All Things Technology

Thank God am not the only one who is starting to have a strongdislike for China's biggest phone vendor Xiaomi. This guy also feels the same way. Xiaomi has no regard for intellectual property. But I sometimes wonder why Apple hasn't sue Xiaomi. Anyway, Read what he wrote below.

It's really, painfully obvious that Xiaomi is copycatting Apple to a degree no other company of this valuation is. Is there really a (legitimate) alternative viewpoint here, though?

At the2015  Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas next week, Korean tech giant Samsung will officially remove the wraps off its series 9 2015 Edition notebook, which many expect to compete directly with  Apple's MacBook Air. The Samsung Series 9 2015 Edition notebook will boast of a 12.2-inch high resolution display(2,560x 1,600 pixel) and will make use of Intel's new  chips.

China's Apple is just having fun with Apple designs and the Apple is doing nothing about it. Xiaomi is known for copying Apple's designs and has helped it to become the world's fourth largest phone maker and most valuable tech startup. Xiaomi's smartphones and tablets are modelled on Apple devices.

So your belief is using your thumb to unlock your iPhones and Galaxy smartphones is the most secure way to keep people away from accessing your devices? I think you might want to drop that belief after reading this. Someone just stole the fingerprints of German Defense Minister Ursula Von Der Layer using a regular camera.Yes, you read that right.

It looks like the next flagship from South Korean tech giant LG might come with a stylus pen. News coming from Asia has it that LG will launch the G4 phablet with a stylus pen called the G-pen for note-taking and split-screen multitasking. The G4 G-Pen is rumoured to look very similar to the S-Pen for Samsung Galaxy Note series. However, the people who revealed this did not say anything further about the G4.

Today December 28, is the last Sunday of 2014( Simeon is spending it at home) and Facebook wants every one of you to see what you did on its platform. Whether it's a photo of your grumpy cat, video of you in a pyjamas or those silly or nice posts that got your friends bored or excited, you will find all of them just in one place:Your Year in Review.

Oculus CEO Brenda Iribe had said at the Web Summit in Ireland last month that the consumer model of the Rift Virtual Reality Headset is ''months, not years away, but many months.'' But, according to an email we received from an anonymous tipster, Facebook-owned Oculus will show off the consumer version of the Crescent Bay headset at next month's Consumer Electronics Show(CES2015) in Las Vegas, USA. The tipster, who is familiar with Oculus plans, says the final model will be lighter, fully equipped with controllers and will cost  $350 and beyond. The VR headset will immediately go on sale in the US after Facebook tries it for ''social ecommerce.''

Be very careful guys. There is a bug in Skype for Android that lets other users of the service eavesdrop on your conversations...and might even allow them to see you in the state of undress(Whoops!). The flaw was first noticed by a Reddit user, who already brought the issue to Microsoft

News making the rounds on the internet is that Sony is developing a 12.9-inch tablet to take on Apple's next iPad, the iPad Pro and Microsoft's surface Pro 3. The laplet is expected to be launch in the first quarter of 2015 and Petragon Technology will manufacture the tablet. In case you don't know, Petragon Technology is the same company producing Apple's iPads and Microsoft's Surface tablets.

I know you are used to playing Temple Run on your smartphone and tablet, directing that guy on the screen to take the idol while running for your his life. Interesting game! But brace yourself up for a whole new game experience because you---yes you---will be the one running to the steal the idol. Imangi Studios, the developers of Temple Run, has released the classic game for Samsung's GearVR Innovators Edition. The game is available for the GearVR as a free download.

Hey guys, if you are among the one billion people using OpenID for Google to login to your favourite websites, I would advise you move over to Google Plus sign in parmenately , which uses OAuth 2.0 login(OpenID connect). That is because I just got know that OpenID will no longer work for Google accounts, as from April 10, 2015. Google has deprecated OpenID and will shut down next year. Developers are advised to migrate their apps  by the shut down date. For more information visit https://developers.google.com/+/api/auth-migration#timetable

Researchers may have said that Google's self-driving cars are not quite ready to take people down millions of American roads, but the search giant just announced that its first fully working prototype self-driving cars are now ready to master city streets and  California roads in 2015. As you can see, this complete prototype is somewhat similar to the one Google showed off in May.

Another day.Another Samsung smartphone leaked. But wait a second---is Samsung doing this on purpose?
Barely two days after the Galaxy S6 picture surfaced online, the successor to the Galaxy Grand 2, the Galaxy Grand  3 specifications have been leaked online ahead of launch. Well all thanks to China's Telecommucation Equipment Certification Center which gave the smartphone thumbs up.

Few days after a picture of the next flagship smartphone from Samsung surfaced online, there are widespread rumours that the Galaxy S6 may launch with ''half metal body'' at the Consumer Electronics Show(CES) in Las Vega, 2015. Samsung is typically known for releasing its Galaxy S line at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Guys, I found it so difficult to convince my friend that the Galaxy Note 4 phablet is far better than the iPhone 6 Plus---even though the phones specs are clearly there for him to tell which is better. Please which of the two BIG flagships from Apple and Samsung is better.

2015 has not arrived yet and we are starting to see pictures of the next flagship smartphone from Korean giant Samsung. Yesterday, a Dutch website that goes by the name Toptienmobiel, posted pictures of what it claims to be the Galaxy S6 phone. The site noted that it got the picture from an anonymous tipster via an email. However this could just be a prototype or a clone.

It looks like for a company to sell its product it must have the ''Apple wow factor.'' Chinese smartphone makers are so fond of stealing Apple designs.This smartphone just looks very much like the iPhone5S.

Anyway, the iPhone 6 is no longer the thinnest or slimmest smartphone in the world. A new Android smartphone has just lifted the crown from Apple's new smartphone: The Vivo X5 Max. The Vivi X5Max smartphone measures 4.75mm which makes it thinner than the iPhone 6, which measures in at 6.9mm.

What better way to market the Apple Watch to consumers than bringing in people with knowledge or skill in the job. As the launch of the smartwatch draws closer, Apple is reportedly in need of you guys with a fashion or luxury background to help sell its first wearable in its retail stores. The news is coming from Apple news blog 9to5mac, which claimed to have gotten an internal memo. You guys will be in Apple retail shops overseeing the pricey version of the Apple Watch, the Gold Apple Watches. That calls for high security.

Did you miss or lose any ringtones  purchased from the iTunes Store?Well, if you are among those affected you don't need to be afraid, Apple has just released an update to its iOS mobile operating system to address those issues. Just install iOS 8.1.2 on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, and it will restore them and even fix other bugs you might not notice. To restore your ringtones to your device, just visit this url from your mobile device. You will need to create more space because iOS 8.1.2 is a 1.75GB download.

As the year 2014 comes to a close, let us take a look at some of the predictions made for 2014 concerning the'technology industry'' and see if they came out right. This infograhic above was created by magiclogix and predicted, among other things, that more articles and discussions will center around Google Glass but consumers won't  be interested in the search giant's smart eyewear. Did their prediction came to pass or not?

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe may have said a consumer version of their VR headset will come out in months, but Korean technology juggernaut Samsung has just brought theirs to the market. The Samsung Gear VR headset is available to anyone in the US for $200--it sells exclusively  on  Samsung's website and US phone company AT&T. Time for some real-life virtual reality gaming.

After hacker group GOP(or Guardians of Peace) hacked Sony Pictures website last month, and threatened to reveal the company's confidential information to the public if demands are not met(which it did,  leaked five of Sony Pictures upcoming holloywood movies), many speculated that the attackers have ties with the North Korean Government. But North Korea National Defence Commission just released a statement in which it debunked such speculations, but praised the hackers saying that the cyberattack on Sony Pictures ''might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with” North Korea in its struggle to “put an end to U.S. imperialism.” Read the full story on the NewYorkTimes website

The wearable device market is still young and growing, and Intel wants to dominate the scene before its rivals like ARM enters.It already released the MICA smart bracelet. It has been reported that its chips will power the next iteration of Google Glass. And now, the leading chipmaker and italy-based Luxottica Group are collaborating to develop a smart fashionable eyewear, as part of a multi-year partnership ''deal.'' The product to come out of that deal is expected to hit consumers' wrists in 2015. Details about Intel-Luxottica deal or the smart eyeglass are scarce at the moment.
In case you don't know, Luxottica is the world's largest eyewear maker, with control of 80% of the world's eyewear brands. It is also the same company designing, manufacturing frames for Google Glass.

Image credit: PCmag

Russian handset maker Yota Devices has launched a new Android phone that it calls the YotaPhone 2 and it has two screens---a coloured 5-inch AMOLED display on the front and a e-ink display at the back. The screen at the back is a 4.7-inch  e-ink screen meant for notifications and is always on, which means the owner can still get important updates like messages and emails, access Facebook,WhatsApp and even use the phone's camera when the main colour touchscreen is in standby mode.

Last year, the UK government allowed the testing of autonomous or self-driving cars on public roads. But it did not announce the locations where these robotic cars would be tested. But on Wednesday, the names of the cities to host the testing of driveless cars was revealed by UK Chancellor George Osbone in his Autumn statement. The cities are: Bristol, Greewich, Coventry and Milton Keynes.

I had been waiting for the day when the CAPTCHA would be put to rest. Seriously I hate it whenever a website tells me to prove that am a human and not a robot, by typing correctly the letters of a distorted image. You know not all CAPTCHA codes are easy to read  because they sometimes appear blurry. This often made me to left a website .

The other humanoid is the worst goal keeper ever. Didn't it see the ball come from its brother before trying to save it from entering the back of the net? Maybe it was not programmed well to do so.But the way it fell face down could have just destroyed the little parts in it.

The world's biggest chipmaker Intel has been showing some signs of getting into the wearable business for a while now. At least to make up for not dominating the tablet and smartphone market. It  released two wearable products two months ago--the MICA smart bracelet and the peak fitness and sleep tracker--- and again, developed a tiny computer for wearable devices known as Edison.

I took a walk down to Apple official website to see if I could learn a thing or two about the Apple Watch, and I sure did because Apple updated the smartwatch website with new details. I got some  photos of the iconic Apple Watch and will share of the interesting features of the Apple Watch in a later post.

Virtual Reality will allow you and I to live a peaceful and ultimately perfect life. It will also change everything. It will change how brands market their products to customers and  travelers can easily map out how to spend their holidays. Thomas Cook can attest to this.

That's one thing  that gives Apple iOS operating system  edge over Google's Android. While only 30 percent of Android devices run on 4.4 KitKat and 10 percent 5.0 Lollipop, 60 percent of iOS devices are currently running iOS 8/8.1 OS, while 35 percent still run iOS 7 and 5 percent on iOS 6 or below, that's according to data released Apple.

We are already aware of the iPod classic demise. Earlier this month reports surfaced that Apple would halt iPad Mini production. Now there are widespread rumours that Apple might stop manufacturing the iPhone5C, that cheaper, colourful version of the iPhone5S. Taiwan's Industrial and Commercial times was the first to spread the rumour. Although it did not give a reason for this.

Google, Audi,Daimler AG and General Motors are doing so much in the development of self-driving car technology. The first three have been testing their self-driving cars in California, Colorado and Germany. Google recently unveiled 100 self-driving car prototypes with no steering wheel, brake pedal and accelerator and promised that we should see self-driving cars on our roads come 2017, but the rest say theirs would be fully ready by between 2020 and 2030. We all know the potential benefits that  would come with self-driving cars, such as reduce traffic, smoother rides and elimination of roads deaths etc. But, apart from the benefits, many of us want to know how self-driving cars work or the technology assisting these cars to transport themselves without a human driver. Below are the technology helping self-driving cars to fulfill the transportation capabilities of a traditional car.

Samsung has just release a new mouse that allows the disabled to browse the web, write and edit documents with their eyes, the EyeCan+. The EyeCan+ mouse tracks the movement of the user's eyes and enables them to use the computer just as the able-bodied would. The device, which is a portable box, sits below the computer monitor.

A hacker group that goes by the GOP, which is an acronym for Guardians of Peace, has come down hard on Sony Pictures Entertainment by having total control of its computer network. The group promised to post the company's classified information to the public should it fail to meet their demands.

Chinese, you guys never ceased to amaze me. In Nigeria, we call their products ''Chinko'',which means not genuine. But wait a minute, so it's now a tradition for Chinese manufacturers to copy the designs of foreign brands. Xiaomi already did that to Apple Inc with its miPad tablet and mi4 smartphones.Now they have taken it a step further to producing fake cars. This Chinese Landwind X7 looks very similar to the  the original Range Rover Evoque, in many respect. And it is priced at $22,000 compared to the Range Rover Evoque's $62,000 price tag.  See for yourself..

Yes, on this blog I also celebrates young achievers. You will call that two weeks ago I showed you guys the youngest guy ever to get funding for his cause in Silicon Valley. Now I bring you the world's youngest Microsoft certified Professional . How old is he? Find out below.

In Windows
Step 1: Reboot
Did that fix it?
No. Proceed to step 2.

A legally blind man tested out Google's self-driving car in 2012

Simply put, A self-driving car is an autonomous vehicle that can drive itself without the input of a human driver. It uses Lidar, GPS, Radar and other vehicle technologies to keep itself on the road.
Subscribe

This just made me remember Myspace that was valued at $550 million but was later sold for just $35 million. Two years ago, Fab was out on a buying spree--acquiring every retailer it came across. The ecommerce company that was worth $1 billion in 2013 will be sold to Irish electronics maker PCH International for between $15 million and $50 million in a half cash and half stock deal, reports Techcrunch. An agreement has not been reached between the two companies, but, if it comes out, the rest of Fab will go into the company's founder and CEO Jason Goldberg new home decor business, HEM.

One of the downsides of taking a selfie is that we can't print out our photos instantly. Such encounters always bring back memories of polariods cameras. But it appears that is about to change, if this french firm Kickstarter project see the light of day.

Google Glass, the internet-connected eyewear, has been around for a while now---well, two years, to be precise. Since the day Google co-founder Sergey Brin showed off the gadget to a crowd of tech enthusiasts at an event in San Francisco, the smart eyewear has really made it easy for people to lead their lives, and maybe hell, to some people( I call them the Glasshaters). Hell in the sense that some owners of Google Glass(otherwise known as Glass Explorers)  infringe on peoples' privacy by recording them without their knowledge or permission. But, in all of these, Google Glass has proven to be a useful tool that you and I can leverage to achieve anything, in any given field. Doubt me? Read on.

In the past year, without much vision, I knew what the name was of a movement, so I knew what to do. It was in my head, from dancing for eight years. So if the teacher said a combination with an arabesque, I knew what to do. It's kind of hard, and it takes a lot of thinking. I think that this having to think and know the moves has made my ballet and dancing better. I have had to balance by feeling, which has made me a better dancer.

So you think people are not interested in Google Glass. Wait until you see this video how Google Glass is helping this visually impaired teenager to do what she enjoys most: Dancing. He could see the audience around the stage a lot better and helps him to dance even  better .This is just one of many stories of how the smart eyewear is changing peoples' lives positively. Watch this video.

Cameras play a very important role in the purchase of a Smartphone but I don't think they should. As far as an average person knows, the more megapixels the better. But why do people really need 13 to 20 to 41 megapixel cameras on the back of their Smartphones, when smartphones weren't designed to be judged by their cameras?

I saw this on Google Plus a few minutes ago. I don't know the right word or words to use here. Help me please!
 

As if what Xiaomi did to Apple wasn't enough, Nokia too modeled its new tablet after the iPad Mini. The new Nokia N1 Android tablet looks very much like Apple's iPad Mini; excerpt that it beats the Mini in terms of camera quality and design. I for one never saw this coming. So Nokia can keep a secret.

Pick just one out of these 6 Google Nexus smartphones. Here we have the Nexus One, Nexus S,Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and the recently launched Nexus 6.

They may be the best advisers on planet earth but it when it comes to technology, it seems we are way ahead of them. In my family, between my mum and dad I can't say who is adjusting more  to modern technology. I just wonder how how much they need to adjust.And I believe your parents,too, fall in this same category. I guess we just have to teach them how to use the computer and internet so that we don't get any one of these...

Google co-founder Sergey Brin always had his Google Glass come what may. But what could have happened that made Brin to leave his precious smart eyewear in the car on Sunday? Could it be Brin has joined those group of people who say the device may die soon or is Google Glass actually dying? Too many questions begging for answers. A new report by news site Reuters suggests Google Glass may die soon.

Since Google Glass came into the scene back in 2012, critics have argued that the search giant smart eyewear won't caught consumers attention and that the company might even abandon the project anytime soon. But Google has always insisted that Glass will receive a well welcome once it official launch to the public. But as the launch date draws nearer, it seems Google Glass might not even see the light of day,well  from what the Reuters' report revealed. Fueling such speculations is Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who stepped out in a silicon Valley red-carpet event on Sunday without his Google Glass on. But why? Brin himself told a reported that he simply left it in the car. Can u imagine that coming from a guy who spearheads Google X Lab, the division that develops the device.

But, according to Reuters, Brin is not the only culprit in this matter . Glass Developers, Glass explorers and even some of the company's employees that saw the device come to a reality, like Barbak Parvis, Ossama Alami and Adrian Wong, have all lose interest in Google Glass and are reportedly working on other projects(most related to virtual reality).


   I don't buy this report that Google Glass is dying at all.  If you say people are no longer interested in the gadget, how come it always sells out every time it goes on sale?