Author: Kaluka wanjala

The 140-character limit is one of the main things that has differentiated Twitter from all the other social networking sites. Going beyond this limit may not be that huge of a problem to many people but is a pain for some people like us (TechArena) who regularly share links and photos on the social networking site. If you are like us, you may be happy to know that Twitter may be planning to exempt photos and links from the 140-character limit. This according to a report by Bloomberg saying that the microblogging site is playing around with the idea to…

Last Saturday, Bloggers Association of Kenya held the 2016 edition of the Kenyan Blog Awards (BAKE Awards). The BAKE Awards 2016 journey started on January 8th 2016 with the launch of the awards plus the opening of the submission where Kenyan blogs could be submitted into the competition. The submission phase closed on 10th February 2016 which saw 4,899 blogs being submitted into the competition. The judges took over and trimmed the submissions to just 5 blogs per category.  The judges this year were Ahmed Salim, TerryAnne Chebet, Mikul Shah & Muthoni Maingi. The voting phase of the Kenyan Blog…

Back in July 29 2015, Microsoft officially announced Windows 10 which showed what the company has planned for the future of its popular desktop OS. This update was referred to as ‘Threshold’ as it shows a change in strategy for the company. Microsoft confirmed that it will start rolling out regular updates instead of releasing a new OS every year. As we get close to July 29, we should start preparing ourselves for the next Windows 10 update. This update is titled ‘Anniversary’ and will bring come changes to the platform. This is a huge update for Microsoft and it…

Back in February this year, Sony officially announced the Xperia X family, the Xperia X, XA and X performance smartphones. This new series is supposed to replace the Xperia Z series that was one of Sony’s best smartphone lineups to date. Back to the Xperia X, Sony is planning to use this as its main lineup going all the way to 2018. By focusing on the Xperia X, Sony plans to kill off the Xperia C, M, E and even the Xperia Z lineups. Focusing on a single lineup is quite a bold and commendable move for Sony especially if…

Messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram make it easier for us to communicate with anyone, no matter where they are. With the ability to communicate instantly, there is also the chance that you may end up sending the wrong message with typos. If you are a victim of typos and bad spellings in general, you may want to switch to Telegram as the app has just got a major update that allows you to edit sent messages. You will have 48 hours to edit messages after you have sent them and this is enough time if you ask me.…

WhatsApp is currently testing a new video calling feature for its Android app. We have been hearing about this feature ever since it was included in Facebook Messenger in May last year. Since Facebook owns WhatsApp, this looks like a natural fit for the popular instant messaging platform to have it. WhatsApp video calling feature is still being tested and is not available to all users at the moment. We are also not sure when it will be available to the public but you should expect it anytime from today given that it is currently in open testing. This feature…

As almost every Android manufacturer tries to include a fingerprint sensor on its devices, folks using Microsoft’s Windows platform are yet to enjoy this feature. Microsoft has not included support for this just yet. Fingerprint sensors can be used to do different things but the biggest one has to do with improved security. With the launch of Windows 10 Mobile and the Lumia 950/950 XL, Microsoft introduced the Iris scanner feature (Windows Hello) which is sort of the fingerprint scanner but for your eyes. The company did not show any interest in going the fingerprint sensor way and the Iris…

If you have heard about Netflix, then it is about time you hear about ShowMax. Just like Netflix, ShowMax is a video streaming service that was launched in South Africa by Naspers back in 2015 way before Netflix expanded its footprint to global markets, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa included. Naspers, if you don’t know, owns MultiChoice Africa which is the company behind DStv and GOtv. ShowMax has been available exclusively to users in South Africa since its launch and finally it expanding to other African countries, 36 countries to be exact. Naspers has always had plans to expand to…

If you are a regular here at TechArena, you may have seen our coverage of Tecno’s upcoming tablet, the DroiPad 8II. This is the fourth tablet from Tecno to be launched in Kenya in two consecutive years. The other three are the DroiPad 7Cs, DroiPad 8H, WinPad10. The Tecno DroiPad 8II is finally available in retail stores in Kenya as of today. Its retail price is Ksh 17,499 and is available through Tecno partner shops around the country. This tablet comes into the market less than a week after Samsung launched the 2016 Galaxy Tab A 7.0 in the country.…

Evernote is one of the most popular productivity apps out there. I have been using Evernote for a while now on both my laptop and phone and to be honest it is one of the best, if not the best, productivity platforms in the world. If you have used it, you will be happy to know that it is getting an important update that will see it integrate with Google Drive. With this update, you will be able to access your Google Drive files directly from Evernote. Before this, the only way to do this was to link up to…