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Meet the Samsung Galaxy Round: Samsung curved its screen!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Samsung through its Tomorrow website announced a new sister to the Galaxy line, this time not an ordinary member of the galaxy family, she actually has ‘curves’. The Galaxy Round comes with a 5.7 inch rounded display screen that falls towards the center of the screen and the sides curve in towards the center. The screen is TFT and has a bright super-AMOLED screen. The Round weighs 154g and is 7.9mm thin. The back resembles a leather-stitch inspired finish on the Note 3 and not the usual plastic but relax its Samsung they can make cheap material to appear premium so as to keep the devices light.

You might ask yourself the importance of a curved screen? You will definitely grip the phone better since it comfortably fits in your hand with the bottom back properly fitting in the shape of your palm and the curve means the phone isn’t too wide for you hand to move around the screen, but it will keep the photos and movies appearing bigger.

You might worry that the phone might roll often as you place it on the table, however Samsung has developed a feature out of this. They have created a feature they Call the ‘Roll Effect’ Which lets you check your notifications, date, missed calls, battery and more by simply rolling the phone onto one side, when you roll the Phone back the screen automatically goes off.

http://youtu.be/UIEExKSjWi4

lets See a few pictures

It will only take time for people to know whether they love It or think its an S4 that has literally been placed in a microwave. Let us know of what you think. The Galaxy Round is now available in Korea in Luxury Brown, and more colours to be announced.

Image and Video Source: Samsung Tomorrow

Adobe hacked, millions of records and data stolen

By
Joel Mwanja
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0

In a rather unfortunate series of events, Adobe, one of the leaders in software technology has discovered that there has been malicious activity on their network and guess what, they were right. Illegal activity has been noted on Adobe servers but they have also discovered that millions of records on product purchases and other related data has been stolen. Still not getting it? Still surprised? Well, here is the inside scoop

Millions of records including customer IDs, passwords, credit card and debit card numbers. That is just the beginning of the story. Away from the normal data, also source code of most Adobe products was also stolen and the extent is not known. Adobe has vowed to hunt down the hackers who gained access to their servers. Adobe says that only encypted credit card and debit card numbers were taken so that only means there are some unencypted credit card numbers stored on their servers, so why would a company store unencrypted credit and debit card details?

The source code for Adobe products was also stolen and this puts Adobe in a tight spot because the hackers might use it for malicious purposes or might use it for creating cracked Adobe applications. Adobe is taking measures to curb the situation, so if you have an Adobe account, you might receive an email from Adobe requesting you to reset your password, but, be careful, some people might pose to be Adobe, so cross check the official Adobe email so that you do not land in trouble.

Kipochi lets you use Bitcoin in Uganda, & elsewhere

By
Boses Muhinda
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1

I just stumbled upon this amazing feature called ‘Kipochi.’ Kipochi which stands for wallet in Swahili lets you make transactions using Bitcoin, some of you might ask yourself what the heck Bitcoin is? Bitcoin is a virtual currency that you can use to buy and sell stuff on the internet. Bitcoin is non-government managed, secure, transparent and is volatile however its not affected by inflation. However if you are making global transactions or want to send money without being tracked feel free to use bitcoin.

Kipochi is a Bitcoin Wallet, its basically an internet service that works on all internet enabled mobile phones, so you can make transactions using Uganda shilling, Kenyan shilling, USD and the website will use your geolocation or a drop down menu to select your country between Kenya, Uganda or select English, French or Spanish version. It will require you to verify your email address and mobile phone number.

kipochi phone

Kipochi shows you the current exchange rate of the Bitcoin with the Ksh or Ugx or US dollar, at the moment the milliBitcoin was worth 311.26 Ushs, the MilliBitcoin is the preferred primary transaction unit because it is easy to manage. A milliBitcoin is about 0.001 of a Bitcoin.

Kipochi however limits the number of Bitcoin transactions to 1 Bitcoin a day. Dont get worried if you think Kipochi is bank, its an open organisation/wallet that lets you use Bitcoins . Kipochi doesn’t charge you to actually use the service however Bitcoin charges you about 155.63 USh in transaction fees.

1 Bitcoin is currently worth 311,264.87 USh. This is way to much to use for normal day to day transactions. The bitcoin currency supports transactions down to 0.00000001 Bitcoin. The Bitcoin community has decided that MilliBit or 0.001 is the most useful unit in the immediate future.

So what can you use a Bitcoin for in Uganda? Well you can exchange it for Uganda shilling, send and recieve money globally, you can also invest in Bitcoin as it fluctuates. Kipochi allows you to send money from M-Pesa to Airtel to Orange to Yo if you are in Kneya. You can actually buy Bitcoin using M-pesa and send Bitcoins using phone numbers. Yeah Bitcoin IDS can be a struggle.

 

 

Facebook Home adds content from Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest & Tumblr

By
GURU8 Staff
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0

Facebook’s launcher app they call Facebook home has now added feed from other social media sources unlike before where users only got feeds in form of photos, status updates, and messages from facebook. A feature that some liked however the app wasn’t very successful and at one point had the highest number of ‘uninstallations’.

Facebook has decided to give users more freedom by adding non-Facebook content to the homescreen alongside feed from Facebook. Users can now add feed from Facebook-owned Instagram, tumblr, Pinterest, Flickr and the same gestures from facebook feeds on home like tap to like a photo will still work for the other services. The app also shows the seen feature for the third party apps.

This news of feature was announce on Thursday and it has been availed to Facebook home android Beta, the release of the feature is higly limited but will soon be available to all. Facebook also plans to add more services to the facebook home app. According to Cnet, Facebook is also testing a feature that will brong the launcher feature in home to the ordinary Facebook application.
Lets just keep calm and wait till we can get our Instagram, Pinterest, flickr, tumblr and possibly more feed on our lockscreens.
Source : CNET

FBI shuts down ‘Silk Road’ an online drug marketplace website

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

A few days ago, a drug marketplace hidden deep on the Tor network where it seemed anonymous, existed a drug marketplace on the internet called ‘SilkRoad’. Silkroad was an anonymous website for drug users to sell and buy illegal drugs without exposing their identies, all because they paid using an anonymous and lowly-tracked currency called Bit coin, Since Bitcoin is a virtual, tracing the drug dealers was quite a difficult process.

However this has come to an end, FBI shut down the website and displayed a message showing that the website had been seized. Those who know how to use the Tor network can access the blocked site using the URL http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/. The Battle with the Feds started with a criminal complaint against Mr. Ross William Ulbricht, a.k.a. “Dread Pirate Roberts,” a.k.a. “DPR,” a.k.a. “Silk Road.”

It must be surprising that Ross William Ulbricht was a heavy user of social media, he had a Facebook, Google +,  and his Linkedin profile  describes him as an “investment advisor and entrepreneur” .

SilkRoad generated revenue worth 9.5 million Bitcoins and received commissions from over 600,000 Bitcoins. The site worth is estimated to have made $1.2billion in sales and $80 million in commisions

Ulbrict’s is going to face trial in the United States.

Source: The Verge

 

Apple is now the most Valuable Company!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

According to an annual report from InterBrand, this is a corporate identity and brand consulting company owned by Omnicom Group. Since 2000, InterBrand has been compiling an annual report it calls the ‘Best Global Brands Report’. A report which has ranked Apple as the Most valuable brand of 2013, a position previously held by Coca-Cola which has slid down to the third position.

Apple has really achieved a lot by being in first place because this is the first year Coca-Cola hasn’t been Number 1. Interbrand’s Chief Executive Jez Frampton was quoted to have said, “What is it they say, ‘Long live the king?” he then said “This year, the King is Apple.”  Interbrand’s Frampton said that it was a matter of time, for Apple to reach the top spot in an earlier interview with NYT. Let’s remember that Apple was in the 2nd spot after climbing from the 8th position in 2011.

The report estimated the value of Apple’s brand at $98.3 billion which is a 12% increment from last year, it also shows an increase in Coca-Cola’s brand by 2% which however wasn’t enough to keep its place as the ‘king’ of the most valuable brands, Coca-Cola was in fact the 3rd most valuable brand with Google rising to the 2nd position. Tech business giant IBM is now the 4th most valuable brand.

Frampton had this to say about Apple’s being ranked number 1. “Coca-Cola is an efficient, outstanding brand marketer, no doubt about it,” Frampton said “Apple and other leading technology brands has become very much the poster child of the marketing community.”
Much as Apple and Coca-Cola were the main talk of the report, let’s look at how other ‘Popular’ Tech brands faired. Microsoft remained in the 5th position just like last year, Samsung rose to the 8th and took up Intel’s previous position which was 8th last year, and Intel is now in the 9th position. Struggling Blackberry has disappeared from the list a drop from her 93 position last year. Yeah, the list ranks the top 100 Best Brand companies; Nokia was the ‘biggest faller’ after dropping down 38places to the 57thposition.

There you have it, the list of the most Valuable Global brands. Apple needs to pop the champagne after unseating Coca-Cola from her top position. Google also has a big reason to celebrate
image

Source: NYT, InterBrand

Hey! Its now possible to edit your Post on Facebook!

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

Previously, Facebook only let us edit our comments, a service that has been running for about a year now, however when you update your status and it happens to have a mistake, or error the only way solution was to get rid of the post by deleting it. However just like comment editing your friends will be able to see all the edits you have made to your status, i must say its better than having a status you can not change.

This update has been seen in android, those with developer preview accounts for the Facebook app were able to experience this, Now the Google Play update changelog has shown the feature.  Now every android user should be able to get this update.

Lets remember that most of facebook’s updates roll out gradually to all users just like Timeline, Newsfeed and GraphSearch. Its now on Android, web users might wait but iOS may definately get the update soon.

Post Updated at: 23:54pm

Google Improves Search as it turns 15

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

The ‘teen old’ search engine whose capabilities are higher than its age, if Google was a person, they would be celebrating their 15th birthday which is a time most teenagers are at a confused time of their life.

However Google is quite amazing today, Google is celebrating 15 years of amazing services, with the oldest being its Search engine. Someone needs to sing them a birthday song. Google has decided to share its cake with us by realising a improved Search algorithm. It has given us a card UI for search results. Google has promised to roll out improvements as it stated in a tweet

In the latest version of the Google Search App for iOS and Android, not only can you say your question out loud, but your search app can speak your answer right back to you. And, using Google’s Knowledge Graph, your search app gives you smarter answers loud and clear.

Google is attempting to keep pace with the evolution of Internet usage because search queries are getting more complicated & traditional “Boolean” or keyword-based systems have begun deteriorating because of the need to match concepts and meanings in addition to words. Google has introduced ‘Hummingbird’, “Hummingbird” is the company’s effort to match the meaning of queries with that of documents on the Internet, said Singhal from the Menlo Park garage where Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin conceived their now-ubiquitous search engine.

“You should not be spending your time searching, you should be spending your time living,” said Singhal.

Google also announced an improved search app on iOS that brings card UI from events and apps from searches. Google has also given us a feel of its first search engine in 1998. You can experience search results as they appeared in the year Google was founded.

We shall keep you posted on Google’s improvements throughout its BirthDay!

 

A Hands-on review of Firefox OS.

By
Boses Muhinda
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0

During the Firefox OS Hackathon the Mozilla Reps gave us the opportunity to play with phones running Firefox OS. I must say these were developer preview phones so I’ll go easy on the bugs.

The first thing you notice in Firefox OS is the lock screen; it shows a background image with time/clock. If you are an android user you definitely notice the resemblance.  The User Interface on the lock screen is plain, and lucks the noise and distractions. A swipe left then you notice the rather clean UI.

Most of the icons are circular starting with the call, messaging and Firefox browser app that give the OS a difference from iOS and android. Navigation through the icons is done by swiping left or right and the menu seems merged with the lock screen in the sense that when you swipe to the end of the menu ‘app drawer’ you return to the lock screen.

The navigation was smooth when we just unlocked the device but I got a bit slow when we powered up many ups. The OS need a high end smart phone where we shall feel the full potential of this OS.

Feel Free to check Out our Video Review on firefox OS

Yeah, no operating system today, doesn’t support multi-tasking, this can be achieved by long pressing the home button which looked like a small circle embedded right onto, the screen, you then see previews of windows for the applications you have been running, you can push the window up or down to close it and you can navigate through the windows by swiping left or right. Well this interface resembled the multi-tasking option from apple, and when we opened so many windows the previews didn’t show clearly a thing you will see in my video review. Let’s excuse them for since it was a developer preview phone.

Android users will notice that Firefox OS usually supports one hardware key and you might often touch besides the button to go back a thing you will have to get used to. To exit an app you press the middle hardware button in the middle twice to exit an app.

You also notice Firefox OS has a notification bar which you drag down to show your notifications and gain access to some toggles, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile data, and a key to open up your ‘Settings’ Menu.  Just like Android you drag the notification tray up to close it.

Talking about apps, we were able to find several applications from Facebook, Instagram, & more we must remember apps on Firefox OS are powered by HTML5; the Marketplace can be accessed on top of the Firefox browser core, so you can also run Firefox OS apps in your browser on your computer. I was told uploading to the Mozilla marketplace is free, so you should expect many apps soon. Developers are definitely required.

Yeah, the Camera was plain and simple with a shoot button and another to show the menu.

Looking at what the ladies love, we found too much orange, the same orange from the ‘fire fox’ we found the orange in the messaging app, The OS is fond of curves and when you look at the keyboard you will notice, the curved keys. This OS ‘Operating System’ will give you a different feel however you will keep a lot in common with Android and a bit from iOS.

You would murder me if I didn’t tell you about the browser, obviously its Mozilla Firefox, The browser handles really well and is update in terms of web standard so you will get your HTML 5 websites running smoothly and the text is readable, the tabs UI look amazing when you are changing or closing the tabs.

Firefox OS is like having good looking websites or apps that are stored offline and work in a very smooth way. It’s definitely gives us a good reason to switch.

There you have it, just in case you want to experience the feel of Firefox OS, you can view our video on the OS and or head to Amazon or eBay to get yourself a device

 

Firefox OS review [video]

By
GURU8 Staff
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0

In this Video we shall show you Firefox OS, as we posted in a a review of the OS. We used a developer preview phone known as the Keon, that is made by GeekPhone which is a Spanish Start Up that makes phones running Firefox OS.

The Tech Specs of the Keon include a 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon, with 512MB of RAM, 4 Gigs of internal storage, a 3 MP camera, MicroSD, Wifi N, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, Radio FM, Light & Prox. Sensor, G-Sensor, GPS, MicroUSB and a 1580mAH battery.

The point of this review is the operating System not the device, we took a look at the lock screen, menu, apps and so much more.

Enjoy, and share

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