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Nigeria is really fast adapting in this virtual world of ours today. A non-governmental Organization who posed themselves to be MindAfrica Leadership Initiative has setup an initiative to help young aged girls in the realization of their true tech-potentials in Port Harcourt, River State.

MindAfrica Leadership Initiative (formerly known as MIND Foundation) is a not-for-profit organization that provides free learning opportunities to disadvantaged children and youth in ways that build their innovative and creative capacities. MindAfrica offers these services through after-school programs, holiday camps and other enrichment programs for children and youth.

As part of events to mark the International Girls in ICT Day, MindAfrica Leadership Initiative, an NGO based in Port Harcourt, held a 1-day workshop for secondary school girls of Holy Rosary College on the 26th of April, 2018. One of the highlights of the event was the official launch of the “Girls Code Club”, an after-school program that is designed to inspire and empower girls within the ages of 10 – 17, with the skills to become creators of technology in order to enhance their potential, improve their lives, and impact their community.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L6gWX6MxVg

The goal of the program was to educate young girls on the range of possibilities offered by the knowledge of coding and to build their skills and confidence through hands-on learning. It was also aimed at getting them to take their first steps in coding and to experience for themselves just how interesting coding is.

The event featured plenary sessions, workshops and interactions with women in the ICT profession including Ekima Osifo, Team Lead, ICT/Media & Communications in MindAfrica and Esther Smart, CEO, Smart Tek, who were speakers at the event. 50 students from SS1 and SS2 participated in the program.

Launching the Girls Code Club in the school, the Executive Director of MindAfrica, Olere Iluebbey, said that this is a cross-cutting program strategy that is central to MindAfrica’s effort in using ICT to empower and improve the lives of adolescent girls in Nigeria. She said that as the first Girls Code Club to be established by MindAfrica, all efforts would be made to ensure that it enhances the experience of the students. She also advised the students to take advantage of this free opportunity to learn and advance their career aspirations.



In her response, the Principal of Holy Rosary College, Barr (Mrs) Veronica Efika, thanked MindAfrica for choosing Holy Rosary College as the first school to launch the club. She commended MindAfrica for the initiative in ensuring that ICT education, skills building, and empowerment of the girl-child were given focus. She assured MindAfrica and the students of her utmost co-operation in ensuring that the objectives of the club are achieved.

Using a creative curriculum, the Girls Code Club will enable girls with minimal computer skills to learn the fundamentals of programming and creative expression through code. Establishing Girls Code Club in schools will motivate girls to explore new ideas and skills which previously seemed unattainable. It will also increase girls’ interest and achievement in Math and other STEM subjects.

SOURCE: TechSphereNG

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Even if you really wanted to buy a Windows phone, Microsoft has run out of Windows Phone devices to sell to you. I’ve been watching the number of Windows Phone options on the Microsoft Store website dwindle for over two years now. I was honestly expecting them to disappear completely more than six months ago. It’s 2018, and there are still two remaining phones. Last night, they both flipped over to “out of stock.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella restructured the company’s phone business in July 2015. Every event since then has amounted to bad news one way or another.

It likely took so long to get to this “out of stock” stage because Windows 10 Mobile products simply aren’t selling. Frequent price cuts do only so much if the actual products are not desired. Still, Microsoft clearly deemed it better to keep trying to sell the devices than just write them off.

By the way, you can still buy other smartphones from Microsoft. Instead of Windows 10 Mobile, however, they run Android:

You may still be able to find these (and other) Windows 10 Mobile devices at your local Microsoft Store. And of course there are always resellers. There could also be more stock sitting somewhere that will eventually end up at the Microsoft Store. After all, the listings haven’t been pulled; they’re simply marked as out of stock.

Still, it’s only a matter of time.

In the meantime, die-hard Windows 10 fans keep waiting for the mythical Surface Phone.

https://techsphere.com.ng/microsofts-smartphones-production-shuts-down/

How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers? – In this digital era of ours’ technology is inextricably tangled with human lives as it has become an integral part of human existence.

In a generally phenomenon, virtually all teenage aged persons in a typical environment are digital natives or at least partially technically-oriented and being technical oriented involves having a valuable extent of understanding on how technology in general sense works in the real world. This simple scenario is of course benevolent at most point starting at self-value – career prospect and societal value, as the hiccup attached to the internet of thing is the social media network which will be the main focus of this post.

Social Media ain’t that bad, isn’t it?

From Facebook – Instagram – Snapchat, every teenager today wants to have a taste in being relevant in the latest online trend or just don’t want to be left alone in the cold because “all my friends are on a social network, so why can’t i?”, I mean everyone wants to have that online presence, this is usually as a result of a kind of mental drive in a mobile gadgets, with the makes of iPhones and Android phones and their several functionalities, this deviate the primary function of a mobile phone to other extensions. This mental drives which most at times are being obtain from peers are so distinct that, majority of today’s teens first sign up to a social account once a new gadget is gotten.

A study from Nottingham Trent University revealed that, “People who are over-dependent on digital devices, report feelings of anxiety when they are stopped from using them, but now, we can see that actual physiological changes accompany these psychological effects.”

In this context, a social media addict could be considered someone with a compulsion to use social media to excess — constantly checking Facebook status updates or “stalking” people’s profiles on Facebook, for example, for hours on end.

Please note, I’m not in anyway opposing the use of social media, but rather to pinpoint the malevolent influence it could have on a decent minded folk which normally result to excessive usage/addition and eventually interferes with important activities in a personal life and decision and a sad thing about social media addiction is it mostly targets the teens especially those having poor social interacting skill.

How Can I Prevent Social Media Addiction

1. Discipline

I’d proudly say this comes before any other. This refers to control gained by enforcing order on oneself to maintain a pattern of behavior. Regarding this context, you should authoritatively set a strict rule on how long you should Facebook daily and this should be obeyed accordingly, why not? You set the rules anyways. “Can you please still maintain that 30 minutes daily usage on social media? ” This question ought to pop out in your head whenever you feel tempted to add extra minutes.

2. Create a Tech-Free Time at Home

This involves banning all gadgets from the dining table or during a meal ensures that you and the brood are focused and can engage in face-to-face interactions. You’ll end up spending quality time and living in the moment instead of being distracted by your phone or alerts.

I’m a Social Media addict, What Can I Do?

Addiction of any sort can be difficult to overcome, but if you really want to experience true well-being, it’s worth trying to reduce your social media consumption. Below is the list of what you must do to overcome social media addiction.

How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers?

1. Turn off your social account notification

Notifications are a constant reminder that something is happening in the online world and often makes you feel you’re missing out. Getting locked out of your online engagement by turning off notification is a great way to fight back at addiction, this would let you concentrate on what really matters more and create room for less distractions. Another good thing about this is the notification list must have piled up by the time you eventually get to it, making the whole process more rewarding and exciting.

2. Remove social media apps from your smartphone

Restrict your social media access and only log in through your desktop computer only if necessary. This will help save up needed time and resources you can spend on more important things other than chatting.

3. Find a new hobby

Social media addicts considers messing around in social platforms to be their hobby, which it literally is. In this case, if hobby is a learned behavior the process can possibly be reversed, this doesn’t mean for instance a social media addict trying to ditch social media in the name of unlearning the behavior, No! This goes beyond that, this is about learning a new and different thing or skill and actually sticking to it thereby giving less attention to social media. Plus your new hobby will keep your mind and hands preoccupied when you’re craving for social media. Applying this rule on oneself would drastically reduce social media addiction over time.

4. Spend more time with people

Instead of keeping up to date with your friends’ and family members’ lives through a screen, spend time with them in the real world and reconnect with them. Make new memories and keep them personal to you, you don’t need to document everything you do in life with selfies.

Source: https://techsphere.com.ng/how-does-social-media-affect-teenagers/

In a generally phenomenon, virtually all teenage aged persons in a typical environment are digital natives or at least partially technically-oriented and being technical oriented involves having a valuable extent of understanding on how technology in general sense works in the real world. This simple scenario is of course benevolent at most point starting at self-value – career prospect and societal value, as the hiccup attached to the internet of thing is the social media network which will be the main focus of this post.

Social Media ain’t that bad, isn’t it?

From Facebook – Instagram – Snapchat, every teenager today wants to have a taste in being relevant in the latest online trend or just don’t want to be left alone in the cold because “all my friends are on a social network, so why can’t i?”, I mean everyone wants to have that online presence, this is usually as a result of a kind of mental drive in a mobile gadgets, with the makes of iPhones and Android phones and their several functionalities, this deviate the primary function of a mobile phone to other extensions. This mental drives which most at times are being obtain from peers are so distinct that, majority of today’s teens first sign up to a social account once a new gadget is gotten.

A study from Nottingham Trent University revealed that, “People who are over-dependent on digital devices, report feelings of anxiety when they are stopped from using them, but now, we can see that actual physiological changes accompany these psychological effects.”

In this context, a social media addict could be considered someone with a compulsion to use social media to excess — constantly checking Facebook status updates or “stalking” people’s profiles on Facebook, for example, for hours on end.

Please note, I’m not in anyway opposing the use of social media, but rather to pinpoint the malevolent influence it could have on a decent minded folk which normally result to excessive usage/addition and eventually interferes with important activities in a personal life and decision and a sad thing about social media addiction is it mostly targets the teens especially those having poor social interacting skill.

How Can I Prevent Social Media Addiction

1. Discipline

I’d proudly say this comes before any other. This refers to control gained by enforcing order on oneself to maintain a pattern of behavior. Regarding this context, you should authoritatively set a strict rule on how long you should Facebook daily and this should be obeyed accordingly, why not? You set the rules anyways. “Can you please still maintain that 30 minutes daily usage on social media? ” This question ought to pop out in your head whenever you feel tempted to add extra minutes.

2. Create a Tech-Free Time at Home

This involves banning all gadgets from the dining table or during a meal ensures that you and the brood are focused and can engage in face-to-face interactions. You’ll end up spending quality time and living in the moment instead of being distracted by your phone or alerts.

I’m a Social Media addict, What Can I Do?

Addiction of any sort can be difficult to overcome, but if you really want to experience true well-being, it’s worth trying to reduce your social media consumption. Below is the list of what you must do to overcome social media addiction.

1. Turn off your social account notification

Notifications are a constant reminder that something is happening in the online world and often makes you feel you’re missing out. Getting locked out of your online engagement by turning off notification is a great way to fight back at addiction, this would let you concentrate on what really matters more and create room for less distractions. Another good thing about this is the notification list must have piled up by the time you eventually get to it, making the whole process more rewarding and exciting.

2. Remove social media apps from your smartphone

Restrict your social media access and only log in through your desktop computer only if necessary. This will help save up needed time and resources you can spend on more important things other than chatting.

3. Find a new hobby

Social media addicts considers messing around in social platforms to be their hobby, which it literally is. In this case, if hobby is a learned behavior the process can possibly be reversed, this doesn’t mean for instance a social media addict trying to ditch social media in the name of unlearning the behavior, No! This goes beyond that, this is about learning a new and different thing or skill and actually sticking to it thereby giving less attention to social media. Plus your new hobby will keep your mind and hands preoccupied when you’re craving for social media. Applying this rule on oneself would drastically reduce social media addiction over time.

4. Spend more time with people

Instead of keeping up to date with your friends’ and family members’ lives through a screen, spend time with them in the real world and reconnect with them. Make new memories and keep them personal to you, you don’t need to document everything you do in life with selfies.

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NDIC, which is the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation has just placed an explicit warning to Nigerians to steer off the popular and the fast rising bitcoin trading and its relations as it is not yet authorized in the country by the Central Bank of Nigeria and isn’t backed up by any law in the Nigeria’s constitution.

The Insurance Corporation also made further revelations stating how digital currencies are unregulated electronic forms of monetary value that can literally act as our conventional currencies in making transactions and payments; A digital currency has no physical form and it is not issued or controlled by any central authority and is thus exempted from government support.

Digital currencies are not created, issued or guaranteed by any Central Bank. Digital Currencies are also referred to as Virtual or Crypto currencies, NDIC added.

NDIC went further to pick point these facts behind the popular digital currency. According to the list,

1. Neither currencies nor coins offered by any central bank like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or a Central Bank of any other country with authority to issue such currency.
2. Not backed by any physical commodity, such as gold.
3. Not deposits or instruments authorized by the CBN.
4. Not insured by the NDIC.

Risk Involve Trading in Digital Currencies;

Consumers are not protected when using digital currencies for payments: Digital currency ‘units or accounts’ are not recognized by the CBN and are not insured by the NDIC unlike bank accounts. There is no protection, refund rights or redress for users of digital currencies.

Consumers can lose all their money due to Loss or Theft: Digital currencies are virtual money, stored in electronic medium called e-wallets and are vulnerable to losses due to loss of password, hacking, virus/malware attack etc. The loss of the wallet could result in the permanent loss of the digital currencies held in them.

High price changes that could lead to zero value of the currency quickly: The inherent instability in the rates because digital currencies are not issued or backed by any government, with no investor protection and are not protected by deposit insurance. This exposes the users to potential complete loss of value.

Absence of Authorized Exchange Platforms: Digital currencies are traded on exchanges established in various jurisdictions with unclear legal status. Consequently, the users of these platforms are exposed to financial, operational and legal risks.

Misuse for criminal activities: It has being widely reported that digital currencies are used in illicit activities in several jurisdictions, including unintentional breaches of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws.

Negative Opinion of Digital Currencies by the world’s central banker: The head of the Bank for International Settlements labelled Bitcoin as “a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme” and, due to the energy consumption required for mining it, an “environmental disaster”

Negative Opinion of Digital Currencies by the head of the World Bank: Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President compared crypto-currencies to “Ponzi schemes. According to him “In terms of using Bitcoin or some of the crypto-currencies, we are also looking at it, but I’m told the vast majority of crypto-currencies are basically Ponzi schemes.”

List of Countries that Banned Trading in Digital Currencies

1. China’s Central Bank barred financial institutions from taking part in digital currency as well as exchange trading of Bitcoin. (Read More)

2. The European Banking Authority banned financial institutions from buying, selling or holding digital currencies. (Read More)

3. The central banks of India and Mexico have issued a warning on the use of digital currencies.

4. The central bank of Russia are totally opposed to private money, no matter if it is in physical or virtual form.

5. Bangladesh, Nepal, Ecuador, Bolivia and Iceland and Morocco have all banned Bitcoin in their territories.

6. South Korea, a global center for crypto-currency trading, said it would ban anonymous trading of virtual currencies. (Read More)

My big question is "Do Digital Currencies Pose a Threat to Sovereign Currencies?" Air your views!

News Source: https://techsphere.com.ng/ndic-digital-currency-is-not-legal-in-nigeria/

The Grand Awards is a first of its kind in Nigeria which is set to award, recognize, empower and promote talented dancers in Nigeria. Nominations start 1st April 2018, kindly visit the official website for more info or see Nomination criteria. Tell a dancer! Tell a friend! Get Nominated! Spread the word!

Are you a university student? Want to use your software development skills for good? Spend your summer break writing code and learning about open source development while earning a stipend! Apply to join the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) Program 2018. The program is focused on bringing more students developers into their community and the world of open source software development. Students work with an open source organization on a 3 month programming project during their break from school.

About the Program:
As part of the Google Summer of Code, student participants are paired with mentors from participating organizations, gaining exposure to real-world software development and techniques. Students have the opportunity to spend the break between their school semesters earning a stipend while working in areas related to their interests.

In turn, the participating organizations are able to identify and bring in new developers who implement new features and hopefully continue to contribute to open source even after the program is over. Most importantly, more code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together 13,000+ student participants and 12,000 mentors from over 125 countries worldwide. Google Summer of Code has produced 33,000,00+ lines of code for 608 oprn source organizations.


Eligibility:
Student must be at least 18 years old at time of registration;
Must be enrolled or accepted into an accredited institution including (but not necessarily limited to) colleges, universities, masters programs, PhD programs, and undergraduate programs as of the GSoC Student Acceptance Date (April 23, 2018);
Must be eligible to work in their country of residence during duration of program;
Must be a resident if a country not currently embargoed by the United States.

How to Apply:
[url=https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/age-verification/student/?next=%2Fstudent-signup%2F]Begin your application here.[/url]

Application Deadline:
March 27, 2018

Source:
https://www.techcityng.com/google-summer-for-code-program-2018-for-students-stipends-available/

Airtel, which remains a huge data network in Nigeria based on network availability and cheap data prices (according to users) set to launch its Airtel Nigeria 4G network in Lagos next month including other major Nigeria cities i.e Abuja, Port Harcourt and Owerri in the nearest future.

This revelation was made by the Airtel Nigeria, Managing Director, Segun Ogunsanya at the launch of the new 4G service in Ibadan, Oyo state. He also said that more cities in Nigeria will be added to the 4G’s implementation todo list.

This new innovation will definitely turn on a new phase of Airtel broadband network service in Nigeria. To Airtel, a plan is accompanied with this initiative to introduce the right technology to Nigerians which will be eventually attained without doubt, this project will continue till all ends of Nigeria borders will be covered with 4G as the service aids economic activities in Ibadan and other cities, Airtel 4G network will have the largest network coverage in Nigeria, Ogubsanya further explained.

Speaking at the event, the chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Olabiyi Durojaiye, commended the tech company’s effort to introduce the product which he says would enhance the work of telecoms industry regulator.

This event was attended by top Nigeria Representatives like, Oba Saliu Adetunji, Oba of Ibadan, Moses Alake, Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commissions, Olabiyi Durojaiye.

The Chairman of NCC, Durojaiye concluded that NCC will continue to provide the avenue for network operators in the country to offer good services to Nigerian users.

Hopefully, soon Nigeria will be flooded with 4G network connection. Thanks to Airtel Nigeria.

http://www.techsphere.com.ng/airtel-nigeria-4g-network/

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TRADELYN:

Just imagine this one

An Asia Country, South Korea, has agreed to train over 22,000 Nigeria Public Servants on e-government, this report was carried by the Permanent Secretary, Nigeria Ministry of Communication, Abdulaziz Abdullahi who quoted in report issued by the Press Deputy Director, Mrs. Pauline Sule. This agreement for capacity building on e-government was reached by the Ministry and the Korean International Corporation Agency (KOICA).

This e-government program is already been captured in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) by Federal Government of Nigeria. The Nigeria Civil Servant who has been chosen for the quest will (according to report) receive short and long term training courses here in Nigeria in different levels to successfully drive the e-government programme by the government.

Abdulaziz Abdullahi said,

The Executive Course I is for heads of government establishments; Executive Course II is for directors in public service; Professional Course for middle level officers; e-Security for ICT technical staff and Train-the-Trainer for future potential trainers on the capacity building programme.

The diplomatic ties between Nigeria and Korea started since 1980 and was delighted on how fast the pace of the amicable relationships had thrived in various areas such as culture, trade and development cooperation, especially in the e-government project, the Charge d’Affaires of the Korean Embassy, Song Yong-Min said as he correspondingly expressed happiness and readiness in this partnership quest with Nigeria.

TechSphere currently don’t have the stipulated time range this training programme will last as it wasn’t speculated in its report, but not to worry, we’ll sure update you as soon as we’ve gotten the info.



http://www.techsphere.com.ng/22000-nigerian-govt-workers-to-be-trained-on-e-government-in-south-korea/

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After several appeal to Facebook is provide a “dislike button” just like the “like button” on its popular platform, it seems the giant listens to the wants of its user in a way, Facebook has longed refused to create a Dislike button to counter its trademark Likes. And for good reason! While the company doesn’t want to turn its platform into a cesspool of mutual hate And for good reason that is why Facebook is currently testing a “downvote button” which they ask us not to refer or regard to as the “dislike button”

The button is currently being tested on 5% of English-speaking US-based users (which by our math means around 10 million people are seeing this button right now). The downvote button, according to Facebook, is designed not to let users express how much they don’t like the comment. Rather, it’s meant to be a tool to tell Facebook that a post or comment is damaging to the conversation in some way.

When you make use of the downvote button by tapping on it, it doesn’t end there, as you’ll then be asked to explain whether a comment is “Offensive,” “Misleading,” “Off Topic” or other forms of inappropriate. In the company’s mind, this would help identify fake news, troll accounts, or just people being massive jerks.

The reality is probably a lot more complicated. Facebook has avoided a dislike button specifically because angry people on the internet tend to abuse it. Depending on how it’s implemented, it can be used to bully other people, brigade posts until they disappear, form cliques, or even push people with valid voices off the platform. It’s also unclear how this new downvote button would differ from the Report button that allows you to flag posts and comments for abuse (aside from simply being more visible). Hopefully, if Facebook decides to move forward with it at all, it’s implemented in a way that doesn’t encourage as much abuse as we see on other platforms.



http://www.techsphere.com.ng/facebook-test-downvote-button/

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Obinoscopy

Today, Google announced an innovation that would help users understand website with HTTP connections are “Not secured”, this will be indicated right in the address bar of its Chrome browser, the initiative has been planned to be implemented by July 2018.

HTTPS which is the secured version of the HTTP protocol which is considered as a good measure to decrease the risk of users being vulnerable to content injection which can result in eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, and other data modification by malicious attacks. Data is kept secure from third parties, and users can be more confident they are communicating with the hack-proof website.

Based on observations, Google has been moving the web towards HTTPS connection type for years, but it accelerated its efforts last year by making changes to Chrome’s user interface. Chrome 56, released in January 2017, started marking HTTP web pages that uses passwords or credit cards as “Not secure.” Chrome 62, released in October 2017, started marking HTTP sites with entered data and all HTTP sites viewed in Incognito mode as “Not secure.”

As a result, over 78 percent of Chrome traffic on both Chrome OS and Mac are now HTTPS, while 68 percent of Chrome traffic on Android and Windows is also HTTPS. But Google is not stopping there.

With the release of Chrome 68 in July 2018, here is how HTTP sites will look like in the address bar:



Here is how Google explains its thinking behind the change

"Chrome’s new interface will help users understand that all HTTP sites are not secure, and continue to move the web towards a secure HTTPS web by default. HTTPS is easier and cheaper than ever before, and it unlocks both performance improvements and powerful new features that are too sensitive for HTTP.”

The plan was always to mark all HTTP sites as “Not secure.” Eventually, Google will change the icon beside the “Not secure” label and make the text red to further emphasize you should not trust HTTP sites.

Google also announced today that the latest version of Lighthouse, its automated tool for improving web pages, now features mixed content audits to help developers migrate their sites to HTTPS. The new audit shows developers which resources a site loads using HTTP and which ones can be upgraded to HTTPS simply by changing the subresource reference to the HTTPS version.

http://www.techsphere.com.ng/google-mark-all-http-website-not-secured/

Niyi Bada, an Airtel Nigeria subscriber, is asking the operator for N5 million as compensation for alleged illegal and constant airtime deductions.

In a suit filed by Niyi Bada & Co and addressed to Airtel Nigeria MD, a copy of which was also sent to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Bada said his mobile line has been inundated with ‘numerous text messages’ in the last two years.

The suit reads: “We are solicitors to Mr. Niyi Bada hereinafter referred to as our client on whose behalf and instruction we write this letter in respect of the above subject matter.

“Our Client informed us that in the last two years his line that he bought in 2003 and which he has put to 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 – Xpress Fashion Service; Smart now; Hollywood Club and Music Club.”

The suit also revealed that Bada had severally attempted to rectify the issue and had visited Airtel’s service centre along Oba Akran, Ikeja to complain and to deny ever subscribing to such services and requested that all the subscription be removed and never to be renewed but each time such unsolicited subscriptions were removed, they usually return after a few days with a vengeance and more subscriptions.

“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 subscriptions even when there were formal and persistent complaints to take them off.”

“Our client has never subscribed to any other service provided by your company as he is only interest in making phone calls and sending text messages on his line which your greedy action of deducting money from his airtime recharge for your dubious subscription has now made onerous and expensive.

“We hereby demand on behalf of our client that you make a refund of ₦5 million to our Client for all the illegal deductions from his airtime recharge on before the 31st of January 2018 failing which we shall be left with no other option than to seek legal redress before a competent court for your clear illegal actions.”

https://www.techcityng.com/airtel-subscriber-demands-n5m-compensation-illegal-deductions/

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Two Factor Authentication which has prevented so many accounts from being unauthorized accessed and hacked, it does this by securing your account with code in addition to your password. This security feature works in a way that you can’t get in your account without accessing another security code sent by the feature.

But this could be a heck of a problem in cases like when you lose or reset your phone, you could inevitably lost access to your account if you don’t take these proactive steps I’m going to be listing out below this paragraph.

Here’s what you need to do to prevent you been locked out of your account in the future.

1. Print Your Backup Codes, Secretly & Securely Store Them

This is a very important thing to do, two Factor Authentication accounts comes with a “backup code”, this is obtained during the time of signing up, make sure you print them out or copy them to a safe and easy to retrieve location, this unique code allows you to regain access to your account if you ever lose your two-factor authentication token in the future. If you haven’t done this do it now you still have access to your account.

For some account like Google account, these backup codes only work once each, ensuring that anyone who intercepts the code can’t log into your account with it afterwards. If you run out of codes, be sure to generate some more. You can print backup codes for your Google account from the two-step verification settings page. If you’ve set up two-factor authentication for any other websites, sign into your account on the website and look for information about backup codes under your two-factor authentication settings.

2. Use Authy App To Back Up Your Two-Factor Authentication Data

Authy app is unarguably better when speaking of two-factor authentication among others like Google Authentication or SMS. This app allows you to sync your two-factor tokens between your devices. You can easily move your data to it when you get a new phone. Or you could share the data between a phone and tablet. Authy app is compatible with Google Authenticator and works anywhere you can use Google Authenticator.

Despite these sync features, Authy is still secure, as long as you use it properly. It can back up your authenticator’s data online which is also encrypted with a password you provide to prevent unauthorized access them. You can also enable or disable the multi-device sync feature, so you could just toggle that on whenever you want to add a new device and disable it afterwards. But that backup feature could help get you out if trouble if you ever lose access to your authentication details.

3. Ensure Your Phone Number And Email Address Are Linked Properly

Virtually all accounts sign up forms especially those that supports two-step authentication allows users to provide their phone numbers and email address, so that recovery codes can be sent via text or voice call to the phone number and recovery codes or verification links to email address. This is always required in cases where you forget your login details or for security checks.

Be sure to confirm the phone number and emails you have linked to your accounts. If an account doesn’t have your current number, you can’t use that phone number to regain access. If you get a new phone number, be sure to update in the account, most at times an email address cannot be changed in an account especially after verification, so be sure you provide an email you will always have access to and link all accounts appropriately so you won’t get locked out whenever in the future.

Even services that provide backup codes will allow you to link a phone number and emails address, ensuring there are plenty of different ways you can gain access to your locked account, if you ever need to. As with backup codes, you’ll find this options in the account’s two-step authentication page. For example, for a Microsoft account, this option is available on the account’s Security settings page.

4. Check Your Personal Information And Keep All Details Safe

Sometimes you may be asked to confirm the answers to any security questions you previously set up, recite the birthday as it appears on your account, or confirm any other personal information the service has, it’s ideal for you to always keep all information details safe. If you gave a service wrong information because you just didn’t want to share your real personal details at the time, you may want to go back and correct it.

In conclusion, always have a backup plan when using two-factor authentication on any account. If you skip printing out backup codes please kindly backup your two-factor authentication data using Authy or any other available platform. Ensure all accounts and personal information are safe!

http://www.techsphere.com.ng/two-factor-authentication-do-these-not-to-get-locked-out/

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Report has proved that the big tech giant Google has finalized and acquisited the HTC company as its deal with the smartphone makers based in Taiwan has been signed, sealed and delivered.

Google’s hardware senior vice president, Rick Osterloh, made the announcement that the company has successfully closed its acquisition deal with HTC even as Google is welcoming talented team to work on even better and more innovative products in the years to come.

Rick Osterloh also stated,

These new colleagues bring decades of experience achieving a series of “firsts” particularly in the smartphone industry—including bringing to market the first 3G smartphone in 2005, the first touch-centric phone in 2007, and the first all-metal unibody phone in 2013. This is also the same team we’ve been working closely with on the development of the Pixel and Pixel 2.

As Google’s hardware business enters its third year, Google said it remains committed to building and investing for the long run.

Google also announced it is expanding its footprint in the Asia Pacific region.

“Taiwan is a key innovation and engineering hub for Google, and Taipei will now become the largest Google engineering site in APAC.”

Today, we start digging in with our new teammates, guided by the mission to create radically helpful experiences for people around the world, by combining the best of Google’s AI, software and hardware,” the company stated.

http://www.techsphere.com.ng/googles-htc/

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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Thursday directed all tertiary institutions to end their 2017 admission by January 25.

The Board’s Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin said the board’s decision came at a meeting where all issues and ones bordering on the admission process were taken into consideration.

He said it was resolved that the academic calendar must be adhered to.

According to him, the directive becomes necessary as the board intends to meet up with the academic calendar as earlier agreed.

“By implication, candidates who have gained admissions into various institutions and are yet to register or do not have admissions by January 25 should begin to make preparations for the 2018 UTME.

“The public must also note that the UTME results are valid for only one year and not three years as widely speculated.

“If changes are made to the validity, I assure you the board would communicate appropriately to the public.”

“It could be purchased through vending commercial banks, Mobile Money Operators (MMO’s), Interswitch, NIPOST and Remita,” he said.

Benjamin, however, noted that candidates should ensure that they disclose at the point of obtaining e-pins the exact pins they are paying for, that is, Direct Entry or UTME as some unknowingly purchase Direct Entry instead of UTME and vice-versa.

https://punchng.com/jamb-directs-all-institutions-to-end-2017-admissions-next-week/amp/

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Google today made quite a revelation of its innovative project to improve higher its mobile results, it also reveals that page speed has been used in its search ranking for sometime now which has been largely for desktop searches. The big search giant says, starting from July 2018, mobile page speed will be a ranking factor on Google.

Google started labeling sites as “mobile-friendly” In November 2014 to indicate pages optimized for phones. Google then used few years experimenting with using the label as a ranking factor, ultimately pushing those changes in April 2015 and increasing the effect in May 2016. The label was removed in August 2016 as the company noted that most pages had become “mobile-friendly.”

Google now emphasize on the mobile friendly feature to encourage mobile pages to load faster.

Here is how Google explains it:

The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.

This innovation is a good push from Google to help speed up mobile web. The company rolled out its new Search Console to all website registered with it. The Search Console tools which help webmasters to analyze and site indexing on SERP, view analytics, peruse inbound links, remove and add content for crawling, monitor malware etc.

Although, Google will not offer a tool that will directly indicates whether a page will be affected by this new mobile ranking factor or not. Instead, the company points to three of its own resources that developers can use to evaluate their mobile page’s performance: Chrome User Experience Report, Lighthouse, and PageSpeed Insights.

Additionally, this announcement doesn’t mention Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project. At its I/O developers conference last year, the company shared that AMP pages now load twice as fast from Google Search, and just last week the team announced that AMP URLs will be getting a makeover. It doesn’t look like implementing AMP is enough to get a boost from this upcoming Speed Update — Google wants developers to improve their mobile site performance across the board.

http://www.techsphere.com.ng/google-mobile-web-speed/

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Google recently deleted numerous mobile applications on its Playstore, it is as a result of some security checks and investigation done by an Israeli Software Technologies Ltd. “Check Point“. It is proven that the games app that was deleted contains malicious codes that triggers pornographic ads content especially to its young users.

Check Point also gave deep insight regarding how the malicious game apps operate, it explains how “AdultSwim” (a given name to malware) initiates attacks with explicit pornographic ads, which pops up at every instance on your phone screen thereby tricking you to install its counterfeit security apps which it’ll then make them register for a premium service using their phone numbers. After a download, the app only had to wait for the user to unlock the device or restart it before sending information back to a command and control server, which then instigates the malicious activity.

Check Point also revealed about how the malicious app has been downloaded 3 – 7million times by its users, some of most popular apps which includes Five Nights Survival Craft, Mcqueen Car Racing Game, Addon Pixelmon for MCPE, CoolCraft PE, and Exploration Pro WorldCraft. See full list of affected game apps.


An example of the shown ads

Google spokesperson said in a statement to financial times

We’ve removed the apps from Play, disabled the developers’ accounts, and will continue to show strong warnings to anyone that has installed them. We appreciate Check Point’s work to help keep users safe.

Google insists that it manually reviews ads and has strict category blocks to ensure children have a safe experience with Android devices. And that the games apps that were affected aren’t part of the Google family program. In a statement to the Financial Times.

http://www.techsphere.com.ng/google-deleted-60-apps-from-playstore/

The Spectranet 4G LTE Internet Service Provider has been acknowledged to be the best and leading in the internet broadband market in Nigeria.

In the most recent report compiled by the Nigeria Telecommunication Regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said, Spectranet have nearly 50% of the customer market share comprising SMEs and households in Nigeria, Spectranet was adjudged the leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) beating 36 other ISPs to the feat.

The feat is coming at a time Spectranet 4G LTE was announced the Internet Service Provider of the year at the Nigeria Tech Innovation and Telecom Awards in recognition of the brand’s innovative internet solutions.

Mike Ogor, Head Marketing, Spectranet 4G LTE, Speaking on the award says,

The figures released by NCC are a testimony to the popularity of Spectranet and the value it offers to its customers. NTITA recognition is significant to Spectranet 4G LTE brand and we will use these achievements to strengthen our resolve to keep the brand Spectranet focused on staying Affordable, Faster and Reliable.

Also the Chief Executive Officer of Spectranet 4G LTE, Ajayi Awasthi, assured that the brand would sustain its innovative drive and roll out more benefits to customers and the enterprise internet market in Nigeria. Thank you Nigeria for making us No.1 in ISP market!

Spectranet 4G LTE has already received several awards of as being the Best Internet Service and 4G LTE Provider in Nigeria in 2016 and 2017.

History explained how Spectranet ISP was the first to bring the 4G LTE Internet Service to Nigeria, before this accomplishment, the brand is also believed to be the best network provider with its affordable, fast and reliable internet connection to offices and homes in Nigeria.

Spectranet 4G LTE Internet service is currently available to some states like Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Ibadan.



Source: http://www.techsphere.com.ng/spectranet-4g-lte-bags-ntita-award/

There are a lot of arguments in favour of migrating from the traditional offline mode to doing business on the internet or or “putting your business online”. However, to many, it may just sound too complicated or risky. But there are many good reasons to begin selling or running your business online.

Here are some of the top reasons:

1. Target the Global Market

With your brick and mortar company, you are limited to the amount of individuals who can visit you at any given time, let alone find you. With a good website, you can literally have thousands, even tens of thousands of people visiting your online store at once.

Imagine the potential for your company, if you could expose your products and services to a potentially unlimited number of interested people.

2. Improving Your Company Image

This alone should be enough reason to start a new website and begin selling online. It’s an extremely important factor considering that in this age, when you don’t a website, blog, or online presence, prospective clients could begin to wonder how serious you are about business.

Today, companies of all sizes and industries are establishing a successful online presence.

3. Reduce Operation Costs

Just one single task can make a significant difference in cost savings. For example, receiving orders online reduces the need for customer service staff. With comprehensive sales and product information online, you’ll simply receive purchase orders and payments via email or into your database. Staff numbers can be reduced, thus office space and related office expenses.

Making use of various online service providers you can now take all aspects of your business online, such as purchasing, billing, order fulfillment and shipping. Other functions can include pre-emptive customer service—such as answering client questions via a FAQ section or a customer forum.

4. Better Customer Support

The internet allows you to answer questions, give sales webinars, and solve customer problems—all without taking any of your time. Create a video, a product spec sheet or a FAQ (frequently asked question) section once, and you can direct clients to that information for years. Not only does it save you time, but you’ll be providing better service.

Your clients and prospects are looking for specific information, with an online presence, you can give them just the information that they are looking for, and just when they are looking for it. This means less phone calls with technical questions and more sales.

4. Very Low Start-up Costs

Starting out online means very low startup costs. You have no buildings to construct, no vehicles to buy and few (if any) staff to hire. Simply build your site and start selling. If you are already selling offline then the transition can be very smooth. You continue selling the same products that you know and have a good supply of.

Using a free platform like a self-hosted WordPress blog and a professional quality premium theme that doesn’t cost a lot, you can build a professional site by yourself. Some web hosting companies offer free site building tools. To get started on a shoestring budget, expect to pay anywhere from a few thousand naira. The basic expenses include web hosting, WordPress theme, domain name, and email marketing auto-responder service.

In conclusion, the success of an online business depends on the same thing as any off-line business: marketing. Learn how to increase blog traffic. Content marketing is a great way to increase traffic to your site / online store. Social media can be a powerful and inexpensive (free) way to drive qualified prospects to your site.

https://www.techcityng.com/5-incredible-reasons-take-business-online/

So i stumbled upon this image on fb and i decided to drag it here. What do you think?

OceanmorganTrix:
i wonder how technology will excel in a country like this when any new innovation is termed 666

A country without goals.

The big social platform Snapchat has unveiled that it had been working on a feature that would enables users share stories anywhere on the internet outside its platform.

This new feature which is called Stories Everywhere also allows users share Snapchat’s editorial content and premium videos by embedding snaps on websites and other online platforms which operates similarly to Twitter shared content.

Other big social platforms like Facebook and Instagram which doesn’t support this feature, atleast not now this could result to a huge turn up on Snapchat this year with this cute approach.

With the new development of Snapchat’s Stories Everywhere and snaps being able to be shared among all other online platforms, it is believed that this would increase its publicity which should in turn spur growth and be more enticing to advertisers and clickers. Snap could potentially get into the content licensing game for added revenue.

Snapchat has been trying to create a good avenue for brand’s exposure and of course more revenue, let’s hope this great initiative makes a huge hit on the platform and put Snapchat in a much better position among all other social media giants.

http://www.techsphere.com.ng/snapchats-stories-everywhere/

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China is offering Nigeria two telecom satellites which in return will take a stake in Nigcomsat the China-owned satellite communications management company that only has a satellite so far.

If Nigeria agrees to this offer it will be having two new satellites, also speaking about negotiation, Exim Bank if China and the China Great Wall constructor, the both firms have pledged full support and has agreed they would pay for the satellite in a bid for the benefit of our dear Country Nigeria, this announcement was made by Adebayo Shittu, Minister of Communication in Nigeria.

The new agreement exempts Nigeria from covering 15% of the original $ 550 million contract cost, China will take a stake in Nigcomsat. Although no word yet on the percentage that the middle empire will offer

Adebayo Shittu also said,

"This is a very big business opportunity … that’s why they agreed that even without our ability to contribute 15%, they are willing to pay the entire $ 550 million for the purchase of the two new satellites for Nigeria.”

From our findings, the satellites will be launched in a production period of two years after signing of the contract which should occur before the month runs out.

Adebayo Shittu concluded,

“The first thing is that we want to make a profit, we want to capture the local market and we also want to conquer the African market.”

Source: http://www.techsphere.com.ng/china-is-offering-nigeria-two-telecom-satellites/

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The big giants Samsung has unveiled a special wears meant to support the Dutch Speed Skating athletes team. This wears which is Samsung SmartSuit has five sensors that could calculate if the athletes are in the best possible possible to obtain an ideal performance during trainings.

Samsung SmartSuit which is believed to also enhance athletes performance during the sporting activity and has capabilities of sending statistical information to the trainer’s smartphone which as well trainer can also send a vibration alerts to the SmartSuit in return advising the athlete to lean less or more with a touch of a button.



As a general sponsor and provider of connectivity solutions, Samsung has always been involved in the Winter Olympics and this is probably the first time the brand has become so deeply involved in the competition.

Source: http://www.techsphere.com.ng/samsung-smartsuit/

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Over the years, since the inventions of several computer and machines these inventions has made the capability to complete more difficult task to keep growing exponentially. Humans who has developed these machines has made them so essential in our lives as we achieve alot today with technology.

In this emerging world of technology, we follow different technologies for specific tasks in our daily life. Moreover, technology has been running virtually in all areas of our daily lives, no matter what industry you are dealing with, it has an impact in an unquestionable and ubiquitous manner.

Today each and every member, regardless of age are aware of the technical devices. All over we can say is, “Technology is our useful servant”. However, technology is emerging rapidly and there are no chances for being slowing in near future.

In this article we will emphasis on how AI would have improve human life. But first we need deep insight of what Artificial Intelligence is all about.

Meaning of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

According to the father of Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy, it is “The science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs”.

Artificial intelligence (AI, also machine intelligence, MI) is intelligence displayed by machines, in contrast with the natural intelligence (NI) displayed by humans and other animals

In other words, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an area of computer science that emphasizes on the creation of intelligent machines that can perform tasks more efficiently, accurately and also react like humans.

Going through these definitions you’ll notice the research associated with Artificial Intelligence is highly technical, specialized and broad. Having known these definitions, I will list out the various ways the AI has/will impact positively on human life.

How AI will improve the human life

1. Eradicate Terrorism
Terrorism which has been one of the world’s biggest problem will be surely put to an end. This can be achieved where every ones data and behavioral traits are stored in a large network which of course integrated with super artificial intelligent accompanied with deep algorithm, this can prevents future terrorism attacks by analyzing patterns in people/groups and making mathematical deductions.

2. Improved Educational System

Yes, it’s already happening in some part of the world and in a short period of time it will be allover the world thanks to AI, machines are taking on the role of humans in many capacities, including tutors. As with human tutors, “Intelligent Tutoring Systems” can gauge a student’s learning style and pre-existing knowledge to deliver customized support and instruction for a better learning system.

3. Improved Healthcare system

AI implementation can greatly enhance care delivery, but it can also be disruptive to healthcare providers or teams that because of the difference in intelligence and ways AI could accomplish task. There are numerous importance of AI implementing on our healthcare services, a few are:

i. Fast & Accurate diagnostics
ii. Reduce Human errors
iii. Cost Reduction
iv. Virtual Presence: in a sense that specialists can assist their patients who live at remote locations using a remote presence robot.

4. Improved Financial System

What happens when Artificial Intelligence starts managing our economy and generating original thought? The answer to this question is mind blowing, mind you this is far from predictions. Automating our economy system by AI could really boost the supposed economy, If machine learning can really take over all human tasks and take over ideas of innovation, then it would be possible to get a radical change in the growth rate of the economy. This can be achieved by AI generating new better ideas and implementing them on economic problems, restructuring finances and managing resources. This will eventually eradicate the rate of poverty in the state.

This are just a few listing, Artificial Intelligence can be employed in so many areas of human lives.

Source: http://www.techsphere.com.ng/how-ai-would-improve-human-life/

Report has gathered that one of Nigeria’s biggest network ‘Glo’ which is a subsidiary of the Nigerian telecom group ‘Globalcom’ has refused to comply with the new payment obligation made by telecoms license in Benin Republic. This was reported by the Regulatory Authority for Electrical Communication and Posts (ARCEP) of Benin Republic, and so, the body also threatens to end Glo mobile and its operation in the West African Country.

Globalcom company which has earlier been notified of their refusal to comply with their new dues on the 18th December 2017 following the failure in September 2017 of the negotiations initiated with the State since June 2017 for the renewal of its telecom license. It was revealed that Glo Mobile would have refused to pay the new price of the telecom license, set by the Beninese state.

ARCEP of Benin Republic also stated that in refusal of the company's compliance to the new payment, it  requires Globalcom operations around its state to stop, this also include the sales of new SIM card and recharge cards around its state. Also stated that the company must notify all its subscribers of the impending cessation of its activities and invite them to consume definitively the telephone credits available on their accounts within thirty days of the notification sent to them. Glo Mobile will also have to maintain its passive colocation infrastructure with other operators for a period of three months.
 
From our findings Globalcom has yet to release an official statement regarding the issue.
 
The Beninese telecom market lost two big mobile operators in about four months although if we assume the worse case scenario with Globalcom. Bell Benin Communications SA which was lost on 2nd August 2017. Leaving only three which are MTN, Libercom, Spacetel and Moov.

source: http://www.techsphere.com.ng/globalcom-ends-in-benin-republic/