Google Maps update for iOS will save you waiting time at restaurants

March 21, 2018

Google understands that it is unpleasant to pull up at a nice restaurant and then have to wait minutes before your group can get seated. That is why they have added a new feature to their iOS app which will let you know when there is such a wait at that restaurant you are about to go to.

This new feature is rolling out to the Google Maps for iOS only though, so Android users should not hold their breaths.

What it will do is inform the restaurant goer of the average waiting times at certain eateries. Because the values can change at any time, Google has opted to go the way of hourly updates rather than sending out a one-time figure.

This new update already has more than one million restaurants covered under it. Asides giving an insight into the waiting times too, the new update also makes it easier to find reviews on a restaurant of your choice.

If you already have the app, just go ahead and update it to start enjoying the new feature. Those that did not have it earlier can head over to the Apple App Store to get their Google Maps installed on their phones

Google kicks off Launchpad Accelerator program in Lagos with 12 start-ups from Africa

O. Christopher

March 20, 2018

Google kicks off Launchpad Accelerator program in Lagos with 12 start-ups from Africa

Google, as part of its fulfilment of Corporate Social Responsibility in Africa, has announced that it would be providing scholarships to aspiring developers across the continent. Kicking off the event in Lagos yesterday, the program which was dubbed Launchpad Accelerator will commence with a total list of 12 start-up companies

In partnership with Udacity and Andel, this scholarship program will see as many as 15,000 single course programs and a system of 500 nanodegree scholarships too. These will be operated on a total budget of $3 million which covers such things as working space, travels, equity-free support and access to industry experts in Google, Silicon Valley and all of Africa.

Each program will last a total of three months, giving a large number of participants a chance to also enjoy the impartation of knowledge over the course of the next three years.

For the first Launchpad Accelerator class, here are the 12 start-ups that have been selected and the regions they come from:

Nigeria – Babymigo, Kudi, OkadaBooks, Piggybank.ng, Riby, Thrive Agric

Kenya – Flexpay, Pezesha

South Africa – swiftVEE

Ghana – OMG Digital

Tanzania – Tango TV

Uganda – Teheca

SwiftKey updated to v7.0, brings stickers and calendar integrations

O. Christopher

March 16, 2018

SwiftKey updated to v7.0, brings stickers and calendar integrations

Ever since Microsoft completed the acquisition of SwiftKey (Android/ iOS) in 2016, there has been a lack of major innovation going into the design and build of the keyboard. However, Microsoft has now pushed out a new update to their new keyboard so that it can better compete with the likes of Gboard and TouchPal that have fast become favourites on the Android OS.

Coming in as the SwiftKey 7.0, the update brings various features such as new GIFs, stickers, themes and menus for the user to choose from. All of these would be revealed once you access the new Toolbar option that is denoted by a ‘+’ sign on the keyboard ribbon.

There is an exclusive sticker option for Android users which lets you pick from a massive library of stickers when you are chatting. These stickers can be sent as they are or edited to get the perfect look before you hit the send button.

Some expected features are the location feature which would allow you either share your location with someone you are chatting with or send them an address that you have saved. Above that, a new calendar integration will soon allow you make plans from your chats directly into your phone’s calendar app.

To cap it all off, this new update sees the addition of eight new languages. Described as ‘lish’ language, this is supposedly going to make the transition between one language and the other even more seamless.

YouTube rolls out Dark Theme to mobile, but you may not get it yet

O. Christopher

March 14, 2018

YouTube rolls out Dark Theme to mobile, but you may not get it yet

The much-loved YouTube Dark theme will now be featuring on mobiles, and the iOS users will be the first to get it. This was made known via a tweet sent out by the YouTube team yesterday to announce the coming of this new skin to mobile users.

It’s finally here! 🙌
Dark theme is rolling out on iOS over the next few days. Toggle it on/off in settings. pic.twitter.com/Mkfl1Dzu3M
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) March 13, 2018

The tweet has a video embedded in it to help people set up their YouTube applications in order to display this new theme. For those of you who don’t want to watch, the video instructs that you tap on your profile icon after which you should tap on the Settings tab. From there, you will be able to enable or disable the Dark Theme option.

The YouTube Team was asked about when the same feature will be available for Android users. While they did not provide any specifics as to the date to expect such a rollout on the Google-owned OS, they did promise that it was going to happen soon.

WhatsApp quietly updates the app, extends time window for deleting texts

O. Christopher

March 13, 2018

WhatsApp quietly updates the app, extends time window for deleting texts

Last year, WhatsApp rolled out a neat feature that would allow users delete a text they had sent. This new feature would not only delete the chat for them, but for the person on the other ed too. The only catch there was that such deletion had to occur within the first 7 minutes of sending the text.

That would, of course, prevent the recipient from seeing the message, but they would get notified that a line/ lines of text had been deleted by the sender.

Today, we are happy to announce that WhatsApp has improved on this feature and would now allow you delete messages several minutes after sending them. According to the announcement on their twitter page, the new timeframe is a little weird and specific.

A new WhatsApp for iOS update (2.18.31) is available on AppStore.
It is a bug fixes update, but it has the new “Delete for everyone” limit, that’s 1 hour, 8 minutes and 16 seconds.
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 8, 2018

Going into the numbers, you can now keep messages for 1 hour, 8 minutes and 16 seconds after you send it. Beyond that time, you won’t be able to delete it anymore.

We are not sure why the window was expanded this much but it would surely provide for folks who have second thoughts about what they have said, many minutes after they must have put the world out. The only downside is that deleting the message still won’t protect you against screenshots, so it’s better to put a lot of thought into the text before hitting the send button at all

HTC starts pushing Android 8 Oreo update to their U Ultra units

O. Christopher

March 9, 2018

HTC starts pushing Android 8 Oreo update to their U Ultra units

More than eight months after HTC told users of their U Ultra that they would be getting the Android 8.0 push, the Asian OEM is now making good on its promise. If you have kept to your unit since the time of the announcement, you should be happy to know that the Taiwanese phone brand has now begun to serve the newest Android dessert to its U Ultra devices.

For now, it is confirmed that the update is rolling out in just India, Taiwan and Italy. After these regions though, it is sure that the update would move to other regions too. You should keep tapping the update button if you are impatient or just wait for the notification to show up on your device.

Before the update hits your unit, you might want to free up about 1.6GB of space. You should also plan ahead to use a strong WIFI network unless you are ready to incur additional mobile data charges. That being said, the massive download does not just bring the Android 8 Oreo on board. Even though that is what takes up the lion’s share, the update also comes with the January security patch. Now that we are in March, that is coming a little late. However, it is always better late than never.

During the first announcement of what devices would get the Oreo as at last year, HTC made mention of their U11 and HTC 10 units too. Both have already gotten their own pushes, so the U Ultra just rounds up the formation

First developer preview for Android P launched as timeline for development revealed

O. Christopher

March 8, 2018

First developer preview for Android P launched as timeline for development revealed

We are still loving the Android 8 Oreo dessert that Google has put on the table, but the Android OS giant might have set its sights to even bigger things.

According to a new report from the Android Developers website, the Android P beta will be out on the market as early as May. For those that do not know, there’s already a developer preview of the Android P in the market, and it came out yesterday (March 7).

When the second developer preview comes out for Android P in early May, that would mean the software has exited its alpha stage and moved onto beta testing. From there, we could have the possibility of an open beta testing where any and all members of the public will be able to check out what the Android P will entail upon launch.

As the timeline progresses into early June, we will start to get their developer preview. That will be accompanied by updates such as the addition of final APIs and Play publishing. DP4 will be the version that the candidate can go on to test again. While that would still be unstable, we would be getting ready for the final thing. By the time we get DP5 in August, there would be just a matter of few weeks before the official version of the new dessert is unveiled.

From now, that is a good six months to look at. Of course, we are excited to learn everything that Google plans for us this time around. While we wait though, would you like to guess what the P could possibly mean?

Google updates Search app for iOS, includes iMessage support, ‘drag and drop’ and more

O. Christopher

March 6, 2018

Google updates Search app for iOS, includes iMessage support, ‘drag and drop’ and more

Google announced sometimes last week that they are actively working on some changes to the Search app that will make searches even better for users. They have started to keep to their word with a new improvement, but only iOS users can have it for now.

According to a new announcement by the Android OS giant, Apple-ware users now get a handful of new features on the Search app. Of all the changes the app gets, the most important one is the iMessage extension. Users can use this to search and share media (GIFs, videos, pictures, etc) when chatting with contacts. Locations of places such as restaurants and bars are not also left out of things that can be shared with this extension.

New icons such as ‘Food’ and ‘Nearby’ now ensures that iOS users can share their favourite places, share a card into an ongoing conversation and perform searches between chats. The great news is that you don’t have to update your app to get these new features, provided you already have the Google app installed on your unit.

Asides the iMessage support, Google also includes a neat feature that helps you explore the web better from your Safari browser. Sharing a webpage with the Google app will lead you to various suggestions about related content, helping you learn more about the topic you have shared about. We should note that this feature can be used with other browsers in your phone asides Safari too.

With an iPad that runs at least iOS 11, you will find out that you can now use the drag and drop feature to search, save or share files. Be it a text, image or link, everything can be dragged and dropped from the comfort of the all-new Google app.

For now, this iMessage support is being rolled out in the US. As time goes on, Google promises to make it available for even more regions to take advantage of

Groupe PSA captures 11.6% market share in Africa, sees revenue rise by 20.7% overall

O. Christopher

March 5, 2018

Groupe PSA – the brand that is behind the likes of OPEL Omega and Citroen – has posted its earnings for the year 2017, and they would hope to keep soaring in this new way. According to the data released by the company, the internal revenue has climbed a massive 20.7% as compared to what was obtainable in the year 2016.

While the company has been able to record a larger percentage of their sales in the European markets, they also have the Middle Eastern and African markets to thank for this massive upwards trend.

Speaking on the new, impressive statistics, the Chairman of the Groupe PSA Managing Board, Carlos Tavares, said

Our agile, customer focused and socially responsible approach is making the difference.

A lot of the success that Groupe PSA has recorded can be attributed to a series of executive decisions that they have made over time. The Groupe was able to bear the effect of negative exchange rates by releasing new models that more than compensated for their losses.

They then went on to initiate a product mix and various cost reduction strategies which saw them keep their heads above water even when the prices of raw materials were further going up through the roof.

In the African markets, Groupe PSA proudly sold a massive 618,800 units. The OPEL brand was well represented, taking no less than 26,800 of the total number. That ensures the brand can now lay claim to a market share of 11.7% while still gunning for their goal of selling 700,000 units in the region by 2021.

At this rate, and with the expert management the company is under right now, that doesn’t seem like such a fleeting idea.

To further cement its drive, car manufacturing plants have been set up in each of Morocco, Kenya and Ethiopia. Still expanding its base, pen has been put to a contract that would see one of such local manufacturing points spring up in Oran of Algeria.

Microsoft makes special version of Skype to work on older models of Android

O. Christopher

March 2, 2018

Microsoft makes special version of Skype to work on older models of Android

Microsoft is crossing the OS barrier to please Android users who are still using old models of phones run on the operating system. In recent news, the Mountain View company announced that they have optimised their Skype for Android application to work well on older units of Android.

For now, that support is extended to those who have Android devices still on versions 4.0.3 to the 5.1 Lollipop.

The optimised Skype has a smaller size compared to the normal one and will take less memory too. All that will ensure the app runs smoother, better and makes better audio/ video calls.

Microsoft even promises that the application will be able to cope better in areas with challenging network conditions. It almost seems like this is a Lite version of the application as many top app developers have now been releasing.

The application is yet to hit the Play Store. It is expected that initial rollout starts in a few days. Still, it would take a few days before the application reaches all regions.

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