Author: Cyrus

Mozilla Firefox plans to launch the Luganda version of the successful Browser today. The event which is scheduled at 2pm at Serena hotel has been organised with support of the Mozilla Community in Kenya. The Firefox localisation project has been spearheaded by Avante-Garde solutions, Translate.org.za, African Localisation Network, Mozilla Foundation and Makerere University with the community expecting to drive the penetration of the internet through localisation. About 5 Million Ugandans speak Luganda which is the most widely spoken language. Browser Market share in Uganda A community of more that 120 volunteers participated in the translation process. Mozilla Firefox has now been translated…

Oracle has entered a partnership with the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) to implement a newer technology to handle over 250 transactions per second for more than 1.6 million customers being moved from a post-paid billing system to a prepayment environment. With the prepayment environment demanding that the online transaction and database system be online all the time, KPLC had sought the partnership of Oracle in achieving the fete. The Oracle Exadata X2-2 will enable KPLC pre-payment systems be online 100% .  The adopted solution includes an automated storage management, a Linux operating system and storage management software, among…

yu Kenya is really trying to show Kenyans that it is here to stay and not planning to exit the market like we showed. The company has now entered into a partnership deal with Faulu Kenya and Craft Silicon. The partnership will see yuMobile provide a mobile payment facility for its subscribers to settle their utility bills through its mobile money transfer service, yuCash. The service which is available to yuCash subscribers will require that clients link their account to Elma – the mobile commerce platform from Craft Silicon. Subscribers will be required to download the Elma application by visiting www.elma.bz/elma…

Safaricom has upgraded its mobile payment solution, M-Pesa, to allow for users to be able to look for recipients directly from their phonebooks. The service which has been a great demand users will reduce cases where users wrongly type the recipients numbers hence reducing fraud instances. M-Pesa users will have to acquire new SIM cards at Ksh 50 which I believe is exploitative since all Safaricom SIM cards can only be used on Safaricom network and there is no reason for selling a SIM card at Ksh 50 in this day and age. SIM cards should go for around Ksh…

A very interesting infographic here of what happens in the internet in every 60 seconds. Some of the highlights are that every 60 seconds 320+ Twitter accounts are created, 70+ domains are registered, 100+ new LinkedIn accounts are created, 13,000 iPhone apps are downloaded, 168 Million emails are sent and 12,000 new ads are posted on Craigslist among others. You should check the original infographic here.

By official statistics, more than 2,000 delegates are in Nairobi for the 6th Internet Governance Forum at the UN Office in Nairobi. The delagates are drawn from more than 100 countries — representing a community of Governments, the private sector, civil society, the Internet community, international organizations and the media  The forum runs until 30 September. This is the first Internet Governance Forum to be held in sub-Saharan Africa. It seeks to examine cross-border Internet governance challenges under the theme “The Internet as a catalyst for change:  access, development, freedoms and innovation”. The meeting seeks to address issues like; Human Rights Online, Privacy…

Microsoft-led group has announced that it will launch a Super Wi-Fi in Nairobi on Tuesday. The launch will be on the sidelines of the Internet Governance Forum meeting which is taking place at the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON). This will be the first time Microsoft Launch the “Super Wi-Fi” outside Europe. It is not clear from our sources whether it will be a launch of the test Super Wi-Fi or the permanent offering. The Super Wi-Fi use the over  300Mhz to 400Mhz of unused Spectrum mostly avoided by the terrestial TV to offer faster internet to the populations.…

Today the GSM Association (GSMA) has released preliminary findings from a research undertaken into taxation effect on Mobile phone usage. The study which was initially focused on Africa, has shown that mobile handset sales have soared by 200 per cent in Kenya following the government’s 2009 decision to slash the 16 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) levied on handset sales. The research was undertaken on behalf of GSMA by Deloitte as part of a larger global bench-marking study, the full data of which will be published later this year. “Kenya has shown great foresight in abolishing mobile handset taxes…

2004 Nobel Peace Lauret, Pro. Wangari Muta Maathai has DIED. YES! Sad that the reknowned environmentalist succumbed to Ovarian Cancer at a Nairobi Hospital The death was first broken on social media by Tim Njiru. Then praises started pouring in and everybody is shedding tears. Some fake some real. You know the sheep mentality. Everyone wants to be with the crowd. I bet that 80% of those shedding tears on Waangari Maathai’s death does not know much about the enviromentalist. They have neither read her life story nor even her books of life. They cant recall 5 instances where Wangari…

Kenya’s Patrick Makau broke the World Marathon Record in Berlin Marathon  today. Makau finished in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 38 seconds breaking the record previously held by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia at 2:03.59. His record led to him ruling today’s discussions in social media with Patrick Makau trending worldwide on Twitter and most Facebook updates mentioning him. The last time Kenya ruled social media was during the referendum or during the 2008 PEV. It was such a relief seeing Makau rule the social media albeit briefly.

Safaricom is rolling out a plug an play keyboard marketed under the Safaricom Webbox banner. The service which seems to have been adopted from Vodafone UK’s Webbox is set to retail in Kenya at Ksh 4,999 ($50) and turns every TV into a web box literally. The keyboard which is a modem running on Android 2.1 (Eclair) will  enable the user access the following services; Browsing the Internet M-Pesa Services Listening to FM Radio Playing Games Read and Send Emails Play Music and Videos Saved in Memory Card Send SMS Viewing Photos Calender, Calculator and Notebook for Personal Information The…

Nokia launched the much hyped N9 smartphone in Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday evening. The phone has features which makes analysts ask why Nokia had to enter into the marriage with MS which has not borne any worthwhile product. On the flip-side, the phone has drawbacks and makes N8 still look much better and mature in features. The N8 and N9 does not have much difference in weight despite N8 looking more chubby and measuring 113.5 x 59.1 x 12.9 mm while the N9 measures 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm. Both phones weighs 135 grams. The screen are…

After winning the Rwanda 2G and 3G GSM license, Bharti Airtel has today announced former Celtel Madagascar Sales Director, Marcellin Paluku as the Country Manger of the company in Rwanda. Mr. Paluku has over 15 years of experience at Coca-Cola and Celtel. He has also worked in eight markets across Africa. His immediate position before this position was the Commercial Director at Airtel DRC. Speaking about the new appointment, Mr. Jayant Khosla, CEO Anglophone Africa, Bharti Airtel, said: “Rwanda is a market with great growth potential. As with all our operations, the leadership team in Airtel Rwanda will be…

Facebook, at the F8 conference yesterday, announced a complete remake of the profile pages on the popular social network introduction of Facebook Timeline. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg  say that “Timeline is the story of your life”. There are lots of changes key being that the single column wall of posts is gone  while the most recent updates telling “15 minutes of your story.” You will in place see a timeline of your life events containing the photos and all other updates dating back to when you joined Facebook. You can so click on any year and month and see all the updates…

UK spy outfit MI5 is looking for hackers, the ones which can do some work for them and not the ones they want to arrest. The extra secretive security agency has posted two job adverts on its official site. The agency is looking for the kind of technical experts who can penetrate networks.  The jobs being offered are ICT Specialist which is a more general post while the IT Security Exploitation Officer position raises a lot of suspicion. The posts reads They IT Security Exploitation Officers  a good understanding of present technical threats, are able to demonstrate real insight into…