Author: Kaluka wanjala

Even before all existing Android smartphones get Android Nougat, Google is already working on Android P and its first developer preview is out. This is the very first public developer preview and is not recommended for everyone. From this first developer preview, Google is introducing the dreaded ‘notch’ to the ecosystem. We saw this notch on a handful of devices last year including the Essential phone and the iPhone X. It is not a pretty design feature but is sort of necessary as we strive to have thinner bezels on our smartphones. The notch is not just an irrelevant addition,…

WeChat is undoubtedly the most popular social media app in China. The app is well known outside China but is still not as widely used outside the country as it is in the country. The company behind WeChat, Tencent, has announced that the social media app now has 1 billion accounts. The company said that the spike in numbers is as a result of increase in social media usage and messaging during the Chinese New Year. WeChat is very diverse and can be a confusing application as it offers different features including social media features, access to banking services, allows…

Android is a very diverse smartphone ecosystem. On one hand, you have the high-end device with the top of the range features, on the other hand, you have entry level devices with low end features. In between these two classes, there are a number of different devices that target different users. With the different devices with different features, most developers tend to come up with apps that can target as many users as possible and some even go ahead and create apps that side-line some of the low-end devices to target the modern high-end devices. In these cases, these developers…

Twitter is a great social site but it can get messy and confusing sometimes. Given that Twitter displays content chronologically, you will see tweets as users share them. This is different from platforms such as Facebook that use algorithms to ensure you see content you are likely to interact with. With this, once you refresh your timeline, the tweets that were there will be pushed down and they won’t be at the top of the timeline the next time you log in to the app. This means that you have to find a way to save the tweets that you…

In 2017, we saw amazing smartphones on both Android and iOS. Manufacturers we all about innovating and bringing new features to consumers and this is always a good thing. What is interesting about 2017 is that smartphone manufacturers shipped 0.5% fewer devices compared to 2016 according to IDC. In total, smartphone manufacturers shipped 1.46 billion devices by the end of 2017. This number includes both Android and iOS. Most of the devices shipped in 2017 are obviously running Android as Apple tends to have a thin portfolio compared to what is available on Android. The IDC reports that, 85.1% of…

Truecaller is undoubtedly one of the widely used apps in the country. Even with this, it is not all love with the app as the exact mechanics of how the application works makes privacy advocates uncomfortable. The app makes it easier for mobile phone users to identify those who are texting and calling them. This may seem important but when you start dealing with spam and unwanted calls, identifying those who are calling before picking up is helpful. Ever since Truecaller was released, it has seen tremendous growth is most emerging and developing markets with Kenya being one of them.…

If you have subscribed to GOtv Plus or GOtv Value, you should be prepared to pay a few shillings more as from April. The company will be making price adjustments to these bouquets by a tiny bit and since these are not massive changes, I do not expect many people to complain. Even with that said, I still expect the people who see GOtv as being pricey not to be happy with the changes. GOtv Plus subscribers should be ready to pay Ksh 749 per month up from Ksh 699 that they are currently paying. This is a 7% increase…

BlackBerry is one company that almost everyone knows about but when it comes to market share, the company is nowhere to be seen. BlackBerry was at one time one of the most sort after smartphone brands but then Android came around. Ever since then, the company has seen its market share drop to embarrassing levels. Even though times have been tough, BlackBerry is not giving up. The company is currently working on a premium Android smartphone that is called Ghost. According to Evan Blass (eveleaks), the phone will be launching in India very soon, no exact date has been given…

Most of you probably do not know that Huawei also makes laptops. You may know about the company’s tablets but may never have heard about the company’s laptop. To be fair, the company has a couple of laptops and most of them are sold in the western markets and that is why you may not have heard about them here. Huawei is slowly but steadily expanding its laptop line and the latest addition is the Huawei MateBook X Pro that it unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018) yesterday. The one thing that got people talking about this laptop is…

Let’s face it, in this day and age, you cannot have a premium smartphone with a mediocre camera. Consumers demand the best of the best from manufacturers who have to go that extra mile to ensure they have the best cameras on their new devices. This is exactly what Samsung had in mind when it decided to unveil its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+. The two devices were unveiled yesterday at Mobile Wold Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona. There had been a ton of leaks about these two devices so we were not entirely surprised…