Tag Archive for 'Nairobi'

AccessKenya Completes Kes. 30 Million Upgrade on State-of-the-Art Data Centre.

Published on January 18, 2012 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Press Release.

Nairobi Wednesday January 18, 2012 – Leading integrated communication solutions provider AccessKenya Group has announced completion of compounded system upgrades of the data centre that have been underway since late 2009. The upgrades, which cost over Sh30 Million, have seen the installation of an advanced under-floor cooling system aimed at enhancing temperature control in within the data centre.

Announcing the completion, AccessKenya Group CEO Mr. Jonathan Somen said the upgrade is part of a progressive plan to optimize functions and expand capacity of the data centre even as the company continues to develop innovative IT services and unified communication solutions for its clientele.

‘We have invested heavily in building the right infrastructure so that we can incessantly support the critical services on our network and give our customers a better experience,” said Mr. Somen.

AccessKenya has in the recent years expanded its product portfolio to include a wide range of IT services including data backup, disaster recovery, remote assistance and inter-branch connectivity (commonly referred to as MPLS). The company is also offering video conferencing and telepresence solutions among a growing list of other value added services.

Mr. Somen said: “our corporate clients  are now able to benefit from conveniently packaged  and world class IT services alongside our internet solutions which are designed to  enable them achieve their desired results without undue hassle.”

Part of the upgrade was also the installation of a more structured cabling system for better management and increased capacity. This, according to AccessKenya Systems Engineer Mr. Samson Oduor, will ensure that centre has expanded capacity in anticipation of growth on the group’s systems.

Mr. Oduor noted that the project has been successfully completed without any interruptions on client services further attributing the seamless upgrade to the network’s integration capabilities.

“With these upgrades, we are at par with Tier 1 Service Providers around the world and this gives our clients confidence that their data is safe with us,” said Mr. Oduor.

AccessKenya Group MD Mr. Jonathan Somen (Left) explains the features of a Private Branch Exchange unit (PBX) to the Company's Finance Director Mr. Peter Ndirangu in the company's data centre.

Meanwhile, the company also announced the adoption of a new data authentication system to protect internet users on its network from imminent cyber threats that have become rampant in the recent years.

The system, which is a set of extensions to the Domain Name System (DNS), is dubbed Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC) and will protect the AccessKenya DNS infrastructure against cache poisoning, spoofed updates, corrupt data and what is commonly referred to as “man-in-the-middle attack”.

DNS is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates assorted information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Mr. Oduor indicated that the system will improve the security of the network while at the same time protecting AccessKenya clients against forged data while accessing the internet.

“This technology allows for digitally signed answers. This means that a client will be able to discern the authenticity of information received and the information on the authoritative DNS server,” he explained.

Similarly, the company has also upgraded the antivirus and anti-spam systems with the view of managing email spam. The upgrade is set to streamline client outbound emails and prevent “false positives.” This, according to the AccessKenya technical team, will enhance data loss prevention and “empower clients to keep all their data that has been previously lost as SPAM”.

“The email filtering solution will help us transition from the internet protocol Version 4 (Ipv4) address space which is getting depleted to the new protocol dubbed Ipv6,” added Mr. Oduor.

VirtualCity launches HewaniLife, Kenya’s first “local” mobile app store.

Published on December 1, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Screen grab from www.hewani.co.ke

Earlier this afternoon I attended VirtualCity’s launch of HewaniLife which is arguably Kenya’s first “local” mobile apps store and features over 400 mobile apps for download. HewaniLife has both local and international mobile apps for Android, Windows, Symbian, J2ME and BlackBerry. One can also download mobile apps from HewaniLife using not just the Internet but also via SMS and USSD.

The launch of HewaniLife also served as a platform for VirtualCity to showcase a good number of in-house developed apps for several vertical segment services in Distribution, Health, Education, Transport, Retail and Utilities being offered to the business community in Kenya. HewaniLife is unique in that it brings together various players in the mobile applications space and creates synergies for economic empowerment & development.

BlackBerry 7 Smartphones launched in Nairobi, Kenya.

Published on November 28, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Press Release

Last week on Friday in Nairobi, plans to launch three new smartphones based on the BlackBerry 7 Operating System (OS) were announced.  RIM, in conjunction with carriers and distribution partners in Kenya, is rolling out the new BlackBerry® Curve™ 9360, BlackBerry® Torch™  9810 and BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 smartphones, all running the powerful new BlackBerry® 7 OS.

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 is slim, stylish and simply beautiful. It is ergonomically designed with a comfortable and iconic keyboard for fast, accurate typing and an optical trackpad for easy, one-handed navigation. GPS and Wi-Fi® support are also included, as well as a 5MP camera with flash and video recording so that memories can be captured and instantly shared on social networks. The microSD/SDHC slot supports up to 32 GB memory cards for additional media storage.

The BlackBerry Torch 9810 is a powerful evolution of the original BlackBerry Torch 9800 model. The new model is faster and more fluid with high performance hardware features and the new BlackBerry 7 OS delivering an enhanced multimedia experience. Featuring a large 3.2”, high resolution touch display and a distinctive BlackBerry keyboard that easily slides out to allow fast typing; the BlackBerry Torch 9810 truly delivers the best of both worlds.

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 smartphone offers fast and fluid performance in a stylish new all-touch design. With a spectacular new 3.7” display, the largest ever on a BlackBerry smartphone, the new all-touch BlackBerry Torch 9860 is optimized for high-quality multimedia, web browsing and gaming. In addition, the BlackBerry Torch 9860 delivers the industry-leading real-time communications and collaboration experience that is loved by millions of BlackBerry smartphone users around the world.

The new BlackBerry 7 operating system introduces the next generation BlackBerry browser, featuring a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry. Combining the dramatically improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine together with powerful hardware enhancements, BlackBerry 7 based smartphones deliver browsing  results that are up to 40% faster than BlackBerry® 6 based smartphones and up to 100% faster than BlackBerry® 5 based smartphones*.  Additional enhancements to this next generation BlackBerry browser include optimized zooming and panning for smoother web navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences.

Waldi Wepener, Regional Director at RIM said, “The BlackBerry solution offers a best-in-class mobile communications experience with enhanced browsing and richer multimedia on a new, performance-driven platform powered by the latest BlackBerry software. We believe that the customers in Kenya will be thrilled by these powerful new BlackBerry smartphones.”

Mr Waldi Wepener, RIM Regional Director East, West and Central Africa and Mr. Rui Brites Director Africa Product Management

Digital Animator Gatumia Gatumia wins the Chase Bank Enablis ILO Business Launchpad Competition.

Published on October 29, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The Chase Bank Enablis ILO business plan competition came to a close on Friday the 28th at a colorful ceremony attended by 100 finalists selected from over 400 entries submitted from all over the country.

The winners were selected after a four day boot camp held at Inoorero University where the entrepreneurs were trained on Presentation skills, Financial Management, Marketing, Business Systems, Legal issues of setting up a business, Integrating ICT in Business and aligning businesses to Vision 2030. The emerging entrepreneurs also had an opportunity to interact with seasoned entrepreneurs as well as the winners of last year’s competition. Each finalist was given a chance to refine their plans and present to a panel of judges showcasing their ability to apply the knowledge acquired at the boot camp in to their presentation.

Assistant Minister for Industrialization congratulated Gatumia Gatumia, the overall winner of this year's Chase Bank Enablis, ILO Business Launchpad.

33 year old Gatumia Gatumia, who runs a digital animation company called Recon Digital emerged the overall winner in the 2011 business plan competition. He walked away with Kshs. 500,000 being the cash award for the information communication and technology category. The category was sponsored by International Labour Organization’s Youth Entrepreneurship Facility. Gatumia is a certified Autodesk Maya Animator who trained at an animation college in Toronto Canada and has 10 years of experience in producing Digital Content Animation for local and international clients. He aims to tell many untold stories through his products.

“At Recon Digital we believe that many people all over the world would really enjoy seeing well-made animation products that tell African stories featuring African characters. There is still far too little African animation out there and though it is an uphill task, we are working hard to build a profitable business that will play a part in bringing African Animation to the world,” said Gatumia.

Gatumia also said that he was honored to be selected as the winner of this year’s competition, amongst distinguished competitors saying he plans to leverage the credibility that comes with winning this competition and the funding to rapidly get his product to market.

[Review] The N9 proves that rumours of Nokia’s death are greatly exaggerated.

Published on October 23, 2011 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

It’s hard to imagine how hard the last couple of years have been for Nokia, once the world’s dominant mobile handset manufacturer. It was only a few years ago that everyone coveted that next Nokia mobile handset and their market share seemed unassailable. In many ways, this status quo changed with the arrival of Apple’s revolutionary iPhone back in 2007. You could say that the iPhone redefined everything that we expected from what we knew until then from a mobile phone – the rest you could say, is history.

Nokia today has far less market dominance – this is a fact. Yes, they still dominate for low-end handsets in markets like Asia and Africa but in a world that is increasingly shifting to smartphones, Nokia has clearly been slipping quite badly. This trend has no doubt started happening in markets like Kenya where US$ 100.00 Android handsets are readily available to the masses. It’s expected that in the next few years, Nokia’s Symbian OS will lose its iron grip in emerging markets as Android comes to the fore and gains widespread adoption. However, there is good news on the horizon for Nokia.

Just this past week, Nokia announced better than expected third quarter financial results. Yes, it was a still a loss but not nearly as bad as financial analysts had predicted. This comes after Nokia has slashed thousands of jobs and closed down many production facilities globally, which is still on-going. At the same time, Nokia is to launch its first range of Windows Phone 7 powered mobile handsets next week at their annual Nokia World Conference in London, UK. This is what probably has me most excited. Just last week, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer made a remark the just concluded Web 2.0 Summit that the new Nokia Windows Phone 7 smartphones will be “very beautiful”. Nokia and Microsoft have been working overtime to make sure that they having winning products that can take on Apple and Google’s Android.

Ultimately, all the above leads me to the point of this blog post – the just launched Nokia N9. I got one from Nokia East Africa this past week and I have used it for the past 5 days or so. It is a gem of a phone and although it will be the last mobile handset produced by Nokia to run the MeeGo OS, it really does go to show that Nokia still does have its legendary creative mojo when it comes to making beautiful mobile phones! I am really surprised at how good this phone is from a hardware and software perspective. To be honest, after having test units of the Nokia N8 and E7 phones over the past year, it was very clear that the shortcomings of the aging Symbian OS were starting to show – in-spite of the Anna and recent Bella updates which did go a long way to improve the overall user experience and underlying technology. The N9 however shows what the future holds for Nokia, and it’s a bright future indeed! So, here we go, lets dive into the N9:

  • Packaging – the overall packaging of the N9 is very slick! I got a black unit in a matte finish to test and it feels really good to hold. It has a very minimalist feel with no buttons or keys on the face of the phone. It’s all “touch” from this standpoint. You have the on and off button as well as the volume adjustment keys on the right side. The N9 comes in at 135g making it quite light. It looks and feels like its made of metal but it’s actually a polycarbonate material. There are hardly any protrusions on its smooth surface as details such as the camera and flash are recessed. You will look at the N9 from a design perspective and honestly find it more beautiful than anything else out there – including the Apple iPhone! However, I was not especially thrilled that the N9 came with a micro SIM tray instead of a standard SIM tray. This means you have to get your SIM “chopped” to fit to use the phone.
  • Screen -  The N9 comes with a Gorilla Glass screen which makes it very hard to crack or break. Gorilla Glass is a common feature on high-end smartphones these days so nothing unusual here. The screen is AMOLED meaning is bright, clear and sharp to look. Because of the curved surface of the screen everything you view seems to literally float to the top! The screen itself measures 3.9 inches which means its smaller than a good number of the newer smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S2 that sports a screen of more than 4 inches. The screen was great for viewing photos, playing games and watching videos on YouTube. It was also easy to use productivity applications.
  • Processor and Memory – The N9 comes with a single core 1GHz processor. This in itself is NOT bad and it works fast enough. However, compared to the newer crop of Android phones coming it today with dual core processors running at 1.2 GHz, this is not ideal. Its good enough and the MeeGo OS was zippy powering through multiple applications. The unit I received came with 16GB of internal memory but there are no expansion slots to expand memory.
  • Networking – The N9 comes with all the usual suspects when it comes to networking including 3G at up to 14.4Mbps, EDGE, WIFI and Bluetooth. However, the N9 goes a step further in supporting Near Field Communication or NFC. NFC is a form of networking that has recently caught on with the latest smartphones globally and is expected to be used for making mobile payments and also for transferring data between mobile devices and terminals. My experience using the N9 on 3G, WIFI and Bluetooth was that its quick and works when it comes to connecting to other networks and devices.
  • Battery Life – I found the N9 to be surprisingly good when it came to battery life when it comes to using the phone on a full day basis. I did not ever need to recharge the phone even when I would browse from time and access online videos as well as applications. Seeing that I have only used the N9 for around 5 days before doing this review, I would say it probably has better battery life than I found on the Samsung Galaxy S2 as well as the Apple iPhone 4.
  • Applications – Probably the biggest Achilles heel when it comes to the N9 is applications. When you turn on the N9, there are a good number of applications pre-installed including those for social media like Twitter and Facebook, Email, Contacts, Games such as Angry Birds, etc. However, when you go to the Nokia Store for the N9 which is MeeGo applications, the choice is rather thin. It’s quite obvious that very few developers will spend any amount of time building apps for the N9 or MeeGo in general since its now considered a “dead” mobile OS with limited prospects. This aspect will limit how many people will ultimately but the N9 since applications have become a key deciding factor when buying a mobile phone these days. Another thing that really ticked me off about the N9 is that it was practically impossible to import my contacts from an Android phone or from my online contacts on Google Mail. Why is this when I was able to get my calendar synchronized and even Facebook contacts could come in? I have no idea but the ability to get your contacts easily onto the N9 is something that Nokia need to fix. One last issue I had with the N9 is that the browser does not support Flash.
  • Camera(s) – The N9 comes with a Carl Zeiss lens camera that can take photos at 8Mp and record video 720p HD. This resolution is less than the Nokia N8 which had a 12Mp camera. Also, newer smartphones like the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S2 tale videos at 1080 HD. The camera also has auto focus and a dual LED flash that works well in even very low light conditions. I took both video and photos with the N9 and I have to say its pretty good even if it’s not necessarily in the league of the Apple iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S2 from what I can tell. There is also a front facing camera on the N9 but I never quite got round to using the same, or rather figured out how to use the same.
  • Usability – The overall usability or the user experience of the N9 was easy. Everything starts by “swiping” from the right hand of the touch screen to the left side the screen. When you do this on any screen, you can access more screens and applications. This is quite different from the way that Android and Apple’s iOS work but it really is a nice different take that does not leave you feeling the after taste of Nokia’s dated Symbian OS. It’s quite responsive when opening apps but sometimes you seem to have to wait for things to happen. All in all, its a decent user experience that “works” and at no point does it feel clunky. It’s a shame that MeeGo will die with the N9, or so it seems when Nokia launches its Windows Phone 7 handsets later in the year.

Conclusion.

I am a little puzzled with the N9. On one hand, Nokia has clearly demonstrated that it can still make great phones that can effectively compete with the Apple iPhone and Android phones in the N9. The hardware and software integration using MeeGo is top-notch and this phone shows that Nokia still has mojo. However, its pretty much a dead-end phone in that in a few weeks it will be superseded by the Nokia Windows Phone 7 handsets. If anything, the N9 was more a proof of concept for Nokia and it really did hit the mark. It will retail in Kenya for around Kes. 60,000.00 to 70,000.00 in a few weeks time when it launches and I wonder if I would spend that kind of money when I know it’s a one hit wonder. That being said, it really looks and works good meaning that a good number of people out there WILL buy it in Kenya. Whatever the case, the N9 is “sweet” by any measure and barring a few kinks it will go down as a truly distinctive and well executed smartphone from Nokia

[Review] The wicked fast, super light and wafer thin Samsung Galaxy S2.

Published on October 15, 2011 in Uncategorized. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

This was always going to be a bittersweet phone review for me, under the circumstances. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is without a doubt the best Android phone I have had a chance to use to-date for any period of time. It is a slick and wafer thin mobile device that in many ways seems to defy the very laws of physics. It is wicked fast and has an enormous screen and yet it is also super light to the point where you often forget its in your pocket. On many levels, Samsung have pulled off what I would call a major coup with the Galaxy s2 – it is a fine phone by any standard and for this reason its “sweet”. There is a good reason why global sales for the Galaxy S2 have exceeded 10 million units, thus far.

The flip side to this review is the “bitter” aspect of having the Galaxy s2 for only 3 weeks or so. My good friends over at Samsung gave me the Galaxy S2 to review and keep. However, during a recent trip out of the country, under fairly bizarre circumstances, my Galaxy s2 was stolen from me. To say that I am still gutted a few weeks later would be understatement – I lost the best Android phone I have ever owned. This, coming from me who is a die-hard Apple iPhone fan is telling. I am still truly bitter!

Anyway, without wasting anymore of your time whining I want to go into some the key highlights that make the Samsung S2 such a great buy, even if its pricey in Kenya at around Kes 60,000.00 to Kes. 65,000.00 depending on where you pick it up:

  • The Screen – the first thing that grabs you about the Galaxy S2 is the screen which is HUGE. It measures 4.3 inches making it almost “tablet-like” in how much real estate you have. However, it goes one step further in having a super AMOLED plus screen. This is the latest in screen technology which means its super sharp and vivid. Images and video seem to literally jump at you on the Galaxy S2 – its a marvel to look at! It also has Gorilla Glass meaning its a very durable screen that will not easily shatter should you happen to drop the phone accidentally.
  • Packaging – I am pleased to say that the overall finish and feel of the Galaxy S2 is an improvement over the original Galaxy S. It has a “squarer” finish and is not only lighter but it is also easily one of the thinnest high-end smartphones in the Kenyan market today. It terms of buttons on the front, it has a “minimalist” look. Unfortunately, once again, one still has a “plasticky” feel with Galaxy S2 which was the case with the Galaxy S although this is something I got over in no time. I still wish Samsung would pursue a more hefty and metallic finish for its high-end smartphones like HTC and Apple do.
  • The Processor – The Galaxy S2 comes with a 1.2 Ghz dual core processor meaning it is not just fast but really fast. What this means is that you can zip through applications and multimedia functions with no fuss. Everything really moves a lot faster on the Galaxy S2 compared to any other Android phone I have used in the past. In addition the Galaxy S2 runs Android 2.3 which is one of the newer and better flavors available in the market today.
  • Camera – The camera on the Galaxy S2 is a gem. It’s an 8mp camera which is an improvement on the original Galaxy S that had a 5mp camera. In addition, the Galaxy S2 comes with a camera which is super handy for those low light conditions. However, the icing on the cake with the Galaxy s2 camera is the video capabilities where one can shoot video in full 1080 HD which puts it in a whole new category of quality.
  • Memory – The Galaxy S2 comes with 16GB of memory on-board which can be expanded to 32GB of memory via Micro SD card. This means that you can store full length movie and lots of apps with ease.
  • Battery Life – I was pleasantly surprised with the Galaxy S2 in terms of battery life. Unlike the Galaxy S which drains batter life in no time, the Galaxy S2 seems to manage power consumption better and I was surprised to see how much 3G time I would get on it. It worked for hours on end with no need to recharge intermittently during the day.
  • Music – music on the Galaxy S2 was good, but not great. The controls for sound and all worked for me but I still found that I preferred listing to music on my iPhone when in the gym. There is nothing really wrong with the Galaxy S2 when it comes to music but I still think Android needs improvement in this area from a software perspective.
  • Social Networking – when it came to social networking, I found using the standard Android Apps for the likes of Facebook and Twitter to work best for me. I have never been a fan of Samsung’s proprietary SocialHub and I think they should drop it altogether in favour of the Android Market Apps. My 2 cents that is.
  • Work – I used the Galaxy S2 for all my business and work related tasks such as email, calendaring, etc. It worked well for me and now that I have synced all my accounts online with Google, I really was able to work on the move. The applications available meant I could easily open work documents and also edit them too. A big factor here was the large screen on the Galaxy S2 which really makes it easy to work on documents on the move. Microsoft Exchange Sync worked well and I was able to get all I needed that I would normally get on my Macbook to work.
  • Networking – The Galaxy S2 supports full HSPA+ 21 Mbps data connectivity on your mobile network. I did not get a chance to test this speed so regular 3G worked just fine for me. In addition, I was able to use it on WIFI and EDGE quite well as well as Bluetooth for connecting to devices was a synch. I also managed to use the Galaxy S2 a couple of times a WIFI hotspot and the only caveat in this case was that battery life was heavily compromised when connecting multiple devices.

Conclusion

There are many better and more detailed reviews of the Samsung Galaxy S2 that you can find online. In this case, I wanted to share my “brief” experience on the Galaxy S2 from a “highlights” perspective and from what I can tell its the best high-end Android smartphone available in Kenya today. It will be a few months before the Apple iPhone 4S makes its way to Kenya and by then I would expect there should be additional Android alternatives to the Samsung Galaxy S2. However, for the time being, price being no object, go out there and pick up the Samsung Galaxy S2 for a really slick high-end Android phone – you will not regret it!

 

PesaPi, the open source M-Pesa API upgraded.

Published on October 15, 2011 in Uncategorized. 7 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

It was back in May 2011 that I did a blog post here about the launch of PesaPi which is an open source API for Safaricom’s M-Pesa that integrates to the web. Since then, PesaPi has become increasingly popular and my favorite geek Mike Pedersen who is behind PesaPi has been busy coding away to come up with all sorts of new enhancements. Earlier today at BarCamp Nairobi, Mike unveiled the latest edition of PesaPi which now has the following key upgrades:

  • Multiple Payment Systems – when launched in May 2011, PesaPi only supported Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money service. Now, PesaPi supports integration with other mobile money services such as Airtel Money, Orange Money and YU Cash, in and beyond Kenya.
  • Personal M-Pesa Accounts – when initially launched, PesaPi only supported payments going to M-Pesa business accounts where one had to register for a Paybill number with Safaricom. In the latest iteration of PesaPi, one can now use personal M-Pesa accounts to receive payments and not just business accounts. This is key since securing an M-Pesa business account can take many months and is NOT a straightforward process. In order to use a personal M-Pesa account with PesaPi, one must have a phone that runs Google’s Android with M-Pesa. At the same time, the phone needs to have SMSSync installed which is a utility that “forwards” incoming SMS messages to a computer using a data connection. This way, you can then carry around your Android phone as you normally would and whenever an M-Pesa payment notification from Safaricom comes in it can then be passed onto your website.
  • Faster Deployment – As illustrated in the YouTube video below, Mike has managed to streamline the process of integrating PesaPi into an existing web site in not more than 16 minutes from scratch!

The latest version of PesaPi can be downloaded here:

https://github.com/pluspeople/pesaPi

The video as below shows just how easy it is to deploy PesaPi version in roughly 16 minutes:

[Business Daily Interview] Taking online shopping to new level

Published on October 5, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

This is an interview I had with the Business Daily Newspaper titled “Taking online shopping to new level” that was published in the first edition of BDLife, a new weekly pullout on Friday the 30th September 2011. We talked about my professional background as well as certain interesting facts on my personal life. I hope you enjoy it. You can read the interview on the Business Daily web site here>

Airtel Kenya’s 3G service goes live in Nairobi.

Published on October 3, 2011 in Uncategorized. 14 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Well, this is treat! I just turned on my BlackBerry which happens to run on an Airtel Kenya line this morning and I was greeted with a 3G signal instead of the usual EDGE data connection. I only got back into the country over the weekend so this has just come to my attention. This makes Airtel Kenya the third mobile network in Kenya after Safaricom and more recently Orange Kenya to have 3G go live on their network. This would mean that only YU remains as the last network without 3G in the Kenyan market and I am sure they will need to respond soon as 3G becomes “de facto” for most mobile subscribers.

As far as I can tell, Airtel Kenya has NOT yet started a major marketing campaign around their 3G launch yet but this is sure to come soon. I also suspect that Airtel Kenya’s 3G network is possibly only live in Nairobi at the moment as I have not yet seen updates on social media from Mombasa or other cities or major towns where users are on as well. From what I have found online thus far, seems to me that the Airtel 3G service is actually fast, like really fast so can’t wait to give it a spin. However, its early days and even Orange Kenya’s 3G service, although launched nationwide, seems to be spotty from what I can tell.

A review of Samsung’s Galaxy Mini Android.

Published on October 2, 2011 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

The Samsung Galaxy Mini

I have been using Samsung’s Galaxy Mini (model GT-S5570) for the better part of a month, or slightly longer. The Galaxy Mini is being retailed in Kenya for Kes. 12,999.00 by Safaricom which places it in the entry-level range of Android handsets available in the market to-date. This is more expensive than Huawei’s IDEOS which has been a runaway success for Safaricom but its also a more capable phone on many levels. Included in the Safaricom price for the Galaxy Mini is 600 MB of free data for three months or rather 200 MB per month which is decent enough for most people. In reviewing the Galaxy Mini, here are the details based on my experience:

Screen Size: On holding the Galaxy Mini for the very first time, a few things caught my attention. The first was the size of the screen. Its a large 3.14 inch screen which got me all excited. This is almost as large as the screens you get on much more expensive Android phones in the market. However, on turning the phone on, I was disappointed with the quality of the screen – clearly this was no AMOLED or Super AMOLED screen with a fuzzy looking resolution of only 240 X 320 with a range of only 262 colours. However, I got used to it, eventually.

The back of the Samsung Galaxy Mini

Packaging: In terms of the packaging or the casing of the Galaxy Mini, it does feel low-end in terms of the finish. However, for the price on offer this is hardly a surprise and it certainly does have a “plasticky” feel that seems to plague all low-end (and sometimes high-end) smartphones. Its pretty hefty in terms of weight at 106.6 grams but you really could not compare it to an HTC or iPhone in this respect, which generally have a solid metallic feel. It does however have a “chunky” feel to it that I like.

Responsiveness: In terms of panning through apps on the Galaxy Mini, the experience was generally was satisfactory but not excellent in my opinion. You did feel at times that the processor was light-weight and it took ages for apps to open at times – hanging was not uncommon after a few weeks. But putting things in perspective, this is an entry-level Android that I am STILL using it as I write this review.

Memory: The Galaxy Mini comes with limited phone-based storage. However, you do get a Micro SD card with 2GB which is sufficient for handling most of your multimedia needs for video and audio. However, it is small compared to what you get on more expensive Android handsets which can be in the region of 16GB out of the box. But then again, this is an entry-level handset.

The Galaxy Mini - Exposed

Contacts: As mentioned earlier in this blog post, I was able to download all my contacts from my iPhone and Outlook. However, I was also able to integrate and synchronize Facebook and Twitter contacts as well. This is a pretty nifty feature as it puts everything in one place.

Camera: The Galaxy Mini can do video and stills. Still pictures are taken at 3 MP which is not bad for a phone of this level. However, it lacks autofocus and a flash which are now becoming commonplace on more recent Android handsets being launched globally. Personally, it’s worked really well for me and I have no complaints.

Battery Life: I was actually quite impressed with the battery life on the Galaxy Mini. It does not always last as long as I would like but at least it could take me through a whole day – provided I turned off the Internet when I did not need it from sucking all the battery life. The regular email and social media notifications are quite simply battery draining.

Video: The Galaxy Mini worked well in terms of accessing YouTube videos. However, it does NOT support Flash which is a hindrance to browsing a good number of web sites. I can only imagine that this is the case due to processor constants.

The Galaxy Mini - Side Profile

Music: I used the Galaxy Mini in the gym as a replacement for my iPhone. It comes with all the expected accessories such as headphones with basic controls. However, the user interface and overall experience including the quality of sound could not match that of an iPhone or iPod.

Networking: The Galaxy Mini is able to connect to data in a myriad of ways. It supports EDGE and 3G meaning it get online fast. However, it also supports Bluetooth and WIFI networking. Lastly, like the Huawei IDEOS, it can also work as a WIFI hotspot for multiple computers. In a nutshell, it connects, whenever and wherever you need it to!

Conclusion

In concluding, I have found that the Galaxy Mini was able to meet both my professional and personal needs when it came to having an entry-level Android handset. It did however have some short-comings like the screen quality and becoming less responsive as I installed more applications and content. I was able to use it for work email and personal email, as well as social media apps, etc. It worked and continues to work for me. However, it’s not a Galaxy S or Galaxy S2 – but then again these phones cost 3 to 5 times as much. At the end of the day however, the Galaxy Mini is a decent Android phone and I would recommend it with a strong buy if you are budget constrained and want great value for money.