Apple introduces multi-cam feature in iOS 13.

June 11, 2019

Apple is introducing the multi-cam support which would allow apps to take photos, video, audio, metadata, and depth from multiple microphones and Cameras on a single iPhone or iPad. This is part of the feature set that we are expecting with the iOS 13, and we are excited to have it.

Multi-cam support has already been made available to a number of Android devices in some variant or form over the years. Macs have also supported this feature for a while.

This feature will allow developers create apps that stream videos or take pictures or audio using both the front camera and the rear camera at the same time. The Multi-Cam support is only going to be made available to latest devices from Apple like the iPhone XS, XS Max, XR and the latest iPad Pro (which will be through iPadOS).

There are certain combinations that can be performed on these devices. The regular and telephoto camera on the rear of the iPhone, or the selfie camera and the regular rear camera, and there are combinations that would allow the use of the TrueDepth selfie camera

The new feature was presented during WWDC, with a demo picture-in-picture video recording app that was recording the user from the front-facing camera while recording from the main camera simultaneously. The app enabled the ability to swap between the two cameras during playback in the photos app, a feature which would give developers control over the TrueDepth cameras.

Mobile devices will be limited to a single session of multi-cam unlike the mac, iPhones and iPad due to power constraints.

Upcoming OnePlus 7 Pro update addresses remaining camera issues address other issues

O. Christopher

June 11, 2019

Upcoming OnePlus 7 Pro update addresses remaining camera issues address other issues

Since the recent release of the OnePlus 7 Pro, there have been complaints by users about the camera and the touch sensitivity. Fortunately, users can rest easy now as things are about to get much better with the new update that has hit the unit.

The OnePlus 7 Pro camera left a lot of room for improvement and the Asian OEM is not leaving any stone unturned in ensuring the camera gets to maximum capacity. This update will have tremendous improvements on the camera as OnePlus released samples comparing the performance of the camera before and after the update and the results were satisfactory.

The changelog for the camera in OxygenOS 9.7.5 update includes:

Improved overall contrast and color performance
Improved white balance consistency of triple camera
Improved accuracy and stability of autofocusing
Fixed issue of greenish tone in some low light scenes
Fixed issue of contrast and color saturation of ultra-wide
Improved clarity and noise reduction in low light scene of ultra-wide
Improved clarity and noise reduction of telephoto
Improved clarity and color of Nightscape
Improved brightness and clarity in extreme low light scene of Nightscape

The update also improves the touch sensitivity on the OnePlus 7 pro which will probably address the ‘phantom tap’ issues which some users have complained about. Beyond that, the update makes improvements in the ambient display and tap-to-wake feature while also beefing up the audio quality of voice calls made through third-party applications.

The update became available on June 6, and you should already have a notification to get yours.

Facebook has now banned Huawei from preinstalling its apps

O. Christopher

June 11, 2019

Facebook has now banned Huawei from preinstalling its apps

Tech giant, Huawei, has been making headlines recently after they became a pawn in the China-US trade war. Today, they have been dealt another blow in the shape of Facebook now preventing them from preinstalling apps from the company onto their phones.

According to Reuters, Huawei is no longer able to pre-install Facebook apps on their latest devices and other related brands. This also includes WhatsApp and Instagram, which are both owned by Facebook. The ban specifically applies to models that yet to be shipped.

On the bright side, existing Huawei phone users will still be able to use and receive updates on these apps. Users can manually install these apps if they do not have them pre-installed. The apps can also be installed from the App store.

Huawei is expected to announce their very own OS in August, and no one is entirely sure, but bets are on the name being ArkOS. Hopefully, that should remedy some of the current problems on ground.

Google Photos goes Dark

O. Christopher

June 8, 2019

Going dark might be the new vogue as it is one of the most requested features in any app landscape.

Most apps have already started incorporating a dark interface subject to their users’ discretion which would help save battery life on smartphones with OLED displays. A lot of first-party apps have gotten dark modes over the past several weeks, including apps like Google calendar, Keep, YouTube, Google Maps, Chrome, Drive and now, Google photos has joined the fray.

Google photos version 4.17.0.249919200 will showcase the new dark interface which would be applicable by a server-side switch and users on non- Android Q devices will be first to experience Google photos Dark mode. This look adopts a dark gray background in place of a full black color.

The search field and bottom navigation are slightly lighter than the main gallery’s dark grey background. The status bar (merged with the Search field) adopted a lighter grey color.

Photos are shown to stand out more and pop while scrolling, with the contrast. The feature is applied throughout the app, including settings, share sheet and the navigation drawer. The only major exception appears to be Google Lens.

There seems to be an expansion of the dark mode beyond all Android Q devices to all users. Many Android Pie users are reporting that it respects the developer option in settings and it has no toggle in Photos to manually disable or enable. It might be karma as only Android Q users are still only ones that can access the dark theme for Google Drive.

Spotify to introduce new ‘Social Listening’ feature that allows you to enjoy songs with your friends

O. Christopher

June 2, 2019

Spotify to introduce new ‘Social Listening’ feature that allows you to enjoy songs with your friends

Social media is growing in leaps and bound, and we are seeing this concept in more and more ways by the day. Today, social media might be finding a way into our music and how we enjoy it.

According to a developer who likes to look through codes for hidden updates, Spotify is working on a new feature which should be called ‘Social Listening.’ Like the name implies, this is the feature that will allow you and your friends listen to the same songs via the streaming service at the same time.

It would work like a shared folder in Google Drive where you can create a playlist of choice from where you and your friends can either add songs or just listen to the already added ones.

We don’t know when this feature is coming out for sure, but we do know that it is something we are very much interested in trying out.

WhatsApp to get new feature allowing you to play VNs automatically

O. Christopher

May 30, 2019

WhatsApp to get new feature allowing you to play VNs automatically

WhatsApp has a lot of new features in store for us, and they have started showing some of them one after the other. For those who happen to be on the beta version of the app, the good news is that you should already have access to one of these future updates to the general app – simultaneous voice messages.

As the name implies, the aim of this update is to ensure better access to voice messages when a contact sends more than one to you in quick succession. What the update does is play the first VN, give you a beep to let you know when that one is done and then plays the next one till it gets to the end of the pile. All of these will happen without your having to touch the phone at all.

This might be a small thing in the end, but it is one of those small things that make up the bigger picture. All that, and we know there is still a lot more on in store from the Facebook-owned IM service.

New Google Play Store update makes the internet better for you and your kids

O. Christopher

May 30, 2019

New Google Play Store update makes the internet better for you and your kids

Google is great when it comes to making sure their Play Store is safe for everyone, and they might have a new update that makes it even safer for your kids too. While Google has been working on models to protect kids in the past, this new update might be the cream of that one – blocking out all of the sexual content, marijuana-oriented stuff and hate speech, to mention but a few.

The service has also improved to quell the distribution of counterfeit goods and services via the trusted platform.

For those who have been following updates to the Play Store, you will agree that Google already has a thing against sexual content. However, that was limited to depiction of sexual acts or escort services on the asap. With the new updates, they will now kick against nudity, lewdness or any profane content at all.

Gambling is also on the books of what Google has updated, given that the company has now mandated publishers of such content never to provide users with either money or any other thing of real-world value. If they keep this up, they might actually succeed in making the internet – the part of it that they control, at least – a better place.

PitchDrive II: Your African Tech Start-up can win an all-expense paid trip to Asian tech capitals

O. Christopher

May 10, 2019

If you are a start-up founder, would love to have an all-expense paid trip to Asia during which you get to network with industry leaders and of course, court funding to your project, get in here!

Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) has partnered up with the Google for Start-ups platform to bring you the second edition of PitchDrive. That said, PitchDrive II is bent on building on the success of the first launch of the program, learning from the initial venture to improve the access your start-up gets in this current edition.

At the end of this program, the aim is to have a strong relationship between African and Asia start-ups, as well as investors, in a bid to better the development of technology across both borders.

Who is eligible?

PitchDrive II is limited to the top 10 start-ups in hardware and deep tech all around Africa. This will include, but is not limited to, start-ups based in the following fields:

Artificial Intelligence
Augmented reality
Virtual reality
Deep learning
Machine learning
Internet of Things, and so much more.

How to Apply

Should your start-up be in any of the fields listed above or the general category suggested, you can head over to the official application dashboard to register your intent in the program. Note that applicants are being reviewed from now till the 20^th of May, so you might want to get started on your application process right away.

Besides, you should also know that applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis. In other words, the earlier you get there, the better for you.

When will the tour be?

Current dates for the tour are set at between August 15^th to 31^st, and will span the five top tech capitals of the Asian market – Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Seoul and Tokyo.

That sure promises not just a lot of learning and networking opportunities, but a great deal of fun on the side too.

Research shows the best selling OEMs for Q3 2018

Olanrewaju Sodiq

November 23, 2018

While new smartphones are still being launched by many industry giants in the last quarter of the year, Hong Kong-based industry analysis firm, Counterpoint Research has released reports of its finding on which of the OEMs sold/shipped the most unit of smartphones between the months of July to September 2018.

The source reports that although the overall shipment of phones reduced in Q3 2018 when compared to Q3 2017, some OEMs managed to grow the units shipped while some witnessed declined sales.

According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung, Huawei, Apple, Oppo, and Xiaomi were the top five sellers within the reported period with market shares of 19%, 14%, and 12% respectively. Oppo and Xiaomi comes in behind the top three with equal market share of 9%.

Breaking down it’s (Counterpoint’s) research into regions, the analytics firm made the following inferences:

Oppo had the most (16%) share in the Asian smartphone market for Q3 2018, followed closely by Vivo and Huawei at 15%.
Samsung was (by far) the best phone selling brand in European market, beating Huawei by a difference of 9% and Apple, by 12%.
Samsung also led the Latin America and Middle East African region as it held a 37% and 25% share of the respective market.
The North American market was, however, largely dominated by Apple (39%).

The third quarter of 2018 was a very interesting one. The fourth quarter would, definitely, be of no difference. I predict the leaders of the Q4 2018 Global market share would also be between Samsung and Huawei as both have released amazingly stunning devices in the concluding part of the year. Samsung, for example, unveiled a smartphone with a triple rear camera setup and another with four rear cameras both of which started shipping in October.

Huawei also unveiled its Mate 20 flagship duo. Apple, Oppo, and Xiaomi are also expected to follow closely.

Exynos 9820: Samsung announces new chipset

Olanrewaju Sodiq

November 14, 2018

In what seem to be an unexpected move, Samsung announces its new flagship system-on-chip to be most likely used on its high-end devices scheduled for release in 2019.

The chipset, Exynos 9820 will bring on a lot of significant improvements in terms of performance and processes when compared to the Exynos 9810 that was released earlier this year which powered the likes of the Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9.

In terms of architecture, the new Exynos 9820 is based on 8nm LPP Fin Field-Effect Transistor (FinFET) process technology. And while this is an improvement from the Exynos 9810 which was fabricated on 10nm LPP FinFET process, it doesn’t come close to Huawei’s Hisilicon Kirin 980 and Apple’s A12 Bionic chipsets which are both based on the 7nm process.

Nonetheless, Samsung assures that the Exynos 9820 will bring about 15% faster single-core performance, 20% faster multi-core, and 40% more power efficiency than its predecessor. Samsung have also upped its GPU to an ARM Mali-G76 from Mali-G72. This GPU modification will allow afford users more time to use AR and VR applications on their devices while also delivering about 40% boost in performance and power saving capabilities.

On the GPU side the company put Mali-G76 cores which should deliver a 40% performance boost or 35% power savings, allowing longer usage of VR and AR applications. There’s also a new dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) on the Exynos 9820 to efficiently handle Artificial Intelligence-related tasks up to seven times faster than the Exynos 9810. In Samsun

It allows the processor to perform AI-related functions seven times faster than its predecessor. From enhancing photos to advanced AR features, the Exynos 9820 with NPU expands AI capabilities of mobile devices.

In terms of AI-related capabilities, this single NPU positions the Exynos 9820 as inferior to Huawei’s Hisilicon Kirin 980 which comes with dual NPUs. However, Samsung including it in the new chipset is a brilliant move.

The Samsung Exynos 9820 also uses improved Gigabit-class LTE-Advanced Pro modem which will bring about enhanced download and upload speeds on its smartphones.

The Exynos 9820 is said to be in mass production phases and would be available to be used on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10.

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