Bharti Airtel, one of the world’s leading MSP with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, says it is still completely committed to Uganda and said it will “continue to make investments and offer world-class and affordable services to customers in the country”. Airtel’s acquisition of Warid Telecom has received approvals from the Uganda Communications Commission. With this, Airtel will further consolidate its position as the second largest mobile operator in Uganda with a combined customer base of over 7.2 million and market share of over 39%.

Warid customers will be able to retain their existing mobile numbers and continue to enjoy benefits such as remaining balances in their SIM and existing services. In addition, Warid customers will benefit from Airtel’s ‘One Network’ across 20 countries and get access to innovative products and roaming benefits on successful Read more »

Microsoft has remained a strong participant and contributor to Intellectual Property. The company has been a part of World Intellectual Property Organization efforts in actively recognizing the World Intellectual Property (IP) Day (celebrated on 26th April of every year) – An event that urges governments, industry and consumers to promote discussion about the significance of protecting IP rights. Respect for the rule of law is a strong contributor to the IP rights culture, which is in turn essential in spurring innovation in local economies. An increase in legitimate technology businesses can add revenue that supports a country’s government programs and other infrastructure goals, creates jobs, increases profits for the broader industry, and helps create a strong business ecosystem. Environments Read more »

Ten African innovators have developed practical solutions to some of the continent’s most intractable problems.  Chosen from more than 900 applications from 45 countries, the finalists for the Innovation Prize for Africa 2013 provide practical examples of Africa’s investment potential.

The winners of the IPA 2013 will be announced at a gala dinner on 7 May in Cape Town, South Africa hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business and the Sekunjalo Development Foundation. The winner will receive USD 100 000 for the best innovation based on marketability, originality, scalability, social impact and clear business potential.  A runner up will receive USD 25 000 for the best commercial potential and another finalist will receive USD 25 000 as a special prize for social inno Read more »

Image Courtesy, IndiaTimes

Nokia now has a new Asha Device with a dedicated Whatsapp Button. Yes, you read right. A Whatsapp Button that will now help you access the App faster. What is more is that all Nokia Asha 210 devices will come with Whatsapp as a free App.

The Nokia Asha 210 Build and Specs – It has a 2MP camera that is easily accessible using a dedicated hard-key even when the keypad is locked and various editing and sharing options for images. It also features a few added extras like Self-Portrait which helps to center self-portraits without the front facing camera (Yaay! to all those women who’re always taking duck-face pics of themselves) and a built-in voice that guides the user to ensure they are in the frame, before taking the shot.

Another extra is the Slam Feature that works by enabling the transfer of content such as images or videos to another Bluetooth-enabled phone without the need to pair devices.  Read more »

I was going to start off this article with the AHA! That ‘Electricity is Expensive’ but I reconsidered. Why? Because there’s no surprise there. Electricity is Expensive Everywhere. And it is getting more and more pocket-unfriendly.

In fact, if you have the new age Conlog pre-paid electricity meters like me, then ‘unaumia’. I did a small survey of what eats up my hard earned units and unplugged all my appliances one by one, each on its own week.

My small survey showed me that an empty fridge is the biggest culprit right next to the instant shower and iron box. But since you use the last 2 items periodically then my one door Samsung fridge is the one that eats up the most number of units. Read more »

There’s a Facebook group called Windows Phone Fans East Africa (Join this Fan Page) and the guy who runs it, Latiff, decided to put up some prices of the Lumia around Nairobi and the different kinds of offers linked back to the Lumia smartphone that was launched in Nairobi a few months back and runs Microsoft’s flagship Operating System, Windows Phone 8 on premium hardware from Nokia.

You can find the cheapest Nokia Lumia from these places below:

Read more »

Microsoft recently added 2 step authentication to its services and added an Authentication App onto the Windows Store. We blogged about it here. Now WordPress has it. And it got added just a week ago.

Reposted from the Official WordPress Blog – We know your blog is important to you, and today we’re proud to announce Two Step Authentication: an optional new feature to help you keep your WordPress.com account secure. For those of you who use Two Step Authentication with your Google account, you’ll know how useful this feature is for keeping your account secure.

Two Step Authentication works like this: when you log in to your WordPress.com account, we’ll prompt you to enter a secret number. To get that secret number, you’ll need to downlo Read more »

Image Courtesy, newtimes .rw

KOICA (Korean International Cooperation Agency) from Korea has signed an agreement with Rwanda’s Ministry of Youth and ICT, headed by Minister Jean Philbert Nsengimana that will see an ICT and Innovation hub (a smaller version of Kenya’s Konza City) constructed in Kicukiro – Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Construction is slated to begin at the end of 2014 and should be completed in 2016 (24 – 30 months after ground breaking) and  is expected to cost 5.6 Million Dollars. The entire project has been positioned as a big step towards achieving Rwanda’s ICT and Innovation Road Map, Vision 2020, has a plan to give rural youth access to information and to put ICT centers around the country. This particular center will target about 78% of youth and is expected to help the young people in Education and Entrepreneurship in Rwanda to create, develop and run sustainable businesses after they have been trained and incubated in these types of centers. Read more »

This new device from ASUS aims to disrupt the market by incorporating both phone and tablet devices into a single device by providing powerful hardware that runs on Intel’s Z2420 processor.

ASUS, one of the World’s top 3 notebook vendors has announced the ASUS Fonepad™, a phone and tablet which will be launched across Africa in early days of May 2013.

The ASUS Fonepad is the first android tablet runs on the new Intel processor. It is an affordable and pocket-friendly option for a tab in the African market. Built largely on the the previous successes of the ASUS 7 inch Read more »