Author: Caroline Vutagwa

LekkeSlaap has publicized a new refined search tool where guests can filter their results for accommodation across South Africa. This comes just three months since LekkeSlaap, the Afrikaans first accommodation booking site, was introduced in South Africa. Guests can search where to go in accordance to specific criteria such as “Pet Friendly Establishments”, “Braai Facilities”, and “Secure Parking”, to name just a few. Users just need to enter their location, tick the desired filter, and hit search. Since their launce LekkeSlaap has been a great deal of assistance for Afrikaans on the internet and has proved to be a success…

The official facebook app for the Windows Phone 8 has just singled out a major revamp and is now known as the Facebook 5.0 for windows 8. It comes with absolutely new features  such as a restored user interface, better navigation, support for high-res pictures, post sharing, Facebook timeline view and another Facebook Beta app that can be downloaded separately among others. The Beta app is available as a limited release for the past few weeks; it has now been released to the wider public on the WP App Store, but only for users of WP8 software. In a statement,…

Nigeria has increased its mobile subscription by 7 percent since the beginning of this year,this percentage equates the total number of connections to 120 million. This is is confirmed by statistics released by the country’s communication authority, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The statistics states that there has been an additional 6.2 million subscribers between December 2012 and April 2013 which have pushed the current total active mobile subscriptions in the country to 119.3 million. Informa Telecoms and Media predicted that Africa will have the highest rate of growth in mobile subscriptions among major world regions. They also predicted that…

BlackBerry last week posted an unexpected first quarter loss after disappointing sales of its new phones. The company experienced a 20 percent fall in shares. The Waterloo, Ontario firm announced that the loss added up to US$84m in the first quarter which was ending in June a sum which they compared it with a loss of US$518m in the same period a year earlier. Canadian Smartphone manufacturer’s Revenues reached US$3.1bn, up nine percent; however, analysts expected a seven cent per share profit instead of a 13 cents per share loss. The results come after blackberry released its new Smartphone’s…

Huawei has now collaborated with Google to join other competitive brands to produce a stock in Android smart phones which will be sold in the Google play store.The HUAWEI Ascend P6 is the embodiment of elegance with an edge. The product division president of Huawei, Kevin Ho said that the company is working with Google to produce a Google Edition version of an extra ordinarily thin ascend P6 smart phone. “The HUAWEI Ascend P6 is a star among smartphones with its industry-leading design, high-quality camera, and intuitive user interface, Huawei’s proprietary Emotion UI,” said Richard Yu, Chief Executive Officer, Huawei…

Rocket Internet’s OfficeFab, a stationery and office supplies online store may be quietly leaving its premises in Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia as its employees pack up too not knowing where to go. OfficeFab’s various country portals are still online and a section of the media claim it is still processing payments for customers and suppliers at the moment. According to a staff member who declined to be named, talking to IamWire.com, OfficeFab’s offices were shut down on 28 June. “We were all shocked by the news that day, but the higher management decided everything so even though we’re doing…

Tony O. Elumelu, chairman of the Heirs Holding Ltd and a business leader, has committed US$2.5 billion to Obama’s Power Africa initiative in a move to power the continent. This is part of his commitment to deliver affordable and accessible power to the continent.The investment will be done through Elumelu’s pan-african proprietary investment company Heirs Holdings. Power Africa is a multi-stakeholder partnership between the United States, the governments of Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Ethiopia, and the African private sector, with the shared objective of accelerating investment in Africa’s power sector over the next five years. This initiative was…

Uganda has officially increased its internet usage up to 85 percent in the last 12 months up until June 2013, says MTN Uganda. Ernst Fonternel the Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Uganda attributed the growth in Internet customers to 1.6 million to their expanding data footprint and deployment of LTE. “Since the beginning of the year, MTN has been the first in the market to introduce WiFi Hotspots, 42Mbps and 4G LTE. We also provide our customers with 15MB worth of Free Internet every month and we are constantly reaching out to our customers through various activations and great device deals,”…

Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister has rejected the breaking calls of for the state-monopoly in telecoms services. He said that their governmetn needs the funding of revenue for unrelated railway project. In order to access the World Trade Organisation (WTO) the liberalisation of the telecoms market in the country is required. WTO has been stalled for a decade by the telecoms monopoly held by Ethio Telecom. The prime minister believed that the government currently earns US$323 million a year from the telecoms monopoly and its revenues would be injured if the monopoly was broken. He added that the money was…

US based Verizon is stated to have made an offer to buy the Wind Mobile a Canadian network company making worth a price of US$700 million. The Canadian government, however, has made is difficult for Wind mobile to sell themselves to larger owners as they have blocked their recent attempts to bid it. Canada’s three smallest networks have struggled to compete against the larger incumbents. Mobicity’s sale was blocked as the buyer was one of the three larger incumbents, while Wind Mobile faced concerns about the potential Russian owner. Verizon seems to be taking advantage of new rules that let…

HP has presented the HP ElitePad 900 tablet into the Kenyan market that balances a beautiful design with enterprise-grade features, functionality and support. The tablet is specifically designed for business as it is Ergonomically shaped to fit comfortably in the hand, the HP ElitePad offers a 25.7 cm (10.1”) display, weighs  0.68 and measures 9.2 millimetres (mm) thin. The 16-by-10 aspect ratio maximizes the display area for ideal viewing of traditional business applications, as well as video content. The HP ElitePad uses stylish, premium materials such as CNC-machined aluminium and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 2. The Microsoft® Windows 8 tablet features…

Boasting of a different of its Galaxy S4 smartphone, Samsung has added new features and this time supporting LTE-Advanced networks. The “Galaxy S4 LTE-A” adds new sorts to the present lead smartphone and support for doubled mobile data download speeds on the few networks that support it. The Galaxy S4 LTE-A’s advanced network enables users to experience significantly greater speeds that is a double dose of today’s LTE speeds. It has achieved this by leveraging carrier aggregation, a method that combines different frequencies and uses them as one. The phone also comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.3GHz quad-core processor and…

Sony Mobile has revealed a waterproof smartphone, the ‘LTE enabled Xperia Z Ultra’. It has a large 6.4-inch display screen and 2.2Ghz quad-core processor. Sony’s new Android phone has a built in display software that analyzes each image and reproduces missing pixels to optimize quality for the sharpest videos. “The Xperia Z Ultra is the most exciting revolution in large-screen smartphone entertainment devices with both the slimmest and largest Full HD smartphone display in the world that is second to none.” said Calum MacDougall, Director of Xperia Marketing at Sony Mobile Communications. The Xperia Z Ultra phone weighs 212 grams…

Rubi-Flow, from FlowCentric, is being used to automate and power the business process of guideline BizTech’s enterprise business management tool, RUBiQ, which is a service solution selected for Pamoja’s cloud service offering for Africa. Pamoja, the cloud services business unit of Seacom and provider of wholesale Cloud computing services, was launched in March this year. The company’s cloud services will be provided through its network of data centres which are located directly on the Seacom submarine infrastructure. “Our selection as the strategic partner to BizTech in extending RUBiQ as a fully automated and integrated, cloud-ready solution on the Pamoja platform…

Safaricom Ltd in partnership with Green Dreams Ltd have introduced the new revamped  iCow application, a set of agricultural service, which will be accessed using a USSD code aimed at promoting smart dairy farming. The application will be accessed by USSD *285#, the farmer will subscribe to the code which will cost them Kshs. 3 per message. With this application, Kenya’s farmers will be able to access tips on better farming methods which will help them improve their dairy output and afterwards increase their returns. “iCow survey data shows farmers who have been on iCow for 7 months begin to…

Sony has introduced its smartwatch 2 which will act as a second screen for Android smart phones. The watch serves as a notifer, android app interface and phone remote control. It’s a ‘multi-functional watch’. The smartwatch 2 offers a touch screen device that will enable the user to read messages check the time, use apps, take photos and all the things one does with the phone. This means users will not have to remove their phones from their pockets or bags. “Sony is the proud leader in the smartwatch market since introducing our first Bluetooth watch in 2007,” says Stefan…

Algeria is about to become big competition as 3G has been introduced this year. A new report from Pyramid Research says that the regulatory changes allow number portability and local loop unbundling. The report, tagged ‘Algeria: Government Nationalizing Djezzy, Broadband Revenue to Soar as 3G About to Be Introduced’,  gives an accurate summary of the Algerian telecommunications, media and technology sectors based on proprietary data from Pyramid’s research in the market. Ousmane Yatera, Pyramid Research Analyst, said that tight regulations that have been imposed  by the government have deterred  foreign buyers. The only Ooredoo affiliate without 3G services, Nedjma, expressed…

National supplier of people’s management software and hardware solutions, Accsys, hosted students in their company. This was done as part of the annual Cell C Bringing a girl child to work initiative. The Cell C Bring a Girl Child to Work is a long-running programme devised and introduced by the mobile services operator to expose learners to the realities of a modern business. Every year, Accsys which is a regular contributor to the initiative, hosts 11th and 12th Graders from Wendywood and Alexandra High Schools. Learners are given a guided tour through the offices, involving presentations by key personnel and…

United States based, TA associates, a private equity firm intends to invest in an analytic providing company based in Mumbai India.The TA associates will invest INR 150 crore against a minority stake in the company. Naveen Wadhera, the TA associate director and country head in India, says that Fractal Analytics fits well into their global strategy of supporting promoters because the company has put itself together as a niche business services company to a measure to meet most global ambitions. Wadhera added that the associate company has been careful in investing in India and has so far been investing in…

Samsung buyers who purchase any wireless or Bluetooth audio products will now enjoy three months of free unlimited access to more than 20 million songs available on Simfy Africa’s online music streaming service. This promotion has been on from 1st June 2013 and will continue up to the 31st may 2014 with the chosen Samsung wireless and Bluetooth-enabled audio products including home theatre systems, AirTrack speaker systems, Mini Components Systems and Bluetooth speakers. Lance Berger, the head of product marketing TV/AV at Samsung South Africa, thought that the Samsung wireless audio products combine innovative design that has the latest technology…

Safaricom Limited has set its sight on the medium and small enterprises with the launch of ‘lipa an M-PESA Services, a campaign that is aimed at establishing the use of its payment service as a primary tool of transaction. The ‘lipa na M-PESA payment  service for the M-PESA includes the payment of salaries, bills, merchant payment collection services, retail distribution, bulk payments and transport solutions. The service will enable customers to make payments for goods and services that costs as little as ten shillings to as much as 70,000 shillings with no transaction fee. Bobb Collymore, Safaricom’s CEO understood that…

eBay, the leading online market place of India is now offering packaged food which will be marketed on the newly launched platform eBay daily. The eBay daily website has a zoom feature which allows consumers to zoom in and read the packaging of the food items along with other details. This option provide customers with the option of adding multiple products to the shopping cart as well as check out together or just buy a single product and pay immediately. Deepa Thomas, e-Commerce Evangelist, eBay India said that they were seeing a huge opportunity for the international packaged foods product…

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID) in a meeting in Washington D.C. announced plans to build a global investment platform that depicts how to support innovative solutions to the world’s most intractable development challenges. The mission of Global Development Innovation Ventures (GDIV) will be to focus resources in international development towards innovative approaches with demonstrated and totally successful results. GDIV will adopt the model of the Development Innovation Ventures program at USAID, which are designed to source powerful solutions from anywhere in the world, test them using rigorous methods and staged financing,…