Today, Huawei held a graduation event for the 30 underprivileged children that went through the Digital Skills for Life Program. The one month long course was a joint effort between the ICT Authority, eMentoring Africa and Huawei, the third largest phone manufacturer in the world.
The initiative had the main objective of equipping disadvantaged youth with the fundamental ICT skills. The 30 boys and girls were taken through career guidance and confidence building skills by eMentoring Africa and IIHT came in to teach the assembly and dis-assembly of computers, development of professional presentations, making of spreadsheets and creating documents. Moreover, Internet skills and networking was taught to help the graduates get jobs online through the Ajira Digital initiative.
Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, H.E Dr. Liu Xianfa, Cabinet Secretary Ministry of ICT, Hon. Joe Mucheru and Huawei Chief Executive Officer Dean Yu with Digital Skills For Life grandaunts Fred Munene and Susan Awino moments after presiding over the Huawei Digital Skills For Life Program Graduation
The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of ICT, Hon. Joe Mucheru said that the government plans to directly support 2 million youth to obtain ICT skills and get jobs online before the end of this year. Through the partnership between the Kenya Private Sector Alliance and the Rockfeller foundation, thousands of Kenyans have already gone through training.
Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, H.E Dr. Liu Xianfa said that the relationship between the two countries has led to programs such as the Digital Skills for Life course. He emphasized that China has become the largest foreign investor in Kenya and more beneficial initiatives like this ones are bound to come in the near future.
The CEO of Huawei was also in attendance. He congratulated the graduates and insisted that if Kenya wants to live up to its name as the Silicon Savannah, it will need to build a skilled workforce through such programs.
Accessing funds for business still a major problem for Nigerian businesses. Though, there are investors looking to put their money in a startup, finding them is a big issue. Getting loans from financial institutions is even more stressful.
Chiwete John-Njokanma, founder of FINT want to make it easier for both business owners and investors
Through his platform, FINT, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace, he aims to provides business owners with access to affordable credit, and enable investors find businesses in need of loans.
FINT connects borrowers to investors who are looking to make attractive returns from investing in such loans.
To use the platform, users indicate whether they are in need of finance or want to invest. Those who are looking to access funds, are screened through a national credit agency, xds Credit Bureau, and an in-house proprietary risk algorithm that determine the borrower’s credit-worthiness and interest rate (believed to be in the range of 24% -37%) respectively.
Once accepted, the borrower’s loan request is uploaded on the online platform to reach full funding in a given time period, whereby one or more investors (individual or institutions) invest, based on their portfolio demands and investment criteria.
Investors earn returns from monthly loan repayments (principal + interest) made by the borrower over the span of the specified loan period.
For a startup with this kind of model, one thing that might come as a drawback is being able to convince investors to actually come in and loan out their money to unknown people.
But with security and screening measure that can assure investors that they are in safe hands, then FINT has a great chance of winning hearts. Also, given the pressing challenge of funds faced by business people, FINT sounds like a great solution, and we can’t wait to see how it scales.
Kaspersky Lab has launched a new partner program in Africa, aimed at managed service providers (MSPs) that already offer security services or would like to add them to their current portfolio. The program helps MSPs to address the growing demand for IT security services and enables them to attract new customers in the SMB markets, while satisfying existing customers looking to outsource all IT functions, including security, to a trusted third-party.
Riaan Badenhorst, Managing Director, Kaspersky Lab Africa says: “Kaspersky Lab’s MSP Program was created specifically to meet the needs of partners who want to grow their managed service offerings in cybersecurity – without additional administrative overheads or resources.
It allows MSP partners to secure the complete customer infrastructure, from mobile devices and desktops to physical and virtual servers, with our comprehensive portfolio that can be delivered both on-premises or from the cloud.”
The specialised program is designed for MSP partners that want to enhance and grow their reputation and expertise, achieve maximum margin at minimum risk, and ensure that their customers’ data and infrastructure are kept safe. Kaspersky Lab’s offering includes products and technologies that will enable MSP partners to provide new security services to their customers, such as remote security monitoring, managed security, virtualization security and mobile device security and management.
First Distribution, operating across Africa, with offices in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, announced the news about joining Kaspersky Lab’s program, at their First for Cloud Roadshow in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was attended by over 100 partners, resellers and vendors. Debbie Abrahall, Managing Director, First Distribution, commented; “With Kaspersky Lab’s new program we see great opportunities for resellers and MSPs. We believe that with this, everybody in the market, including SMB clients, will benefit from the high-quality cybersecurity proposals that allow remote management and make IT security more affordable.”
To join the program, MSP partners can register on the partner portal. Successful applicants will then be able to choose a distributor, complete sales and technical training, and have access to a wealth of relevant marketing materials.
Just like Samsung promised, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is coming back as a refurbished product. The company is set to launch it at their home country first (South Korea, the same way they did with the Galaxy S8) in the month of June, however, the exact date is not specified.
As far as pricing is concerned, refurbished products have traditionally come at a lower cost than new ones, Samsung is following this convention by making the Note 7 $255 cheaper than it was initially. The original price was $875, it is now said to cost $620. Well that may seem like a steep price but one has to remember that the device is less than 7 months old since its initial unveiling. It also comes with all the high end features that made it the best android phone of 2016 according to reviewers, the only difference is that it now has a smaller battery. The battery was rumored to be 3200mAh down from 3500mAh. With optimizations of Android 7.0, the new battery might match the endurance of the previous one.
The only other change is that it will bear a different name; Galaxy Note 7R has been suggested. Samsung will start with 300,000 units in South Korea and expand from there. As a reminder, 4 million devices were recalled, so this initial figure is less than a tenth of the total. It is unclear if Samsung will refurbish them all, perhaps that will be determined by the customers reception of the device. We can only hope that they have sorted out all the kinks of the original Galaxy Note 7 this time round.
Nigerians have over the years gotten used to the tradition of distributing souvenirs at any point in time. From being gifts at events – birthday parties, graduation ceremonies and even burials, to serving as a form of marketing for companies, souvenirs have found its way into every kind of activity we carry out.
When it comes purchasing these souvenirs, there’s the challenge of being able to get the exact kind of item you want. Many times, the process is usually buying an item from any market and finding the nearest local printer to print your desired text on it.
But, Suvenia wants you to enable you order personalised sourvenirs.
The platform sells custom t-shirts, personalized gifts for occasions, mugs, posters & art, and many more to the public, and further allows customers to create their own individualized products.
In addition to its offering, individuals can also buy branded merchandise from local or international brands they love. This involves crowdsourcing a massive array of designs from a community of independent influencers.
According to the founders, “by removing the risk of bringing product ideas to life, we believe we can empower millions of people to celebrate their uniqueness. Suvenia.com will allow thousands make meaningful profits to support their hobbies, families, and benefit their communities”.
So, if you have a gift idea in mind, and just haven’t fond any product that look like that, you can head to Suvenia.com and bring it to life.
The rate of unemployment in Nigeria still remains very high. Every year, millions of Nigerians leave school and end up remaining at home for years without jobs. Many have argued that there are only a few jobs in Nigeria, while some also make the case that so many graduates are unemployable.
Both views are very valid, and cannot be dismissed. While efforts are being made to create more jobs and reduce unemployment, no thought has gone into the other cause of unemployment, which is the lack of employability skills among many graduates.
Gaanstart has decided to pay attention to the unemployed, by helping to provide employability skills.
Gaanstart is a social enterprise aimed at tackling widespread youth employability in Nigeria by using online videos to teach employability skills to graduates and undergraduates in Nigerian Universities.
The platform is a paid service and students pay N3,000 ($7.00) per year to access over 50 courses. Courses are taught by entrepreneurs and employers of labour.
Founders of Gaanstart are however still seeking funds to make the platform more friendly and usable for visitors. There’s no doubt that once all has been put in place on the platform, there’s no doubt it’ll be beneficial to the unemployed market and Nigeria as a whole.
Accessing loans is one of the major challenges Nigerians face. This is more challenging for entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses, as it requires too many processes, that many end up giving up and even dumping their dreams.
KiaKia utilises psychometry, big-data, machine learning and digital forensics for its proprietary credit scoring and credit risk assessment algorithm to provide direct and peered personal and business loans to millions of individuals and SMEs without credit information.
Founded by Olajide Abiola in July 2016, the platform makes it possible for business people to receive loan easily, and as the name KiaKia implies, which means ‘quick’ in Yoruba, enables people receive loans as quick possible.
According to the founder, “Access to loan in Nigeria and Africa from traditional financial institutions by individuals and small businesses is almost impossible and difficult, and in the rare occasions where available, the process is physically rigorous, slow and lengthy, almost invalidating necessity for the financial credit.
Our solution is very simple and fast, but highly effective and efficient. This is where our name KiaKia, meaning real-time derives from. We are a licensed, entirely-online, direct and P2P lender that uses technology to provide direct personal loans at flexible rates, and also match borrowers with individual or corporate lenders at mutually-agreed rates. With improved credibility, borrowers are able to make their own interest rates offer to selected lenders while KiaKia takes a little fee for that. This way, everyone is a winner.
At the centre of our belief is that credible individuals and businesses should not be denied critical financial credits due to institutional bureaucracies, lack of innovation and agility to meet this simple need.”
Because KiaKia is tackling one of the most pressing issues in Nigeria, it definitely has a high chance of succeeding, and we can’t wait to see how it scales in the coming months.
Tom: Wanted to ask if you’re selling a second hand phone or which phone you’d recommend I buy?
Me: How much are you willing to spend?
Tom: Not more than 7 k
Me: mmmh… have you checked OLX or Safaricom shop if you have bonga points?
Tom: What is OLX? I don’t have time to go to the Safaricom shop.
Me: Ok, let me check and I’ll get back to you.
I have had this conversation so many times especially in the last 2 months that I thought it would be best if we did a roundup of condition to look when buying second hands phones. From a small research we found that people are interested in certain features when making a decision to buy a phone, such as How well does it Performs, Camera quality?, internal memory and RAM, sleekness, Battery life, and finally the price.
Figuring out where to buy the phone is tough there are pros and cons to each option, as you might imagine. Personally, I only buy in-person, since I want to inspect the phone—but you’ll get a much better selection buying online. Because smartphones get swapped by greater models so frequently, the second-hand market is massive and thousands of people sell their phones daily. Equipped with a bit of knowledge, knowing where to shop and how to negotiate, you can take advantage of this and pick up a great bargain on a quality phone. Here’s how to go about it.
Be clear on what you want
What kind of phone do I want? What make and model? What operating system? What minimum specifications will I be happy with? Do some research first before deciding on your budget? Use the internet and see what people are generally selling their second hand smartphones for, particularly the make and model you are interested in. A phone’s price will depend on its condition. Phones in good condition would normally fetch a higher price than phones not in the best shape any more.
Shop around
Now that you’ve got a clear idea of what it is you are looking for and what your budget is, start shopping around for a bargain. There are many platforms people use to sell their second-hand phones. For instance OLX.
Prepare yourself Before parting with your money, you will have to meet the seller in person, in a safe, well-lit public area and inspect the phone. Communicate with the seller beforehand about what you’ll want to test before buying the phone.
How to Inspect a Used Smartphone
At the meeting, you need to bring a few things with you:
Your own charging cable, compatible one.
A laptop
Your SIM card, which can fit into the phone. Read up what type of SIM the used phone needs so you aren’t stuck with microSIM card when the phone uses a nanoSIM.
Headphones
A micro SD card
Once the seller hands you the phone, you should run a bunch of checks.
Physically inspect the phone. Watch for damage to the body, like dents and scratches, as well as water damage. Be especially mindful of scratches on the phone and on the camera lens at the back. Take your time with this, don’t rush it.
Check all the ports. Pop your own headphones into the handset and check if they are working. Connect the charger cable you got to your laptop and see if it’s charging by that port. If it charges by laptop, it’s going to charge by wall socket. Then run these checks with the packaged accessories too.
Pop in your SIM card. Make a call, send a text, and browse to your favourite website. It’s the best way to check those parts of the phone are working well. If the phone is locked to a network and your SIM isn’t from that carrier, you’ll find out immediately with this simple test.
Bluetooth – Test the phone’s Bluetooth capability on another Bluetooth enabled device, and see whether it’s discoverable.
Wi-Fi – If you have a portable router on hand, switch on the phone’s Wi-Fi and check if it connects easily.
Personal Hotspot – If the phone has this feature, use your laptop to test whether it can connect to the phone via Wi-Fi.
Camera lens – Look for scratches on both the front and back camera lenses.
The Final Negotiation
If everything has checked out and you are ready to hand over your cash, try one final negotiation tactic. What’s the right amount to ask for a reduction? After successfully making a deal with several used phone purchases, I believe I’ve cracked it: negotiate as much as the price of buying a new case.
Since this is a used phone, warranty will be an issue and it’s best to put a case on it that protects the device for long-term usage. So the amount to negotiate equates to the case you want to put on it. If the seller already is throwing in a sturdy case, just be happy with the deal.
Windows has been the reigning OS for decades, since the 1980s to be specific. It took over the desktop and laptop market by a huge margin and left the other competing rivals fighting for scraps. But with the rise of smartphones, and the decline of desktop usage, the company started a downward trend. Their counter OS, Windows Phone, did not do well , it only holds 1% of the market.
According to a report released by StatCounter, the Windows supremacy as the end user OS of choice has been knocked down by Android. Fortunately, it has only been beaten by a small margin which they can recover if they play their cards well. According to the report, Android end user market share stands at 37.93% while that of Windows is at 37.91% worldwide. This 0.2% difference is within the error margin of such statistics. However, StatCounter defends its report by stating that they based their findings on 2.5 million websites which generate over 15 billion page views.
Despite such a solid backing, the federal government’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP) disagrees with the report stating that they did their own research by tracking over 2.5 billion web visits across 5,000 government websites and found out that Windows is still the king amongst end users. According to DAP, Windows holds 49.2 % of the market, followed by Apple’s iOS which has 23.4% and lastly Android holds only 18.6 %.
It is important to note that the findings by DAP were based on the US government websites so it is safe to conclude that the results only cover users from that country alone, on the other hand, the StatCounter’s report was spanning across websites used by people worldwide.
In summary, Windows is still on the lead amongst end users in the US but it is at second place worldwide. What all researchers agree on is that Windows has been declining in usage over the years as many people can get their needs covered by smartphones and tablets running Android or iOS.
Today, there was a leak of some confidential Microsoft documents that detailed an upcoming product that will directly compete with Chrome OS from Google. Meet Windows 10 S, a cloud based platform that is very similar to what is running on Chromebooks.
Apparently, Google has been making a killing in the K-12 Education sector where their Chromebooks have found the most usage. According to statistics, the OS covered 49% of the education sector by the end of 2016, that was up from the 40% they had in 2015. It is a remarkable achievement for a company that only had 9% market share in 2013. Just the other day we sang praises of the Lenovo Flex 11 that runs Chrome OS and it seems Microsoft have taken note of the rising tide of this cloud based platform.
Leaked documents
On the Microsoft event scheduled on 2nd May, the company is planning to launch the Windows 10 S, it will be based on the creators update that they launched several days ago. The OS will run on very light specifications which include a quadcore Celeron or ARM CPU, a 4GB RAM, 32GB internal storage (64GB for a 64 bit processor) and a 10 hour Battery life. The heavy lifting will be done on the cloud by Microsoft servers and most of the content will be saved there as well.
In case you want to move to a full blown Windows experience, you can upgrade to Windows Home or Pro by purchasing an extra license.
Chrome OS still has the upper hand in terms of performance as you can see in the chart, it also has the ability to run android apps, which are now over a million of them. The leak suggests that Win 10 S will be running on Windows store apps which are just a fraction of what android offers. It is unclear if Microsoft will introduce new hardware to complement the new OS, that would have given them a boost especially if they price it as competitively as Chromebooks cost. Microsoft will need to really push this OS hard if they want to beat all the advances Google has made with its implementation, many analysts have predicted that Cloud based platforms are the future of computing; its very great to see some meaningful competition on them.
Technology has over the years helped the growth of many industries by bringing them online, and making it easier for work to be done. But not much have been done for the agricultural industry in Africa, as only a few entrepreneurs have built agric-focused startups.
Arthur Johnson Nwokolo has chosen to be among the few entrepreneurs creating a solution for the agriculture industry. In November 2016, he launched Farmnga, a classified ad online platform for farmers and the food and agriculture industry.
According to the founder, the startup solves the problem of hunger, food insecurity and food price hike by allowing buyers to easily locate farmers and their food product, compare prices before buying from nearby sellers.
The platform also has a web App which enables farmers and agribusiness owners to easily signup on the site, connect with other sellers and buyers, and sell faster for a better Return On investment (ROI).
In the words of the founder, “With Farmnga we have successfully reduced huge stress for the farmers in the process of selling their farm produce and also helping them cut away middlemen that could take days upon weeks, and we know that most farmers are not tech savvy, don’t worry our web app makes it a simple 10-minute process.
For the buyers, we have also made it possible for them to easily locate nearby farmers and agribusiness owners to buy direct fresh foodstuffs at an affordable price”.
Farmnga does look like a great platform that’ll make it easy for farmers and agribusiness owners to get words out about their businesses, but the platform is currently still in beta mode, and we can’t wait to see how it scales and bring farmers online.
Just recently, Lenovo, the parent company of Motorola, re-launched the Kenyan presence of Moto Phones. Their Moto Z series phones are now available in the country including the flagship device, the Moto Z and its midrange counterpart, the Moto Z Play.
We had the privilege of spending a couple of days with the Moto Z and we came out very impressed as we stated in our review. It was the thinnest premium phone in the world but still managed to pack high end specs and the revolutionary Moto Mods, a technology that lets you attach hardware mods magnetically on the back of the phone to add more functionality.
Moto Z2 render
Moto Z2, the back has minor design changes
With such a premise, the successor has big shoes to fill. Meet the Moto Z2 and Moto Z2 Play, well at least their renders. When Motorola launched the Z series last years, they promised that they wouldn’t change the 5.5 inch size of their phone so as to continue with the size compatibility of the Moto Mods. This way, Moto Mods used with the Moto Z1 would continue to fit and work on Moto Z2 and beyond.
Moto Z2 Play
The renders seem to fit that same 5.5 inch size for both the Z2 and the Z2 Play the only changes are the antennas are now very minimal unlike the glass sections we had on last year’s variants. Also, the two sensors that were next to the front facing fingerprint scanner on last year’s model are now gone. Unfortunately, no specifications were released. But following the last years Z1 and Z1 play, we can forecast that the Moto Z2 will have a high end CPU like the latest Snapdragon 835, the same one on the Samsung Galaxy S8, one of its main rivals. Considering that the Moto Z1 Play has the Snapdragon 625 chipset, this year we expect that the Moto Z2 Play will stick to the Snapdragon 600 series and most likely have the Snapdragon 653.
Lastly, the dates on the renders are indicated as June 8, we suspect that this will be the day that the phones will be unveiled.
Energy Access Ventures (EAV) has doubled its portfolio size with investments in PayGo Energy, InspiraFarms and SunCulture.
PayGo Energy is a distribution service that provides an affordable supply of clean cooking fuel to homes in East Africa via pay-as-you-go technology. Paygo Energy’s mission is to unlock clean energy for the next billion, by revolutionizing the distribution of cooking gas.
The Company provides an improved service system and innovative smart metering technology that eliminates upfront costs and enables customers to access clean-burning LPG on a pay-as-you-go basis. EAV invested alongside Novastar Ventures, Village Capital, Global Innovation Fund and Global Partnerships/Eleos Social Venture Fund.
“EAV is delighted to be part of PayGo Energy’s round. We are excited by the tremendous potential the Company’s technology has to significantly increase the uptake of LPG in the home outside of wealthy, urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa in a way that is highly impactful and commercially promising. In addition, we were most impressed with the PayGo Energy team who have consistently shown entrepreneurial drive coupled with a passion for making a difference,” commented Dr Michael Gera, EAV’s Managing Partner.
InspiraFarms provides certified modular off-grid cold storage and food processing facilities developed to solve the myriad social and economic problems associated with post-harvest loss. This offers farmers the means to transform their dairy and horticultural operations and reduce operating costs using renewable energy. InspiraFarms is expanding its operations and extending financing for cold storage and food processing technology to small and growing agribusinesses in East Africa, Central America and beyond. The other investors were Factor(E) Ventures, PYMWYMIC, Monpelier Foundation and Doen Foundation.
“Our technology is a game changer for small-scale agribusinesses. With food-safe cold-chain processing capabilities, a small-scale farming operation can not only stem post-harvest loss, but also diversify its business and income, create jobs and get a foothold in the global supply chain,” said InspiraFarms’ Technical Director, Dr. Michele Bruni.
“Schneider Electric is pleased to see the investment of Energy Access Ventures into InspiraFarms, which provides reliable and innovative energy solutions to agribusinesses in off-grid and unreliable grid areas. We believe this investment will strongly foster productivity gains in agriculture value chains in Sub Saharan Africa and also deliver economic and social benefits, namely for low income women. Schneider Electric looks forward to working with InspiraFarms in the frame of our Access to Energy Program and the technical assistance agreement with EAV in order to boost the company’s market strategy and its impact outreach,” noted Gilles Vermot Desroches, Sustainability Senior Vice President, Schneider Electric.
SunCulture designs and sells solar-powered irrigation kits, which make it simpler and cheaper for smallholder farmers to grow high quality fresh fruits and vegetables, thus making them more successful. The AgroSolar Irrigation Kit replaces expensive diesel and petrol pumps with a more efficient solar-powered solution. In addition to industry-leading solar-powered irrigation systems, SunCulture trains technicians and agronomists to provide on-farm training, soil analysis and agronomy support through a mobile platform. Switching to SunCulture’s solution increases a farmer’s yields by up to 300% and decreases water usage by up to 80%. The new funding will be used to expand SunCulture’s operations in Kenya as well as to release further affordable products onto the market. EAV co-invested with Partners Group in Switzerland and Angel Investors.
Paras Patel, Investment Manager at EAV said, “60% of all uncultivated arable land in the world is in Africa. African farms yield just 50% of the global average – due mainly to lack of access to modern know-how. Technologies and business models like SunCulture’s are likely to prove transformative.”
Last year, Xiaomi made headlines with their near bezel-less phone, the Xiaomi Mi Mix. It had 3 sides that had zero bezels. They even had to forgo the earpiece as we know it and went for a technology that vibrated the top part of the phone to generate sounds during calls. The selfie camera was also removed and located to the bottom part, the only part with a bezel. This design helped them fit a 6.4 inch screen in the body dimensions of a 5.5 inch phone.
Xiaomi didn’t stop there, they made the phone to have a 4,000mAh battery and a ceramic back. In addition, for only a few extra dollars, you could get a version with 18 Karats gold camera ring on the back.
With such a premise, making a sequel would need to break quite a high standard. With the leak that just came up, it seems Xiaomi might have outdone themselves again. Meet the new Xiaomi Mi Mix 2.
This successor is completely bezel-less, from all four sides; this is a first in the world. If the picture leaked turns out to be a true representation, this phone will not even have a place for the selfie camera, a convention one that is. If the company came up with a new earpiece technology on Mi Mix 1, who knows, maybe they have a new solution for selfies in the Mix 2.
The phone is powered by the latest and mightiest Snapdragon 835, 4GB RAM with a whopping base storage of 128GB, there’s also a 6GB+128GB version and lastly a mega 6GB +256GB variant. The camera department will have a 19MP rear shooter and surprisingly a 13MP selfie camera is listed but not visible on the render. The same 6.4 inch screen size remains but this time it has been upgraded to AMOLED technology. To support such a big display, there will be an equally large battery, 4500mAh to be excact.
PayGo Energy, a smart-meter pay-as-you-go LPG provider has raised US $1.43M in Series Seed debt and equity financing led by Novastar Ventures,Energy Access Ventures and Village Capital with participation from Global Innovation Fund and Global Partnerships/Eleos Social Venture Fund to support the expansion of its team and customer base in Nairobi, the development of its software platform and next generation smart meter.
Targeting to provide clean cooking fuel for the mass market, PayGo Energy allows households which cannot afford upfront LPG costs to have the cylinders and use the clean burning LPG yet pay in small daily, weekly or monthly installments.
According to PayGo Energy’s CEO Nick Quintong, “A billion households are forced to cook with dirty fuels everyday, which is not only a serious development challenge, but also a significant market opportunity. This financing will allow us to invest deeply in our technology, build a service that our customers love and prepare for commercial roll-out.”
Launched in pilot in 2016, PayGo Energy has developed a steady customer base in Nairobi that has welcomed the innovation of pay-per-use cooking via mobile money. The company currently has an international team committed to launching PayGo’s hardware and software technology across the region. By revolutionizing the distribution of cooking gas for as little as $0.50/day, PayGo Energy helps households to get rid of harmful fuels like charcoal and kerosene, that expose households to health and safety risks and instead use cleaner Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) which is currently beyond their economic reach.
PayGo Energy impressed Mark Zuckerberg, on his visit to the country and he said: “It’s inspiring to see how engineers here are using mobile money to build businesses and help their community.”
As one of the investors, Novastar Ventures believes that PayGo has the potential to transform the way urban Africa cooks—leapfrogging the need for expensive fixed infrastructure to access cooking gas by using pay-as-you-go technology and an innovative operating model to shift households away from the use of charcoal and kerosene to clean, efficient LPG. These views are shared by Energy Access Ventures, a venture firm that focuses on investing in the growing number of dynamic and innovative companies that are taking on the challenge of energy access in Africa.
“EAV is delighted to be part of PayGo’s round. We are excited by the tremendous potential the company’s technology has to significantly increase uptake of LPG in the home outside of wealthy, urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa in a way that is highly impactful and commercially promising. In addition, we were most impressed with the Paygo team, who have consistently shown entrepreneurial drive coupled with a passion for making a difference.” – Dr Michael Gera, Managing Partner of EAV.
The Global Innovation Fund (GIF), a nonprofit innovation fund that invests in the piloting, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the poorest people in developing countries is proud to support PayGo Energy in providing a supply of affordable, clean gas to their customers, with the aim of reducing the use of cheap but potentially more dangerous fuels such as charcoal and kerosene, which have been linked to a range of health risks such as burns, respiratory diseases, and cataracts.
Launched in Kenya in mid-2014 and into South Africa late last year, Employfy has expanded its reach to Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt and a majority of all English speaking African countries to aid hiring executives make faster, objective decisions on applicants and subsequently build talent pools for the future.
and its operations in Africa:
Employfy, a platform which helps employers and recruiters to source candidates with easy-to-use tools that save time and money says it invested nearly 18 months of research in Kenya, along with the Institute of Human Resources and the Kenya Institute of Management to help refine the problem solving features of the product before expanding across Anglophone Africa.
“We are now embarking on communicating with specific English speaking Asian countries,” Ahmed Yusuf, founder and CEO Employfy told TechMoran. “As part of engagement with our audience, we have created a unique series of interviews with hiring executives and sharing the insights across the continent. We have begun this interview program in South Africa and Nigeria and are only just starting out in Kenya.”
Ahmed tells TechMoran Employfy has resonated with the market, especially in jobs that attract volumes of applicants and is in the proccess working to solve some of its new challenges such as payment difficulties.
“As a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, our payment channels reflect that of most SaaS products e.g. credit card. Working to fine tune what works best for each country is a task that is not yet fully resolved,” he said. “Additionally, some countries owing to fiscal challenges have tightened foreign currency exchanges making it harder for consumers to make offshore purchases. Nigeria is a case in point.”
Ahmed says companies whose operations are centred in remote locations find that talent sourcing is best done offline. For instance in mining towns, where the lack of Internet or good Internet prohibits companies from using digital tools to engage with potential job applicants. The firm has therefore embarked on educating some markets on the full range of online recruitment tools i.e. the difference between a job listing site and an applicant tracking system.
Some recruiters don’t see the difference between Employfy which has smarter capabilities beyond an applicant tracking system i.e. video interviewing, skills testing capabilities from mere job listing platforms or job boards. Therefore there’s a huge need to educate the masses.
“What is certain, we have created a product uniquely placed for Africa which is characterised by having fewer jobs for a growing population of young people. It is in the making of fast, objective decisions in selecting the right candidates that Employfy stands out,” Ahmed concluded.
Lenovo just unveiled the Flex 11, a one of a kind laptop with well thought out features. The best of them being the 360 degrees hinges that gave the laptop its name, they can flex into laptop mode, tent mode (which looks like an inverted V), tablet mode and more. The display is a touchscreen so you don’t need the keyboard to interact with it for instance in tablet mode.
The laptop has a 10 hour battery life which is credible since it only pushes 1366*768 resolution on an 11.6 inches display. Moreover, it runs on a 2.1GHZ quad core ARM processor. ARM is the same company that makes blueprints for smartphone processors which we already know are forgiving on the battery. The Chrome OS which comes installed is also very efficient on power usage since it runs web and android apps. However, the Google Play Store was said to be available soon with no specific date given.
The processor is backed up by 4GB RAM, and 32GB storage. Before you frown at that storage, it is important to note that Chrome OS is mostly web based meaning that your content will be stored on the cloud. In case you still want more capacity, the Lenovo Flex 11 comes with SD card reader, a USB Type C port, and a USB 3.0 port which you can hook up an external hard disk. An audio jack is also on board.
The device packs a 720HD webcam for video chats. Surprisingly, Lenovo knows how spills easily fry motherboards, so they equipped the Chromebook with a spill resistant keyboard that can withstand up to 330ml of fluids. Also, the laptop will survive drops of up to 75 cm high. This amazing machine will only cost $279 (KES 27,900) that is a very affordable price tag for the value adding features you get. Students and other people who mostly deal with internet browsing and word processing software, such as Microsoft Office and Google Gsuite, are the key target for Chromebooks; the Lenovo Flex 11 is perhaps the best option out there.
Today Mastercard introduced new cards with embedded fingerprint scanners. The same scanners that have been growing in popularity in smartphones have now, for the first time ever, made their way to cards. Trials for this new technology have been going on in South Africa through Pick and Pay supermarkets in conjunction with Absa Bank, a subsidiary of Barclays Bank.
The scanner will be located on the right corner of the card. Stores will not need to upgrade their EMV terminal hardware or software. When a user wants to make a payment with the new card, all they will need to do is insert it into the terminal like they normally do, then they will place their finger on the scanner, inputting a PIN and trying to hide so that no one sees it will be a thing of the past. Mastercard says that a future version of the card will have ‘contactless technology’ they, however, do not elaborate more on it.
To get on board, you will need to get your fingers scanned and integrated with the new card by your financial institution. Mastercard says that early testers reported that using your fingerprint is quick, it’s much faster than punching in your PIN. The company plans to continue with testing before rolling out the technology to other countries. The only caveat to using these new cards is that your bank has to get on board first before enrolling its members.
Last year, Samsung released something sort of similar to this, you could use a Galaxy S7/S7 Edge to pay at the checkout using your fingerprint as the authentication. The phones had your card information pre-loaded and no hardware upgrades were required at the stores. This Samsung technology has expanded rather slowly but with the new heat coming from Mastercard, we might see things start to move a bit faster, which is a win for us the consumers.
How many time have you visited the cinema and the movies currently showing isn’t just the kind you were looking forward to? It happens a lot. Many times, we end up going from cinema to cinema looking for movies that’s just perfect for us.
If you’re tired of this, then you should probably try out Kolanuts.ng, an app that aggregates data from Nigerian cinemas – what’s showing, what it’s about, where it’s showing, and what time it’s showing.
The service was launched on the 8th of September 2016, and also has an added feature that shows ratings from movie aggregation and review platforms IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.
Kolanuts.ng aggregates data from cinemas in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt,and categorises details by movie and cinema. So, rather than going to different cinema sites to decide what movies are showing, and what time they are, the platform allows you to pick a movie and decide what cinema and what time to watch it, or you can pick a cinema and decide what movie to watch and what time to watch it.
Another interesting feature of Kolanuts is the ‘watchlist’. Watchlist lets you add movies that are not yet in cinemas to your list, and it notifies you when the added movies are out in cinemas.
You can also localise the content that appears on your feed. That is, you won’t be seeing Abuja cinemas if you set your location to Lagos, and so on. Locations can be changed in the settings page, though, so you can change that if you switch cities or something.
Kolanuts is not the first cinema info aggregator app, but even with a competitor, the service is still not very popular in Nigeria. Not withstanding, it’s a great idea for the cinema industry, as there’s been no startup catering to cinema lovers, enabling them buy movies tickets, or ideas that can make their movie going experience more seamless.
LGs’s Door-in-Door refrigerator was launched in Kenya in March targeting premium users and the growing middle class and business consumers especially those in need of massive storage capabilities.
The over 600 liter capacity refrigerator is called door-in-door because it’s shelves are built into the first set of doors and can open on their own minus one opening the fridge’s main doors. These shelves gives the refrigerator more capacity in addition to the main fridge compartment.
With a price range of between Sh110,000 to Sh240,000, the Door-In-Door preserves food for longer periods as its design ensures 59 per cent of cold air is retained during opening of its compartments hence build to increase efficiency, save energy and ensure maximum energy savings via its Inverter Linear Compressor.
The Door-in-Door fridge also has LG’s patented slim insulation technology to increase storage capacity and LG’s Nature FRESH system to keep foods fresher for longer periods unlike traditional fridges. The Fresh Balancer ensures optimal humidity and temperature levels for certain foods while its Pure N Fresh feature allows for constant air purification and circulation like in a human respiratory system.
It also comes with an external water and ice dispenser which means users don’t have to spend more money on them individually. The door-in-door refrigerator also come with dual evaporative cooling technology, thereby extending food and drink freshness by maintaining optimal humidity levels.
In summary, the door-in-door refrigerator allows ease of access of foods and drinks in external compartments as a user needs not to open the fridge’s real doors to access food. Apart from convenience, the outer compartment also ensures safety especially for users with toddlers and kids and ensure energy savings with its Eco LED Lighting and Inverter Linear Compressor.
There is nothing better than using technology to better people’s lives and particularly health. Currently, 360 million people worldwide lack some or all of their ability to hear, technological interventions have come a long way although yet to be perfect. The problem with hearing aids is that certain frequencies as well as regular hearing cannot be translated. Many users have complained that hearing aids are uncomfortable or are simply not fit for them. However, scientists might be transforming this changes to better techniques that will better hearing interventions.
The last major innovation in hearing technology occurred in 1985 but there is current need to improve the quality for millions who have been waiting. Normal hearing is more simple than it may appear. Sound waves move through the ear canal and pulse the ear drum, which then moves the tiny bones inside the middle ear. They in turn tap the cochlea, a snail shell–looking structure that contains thousands of delicate hairs and fluid. The cochlea converts mechanical signals into electrical ones, which it then passes to the auditory nerve, which transmits it to the brain for processing.
The problem comes in when the ear presents an engineering problem. If any of the ear parts are disturbed then someone may lose some or all of her hearing. People who might lose their hearing later in life either due to toxin or loud noise would simply need a hearing aid to amplify sounds. Currently the device that has been used is known as the cochlear implant which was approved in 1985 but as time has gone by hearing aids have become uncomfortable and of little benefit. This is why more sophisticated devices are been made as the first step to better hearing.
A cochlear implant will now be an optical device instead of an electric one. Instead of turning sound into electrical signals to be transmitted to the brain, as current cochlear implants do, this technique turns sound into light. Micro-LEDs flash onto genetically altered neurons, which send the information to the brain. Researchers will work to target cells that cause hearing loss and work on genetic mutation to avoid hearing loss.
The wildly successful Infinix Note 3 is finally getting the Android 7.0 Nougat Update that was promised way back in February. The update will bring various enhancements that will push the phone to new heights.
First off, Nougat will bring split screen multitasking. This will let users run two apps at the same time each taking half of the screen real estate. Chatting on WhatsApp while browsing your Instagram feed will be an ordinary endeavor. Stock apps will be supported in split screen mode, many third party developers especially the ones behind popular apps such as Facebook, Twitter, UC Browser and more have already optimized their apps for the same. The Infinix Note 3 Pro that comes with 3GB RAM will have an easier time running this feature but those with the standard 2GB RAM version also need not to worry.
The update will also bring a revamped notifications panel. The alerts will be expandable into different sizes and will even have actions that can be taken straight from the pull down without having to open the respective apps.
Nougat also comes with battery optimizations that will ensure more longevity to this phone that already excels at this aspect.
The update weighs around 1.5 GB (1548.30MB to be exact) and will bring a lot more improvements other than the ones highlighted above. I believe Infinix will also cook in their own custom features as well. The update should have already started reaching users by now. In case you haven’t gotten the notification, just head to settings> About phone> Software update, from there you can check if you are running the latest version available or not.
Running a business is not a bed of roses like some might think. Many times, it requires combining tasks with growing a business and attending to clients. For entrepreneurs who are just starting out, it’s more challenging, as they have to juggle many tasks all by themselves. Hiring someone who’s perfect to take up some roles is also very challenging.
This challenge has given rise to outsourcing. More and more outsourcing platforms are springing up in Nigeria, and Prime Virtual Assistant has joined in.
Launched in September 2016 by Edoya Blessing, Prime Virtual Assistant is an online platform where virtual assistant services/administrative support is offered to businesses.
Targeted at entrepreneurs, professionals and small businesses, the platform provides services such as email management, business correspondence/invoicing, proofreading, feasibility study reports, online research, field-work research and more
One interesting feature of Prime Virtual Assistant is its shop, where users can literally shop for services they need. Just like the way you shop for items on other eCommerce platforms, each service has a price tag, and users simply add to their cart.
Services are offered to clients from all parts of Nigeria, and they can sign up for packages ranging from ₦50,000 to ₦140,000 monthly.
With the world constantly evolving, more and more companies are embracing outsourcing rather than having huge staff payrolls. Nigerian businesses have, for a while now, been embracing foreign outsourcing platforms due to its unavailability in Nigeria. But with local platforms now springing up, the idea of outsourcing would in no time gain more grounds in Nigeria.
Although online food delivery service is become getting quite popular in Nigeria, but the service is dominant in cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt and unavailable in some parts of the country.
Southern Nigeria happens to be one of the many parts of Nigeria yet to enjoy the simple, swift solution that comes with online food delivery services, and Isoko Walter has decided to change that.
In December 2016, he launched SWIFT Delivery to cater for residents of Southern Nigeria, specifically Edo state, thus claiming to be the only food delivery service found in the southern part of Nigeria.
Like other food delivery services, customers can order breakfast, lunch or dinner from their favourite restaurants on the platform and pay on delivery.
Users can log into the website or mobile app, and choose their city/area. Then from a pop-up list of random restaurants in the area, customers can choose their preferred, browse through the menu and place orders.
To further facilitate efficiency, users receive an SMS or a CALL confirming their order and informing them of the delivery time.
The platform does not offer a 24-hour service at the moment, but the time window of 7 am to 8 pm is quite perfect for anyone, whether they are ordering breakfast, lunch or dinner. Each restaurant also has its opening times.
It’s good to know that technology developments is not being limited to Lagos, and entrepreneurs in other parts of Nigeria are joining in the trend. Even though SWIFT Delivery has giant competitors like Jumia Food and Foodstantly, catering to a particular market would sure give it an edge.
Online scams have for years been a consistent problem in Nigeria, and even Africa as a whole. People get swindled on a daily basis by individuals who present themselves as business people with several enticing offers that many find hard to resist.
Attempts to curb these scams have been unsuccessful, and people have continued to fall victims. It was to this end that a young Nigerian called a team together and they began work on a startup platform known as SCAM ALERT NG. The platform is poised to tackle online fraud head on and is indeed solving one of the persistent problems in the continent.
SCAM ALERT NG boasts of a robust database of online scammers and is made available to the public and anybody who wants to verify an ecommerce platform, seller or people making an offer to them that involves money before going ahead with such transactions. The database has the names, phone numbers, account numbers and other details of confirmed scammers in Nigeria and users are given the privilege to report persons that may not be on the database already.
Speaking about this, the founder of the platform, Mr. Kalada Belema Meshack-Hart said that ‘the number of reports that reach me frequently about the activities of these online fraudsters is quite disturbing, especially the ones posing as sellers on Instagram. I thought of what to do about it for some time before the idea for this website came. We are calling out to everybody to use it to verify those that pose online with an offer or more. The site is user-friendly and quite simple for anybody to use”.
The Scam Alert NG team believes you shouldn’t work so hard for your money and then lose it to greedy people online. They want everyone to take advantage of the website and be sure to verify people on it before going ahead with transactions.
With the site, authentic sellers online will be able to get a verification badge and thus buyers can patronize them with a guarantee from SCAM ALERT NG. Sellers are advised to get verification from the website to enable them do their transactions knowing that more people will trust them with such transactions having been verified by the scam vigilant website.
Users will also be able to see verified stores and know which to trust for transactions online.
Scam Alert is the first of its kind in Nigeria, solving a unique problem that has received very little attention. It sure looks like a great solution, and we can’t wait see how it scales and outsmart scammers.
The war for consoles has been going on for decades now. In the last generation, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft outsold the PS3 from Sony. This time round the PlayStation 4 series has been way ahead in sales, its figures are almost double those of the Xbox One. In fact according to a report released in February this year, PS4 has sold over 55 million units, Xbox One stands at 28 million and the Wii U from Nintendo was at 13 million units but their latest console, the Nintendo Switch, has come to its rescue.
Despite the huge lead in sales, Sony is not sitting on its laurels; it has decided get things heated up by doubling the hard disk capacity of the new PlayStation 4 Slim from 500 GB to a whopping 1 TB without increasing the price, it still stands at $299 (KES 29,999). Its direct competitor, the new Xbox One S goes for $350 for the 1TB version. Currently, this change is only in effect at the US, confirmation on expansion to other regions has not been issued yet. Consoles have become more than just gaming devices, people are using them for all sorts of things from watching movies, TV series and music. They have become entertainment hubs that store thousands of media files, that is why the need for more space has grown overtime. We applaud Sony for catering for that need.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has a counter attack planned; it is calling it ‘Project Scorpio’. It will be an Xbox on steroids; its direct rival is the powerful PS4 Pro that was already unveiled by Sony. The Project Scorpio will boost the current 12 GPU cores of the Xbox to a whopping 40 cores. The RAM will be upgraded to 12GB GDDR5 and will have a 1TB storage capacity. This amazing piece of tech will be priced at double what the PS4 Slim goes for, $599 (KES 59,999). Will this be enough to for Xbox sales to catch up with those of the PlayStation? Let’s wait and see.
Recently, we have observed many social networking platforms release solutions for users who are living in areas with poor network reception. Facebook has a lite version so does its Messenger app, Twitter also recently released their lite web version too. It seems Instagram does not want to be left behind.
It is important to note that Instagram does not have a lite version, its new update simply promises to let you continue enjoying the social network even when the internet service is absent. When you are offline, you will still be able to continue browsing the newsfeed, make comments, like, share and even unfollow users if you so feel inclined.
This comes shortly after its brother, Facebook, enabled offline features too. Facebook in the past would let you like and share posts only but following a recent update, it now has the ability to make comments too while offline.
It is currently not clear if Instagram stories will be accessible in no-reception areas, it was not mentioned in the report. However, owing to the fact that Snapchat lets you access them while offline, we believe Instagram will implement it to; it has laid out an all-out cloning strategy against that young platform.
In addition, the offline-Instagram will cache your profile page as well as those of people you have visited. The explore tab will also be cached too, this means that you will not need to reload any pages you have accessed previously which is a very neat idea. This will save the precious internet bundles as well as time.
Maybe the inclusion of such data saving features on the main app means that Instagram does not intend on releasing a Lite version. It would be unfortunate, a lite Instagram seems to be one of the most requested updates from the entire Facebook portfolio. For now, let’s enjoy all of Instagram even when offline.
Sharing pictures of our kids with friends and family is one of the most popular uses of social media and has become an everyday way to stay in touch. But it’s worth knowing the facts before posting pictures or letting other people post pictures of your kids.
Most people who have a relationship with a child will have posted, or thought about posting something about them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at some point. But is it safe, or even ethical to publish something about someone who can’t give their approval? And as the business models of social networking sites change and digital technology develops, could these innocent snapshots someday come back and bite our children on the behind?
Adults are not the only ones who are worried about digital privacy. According to a report by the Family Online Safety Institute, 76% of teenagers are very or somewhat concerned about their privacy, or being harmed by their online activity.
Blogger Njeri Wangari raised the issue when she wrote the Afromum blog [dangers of posting photos of your child online], but parent had their rebuttal in the form of ‘He/She is my kid and I shall do whatever I please online with their content.
So before you go open an IG for your 1 day old kid here are some negative effects:
Digital Footprints; It where kidnappers follows your movements using your current location which is mostly shown while you post a photo. Photos will show also cloth you’re in which makes it easy to retrace you.
Losing Control of your images; one share child photo online it had to have central of how image is used. There are several cases have been evident people used image of disabled children which they download direct from social media asking for crowd funding.
You can’t take it back! Once you’ve posted that picture, it becomes public property even if you deleted it. They still remain in space.
Digital kidnapping; in which individuals or companies steal children’s images and use their images in advertisements or more sinister things. Sometimes, these virtual photo thieves will pass the snapshots off as their own.
Rendering to canvasser Child psychologist Dr Richard Woolf son believes social media has detached the barricades between a young person’s public and private self, leaving them susceptible and exposed to danger by gripping allotment online.
“Children are gaining access to social media sites at a fledgling age, which could expose them to content, people or situations that are out of their depth and which they’re coldly prepared for,” he said. “Parents need to maintain an open exchange of ideas and encourage children to share both good and bad online experiences, and make sure they keep up with the latest social media trends and work with their children rather than trying to control them’’.
AFROPX, is an online marketplace and gallery for African visual contents such as photos, videos, illustrations set to launch this month to transform access to images on the African continent by connecting African visual artists and contributors – photographers, video makers, designers to the global market.
Though not the first such platform in Africa, AFROPX says it aims to meet the growing demand for quality visual contents illustrating the realities, the diversity and the dynamism of African societies and economies.
“This demand is led by media, advertising and communication agencies, as well as companies which operate on the continent and beyond,” says the firm. “AFROPX is capturing a new vision of the rising continent, driven by talented African photographers, video makers and graphic designers.
Co-founded by Célia Gremy, Mouhamadou DIALLO, a young Senegalese entrepreneur and founder of Dakar-based GUISS, specialized in audio-visual production and a Director of Techlab Senegal, Jean-Rovys Dabany, a Gabonese entrepreneur and media specialist, Arsène Goma-Kick originally from Togo, he now lives in Congo-Brazzaville and Ghana’s Christy Ukata a media personality and entrepreneur, the stock photography marketplace will have both still images and videos both premium and royalty free images and illustrations for its users in Africa and across the world.
The Huawei GR5 2017 is a great phone with an affordable price tag. It has a well-rounded blend of features to satisfy almost every type of taste out there. If you like beautiful designs, you will get them here, if you are a shutterbug, the dual camera at the back got you covered and if you are a road warrior, the big battery longevity and battery saving features got your back. The only question remains, do these features deliver on their promises?
Design
Just as we noted on our first impressions, the Huawei GR5 is beautiful. The gold metallic back of our review device is a head turner. I got friends who asked for a minute to touch and look at the phone closely. It’s not only in looks that it excels at, the ergonomics are amazing too, the front has a 2.5D glass that curves slightly on all 4 edges. When swiping through pictures on the gallery, your finger doesn’t keep bumping on the border between the screen and the rear casing like it does in other phones thanks to the 2.5D glass curvature. The back is also curved to conform to the curvature of your palm for better handling. It also gives the illusion of the device being thinner than it is. Still on the rear, the borders of the dual camera and the fingerprint scanner reflect light in a way that makes them shine and exude a premium look.
Display
The GR5 2017 comes with a 5.5 inch IPS display. The screen is bright enough to read under direct sunlight. However under extreme light such as when the sun is shining directly above your screen, the screen is very reflective and might hinder the legibility but in most other cases, it delivers well. At night you have ‘eye protection mode’ that applies a yellow tint on the display to filter out harmful light. Also, the brightness can go low enough to make you not to squint when reading in a dark environment.
The color temperature can be changed in the display settings from ‘cold’ – punchy LED like colours to ‘warm’ – Natural LCD like colors. The default mode is a balance between the two. You can custom set yours too. Camera
The rear camera comes in a 12MP+2MP dual setup. The 2MP is a depth sensor that is used when taking those trendy shots with blurred background. The picture quality of this camera is stunning, shots have natural colour representation, great dynamic range and the details are preserved.
The cool bokeh effect; Blurry background
Selfie in good light, wide angle
Indoor selfies are a bit soft on details but overall still great
The selfie camera clocks at 8MP, it has great pictures in good lighting with lots of detail thanks to the high resolution sensor. In dark areas however, the shots come out a bit soft.
In terms of modes, one of my best is pro photo and pro video, they let you fine tune all aspects of a photo or video from white balance, ISO and so much more.
Good food is my second favourite mode makes pictures have very punchy colours and brightness. I found myself using the mode on all sorts of things other than food.
Beauty photo and beauty video let you adjust a beauty meter of up to 10 to remove any spots or blemish from your subjects.
The night mode also has a way of bringing in lots of light into the photo even without using the flash. But you have to remain very still for around 15 seconds which might poof impossible at times. This mode could really have benefitted from optical image stabilization (OIS)
There are other modes that we can categorize as fun to use, they include time lapse mode which stitches together many videos into one very fast clip, there is also slo mo that does the opposite of time-lapse and finally we have a light painting mode that makes beautiful light streaks. Most of these features are shared by both the front and rear camera.
Software
No app drawer; floating dock activated
The Huawei GR5 comes with EMUI, it is a comprehensive skin that covers every trace of the Android 6.0 running underneath. It has a redesigned notification panel that has two tabs, one consists of the actual notifications while the other one has the quick settings that can be rearrange to the users desire. You also get some helpful features that are not available on stock android such as the ability to reorganize the navigation bar, for instance, I prefer the back key to be on the left. In case you want your navigation keys even more accessible, there is a floating dock that can move them to any corner of the screen. If the 5.5 inch real estate is too big to operate with one hand, there is a unique one handed mode present. Unfortunately, you cannot resize the dimensions of the one hand mode.
The Huawei GR5 also brings dual window mode which really makes good use of the big 5.5 inch screen. Most stock apps are supported by this mode but there is no browser app out of the box. You will need to download one that can be supported by split screen multitasking.
comprehensive search
Speaking of omissions, there is no app drawer; all apps are on the home screen. Fortunately, you do not have to go searching for what you want through all the pages, there is a comprehensive search feature that is accessed by simply sliding down from any home screen page. The search looks into apps, messages, contacts, music playlist, notepad and lets you go online on twitter handles or Google search. It is a great feature that saves you time, I think all phones should have it.
Performance
The phone comes with a Kirin 655 an octa core chip that is fast enough to handle whatever you throw at it. It is coupled with 3GB RAM that makes multitasking very fluid and effortless. It has a 32GB internal storage but a very big chunk of it is taken by the system, you get less than 20GB at your disposal; fortunately GR5 has memory card expansion. Gaming on the device is smooth with no stutters, the big screen and loud speaker makes it very immersive.
Multimedia
The GR5 2017 comes with two speaker grills at the bottom, but only one has a speaker. Fortunately the speaker is loud enough to hear even in a noisy environment. The ear jack produces well balanced music but it is not loud enough. There is an SWS mode that helps things a bit but not much.
Battery
The battery is superb, the 3340mAh is a champ despite fitting in an 8.2mm body. Huawei has made optimizations that make battery life much better. With normal usage, this phone can take you through two days. In case you want the battery to go even longer, there is a battery manager section under the ‘advanced settings’. It contains ultra-mode, power saving mode and protected apps, a feature that lets you choose which apps are allowed to keep running in the background.
You will get alerts when an app uses too much battery. The charging speed is not as fast as other phones of this class but the super long battery life makes up for this.
Pros
Great design
Long battery life
Stunning pictures and many useful camera modes
Smooth system performance
Useful custom UI features such as dual window, one handed mode and more
Cons
No app drawer
Earphone jack loudness doesn’t match that of the loudspeaker
