Author: Cyrus

yuMobile clients are the latest of mobile phone clients who can enjoy chatting with other Google mail users via sms. The is free to receive messages on any yuMobile number but will cost kes 3 to send a sms in response to Google mail chat messages. The service had been made available to Orange, Safaricom and Airtel clients before with yyuMobile being the 4th network to implement the same in Kenya. For more on Gmail sms, check this link.

We met with Jonathan Gosier, founder of Metalayer and Apps4Africa, at the just concluded Tech4Africa conference in Sandton, Johannesburg. Apps for Africa is the competition which rewards innovative solutions to African problems. The competition is in its second year and the first of this years series will be held in East Africa. The challenge has attracted interests from far and wide but our hope is that we don’t turn it into a challenge for rewarding comrades like all others have been. Watch the video; [youtube width=”620″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDAeHErKrs[/youtube] Contest Dates West/Central Africa  (Begins Oct 1, 2011 – Ends Nov 30,…

CCK recently released its QoS assesment report for the period 2010. According to the report Telkom Kenya (Orange) managed to achieve targets only in 4 out of 8 key performance indicators (KPI). Orange is not taking the assertions kindly. The firms CEO, Mikhael Ghossein, has disputed the figures from CCK revealing that Orange’s in-house assessment has found the contrary. Orange is querying the “scope and methodology on which the report is based, with a view to coorelating it to our own and independent evaluation of our network based on the same parameters”. Orange is surprised at the reports finding considering…

ITU has listed Kenya internet services as the most expensive in the region in its annual study titled “Measuring the Information Society”. Each year ITU list the ICT Development Index (IDI) and ICT Price basket (IPB) in the study. According to ITU, “IDI captures progress made in regard to ICT infrastructure, use and skills while IPB monitors the affordability of ICT services and in explaining why some  countries have moved faster than others in their ICT development”. The report shows that there is a relation between income levels and ICT use in developed and developing economies. It further shows that…

It has now turned into a song with each of the speakers and self-styled tech evangelist preaching to the masses how they can make it in the tech nirvana. Promises galore! From North Africa to down South, the message is all the same. “Lick my a** and I will show you how to make it big in tech” I attended the just concluded Tech4Africa conference in Sandton, Johannesburg. I sought to know from the attendees if the innovation circle gets disrupted in their countries like it is in Kenya and other East African countries. Many were of the opinion that…

Now we are being told that Christmas starts early. Telkom Kenya is already ahead with various offerings. The company has slashed the cost of devices and introduced bonus offers on its services. Telkom Kenya CEO , Mickael Ghossein has announced that the company has reduced the cost of a range of its devices by up to 40%, in a move aimed at rewarding loyal customers and attracting new ones during this period. Ghossein has announced that “customers who buy middle and high end phones will get a reward of 1 GB worth of data, to be distributed evenly over a…

Allied Technologies Limited (Altech)  has now formally announced the appointment of Shahab Meshki as Chief Executive Officer of Altech Kenya Data Networks (KDN), effective today,  1 November 2011. Altech will be looking at CISCO’s former GM for East Africa operations to navigate the major data carrier out of the murky waters it has found itself into recently. KDN operates the largest data and Internet backbone in East Africa, providing a comprehensive suite of services over its 6,000km fibre optic network, including Internet Protocol services, broadband transport, infrastructure and collocation services. Mehski has more than 20 years of working experience in…

Two Rwandan young innovators participated in this year’s ICT Telecom World 2011 held Geneva, Switzerland, according to Rwanda’s New Times. Joseph Gatete presented Quicksms in Secondary School Projects while Robert Katabarwa presented his Igisekuru innovation emerging among the 45 out-of 160 entrants selected to participate in the young innovators competition. The competition targeted young innovators with fresh ideas that take advantage of ICT with the aim of making the world a better place. The four -day summit that marked its 40th anniversary celebrations and was marked in tandem with the Broadband Leadership Summit which entailed highest level meetings on the…

Samsung is not letting the smartphone war subside. Samsung has brought a cross-platform chat messaging app to Android and promises to have it on iOS, Web and BlackBerry soon. The new instant messaging platform by Samsung will have to fight for the market with iMessage for Apple and BlackBerry’s BBM. The ChatOn app is available through Samsung App Store and the Android market and works on Samsung feature phones, Bada and Android. Users of the ChatOn app can have private conversations, group chats or share photos, videos, voice messages and contacts. The app is already visible in 120 countries through the…

Next I attended the UX Design track in the Ebony Room. I was lucky this time to get a power socket and plug my laptop. Presenting were ClearLeft’s Cennydd (pronounced Kenneth ) Bowles and James Box who reminded me of the WWE’s Hardy BoyZ. These guys were doing great complementing each others effort in delivering a great presentation. This track was packed with more technical audience. This means that they had to either get their facts right or dictate their not so right facts on us authoritatively to drive the point home. The duo did not disappoint. They in fact…

I just think that an inspiring speaker like Ghana’s Herman Chinery-Hesse should have put on for the last day. Herman Chinery-Hesse has been referred as the Bill Gates of Africa but the attendees at today’s conference demanded that Bill Gates be referred to as Herman Chinery-Hesse of US. But maybe he would have eclipsed even the after-party and so he had to come on on day one. I liked it though. Anyway first things first. I had a great chance to be at the Tech4Africa, thanks to the caring corporate who believes in young web entrepreneurs like me. I arrived…

Safaricom finally unveiled what it claims to be the largest indigenous public Cloud solution in East and Central Africa region. To set the solution off, Safaricom say it has invested an initial Sh2 billion in putting up the necessary infrastructure, while it expects to pump another Sh1.5 billion in the venture within the next two years. Safaricom has launched the Cloud computing product called SafaricomCLOUD through a partnership between Safaricom, Seven Seas, EMC2 and Cisco. Seven Seas Technologies will be the integration partner, global networking leader Cisco and EMC², which has built a name worldwide for its expertise in building…

  Airtel has launched the first 3G network in Central Africa. The network launched in the Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville) runs on a 3,75G ( HSPSA ) platform in the country. Today’s launch follows the successful application and issuance of a 3G license by the Republic of Congo.  This is the first 3G license issued in Central Africa and the second amongst the French-speaking African nations, after Senegal. The launch of the 3G platform promises changes to how subscribers in the region experience the web on internet-enabled devices. 3G technology comes with improved technology enhancing multimedia functionality, high-speed mobile…

An Android developer team called Dexetra has created a clone of Apple’s Siri. The voice recognition assistant is a major feature of the newly released iPhone 4S with the blogosphere full of positive reviews of the same. The developers decided to reverse “Siri” hence the name “Iris”. Dextra team just like other Android enthusiasts, were not happy with all the positive reviews the feature got online and decided to create an Android version of the same.  The dev team worked on the app for only eight hours and Iris was born. In the eight hours, Dexetra had “created a decent layout…

Safaricom has announced the appointment of John Tombleson as finance director. Mr Tombleson was previously with Vodafone Qatar, where he held the position of acting CEO and CFO. He replaces Chris Tiffin, whose tour of duty at Safaricom comes to an end on November 20, 2011. Tombleson is an original member of the Qatar start-up team which was founded in 2008 and has built a market share of 48% within 2 years.  He is a New Zealander and first joined Vodafone in New Zealand in 2003. He is a Board member of Vodafone Qatar, and was previously a Board member…