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In a report from 9to5Google, Google is in the process of replacing voice search on Android devices with Google Assistant.

The old voice search icon has been replaced with an Assistant icon in the Google app and search bar widget, Techplace24.com reveals.

In addition, the search bar widget now invites users to “Ask your Assistant”, when previously it had the message “Say “Hey Google””

When triggered, voice queries are performed by Assistant and results open in a slide-up panel.

It appears this change hasn’t been rolled out to all Android users, though 9to5Google can confirm it has been rolled out to some.

But, Searchengine Journal says that Google shifting the focus from regular voice search to Assistant is an indication of where Google wants to guide the future of its services.

This change could potentially impact a small percentage of organic search traffic to publishers, given the Assistant’s penchant for providing direct answers.

When users are given the answers they need from Google Assistant, they don’t have to search and click through to publishers’ sites.

Although it’s important to keep in mind that Assistant can’t provide a direct answer for every query.

Again, this change only has the potential to impact whichever percentage of searches are conducted using voice search on Android.

However, it’s impossible to know exactly how large or small that percentage is because Google doesn’t provide voice search data.

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/30/android-devices-google-to-replace-voice-search-with-google-assistant/

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The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) on Friday, July 26 released its May/June 2019 WAEC results.

Techplace24.com have observed that many candidates that sat for this exams had lost their smart cards, which WAEC recommend students to use in checking their results free of charge for atleast 5 times. But, with this SMS format less procedures will be required.

Below is the New Improved SMS Usage format for checking of results;

Send SMS in the format below:
1. WAEC*ExamNo*PIN*ExamYear
2. To short-code 32327 (MTN, Airtel & Glo subscribers)

For example -:
WAEC*4250101001*123456789012*2007

Note:
Ensure you adhere strictly to the format above. There should be no space in the message.

Wait for your result to be delivered to your phone via SMS. (SMS Cost N30 Only).

See More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/27/how-to-check-your-waec-results-without-the-internet/

lalasticlala

Key Features

Display: Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 5.119 (sunlight)
Processor: Octa-core (2×2.6 GHz Cortex-A76 & 2×1.92 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55)
Storage: 256GB + 8GB
Camera: 40MP, (32 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 0.8µm Front).
Operating System: Android 9.0 (Pie)
SIM: Dual Sim
Battery: 4200mAh
Network: GSM / HSPA / LTE
Color: Blue, Black
Other Features: Bluetooth,WiFi

Price: ₦309,000.00

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/26/price-specs-of-huawei-p30-pro/

lalasticlala

Key Features

Display: 6.39 inches, 100.2 cm2 (~86.1% screen-to-body ratio)
Processor: Octa-core (2×2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver)
Storage: 128 GB, 6 GB RAM
Camera: 48MP
Operating System: Android 9.0 (Pie)
SIM: Dual SIM
Battery: 4000mAh
Network: GSM / HSPA / LTE
Colour: Black
Other Features: WiFi, Bluetooth, FM Radio, WLAN

PRICE: ₦118,000.00

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/26/xaomi-mi-9t-specifications-and-price/

lalasticlala

OPPO A5s (32 + 3 GB) Key Specs

OS: 5.2 based on Android 8
Processor: Mediatek Helio P22 octa core processor up to 2.3GHz
Display: Waterdrop screen 6.2inches (19:9) aspect ratio, 88.35% screen ratio, Gorilla glass.
Battery Capacity: 4230mAh battery
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 32GB
Camera: Rear- 13+2mp, front 8mp with AI beauty 2.0 + AR stickers
Features: Fingerprint+Face unlock+pattern

PRICE: ₦55,000.00

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/25/specs-price-of-oppo-a5s/

There are alot of hidden features in your Android phone, that you may not know about, but this features might make your mobile experience a lot more fun.

Many Android comes with a wide variety of models, and versions which makes it more difficult to find features that will be consistent across all devices but you could dig into the settings and tweaks available for your Android phone and you’ll find a host of clever features and useful tools.

Techplace24.com will unleash some secrets in regards to this tricks.

Below are five (5) tricks you could do with your Android phone:

1. Find your phone: Usually, you’d have to ask someone to ring your phone or find another phone to ring your phone. But you don’t have to with your Android. Simply search “find my phone” on Google and Google will find it for you. If you own more than one Android device, you’ll be prompted to select one.
Not only can you see its location on Google Maps but also ring it or erase everything on it. The ring also works even if the phone is on silent and rings for a full 5 minutes. So that’s an advantage over a traditional method of ringing to find your phone.

2. Dual tab viewing on Chrome: So everyone knows how to split-screen on Android and use two apps side by side. Most people don’t know, however, that you can also view two separate Chrome tabs side by side as well. Just make sure you have two tabs open on Chrome and then launch the split-screen view by long pressing on the recent/overview key. Tap on the three-dot overflow menu button on Chrome and select Move to other window and that’s it.

3. Use a mouse to operate your phone: Is your display broken and the touchscreen doesn’t work? Connect a USB mouse. You can also connect gamepads, USB sticks and more with the adapter. Do it and your iPhone friends will be turning green with envy. You only need a USB OTG cable, and then you can begin.

4. Unlock your phone automatically: Android has had a feature called Smart Lock for quite some time now but it isn’t talked about much. You can set it to automatically unlock when you’re at a specified location such as your home, office or any other place. You can set it to unlock when you connect to a device such as your smartwatch or your car’s Bluetooth system. Smart Lock can be found in Settings > Security & Lockscreen.

5. Turn on the Guest mode: Sometimes you’ve to hand over your phone to someone in need. And then they have to walk away a few steps to get a better signal reception. You have no idea what they might be looking at. A better solution would be to use a Guest mode which has been, again, present on Android for a while. Just pull down your quick settings from the top and tap on your user icon. Select Add guest and you’ll switch to guest mode.

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/25/5-hidden-tricks-you-never-knew-your-android-phone-can-do/

lalasticlala

Key Features

Display: 6.01 Inch FHD+ AMOLED Display
Processor: ARCore 12NM Processor
Storage: 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM
Camera: 16MP Front, 16MP Triple Rear Camera
Operating System: Android 9 Pie
SIM: Dual Sim
Battery: 4000mAh Battery
Network: 4G LTE
Color: Blue, Black, Greg
Other Features: WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, USB

PRICE: ₦65,000.00

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/25/price-specification-of-infinix-note-6/

The way Alphabet Inc, or Google has been going in shutting down its services in the past is alarming. If Google is not a successful firm, Techplace24.com could have said that Google will someday become successful, you know what? They are not tired of testing new innovations.

Services and applications like; Google Local Guides, Google My Business, Google My Maps, and YouTube does still offer OpenSocial, development API tools for building social are the only Google owned products that could accurately be categorized as social media. Prior to being discontinued in 2019, Google+ for consumers was the Search Engine Giant’s latest effort to edge in on the social media market, but according to Google, it failed.

Google+ was not the first attempt Google made to encroach on the social market, which is so intricately linked to it’s primary market, Search Engines.

Previous failed social media sites owned by Google include the following:

Dodgeball – social networking service. Users could text their location to the service, which would then notify them of nearby people or events of interest. Discontinued in 2009 and replaced by Google Latitude.

Google Buzz – social networking service integrated with Gmail allowing users to share content immediately and make conversations. Discontinued in December, 2011.

Aardvark – social search utility that allowed people to ask and answer questions within their social networks. It used people’s claimed expertise to match ‘askers’ with good ‘answerers’. Discontinued on September 30, 2011.

Google Friend Connect – add social features to websites. Discontinued on March 1, 2012 and replaced by Google+’s pages and off-site Page badges.

Jaiku – social networking, microblogging and lifestreaming service comparable to Twitter. Discontinued in 2012.

Meebo – A social networking website discontinued on June 6, 2012.

There is nothing new for Google when discontinuing social media networking websites and other failed products.

Just take a look at the list of products and applications that Google has or will be killing off in 2019 alone..

Below are list of Google Products Being Discontinued in 2019;

YouTube Annotations – annotations that were displayed over videos on YouTube. On January 15, all existing annotations were removed from YouTube.

Google Allo – Google’s instant messaging app. Closed on March 12, 2019.

Google Image Charts – a chart-making service that provided images of rendered chart data, accessed with REST calls. The service was deprecated in 2012, temporarily shuttered in February 2019 and shut off for good on March 18, 2019.

– a URL shortening service. Started to turn down support on March 30, 2018 and was discontinued on March 30, 2019.

Inbox by Gmail – an email application for Android, iOS, and web platform that organized and automated to-do lists using email content. As of April 2, 2019, accessing the Inbox subdomain redirects to Gmail proper.

Google+ – The consumer edition of Google’s social media platform. As of April 2, 2019 users are greeted with a message stating that “Google+ is no longer available for consumer (personal) and brand accounts.”

Development of the following list of Google owned products has been ceased and each application is scheduled to be discontinued in the near future:

Google Search Appliance – A rack mounted device used to index documents. End of hardware sales in 2017 and planned shutdown in 2018 – with final shutdown in 2019.

Google Portfolios – Personal financial securities tracker. Deprecated in November 2017.

Google Fusion Tables – A service for managing and visualizing data. The service will be shut down on December 3, 2019.

Works with Nest – the smart home platform of Google brand Nest Labs.

IOS, Android App For Adsense – Few weeks ago, Techplace24.com reported how Google has announced to shutdown its Android, IOS Apps for Adsense later in 2019.

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/23/services-and-applications-google-has-shutdown-in-2019/

lalasticlala

See more; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/22/google-unveils-new-social-media-platform/

Again, Google is trying its hand at penetrating the social media market with the release of its latest platform, Shoelace. The launch comes just weeks after the tech company retired Google+, a social network that was created in 2011.

The most notable difference between recently cancelled Google+ and Shoelace is that the former was created with the intention of rivalling Facebook, while the latter is said to focus specifically on connecting people based on events and interests.

According to the writer for The South African, Cheryl Kahla, said that users will ‘be able to search by interest and Shoelace will share things to do with people in your immediate area’ based on common pastimes.

“Events and activities are called ‘Loops’, and users can organise and participate in Loops. Think of them as the equivalent of Facebook Events. They’re an opportunity to explore a new city or meet new people.” Kahla continues.

In another article by itnewsafrica.com, it said, the new social media platform has been developed by Google’s experimental Area 120 product development workshop and is currently only available in New York City, on both IOS and Android devices. There has been no word on when the social network is set to be launched worldwide.

“As fun as it is to poke Google for past failures in the social network space, amid growing concerns that time spent on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is having a negative impact on our lives, it’s kind of refreshing to see a social network whose main purpose is to encourage people to spend less time on said network and more time actually doing things,” Sam Rutherford said in an article for Gizmodo.

And even if this, the sixth attempt at a social network, were to fail it’s not difficult to imagine some of Shoelace’s features pollinating across Google maps or another of the company’s services.

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/22/google-unveils-new-social-media-platform/

lalasticlala

See more at; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/21/mtn-announces-the-appointment-of-former-vodacom-ceo/

MTN Group has announced the appointment of Yolanda Cuba as new Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer on Thursday, 18 July 2019. She joins MTN Group from Vodacom, where she served as Chief Officer of Strategy and M&A. Prior to her role at Vodacom, Cuba was the CEO of Vodafone Ghana for a three-year period, a position that saw her named Telecom CEO of the Year in 2018.

It is said that Cuba join the MTN Group Executive Committee reporting to the Group CEO, Rob Shuter. In this role, Cuba will lead the Group’s strategic expansion of its financial services and digital solutions efforts and transformation into a digital operator.

Cuba said: “This role gives me the opportunity to drive digital innovation and financial inclusion across the group’s vast footprint. I’m really looking forward to the new challenge and being part of the MTN leadership team.”

“We are very pleased to bring an executive of Yolanda’s calibre into MTN Group. Yolanda is a highly qualified and experienced executive, with a unique combination of operational telecommunications experience as well as finance, financial services and digital skills. I am confident that Yolanda’s leadership will place us in good stead as we intensify our efforts to build a digital ecosystem and scale our fintech offering across our markets,” Rob Shuter said.

In an article publised by itnewsafrica.com, it revealed that under Cuba’s leadership, MTN has said it’s continuing to progressively grow the fintech and digital opportunities in Africa as we see these areas as major drivers of our BRIGHT growth strategy. There has been no word on when exactly Cuba will take up her new role.

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/21/mtn-announces-the-appointment-of-former-vodacom-ceo/

lalasticlala

More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/21/huawei-reveals-that-its-upcoming-operating-system-os-wont-replace-android/

It is not really clear if Huawei is working on deep inside its software labs (Ark OS), possibly, or Harmony OS, but the company says the operating system it’s building is being designed for industrial use rather than as a direct Android replacement.

According to a Xinhua news agency report, says a Huawei executive insisting that Android will continue to run on Android phones for the foreseeable future.

Catherine Chen, the Huawei senior Vice President told the media that the operating system which also goes by the name Hongmeng is “not for smartphones” and has far more lines of code than would be needed for consumer mobile devices.

The comments need to be taken in a wider context though: Huawei representatives have previously said that the Chinese tech giant is indeed working on a replacement for Android. That might be true as well, of course, even if what we know as Hongmeng or Ark or Harmony isn’t it.

If you’re a little confused about where Huawei is heading with this, don’t worry, because you’re not alone. This is all playing out against the backdrop of Huawei’s strained ties with the US, with the situation and the public narrative changing week by week.

In a Techradar post, has it that Chen is reported as saying that Hongmeng has been in the works for years – something we already knew – and we had been lead to believe the OS might cover laptops and wearables as well as mobile phones.

Not so, according to Chen’s latest comments, which may be intended to smooth over relationships between Huawei and Google in the light of a possible easing of restrictions. The two companies have enjoyed a strong partnership in the past, and it seems Huawei would much prefer to stick with Android if it has the chance to do so.

We can only wait and see what happens with Huawei’s access to U.S. software and the operating system it runs on its phones. The next flagship due to arrive from the Huawei stable is the Huawei Mate 30 and Huawei Mate 30 Pro, expected around October time.

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/21/huawei-reveals-that-its-upcoming-operating-system-os-wont-replace-android/

Millions of people if not everyone are busy talking about FaceApp, the app that can edit photos of people’s faces to show younger or older versions of themselves.

In the past days, it can be observed that thousands of people are sharing the results of their own experiments with the app on social media.

But since the face-editing tool went viral in the last few days, some have raised concerns over its ‘terms and conditions.’

The argument is that the company takes a cavalier approach to users’ data, but FaceApp said in a statement most images were deleted from its servers within 48-hour of being uploaded on its server, app.

The company also said it only ever uploaded photos that users selected for editing and not additional images.

According to a BBC report, FaceApp is not new. It first hit the headlines two years ago with its “ethnicity filters”.

These purported to transform faces of one ethnicity into another a feature that sparked a backlash and was quickly dropped.

The app can, however, turn blank or grumpy expressions into smiling ones. And it can tweak make-up styles.

This is done with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI). An algorithm takes the input picture of your face and adjusts it based on other imagery.

This makes it possible to insert a toothy smile, for instance, while adjusting lines around the mouth, chin and cheeks for a natural look.

Problem started when an eyebrows were raised lately when app developer Joshua Nozzi tweeted that FaceApp was uploading troves of photos from people’s smartphones without asking permission.

However, a French cyber-security researcher who uses the pseudonym Elliot Alderson investigated Mr Nozzi’s claims.

He found that no such bulk uploading was going on FaceApp was only taking the specific photos users decided to submit.

FaceApp also confirmed to the BBC that only the user-submitted photo is uploaded.

Read More At; http://www.techplace24.com/2019/07/20/how-trust-worthy-is-faceapp/