Author: Cyrus

Google  is unveiling the new Google Groups in stages. Already users have been given access to the community discussion application. The new application has very many functionalities which makes the discussions interesting. You can now add an avatar or picture or link your Google Groups profile to your Google profile. The new Google groups might give the various forums or bulleting board systems like PHPbb, Vbulletin and SMF a run for their money. You can view a demo of the new groups here .  

Microsoft East and Southern Africa announced the general availability of Microsoft Lync in the market. The suite was formerly called Office Communications Server. You can download a trial copy of Lync from www.lync.com. Lync is like your Skype but now with more enterprise functionality.  The communication suite works with MS Outlook, Sharepoint and  Administrators can benefit from a single, secure management infrastructure, new capabilities to increase adoption, and interoperability with existing systems.  These features lower cost of ownership, allow smoother deployment and migration, and provide greater choice and flexibility.

There has been talk of the new Groupon copy cats in the net with USA, Europe and even South Africa leading in the cloning business. Our own boys have gone down to cloning and they are now buying scripts which are available online, branding them with colours they like and then installing them. I doubted if either rupu or Zetu were serious work done by local developers because since 2000, I have been in this market. I can look at an online work and tell you that it smells Kenyan. But there are ones which when you look, you see…

Samsung Electronics is not only unleashing the Waves and Galaxies into the market. The mobile phone manufacturer is also into CSR. Under the program Samsung Real Dreams will be graduating another batch of 180 Young Women from the slums of Nairobi, on Thursday 9th December, 2010, at the African Centre for Women, Information and Communications Technology (ACWICT) offices in Kileleshwa. The Samsung Real Dreams program is done in collaboration with ACWICT and seeks to improve employment and economic prospects for 360 young women, ages 18-35 years residing in the informal settlements in Kenya by equipping them with marketable skills for…

Microsoft was having an Open Door day today. The event was held at Sarit Centre and Westgate mall in Nairobi. Microsoft displayed a range of publicity suites and products. The products are for the today’s consumer who might be corporate or individual and it just makes work easier. I first met Louis Otieno, Microsoft East Africa, General Manager at the first Strathmore ICT conference in 2001. The event was held at KICC. There were many speakers but none of the presentations was as captivating as the one done by Louis Otieno. He was this young cool guy who was just…

Barclays Bank of Kenya Ltd (Barclays Kenya) has unveiled a new Internet banking platform. Barclays CEO, Mr Adan Mohamed said that through the platform, customers will be able access to their accounts on-line, monitor account activities, check status of cheques, transfer funds on-line for accounts in Kenya, and view their term deposits.

Samsung Electronics,  a leading mobile phone provider and the  No. 1 mobile phone provider1 in the U.S., and Google™ yesterday announced Nexus S™, the world’s first handset to feature the latest version of Google’s Android™ platform. Powered by Android 2.3, Samsung and Google have packed Nexus S with powerful technology and the latest in hardware features. JK Shin, President and Head of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, said, “Samsung and Google have worked together closely to deliver the best Android smart phone experience for consumers.

The controversial founder of Wikileaks website, Julian Assange, was arrested in London today by the police on behalf of Swedish police on attempted rape allegations. This is the time which bloggers who value openness must come out and support Julian Assange as the US will ultimately want him if at all he will be extradited to Sweden. Julian Assange, 39, was detained after attending London police station by appointment at 0930 GMT and is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates Court later in the day, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Media owners in Kenya are now crying foul and have now suspended provision of content to KBC for digital broadcasting. The MOA are saying that the government is giving priority to foreign broadcasters and ignoring local broadcasters in the provision of digital signals. They say the action of the government is suspect and that their applications have been ignored and foreign application for the digital signals prioritised. They say the action of the government is suspect and clouded with dishonesty.

TANZANIA Communications and Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has disputed a figure showing that the country has only 520,000 internet subscribers. TCRA disputes that the country ranks below Kenya which is potrayed to be with 7.8 million net subscribers. Tanzania is connected to EASSY and SEACOM fibre cables while Kenya is connected to TEAMS, SEACOM and EASSY cables. Mr Jabbi Lamin, the adviser to the director general, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) surprised TCRA officials who openly disputed the figure saying it was too small, according to Daily News.

Have you ever lived outside Kenya especially before mid 2000s? It was hard then and very expensive to call home unless you had things like Net2Phone which were not reliable unless you had a connection which could handle VOIP. There is a new service just aimed at the diasporians. It is called sweet. Yaani tamu. Sweet is a new Kenyan phone service aimed at those in the Diaspora (Kenyans or those that have a relationship with Kenya). They go online (www.sweet.co.ke) and sign up to order a Kenyan phone line. This Sweet line can be used anywhere in the world where…

Since Wikileaks which is actually our hero here, is under attack, we think that it would just be good to let you know that there are so many mirror links out there which you can use to access Wikileaks. The following are some but not all of them.

On 26th November 2010, the Commission released its first-ever Assessment Report on the Quality of Service (QoS) offered by the four cellular mobile operators in the Kenya. The release of the 2009/2010 QoS report has been greeted with mixed reactions in the industry with some operators questioning the timing and the credibility of the results. In light of this reaction and in order to shed light on this pertinent matter, the Commission would like to state as follows: Section 23 of the Kenya Communications Act, 1998, mandates the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) to ensure that the licensed telecommunications operators…

ICT Board of Kenya and the ministry, Ministry of Information and Communications are set to launch a innovative experiment in getting 15,667 university students through a program christened Wezesha. Wezesha seems to be a very philanthrophic word since Care Tanzania has been using it in reducing infant mortality, enhancing girl-child education and improving access to financial services. ICT Board is using it more to enhance access to ICT services. The program will provide Kenyan students with Ksh 9,000 ($120) towards acquiring a new laptop. The money will reduce the cost of a new laptop with about 15% – 33%. The…

You know, every company now is thinking of launching of a Mobile Money transfer system with Equity Bank. None is thinking of partnering with KCB, CO-OP, Consolidated, Barclays, National or the others. We witnessed Orange and Safaricom all partnering with Equity Bank before. Yu Just joined the fray and now they have Yu-Cash with Equity. Yu-Cash has now been linked to Equity Bank accounts and so you can do mobile transactions through your phone. You will only though enjoy the service if you are an Equity client. Again before Yesterday, you couldn’t transfer money from Yu-Cash to other mobile operators…