All Things Technology

Finally, the Blackberry 10 device has landed in my own country, Nigeria. And one telecom operator has become the first to do so in country.
Airtel, one of the leading telecommunications service provider in Nigeria, yesterday launched the new Blackberry 10 device at the Ikoyi Club, venue of the launch.
According to the network provider, customers who had preordered the device online can now pick up their BB10 smartphones at any Airtel shops across the country. The retail price of the device is N 100,000.

Facebook owned photo-sharing app, Instagram on Monday, hit 100 million active monthly users. Last month, the figure stood at 90 million which means 10 million users joined the photo-sharing app this month.

A new feature phone is coming to developing nations of the world. On Monday, Nokia released a new feature phone, the Nokia 105, a $20 phone. Just in case you might be thinking that the low-end feature phone is ''dumb'', Nokia said the phone has more capabilities than other feature phones in the market today.
In developed nations, smartphones are in great demand, but when it comes to third world countries, feature phones are in demand.

When Samsung announced that it was planning to launch the S3 older brother in 2013, it kept us thinking of what Samsung have in store for us.
On Monday, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain, Samsung said it will unveil the Galaxy S4 on March 14 in New york.
Samsung changed the venue from UK to New York due to multiple requests from U.S mobile carriers to stage the event in the world largest city.
Some tech-bloggers believed that the Galaxy S4 will obsolete any other smartphones; including the Apple iPhone 5

Blackberry today, launched the much-awaited smartphone in India, the Blackberry 10. The smartphone is price at 43,490 rupees($800). The Blackberry 10 line is expected to compete with Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S 3.
At the event, Blackberry said the device will be available in over 2,000 retail outlets across 50 cities in India. The device comes with a 1.5Ghz dual core processor, 16GB of internal storage and external storage of 64GB with a Micro-SD slot.
The Blackberry 10 has already gone on sale in UK, Canada and expected to hit the U.S in mid-march.

Mobile World Congress kicked-off today in Barcelona, Spain and phone makers are showing off their latest tech. Among them is Fujitsu.
Fujitsu unveiled a new M702 android tablet at the event on Monday. The tablet is waterproof (can be submerge in water for 30 minutes) and dust-proof and geared mainly towards those who spend their time on the road. Price of the tablet starts at 999 Euros and, the phone maker said the device is now available online from Monday in stores across Africa, India, Central Europe and in the Middle East.

Microsoft has joined Facebook, Twitter, Apple, New York Times, Washington post in the league of companies hacked. Microsoft said Friday that it a small number of its computers were hacked but said no user data was compromised. The malware used is the same that was used to hacked Facebook, Apple and other companies.
More updates coming soon.

Reliable Sources have confirmed to us that Google glass will arrive this year, and it will sell at $1500.
According to the confirmed source, to preorder the  Google glass, people have to go through an application process.

Last year when Google revealed project glass, it said the device will be available in 2014, but with developer hackathons, the project sped up. Google also launched a website promoting glass
The glass can connect via Bluetooth to iPhones and Android phones.
Watch the video how it feels through glass below.

At a time when we all thought that every individual on the surface of planet earth have internet connections in their homes, some people living in a developed country don't even have an idea of what the internet is.
According to the report from government office of national statistics in the UK, a whooping population of 7.4 million Britons have never used the internet to send emails or surf the web. Some of them, don't even know what YouTube is.
Are they avoiding the internet?

Facebook has found a new way to keep  people busy on the social network.
Facebook today released version 5.5 of its iOS  iPad and Iphone app for facebook to allow friends living in the US and Canada to make free voice calls to their pals over Wi-Fi or data connection.
Friends who like to use the app for free voice calls on Facebook, can navigate to their friends profile, click the contact info and hit  the''i'' button to make free voice call.

The new Blackberry Z10 has been launched in South Africa by pan African telecommunication company, Vodacom in South Africa yesterday. The smartphone is now available both in Vodacom world and Vodacom stores today.

Due to reports that NBC had been hacked, Facebook on Thursday, block NBC website and therefore, Users of the social media network were unable to access links to the news media website through Facebook.
A Facebook spokesperson said they will take action immediately they observed any websites that are being shared. NBC, however, decline to comment when contacted

On Thursday, Google unveiled its new touchscreen Chromebook. The laptop is available for order at Google Play Store and shipping in April.
Price of the device starts at $1,299 for the Wi-Fi only, while the Long Term Evolution, LTE model start at $1,499.

Permit me to use this phrase here ''hackers hacking hackers''. What do you expect?
The Anonymous hacking group fell victim to other rival hacktivist group on Thursday as one of its popular twitter feeds was taken down.
According to what the hack group Rustle League said, it had taken down the @Anon_central Twitter account which has more than 160,000 followers.
Security experts believed that the reason Anonymous group fell is the used of same passwords in all its accounts or passwords that are easy to crack. They therefore adviced internet users to be smarter with their passwords.
However, the Anonymous Twitter account was back in control three hours later.
The question is when the account run by the Anonymous group was hacked, should we be worried?

When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, he didn't had the idea in mind that people who are born in the 1900s, will one day use the social media network.
An old woman named Marguerite Joseph from Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich wanted to update her real birth year to 1908, but every time she tried, Facebook always sent her back to a year she was born in.
Marguerite Joseph is 104-year old, and in April she will clock 105. She wants to share her real age with her friends because she is proud of being 104-year old.
However, Facebook has already sent an apology to her, ''we are working on a fix for this and we apologize for the inconveniences.

Apple yesterday morning admits that hackers infiltrated some of its mac computers. The hackers used a hole in the Java to infect Apple mac computers.
Well, Apple has released an update to help disable the Java plugin for all mac computers.
If you own a mac computer, you should go download the update now. All you need do is, open up the app store and click the update tab and stall the Java for OS X update.
NB: you must close all of your web browser before you install the Java for OS X update.

Couples who think they can cheat on their spouse secretly without the other party knowing, are in for a shocker. Google map street view tool will help you catch your man/woman red-handed if he or she is cheating on you.
Recently, a 24 year old girl named Marina Voinova, a native of Perm,Russia had an intention to find a location of a building with the Google map's street view tool version for Russian. As she nagivated digitally down the street, she found someone that looked like her man.
On getting closer to them, it was her boyfriend, Alexander walking arm-in-arm with his ex-girlfriend. She confronted them and Immediately dumped him.
Watch the video above.

Today, gamers will look forward to the launch of the PlayStation 4 by Sony. The event will kick off at 6pm UK time and 11pm in New york.
 So, what are your expectations?

Apple has joined the league of companies like Facebook, New york times, Washington post and Twitter that have seen the darker side of hacking.
Apple today stated that some of its employees computer were hacked, but said no customer data were hacked.
According to Apple, the malware was the same that was used to hack social media giant Facebook last week.
Just as Facebook, Apple said it is working with the FBI to investigate the malware attack. The malware was targeted at Java plug-in browsers.

HTC will launch its new flagship device, HTC ONE at a global launch event in New York and London.
What do you think?

When Madiant said it had uncovered a secret 12-storey building were hacking activities of APT1 is carried out, BBC's reporter John Sudworth went along to get more findings but was stopped and detained investigating the hacking.

Earlier today, various news media reported that China is planning cyber attacks against the US. The attacks were being targeted towards United States media companies and other businesses. Among the targeted media companies are-- Wall street journal, New york times and the Washington post. These news media companies were the targets of China hackers in the past few months.
Allegations have claimed that the Chinese Government are in support of the act.
China, however denied the such allegations; saying that the allegations were ''groundless'' and neither responsible or professional. China therefore said that it has law that strictly outlaw hacking.

According to the report, at least five people have been killed and several others wondered when a military helicopter crashed into a complex building near the historic ''change square'' in the Yemen capital of Sana. Report has it that death toll will likely rise. So far, the pilot and seven passengers were killed during the impact.
updates soon...

When I read the news the first time, I was stunned. I was wondering how people could go the extra to make money these days. What a world!
Reports from the Singapore police department says that online scam artist have ''unveiled'' a new way to trick people to send them money. They use attractive young women to friend victims on social media sites. They initiate a cyber sex with the victim, by first, undressing themselves and asking the victim to do same. Unknown to the victim, the scammer has recorded the act. Thereby threaten to post the images and videos if the victim fails to pay a stipulated sum
Recent victim of the act is CNN Danny,a dorky student, who was befriended on Facebook by a lovely girl named Lily. She performed the act with him, recorded it, and demanded $50,000 .
Guys, be careful! be wary of strangers who befriend you on social networks and avoid giving away personal information.

Canadian Astronaut, Mr. Chris Hadfield showed us what life is like living aboard an orbiting research vessel. During the ''ask me anything'' question on Reddit, the astronaut answered more than 2000 questions and comments from space.
In order to reply to these questions, he logged on via satellite relay to a server in Houston, Texas. He was asked so many questions. Among is :describing the smell of space; trust Astronaut Hadfield to give a run down of it. He said space smells like ''ozone or ''gun powder''.
Mr. Chris Hadfield is the first Canadian to walk in space during his 2001 shuttle mission

While Americans were busy themselves celebrating George Washington birthday, hackers affiliated with the anonymous collective, were busy plotting evil on fast-food chain Burger King twitter account on Monday afternoon.
 It happened on Monday 5.01pm GMT, the hackers defaced Burger king twitter page and posted a tweet announcing that ''we have just sold to McDonald's''. They even went further to advised those reading the tweet to eat at McDonald's .
Twitter earlier on has taken down the page.

 When the 4G LTE ( long term evolution) mobile broadband are launch this year in the UK, millions of TV signal will be affected, 40,000 to loss TV signal completely.
If you are a TV watcher(of course you are), here is a tip to overcome this problem. Look for an engineer to install a new filter.

I know for sure, your eyes have already pop-out by reading the headline alone. So many questions are burning right now in your mind. Am I right?

Yale Scientists have discovered a new planet named 55 Cancri--is twice as wide as planet earth, 8 times greater, and to crown it all, has diamonds and granite rather than water as the surface of the planet.

From what the Scientists said, the new planet is located 40-light years from earth and it is VERY hot, with a temperature of 3900 degrees Fahrenheit.
So, any mineral prospectors would have quite a journey to stake their claim on its riches.

LG display, the South Korean flat-screen maker said it would invest 706 billion Won( $654.8 million) to make organic light emitting diode, OLED, panels.

Truth be told, even as a tech-blogger, I never believed that one day cars will eventually drive themselves someday. I taught that if cars should drive themselves someday.., that will be the end of technology. But two years after, I was proven wrong. Cars do drive themselves.

Recently, the Oxford University unveiled a low cost self-driving car. Dubbed RobotCar, knows when to offer a helping to the driver when driving on routes it has already traveled using an iPad mounted on the dashboard.
Unlike Google self-driving cars that uses Global positioning system, GPS, to recognize their surroundings, The RobotCar uses laser and small cameras mounted on each sides of the car.
As at this moment, the system cost around 5000 British pound, but in future, they hope to reduce it to 500 British pounds.
The RobotCar is undergoing test drive in the UK.

Do you still remember?

Microsoft-owned Skype said it has started allowing its users  send video messages to their friends who aren't on live chat, starting Friday.
For now, the video messaging service is only available to Mac, Android or iOS users with the latest version of Skype.

Passengers plying the London Overground rail will be able to access the internet for 60 minutes from today as it is switched on at 50 stations. Users will receive an hour of free internet each day, but should it exceed the minute given, they can subscribe to add internet bundles ranging from 2 pounds for 30 minute to 11.9 pounds for one week. Wi-Fi is now available in ticket halls, corridors and on platforms, but not on trains.
The service is powered by Cloud, after it agreed on a deal with the London Overground Rail Operators.
Is it convenient for you guys?

At the Consumer Outreach Programme( known as consumers telecoms parliament) held yesterday in Ikorodu Lagos state, the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, has said that emergency telephone numbers will soon be ready across the nation.
Speaking at the programme, Mr. Bashir Sanni, director, technical standards and network authority, NCC, who stood in for Mr. Okey Itanyi, Executive Commissioner, stakeholders management, NCC,said the project is near completion throughout the states of the nation. He also gave us an insight as to NCC commitment to protect telecoms infrastructures in the country.
Over the past few months,Telecoms facilities have been destroyed in some part of the country--mostly in the northern part--by hoodlums.

We just received an email that Facebook is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, to investigate the malware attack. From what the email said, Facebook employees laptops were infected by the malware when they visited a mobile developer website.
Facebook was hacked last month, but made it known to us in security blog post yesterday.

From what Facebook said on its security blog yesterday, the social  media giant was hacked in what it said was called ''sophisticated'' attack.
However, Facebook said no user information was compromise by the infiltration.
More details about the information will be updated soon.

Apple knows how to honour its employees . The video above shows the man behind the designs of the iPod, iPad and iPhone, Sir Johnathan Ive. He has been presented with a rare gold blue peter badge.
Sir Johnathan is Apple's Chief Designer.
The special event show will be on air Saturday.

We just received an email from one of our reliable source that the latest model, the $80,000 2013 Ranger Rover is sold out for six months to a year.
From the report, customers can order one now, but celebrities like reality star Kin Kardashian will have to wait for six months to sit behind the wheels.
The US is the biggest market and New York biggest single city in the world for range rover sales. As at Thursday afternoon, the cheapest Range Rover is$83,543 and is not even sen the US market.

Looks like India will be the first Asian country to lay hand on the Blackberry new operating system, Blackberry Z10. Report from Blackberry Indian company says the BB Z10 will launch in Indian on February 25, 2013.
Among those who will be in attendance at the launch event are MD, Blackberry Indian, Mr. Sunil Dutt and senior global executives.
The price of the device will start at Rs 38,000.

Facebook rolled out a new feature this week and, I know for sure most of those people very keen on privacy may not like it. The new feature allows your friends pay to promote your post without you giving them permission to do so.
If you have information or announcement that you want to pass accross, your friends could simply pay between $7-$10 to promote your post to get it in front of more people. But, for your friends to promote your post, he or she must have less than 5000 friends. If it happened that your friend or friends surpasses that figure, a drop-down arrow next to a post will appear, to sponsor it. Also the post can only be viewed by people who like their page or friends.
Facebook main aim is to give those who don't have enough money to promote their cause, get it in front of more people through the help of their friends.

Samsung will long for more success after a successful 2012 campaign with the Galaxy S 3 and Galaxy S 3 Mini; when it launches the Galaxy S 4 and Galaxy S 4 Mini in April, later this year.
From what I heard on Geeky gadget, who is indicated to be reliable, said Samsung will launch its flagship smartphone, Galaxy S 4 and Galaxy 4 Mini in April, It is likely that the smartphone will go on sale in the UK some time between the 15th and 22nd of April.
However, no details about the Galaxy S 4 Mini have been seen yet, but, I'm sure we could likely see a dwarfed Galaxy S 4 Mini with less powerful performance.

Microsoft acquired Skype for $1.1 billion last year and, it starting to make headlines in international phone traffic scene.
The graph above shows that Skype broke records in 2012 by making its call equal to one-third of global phone traffic.
From the TeleGeography---telecoms market research firm---said Skype increased in 2012 by 5 percent to 490 billion minutes. TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert said this amount of Skype traffic will make  some carriers fear for their wallets in the coming years.

Nowadays, Phishing has taken a different form. It's no longer the use of cell phone numbers by the hackers to steal personal information or to make money out of the victim.
On Wednesday, Europol---the European policy agency--- said that it had dismantled a cyber criminal network operated by Russians, Ukrainians and Georgians to extort millions of Euros from online users in over 30 countries--most especially Europeans.
According to Europol, the group were rounded up along Costal De Sol in southern Spain. The police arrested six Russians, two Ukrainians and two Georgians, and said the search continues for more cells operated by the criminal network outside Europe.
The Russians-led gang knows how to carry out their operations very well. They send out a message with a virus to the individual computer, in the form of a fake police warning--a Malware-- demanding 100 Euros to unlock it.
According to the Director of Europol, Mr.Wainwright said that 2 percent fall victim to the scam, and also said that cybercriminals make more than $5 million on ransonware each year.
Europol therefore said the 10 arrested computer criminals had been detained, charge with money laundering, fraud and involvement in criminal organisation. The Russian who led the gang hasn't be found yet.

What would you do if you kept on receiving $1500 in your bank account for two years? Would you tell anyone?

A hairdresser in the UK, Sally Donaldson(not her real name) said she lost a total of 26,650 British pounds($40,000) as a result of one wrong number she typed in an online transfer.