The fund is open to young people between over 16 years and below 30 years and running early stage ventures. The young entrepreneurs can apply for the fund by submitting a short pitch about their business ideas.
The pitches will be revived by an independent judging panel of experts which will review all entries and select a total of 30 young entrepreneurs – 10 from each country – to participate in the six-month accelerator programme.
Tooting young entrepreneur, Raymond Pelekamoyo has co-launched a new fund to help fellow young entrepreneurs in Africa to contribute to and support Africa’s growth.
Raymond is the entrepreneur-in-residence at Tooting-based Business Launchpad, which provides free business counselling and workshops to local young entrepreneurs aged 16-30.
Raymond’s venture, Nthondo Footprints, will initially focus on supporting young entrepreneurs working in the fields of agriculture, technology, and tourism in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with a view to expanding to other parts of Africa including Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, and Rwanda by mid to late 2020.
Young people aged between 16-30 whose business ideas are at an early stage are eligible to apply for the fund by submitting a short business proposal outlining the scope of their business idea and what it aims to achieve. An independent judging panel will review all entries and select a total of 30 young entrepreneurs – 10 from each country – to participate in the six-month accelerator programme.
Successful entrepreneurs will benefit from access to a fully functioning office space, monthly skills workshops, as well as one-to-one mentorship. In addition, three candidates selected by the judging panel will also receive capital to develop, launch, and scale their early-stage business ideas.
Raymond commented: “Together with my project partners, we are excited to be bringing this first-of-its-kind fund which aims to significantly tap into Africa’s growth potential. As young African entrepreneurs ourselves, we are acutely aware of the lack of investment in early-stage businesses within Africa and the challenges this can pose for young entrepreneurs in getting their business ideas off the ground. This fund aims to disrupt the status quo by providing the right platform and opportunities for young African entrepreneurs to flourish.”
Nthondo Footprints has been active in Africa since 2016 through its Incubator Network – a community of over 3000 entrepreneurs based in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The organisation’s mission is to connect, collaborate, and support young entrepreneurs in Africa by offering them the best possible opportunities to truly grow their ideas.
With four hubs already in operation across sub-Saharan Africa, Nthondo Footprints will leverage its existing presence to simultaneously launch its accelerator programmes in Zambia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe on July 17, 2019. Nthondo Footprints prides itself on being largely run by Africans for Africans.
Zambian-born Raymond is currently the co-founder of Impact Hub Lusaka, a space established to support innovation and entrepreneurship. He attended Leeds Beckett University where he was awarded Business Of The Year and Enterprising Individual Of The Year accolades.
Raymond’s fellow Nthondo Footprints partners are:
– Chifwala Slydon Lungu – also Zambian-born and a co-founder of InDiaspora Ltd, a technology start-up focused on intelligent systems that enhance people’s lives.
– Zambian national, Tarun Jedburgh – an established entrepreneur with business investments in South Africa whose focus is on advancing corporate social responsibility in Africa, specifically how to better drive companies towards a more sustainable future. He also helped to set up the first crypto society in Oxford.
– Principal partner Aran Clayton – an experienced and seasoned business development executive who assists companies with raising money and creating global partnerships within his network.
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Intel Corporation has announced intentions to exit the 5G smartphone modem business in a move the firm says will help focus on “assessment of the opportunities for 4G and 5G modems in PCs, internet of things devices and other data-centric devices”.
In a statement Intel CEO Bob Swan said, “We are very excited about the opportunity in 5G and the ‘cloudification’ of the network, but in the smartphone modem business it has become apparent that there is no clear path to profitability and positive returns.
5G continues to be a strategic priority across Intel, and the firm says it has developed a valuable portfolio of wireless products and intellectual property. But the firm sees more opportunities in a wide variety of data-centric platforms and devices in a 5G world.
The firm added that will continue to invest in its 5G network infrastructure business and will still continue to meet current customer commitments for its existing 4G smartphone modem product line. However, Intel does not expect to launch 5G modem products in the smartphone space, including those originally planned for launches in 2020. This is especially a bad position for Apple because it had planned on releasing its 5G iPhone in 2020.
Apple had planned to use Intel’s 8161 5G modem chip in its 2020 phones. While at that Intel hoped to fabricate the 8161 using its 10-nanometer process, which increases transistor density for more speed and efficiency. If this plans are still under way, Intel will be the sole provider of iPhone modems.
Intel are very excited about the opportunity in 5G and the ‘cloudification’ of the network, but feel that in the smartphone modem business it has become apparent that there is no clear path to profitability and positive returns. 5G continues to be a strategic priority across Intel, and their team has developed a valuable portfolio of wireless products and intellectual property. The team is assessing their options to realize the value they have created, including the opportunities in a wide variety of data-centric platforms and devices in a 5G world.
After settling with Qualcomm, Apple now has a secure pipeline of 5G modems, while Qualcomm doesn’t have to worry about the entirety of its business model being put underneath the microscope and potentially being torn to shreds. Although this settlement between the two doesn’t bode well for Intel. It was largely assumed that Apple would tap Intel to supply 5G modems upon the release of its iPhone lineup in 2020. Unfortunately, with Qualcomm and Apple now working together again, Intel is out of the picture.
In the wake of Apple and Qualcomm’s settlement agreement, it’s most probably not surprising that Intel announced its intention to exit the 5G modem business as it pertains to smartphones. It’s worth noting that Intel was reportedly struggling to meet development targets for its 5G modem. There were also rumblings that Intel’s 5G offering would have paled in comparison to Qualcomm’s. Taken together, these two factors may have very well forced Apple’s hand to come to terms with Qualcomm.
Huawei’s P-series has had a singular focus of pushing the frontiers of smartphone photography as far as possible. The devices are truly stunning, both in looks and in camera quality.
The recently launched P30 Pro is stuffed to the brim with cool, cutting-edge technology, and the most impressive of these is its state of the art quad-camera system.
The use of multiple sensors and different types of lenses makes the camera versatile, but even more exciting is the extent to which Huawei has pushed the individual elements. The P30 Pro and its cameras will push Huawei’s rival smartphone-makers to innovate, just as they have in the past.
Huawei is hell-bent on revolutionizing smartphone photography, making it simpler for the average consumer to capture DSLR-like images. Huawei puts its best foot forward and backs the P30 Pro’s camera system with its leading technology, which is only fair considering the high-end price. But then again, the camera isn’t all there is to the P30 Pro, it has some other great features to it like the 7nm Hi-Silicon Kirin 980 chipset, 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage.
But, does the technological prowess make the new Huawei phone convincing enough for anyone to rather choose it over an iPhone XS Max or a Galaxy S10+? Let’s discuss in it below in our Huawei P30 Pro review.
Huawei P30 Pro: Design and Build
Huawei isn’t just building one of the best smartphone cameras around. The company is also one of the few phone makers trying to separate its devices from the pack with distinctive design. The P30’s glossy color-gradient backs are so stunning that I can forgive the dew drop notch at the top of both the P30 and the Pro.
The AMOLED display has agreeable curves, and, more in line with the current trends. The wider notch housing the 3D Face Unlock assembly has now been replaced by a tiny dew drop notch with a single selfie camera.
Perhaps a punch hole would have been better, perhaps not, either way a notch feels a little 2018 now that other companies have come up with more inventive ways to disguise their front cameras like OPPO Reno 10X Zoom Edition and Samsung Galaxy A80.
For a cleaner look, Huawei has eliminated the earpiece altogether. Instead, the sound emits from the screen itself (Huawei Acoustic Display Technology) and you may place your ear anywhere on the display (or on the back glass) to attend calls. This also means that Huawei’s latest features extremely slim bezels on three sides, with small bezels on the bottom letting the phone offer an impressive screen-to-body ratio.
Huawei states that the colors of the beautiful gradient glass panels on the P30 Pro are derived from nature, specifically the salt flats and how the day goes by there. The comfort and in-hand feel of the device feels pretty much like the Mate 20, which implies that the P30 Pro is quite sturdy and does have some heft to it.
Both the P30 and larger Pro come in five hues that are anything but boring: Amber Sunrise, a red-infused orange that looks like fire. Breathing Crystal, an airy blue/purple/pink. Pearl White, which takes on other colors like pink and yellow, and Aurora, which recreates the Northern lights. Even the basic black is reminiscent of smoke, unlike the plain black slabs we’ve seen from other smartphone makers in the last few years.
This hues are produced using the inkjet micron-grade printing process, the colours look quite stunning. And while the Amber Sunrise colour will attract your attention the most (sadly though, it’s not available in Kenya), my vote would be that you go for the Breathing Crystal version.
We have the Aurora and it makes you feel as if you are holding something substantial, yet delicate in your hands. There’s also a stunning feat of technology, the Leica-branded quad camera setup on the rear that’s placed vertically. Even though there’s a lot of advancements crammed in this camera setup, the protrusion also means that the phone doesn’t sit flat on a surface. And since the array is towards the top-left corner, the phone wobbles significantly when kept on a table. Considering that the phone is also quite slippery, I’d recommend you use the bundled transparent cover which only further prevents it from scratches.
As for the ports and buttons, the latter are quite tactile and placement is nothing new. This design decision means that the P30 Pro only offers a mono speaker at the base. While the sound quality is quite good, it’s not as loud as other flagships that offer stereo speakers. Moreover, it can easily get muffled when the P30 Pro is used in landscape orientation.
I love the red indent in the power button. They are also located at an appropriate position. There’s only a USB Type-C port at the bottom and no 3.5mm headphone jack. There’s a speaker grill and dual SIM tray at the bottom as well, with the IR blaster and noise cancellation mic sitting up-top.
Huawei P30 Pro: Display
The P30 Pro’s display design feels a bit more premium than its smaller siblings P30 and P30 Lite due to curved glass on both front and back. The Full-HD+ OLED panel, with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a 2340×1080 pixels resolution, looks pretty awesome, with punchy colors, deep blacks, and amazing brightness. The P30 Pro has minimal bezels at the top and bottom, similar to the Galaxy S10, and it looks pretty good for the brief time that I’ve spent with it.
Display settings have a ‘Normal’ mode that’s closer to more accurate sRGB gamut, but I am sure most consumers won’t mind the “Vivid” mode (with blue-ish whites) set by default. Each of the two modes has a Default, Warm, and Cold preset. Users have the option to switch to warmer color tones (that are lighter on eyes) or to switch to a dark theme from within battery settings.
The display is also sufficiently bright and we didn’t face any issue using the phone outdoors. It offers crisp text with vibrant colours. The viewing angles are quite good too, and watching movies or reading long webpages are a delight on the handset. The waterdrop notch doesn’t seem distracting either, and you can choose to disable it if you wish. The HDR 10-compliant panel offers impressive contrast and saturation while watching compatible content, and you can also choose to change the colour temperature in the settings.
Thanks to the OLED tech, you can also enable the Always-on Display, although it’s not as customisable as on Samsung smartphones. To enjoy a larger screen real estate, you can disable the on-screen navigation buttons and use gestures. Just swipe upwards to return to the homescreen and swipe upwards and hold to access the recently-opened apps. One thing that’s strange however is the fact that while the Mate 20 Pro featured QHD+ resolution, the P30 Pro continues with an FHD+ screen.
The Huawei P30 Pro includes an improved in-screen fingerprint scanner in comparison to the Mate 20 Pro. The fingerprint scanner on P30 Pro is an optical one (not the ultrasonic sensor we’ve seen on the Galaxy S10 Plus) and it’s placed lower this time around.
The optical fingerprint scanner works well and unlocks the Huawei P30 Pro relatively quickly. As per the company, the scanner is 30 percent faster than the one on the Mate 20 Pro, and my experience indicates the same, although there were times when it failed to read my prints even after a couple of attempts. Of course, you can use the face unlock in such scenarios, which is plenty fast. It also works in most situations, except in poorly-lit conditions. That’s because unlike the Mate 20 Pro, which has 3D face unlock, the P30 Pro only utilises the front shooter for authentication.
Huawei P30 Pro: Cameras
The P30 Pro’s innovation is in the phones four rear camera lenses that Huawei developed with Leica. A triple-lens array is stacked vertically, with a 40-megapixel super-spectrum lens, a 20-MP ultra-wide-angle lens and an 8-MP periscope zoom lens nestled on top of one another. A tiny time-of-flight lens sits to the right of the triple-lens stack.
The Pro also offers DSLR-level ISO, up to 409,600 — most other smartphone cameras default to 6,400 ISO.
The 8-MP periscope zoom lens is shaped like a square, because the built-in periscope prism rotates everything 90 degrees. Quite frankly, the zoom is a little crazy. The lens has 10x hybrid zoom so you don’t lose details as you laser in on a subject. The 50x digital zoom might be overkill, because at that range the slightest movement of your hand changes the entire photo composition, but being able to see the ridges on Mt. Longonot from quite a distance and far below was extremely cool. I then zoomed back out and switched to the 20-MP ultra-wide-angle lens with 120-degree field-of-view to capture the hilly skyline.
The ToF lens, which is making its way to more flagships phones this year (including Samsung’s 5G Galaxy S10), understands how long it takes light to travel from the subject to the camera. That makes for a visibly improved bokeh effect in portrait mode, and it also can be used for augmented reality applications. I wasn’t able to test any AR apps on the P30 Pro, but Huawei’s Measure app, which measures height, depth and width, will be available to download in the Google Play store.
Together, the Pro’s quad-lens array takes beautiful photos with almost no effort. Huawei enhanced the Pro’s camera software with artificial intelligence to take advantage of the new hardware. AI stabilization makes it possible to take a long-exposure shot in just 4 seconds. Super Portrait uses AI to preserve details that can be lost in bokeh shots. A new AI HDR+ mode can stacks multiple frames of different exposures to ensure the overall photo is evenly exposed.
As far as the camera interface is concerned, you would find yourself right at home if you’ve used a Huawei smartphone before. The P30 Pro features neatly laid-out options, letting you harness its capabilities well. I also liked the fact that the AI toggle is now present up front, instead of being present inside the settings menu.
You’ll find various shooting modes like photo, video, portrait, and pro among other things, above the shutter button, preview gallery and the ability to switch to the front shooter. On top, there’s Huawei HiVision (similar to Google Lens), flash toggle, ability to switch between normal and vivid modes and settings menu. For switching between the wide-angle, normal and zoom modes, the device has a one-tap option in the middle right, which also doubles up as a slider that lets you control zoom level.
I really loved the fact that the wide-angle mode also lets you choose the exact level rather than letting you capture a fixed frame, not to mention that this shooter also has an autofocus mechanism. Sadly however, this implementation means that you’ll need to shoot with both your hands to change the zoom levels, and in this case, Samsung’s option on its latest S10 lineup seems to be better as you can control the zoom levels single-handedly. I wish Huawei would’ve given a few options between 1x and 5x as well as 10x and 50x. Similarly, while the AI mode is present up front, the HDR mode is hidden among more modes.
There’s also a 32MP (f/2.0) selfie camera on board. The P30 Pro’s 32MP shooter offers good sharpness levels, keeps exposure in check and captures good colours too in the HDR mode. Although in some cases, the selfies tend to lean towards warmer tones. In terms of videos, you’d love the options presented by the cameras on the P30 Pro, and the footage is quite smooth as well, though I won’t say that it’s the best phone for video recording out there.
Check out the camera samples captured by us right here:
Huawei P30 Pro: Performance & Software
Though you may already know, still let’s recap once again. Huawei P30 Pro is powered by the company’s in-house 7nm Hi-Silicon Kirin 980 chipset, coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. This is Huawei’s most powerful and capable chip to date and I’ve encountered no hiccup in the performance in the past few days for which we have had the device.
As for the software, Huawei P30 Pro comes backed by EMUI 9.1, which is Huawei’s custom take on Android and it’s the only smartphone to come pre-loaded with this new variant of the skin. It’s based on Android 9 Pie and loaded with features to the brim.
Huawei P30 Pro: Battery
The Huawei P30 Pro carries a massive 4,200mAh battery pack but still manages to keep the thickness at around 8mm, which is pretty impressive. The smartphone doesn’t even feel heavy and is comfortable to use too (Although i must say that compared to the Samsung Galaxy S10+, the P30 Pro is heavier). I was able to extract up to a complete day of usage from this battery pack on a single charge for both work, social media and entertainment .
And even if you completely drain the battery by playing a ton of music or viewing YouTube Videos (something that I’ve been doing quite a lot recently considering this screen size), the 40W SuperCharger bundled with the P30 Pro will allow you to fill close to 75% of your battery in just 30 minutes.
The battery mileage is excellent, and this should give P30 Pro an edge over existing competition. The handset also supports 15W fast wireless charging, and Reverse Wireless Charging.
P30 vs. P30 Pro
The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro are 6.1-inch and 6.47-inch in size respectively. But there’s more than just a size difference between the two, the time-of-flight lens is exclusive to the Pro, giving it better portraits and AR experiences. Otherwise, both devices have the same triple-lens array, including the 40-MP super spectrum lens for stunning low-light photos.
Huawei also reserved a more powerful battery for the Pro. The larger phone’s 4,200 mAh battery supports Huawei’s 40-watt Super Charge, which can juice up the device from 0 to 70 percent in 30 minutes. The Pro also offers wireless charging, and can reverse charge any other Qi-compatible device. The P30 does not support the 40-watt charging or wireless charging.
And there’s a subtle design difference: Both phones come in the same gleaming gradient hues, but the Pro uses curved glass on both the front and back for a more premium feel. However, the regular P30 has a headphone jack, which the larger phone sacrifices for a bigger battery.
Should you buy it?
The Huawei P30 Pro is a fabulous phone, especially for consumers who are into photography and value a great camera – and we guess everyone does!
We are really taken in by lowlight photography and the superzoom, and I guess it will be a while before the novelty fades off. This is the kind of camera innovation that we expect to see on flagships.
Huawei doesn’t compromise on any other smartphone aspect either, and the complete experience of P30 Pro is impressive, to say the least.
Currently available on pre-order til the 25th of April 2019, P30 Pro is priced at Kes. 99,999/- (approximately $1000).
Huawei P30 Pro will be up against the likes of iPhones, Pixels, OPPOs, and Galaxies, which also have impressive cameras and more brand clout. None of these phones is perfect, but you’d be happy with whatever you choose. The important thing is that pushing path breaking innovations across its flagship has earned Huawei a much-deserved spot at the big table. It’s now counted in the same league as Apple and Samsung worldwide and number 2 device maker worldwide.
Pros
Elegant design and absolutely gorgeous gradient shades
Excellent performance
Super Zoom is fun
Great lowlight camera performance
Extremely fast in-display sensor
The Pro sports four rear camera lenses, including an 8-megapixel periscope zoom array with up to 50x digital zoom and a 40-MP super-spectrum lens that uses a brand new sensor that dramatically brightens photos in extreme low-light scenarios.
Cons
No Audio Jack
Missing QHD+ resolution
The P30 Pro and smaller P30 won’t offer 5G connectivity.
No smartphone manufacturer has pushed the boundaries of mobile photography more than Huawei in the past few years. With the goal of once again rewriting the rules of photography, the newly launched P30 Series, especially the P30 Pro is set to top the photography charts, for quite some time.
Before you decide which of the variants of the new series to but, here’s a peak at what comes in the boxes. This is our Huawei P30 Pro and Huawei P30 Lite unboxing.
Huawei P30 Pro: What’s in the Box?
Everything you’d expect is in there, except for a 3.5mm audio jack. The Huawei P30 Pro Box contents include:
Huawei P30 Pro smartphone in Aurora color
Soft TPU Case
USB Type-C headphones
USB Type-C cable
2-pin Huawei SuperCharge fast charger (5V-2A/9V-2A/10V-4A)
We have the stunning Aurora variant with us, which reflects light to show off this dual-blue gradient shade. The phone packs a 6.47-inch Full HD+ curved glass OLED 19.5:9 aspect ratio DCI-P3 HDR display with ultra narrow bezels on the top and the bottom. Inside the notch there is a 32-megapixel camera with AI and HDR for selfies.
It is powered by an Octa-Core HiSilicon Kirin 980 7nm SoC with GPU Turbo 3.0 and runs on Android 9.0 (Pie) with Emotion UI 9.1. It has a next-generation in-display fingerprint sensor that the company says is 30% faster than the Mate 20 Pro.
It comes with LEICA quad-lens camera with 40-megapixel RYYB sensor with OIS, a 20-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, 8-megapixel sensor with telephoto lens for 5x loss-less zoom with a periscope with OIS and a ToF depth sensing camera for portraits and AR with Google AR Core. The phone also has 10x hybrid zoom and 50x digital zoom. It can capture low light photos with up to ISO 409600.
Huawei P30 Lite: What’s in the Box?
The new P30 Lite may just be for you if you want the feel of Huawei’s new P30 line without paying flagship prices . This new mid-range phone from Huawei has many of the same design cues as its more expensive brothers, though gets by without the power of Leica’s branding.
The P30 Lite comes in a plain white box with the phone’s name on the front which is pretty standard for a phone from Huawei. Inside the box is
The P30 Lite shares some design similarities with its more expensive brothers, namely that curved rear, vibrant colorways, and triple camera layout.
While our P30 Lite review unit came in an elegant and understated Peacock Blue, the P30 Lite comes in two other colors: Pearl White and Midnight Black.
The rear of the phone holds a triple camera module just like the more expensive P30, though the cameras no longer bear the Leica branding.
The P30 Lite also sheds the in-screen scanning solution present in its more expensive brothers, opting instead for a physical fingerprint scanner on the rear. The P30 Lite sports a 6.15-inch FHD+ IPS display, with 3D curved glass on it. There’s a small notch at the top, and Huawei has hidden the earpiece near the top bezel to give the phone as much screen real-estate as possible.
Just like the P30, the P30 Lite has a triple camera set up on the rear: a 24-megapixel f/1.8 wide camera, 8-megapixel ultrawide camera (13mm equivalent) and a 2-megapixel f/2.4 depth sensor. Powering the P30 Lite is Huawei’s Kirin 710 mid-range processor, paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while a 3340mAh battery is keeping the lights on.
Huawei P30 Pro offers you endless possibilities, and I say that because of the jaw-dropping camera prowess of the smartphone. It seems to throw a challenge to its competitors in this department, while packing all necessary features and many over-the-top ones too.
Now that you’ve seen whats in the box, all that’s left to see is whether Huawei P30 Pro is the best flagship smartphone out there or will Samsung manage to hold onto the crown? We’ll explore the same in our in-depth review, coming very soon, so stay tuned.
Oppo Reno: 48 megapixel camera, 10x zoom and a shark’s fin selfie cam
OPPO has officially announced the all-new Reno 10X Zoom Edition smartphone with 10X lossless zoom and Snapdragon 855 SoC
OPPO unveiled its new Reno series of smartphones at an event held in China on the 10th of April. Out of the models announced at the event, the OPPO Reno 10X Zoom Edition is the most dominant, with the 10x optical zoom periscope style camera as the highlight.
This phone is an ideal rival of all the most costly flagships smartphone out there like the Samsung Galaxy S10+ and the Huawei P30 Pro.
OPPO Reno will come in three variants; the Reno Standard Edition, Reno 10x Zoom Edition and Reno 5G.
The standard Reno comes with a 6.4-inch display that has essentially non-existent bezels surrounding it. OPPO has achieved the futuristic aesthetic of the hardware by incorporating a pop-up selfie camera at its top.
Unlike the firm’s Find X flagship that has a symmetrical panel that emerges and houses its front-facing camera and 3D face scanning system, Reno instead opts for a wedge-style camera that displays its 16-megapixel front snapper.
The standard Reno is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 710 processor and not the manufacturer’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 855 chipset. Reno comes with a dual-camera system on its rear that comprise of a 48-megapixel main sensor and a 5-megapixel depth sensor. The OPPO device is available in four gradient finishes; fog sea green, extreme night black, nebula purple and pink mist.
While the standard Reno is certainly an appealing device, the 10x Zoom Edition is much more likely to be a staunch rival of the P30 Pro thanks to its increased functionality.
For starters, OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition comes with a larger 6.6-inch display that similarly has incredibly small borders surrounding it. Powering the hardware is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 processor, meaning the device should offer faster performance than the standard variant.
The more premium hardware also comes with hefty 4,065mAh battery that should deliver all-day life for Android fans. It is worth noting the standard Reno boasts a 3,765mAh pack. One of the most appealing features about the Reno 10x Zoom Edition is, as the name suggests, its camera system.
OPPO Reno Shark fin pop-up Selfie Cam
The Chinese hardware comes with a 48-megapixel main sensor that is accompanied by an 8-megapixel ultra wide-angle sensor and a 13-megapixel zooming lens. Just like the P30 Pro, the Reno’s telephoto sensor takes advantage of a periscope-style system that allows it to deliver a 5-times optical zoom and a 10-times hybrid zoom. Such technology is incredibly similar to Huawei’s new flagship and could radically challenge it for the title of best zoom ever offered on a smartphone.
Videographers will also be pleased to hear the OPPO Reno is capable of recording clips in 4K at up to 60-frames-per-second, a feature already present on the likes of the Galaxy S10 and iPhone Xs. Whereas, the P30 Pro is not capable of recording at the same smooth frame rate.
While sitting tight for the OPPO Reno’s worldwide release which is a European launch event on April 24 in Zurich, we compared the OPPO Reno smartphone with the most vital handsets that you can get all around the globe, the Huawei P30 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S10+.
OPPO Reno 10X Zoom Edition vs Samsung Galaxy S10+ vs Huawei P30 Pro specifications
All the three phones are powered by different processors. The OPPO Reno 10X Zoom Edition uses the Snapdragon 855 chipset, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is powered by the Exynos 9820, and the Huawei P30 Pro houses the Kirin 980 processor.
The OPPO Reno 10X Zoom Edition has an all-screen display with no notches or holes. Instead, it uses a new type of pop-up mechanism for the selfie camera, which is called the Shark Fin module. It gets a 6.65-inch full-HD+ display that’s protected with Gorilla Glass 6. The display also houses an in-display fingerprint scanner.
The Galaxy S10+ resorts to a hole in the display setup with a 6.4-inch panel and an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. The Huawei P30 Pro has a tiny teardrop notch on the 6.47-inch AMOLED FHD+ display, and also gets an in-display fingerprint sensor. The P30 Pro has a better rear fascia, compared to the Galaxy S10+, but the OPPO Reno beats them all in terms of design.
When it comes to the camera department, both the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition and the Huawei P30 Pro feature a periscope-style 10x lossless zoom sensor. The Reno model gets a primary 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, and a 13-megapixel telephoto sensor with 160mm of focal length. The main sensor features hybrid OIS and can record 4K videos at 60fps. The phone gets a 16-megapixel sensor on the Shark Fin pop-up camera module.
The Huawei P30 Pro also houses a periscope sensor at the back, but it has a lower resolution of 8-megapixels. There’s a primary 40-megapixel SuperSpectrum sensor, a 20-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, and a 3D Time-of-Flight sensor. The front notch houses a 32-megapixel unit for selfies.
On the Galaxy S10+, you will find a triple rear camera setup. The main camera is a 12-megapixel dual-aperture sensor, which is paired to a 16-megapixel ultra-wide and a 12-megapixel telephoto unit. When it comes to zooming, the OPPO Reno and the Huawei P30 Pro are the winners. The Galaxy S10+ gets dual-front facing cameras, with 10-megapixel and 8-megapixel sensors.
In terms of battery and software, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom edition features a 4,065mAh battery, which is smaller than what you get on the P30 Pro and the Galaxy S10+. The Reno 10x does support VOOC 3.0 fast charging though.
The Galaxy S10+ has a 4,100mAh battery, whereas the Huawei P30 Pro houses a huge 4,250mAh unit. Both the Samsung and Huawei phones support fast wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. All devices run the latest version of Android, with their respective UIs on top.
Oppo Reno 10x Zoom price begins from $600, while for the P30 Pro and S10+, both are priced at around $1000 for the 128GB variants.
Samsung East Africa has officially unveiled two entry & mid-tier market smartphones, dubbed the Galaxy A Series.
The batch which consists of the Galaxy A10, and Galaxy A20 are targeted at the first-growing and tech savvy millennials and will be retailing at KES 11,999 and KES 16,599 respectively.
The A20 is mid-range devices while the A10 is an entry-level smartphone. The two devices which come barely a month after the launch of its flagship S10 series will be available in Samsung Experience Stores, Phonelink store, Safaricom and all authorized outlets across the Country.
Commenting on the newly launched phones, Samsung Electronics East Africa Head of Mobile division Charles Kimari said that the devices come loaded with features that will transform the way consumers use smartphones by allowing real-time content creation and sharing.
Samsung Galaxy A10
“The A10 is an amazing entry level device, it comes with entry-level specs crammed inside a beautifully designed shell. The device features a 6.2-inch Infinity-V LCD display with HD+ resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels. The phone is powered by an Exynos 7884 SoC, paired with 2 GB of RAM while there is inbuilt storage of 32 GB. The device also packs a modest 3,400mAh battery under the hood,” he explained.
The Galaxy A20 features a 6.4-inch S-AMOLED display with Infinity-V notch design. It carries support for full HD+ resolution of 720 x 1560 pixels. The Galaxy A20 is fitted with a rear fingerprint scanner whereas the A10 has a face recognition feature. When it comes to design, both phones are equipped with 3D Glasstic that is nothing but glossy plastic chassis.
In addition, the A20 comes with an ultra-wide lens that is paired with the ‘intelligent switch’ function that enables one’s camera to identify and recommend when to use the Wide Shot mode while the A10’s super AMOLED Infinity-V offers immersive experience, ideal for gaming, watching videos, multi-tasking and browsing.
The new Galaxy A Series is designed for the way people connect today – sharing, capturing and consuming live content. The new A series offers diverse, powerful devices that can keep up with these spontaneous, collaborative interactions.
The phones offer improvements to the essential device features that matter most, including offering an immersive viewing experience, longer lasting performance and a camera which captures the world as you see it.
The entire A-series is made up of about 7 devices. It’ll be the company’s new push now that the J series is axed. They call this a “consumer driven approach” to make budget devices, and for sure their new devices are amazing and affordable. All the new devices are VoLTE Ready.
All accessories of the new Samsung devices are already available in the market from covers, earphones etc. Samsung is also bringing their wearable’s to Kenya. They’ll be very affordable unlike those from the past, and they’ll be compatible with the A-series smartphones. That’s not all though, Samsung’s new tablets will also be launched in May, which will be in line with the A-Series; affordable and premium.
Here’s the official prices of the new A series smartphones in Kenya.
A2 Core – Ksh. 8100
GalaxyA10 – Ksh. 11,999
GalaxyA20 – Ksh. 16,599
GalaxyA30 – Ksh. 22,499
GalaxyA50– Ksh. 30,499
GalaxyA70 – Ksh. 38,999
GalaxyA80 :The Samsung GalaxyA80 comes with a Pop up, rotating camera system, which looks good but is quite heavy. This is the company’s first Full Infinity Display. The device has 8GB RAM, 128GB storage and will be available in Kenya in May at Ksh. 64,999.
Huawei P30 Pro, which drew a massive amount of attention for its 10X periscopic hybrid zoom, is now making its way to Kenya. It is accompanied by its siblings the Huawei P30, and the Huawei P30 Lite, which comes with similarly attractive looks but with inferior processing capabilities and a much lower price tag.
As the name suggests, the Huawei P30 Pro is the high-end flagship variant competing with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S10+, while the Huawei P30 is the very definition of a mid-sized phone – at 149.1 x 71.4 x 7.6mm, and with a weight of 165g, it’s almost exactly the same size as the Samsung Galaxy S10, although the P30 is a little heavier. Whereas the P30 Lite offers inferior hardware at a lower price tag. However, you will see some similarity in the design and looks of the phones.
Huawei P30 Pro
Much similar to last year’s P20 Pro in terms of looks – only better, the Huawei P30 Pro comes with dazzling colors inspired by nature and an “ultra small notch” on top of the 6.47-inch OLED display that houses the 32MP selfie camera.
The P30 Pro features an in-display optical fingerprint scanner, and this time the phone uses the acoustic display tech allowing the upper half of the screen to work as a loudspeaker in place of the earpiece.
The biggest highlight of the P30 Pro is its quad-camera setup. It’s four camera setup comprises a 40MP primary “SuperSpectrum sensor”, a 20MP ultra-wide sensor, an 8MP “SuperZoom” lens which allows 10X hybrid zoom and 50X digital zoom, and a time of flight sensor (ToF).
Of course, a phone’s processing power is much more than it’s camera capabilities. Powering the Huawei P30 Pro is a Kirin 980 chipset, the same that we saw on last year’s Mate 20 Pro. This is paired with eight-gigabytes of RAM. Meanwhile, storage starts at 128GB and goes up to 512GB. Unfortunately, only the 256GB storage variant will be sold in Kenya.
Other specs include a large 6.47-inch Full HD+ curved OLED display, a 4,200mAh battery and IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.
Huawei P30 Lite
Even though Huawei announced the P30 alongside the P30 Pro in Paris, it is bringing the Huawei P30 Lite to Kenya as well. The device features triple cameras on the back, including a 24MP primary sensor, an 8MP wide-angle shooter, and 2MP depth sensor. Just like the Pro version, the P30 Lite uses a dewdrop notch but on top of a smaller, 6.15-inch LCD display. It is powered by Kirin 710 along with 4GB or 6GB of RAM and sports a physical fingerprint scanner at the back.
The Huawei P30 Lite is powered by a 3340mAh battery which supports fast-charging at 18W. It has a 32MP sensor for selfies and can prove to be a good device for those who want to cherish the capabilities of multiple cameras but on a limited budget. It runs on Android Pie with EMUI 9.1 skin on top.
The P30 Lite is expected to compete with the likes of POCO F1 and Nokia 7.1 Plus in Kenya.
Huawei P30 Series: Price and Availability
The Huawei P30 Pro will be available in Kenya for a price of Kes. 99,999/- and you can get a free Bluetooth speaker and a Huawei Band 3 if you make a pre-order. The pre-order period runs til the 25th of April 2019.
The Huawei P30 Lite will be sold for Kes. 29,999/-,and the Huawei P30 which is not so different from the Pro will be sold at Kes. 72,999/-.
Huawei P30 vs P30 Pro: Where’s the difference
Whilst the design language and software experience is similar across both the P30 and P30 Pro, there are a number of differences between the two models. For one the prices as we have seen, and the display.
The P30 comes with a 6.1-inch display, while the P30 Pro comes with a larger 6.47-inch screen. The P30 also has a flat display, while the P30 Pro has a curved display. The main difference between the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro is the rear cameras, as was the case with the P20 and P20 Pro. The P30 has a triple rear camera system, while the P30 Pro has a quad rear camera system.
The two phones have the same Kirin 980 processor but the Pro model offers more RAM, at 8GB compared to 6GB and a larger battery capacity. The P30 has a 3650mAh battery, while the P30 Pro has a 4200mAh battery. The Huawei P30 Pro is definitely superior to the P30, and this superiority comes in the form of a more advanced camera system, more RAM, a larger battery capacity and a larger display.
We will soon be unboxing, reviewing and comparing the P30 Pro and the P30 Lite, be on the look out for that in our upcoming articles.
Specifications
Huawei P30 Lite
Huawei P30 Pro
Display
6.15-inch LCD;1080 x 231219.3:9
6.47-inch OLED;1080 x 2340;19.5:9;HDR10
SoC
12nm HiSilicon Kirin 710:4x Cortex-A734x Cortex-A53
7nm HiSilicon Kirin 980:2x Cortex-A762x Cortex-A764x Cortex-A55
RAM
6GB
8GB
Storage
128GB
128/256/512GB
Expandability
<not specified>
Up to 256GB through proprietary nano-memory card (in SIM 2 slot)
Battery
3340 mAh, With 18W fast charging, reverse wireless charging
4200 mAh; With 40W fast charging, and 15W fast wireless charging, reverse wireless charging
International camera phone brand OPPO is set to add new products – OPPO F11 and F11 Pro – to its beloved F series of mobile phones. In addition to inheriting the excellent selfie function of the F series as well as the sleek gradient design of F9, the F11 series boast several innovative technologies and are equipped with a new 48MP ultra-clear camera system, a rising camera, and a panoramic screen, bringing customers a more comfortable and flawless user experience.
From Selfie Expert to Portrait Master
The favourite camera phone brand of young people everywhere, OPPO, has always been committed to providing creative youths with the inventive mobile phones that allow them to snap and share expressions of themselves and the world around them. Seeing as portraits are the most popular form of smartphone photography, OPPO first devised a selfie function that was continuously refreshed and enriched with cutting-edge selfie technology as well as a front camera. Such innovation in the art of the selfie quickly established OPPO as the “Selfie Expert” and one of the most popular and beloved brands in India and Southeast Asia.
The mobile phone’s fantastic portrait photography was not only popular among customers but enriched OPPO’s legacy and standing as the ultimate “Selfie Expert”. OPPO continued to innovate, releasing the stunning F9, integrating the first dual rear camera to unveil an excellent depth of field effect. Building on the groundbreaking dual rear camera and portrait technology of F9, OPPO’s F11 series elevate the F series to a higherlevel, upgrading the mobile phones and OPPO itself from “Selfie Expert” to “Portrait Master”.
48MP Ultra-clear Image + Ultra-clear Night Mode for Night Photography
As the rear camera has been greatly upgraded, the F11 series features an ultra-high standard 48MP+5MP dual camera system, F1.79 aperture, 6P lens, and 1/2.25-inch image sensors to bring more light. In dark environments, the F11 series’ «Tetra cell technology» analyzes and combines the data acquired by four adjacent pixels to make it equivalent to a single pixel size of 1.6μm, doubling the size of the photosensitive pixel and shooting brighter and low-noise night portraits.
The F11 series is also powered by Ultra Night Mode and Dazzle Color Mode, OPPO’s system-level optimization solution specially designed for smartphone photography. This solution automatically recognizes the shooting scene and matches it with the targeted optimization solution.
In Ultra Night Mode, it distinguishes between portraits and backgrounds, focuses on faces, and adjusts skin color in night portraits to enliven the overall effect. This also intelligently reduces the overall noise, suppressing highlights, improving the dynamic range, and increasing the brightness of dark areas to make night shots clean and clear.
Through a flawless combination of hardware and software, the OPPO F11 series offers an exceptionally robust rear camera capability, enabling young consumers to easily capture the world and record all the delightful moments of their lives.
A Panoramic Screen and Natural Gradient Design for Sublime Natural Beauty
The F11 Pro has been designed to be as fluid and streamlined as possible. Its magnificent panoramic screen has been designed to hide the front camera, making it “notchless” and creating a stunning full screen. While OPPO F9 set the gradient design trend, F11 Pro captures a new design breakthrough that integrates a vivid natural beauty into the streamlined sleekness of the gradient. OPPO has always believed that mobile phones are not only communication tools but pieces of art as well.
In addition to the above features, the OPPO F11 series also seek to improve the overall user experience and solve common smartphone problems such as over-heat, lag, and battery life.
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is putting US$176.6 million in new grants to work to support high-quality schooling for children in Benin, Burundi, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and Uzbekistan. The grants were approved by the GPE Board of Directors.
The new funding will help the governments of the six countries to strengthen their national education systems through a set of interventions ranging from more and better early childhood development, accelerated early grade learning, training for teachers, the creation and distribution of high-quality learning materials, improved physical infrastructure, more rigorous education data collection, monitoring and analysis and more professional education management.
“These grants are prime examples of GPE’s core transformative power: to provide developing countries the essential resources they need to educate all their children,” said Julia Gillard, Chair of GPE’s Board of Directors and former Prime Minister of Australia. “GPE financing is at work in countries around the world helping governments to give children – particularly girls and other vulnerable groups– the knowledge and skills to thrive.”
GPE’s results-based funding model makes one-third of each grant only available once countries have met agreed goals to improve the efficiency of their education system such as more children staying in and completing school; enhance equity to ensure underserved groups of children get access to quality education; and produce better learning outcomes.
Three of the countries – Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Uzbekistan – also received GPE Multiplier grants, which provide US$1 for every US$3 countries raise in new and additional funding from other sources. The GPE Multiplier is an innovative finance instrument that catalyzes more and better investment in education. Since 2018, 12 countries have secured more than US$100 million in allocations, which has mobilized more than US$440 million in support of quality education.
“The newest tool in our toolbox – the GPE Multiplier – is leveraging more finance from a variety of donors,” said Alice Albright, GPE’s Chief Executive Officer. “Ultimately, it’s enhancing our ability to help developing country partners finance and build strong and sustainable education systems.”
All grants build on progress achieved through previous GPE support:
Beninwill receive a grant of US$19.4 million to address education priorities, such as enhancing the quality of teaching and learning through teacher training and professional development, extending primary schooling to more children, particularly in underserved regions, and to children with disabilities and strengthen education service delivery, including monitoring and evaluation capabilities. Enrollment at nearly every level of education in Benin has increased significantly since 2011, but many students in early grades struggle with significant learning gaps. The results-based portion will become available when Benin dispatches teachers more equitably across the country, increases the number of children transitioning from primary to lower secondary school and improves monitoring of learning outcomes. The World Bank is the GPE grant agent.
Burundi’s grant of US$25.6 million will help boost the quality of children’s learning by building more primary school classrooms in the most vulnerable areas of the country and providing more training and better conditions for teachers country-wide. The grant will also reinforce the capacity of the country to meet the needs of marginalized groups such as children with disabilities, girls, out of school children, and children returnees as well as to promote vocational education, to better use data and develop long term strategic plans. GPE will disburse the results-based portion of the grant once measures have been implemented in schools to reduce grade repetition and to improve learning in and of the French language, and once the number of students per class has been reduced across the country. The GPE grant agent is Agence française de développement (AFD).
Tanzania’s US$90 million grant will build on its successful efforts to enroll more children – especially the most vulnerable – in quality pre-primary, primary and non-formal education by strengthening teacher training and professional development, distribute more quality teaching and learning materials to underserved areas and improve planning and management in education. Tanzania’s 2016 commitment to provide twelve years of free and compulsory basic education has resulted in higher enrollment and a drop in the number of out-of-school children. The new GPE grant builds on this progress. The results-based portion of the grant is dependent on more girls transitioning from primary to secondary school, higher student retention rates at the primary and lower secondary levels and improved primary students’ reading skills. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is the GPE grant agent.
Life is expensive! Not only do you have to pay for groceries, clothing, and bills, there are always unexpected costs that pop up when we’re the least prepared. But thanks to the mobile app boom over the last few years, companies have designed apps that exist for one reason only: to help you save money!
These days there are tons of cash back apps to choose from. These apps allow you to save money on everything expenses, ensuring that your hard earned dollars go as far as possible. Keep reading to learn about the top cash back apps so that you can be on your way to making money for doing things you already do.
Ebates
Ebates is one of the most popular cash back apps, having paid out more than $1 billion in cash back to its members. With more than 2,000 retailers to choose from, you’re sure to be able to earn cash back by shopping at some of your favorite stores.
As an Ebates user, you can shop using the app or through the Ebates website. All you have to do is click the store you want to shop at to activate your cash back offer, shop, and then you’re done! The more you spend, the more cash back you’ll earn.
Another way to earn money on Ebates is through the referrals program. With the Refer-A-Friend Program, every time one of your referrals makes a purchase, you earn cash back!
With Ebates you can choose to get paid via PayPal or a check. These convenient options mean that you’ll have your cash back earnings in hand in no time.
Dosh
Another great app that’s worthy of using is Dosh. Dosh is one of the newest cash back apps to hit the app store, debuting in 2017. Dosh is a minimal effort involved app. All you have to do is download the app, link your debit/credit cards, and you’re done! With Dosh, you’ll automatically earn up to 10% cash back at some of your favorite retailers including:
Walgreens
Target
Nike
Walmart
Bed Bath & Beyond
Dosh also allows users to earn cash back by eating at certain restaurants or booking a hotel at a participating location. With Dosh, there’s no extra work needed. You don’t have to activate an offer or scan receipts. Simply sign up, shop, and earn.
Be sure to check out a recent Dosh app review to learn the ins and outs of this app so that you can decide if it’s the best cash back program for you.
Ibotta
Are you the main grocery shopper in your household? If so, Ibotta is an app you won’t want to live without The app has more than 22 million downloads and has paid users more than $200 million in cash back.
With Ibotta there are several ways that you can earn cash back. After activating a deal in the app you can earn cash back by scanning receipts from your shopping trip or by linking your store loyalty card to the app. You can also shop through an Ibotta mobile partner app.
The one catch with Ibotta is that you must choose your cash back offer before you go shopping. For example, you may find an offer for $1.00 off fresh produce or $0.50 off a certain brand of cereal.
Once you get into the habit of activating offers and knowing what you need to shop for, using Ibotta becomes second nature.
Checkout 51
Checkout 51 is very similar to Ibotta in that you download the app, browse offers, shop, and then scan your receipts and upload them to the app. The biggest difference with Checkout 51 is that offers don’t have to be claimed for a specific store.
Using Checkout 51 you can shop at whichever store you want and still earn cash back. Offers are updated once a week on Thursday mornings. While you won’t find as many offers on this app when compared to others, Checkout 51 is easy to use and can
Drop
If you’ve ever wanted to be rewarded for your everyday spending, Drop is the app for you. Simply download the app and create an account. To get started you’ll need to link your debit and/or credit card before you can start earning rewards.
Anytime you shop at one of Drop’s partner brands, you earn points. Participating brands include:
Uber
Walmart
Jet
Costco
Whole Foods
Nike
The app supports hundreds of retailers so you’re sure to find some of your favorite brands. Shop as you normally would and you’re on your way to earning cash back.
Conclusion
No matter which cash back apps that you choose to download, it’s nice to know that there are options out there for saving on your everyday expenses. Keep these apps in mind in order to make your dollar go even further.
Daystar Power, a solar energy firm has opened its second branch in West Africa with an office in the Ghanaian capital of Accra to save power costs, create value and contribute to the energy revolution in Ghana.
Daystar Power Ghana sees that although grid electricity is relatively stable compared to neighbouring countries, it is prohibitively expensive in Ghana and has become less reliable, increasingly forcing consumers to turn to environmentally harmful diesel generators.
According to Olaedo Osoka, Head of Daystar Power in Accra: “Our business model has allowed us to save clients up to 20% of energy costs, enabling them to channel their resources into generating additional revenue, returns and improve their environmental footprint.”
Daystar Power aims to employ, empower and train young local talent, particularly Ghanaian women. Part of its mission is promoting diversity and encouraging women to participate and lead in building Ghana’s energy future.
Conservative estimates suggest that Ghanaian businesses spend up to 20% of their operating costs on electricity, funds which could be applied towards increasing production and job creation. Daystar Power’s entry into the Ghanaian market is timely, in view of increased load shedding and anticipated tariff increases.
Olaedo Osoka is a member of the founding team of Sunray Ventures led by Christian Wessels and Jasper Graf v. Hardenberg and was involved in the founding of Daystar Power in 2017.
Osoka studied law at the University of Essex and holds a masters of law degree with a distinction from the London School of Economics. Prior to joining Sunray Ventures, she was a lawyer in Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, a leading law firm in Nigeria. Osoka has an enduring passion for women empowerment and inclusion in the renewable energy transition in Africa.
“We are happy to have expanded our attractive solar power offering to Ghana, a market which suffers from high power costs. We believe our solar power solutions will help businesses across Ghana to reduce both costs and environmental footprint,” said Jasper Graf von Hardenberg, CEO of Daystar Power.
Daystar Power specializes in the generation of solar energy for medium and small-scale solar systems (20kWp to 5 MWp). The plants are either sold or made available to customers in a service fee model. The user benefits from cost savings against payment of a monthly fee.
Being one of the most anticipated flagship smartphones of the year, Samsung hit the right cords with the Samsung Galaxy S10e, and the premium S10 and the S10 plus.
From the vantage point of its pricing, the $1000 price tag is absolutely the right amount for any premium smartphone lover-that crop of society that believes in the best of the best and have the money to back their desires. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ packs some of the excellent features worthy of being an archetype for the future smartphones such as reverse wireless charging (although Huawei was the pioneer).
The S10 and the S10+ also pack a gorgeous camera assembly of 12MP+12MP+16MP. For firsts, the S10 Plus is the first phone to have an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor built into Samsung’s new 6.4-inch Infinity-O display. It’s also the first Galaxy S phone with five cameras, including an ultra-wide shooter on the back.
The phone has a HDR 10 capable screen, a huge 4100 mAh battery and still comes with the legendary “headphone jack”.
The list of pros can go on and on. With the global variant powered by the Exynos 9820, and introductory 8Gb of onboard RAM, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is an absolute powerhouse. Before the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 arrives, the new Galaxy S10+ is the most powerful and advanced Samsung phone to buy in Kenya.
The S10 Plus is a big phone, and not one I can comfortably use one-handed. If I were to buy it, I’d probably put a case on it to make it easier to manage. For those who want a smaller phone, there’s the standard S10, which is still fairly big, and then the new, smaller S10E, which we covered in a separate review that you can look at now.
Our friends at Samsung furnished us with a review unit in Prism White, beautiful phone at first sight, class is written all over it but that comes at a pocket denting cost (for now). We will be reviewing the phone in a weeks time but before then, below are its specs.
Many people have a love for games. Video games in particular. Sure,
there are some people that take their obsessions to a whole new level, but over
the years it has been proven that video games can
be beneficial in many different ways. That being said it is also
hard to deny that video games haven’t changed over the years. Particularly in
the multiplayer sense. Now, with online capabilities players from all around
the world can test their skills against the cream of the crop while meeting
unique individuals.
They Require Communication and Teamwork
One of the reasons that online are still so popular and will
probably only continue to grow is because of the social factor. Not only can you
meet individuals from all around the world, but you have to work with these
individuals. Most games require teamwork and strategy in order to get the win
or accomplish a goal. Sure, there are some aspects of online gaming where you
will only depend on your own abilities, but the most popular games require
teamwork and assistance to get the job done.
There Is Potential For Money
Above all else, the reason that online gaming is still so popular in
today’s society is because of the opportunity for financial gain. Not only can
players get sponsored and make money for just playing their favorite games, but
they also can compete in tournaments to win money. In addition to this, there
are a number of other ways that players can earn money online. For instance,
some players like to take advantage of online casino sites like https://www.pokerqiu.online to earn money.
On such sites, you can play a plethora of games as well as place bets on your
favorite sports teams.
Faster Ways To Play
If you are like most gamers and Internet users, you can probably
remember when dial-up was an active thing. Not only did it take forever to get
connected with such services, but it had a very low slow response time. And,
this is not to even mention all the dropped connections that one might endure.
Well, with the invention of cable, DSL, and 5G
that is no longer the case at all. These highly fast networks provide players
with the low latency and quick response that they need to game on an entirely
different level. With such speeds provided by these services gamers are
literally making actions and movement is real time.
A Huge Selection Of Games
Game developing companies have no doubt noticed that the online
trend is taking off. And, they are doing everything that they can to take
advantage of this lucrative market. Developers are constantly churning out new
games and content to keep their players engaged. Just about any game made today
is going to have some kind of online aspect and with developers always trying
to outdo each other, players from all around the world are going to be in for a
real treat. The latest and greatest games only continue to get better and more
involved as time goes on.
GoBEBA, an on-demand ecommerce logistics platform has gone live in Kenya in a move expected to disrupt the hyper-local on-demand logistics market in Kenya, taking on the likes of Glovo, Sendy, SafeBoda, UberBoda, TaxifyBoda, BusyBoda and GetBoda among others.
Launched by Mr. Peter Ndiang’u, a former OLX Country Manager and Ms. Lesley Mbogo, an ex-Amazon Head of Product, GoBEBA will allow customers to shop directly from local merchants and have their goods delivered to them in less than one hour.
The service will allow Kenyans who are busy and do not have time to shop, have their shopping done by experts through the platform, offering them convenience while saving their time. GoBEBA will also help distribute goods to micro-retailers in small urban centers across the country.
Mr. Peter Ndiang’ui, GoBEBA’s Founder and former OLX Country Manager, told TechMoran that Africa’s growing young population and burgeoning middle class presents a huge opportunity for e-commerce and logistics companies but for logistics to gain widespread consumer adoption, the approach needs to be localized better than the current global players in the market.
“Urban consumers face a growing challenge of highly trafficked and crowded cities in a highly fragmented retail environment, making it difficult to access goods conveniently. With GoBEBA’s entry into the Kenyan market, we seek to address this challenge through technology by helping consumers discover and access goods from local retailers and Juakali artisans in a highly convenient way. Furthermore, GoBEBA will enable small retailers and businesses to distribute goods in urban and peri-urban centres across the country, ” said Mr. Ndiang’ui.
He is right. In Sub-Saharan Africa, consumption of goods is rising fast and is estimated to reach Ksh 200 trillion by 2025, as incomes grow and more people move into urban centers. These consumers and small businesses need multiple services from groceries, gas, parcels, food and drinks among others. GoBEBA aims to do just that. By allowing users to send a shopping list of items they would like to purchase, GoBEBA also allows customers who do not own smartphones to make orders by calling or sending an SMS directly through the platform. The experts, called GoBEBA Pros will then find and shop the items on behalf of the customer and then deliver them in less than an hour.
“With the rise of foreign entrants into this space, GoBEBA has come-up with a new model where on-demand logistics capabilities are paired with and digital marketplace specifically tailor-made for the local market with a touch of global expertise. Our objective is to drive consumers and micro-retailers demand through our e-commerce platform which consequently will drive demand for our logistics providers in the Kenyan market”, said Ms. Mbogo, the former Product Head at Amazon.
With the rise of foreign entrants into this space, GoBEBA has come-up with a new model. Rather than just a logistics platform, GoBEBA pairs on-demand logistics capabilities with a digital marketplace specifically tailor-made for the local market with a touch of global expertise.
The platform allows local retailers such as butcheries to be searched and purchased by consumers for instant delivery.
“Our objective is to drive consumers and micro-retailers demand through our e-commerce platform which consequently will drive demand for our logistics providers in the Kenyan market, ” said Ms. Mbogo, the former Product Head at Amazon, a four-time patent holder and a graduate of the prestigious Wharton Business School, who also serves in the Kenyan Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence committee of experts.
GoBEBA is targeting to expand to other African countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa , Ethiopia , Ghana and Ivory Coast over the next five years.
As the former OLX Country Manager and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa expansion, Mr. Ndiang’ui is in the driver’s seat to see GoBEBA grow in the Kenyan market and across the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
Kenya’s restaurant discovery platform EatOut has partnered with Delhi based Dineout India in a move that will see it launch Dineout’s Restaurant Technology Platform – InRestofor their restaurants partners in East Africa.
InResto works with over 12,000restaurants, bars and quick service outlets who are spread over India, Bahrain, Dubai, Oman, Qatar & Singapore.
According to EatOut’s MD, Mikul Shah: “We are excited about bringing inResto to East Africa. Our aim is to continue building on the success of our restaurant festivals and media businesses. The Dineout team shares our vision and together we are already working closely with some leading local brands, as we gear up for the official launch of the platform later this year.”
Members of the EatOut & Dineout teams at the partnership signing in Nairobi this week. L-R Vivek Kapoor (Head of Global Growth), Angela Omondi, Meghna Patel, Mikul Shah (Managing Director) & Prakash Dooth.
The platform is one of the largest technology platforms for the F&B industry in India and helps restaurants manage their reservations, walk- ins, delivery orders, feedback, marketing communication and white- label apps.
Currently, the company processes 30 million seats and manages over 20 million delivery orders every month and has helped some of its restaurant partners improve operational efficiency by almost 35%.
Co- founder and Head of Global Growth of Dineout India Vivek Kapoorsaid with the partnership, Kenyans can expect more exciting developments in the restaurant scene that will ultimately create a better dining experience for consumers.
“In our endeavour to reach out to leading brands globally, the alliance with EatOut fits like a charm. We are really impressed by the work done by Mikul’s team and I feel that the FnB space in Kenya is at the brink of leaping into the big food tech revolution! Our timing couldn’t have been better,” said Kapoor.
Fresh from launching in India, Branch International, a micro-lending app for emerging markets has raised $170 million in Series C financing led by Foundation Capital and Visa.
B Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Formation 8 and Trinity Ventures also participated in the round. The firm has also announced a new partnership with Visa.
Launched in India last month, Branch has added more than 30,000 users so far and aims to use this new round of capital to continue to build its presence in India as well as in Latin America. Branch now claims to be serving more than 3 million customers across its markets and has more than issued 15 million loans in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mexico, and India.
Branch is competing Tala in both Kenya and India and OneFi in Nigeria. In India, Branch borrowers might visit a local convenience store or bank to retrieve their loan using a code sent to their smartphone. But with Visa on board, Branch will now have access to a global network of local ATMs so that borrowers will be able to withdraw funds from an ATM using “virtual” Visa credentials within that code, no physical debit debit card or bank account required.
This service will also be extended to merchants who accept Visa on mobile phones in Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria.
As a part of the agreement, Branch will also implement Visa payment services into its platform, to give consumers the ability to make payments using a card or a mobile phone. The move is part of Visa’s strategy to leverage mobile to digitize payments and is expected to pave the way for cash-free payments.
Commenting on the announcement, Visa’s Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Fintech and Ventures, Otto Williams said, “Traditional barriers such as a credit score and bank account make financial accessibility a challenge for millions of people in Kenya and the region. By focusing on digitizing payments, we aim to build a more digitally inclusive ecosystem. We are confident that our collaboration with Branch will deliver on seamless access to finance for the unbanked.’’
Branch will also offer preferential loan terms to Visa merchants who accept Visa on mobile QR codes in Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria. The loans will provide merchants with funds to grow their business through supplemental stock, infrastructure investment, and other key operational needs. Loans will be disbursed to Visa virtual credentials attached to merchants’ phones.
“With this partnership we seek to offer value beyond just transactions. We would like to help merchants grow their business and drive financial inclusion among the small merchant segments that are often unable to access quick loans.” Williams added.
Branch CEO Mathew Flannery said, “At Branch, we think our innovative mobile financial app will be able to provide consumers and merchants access to financial services thereby creating a larger and more robust open loop payments ecosystem for all participants. It only makes sense to be working together with Visa to bring world-class financial services to merchants here in Kenya and beyond.”
The partnership will among others; grow and differentiate acceptance in Kenya through expansion of merchant lending programs as well as expand Visa virtual card issuance and usage through Branch loan disbursements
“As we look to the future, we are looking for the opportunity to reach people who are outside of the formal economy or in places that are underserved,” says Bill Sheedy, Visa’s executive vice president of strategy, of the new investment with Branch. “It’s about tapping into their distribution to help shape the future of microfinance.”
Alex Rampell, a general partner at investor Andreessen Horowitz, says the potential of Branch’s business model has only become more clear as Branch grows: “The idea has become even better as time has gone on, and the market uptake shows it.”
Huawei Rewrites the Rules of Photography with Groundbreaking HUAWEI P30 Series
Huawei P30 series was launched globally with plans to launch in the Kenyan Market in a matter of days. The HUAWEI P30 Series builds on the HUAWEI P Series DNA in design and photography and is the company’s most advanced series of smartphone cameras.
These devices feature the innovative HUAWEI SuperSpectrum Sensor, anoptical SuperZoom Lens, a new HUAWEI Time of Flight (ToF) Camera, and enhanced optical and AI image stabilization technology. With these revolutionary technologies, the HUAWEI P30 and HUAWEI P30 Pro capture incredible photos and videos in every scenario.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG, said, “the HUAWEI P30 Series is a fundamental breakthrough after decades of digital camera technology development; it will rewrite the rules and reshape everyone’s perception of mobile photography. Innovations such as the HUAWEI SuperSpectrum Sensor and SuperZoom Lens allow us to push the envelope of both photography and videography—a frontier long overdue for disruption. The HUAWEI P30 Series will set the pace for the next generation of smartphones by empowering people to capture the true beauty of the world around them through a device that fits in the palm of their hands.”
Rewriting the Rules of Photography for Stunning Professional-grade Pictures Every Time
The HUAWEI P30 Series will change users’ expectations of smartphone photography. Achieving a record-high overall DxOMark score of 112, the HUAWEI P30 Pro is equipped with a new Leica Quad Camera System, including a 40MP main camera with the HUAWEI SuperSpectrum Sensor, a 20MP ultra-wide angle camera, an 8MP telephoto camera, the HUAWEI ToF Camera and a 32MP front camera that takes selfies to a new level.
Technology really is an amazing thing. This is especially true when it comes to gambling and online gaming. There is a good chance that as a gambler, you have probably already seen the major impact that technology has already had on the industry. Well, this is just the beginning and there are many more changes expected to come. Some gamblers fear such technology, as other really welcome it. It really depends on what type of person that you are, but it would be hard for anyone to deny that the current technological changes haven’t been for the better of the industry. That being said, below you are going to learn about 4 more technological trends that you can expect in the oncoming years.
Facial Recognition
If you are a smartphone owner there is a good chance that you have already noticed that they are now implementing fingerprint security devices. These are truly great security enhancements because the do away with passwords and only allow you access. Well, it looks like the casino industry is going to take there game even further by implementing facial recognition. Of course, they are not going to be using the technology for security purposes. Instead, they are going to use powerful 3D scanners and cameras to help create precise video images that look exactly like you. This will give you a lifelike avatar when you are gambling in your favorite casinos.
Gesture Recognition
You have probably already seen some form of gesture recognition somewhere. This is a technology that is somewhat similar to green screens. Not in the sense that it can place you in a surreal environment that look lifelike, but in the fact that it captures your motions. Intel RealSense technology is going to give players the same benefit. This 3D camera technology keeps track of 22 points on your hand and can allow you to play games and make movements without the need for a controller or mouse.
Virtual Reality Technology
Virtual reality headsets are not really new technological advances, but they haven’t been quite applied to the online casino industry yet. There is great speculation that this is going to change very soon. Virtual reality is already present in a number of games and players from all around the world have taken to it. This technology is supposedly going to give players the ability to feel like they are actually standing in a real casino. If sites like sbobet88 take advantage of this technology there is no denying that it will change the way gamblers are interacting with one another.
Voice Recognition Software
There are already a number of applications where voice recognition technology is taking place. Just go to Google and will now notice that you can search by voice rather than by typing text into the search bar. Well, there is tons of speculation that this technology is going to be used in online casinos as well. This means that players could issue voice commands to control their actions and interactions while playing games and communicating will fellow patrons.
Expansion [or ability] to accommodate other verticals can be one way of identifying companies with a high growth potential.
Farmcrowdy, a digital agritech startup that makes use of technology to connect farm sponsors with real, mostly rural farmers has launched its first subsidiary, Farmgate Africa. This move by Farmcrowdy to further launch into a vertical portrays an opportunity for the company’s expansion. This was after the company rebranded to be The Farmcrowdy Group.
The newly launched platform, Farmgate Africa is an agro-trading platform that is bridging the gap between rural farmers and the market place by providing major processors and international buyers the opportunity to purchase commodities directly from local farmers.
Farmgate.Africa enables major processors to place orders through the platform without having to go through various layers of middlemen. [Mostly, the elimination of middlemen in any sector, industry, or process helps to drastically improve such].
In addition, FarmGate Africa handles the aggregation of commodities from small holder farmers and ensures the delivery of the commodity to major processors and international buyers.
According to the Co-founder and MD FarmGate Africa, Kenneth Obiajulu who also seats on the management team of the Farmcrowdy Group, and spoke at the launch, “our business model is one that brings the farmers closer to the processors and off-takers by eliminating several layers of intermediaries. By doing this, Farmgate optimizes market access to African farmers and also improves their income by at least 30%.”
Further throwing more light on the new initiative, Onyeka Akumah, Founder and CEO Farmcrowdy Group, said that, “launching Farmgate Africa as one of the subsidiaries in the Farmcrowdy group gives us huge joy with the expectations placed on us to continue to innovate and build new solutions driven by technology to finance agriculture. We have received a lot of feedbacks from farmers and major agro buyers who need to fund market access to agro-commodities but are constantly held back because the market place is unstructured.”
To an unstructured marketplace, Onyeka says that “Farmgate Africa is our response to this need. As we launch Farmgate Africa today, we have tirelessly worked for the past 6 months with the team to build relationships with blue-chip companies in and outside Nigeria, extend our relationships with thousands of farmer networks across the country and now, we are set to launch to the market with a strong team behind the idea.”
What’s the focus?
Cattle is currently selling on Farmgate.africa
Kenneth Obiajulu further explained that Farmgate will be focused on four key sectors in the next two years:
Beef processing (Over 5,000MT of carcass beef) with a major partner in the South-West of Nigeria.
Developing aggregation capacities for over 100,000MT of maize for onward delivery to a major processor in Nigeria.
Developing aggregation capacities for over 40,000MT of soybean for onward delivery to a major processor in Nigeria.
Developing aggregation capacities for over 3,000MT of dried-split ginger for onward export to the UAE and UK.
Obviously, Farmgate by Farmcrowdy is solving an actual need. The parent company is on the route of servicing the whole agricultural value chain, and our farmers will definitely be better for it.
As soon as you get bitten by the slot playing bug, you are always going to want to try your luck playing slot games in any playing environment, and whilst there are of course many land-based venues in which you will always be able to access and play slot machines, most players love nothing more than playing them online.
In fact, it is now not only possible to play slots online, but many casino sites also offer their players a state-of-the-art mobile casino app too, in which all manner of different and potentially very high paying slot games can be accessed and played.
But when it comes to switching over to playing slots in
either of those two environments for the very first time, players really do
need to do their research to discover which slots are going to be ticking all
of the right boxes on their checklist of wants and demands, and as such I have
found a brand new website that will certainly allow you to do that.
That website is the SOS Game – School Of Slots site which has just
gone live, and it is true to say their large and very experienced team of slot
players have certainly been very busy over the last few months compiling a huge
array of different slot playing guides, articles, news stories and reviews, and
below I will run through what else you are going to find on offer at that
website too.
Slot Game Pay-Out
Percentages Revealed
The days of when you are never going to know just what the
winning chances are when you play online or mobile slot machines in a real
money playing environment are long gone, for slot players do have access to a
wealth of very valuable slot game information these days.
However, there are always going to be slot machines that you
may like the look of and fancy playing with your own hard-earned cash, but some
of those slot machines may not be the very best ones to play.
The long term expected pay-out percentages of all slot
machines can and will vary, and if you ever do make the mistake of playing an
online or mobile slot game on which a very low long term RTP has been set, then
you will find your bankroll and slot playing budget isn’t going to last you
very long playing that slot.
The SOS Game
website has ensured that on every single one of their many thousands of slot
game reviews players are going to instantly discover just how high or just how
low the designers of those slots has set the pay-out percentages, so it is
important you look up that information and then only play the much higher
paying slots!
You are also
going to be able to discover the stake levels that each slot can also be played
for too and just how many pay-lines each slot game is going to be offering you
and the value of any jackpots too on all slots they have reviewed also.
More Bonuses for Slot
Players
Playing slot
games with your own funds is of course something that you are always going to
be able to do no matter at which casino site you sign up to and play at.
However,
there is a lot to be said about making full use of the many exclusive and very
high valued bonus offers that are always going to be showcased to you at the SOS
Game site, and those bonuses and promotional offers are available from their
top-rated casino sites.
It does of course go without saying that their website
visitors are based in all four corners of the globe, and as such one handy
feature that you will find on their site is that they have listed casinos that
offer different currency options and also a range of different deposit options
too, which will make finding a casino suitable to you and wherever it is you
live and absolute breeze.
Keep in mind though that as every single casino site they
have chosen to review and showcase to their website visitors will be fully
licensed and regulated that means you are always going to be able to play at those
sites with complete confidence that their slot games are fair and random.
I would also encourage you to take a look at the comp club
schemes available at their top rated casino sites too, as they are some of the
more rewarding ones you will have access to online and that in turn will ensure
that you are always going to be earning valuable comp points when playing which
can then be exchanged and redeemed for even more slot playing credits.
These are more like wireless headphones for people who don’t want AirPods
Apple’s first real competitor to AirPods has finally arrived: Beats Powerbeats Pro. Apple has owned Beats since 2014, of course, which explains much of the magic behind the latest truly wireless earphones.
Apple’s Beats brand unveiled the new Powerbeats Pro headphones on Wednesday, which appear to be a good alternative to AirPods, with a sportier design, adjustable ear plugs and water resistance.
The Powerbeats Pro are priced at $250 and will start shipping in May, a steep premium over the $160 AirPods.
The Powerbeats Pro have a fully wireless design and are designed for an active lifestyle. They have an earhook design that rests over your outer ear and use silicone eartips for a more secure fit. The design is water and sweat resistant. When not in use, they can be placed in their case, where they charge.
PowerBeats Pro with Charging case
The Powerbeats Pro use Apple’s latest H1 chip, also found in the second generation AirPods, which enables faster and more stable connection than the previous W1 chip. It also enables hands-free Hey Siri activation. However, since the Powerbeats Pro are designed to be used with all sorts of devices and not just Apple’s, you can use any other assistant with them as well.
Like the AirPods, the Powerbeats Pro are designed to play or pause when you put them in or remove them from your ears. Each speaker also has physical controls for volume control that also doubles up as playback controls. You can use just one speaker at a time or both together in stereo.
Fortunately, there’s no cord connecting the left and right buds of the Powerbeats Pro, which makes them less likely to get tangled. They offer up to 9 hours of audio playback on their own, or up to 24 hours of playback with the charging case.
Unlike the latest AirPods, however, the case doesn’t support Qi wireless charging, so you still need to plug it in. The case charges with a Lightning connector but they come with a Lightning cable, in case you plan to use them with your Android device.
The Powerbeats Pro will be available in four colors, Ivory, Moss, Navy, and Black.
Galaxy A Series officially unveiled by Samsung East Africa.
The newly launched phones offer an immersive viewing experience, longer lasting performance and a camera which captures the world as you see it.
The two smartphones launched on April 1st are now two of best mid-range Android smartphones on the market with flagship features.
The Samsung Galaxy A series target emerging markets and the smartphones first became available in India before launching locally.
rear fingerprint sensor on the GalaxyA30
The Samsung Galaxy A30 packs an impressive technical profile with the highlight being on its 6.4-inch infinity display and a large 4000mAh battery. It also comes with a rear fingerprint sensor and face unlock; nearly bezeless screen and multiple cameras . Pricing for the Galaxy A30 starts at Ksh. 22,999.
on-screen fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy A50
The Samsung Galaxy A50 on the other hand, packs a powerful performance profile and a triple camera system and an on-screen fingerprint sensor. Pricing for the Galaxy A50 starts at Ksh. 30,999.
The Galaxy A30 and A50 are currently available online on Jumia at a launch price of Ksh. 22,995 and Ksh. 30,000 respectively. They are also available at Samsung Experience stores and a number of authorised resellers.
We have written pieces about the flagship features on both the Galaxy A30 and Galaxy A50, you should check that out to get detailed insights about what the two smartphones have to offer.
Delivering exceptional value with a big screen, latest Android™ and high-quality aspirational design.
HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, announced that the new Nokia 1 Plus is now available to buy for an estimated selling price of Ksh 9,300.
One of the first global Android 9 (Go edition) smartphones, Nokia 1 Plus brings solid imaging in a high-quality Nokia design with a big screen. Now you can enjoy all your favourite apps and games, along with the latest Android (Go edition) features like Google Assistant Go.
Mark Misumi, HMD Business Manager East Africa said, “With our philosophy of investing where it matters most and delivering the best of Android, we aim to offer high quality products to our consumers ensuring that they have the best possible experience with this latest addition to our portfolio.. Nokia 1 Plus combines a big display, solid imaging, and aspirational design with a unique nano-pattern finish at the back, as well as running on the latest Android 9 Pie (Go Edition) OS.”
Modern design and quality combined with a big, bright screen
The Nokia 1 Plus brings a progressive and cutting-edge design to the value segment. Using innovative materials with 3D tooling, it achieves a gorgeous textured nano-pattern at the back that cups the Nokia 1 Plus all the way to the display. Its polycarbonate shell is inherently coloured rather than painted (colour runs through so doesn’t show white when nicked or scratched), providing a unique texture for a sophisticated look and feel.
With the Nokia 1 Plus, HMD is introducing a mid-segment screen size at exceptionally accessible price points. Decreased dead bands all-round means more screen real-estate letting you view content in better quality, perfect for enjoying apps and shows. Nokia 1 Plus’s 5.45” IPS 18:9 full screen display means better viewing quality for things like browsing the web, streaming your favourite content and playing games. With its 8.55mm thinness, the Nokia 1 Plus brings comfort, modern looks and a quality feel in hand to more fans across the world.
Capture stunning selfies with the Beautify feature
You can get great details in your photos with the Nokia 1 Plus auto focus rear camera and up your selfie game with the new front camera. It comes enhanced with the ‘beautify feature’. ‘Beautify’ allows fans to perfect selfies even more, allowing them to enhance natural features by smoothing their appearance and bringing out their brightest side.
All this comes powered an advanced MediaTek quad-core CPU, which is designed to deliver improved image quality with colour-adaptive noise reduction, offering a solid imaging experience in an accessible package for better pictures all round. The quad-core chipset has been tuned to capture stunning imaging in addition to being energy efficient. This, combined with the 8MP auto focus rear camera with LED flash and the 5MP front camera, allows fans to perfectly capture their favourite stories and share them across social media.
Pure, secure and up-to-date Android 9 Pie (Go edition)
Now running the latest Android 9 Pie (Go edition), the Nokia 1 Plus is optimised to deliver a smooth and responsive experience that gets better over time. You also get even more space for your photos and videos with free unlimited high-quality photo storage with Google Photos1. Android 9 Pie (Go edition) apps are designed to run faster and consume less data.
Full access to the Google Play store is available with optimised apps for Android (Go edition) appearing first for ease of search. Users can get all the essential apps like WhatsApp and Facebook and get access to the latest Google experiences such as Google Assistant Go, right out of the box. With bespoke Go edition apps such as YouTube Go, you can enjoy shows on the go, choose the playback quality and even download videos to watch offline later for no additional charge.
HMD are excited to bring their pure secure and up-to-date promise with Android 9 Pie (Go edition) to the Nokia 1 Plus as well. The Nokia 1 Plus comes with no bloatware, skins or UI changes and no unnecessary pre-installed apps or hidden processes eating up battery life. The Nokia 1 Plus also brings top-of-the-line security features like verified boot and an accessible dashboard for tracking and monitoring data consumption to keep your information safe.
Pricing and availability
The Nokia 1 Plus comes in two colours – blue and black and is available for an estimated retail price of Ksh 9,300. The Nokia 1 Plus also comes with a 16GB Memory Card in-box in Kenya.
Online marketplaces such as Jumia, Souq, Uber, and Travelstart could create around 3 million new jobs by 2025 across Africa, according to a new report, titled How OnlineMarketplaces Can Power Employment in Africa, released by Boston Consulting Group(BCG).
The report claims these marketplaces could also raise incomes and boost inclusive economic growth with minimal disruption to existing businesses and workforce norms as well as boost employment which is an urgent priority across the continent.
The African Development Bank estimates that one-third of the 420 million Africans age 15 through 35 were unemployed as of 2015. Around 58% of the new jobs—created directly, indirectly, and through the additional economic activity generated by online marketplaces—will be in the consumer goods sector, 18% will be in mobility services, and 9% in the travel and hospitality sector, according to the report.
“Online marketplaces are a good illustration of how the digital revolution can create economic opportunity and improve social welfare in Africa,” said Patrick Dupoux, a senior BCG partner who leads the firm’s Africa business. “Because Africa currently lacks an efficient distribution infrastructure, online marketplaces could create millions of jobs.”
However, for online marketplaces to reach their full potential, public and private sectors partnerships are essential to address obstacles to industry expansion include underdeveloped infrastructure, a lack of regulatory clarity, and limited market access. For their part, African policymakers are concerned about issues such as data security and potential disruption to traditional business sectors.
The Economic and Social Benefits of Online
Marketplaces
Concerns that growth in online marketplaces
will merely cannibalize the sales of brick-and-mortar retailers are misplaced
in the case of Africa, according to the report. There were only 15 stores per
one million inhabitants in Africa in 2018, compared with 568 per million in
Europe and 930 in the US. This extremely low penetration suggests that there’s
minimal risk that e-commerce will displace existing retailers and that much of
the population is underserved.
Nor are online marketplaces likely to disrupt
labor-market norms by blurring the lines between employees and freelances.
Unlike in developed economies, the vast majority of African workers are in the
largely undocumented and unregulated informal sector. In Nigeria, for example,
71% of workers are self-employed and another 9% contribute labor as family
members.
According to the report, economic activity generated by online marketplaces boosts employment and incomes and creates demand for personnel in new fields, such as ICT, as well as for merchants, marketers, craftspeople, drivers, logistics clerks, and hospitality staff.
Some marketplaces also offer skills-development programs and help small enterprises raise capital to expand their businesses. Online marketplaces also boost demand for goods and services in areas currently beyond the reach of conventional retail networks and bring new people—such as women and youth who may be currently excluded from labor markets—into the workforce.
“While online marketplaces are often seen as
disruptive forces in advanced economies, in Africa’s less-structured economics
they can be tremendous catalysts of economic development,” said Lisa Livers a
BCG partner and co-author of the report.
“We meet Kenyan SMEs on a daily basis with great products, but who struggle to scale their businesses for lack of capital. Growing in the offline world means more shops and more stock – which takes working capital’,” said Jumia Kenya Managing Director Sam Chappatte, adding that “Online marketplaces allow these entrepreneurs to both reach new customers without additional investment & build up a digital sales history that can be used to unlock finance at a future point”.
Collaboration between industry and government could foster a mutual understanding of both opportunities and concerns, strengthen trust through the sharing of resources, and build the right technological infrastructure and governance systems.
“Fulfilling
the tremendous promise of online marketplaces relies on the ability of the
private and public sectors to come together to create the right digital
environment that is designed from the outset to bring economic and social
benefits for all,” said Amane Dannouni, a BCG principal and co-author of the report.
Don’t you just hate it when you hear the sound of a whatsApp notification and think it’s important, only to find memes you don’t relate to, posted in a group you were forcefully added? Worse of, receiving 200 plus messages immediately you turn on your data or Wifi, all from a group whose conversation least interests you?
Well, finally, WhatsApp is adding controls to help mitigate some of this trauma. The Facebook-owned instant messaging firm is rolling out a new privacy setting that will allow users to control who can add them to groups.
At the moment, it is possible for anyone to add you to a WhatsApp group, as long as they have your mobile number. This can be very annoying if you have no interest in the topic of conversation.
The new privacy setting forces other users to send you an invitation to the group, which you can choose to accept or decline, meaning you’ll only be added to groups you want to be a part of. The feature is already available to some WhatsApp users in India, and will be rolled out worldwide in the coming weeks via an app update.
Once the update is installed, the option to manage this feature will be tucked inside the Settings > Account > Privacy > Groups menu. There you will see three more options – ‘Everyone’, ‘My contacts’, and ‘Nobody’. Selecting ‘Everyone’ will let everyone with your WhatsApp number add you to a group. The ‘My contacts’ option will limit the option to people whose numbers are already saved in your contacts. And, choosing the ‘Nobody’ option will prevent everyone from adding you to a group.
Those who cannot add you to a group will be able to send you a private invitation to join a group. You will then have 72 hours to accept the invitation after which the invite will expire.
Be on the look out, in the coming few weeks this feature will be rolling out on the latest version of WhatsApp.
OLX users in Nigeria and in the four countries will be redirected to Jiji. OLX had closed its African operations and centralised them in South Africa at the Naspers headquarters. Jiji is therefore acquiring users only and probably a very small operation in South Africa.
The deal is backed by one of Jiji’s cornerstone investors, Digital Spring Ventures. Genesis runs popular news and gossip sites Legit.ng and Tuko.co.ke in Nigeria and Kenya respectively.
According to Anton Volyansky, CEO and co-founder of Jiji: “Users will always come first for us. We warmly welcome OLX’s customers to the Jiji family and we look forward to our new customers joining Jiji on its journey to empower the lives of its customers by providing a safer, more secure and enjoyable online shopping experience”.
Jiji believes that this transaction is pivotal for it’s business as it’s a long-term investor in Africa and believe in the continent as soon-to-be global leader in business and technology.
“With this transaction we plan to build the largest Africa-based classifieds business, creating a new experience for Africa’s fastest-developing countries and their combined population of 300 million. We firmly believe that in the next 2-3 years ours will be one of the top 10 classifieds businesses in the world by traffic,” said Vladimir Mnogoletniy, Board Director and co-founder of Jiji.
The firm, then MIH Africa, reportedly wanted to close down its African classifieds operations in 2014 to allow the giant media group to focus on e-tail sites and grow its portfolio in other developed markets. But contracts with suppliers and employees and leases are more complicated to deal with in real life than in the boardroom, therefore the firm had to strategize and exit minus hurting itself legally and financially.
During that time, our sources argued that the new Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk was not a strong believer in early stage sub Saharan African markets and Naspers was set to focus on its global classifieds businesses in more mature markets where monetisation and profits are a more attractive opportunity.
Our sources alleged that OLX had been given one more year to prove itself in Africa, but in the total absence of any business model other than pay per click the firm will hardly succeed given Africa’s immature pay per click market with even Google turning away its focus from continent but only pushing last mile connectivity.
OLX’s challenge is mostly an African problem as OLX Argentina makes $25m revenue from CPC and display advertising.
In Africa, however, there is low internet penetration and low CPC rates, maybe even ten times lower, making the African market too early for CPC. Africa also has few spenders on CPC making the digital advertising marketplace so infant and the curse making OLX Africa’s business model highly unsustainable. Then forget fraud and competition from private curated Facebook marketplaces such as Nairobi Expat Marketplace, Kilimani Mums, ArushaRusha and hundreds of others where people buy from people they know.
Sjoerd Nikkelen, General Manager of OLX in Africa, Middle East and Asia agrees it was time for them to move out of Africa to focus on other markets such as Asia, India and recently Europe after Naspers launched a startup fund.
“We continually evaluate our portfolio of classifieds businesses to ensure a disciplined approach to how and where we allocate capital and management time. With our focus on accelerating the growth of other markets, now is an opportune time to sell our interests in these markets. We are pleased that Jiji will continue to provide the exceptional quality of products and services that the customers in these countries have come to know and enjoy from OLX.”
Following closing of the transaction (which is expected to occur once certain regulatory approvals have been obtained), all users of the sell-and-buy classifieds websites of OLX Nigeria, OLX Ghana, OLX Kenya, OLX Tanzania, and OLX Uganda will be redirected to Jiji. The Jiji team will strive to make the transfer seamless, and to provide a high-quality user experience across all geographies.
Zhanibek Sydykov, Partner at Digital Spring Ventures, commented: “We are pleased to be able to assist our partners at Jiji on this transaction, and we strongly believe that the combined Jiji and OLX businesses will become a formidable force in the African e-commerce market. This transaction further advances the consumer reach of one of the star portfolio companies in our current fund, which is focused on partnering with ambitious entrepreneurs to deploy capital in the internet and technology sectors in some of the world’s most exciting emerging markets.”
Gmail, Google’s web-based email client went live back in 2004. Did you know Google’s current CEO Sundar Pichai thought Gmail was an April Fools’ Joke when it first launched in 2004. This definitely wasn’t a joke though, and Gmail went on to become one of Google’s most successful products.
When it started, Gmail began as invite-only, to the point where invitations were actually bought and sold on eBay as if they were some sort of precious commodity. Invitations would remain the sole way of signing up for the service until 2007. While webmail services like Hotmail and Yahoo Mail existed back then, Gmail had a killer selling point: a gigabyte of free storage (that was a huge amount of space at the time). Google now offers 15GB standard, with the option to purchase more.
To celebrate its fifteenth birthday, the Gmail team announced a couple of a new and useful Gmail features, including improvements to Smart Compose and the ability to schedule emails to be sent in the future.
From a report: Smart Compose, which tries to autocomplete your emails as you type them, will now be able to adapt to the way you write the greetings in your emails. If you prefer ‘Hey’ over ‘Hi,’ then Smart Compose will learn that. If you often fret over which subject to use for your emails, then there’s some relief here for you, too, because Smart Compose can now suggest a subject line based on the content of your email. With this update, Smart Compose is now also available on all Android devices.
Support for iOS is coming soon.
In addition to this, Smart Compose is also coming to four new languages: Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.
It has also added a new feature which allows you to choose when an email should be sent. This will help you say bye-bye to carrying over work to non-business hours. Just write your email as you normally would, then schedule it to arrive in your recipient’s inbox at a later date and time. The Send button now includes a drop-down menu that lets you schedule an email to be sent at a later time. We believe that this is a feature that will likely get the most attention.
For Samsung, this year’s affordable flagship is the Galaxy S10e. It’s a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone XR, and offers just about the same Galaxy S10 experience without the eye-watering price tag.
The ‘e’ in Samsung Galaxy S10e stands for ‘essential’, which means it packs almost everything the S10 and S10 Plus have, at a lower price.
The 5.8-inch S10e costs $150 less than the 6.1-inch Galaxy S10. The phone includes dual rear cameras instead of the triple-lens arrangement found on the pricier models, and lacks an in-display fingerprint sensor as well.
I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy S10e for roughly seven days. The device is running Samsung One UI version 1.1 on Android 9 Pie. The model in this review is the variant with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.
The Samsung Galaxy S10e is the smallest among the new flagship line, but it’s by no means the least impressive. With its relatively compact size, terrific specs and powerful performance, it could be a hit which no one anticipated. However, it’s not without its flaws. Let’s see how it fairs in our full review.
Positives
Great display
Headphone jack
Extremely fast fingerprint sensor
Blazing fast performance
One UI is clean and packed with features
Capable cameras in most lighting conditions
Negatives
Poor low-light camera performance
Disappointing battery life
Preinstalled Facebook app
Fingerprint sensor not great for lefties
Samsung’s software update track record is not good
Although the Galaxy S10e might not be ‘compact’ compared to phones from 5-6 years ago,in today’s market it certainly is. With its 142.2 x 69.9 x 7.9 mm dimensions, 5.8 inch screen and weight of 150 grams, it’s fits comfortably in the hand and in the pocket.
I was impressed from the moment I first held the phone in my hands. It’s light, but it still feels solid. As has become typical, the material of choice for both the front and back of the device is glass -Gorilla Glass 5, surrounded by an aluminum frame.
The Galaxy S10e is available in multiple colors ; Prism White, Prism Black, Prism Green, Prism Blue, Canary Yellow and Flamingo Pink. However, at the moment some of them seem to be available only in select regions. For the purpose of this review, I used the Prism Black variant. It might be a tad boring compared to the other more colorful versions but just like some people, i happen to appreciate the simple classic look.
As can be expected from the South Korean manufacturer, the overall design is premium and the craftsmanship impeccable, The side bezels are so slim, they are practically non-existent. Unlike on the bigger Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, however, the display on this is not curved. That might not please some, but we actually prefer it – it makes it easier to see the edges of the screen, and avoids any accidental presses.
On the front, we find the punch-hole which houses the selfie camera, which is tiny and barely noticeable in everyday use. Thanks to its discrete placement, it’s also a much better solution than the notch. On the back, the dual camera protrudes from the frame slightly, which can be a drawback for some, but I never found it to be an issue. Around the left side, you’ll find a volume rocker and dedicated Bixby button directly below it. And on the bottom, you’ll find a headphone jack — an increasingly rare and valuable feature among today’s top smartphones.
The fingerprint scanner is another major difference between the Essential version and the S10 and S10 Plus. On this device, it’s located on the right hand side, merged with the power button. It’s convenient and easy to use. Unlike the ultrasonic sensor that can be found on the rest of the S10 line, it works without a hitch.
It even offers fingerprint sensor gestures – by swiping up or down on it, you can open or close the notification panel, which I found quite handy. To enable the gestures on your S10e, go to Settings > Advanced features > Motions and gestures > Finger sensor gestures.
Even though the fingerprint sensor is really fast, there are some downsides to it:
It is located on the right side of the phone, meaning left-handers will probably have trouble reaching it with their index fingers.
It’s located a bit too high for my liking (I’ve had to adjust the way I pick up my phone so I can ensure I’m able to reach it every time.)
Finally, you need to make sure to cover the entire sensor with your fingerprint, not just a portion of it. It’s harder to get used to than you’d think.
Although, If you buy the Galaxy S10e, there’s no doubt you’re going to need a case. It’s so slippery.
Screen and Display
Around the front is a 5.8-inch 19:9 aspect ratio Super AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution. That’s slightly fewer pixels than the S10 and S10 Plus (which both sport QHD+ resolutions), or even last year’s Galaxy S9. However, it isn’t something you’ll notice unless you place them side by side, helped by the fact that the standard S10 displays most content in Full HD+ by default.
The S10e has great viewing angles, sharp contrast and great color representation, especially when it comes to black. You can even choose between two screen modes in the settings – Vivid and Natural.
Beyond offering pleasingly vibrant colours, great contrast and exceptional viewing angles, as I’d expect from any top-tier Samsung phone screen, the S10e’s display is smart too. It supports HDR10+ visuals (an open-source standard established by Samsung), meaning select content can be enjoyed with a wider dynamic range of bright and dark elements.
Night mode warms the screen temperature up in the evenings to make viewing more comfortable and there’s a blue light filter, which for the S10’s generation has been improved to dynamically reduce blue light output without compromising the screen’s colour balance.
There’s also the matter of the hole-punch camera. Instead of a notch encroaching in from the bezel, the S10e employs Samsung’s new ‘Infinity-O’ display.
As mentioned earlier, the Galaxy S10e doesn’t have curved display edges, but interestingly still offers Edge gestures and Edge apps. Im sure none of you will use this much because even I didn’t really find myself using them much. Although, this could be a point in the device’s favor for those who are used to them.
One thing that I enjoyed quite a lot, was the edges of the display lighting up when receiving a notification. As the days of the classic LED notification seem to be behind us, this ia an interestingly smart and fun solution.
Software
The Samsung Galaxy S10e comes running Android 9 Pie (along with One UI) out of the box, which means you can take advantage of all that Google’s latest mobile OS has to offer – digital wellbeing tools, better notification management, improved battery management and so on.
One UI is the successor to both TouchWiz and the Samsung Experience found on older devices. The aesthetic overhaul is, for the most part, welcome as well; with a clearer notifications pane and settings menu. The first thing you notice is the scaling. UI elements on the S10e are large and in your face by default, with big text, an emphasis on squircles and most interactions placed near the bottom of the display on every menu to maximize reachability.
Camera
The Galaxy S10e packs two cameras on the back — one 12-megapixel primary sensor with a variable aperture of either ƒ/1.5 or ƒ/2.4, and another 16-megapixel sensor mated to an ultrawide lens with a 123-degree field of view. On the front is a 10-megapixel, ƒ/1.9 lens.
All of those cameras are also present in the S10 and S10 Plus, though those phones add a telephoto lens to the back as well with 2x optical zoom, which the S10e lacks. The S10 Plus also has a secondary depth sensor on the front of the device for more accurate bokeh effects in selfies.
When it’s sunny, they take great photos that capture everything in stunning detail, with true to life colors. They also do so quickly. You don’t have to be a photography pro to capture beautiful shots that will get you a lot of likes on social media! Of course, as the sun went down, so did the photo quality, but not significantly.
Unlike older Samsung devices, the scene optimizer on the S10e is enabled by default and is included in all modes rather than having its own separate mode. It supports over 30 modes, including Scenery, Stage, Vehicles, Drinks, Flowers, Trees, Greenery, Clouds and more.Samsung has packed in a variety of features and tricks on the software side, including a scene analyser that tells you when it thinks you’re framing your shot in the best way (which can be switched off if you find it annoying). There are also a wider choice of scene modes to pick between, if you need some extra help beyond the automatic settings.
Battery
The 3,100mAh battery packed inside the Samsung Galaxy S10e will easily see you through a day, perhaps because of that smaller, lower-resolution screen. I typically had around 15-20 percent left by bedtime after a full charge in the morning. Though don’t forget this is a brand new phone, so you can probably expect that to go down over time.
Recharging is quick with up to 15W fast charging (and 15W wireless charging), which isn’t the fastest-wattage charging on the market, but it gets the job done. And you might need to top up a bit more often if you’ve got other wireless devices. This is because the S10e can now charge them itself thanks to a new feature: Wireless PowerShare.
The Wireless PowerShare feature is simple: turn it on, place the second device on the rear cover of the S10e, and wait. Sadly, wireless charging speeds are still slow, so you’ll have to leave your Samsung phone alone if you want to transfer battery power to another device. It’s something you might have thought would get cut from a more affordable model, but we’re glad that it’s been retained.
Price and Availability
If you’re after a compact phone this year, this could well be your best option. You can spend as little as $750 on the Galaxy S10e. although this is if you opt for the version with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The device costs $100 more if you go for the model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The Galaxy S10e is available now from Samsung.com, Safaricom and Airtel outlets, Jumia Kenya and other retailers. Depending on where you purchase the device, you’ll be able to pick it up in Prism White, Prism Black, Prism Blue, Prism Green, Flamingo Pink, or Canary Yellow color options.
Thanks to Samsung Kenya for providing us with this Galaxy S10e for review.
Alongside the P30 Pro, the P30 and a bunch of accessories, Huawei had a surprise during their launch event in Paris earlier this week: smart glasses. This were probably the most unusual of the announcements.
The new Smart Eyewear series are built in partnership with Gentle Monster.
They offer similar functionality to Google Glass, but only offer audio output, just like the Bose AR glasses. Naturally, Gentle Monster were in charge of how the smart specs looked, while Huawei handled the technology inside.
There won’t be a single model, but a collection of glasses with integrated electronics. Each pair comes with dual microphones for picking up your voice. That’ll be useful for calls, or interacting with the smart assistant.
There are also small speakers hidden inside the frame, which are designed so that only the wearer can hear them. These speakers can be used for anything from directions and phone calls, to watching films on your phone.
You’ll be able to answer calls by tapping the arm of the glasses. The arms house directional mics and speakers, as well as batteries that can be charged wirelessly through the companion case leather case with USB-C port at the bottom. Surprisingly, it has a pretty big 2,200mAh battery inside, this should give some good user time.
All frames are rated as IP67 water and dust resistant, so you can wear them at the beach or in the rain.
We’re really excited by this announcement, as they look like the best pair of smart glasses yet with enough functionality to make them useful. At the same time they are stylish enough that you’ll actually want to wear them.
Huawei teased the glasses at the P30 press conference in Paris, but the glasses won’t be available before July 2019.
