’, and ‘Most Innovative Corporate Social Responsibility Company’.

Etisalat Nigeria is one of the 15 operations of the Etisalat Group that spans across Africa, Middle East and Asia serving over 140 million subscribers; and it is committed to delivering innovative and quality services to its growing subscribers.

For further information please contact:

For biNu:
Paul Naphtali
press@binu.com

For Etisalat:
Chineze Amanfo
Chineze.amanfo@etisalat.com.ng

World’s most popular romance novels now on biNu as platform opens for content owners, publishers and developers

22 March 2013, London, UK and Sydney Aus:  Harlequin (UK) Ltd, one of the world’s leading publishers, today announced a partnership with biNu to make its portfolio of over 8700 books, most notably Mills & Boon romance novels, available for purchase by biNu’s 5 million active members around the world directly on their mobile phone.

biNu is fast becoming the most important rich content delivery platform for developing markets where mobile phones are the primary connected device and tablets, eReader and even paperback penetration is low. Optimized for a wide range of feature phones and low end smartphones widely used in Asian, Africa and South American territories, the biNu Platform is 10 times faster than standard mobile browsers, providing fast and affordable access to Facebook, YouTube and over 100 other channels, now including eBooks, via mass-market mobile devices. Its unique compression technology makes data services both fast and affordable, while providing a high-end smartphone-like user experience.

The Harlequin-biNu partnership comes as biNu opens its Platform to third party content owners, publishers and developers, allowing them to leverage the underlying technology to build and distribute smartphone-like apps on lower end phones. Opening the platform creates opportunities for companies who have traditionally targeted first world markets to expand their reach to the 5 billion people in the world who don’t have high-end smartphones.

Harlequin UK is the first publisher to take part in this groundbreaking initiative, which will enable biNu members in India, Africa and other growth markets to purchase and download world-leading romantic fiction from a Mills & Boon branded shop within the biNu app. Books can be purchased using biNu credits, which were added to the platform late 2012.

Tim Cooper, Commercial Director for Harlequin (UK) believes that introducing Harlequin’s books to growth markets is an important facet of the Harlequin strategy. He says: “We’ve already established a successful print business around the world, but it is our aim to continue to find ways to make our content available where women are across the world in easy and accessible ways. Working with biNu has created a real opportunity for us to reach women in global markets who don’t have access to high end tablet or smartphone technology, with the biNu feature phone application we will be at the heart of their reading experience.”

Gour Lentell, biNu co-founder and CEO added: “Opening the biNu Platform to partners is a significant opportunity for any organization looking to reach the so-called ‘next billion’ users. The key for adoption in the developing world is to provide a high-quality user experience that is fast and affordable, which until now has not been possible on the lower end phones that still dominate in these markets. There is an immense hunger for books, and particularly romance fiction, so the Harlequin library of iconic literature are a  great addition to the Platform.”

Harlequin has been at the forefront of digital publishing for 5 years with its lead imprints Mills & Boon, MIRA and MIRA Ink. The UK business already has 100% of its frontlist portfolio available in digital formats and has experienced dramatic growth in eBook sales over the past five years as consumers switch to reading on eReaders, tablets and other mobile devices.

For more information on the biNu Platform Partnership program, please email partners@binu-inc.com.

ends

About Harlequin (UK) Ltd

Harlequin UK is one of the world’s leading publishers of books for women, with titles issued worldwide in 34 languages and sold in 114 international markets. The company publishes more than 100 titles monthly and more than 1,200 authors from around the world under imprints such as Mills & Boon, MIRA, MIRA Ink and others.

For further information please contact Cherish PR:

Lisa Wlodyka: 0208 735 4241 – lisa.wlodyka@cherishpr.com

Rebecca Oatley: 0208 735 4244 – rebecca.oatley@cherishpr.com

About biNu

biNu is a privately held company that develops the biNu mobile app platform which dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit high‐end smartphone‐like capabilities. biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment.

Media contact: Paul Naphtali, press@binu-inc.com or +61418864550.

For more information on the biNu Platform Partner program, please contact Mark Shoebridge on partners@binu-inc.com.

BiNu brings sexy services like Dropbox and Snapchat to dumb phones as it hits 5m monthly users

February, 2013

BiNu, the cloud-based service that brings apps and other smartphone-like experiences to feature phones, has followed its $4.1 million Series A round announced in November with news that it has passed 5 million monthly active users worldwide. In conjunction with the milestone, the 2010-founded company is introducing a range of new features, including cloud storage and a Snapchat-clone.

With 5M Monthly Users, biNu Adds Cloud Storage Service for Feature Phones

February, 2013

Today biNu, a startup that gives smartphone-like functionality to feature phones, announced the launch of its new cloud storage service, MyMedia, and a new ‘Save and Share’ feature that will allow biNu members to share files over SMS, email, messenger, or within its social network. BetaKit last covered the startup when it raised $4.3 million and launched biNu credits as part of its monetization strategy. Since then, the company has grown to five million monthly active users spread out across Africa, Asia, and South America.

Why is this startup obsessed with bringing Snapchat & Dropbox to feature phones?

February, 2013

We told you about biNu last fall; it’s trying to bring smartphone apps to feature phones, even ones on spotty networks that can’t handle much data. Today, the company announces it has brought cloud-based file sharing, walkie-talkie voice features, and even Snapchat-like “ten seconds of glory” self-destructing photo apps to all phones, including feature phones and low-end smartphones.

Save videos, pics, voice in the cloud and share via SMS, email, wall post or messenger, even on low-end devices

February, 2013. Sydney, Australia:  biNu, the mobile social platform, today announced the release of MyMedia, giving every biNu user unlimited storage in the biNu Cloud. The first ‘Save and Share’ service for lower end smartphones and feature phones also lets members share files via SMS, email, messenger or within the biNu social network on wall posts. Files can be shared with people even if they are not biNu members.

The company also released a range of additional social features, including FlashChat, which lets members send photos that then disappear after 10 seconds, and VoiceChat, which does the same for voice messages, as well as dedicated URL shortener bi.nu.

biNu has become a global mobile social platform, with more than 5 million monthly active users, the majority of whom live in the developing world and are on lower end mobile devices.

biNu co-founder and CEO Gour Lentell: “There are billions of people in the world who have never heard of Dropbox or WhatsApp, and it will be years until they have the devices and the networks to use these kinds of services. We are innovating in reverse to normal, bringing first world services to everyone regardless of where they are or what device they have, skipping the decade-long adoption curve.“

“We decided to build our platform to reach where most people currently are, and will be for some time, rather than start at the top and move down. There is an enormous appetite for mobile social and sharing tools, which is hardly surprising when you consider the mobile device is the only online device for the majority of our members.”

biNu launched in late 2010 and has grown rapidly to have 5 million monthly active users. As more social features are added to the platform, popular apps such as Facebook and Twitter have moved down the list of most used apps, with members preferring the more advanced sharing features within biNu.

About biNu

biNu is a privately held company that develops the biNu mobile app platform which dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit high‐end smartphone‐like capabilities. biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the formation of a public-private partnership with biNu (www.binu.com), a company dedicated to overcoming the digital divide by improving access to mobile internet services. biNu’s innovative mobile app platform provides a smart-phone-like experience on the mass-market feature phones that account for roughly 85% of today’s global mobile phone market.

Part of the English Language Education Alliance (E²A) partnership consortium, this collaboration is designed to address the growing global demand for English language learning materials, and it enables the Department of State to reach new audiences around the globe. biNu will distribute Department of State English language learning resources, such as e-books, audio content, and a language practice game, via their free mobile phone platform.  The biNu platform is used by over 4 million people worldwide, most of whom are in countries with emerging economies.

To initiate the relationship, the State Department’s Trace Word Soup game launched on biNu in early October 2012.  Since then, over 1.4 million games have been played in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Mexico among others.  Trace Word Soup players can enhance their experience with biNu’s integrated dictionary, translation tools and social media features. Players are also encouraged to visit the State Department’s American English portal (americanenglish.state.gov), a resource website for English language teachers and learners.  In addition, users are able to access State Department English language learning e-publications alongside the thousands of free e-books currently available through the biNu World Reader app (for more information about World Reader, another E²A member, visit www.worldreader.org).

US State Department Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Ann Stock:  “Today we have moved closer to meeting the global demand for English language learning. The State Department and biNu’s partnership allows millions of people to improve their English skills by using their cell phone. Already, we’ve seen the impact of this partnership with over 1.4 million Word Soup games played.”

“One million games in just over a month is a great demonstration of the power of the biNu platform, together with the ingenuity of the State Department,” said biNu CEO and cofounder Gour Lentell. “One of our main drivers in developing this platform was to give anyone the ability to bring content, such as books and educational material, to the billions of people whose mobile phone is the primary, and often only, connected device.”

About biNu

biNu is a privately held company that uses a mobile app platform to dramatically improve the Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones can exhibit high-end smart-phone-like capabilities.  biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android-devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment.  biNu won the prestigious 2012 AfricaCom Award for Best Feature Phone Application and the 2012 Meffy Innovation for Growth Markets Award.

For information, contact:

Paul Naphtali

press@binu-inc.com

About the English Language Education Alliance (E²A)

E²A is a consortium of public, private, non-profit and academic organizations who have partnered to help connect resources in the United States with English language teaching and learning needs and opportunities worldwide.   The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and the TESOL International Association launched E²A to utilize the networks, expertise, and resources of the State Department, TESOL and other partners to respond to the vast global demand for English language teaching and learning.

For information, contact: Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Office of Public Private Partnerships, (202) 632-2993 or exchangesapp@state.gov.

biNu’s Popular Wordnik Dictionary App Wins Best App for Languages and Translators

Opera have concluded their Top App Awards 2012 competition an announced the winners for the year, based on votes by millions of users across the globe.

We are proud to announce that biNu’s popular English Dictionary app, which is powered by Wordnik, has taken out the Languages and Translators Category for Java devices in the awards.

This confirms the popularity of biNu’s app on feature phones worldwide, and also verifies the desire that mobile phone users in emerging markets have for learning, especially when it comes to languages.

biNu’s apps are some of the most popular on the Opera Apps platform with many millions of downloads.

Click here for more details.

Dick Parsons, Ronald Lauder and Dave McClure’s 500 Startups back emerging mobile social platform

21 November, 2012. Sydney, Australia:  biNu, the mobile social platform, today announced it has finalized a $4.3m A-round investment. Participants include 500 Startups, Dick Parsons and Ronald Lauder’s PanAfrican Investment Co., which is making its first investment, and Australian industry figures Adrian MacKenzie, Nicholas Gruen and Anthony Pascoe.

The company also announced it is continuing the roll out of social features with the launch of biNu credits, which enable members to send SMS text messages to non-members anywhere in the world as well as purchase premium content and digital downloads, such as services and games.

“biNu is the first global truly mobile social platform, so harnessing the traditional power of the mobile phone, such as text messages, with all the content sharing, friending and following, simply makes sense,” said biNu co-founder and CEO Gour Lentell.

“With the addition of every social feature the community expands and members become increasingly engaged, creating an exciting atmosphere for social and mobile commerce and opportunities for content owners to reach an interested and sizeable audience in the developing world,” he said.

biNu members can earn credits through engaging in activities within the biNu app, such as completing a profile or sharing content, or as rewards from advertisers. The launch of credits follows the release of a raft of social elements, including news feeds, following, friending and photo-sharing which were added to the platform in August.

The new investors join Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures, the Savannah Fund, David Risher and Paul Bassat who had already announced their involvement when the A-round partially closed in August with an initial $2m. The additional funding will be used to continue the roll out of the platform in emerging markets, including Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe.

About biNu

biNu is a privately held company that develops the biNu mobile app platform which dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit high‐end smartphone‐like capabilities. biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment.

CapeTown, South Africa: Australia’s biNu, the mobile app platform that brings iPhone-like experiences to low-end smartphones and feature phones, has won the prestigious AfricaCom Award for Best Feature Phone application.

biNu, which has over 4 million active users, many of whom are in Africa, offers a mobile social experience to low end smartphones and feature phones. Combining messaging and texting with a range of social features, including following, friending and news feeds, biNu members can access and share content such as books, news, weather and health information, as well as services such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The AfricaCom Awards celebrate and reward excellence in the African Telecommunications Market, bringing together 8,000 senior decision-makers from the telecoms, media and ICT industries.

biNu co-founder and CEO, Gour Lentell: “We have the benefit of building a social platform specifically for mobile, and engineered for the lower end phones and lower capacity networks that are used by the billions of people in the developing world. It is great to get the recognition that biNu is providing this community with unique and valuable services that genuinely enhance their lives.”

biNu’s cloud based technology platform powers the data-lite app, providing fast and affordable access to apps and popular internet services that can be used immediately. Users can instantly switch between services, change to local languages and translate almost anything on the fly, including messages, books and news articles, without having to download and install separate apps.

About biNu

biNu is a privately held company that develops the biNu mobile app platform that dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit high-end smartphone-like capabilities. biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android-devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment.

Adds Facebook and Twitter-like services and photo sharing to rapidly growing mobile community

Sydney, Australia and San Francisco, CA: biNu, the mobile app platform that brings iPhone-like experiences to low-end smartphones and feature phones, today announced the launch of social features for its 4.5million active members.

A hybrid of Twitter and Facebook-like features, the biNu social experience gives members the ability to follow another user, giving them access to their feed (like Twitter) and if the person follows back they become friends (like Facebook), providing access to a range of social engagement options, from access to their wall, communication and private sharing.

Since launching the first social features earlier this month, more than 1million connections have been made by biNu members. Today marks the addition of rich profiles and walls, with news feeds and photo sharing to be added next week. biNu is now the only platform featuring the comprehensive integration of content into a social framework on virtually any mobile device.

biNu co-founder and CEO Gour Lentell: “We are building a social platform starting in mobile, designed and optimised for mobile, as opposed to most others that start on the web and move “down” to mobile often with a compromised experience. There are 2 billion Internet users in the world but there are 5 billion mobile subscriptions, and 85% of them are on mass-market or lower end phones.”

“We realized that biNu’s technology held the key to not just a faster and more affordable mobile web experience, but a more social one. We are using our technology advantage to offer them a compelling community-based experience driven by the ability to consume and share content in a social manner on their mobile,” Gour said.

About biNu

biNu is a privately held company that develops the biNu mobile app platform that dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit high-end smartphone-like capabilities. biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android-devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment. biNu is a privately held company back by Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures,  David Risher, Paul Bassat and other private investors in Australia and the US.

Using biNu and the Worldreader App in July there were there 480,000 readers consuming over 24 million pages (small screens). The majority of those reading were using screens 320×240 in size.

The presentation can be viewed here.

http://portal.sliderocket.com/biNu/biNu-and-Worldreader-Education-Symposium

The link to mEducatiion Alliance http://www.meducationalliance.org/

A video interview of Mark Shoebridge by Russell Southwood from Smart Monkey TV on eBooks on phones

London, UK: Australia’s biNu, the mobile app platform that brings iPhone-like experiences to low-end smartphones and feature phones, has won the prestigious 2012 Meffys Innovation for Growth Markets Award.

This recognition from the Mobile Entertainment Forum, a peak global trade body for the mobile industry, highlights biNu’s growth and leadership bringing content-driven social experiences to the billions of people in the world without high-end smartphones.

Other 2012 Meffy winners include Barclays, Financial Times, Electronic Arts and Citibank, as well as emerging brands Yala and Moraba.

Rimma Perelmuter MEF Executive Director: “Well done to biNu for winning the 2012 Meffys Innovation for Growth Markets Award.  The service, combining a cloud based virtual smartphone app and a content rich social networking platform, opening up content and social media functionality to feature phone users; essential for driving mobile content adoption in growth markets like Africa.”

biNu co-founder and CEO, Gour Lentell: “Global recognition is always welcome and exciting. It is great recognition for a company that has been in the market for only 18 months and already has over 4-million active users and one of the most active mobile social networks on the planet.”

biNu’s cloud based technology platform powers the data-lite app, providing fast and affordable access to apps and popular internet services that can be used immediately. Users can instantly switch between services, change to local languages and translate almost anything on the fly, including messages, books and news articles, without having to download and install separate apps.

In addition to using biNu to access favorite apps such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube and more than 100 other services such as books, health information, news, sports and weather, biNu users are also interacting with each other via social features including messaging, sharing and social profiles, making it a content-rich mobile social community.

In addition to using biNu to access favorite apps such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube and more than 100 other services such as books, health information, news, sports and weather, biNu users can also interact with each other via social features including social profiles, newsfeeds, chat/messaging and sharing making it a content-rich mobile social community.

From: Musau10
Date: Jun 5 05:58
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Hi, binu has become a very exciting social media.chatting with friends world wide,sharing about the economic structure of foreign countries,the market and bussines as well.its becoming a place of inspiration and pushes one to face the reality of life.its also a place where after a hard day of work one can chat and feel relaxed.thanks to yo stake holders because we are realy loving it.

From: Timblessed
Date: Jun 5 06:02
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Thanx for the visit and the binu founder as whole. I like binu for the way it have many features even online happening thru’ the phone like footbal even reading the Bible, books and many other news in the local and International thanx and enjoy stay in Kenya and may God bless you.

From: yairtel
Date: Jun 5 07:59
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Thanks Gour, welcome to Nairobi. Binu thrills me with their free sms, less data usage and enhanced applications enabling me to be up-to-date with current news and information e.g information about my favourite football club from different angles. There are also books to read which I’m also happy about. Binu is a perfect application.

From: IDDY44
Date: Jun 5 10:12
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Hallo! first i start by saying thanks for your consideration,2nd from Nairobi to Mombasa is a long distance so i can make it to come there.least but not last about stories yes i have it,and let me congratuate you Guys by bringing BINU version and it is very amazing,coz some friend they say why are you send sms to us with foreign number i replied by telling them if you want feel you are in the cloud join Binu.

From: Jepkosgei
Date: Jun 5 10:40
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Warmly welcome to kenya.BiNu has been so nice for chatting world wide with frends of different diversity especially bible beats and holy bible makes me so pleased to use biNu.also keeping of persnol information makes me feel good .will say more continue with this ideas.ope will meet u pple someday.Thankyou

From: Qerwy
Date: Jun 5 10:54
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
I like binu because it allows me to use my simple symbian phone as a smart phone.i would love to own a smart phone with an android operating system but i can not afford one.so binu as transformed my phone to one that i can access my applications easily…

From: Kbennie
Date: Jun 5 11:24
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Well, binu is a gr8 social app, i lyk it, i must visit binu daily, i got a great friend here @ binu by tha name Vicky musowoya from Zambia, she’s far from me but honestly binu brings us closer, in a matter of fact have never met her but i regard her as ma vry gr8 frd, binu is wonderful i use wikipedia, wordlik, binu sports, Facebook, twitter, read ma bibli here and i chat and get frds @ binu beats, if binu was home i kud say its a complete home.

From: Alyssa.Soyian
Date: Jun 5 14:56
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Well Gour karibu then..yeah its really.i also came to kenya for a visit and i ended up stayin..binu is the best thing that has happened to me this year.i’ve interactd with people i never that i would.like hait,sri lanka,lebanon..name it. Binu has made me realize the world is just like a community,meeting people like that-amazing..thanks to binu.and thats my story..
Enjoy your stay Gour. Adios.

From: Alkiru
Date: Aug 1 16:51
Subject: Re:the beauty of biNu
To: Gour
—
I really love biNu,it’s awonderful network easy to access,faster,carrys everything i need to know! biNu has no jam or error in connection it’s beautiful&wonderful. biNu has made me to grow&be part of new technology family! Long live biNu!

From: JarsonyKarzJunior123
Date: Jun 5 17:12
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Mine actually,is not a story to tell but a reality of what i think about biNu.This social network is much unique as compared to other social networks as you can the use of credits and offers from it.It offers news access from various outlets of the web which is one thing very rare to other networs. Their are so many points that i could give you but its not waving back to my mind.Hop those point can give a hand in the conference. Enjoy yoh night!

From: Kvan
Date: Jun 5 17:49
Subject: Re: My story.
To: Gour
—
I lyk binu app just because its fast cheap on data usage, 5mb data bundle is enough to keep me for a day. I love it, nyc stay. Welcome back

From: davidmukanda
Date: Jun 6 04:36
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
biNU is like the best thing on mobile now,I get all the stuff I want at a touch,fast!My story is that biNU should have come early,I’ve lost so much on internet using products which are not as fine tuned as this.Thanks alot by the way for this product and you’re much welcomed to Kenya.

From: simibon@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2012 09:53:59 +0300
Subject: WELCOM TO KENYA!
To: simibon

Jambo!Karibu kenya Bwana Gour(welcome to kenya Mr Gour). Kenya is a
blessed country as you see.

I usually use binu every day and I benefited so through the following ways:
1. I Have grown spritually by reading the Holly Bible and Daily Devotions.
2. Binu messenger has kept me in touch with my friends through
sms,email and chat.
3. Binu has been my source of entertainment where I have been able to
watch youtube videos and music by searching them using Google search
and Bing search.
4. Academically I have benefited from wordnik through its dictionary
and featured words.
5. I have greately benefited from getjar application from which I have
downloaded my application for both commercial and personall use.
6. Binu facebook and twitter have led to further socialisation
world-wide through messeges and newsfeeds.
7. I have gained some basic knowlege, learned other peoples culture
especially the Indian Community and I have been miles away from
boredom by reading binu books.
8. Binu news and blogs have kept me informed in that I can get both
local and international news.
9. For the Issue of sports, I normally use binu sports for my sports
news for English Premear league, UEFA Champions league and many more.
10. I have been able to gain more skills and knowledge through binu e-how.

Benefits of binu are so many in that one cannot mention all!

I will there wish to suggest that you partner with telecommunication
companies that is Safaricom and Airtel.

This is because they provide e-money services which one can use to buy
binu credits rather than using the computer which many people cannot
afford for example I.

Majority of kenyans access the internet and business transactions
using mobile phones. Try it. This will bear so much yield to the
company.

From,
Simibon

From: Simmykirui
Date: Jun 6 11:24
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
binu is faster when using in term of internet and not costly unlike other applications.

From: mokora
Date: Jun 6 11:27
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
welcome to kenya the land of the big 5&nairobi city in the sun,i realy thank you binu people coz u’ve revolutionised my life big time,i real cant find wounds to explain it all

From: Chararuo
Date: Jun 6 11:29
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
I started using it very recently.it is fastest in all aplications its has.through it i now have friend internationly.in short good one.thank u

From: Sylohtom
Date: Jun 6 14:46
Subject: Re:Thank you.
To: Gour
—
EThank you Gour for your concern,i wish i wasn’t busy,i could have paid a visit and make a chat with you.For real biNu has helped me so much for i can access the Holy Bible any time and be blessed.Am also happy to be connected to so many friends worldwide who are and will be a blessing to m

From: Sammylee0
Date: Jul 22 14:04
Subject: Re:got astory
To: Gour
—
Yah..i got astory..i can say that binu is realy good and perfect..especialy,how its get improve day by day with new apps..binu is a very fast internet mobile browser..i like it..

From: Abdulnasri
Date: Jul 20 00:00
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Am sorry to respond to your email this late, i’ve been on study and doing exams, i really appreciate your compliment about the country i live in, i’m an alien here too, but have been here for a very longtime now, biNU is an application, i like much and use it, and what i really like about this application is a number of things, biNU, has all useful application it, it contain many of the features that no other application would give, facebook, facebook chat, twitter, qoran, bible, sports, google translate, binu messenger which offers free message, dictionary, wordink, and many more just to mention only i a few, its the most recent and most useful for me, i use it to chat, to stay updated, to send messages, to learn and to read, it got book that are easy to read and that are vierities. In one of my research about impact media on youth in dadaab refugee camps, i mentioned binu as a tool thats too import for the youths Welcome back again, i hope next time, i will read your email in time.
Abdalnasry

From: Wakesho
Date: Jul 21 18:34
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Binu is the best!my phone’s browser blocked and binu has realy solved all my googling problems. How was your trip to kenya?

From: RoberttheBard
Date: Jul 22 01:04
Subject: Sms notifications
To: Gour
—
Please stop sending me text notifications about incoming emails. Bcz v time difference they arrive when I’m asleep, or should be. Thank you. Please confirm that you have recieved this, and if there is a way of opting out from my end.
Yrs RoberttheBard

From: Abdulnasri
Date: Jul 20 00:00
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Am sorry to respond to your email this late, i’ve been on study and doing exams, i really appreciate your compliment about the country i live in, i’m an alien here too, but have been here for a very longtime now, biNU is an application, i like much and use it, and what i really like about this application is a number of things, biNU, has all useful application it, it contain many of the features that no other application would give, facebook, facebook chat, twitter, qoran, bible, sports, google translate, binu messenger which offers free message, dictionary, wordink, and many more just to mention only i a few, its the most recent and most useful for me, i use it to chat, to stay updated, to send messages, to learn and to read, it got book that are easy to read and that are vierities. In one of my research about impact media on youth in dadaab refugee camps, i mentioned binu as a tool thats too import for the youths Welcome back again, i hope next time, i will read your email in time.
Abdalnasry

From: Abdulnasri
Date: Jul 20 00:00
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Am sorry to respond to your email this late, i’ve been on study and doing exams, i really appreciate your compliment about the country i live in, i’m an alien here too, but have been here for a very longtime now, biNU is an application, i like much and use it, and what i really like about this application is a number of things, biNU, has all useful application it, it contain many of the features that no other application would give, facebook, facebook chat, twitter, qoran, bible, sports, google translate, binu messenger which offers free message, dictionary, wordink, and many more just to mention only i a few, its the most recent and most useful for me, i use it to chat, to stay updated, to send messages, to learn and to read, it got book that are easy to read and that are vierities. In one of my research about impact media on youth in dadaab refugee camps, i mentioned binu as a tool thats too import for the youths Welcome back again, i hope next time, i will read your email in time.
Abdalnasry

From: MaDVD
Date: Jul 16 18:22
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Binu is the cheepest,firstest and easiest site eva. I like the sirvices. Pliz i would uge u to give us more staffs eg wen yo friend is online or offline i must now.

From: rogers111
Date: Jun 7 05:45
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Sijambo. How are you doing? I was busy the other day when you texted me and I didn’t check my binu. Thanks for grading our country.
I love using binu since the 1st day I got it being advertised on opera mini’s mobile store. Chatting live with my friend on facebook via my mobile phone was my intention to download binu. Only to find that there are a pack of other good stuff in binu. I can read a bible via binu at church with a quick access than opening the real bible. I have learnt some french from google translate. Football is my best game that I love the most…AND BINU JUST BRINGS LIVE UPDATE OF THE games as they unveil. This actually made binu my real friend in sports. If I need to check table standings for a certain leagues, I just got it in a click’s search on one page. I really don’t have words to describe binu account! Its another wonderful account of its own. Sending unlimited free emails, sending messages to any number in the world using binu credits has helped me contact my friend in America and France using only 2 binu credits per message. Have never seen such online services like the ones offered by binu account. Searching and reading books onlike, meaning of words in one search. These are a few benefits that I have drawn from the use of binu. Actually they are so many.
Thanks for your visit to Kenya. I wish you a safe journey back to your country and God be with you. Thanks for binu idea once again.

From: Johnokwara
Date: Jun 8 03:55
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Welcome to Kenya! I realy like and enjoy binu when i browse becouse its faster mean of browsing.i like it:-)

From: Chunalouro
Date: Jun 8 12:44
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Wel .my story is binu is the bestever application i hav used.we are not charged alot.good day

From: Davefiestamutero
Date: Jun 8 15:14
Subject: Re:About Binu
To: Gour
—
Binu is a must have blog because it contain all one could desire ie:chatting,being informed about world because of all kind of new,reading materials such as novels,bible etc and many other things well done binu but there is always a room 4 improvement. Gud job binu

From: Nyamweya
Date: Jun 8 16:23
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Yer binu mobile is good for because,i can chat with friend who are on line,News,translating to languages ilike,so binu is wonderful.

From: Jammoh
Date: Jun 9 03:30
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Welcome,i am actually at the coastal part of kenya, I greatly thank the biNU team for i have know much ranging from word discovering and translation,bible reading,free sms, book reading, i have invited over 10 friends to join biNU. Its taking me well. Will the team come to mombasa. Thanks

From: Verohverohs
Date: Jun 9 03:54
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Sorry i did’nt reply your message in time,i myself i love binu very much bcoz since i joined binu i ave never used a computer anymore i use my phone.even my friends love it thanks 2 you.

From: Add.ripon
Date: Jun 9 08:12
Subject: Re:Dubai visit
To: Gour
—
I think binu messanger it,s better from other messangers.beacus i can translate any language.i can see the news won my language.all over the world.and i have few accus about binu user(binu beats).there tolking lie and supid.i wont binu make popular.i already saying all my friend created a binu account.i like binu binu live for ever…..?!

From: Stuckheks
Date: Jun 9 14:48
Subject: Re:Dubai visit
To: Gour
—
You were so fortunte for having a chance to tour Dubai ,im sure you will enjoy a lot & so much more…First of all my gratitude for being number one BiNu team ;) speaking about BiNu i really love it because its totally comple for all the features that you wanted & they enhance your memory also communicating people through email. Especialy the Bible either Wordnik with different languages its amazing.However,you dont need to download another application!

From: Ashish.gaurav
Date: Jun 9 16:02
Subject: Re:Dubai visit
To: Gour
—
I am intersted in binu sms..i like this application..in this generation binu is very important to all in the world…i am crazy for this application….keep it up….

From: Royalboe
Date: Jun 9 19:24
Subject: Re:Dubai visit
To: Gour
—
Thats great..really i am from nepal here.i have been working here at less salary in labour so i am using this binu for sending messages and mails to my mates in nepal .i am using this here because i knew it is best application before in nepal.i like it so much and love it and i am spreading it to my mates n relatives..anyway how you feeling here in dubai?dubai is realy nice if we have good job and high salary but it become hell to us who works in sun in low salary..now i am working in dubai international airport as porter..anyway have a nice time in dubai..do enjoy..god bless you.if you have job in your country…please kindly inform me,my email-royalboe@yahoo.com,my no.+971529173642

From: Urbs2.
Date: Jun 10 11:39
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Thnx alot i jst hv to sai binu has made me knw xo many frends being it one of my hobbies.welcome to kenya & feel at home.xo much welcmed.

From: Elarie
Date: Jun 10 17:13
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Welcome to Kenya. A beautiful home country. How have you been at the moment. Are you back?. Anyway biNU has made us to socialise all over the world regardless of race color religion sex and …I LOVE biNU

From: Lordswin
Date: Jun 12 17:54
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Binu has been very good to me and some of my about sports, free credits,and most of them holy bible. I dont have to carry bible to church because it easy to search in binu.

From: mylesroger
Date: Jun 13 16:20
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Its so sweet,so fast than other browsers even if the network is poor,your are able to chat and browse. It occupies little space and uses very little bundles.

From: MfalmeDAUDI
Date: Jun 15 18:05
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Not much really but Binu is the best mobile socializing application I have ever downloaded to my phone.

From: Mburusos
Date: Jun 16 06:47
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
There isn’t an application a have ever found which is fast in suffing/browsing.its services are best.

From: djfix0724
Date: Jun 18 16:44
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Its unfortunate that I’ve browsed my BiNu SW today 18th. However I shan’t miss son thing to talk abou’ it. Imagine sharing translated bible verses, reading bible all day long with friends,sending news update using the sms service, football updates,dictionary, wow! The benefits are endless. Just imagine preaching trough this App, chatting. . . May the living God bless your innovative work in developing BINU software.

From: Musyokaa
Date: Jun 18 16:48
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Jambo that is good,binu as helped me so much that I can’t explain I have helped many people to have binu accaunts thank you!

From: joejerri
Date: Jun 19 09:05
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Am Jerry from kenya actually binu is the most favourable network to use thanks alot for bring it into use bye.

From: Maritui85
Date: Jul 9 14:33
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
I like binu it gives me evrything

From: Rawllynceharvey
Date: Jun 22 06:55
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
I love binu because here in kenya browsing network are too slow, using binu easen my browsing urgency its faster in facebook you can see your friends on chat and chat back directly..on sundays my binu has a bible so i dont need to carry one..i can also share bible verses directly with my friends on facebook and twitter accounts respectively i love binu as it answers all my browsing needs

From: Cashmiro4
Date: Jun 22 08:59
Subject: Re:importance of of binu
To: Gour
—
Jambo Gour Binu have really made my life easier. I usually use free binu sms 2text my aunt and frndz who are abroad its easy and fast.

From: fanaafriends
Date: Jun 22 13:03
Subject: Re:Dubai visit
To: Gour
—
Ah my friend tnx for visit dubai i like binu coz of binu i m saving my mobile tinny budget,
i m very happy

From: Otiweil
Date: Jun 22 17:22
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Binu is realy good application and it helps me any many ways.

From: Kasyiwa
Date: Jun 22 18:22
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
I use binu in bible study,because is the fastest to open ever.

From: Williammiheso
Date: Jun 23 05:31
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Am using binu service it really giving every thing i need

From: Maiz
Date: Jun 23 22:18
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
I have just downloaded binu today,and its wooow!i like it because its now giving me very quick services..thanks for your services.

From: Momanyi
Date: Jun 26 13:08
Subject: Re:Visiting Nairobi
To: Gour
—
Yap am also happy to hear from you that you are in our country kenya. Actually binu has helped me in networking with different races all over the world up to extent I see the world being so small unto me. Also fact being that it is cheaper make me enjoy.

biNu Secures $2 Million Series A from TomorrowVentures and others to build out Mobile Social Content Platform for Developing World

4 million monthly active users, growing at 400%

Sydney, Australia and San Francisco, CA: biNu, the mobile app platform that brings iPhone-like experiences to low-end smartphones and feature phones, today announced a $2 million funding round from Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures, David Risher and other private investors in Australia and the U.S.

Since launching 18 months ago, biNu has attracted 4 million active monthly users spread across the world, particularly in emerging markets where mobile devices are the primary, and often only, connected device and where biNu is often a user’s first experience of the internet.

biNu’s cloud based technology platform powers the data-lite app, providing fast and affordable access to apps and popular internet services that can be used immediately. Users can instantly switch between services, change to local languages and translate almost anything on the fly, including messages, books and news articles, without having to download and install separate apps.

In addition to using biNu to access favorite apps such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube and more than 100 other services such as books, health information, news, sports and weather, biNu users are also interacting with each other via social features including messaging, sharing and social profiles, making it a content-rich mobile social community.

biNu co-founder and CEO Gour Lentell: “As publishers, content owners and social companies race into emerging markets looking for growth, mobile devices and mobile networks simply can’t keep up. biNu set out to give the 4 or 5 billion people who don’t have top end smartphones or reliable high bandwidth cellular networks a great mobile internet experience. It has grown much faster than we imagined but the big surprise was that our users started requesting ways to interact with each other, which actually created a thriving mobile social community of its own.”

“biNu is changing the lives of millions of people, giving them access to information they can’t get otherwise. For example, 20 million book pages were read on biNu last month, the majority by people who struggle to get their hands on physical books, let alone e-books.”

Despite the rapid growth in high-end smartphones, such as the iPhone, lower end smartphones and feature phones still outsell them by about 5-to-1, providing an enormous and rapidly growing market for a high quality platform for lower end mobile phones.

On lower-end phones, other social networks are much more about networking and messaging and less about content sharing, like it is on the web. biNu’s platform enables content in a sharable manner within a community context, which is unique for lower-end devices.

Brad Holden from TomorrowVentures commented: “biNu serves a huge market through its platform that significantly enhances the user experience on mobile phones and low-end smartphones. Not only are consumers in the developing world seeking a better mobile service, more companies are now trying to reach these consumers via their mobile devices and need an effective and high-speed platform like biNu in order to do so. biNu has the technology as well as a strong management team with an outstanding track record with two previous startups, and we look forward to supporting their ongoing leadership in this space.”
Leading Australian tech entrepreneur and biNu investor, Paul Bassat, added: “I am excited to have become an investor in biNu. It is attacking a massive market, showing extremely strong growth in its subscriber base and its members are very loyal thanks to a rich content experience combined with social capabilities. biNu is making an enormous difference to the lives of people in the developing world by providing them with a rich internet experience.”

About biNu

biNu is a privately held company that develops the biNu mobile app platform that dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit high-end smartphone-like capabilities. biNu works on the thousands of Java-enabled and Android-devices and supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 channels are available via biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment.

About TomorrowVentures

Founded in 2009 with a unique approach to venture capital and an extensive, diverse base of experience and expertise, TomorrowVentures adds value far beyond capital. Tomorrow Ventures’ goal is to grow companies capable of transforming technology, lifestyle, and philanthropy.

About Paul Bassat

Paul co-founded SEEK in 1997 and oversaw its growth to one of world’s largest online employment businesses and one of Australia’s top 100 companies with a market capitalisation of $2.5b.

Paul is an active investor in early stage technology and growth companies. He is a Commissioner of the Australian Football League (AFL) and was appointed as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2009.

We have a number of new social features either complete or slated for development in the near future. The first cab off the rank is the ability to search for other biNu users in order to meet new people in the biNu community from all over the world, and communicate with them using biNu’s messaging and chat features. The “Search People” feature is linked in various places within the biNu app. The easiest way to find it is via the “Search” icon that appears at the top left corner of the biNu Home screen. The next feature will be a friends list where you can easily manage biNu users who you meet and with whom you would like to keep in contact. Watch this space!

Visit m.binu.com on your mobile now to download biNu and try our social features, and many other apps for yourself.

Did you know that you have a library full of exciting material on your phone? With Worldreader Books in a few easy clicks you could be reading our free articles on health, falling in love with a contemporary short story or browsing classic fiction from some of the best writers of our time.

We’re always adding new books and looking for great new stories so we wanted to keep you in the loop. In March we had almost 310,000 readers, mainly from Nigeria, India and Ethiopia. Using biNu’s clever cloud based technology, we brought you local and international stories; classics and brand new tales, along with useful non-fictional content on Health and Sexual Education.

The most popular book was Nigerian author Myne Whitman’s A Heart to Mend. This steamy page-clicker is set in Lagos, where reality is getting in the way of romance. Next up, people are reading African stories, such as easy reader Bee Ninja by Ghanaian writer Diana Mcbagonluri. Romantics and adventure addicts are clicking through Louise McCann’s Someone like me and Fiona Snyckers’ teen series, Sisterz. Stats show that popular classics include The Count of Monte Cristo.
How do we do get such great books onto our App? We have great partners, such as biNu, many international publishers and authors and… You! We need help from our readers, to find out what books you’re reading and what you want to read.
Tell us on twitter @worldreaders #booksforall or by taking part in a quiz.

Curious about Worldreader? We’re a non-profit dedicated to transforming how the world reads by using new digital mediums. We work with schools and organizations to bring e-readers, like the Kindle, to children who have traditionally had poor access to paper books. Devices like the Kindle help reduce transportation costs and enable one child to carry around an entire library. We’re also on cell phones, just like the one you are using, so that anyone with a cell phone can also have access to a world of great books and valuable information.

See more at www.worldreader.org

biNu started out life as an app to improve the performance and usability of web-browsing on mobile phones, but driven by the needs of our users, biNu has morphed into an entire suite of cloud-based apps that include reference, search, translation, ebooks and email. No wonder our users say we make their dumbphones, smart! Just as it is in developed economies, social networking has also become a big deal in emerging economies and our Facebook and Twitter connectivity apps are very popular. However, biNu is taking another big step here by also providing fully integrated and seamless social networking capabilities within biNu itself. So if you want to tell your friends about a good book you read on Worldreader Books, get into a conversation on a sporting event or just express an opinion on anything via biNu beats, you can do so on the go, wherever you are, whenever you like and all without the need for an expensive smartphone or laptop computer.

Original BBC article:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120405-turning-dumbphones-to-smartphones

Link to VisionMobile study:
It’s still a feature phone world

Here is a short video and demonstration of the application. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7iM5Yke7VY

Worldreader now delivers books on any regular mobile phone that have a data service. Last month biNu and Worldreader had over 100,00 readers of books. Most of which were using feature phones not high end smart phones with big screens. By leveraging biNu, Worldreader’s increases its reach and delivers locally authored content to users who that may never get see a local author’s work in a printed medium.

With increased network coverage and high levels of mobile phone ownership, the mobile phone itself is an excellent mechanism for getting books into peoples hands and allow them to read books. In the emerging markets of Africa and Asia if you only have a phone that is data enabled this is your primary access to the internet. Lets not forget the luxury of e-readers, home PCs and tablets are out of the reach of many.

In the Worldreader app, if a reader does not understand a word they can translate it using Google, or look it up in the online dictionary provided by Wordnik, or further investigate terms in Wikipedia and or do a Google search. biNu also provides social connectivity tools which allows readers to share comments and discussion on the books they’ve read.

For a demonstration of the Worldreader app on biNu  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9hH5Pw7YQE&feature=related

For more information about Worldreader please visit http://www.worldreader.org

Finally! Google just added more languages to their translate API. For a few months, some languages were supported via the web interface but not via the API. We are sure that this will please so many of our users who have been eagerly awaiting their languages to be supported, especially Bengali and Urdu. The new languages are: Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Georgian, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu. Enjoy!

Worldreader makes digital books available to all in the developing world. The organization identifies schools, trains teachers, works with communities and local officials, partners with local and international publishers and other top-tier companies to bring e-books to under-served families in the developing world. By providing access to digital books, Worldreader empowers children and families to rise out of poverty.

“Long-term, technology will help create a real culture of reading in parts of the world where that’s not been possible before,” said Worldreader co-founder Colin McElwee. “Mobile phones are central to technological and educational development in countries in Sub Saharan Africa– especially in rural areas, where there is little to no infrastructure.”

biNu’s patented technology utilizes cloud computing to create a virtual smartphone experience that provides instant discovery, switching and sharing of apps, within a social network and messaging platform. biNu is 10x faster and 10x more efficient on data usage than standard mobile browsers and is an obvious choice for anyone looking to fully utilize their mobile phone – particularly in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. The beta version of the Worldreader App for biNu is available immediately and gives biNu users instant access to a cloud-based library of digital books from local and international authors.

“Worldreader improves the lives of millions of people in the developing world,” said Gour Lentell, CEO for biNu. “I am pleased we are able to extend their coverage and I hope biNu will play a part in their overall success.”

With this announcement, biNu joins other Worldreader’s other forward-thinking partners like Amazon.com, Penguin Young Readers Group, and USAID.  Said Worldreader CEO David Risher, “Together with the some of world’s best-known organizations, Worldreader and our partners are bringing books to all.”

Worldreader (www.worldreader.org) is a not-for-profit organization whose aim is to put a library of books within reach of every family on the planet, using electronic book technology. Worldreader has established e-reader programs in schools in Ghana and Kenya, and Uganda with plans to expand throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

For a Worldreader press kit, please see http://bit.ly/oBVyZm.

 biNu nominated for 2012 GSMA Global Mobile Awards Most Innovative App

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The Global Mobile Awards are part of the annual GSMA Mobile World Congress.

“Reflecting the intensity of competition and innovation across the mobile ecosystem, we saw a record 600 entries and an exceptionally high quality field of contenders vying for this year’s Global Mobile Awards,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “It is a significant achievement to have made the shortlist, and our warmest congratulations go to all the nominees announced today. We look forward to the unveiling of the winners at the Mobile World Congress next month.”

With the biNu virtual smartphone app, feature phones take on the characteristics of a smartphone, while smartphones run faster on congested networks. By executing in the cloud, biNu is not constrained by the processing capability of a handset and allows feature phones and low end smartphones to run apps normally associated with high-end smartphones – such as social networking, social media and news services. Optimization and compression techniques are deployed giving both feature phone and smartphone users blisteringly fast access to the Internet.

“Being nominated for this prestigious award is a real achievement for biNu,” said Gour Lentell, co-founder and CEO at biNu. “Whilst there has been a lot of innovation in high-end smartphone technology, the market for low-cost smartphones and feature phones is huge and continues to grow significantly. Bringing innovation to these users – as biNu does – presents the company with an exciting opportunity.”

Today there are 5 billion mobile phone users, most of whom do not have high-end smartphones and who use their mobile as their primary internet access device. biNu connects them all to a super-fast, low cost, mobile, optimized social network of communication tools and instant application services.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/2/prweb9164961.htm

January 2012 – a new year bringing millions of new biNu users and very strong growth in sessions and page views! Monthly page views saw an 11-fold increase over the year, from 29m to 341m. Monthly user sessions grew from 1.3m a year ago to 15.7m, and unique monthly users rocketed from 370k last year to 3.1m in January. As we add new products and improve existing ones we expect growth in all metrics to continue apace. Check out our usage stats page for more details.

With the popularity of instant messaging exploding across the mobile world, especially in emerging markets, we are pleased to be able to offer unlimited access to Facebook Messenger on our platform. The Messaging interface can be accessed via the main Facebook app or directly from the biNu home screen. We intend to add other messaging networks such as Google Talk and a new biNu Messaging service as soon as possible.

Visit m.binu.com on your mobile now to download biNu and try our Facebook Messenger, Twitter and many other apps for yourself.

Image courtesy of Vision Mobile

The article prompted many comments questioning this fact.  And to counter these comments it is clear we view the world differently. In the developed world we need to increase our field of understanding and put ourselves in a different place. A place that is not surrounded by computers and high tech gadgets but a place where Maslow’s hierarchy of needs plays a greater influence, a place that just doesn’t care about Android, Apple, RIM or Symbian. It is about communicating. It is arguable that Maslow’s hierarchy can be adapted to include this overall human need to communicate. It is the same in the emerging markets as it has been in the developed market – a phone has become an essential item for talking, sending SMS and browsing the internet.

People in the emerging markets want to communicate with family and friends, they want to access the Internet and they do – in the millions. Many access it everyday, but not like developed economies on a computer but using their phone. Perhaps on a “crappy old” Nokia or a no-name brand in Africa.  In India a person has a choice of one of 150 phone manufacturers.

Price is a major factor in the lack of smartphones for sure. But there are also other critical requirements.

• The standby life of a phone is a very important consideration. The “crappy old phone” can run for days between charges. When was the last time your Smartphone was attached to a power socket?
• The phones need to be robust to cope with the environment where humidity and dust can spell the end for an electrical device.
• Lastly, a major factor outside of major economic centres (and in some cases inside them too) the network infrastructure is just not there.

Here are some other statistics from other leading analyst companies:

• Ovum say Feature phones will still have 63% of mobile market share by 2016.
• In recent Gartner report – India accounts for 12% of device sales globally with smartphone sales making up only 6% in the first 3 quarters of 2011. This is expected to increase to 8% by the end of 2012.
• According to the GSMA – Africa has overtaken Latin America to become the second largest mobile market after Asia. By 2015, the total number of connections is estimated to reach 84% of the total African population.
• According to CISCO – GSM mobile data traffic is set to grow at 26 fold between 2010 and 2015 with the mobile-only Internet growing to 788 million by end of 2015.

To address the emerging markets, phones need to address the above considerations.  Nokia is being bashed in the press for its smartphone initiatives however when it comes to mass-market feature phones they have invested significant resources in the design and manufacture of their devices to ensure they meet the toughest conditions. There is a reason why Nokia is still the number one choice in emerging markets. They make bloody good phones that last.

The bottom line is mass market feature phones are here to stay for the significant future, they will be re-cycled, reused and refurbished just like those Toyotas that run for ever across the Sahara.

From zero to 15 million downloads in less than a year on GetJar, biNu exceeds all growth expectations. biNu, suppliers of software that dramatically improves the usability, performance and social connectivity of mass-market feature phones, today announced they had surpassed two million downloads per month on GetJar the world’s largest free App Store. biNu is a 100% cloud-based platform that delivers a lightning-fast smartphone experience to mass-market feature mobile phones. It is 10 times faster and uses 10% less bandwidth of a mobile browser even on congested networks.

biNu, suppliers of software that dramatically improves the usability, performance and social connectivity of mass-market feature phones, today announced they had surpassed two million downloads per month on GetJar, the world’s largest free App Store.

“Getjar has a prominent position in the mobile app space and have allowed us to rapidly grow our install base,” says Gour Lentell, CEO for biNu. “Achieving two million downloads per month in less than a year is a milestone for the company and exceeds our growth expectations.”

biNu provides a smart phone like experience on mass-market feature phones delivering ultra-fast internet services and social applications. It is a first choice application for anyone looking to fully utilize their mobile phone in emerging economies, where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device, and therefore the opportunity for biNu is vast.

“We’re thrilled to be part of biNu’s success in reaching 15 million downloads on GetJar so far” said GetJar COO, Chris Dury. “For our feature phone customers, biNu has been able to bring the smart phone experience to them too through their browser, SMS, and search applications.”

About biNu
biNu is a privately held company that develops the biNu mobile suite of apps that dramatically improves Internet access speed, usability and social connectivity of mobile phones. With biNu, even basic mobile phones exhibit smartphone-like capabilities. biNu supports millions of users globally with rapid adoption rates in emerging economies where mobile phones are the primary Internet access device. Today, over 100 apps are available for biNu including social media, search, reference, books, SMS, news, weather and entertainment.

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebbinu/GetJar/prweb8997811.htm

The Middle East and Africa are forecast to have the strongest mobile data growth of any region at 129% CAGR.  Tthe mobile only internet population will grow 56 fold from 14 million at the end of 2010 to 788 million by the end of 2015[1].

During our our time at the conference Gour Lentell, biNu CEO was interviewed by Russell Southwood an industry analyst and researcher from Balancing Act Africa. In the interview Russell probes Gour on the challenges of providing a fast cloud based mobile internet experience on mass market feature phones.

Here is the link to the video interview: Gour Lentell – Your Smartphone in the Cloud

Russell Southwood can be reached here or via twitter @BalancingActAfr

http://www.balancingact-africa.com

Sources:

[1] Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast

Warning: This post contains a lot of number 1s. Today, on 1/11/11, biNu released a new app for Twitter users on feature phones and smartphone Twitter users seeking a faster experience. This announcement comes close on the heels of the super-fast Facebook app released by biNu a few weeks ago.

With Snaptu officially ending its support for Twitter on 11/11/11, biNu is ready and willing to welcome any Twitter users affected by the Snaptu end-of-life announcement.

Visit m.binu.com on your mobile now to download biNu and try our Facebook and Twitter apps out for yourself.

In her recent blog, CNN reporter Amy Gahran highlights a digital divide between those with easy access to the Internet and those without. Since the Internet is key in our socio-economic fabric, this digital divide is a big deal affecting jobs, services, education, public safety, health care and so on. Amy also cites research from IDC that going forward “more U.S. Internet users will access the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs or other wireline devices.” For those on the rich side of the digital divide, this is all about accessing the Internet on-the-go with iPads, Androids and iPhones (how did we ever manage without them?). For those on the poor side of the tracks, the good old feature phone reigns supreme.  While a divide between haves and have nots is the norm in a free market economy, we can take some comfort in the fact that in a free market, products emerge to opportunistically fill gaps.  And this is no more so than in hi-tec.

biNu is a good example. biNu closes this digital divide by giving feature phone users a smartphone like experience. biNu apps run in the cloud and don’t need an expensive smartphone processor. Data optimization reduces bandwidth and low-cost speedy Internet access results. As you would expect, biNu is seeing double-digit growth where feature phones are de rigueur and the #1 device for accessing the Internet: India, China, Brazil and other emerging economies. But based on IDC’s findings, it looks like biNu will play a prominent role in the developing mobile economies of the developed world.

“Hie i just want to thank with everywork u are doing as a Zimbabwean i truly proud and inspired to have someone like u who binu co founder u are indeed our own Steve Jobs, keep own improving and implementing new applications and may the lord and the Zimbabwean Spirit guide u,good day.”

biNu now gives mobile phone users access to an entire library of books without the need to download the individual books to their device.  biNu books does not use any space on the phone because biNu reads them directly from the biNu cloud. As books are added to the library they are instantly available to all users without the need to download new versions. biNu compression and caching technology means that data transfer is fast and efficient–all through an intuitive interface.

With biNu books, users browse and search books by title, author, language, view popular or recent books. When reading books, users share, translate and lookup words via the online dictionary all without having to leave the application. Many biNu users are from emerging markets in Africa and in Asia where access to hard copy versions of these books are not always available.  Furthermore, frequently feature phones are the primary Internet access device ruling out PC or tablet based readers.

Here is a sample list of some of the books available within biNu:

• A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
• Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Here are some user comments:

• “Wow! i like it so much”, from Nepal, Nokia 7210 – Supernova
• ‘This is wonderful”, from Zimbabwe, Nokia 511
• “Dracula on biNu O o o o Horror!”, Bangladesh, Samsung

Download biNu from http://m.binu.com for your Java feature phone, Android or Blackberry.

For more information on Project Gutenburg visit: http://www.gutenbergnews.org

“Analysts at Gartner predict that by 2015, more people will access the Internet via feature phones rather than from their personal computers. So why are internet users still relying on the slow, clumsy and expensive browser-based connection of their feature phone to access all their favorite content?

Seeing this as both a problem and an opportunity, two serial internet entrepreneurs based in Australia decided to create a solution. In 2008, Gour Lentell and Dave Turner developed biNu, a software platform that enables mobile phones to access Internet applications and services with near instant response times—even on slow or congested networks. For developers, the biNu platform enables mobile Internet applications to be developed quickly and easily using existing development tools and methods. For consumers, the free mobile biNu platform provides quick and easy access to a world of biNu performance-optimized apps.

If they are using biNu’s mobile platform, any of the five billion individuals across the globe with access to a mobile phone can now get immediate access to the economic, educational and social benefit of the Internet without owning a computer….”

Want to win 1000 biNu Credits? Just by sharing content in biNu beats? Then read on!

All you need to do is be the user with the most unique shared beats from any News application, biNu Books, Football, The Quran, The Bible or Wordnik. Go to ‘More Apps’ in the Menu to find these apps. Browse or search for content and share it using the ‘Menu’ -> ‘Share This’ option.

The competition runs for a week, starting Monday 10th Oct at 6am GMT and ending on Monday 17th Oct at 6am GMT. You are of course welcome to practise sharing content before then as well. :)

Rule 1: We will only count *unique* content shared by each person, so please do not repeat the same content many times.

Rule 2: We will only count shared content via biNu beats.

Good luck!

You can now share some of your favourite biNu content with your friends or the wider biNu community using biNu beats or biNu Messenger. So far we have enabled sharing in these apps:

• Quran
• Bible
• Wordnik English Dictionary
• Football
• biNu Books
• All News applications!

This is how you share: First find one of these mentioned apps in the catalog by clicking ‘More Apps’. Once inside the app, browse or search for the content you are interested in. Then use the Menu again and use the ‘Share This’ option. Then select how you would like to share – either in biNu beats, or using Chat, Email or SMS in Messenger.

It’s that easy!

biNu has always had a large catalog of apps that are accessible from every installed app – but for some of our users it hasn’t been obvious how to find them.

biNu v3.2.1 changes all that with a new icon-based home screen that will be familiar to smart phone users. Not only does this provide instant access to our most popular apps, it also allows users to
(i) easily search through our entire app catalog
(ii) customize their home screen by adding, deleting or removing app icons

To enjoy this genuine smart phone experience on your feature phone (or to speed up your smart phone!) get biNu v3.2.1 now! Download from m.binu.com

Whilst Opera Mini and other “proxy browsers” have been using a split browser design for years now, Amazon Silk goes farther. Amongst other things it uses “pre-rendering” to predict which pages a user might want next and delivers them in advance and it employs extensive caching of common files to improve delivery response times.

However the Amazon Silk browser is designed to run on tablet computers that still offer significantly more horsepower than mass-market mobile phones. As much as we might want it to, the internet “browser” model that works so well on powerful computers running large browser software applications requesting uncompressed HTML data over wired, broadband network connections will never work well on mobile devices with limited processing power requesting page-at-a-time data over wireless mobile networks.

biNu’s technology design employs very similar concepts to the new Amazon Silk browser but takes things even a step further by performing 100% application processing on our cloud servers, which just happen to also run on Amazon Web Services.

biNu delivers internet based content with lightning-fast response times, even to low-end mobile feature phones on slow “2G” mobile networks, by:

• performing all application processing in the cloud, even down to graphics rendering, thereby minimising processing demands on a mobile device
• using a highly efficient, proprietary data protocol to deliver content to the mobile device (an average screen of text display is delivered in 1 or 2 packets of network data)
• employing extensive caching on our cloud servers as well as the mobile device to prevent anything being requested or sent more than once, even down to individual letters/characters displayed on the mobile screen
• “predictive caching” whereby screen pages are sent in advance of a user request, thereby providing instantaneous response times in many cases.

As this BI Research article points out, faster browsing leads to more engagement (more shopping in the case of Amazon), which offers even greater value in the the mobile internet world where the experience for most mobile users in the world is still woeful. There’s also amazing value in the market intelligence collected when all user activity is being channelled through a single cloud based service.

Last month we had 1.6 million unique users accessing biNu from pretty much every country in the world.

The biNu journey is just beginning…

biNu already offers access to some of the most popular services on the Internet today, including Google search, translate, Wikipedia, Wordnik and many more. But none comes bigger today than the social networking giant that is Facebook.

Today biNu released its first version of the Facebook app, opening up the hugely popular service to users on simple feature phones and accelerating the experience for existing smartphone users. We like to think that our Facebook experience compares favourably with the likes of Snaptu (now the official Facebook mobile app) in terms of speed and data efficiency.

And in addition, biNu allows users to keep abreast of the latest news, search, translate, communicate to their friends using biNu Messenger, and many other useful social features all on the same platform.

If you don’t already have biNu, visit m.binu.com on your mobile and download the app today.

We’ve been thinking about Project Gutenberg for some time at biNu but never had the time to really get into it. But we’re going to now. The entire texts of the Quran and the Bible have both been available on biNu for a while, in multiple languages and versions, and have proved to be popular with biNu users all over the world, from the U.S.A to Zimbabwe.

The time has come and now we’re going to use the same underlying technology to make every book on Project Gutenberg available and easily read on biNu, for free. Watch this space…

Requiescat in pace, Michael Hart.

In recent years there have been sudden surges in sales of of Blackberry phones in traditionally lower-key markets for RIM such as South Africa, Indonesia and Venezuela driven largely by the youth market, not RIM’s traditionally strong business market.

And the reason? BBM – the Blackberry Messenger service.

I was at the CommnicAsia conference in Singapore recently where I learned from fellow mobile app developer companies in Indonesia that most people, well at least amongst youthful middle class educated professionals, have two mobile devices – with the second one being a Blackberry to send messages on BBM. It costs around $100 to buy a lower-end BB phone and on a $10 a month data plan they have unlimited messaging via BBM. No need for SMS on their “normal” mobile.

One problem of course for the broader population is that you need a BB phone to join the BBM conversations. Bummer if you can’t afford one or don’t like BB phones.

And the problem for RIM as Tomi points out is the sudden growth doesn’t repeat across the whole population and they don’t seem to upgrade their handsets at nearly the same rate as traditional BB users.

And of course, the more general global problem is there are billions of other mobile subscribers in the world today who can’t afford a second handset, let alone a BB one, and they have just the same desire to communicate.

As Tomi succinctly points out, the epiphany is that “the addiction is not to the handset, it is to the service.”

Which is why we are very optimistic about the huge potential we are beginning to see realised for the messaging services offered on biNu.

Last week we launched the biNu email service giving every biNu registered user an easy to use, fast, simple unlimited email service on top of the SMS and text messaging service we already offer.

Tomorrow we will be re-branding our integrated, unified messaging service as biNu beaTs giving biNu users on any type of phone (including BB) a single unified service to communicate in the form of SMS or chat or email as well as sharing Twitter like “beaTs”.

Watch this space!

• Total downloads – 13.2 million
• GetJar downloads – 10.1 million
• OviStore downloads – 2.1 million

Thanks to all our happy users out there for your support!   Looking forward to welcoming the next millions to biNu.

As a technology that gives performance and usability uplift to mobile Internet access, biNu clearly has a role to play here. Vendors who are not hampered by page load speeds and an ugly interface are more likely to engage their customers than those who are not. We recently launched a free developers toolkit exactly for this purpose: by optimizing their website for biNu performance, vendors get a jump start over their competition. It’s a straightforward proposition.

biNu started out life as a product to improve the performance of feature phones, but it has grown into something of  far greater significance. Every day we receive feedback from our customers who tell us how biNu takes the drudgery out of Internet communication, but when you consider in developing countries the correlation between economic growth and the efficiency of mobile Internet access, one can argue that biNu’s role is pivotal.

Clearly 3G data offers some hope, but the services are being rolled out slowly and users are experiencing teething trouble, but a marketing strategy that relies on the evolution of technology puts you at the mercy of fate. And your competitors.

Dave and I co-founded biNu in September 2008 excited about the idea of bringing ultra-fast delivery of web services to ALL mobile phones, not just expensive smart phones.

I grew up in Zimbabwe and and have lived in the UK and now Sydney for 20 years. I am so happy and privileged to have experienced the birth of the internet age. And the African in me gets really excited by the idea of helping all people, in all countries access the incredible benefits, and fun, of this wonderful medium.

It’s so great to see that biNu is becoming a hit in Zimbabwe, amongst many other countries. You guys ROCK!

We’ve got so many ideas and see so many opportunities to do great things with biNu. Watch this space :-)

Check out the “Lentell Soup” blog in the Zimbabwe News section of biNu to find out a little bit more about my heritage…

In my spare time I enjoy outdoor activities like mountain biking and paddling. I originate from the UK, grew up in Zimbabwe and South Africa and now live in Sydney, Australia.

biNu users can now access the well respected Yahoo! search service which adds to the existing search providers, Google and Bing.

The Yahoo! search service on biNu offers lightning fast results for web and image searches and can be accessed via the Search menu in my biNu.

“…the reality is that 90% of the world does not have or cannot afford a smartphone or a high-end device,” Mr. Elop said.

He went on to say that of the 3.7 billion people who don’t have a smart phone, 1.2 billion have only sms and no data plan and 1.7 billion don’t use the web.

Mary McDowell, Nokia’s Executive Vice President – Mobile Phones, noted that “75% of the next billion embracing mobile technology are in fast growing countries such as India, Indonesia, China and Vietnam not to mention Nigeria, South Africa and Brazil” and highlighted the opportunity for mobile technology to entertain, educate and better people’s lives by enabling them to acquire new skills and improve their prospects for earning a living.

biNu’s is equally passionate about helping bring the “worldwide web to the world” and delivering affordable, easy to use and most importantly, fast content services.

Thanks Saroj :-)

If you already have biNu on your handset, use the ‘More apps’ link in the menu to navigate to the mybiNu home page. Then look in the ‘Search’ folder for ‘Bing Search’.

If you don’t yet have biNu, Get It Now!

We will shortly also have a Bing Search app in GetJar.

When you open biNu SMS the first thing you will notice is that it’s now called biNuTXT. You can still send free SMS to any phone, the name change is a step towards our upcoming offering of free unlimited txt messages between biNu users.

On the biNUTXT home screen there’s new links to your message inbox and outbox. Every message you send or receive through biNu is now stored, even if you send by regular phone SMS. The message will be delivered as usual to the phone but will also appear inside your biNu inbox or outbox. Now you can read, reply, forward and manage all your messages, without having to leave biNu.

Do you every wonder if your message has been received correctly? Each message in the inbox and outbox has an icon showing it’s delivery status. There’s a green tick for successful delivery, blue clock for delivery in progress, and a red cross for failed delivery. This is something that many people have been asking for, we’re happy to make it available.

We hope you like the new features, there are still many more changes to come. And Keep sending feedback, it’s been very useful to us, especially when we release new changes like this.

“Without science,we can’t think our life,like that without binu i can’t think.i love it..”

We were with many other companies in the same position and Amazon provided some communication on their problems but we were more more concerned about our users as their loyalty would be tested. Our servers ran on the Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing or EC2 service  on the east coast of the USA.  When our engineers discovered the problem they worked through the night to deploy biNu on new infrastructure at another data centre.  After 14 hours initial service was restored but it was a further 18 hours before full service was restored. We did receive a few complaints but the following graph shows the resiliance of our users.

As the chart shows within 2 days of the outage we had our users back. Thank you to all those that stuck with us.

• Hey binu is Great great great. Because in my hole life i can’t see very good than binu. I want to binu will live infinity time in world. Thank you (Nokia 5130c)
• Binu is a faster of websites i belive the binu is faster of google record
• I like you biNu so much because you’ve that unique virtue;we can find free sms,weather report,updating news,many more applications from getjar,image+web+video search by google,google translation,healthcaring tips and many more! It’s cheaper than other apps (Nokia 5130c)
• I’m very happy thank u very much. It is very good especialy 3rd world country. (Nokia 6300)
• Very nice application, i have deleted all application because binu contains all in one. Thanx to producers 4 making so useful application
• WOW!I have never seen a helpfull app. Like this. THANX
• biNu is amazing software. I really enjoying it. Thank you developer and provider. Please keep it my whole life. Ha ha ha (Nokia 5310 XpressMusic)
• biNu is amazing application. I really enjoying it. Thank you so much to developer and provider. I would like it in my whole life.
• Hy,”thanks to binu team,for bring binu” it is the best social site.it has all which i need.if the binu team offer ourself to send more sms ing a day,it would be bettr. Thanks. (Nokia 2700c)
• Dear Friends! Thanks for allowing us to use Binu free of charge. It is so effective and fast software. I have shared about it with many of my friends in sudan and Ethiopia. Regards, shifty1000 (Nokia 2700c)
• LovelY style of app. I luv d design. Thank u! (Nokia6230i)
• Thx for giving quran in various languages thx u so much (Nokia C3)
• I installed The Holy Bible from biNu on my phone. It’s awesome and takes up very little space. It searches, goes right to chapter and verse, fast. It’ll be great for church, I won’t miss half of the sermon flipping through pages! Now I have the Word, whever I am!
• I love this application put together with so many capabilities. Thank you! (Nokia 6230i)
• I love BINU software, this software is great! (Nokia 2690)
• This is d bst app i hav ever seen (Nokia N73)
• Its really good software. I like this (Nokia 7210)
• I really appreciate the developers . Tnx and keep it up (Nokia5310XpressMusic)
• This is a usefull application (Nokia C2)
• It very good for student.i pray for binu (Nokia 5130c)
• It is exelent app to use in 3110 (Nokia 3110c)
• I lyk dis application very much this reduce sms cost n very handy for students lyk me who have no enough money (Nokia 6303c)
• Binu is really great application where we can get All in One service. Keep it up. (Nokia 2700c)
• Binu is a very faster browser. N sms servise is the grear service. (Nokia 2626)
• This application BINU is very good as it contains multi applications like weather, sports, news, religion books, google translation, and best application is free sms and more. So i realise i need not to download any application because it contains all. (Nokia 3110c)
• Binu !!!!!!! U are very good and nice am feel free with u always.”
• Sir, I am a student. I am very happy to use ur application. (Nokia6300)
• Thanks for the greatest improvement of the latest version. I’m now able to browse,read and edit of phone book in the phone with BiNu newest version. (Nokia 3110c)
• It is my best application. Thank you binu (SAMSUNG-SGH-L700)
• No 1 softwere of the world. I like it. (Nokia 2700c)
• It’s very nice software for knowing cricket score. (SAMSUNG-GT-B3410)
• Binu is a very very good for everything. I really like it and i use every time. (Nokia 6500c)
• Thanks up you i like ur service i am so many happy (Nokia 3110c)
• Its a best application that comprise every utility which in a perfect application should be . Thanks for developing this application (Nokia 2700c)
• Hiren roy:i just love binu’s apps i have no words! (Nokia 2690)
• Infact, BINU is the most widely internet i have ever seen in this world. This site is reliable,affordable and in all the cheapest and the fastest ever. THANK U! (Nokia 6270)

Keep up to date with all the pomp and ceremony of Will and Kate’s Royal Wedding.

Includes popular news feeds from all over the world, official Royal Family updates, photos and Twitter feeds.

Get biNu now.

Amazon updates:
http://status.aws.amazon.com/

In March we had just over 1m unique users accessing biNu on their mobiles in over 180 countries, generating 3.5m login sessions and 58m page views.

We are stoked! Thank you :-)

biNu usage stats Dec to Mar

“This application BINU is very good as it contains multi applications like weather, sports, news, religion books, google translation, and best application is free sms and more. So i realise i need not to download any application because it contains all.”

This week we launched our IPL Cricket App.

Featuring all the IPL matches with live ball-by-ball match commentary, full scorecards, viewer comments and more. Of course, scores for all the other cricket matches are still available, e.g. tests and ODI series. Download the app for your phone from GetJar here:

http://www.getjar.com/IPL-Live-Cricket-Scores-on-biNu.

Cell Phone Inventor Martin Cooper

38 Years of Mobile Phones! Back in 1973 would the inventor Martin Cooper at Motorola have dreamed of the many uses of phones today? There are now more than 3.5 billion mobile phones. Mobiles today are used by nearly half of the world’s population and many phones (not just Smartphones) allow access to the Internet. In the mid 1990′s the Internet was made available for commercial use and within 5 years it started to be available on mobile phones albeit in a limited fashion.

The world has changed dramatically since the first mobile phone call. Mobile phones now are not just used for voice calls.  They allow people to share news, pictures of natural disasters, wars and protests, through to more personal content with friends, families and even strangers across the world instantaneously via the Internet.  The mobile Internet has had a dramatic effect on the world giving mobile users sources of information previously accessible only to those with computers. Nice work Martin!

Here is the the full article from CNN.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/01/greene.first.cellphone.call/index.html?hpt=C1

SYDNEY, Australia – March 25, 2011 – Less than 6 months after launching its service, feature phone mobile app company biNu has reached 1 million unique users per month, with a current growth rate of over 40% month on month.

biNu provides simple, ultra-fast access to popular Internet services such as Google Search, Google Translate, Wordnik Dictionary, Wikipedia, News, Weather, Cricket & Soccer scores, exchange rates, mobile app stores as well as SMS services.

biNu’s 1 million unique monthly users come from over 150 countries with top markets including India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, USA and Nigeria. This diverse popularity stems from biNu’s ability to display content in any language on any handset with many popular services in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Chinese and other Asian languages.

New research from Asymco shows there are 3.5 billion mobile subscribers in emerging and developing nations without smart phones or mobile broadband. While the feature phones they use are data capable, it is not easy, fast or cheap to access Internet services. Even in the U.S., 72% of mobiles are feature phones.

Snaptu – acquired earlier this week by Facebook – shares biNu’s focus of providing Internet services to the 95% of mobile users that don’t use smart phones. In addition biNu offers an open developer platform (http://www.developer.binu.com) which means any organisation or developer can utilize the biNu platform to dramatically improve access to Internet based services for feature phone users.

“Facebook’s acquisition of Snaptu highlights the strategic value of providing a much better way to deliver Internet services to 3.5 billion feature phone users. But you don’t have to buy a company like Snaptu to do it.” said Gour Lentell, CEO for biNu. “Our strategy is to provide an open development platform that companies and developers can use to deliver a more effective mobile Internet experience.”

The biNu mobile app delivers ultra-fast, easy-to-use, multi-lingual Internet services to virtually any mobile phone, from mass-market feature phones through to Android smart phones, with Blackberry support coming soon.

The end-user biNu experience is 5-10 times faster – using much less bandwidth – compared with the standard browsing experience on 2G feature phones. There is minimal processing performed on the user’s mobile device with 100% application processing performed on biNu’s cloud-based servers.

To demonstrate the speed and ease of use of biNu, the company has created a video demonstration at www.binu.com/demo comparing the performance of a Google Search on biNu compared to Google Search in a standard mobile web browser.

Editorial Contact
David Sanday
Bowes Communications
+61 (0)2 9387 2333
david.sanday@bowespr.com
####

Like biNu, Snaptu’s focus since it’s founding in 2007 was to provide useful and innovative services to the 95 percent of mobile users that don’t have access to advanced smart phones.

And their success in developing great technology and an excellent user experience on so-called ‘dumb-phones’ is a primary reason behind the announcement today that Facebook was acquiring Snaptu.

SmartCompany reported the news adding the comment the “acquisition not only highlights how importantly Facebook values its mobile solutions, but also how handsets apart from smartphones still control a significant portion of the telecommunications market.”

http://m.binu.com/a

We look forward to welcoming all our new Android users!

Cute little guy. Sometimes we see the big ones lounging on the warm asphalt in the carpark.

If the word you’re searching for can’t be found then a spelling suggestion is offered.

Some of the spelling suggestions made in the past day include:

acadamy –> academy
pogressive –> progressive
astrringent –> astringent
diffent –> different
preemt –> preempt
magnonimus –> magnanimous
chemicle –> chemical
sucess –> success

Previously searches like this were showing up with a “no results found” message, with spelling suggestions on you get a more useful result. Another reason to use Worknik on biNu!

Spelling suggestions are courtesy of Yahoo! via the Spelling Suggestion YQL table

http://www.mybusiness.com.au/articles/Export/Phoning-up-growth

Another feature that has come from user suggestions is the ability to select or use the translation result. We’ve achieved this by adding a “Send as text” option in the menu.

Finally the positions of the original and translated text blocks on the results screen have been switched. The translated text is now at the top of the screen. We think this makes more sense as the translated text is what people are most interested in, it’s an especially noticeable improvement for large translations.

More updates on the way!

The downside to this flexibility is we have to do the hard work! Our proxy team spends a lot of time making sure that our pages are looking great. You wouldn’t normally give it much thought but there is a lot of complexity that goes into just displaying text. You have to make sure letter spacing is correct, word breaking and wrapping works correctly, line spacings, text alignments have to match with mixed fonts. And then when you start getting into right to left languages like Urdu and Arabic it’s a whole new set of conditions to consider.

At the end of last week our proxy team released a change that significantly improved how text within biNu is displayed on the phone. Apart from looking great it’s rendering the text about 4 times faster than it was. So to those who left feedback asking us make text more readable, I hope this helps. More updates on the way.

Engineer RA Mashelkar shares three stories of ultra-low-cost design from India that use bottom-up rethinking, and some clever engineering, to bring expensive products (cars, prosthetics) into the realm of the possible for everyone.

“When you wish to achieve results that have not been achieved before, it is an unwise fancy to think that they can be achieved by using methods that have not been used before.”

“Value for money AND value for many.”

• Links menu option to allow navigation between articles
• New look headers and footers with home button display
• Improved article formatting and error handling
• multi-language image support

Download biNu on your phone and try it out.

We didn’t loose any data but it did take a good hour or more to rebuild and reconfigure the effected server.

Apologies to our users, it pains us to see all those unfulfilled requests come in! The one good thing to come out of these situations is to get us to hone our architecture and procedures so service is not interrupted when hardware fails.

Our top five download countries in this period are:

And our top five biNu content applications in this period are:

We are continuously adding more content applications to biNu and at current download rates are doing over one million a month.

Rollin’, Rollin’ Rollin’
Keep movin’, movin’, movin’….

In keeping with this tradition we have just released a brand new version of our number 1 downloaded app: Wordnik Dictionary. Wordnik is far more than just a dictionary, the folks at Wordnik are passionate about words, they have made it their stated goal to “show as much information as possible, as fast as they can find it, for every word in English”. As well as traditional definitions Wordnik contains examples of usage, phrases and related words. Visit Wordnik and have a look yourself

In bringing Wordnik to biNu we believe we might just have the fastest, most comprehensive English dictionary available on a feature phone!

Today’s Wordnik Dictionary update brings better support for different screen sizes, improved interface and a random word feature. Have fun with it.

Hope you enjoy.

Translations by biNu is designed to be fast and simple to use, have fun with it.

More updates on the way! keep the feedback coming.

Our most popular content is the Wordnik Dictionary. Check out Wordnik, it’s a fantastic 21st century web based English dictionary.

One million, here we come…

6th Sep, South Africa, Kama Sutra – 5/5
3rd Sep, Pakistan, Google Search – 5/5
3rd Sep, Philippines, Wordnik – 5/5
31st Aug, Kenya, Google Search – 5/5
30th Aug, Ethiopia, Google Search – 5/5
30th Aug, Sri Lanka, Google Search – 5/5
30th Aug, India, Dainik Bhaskar – 5/5
29th Aug, Pakistan, biNu Cricket – 4/5
28th Aug, India, Wordnik – 5/5
28th Aug, India, Wordnik – 5/5
26th Aug, Canada, Kompas – 5/5
25th Aug, Lebanon, Google Search – 5/5
24th Aug, Indonesia, Bola News – 4/5
23rd Aug, Indonesia, Media Indonesia – 5/5
22nd Aug, South Africa, Peoples Daily English – 5/5
21st Aug, Ghana, Wordnik – 5/5
20th Aug, Cambodia, Google Search – 5/5
21st Aug, India, Holy Bible – 5/5 (“Praise the lord, this is an awesome application which costs a very less space & now i can read bible anywhere. May god bless the team with wisdom & fullness of spirit.”)

Read full article…

We are one of the Tech23!
19.AUG.10 | Sydney
www.tech23.com.au

————————————————————————

We are delighted to announce that our company has been chosen to present at Tech23 2010!

So what is Tech23? Tech23 is a celebration of innovation, where 23 innovative Australian ICT companies – including us – will present before panels of esteemed industry leaders, experienced entrepreneurs, experts and investors including Roger Allen; Fiona Balfour; Chris Beare; Scott Farquhar, co-founder & CEO, Atlassian; Martin Hosking; Ryan Junee; Deepak Natarajan, MD, Intel Capital; Anthony Pascoe, CEO, Lend Lease Ventures and Emmanuel Rodriguez, Government CIO, NSW Department of Services, Technology and Administration.

An audience of over 400 will be in attendance, including government, researchers, customers, industry members, and media. Our company is also eligible for a range of exciting prizes including $150,000 in Innovation Pathways prizes, sponsored by Industry & Investment NSW, which will be presented at Tech23’s after party.

As one of the 23, we are excited to be part of Tech23 and would like to invite you to celebrate innovation with us by joining us there on Thursday 19 August 2010 at The Auditorium, 37 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills!

We are also delighted to offer you a special rate – as a valued member of our network – of $150 (+gst). Register now at https://www.slatteryit.com.au/RegoPages/Tech232010Mates.aspx using promotional code ‘TECH23MATES’.

And why should you attend? Tech23 is a great opportunity to get a glimpse of Australia’s emerging ICT innovations, network with key industry members in attendance, and enjoy a great day celebrating Australian innovation. And, of course, we’d love to have you there to support us on the day!

Thank you for your continued support and we hope to see you at Tech23!

————————————————————————
Tech23 2010 Details
————————————————————————

when
Thursday, 19th August 2010

time
(main event) 8.30am – 5.30pm
(awards presentation event) from 5.45pm

where
(main event) The Auditorium, 37 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills
(awards presentation event) Equilibrium Hotel, World Square, Cnr Goulburn and George Streets, Sydney

register here

————————————————————————

www.tech23.com.au

————————————————————————

Sponsored by
Industry & Investment NSW | Australian Technology Showcase | AusIndustry

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Supported by
AIMIA | ANZA Technology Network | AVCAL

————————————————————————

Tech23 is a SlatteryIT event

————————————————————————

biNu would like to help make that happen…

Here are some of the feedback comments we received from mobile users of biNu Football:

• This is the best application ever in my handphone.
• Thanx
• It is nice software..
• you wellcome
• Thanks for binu for latest football updates
• i m very happy when spain won the world cu because this is the first time to win.
• GRACIAS
• thanx
• yesterdays messages from our fans.Lets do other leagues now!
• binu i love you so much you did a great role
• during fifa month thank you
• shafiq
• Thank you
• KG
• It is nice software..
• Thanky for ur futbl updates.wat worries me irp that live matches were not being updated every minute.
• well done
• Je felicite tous les membres de binu. C etait un exellent travail translation: I congratulate all members of binu.
• C was an exellent work)
• i am Nepalese user of binu football from Asian country-NEPAL.I am very happy for using binu fot bal & hope in Then it’ll be great..
• YES SPAIN YES.GRACIAS POR TODO SPAIN
• really good application for my mobile. THANK YOU binu Team..!!
• Binu is the best in the world of sport. Keep be the BEST!!! .
• Slt moi c7 saoud du burkina faso! Je crois q Dieu a b1 faid,la france car elle
• Votre service est tr\xc3\xa9s int\xc3\xa8ressant
• pens\xc3\xa8 au football africain (translation: Your service was very firm believed to African football)
• thanj u too
• thanks for this software
• SOUTH AFRICA
• It is very good.
• Thank u very much u 2 for planing such an idea which we always wish. Thank u very much once again/ Maradona
• Thank u
• gracias a ustedes por mantenernos al dia con el f\xef\xbf\xbdtbol ;-)
• great work, wish all the best
• THANKS
• Thanks for that
• its great application i enjoy a lot n i respect such a creative mind.keep it up-Bhola from nepal
• Thanks for your service!
• SUPER
• um in lv of binu
• thanks for the wonderful program
• thanyou
• give more information about indian foot ball and about all world rankings
• Harus Lebih menarik
• sajad panahi
• BINU OK
• L espagne va remporter la coupe
• thanks so much
• its very nice. Is it will be update after worldcup?
• I appreciate heart binu
• thankx
• well done sa
• ok
• i hope this will continue.Ambrose,Nigeria
• thanks a lot
• I always liked this application and it helped me find d score whenever I cudnt do anything thank you
• very good programm,i like it but germany losed against spain:(
• good work. Keep up da good work. And try 2 cover epl scores. Thank u
• Thank u so much
• wat a lovely program guys. Keep it up. Job well done.
• some photo or small clipings should be there
• i love this apps
• thank u
• i should say thank you so much i enjoyed this app to the fullest.it kept me so update of all matches thank you
• keep it up.from fred.
• Thank you For help us.
• Nasir
• its gud binu
• GO GO GO
• THANK YOU BINU.\nYOU ARE A GOOD APPLICATIONS FOR ALL PEOPLE HOW LIKE’S FOOTBALL.\nTHANKS TO YOU BEST.
• your software simply rocks.Try to improve the user interface.
• love u
• fast and good information. Keep it up.
• i really love the program.. And i wish you to cover the other leagues
• bagus
• Welldone\nDo it
• thank you
• hai
• very nice
• Best and Fentastic
• thanks
• lanjutkan binu,thanks for all information
• thanks very much i am very happy with binu
• u rock man! u will alwayz remain in ma heart.
• Keep it up

1. Enormous market (either existing, or new)

2. A fundamental technological or economic change (the product must be “10 times” better/faster/cheaper than what’s on the market now)

3. A kick-ass founding team (tech and sales “superstars” are most important)

Well, the mobile market is gigantic, the biNu mobile internet platform is 3-5 times faster than the typical browsing experience on low-end feature phones and we have a kick-ass tech team!

An article in TechCrunch noted “This mobile site could play a big role in Facebook’s growth going forward, especially given the predictions that browser-equipped mobile phones will be more abundant than PCs in the not-too-distant future. For some people, 0.facebook.com will probably be their only Facebook experience — it may even be the only mobile site they’re accessing from their cell phones.”

Recent media reports speculated that Facebook recently reached 500 million registered users and I’m sure 1 billion uses is within their planning horizon. Most of FB’s new users are going to be mobile subscribers and this move highlights the importance of mobile to their future growth.

we soon hope to release a FB application on the biNu platform that will be 2-3x faster than the current Facebook mobile or 0.facebook browser websites.

Watch this space!

“Because mobiles do not require literacy they have become a powerful tool for poor, self-employed people such as small traders, farmers, fishermen and rickshaw drivers to get information that helps save time and boost earnings.”

“They describe the mobile as the ”most disruptive device to come to India in modern times” and argue consumer and communication capitalism is posing new challenges for established structures of authority and power.”!

Nearly half of all Australian mobile phone users now own an internet-capable phone, but only a third accesses the web regularly on them, according to new research by The Nielsen Company.

Australians’ ownership of internet phones now sits at 43 per cent, with 29 per cent regularly using it to search, email, find maps and to share their lives on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Even though people have an internet-enabled handset, some people aren’t necessarily using it. According to Nielsen’s online business managing director Matt Bruce some still own older 2G smartphone models, while others are afraid of bill shock.

“The older models are not as easy to use. You have to find your way through the phone to find the browser, then go from there. The iPhone makes it easier,” he said.

Internet searches are the most popular online activity on the phones. Some 73 per cent of users conduct online searches by mobile now, compared with 30 per cent a year ago.

Other common uses include checking news and weather (59 per cent, up 18 points), email (58 per cent, up 20 points), maps and directions (56 per cent, up 24 points) and social networking (39 per cent, up 25 points).

The adoption of internet phones has been growing steadily since the introduction of mobile data cap plans in Australia, which go some way to reducing the risk of bill shock for users. People’s infatuation with the iPhone has also driven mobile internet adoption worldwide.

Nokia still maintains a solid lead on internet phones in Australia with a 35 per cent market share, however, the iPhone has made significant gains in the past year, more than doubling from just 13 per cent to 28 per cent market share. Intention to purchase an iPhone also remains high, with Apple set to triple its share this year, Bruce said.

With an overwhelming majority of the share of mobile social networking, Facebook is by far the most common social networking site accessed via mobile (98 per cent), followed by Twitter (20 per cent) and MySpace (17 per cent), the report said.

According to Nielsen, Telstra has seen mobile data traffic on its Next G™ network double every eight months for the past two years.

We’ve been learning that managing network capacity for mobile operators in ALL markets is a major issue and key driver behind looking for more bandwidth efficient ways to deliver data services. This applies just as readily in emerging markets as developed markets.

A primary dynamic in emerging markets is increasing network capacity just to keep pace with subscriber growth, often made more complex by the lack of infrastructure and services in emerging economies. Developed markets might not be growing subscriber numbers significantly these days but the explosion in use of smart phone driven data services, still in its relative infancy, is turning into a major network capacity management headache.

There are immutable ‘laws of physics’ that govern why mobile wireless networking can never deliver the same speeds and capacities as wired networking. And a technical architecture to support mobile web browsing that relies on the wireless delivery of uncompressed HTML mark-up data to chunky browser software on limited hardware capacity mobile devices, and with full page refreshes every time you move forwards or backwards or even stand still whilst checking for small data updates, is inherently less than smart.

It’s not surprising that mobile operators are increasingly looking for ‘smart’ technology solutions that utilize existing network infrastructure much more efficiently AND deliver a superior end-user experience, which to the average mobile user first and foremostly translates to speed, speed, speed…

The article notes that “Nokia presumably believes that, as mobile web activity moves away from downloadable apps into the browser (in theory at least), it should control this strategic piece of software. This makes absolute sense at the high end, where HTML5 and other innovations will start to make the app store less relevant. We cannot see this happening so quickly on slow networks and resource constrained phones – what OEMs and operators need on these platforms is a super-efficient browser and a lot of low end widgets.”.

It’s worth noting that technology platforms such as Opera and Novarra do not offer nearly the same benefits when delivering mobile formatted content, e.g. WAP sites. They are good when browsing ‘normal’ websites designed for PC consumption as they strip out and optimise data being delivered over the wireless network to mobiles, but that’s much less relevant when a website has been designed for mobile consumption. With the unstoppable rise of mobile use, it’s likely that one day there will be more mobile formatted content out there than ‘computer browser’ formatted content.

An underlying point to this being that trying to consume computer browser oriented web content on mobiles is kind of a silly idea as the viewing dimensions and content richness just does not tend to work well on small screens, even on the iPhone. How many iPhone users regularly browse ‘normal’ websites? Not many I suggest. I don’t.

The objectives and the desired experience of mobile content consumption are very different from PC browsing.

Skyfire (www.skyfire) is another start-up in the Opera / Novarra space that is aimed at trying to bring the web as we know it to mobiles. I question the basic objective of trying to stuff computer browser oriented content into a mobile.

We think that what mobile internet users generally want and will use regularly is super fast (on any phone or network), simple to use access to succinct timely information and content designed for the mobile screen and navigation capabilities.

And it must work efficiently on mobile networks, not compelling operators to invest yet more hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in upgrading capacity.

In the meantime, whilst the “painful transition from shitphones (“feature phones”) to smartphone continues”, how can we make internet stuff fast, easy and cheap for a few billion people?

Shout out LOUD……..”2..4..6..8….biNu!”

Just last month, nearly 20 million new mobile accounts were opened. That’s more than double the people than have high speed Internet in the entire country. Even in slums where people live on less than $2 a day, everyone has a phone.

Keep in mind that India is yet to roll out 3G, and most of the phones are simple cheap handsets. It’s a very different market to what we have in the west.

Tatyana Yumasheva, the daughter of Boris Yeltsin, has spoken for the first time of his drinking problem, saying it was brought on by the pressures he endured as the leader of a country undergoing momentous change.

Tatyana’s blog is now available on biNu, in Russian, and can be read more easily and quickly than on any other mobile platform!

Another highlight of just how large the mobile internet market opportunity is and the difference it’s going to make to the lives of many people.

And biNu can handle practically any language script, without worrying about the language capability installed on a mobile device.

We’ve done the hard work of building the software platform to solve the problem of excruciating response times when it comes to the internet experience on most of the three billion phones in the global market today. Now it’s about connecting those three billion people with as many useful, interesting, valuable and entertaining applications and services as possible.

Next quarter we plan to open up the biNu platform to enable any application developer, content or service provider to reach their mobile audience at lightening speeds, without having to worry about what phone, operating system and network a mobile user is using. Imagine an Internet website being restricted to specific computers, particular operating systems and only available on certain network connections – crazy!! Shouldn’t be like that on the mobile Internet either.

Developing a biNu app is simplicity itself. You can use any preferred technology and tools and host anywhere on the internet, just provide an application URL to the biNu proxy server. Application output is delivered to the biNu proxy in “PADL”, a simple XML schema for describing biNu applications.

Developers will be able to register online with biNu, access technical information describing PADL, access a development platform to test their apps and then register them when complete. Developers will also be able to prioritize their apps on the biNu client home-screen for mobile users they introduce to the biNu mobile client.

And best of all, the biNu platform will be free to use – for developers, content providers, and mobile users. biNu also uses relatively little network bandwidth resulting in significantly lower data costs for users and/or network operators).

Whilst Facebook has a great mobile WAP browser interface, the reality is that WAP browsing on low-end mobiles is still a very ordinary experience – just way to too slow basically.

Imagine the possibilities if most of the 3 billion+ mobile users in the world today could access popular web services like Facebook really-really fast. Facebook’s user base of 400 million today could become 2 billion…

Realizing that most mobile phones have numeric keypads and that numbers are a universal language, we figured looking at an easy to remember numeric sequence to derive a word might be an interesting approach.

We couldn’t use the number “1″ key as usually it does not have any letters associated with it.

Besides “1-2-3-4″, the next most obvious and easy to remember numeric sequence is “2-4-6-8″. Looking at the letters typically associated with these keys on a standard phone keypad, we came up with “b-i-n-u”!

biNu is less about sexy, all singing, all dancing user interfaces and much more about getting stuff off the internet to your mobile really, really fast, even if you have an “ordinary” low-end mobile on a slow network. And making it easy and simple to use.

Try it an see.

Our goal is to provide instant, and yes we mean INSTANT, response times wherever possible.

One way, amongst others, that we do that is by getting what you want to the phone before you ask for it. And if we can’t do that, biNu is so efficient that it typically takes between 1-3 seconds to get what you want on to your mobile screen.

Try it and see.

We’ve started out with a number of basic applications available on biNu and we’ll be adding more over time. Another cool feature of biNu is that it’s really easy to develop end-user applications and we hope in due course that others will join us in bringing more fun and useful applications to the biNu platform.

Type “binu.mobi” into your mobile phone browser to download biNu to your phone.

2-4-6-8, Baby I Need U!!