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FBI shuts down ‘Silk Road’ an online drug marketplace website

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

A few days ago, a drug marketplace hidden deep on the Tor network where it seemed anonymous, existed a drug marketplace on the internet called ‘SilkRoad’. Silkroad was an anonymous website for drug users to sell and buy illegal drugs without exposing their identies, all because they paid using an anonymous and lowly-tracked currency called Bit coin, Since Bitcoin is a virtual, tracing the drug dealers was quite a difficult process.

However this has come to an end, FBI shut down the website and displayed a message showing that the website had been seized. Those who know how to use the Tor network can access the blocked site using the URL http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/. The Battle with the Feds started with a criminal complaint against Mr. Ross William Ulbricht, a.k.a. “Dread Pirate Roberts,” a.k.a. “DPR,” a.k.a. “Silk Road.”

It must be surprising that Ross William Ulbricht was a heavy user of social media, he had a Facebook, Google +,  and his Linkedin profile  describes him as an “investment advisor and entrepreneur” .

SilkRoad generated revenue worth 9.5 million Bitcoins and received commissions from over 600,000 Bitcoins. The site worth is estimated to have made $1.2billion in sales and $80 million in commisions

Ulbrict’s is going to face trial in the United States.

Source: The Verge

 

Apple is now the most Valuable Company!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

According to an annual report from InterBrand, this is a corporate identity and brand consulting company owned by Omnicom Group. Since 2000, InterBrand has been compiling an annual report it calls the ‘Best Global Brands Report’. A report which has ranked Apple as the Most valuable brand of 2013, a position previously held by Coca-Cola which has slid down to the third position.

Apple has really achieved a lot by being in first place because this is the first year Coca-Cola hasn’t been Number 1. Interbrand’s Chief Executive Jez Frampton was quoted to have said, “What is it they say, ‘Long live the king?” he then said “This year, the King is Apple.”  Interbrand’s Frampton said that it was a matter of time, for Apple to reach the top spot in an earlier interview with NYT. Let’s remember that Apple was in the 2nd spot after climbing from the 8th position in 2011.

The report estimated the value of Apple’s brand at $98.3 billion which is a 12% increment from last year, it also shows an increase in Coca-Cola’s brand by 2% which however wasn’t enough to keep its place as the ‘king’ of the most valuable brands, Coca-Cola was in fact the 3rd most valuable brand with Google rising to the 2nd position. Tech business giant IBM is now the 4th most valuable brand.

Frampton had this to say about Apple’s being ranked number 1. “Coca-Cola is an efficient, outstanding brand marketer, no doubt about it,” Frampton said “Apple and other leading technology brands has become very much the poster child of the marketing community.”
Much as Apple and Coca-Cola were the main talk of the report, let’s look at how other ‘Popular’ Tech brands faired. Microsoft remained in the 5th position just like last year, Samsung rose to the 8th and took up Intel’s previous position which was 8th last year, and Intel is now in the 9th position. Struggling Blackberry has disappeared from the list a drop from her 93 position last year. Yeah, the list ranks the top 100 Best Brand companies; Nokia was the ‘biggest faller’ after dropping down 38places to the 57thposition.

There you have it, the list of the most Valuable Global brands. Apple needs to pop the champagne after unseating Coca-Cola from her top position. Google also has a big reason to celebrate
image

Source: NYT, InterBrand

Hey! Its now possible to edit your Post on Facebook!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Previously, Facebook only let us edit our comments, a service that has been running for about a year now, however when you update your status and it happens to have a mistake, or error the only way solution was to get rid of the post by deleting it. However just like comment editing your friends will be able to see all the edits you have made to your status, i must say its better than having a status you can not change.

This update has been seen in android, those with developer preview accounts for the Facebook app were able to experience this, Now the Google Play update changelog has shown the feature.  Now every android user should be able to get this update.

Lets remember that most of facebook’s updates roll out gradually to all users just like Timeline, Newsfeed and GraphSearch. Its now on Android, web users might wait but iOS may definately get the update soon.

Post Updated at: 23:54pm

Google Improves Search as it turns 15

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

The ‘teen old’ search engine whose capabilities are higher than its age, if Google was a person, they would be celebrating their 15th birthday which is a time most teenagers are at a confused time of their life.

However Google is quite amazing today, Google is celebrating 15 years of amazing services, with the oldest being its Search engine. Someone needs to sing them a birthday song. Google has decided to share its cake with us by realising a improved Search algorithm. It has given us a card UI for search results. Google has promised to roll out improvements as it stated in a tweet

In the latest version of the Google Search App for iOS and Android, not only can you say your question out loud, but your search app can speak your answer right back to you. And, using Google’s Knowledge Graph, your search app gives you smarter answers loud and clear.

Google is attempting to keep pace with the evolution of Internet usage because search queries are getting more complicated & traditional “Boolean” or keyword-based systems have begun deteriorating because of the need to match concepts and meanings in addition to words. Google has introduced ‘Hummingbird’, “Hummingbird” is the company’s effort to match the meaning of queries with that of documents on the Internet, said Singhal from the Menlo Park garage where Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin conceived their now-ubiquitous search engine.

“You should not be spending your time searching, you should be spending your time living,” said Singhal.

Google also announced an improved search app on iOS that brings card UI from events and apps from searches. Google has also given us a feel of its first search engine in 1998. You can experience search results as they appeared in the year Google was founded.

We shall keep you posted on Google’s improvements throughout its BirthDay!

 

A Hands-on review of Firefox OS.

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

During the Firefox OS Hackathon the Mozilla Reps gave us the opportunity to play with phones running Firefox OS. I must say these were developer preview phones so I’ll go easy on the bugs.

The first thing you notice in Firefox OS is the lock screen; it shows a background image with time/clock. If you are an android user you definitely notice the resemblance.  The User Interface on the lock screen is plain, and lucks the noise and distractions. A swipe left then you notice the rather clean UI.

Most of the icons are circular starting with the call, messaging and Firefox browser app that give the OS a difference from iOS and android. Navigation through the icons is done by swiping left or right and the menu seems merged with the lock screen in the sense that when you swipe to the end of the menu ‘app drawer’ you return to the lock screen.

The navigation was smooth when we just unlocked the device but I got a bit slow when we powered up many ups. The OS need a high end smart phone where we shall feel the full potential of this OS.

Feel Free to check Out our Video Review on firefox OS

Yeah, no operating system today, doesn’t support multi-tasking, this can be achieved by long pressing the home button which looked like a small circle embedded right onto, the screen, you then see previews of windows for the applications you have been running, you can push the window up or down to close it and you can navigate through the windows by swiping left or right. Well this interface resembled the multi-tasking option from apple, and when we opened so many windows the previews didn’t show clearly a thing you will see in my video review. Let’s excuse them for since it was a developer preview phone.

Android users will notice that Firefox OS usually supports one hardware key and you might often touch besides the button to go back a thing you will have to get used to. To exit an app you press the middle hardware button in the middle twice to exit an app.

You also notice Firefox OS has a notification bar which you drag down to show your notifications and gain access to some toggles, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile data, and a key to open up your ‘Settings’ Menu.  Just like Android you drag the notification tray up to close it.

Talking about apps, we were able to find several applications from Facebook, Instagram, & more we must remember apps on Firefox OS are powered by HTML5; the Marketplace can be accessed on top of the Firefox browser core, so you can also run Firefox OS apps in your browser on your computer. I was told uploading to the Mozilla marketplace is free, so you should expect many apps soon. Developers are definitely required.

Yeah, the Camera was plain and simple with a shoot button and another to show the menu.

Looking at what the ladies love, we found too much orange, the same orange from the ‘fire fox’ we found the orange in the messaging app, The OS is fond of curves and when you look at the keyboard you will notice, the curved keys. This OS ‘Operating System’ will give you a different feel however you will keep a lot in common with Android and a bit from iOS.

You would murder me if I didn’t tell you about the browser, obviously its Mozilla Firefox, The browser handles really well and is update in terms of web standard so you will get your HTML 5 websites running smoothly and the text is readable, the tabs UI look amazing when you are changing or closing the tabs.

Firefox OS is like having good looking websites or apps that are stored offline and work in a very smooth way. It’s definitely gives us a good reason to switch.

There you have it, just in case you want to experience the feel of Firefox OS, you can view our video on the OS and or head to Amazon or eBay to get yourself a device

 

Firefox OS review [video]

By
GURU8 Staff
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0

In this Video we shall show you Firefox OS, as we posted in a a review of the OS. We used a developer preview phone known as the Keon, that is made by GeekPhone which is a Spanish Start Up that makes phones running Firefox OS.

The Tech Specs of the Keon include a 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon, with 512MB of RAM, 4 Gigs of internal storage, a 3 MP camera, MicroSD, Wifi N, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, Radio FM, Light & Prox. Sensor, G-Sensor, GPS, MicroUSB and a 1580mAH battery.

The point of this review is the operating System not the device, we took a look at the lock screen, menu, apps and so much more.

Enjoy, and share

A look at the Firefox OS Hackathon Uganda!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

The Firefox Hackathon in Uganda took place at UTAMU on today, Mozillians and developers filled the room to capacity all in the anticipation to learn how to develop for Firefox OS, or see the features of Firefox OS.

Yeah the greetings, introductions and Wi-Fi were part of the hackathon, the Vice Chancellor of UTAMU welcomed the mozillians and we taken through a quick intro to Mozilla’s projects like web Maker, FireFox OS, by Jb Ochieng, a Firefox Rep for Uganda then the event started with a “truthfully arrogant” speaker who develops for Firefox OS, he was keen to say that Firefox OS supports HTML5 and developers don’t need to use the ‘funny’ language called Java. The have to learn Coco to develop for iPhone, then have to learn C++ for blackberry, then learn .NET to have the same app on Microsoft OS.

In short Firefox apps are cross platform,and work in the Firefox browser, you can even get the Firefox OS Emulator addon for your firefox browser.

We were taken through a demo app, which was made up of 26 lines of code and he deployed an app that Victor who is a Firefox developer showed to us.

I am not targeting anyone who is using IE” , “Our apps might work in Internet Explorer, i dont hate the browser, the browser hates me” he went ahead to test his Firefox OS app in IE, e tried and it failed to run, he was later told an app called Moderniser, he went on to say, “Moderniser, the app that makes this animal “IE” respond to new technologies,” he added “I can forgive the browser, I just can’t forgive the developers of the browser

It’s going to take about 10 or 20 years for HTML 5 to be standard in this animal called IE 11.

Back to the hackathon, we were told that Firefox OS apps use web storage or local storage where you can store data in form of strings.

HTML 5 is powerful, a Firefox OS has the capability of running web Applications Offline, everything in Firefox OS is a web app.

A question was asked by an anxious developer as to whether all the all icons in Firefox OS as supposed to be circular, JB Ocheing said any shape is allowed but the icon should have a resolution of 60×60 and if you want it to blend in with Firefox OS look, circular icons would look better.

By the way, Uploading to the Firefox marketplace is free.

The participants were told to form groups and create demo Firefox apps. The hackathon is one of many ideas by the Mozilla Firefox community of Uganda. Feel free to visit the community to learn more about Firefox OS development.

What went down at the Uganda Internet Government Forum

By
GURU8 Staff
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0

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) in partnership with the Internet Society Chapter Uganda and the ICT Association of Uganda (ICTAU) hosted the Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF) at the Hive Colab, Kamyokya.

The one-day Forum, whose theme was “Harnessing Internet Development in Uganda: Connecting the last mile”, was a multi-stakeholder event that involved representatives from government, civil society, academia, private sector entities and individuals interested in Internet Governance (IG) issues. The objectives of this Forum were to discuss obstacles to internet access in Uganda, establish the key current internet governance issues relevant to the country, and build consensus on national and regional positions around IG issues.

The national forum also discussed the outcomes from the regional East Africa Internet Governance Forum held in Burundi last month. Much emphasis at the Forum was put on Promoting online safety, having in place monitoring mechanisms in main access areas that is internet café to protect children accessing internet in public places like internet cafes, Need to launch a program sensitizing parents about internet hazards, for their own safety and that of their children.

Infrastructure of IPv6 was another tabled aspect at the Forum, most equipment in networking and computing is IPv6 ready; as are all operating systems coming out now; even those ones on the market are IPV6 ready. High cost in deploying IPv6: Providers find the cost prohibitive and are not willing to invest in infrastructure where they see no critical mass of content to make it profitable for them.

So Government as a single entity should adopt IPv6 as a standard deployment for all the infrastructure they are rolling out then the providers would follow, as they are in it to make profit as compared to being charities. The proceedings of this year’s Forum will also be presented at the Second African Internet Governance Forum to be held in Nairobi September 24-26, 2013 and the global Internet Governance Forum in Bali, Indonesia October 22-25, 2013.

Google Wallet goes to iOS, ditches NFC requirement

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Google’s mobile payment service called Google Wallet has finally come to iOS 2 years after it launched on Android. Actually its 2 years to the exact date it was launched on Android.

Google wallet has ditched the requirement for the phone to have NFC because this technology is not native to Apple products. Only Apple products with iOS 6 and above will be able to recieve the update.
The same limitation with the android version which requires the user to be in the United States also applies.

iOS users can now add their credit or debit card details to Google wallet, use their Google Wallet accounts to make purchases as well as be able to send money to another user in the US with an email. Google wallet also supports loyalty cards.

However Google hasn’t stated when it hopes to make Google wallet, global.

The new Blackberry Z30 is a monster of its own kind, yes, its a Blackberry

By
Joel Mwanja
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0

From the producers of the famous “Your Office in your Pocket” phrase, ladies and gentlemen, introducing Blackberry, and this time around, a new baby in the family, the Z30. So, what is this Blackberry going to bring to the company, more “bad luck” or good fortunes, well,lets find out,

5 inch display

bb z30

So, finally Blackberry has woken up and seen the importance of a large display and in this Blackberry 10 flagship device, they have included one. This puts it at the same level with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S4 but don’t get it twisted, not in all areas! Blackberry stil needs extra time to catch up with the big boys of Android and the likes of Apple’s iOS, for Windows Phone, well, that is for next time.

Bigger Memory, Expandable, wow!

So the Z30 features a mind blowing 2GB of RAM, ys, you saw right, 2GB! Umm, wait, and yes, it also comes with 16GB of internal memory with a memory card slot, can I hear an amen from all Blackberry fans. It seems the good news of Blackberry Messenger going to Android and iOS is not enough. This is the Blackberry we have always been waiting for! If this is what was done in the beginning, right now, Blackberry would be earning a lot of profits! So, GS4, HTC One, better watch out, hear comes the Blackberry Z30!

Better cameras, faster processor and oh yes 4G on board!

The Z30 is out there to impress, so, lights camera, Z30! An 8 MegaPixel camera at the back, 2 MP camera at the front, its an “All of the Lights” moment here! So, finally HD recording comes with this monster of a smartphone!. It has been labelled the best Blackberry yet. I am just as excited as the remaining few Blackberry fans out there, but, make no mistake, this is for sure the Blackberry to get,  period!

The Hardest part,Decision Making

So, most of you have realised that actually these Blackberry folks have got something to offer and you have been convinced hands down that this is the best Blackberry yet. Well, it might be, bt is it worth the money? IF you are not a person of apps and all the fancy drama that comes with highly packed feature phones, then this one might be for you, only thing to remember checking is if Blackberry App World works in your country!

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