Month: September 2015

Have you ever launched your Truedialer app, try calling a friend and you were left to hear the ring beep tone for minutes on end with your friend seeming not to pick up? Or have you launched your Truedialer app only to receive calls coming in at the wrong time, leaving you with a barrage of missed calls? Well, your woes have ended. Truecaller, the search technology company responsible for the production and design of the Truedialer app have released an upgrade of the app which features an improvement that allows the user check for the availability of those they wish to call. The new upgrade to the app works hand-in-hand with the user's calendar, helping to process and store information as to when the user is available or busy. A green status notification shows that the user is free while...

Dabadoc is an online doctor-booking website that allows patients to book doctors for appointments at desired dates. The Dabadoc initiative, which was started in Morocco two years ago and launched January 2014 enables patients to find a doctor that is suitable for their needs with convenience at the fore-front of the goals. This means that patients can get doctors that are located at their areas of convenience and at suitable times when both of them can meet. The Dabadoc initiative which then allows doctors themselves to manage their appointments so as to please clients better has been extended to both the Nigerian and South African markets. The launch in these two countries is part of the plans of Dabadoc to expand themselves within the African region, Nigeria and the SA being the first...

The leader of the largest economy in Africa, President Muhammadu Buhari, has announced that he would be taking over the ministerial position and assume the office of the Minister of Petroleum while also serving as the President. This is in a bid to curb and eradicate the corruption that has eaten deep into the roots of the country's largest supply of revenue. The president, who is yet to submit the list of his cabinet members, announced his desire to remain the Minister for Petroleum at the United Nations' general assembly which held in New York. He promised to fight the corruption in the sector and also revealed plans to look into the sums of money that had been declared missing from the nation's oil revenue over the years. The president, who is no newcomer to this sector having already...

Plans are underway and proposals are already being submitted to create what is termed 'drone routes' which would enable drones fly long distances to deliver supplies to areas and points where they are needed. The proposal includes plans that will make allocations for the drones to travel distances of over 100km at once to supply the packages that they are carrying. This would create a breakthrough in the transportation industry as much needed packages, most essentially medical supplies would now be gotten to locations where they are needed as at when due. Rwanda has been listed by people including Norman Foster, the renowned British architect, as one of the routes that would be plied by these drones to supply cargo on a massive scale to remote areas. When this plan finally launches, Rwa...

Following the success recorded by the mobile telecommunications company over its past releases in the smartphone market, Vodacom is again set to launch a new line of smartphones which would be made available for sale as from the first of October. This new mobile lineup features three Android smartphones and a tablet PC. The Android smartphones have been branded as the Vodacom Smart Grand, Smart Speed 6 and Smart Ultra. The Vodacom Smart Grand and Smart Speed 6 run on Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system while the Smart Ultra runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop. Built with screen displays of 5'', 4.5'' and 5.5'' respectively, the product's prices are set at R1,099, R1,299 and R3,199. Here's the full specs table for the three smartphones: Specifications Vodacom Smart Grand Vodafone Smart Sp

The Google Play Store has been around for a while and has established itself as the go-to place for Android users when it comes to Games and Applications for different reasons. It has constituted the online hub of mobile entertainment for Android users spanning years. One of the restraints operated by the Play Store, which was still effective prior to yesterday has been reviewed and changed by the Google Team. There has been a 50MB upload limit on apps that are allowed in the Play Store. This has been around for a while and this restriction was introduced to encourage game and app developers to write better quality and efficient codes. The app-limit review was introduced to help developers publish multiple APKs now, helping to cater for selected devices and helping the users of high-end ...

Cell C, one of the leading mobile broadband brands in South Africa is set to outdo its competitors once again with the proposed launch of their LTE network. The launch which is officially set for October 1 promises to feature a number of promotions alongside it. Even though the mobile telecommunications giant is yet to launch the service on all of their products, it is however available for pre-launch trial on special SIMs that have been made and modified to access the network. Cell C has revealed that to make the LTE network dream a reality, they had to step up their subscribers who were already on the 3G brand from a frequency of 1800MHz to 900MHz. It also continued to upgrade users who were formerly registered on the 2G brand from 2100MHz to 1800MHz. Of the 2100MHz band, only 5MHz was ...

The South African Department of Home Affairs has stepped up its game in the quest to get the national Smart ID cards across to every citizen of the state by employing the services of some major banks in the country to aid the distribution. This move is expected to lessen the load on the departmental offices that provide a wide array of various services to citizens in the millions, all around the globe. The project, which was announced early in February this year and is expected to launch today (Wednesday, 30th September) would make it as easy for users as just entering the nearest bank supporting the Smart ID initiative and applying for one. It is as easy as that. The Minister for the Department of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, has reeled out the list of banks that the department would ...

Youtube has been around for a while now and they have made themselves a brand to reckon with when it comes to online videos. Boasting millions of subscribers and several million videos more, Youtube has become the hub of activities when it comes to getting videos online for various reasons, but now, it is to be known for more than its video streaming capabilities. Youtube is planning to turn the originally non-profit website into a mega profit making venture by allowing users buy products directly from its videos. This new initiative is expected to increase the revenue base of the Youtube brand and of course, help users to monetize their videos and market their products. Consequentially, we might be looking at the next big thing in the advertisement industry as this would help more peo...

Twitter, the micro-blogging website (which also features apps over various platforms) has been around as one of the most popular social networking platforms available. Unlike Facebook, Instagram and Google Plus, Twitter allows status updates with a very limited character limit of 140. Over the years, calls have been made for reforms by a seemingly majority section of the Twitterverse for the limit to be raised but according to recent reports, it appears that Twitter management is finally going to listen to the voice of users. Although the limit to 140 characters has spurred users to get creative in their use of words to express their thoughts in as few words as possible, Twitter has promised to launch an app which has been said would allow users send "long-form content to the service". U...

Have you ever been in dire need of recharge card but somehow, it was beyond your reach? Many times, it happens that we run out of airtime or airtime-based packages such as data bundles and we are not within reach of where to get some recharge done or it is just not convenient for us. This has happened to the best of us more than once and believe me, it is really frustrating. The good news is, with the GTBank Online Top-Up, you can recharge your mobile phone from anywhere, anytime and any day. The top-up service is not limited to working weekdays only and it is definitely not limited to working hours alone likewise. It is available for use anytime, any day and it is relatively without hassle. It also offers diversity as it is not limited to only one network provider. This means that irr...

On Tuesday, United States software giant Google introduced a major version upgrade of its Android mobile operating system. Android 6.0 (also known as Android Marshmallow) got unveiled at Google's annual press event at San Francisco, California. New features Android 6.0 comes with a lot of goodies. The refreshed Android version comes preloaded with support for Android Pay, Google's new payment system for Android devices. The service will allow you integrate your existing credit card for easy payment in over 700,000 compatible US and European stores (and counting). Android 6.0 also comes with native support for fingerprint scanners. No longer are OEMs required to tweak lines of codes into smartphones to enable fingerprint sensors work: it's just plug and play. A new power saving feature ...

We have often heard that 'there is no such thing as a free lunch'. Ironically, we were also advised that 'The best things in life are free'. Quite opposite statements! Count on Jumia, the leading online shopping destination in Africa, to make the second saying a reality with its latest initiative developed in collaboration with telecom mogul MTN. We are of course talking about the Jumia Zero Data App! This latest initiative aims at further reducing data costs which are the greatest barrier so far to extending internet mobile access in Nigeria. Indeed in Lagos alone, one gigabyte of data on mobile networks—the only means of accessing the internet for most—is not less N1,000 With this in mind, Jumia’s Zero Data App will offer full access to online shopping through its app for free, meaning

The duo of Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus recently went on sale in 12 countries including the UK and the United States. On Monday, Apple announced that the two iOS-powered machines have experienced phenomenal sales after seeing an overwhelming demand across the 12 markets. The United States software and hardware outfit revealed that it sold about 13 million copies of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus smartphones between Friday and Sunday 27th September. “Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press statement. “Customers’ feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can’t wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in e

South African president Jacob Zuma has outlined the steady growth of Africa's ICT sector over the recent years. Zuma who was speaking to a New Jersey, US student group known as The Pan African Students Association at Princeton University described the growth in Africa's ICT industry as "phenomenal." The president explained that much work remains to be carried out in the sector if Africa wishes to increase the speed of her development. “Due to the lack of fixed line internet infrastructure, roughly 39% of mobile users access the internet via mobile,” Zuma told the students association. But looking at the industry from another angle Zuma said, “The number of mobile phone users has multiplied 33 times to 316 million users since the year 2000.” “The internet is spreading around Africa at a

Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, was braced with a great gift from the Indian born Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai. This present from Pichai that was presented to Modi during his visit to the Google’s headquarters in the state of California is meant to be of significant benefit for the millions of the Indian rail commuters. To be precise, Google has introduced a new project that is aimed at providing high-speed Wi-Fi for the public in 400 train stations across India. Come to the end of 2016, 100 of the busiest train stations ought to have gone online. Considering the number of potential benefactors and users of the public Wi-Fi, Pichai in a blog post suggested that the project will be the largest public Wi-Fi project in India and among the largest worldwide. The service is free t

The past couple of weeks have been hell for Volkswagen whose top executives are facing charges in Germany. The car maker suspended three engineers last week after industry regulators discovered that Volks has been manipulating car tests over recent few years. Investigators called it "allegations of fraud in the sale of cars with manipulated emissions data." While Martin Winterkorn resigned on Wednesday after a 9-year stay with the German auto firm, the former Volkswagen boss now faces criminal cases on fraud counts having played a major role in the rigging which authorities said affected about 2.8 million cars. Double Trouble Reuters on Monday reported that South African regulators have launched a probe into the company's behaviors in the country. South Africa's National Regulator for ...

There are  quite a lot of Nigerian start ups in the webosphere, from the plain genius to the extremely dumb ones .  The pressure to make it big is a major driving force  and defying prevalent Nigerian socio-economic rules is a must to achieve their strategic dreams . Apparently most of them compromise standards to achieve a short lived fame, but a few others strive on despite numerous factors that work against them. Notably among the few is PAGA. Launched into the Nigerian market on 21st February 2011, the payment platform has since grown from strength to strength. Offering  a safe and reliable way for paying bills, money transfer, airtime purchases among others, the platform is a good alternative to global players like PayPal who over the years have imposed transaction restriction on Nig

Sources from Kenya suggest that Bhati Airtel is about offloading the vast majority of its network towers to Eaton Towers. The East African Weekly reports that Eaton has agreed to acquire 1,100 Airtel towers scattered around the East African country in a $186 million buyout. The deal was part of a September 2014-signed agreement where Airtel arranged to sell 3,500 towers across Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania. The network operator Airtel has lost its foothold in the region and said it will use revenue generated from the transaction in settling the company’s widening debt margins. Airtel Africa executive director Christophe Soulet explained that the rapid currency depreciation in the Southern, Western and Eastern Africa has badly affected the company's financials in the

The vast majority of internet users are irritated by popup messages and adverts that keep showing up on webpages while browsing the internet. Over the past years, Adblock Plus has been the most popular tool used in blocking such advertisements. However, according to sources from the Wall Street Journal, Eyeo GmbH, the company behind the Adblock Plus extension for browsers, has started to allow the adverts of about 70 firms (the list includes top ad companies like Google (Adsense) and Microsoft (Media.net) ) to pass via its filters in exchange for monetary returns. Image source: Youtube The number of these adverts is bound to increase since more and more companies are also willing to pay for the same services. Eyeo is also willing to reach out and is even negotiating with other developer...