• Internet provider emerges to offer 4G services

    Valley Technologies, one of Zimbabwe’s 15 licensed IAPs, has started an ad campaign to launch its 4G internet services. A local teaser ad titled “What would you expect from a […]

  • An overview of the Chisumbanje Green Fuel ethanol project

    Having woken up at 3am to make the trip to Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi, we arrived at about 10am courtesy of our host- Lilian Muungani (Green Fuel’s communications manager) who led the way in her bakkie. After snaking through numerous twists and turns (including ‘crossing’ the historic Birchenough Bridge) we eventually descended on an endless…

  • Global roundup – this week’s top stories

    The big news this week is obviously Google Plus, Google’s new social networking service. It generally seems to be liked so far. Using it for a just a few hours, our first impression is that the service is a serious competitor and performs way better than Facebook on many fronts, especially on sharing stuff with…

  • Global roundup – this week’s top stories

    Nokia releases N9 On 21 June, Nokia released its latest MeeGo-based smartphone, the N9. The N9 is Nokia’s first pure touch smartphone and it runs on Meego 1.2. The phone spots a curved glass 3.9 inch AMOLED display, a 8megapixel camera and comes with storage capacities of 16GB and 64GB.

  • Free SMS Zimbabwe launches. Our brief take on it

    How would you like using the internet to send free SMSs that have adverts appended? Something like “How are you Sumba? – Send money to Zimbabwe with ABC Zim Ltd,www.abczimltd.com”. Really, we would love to know, please comment below. In the meantime, here’s more about the this new service.

  • Global roundup – this week’s top stories

    Part of our objective as Techzim is to provide our readers with relevant local and regional tech information. We believe this is what sets us apart as an information source. In addition, we have decided to start providing a summary of global tech news once at the end of each week. Starting today, we will…

  • Data and Research

    Our eagle eye focus and objective coverage of Zimbabwe’s ICT sector enables the company to provide unrivaled research services. We sift through telecoms and tech data on a daily basis, […]

  • Why Econet and Trustco Mobile fell out

    Today, the reasons behind the Econet and Trustco fallout have started to come out. Econet chairman Tawanda Nyambirai says Econet approached Trustco with complaints of breach of the contract between the two companies. Trustco apparently then threatened to terminate the agreement believing it could use its technical leverage to have its way.

  • Local startup launches Dariro.com, a local pages platform

    A few days ago we visited Dariro, a new startup building what we can describe as a ‘local pages’ web platform. The website is still in beta and it’s live on Dariro.com. The website also provides a platform for developers to build their own applications. The Dariro founder is Richwell Phinias, an internet marketing entrepreneur.

  • Social Media: Winky D is the Big Man

    Winky D shot to stardom in a manner that left many recovering from his mesmerising impact. From the dusty streets of Kambuzuma he has risen to defy all established conventions by taking over local airwaves, entertainment systems, and many an iPod/mp3 player. Before his emergence, Dancehall was a niche genre for Rastafarians and hardcore fanatics;…

  • Zimbos: Stake your claim in the startup goldrush

    I believe that Zimbabwe and Kenya are similar in many ways albeit Kenya’s coastal advantage with regards to bandwidth access. As such the future is almost predictable provided the local infrastructure shapes up. We have a much higher literacy rate than Kenya with their only difference being that they have embraced tech in a huge…

  • Twitter not Zimbabwe’s favourite social media network

    There’s one thing that’s easy to see about Twitter and Zimbabweans; Zimbabweans just don’t tweet. I’m not talking about Zimbabweans in the Diaspora here. Adoption of these web communication tools for Zimbabweans outside the country seems just as hasty as the Americans, Britons and South Africans. I’m talking about Zimbabweans living in Zimbabwe.

  • Create the web you want!

    There is an Nokia Advert that I loved and the tagline was something to the effect that the “new internet” was being created by hand, alluding to the fact that the social media phenomenon was contingent on a plethora of user submitted content experiences, be they YouTube videos or location service meta-data.

  • Techzim Exclusive Interview with ForgetMeNot Africa COO, Jeremy George

    We had an exclusive interview with ForgetMeNot Africa’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeremy George. We discussed the Message Optimiser (MO), the company’s flagship product. We also discussed its implementation on mobile networks in Africa and the SMS traffic the system processes. At the end of the interview, George give us his opinion on mobile solution trends…

  • How artists can use new media to survive music piracy

    It happens all the time; a comfortable status quo gets disrupted by new convenient ways to go about doing everyday things. For people benefiting from the status quo, this usually means having to somehow find a way to play the new game. But dealing with change when it threatens your livelihood is not always an…

  • Mobile Value Added Services on a steady increase locally

    There’s a growing reappearance of value added services (VAS) on the local mobile networks. Entrepreneurs are seeing this and you can see the increasing number of adverts in the local press like the current itllusion mobiplay one which reads:

  • Zimbabweans and Mozambicans Googling Libya

    Zimbabweans and Mozambicans, according to Google Insights for Search, are searching for the term “Libya” a lot more than other search terms on Google. Google Insights for Search is a tool to analyse the search trends on Google domains world over. The tool computes the number of searches done for given search terms relative to…

  • Google launches Gmail SMS in more African countries

    Google has announced through its Google Africa blog that it has launched Gmail SMS in Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. In Uganda Google is working with MTN, Uganda Telecom and Orange, in Tanzania with Vodacom and in Malawi with Airtel and TNM. Gmail SMS has been around for some time in Africa. The service is currently…

  • Zim university student develops business apps & working on virus removal software

    We first heard about Luke Madzedze at the Research and Intellectual Expo at the University of Zimbabwe some 4 weeks ago. At the expo, we saw some desktop and Java mobile applications whose development was attributed to the young man. We arranged to meet Madzedze and finally did last week in Harare.

  • Finally, the Telecel Zimbabwe website is back online

    The Telecel Zimbabwe website was taken down in early February last year, and yesterday, more than a year later, the website has been brought back online. This is good; it makes it so much easier to find information about the company; tariffs, services on offer, recent developments, contact information, coverage and other such important stuff.

  • Review: PowerTel Mobile Broadband

    Two weeks ago, Techzim got the opportunity to test the PowerTel mobile broadband service. We’ve been using the connection as a primary for one of our laptops at the office, taking it through the paces and below is what we think about it.

  • Why we moved Techzim hosting out of Zimbabwe

    About 4 weeks ago, we moved Techzim from our local web host to South Africa. The moving process wasn’t painless. It lasted some 4 days and we faced a lot of non-technical hitches that come with moving a .co.zw domain from Zimbabwe.

  • How to not quickly use up your mobile broadband bundles

    We list below, a few bandwidth saving tips. We know some readers have even more tips. If you’re such a reader, please add in your tips in the comments. We’re going to assume you use a Windows machine here because that’s what most people use, and also because if you’re on a Linux box, chances…

  • Our data on the internet

    One evening, while going through my Facebook wall I began to wonder, how long is it all going to last? 40 years? 20 years? 100 years? I joined Facebook back in 2008, and my friends list has grown significantly (360 something friends and counting).

  • Zimbo Jam hits two million page views per month

    Just a little over 5 months ago, Zimbabwe’s leading lifestyle, arts and culture blog, Zimbo Jam, celebrated reaching a million page views in a single month. The site’s readership has kept growing since.

  • ICT developments to watch out for in 2011

    2010 brought so much positive change to Zimbabwe’s ICT landscape. An exciting year indeed. But it’s behind us now and 2011 has just started. It remains to be seen if growth in the sector this year will happen at the same 2010 leaps-and-bounds rate. Still the new year looks promising from a couple of fronts.…

  • How your company can avoid becoming the next hacking victim

    Hack attacks are on the rise. And even if you’re not the immediate target, you could still end up a victim. It’s just a matter of time. This is generally true for big organisations. Targeted hacking is becoming a multibillion industry and the more profitable it becomes it means more skilled and talented hackers will…

  • The Econet broadband website has been hacked

    The Econet Wireless broadband website www.econetbroadband.co.zw has been hacked. We just discovered this right now while working on a story for the new Econet Email system, which we will post later. If you visit the site right now, you will see it’s been defaced with the following banner:

  • Zimbabwe’s Google Top Searches of 2010

    Today, Google posted this year’s Zeitgeist, an interactive visual tool showing what the world searched on Google in 2010. Google’s version of the world’s list of 2010’s most trending topics. We should be getting a Twitter one and possibly a Facebook one as well before the year closes.

  • Press Release: Zimbabwe Internet Entreprenuer Launches website to profile Orphanages

    Richwell Phinias, renowned internet marketing consultant and the co-founder of Dariro.com has partnered with a number organisations in Zimbabwe in an innovative ICT project meant to give hope and support […]