Paystack and BuyCoins launch remote work mode amid coronavirus concerns

March 21, 2020

Paystack is one of the Nigerian startups that have already started making plans towards ensuring that they will still be in business if they have to shut down the offices.

There was already a plan for the offices to be closed to all members of staff from Friday, but that simulation plan was moved up to Thursday instead. The idea is to see how seamless it would be for the members of staff of the company to work from home and provide guidance on the lapses that might be involved.

Even though the CPVID-19 cases in Nigeria has not been escalated to such a level yet, that would allow the company to prepare itself for this case if it does happen.

We love this kind of forward thinking, and we believe more companies will start following suit soon. It should also be noted that the Paystack offices have been closed to guests, and it is bound to remain so for some 2 weeks from now. This will help ensure that there is no gathering of too many people in the same place, further curtailing the spread of the virus.

Besides Paystack, it has also made the news that BuyCoins is operating in full remote mode right now. The CEO has commented that the situation will remain this way for the next couple of weeks while monitoring the development of the coronavirus case in Nigeria.

Samsung might be planning a One UI 2.5 with extended gesture controls

O. Christopher

March 20, 2020

Samsung might be planning a One UI 2.5 with extended gesture controls

When Samsung launched their in-house One UI 2.0 on top of the Android 10, it looked like the best thing that could have happened to their device. At the launch for the Galaxy S20, though, they also brought another refresher that they called the One UI 2.1 and they launched that with the Galaxy S20 units, although it has started to make its way to the Galaxy S10 and other Note series too.

What we did not know when those updates were hitting the market is that they are planning for a new major update, and that is going to be the One UI 2.5.

The company is yet to come out officially on this matter, but we have learnt that this new update will come with extended gesture controls, and even allow third party apps to use this feature too. Note that the gesture controls on the other iterations are fine already, but they work around system apps more.

For now, that’s all we know of the new update, but we know that there is more to it than these.

Major crypto exchange, iCE3X, creates internally regulated token

O. Christopher

March 20, 2020

Major crypto exchange, iCE3X, creates internally regulated token

iCE3X is known by many to be just one of those cryptocurrency exchange platforms in Nigeria, but it is so much than that. Happening to be one of the oldest of such platforms in both Nigeria and South Africa, the token exchange has now launched a token of its own. The token is to be called the Artificial Intelligence Coin (AIC) and it seems that we know what it would be based upon that way too.

This token is developed on the ERC-20 platform and is designed to make the transactions on the platform less costly than before. It could also be expanded later to being used for in-game rewards, creating better leverage on trades and handling a lot more than this initial case scenario. Likewise, it could rise to become one of the best internally developed tokens out there.

With Nigeria and South Africa being two of the places in Africa with the largest search volumes when it comes to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, this move is a strategic one by iCE3X to effectively capture the market right.

WhatsApp could launch self-destructing messages feature for individual chats soon

O. Christopher

March 17, 2020

WhatsApp could launch self-destructing messages feature for individual chats soon

Social media aps like Snapchat and Telegram already have a privacy feature where the users can set certain message to self-destruct after a while. WhatsApp seems to be the biggest IM provider that hasn’t offered this service, but it seems that all that is about to change soon.

In fairness, we should mention that WhatsApp has trialed this feature sometimes in the past. Then, they were only going to allow people in group chats use the self-destruction feature on messages they send – and that was only available for a select few users. Now, it seems that the company is working on an update that will make this feature a standard for all users – and in individual chats too.

For now, this feature is ibn the beta stage. If that means anything, it is that WhatsApp can limit the number of users that are going to get it again. They could even change their mind midway and decide that they don’t want it to rollout at all.

All we can do is wait to see what the company plans on doing this time around.

Instagram could change its feed to a chronological setup soon again

O. Christopher

February 17, 2020

Instagram could change its feed to a chronological setup soon again

Some of you might not have noticed this, but Instagram has switched away from a chronological feed for a while now. Instead, the social media platform leverages AI and an algorithm to predict what the best posts of the moment are. This is what they show to you first when you enter the app.

Of course, some users have noticed this and complained severally. However, the company will only do what it believes is best for the majority of users on the app.

To that end, it is surprising to see that someone has found a line of code in the Instagram app which suggest that they will soon be returning to the chronological feed. We believe that Instagram might roll out this feature to some for a while just to see how well it works.

If all goes well, they will bring it back again.

For now, there is no official statement on a partial or general rollout, but we would love to see where they go from here anyways.

WhatsApp now boasts 5 billion installations from the Play Store

O. Christopher

January 20, 2020

WhatsApp now boasts 5 billion installations from the Play Store

WhatsApp has been on a steady rise since its introduction to the market, and it is now adding another feather to its cap on the way to becoming probably the greatest instant messaging platform ever.

The Google Play Store has a habit of keeping the records of how many installations an app has had over time. Instead of counting the number of installs in units, though, they prefer to use multiples (50k, 100k, 1M, etc.).

Seeing as Android is owned by Google, and most of the company’s apps come with the phones too, it is worthy of note that they are usually the ones with the most installs on any of their apps. However, Facebook managed to cut into the VIP club when it reached 5 billion installs a good while ago.

As of the time of this writing, WhatsApp has also entered the same club. With 5 billon installations to its name, the app is the second app not owned by Google to achieve this feat – and it belongs to the same company as the first app to make that happen too.

This is truly remarkable and continues to show how great the Facebook team must feel at making the acquisition when they did. For now, we can only wait to see changes that would be made to the app to make it even more impressive for others to jump on.

Instagram adds four major effects and other minors to the Boomerang feature

O. Christopher

January 13, 2020

Instagram adds four major effects and other minors to the Boomerang feature

Competition is always good for the consumer market, and we have seen that in play once again.

With the introduction of TikTok into the social media space came the need for other social media giants to up their game. For an equally visual service like Instagram, that has been a long time coming for them.

Thus, the company has introduced some new features to the app so that they can stay relevant in the market too.

For those who have recently updated their apps, you would soon start seeing that the Boomerang feature now has more features than before. To put things in context, you now get four new features to improve your Boomerang experience: Echo, Trimming, SlowMo and Duo Rapid rewind.

If you don’t find a new version of the app in your dedicated application store, it might be because you have recently updated the app. If that is the case, you have to do nothing else other than wait till the weekend when you will get the said features rolling out to everyone.

Let’s know what you think of these new effects when you start using them.

Microsoft sends out the wrong update to its Windows 10 users for the second time in three months

O. Christopher

December 13, 2019

Microsoft sends out the wrong update to its Windows 10 users for the second time in three months

Microsoft has been in the software market for longer than many other vendors, but that does not mean they are still not plagued by some mistakes from time to time. This time around, it is a repetition of a mistake they made with a Windows 10 update sent out to devices running on this OS.

In October of this year, Microsoft sent out an update which was supposed to make changes to those who had set up a feature called Autopilot. However, it was found out that all users got the update on their devices. To Microsoft’s credit, they were quick to admit the error and take down the update, but that has now repeated itself.

While this is not supposed to be a very big deal, we don’t expect to see such mistakes from a brand as big as this. They have commented on the matter, stating that the Autopilot update will not affect users of the Windows 10 platform who don’t have the feature set up. However, that is no reason for you to not uninstall the update if you don’t need it – just to be on the safer side of things.

Gmail’s new feature will allow you send emails as attachments

O. Christopher

December 11, 2019

Gmail’s new feature will allow you send emails as attachments

Gmail is not new to attachments, but they have taken the game a step further. They will now allow users attach emails to other threads, just like they were dragging and dropping images or videos too.

This is a usable idea for when you want to eliminate extremely long email threads from the chat line, or you would like to forward parts of an email to users. For now, it is sure that it might not catch on as well, but Google could come up with something to make this an even more fitting feature in the nearest future.

The best thing about sending emails as attachments is that you can prepare the recipient for what they are about to read by providing a summary. Finally, the recipient doesn’t need to have Gmail installed to open the file since it is compatible with every other email provider out there.

Will you also be forwarding emails as attachments soon? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments.

HarmonyOS could start showing up on Huawei phones from 2020

O. Christopher

December 10, 2019

HarmonyOS could start showing up on Huawei phones from 2020

The revoking of Huawei’s Android license has not made things easy for the company, but they have always had a backup plan. With HarmonyOS, the company was the worst that could happen – which would have been total booting off the Android platform. However, it seems that the Asian OEM is tired of all the back and forth and will now be bringing their own OS to the market.

This was confirmed by the company’s president at the recent conference held, and it is said that the year 2020 will usher in the first wave of HarmonyOS-powered devices.

Note that it has already been said that HarmonyOS has fewer lines of code, and is also better secure, than Android is. The president of Huawei might have said that the aim of the OS is not to replace Android, but that might be where things are headed at the end of the day. Seeing as Huawei will be selling phones carrying HarmonyOS outside of China, and will also make the platform open source, it might as well take over from Android.

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