Samsung begins Oreo rollout to Galaxy S8/S8+ units in Europe

February 8, 2018

… with other markets expected to follow suit shortly

Late last month, Samsung put an end to the Android 8 Oreo beta program for the users of its recent line of flagship designs – the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. Since then, the company had promised to start rolling out the stable version, but not much has been heard.

Today though, there is some good news as the South Korean OEM commenced the rollout of this software as promised.

It appears that the initial rollout is being sent to those who were a part of the beta program, and rightly so. This week is nearly at an end, but we expect that there would be a bigger rollout to include non-beta testers as from the end of the week. If you have not gotten a notification too, it might be because you are not in Europe.

Being an OTA update, the Galaxy phone manufacturer is pushing the update out in batches and by region. They had already made it known via a reply to one of their users that not everyone would get the update at the same time, so you might just have to sit tight till it hits your market too.

If you have been on the beta program, the good news is that you just have to worry about downloading some 487MB of additional data before you are fully patched to the stable software. Those that are coming from Nougat would have to part with considerably higher space on their devices, but there is no detail as to that information yet.

There is no update calendar that tells of when the update would hit units in other markets for now, but as soon as we hear anything, we will surely let you know. Watch this space for more information.

Opera News application crosses the 1 million download mark in less than a month

O. Christopher

February 7, 2018

Opera News application crosses the 1 million download mark in less than a month

Opera made the decision to separate its news feature from the browser application, and that looks to bearing some dividends now. Just four weeks into the launch of the application on various App stores, it has now reached the 1 million download mark. This impressive feat does not come alone, as the news application is now rated the number 1 app on Google Play Store for the Kenyan, Nigerian and Ghanaian markets.

The aim of Opera News is to bring to users the latest in entertainment and other world news, right from the comfort of a single application. To further boost its presence in Nigeria, the brand signed on Simi – a promising Nigerian artiste who is making huge waves in the industry.

It would now look like all the energy that the brand has directed to the marketing of its new product has finally been rewarded with this first milestone.

Jorge Arnesen, the Global Head of Marketing and Distribution Ait Opera, has said that

We are thrilled to see more than a million downloads of the app, and that we rank above other apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

That is, indeed, an achievement, considering the major pull the developers of the mentioned apps have on the market in general.

Opera News was first released in early January 2018. Ever since, it has gone on to warm its way into the hearts of users with the way it delivers tailored content and videos. According to information released by the company, the artificial intelligence behind the application sources for and aggregates all news items in the entertainment niche in one place.

As much as the user uses the app, it becomes smarter as to what they love to see and consume, giving them just that in the future.

Opera has dedicated its time and energy to an Africa First campaign, and we know this is a first of many to come for the black market.

Lawsuit: Airtel Nigeria could pay 5 million Naira in damages if found guilty of…

O. Christopher

February 6, 2018

Lawsuit: Airtel Nigeria could pay #5 million in damages if found guilty of…

Some trouble seems to be lurking in the passages of Airtel Nigeria right now as they could be taken for as much as #5 million if a claim that was just recently submitted by a user of the network is verified to stand in a court of law.

According to the complainant, who was simply identified as Niyi Bada, the network is guilty of deducting unnecessary charges from his account. This, he complained, has been done for no less than two years now.

The claim, which was submitted through the client’s law firm. also confirmed that the complainant has been at the telecoms company’s head office multiple times to lodge complaints, and ask that the services which lead to deductions be discontinued, but all to no avail.

That is why he has resorted to this measure. Quite frankly, this would serve as a beacon of hope to many Nigerians who have given up in their quest to see telecoms providers stop exploitation in this form.

A part of the letter sent through his solicitors, Niyi Bada and Co., to the telecoms operator reads

Our client informed us that in the last two years, his line that he bought in 2003 and which he has put into use ever since, has been inundated with numerous text messages informing him about his subscription to numerous services some of which are Video Magic Weekly, Mini start service, VID service, Fashion weekly, 2 VID service, 10 Vid Service, VOD, 828, 1 Subscription service, Goool Club, N – Express Fashion Service, Smart Now, Hollywood Club and Music Club.

The letter went on to state that anytime the client – Niyi Bada, that is – went to make a complaint, the services would be deactivated only for them to show up a few days after that again. As such, the letter continues that

It would appear that your company has a policy to fleece subscribers of their hard-earned money hence the decision to always restore the unsolicited even when there were formal and persistent complaints to take them off.

With this, it does look like the man has a case against the network. We will let you know how the story goes as soon as we get anything else

Report: Tablet shipments slumps in 2017, Apple still gains significantly

O. Christopher

February 6, 2018

Report: Tablet shipments slumps in 2017, Apple still gains significantly

It is a season of decline, seeing the likes of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency plummet down in sales. The same happened to the Chinese smartphone market, and Xiaomi even pipped a slipping Samsung to the top spot in India. As if that is not enough, the tablet market is also having its own dip, and it does not look like its going away anytime soon.

According to IDC – a research firm – the sales of tablets last year was down about 6.5 percent from the year before that. In figures, that accounts for a reduction of more than 10 million tablets in all. In 2016, there was a double-digit decline in the shipments of tablets, but the figures still managed to stay at 174.9 million. Last year though, the figures went further down, leading to a triple-digit decline to just 163 million units instead.

In spite of that, Apple seemed to have enjoyed a boom in the market. From recording a shipment of 42.6 million in the year 2016, the Cupertino-based company can easily boast of a decent 43.8 million shipments made on tablets alone last year.

That is not just an increase for the iPhone makers, but also a holding of 27% of the total market share. Samsung is losing on the second front again, dropping to second and Amazon was in the third position.

The good news for smartphone and tablet makers this year is that customers might be appreciating detachable tablets more than the traditional units now. According to the same reports, shipments for detachable units went up 1.2% amidst all these drops.

Before the market would get saturated, other brands could quickly bring out irresistible innovation in the field and make some sales. That being said, a template has already been set for the year, and we expect the very best to come out of the competition on who would lay claim to the bestselling detachable.

Leak: Nokia 7 Plus to carry 18:9 aspect ratio screen, dual cameras and other interesting specs

O. Christopher

February 5, 2018

HMD Global is at it again, and now, they have promised to make a phone with the much-coveted 18:9 screen aspect ratio. This will also be spread across a large screen that would stand at 6 inches, and be privy to the Nokia 7 Plus.

Other details were released about the build and design of the Nokia 7 Plus too. Some of those included tips on a Gorilla glass that would sit on the front, aluminium material that would be used for the overall build and also, a dual camera setup. It is not surprising that these cameras would carry the Zeiss branding, and that even makes them more interesting to look forward to.

The selfie generation has been around for a while now, and the market is getting a little bit saturated. The Nokia 7 Plus aims to address that with the introduction of ‘bothies,’ allowing a user take pictures with the rear and front cameras simultaneously.

Such pictures would surely be beautiful pieces, considering that a 16MP camera would be sitting in front of the phone. On the back would be the 12MP camera (to be designed to shoot in a ‘wide’ mode) and a 13MP snapper (made to shoot in ‘tele’ mode instead).

To make the aluminium less slippery than normal, a ceramic-like texture would be adopted in developing it. On this aluminium body would the be other features such as the fingerprint scanner, and obviously, the Nokia logo.

Going under the hood, some of the expected specs for the Nokia 7 Plus are a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, 4GB of RAM and an internal storage space of 64GB. Thankfully, there would be a microSD card slot for those who would want to expand the storage capacity.

To cap it all off, the mobile phone which is expected to ship with Android 8 Oreo out of the box would also feature fast charging capabilities alongside a USB Type C port

David Marcus: Messenger for Kids will make families better

O. Christopher

February 2, 2018

David Marcus: Messenger for Kids will make families better

Speaking at the Upfront Summit in Los Angeles this Thursday, David Marcus – the Facebook Vice President of Messaging Products – has spoken about the amount of backlash the brand is getting on the back of launching an instant messaging platform for kids.

You will recall that sometimes in December of last year, Facebook rolled out the Messenger for Kids application. According to them, this would serve the needs of kids aged 6 – 12.

Since its launch, some have appreciated the genius behind this decision. However, that group would not be as much as those who are kicking against it. For many, this is too early a time for kids to make an entry into the world of social media and constant instant messaging.

Marcus does not see anything wrong with the initiative though, going on to claim that

Families will be better off because it exists. I firmly believe it is a good product.

Defending the choice of product launch, Marcus explains that the idea of the application was to include young children in the family into family group chats. For that reason, the application would not function as a social media outlet as we have come to know it.

Apparently, he is one happier parent since the launch of the application.

“My daughter uses it on a daily basis now. It has enabled me to be more in touch with her” was his comment on the subject.

Leaving Messenger for Kids to rest, Marcus also addressed how he would not want the app to become used like email. While it was becoming increasingly important for businesses to keep in touch with their customers, he would appreciate if the businesses kept things t the customers being the first to engage/ start the conversation.

All this is coming after he addressed the issue of banning ads on cryptocurrencies, binary options and such other financial cases that might be fraudulent on the application. This is ironic since Marcus is one of the directors over at Coinbase.

Report: The wait might be over as new owner of 9Mobile is announced

O. Christopher

February 2, 2018

Report: The wait might be over as new owner of 9Mobile is announced

After a very lengthy sales process, the new owners of the 9Mobile brand – which was formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria – have been revealed. This is coming after a sales process overseen by both Barclays Africa and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

In the time that the now-acquired company has been listed for sale, it had attracted interest from numerous bidders, seen brands pull out of the deal and also, been caught in other sale contractions.

Initially starting with a total of 10 bidders, the sales process saw this number reduce to merely five. Of the five bidders that made the final list, Airtel left the pool with claims that they could not trust an investment in something such as 9Mobile.

That is understandable, given that there is no determining the strength of the network since it failed under Barclays Africa and changed its name. After that, Glo and Helios failed to come forward with a bid, even as the deadline was drawing nearer.

That left the duo of Smile Telecoms Holdings and Teleology Holdings to make an offer, and that they did. According to figures showing up in the news, the latter company proposed $500 million to secure the rights to the network, while the latter offered a comparatively modest $300 million instead. With these numbers, it is not surprising why Teleology has now been announced as the new owners of 9Mobile.

While nothing has been confirmed from the parties involved in the sale as of yet, new reports are strongly indicative of this being the case. Should it pan out to be totally legit news, we believe the brand has fallen into good hands.

Currently, the CEO of Teleology Holdings Limited, Adrian Wood, was the first CEO of the MTN Nigeria group. Having gone on to man other projects since leaving the Y’ello brand, we believe he is capable of turning the network into something amazing.

Apple removes the Telegram apps from App Store because of inappropriate content

O. Christopher

February 1, 2018

Telegram – the fast-growing instant messaging platform – has been taken off the Apple Store for now. This was noticed by the guys over at 9to5Mac yesterday, and they have since taken to Reddit to create a thread on that.

Apparently, the application has fallen into the bad books of Apple and would remain unavailable till they fix it.

Currently, searches on the application would yield other instant messaging options such as Viber, WeChat and Skype. What is most intriguing is that even the Telegram X – which the company promises might or might not replace the initial build of the application – has been taken off the Apple store too. This is coming a day after the latter development application was announced for Android users.

There is no concrete reason as to why the application was taken off the app store. However, the founder of the Telegram app, Pavel Durov, responded to a Twitter user yesterday that it was on the back of ‘inappropriate content.’

In his reply, he wrote back that

We were alerted by Apple that inappropriate content was made available to our users and both apps were taken off the App store. Once we have protections in place, we expect the apps to be back on the App store.

To ensure best practices, Apple already has a template in place for those who would want their apps displayed on the Appstore.

One that particularly applies to instant messaging platforms like Telegram dictates that the platform have a method for disallowing objectionable materials from showing up on its app. Also, it asks for a mechanism to report offensive content that might have been missed by this filter, and a service that allows users block such abusive persons.

Taking down a major application such as Telegram is a show that Apple cares or about its users, and that would be a good note to fall back on.

Toshiba launches 7 New, Fast and Secure Laptops for Pros in the E-series

O. Christopher

February 1, 2018

Toshiba is currently enlarging its line of laptops, adding as much as seven new names to the already existent E-family of laptops. These new additions, it is believed, would be able to cater to the needs of professionals even when they are on the move. To that end, each has been equipped with high-end chipsets (up to the 8^th generation Intel Core in some) and is coupled with a perfectly rugged design.

The names of the new devices to launch are Portege X20W-E, Portege X30-E, Tecra X40-E, Tecra A50-E, Tecra Z50-E, Satellite Pro A50-E and Pro R50-E. The new Toshiba laptops take a deviation from the norms when it comes to the design of high-performance laptops and portable units.

While designers are known to give the high-performance varieties (usually) weak build, they have also been known to sacrifice great specs for ruggedness on the latter too. Toshiba thus blends these two features into one on the new additions to the E family.

For example, the Protégé X30-E has been detailed as coming with a reflective touchscreen based on the current In-Cell technology. This touch technology helps users navigate and consume content on the laptop without having to compromise the structural integrity of its build.

Speaking on the launch, the Senior Vice President of the PC and Solutions EMEA department, Maki Yamashita, said

The launch of the new E-generation further demonstrates our ambition to provide the fastest and most powerful laptops for professionals on the go. We understand that our users’ working patterns are continuing to evolve, and so we aim to provide them laptops that offer them the same performance, regardless of where they are working from. Our latest range of products will provide a mix of high performance, security, mobility and connectivity – and is ideal for today’s business user.

In addition to the ruggedness and high-performance nature of the laptops, they are also guaranteed to be very secure. There is provision for facial recognition and fingerprint scanning capabilities on the laptops, ensuring that the data of professionals are always secure.

Being a computer designed for users who would most likely always be on the go, the portability cannot be called into questions.

Huawei signs MoU with Dubai Tourism Authority, to display exclusive info about the city

O. Christopher

January 31, 2018

Dubai is a city that has always been on the top of the list for many as an ideal tourist destination, and with recent developments, more people will think so too. Huawei – the Chinese OEM – has partnered up with the Dubai’s Tourism Authority (DTCM) in a move that would see the company further project the city to the world.

It is expected that as soon as this deal takes off, users of phones made by the Huawei brand all over the world would start to get exclusive highlights into the wonders that lie inside the city of Dubai.

Perhaps, the most interactive way to do this would be to improve the theme packages, lock screens and galleries on these phones to celebrate the city. On top of that, DTCM is in the works with Huawei on a new EMUI OS that would help users of the phone explore Dubai better than others.

Asides the cosmetic changes, the global smartphone brand will also be involved in the provision of quality information about the city to its users. This information will range from images and videos in the city to information on events happening all around town.

That is not to mention the specialised service offerings to tourists, business people and residents. That could help anyone – regardless of their reason for being in the city – to have the best and a seamless online experience. Of course, that is if the person had a Huawei phone to call their own.

On the development, the CEO of Dubai Tourism, Mr Issam Kazim said

We are fully committed to raising consideration of Dubai as the destination of choice for global travellers and constantly seek exciting opportunities to reach new audiences. This MoU with Huawei will help us achieve that goal by increasing awareness of Dubai’s key selling points including local culture and heritage, gastronomy, retail, entertainment and adventure across Middle East, Africa and China travellers…

For a city which enjoys one of the highest influx of tourists and business people yearly, this new development is sure to increase those numbers in folds.

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