Development Tech

Available for over a year

Electronic devices carried into the US and UK by air passengers will be checked more thoroughly at airports from this week. But what has changed concerning the terrorist threat? We hear about the chilling technological developments the bomb-makers are thought to be trying to use. Technologies such as contactless card payments, allowing you save a few seconds when you buy a coffee, are sometimes seen as frivolous. But is the real value of these technologies more likely to be in helping developing countries to progress? We discover how tablet computers are giving Nigerian farmers easier access to subsidised fertiliser and seeds, even in very remote areas. And we learn how smartphones could soon be saving eyesight in Africa and Asia. Presented by Jane Wakefield, with special guest Ken Banks, the anthropologist and mobile technologist founder of Kiwanja.net, and Dave Lee and Mark Ward from the BBC online technology desk.