₦airaland Forum

Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd has launched the BlackBerry 9720, the new phone will take a reverse mode as far as its operating system is concerned. Instead of the latest BlackBerry 10 platform, the new phone will run OS 7.1 version which last saw action in 2011.

However plenty of BlackBerry’s punters can’t afford that: those expecting low-cost handsets in emerging markets. While BlackBerry promised that BB OS 10 would be available across all price points in 2013, it hasn’t been able to come up with the goods. Even the cheapest of the three BB OS 10 devices released to date -the Q5 - is still far too expensive to appeal to the $150 segment: it costs about ₦61,500 in Nigeria.



Design and Looks: Blackberry 9720 is the successor of the Blackberry 9220. The phone comes with 2.8 inches IPS capacitive with 480 x 360 pixels resolution with ~214ppi pixel density. The device has multitouch support. The phone read dimensions are 114 x 66 x 12 mm and the device weighs 120 g. The phone will be available in Black, White, Purple, Blue, Pure Pink colors


Hardware and Software: Blackberry 9720 comes with low-end hardware and outdated OS. This device is expected to be priced cheaper. The phone runs on poor 806 MHz Single-core Tavor MG1 Processor and the RAM is 512MB which is quite low and may affect the performance of the phone. The smartphone performs on Blackberry OS 7.1.


Camera, Music and Multimedia: The phone comes with 5 MP rear camera and has no front camera for video calling. The device can play supported media formats like MP3, WAV, WMA, eAAC+ (audio) and MP4, H.264, H.263, WMV (video).


Internal and External Storage: Blackberry 9720 comes with only 512MB built-in storage and the external storage is expandable upto 32GB via microSD card slot.


Connectivity Options: The device can connect to 2G via Quad Band and 3G. 3G data transfer speeds utpo 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 5.76Mbps HSUPA. Connectivity options like Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, microUSB v2.0, Wi-Fi 802 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct options are available in the phone.


Battery and Talk Time: The phone is powered by Standard Li-on 1450 mAh battery which could cover a talktime of upto only 7 hours and standby time upto 450 hours.
BB OS 10 turned out to be too much for BlackBerry’s PlayBook, too. Having promised owners of the tablet a new version of the operating system, BB CEO Thorsten Heins announced the slab was being discontinued, in part owing to the poor performance of the OS.

The company, which has watched its market share nosedive in just five years, announced it was up for grabs recently.

The BB 9720 is available on Parktelonline Store: http://www./BlackBerry-9720-Black

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday sacked the minister of youth development, Inuwa Abdulkadir, for failing to ensure that a pro-Jonathan candidate Yakubu Shendam emerged the president of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) at its recent congress in Minna, the Niger State capital.

Javanian: Would have loved to but I'm already on something, hopefully, i should be done by the end of this week, then i may start a project on Nairaland that we could all contribute to and join the competition if up to 3 people would be interested...

webdezzi: @OP,
ease of use of a language does not translate to it being better.
your goal is what counts.

If i need to write a project i intend to resell e.g an SMS web application.
i'll use PHP, because 90% of my target buyers will be able to install in via cpanel and more buyers=more $$$
building it in python wont be business smart.

if i need to write a streaming server, I'll be looking outside PHP.

Always analyse the goal of the project, pocket size($$$), development time, team involvement, expected traffic volume etc. before choosing a language for your project.

Nairaland was redesigned with growth in mind. and the owner, with his experience with python believes python is the way to go. That is his opinion, business, and belief.

A real programmer should carry out personal tests and based on the results, make decision.
Stay off blog posts by other developers, their passion for their interest may affect the test environment which may have been tweaked to support their points

Javanian: @op like seriously? you hated Seun because he didn't like PHP?? LMAO

I think the issue here is that this language called PHP is breeding alot of quacks in this field thanks to joomla, wordpress and what have you. The language may have its own flaws but there is no perfect language. I for a person if i meet you and you tell me PHP is the only language you code in i would always look down at you. I know its a wrong thing to do but sometimes i just cant help it. My views however have changed as i have come to discover that these languages are just tools, and has nothing to with the developer in person. I respect pc guru a lot for his flair in what? Javascript!! I have seen this guy do a lot of really wonderful things with it.


It is a very good thing that you have tried out Python and Ruby and you have seen things for yourself. About a year ago, after much procrastination, i decided to leave Standalone/Console application dev and do some web development i learnt Servlets, Jsp and Scala. Scala seemed the way to go but i haven't had enough time to gain expertise in it, I hate Jsp! for no just cause maybe its because the syntax is like that of PHP and i got emotional about it so i later opted in for Servlets. Although, i later decided to abandon web development because the field is tooooo crowded, just tooo crowded, so i decided to abandon it and go for mobile app dev and all of a sudden the field is also getting crowded! So i decided to opt in for Game Development, i am not one yet but i hope to be one someday...


After the Java vs C++ argument here, i pondered alot about the issue, i seriously wondered why i would pick C++ over Java if they can be used to achieve the same thing and Java would almost certainly do it in less time. After much pondering i decided to have a conversation with some guys that had C++ as their default language, this included two reds on TopCoder, 90% of them also knew Java and admitted the reason they choose C++ over Java on most occasions is that they were taught/learnt C++ first! They spent alot of time learning it Hence it is very difficult to leave their comfort zone...

I think we should stop this stereotyping and discrimination as they are very useless. Nairaland, the most visited site in Africa, with over 3 million unique visitors monthly was built with python, but to 98% of those users Python is just a Snake, a reptile, a very large snake!! They don't care which language NL was built with...If assembly language is your comfort zone and would get the job done, use it! if its PHP, use it! what ever it is, use it! What matters here is the end users every other thing is secondary, Real Programmers Ship! i would prefer if we have arguments like Quick sort vs Merge sort, iterators vs recursion, Breadth first search vs Depth Search, this would make more sense


Enough said! whew!

After Google acquired Motorola Mobility last year, many wondered what was next for the smartphone company. It spent ages clearing out its pipeline of smartphones that were already in development before rumors of an X Phone made in America started making the rounds. In those early X Phone days, Rick Osterloh, Motorola’s SVP of Product Management said the team that worked on the device was plopped in front of a whiteboard and asked to describe the product they wanted to make. That brainstorming, plus loads and loads of user testing, came together in the form of the Moto X.

Motorola isn’t the same company today as it was when Google snapped it up last year — it’s smaller, leaner, and if recent reports are indication, gutsier than ever. The Moto X is that new Motorola’s coming out party, and I think they’ve finally got something worth celebrating.

But, after a year in the works, Motorola is hoping that the Moto X will be the Android phone you know and want. On the back of the colorful phones reads “Designed and Assembled in the USA;” the phone is the first device built from scratch since Google acquired the company and is being built in the U.S. so it can quickly ship to American buyers.


That power is important though for the new Android software tricks. Similar to some of the features available in Motorola’s new Droid phones for Verizon, the Moto X has what the company calls “Touchless Controls” and an “Active Display” features. The touchless control works similarly to Google Glass, without having to touch the phone your phone can listen to you. After training it, you should be able to say “OK Google Now call mom,” without ever tapping or lifting the phone.

The tagline for this new smartphone is “All Yours” — this is because you can customize the phone to your liking. According to Motorola, the smartphone “…is truly yours, because you design it. Through our online studio, Moto Maker, you choose the colors, and decide on the details: front, back, accents, memory, wallpapers, even add a name or a short message. When you are done, we assemble your Moto X right here in the USA and ship it to you for free in four days or less. Choose from more than 2,000 possible combinations, with more to come. We’ll be constantly exploring new offerings, such as real wood backs, starting later in the year”.

MotoX-512x460The Active Display feature aims to solve checking your lockscreen for the time or new messages. You don’t have to wake the screen, instead, periodically the phone will flash the time and if you have any new messages. Even with those notifications, the company promises up to 24 hours of battery life.

Motorola also doesn’t want you to spend too long trying to get at your camera. The phone has a 10-megapixel camera that you can get to by just shaking the phone, launching the viewfinder in under three seconds. You can take a photo by just tapping on the screen; the phone will auto focus for you. You can customize all the camera settings, however, if you’d prefer to manually turn on the camera and take the photo. The phone will ship with Android 4.2.2 and will be updated to Android 4.3 soon.

Motorola is gearing up to make itself a purveyor of a smarter kind of smartphone, but it does mean that there were few surprises to get worked up over this morning. Even so, the X is exciting for what it represents. It’s hard not to think of the X as Motorola’s take on Google’s Nexus concept — the phone itself is a template for Motorola’s vision of mobile computing.

KEY FEATURES

Rear Camera: 10MP CLEAR PIXEL (RGBC) / LED Flash / 1080p video (30fps)
Front Camera: 2MP 1080p HD video
Operating system: Android 4.2.2
Architecture: Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System
RAM: 2 GB

Storage: 16 GB standard, 32 GB version available online. 2 years 50GB storage free on Google Drive

Bluetooth: 4.0 LE + EDR

WiFi: 802.11a/g/b/n/ac (dual band capable), mobile hotspot

Bands: GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA + up to 42 Mbps, CDMA/EVDO Rev. A (CDMA model only), 4G – LTE

Display: 4.7″ AMOLED (RGB) / HD 720p

Battery: 2200 mAh. Mixed usage up to 24 hours

http://oshadami.com/2013/08/google-moto-x-android-smartphone/

Javanian: I really hope you guys are teaming up for this stuff...It really helps....

Ajibel: Interesting! Was it sponsored by Tony elumelu foundation

The Financial Literacy Challenge ended on 28 July 2013 after a 48 Hrs Hackathon at the Co Creation Hub developing six (6) financial Literacy Apps, the six apps are listed below:

Financial IQ: Financial IQ is a mobile learning platform with content on financial management and financial products from different service providers. The platform will be able to serve content to users based on their interest but also links them to related financial products from different service providers. To test their knowledge, the platform will also include quizzes and exercise to test how much users have learnt with a globally accessible leaderboard, (Native Apps, Mobile Websites, SMS).

NairaSaver: NairaSaver is a money saving tips app for Nigeria where people share and vote on money saving tips. The app builds on 101 money saving tips peculiar to Nigeria compiled by Financial Literacy For All from users on social media. The tips are categorised based on expense type as well as user demographics. Top tips as picked by users are profiled as “Tip of the Day”. The app can also be an outlet for financial service providers to share products with users that may relate to specific tips, (Native Apps, Mobile web, SMS, Social Media).

Market Trader: Market Trader is a game targeted at the literate children of illiterate and semi-literate artisans, traders and other micro-entrepreneurs. The game educates them on financial issues and products but rewards them for prompting & educating their parents on these issues. The rewards are based on how their parents adopt these good practices and if they take up any of these products, (Native Apps, Mobile website).

Business and Community Game: Junior Achievement Nigeria uses two board games – Business Game and Community Game to educate young people on different finance issues. Our idea is to localize the content of the game to be Nigeria-centric and to digitise the game so that students can play them wherever they are. The games teach children to understand money and key financial concepts like earning, saving, investing, starting a business etc, (Mobile website,Native Apps).


MoneyTALKS: MoneyTALKS is a platform where users can get audio tutorials in multiple languages on specific financial issues that Nigerians face. This will be realistic questions that address common questions that consumers have from as basic as how to open an account. The question bank will be constantly expanded and users will be updated as new questions are added. Users can also share answers by ams and through social media, (SMS, Phone Calls, Mobile Web, Native Apps).

Money Life: Money Life is a simulation game that involves kids budgeting, earning, saving, spending accumulated funds around real-life scenarios. Based on their performance, they get awarded points and can vie for top spot on a leaderboard. The players can also assume avatars of specific characters and play out a scenario in the character’s life.

I am a member of the Financial IQ Team, We did the Android App, Windows Phone App, Mobile Web and SMS.
It was really fun working with my team members to achieve it, at the end of the day we did not win, but am now better by far.

Congratulations to MoneyTALKS Team who won the First Prize: N1,200,000, the event was sponsored by VISA.

http://oshadami.com/2013/07/financial-literacy-challenge-climax/

Nigeria Integrated payment and transaction processing company Interswitch Limited Launches quickteller Mobile Application, the Quickteller Mobile App provides another convenient and easier way to buy airtime, pay bills, transfer money to any bank account, check your balance and much more!!

Download the Quickteller Mobile App on your BlackBerry and Android smartphones using any of the options below:

http://get.quickteller.com
From BlackBerry App World
From Google Play Store
SMS “Quickteller” to 32122 and follow the prompts.

QuickTeller is a Value Added Service (VAS) platform on the Interswitch network created to facilitate a convenience lifestyle for cardholders by providing them with access to vital services through the various channels on the Interswitch network.

QuickTeller allows cardholders to access vital services such as phone recharge, bill payment, cash withdrawal, funds transfer, cashback and many other essential services.

The QuickTeller platform can be accessed through ATMs, POS, Web, Mobile Phones, Kiosks and now through Mobile App.

Good one coming from Interswitch Limited.

http://oshadami.com/2013/07/interswitch-launches-quickteller-mobile-app/

hardmanvicky: To know ur stand in getting admission into unilorin http://myschool.com.ng/school/forum/23499.html

walex2bad: Oboi nah 68% ilorin dash me oh.. Am i gud 2 go 4 elect/elect? Nd nah awaitin result me dey use oh.. Pls sum1 reply asap..?

For the first time, Samsung has overtaken Apple globally to take number one spot in terms of Internet usage. The latest data comes from website analytics firm StatCounter, which charted the changes between all different devices, operating systems, and browsers over the last 12 months (between July 2012 and June 2013), which makes Samsung the number one brand of mobile handset used to connect to the internet for the first time, according to StatCounter’s Internet Wars Report (PDF).

12 months ago, Nokia led globally in terms of Internet usage, although Apple surpassed it in February. In June 2013, however, Samsung (25.47 percent) leapfrogged both Apple (25.09 percent) and Nokia (21.96p percent) to take the lead. Those numbers are for worldwide use.

BlackBerry, on the other hand, has seen a steady decrease in its market share, dropping from 5 percent to just 3.62 percent.

Looking at just the US, however, Apple is still the leader, with 54.85 percent versus Samsung’s 12.65 percent.

In the UK, Apple is again leading, with 47.97 percent, as opposed to Samsung in second place, with 20.45 percent.

http://oshadami.com/2013/07/samsung-overtakes-apple-in-worldwide-mobile-web-usage/

For some time now, Tecno Android smartphones have been posing a great threat to Samsung’s dominance in the Nigerian smartphone market. And the newly released Tecno Phantom Pad N9 tablet (the first tablet by Tecno) seems to be doing just the same to Samsung tablets, as many consumers are now getting stuck between both products.

Since the release of the Tecno Phantom Pad N9 few weeks back, we’ve been getting questions from consumers as to which is better between Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) and the newly released tablet by Tecno. And if the large number of customers who asked this same question is anything to go by, then Tecno’s tablet will soon become a hotcake in the tablet market, just like the Android smartphones Tecno released before now (N3, P3, N7, F7, etc.)

In response to the demand by many of our customers, we hereby compare and contrast between Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 and Tecno’s new tablet, the Phantom Pad N9.

Both devices are superb and are packed with features anyone would expect to find in a high quality Android tablet — although, the Galaxy Tab 2 has been around and well known among tech-savvy Nigerians for some time now.

Now, let’s see how both products fare against each other:

General

Both devices run on Google’s Android operating system. While the Galaxy tab runs on Android 4.0.3 (ICS – upgradeable to 4.1.1), the Phantom Pad N9 runs on the latest version of Android, 4.2.2.

Also, both devices have a SIM card slot and both support 2G and 3G networks. So, both will give users a great web surfing experience. Plus, you can use both devices to make phone calls.

Body and design

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 measures 193.7 x 122.4 x 10.5mm, while the Tecno Phantom Pad N9 is slightly larger, measuring 204 x 154 x 9.9mm. Though larger, the Phantom pad is slimmer than the Galaxy Tab 2.

Both products are available in black and white colors.

Display

The Phantom Pad has a HD 8-inch (768 x 1024 pixels) display, which is slightly larger than the Galaxy Tab’s 7-inch (600 x 1024 pixels) display. Each device has an LCD capacitive touch screen.

Connectivity

Both devices have GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth, A-GPS, and micro USB connectivity options. In addition, both devices have WiFi, WiFi hotspot, WiFi direct, and dual band features.

Processor and memory

The Galaxy Tab is packed with a 1GHz dual core processor and a PowerVR SGX540 GPU. But the Phantom Pad N9 boasts of a stronger 1GHz quad core processor.

While the Galaxy comes in variants with internal storage capacity of 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB, the Phantom Pad comes is available in only one variant, which is packed with 16GB or internal memory. You can expand the memory capacity of both devices using using a micro SD.

Both devices have 1GB of RAM.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has a 3.15MP rear camera plus a VGA front-facing camera, while the Tecno Phantom pad has a 5.0MP rear camera and a 2.0MP front-facing camera. Both devices are great for shooting pictures and videos.

Battery

The Tecno Phantom seems to be the winner here also, as it is packed with a 4500 mAh battery, which slightly trumps the 4000 mAh that comes with the Galaxy Tab.

Price

The Galaxy tab presently costs N53,000 while the new Tecno Phantom pad costs N36,ooo (Parktel Online Store Price).

Who wins?

After comparing the important features of both phones, we think Tecno’s Phantom Pad wins in most aspects. However, because the product is still very new, we cannot vouch for its durability. But if we look at how their Android smartphones are faring in that regard, one can predict that the Tecno tablet will stand the test of prolonged use.

However, if you’re still finding it hard to subscribe to Tecno products because of their first generation mobile phones, you can satisfy yourself by going for the Galaxy Tab.

http:///blog/tecno-phantom-pad-n9-vs-samsung-galaxy-tab-2-which-is-better/

This is era of competition, Every smartphone maker company are launching budget smartphones to established its empire. Tecno’s P3,N3,Q1 are also a Budget phone. Apple is also planning to launch its 1st Budget iphone in near future.

Now Samsung also decided to launch its lowest cost Galaxy series smartphone “Star”at just ₦16,000. With the launch of this budget smartphone, it will definately compete with Tecno’s phones and other budget smartphones by Gionee, Infinix and other Chinease Smartphones. Before this smartphone, Samsung’s Budget smartphone was Galaxy Y.

Keeping this in mind, Samsung phones have been designed to be easy to connect to almost all social networking portals apart from delivering seamless basic telecommunication capabilities. The Samsung Galaxy Star S5282 is a very capable device that runs on the latest Android Jelly Bean OS. The phone sports a Dual SIM slot for carrying two active numbers at a time. The Dual SIMphone will be able to keep both the numbers on standby which is extremely helpful in keeping the battery consumption to a minimum.

The candy bar design of the Samsung Galaxy Star makes it easy to hold and operate with one hand. The phone works with the GSM frequency for both the SIMs. The 1 GHz processor used in the Galaxy Star is more than enough to run basic tasks and keep the memory consumption to a minimum. Depending on the tasks, the phone is capable of multitasking with relative ease. The Star comes with a TFT LCD touch screen having a size of 2.9 inches. The QVGA screen comes with a resolution of 320 x 240 p.

The camera has a 2 MP sensor and is also capable of good quality video recording. The camera can easily perform certain functions like Scene Modes, Shooting Modes and Effects for the pictures, Timer Shots, White Balance adjustments, Metering and Image Editing. The battery used in the phone has a capacity of 1200 mAh which is sufficient in powering the phone for quite a while. It gives a talk time of 14 hours and a standby time of 320 hours on 2G.

The phone is capable of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and basic GPRS and EDGE connections. You can also use the USB port to transfer your files to the device. It comes with an internal memory of 4 GB which can be expanded to 32 GB via microSD cards. The device has 512 MB of RAM as well.
Key Features

Android Jelly Bean OS
Wi-Fi Enabled
Dual Standby SIM (GSM + GSM)
Expandable Storage Capacity of 32 GB
2 MP Primary Camera
1 GHz Processor
2.9-inch TFT Touchscreen
FM Radio

only time will tell on who wins the battle.

http://oshadami.com/2013/07/samsung-battles-tecno-with-new-samsung-galaxy-star-smartphone/