Author: Kaluka wanjala

Equity Bank has today announced a review of withdrawal charges on its Equity PayPal Withdrawal service. Effective March this year, the new tariffs will see users pay as low as 1% on withdrawals made from their PayPal account. While announcing the new development, Equity Bank Group CEO and MD, Dr. James Mwangi noted: “Financial inclusion continues to remain at the core of our business strategy. We have listened to our customers and introduced new tiered withdrawal charges.” The new rates for withdrawals from PayPal to Equity bank accounts will see customers withdrawing $5001 and above being charged 1% of the…

The cheapest Nokia smartphone by HMD Global is coming to Kenya. The company says that this smartphone, the Nokia 1, will be available in the country as from April 16 for Ksh 9,500. This is the recommended retail price and you will probably be able to get it for less depending on where you buy it from. The Nokia 1 is the first smartphone by the company to run Android Oreo (Go Edition). This is a version of Android that is specifically made for entry level devices with 1GB or RAM or less. This version of Android also comes with…

A couple of days back, Huawei unveiled its latest flagship family, the P20 series. The company was very vocal about this device as it was expected and made sure everyone knows it exists. Fast forward a couple of days later and the company is back with another smartphone, the Huawei Y7 Prime 2018. The company has quietly unveiled this device without the pomp and colour we saw a couple of days back. The Huawei Y7 Prime 2018 is a mid-range smartphone that borrows a few things from the company’s current flagships, the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro. To keep up…

HMD Global is keeping its word of pushing out regular and timely updates to its devices. When the company re-introduced the new Nokia smartphones, it said that since its devices come with near stock Android, it will be able to push out the latest updates faster than most other manufacturers. The company is now pushing out Android 8.1 Oreo to both the Nokia 5 and the original Nokia 6. This update was pushed out to the Nokia 8 last month and is finally available for Nokia 5 and 6 owners. The two devices got Android 8.0 Update in January and…

Most of you reading this have probably heard about Branch, the mobile loan application. It makes it easier and convenient for individuals and small businesses to acquire loans that would otherwise be difficult to get from traditional financial institutions. Branch describes itself as a service that uses data science to dramatically reduce the cost of delivering financial services in emerging markets. It already has one million borrowers and its currently one of the top 5 applications in Kenya. Branch has had a successful run in Kenya and now the mobile “branchless bank” wants to expand to other emerging countries after…

Yesterday, Huawei introduced the P20 smartphone series to the world. The devices here include the P20, P20 Lite and the P20 Pro. With these devices, we get a slightly upgraded design for the P series. We are also getting better cameras that have the same Leica branding that we have come to associate premium devices from Huawei with. The new Huawei P20 devices have almost bezel-less displays, something we sort of expected on such a premium series. Huawei chose to include the dreaded notch and this breaks the smooth almost bezel-less aspect. This notch is not just there for the…

Itel has just added a new device to its portfolio. The new device, the Itel S32 LTE, comes with two cameras on the front and it does support VoLTE (Voice Over LTE). This should essentially work with Faiba 4G but I have tried doing that but it just does not work. Update: The company has confirmed with me that this phone does not support Faiba 4G. It does work with Safaricom and Telkom. That Itel S32 LTE is available in Kenya for Ksh 13,500, You can get it from 3C HUB in Ronald Ngala and  Moi avenue. The phone has…

Back in 2017, Google unveiled YouTube Go for those who have entry level devices that may not have the latest and most powerful specifications. This was just one of the many ‘Go’ applications. Some of the others include Files Go, Gmail Go, Google Go, Google Assistant Go just to name a few. The company even introduced Android Oreo (Go Edition) as a version of its popular mobile OS for manufacturers who make entry level device with 1GB of RAM or less. With all these ‘Go’ apps on the market, I decided to check out YouTube Go and see what it…

Even though WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform out there, the guys over at Telegram have never give up on their product. The company has rolled out a number of improvements to its platform over the years as it tries to attract those who want an alternative messaging platform with better privacy features. It looks like the improvements Telegram has been implementing are finally paying off. The company is reporting that within the last 30 days, over 200 million people have used its platform. This is an impressive milestone for the company. In a statement, the company said, “Above…

Samsung has finally launched its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and S9+, in Kenya. These phones were officially unveiled to a global audience late last month and they are finally available in Kenya. The Galaxy S9 is available for Ksh 85,000 while the Galaxy S9+ is available for Ksh 95,000. These are the recommended retail prices and may vary depending on where you get the phone from. The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ phones are meant to replace the Galaxy S8 and S8+ from 2017. They are similar in more ways than one but one of the big differences…