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Helpouts by Google is a web & Android app that gets you help from experts

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Google just announced a new service they have dubbed ‘Helpouts by Google. This service has been available to online a few premium subscribers but yesterday the service was opened to the public both on the web and via an Android application.

Google-Helpoutsandroid

How does it work?

Helpouts uses Google + Hangouts and Google Wallet to get you a live video chat with an expert who gives you help on whatever topic you would like to know about. These are real-life conversations with experts over live video calls. It sounds amazing however your credit card gets billed, you get to choose whether to pay per helpout, or per minute depending on your preference, however some helpouts are free, but the majority are premuim.

What you get is a video call, from what Google calls over 1000 experts, you make a video call and get the help you need.

Is it Practical to Africa?

Honestly its a huge NO, because the idea of paying for stuff using credit cards isn’t a trend here, it in fact difficult, besides Google has several options for you to actually get help, the commonest being the search bar, . Much as i find video help the best, i have found it to have many flaws, and there are free alternatives to this service such as Youtube, yelp, Google +, hangouts where you ask someone you know for help.

Video chatting has been known to have its ups and downs, when you bandwidth and internet speed are on ‘steroids’ the call and video quality is high and you enjoy the experience, but majority of people in Africa have low bandwidth, low internet speed or their data bundles are small since several telecos are hiking internet rates.

Is the idea nice?
Google is keen to innovating and its ability to come up with new products is high, and Help outs will definitely make people Google everything and by everything i mean use their products more.

Google will accept every publisher of content to be added to the list of providers, as long as they follow terms and conditions, this will might affect the quality of the content provided within these Helpout sessions.

So just in case you need to know how to edit Html 5 or learn how to dance ‘alingo’, or how to root your phone, you can search for a Helpout by Google and you will probably find the help you were looking for.

Airtel just hiked the price of Data bundles

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Do celebrate if you are on warid, because marriage makes two things become one, in short both the traditionally known warid and airtel customers are now affected by the increment in data rates. We aren’t in the minds of Airtel to reason out why they have reduced the amount of data that particular amounts of money used offer. Could they have borrowed a leaf from MTN which earlier on hiked the rates for its data bundles.

This is how subscribers are going to surfer, Shs 500 will now get you 25mb not the previous 50mb, Shs 1000 will get you 50MB unlike the former 100MB, 2000 Shs will get you 100mb which was formerly 250MB. That’s a 50% reduction on average accept for the 2000 Ugx bundle which has surfered a 60% reduction.

“I don’t think anyone wants a 50% reduction in data volume… do you?

The manner in which telecoms are changing tariffs for data bundles isn’t the most amusing because they don’t announce the change in prices, you will basically find out the hard way, you load your airtime and get up to 60% reduction in data volume. Or your bundle will run out shortly and then you will realise you got less data after a reduction. The menu in warid that lets you but the data doesn’t show prices so you will probably not notice but the airtel menu is what helped me confirm this increment.

Airtel data bundle screenshot
The New Prices of Data bundles on airtel

These changes affect the daily bundles, so the only way will be able is to buy huge monthly volumes, a thing that majority of Ugandans are not willing or able to do. However despite the increment, MTN Uganda still remains the mobile phone telecom with the highest data bundles, seconded by Airtel, Orange then UTL.

This Internet trend in Uganda just keeps getting worse, even the argument of speed over price is now in question as most Telecoms are hiking data tarriffs.

Lets know your view in the comments, the best comments will get featured

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

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Today Google officially announced the Nexus 5, a phone we all didn’t know about. Hell no, thanks to the leaks the surprises weren’t many this time. The Nexus 5 is the first phone preloaded with Google’s Android 4.4 Kitkat in its purest form. KitKat was also launched alongside the Nexus.

Nexus 5

Nexus 5 running Android Kitkat

The Tech Specifications haven’t change much from those in the leaks. The device is 4.95 inches as earlier rumoured at 1920×1080 display (445 ppi, Full HD IPS &Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3. It carries a Snapdragon™ 800, 2.3GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, HDR+, dual band wifi, 4G/LTE, and a 2300mAh battery, bluetooth 4.0 and it ships in two sizes and colors, both 16GB and 32 GB versions at $349 and $399 respectively then you get to choose either a white or black phone.  You also get to wake the Nexus 5 by saying a command ‘Ok Google’.

The Nexus 5 wasn’t the only announcement Google made today, more announcements were made. Lets start with a wireless charger for the Nexus 5,

A wireless charger for the Nexus 5 

Nexus 5 wireless charger

Google announced a a revamp wireless charger for the Nexus 5, 7 the charger might be able to charge any Qi-compatible device, such as last year’s Nexus 4, but only devices that have the magnets built in to them (the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7) will be able to actually stick to the charger. The charger is square. I cant predict the effect of the magnets on the Nexus 5’s compass, lets hope Google planned that out well.

The Galaxy Nexus wont receive Android Kitkat 4.4

Galaxy Nexus wont recieve android kitkat

The Galaxy Nexus wont be recieving Android Kitkat, because its over 2 years old since it was launched in 2011. Which means it falls in otside the 18 month support window, the Galaxy nexus still has the hardware requirement to run Kitkat, the Galaxy Nexus has 1 GB RAM yet the minimum requirements are 512mb RAM. If Google follows this system the Nexus 4, will be out of date soon, lets hope the Developers at XDA do a good job about this.

 Google has updated Google Play Services to version 4.0.

The new Google Play Services release has the Google Mobile Ads SDK, and also makes improvements to geofencing, Google+, and Google Wallet Instant Buy APIs. Google Play Services 4.0 has dropped support for Android 2.2 (Froyo). Since most Android Devices are running Gingerbread and above, dropping support for froyo wouldn’t be a bad idea. The Google Play services SDK is available for download to developers.

A new Google Mobile Ads SDK in Google Play services now provides “seamless improvements” to end users. That means bug fixes are pushed automatically to users without developers having to do anything. We might have more relevant ads in apps. Google Wallet API has also been improved.

Android 4.4 KitKat

Android KitKat

New features of Kitkat include Improved Caller IDs, where your phone searches through Google databases & Google maps to get you the details of an unknown caller, The lock screen has full album art when playing music, you can add widgets to the homescreen and access some features without unlocking the device. Hangouts replaces the default messaging app which means you can get your SMS through hangouts. Hangouts supports wireless printing. How could i end with this? Just say ‘Ok Google Now’ to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song without touching the screen, this will work when you are in your homescreen or in Google now.

 Moto X Camera app can now be updated through Google Play

The Moto X camera app update was being slowed down by carriers and now Google has decided to update the camera app through Google Play.

There you have it, Google update for a day!

 

 

 

Nominees for Uganda’s 1st Social Media awards Released

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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

Matatu

Elitehive

Team UOT

Ffene.com

Pearl Guide

 

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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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.

A Leaked Image of the Nexus 10
A Leaked Image of the Nexus 10
A screenshot of the Tech Specs
A screenshot of the Tech Specs

Android fans have to wait until 1st 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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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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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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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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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

The Sony Smart watch
The 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

Nekomimi The brain wave controlled ears"
Nekomimi The brain wave controlled ears”

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

Ink Case N2
Ink Case N2 – A magnetic screen cover for your phone

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

Matatu is a card Game with origins from Uganda
Matatu is a card Game with origins from Uganda

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

 

Noisy Gates
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
image

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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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.
image

image
Google Nexus 5

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

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