Econet, it’s not an eating challenge

I walked into a fast food joint and was delighted to find out that a coke, three piece chicken and large chips were going for $1.

To my delight I forked out the dollar and got my order. The receipt was clearly written the Terms & Conditions.

I was to finish the food within 5 minutes.

I started chowing the food but heck who finishes all this food within 2 minutes?

As the clock ticked and hit 2 minutes, the cashier glided to my table and yanked off all the food in my plate…

Well the above story is not true and we would all refuse to buy food in such a shop.

However we accept broadband deals or bundles with ridiculous expiry periods.

Take the $1 daily bundle from Econet that gives you 250mb and expires after 24 hours.

Not everyone uses it all up in one day. So why should the unused megabytes be thrown away?

There should be reasonable expiry periods to these promo bundles.
The weird thing is the moment you buy a daily bundle you are planning on using the data right?

You will eventually use all the data in due course. Such promos should be banned or they should be made to offer reasonable terms and conditions.

Econet and all can’t hide behind the ‘its a promo’ mantra to offer deals that are massively tilted in their favour.

Get the hell off my phone! (Not you Econet)

I was shocked when I installed Opera Max an app that helps you save data by compressing the data before it reaches your phone.

My most shocking discoveries where that WhatsApp gobbled up a massive 79Mb in the background and allocated a mere 30Mb of data to the foreground.

Facebook was the next culprit. It sucked in a whooping 50Mb in the background and only 7mb in the foreground!

Apps I had never opened like VivaVideo also consumed data in the background.

What are all these apps using the background data for? You wonder considering that they are allocating more data to the background than foreground?

Most people have accused Econet of stealing their much beloved data bundles but at times its the very apps that we have that are stealing our data.

Opera Max has a fine grained approach to data management. You can block apps from accessing background data or block the apps from accessing any data at all…

This is a nifty feature considering most Android phones do not have a fine grained approach to controlling how your apps are consuming data.

However, one downside about Opera Max is that you have to remember to Connect it again each time you switch your phone off and on.

Is your tablet making you a porongi?

I have witnessed a disturbing phenomenon in Zimbabwe. Most people are turning to tablets! This is not surprising considering that cheap Chinese tablets are going for about $100.

However, I have noticed more people who make calls on tablets in public. Besides, they turn the speaker on!

In our tech group we discussed this and the general consensus was that such people are either show offs or just desperate attention seekers!

Why would you open WhatsApp on your tablet in a kombi only for you to shield it from roving eyes when an embarrassing chat pops up?

Besides tablets have use cases best suited to them not using them as substitute phones! Android tablets are just oversized phones with no extra feature to justify buying a tablet except the extra screen size!

Some genuine use cases for tablets are:

Poor eyesight

Yes, you may need a larger screen if your eyesight is poor.

Portfolio Showcasing

It will be silly to show clients your works on a small screen phone! However it feels more right and professional to showcase your works on a bigger screen

Substitute computer

Yes, buy a keyboard and walla you have a light weight computer that is easier to carry! Especially if you are a content creator

Well, its upto you to use your tablet however you like but don’t be a porongi in public with it!

NetOne Broadband in figures!

NetOne revealed that they process about 2TeraBytes of data a day up from 300Gig a few months ago!

We did a few calculations and gleaned a few insights into the data! However these calculations are assumptions (calculated assumptions) of the goings on at NetOne in terms of broad band!

Assumptions

The main assumption we used is that on average a single user uses 10MB of data a day! Obviously some use more and some less but let’s use that figure.

2 Terabytes = 2000 Gigs = 2000 0000 Mb

Which means that……. If a person uses 10Mb of data a day.

2000 000 Mb divided by 10 Mb = 200 000 users!

Now NetOne may be having 200 000 broadband subscribers per time!

Assuming that each subscriber pays say $1 a week purchase a WhatsApp bundle, then NetOne may be earning $400 000 a month!

Going further with the assumption, NetOne may be earning almost $5 million a year!

However, from the first statement it means…..

300 gig = 300 000 Mb

300 000 Mb/10Mb = 30 000!

It means six months ago NetOne had a measly 30 000 active broadband subscribers per time!

This is some exciting calcs and we hope Telecel and Econet will release their data consumption figures for a compare and contrast!

Econet in Ndebele language boob

Well meaning Econet sent an sms early morning wishing informing its subscribers that they will soon have a new service!

However, they mispelt a Ndebele word! Instead of writing ‘Livuke njani’ they wrote ‘Livhuke njani’!

Anyone who knows the Ndebele and shona language will realise that a shona person wrote the message!

Soon Ndebele folks grilled @econetzimbabwe on Twitter! Econet was seen issuing apologies constantly to an angry audience!

Even well known folks like Cont Mhlanga expressed his disgust and shock at such blatant disregard of a national language!

“I almost slammed my (expensive smartphone) when I saw that message”! Cont fumed.

Felix Moyo the NUST PR Officer also said he was shocked by the disregard of a language by Econet.

Econet has since apologised for this

How to purchase NetOne, Telecel and Econet Bundles

In case you want to shift from Econet after they did the unthinkable you may want to try other networks!

Well there is Telecel and NetOne to try out and also you can try out other wifi hotspots!

Below we give you the shortcodes to buy social media bundles from the other networks

Econet

To buy social media bundles on this network you dial *143#

Now you will have to choose between Light and Extra

Telecel

To buy social media bundles from Telecel you dial *480# and you follow the options.

Don’t forget to TellSomeone

NetOne

To those who chose to jump ship to NetOne, here is how you buy the bundles! Dial *171# and you start enjoying the service!

Don’t forget to put the world in your pocket

Do not be left complaining that things are not working out at Econet! Try other networks and you may love it!

How I made a Gtel perform like a Galaxy S5 in 15 minutes

If you have used a great number of phones, you will realise that Gtel phones have a tendency of slowing down with time!

This is caused by their internal memory filling up! In-fact any phone that has its internal memory filling up will slow down!

Looking at Gtels, or any other Chinese phones, you will notice that they come with 4gig internal memory! Of that 4 gig, 3Gig is already used up by the system!

To make matters worse, Gtel crams in non system apps that come preloaded as system apps!

You will find

• Du battery booster
• NetQuin Mobile security
• WhatsApp
• WeChat
• Twitter
• UCWeb Browser

All loaded as system apps! Well, what if you have no need for WeChat? Its sitting there and consuming valuable memory yet you will never use it! Besides the WhatsApp that comes preloaded is always expired and you will need to download a new one anyways!

So how do you make your phone perform better? You free up some memory!

Please Note: These are un-official methods and rooting your phone carries some dangers if you do not know what you are doing!

1. Root Your Phone

Since this is not a rooting tutorial, we will skip this part. However, there is a rooting tutorial over at Techzim.

The tutorial works but I wouldn’t recommend it as Kingo Root method uploads user data to Chinese servers!

I recommend trying Mobogenie Root!

Rooting using this applications is very easy!

2. Install ES File Explorer and Super User (SU)

Go to PlayStore and Install an App called SU (Super User). Also install ES File explorer if you do not already have it!

3. Grant Super User to ES File Explorer

Go to settings in ES File Explorer and grant it Super User capabilities.

4. Go to Apps

Go to App Management in ES File Explorer and Choose System apps! Chose obvious suspects like Wechat, DU Battery Booster etc!

Chose apps that you hardly or don’t use and unistall them!

A strong word of warning!

Do not go on an un-installing spree as if you delete true system apps, then your device will stop working! If you are not sure, live your phone alone and be content with a phone with low memory!

After un-installing the apps that you do not want that were disguised as system apps you will see your device performance boosting up and you will also have extra memory to install your other favourite apps!

I suggest you unroot your phone after this as there are some rogue apps that can do nasty things once they find out your phone is rooted!

How I managed to run two WhatsApp accounts on a Gtel phone

This method works on Android 4.1 to 4.4! There is no need use it on Android 5.0 as this feature is built in natively!

I wanted to run a certain social media campaign for someone and I didn’t want to use my personal WhatsApp account for her! She was not on WhatsApp for some strange reason and I didnt want to buy a new phone for a two weeks campaign!

I managed to run two separate accounts on one phone! Each account had its own number and it ran the original WhatsApps not these modified WahtsApps that can get you banned from WhatsApp

Step One

Root your phone! Read more about how to easily root your phone here!

Step Two

Install Super User App from the PlayStore! Also install the app called Terminal Emulator from the Play Store!

After I installing these two apps, go to the Terminal Emulator app and you will presented with a black screen. Type in the following commands

SU

After that type in press enter on your keyboard!

You will be presented with a new line!

Type in the following command!

pm user-create Frank

Click in enter again!

After user-create, the name that you type is the name of the account you want!

Quit Terminal Emulator!

To See the account you just created, Long press the power button and on Options, right below you will see Two accounts!

One Written Primary

And the other written Frank (If you chose Frank as the account name)

Tap on Frank and you will enter into your new account!

If you tap on WhatsApp, it will open as a new app which wants you to enter a phone number and set it up!

Set up your second WhatsApp

Proceed as in setting up WhatsApp but make sure the sim with number you want to use is in an active phone!

If the sim is not in the handset that has the new account you want to use, wait for sms verification to fail and then request phone verification! Voila you are in!

How to switch accounts

To return to the main account, long press the power button and choose primary account!

How to delete account

To delete the account Go to Terminal Emulator App and Type in su, then enter and type in

pm remove-user 1

Do not type in

pm remove user 0

as that is the main account!

 

A strong word of warning!

Terminal Emulator is a powerful app that can delete your entire phone if you type in the wrong commands!

As you can tell from above, there is no warning! It just creates a new user and it also does the same when deleting apps!

Afraid to do this on your own? Contact me Frank on 0773 510 978 easily!

Econet limits ‘unlimited’ bundles! ‘UPADATED’

 

‘READ UPDATE BELOW’

Hello there, we are always raving and ranting that Econet is a crap company bent on suiting their own needs.

They make wide changing policy shifts without communicating with us their customers!

We purchased a Facebook Bundle and to our surprise, we only connected for 2 days! The bundle then stopped connecting and we were taken aback!

We got in touch with them and we got hundreds of silly responses! From maybe your phone is dead to we are resetting your line.

To our shock, we received the message above! What it means in simple terms is that your Facebook bundle is no longer ‘unlimited’ but is now throttled!

It means that Econet will switch you off when they feel you have used enough data! Now it means those are no longer weekly or monthly bundles but are now usage based bundles!

UPDATE

Shockingly Econet has introduced ‘Lite’ and ‘Extra’ Bundles

Extra Bundles cost $2 a week and $6 a month and these will allow downloading!

Lite bundles will cost the normal fees and will not allow downloading!

How recover accidentally deleted data from your memory card

Did you just delete your memory card, flash stick or hard drive and you want to recover the data on them? Then this article will rescue you.

Well, you may have accidentally deleted the photos, music or documents or someone deliberately deleted the card to hide evidence then this method will work for you.

This article assumes you have a computer where you can install applications on.

We had a 4 gig memory card that had data deleted on it and we were supposed to recover the data.

How to

Download either one of these applications (these are Windows Applications, not Android apps)

1. Pandora Recovery
2. Recuva

We personally preferred Recuva. Install the application

Plug in the memory card via a T-Flash (memory card adaptor) or using the phone USB cable connector.

We recommend using a memory card T-Flash

 

Open Recuva and make sure you chose the inserted memory card as the device to recover data from.

You can recover data deleted from a specific folder only or you can recover from the whole memory card.

The standard recover method is basic and is pretty fast. In a few minutes it will be done!

For our situation the standard recovery pulled up only 20 photos that where deleted.

We then chose a more comprehensive (Advanced) recovery of photos only and we recovered 300 photos after about 2 hours of Recuva running.

Some photos were no longer recoverable and Recuva notifies you so and some where partially recovered. Most though were fully recovered.

We then ran the memory card through a full recovery of all data and we recovered 2000 documents after a whopping 8 hours!

However, of the 2000 documents the majority were system log files that where just useless.

However, we were delighted as the recovery picked up over 200 songs, 30 videos and some zipped files that where long deleted.

Please note:

If you want to have an effective recovery of your data, remove the memory card from your phone immediately so that some sectors are not overwritten when you discover you have mistakenly deleted some items.

It is those overwritten sectors that are shown as having non recoverable data.

Verdict

The Good

This is a Godsend and it will open all those deleted files

You can also recover data from your hard drive or flash stick!

It can also recover data from formatted cards.

You can chose to recover only photos, videos, mp3, documents or recover all else!

The bad

Very long recovery time that can go to as long as 10 hours.

Conclusion

Do not save extra stuff on a disk you wish to recover data on as this will make your data unreachable.