Egypt's military arrest divers accused of cutting undersea internet cables.

Coast-guard patrol arrests three divers in the act of sabotaging communications cables that connect Africa with Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, a military representative says.

Egypt's naval forces arrested three divers cutting through an undersea Internet cable today, the country's military representative said, raising the possibility that saboteurs are behind severed lines and days-long Internet disruptions.
A coast-guard patrol stopped a fishing boat near Alexandria and arrested three men "while they were cutting a submarine cable" line belonging to Telecom Egypt, the country's main communications company, Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said on his official Facebook page. The page offered no details on the divers' identities, according to published reports.
It was not immediately clear if the divers were responsible for recent disruptions to Internet traffic over several lines that connect Africa with Europe, the Middle East, and Europe. Meanwhile, an executive for Telecom Egypt told TV network CBC that the disruptions were due to cable damage caused by a ship, according to the Associated Press.
A handful of Internet and telephone outages have been caused in recent years by damage to undersea cables near Alexandria, which carry more than 75 percent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. A trio of outages in 2008 were thought to have been caused by weather conditions or ship anchors.cnet

Gametime!..EA reveals Battlefield 4 headed to PC this Fall

 

This year's Battlefield series entry -- Battlefield 4 -- is headed to PCs this fall. The game wasn't given other platforms, but logic dictates it'll arrive on the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 successor. Apparently, since only Sony's next-gen console is a known quantity and Microsoft's staying mum, EA isn't sharing other platforms yet (but hey, it's probably PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox). The game's being built on the latest iteration of DICE's Frostbite engine, though no other details were given about the engine just yet.
Like previous Battlefield entries, EA-owned Swedish game studio DICE is at the helm, and Battlefield 4 remains planted in current times (unlike the pseudo-future of Call of Duty's latest entry, Black Ops 2). A beta for the game will go live some time this fall, and folks who bought last year's Medal of Honor: Warfighter are automatically part of said beta. We'll have more info as EA offers it up, but color us not surprised if Battlefield 4 makes a reprise appearance at Microsoft's still undated Xbox 360 successor unveiling.EA also released a 17-minute gameplay demo of the game's prologue section, played on a PC. It features a squad of four soldiers on the run from Russian spec-ops militants in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. You'll find it just beyond the break.Per a listing on EA's digital store, Battlefield 4 is headed to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in addition to the PC. PlayStation 4 is curiously missing, as is mention of Microsoft's next-gen game console.see more pics.engadget.

Nokia launches city navigation app Transit for Asha touch-screen

Nokia today announced that it has released a Nokia Transit app for full-touch Asha handsets, bringing the useful city and public transport navigation application to a number of its low to mid-end phones.
Nokia Transit for S40 lets users search for public transport stations, stops, addresses and POIs, plan and save trips, and look up departure and arrival times for buses, trams, underground or trains.

The new beta app works with the Nokia Asha 305, 306, 308, 309 and 311.
The all-new Nokia Asha 310 appears to be banned from the Transit party.
In its latest earnings report, Nokia said it sold 9.3 million Asha full-touch phones and 4.4 million of its high-end Lumia smartphones.

 Microsoft Corp did not violate a patent owned by Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility when it made its popular Xbox, an administrative law judge at the International Trade Commission said in a preliminary decision issued on Friday.
A final ITC decision in the case is due in July.
The fight over the Xbox video game console is related to the larger smartphone patent war between Apple, Microsoft and the mobile phone makers who use Google’s Android software, including its subsidiary Motorola Mobility.
Motorola Mobility accused Microsoft of infringing five patents when it filed its complaint in 2010. Four have been dropped.
One patent remains, according to the ITC docket for the case. That patent allows devices to communicate wirelessly over short distances.
If the ITC finds that a company infringes upon a patent, the infringing product can be barred from importation into the United States.
“We are pleased with the administrative law judge’s finding that Microsoft did not violate Motorola’s patent and are confident that this determination will be affirmed by the commission,” said David Howard, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Microsoft, in an emailed statement.
Google said it was disappointed.
“We are disappointed with today’s determination and look forward to the full commission’s review,” said spokesman Matt Kallman in an emailed statement.
Tech companies have spent billions of dollars to buy patent portfolios that they can use defensively or offensively, and still more money litigating the cases around the world.
The long-running Xbox case has seen many twists and turns since it was filed in late 2010.
In April 2012, ITC Judge David Shaw said in a preliminary decision that Microsoft infringed four patents and did not infringe on a fifth.
But instead of deciding the case, as is usual, in June 2012, the trade panel sent the case back to the judge for reconsideration.
In January, following an antitrust settlement with federal regulators, Google asked a trade panel to drop two patents from the complaint because they were essential to a standard. These types of patents ensure interoperability and get special treatment.

Google had promised the Federal Trade Commission that it would no longer request sales bans based on the infringement of standard essential patents because they are supposed to be broadly licensed on fair and reasonable terms.
The FTC, U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office argue that companies should not request sales bans when filing infringement lawsuits based on patents that are essential to a standard in most cases. Standard essential patents ensure that devices are interoperable.
The ITC is a popular venue for patent lawsuits because it can bar the importation of infringing products and because it issues decisions relatively quickly.
Motorola Mobility filed related lawsuits against Microsoft in federal courts in Wisconsin and Washington. They are both stayed pending an ITC decision.
The case is at the International Trade Commission, No. 337-752.channelstv

Why I love my bb!... Google Chairman Schimdt.

Google's chairman admits in an interview that he is still addicted to his BlackBerry, because he just loves, loves the keyboard.

Sadly, we never got to see the headline: "Steve Jobs: Why I love my Nexus 7."
Nor are we likely to be soon struck by the words: "Steve Ballmer: Why I use my iPhone in the bath."
Yet in a candid and refreshing interview, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt cheerily admitted that his own company had yet to drag his dextrous fingers away from his precious BlackBerry.
Speaking with the Guardian's editor in chief, Alan Rusbridger, at the Activate conference in India, Schmidt explained: "Look, I've tried to go cold turkey. I've tried to wear gloves all day. I've even tried screaming at Larry and Sergey that they should move to Canada. But nothing works. I'm addicted."
Actually, I cannot quite guarantee that those were his words. However, he did explain that he just adored the BlackBerry's keyboard.
It seems that the mere touch of that flirty QWERTY just gets him giddy every time -- even though there are other possibilities available, some with the glorious Android inside.
The Samsung Replenish is one highly affordable example.
Google hasn't previously been entirely draconian about what machines its employees must use. The Googleplex is famous for the open-minded articulation of its inhabitants.

 Yet there will be the curmudgeonly who will sniff that Schmidt, a man who represents the company all over the world, should show an example. (New campaign from Canada: "BlackBerry. It's the Schmidt!")
What must Kim Jong-un have thought if he'd seen Google's chairman with the slightly passe phone on Schmidt's recent visit? I can just see him turning to new best friend Dennis Rodman and guffawing: "He pulled out a BlackBerry. My people get solitary for that."
I prefer to think that Schmidt is simply a man who takes deep persuasion. In the Guardian interview, for example, he also said that he thought the iPad Mini and Google's own Nexus 10 were "too small."
So who cannot admire a man who knows what he likes and doesn't care who knows what he likes?
Of course, it might well be -- though he has always denied it -- that Schmidt still sees himself in politics one day.
Perhaps the most famous BlackBerry user is President Obama. One of the first steps toward becoming president is to, as the experts have it, "act presidential."
I am not sure how good Schmidt is at basketball.cnet.

Youtube hits 1,000,000,000 monthly users!

If the video hosting service were a country, it would be the third largest in the world after China and India.

Here is a statement from the Youtube's blog: In the last eight years you’ve come to YouTube to watch, share and fall in love with videos from all over the world. Tens of thousands of partners have created channels that have found and built businesses for passionate, engaged audiences. Advertisers have taken notice: all of the Ad Age Top 100 brands are now running campaigns on YouTube. And today, we’re announcing a new milestone: YouTube now has more than a billion unique users every single month.

What does a billion people tuning into YouTube look like?

• Nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube.
• Our monthly viewership is the equivalent of roughly ten Super Bowl audiences.
• If YouTube were a country, we’d be the third largest in the world after China and India.
• PSY and Madonna would have to repeat their Madison Square Garden performance in front of a packed house 200,000 more times. That’s a lot of Gangnam Style!

From the aspiring filmmaker in his basement and the next great pop musician, to the fans all around the world who tune in, subscribe and share their favorite videos with the planet, thank you for making YouTube what it is today. You have truly created something special.

U.K government deemed BB Z10 not safe enough!

On the eve of the Z10 U.S. launch, a British government security agency says BlackBerry's new operating system isn't safe enough for government employees.

Despite BlackBerry's focus on security with its upcoming Z10 and Q10 smartphones, the company has been dealt a blow by the U.K. government. According to The Guardian, the U.K.'s Computer Experts Security Group has deemed the devices not secure enough for sensitive government work.
Earlier iterations of BlackBerry phones have passed the rigorous CESG guidelines, but the new BlackBerry 10 operating system has yet to prove its worth in the world of U.K. cell phone security.
"We have a long-established relationship with CESG and we remain the only mobile solution approved for use at 'Restricted' when configured in accordance with CESG guidelines," a BlackBerry representative told CNET in an e-mail. "This level of approval only comes following a process which is rigorous and absolutely necessary given the highly confidential nature of the communications being transmitted."
While the CESG has nixed Z10 and Q10 devices for now, it could change its decision and approve the new BlackBerry platform in the future.
"We are continuing to work closely with CESG on the approval of BlackBerry 10 and we're confident that BlackBerry 10 will only strengthen our position as the mobile solution of choice for the U.K. government," the BlackBerry representative said.

BlackBerry recently partnered with Secusmart to create a security feature in BlackBerry 10 called Balance. This feature partitions work, personal data, and applications, which lets users carry out encrypted communications including voice calls, text messages, Web browsing, e-mail, and authorized app usage. Balance has won over the German federal government, but, according to The Guardian, has failed CESG's security requirements.
Traditionally BlackBerry phones have been the preferred devices for government workers because of their high security thresholds, but over the past year several government agencies have made the switch to Apple's iPhones and Android devices.
The U.S. Department of Defense announced in October that it was planning to open up its exclusive BlackBerry contract to other device makers. That same month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced it was dropping all of its BlackBerry devices and replacing them with Apple's iPhone. In November, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it too was ditching BlackBerry devices for the iPhone 5.
While the Z10 already launched in the U.K. in January, the news of CESG not approving BlackBerry 10 comes on the eve of the device's U.S. launch. The company is scheduled to unveil its new smartphone and BlackBerry 10 OS this week, on March 21.cnet

Samsung is interested in the Wristwatch market!

Samsung has confirmed for the first time that it is developing a smartwatch, which would rival Pebble and the oft-speculated device that Apple is said to be working on. Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile business, made the disclosure in an  interview with Bloomberg.
Less than a week after it unveiled the Galaxy S4, its upcoming flagship smartphone, Lee told the news agency that a smart watch has been in development for some time:

"We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long. We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them."

Lee did not disclose specific product information or a launch date. However, that’s notable since Apple has remain tight-lipped despite fervent speculation that its own watch will be powered by iOS and will launch this year.
Rumors of a Samsung watch took off in February when mockups of a device — supposedly named Altius — surfaced on a Korean messaging board. That apparent leak came just weeks after reports claimed Apple has a 100-man team working on its own smart watch product.
There are long been rumors of the ‘iWatch’ — particularly after the success of the iPod Nano watchband – but the speculation gained momentum last year following a December report out of China. A number of top tier media have since added further color to the original claims and, with Pebble Smartwatch Kickstarter attracting more than $10 million in donations, it figures that Apple (and Samsung) would be keen on the space.
We’ve reached out to Samsung to see if it has anything further to add to Lee’s comments.TNW

Microsoft to end support for Windows 8 & 7.8 in 2014.

Time to learn fast guys!

Historically, Microsoft has been fairly transparent about its plans to support older versions of Windows -- and it tends to give users a nice, long heads up, too. Until now, though, that hasn't always been true of Windows Phone -- remember how long it took Redmond to confirm you couldn't upgrade to WP8? In any case, Microsoft seems to be taking a more direct approach going forward: the company posted a brief table on its site, explaining when it will end support for Windows Phone 8 and 7.5. In short, each OS gets a total of 18 months of support, and that period has of course already begun, as both operating systems are shipping on various hardware. Support for WP8 will end first, on July 8th, 2014, while 7.5 "Mango" will hit the end of the road on September 9th of that year. Either way, if you purchased your device on a two-year contract, you might be eligible for a new handset by then anyway. And besides, those of you who took a chance on 7.8 surely did so with the understanding that it can't be upgraded to WP8. engadget.

Blackberry plans to secure data for Android & Iphone users

BlackBerry will offer technology to separate and make secure both work and personal data on mobile devices powered by Google Inc’s Android platform and by Apple Inc’s iOS operating system, the company said on Thursday.

The new feature could help BlackBerry sell high-margin services to enterprise clients even if many, or all, of their workers are using smartphones made by BlackBerry’s competitors. That may be crucial for the company as it has lost a vast amount of market share to the iPhone and to Android devices, such as Samsung Electronics Co’s (005930.KS) Galaxy line.
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said he expects BlackBerry’s device management software to gain traction this year, and boost revenue next year.
“Supporting devices with the best, most secure, and easiest-to-use mobile solution should enable RIM to transform into what we believe is an attractive model,” he said in a note to clients.
The offering could help BlackBerry shore up its profitable services business. BlackBerry’s shares plunged in December after it said it would change the way it charges for services, cutting fees for customers that do not need advanced security and other enhanced features.
The new Secure Work Space feature will be available before the end of June, and will be managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the platform that allows BlackBerry’s corporate and government clients to handle devices using different operating systems on their networks.
BlackBerry said the feature fences off corporate email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, web browsing and document editing from personal apps and content, which could be less secure.
BALANCING ACT
In a bid to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced a new line of smartphones powered by its BlackBerry 10 operating system earlier this year.
The touch screen version, dubbed the Z10, is on sale in more than 20 countries, while a device called the Q10, with a physical keyboard, will be available in April.
The new devices have a feature called Balance, which keeps corporate and personal data separate. It allows information technology departments to manage the corporate content on a device, while ensuring privacy for users, who can store and use personal apps and content on the same phone without corporate oversight.
With Secure Work Space, “we’re extending as many of these (Balance) features as possible to other platforms,” David Smith, BlackBerry’s head of mobile enterprise computing, said in a statement.
BlackBerry’s move comes as Samsung, whose Galaxy devices have gained great popularity, attempts to make itself a more viable option for business customers with security features such as Samsung Knox and SAFE, or Samsung for Enterprise.
BlackBerry said Secure Work Space means clients would not need to configure and manage expensive virtual private network VPN.L infrastructure in order to give workers’ devices access to data and applications that reside behind corporate firewalls.

“Secure Work Space also offers the same end-to-end encryption for data in transit as we have offered on BlackBerry for many years, so there is no need for a VPN,” Peter Devenyi, head of enterprise software, said in an interview.
SELLING SERVICES
The new feature could also help stem declines in BlackBerry’s service revenue. That business has long been a cash cow for BlackBerry because of the large clients that pay to use its extensive network and security offerings.
However, the company has been under pressure to reduce its infrastructure access fees, and opted to do so during the transition to BlackBerry 10. Due to the changes, BlackBerry’s service revenue is expected to decline over the course of this year.
Giving its large array of corporate clients the ability to manage BlackBerry devices, along with Android smartphones and iPhones on their networks might encourage both corporate and government clients to continue to pay for and use BlackBerry’s device management services.
BlackBerry plans to report quarterly results on March 28.
Last week, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said sales of the Z10 had surpassed BlackBerry’s expectations in emerging markets such as India, where cheaper entry-level phones are typically popular.
On Wednesday, the company said it had received an order for 1 million BlackBerry 10 smartphones – the largest order it has ever had from a single customer – and its shares jumped.
BlackBerry’s volatile stock closed up 8.2 percent at $15.65 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, while its Toronto-listed shares rose by a similar margin to C$16.04. Reuters.

Zuckerberg voted as the Best CEO of the year!

Lots of CEOs make the news for being gruff, domineering, or brilliant, but oftentimes their employees have different impressions. Every year, careers site Glassdoor surveys hundreds of thousands of employees across all industries and then publishes its rankings of the 50 highest rated CEOs (see list below).
And, for 2013, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg took the top honor.
Despite shareholder lawsuits over its botched IPO and mixed reaction to Timeline and Graph Search, the social network's employees gave Zuckerberg a 99 percent approval rating over the past 12 months, which ended February 24. This is up 14 percentage points from last year.
A Facebook employee told Glassdoor that Facebook has "an open community from Zuck on down" and that there is "mutual trust companywide and sense of community and drive, instilled by our CEO who we all truly respect."

Twenty tech CEOs made the top 50 list this year, starting with SAP's Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe sacking 2nd place. Also on the list were Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs in 8th place, Google's Larry Page in 11th place, Salesforce's Marc Benioff in 13th place, Amazon's Jeff Bezos in 16th place, Oracle's Larry Ellison in 46th place, Dell's Michael Dell in 49th place, and more.
Apple's Tim Cook was voted the top CEO last year with a 97 percent approval rating. Cook still made the list this year, but he dropped to the 18th spot with a 93 percent approval rating.
While women are making more of a splash in the tech world as of late, no female tech CEO made the list this year. HP's Meg Whitman made the list last year but her approval rating fell by one percentage point this year to 79 percent and she wasn't able to crack the top 50. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer received an 87 percent approval rating, but she didn't make top 50 because too few employees reviewed her to make Glassdoor's list.
While Glassdoor's list is a survey, it's voluntary rather than scientific. The figures come from employees who actively go to Glassdoor's site to rate their companies and bosses. Glassdoor says that this top 50 CEOs report only includes CEOs who received at least 100 employee ratings over the past year. Overall, more than 500,000 employees rated their CEO on Glassdoor over the past 12 months. The average CEO approval rating on Glassdoor for all CEOs is 68 percent.cnet

The All New Galaxy S4... What you should know!

If you're looking for Samsung's new Galaxy S4 to define a novel new era of smartphone greatness, it's time to temper your expectations. The brand-new flagship smartphone, which runs the latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, improves hardware significantly and it piles on the features. Compared with the extremely successful Galaxy S3 that came before, it's a firm stride forward rather than a giant a leap, but it raises the bar again for Samsung's competitors. And by super-sizing the screen and packing in so much specialized software, the GS4 sets itself even farther apart from the iPhone.
The Galaxy S4 handset steadily draws from the same design language as the S3, but takes almost every spec to an extreme -- the screen is larger (5 inches), the resolution greater (1080p), the battery capacity higher (2,600mAh), the processor faster (1.9GHz quad-core or 1.6GHz octa-core), and the rear-facing camera stuffed with more megapixels (13, to be exact). But, once you've gone through the features checklist (which also includes lots of internal and external storage space and RAM), it's the software extras that Samsung continues to lean on to keep its phones one step ahead of the competition.

Design and build
At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy S4 looks like a cookie-cutter copy of the GS3, but larger. It has the same rounded edges and narrow physical home button as its predecessor, but at 7.9mm deep (0.31 inch) and 130g (4.6 ounces), it's also a little lighter and thinner. Part of the slim look and feel is a result of Samsung creating sharper, straighter lines with the phone than the GS3's subtle curves (the Galaxy line is apparently inspired by nature no more).
Standing at 136.6mm tall by 68.9mm wide (5.4 inches by 2.7 inches), the Galaxy S4 fits right in between the GS3 and the Galaxy Note phones. It's large, to be sure -- very large -- but since I've grown used to holding big handsets, it didn't feel overwhelming in my hands. A more dimpled finish on the white version I held reminded me of the Galaxy S2, in contrast to the GS3's silky brushed feel. The GS4 also comes in "Black Mist."
While visually appealing, I've never seen a Samsung phone that wows me with its finely crafted build quality or materials. The GS4 doesn't reach the same caliber as the beautiful, all-metal HTC One, nor is it as polished as the iPhone 5. To be fair, that isn't Samsung's goal; after all, Samsung has stuck by plastic for a few good reasons, including durability (it won't smash like glass), manufacturing benefits, and price.
As the rumors and leaks foretold, the GS4 has a 5-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a 1,920x1,080-pixel screen resolution. While it isn't exactly edge-to-edge, the smaller bezel makes the screen feel more expansive. At full brightness, the display's 441ppi pixel density looked rich and crisp, but I'll need to compare it with the BlackBerry Z10, iPhone 5, and others to really get a lock on just how sharp it is.
On the back, there's the 13-megapixel camera, a jump up from the GS3's 8-megapixel lens. Even though the number of megapixels isn't everything, Samsung has had a good track record with images so far. The shooter has an LED flash and records 1080p HD video.
Beneath the back cover, you'll find a microSD card slot that can store up to 64GB in external memory, to go along with the 64GB internal storage. There's also a 2,600mAh battery.

OS and apps
The Galaxy S4 runs none other than Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the most up-to-date version of Android you can get right now. Riding on top of it as usual is Samsung's Touch Wiz overlay, a customized interface that I, for one, think is getting a little long in the tooth. Also, keep in mind that the next Android OS, Key Lime Pie, should appear when Google I/O opens on May 15. That's not far away, so I hope that Samsung and the carriers fast-track the Galaxy S4 for an upgrade.
However, Samsung does use TouchWiz to add a bevy of software enhancements, like gestures, and a beefier notifications tray that offers a ton more toggling options to quickly turn settings on and off. In addition to your usual toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, you'll also see toggles for call-blocking mode and eye-tracking gestures.
Now, when Samsung spots a trend, it pounces. Thus the birth of S Health, a calorie-counter/pedometer in one that uses phone sensors like the accelerometer and barometer to track your steps, jogs, hops, jolts, snacks, and perspiration. Combined with one of its new Samsung-branded fitness wrist bands, Samsung is attempting to replace specialized third-party apps that do these functions already.

Eye-tracking gestures
Smart Pause and Smart Scroll are two features that build off the Galaxy S3's optional Smart Stay feature, which kept the screen from dimming when you looked at it. In the GS4, tilting the screen up or down while looking at it scrolls you up or down, say if you're reading a CNET story, of course. As a daily commuter with one hand on the phone and one on a hand strap, this could be a more convenient way to catch up with news while on the train or bus.
I really like the idea of Smart Pause, which halts a video you're watching when your eyes dart away, then resumes when you start paying attention again.

Air View and gestures
While you can make googly eyes at the GS4, most gestures are still reserved for your fingertips. Hovering features known as Air View make their way from the stylus-centric Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet to the Galaxy S4, but replace the stylus with your digit.
Cameras and video
If the promise of the GS4's 13-megapixel images doesn't wow you, Samsung is hoping that its refreshed interface and enhanced features will. Perhaps the most out-there is the dual-shot mode, which takes photos and video from both the front- and rear-facing cameras, and combines them into one.

The background shows the capture from your main camera, while the foreground -- whatever you take from the front-facing camera -- lays on top. You can choose to change the window size and shape on top, say a postcard stamp, an oval, or a simple window. You can also swap camera positions so that rear-facing gives you the inset and the front-facing image forms the background. As to why, the answer, like some of Samsung's many features, is more correctly: why not?
Performance
While the Galaxy S4 will look the same everywhere in the world, it won't necessarily have the same motor under the hood. Your future GS4 handset will either thrum from a 1.9GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon Fusion Pro processor, or from a 1.6GHz eight-core chipset, Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa silicon.
We'll need to set the two bad boys side by side in the lab to see real-time performance differences.
Data speed freaks can rest assured that the Galaxy S4 will support LTE in expected markets (these haven't yet been announced), and LTE roaming will be possible for some geographies (very nice).
As for battery life, the phone has a large, 2,600mAh ticker, but also a larger screen and even more features to compromise performance. Smart Stay and S Voice both drain the battery more quickly, which just means that, as always, potential buyers should adjust their expectations. The more video and games you play, the shorter your life per battery charge. In terms of storage and memory, the Galaxy S4 has 2GB RAM, 64GB internal storage, and another 64GB available through the microSD car slot. In today's market, you can't get more than that.cnet
In Nigeria, we expect a price range of about 75 - 100k for an outright purchase but contract price will differ based on network. Arrival time might be in April - quite fast because they are a lot Samsung distributor in the country.

 

Z10 hits 1million orders! Now ready with WhatsApp.

Blackberry (formerly RIM) has announced it has reached an unprecedented One million orders mark and you can now download the WhatsApp - the popular online messaging app from the Blackberry App store.
A statement from the Blackberry blog reads "There’s no doubt that excitement about BlackBerry 10 has been mounting. Those who already have a BlackBerry Z10 in their hands have given us hugely positive feedback. Well, our partners are hearing this loud and clear, and I’m happy to let you know that we recently received our largest ever single purchase order in BlackBerry’s history.
“An order for one million devices is a tremendous vote of confidence in BlackBerry 10,” said Rick Costanzo, EVP Global Sales, BlackBerry. “Consumers are ready for a new user experience, and BlackBerry 10 delivers. With strong partner support, coupled with this truly re-invented new platform, we have a powerful recipe for success.”
BlackBerry unveiled the new BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones on January 30th. BlackBerry Z10 is now available for purchase in a number of markets around the world and will be available in the United States starting this month."

Download Twitter for Windows 8 mobile & RT here!

Twitter for Windows 8 has been released. You can download it in the Windows Store here.

Android founder and leader Andy Rubin steps down!

One of the co-founder of Android Andy Rubin has stepped down after the Android platform had passed 750m device sales and over 25 billion apps download. Android is used by a number of smartphones and gadgets manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Google.

A statement Larry Page Google CEO reads  "Sergey and I first heard about Android back in 2004, when Andy Rubin came to visit us at Google. He believed that aligning standards around an open-source operating system would drive innovation across the mobile industry. Most people thought he was nuts. But his insight immediately struck a chord because at the time it was extremely painful developing services for mobile devices. We had a closet full of more than 100 phones and were building our software pretty much device by device. It was nearly impossible for us to make truly great mobile experiences.

Fast forward to today. The pace of innovation has never been greater, and Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world: we have a global partnership of over 60 manufacturers; more than 750 million devices have been activated globally; and 25 billion apps have now been downloaded from Google Play. Pretty extraordinary progress for a decade’s work. Having exceeded even the crazy ambitious goals we dreamed of for Android—and with a really strong leadership team in place—Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google. Andy, more moonshots please!

Going forward, Sundar Pichai will lead Android, in addition to his existing work with Chrome and Apps. Sundar has a talent for creating products that are technically excellent yet easy to use—and he loves a big bet. Take Chrome, for example. In 2008, people asked whether the world really needed another browser. Today Chrome has hundreds of millions of happy users and is growing fast thanks to its speed, simplicity and security. So while Andy’s a really hard act to follow, I know Sundar will do a tremendous job doubling down on Android as we work to push the ecosystem forward.

Today we’re living in a new computing environment. People are really excited about technology and spending a lot of money on devices. This is driving faster adoption than we have ever seen before. The Nexus program—developed in conjunction with our partners Asus, HTC, LG and Samsung—has become a beacon of innovation for the industry, and services such as Google Now have the potential to really improve your life. We’re getting closer to a world where technology takes care of the hard work—discovery, organization, communication—so that you can get on with what makes you happiest… living and loving. It’s an exciting time to be at Google". image credit: nextweb.

ATTN:Microsoft releases patch to fix Windows USB hack!

Microsoft has announced a security patch that will help to protect users from a new vulnerability where hackers can steal data and passwords using USB drive disk even while the computer system is locked.  Hackers can use USB stick to acquire data and passwords from a user's computer even while the 'CTRL+ALT+DEL' lock screen is on. A statement released from the Microsoft blog -https://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2013/03/12/ms13-027-addressing-an-issue-in-the-usb-driver-requiring-physical-access.aspx?Redirected=true (read below) shows how an attacker can use a simple USB drive to steal data.

"Today we are addressing a vulnerability in the way that the Windows USB drivers handle USB descriptors when enumerating devices. (KB 2807986). This update represents an expansion of our risk assessment methodology to recognize vulnerabilities that may require physical access, but do not require a valid logon session. Windows typically discovers USB devices when they are inserted or when they change power sources (if they switch from plugged-in power to being powered off of the USB connection itself). To exploit the vulnerability addressed by MS13-027, an attacker could add a maliciously formatted USB device to the system. When the Windows USB device drivers enumerate the device, parsing a specially crafted descriptor, the attacker could cause the system to execute malicious code in the context of the Windows kernel.
Because the vulnerability is triggered during device enumeration, no user intervention is required. In fact, the vulnerability can be triggered when the workstation is locked or when no user is logged in, making this an un-authenticated elevation of privilege for an attacker with casual physical access to the machine. Other software that enables low-level pass-through of USB device enumeration may open additional avenues of exploitation that do not require direct physical access to the system".

Samsung S4 will be out Tomorrow. Maybe with a 3D camera!

With the launch date for the Samsung S4 set for tomorrow. Samsung is inclined to give 3D a try in the Galaxy S4. The Korean electronics giant has filed for a trademark for "2D 3D Movie & Still," and it also filed for a patent related to a panoramic imaging lens and panoramic imaging system. Samsung noted in its trademark filing that the application covers software for smartphones, software for tablets, digital cameras, USB flash drives, mobile telephones, portable media players, portable computers, rechargeable batteries, smartphones, tablets, wireless headsets, and lenses for cameras. That's a pretty extensive list.
Of course, there's no guarantee the 3D still and video camera features will show up in the Galaxy S4, but it seems plausible given the timing. Samsung is hosting an event to announce the phone Thursday in New York City.engadget.

Microsoft is recruiting in Nigeria.. Got the skills?

Microsoft Nigeria recently posted a number of positions they will like to fill for their operations in Nigeria (mostly Lagos) and the Africa region. It's a challenge like no other and we believe you should get involved. Of course you'll got to have the skills to work for Bill Gates!
Please find the details ; http://www.microsoft-careers.com/go/nigeria/340254/

I have been making free Quality calls with Viber! Try it!

So you've got internet but no credit to make long international calls except with boring Skype. It's time you download viber. It's has an amazing advantage being a cross-platform software and can work well on both a 3G and wifi networks regardless whether you are on a bb, Iphone or Android without increasing your data costs. Viber has simplicity that allows you to switch to traditional GSM networks when you so desire and access wifi to make quality calls (better than Skype!).

Viber was initially launched for iPhone on Dec 2 2010, in direct competition with Skype. A pre-release version for Android appeared in May 2011 but was restricted to 50,000 users; an unrestricted version was released on July 19, 2012. Viber for BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices were launched on May 8, 2012. Now it's on all the major platform including Symbian and Bada.
Viber is a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging voice-over-Internet Protocol application for smartphones developed by Viber Media. In addition to text messaging, users can exchange images, video and audio media messages. The client software is available for Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Series 40, Symbian, Bada and Windows Phone. Viber works on both 3G and WiFi networks.
Viber reached 175 million users as of February 26, 2013..wiki.

IPV6 internet... Now made in China!

While most of the world is still coming to grips with malware and weaning itself off of IPv4, we're just learning that China has been thinking further ahead. A newly publicized US Navy report reveals that China's new internet backbone revolves around an IPv6-based architecture that leans on Source Address Validation Architecture, or SAVA. The technique creates a catalog of known good matches between computers and their IP addresses, and blocks traffic when there's a clear discrepancy. The method could curb attempts to spread malware through spoofing and tackle some outbreaks automatically -- and, perhaps not so coincidentally, complicate any leaps over the Great Firewall. Even with the existence of that potential curb on civil liberties, the improved backbone could still keep network addresses and security under reasonable control when China expects that over 70 percent of its many, many homes will have broadband in the near future. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the latest revision of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that routes traffic across the Internet. It is intended to replace IPv4, which still carries the vast majority of Internet traffic as of 2013. IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated problem of IPv4 address exhaustion.wiki.engadget.

Yahoo mail hit by Hackers. What you should know!

Attacks typically consist of Yahoo users receiving an email from a friend or colleague (and sometimes a completely unknown party) containing a link that if clicked on, results in the account being hijacked. Some say their hijacked accounts send emails to select individuals, others report they get sent to all their contacts, and one even noted that they went out to “anyone I had ever received and/or sent a message to.”
We asked the users who got in touch with us if they got such an email and clicked on the link. Reports were mixed: some said they got an email and clicked the link, some said they got the email but didn’t click, and others said they never got such an email.
Amongst those that did click on a link, however, there was at least one aspect that recently seems to corroborate: the attackers have apparently been referencing a non-existent MSNBC news report in the email. The bit.ly URL that is included (we’re not linking it here for obvious reasons) redirects to a fake MSNBC page that reportedly hijacks your Yahoo Mail account immediately if you are logged in.
Yet many insist they never got such an email or click on such a link: their accounts were simply hijacked out of the blue. These individuals only learned about the incident from contacts who received shady emails from them.
Below are three excerpts from what Yahoo users have been telling us about these attacks. The first one comes from a Yahoo user who is part of a larger organization:

We were hacked at the end of January. They spammed everyone in the “contact” folder and deleted all the contacts. We just had another yahoo account hacked yesterday. Not only did it spam the entire “contact” folder, but we are unable to send out e-mails or access our “secret question” to change the password.
There was a toll free number to call and when we did so we spoke with people who spoke very poor English, and they asked for a one time fee of $100 for assistance with the issue. When we refused they hung up on us. We called the number twice, the first time we spoke with a woman and the second time we called we spoke with a man. Both times we called when we refused the payment of $100 we were hung up on.

For reference, here’s the timeline of events up until today:

• On January 7, a lone hacker by the name of Shahin Ramezany uploaded a video to YouTube demonstrating how to compromise a Yahoo account by leveraging a DOM-based cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exploitable in all major browsers. The same day, Yahoo got back to TNW with two statements, first saying it was investigating and secondly confirming it fixed the flaw.
• On January 8, researchers from Offensive Security let TNW know they had discovered that the vulnerability is still present, demonstrating a workaround showing they can still exploit the flaw in question.
• On January 11, Yahoo issued a third statement to TNW: “The cross-site scripting vulnerability that we identified on Friday was fixed the same day. We can confirm that we’ve now fixed the vulnerability on all versions of the site.”
• On January 28 and January 30, two Yahoo users contacted TNW to say their account was compromised via what they believed was the same way that was described in our previous articles.
• On January 31, we followed up with a story regarding a known flaw in the SWF Uploader component of Yahoo’s developer blog as pointed out by Bitdefender Labs. Yahoo says it fixed this flaw and recommended affected users change their passwords.
• On February 25, February 27, March 1, and March 4 we received more emails from Yahoo users saying their accounts had been compromised.

We contacted Yahoo about this issue but the company merely reiterated its previous stance. “The XSS flaws reported to Yahoo! have been fixed and we continue to aggressively investigate reports of any email accounts exhibiting anomalous behavior,” a Yahoo spokesperson told TNW. “We’re committed to protecting our users and their data. We strongly urge our users to change their passwords frequently and to use unique, alphanumeric passwords for each online site they visit.”
Yahoo is the third largest email provider after Microsoft and Google. Regardless of whether the flaws haven’t been patched properly or if these are new flaws, it’s simply unacceptable for Yahoo Mail users to have their accounts hijacked so easily and for Yahoo to stay passive for so long. The company needs to do more. We recommend that users should minimize financial and personal information sent across with yahoo mails. nextweb

Linkedin & Twitter gets better on bb10

Two new app updates are currently on deck for owners of BlackBerry's Z10aimed at enhancing the native Twitter and LinkedIn experience. And by "enhance," we mean achieve parity with app iterations on rival mobile OS platforms. With the newly tweaked Twitter for BB10, users will have the option to add or take photos while creating a tweet, delete messages, send direct messages from the 'Me' tab, report users as spam and browse conversations in a threaded view. So basically, the new version of Twitter for BB 10 is now fully baked. LinkedIn is also getting a minor overhaul, now letting users view and search for "Recommended" jobs, filter news by industry, message contacts from their profile pages and view images in full-screen. The updates should hit the BlackBerry World store within 24 hours, so practice some patience. Your Z10 just got that much more useful.engadget

Earn for apps with Samsung apps store

Last month, Samsung announced a partnership with EA's Chillingo to launch 100% Indie, a program designed to attract independent programmers to develop apps for the Samsung Apps store. Beginning today, fledgling app designers can join the program, submit their apps and keep 100 percent of the revenue earned for the first six months after launch (hence the program's name). Revenue shares then drop down to 90 percent of earnings for the remainder of the first year, followed by an 80-percent split during the app's second year, before ending with the usual 70-percent cut afterward -- in line with Google and Apple's fees. Head over to the source link to find out how to join in.engadget

BB10 pushes out first update fto Users... to improve battery life!

BlackBerry 10 has been out in the wild for almost a month, and today early adopters will begin receiving the first update to the new platform: version 10.0.10.85. Battery performance has been addressed, and over 60 "optimizations" should help lengthen the time between charges. Other changes of note are the "improved performance" of third-party apps, and that the camera should now produce superior low-light snaps. In-browser video playback has also been tweaked, and importing online contacts should work better, as should call logging in the BlackBerry Hub. Finally, the new software is supposed to fix issues with Gmail calendars. BlackBerry says the 150MB OTA update is available on some carriers right now, and will roll out to everyone "over the coming weeks." engadget

Google to make Internet faster!

Google has released a new data compression algorithm it hopes will make the Internet faster for everyone.A statement released from the firm's blog reveals that the Zopfli Compression Algorithm is a new open sourced general purpose data compression library that got its name from a Swiss bread recipe. It is an implementation of the Deflate compression algorithm that creates a smaller output size compared to previous techniques. The smaller compressed size allows for better space utilization, faster data transmission, and lower web page load latencies. Furthermore, the smaller compressed size has additional benefits in mobile use, such as lower data transfer fees and reduced battery use. The higher data density is achieved by using more exhaustive compression techniques, which make the compression a lot slower, but do not affect the decompression speed. The exhaustive method is based on iterating entropy modeling and a shortest path search algorithm to find a low bit cost path through the graph of all possible deflate representations.

The output generated by Zopfli is typically 3–8% smaller compared to zlib at maximum compression, and we believe that Zopfli represents the state of the art in Deflate-compatible compression. Zopfli is written in C for portability. It is a compression-only library; existing software can decompress the data. Zopfli is bit-stream compatible with compression used in gzip, Zip, PNG, HTTP requests, and others.
Due to the amount of CPU time required — 2 to 3 orders of magnitude more than zlib at maximum quality — Zopfli is best suited for applications where data is compressed once and sent over a network many times, for example, static content for the web. By open sourcing Zopfli, thus allowing webmasters to better optimize the size of frequently accessed static content, we hope to make the Internet a bit faster for all of us.