Author: Cyrus

There are new ways you can help the situation in Libya. You dont need to leave the comfort of your home or have too much technical experience. Actually UN Online Volunteer Service (OVS) has now teamed up with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Standby Task Force to support crisis mapping efforts in Libya. This means that if you have not been a member or is already a member of UN Online Volunteer, you can now join the UN as a volunteer to provide direct support to the humanitarian response in Libya. The Libya Crisis Map is a…

AccessKenya yesterday launched its maiden retail store at Westgate shopping Mall in Wetlands in a strong response to clients demanding experience of products and services before purchases. The store is linked to  the AccessKenya metro fibre which clocks 10Mbps dedicated. As a corporate you might be able to get the speeds when you buy the connection. The maximum speeds for the retail clients is still 1Mbps. The store will also be a selling point of AccessKenya products and services. AccessKenya though seems to be ignoring retail clients who are the greates buyers of internet services now. I wonder why the…

Twitter is now available for Kenyan Airtel and Safaricom clients through SMS. You will be able to send and receive tweets as normal SMS after you have activated your mobile phone. Airtel will be tweeting by sending the sms to 40404 and Safaricom through 8988. You will have to master various tips and secrets of tweeting through SMS and also first how to activate your device. Twitter for SMS has been suspended in Cameroon by the country’s government for fear of the citizens organising demos Egyptian style. GLO Mobile Nigeria also can Tweet. If your country Twitter through SMS has…

Safaricom has today partnered with Strathmore University and Vodafone to establish a training facility to build the necessary technological capacity to match the needs of the fast growing telecommunication industry in the country. The facility is named Safaricom Academy and is meant to train graduates interested in advancing careers in telecommunications and development of mobile software applications. The institution will also provide entrepreneurial talent with certified qualifications and experiential training in collaboration with globally established academic institutions. Its first program is the Master of Science in Telecommunication Innovation and Development (MSc. TID) to be realized through a collaborative effort with…

Orange has entered into a strategic partnership with leading retail chain Nakumatt Holdings to have Orange airtime sold at the 28 supermarket’s outlets countrywide. Telkom Kenya Deputy CEO Jane Karuku was joined by Nakumatt Holdings Corporate and Legal Affairs Manager, Raman Subramanian. Ms Karuku said that the partnership is part of the Orange’s strategy to enhance its airtime distribution network and bring services closer to the people. Orange customers will be able to purchase electronically generated airtime vouchers from Nakumatt tills in 28 branches across the country, in denominations varying from Ksh 100 to Ksh 1000. Orange recently announced that it…

Google has announced a $1.25 million dollar grant to the Nelson Mandela Foundation Centre of Memory preserve and digitize thousands of archival private documents, photographs, and audio and video materials about the life and times of Nelson Mandela the icon. Google has also awarded a grant of the same size to the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town, for the documentation and digitisation of Desmond Tutu’s archive, as well as an interactive digital learning centre. The online multimedia archive will include Mr Mandela’s correspondence with family, comrades and friends, prison diaries, and notes he made while leading the negotiations that led to the…

Twit-A-Tee is the new way to show your Twitter love. You can get a custom Tee with your Twitter handle carefully emblazoned on it. Ahmed Salims is the guy behind the idea. He runs Fluid Tees whose motto is “succumb to style”. He is a designer with a passion for cool tees. You should see some of his works here.

There have been lots of reports all over about how the iPhone 5 will be looking like. Now some of the reports out of China alludes that the Apple iPhone 5 will have an aluminium casing. The iPhone 4 which was made of glass has been prone to scratch, breakages, hard to paint and generally have a problem with the weight of glass. Apple is also said to be in the process of ditching the external antenna for one designed to penetrate cellular and Wi-Fi waves via resin made Apple logo placed at the back. The iPhone 5 is also said to have the…

AccessKenya is set to become the first ISP to launch a physical retail store in the country. The launch will be on Thursday 10th 2011 at 8.45 a.m.  at Westgate Shopping Mall in Westlands. AccessKenya looks to “bring a hi-tech experiential “internet and IT world” closer to the customer”. The company looks to  introduce new distribution channels to make its services more accessible including appointing agents and dealers. The store will be a fully experiential area where clients will be able to test and experience fast internet speeds through the company’s metro fibre, see the possibilities open to them with…

Nokia has launched a brand new Nokia X1-00 Orange mobile phone aimed at music lovers . The phone will retail for less than 35 Euros and will go on sale in April. The phone looks like targeted at emerging markets. The phone has massive speaker on the back, rated at 106phon (a phon is a measure of perceived loudness – 106 of them is enough to rattle your window frames, apparently). The phone comes with a 3.5 mm audio jack and boasts 5 phone books (yes 5). That means you can have one phone but share the phone with your…

Acer Aspire AS5745DG was launched sometime in September 2010. It was meant for the holiday shoppers during the December. The laptops have just arrived in Kenya through Mitsumi Kenya distributorship. You can now but the laptop from Mitsumi or other retail outlets supplied by the distributor. The AS5745DG laptop runs on a Core i5 CPU as standard processor, along with a 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 pixels display capable of 120Hz refresh rate.  You will also be given a pair of NVIDIA active shutter glasses  after purchase.  The laptop is preloaded with software to convert 2D visuals to 3D, and there’s…

A Kenyan blogger who is currently working in Rwanda had a rare opportunity to tweet the President of Rwanda and actually end up to meet him. Savvy Kenya is just your ordinary blogging girl. She is working with Art of Conservation in Musanze Town. The oganisation has been rehabilitating Ibirunga Tennis Court for the community kids. The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who happens to be on Twitter, was scheduled to pass by later on the 4th day of March 2011. Savvy Kenya thought of inviting the President to stop and wave to the kids and pick a T-Shirt if…

Airtel Kenya has today entered into a partnership with Kenya Data Networks (KDN). The 5 year deal will see KDN upgrade Airtel’s local transmission network in readiness for the launch of its third generation 3G HSPA network. KDN will also inter-link airtel sites through its countrywide fibre optic network. But Airtel Kenya is having problems keeping up with the promise to deliver the 3G service to its clients by the end of first quarter of 2011. The company is now talking of delivering the service by the end of 2nd quarter of the same year. KDN Chief Executive Officer Mr.…

We understand that Nation Media group is building a video API which will be used on its properties to replace the YouTube API which we have all along complained about. At the 2008 Tandaa conference where everyone was talking about the cable arriving and the costs going down, NMG was represented by Ian Fernandes and when he talked about NMG use of YouTube and even the signing of the agreement. Many were not impressed and mostly the local content generators and developers. I am informed that it is about to change. NMG is going full throttle with its online properties.…

The social media is growing in influence in Africa and one of the fastest growing group of users are Kenyans. They mostly frequent Facebook but some who at least got some swag now thinks that they should be on Twitter or Twirra as the swaggaristic ones would demand that we pronounce it. The KenyansOnTwitter or KenyansOnTwirra are very lovely, jealous and protective of their own. Some of the people who have dared cross their path including Ben Parr and even me will attest to the fact that the amount of hate you will get when you dare talk bad about…