Snail - Internet Speed
Posted inBroadband Connectivity

Life begins at 1mbps!

It is truth universally acknowledged that if you live on less than $1 a day you must be poor. In this new digital age I would like to add two more soundbites: Life begins at 1mbps and prosperity at a 100mbps. If information is power and if you live on less than 1mbps then you are undoubtedly poor.
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Spectrum Studios
Posted inConnectivity Miscellaneous Startups

Here’s some great video and animation work by a Zim company

It’s not every day that we come across globally competitive quality work and skill locally. But when we do encounter some impressive stuff every now and again, we like to share it. Spectrum Studio’s work is such. Especially the explainer animation stuff, a service we know that lots of tech companies (internet startups especially) should employ for the products.
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WeChat
Posted inConnectivity Social Media

WeChat is better than WhatsApp

Just before Christmas I got a sponsored link on my Facebook wall begging me to download and install an application called WeChat. I normally don’t look at those invites, no matter how tempting they sound. But being on my annual leave on a hot, slow December afternoon, I just thought, why not have a look.
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Liquid Telecom’s updated terrestrial fibre map [Africa]
Posted inConnectivity

Liquid Telecom’s updated terrestrial fibre map [Africa]

Three days ago Liquid Telecom announced the acquisition of telecom assets in Eastern Africa belonging to Altech. According to Liquid, the additional terrestrial infrastructure resulting from the acquisition makes the company the owner of Africa’s largest single fibre network, which is quite significant for the Nic Rudnick led company.
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Freelancer
Posted inConnectivity

Press Release: Freelancer announces fastest growing Internet jobs

Freelancer.com, the world's largest outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace, has announced the fastest growing Internet jobs between October and December 2012. With nearly 7 million members and over $1 billion worth of work posted on the site, Freelancer.com is the foremost authority on the online job trends spanning over 234 countries and regions.
Press Release: ZimSwitch Vpayments – eCommerce in Zimbabwe
Posted inConnectivity

Press Release: ZimSwitch Vpayments – eCommerce in Zimbabwe

ZimSwitch is pleased to announce that the long awaited Vpayments platform is now in a controlled live environment, following pilot approval from the RBZ for this controlled stage of the launch. Vpayments is an eCommerce Payments Gateway that enables all 19 ZimSwitch member Financial Institutions to offer their banked customers the convenience of secure Internet based payments, and their merchants the ability to sell goods and services “online”.
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Chance to contribute to the Ubuntu 13.04 Wallpaper
Posted inConnectivity

Chance to contribute to the Ubuntu 13.04 Wallpaper

Now that it has been established that developers need to write code those of us who are not that well initiated in the art of software development can feel a little left out when it comes to contributing to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects.
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Legitimate uses of BitTorrent
Posted inBroadband Connectivity

Legitimate uses of BitTorrent

Since its inception in 2001 BitTorrent has come a long way. From being a fringe protocol to being the defacto peer-to-peer standard. The total number of active monthly BitTorrent users has been estimated to be more than a quarter of a billion.
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Liquid Telecom
Posted inConnectivity

Liquid expands footprint with East African assets acquisition

Econet Wireless owned fibre and satellite operator, Liquid Telecom, announced yesterday the acquisition of East African telecom assets from JSE listed Altech Group in a deal that will, according to the company, make it the largest terrestrial fibre operator on the continent. Altech will get an 8.6% stake in Liquid Telecom and 10% shareholder voting rights. In addition to the assets, Altech will however also subscribe a further US $16.5 million for the stake.
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Telecel Facebook page
Posted inConnectivity Social Media

Social media lessons from Zimbabwe’s mobile operators (Updated)

A lot can change in a year - especially in Zimbabwe. In 2011 very few of Zimbabwe’s established brands seemed to have a presence on Facebook (Twitter “didn’t exist” yet). Today’s marketing landscape has significantly changed as a number of savvy brands finally understand how and why social media matters to their marketing mix.
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Startups
Posted inConnectivity Startups

Startup talk: A knack for potential

A lot of startups simply stuck their heads into the sand and launched e-commerce sites with a credit card based checkout and no wonder they failed. Whilst at it, it needs to be mentioned that people hate writing cheques and banks hate issuing cheque books even more. www.gtel.co.zw seems to have mastered the art of doing e-commerce in Zimbabwe: it includes Ecocash in its checkout options something most startups need to start doing in addition to adopting and adhering to local customs. Why is there no Miss Zimbabwe app so you can vote for your favorite lady? Why is Ubuntu Shonastill failing?
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A lesson from the Joomla footer
Posted inConnectivity

A lesson from the Joomla footer

Many years ago, I found something called Joomla. I downloaded its manual and taught myself how to install extensions, templates, etc. I was doing fine, until I got to the damn Joomla footer. I wanted to remove the text in the footer section that says “Joomla is open source software bla bla bla”, and in one attempt a whole bottom section disappeared.
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MBCA Bank
Posted inConnectivity

More Zimbabwean bank websites hacked. MBCA, Tetrad and others

Metropolitan Bank, the hacking of whose website whose reported here two days ago, were not the only local financial institution to suffer at the hands of site defacers in the past couple of weeks. We have confirmed this week that Tetrad Holdings and MBCA Bank also had their websites defaced. Unlike Metbank though, the two banks have since had their websites restored.
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Branding - One in Many
Posted inConnectivity Startups

Startup talk: the value of a brand

Although it might not be apparent at first, one of the most common reasons why startups fail is because of the inability by the founders to create a recognisable, respected and indispensable brand-a cult brand. A brand is a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers." Examples of popular brands include Microsoft Word, Windows, PlayStation, ZESA, PowerTel, ZOL, Yo!Africa, Econet, NetOne, Telecel, TelOne and Coca Cola.
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Someone should make a platform independent message search tool
Posted inConnectivity

Someone should make a platform independent message search tool

I’m as excited about the potential of Facebook’s Graph Search as I’m sure most people are, so I’ve signed up and await my turn in the queue. And like most people, even with its blatant bias, I hoped Google’s Search plus your World would result in better overall search results.
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Metropolitan Bank
Posted inConnectivity

Metropolitan Bank website hacked

We’re gathering that the websites belonging to Zimbabwean bank, Metropolitan Bank (www.metbank.co.zw) was defaced and subsequently taken down ‘for maintenance’. According to site defacement archive zone-h.org, the Metropolitan Bank website was defaced on 19 January 2013 by hackers calling themselves “Qifwhysoserious”.
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Most popular passwords of 2012
Posted inConnectivity

Most popular passwords of 2012

During my brief stint in IT one of the most common complaints was that my password complexity restrictions were too stringent. People had to come up with a password they could remember and “+.^_]$"9lQd@7fW” does not cut the list.
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