Author: Cyrus

M-PESA has won the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Award at this year’s Global Mobile Awards 2011 which is being held in Barcelona, Spain between February 14th and 17th. The awards are part of the annual Mobile World Congress which brings together players in the global telecoms market and is organized by the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association). The main drivers of the M-Pesa idea are Vodafone Group, Safaricom, Vodacom, Vodafone Essar Limited and Roshan Ltd. Orange won an award for the Solar base Stations while Airtel won for providing the best Customer Care.

Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows 7 Kiswahili language pack downloadable for free. Kiswahili has over 5 million native speakers and more than 150 million Africans speaking Kiswahili on a daily basis, this makes it the most widely understood language in Africa after Arabic. “The availability of Microsoft Windows 7 in Kiswahili is definitely a remarkable step towards elimination of language as a barrier to technology access,” said Louis Otieno, Microsoft’s General Manager for East and Southern Africa. To download the Kiswahili Windows 7 language pack, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a1a48de1-e264-48d6-8439-ab7139c9c14d&displaylang=sw Users simply have to be running a genuine (non-pirated, non-counterfeit) version…

Our sources intimate that Safaricom will soon unveil the much talked about Safaricom Innovation Board. Techies in the country have rumored much about the last year’s initiative. Some thought that the idea must have been abolished but my well placed sources tells me that the idea was taken much further and complaints from bloggers and techies were taken into account. Key considerations being that many Kenyan techies still see the sector as too much colonized and Safaricom suffered a backlash when it called people who doesn’t have much touch with the average Kenyan techie to tell them how to implement…

Press Release The BlackBerry App World is now available in 27 additional markets (including Kenya). App World allows customers to discover download and enjoy a wide range of mobile applications from their BlackBerry smartphones. RIM announces plans to provide Carriers with the new BBM Mobile Gifting platform: The innovative BBM mobile gifting platform will integrate with BlackBerry App World™ and carrier billing systems allowing gifting requests and approvals to be handled directly between the subscribers, with systems that are secure, authenticated and non-repudiable. It will also allow for easy airtime transactions between carriers and pre-paid subscribers. 

Samsung is partnering with Vodafone Group today to announce the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 which i of Model P9700 running on  a powerful Dual-Core Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). The Galaxy Tab 10.1 boasts a 10.1” WXGA TFT LCD display with crystal clear resolution (1280 x 800). The Tab also includes dual surround-sound speakers in their audio specs. The device has an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera with Auto Focus  and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera which lets users capture experiences with the best-in-market full HD record and play as well as easily share them. It has an Android browser and manages to…

Nokia was prompted by a desire to foil theAndroid and iOS “duopoly” in the mobile industry to choose Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7) platform as its primary smartphone OS, rather than Android.The Nokia CEO revealed this at the ongoing MWC in Barcelona. “A decision to swing to Android would have tilted the mobile ecosystem in the direction of a duopoly, but we wanted to create a challenger,” Elop said.

LG has these new cool 3D phones called Optimus 3D. LG Electronics (LG) and YouTube have announced a partnership to provide 3D mobile experience to users. LG’s upcoming Android-powered premium smartphones will enable users not only to capture and view 3D videos without glasses, but also to upload and share them instantly with others via YouTube. The partnership with Google’s YouTube will see more users generate and access the content from the phone.

Galaxy S 2 PICs have emerged on Korean website Daum before being removed by the same. The leaked photos showed the new device in potrait. According to the website, the Galaxy S 2 will have the following specs; 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display 1GHz dual-core CPU Android 2.3 Operating System (Gingerbread) HSPA+, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n Will weigh 116g The Tablet has now been leaked on PocketNow website.

It was going to appear online anyway. This is the season of propaganda. We witnessed the fake online names and propaganda videos, pics and audio files in 2007. The country is setting into the electioneering mood and we are bent to see much of those again. Listen to it below Muthaura [Compressed].mp3 PS in the office of the President, Francis Muthaura, was apparently approached by some University students. The students proposed to offer the PS propaganda machinery and services and the PS, out of his own confession, paid a “substantial amount of money” to the students. I think the PS…

MXit which the largest mobile social networking platform in the Africa has signed an exclusive agreement with wiWallet (subsidiary of UCS Group Limited) to bring mobile payment services to its users. The users of the network numbers around 10 Million. wiWallet is the largest provider of retail software within South Africa, serving upto 95% of SA’s top retailers. More

Press Release Nokia and Microsoft today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem. Nokia and Microsoft intend to jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity. As each company would focus on its core competencies, the partnership would create the opportunity for rapid time to market execution. Additionally, Nokia and Microsoft plan to work together to integrate key assets and create completely new service offerings, while extending established products and services to new markets.

Need for Speed Undercover, the high-octane action game, and Tetris which are some of the world’s best games from EA, are headed for Blackberry. RIm made the announcement ahead of this year’s Mobile World Congress, (February 14 to February 17, 2011, in Barcelona, Spain). EA and RIM will demonstrate Need for Speed Undercover and Tetris running on the highly anticipated BlackBerry PlayBook and showcasing the tablet’s next generation high definition 3D capabilities.

We have witnessed iPads in Kitchens, in airline and now Range Rover has equipped the latest version of Range Rover with iPads. EuropeanMotorNews Magazine says that just 500 examples of the Range Rover Autobiography Ultimate Edition will be produced. The Range Rover will be exclusively sold in over 20 regions. Pricing of the car is yet to be revealed but it is going to be top of the top. The Range Rover will also be equipped with a laptop table and Apple Keyboard for the iPads.  The Range Rover Autobiography Ultimate Edition will be debuting at the 2011 Geneva Motor…

Orange has enhanced its shop network further, with the opening of two new ultramodern shops in Nairobi. The Orange shop in T-Mall opened its doors to customers this week, while the Galleria Shop is set to be operational on 14th February 2011. The two shops have been fully equipped with a wide range of integrated voice, data and value added services and will target shoppers to the malls as well as customers in the nearby commercial and residential areas. Last year Orange opened three new shops; Westgate, Sarit Centre, and the Orange Mega flagship store, at the city centre. The telecommunications…

Google is looking for you if you love solving complex problems, code in your sleep, are a student at an African or Arabic university is  interested in internships at Google. Through a blog post, the competition is going to give students coders a chance to experience the world with Google. Google wrote below in the post; Code Jam AA is a new coding competition for African and Arabic computer science students. It’s your chance to try your skills against fellow coders and algorithmic whizzes! Google engineers have been hard at work developing a set of brainteasers designed to challenge your…