Nexus 5, Android Kitkat & all Google updates you need to know!

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Oct 31, 2013

Its a special year for everyone who literally lives their lives on the internet. Social Media awards is was come up with these awards to reward the all users of social media, from bloggers like us to writers, corporate companies, websites facebook and twitter pages and more. Special thanks to Blu Flamingo who were able to plan this idea and sponsors & partners like Airtel, NTV, Ugo who have funded this venture. After the nominations a team of judges selected the top 5 nominees for each category.

What do these awards mean to Us? I actually mean you!

It shows that social and digital trends in Uganda have grown tremendously, i mean why would their be awards if their were few people using twitter, facebook? But these awards make so much sense because the number f Ugandans using social Media has grown really fast, Today companies boost of pages with over 100k likes on Facebook. The blogosphere has grown and the amount of quality content on the web has tremendously increased. A few years ago i could almost count all blogs but today i can’t finish counting the number of blogs per category. Even our competition keeps growing. But as numbers grow more content is shared, both good and poor content is shared at faster speeds.

Its such awards that seive out the best and next year competition is likely to increase as participant will probably spend the whole year innovating and creating content so as to take home an award. The power is in the hands of the fans to vote nominees socialmediaawards.ug The readers and fans have a chance to choose from the folowing who will gain bragging rights to whichever catergory they are nominated in.

BEST BLOG/BLOGGERS

Guru8 – (Yes we got nominated, now we kindly ask for your votes)

Beewol

Ernest Bazanye

Ruth Aine

Actor Odongo

ENTERTAINMENT WEBSITES

Big Eye Ug

Proggie

Mushroom Inc

Urban Legend

Kampala Sun

CORPORATE AWARD

New Vision

NSSF

Airtel Uganda

MTN Uganda

Pepsi

Umeme

ENTERTAINMENT WRITERS

Moses Serugo

Ernest Bazanye

Mr Dj

Ssegawa Salim

Ken Kimuli Pablo

NEWS AND INFORMATION – COMPANIES

NTV Uganda

Daily Monitor

Chimp Reports

Radio City

SMS Media

New Vision

NEWS AND INFORMATION – INDIVIDUALS

Maurice Mugisha

Songa Stone Samuel

Joy Doreen Biira

Raymond Qatahar

David Muwonge

CIVIL SERVICE AWARD

Uganda Police Force

KCCA Uganda

Barefoot Lawyers Uganda

Uganda Revenue authority

NSSF Uganda

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY

Echwalu Photography

Onyait Odeke

Pearl Guide Uganda

Darlyne Komukama

BEST CAMPAIGN

I am (Airtel Uganda)

We Believe (MTN Uganda)

40 days 40 smiles

Malaria Free Uganda

Cocacola

BEST INNOVATION

Team UOT

FAVOURITE CELEBRITY

Navio

Ann Kansiime

Bebe Cool

Tuff B

Maurice kirya

Dj Shiru

BEST MEDIA OUTLET – TV

NTV

Urban Tv

WBS

Bukedde Tv

NBS

BEST MEDIA OUTLET – PRINT

New Vision

Daily Mornitor

Observer

Bukedde

Red Pepper

BEST MEDIA OUTLET – RADIO

Radiocity

Power fm

X fm

Galaxy Fm

BEST CUSTOMER CARE

MTN Uganda

Umeme

Uganda Revenue Authority

Airtel Uganda

NSSF

BEST CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Umeme

Uganda Media Center

National Water

Transparacy International Uganda

SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD

40 days 40 smiles

Barefoot Lawyers

Ghetto Field Project

Transparacy International Uganda

There you have now visit www.socialmediaawards.co.ug and Vote and please dont forget to vote for us #GURU8

New Nexus 10 leaks in Google Play, reveals Tech Specifications!

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Oct 28, 2013

The search engine giant must be having problems keeping secrets about its coming gadgets. I mean after all the leaked information on the Nexus 5, Google had better start keeping its announcement more securely. Yet again the 2013 Nexus 10, a tablet that had been silenced by the leaks of her brother the Nexus 5, also made news when it accidentally appeared in Google Play.

The Nexus 10 leak, this time didn’t show the price of Google’s new flagship tablet, however Tech Specs and an image (obviously) were seen for a short period of time and now the devices section of Google Play is temporarily unavailable. One wonders, why would Google repeat the same mistake?

Could it be a plan to steal part of the show from Apple’s iPad Air with these Tech Specs?

I mean if Google showed consumers Tech specifications of its soon to be released 2013 Nexus 10, they might change their minds on buying the new iPad Air. We can’t judge them, however two leaked devices in a space of a days isn’t what we expect from Google.

The new Nexus 10 will pack aSnapdragon 800 quad-core processor, an 8MP camera at the back, 3 GB or Ram just like the Note 3, a 10-inch Gorilla glass 3 with a resolution of 2560 x 1600, and a boosted battery of 9500mAh, an upgrade from 9000mAh from the previous generation. Keep it in mind that the new model will is 7.9mm thin and its weight has been chopped down by 584g. I don’t even need to tell you that it will run on Android Kit Kat 4.4, you should already expect that.

Android fans have to wait until 1^st November to see the new Nexus 5 and 10 officially announced. The Tech specs above appeared in the Google Play leak, we can’t affirm that they are the official ones that will be announced by Google.

Leaked White Nexus 5 & Rumoured launch on November 1st

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Oct 28, 2013

let’s go through the rumours associated with Google’s next device. After a leak in Google Play that placed a $340 price tag to the Nexus 5, comes yet another set of leaks which include a leaked manual that exposed the tech specs of the Nexus 5.

We expect the Nexus 5 to have a 4.95-inch display with a stunning 1080p resolution, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 chipset clocked at 2.3GHz. It will also pack 2GB of RAM, LTE radio, and a 2300mAh battery.

It’ll definitely have NFC, wireless charging, and the notification light is back.

According to @evleaks, we should expect a white Nexus 5 as seen in the photo below. This is a change from the usual black color Nexus line of phones.

A rumoured launch date is 1 November. Lets prepare for a launch of a device we all know about. Almost all of it!

Apple shows us the amazing process of making the Mac Pro

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Oct 24, 2013

Its not every Day that a company shows you how they make something or how their data centres look like, but when they do you will definately love it, remember Googles tour of their data centre? Well the making of this ‘beast’ At a price of $2999 you will definately need to be a pro to enjoy these features. See how Apple makes the Mac Pro, from the circular shape and more.

We had to share this video to our Apple fans!

Facebook becomes partially ‘Unavailable’

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Oct 21, 2013

Some Users today are facing outage of Facebook on their mobile devices and desktop versions. The Desktop version has had the biggest issues. Just in case you were not able to update your status, comment or couldn’t upload a photo today, then you are not alone, the site was facing several issues though logging in and viewing posts and photos was possible. Even websites that ping websites that ping for server down time like Is is it down or Just me were confirming downtime of facebook.

facebook-is-down — A screenshot from downforeveryoneorjustme.com showing that facebook is down

Facebook Payments are also down, Well there has not been any confirmation on why Facebook was partially unavailable since the social network hasn’t had any official comments on the downtime. However some users are able to login and update their statuses, let us know in the comments what you have experienced.

See ‘The Future’ of Technology at the Orange Expo 2013

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Oct 19, 2013

Its such a busy Expo from Orange this year, from the gadgets, to the promos, and crazy sales. What caught our attention this year is the ‘Future’ section at the Orange Expo 2013. The future has all innovations from partners of Orange and orange itself, from gadgets to apps or software. The exhibition stands showcased the most Bizarre gadgets as seen below:

Sony Smart Watch

Don’t be mistaken this watch doesn’t wear Louis Vuitton or Gucci, its smart because it can connect and sync with your phone and it lets you touch its screen like you would to any ordinary touch phone. It displays notifications from some apps such as Facebook, Twitter and is kind enough to let you like a status update. At the moment the number of apps are limited but lets not forget its the future and we can’t put a price tag to that. This smart watch will vibrate when you get a phone, by the way you can answer the phone call from your watch however you will have to get you smartphone out of your pocket onto your ear. Orange didn’t put a price tag to this device because it s coming in the future.

Nekomimi

Nekomini is a gadget that detects your brain waves and turns to your mood, it basically uses magnetic waves from a sensor that is placed on your forehead and a clip on you ear. It first calibrates by turning a bit then it will find out your mood and respond, most of the time it waves fast when you are happy or surprised they didn’t tell us what it does when you are annoyed. So the future might make your wife know mood…. well lets just wait.

Espon Moverio HMD

Epson Moverio HMD - "The transparent Display" — Epson Moverio HMD – “The transparent Display”

Imagine having a projector literally tied to your eyes, The Moverio projects videos and images onto a transparent display that is quite wide and seems like a 42 inch screen in the air, more like a magnified version of Google Glass. However its clearer when you look towards a white screen, yeah you can still see the rest of the world through the sides. The Moverio HMD has a physical controller that is powered by android, though its purely made up of hardware buttons. You definitely need to try this one out

Ink Case N2

The Ink Case N2 has an ebook reader at the back, you can even change the back cover to a static image, it syncs with your phone and has hardkey buttons to control the Ink case, it however makes your phone bulky and the available prototype only works with the Galaxy Note 2, and just in case you are lucky any 4.3 smartphone.

These were some of the apps that were being showcased;

Matatu

The future will have all games we used to play onto touch screens, Matatu is a revolutionary app that brings us a card game with origins from Uganda, it lets you cut, pick 2, or pick 3. Every Ugandan would definitely want to try this out.

Noisy Gates

Orange brought us close to the developer of Noisy Gates, an app that detects loud noises in a particular environment and lets you know whether the noise Levels are friendly. It will calibrate, then measure sound levels then pick your location. This information is relevant to several ministries to make sure noise levels are human friendly. In the future fighting against noise polluters will be much easier.

MensPreg

These developers have told us that it is possible to prevent pregnancies and monitor period cycles, one of the reviewers was had to say that the future is bright.

Some of these gadgets are so bizarre you need to be there to enjoy the experience and the apps are worth downloading

If you have been reading GURU8 alot you will notice we have broken stories and done reviews on several smartphones, and you will definately find that smartphone at the Orange Expo, yeah you will get to see the iPhone 5S, and 5C, HTC One, Xperia Z , ZTE, Huaweis and lots of Android, Windows phones on discounts of up to 40%.

The Expo is going on up to Tomorrow so you have got to be there to see, touch and enjoy. Be there!

Google Nexus appears in Google Play for $350 temporarily

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Oct 18, 2013

The Nexus 5 is probably the worst leak in the history of an android phone launch. We now know how it looks like before its launched, wait we even know how much we have to pay for it.

Google needs to work on privacy of its launches because the Nexus 5 appeared in Google Play at price of $350 for the 16Gb model. An even bigger resolution photo accidentally appeared on the Google Nexus website, however it was later removed. Thanks to Engadget who took the screen shot below. You are probably not very hyper about the launch of the Nexus 5, we might just have to wait to get confirmation on the Tech Specs.

Otherwise from the large photo you might notice a new camera icon, new wallpaper and probably Android 4.4 KitKat.
Well, we just have to wait for Google to give official confirmation on the tech specs and more details on the Nexus 5.

Source: Engadget

Uganda celebrates Ada Lovelance day in a special way!

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Oct 15, 2013

Just in case you are wondering who Ada Lovelance is, she was an early scientist who worked on a flying machine and worked with Charles Babbage on a mechanical general-purpose computer & the Analytical Engine. Today is a day set aside to recognise her contribution to the IT sector as well as that by ‘Women in IT’.

Today Outbox and Thought Works put up an event to recognise the role of Women in IT and celebrate the life of Ada Lovelance. The meet up was rather casual but informative. Viviana Terceros talked about life as a developer and why she took on software development as a career. She told us how IT has made her grow in all ways; career-wise and emotionally.

Edith Namuganga told her story of how she studied in a male dominated class, Telecom Engineering to be precise and how she joined Thought Works to venture into something she wanted as Business analyst and writer. She also says that Parents need to find out wether girls like technology before the make girls venture into code or IT.

We also had a talk demo about Clojure, a presentation about how to use code to write musical notes. I must say using Java to write code was quite amazing.

Dr. Dorothy Okello shared her role in IT, she did engineering an runs a program to attract girls to keep in engineering, she worries that now that there are many Women in IT, they might join up and start saying that they are in a wrong place because during her time Being a female in IT was about proving a point and that encouraged them.

“There are Many Women in IT, and different challenges they face so don’t expect me to know all the problems of all women in IT, because different people have different challenges” – Dr. Dorothy Okello

Dr. Dorothy added that the biggest challenge is that much as more women are joining IT, more women are leaving IT and the biggest struggle should actually be keeping them there starting from secondary school level.

Another issue is the time women in IT need because the sector requires alot of time, “we are going to a time where women are going to delay to get married anf get children and we might even have to force the government to pay us to have babies” Dr. Dorothy added.

An issue of negative mind set of children in schools was addressed and a there is need for parents to also get involved because they sometimes discourage girls from IT or engineering so they need to have a more liberal mind about the idea.

We also had a session about the Imposter syndrome. The imposter syndrome is about a negative feeling about your success, something that makes us suffer from selfdenial or luck of self esteem and feeling a fraud/fake. Imposter syndrome is affecting many women. We watched a video on the Imposter Syndrome, feel free to watch it below.

Such events in Uganda are necessary for the development of IT fraternity in Africa

MTN Uganda customers to pay More for Data bundles

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Oct 10, 2013