Author: Cyrus

Samsung Electronics has now partnered with Kabete Technical Training Institute (KTTI) in Kenya to improve the competitiveness of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s). Through the agreement, Samsung has piloted and implemented an internet hub at the institution with plans to roll out similar ones across country in the next one year. KTTI is the second internet hub opened by Samsung this year, after PC Kinyanjui through the Samsung social investment initiatives for Africa. KTTI, which has a student population of 2,100, offers among other courses engineering, mechanical, building, electrical and business courses. A majority of the institute’s graduates work…

Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud and his investment company, Kingdom Holding, have reportedly invested $300 million on Twitter. The deal, first reported on Bloomberg and officially announced in a press statement, reads in part: “This investment was the result of several months of negotiations and comprehensive due diligence and represents a strategic stake in Twitter.” Prince Alwaleed is reported to be worth US $19.6 billion making him th 26th richest person in the world according to Forbes. The company also has a stake on News Corp.’s among other investments on media properties in the Arab world. Alwaleed  also bought a five percent stake in…

70 percent of people who shop online do so to compare prices and save money while 56 percent of them like to shop online because they can do it at any time of the day. Visa says that it now processes over 10,904 transactions averagely per year. The use of electronic payment has grown by nearly 60 percent in just five years. Visa reveals that last year 71 billion it processed transactions were processed through its network, VisaNet7. Visa also reveals that almost US$5.9 trillion was spent in the last 12 months around the world by people using Visa payment…

HP is rumoured to have chosen P-Unit to be the face of the brand in Kenya as the PC maker struggles to shed the corporate image and appeal to the masses. The endorsement deal which will be signed tomorrow (15th Dec 2011) at HP offices in Upper Hill will range in the millions according to sources privy to the whole deal. This would a first in the region for a major ICT player to have local celebrity as product ambassador. Lets wait till tomorrow to get details of the deal.

After 5 months since the official launch of Zuku TV in Nairobi, the company has announced that it has reached over 35,000 subscribers.  Zuku provides Pay TV service and has launched successfully in 3 East African markets namely: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in less than 5 months. I love my Zuku TV and the offerings. I also believe that I am well insulated against the exploitative nature of Multichoice which pegs the rates on USD while there is no tangible reason why that should be. Just paying for content in USD is no reason enough for Kenyans to be exploited…

yuMobile has launched a Voice Chat service. The new service dubbed yuChat let subscribers talk and chat anonymously with other yuMobile subscribers countrywide without the risk of revealing their real identity or mobile number. To access the service, yuMobile subscribers will be required to dial 4455 and follow the prompts to register their profiles. Once registered a user may search for profiles with similar interests, to chat with and extend invitations to others. All users have the option to accept or reject the invitation. The yuChat service will be charged at sh1 per minute for registered users. The voice chat…

Vodacom Tanzania has launched a service which enables its M-Pesa clients to receive money from Western Union worldwide. The service enables M-Pesa users in Tanzania to receive money from 108,000 agents serving in 65 countries with Western Union services. This will enable the M-Pesa clients in Tanzania to withdraw they money from the over 15,000 agents in Tanzania. Users will not be charged any extra amount to withdraw money received from abroad but will just pay the normal withdrawal charges Vodacom Managing Director Rene Meza said ; “We have introduced this service to our clients to give them access of…

DSTV Walka has now officially gone on sale in Kenya. The device which we reported that might be selling in Kenya in December, is being advertised at Ksh 9,999. The fee excludes subscriptions which will be free for DSTV Premium bouquet subscribers, Ksh 370 per month for mini package (11 channels) and Ksh 1,000 for Maxi package (14 channels). The advert appearing in Sunday newspapers in Kenya lists the Walka as; Slim and Lightweight Has a 3.5-inch viewing screen providing high digital quality audio and video Direct connection to the DSTV Mobile broadcast signal which is available…

Google is launching some products but they are still limited to few locations. One such device is the Flipboard competitor, Google Currents. The app which is available in the US and few other regions on iOS and Android is great but not like Flipboard from my first impression. Google Currents lets users access articles from more than 180 publications .  Flipboard displays great full-length articles from CNET, Forbes, PBS, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Fast Company and other publications on smartphone and tablet displays. U.S. users can download the app from the Android Market and the Apple App Store and begin subscribing to the available…

Google launched its location service which many tech bloggers believes is a targeted competition at Foursquare but we bet that it looks more PlanJam. The service allows you to discover new places to checkout. Google describes it this way; Whether it’s exploring a new city, checking out a friend’s movie recommendations, or just finding new activities for your weekends, Schemer lets you discover new things to do, share schemes with friends, and make the most of your day. We’re a scrappy team of Google engineers who wanted to help people do fun stuff in the real world. So we went…

Huawei has today reported strong uptake for its IDEOS mobile phone. The communications solutions provider has seen sales of more than 130,000 units of IDEOS smartphone in Kenya since its launch in September last year. The Huawei IDEOS was the first company to introduce a smartphone which retailed at Ksh 8,500 (less than US $100 then ) in the Kenyan market- IDEOS (Huawei U8150). The Huawei U8150 (IDEOS) increased the thirst of smart phones in the Kenyan market which has led to greater uptake of such phones locally. Huawei CEO, Herman He said; “The phenomenal sales witnessed are as a result…

Twitter seems to be introducing a new redesigned look for both Twitter.Com and Tweetdeck. Twitter hopes that the new look will simplify the experience of the millions of users on the micro-blogging site. There is a total change of layout where tweets now appear on the right while the redesigns also sees the introductions of Home, @Connect and #Discover links at the top of the page. #Discover will show the trending topics while @connect will show who has mentioned you and what accounts you might want to follow. Watch the video of the redesign Twitter has also launched brand pages…

A court in Oregon USA has ruled that bloggers are not journalists and so they are not protected by the same laws which protects journalists. The District Court judge ruled in a case where a blogger was who was sued by an investment firm, Summit Accommodators,  for defamation after the blogger, Crystal Cox, wrote a piece accusing the firm of fraud. The judge ruled that the blogger needs to pay the Obsidian finance group a compensation of $2.5 million (Ksh 22o Million). Summit Accommodators went to court with the argument that the post was defamatory also demanding to be paid US…

We told you guys about borderlinx in April. It was a great service where you could register and get a UK and US address. The borderlinx guys would handle the product shopped from the two countries till delivery to the owner. Before buying anything, borderlinx helped the buyer calculate the shipment and tax on the goods which was great. We have an email from borderlinx which shows that the service is no more. The service has sent out an email to Kenyan users which reads in part; “After several months of investigation and attempting to reduce the incidence of fraud,…

LG Optimus 3D Smartphone has officially been launched in the Kenyan market. The phone launched globally in June and went out on sale in Europe the next month. It has taken LG six months to bring the phone into the Kenyan market which speaks volume on how the African market is perceived by the major smartphone vendors. The phone which is the first to feature 3D viewing, runs on the Android 2.2 (Froyo) which is upgradable to version 2.3. The phone was first unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona in February 2011. Some specs of the Optimus 3D smartphone 4.3-inch…