Author: Cyrus

Google is fighting accusations by Mocality that it has been using deception to get businesses to list on its KBO website. It is not clear if the same schemes are being used in Uganda and Nigeria but they are not surprising. if you have seen the listings on Google Trader, you would know that Google must have been involved in these schemes. The same scheme Google used to try to win communities to Google Baraza and it failed because the platform is not even popular as the intentions were not clear. Google is ignoring the accusations and has just launched…

Mocality is having a spat with Google. It is not surprising if you have read our thoughts on Google. We believe that Google is very evil in not only its modus operandi but also its general intention in the continent. The sad part is that when I did a blog post talking about the evils of Google, Stefan Magdalinski who heads MIH Internet operations in Sub-Saharan Africa were on the side of Google. Google launched a drive called Get Kenyan Businesses Online. The campaign is where Google seeks to get more businesses online by simplifying to the businesses the process of registering…

Google has now launched the Android Design site to help third-party developers create beautiful apps. The design site looks to be a page of guidelines, design principles, UI best-practice and style shortcuts for developers working with the new Android OS version, Ice Cream Sandwich. The site consists of both of guiding principles for apps and interfaces and the core of an Android UI, like tabs, seek bars, switches and spinners. The site seems to be the biggest attempt by Google to get Android coders to develop apps which have similar UX. Google uses some guiding principles like  “delight me in surprising ways” and “let…

They recently set the record when they erected a 15-story building in one week. They are the Chinese construction company, Broad Group, and they have decided to take it up a notch higher. A 30-storey building which can withstand a 9.0-magnitude earthquake built in just 15 days. According to reports appearing in the Australian news site NEWS.com.au, the hotel constructed near Dongting Lake in the Hunan Province, took 200 workers and is set to open January 18. Most of the sections of the building were prefabricated in factories and shipped to the site of the constructions ahead of the construction. [youtube…

The Cameroonian government is reported by AfricaReview to have clarified that Eto’o Telecom, the new mobile operator which is owned by football star Samuel Eto’o Fils, has no authorisation to operate mobile telephone services in the country. The General Manager of Cameroon’s Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART), Mr Jean-Louis Beh Mengue, is reported to have said “the principal activity of Eto’o Telecom would consist of re-selling telephone traffic for already existing mobile telephone concessionaires, namely Camtel, Orange Cameroon and MTN Cameroon. Sixty such companies already have similar exploitation licences in Cameroon. This activity consists of buying telephone traffic in block and commercialising it…

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) said yesterday that it has gone to court in a bid to stop Pay TV operator,  TopTV, from launching South Africa’s first 24-hour adult content channel. ICASA’s spokesman Paseka Maleka said that ICASA lodged the application on Monday and TopTV was suppose to file an answering affidavit by Tuesday. Top TV and ICASA are scheduled to meet in court on Friday January 13th for the preliminary hearing of the application. ICASA has refused to grant TopTV the approval certificate required before an operator can commence broadcast of a channel. Some religious organisations and the Family…

Huawei Technologies which is China’s largest telecommunications gear maker, unveiled its new smartphone, Huawei Ascend P1, which is touted as the slimmest smartphone. The unveiled Ascend P1 smartphones  will be available in black, white and pink. The phone is just 6.68-mm thin phone and will be available in April 2012 in markets from North America, Europe to Asia, Huawei said. The touchscreen display is covered in Corning Inc’s Gorilla Glass while Texas Instruments Inc’s 1.5GHz’s multicore processor powers the phone. Huawei is getting a great footing in the emerging market with smartphones while globally its dongles and routers are growing in influence.…

Lenovo has unveiled an Android Gingerbread powered smartphone dubbed the S2 at CES 2012 happening in Las Vegas. Lenovo says that the phone has a unique kernel security system that will protect your data, prevents phising and traffic SMS messages. Users of the phone will also be able to automatically sync their multimedia to private cloud. Lenovo has a custom built-in skin running over the Android which can let you personalise your standby screen with wallpapers, shortcuts and other widgets. Some specs of the Lenovo S2 smartphone; CPU 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 dual-core processor OS Android 2.3 Gingerbread with Lenovo Magic…

Samsung has made its ChatOn application available for iOS including support for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. There are already tens of chat and messaging applications which Samsung looks to compete with like BBM, iMessage, WhatsApp, Kik, and others. The release for iOS now makes ChatOn available on three platforms, Android, iOS, and Bada. Its usage still cannot compare to the usage of iMessage, BBM and WhatsApp but expect Samsung to market this aggressively. The UI  looks fairly enticing to test but I need a reason why I should use less of WhatsApp and try the ChatON app. Samsung has a great…

A group which has been calling itself the NaijaCyberHactivists have hacked and defaced the website of Nigeria’s Ministry of Transport. The group have posted message on the defaced site saying that they will continue to inflict damage on the government assets online until when the demand of the Nigerian people would have been met. A message posted by the hackers on the website partly reads; Greetings Nigerian Government,  We are NaijaCyberHactivists.  The fetid empire of corruption and consumption that you have created is stifling the lives of hard working Nigerians.  You have sabotaged this country into a monolithic tyranny, yet…

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK)  has released its ICT sector statistics report for the first quarter of the 2011/2012 financial year (i.e. the period up to 30th September 2011). According to the report, the country had 26.4 million subscribers as at September 30, 2011 which represents a mobile penetration rate of 67.2%. Prepaid subscription is still the preferred service representing 99% of the total subscribers according to the CCK report. prepaid subscriptions grew by 4.8% while postpaid subscription grew by 1% while in the same period last year there was a 20.4% growth in prepaid subscription and 9.1% growth in postpaid subscription.…

Google has today announced that it will be holding the first ever G-Tanzania on February 2nd and 3rd at Milimani City Conference Centre and G-Ethiopia on February 7th and 8th at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre. The g|Days are special days where Googlers (Google Staff) come to interact with the local communities including content generators, developers, business leaders and investors. Googlers have previously attended g|Days in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and Angola. In 2011, the outreach expanded from 5 countries in 2010 and from 2 in 2009. g|Days are unfortunately very boring if you are…

I can tell you that I was not a fan of DSTV Mobile or Pay Tv delivered through the mobile handset. Primary reason being that most of the experience I had with Pay TV on mobile devices was through the DVB-H enabled devices or through Safaricom where the DSTV mobile streaming is also possible through the mobile phone’s native browser. I have been having the DSTV Walka since around December 20th and I must say that I am impressed and I am already yearning for more. My main fear while streaming the DSTV content on DVB-H enabled devices or through…

Apple CEO, Tim Cook,  issued a press release confirming the launch of iPhone 4S in Kenya and 21 other markets starting Friday, January 13. The phone which is an upgrade to iPhone 4 launched in US, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, France and Japan on 14 October, 2011. Part of the statement reads; Beginning Friday, January 13, iPhone 4S will be available in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, China, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guam, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and…

I always have an issue with anybody who has operated within the civic society being given power to govern us. This is because from the civic society to the real deal, they always either get drunk with power or tend to out do the former occupiers of the seats with impunity. Nancy Baraza, Kenya’s Deputy Chief Justice, was involved in a gun drama at the country’s premier shopping mall, Village Market. The Deputy CJ, is reported to have been walking alone into the shopping mall and as customary in many places around the country, security screening is a must. In…