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Firebook, a utility application from Ghana, is the newest addition to the menu of applications for smart mobile telephony users.
The application, downloadable from iTunes and Google Play Store, helps mobile users to access all contacts on the go, across platforms and at any time.
Created by three final year Computer Engineering students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Firebook has been described as the best utility application from Ghana.
Firebook was the result of a challenge faced by one of the students, and his desire to ensure no difficulty in accessing his contacts, when his iPhone fell and went dead.
After unsuccessfully trying to sign into his Cloud-on account with his friend’s mobile phone, and being denied access, but prompted to set up an account, while time was running out for him to contact someone, Adnan Abdul-Aziz wondered why a gadget he had acquired for $500 to be able to always keep in touch was causing him such stress.
“Technology is supposed to make life easier,” he said to himself.
With his mate and friend, Timothy Ayernor, who was with him and experienced his frustration first hand, they decided to use what they had learnt, to invent a software to solve the challenge of restrictive access to contacts on mobile telephony when gadgets were destroyed or not working because batteries were out.
Klogo Gibson Selasi, another mate and colleague, joined the two. The three have since registered Firebook at the Registrar General’s Department as Firebook Company Limited.
How it works
Firebook can be used to access all contacts on one’s mobile telephone when the telephone is off, by signing onto the application with another person’s mobile telephone.
After accessing contacts, the user can sign out and his or her contacts are secure and do not get saved on the telephone used to access the contacts.
“It’s like your wallet, you can take money out and put it in at will,” Selasi said.
It can also be used on a web application to access contacts and send text messages.
Currently, the application is free to download and users downloading are sending feedback to the innovators, who say they are using the information to make it even better.
“Another feature of Firebook is its ability to allow the transfer of contacts across applications. For instance, from an iPhone, to a Windows application and to any Android system,” Ayernor said.
Future
It has taken the trio nine months to get Firebook out and they released it a month ago.
The innovators said with time there would be the opportunity for premium users to use the application to access contacts on more than two devices with a charge.
Too bad i dont find this story as informative, innovative, but only justification of our educational system needing a total overhaul...