VOA慢速英語(yǔ):Device Works On Any Available Internet or Power Sources

[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:02.47]this is the Technology Report. [00:05.60]A team of Americans and Kenyans [00:08.32]has developed an Internet router [00:10.99]made specially for Africa. [00:13.67]They say it keeps the Internet available [00:16.65]even in areas with undependable Internet service. [00:21.23]The device is called Brck [pronounced Brick], [00:24.47]it can plug into an electric source, [00:27.00]but it is also battery powered. [00:29.71]Al Banda is an Internet blogger in Cameroon. [00:33.93]He saw the device for the first time last week [00:37.51]at an Information Technology Conference [00:40.67]in Berlin, Germany. [00:42.64]Mr. Banda says Brck could solve a problem he has experienced. [00:48.54]"In Cameroon, in my community, [00:52.52]we constantly have power outages, [00:54.23]and you won't get access to the Internet. [00:55.63]We constantly have the ISPs [00:57.04]for any random reason just not providing [00:59.76]the service they claim they're providing us, [01:02.05]so a solution like that [01:03.81]is an African answer to an African problem." [01:06.48]The Kenya-based nonprofit technology company [01:09.92]Ushahidi developed Brck after raising money [01:14.39]through the crouse sourcing website Kickstarter. [01:17.86]Ushahidi official Erik Hersman says [01:21.45]the router is able to move among Internet networks. [01:26.49]"If you have an Internet connection problem, [01:28.00]it will "fail over" to the sim card, [01:29.32]so you'll have 3G connectivity, [01:30.55]which means that you can completely unplug it [01:32.66]and take it with you wherever you want to go, [01:34.99]and have connectivity along the way." [01:37.15]Mr. Hersman says Brck will go into production [01:40.27]as soon as the company raises $125,000. [01:45.42]Ushahidi has collected about half that so far. [01:48.94]The company plans to make up to 1,500 devices at first, [01:54.63]mainly for Africa and India. [01:57.21]Mr. Hersman expects each device to sell for about $100. [02:02.79]James Clardy is a technology developer from Texas. [02:07.77]He has already bought a Brck [02:09.87]and says he is exploring the use of these technologies [02:13.49]for building telehealth and telemedicine. [02:17.14]In a seperate story, A creative program combining wireless phones, [02:22.87]pregnant women and health advice is been launched in South Africa, [02:28.51]the program called Mama sends maternal advice [02:32.67]to expectant and new mothers through text messages. [02:36.81]Mama is the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action, [02:41.39]it is based on the idea that wireless phones [02:45.27]are the most dependable way to reach people. [02:48.29]Right now, three of every four people in the world use cellphones. [02:53.87]Mama sends up to three messages a week. [02:57.25]For example, one such message is about [03:01.28]caring for a new-born baby's umbilical cord. [03:05.05]It explains how infection of the cord can make a baby sick, [03:09.69]then it tells how to keep the cord clean and infection free. [03:15.26]About 800 women die everyday from pregnancy related problems, [03:20.77]and infant death rates are in the millions. [03:23.93]Mama is a partnership between the American government [03:28.00]and private companies. [03:29.47]The program was first established in Bangladesh [03:33.50]and soon to arrive in India. [03:36.06]And that's the Technology Report. [03:39.14]Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports [03:49.45]We are also on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube [03:53.43]at VOA learning English. [03:56.30]I'm Milagros Ardin.

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