Author: Cyrus

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is so riled by SOPA / PIPA that he has tweeted about it. Mark has not tweeted since March 2009 and the anti-SOPA / PIPA tweet is his 19th. The tweet links up to a Facebook post where he calls SOPA / PIPA “poorly thought out laws.” Tell your congressmen you want them to be pro-internet. My Facebook post is here: facebook.com/zuck/posts/101… — Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) January 18, 2012 “The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the…

Some of us cannot do without Wikipedia. It is a great source of information. But now,  the great repository of general knowledge is participating in the SOPA/PIPA protest. This means that you cannot access the English pages of the site in your usual manner. There are ways to go round this though. The mobile version of the site has not been blacked out as the SOPA and PIPA protests continue. To access Wikipedia page today; Just disable JavaScript in your browser. This means that the block page won’t load as it happens after full site load. You can just let…

The Internet’s largest repository of general reference material has totally blacked out its English site to stop the passage of Stop Online Piracy and Protect Intellectual Property Acts. The two acts, SOPA and PIPA, have not even made it to the Senate floor, but have already caused public outrage. Google, YouTube, Yahoo, AOL, Reddit, TwitPic, Mozilla, WordPress and many other internet giants have protested the bills and equated them to China-style censorship. There are those who support the protest but disagrees with Wikimedia and others on the manner of protests. Some of the Wikipedia editors have been reported to have disagreed…

Former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, has said that he is sceptical about Twitter being a reliable media of conveying knowledge. Speaking at the University of Stellenbosch, Mbeki who was answering a question from the audience said that he believe the social media is not an appropriate tool for discussing knowledge which can better the society. “I am sceptical about this notion of Twitter being that great conveyor instrument for the democratisation of knowledge,” Mbeki is quoted by News24 as having said at the opening of the university’s knowledge conference. Mbeki also said that he doubted the effectiveness of blogs and…

Rene Meza who was immediate former CEO of Airtel Kenya is raiding the backyard of his former employer. He took an appointment as Vodacom Tanzania CEO and it seems he will want to take some of his former colleagues at Airtel Tanznaia with him. He recently scored a double coup on Airtel after poaching Luis Fedriani, Airtel Tanzania IT director and Hassan Saleh who was the Sales director. Vodafone UK also poached Rene Meza from Bharti Airtel’s Kenya unit. The move has forced Airtel to recruit afresh for the two positions. The two executives will be joining Vodacom Tanzania in February.…

Orange has finally launched unlimited internet bundles for its mobile and 3G broadband customers. The newly launched bundles will see Orange mobile customers enjoy unlimited internet for as low as Ksh 39 daily, Ksh 249 weekly and KSh 990 monthly while the Orange Internet Everywhere 3G modem customers will access unlimited internet for Ksh 990 and Ksh 2990 on a weekly and monthly basis respectively. The new mobile unlimited internet bundles can be purchased by dialing #123# while the broadband bundles can be purchased from the Orange portal and are subject to a fair user policy. Orange Internet Everywhere 3G…

We are still investigating this but there is a guy who is claiming that he/she has hacked some 113 Kenyan government websites. The listed websites are for government ministries, departments and programmes. Message posted on Code Security Website reads; “I have exploit from cs web, and i attacking to server Goverment Kenya,,,, and then,,, success full… this is deface in this night…” None of the listed websites can be accessed from out end which makes authenticating the “hacking” very hard. Still I can access State House and Kenya Police websites. Some of the listed websites as having been hacked are;…

While Orange Kenya is still flip-flopping not knowing even when they will launch this iconic device, Orange Uganda is doing better in running to exploit the market. Starting from US $970, Orange Uganda is surely making a kill. It will be very unfortunate to see Orange Kenya also sell the device at above 900 USD. Orange Uganda will sell the iPhone 4S models at; Ush 2,399,000 (approximately US $970) for the 16GB Ush 2,699,000 (approximately US $1,090) for the 32GB Ush 3,099,000 (apprximately US $1,250) for the 64GB Orange has exclusive rights to sell and market the iPhone both in…

Airtel Kenya has today launched a new tariff called Sikika na 1 bob.  Through the new service, Airtel clients will enjoy Airtel-Airtel calls at Ksh1 per minute from 10pm- 6am daily. The new tariff is available to all pre-paid customers and has no form of subscription. Airtel is also currently running Changamsha Maisha na Airtel promotion, offering its customers a chance to win Kshs 500,000 weekly prizes and fully paid trips to watch Manchester United in the Barclays English Premier League.  Other daily prizes in the promotion include instant SMS on all top up’s of Ksh50 and above, 32 handsets…

Reports appearing in Kenya’s Standard newspaper indicates that the country’s Political Parties Liaison Committee has accused some political party officials of harvesting possible party member details from mobile money dealers. Since M-Pesa is the most widely used mobile money service in Kenya, its likely to be the most affected by these data crimes. M-Pesa has over 30,000 agents and 15.6 Million users in Kenya. Such number of readily available database is very enticing to interested parties. Some premium rate services providers also holds databases with more than even 5 million personal details including mobile phone numbers. These databases are always…

I have been looking at two great smartphones for the last two weeks. The two smartphones, Samsung Galaxy Ace and Huawei IDEOS X5 are all powered by the Google Android OS. First look will reveal to you that Huawei IDEOS X5 has a larger touch screen, 3.8-inches displaying 480 x 800 pixels, than Samsung Galaxy Ace (3.5-inch screen displaying 320 x 480 pixels). However, the Ace’s screen is protected by the scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass. Both phones comes with Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system (I later upgraded the X5 to 2.3.5). The Galaxy Ace has a smooth software them/skin courtesy of…

Oceans are the last “white spot” for mobile communication industry to connect. Maersk Line, has appointed Ericsson introduce end-to-end systems integration and deployment of mobile and satellite communication to its entire vessel fleet. The Maersk Line fleet comprises more than 500 container vessels. Over the next two years, Maersk Line will outfit 400 of these vessels with Ericsson antennas and GSM base stations, with upgrades to be made to the remaining vessels soon after. As part of the agreement, Ericsson will provide seven years of global managed services support, including 24/7 network monitoring and onboard maintenance services in a large…

Arfa Karim Randhawa who achieved the status of being the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at 9 years old, has passed away. She was 16, according to reports out of Pakistan. Arfa has been in hospital for almost a month after reportedly suffering an epileptic seizure and heart attack. She however managed to improve two weeks ago. Microsoft recently stepped in to cover the medical expenses. Arfa was extremely proud of her accomplishment as the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, even including the phrase “Youngest MCP in the World” in her email signature line. Speaking to Pakistan’s The Express Tribune, Major…

I can tell you for a fact that I get more than 15 apps to review every month. Some of them comes from Africa while a good number also comes from Eastern Europe and Asia. I also get Kenyan apps to check out. Few wow me so they don’t go beyond my trash folder while sometimes I even feel insulted that anyone might try to contact me to share such a shoddily done app. There are moments when I appreciate the effort and honestly tell the developers. I have been told of an upcoming app by a friend on Facebook.…

Google is having a very hard time explaining what it was thinking as it scrapped data from a rival’s database. But that is not surprising because Google might be getting a barrage of calls from all major media houses in the world to get some explanations on the happenings and so it has to explain it. Getting calls is one thing but the scary part for Google’s always arrogant PR machine is that 90% of those calling already believed the Mocality story. Spinning that around might be very hard because few of the blogs and media houses would have the…