• Microsoft wakes up to new Africa, reacts with youth empowerment initiative

    To Microsoft Africa has traditionally been a place to sell its enterprise software products. Through local partners yes, but the continent was primarily a place to push products to. I imagine they were not making much owing chiefly to the piracy of its products on the market and so far it looks their concern about…

  • Arguments for piracy

    While Free and Open Source Software owes its birth to the fact that people wanted an open source platform that they could modify, it owes its success to the fact that more often than not the software is given gratis. It is doubtful that people would have been drawn to Linux in droves if it…

  • Microsoft Office Coming to Ubuntu?

    Since everyone is too afraid or partisan to say it I just have to be brave and say it for myself and all mankind. LibreOffice (OpenOffice.org if you want to play that game) is the single greatest let down of the Linux desktop.

  • You don’t need to be an engineer to start a technology business

    Gary Shayne who founded Cellular Systems, later renamed Celsys, which he listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange when he was only 27 years old and went on to sell to Lonrho was a chartered accountant, and not a telecommunications engineer. Sure there were many telecommunications engineers who knew telecommunications, and who could boast more experience…

  • Journey into smartphone ownership

    A few years ago I was browsing in a store in Boksburg looking to purchase a phone. The BlackBerry was all the rage then and the iPod was extremely popular. I gazed at the multiple deals which we only see now courtesy of Econet and Gtel in Harare. While I was busy comparing the many…

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Windows goes to UFI

    It is a well known truism in Linux circles: The coolest toys come with Windows pre-installed. All a geek has to do is to either completely wipe the drive or dual boot Linux with Windows. A hitherto trivial and straightforward task that could at times be completed in a matter of minutes.

  • Is Flash dead?

    As all web developers know, they do not develop for themselves. These days there are more and more things to consider when developing a website: Google rankings, target audience, mobile device compatibility etc. And now you have had to add to the list, should I use flash or HTML5?

  • 2012 roundup: The year in review

    The year kicked off with one of the largest ISPs in Zimbabwe ZOL, announcing that it had been acquired by Liquid Telecom, a move which resulted in the Econet Wireless Group cementing its position as Zimbabwe’s largest telecoms firm.

  • The iPhone 5, a Zimbabwean review

    The latest iteration of Apple’s highly successful Smartphone was announced on the 12th of September to mixed reviews. For the most part, a public that has grown accustomed to having their collective mind blown by revolutionary products from Apple was underwhelmed by what was essentially an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary upgrade.

  • Will you buy a tablet anytime soon?

    The tablet market has been growing exponentially since the 1st generation iPad came out and Apple has always had the biggest share of the 10-inch tablet market. Competitors found they […]

  • 4 executives in Africa among world’s most powerful people in telecoms

    Four executives in African telecoms companies have been listed in the Global Telecoms Business Power 100, a list of the world’s most powerful individuals in telecommunications. The four are; Zimbabwean […]

  • A technological call to arms – let’s imitate to progress

    What has been will be again, What has been done will be done again; There is nothing new under the sun – Ecclesiastes 1:9 I doubt that King Solomon could […]

  • ICT Africa 2012: Launch of a new name. Belina & Mecer best exhibitors

    Yesterday was the first day of ICT Africa 2012. Unlike last year, this is going to be a 2 day event. The first was actually the more active of the […]

  • Review: Windows 8 is here, are you ready for the OS of the future?

    Microsoft recently finished development of their next Operating System (OS), Windows 8. The latest addition to the Windows family ushers in a radical UI change that you will either love […]

  • 10 Cool iPhone Apps

    The great thing about a smartphone is access to the plethora of apps that do everything from making you more productive (Evernote) to making your more reproductive (Sprout). The sheer […]

  • Utande launches new WIMAX broadband service

    This morning Utande Internet Services (Pvt) limited, a subsidiary company of Dandemutande Investments a company in Zimbabwe’s telecommunications industry launched its broadband WIMAX service under the uMAX brand. The Financial […]

  • Gwatamatic the technical marvel – Part II

    William Gwata next to his iconic machine So how does the Gwatamatic work? Well basically there are 2 models of the Gwatamatic: The Gwatamatic 2000 and the Baby Gwata. As […]

  • Frampol helping Zimbabwe

    If you have spent enough time in Zimbabwe at some point you get used to the gallows humour and general pessimism that is captured by phrases like zvinhu zvakadakwa (things […]

  • Is the iPhone headed for emerging markets?

    Apple’s recent announcement that it will be selling iPhones via the prepaid carrier market raised a lot of eyebrows in the telecom industry. This is so because up to now […]

  • Is Firefox winning the browser war?

    The other day I received a tweet that made me fall off my chair, it claimed Chrome had overtaken Internet Explorer as the world’s most used browser. After regaining my […]

  • The definitive start-up guide for challenging environments

    After I wrote my last article 5 Startup Lessons from Facebook IPO, I realised that in as much as there where some valuable lessons from the story of Facebook of […]

  • The death of the Zimbabwean music record company; the rise of the Independent artist

    So the digital music revolution in Zimbabwe rumbles on with today’s news in The Herald about leading record company Gramma Records active consideration of introducing MP3’s. Emmanuel Vhori, Gramma’s general manager is quoted as saying “Recording companies are prepared to give it (their) all, to extinguish the flames of piracy that had literary turned musicians…

  • Why are Zimbabweans holding their breath for BlackBerry?

    I remember when I first heard about BlackBerry around 2005. It was through the prestigious “sent from my BlackBerry” signature at the bottom of an email response I got from a contact in the UK. It was a short response to my rather long email; something to just let me know he had seen the…

  • WhatsApp says they are no threat to mobile operators

    The co-founder of US-based messaging startup WhatsApp, Brian Acton, has denied popular notion that their startup is a threat to mobile operators’ revenues. In an interview with Reuters a few days ago, Acton said that instead, they were helping operators move their customers to data packages which would prove more profitable in the long run;…

  • Gizmo highlights from the 2012 Mobile World Congress #MWC12

    The 2012 annual Mobile World Congress which kicked off in Spain, Barcelona doesn’t seem to all be about new unheard-of technologies but rather jaw dropping additions to product specifications.

  • How much do you know about your digital footprint? How secure is your data

    I was, in equal measures, horrified and amazed at the accuracy of Google’s image search. For those of you that don’t know, you can upload an image to Google and search by that image! And the results are quite astounding. If it’s a common photograph online, it will show you sites that host that photograph,…

  • My journey to Wedza. An experience with technology in rural Zimbabwe

    I had a chance to see the “hot” mobile phones in Wedza in all their shapes and sizes. The Chinese made models topped the list perhaps because of their key features – dual sim support, high audio output, multimedia support (ability to play a range of audio file formats, record audio/video clips and snap JPEG…

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