₦airaland Forum

Facebook is seriously working on introducing a dark theme to all its apps. Well, we are talking about the company’s recent effort in implementing a ‘dark mode’ in all of its services. Instagram is already testing a dark mode in beta and we already know that both Facebook and its popular messaging service WhatsApp is working on a dark theme of its own.

The dark mode on WhatsApp is one of the most anticipated feature. Well, we have seen how the featire looks on the instant messaging app, ...

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Brands appears to be looking toward Ads in order to get the most benefit from their creations. We have seen how the ads have been acquiring increasingly important spots in applications such as Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp. Smartphone Brands are not even left out.

We have Tecno, Infinix, Xiaomi mobiles already on this path and those ads could be so annoying to most consumers and even services such as Netflix could soon include it. Well, it seems that Samsung is already considering integrating the ads on their devices.

So, if you think ads on Xiaomi, Tecno or Infinix were bad, it’s about to be worse since we are talking about Samsung, who is currently the world’s largest smartphone maker.

ALSO READ: How to Disable Ads On Xiaomi SmartPhones Running MIUI 9/ MIUI 10

According to a revelation by LetsGoDigital, we could see the future intentions of the South Korean brand. The latest leaks reveals that Samsung would have already registered the Samsung Mobile Ads brand to incorporate advertisers inside its software. Here we tell you all the details.

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MTN has revamped its Data Gifting service which now comes with interesting offerings. The newly revamped Data Gifting service now has 2 new features called Dash Me Data and Data Transfer services.

What is MTN Dash Me Data?

“Dash Me Data or Request Data from a Friend” is a service that allows an MTN subscribers initiate a data request to his/ her friends for them to buy him/her a data bundle. By this, the beneficiary can request for data from a sponsor.

What is MTN Data Transfer?

“Data Transfer” is a service that allows you to share data from your active data balance e.g. customer “A” who has an active data plan can now share certain amount of data with another customer who is customer “B” up to a certain limit.

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MTN has launched a new tariff plan called MTN TalkMore.

TalkMore is a tariff plan launched targetted at subscribers that talk more than browsing.

Below are the benefits of the TalkMore Tariff plan

■ It is a basic prepaid tariff plan.

■ Any Prepaid MTN customer can migrate via ONLY 3 channels;

Dialing the USSD code *244#
SMS 244 to 131
Reaching MTN customer care service

ALSO READ: How to speak with an MTN Customer Care Rep without stress via 180

■ MTN customers on the plan will be charged a call rate of 12k/s (N7.20k/min) to call all local/national networks.

■ You will be charged N4/SMS to all local/national networks.

■ International Direct Dial (IDD) voice tariff standard rates apply.

■ You can migrate out of the tariff plan to other prepaid commercial tariff plans by dialing their migration codes.

FAQs on the new tariff plan for further clarification will be shared soon. Just stay tuned with us.

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Sequel to the approval of a Super-Agent license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, The MTN Digital Financial Services, has rolled out an Agent Network for the provision of financial services. This Super-Agent license enables the telco to recruit Agent network known as “MoMo Agent (Mobile Money Agents)”

With MoMo Agents, it’s very easy to Send and Receive money anywhere in Nigeria.

With a presence across all 774 local governments, the network of MoMo agents are fully equipped to deliver banking services right to the doorsteps of millions of Nigerians.

Who Are MoMo Agents?
MoMo Agents are retail outlets right next to you in your neighborhood rendering agency financial services to all customers (banked and unbanked)

What Do MoMo Agent Do?
A MoMo Agent offers Financial services including Opening Accounts, cash deposits, Cash withdrawal, Transfers, Bill payment, Airtime and much more. They send and receive money everywhere in Nigeria and much more.

How To Become A MoMo Agent

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Infinix has just launched its latest entry-level phone – the Hot 8 in Hong Kong. The Infinix Hot 8 is a budget device that actually come with some impressive specs considering its affordable price tag. The phone features a 6.52-inch HD+ LCD display with a waterdrop notch and 20:9 aspect ratio. The selfie cam comes in at 8MP and the bezels are quite slim.

Under the hood, the Hot 8 packs the MediaTek Helio P22 SoC paired with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage which can be expanded via the microSD card slot. There’s also a 5,000mAh battery which charges over microUSB. On the software front, we have Infinitix’s XOS 5.0 on top of Android 9 Pie.

As far as camera is concerned, it packs a vertically stacked triple camera setup at the rear with a 13MP F1.8 main shooter. The other two are a 2 MP depth helper and a dedicated low-light sensor. You also have a fingerprint reader and LED flash on the back.

For security, there is a fingerprint scanner at the back of Infinix Hot 8, while the connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, and micro USB for charging.

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In a bid to keep its subscribers from being snatched by its rivals, MTN Nigeria has made 10MB Bonus offer available for all its customers on their first recharge of the month.

Who Are Those Eligible For The Offer

Subscribers on the below plans will now receive 10MB data bonus on their first recharge of the month;

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Transsion Holdings is the parent company of Infinix with the other brands itel and Tecno. Infinix is preparing to launch a new phone called the Hot 8 soon and a live image of the phone’s retail box has been leaked. The photo reveals the design and some specs of the device.

Leaked Specs and Features Of The Infinix Hot 8

The Inifnix Hot 8 will come in an Aqua Green box. The phone has a waterdrop notch, a significantly...

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It’s like we are about to a see a major upgrade from Samsung for the Galaxy S11. This is the flagship smartphone which will integrate the newly launched 108-megapixel sensor. The latter, however, will come first with Xiaomi.

The Korean tech giant has developed the Isocell Bright HMX sensor to bring high-end camera specifications to its high-end smartphones. Nevertheless, another smartphone maker will introduce it first. The Chinese company, Xiaomi has revealed that it will launch a phone with Samsung’s camera sensor on it by the end of the year.

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Parenting is not actually easy these days, especially since both parents have to find an ideal work-life balance to take care of the baby. The process becomes even more complicated if you’re going through your late 20’s with your first baby. However, diapers are there to help parents out. Well, we are going to be specific, talking about Pampers.

Lumi is a connected baby care system comprising of an activity sensor, diapers, and a video monitor. The activity sensor is a removable gadget that monitors your baby throughout the day to gather necessary information and stats about the baby.

How Lumi Works

The data collected includes tracking the duration of sleep and wet diaper check that lets parents know if the baby has urinated. However, there is no cutting-edge implementation that detects urine here which essentially means any form of liquid will trigger the sensor, like getting drenched in rain or spilling water into the sensor.

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While Samsung still struggles to fix and release its first-gen foldable smartphone (Galaxy Fold), to the masses, IBM is bringing on a whole different foldables concept. The popular tech giant seems to be joining foldables’ train with high hopes and passion which is in its latest concept.

IBM has apparently filed a smartwatch patent that features a number of foldable screens, which can all unfold and turn the tiny gizmo on your wrist into a full-fledged phone and tablet PC. Sounds unreasonable, right? Well, Lets Go Digital was the first to spot this patent, which was granted in June earlier this year.

Titled “Variable display size for an electronic display device,” the IBM patent focuses on smart wristwatches with a massive and almost bezel-less display – rectangular in shape and resemblant of a miniature smartphone screen. Now comes all the crazy and absurd part of this patent.

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While Apple boasts of its closed ecosystem, iOS, Android is the most popular mobile operating system across the globe thanks to a lot of phone makers. It commands a massive over 80 percent market share, although highly fragmented, and Google currently reaps the perks of its widespread success. But wait, did you know that Samsung once had the chance to invest in Android? Yeah, I ain’t joking.

It’s story time. Sliding back to 2004. It’s been a year since now Essential founder Andy Rubin had started work on Android, along with a petite team of engineers. The project started off with the goal to build an operating system for digital cameras but was later pivoted to be suitable for mobile phones.

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In a bid to deliver entertaining digital services to its subscribers, MTN has introduce a new mobile game service called Money Run.

Money Run is a mobile game service optimized for smart phones featuring Davido’s 30 Billion Gang (30 BG Money Run).

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Google announced yesterday that it will be building the first private undersea cable between Europe and South Africa which connects Nigeria. Its third privately owned cable overall. The cable will be built by Alcatel Submarine Networks, and the first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed in 2021.

The Mountain View tech giant has named the undersea cable “Equiano” after a Nigerian writer and abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano, and according to Google, it will be the first subsea cable to use optical switching at the fiber level which makes it easier to adjust capacity on the fly.

Talking about Equiano, the search giant also claimed that this new cable will be able to carry about 20 times the capacity of the last cable that was built for the region. Moreover, the cable will feature a number of branching points along its route that can be used to connect other countries to Equiano in the future.

Google already has plans to connect the cable to Lagos, Nigeria, and other countries will follow in the future.

Google’s Equiano subsea cable will run from Portugal to South Africa, with an additional touchpoint in Nigeria

Other than Equiano, Google has two other privately owned cables already — ‘Dunant’ between Europe and the US, and ‘Curie’ between the US and Chile.

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This could just be the best of news for fans of Huawei around the globe. US companies have once again been given the nod to continue doing business the embattled Chinese firm. President Trump made the today at a news conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka.

After meeting with Xi, Trump held a news conference in which he made the announcement.

He said: “US companies can sell their equipment to Huawei.

“We’re talking about equipment where there’s no great national security problem with it.

“I said that’s okay, that we will keep selling that product, these are American companies that make these products. That’s very complex, by the way.

“I’ve agreed to allow them to continue to sell that product so that American companies will continue.”

During the talks between the two leaders, it was agreed the trade war between the two superpowers would be paused.

Besides lifting the trade ban on Huawei, Trump announced the States and China would resume trade talks that broke down last month.

Consequently, Trump also agreed to put on hold the idea of putting additional Tariff on China for the “time being,” and that he’ll allow U.S. companies to supply Huawei Technologies Co., though the issue of allowing Huawei to sell its products, which include smartphones, laptops, and communications infrastructure technologies, to the U.S. has not been changed.

As part of the truce, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to buy “tremendous” amounts of U.S. agricultural products in exchange.

“We’re going to give them a list of things we’d like them to buy,” Trump said at the news conference. The entire trade ban could become a thing of the past if the whole trade talk ends well.

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The smartphone market is evolving and foldable smartphones are slowly becoming reality. Although we are yet to see a commercialized foldable phone, Samsung and Huawei already have such a device.

Following Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, Google foldable phone patent hit the web today and it seems different from what we have seen so far.

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While manufacturers and carriers are busy talking up the benefits of 5G, Oppo is throwing up another question – what if we have no cell connection, no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth? The Chinese company has introduced a system called MeshTalk which can send data between devices up to 3km apart.

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Of course, year 2019 can be regarded as a good year in the mobile phone industry and it appears we are about to experience a tremendous change in the telecom sector in Nigeria. We all know that other mobile operators follows MTN and improves on whatever MTN offers in order to retain their customers. And now that MTN has again upwardly reviewed almost all its data plans, so we should be expecting well improved offers from others.

For most of us that has been anticipating for cheaper data plans, especially from MTN, here we go. MTN has again upwardly reviewed its all its existing plans and as well introduced new ones as seen in the second table below.

MTN subscribers can now enjoy a complete 1.5GB for N1,000 instead of the 1GB + 500MB (bonus data, applicable between 1am-7am). N1,200 can now fetch you a whooping 2GB and so on. Kudo to MTN for this improvement and we wish to get more.

ALSO READ: MTN Introduces InstaVoice Service – Receive and listen to your Voicemail for free

The New Change was also tweeted by the telecom company this morning.

Find below the complete updated MTN Data Plan;

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In a bid to its promise on treating customers to delightful rewards this year, innovative and customer-friendly telecommunications company, 9mobile is rewarding subscribers with bonus airtime on their recharges for calls and data in its newest 9x Offer.

How It Works

The 9x Offer is a big boost for customers who recharge more as they will get bonus airtime for all recharges of N200 and above.

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MTN BetaTalk is a prepaid tariff plan that reward customers with 150% bonus airtime on every recharge below N100 and 250% bonus airtime on every recharge of N100 and above, which is valid for 7 days.

However, MTN has again reviewed the BetaTalk 250% bonus depletion rate from 47k/sec (N28.2/min) to...

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Just few minutes after Oppo showcased its “invisible” selfie camera solution, another leading Chinese phone maker, Xiaomi has shown off a similar solution. Today, Xiaomi co-founder and president, Lin Bin, shared a video on Weibo which shows that the company is working on a smartphone with an under display front camera. Interestingly, this is similar to the “invisible” front camera concept that we saw from Oppo some minutes ago.

Unlike Oppo, Xiaomi’s video is clear and better shows how the front camera works. The Oppo sensor is not completely invisible as we could see a ring of light on the top of the display which suggests the position of the camera sensor. This is much different from the Xiaomi solution which has just a very thin bezel on the top. Xiaomi displayed this technology with the Xiaomi Mi 9.

The company showed the existing Xiaomi Mi 9 with a waterdrop notch placed it side-by-side with the modified version of this smartphone with the under display camera. Though nothing could be seen on the top of the display after the camera app was activated, taking selfies was possible.

The smartphone industry is consistently evolving and the race to get a true full-screen device is heating up. We’ve have seen all sorts of designs aimed at improving the screen ratio of smartphones. It all started with a notch, then waterdrop design, pop-up camera, periscope structure, sliding design, and most recently, the punch-hole design. Now, it appears that the under-display camera technology is the next line of development.

Watch the demo video Here

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/06/xiaomi-shows-off-its-own-invisible-under-display-camera.html

Asus has unveiled its new ZenBook Pro Duo – a high-end notebook that is stunning and comes with some cool innovations. Not only does it have a 4K screen that is now widely held, it has two. The main screen is a 15-inch regular 16:9 OLED panel. It also has another 32:9 IPS “ScreenPad Plus” screen just above the keyboard which is the same width and half the height main display.

This can’t help but remind us of the Touch Bar of the MacBook Pro. Unlike the Touch Bar, the ScreenPad Plus does not take up keyboard function keys, but still includes a full-size keyboard with features, and the touchpad is placed on the right side of the keyboard.

ASUS has developed some software for ScreenPad Plus that makes it more like an auxiliary control panel, but you can also use it as a display: you can also split it into two smaller 16:9 1080p displays.

The ZenBook Pro Duo features an Intel eight-core Core i9 processor and an RTX 2060 GPU. Four far-field microphones are designed for Alexa and Cortana, and the bottom edge has an Echo-style blue light that can be activated by voice commands. The interface provides a Thunderbolt 3, two USB-A, a headphone jack, and a full-size HDMI.

Although it contains two screens, the weight of this notebook is controlled at 2.5 kg, but the heat output and battery life of the two OLEDs will need further evaluation. For customers with a small wallet, ASUS also released a cheaper, 14-inch model called the ZenBook Duo.

The design and concept are basically the same, but both screens are 1080p instead of 4K, there is no Core i9 option, and the independent GPU is downgraded to MX250. ASUS has not announced the pricing or availability of the ZenBook Pro Duo or ZenBook Duo but it is expected to be available in the third quarter of this year.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 Laptop Full specifications

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/asus-zenbook-pro-duo-is-a-dual-screen-laptop-with-core-i9.html

The OnePlus 7 Pro is the most expensive device the company has ever made in its history. The phone is also the company’s first to feature an AMOLED display, not also forgetting the pop-up camera design in a list of firsts for the handset maker.

There have been several other pop-up camera phones in the past year or so but OnePlus including it on their most expensive phone has got to be big news. At launch, the company assured people that the mechanism and moving parts are very strong by attaching a 22kg slab of cement to the module. What it did not show is how the pop-up module can be used as an opener for your beer bottle.

Well, a Twitter user has done that for them and also posted a video of the process on the platform tagging OnePlus CEO Pete Lau. The user manages to open the beer bottle without any fuss simply with the pop-up camera.

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/oneplus-7-pro-can-be-used-to-open-beer-bottle.html

Without wasting much time, the Samsung team has taken advantage of Huawei’s recent predicaments, thanks to the current US government’s ban. The Korean giant has decided to launch an initiative on its store in Singapore dedicated to users of the Chinese manufacturer.

Anyone who owns one of the Huawei smartphones and fears that the ban of the company in the United States and Google’s decision to suspend the collaboration with it can make their lives more complicated in the future, now has one more chance to switch to a Samsung Galaxy S10.

Read more ...

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/samsung-now-offers-trade-ins-for-huawei-users.html

This is a good news for Glo subscribers as the special data plan package is back, even though it's coming with a mix feeling.

This plan is not actually the same and not as good as the old plan. The reason for the difference is the increase in price as well as the downward review of its validity period.

The plan now goes for N300 for 1gb while its validity period has also been reduced to 1day.

How To Activate Glo Special Data Plan (1G for N300)

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/glo-special-data-plan-is-back-how-to-activate-glo-1g-for-n300.html

President Donald Trump earlier last week signed an executive order that immediately placed Huawei on the Commerce Department’s so-called Entity List, and that effectively means the Chinese company cannot have any business transaction with U.S. companies without obtaining government approval.

While the ban is mostly targeted at Huawei’s 5G ambition, the ban obviously will have a far-reaching effect on the company. Huawei’s HiSilicon chip company in its initial reaction to the ban earlier last week said it was well prepared for the worst case scenario and has since started building backup tools precisely for this kind of contingency.

As expected, US firms are expected to cut ties with the Chinese giant, and Alphabet Inc’s Google is the first to throw in the big blow if a recent report is any indication. Alphabet Inc’s Google has cut ties with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware and software products except those covered by open source licenses.

This simply means Huawei will immediately lose access to updates to the Android operating system, and the next version of its smartphones outside of China will also lose access to popular applications and services including the Google Play Store and Gmail app.”

However, Huawei has assured fans and customers Worldwide that it is on top of the issue, as well as has some backup tools in place But whether or, not these unknown tools which could be its own OS will immediately appeal to customers remains to be known.

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/google-reportedly-cuts-off-huawei-phones-from-future-android-updates.html

The Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday approved the listing of MTN Nigeria shares on the nation’s bourse.

A senior management at the NSE, who pleaded anonymity, told the News Agency of Nigeria that MTN Nigeria’s application for listing was approved on Tuesday.

The source said the company, barring unforeseen circumstances, would be listing a total of 20,354,513,050 shares at N90 per share on May 16.

The source told NAN that the company had completed all the necessary steps required by the exchange for listing, which led to the approval.

NAN reported that MTN Nigeria shares, when listed at N90 per share, would emerge the second largest company on the nation’s bourse after Dangote Cement, with a market capitalisation of N1.83tn.

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently confirmed the approval of MTN Nigeria’s application to be listed on the NSE by way of introduction.

Below is the press release by MTN;

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/nse-approves-mtn-listing-listing-to-start-on-may-16th-for-n90-per-share.html

Just few days ago, Intel announced that its notebooks with foldable screens will be available by 2021. However, it seems Lenovo, another notebook manufacturing giant is a some miles ahead of Intel.

Today, Lenovo unveiled the world’s first prototype of the foldable screen notebook, ThinkPad X1, in the United States and the company said that it will be listed next year but it is still not 100% complete.

The ThinkPad X1 features a 4:3 13.3-inch 2K resolution OLED screen supplied by LG. After folding,

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/lenovo-announces-the-worlds-foldable-screen-notebook-thinkpad-x1.html

Well, popular brands like Samsung and Huawei have announced smartphones with foldable displays although we are yet to see those products in the market. Less popular Chinese manufacturer, Royole Technology, launched the first foldable smartphone dubbed “FlexPai” This device went on sale last month and it sold out immediately.

With these foldable smartphones already making the waves, many people are now looking forward to other devices that can use flexible screens. In response to this, senior executives at Intel said that they believe that laptops with foldable screens will be available as soon as 2021.

Managers from Intel said that the company is currently working with display panel suppliers such as LG Display, Samsung, BOE, and Sharp to explore the possibility of folding screen applications on laptops. Joshua Newman, Intel’s general manager of mobile innovation and vice president of the company’s Client Computing Group, told Nikkei Asian Review that;

“It’s early pathfinding now, and we are trying to understand the capability and the limitation of the [foldable] technology.”

Due to the difficulty of the application of the folding screen technology, it takes at least two years to launch the corresponding consumer products. Of course, if other OEMs are interested in this type of product, it will greatly accelerate the development of such products.

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/intel-says-foldable-laptops-are-coming-in-year-2021.html

Yesterday was Google I/O 2019 edition, a yearly developer conference Google uses to announce new updates to their ecosystem. One of the updates is usually a preview of the next version of Android which will be Android 10 Q.

Just like every other Google I/O, the company usually release the beta version of the software to a select number of devices. Google’s own devices usually got this update first (Nexus and Pixel devices) but recently, it decided to start adding more phones from different manufacturers.

Well this year, Google announced that 21 phones from 13 manufacturers will get the Android 10 Q beta release today. The manufacturers include Google, OnePlus, MI, Asus, Huawei, Sony, Nokia, Oppo, LG, Essential, Vivo, Realme and Tecno.

This year, we have a Tecno device that will enjoy getting the Android Q beta release today. If you have a Tecno...

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/list-of-smartphones-to-get-android-q-beta.html

The Infinix Smart 3 (X5516b) smartphone is a trimmed version of Smart 3 Plus. It features a 5.5-inch display with a screen resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels and runs on Android 9 Pie (Go Edition) operating system. The device is powered by ediaTek MT6761 (Helio A22) processor paired with 1 GB of RAM. As far as the battery is concerned it has 3050 mAh.

As far as photography is concerned, the rear camera boasts of a dual shooter (13MP+ QVGA sensors) while the front has an 8MP sensor for selfie lovers.

Other sensors include Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer. So, does it have a fingerprint sensor? Yes, it does. For graphical performance that can make games run smoothly, this phone has got a IMG PowerVR GE8300 GPU. On board storage is at 16 GB with the option to expand the memory by Yes Up to 128 GB.

Infinix Smart 3 Full Specifications:

https://www.tellforceblog.com/2019/05/infinix-smart-3-x5516b-specifications.html