Author: Feritter Owich

The countdown to the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2019 is just hours away, which means the newest additions to the Galaxy family are ready to make their big debut. The event comes just a couple weeks after the company announced that the Galaxy Fold would go on sale in September (more than four months from its original launch date) after the phone had been strengthened. Samsung’s Unpacked event for the Galaxy Note 10 and a slew of new wearables, including the refreshed Galaxy Buds takes place today, August 7 at 11 p.m. (Kenyan time)/4 p.m. EDT /1 p.m. PT, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.…

Just a few days ago, what started as an exciting rumor has now been confirmed: WhatsApp was reportedly working on a new multi-platform feature, meaning users will soon be able to access the popular messaging app on multiple devices simultaneously. Believed to have been first reported by well-known WhatsApp tipster WABetaInfo who said in a statement that it’s “no longer a rumor, it’s confirmed”. We will be able to use our WhatsApp account across multiple devices.  The WhatsApp tipster added: “It includes WhatsApp for Windows (UWP, when available), so you can use WhatsApp on your PC if your phone has no…

Instagram and WhatsApp are about to be renamed as Facebook tries to be clearer about its ownership of the two services. The two services will be renamed “Instagram from Facebook” and “WhatsApp from Facebook”. These new titles are to appear on Facebook’s internal branding, and also in the title for both apps on Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play store. On a device’s home screen, the app titles will stay the same for now, but it’s likely that the new name will appear when you open it. Although the renaming will not affect how either app operates. “We want…

President Donald Trump on August 1st announced he will impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion in Chinese goods starting September 1, 2019. This most likely means all assembled electronics will be included. However, the U.S. Trade Representative has not released the finalized list. It’s possible the list was revised to remove certain products following the public hearings last month. President Trump’s decisiveness to impose this 10% tariff could spell catastrophe for Apple. This will potentially increase iPhone prices, weaken their demand and negatively impact the company’s earnings per share, according to Wedbush Securities analysts Daniel Ive and Strecker Backe. The Wedbush analysts called…

YouTube Premium has really tried to gain subscribers in the recent past, and in those attempts, the company has made some very strange choices in what features it actually has. One of the strangest omissions was the fact that you couldn’t download videos in resolutions greater than 720p, despite YouTube Premium enabling video downloading – considering downloads are only available on mobile devices. But YouTube will now allow you to download videos for offline viewing in 1080p as rollouts have started. Android Police first spotted the update, and the company confirmed to multiple sources that the feature is rolling out to “most Premium…

The planned merger between Airtel and Telkom Kenya is taking shape with Telkom announcing a plan to send home most of its employees to accommodate new structures. Over 500 people will be jobless after Telkom Kenya issued a 30-days notice to relevant authorities and the Ministry of Labour informing them of their plan to lay off employees in a new business strategy. Telkom Kenya has 800 employees and 575 are being laid off, meaning only 225 (25%) will retain their jobs. In a redundancy notice sent to staff yesterday, the firm’s chief executive Mugo Kabati issued the consultative period between…

Android Auto was released over five years ago by Google and has only received minor tweaks and updates in that time, and the first major redesign of the platform is here now. In case you had no idea, Android Auto is a mobile app developed to mirror features from an Android device to a car’s compatible in-dash information and entertainment head unit. The new version of Android Auto that Google is rolling out brings an updated layout, app launcher, a notification tab, new typeface, and dark mode by default. It will start to arrive on Android phones across the world this week. So how does Android Auto…

According to an official video, July 31st, which is today, is the official unveiling date for a new tablet from Samsung. The video teases the Galaxy Tab S6 alongside the Galaxy Watch Active 2 which is to be unveiled on August 5. We had all initially expected Samsung to unveil the new Galaxy Tab S6 tablet and Galaxy Watch Active 2 smartwatch alongside the Galaxy Note 10 on August 7, but the company will now unveil those former products ahead of its next smartphone. Admittedly it’s currently unclear if the company will be hosting a Livestream or if the details will just drop on the company’s…

An interesting thing is that while the pop-up camera trend has been limited to smartphones and is still alien to tablets or laptops, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor is taking a giant leap and adding a pop-up camera to its upcoming smart TV. Just like the Honor 9X, Honor’s first smart TV will have a pop-up camera and a 55-inch display. Honor recently announced that it is looking to enter the lucrative television market and launch its first Honor smart TV which will come with a few interesting industry firsts. Its TV set to be unveiled on August 9 during the Huawei Developer…

As part of its latest earnings, Sony has made an announcement that makes the PS4 the first games console to reach 100 million units sold. Today, Sony released its latest earnings for the first quarter ending June 30, which revealed that the PS4 [$299.00 at Amazon] has managed to sell 100 million units. Sony revealed that it sold 3.2 million PS4s between March 31st and June 30th, after announcing that 96.8 million units had sold in the previous quarter. Meaning that just two months quicker than Nintendo’s Wii, PS4 hit the 100 million figure in 5 years and seven months, In reaching…

Samsung hasn’t announced the Galaxy Note 10 yet, but you can already put your name down to reserve one. Last week, Samsung began taking reservations for Note 10 without actually spelling out the phone’s name. Why we say this is because Samsung’s reservation site is for “the next generation of Galaxy,” but the video on the page makes it clear there’s a new Note coming. As we have mentioned before, Samsung will officially announce the Galaxy Note 10 on August 7, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reserve the unannounced phone right now. Preorders will open on the big announcement date…

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is set to be revealed at Samsung Unpacked on August 7th. Four devices are rumored to be launched then and they include the regular Galaxy Note 10, a Galaxy Note 10+, and 5G models of both. Thanks to the internet we’ve all probably seen pictures of the alleged Note 10+ model and also seen 3D CAD renders of the regular model, along with photos of both devices in a new Aura color. The South-Korean company is expected to introduce a brand new tablet, the Galaxy Tab S6, and a new set of accessories to go with its new flagship smartphone.…

TECNO recently launched the TECNO Phantom 9 which is a very big upgrade from 2017’s TECNO Phantom 8. The company has shown inconsistency with the launch of their flagship devices and hopefully, this means that TECNO is back on the flagship bandwagon. TECNO launched the Phantom 8 in late 2017 after skipping Phantom 7 bu the company didn’t launch a follow-up flagship in 2018. The fresh and new Phantom device features head-turning flagship-grade specifications as it brings brand new features that make the long wait for the series return worthwhile. A new major feature on the Phantom 9 is the in-display fingerprint reader.…

Gallery Go is a 10MB new app from Google that helps organize your photos offline. It is designed to let people with unreliable internet connections organize and edit their photos. Just like Google’s regular Photos app, it uses machine learning to organize your photos. Gallery Go also offers some simple-to-use editing tools, such as auto-enhance. You can also apply a number of different filters, and rotate and crop your images. And when you’re done, you can create folders and copy your photos across to an SD card. The difference between it and Google Photos is that Gallery Go is designed to…

The Samsung Galaxy Fold which was first announced in February has a new release date window, September. This is just four months after it faced reliability setbacks of faulty displays on review units. This made the company cancel the launch worldwide with the re-launch being delayed indefinitely. Its comeback is coincidentally set to begin in ‘select markets’ the same month we expect the iPhone 11. This timing also puts the Galaxy Fold head to head with Huawei’s Mate X which is meant to launch by then but in China first. According to Samsung’s official statement today, the exact availability details are to come closer to launch. According…

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday announced charges against Facebook Inc. for making misleading disclosures regarding the risk of misuse of Facebook user data. For more than two years, Facebook’s public disclosures presented the risk of misuse of user data as merely hypothetical when Facebook knew that a third-party developer had actually misused Facebook user data. Public companies must identify and consider the material risks to their business and have procedures designed to make disclosures that are accurate in all material respects, including not continuing to describe risk as hypothetical when it has in fact happened. According to the…

The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing sources and internal documents on how Huawei Technologies secretly helped North Korea build and maintain its commercial wireless network. Huawei reportedly employed a number of tactics in an effort to keep its work under wraps, including partnering with Panda International Information Technology, a Chinese state-owned company over at least eight years. This was as a sort of conduit for its contributions, and in the company, documents referring to North Korea as “A9” instead of its name. Huawei reportedly also used a code in internal documents when referring to its work in Iran and Syria,…

Chinese budget smartphone maker that leads sales in Africa, Transsion Holdings, has received approval to go public on Shanghai’s new Nasdaq-style stock market, reported the South China Morning Post. According to an announcement on the Shanghai Stock Exchange website on Tuesday, the company, which filed its initial public offering (IPO) application in March, aims to raise up to 3.01 billion yuan (US$437 million) on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. This is also known as the STAR board. The Shangai based company was the first mobile phone company to establish a manufacturing base in Africa. Its low-cost handsets having enticed…

Microsoft’s LinkedIn is finally moving its platform to Microsoft’s cloud. Despite being owned by Microsoft for a few years now, LinkedIn continues to operate in an independent way. And since there was no pressure from Microsoft to use Azure, LinkedIn continues to build and maintain its own compute infrastructure. Since 2012, LinkedIn has been running its own data centers. At that time, when it was still an independent company, its officials decided to cease relying on third-party datacenters. After Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016, Redmond has stuck to its strategy of largely letting LinkedIn go its own way. That meant that LinkedIn…

VideoLAN is the not-for-profit organization behind VLC Media Player which is a popular software used to both play and convert a variety of audio and visual files. It is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, and Android systems. VLC media player boasts more than 3.1 billion installs across various operating systems and various release versions. Recently, the open-source media player has become the focus of a recent security advisory released by the German Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-Bund).  CERT-Bund warns in the advisory that VLC media player version 3.0.7.1, the latest build available, contains a vulnerability which has been…

Today, Huawei’s Honor brand unveiled the Honor 9X and Honor 9X Pro in China as the latest offering in their “premium mid-range” category. These devices don’t pack the same punch as Honor’s high-end phones, but they still offer a compelling package for a much more affordable price tag. The new smartphone pair, which are incredibly similar in design, are sequels to the Honor 8X launched in September 2018, and they feature bezel-less displays and pop-up selfie cameras. These are Honor’s first smartphones to offer a pop-up selfie camera. They also feature OLED displays and are powered by the Kirin 810 chipset, which…

Aren’t we all tired of the ‘credit-eating’ trap that we get into, whenever we innocently click on a link or an Ad that asks for our phone numbers? But then again, maybe you are just tired of the constant promotional texts that never seem to stop. I know that I am tired of all of these and have been looking for a fast and easy way to cancel Safaricom subscriptions that are eating away my airtime. Sometimes we even find ourselves trapped in a premium service that we didn’t know how we got signed up to, but airtime is being…

WhatsApp, an instant messaging app used by millions of users globally by both iPhone and Android users is set to launch a voice message preview feature for iOS according to reports. One of the primary reasons for this stems from WhatsApp’s intuitive interface and expanding feature set, causing the app to explode in popularity with time. As posted on twitter by WABetaInfo; an outlet renowned for trawling through early editions of WhatsApp in an attempt to garner a glimpse at forthcoming features. They posted an image of a new tool claimed to land on iPhones in the future. WhatsApp users…

With the Galaxy Note 10 launch nearing, it’s going to be a busy August for Samsung because they also have re-launch preparations for Galaxy Fold. The most recent report claims that Samsung is ready to launch its foldable handset., and who knows, it may be launched alongside the Galaxy Note 10. The Galaxy Fold smartphone was originally set to be released on April 26, but its launch was indefinitely postponed after multiple review units experienced issues with the flexible display and hinge design. Many of the Galaxy Fold review units experienced issues after a plastic protective layer of the display came…

Ever since President Trump’s ban came into effect, so many of us have been talking about Huawei’s upcoming new Android-based OS for a few weeks now. The Chinese company was even seen registering a Hongmeng trademark in several markets, and that’s what we’ve been calling the OS ever since. However, the company just said that it wants to keep using the real Android on its smartphones. In remarks to the press, according to The South China Morning Post, Huawei confirmed the name of its Android-based OS just a few days after it teased that its software is faster than Android and macOS. Weirdly enough, this…

Yesterday Snapchat announced “Creator Shows”, a new format that will deliver regularly published content from some of Snapchat’s most popular stars. The company wants to take advantage of the fact that in the last year the time spent watching Shows on Snapchat has tripled. The company isn’t disclosing viewing time or other metrics, although, the social network is aiming to capitalize on its strong ties to young viewers. Snapchat says it reaches 90% of all 13-24 year-olds; more than Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger combined, and 75% of all 13-34-year-olds. The initiative for the Creators Shows on Snap is to provide a way…

Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya have been directed by the Kenyan Government to withdraw pay bill numbers and SMS codes of 27 betting companies among them SportPesa, Betin, and 1XBet. This directive comes just after six months of push-and-pull between the government and betting firms. On Wednesday, the government struck at the heart of the firms’ operations, ordering telcos to shut down the paybill numbers and shortcodes of the 27 companies whose licenses are yet to be renewed after suspension. The order by the Betting Control and Licensing Board, contained in a letter dated July 10 was signed by its…

Bolt, formerly Taxify has raised $67 million in growth funding for its global expansion plans according to a new report by TechCrunch. Bolt says the funding is part of a bigger round which is ongoing but brings the valuation of the company to over $1 billion, joining the unicorn club.  Four months ago, TechMoran reported that the popular ride-hailing company was rebranding from Taxify to Bolt in line with its vision of the rapidly evolving transportation industry. Bolt CEO and co-founder, Markus Villig said, “Taxify launched five years ago with a mission to make urban transportation more convenient and affordable.…

Softbank’$100B Vision Fund is set to take substantial stake in Glovo‎, a Barcelona based online delivery start-up which rivals Sendy, Uber Eats, Bolt and various other players in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria according to a report by Sky News. SoftBank’s $100bn Vision Fund‎ is said to be in preliminary talks with the Japanese company’s founder Masayoshi Son and Glovo CEO Oscar Pierre. If SoftBank were to proceed with an investment in the delivery platform, it would commit several hundred million dollars to the business. The reports come after Glovo recently raised $150 million in a Series D funding round, bringing the…

The Trump administration made an announcement to make a significant relaxation of its restrictions on US companies selling to Huawei, saying the ban will only apply to products that are related to national security. Although officials said that the Chinese tech giant would still remain on the Entity List. The New York Times reported on a speech given on Tuesday by Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary, he said that his department will issue licenses where there is no threat to US national security. However, he clarified that Huawei itself remains on the Entity List, and the announcement does not change the scope…