Tech Trends Last Week

Here’s a recap of all the stories you missed last week (11 – 16th January).

Samsung Galaxy S6: The Samsung Galaxy S6 will have two models, one having a screen on the edge, similar to what we saw in the Galaxy Note Edge. The edge screen will show notifications while you do other activities on the main screen. We expect it to  be showcased at the Mobile World Conference in April. There are also no features officially released about the phone but we expect it will run on the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, be much bigger at between 5.2 and 5.5 inches, have  and have a 20MP rear and 5MP back camera.

MTN Zambia’s Rate’nDate: A service that allows you to chat with new people after you create a profile on the Rate’nDate site. It allows subscribers on the network to make new friends and possibly date. For a minimal daily subscription of K0.40 and a weekly one of K1.30, you can create a profile and according to MTN’s Facebook page, “ask users to rate you while you also view other user’s profiles and rate them”.  Do you really want to be rated before you date? Read what we really think of it here.

Direct Carrier Billing: This could be the next big payment plan that benefits mobile operator in Zambia. It’s a payment system that allows subscribers pay for goods purchased online and then have the value tied to their phone bill. It would help the unbanked population be able to buy things they had n way of paying for by other means. Get the full details on the benefits to mobile operators here.

Huawei’s Honor 6 Plus: The ‘6 Plus’  part already had us thinking of the iPhone 6 Plus, but this new smartphone by Huawei can hold its own. Missing the characteristic Huawei logo as part of Huawei’s new marketing strategy, (maybe not to seem cheap?), the phone has a 8MP dual camera system in the back, allowing you to focus on a picture after it’s been taken. In the front for you selfie lovers is also an 8MP camera. It comes with choices of either 16 or 32GB internal storage but can be expanded to 128GB with a microSD card, and has 3GB of RAM. It also packs a 3600mAh battery. It’s a pretty neat piece of tech! Read more about its features here.  

BlackBerry Tweeted from an iPhone: Why use the competitions’ phone for your work duties like tweeting? It makes it seem like BlackBerry doesn’t even use its own products. How do they expect to sell to the rest of the world then?

The tweet was about the recently launched BlackBerry Classic and how you can ‘keep up the conversation on Twitter’ using it and we think the phone itself is an  upgrade from the phones they’ve had and it is receiving great reviews so why not use it?

Will this not affect the perceptions of potential buyers who may think the BlackBerry Classic still doesn’t beat an iPhone if BlackBerry’s own employees are using iPhones to talk about it? This is really not a great look for BlackBerry.

Airtel’s 1Bo Promo Winner Announced: A lucky girl from Serenje named Kassandra Nene Satella walked (drove away?) in a brand new Hyundai Xcent car after being announced winner of  the first draw Airtel’s 1Bo promotion. The grand prize will be a fully furnished house. 2 more cars and other prizes are still yet to be given out.

 Internet.org was launched in Colombia:  First launched globally in Zambia in partnership with Airtel, Facebook’sInternet.org app was then released in Tanzania under Tigo and in Kenya under Airtel, and now has made it to Colombia under Tigo as well to offer free basic access to the internet to their subscribers on those networks.

Internet.org was created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg who said he wants the most distant parts of the world to also be connected to the internet, and Internet.org is doing just that. Read more here.

Facebook:  Facebook at Work, (dubbed FB@Work) has to be downloaded by a particular company for use among its employees. non-employees can not access that particular social network as it is restricted only the company that creates the profile.

Employees that sign up will have to use their Facebook accounts to set it up. They can also switch between their Facebook At work accounts and the normal one. It is separate from the personal accounts Facebook users but works like Groups on Facebook in the way . Once downloaded on mobile iOS or Android phones from the Apple and Google Play stores respectively, Facebook At Work will act as a social network only for that company’s employees. Read more here.

 CEC Liquid Telecom to expand to Southern Province:  At an estimated cost of $5 million, Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) Liquid Telecom is set to link up the Southern province with fibre optic connectivity, from Lusaka to Livingstone’s Victoria Falls,  to be completed by June this year.

According to the Liquid Telecom website, “the new link will start in Lusaka, transiting through eight southern circuit towns, including Kafue, Mazabuka, Monze, Choma and Kalomo, terminating at Victoria Falls in Livingstone,” as shown in the map above. This link will then connect to the Liquid Telecom’s network in Zimbabwe , obviously for continuity’s sake, so there are no uncovered areas.

Nokia N1’s Second batch run out in China: The first 20000 units sold out in less than 4 minutes, and then a second batch of an unknown number sold out on the 15th of January so a new 3rd batch is expected to be delivered to China on the 22nd of January.  It has the following main features:

• 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage
• 7.9-inch 2048 x 1536 touchscreen pixel resolution
• An 8MP rear camera and 5 MP front camera
• It comes with Intel’s Atom Z3580 SoC, and being served by a 2.3 GHz quad-core CPU. Operating system is the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop.
• Battery life should be about 4- 5 hours with its 5,300 mAh battery on continued use.

 Google’s production of Google Glass was halted: After its not so successful run the past year, Google decided to stop production of the current Google Glass model and focus on another which should be unveiled at some point later in this year. We’ll wait to see what they come up with and if it will be less expensive and more functional.