Things are heating up in the Nigerian smartphone market. LG just introduced the Nexus 4, the latest in Google's line of Nexus devices which offer the purest android experience. I wonder why Google wasn't involved in this? I guess the left it to LG with its greater worldwide presence in consumer electronics.

The Nexus 4 Smartphone which comes with exciting features such as the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Operating System (OS), an 8 Mega Pixel camera, a 2GB of RAM as well as a 2,100 mAh Li-polymer battery has been highly rated by phone pundits as a device for android purists.

Marketing Manager, Mobile Communications, LG Electronics, Mrs. Bukola Arabome, while commenting on the smartphone market, stated that with the introduction of the LG Nexus 4, LG had once more demonstrated that it is committed to providing consumers with mobile devices that enable and empower them in amazing ways that enable them enjoy everyday life and achieve their personal goals.

According to her, LG Nexus 4 is a powerful smartphone with a beautiful minimalist design and fast performance which easily wins internal performance and user experience.

On the Google Play Store, the asking price for the 8GB Nexus 4 is $300 and the 16GB version goes for $350 which is frigging ridiculous considering the fact that its specs are comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X+, both of which retail at over 400 dollars. There's no word yet on the pricing back home here though so the question now is whether LG will offer it in Nigeria for a similar price to that on the Google Play Store. If they do, then that's and instant win! 


Source: THISDAY LIVE
Michael Bay famously booted Megan Fox between the second and third installments of his Transformers series due to personal differences, but apparently the two have since decided to kiss and make up. Bay has just announced that she will be joining his upcoming Ninja Turtles reboot, making her the first official bit of casting for the Jonathan Liebesman-directed film. Hit the jump to keep reading.
Bay revealed the news via his personal website, writing “TMNT: we are bringing Megan Fox back into the family!” Variety adds that Fox will play April O’Neil, and that the studio met with several actresses including Jane Levy, Anna Kendrick, and Elizabeth Olsen for the role. The character started out in Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird‘s original comics as a computer programmer, but is probably better remembered for her TV cartoon incarnation as a television reporter.
Paramount put the brakes on the project last summer to work out script issues, so we don’t know yet what the new plotline will be. However, an older draft of the script that made its way to a TMNT fansite indicated that the protagonists of the film would be not Leonardo, Michael, Raphael, and Donatello, but Casey Jones, a security guard and amateur hockey player. (Think of how Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky led the Transformers series.) If that’s still the case, April would likely serve as the love interest.
While Fox’s casting announcement is the first, we can expect to hear many more in the coming months. The project is expected to shoot in April, for a release date of May 16, 2014.
On a tangentially related note, Bay’s wording raises the question of whether the “Teenage Mutant” part of the title has been added back in. Last year, Paramount’s decision to drop the first half of the name drew fire from fans worried that Bay and Liebesman were changing the characters into non-teenage non-mutants. We haven’t heard any word of a title change, though, so it’s just as likely that Bay is simply using the common abbreviation for the characters.
Source: /Film
Earlier this year, rumors surfaced that Google was planning to build its own Chromebook and it seems like whoever started it was right on track. Google just announced that it will be launching the Chromebook Pixel, a 13'', Core i5 touchscreen laptop with 4GB of RAM and either 32 or 64GB internal storage. Google also offers 1TB of online storage for 3 years from Google Drive.

Looking at the Chromebook Pixel, its a bit obvious where its design inspiration comes from. These days you see a wee bit of Macbook in every laptop that comes out and the Google's own offering is part of this group with its aluminium unibody build and chiclet style keyboard. The screen has a higher pixel density than anything currently on the market (239 pixels per inch ppi vs 227 ppi on its closest competition, the 13-inch MacBook Pro) and the 64GB version comes with support for LTE. 720p front facing cam for webchats, 2 USB ports, headphone/mic jack, SD card port and a mini display port cover the input duties for this beauty. No Ethernet ports though and being a Chromebook, it runs Google's Chrome OS which is basically a Chrome browser with access to all Google's apps and services from the Chrome Webstore. In other words, you need a good internet connection to make the most of this device. Not much of a problem for some but here in Naija, internet is not always available.

Anyways, for those interested, the 32GB Wifi version is now available from the Google Play Store for $1299 and will ship in a week while the 64GB LTE version will be available sometime in April. A bit of a high price compared to the other Chromebooks available from Samsung, Acer and recently, HP but someone's got to pay for that high res screen and premium build materials.


So, early this morning, Sony held its PlayStation conference and announced the successor to its 6 year old console, the PlayStation 4. Powered by an x86 processor and 8 Gigs of RAM, the PS4 is a more than capable replacement for the PS3 but Sony was sure to emphasize that the focus of the console was not on the raw computing power but rather on the experience that comes with the new console. One of the key parts of this all new experience is the integrated sharing features. The PS4 allows you to share you games with your friends as you play and even allows them to take over gameplay from you. Add to this the ability to play new games you've purchased while they're still downloading and event test run games you haven't bought yet and it's clear that Sony are concerned about delivering a top notch gaming experience to its customers.
Here it is: the fourth and final piece of the Ubuntu puzzle. We've seen the OS on smartphones, on TVs and of course on desktops, but the tablet version has spent a little longer in its dressing room. Fortunately, Canonical feels that the last stage in its four-screen strategy is now ready for the limelight and has released a video of the software in action. The clip is embedded right after the break, where you'll also find details of the preview code coming to the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 this Thursday, plus our take on why this is such a big deal.


The internet was already flooded with leaked photos of the phone and its specs but yesterday at a launch event that took place in two cities (London and New York) at the same time, HTC confirmed its latest flagship device, The HTC One. If you ask me I'd say that holding 2 events on different continents just to launch one device doesn't make much sense, but what do I know about product launches.

With its 4.7" 1080p Super LCD3 screen, 1.7Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor  and 2 GB RAM, the HTC One is more than ready to claim the title of Superphone champion for 2013 but its still to early in the year to tell. One look at the phone and you immediately see its resemblance to recently released Blackberry Z10. Coincidence or Part of the plan?
Very interesting infographic showing the progress of mobile phone development over the past 30 years. Which is very telling considering that mobile phones only became popular in Nigeria within the last 10 - 15 years. Good to see that today we've caught up with the rest of the world in terms of mobile technology.
Source: Engadget
LG finally showed off the XL 5.5-inch version of its upcoming Optimus G Pro at the end of a Facebook promo last week, and now it's revealed a launch date in Korea, more specs and a window for arrival in North America. Also of note? Its CPU is the just-announced quad-core Snapdragon 600 running at 1.7Ghz. Announced at CES, the 600 is supposed to be a milder upgrade (compared to the potentially 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800) to its predecessor, the powerful S4 Pro. New software tweaks include a dual record that uses both cameras simultaneously and VR Panorama that appears to be similar to Google's Photo Sphere stitching.
Besides the expanded 1080p screen and updated internals, the larger version also sports a slightly larger battery than the Japanese version announced previously by NTT Docomo with 3,140mAh compared to 3,000, but keeps the 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear camera, microSDXC slot and LTE. The phone will be released on local carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus on Wednesday for 968,000 won ($897), while a North American launch is mentioned for Q2 along with the Japanese release. We'll find out more about this phone -- and likely a few others -- at MWC 2013 later this week, for now check out the press release after the break for more specs.

Filed under: , ,
Comments
Source: LG Korea
Source: The Next Web india phone 520x245 Like Nokias Asha, Samsungs Rex smart feature phones will bring the Web to emerging markets
We often hear about the potential for smartphones in emerging markets and, while it’s true that sales are growing exponentially in places like Asia, not everyone is ready, able or willing to buy an iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S III.
A new device announced by Samsung last week represents yet another important push towards bringing an affordable smartphone experience to emerging markets, where mobile is set to become the primary access point to the Internet for millions.
Samsung unveiled its Rex series last week. The four phones – Rex 90, Rex 80, Rex 70, and Rex 60 — are Java-based devices, which run Samsung’s own TouchWiz interface. They come integrated with a range of chat services — including Samsung’s WhatsApp-rival ChatOn, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk — while support for Facebook, Twitter and Google+ is also included. Opera Mini and Access NF are the pre-installed Web browsers.
While prices haven’t been released, the phones are pretty attractive. The Rex 90 is the highest-end device, sporting a 3.5-inch screen, 3.2 megapixel camera, BlueTooth, WiFi, 10MB of onboard memory and more. The lower-end phones each include a little less, with the Rex 60 offering a 1.3 megapixel snapper, but it houses an additional 20MB of memory and also includes WiFi connectivity.
The phones are available as single-SIM or dual-SIM devices. The latter is popular in India and other markets where cross-network calls cost extra, and carrying at least two pre-paid SIMs can save money.
rex series Like Nokias Asha, Samsungs Rex smart feature phones will bring the Web to emerging markets
(Left to right) Rex 90, Rex 80 and Rex 70.
The new phones don’t have a launch date but they follow the same path as Nokia’s Asha devices, a series of low-cost handsets that launched in 2011 with the aim of bridging the gap between feature phones and smartphones for mass market users in countries like India. At the time, I was pretty enthused by the concept, and I think that Rex is another important move to help bring an affordable experience and Internet access to emerging market consumers.
Pricing remains a huge barrier for smartphone adoption. In many countries in Asia, for example, the subsidies that allow a smartphone to be bought for ‘free’ (in exchange for a long-term contract with an operator) in the US or Europe don’t exist, and more than 90 percent of phones operate on pay-as-you go contracts. That makes shelling out for an iPhone or Galaxy S III upwards of $750.
That’s a tough ask for consumers in the West, let alone working class people in Indonesia, for example. The saddest part is that the folks that can’t afford the phones are the ones who could see the biggest impact from them, since they’ve likely not used the Internet much (if at all) and are unaware of the potential for learning, gathering information, communicating, etc.
Nokia said it “exceeded expectations” when it sold 4.1 million Lumia handsets in a “solid” Q4 2012, but the Finnish firm actually sold 9.3 million Asha smartphones during the period — and that doesn’t even include Asha feature phones. While Nokia slipped to its lowest overall handset market share ever — 18 percent in Q4, according to Gartner – the research firm did note that sales of the Asha range, which includes touch screen and keyboard devices, were impressive.
Like Nokias Asha, Samsungs Rex smart feature phones will bring the Web to emerging markets
It’s clear then, that the ‘smart feature phone’ genre (as Samsung bills Rex) is catching on, and the addition of devices from Samsung will only spur further development.
Samsung’s brand presence is impressive in Asia — where its devices are challenging the iPhone at the high-end — and, alongside Nokia, the Korean firm is widely known and trusted in many emerging markets. That’s important and it is likely to give its Rex range a platform to gain traction among a new slice of the mobile phone buying public, and open the potential of the Web to more people.
Related: Nokia unveils new Asha 310 with dual-SIM and WiFi interoperability, available later this quarter for $102
Headline image via NOAH SEELAM/Getty Images, others via Samsung and Nokia
 
Book Description:
The Daylight War, the eagerly anticipated third volume in Brett’s internationally bestselling Demon Cycle, continues the epic tale of humanity’s last stand against an army of demons that rise each night to prey on mankind.

On the night of the new moon, the demons rise in force, seeking the deaths of two men both of whom have the potential to become the fabled Deliverer, the man prophesied to reunite the scattered remnants of humanity in a final push to destroy the demon corelings once and for all.
Source: Engadget
BlueStacks brings official, Surface Prooptimized Android App Player to Windows 8
It's been a year and change since BlueStacks announced a Windows 8 version of its App Player, which let you run most of your Android apps on the then-beta OS. Now the company has announced the official version, tweaked to play nicely with Redmond's own Surface Pro and sporting a fresh, custom-built charm menu and start screen tile. You'll now be able to run apps in "true" touch-enabled full-screen mode using your Win 8 tablet's tilt/motion sensors, and everything will work faster, too. CEO Rosen Sharma also touted the release as a way for developers to bypass Microsoft's "onerous" submission process to get Android apps onto the x86 Surface Pro, and you can't argue with the price -- it's free, and available for download now. For more, head after the fold.
Source: BlueStacks
Source: The Verge Alicia Keys BlackBerry Thorsten Heins (STOCK)
BlackBerry announced pop music star Alicia Keys as its new Global Creative Director to great fanfare during its launch of BlackBerry 10 late last month, but if a tweet posted by Keys today is any indication, she may not be being that faithful to the new platform. The superstar was caught tweeting "Started from the bottom now were here!" from the Twitter for iPhone app this morning, despite her promise to The New York Times that she was exclusive to BlackBerry 10 now. The original tweet has since been deleted, and Keys has followed up with not an apology, but rather a claim that she was hacked and didn't post the tweet in question. It's hard to say for sure whether or not Keys is telling the truth and someone with her password decided to...
SourceThe Next Web: HTML5 520x245 Would push notifications for HTML5 apps kill native apps?
Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Viktor Marohnić, CEO and co-founder at ShoutEm, a self service mobile website and mobile apps creator, a ‘WordPress for mobile apps.’ You can follow him on Twitter as @vikot.
Should I go with native app or HTML5 app? What are the benefits that are still a good argument to go with native app?
Conventional wisdom is that these are currently the top three reasons to go with native apps:
  1. Speed and slickness of UI
  2. AppStore distribution
  3. Push notification
I would claim that 1 and 2 offer no advantage at all but that “Push notifications” are the only thing that keep native apps alive. But let’s talk in a little bit more detail about these, one by one.
I guess we did it! Hurrah for Nigeria!

We kicked Burkina Faso's ass in the finals of the 2013 African Cup of Nations! 1 - 0! Congratulations!!

I'm not a football fan but last night, I actually sat down on to watch  the match and I was on the edge of my seat. It seemed to me like the Eagles were under a lot of pressure to deliver and that affected their play style. Even though we scored a goal against them, there were many other opportunities to widen the margin. But whatever, we won! That should give us at least on month of peace as the whole nation celebrates this landmark achievement, right?

Image from the Vanguard

The Blackberry Z10 was launched just last week at a big event in Canada and right now it's only available in the UK and Canada but guess where you can pre-order one right now and get it without having to travel outside the country or pay shipping fees?

Yup! You guessed right (though the headline probably gave it away so no prize for you).

MTN Nigeria and Etisalat have the brand spanking new Blackberry Z10 is available for pre-order right friggin now!! By visiting the links and filling the available forms, you will be alerted by the respective telcos when the phones available for pickup at their local customer care centers. While etisalat doesn't have a price listed on their pre-order page, MTN lists the price of the Z10 as ₦100,000 and it's pre-orders close on the 22nd of February (no closing date from etisalat). For that asking price you'll be getting a HD 4.2"
Touch display, 16GB Internal storage, 8MP Rear camera, and the new BB10 OS. Pretty affordable if you ask me, compared to what some early adopters are paying

There's even more good news! According to Tech Suplex It appears that the new Z10 will work with currently existing Blackerry data plans by Nigerian networks. Though with all the media chops of this phone, I wonder how long that will last.

So what are you waiting for Blackberry Babes and Boys? Go sign your names and start saving money to splurge on the Blackberry Z10!

Update: Airtel Nigeria has also joined the pre-order bandwagon for the Blackberry Z10 along with online mega store, Jumia. Airtel also has the Z10 priced at ₦100,000. All we need now is for Globacom to open up their own pre-order page, then all the major networks will be covered. Based on the popularity of Blackberry in Nigeria, I'm pretty sure these pre-order links are getting hit pretty frequently.

Update 2: ... and finally Globacom joins the others

A newly released trailer for the upcoming action thriller, Fast and Furious 6! So exciting!!

Fast 5 was the definition of awesome and from the footage above, the sixth movie in the series aims to surpass all its predecessors!

Hitting cinemas on the 22nd of May,  I hope to God it doesn't disappoint sha. I'm not expecting much from the story but the action sequences had better be epic!
Google India will be holding a competition titled 'Mapathon 2013' which is aimed at increasing the level of detail and content on Google Maps. Those who register for the competition will be required to combine their knowledge of places in India with Google's Map Maker web tool to update the existing map information. And that's not all, the top 100 contributors will stand a chance of winning Android tablets and smartphones, Google Play vouchers and other merchandise.

Awesome right!

Such an opportunity benefits both Google and the users of its services. Imagine thousands of people uploading new information about business locations, street names, tourist attractions, relaxation spots. Work that Google employees don't have to do. As a result of this, anyone using Google Maps after this will benefit from the improved selection of street names and locations.

Sadly, the competition is limited to India and all the information uploaded will be limited to their location only, leaving their mapping experience richer. Google how far? What about Naija? We could definitely benefit from such an initiative.

While Google Maps provides one of the best mapping experiences in Nigeria, it is far from perfect. There's not voice guided navigation, some street names are incorrect and lacks quite a few places of interests (POIs). The quickest way of remedying this is to crowd-source the mapping process, which is why Google Map Maker exists. I've used it a few times and its typical Google fashion it's pretty easy to use. However many in Nigeria don't know about it, just a few geeks and nerds and other curious folk. Nigerians like competitions with awesome prizes and if proper

Therefore I believe that by doing something similar, Google can greatly improve the maps situation in Nigeria. So Google, when you finish in India you'll be coming to Nigeria to organize another competition abi? Na good business for you o! #NoDulling
Source: Polygon
 920x515_yemen

Activision will launch a new Call of Duty title in late 2013, and the company is expecting that it won't perform quite as well as the previous game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg during an investor call today.
"For Call of Duty, consistent with our past practices, we are planning for the mainline release in Q4 to be down versus 2012," Hirshberg said. Activision's fiscal year runs along with the calendar year, so the company's fourth quarter runs from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31.
Black Ops 2 helped push Activision to record revenues in 2012 — it was the year's best-selling game in dollars throughout the U.S. and Europe, and brought in $1 billion of revenue within 15 days of its launch in November. According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, 2012 was "the best year in [Activision's] history," and the company expects a drop in revenue from 2012 to 2013 due to "a challenged global economy" and "the ongoing console transition."
Hirshberg noted that those circumstances make it tougher to predict how 2013 will play out.
"For 2013 on the Activision Publishing side, there is increased volatility this year due to the ongoing console transition, which makes predicting the future more challenging than in normal years in the cycle," he said.
Activision's earnings expectations for 2013 don't take two major projects into account, Call of Duty Online (developed by Tencent) and Bungie's Destiny. The company has not announced a release date for either game, but will be spending money throughout the year to fund their development.
Hello there!

Welcome to my new blog, Geekisms! This is my second attempt at blogging and I intend to apply all i've learnt from my previous attempt into making this a much better blog (the first one is a bit of a dud). So first of all some introductions:

What is Geekisms! all about?
According to the Collins Dictionary website, Geekism (noun) is 'a preoccupation with subjects that are generally considered as unfashionable or boring'. In other words, a preoccupation with subjects that would only interest geeks.

That is the simply the aim of this blog, promoting stuff that will interest geeks, be it news stories, event, movies, songs, novels, games, whatever. I plan for this blog to be a content rich experience for all who visit, geeks or not, and trust me when I say there's a geek in every one of us.

So dive in! and enjoy the show/ride/experience.


Labels

Action (3) AFCON (1) Airtel (1) android (7) app store (1) Apple (1) Asha (2) Batman (1) Batmobile (1) BB10 (2) Beats Audio (1) Blackberry (5) BlueStacks (1) Bungie (1) burkina faso (1) call of duty (2) Cars (1) Christopher Nolan (2) Chrome OS (1) Chromebook (1) David S. Goyer (1) DC (1) DC Comics (1) Dumbphones (1) E3 (2) EA (1) Etisalat (1) Fantasy (2) Fast 6 (1) Fast and Furious (1) football (1) fps (2) gaming (18) geek (11) geekisms (6) Globacom (1) Google (4) Halo (1) HTC One (1) html5 (1) India (1) infographic (1) Insomnia (1) Internet (2) Introduction (1) iOS (1) iPhone (2) iPhone 5 (1) Jumia (1) LG (2) Linux (4) LoTR (1) Lumia (1) Mac (2) Machinima (1) Map Maker (1) Maps (2) Microsoft (7) Mortal Kombat (1) movie (1) movies (16) MTN (1) native apps (1) nerd (1) nerdisms (1) Nexus 10 (1) Nexus 4 (1) Nexus 7 (1) Nigeria (3) Nokia (4) Novels (3) PC (3) Peter V. Brett (1) Play Store (1) Playstation (4) Privacy (1) PS Vita (1) PS3 (3) PS4 (2) PSN (2) PSP (1) push notifications (1) Rex (1) Samsung (1) Sci-Fi (6) Sense (1) Smartphones (6) Snapdragon (2) Sony (4) Square Enix (1) Star Trek (1) Steam (2) super eagles (1) Superman (2) supernatural (1) Surface (1) Surface Pro (2) Tablets (1) The Demon Cycle (1) thriller (1) trailers (1) Tumbler (1) tv series (2) Ubisoft (1) Ubuntu (1) Valve (2) Valve Box (1) Valve OS (1) Wii U (1) windows (1) Windows 8 (3) windows phone (4) Xbox (4) Xbox 360 (3) Xbox Live (2) Xbox One (4) YouTube (1) Z10 (3) Zack Snyder (1)
Powered by Blogger.

About me

Social

Facebook

Gallery

Translate