Snapchat enhances its Bitmoji so much, your avatars can even have your hair

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January 30, 2018

What is better than the Snapchat Bitmoji initiative? Don’t rack your brain for too long. The answer is ‘enhanced Snapchat Bitmojis,’ and that is what the company has now given its fans.

If you are a user of the popular picture and video sharing application, you are in for a ride. In a new update to the web-based application, you can now customise your Bitmoji to have over 40 different skin tones.

It does not end there, as they have also given you power over the hair. In fact, you have 50 different colours to choose from here, and a further 50 different hair treatment options. With these tools, there is rarely a case where you won’t be able to customise your Bitmoji to look remotely like you.

Coming with Bitmoji Deluxe, the company will surely make a lot of users happy with this new update. Likewise, it goes on to support that they are a racially-friendly outfit, dong well for their PR.

Although there is still no facial recognition technology to customise your Bitmoji for you, the Mobile app gives you the option to take a selfie while customising. That, it is believed, would help you pay better attention to details in your work.

In the backend, the new update gives Snapchat even more flexibility. If all that is technical jargons to you, it simply means that they have made it easier to update the Bitmoji system, so expect better updates in the future.

Acquiring the Bitmoji app for some $64.2 million back in the year 2016, Snapchat has been able to make something good happen with the application. What we hope right now is that the brand can expand faster before Facebook – one big company that shamelessly copies the ideas of Snapchat – starts its own version and aims to overtake.

Solo Phones partner up with Sterling Bank and 9Mobile to launch contract smartphone

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O. Christopher

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January 30, 2018

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Solo Phones has taken the idea of contract phones to a new level, partnering with 9Mobile and Sterling Bank to bring out a smartphone with mobile plans coming with it out of the box.

The mobile phone, it is said, would be exclusively be available to those who currently bank or do other businesses with the involved financial institution. From the partner list, it needs no telling what telecommunications company would be supplying the data plans in this deal.

Grama Narasimhan, the Executive Director for the Retail and Consumer Marketing department of the bank, has said that

The partnership reflects the financial institutions’ commitment to delivering value to its customers.

Speaking on the contract plan, he made it known that customers who subscribed to the new idea would be able to enjoy a very attractive bundle of monthly plans, which comes in addition to a Solo Aspire 4 smartphone.

The bundle would consist all the essentials needed for a smartphone: Voice, SMS, Data plans, social media bundles and recharge bonuses. The contract also supports payments for the phone in installments, up to 12 months.

The Chief Marketing Officer of the bank, in the person of Henry Bassey, stressed that the partnership shows how committed the bank is to ensure every Nigerian is availed the opportunity to own a smartphone. Not just any smartphone too, but one with all the resources needed to enjoy the benefits of such a phone.

For those who are interested, he made mention of the juicy offers that come with the Solo Aspire 4 contract plan, listing them as 90 minutes of call time, social plans and up to 1.5GB of free data.

The deal is even bettered with the inclusion of an insurance plan. To take part of this deal, a Sterling bank customer can walk into their brand and walk out with the phone, all with a down payment of 10,000 Naira.

This should be noted as another feather in the cap of 9Mobile. Even though they are in the midst of a turbulent sales process, they still find time to support good causes. First was the release of the short film titled ‘Closed,’ and now, they have this offer to call part of their own. It is sure the brand has a lot more to offer to Nigerians under this new name.

9Mobile sale stalls again as stakeholders call for review of sales conditions

By

O. Christopher

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January 29, 2018

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In what was a poor turn of events for 9Mobile, Airtel and Globacom pulled out of the race to become the sole owners of the brand that was formerly known as Etisalat, even though they made the list of the final four bidders.

That opened the room for the other two potential buyers – Teleology Holdings and Smile Telecom Holdings – to throw in their bids. This they did, with the former company coming up top (with a $500 million bid), but things don’t seem to be looking up for 9Mobile still.

Even though a company has met all the requirements to make the sale a possibility, a little bit of holdup will prevent Teleology from getting ownership of the infrastructure owned by 9Mobile. At least, for now.

It is believed by some industry sources that the details of the sale are not as transparent as it should be, among other things.

The inside source also made the point that the conditions of the sale are being reviewed. That is understandable since a sale of this magnitude is sensitive enough to not be based on just who has the biggest pocket. Conditions may now include the operational efficiency of the company, contributions to the economy and the likes.

According to the source, which preferred not to be named in the press, the sums being touted by the sellers as the official bids received were not in any way correct. It is said that they might just be distractions to the general public so that the final winners of the bid could serve their own interests.

That being said, the source also confirmed that the parties involved in the sale (the Central Bank of Nigeria and Nigerian Communications Commission) remained impartial in dealing with the entire process.

No matter which one of these companies get to have the remains of Etisalat – now 9Mobile – it is sure that they will be able to manage it well. That is evident in the fact that both companies now have directors who have both, at one time, been the CEO of the MTN Nigeria group – the single biggest telecoms provider in the country.

Chinese Smartphone Market undergoes its first dip in Shipment volume in 2017

By

O. Christopher

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January 26, 2018

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Even though Xiaomi recently gained the upper hand on Samsung when it comes to the mobile market shares in the Chinese market, there is no growth indication for the general smartphone market in the region. In fact, according to a new report, the market is now seeing its first annual decline in shipments for the year ended 2017.

This was not totally surprising news since the Chinese market recorded an unprecedented drop in shipments in the second quarter of the year 2017. However, it was not expected that this drop would be sustained throughout the twelve-month period.

In total, the mobile phone shipments into this market dipped by four percent, and they will hope to make up for that in the coming years.

Dip or not, China is still the largest phone market in the world. Calculating the total units shipped after the decline in shipments, it still stands at staggering 459 million units.

This decline can be blamed on saturation in the market alongside other factors. That being said, one of the brads that would not have felt the impact of this dip so much is Huawei.

In the Q4 of 2017, just 113 million units of smartphones were shipped. This is down 14 percent from the previous year, but interestingly, Huawei was able to account for 24 million of those shipments. This represents a solid growth spurt and brand recognition for the company in a very competitive phone market.

Oppo and Vivo, on the other hand, do not have the same story to tell. In China, the two companies have seen their sales drop by a margin of 16 percent and 7 percent respectively. The good news is that they made up for this with the global emergence in other Asian markets in the same time frame.

Facebook aims to change AR/VR experience with full-body immersion

By

O. Christopher

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January 26, 2018

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Facebook is one of the big brands that are crazy about the AR and VR technology too, and they have not made a secret of it.

The social media giant has always made it known that they will engage in extensive research to make sure the technology is better optimised for entertainment and communication purposes. In line with that, we have news from the blue-themed company.

New research in the AR and VR field by the dedicated department at Facebook suggests that they might be looking to change the way in which people experience digital reality. Instead of making gadgets that will modify the face and head part of the body alone, they might be looking to rate a fully-immersive situation.

In a blog post released by the AI Camera Team at Facebook, some work which aims to replace the full body of the user in the alternate reality world is being promoted. An excerpt from the blog post reads

We recently developed a new technology that can accurately detect body poses and segment a person from their background. Our model is still in research phase at the moment, but it is only a few megabytes, and can run on smartphones in real time.

Of course, this is not the first research that will be used to track full body movements. Many gaming software development companies (such as PES and FIFA) have been known to use skeletal tracking systems on some players to recreate the true effect and physics of the human body in the game.

However, it should be lauded that Facebook is tending towards making sure this is a technology that will be available even on mobile.

Of course, it would be hard to compress all of the sensor data, image resolution, frames per second and image rendering into a few megabytes that will be functional without lagging into a mobile phone. With Facebook though, we can be sure to get it. All we should worry about is when.

Swift Networks Launches SmartBusiness Kit, Customized ICT Solutions for SMEs

By

passyjango

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November 13, 2017

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LAGOS, November 1, 2017. SWIFT NETWORKS LIMITED, Nigeria’s leading broadband services provider has launched a suite of Information and Communications Technology products customized to support Nigerian SMEs. These bundled solutions will reduce cost and give small businesses better control of their operations to drive efficiencies and growth.

To operate under the sub-brand of SWIFT SMARTBusiness Kit, these all-in-one service bundles will consist of all the office and home connectivity, hosting and bespoke business software solutions available to small businesses in the market today.

“SWIFT SMARTBusiness Kit continues in SWIFT’s tradition of demystifying and simplifying technology to help unlock Nigeria’s abundant potentials so that people can achieve more in their daily undertakings,”

enthused Mr. Charles Anudu, Managing Director of SWIFT.

“SWIFT SMARTBusiness Kit is user friendly and will resolve the problem of small businesses dealing with multiple vendors who often present them with conflicting solutions that are not future-proof. With our solution, SMEs will obtain all their ICT solutions from a single trusted service provider with the industry’s best of customer care team on one monthly bill,”

according to Mr. Chukwuma Okoye, the Chief Operating Officer of SWIFT.

“And because we are sure that our target- small businesses- will like this solution, SWIFT SMARTBusiness kit will come with a 30-day money back guarantee with no questions asked if the customer is not satisfied with the solution.”

He further added that

“for the early birds, we shall throw in a free home internet access for the business for as long as the subscription is current.”

A sample SWIFT Business Kit solution will consist of office (and free home) internet, web and e-mail hosting, attractive business and international travel voice call rates, à la carte business software modules for sales, accounting, customer relationship management, inventory management and human resource management. A customer can start with a basic plan and either add or drop modules as the business evolves. This is because our solutions basket are well aligned and future-proof.

SWIFT SMARTBusiness Kit is specially targeted at businesses in the professional services, eCommerce, traditional retail, educational, healthcare, hospitality and cottage industries. The services will be distributed directly through SWIFT’s customer centres as well as those of its online and off-line channel partners. It will also be supported by a professional field sales team from SWIFT.

You may also be interested in the Best Web Hosting for Small Business.

Innovative business directory in Nigeria lets users find companies by a chatbot

By

passyjango

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November 11, 2017

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London, 9^th of October 2017.

For the past 12 months, a team of developers and business executives have been working on an innovative, game changing business social networking tool in Nigeria.

AfricaLinked.com is a business directory of products, companies and people with over 50,000 registered members. The site is free to use and focuses on helping business people across Nigeria to instantly discover potential business partners by searching the database.

The Founder and CEO, Bertrams Lukstins:

“We have taken a very simple concept of business directory but really added our innovation on top of it. No other directory lets users find companies the way we do and see detailed due-diligence information about the companies”

The site lets people find companies based on a sector, sub-sector as well as a business goal, such as companies looking for distributing partners. Searchers can then see the company’s registration number, it’s employees’ names and much more. A simple but effective solution to help Nigerian business people succeed by utilizing technology.

Apart from companies, the site lets users also submit and search for products.

Bertrams:

“Our mission is to connect millions of African business people on AfricaLinked. We’re in the very early days in our quest and still looking to improve the user-experience to develop a truly revolutionary business platform. Our ultimate-goal is to be a point-of-contact directory, a place to find whatever one’s business requires.”

One of the great outside of the box functions of AfricaLinked.com is a chatbot advisor – a program that lets people speak to an artificially intelligent bot. A first of its kind in Nigeria, the chatbot acts as an assistant to help understand and navigate the site.

Bertrams Lukstins: “All of us at AfricaLinked.com are very excited about chatbots and the way they will influence interactions with web-platforms. We believe chatbots will find mind-blowing use-cases across the globe, especially in Africa.

African tech users like to be guided, to know what is it all about and how it can benefit them. Chat bots provide just that. We’re very happy to be the first to introduce this in Nigeria. It’s an unique application of a chatbot and it’s free to use, everything is free to use on AfricaLinked! We invite every Nigerian to check out the chatbot and AfricaLinked.”

The chat bot is found under an “advisor” section on the site: https://www.africalinked.com/advisor

Google brings Launchpad Accelerator to Africa

By

passyjango

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November 9, 2017

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Nigeria, 9th November — Google has announced a major new development, which will provide a major boost to African entrepreneurs.

In line with the commitment Google CEO Sundar Pichai made to support African entrepreneurs earlier this year, the company is announcing the Google Developers Launchpad Africa, a new hands-on comprehensive mentorship program tailored exclusively to startups based in Africa.

Building on the success of Google’s global Launchpad Accelerator programme, this initiative will operate from a new Google Launchpad Space in Lagos (the first onsite location for the programme outside the US).

It will provide African startups with over $3-million in equity-free support, working space, and access to expert advisers from Google, Silicon Valley, and Africa over the next three years. Participants will also receive travel and Public Relations support during the three-month programme.

The first application period is now open through December 11, 6pm (GMT) and the first class will start in early 2018. More classes will be hosted in 2018 and beyond.

All startups must:

Be a technology startup.
Be based in Sub-Saharan Africa and target the African market.
Have already raised seed funding

Google will additionally consider:

The problem you are trying to solve. How does it create value for users? How are you addressing a real challenge for your home city, country or Africa broadly?
Will you share what you learn in Silicon Valley for the benefit of other startups in your local ecosystem?

“Anyone who spends time in the African technology space knows that the continent is home to some exciting innovations,”

says Andy Volk, Sub-Saharan Africa Ecosystem Regional Manager.

“Over the years, Google has worked with some incredible startups across Africa, tackling everything from healthcare, education, streamlining e-commerce to improving the food supply chain. We very much look forward to welcoming the first cohort of innovators for Launchpad Africa and continue to work together to drive innovation in the African market.”

Global Biopesticides Market was Estimated at USD 2,507 million in 2016

By

passyjango

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November 7, 2017

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GMI Research Global Biopesticides Market

GMI Research has recently published a new report titled on “Biopesticides Market by Type (Bioinsecticides, Biofungicides, Bioherbicides, and Bionematicides and Others), Mode of Application (Dry Formulation and Wet Formulation), End-Use (Fruits and Vegetables, Cereals and Row Crops, Seed Treatment and Non-Crops) and Geography – Global Forecast to 2021”. The global market of biopesticides is estimated to be valued at USD 2,507 million in 2016 and is projected to reach USD 4,509 million by the end of 2021, registering a CAGR of 12.46% during the forecast period. Favorable government policies and regulations, increased global demand for organic products and the rise in the adoption of organic farming methods are the key factors bolstering the growth of the biopesticides market.

Bioinsecticides captures the largest market share of the total biopesticides market owing to increase in incidence of pest attacks on fruits and vegetables and crops, as these types of pests have developed resistance to pesticides. The bioinsecticides segment is estimated to continue the same momentum and will capture the largest share of biopesticides market in 2021 due to increasing focus towards the prevention of insect-borne diseases and the increase in demand for organic food products.

Dry formulation amounts to approximately 68% of the total biopesticides market because most of the biopesticides are preferred in dry form as they are easy to handle, enable quick application, and are convenient to use. On the other hand, liquid biopesticides are to be sprayed using a compressed air sprayer, fogger, aircraft or soil injector.

The fruits and vegetable segment is expected to grow at a substantial rate during the forecast period. Growing consumer demand for fruits and vegetables and the increasing concern for human health are driving the fruits and vegetables segment.

North America is estimated to capture a substantial share of the biopesticides market in 2016 followed by Europe and Asia Pacific respectively. The increased awareness of biopesticides usage coupled with favorable government policies and regulations are the major factors propelling the growth of the North America biopesticides market. In 2016, US holds the largest market for biopesticides in North America as it has the highest spending on organic agriculture. Extensive research and development coupled with significant investments by leading manufacturers has further spurred the growth of the biopesticides market in the region.

This report also analyzes the competitive landscape and the major player and their market share in 2016. The competitive landscape section of the report also captures and highlights the recent development in the market. The report also profiles the major players active in this field, Key players profiled in this report are Bayer CropScience (Germany), BASF SE (Germany), Monsanto Company (U.S.), Certis USA LLC (U.S.), Koppert Biological Systems (Netherlands), Valent Biosciences (U.S.), Syngeta (Switzerland), Dupont (U.S.), Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Novozymes (Denmark).

For more details, browse the Table of Contents: https://www.gmiresearch.com/report/global-biopesticides-market.html

World’s Largest Prefabricated Building Manufacturer, to solve Housing Deficit Challenge in Nigeria

By

passyjango

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September 15, 2017

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Karmod Nigeria, a subsidiary of world’s no. 1 prefabricated housing solution provider, Karmod, has launched a campaign to solve the housing deficit challenge in Nigeria.

This campaign involves making prefabricated housing a viable alternative to the brick houses which Nigerians are already used to.

According the the General Manager of the company, Mr. Fehim Ozkanca, this move is necessary at this time that Nigeria is just getting out of recession because prefab houses are cheaper to construct, take less time and are more eco-friendly when compared to brick houses.

The company, Karmod, over the last 5 years has built 100’s of school classroom buildings (see photos) and mass camp houses for internally displaced persons in war ravaged North east Nigeria. It has also built over 114 of police transit camp structures (see photos) in over 7 states for the Nigerian Police Force as well as military camps in several states North east Nigeria. In addition to these laudable projects, Karmod has carried out residential housing projects with steel construction in other countries in Sub Saharan Africa.

Thousands of families live happily in houses that are built by Karmod in many states such as Lagos, Abuja, Borno, Anambra etc.

The company which entered into the Nigerian housing market in 2012 has also handled rapid production and installation of emergency units for important partners such state and federal governments in Nigeria, United Nations, UNICEF as well as a large number of local and international relief organizations operating in the country using its new generation container production technology.

Karmod Nigeria relies on the advanced technological Know-how of its parent company in Europe to produce long-lasting habitats that can safely be used in every corner of the country and under any kind of weather condition