Author: Cyrus

The pioneer class at the new Samsung Engineering Academy has officially kicked off its academic programs with a class of 200 students aimed at addressing the critical technical and engineering skills shortage in Kenya. The new Samsung Engineering Academy established at a cost of more than US$ 1million is the second such training facility in Africa and has welcomed its full scholarship pioneer student intake as part of a wider goal to develop 10,000 electronic engineering apprentices across Africa by the year 2015. Samsung Electronics East Africa Marketing Business Leader Ms. Betty Radier, said, the pioneer class will be delivered…

Airtel Kenya has donated 200 phones to the Kenya Police Post in Coast province. The phones will be bundled with golden numbers. A golden number is a special number with digits that are easy to recall from memory in times of need and emergencies. The partnership will cover all police stations, police posts and patrol bases in the Coast Province. Explaining why Airtel took up this initiative, Airtel Kenya managing director Mr. Shivan Bhargava said, that his Company believed that business was not an end in itself but rather a means to helping the society achieve more, and that Airtel…

Felix Kamwibua tasted alcohol at the age of 16 out of influence of his relatives. He has always regretted the experience and promised to do something about it and also never to drink again. Now a 28 years old graduate, Felix has developed a website called Pub Director. The website ironically provides direction to events, bars, restaurants and entertainment spots within Nairobi, according to an article on The Standard. “Most of the times when you are at a night out, people call you to ask if they can join you. They again call to ask for direction to where you are. It…

Samsung has launched the 2012 Smart App Challenge  challenge, a global app competition. The competition aims to boost the mobile ecosystem for Galaxy Tab and Note. Through the competition, developers look to win a total of $4.08 million plus lots of benefit in marketing through the Samsung network. A total of 80 applications will be selected as ‘Samsung Apps Super Apps’ and ‘Best S Pen Apps’ winners The contest is divided into two categories :– Samsung Apps Super App Best S Pen Apps The challenge is open to all mobile application developers across the world. Developers who wish to participate…

According to a recent research conducted by InMobi, Kenyan mobile advertising impressions grew by 12% in the first quarter of 2012. The report shows that more than 2.6 Billion impressions were recorded on the InMobi network in the period. The InMobi trends are modest compared to the 29% realised by Buzz city in the same period. Buzz city served more than 819,968,166 banner ads in the same period. Nokia remains a dominant force in Kenya with 58% of impressions on the InMobi network coming from this brand of handsets. The closest competitors are Samsung (20%) and Alcatel (11%). After Symbian, Android…

Intel  is deploying a new sales model with East African telecommunication companies to reach more buyers in developing markets through high speed broadband and affordable PCs – as part of the efforts to bridge the widening gaps in high speed internet access and broadband connectivity and boost the region’s information hub credentials. Intel has yesterday entered into a partnership with Orange Uganda to have a range of affordable PCs and high broadband speeds that will be sold at conveniently located Orange retail outlets. The partnership presents Intel with huge growth opportunities in computing while for Orange it will enable the…

Essar Kenya through its yuMobile brand has today launched a pre-paid credit facility which gives its subscribers access to emergency airtime when they need it. The new service dubbed Credo4yu gives users up to Kes. 20 of emergency airtime credit if they run out of airtime at any given time and need to make an urgent call. The service is available to those subscribers who have less than Kes. 2 of airtime left, and have been on the network for at least three months. Speaking at the launch of the service, Country Manager Madhur Taneja said: “Credo4yu has come about…

HP today announced a range of powerful retail solutions to meet growing customer demand for technologies with high-performance, style and substance in the retail and hospitality industries. HP retail solutions unveiled today included: The highly customizable, powerful HP RP7 all-in-one retail system which combines sleek and elegant design with performance you can trust for a variety of retail and hospitality settings, from specialty stores such as fashion and electronics, to department stores, hotels and restaurants. The HP L6015tm and L6017tm Retail Touch Monitors with multitouch projected capacitive screens are perfect for retail and hospitality environments which require intuitive and familiar…

By Alex Gakuru Date: 09 May, 2012 Suppose one realises that the implementation of a certain section of Kenya’s brand new Constitution hurts their private interests, for over a decade they had grown accustomed to. Successfully lobbies the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution to suspend such a section on claims of extreme adversities. The Commission, shingo upande (grudgingly) agrees to it though for a defined short period of time, if just to eliminate all doubts on their legal mandate. The the time window expires but the said individual contrives new excuses to rubbish the entire document and begins calls for…

The parents of Alex Chege Mugachia and Malonza Chege Mugachia, two brothers out of the three Kenyan Big Brother Africa representatives, have started a social media campaign to see their two sons win the $300,000. Dr Joe Mugachia and his wife, Dr Mwikali Mugachia, have taken up to running the Facebook and Twitter pages dedicated to the campaigns to see the two “almost twin’ brothers win the prize. Speaking to Techmtaa, Dr Joe Mugachia reiterated that he believes that his sons are mature enough to know the good and the bad values they can pick from such a show. “Alex…

South Africa’s Mango Airlines has become the first regional airline to offer Wi-Fi services to its passengers in the air. Just as we reported last month, the airline will allow its passengers to buy a “one-way pass” for R50 (for a flight), or a “one-day pass” (for a specific day of travel) for R90, or a “top-up pass” (for a specific amount of time) at R1 a minute. Commenting on the development, Mango Airlines spokesman Hein Kaiser said that the Wi-Fi will allow people to connect to the internet while flying. Other South Africa airlines have opposed the idea terming…

Safaricom has this afternoon announced that it was experiencing a major enterprise data service outage. The outage which commenced yesterday evening has been traced to a technical fault in the routing systems. The company has advised customers that its engineers are working with its technology partners to restore services. The enterprise data service outage affects primarily Safaricom’s business customers nationwide who rely on fixed data services either on fibre optic or WiMax for their connectivity requirements. Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore while regretting the outage assured affected customers that, “all our efforts are currently focused on ensuring that the services are…

Posted May 1st, 2012 by Wandia Njoya Rev Canon Peter Karanja Mwangi General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Kenya Dear Rev Karanja The Bible records different occasions when the Lord used the least expected members of society to express the Lord’s displeasure with those who were publicly recognized as the Lord’s servants. One prophetic voice to the Lord’s servant came from the child Samuel, whom the Lord sent to Eli. Eli’s sons were desecrating the temple by exploiting women and the poor. Disgusted by this behavior, the Lord sent the boy Samuel to tell Eli that the Lord had…

Some UK bouncers are reported to be demanding that club revellers hand over their smartphones so they can check Facebook accounts, BBC reports. One victim, Charlotte Neal, 20, claimed that she was asked for her phone by bouncers when she showed her driving license. The bouncers just confirmed that her Facebook ID and photo matched her driving licence details then let her through. “When it happened the first time I didn’t really think anything of it. Then I thought, ‘Hang on, is this really how you’re supposed to check how old I am?’ But I was out and I wanted to…

Rene Meza is the CEO of Vodacom Tanzania and he is not relenting in his quest to see Africans enjoy cheaper mobile phone charges. He fought a bitter price battle with Safaricom in Kenya while he was the CEO at the now Airtel Kenya. He then joined Vodaphone owned Vodacom Tanzania meaning that guys at Safaricom are now his colleagues. So from today today Vodacom Tanzania has launched a new offer dubbed Wajanja which is specifically designed to meet the communication needs of the mass and youthful market. Under the new campaign, Vodacom prepaid customers will enjoy all Vodacom to Vodacom calls…