GeekScribes

First post of 2012. So let’s start with something like a wish list. In this post, I’ll run down through a list of online services Mauritius should have and why it doesn’t have these relatively common services.

Let’s start.

read all »

For some reason, our political leaders are bent on using the word “cyber” whenever the get the opportunity to. Everything is cyber here: Cyber caravan, Cyber Crime or something along that line as well as a few other cyber things here and there. What does “cyber” mean anyway?

Merriam-webster says something about “the culture of computers”. It must be a joke: I hardly see any kind of “culture of computers” in Mauritius.

We are far, VERY FAR from deserving being called a cyber island yet. Why? Lots of reasons actually…

read all »

I felt my Day 1 at Orange Expo felt kinda rushed. There were things I missed, things I didn’t notice. So when the family wanted to go there today, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to go again. Turns out, I did discover a few new things.

So this post will be less about the tech there, and more about the Expo itself, its organization, ideas and some suggestions to Orange, as I go through it.

For this post, I’ll not make the mistake of trying to compare the Orange Expo with the expos you have abroad. They cannot be compared. Instead, what we should be doing is comparing the Orange Expo 2011 with its peer: Infotech. On Day 1, I wanted to see iPad 2 and Xoom and all the new shiny toys out there. As a geek, I wanted to see them, play with them. But I realized that many people who visited the expo today didn’t even know what an iPad was! To them, it was something new and wonderful.

read all »

The Orange Expo 2011 is held this year from 8th April to 10th April at the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Center (SVICC). Anyway, if you’re reading this, you’ll only be having a day left to visit, and that’s 10th April, from 10h to 19h.

With that said, here’s my experience and thoughts on expo. Sorry for the blurry or low-light pics. My camera had big issues focusing on all the Orange there… I was kind of in-a-hurry too, so I may have missed a few things. If I did, please let me know via comments.

read all »

Emtel has released their new product, which they call the Emtel MIFI – Mobile Wifi. You purchase the Huawei E5 modem which is a Wireless Access Point (AP) and pocket router that accepts a SIM card, and you get to share mobile Internet with up to 5 WIFI-compatible devices at the same time.

Here’s a quick post about its features, and what I think about the device and the service. Here’s the full advert that also appeared in newspapers:

Is it me, or do the 1st 3 people have really long arms?

read all »

As you probably know by now, Orange has announced a price cut on its ADSL packages, and a speed-doubling measure on its MyT packages. The discussions have been raging on for the past few days on various fronts, including Twitter and CarrotMadman6′s Article on the price cuts.

MyT users are probably rejoicing by now. ADSL users too maybe, but probably in a lesser measure. I’m an ADSL user. I’m definitely not rejoicing. I believe Orange has successfully performed corporate tricks on its users, and has come out with a profit, all while announcing the price cuts / speed boosts.

Let me begin with the more obvious of the ripoffs:

read all »

Orange (and Mauritius Telecom), have just announced our Christmas gift for the year 2010: ADSL users can expect a reduction in prices and MyT users will see their current speed doubled. The changes will start taking effect as from 1st December 2010.

Update 0: I put this as Update Zero because it’s most important: MyT Users with NO TV option will get neither speed boost NOR price cut, as confirmed on TheMediaGuru’s comment section. You will have to pay Rs. 999 (Rs. 151 extra!) if you want more speed.

Update 1: According to the user “Sab” on TheMediaGuru’s article (see link below), there won’t be any speed boosts for ADSL users, only the Rs. 100 reduction in prices.

Update 2: The price decrease / speed boosting is not pleasing everybody. There are some complaints coming from Jeyen Chellum and ACIM that Orange has done something weird or how it was ICTA’s role to announce the price cuts. I’ll admit, I didn’t understand what the problem was myself. Moreover, commenters on the L’Express article would prefer a price-cut over a speed boost. I personally prefer a speed boost over a price cut. I am opening a poll for you to answer this question.

 Loading ...

Update 3: FUP no longer applies to MyT. Not that it was ever applied…

Update 4: You may be interested in this article too…

Here is a summary of the changes for ADSL (All prices are Vat Inclusive):

• ADSL Home 256 Kbps(3GB Cap Limit): Rs. 499 → Rs. 399
• ADSL Home 512 Kbps: Rs. 848 → Rs. 759
• ADSL 128 Kbps for Rodrigues: Rs. 499 → Rs. 399

• ADSL Business package prices fall by 10%. New prices will probably be:
  • ADSL Business 256 Kbps: Rs. 1840 → Rs. 1656
  • ADSL Business 512 Kbps: Rs. 2875 → Rs. 2587.50
  • ADSL Business 1 Mbps: Rs. 5750 → Rs. 5175
  • ADSL Business 2 Mbps: Rs. 10235 → Rs. 9211
• Dedicated Lines fall by 24%

MyT prices remain unchanged, but the speed doubles:

• MyT 512 Kbps → MyT 1 Mbps
• MyT 1 Mbps → MyT 2Mbps
• MyT 2Mbps → MyT 4Mbps (!!)

MyT will also offer 3 new channels – Boing, MCM Top and Motor TV and add more titles to its Video on Demand service.

There is no word yet on whether the speed doubling will be applied to existing ADSL users (like me). I hope the Christmas gift comes to us ADSL users too. I’ll update this article as more details surface.

If you have any more information, please do share!

Hat-tip to TheMediaGuru for sharing the initial news.

(Source)