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Google brings shareble Gmail Selfies on Fools Day

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Well, Google always plays pranks on us every Fools day and some pranks actually last. This year they have taken selfies to our Email. I loggined today only to be greated with a pop message Introducing Gmail Selfie.

It then requires users to set a background image basing on a selfie that is trending or share their theme, to the world. Imagine some guys’ nose, eyes popped up in the background of your email and your boss passed by. It will be a Typical fools day joke that isn’t funny.

Google also wants your Aunt, Mom or anybody with a crush on your to set your selfie theme as a Gmail background. That might sound nice to Google, but you sure don’t want your X’s photo showing up in your background worse still a picture of someone happy when your day isn’t going well. Uhmm if am in a election and my oponents selfie showed up since the trending selfies are based on location, I would ………………(lets leave that alone).

[quote_box_center]”Gmail is committed to being at the forefront of innovation in the selfie space. And we think it’s a tragedy that your handsome hair, luscious lashes and beautiful brows have been trapped in your own inbox. Until now, that is. Today, we’re proud to free your selfies by launching Gmail Shelfie, the SHareable sELFIE.”-GOOGLE [/quote_box_center]

So go ahead and play those pranks but at the end of the day some Fool’s day jokes won’t turn out funny.

Orange Uganda Leading in Mobile Innovations

By
nicholas
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0

Every Year since 2011, Orange Uganda has been running Community innovations Awards (CIA) , a challenge aimed at getting the best mobile developer in the fields of Agriculture, Health and Education.

I remember my first encounter in this challenge in 2012 when i featured a social networking mobile app, when i really knew it was outside their scope. I just love Social apps and the thrill of engagement. Anyway, today I am going to point out why i think Orange Uganda through their Search for the best Mobile app developer in the fields above, have positioned themselves a dominant force in Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) and how this has favored them to be the Leading Mobile Innovators of the Telecoms in Uganda.

Scope of the Challenge. 

Anyone living in Uganda will agree with me that Agriculture, Health and Education are some of the cores supporting our Nation, these fields though are facing a lot of challenges. For a telecom company to come out and embrace such challenges and make them their own is an extra mile. The big picture orange is looking at here, is that farmer down in the village being able to know what pests are attacking his plant or a pregnant mother being able to know what diet she should be on or even a student trying to pick a career being able to access that information very fast on their mobile device, doing that for your customer is better the short time bills they pay to you, because then you are creating a lifetime customer.

Corporate Social Responsibility.

The one thing i loved about this challenge as a developer, is the way Orange as a company puts its experts to your disposal. When you enter this challenge you go through a vetting process, to assess your idea and its business model. This is usually done buy a couple of Judges no big deal, but when you emerge a victor in this challenge, your team gets time with the orange Lawyers to help you setup your company, then you you are always given an internship to work with orange a specific period of time. You benefit from not only trying to work on your idea, but you get to work with a couple of the Company employees on company time to learn something.

The Big Picture.

This challenge is focused on University student teams. In some way it doesn’t make sense, if these guys want apps why can’t they get their engineers to develop the apps for them or better some experienced developers out of campus. That is where the big picture comes in. Most of the innovation of the big companies has come from Universities, Facebook, Google you add to the list. Targeting University Students is no mistake at all, these guys are hungry for success than no one else. I also think the university developers are a niche that is being ignored by all the other telecoms and taking a bet on them ain’t bad at all.

Am very sure if Orange ventured in the mobile play store business, they will get more apps than any other telecoms in Uganda because they have tasted the business and they very well know how to target their target partners and customers. I work with developers everyday and i very well know there is something they bring to the table but without corporate companies coming out to support them, they will just remain a bunch of junkies behind laptops, but when these companies join hands with them, this will be a beginning to a great and fruitful partners.

I tip my hat to Orange Uganda for Leading the Mobile innovations frontier.

What do you think about Mobile Innovations in Ugandan Telecoms, are they doing enough, who do you think does it best and why? Leave a comment below.

wpid-wp-1395002020560.jpeg

Airtel Care App brings better customer care! [Review]

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

We got a chance to play with Airtel Care app by Airtel that has been announced. Its an app that brings customer care to user’s phone and I liked a couple of things and hated a few. Here is our experience with the app.

After downloading the app, you get a bright red splash screen that is followed by a screen that asks you to enter your country. At the time of review we collect only choose from 3 countries i.e. Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya. (I don’t why it only supports 3 countries yet they boast of large African coverage)

image

You are then prompted to enter your mobile number starting without the country code, then a 4 digit One Time Password (OTP) is sent to your in SMS form. You should copy this OPT code and enter it into your app for verification. Lets credit them for taking care of security, Just imagine your X checking your airtime balance. Though, I must say the SMS took a while to come on the 070 platform.

After Verification the app shows your name you probably entered for SIM registration , and welcomes you with a message saying you a ‘professional airtel customer.

image

When you tap the phone number you get a menu screen showing your airtime balance. You will find options like Data, VAS, Contact Us, Special Offer, and Airtel live

image

Vas which is loosely translated as Value added Services, gives you a list of subscription options to football teams like Manchester United and Arsenal as well as some caller tunes, though the caller tunes were limited compared to those on the website, you can also access a few more services eg. Magic voice but if you are the kind that hates sms please don’t activate anything.

The app lets you subscribe to data bundles by visiting the Data menu where you can scroll to the left or right to choose you preferred internet package. You will be able to view your data bundle balance in close to real time.

The Contact Us section lets you send your complaints, queries and help questions to Airtel customer care who laterrr… on respond.
Airtel wants you to know when there is a special offer and have integrated the feature. Airtel Live gives users access to games and music and generally media content to customers, you will have to spend quite some airtime to download this media content.

What we loved?

Activating a data bundle without entering annoying USSD codes like *100*3*10# was annoying and now I just have to swipe and I hit the activate button. This applies to the data balance and expiry date.
The caller tunes are in a list within the app which means goodbye to cramming the caller tune code which wasn’t nice.
Game lovers and parents who want games for their children will enjoy because their can get free access to Airtel games, some of which yield prizes from Airtel.
Oh, before I forget it shows your name, which shows you that whichever teller registered your name was technically sober and should it differ, please contact Airtel.

What we didn’t love

You can use it without a VALID DATA BUNDLE, when your internet runs out the app wont load and it only shows an Airtel splash screen if you have no data bundle.
Hey, Airtel, if you want me to use your app to activate a data bundle or get a caller tune, or later on recharge and I can’t do so, I will not think twice when my app memory runs low. This was so annoying one of the testers uninstalled it. We expected the app to be an improvement from the AOC webpage which shows an Nginx error when you try to buy a data bundle after it has run out. This took a large toll on the stars the app is getting.
“Dear Airtel please make access to the app free, even when my bundle is low” – Henry one of our testers.

The User Interface or design looks like it was ripped off the old iOS 6 app skin, something rather too curved, android apps are better close to flat.

Lastly we hated the fact that Airtel Live redirects to the browser (web version)

All in all, we love the innovativeness and care that Airtel has introduced alongside other customer care platforms like #StanAirtel @AirtelUg on Twitter and the call line which is not the easiest to get to. The diversity provides better service delivery and you can get the app from here. Airtel Care on Google Play

Google Now comes to Chrome for Windows and Mac

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Google Now is a service android and iOS users have been enjoying and using to keep up with daily tasks and information relevant to them. Google Now uses Cards to display weather, commutes, sports updates, forex and article updates and more.

Today Google Now has started rolling out Google Now to its desktop browser ‘Google Chrome’. Google Now will only be available for users who already have the activated the service on their mobile phones.

image
Google Now in Chrome

Google Now in Chrome will use location settings similar to those on your phone since its most likely your phone is near your computer. You will have ti edit your location settings if you have Google Now on multiple devices.
Some cards on Google Now are not location dependant so they will still show up.

This Chrome feature will bring notifications from users who are signed in with the same email address as that on their devices using Google Now. Notifications will show up under the cicle that shows Google + notifications.

Google lets you disable Now in Chrome, in case you are not pleased with the feature. You can disable it by unticking Google Now in the notification centre.

Google Now will follow you in Chrome, am pretty sure we’ll enjoy it.

Source: Google support (Google Now Cards in Chrome)

Turkey bans Twitter but Users can still Tweet!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Twitter banned the micro-blogging website and had the service blocked today at around 11.30pm in Turkey.

This is after the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan minister blocked the service because he thinks its a ‘troublemaker’ after it aided the protest of closure of the park. During a rally in Bursa in the west of the country, he said “I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish
Republic.”

Well the service was later blocked and visiting the Twitter website redirects to a message from the Turkish Government.

The drama unfolded on Twitter where hashtags #TwitterblockedinTurkey were trending and later tweets and screenshots of how to Tweet from Turkey were posted on thw social network.

Wikileaks also had a forum of how to access Twitter in Turkey.

Here is how Turks can actually Tweet;
SMS
The Turkish government did not block the SMS based platform for twitter and Twitter’s @policy handle posted how to Tweet using SMS on Turkish Telecoms. The message was tweeted in both English and Turkish.

Changing  DNS
Several users are reporting they are able to bypass the block by changing their DNS settings with solutions like OpenDNS or Google DNS. This however isn’t easy for non-techies however DNS numbers are being written on posters in Turkey.

Using Tor and VPN
Turkey’s firewall isn’t as strong as the Iranian firewall and use of Virtual Private Networks can let users to access the site. Some users posted that opening the site using the Tor bundle or browser could let you tweet. I mean if a network can run a drug marketplace it should be easy to access a poor firewall in the 21st century.
Since Tor is built to access to blocked news and sharing sites blocked by governments then using it to access Twitter is a good cause.

In fact over 17000 tweets per hour were tweeted from Turkey after the block.

Dictators can mess with social media platforms but the 21 century will always laugh at them. Just in case anyother website or service gets blocked users bypass and media content they desire.

This is the reason why I don’t get worried about the government blocking any website whether its a hoax or not, there are many ways to access such websites.

Source: Mashable

Google Search lets you launch the camera by saying ‘Ok Google, take a photo’ or ‘take video’

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Google Search on Android has had several updates over the years witha its Google Now and voice search integrations that changed the way we search on our phones.

Previously saying ‘ Ok Google’ let you open the Google voice search feature. Today an update on Google Play lets users launch their camera app by using these voice commands ‘Ok Google take a photo’  or ‘take a video’  and ‘record a video’. 

If you phone has hot word detection activated adding OK Google to either commands does the prompt immediately but when you have it switched off you can tap the mic and then say the command i.e ‘take a photo’ 

This might making taking quick photos easier on phones on which it applies. The update might take a while to reach all users but keep checking Google Play.

Lets hope this is the beginning of more commands on Google search, imagibe saying ‘Ok Google, take a selfie’ and the front camera went on.

Source : TNW

How to use Facebook Home on almost any phone without any geeky tweaks!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Remember when Facebook made updates to its Facebook Home launcher to add photos from other sources such as Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr and Pinterest? Not only did they make these changes but they also made a full standalone launcher which is available on the PlayStore for only a limited number of Devices like the HTC First, Nexus 4, the Galaxy S4 and a few more.
However at the end of this post you will realize that it works on almost any phone running Android 4.1 once you side load the Apk without editing the build.prop.

Now forget the tweaks by Modaco where the Apk files were edited, here you will be able to use the latest Facebook app with this Home apk.

How to use it
Download the FacebookHome.apk at the bottom of this post then Install it on your phone. You will need the Facebook android app installed alongside the Facebook Messenger for an improved experience.

Login in to your Facebook app and then look for the Home icon in your app drawer (app list) then login with your Facebook account then it will prompt you with a screen saying your phone saying your phone is not supported yet and Facebook Home will not work properly, however it will give you two options:

Select ‘Use Home Anyway’
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From there you will get a menu with options that lets you customise Home such as; Connected Apps which lets you choose to see posts from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr & Pinterest.
By the way you can select another source and unselect Facebook if you you are not impressed with the social network.

Another major step is selecting where you want the Facebook Home Feed to appear, select both Launcher and lock screen to get the full launcher from Facebook after you press the home button on your phone and then select the Facebook Home option.

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Just in case you want to keep you default launcher just select lock screen however this had many issues on the devices I tested on such as the Nexus S, a galaxy Grand, a generic tablet and Samsung duos because it sometimes conflicts with the pin or password set on your lock screen. You can also access the Facebook Home lockscreen through the notification tray.

You can also choose whether you want your wallpaper chosen from photo uploads you have made on Facebook or photos of your friends and family. Toggle the ‘Use Home Wallpaper’ to turn on the option.

image

Other customisation you might need to make include;
Adding a Cover Feed shortcut icon that takes you to your cover feed straight from your launcher.
You might want  to turn on device notifications and change your preferred temperature units.

Download, install, open, login, Done!

There you have it, the official Facebook Home on unsupported devices.

Download the Facebook Home Apk 1.2 from here.

Facebook Home Apk – Google Drive

Facebook Home Apk – Box

Let us know whether this worked for you and if it did reward us with a thumbs up on Facebook.

Oppo unveils phone that takes 50 MegaPixel Photos!

By
Joel Mwanja
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0

Oppo launches the Quad HD Find 7 phone that reportedly takes 50 megapixel photos Yes, I said 50 megapixels and i mean 50. Remember the 41MP Lumia that shocked us, well 50MP is a bigger shock however there is a glitch. Oppo a Chinese based company whose aim is to produce phones with high end specs. With devices like the Oppo N1 which was the first phone to come with Cyanogenmod pre-installed, they have deviced to launch the Quad HD F7.

Today they launched the Oppo Quad HD F7 with a 5.5 inch screen at (2560x1440p) resolution. It is carries a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a powerful 3,000 mAh battery under the cover.

The weird bit is it carries a 13 megapixel Camera with takes 50 megapixel photos by by taking ten photos in the back end with its ‘Super Zoom’ feature. The Camera lets you record full 4K video and 720p 120 frame-per-second videos in slow motion.

Oppo also unveiled the Oppo Find 7a which is a lower end smartphone at a cheaper cost that comw with a full HD display (1920x1080p), a 2.3GHZ quad-core processor, a 2800 mAh battery, and 16GB of storage. Both devices will be on sale in mid-April, at $599 and $499 for the Find 7 and 7a respectively.

Desktop, chrome and Mac OS X Telegram apps that will make you switch!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Telegram the open source messaging app that rivals WhatsApp has decided rival other apps through is diversity of platform by opening up its app to support almost all platforms. Since its open source and has got more royalty from developers after whatsapp had many issues like downtime and rumours of insecurity after it was bought by Facebook.

Telegram which was official on Android and iOS only has been taken to more platforms than you can imagine thanks to third party developers.
Telegram might have taken a Twitter approach where their are multiple clients that do the same thing in a different way. Choice is the power of open source.
Follow you Telegram chats with any of these awesome 3rd party apps.

Telegram for Desktop

telegram desktop

The Windows Desktop app is well designed with a clean and modern Use interface in a typical windows desktop environment. After logging you get realtime notifications from the system tray when you get a new message, with a preview showing the profile picture and message, and just in case you have the app on the taskbar, the icon will get an notification count showing the number of messages. This app was the best designed and much as the website claims it’s in beta, I found no bugs while testing it with Joel writer. Since Telegram syncs, you can get you messages on any client or device after logging in and you can log out from the app.

Telegram for Mac OS X

telegram for macos

Telegram has about 2 apps for Mac OS X that will let you receive you messages from in realtime if you don’t belond to Bill Gates’ side of technology.

Lets say you started the conversation from your phone and the battery run out, you can login to Telegram on your personal PC or Mac and if you were traveling you can access it through the browser version (webogram

Webogram (Telegram in a browser)

telegram web
Webogram is the browser based Telegram client where you can login into any browser, (I dont know about how well it works in IE) and a security code is sent to your phone which you use to authorize you login and then you get a bootstrap-like interface with all your chats.

Telegram Chrome Extension

telegram on chrome

Telegram is similar to the Webogram (browser based Telegram) except that you get notifications for new messages from the app which shows up on the chrome app launcher. This client is ideal for those who use chrome a lot and don’t want to switch softwares.

Telegram also has several unofficial versions for windows phone users like Migram which means the application is cross platform and if you are a busy telegrammer, you can send a telegram from just about any platform.

Telegram for Linux (Command line)

Well if you want to appear like the mad scientists in the movies or want to experience chating in a virtual machine or through the shell of Linux then you download the command line version of the app.

I must remind you that some of these apps are in beta and are developed by third party developers, however the catch is you get to keep the conversation on almost all platforms and we must appreciate Telegram for featuring links to these unofficial apps on its website.

Well if you are worried, fell free to logout or terminate all connections using the official app on your android device or iPhone.
Let us know if you are willing to switch from other chat apps to Telegram.

Well big up to the developers of these apps

Outbox Hub wants to train your kid into a future Computer programmer!

By
GURU8 Staff
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0

Outbox Hub, an incubation Hub for Developers in Uganda is promoting a children’s Programming program called Kids Computer Program (KCP) where they intend to equip very young minds with basic programing skills.

They will be using an MIT based co-curriculum called “Scratch” which teaches early programmers basic programming based on user friendly concepts like events, conditions, sequences, conditions, loops in short the what’s , when’s, and how’s of basic programming.

Well there is an even bigger catch! At the of program the young proggramer will gain the pride of having made a game they themselves besides acquiring life skills like collaboration, team sharing, and others that may not be programming oriented that are necessary.

Your child doesn’t have to be ‘Albert Einstein’ to join the program because any child aged 7 and up can be enrolled in the program. Its as easy as knowing how to read, write and maybe how to play with a mouse.

Outbox has put up the program during a time which won’t clash with the child’s study hours. The Computer Kid’s Program will take place Saturday mornings between 10am and 12pm from 19th April – 10th May 2014.

Such programs aid the mental growth of children and enable them become productive, creative and give a firm ground for future programmers. The earlier they get involved in programming the better besides you wouldn’t want regrets in the future for having stated late.

You can enroll them on the Outbox Website. This program will set you back $200 per child.

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