GT Bank wins 2013 African Bank of the year award

At the 2013 African Banker Awards ceremony that held in Marrakech, Morocco, Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank has been named the African Bank of the year. The Banker Awards ceremony which was organized by African Banker Magazine, IC Events and BusinessinAfrica Events held on Wednesday, May 29th.

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Posted in Business

Samsung Galaxy S4 ‘Mini’ officially unveiled

After wide acceptance of the Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Electronics Co has announced a “powerful yet compact version of Samsung’s bestselling smartphone”. According to Samsung, the 4.3-inch screen smartphone “delivers the superior performance, intuitive ease of use and sleek design of the Galaxy S4 in a highly portable, chic and compact design.”

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Posted in Gadgets, Samsung

Dangote starts construction of a $500m cement plant in Tanzania

Dangote cement has started the construction of a $500 million cement plant which will be able to produce three million metric tons of cement per year when finished. The cement plant is to be located in Mtwara, Tanzania. The commencement of this plant Dangote said is part of the group’s strategy to increase its cement production capacity.

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Posted in Business, Machines

Google to use blimp network to connect billions in Africa and Asia

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to develop a series of aerial wireless networks using remote controlled balloons called blimps. This is in a bid to connect emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia; both the major cities and the rural areas close to the major cities.

The atmospheric “base stations” will be able to transmit signals to an area of hundreds of square of miles, which could in turn increase internet speeds in cities of the targeted area. It is estimated that up to a billion or more people could be connected to the internet if this venture is successful.

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Posted in Google, internet

Umeox X5 set to be the world’s thinnest smartphone

From different ways of classifying smartphones like screen size, operating system (OS), maker, resolution, processor, etc. the Chinese Umeox X5 is set to lead the category of width as it is expected to be the world’s thinnest smartphone when it is released.

It is expected to surpass Huawei’s Ascend P6 which is rumoured to be 6.2mm thick (not yet in the market, expected to be launched by June) by 0.6mm at 5.6mm. This was reported by GizChina in an exclusive post displaying images of the smartphone.

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Posted in Gadgets, Trends

FG to begin construction of 700MW Hydro Plant in Zungeru today

President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to turn the sod today for work to start fully on the construction of 700 megawatts (MW) Hydroelectric Power Plant in Zungeru, Niger State.

The plant is to be built by Chinese consortium, CNEEC-Sinohydro consortium and work on it is expected to be completed by the year 2018. The project has been estimated to will cost 163 billion naira ($1.04bn) at completion after review by French firm Coyne et Bellier in 2008.

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Posted in Machines

Internet messaging overtakes SMS for the first time; telcos to loose $30bn

A new report from tech group Informa has confirmed that messages sent through mobile internet apps like Whatsapp, BBM, Apple iMessage,etc. outnumbered the traditional SMS for the first time last year.

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Posted in Gadgets, internet

Sky’s twitter account hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) but not Android apps

The Syrian Electronic Army has moved to another major media outlet as it infiltrated British Sky Broadcasting Group’s twitter account.

The group had previously taken responsibility for hacking social media accounts for CBS, NPR, the BBC, the Financial Times, and several other major news and media outlets. They have been considered researchers at HP as one of the most skilled hacking teams in the world.

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Posted in internet

Quotes for the week: Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

In case you claim you don’t know Steve Jobs, I expect you to have heard of Apple (not the fruit) before.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak co created Apple Inc in 1976 when Steve Jobs was only 21! Obviously, that’s asking us what we’re waiting for.

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Posted in people, quotes

Rocket-powered bike sets new bike land speed record

French cyclist Francois Gissy has reached a speed of 163mph (262km/h) on a mountain bike to set a new record of top speed on a mountain bike.

The previous record of 150mph (251km/h) was broken on a track near Munchhouse in Eastern France. The previous record was set in 2002.

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Posted in Machines, Trends

Electric lighting and display from electronic devices prevents proper sleep

It is an undisputable fact of nature that everybody needs a good night sleep to recharge our body system for the next day. In fact, the intensity of sleep you had will affect your body and mind’s performance the next day.

It has been revealed that our body has two cycles; the wake and the sleep cycle. The electric lightings disrupt the cycle by giving us a second wind when our body clocks should be winding down according to researchers.

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Posted in people, science

Make a difference this Children’s Day with Jumia.com

As the world gets ready to mark yet another Children’s Day, your number 1 online retailer, Jumia.com has introduced a charity give-back initiative using its social media platform. “In celebrating this year’s children’s day, we at Jumia in addition to other onsite initiatives will be giving back to the less privileged children in the society using our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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Poll reveals teenagers are migrating from Facebook to Twitter

A survey by Pew Research Centre and the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University has revealed that online teenagers are now bypassing Facebook to go to Twitter.

It is estimated that one out of four online teenagers (25%) uses Twitter compared to 16% of online teenagers in 2011. The percentage of online adults that use twitter is 16%.

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Posted in internet

Samsung Galaxy S4 sells about 250 units per minute according to Samsung

The latest in the Samsung Galaxy S series, Samsung Galaxy S4 has sold over 10 million units globally in less than a month after its launch claims Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 was launched April 27 and it has reached a milestone that took the Samsung Galaxy SIII 50 days to achieve. In comparison to other previous Galaxy S phones, the Galaxy SII took five month to reach the 10 million mark while the Samsung Galaxy S took seven month to achieve the feat.

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Posted in Gadgets, Samsung, stats

Microsoft unveils new generation ‘Xbox One’: more than gaming; movies, live TV, Internet Explorer …

Microsoft has unveiled its new generation Xbox One at an event yesterday at the company’s headquarter in Redmond, Washington. This is the first release of Xbox game console in 8 years after the launch of Xbox 360 8 years ago.

It took four years to develop Xbox One and it will be sold worldwide later this year according to games unit chief Don Mattrick when he was addressing reporters at an event at the software company’s campus near Seattle, although he didn’t give details about timing or pricing.

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Posted in Gadgets, Trends

Man kills longest Burmese python in Florida

Jason Leon is not a hunter nor an explorer, he is just a gentle man who was driving late at night recently in Southeast Miami-Dade County with his friend in his car.

He saw about three feet of a snake protruding from the bush. He applied the brakes, got out of his car, grabbed the visible part of the snake, and dragged it out onto the road.

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Posted in facts, science, stats

Microsoft to release new generation Xbox on Tuesday

It is believed that Microsoft is going to announce the launch of next generation Xbox on Tuesday. There have been rumours flying around about the name the new Xbox is going to take.

There have been speculations in some quarters that the new Xbox will be called Durango; some believe it will be named Xbox Infinity while others think it’ll be Xbox 720.

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Posted in Gadgets

Quotes for the Week: Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Henry Ford was an American industrialist and the man behind Ford Motors Company.

Although Henry Ford was not the man responsible for the invention of the automobile, he developed the first set of affordable automobiles.

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Posted in people, quotes

See the first ever touchscreen phone

The evolution of mobile phones right from its invention in 1973 has been nothing short of a miracle. We have moved a long way to get to where we are in the technology of phone making.

In recent years, phones with keyboard input being speedily replaced with phones that use touchscreen as input.

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Posted in Specials

Google Glass modified to run on Linux Ubuntu instead of Android

At Google’s I/O 2013 conference, Google Glass was modified by Google’s software engineers to run the Linux distro Ubuntu.

Google through two of its engineers  - Hyunyoung Song and P. Y. Laligand – showed users at a session termed “Voiding Your Warranty: Hacking Glass”, how to root Glass and install Ubuntu on the system.

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Posted in Gadgets, Google

Google gives Microsoft ultimatum over Youtube app

Google Inc. has sent a letter to Microsoft over a youtube application in its Windows Phone Store and directed Microsoft to remove the app from the store and disable existing copies by May 22.

The letter reads: “We recently became aware of a Microsoft-authored Youtube application for Windows Phone 8 available at http://www.windowsphone.com/enus/store/app/youtube/dcbb1ac6a89adf11a49000237de2db9e. It appears that the application: (1) allows users to download videos from Youtube; (2) prevent the display of advertisements in video playbacks; and

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Posted in Google, internet

PHCN Electricity meters to cost between N25,000 and N50,000 says NERC boss

For some of you may like to acquire electricity meters for your houses and shops, it has been revealed that the single phase meters will cost about N25,000 while three phase meters will go for about N50,000.

The positive though, is that consumers who buy the meters will get refunds in form of monthly reduction in charges to the tune of the meter cost according to NERC chairman Dr. Sam Amadi.

At a stakeholders’ workshop on metering code 2 in Abuja yesterday, Dr. Sam Amadi disclosed that the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has given approval to NERC to engage the vendors after conduction of a procurement exercise.

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Posted in Business, Gadgets

ChatPerf creates ‘smelliphone’ add-on that allow you to send ‘scent’ messages (+ video)

Japanese firm ChatPerf has shown off the first prototype of what is being dubbed the “smelliphone”.

According to the company, smelliphone can be used to create atmospheric scents while playing games or watching films for example.

The smelliphone is an add-on device which can be attached to smartphones and used to send smells to friends. This was demonstrated by a video on DigInfoTV.

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Posted in Gadgets

MasterCard to award customers with trip to Wembley Stadium, London

As part of its support for the Cashless Nigeria Initiative, MasterCard, official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, is running a promo that will increase the thrill of the UEFA Champions League in Nigeria.

The promo which started in Nigeria in 2011 provides MasterCard cardholders an opportunity to win four tickets to watch the 2013 UEFA Champions League Final between Bayern Munich and Borrusia Dortmund, live at the Wembley Stadium.

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Posted in technology

Nokia to introduce very cheap phone; Nokia Asha 501 for $99 with 48 days standby battery life

Nokia has announced the launch of a new phone in its Asha series, the Asha 501. The phone is expected to go for $99 (15,600 naira) and has a standby battery life of 48 days. The phone which is equipped with a 1200mAh battery enables it to have 17 hours of talk time and 56 hours of music playback.

It is expected to come in red, blue, black, yellow, white and green colours. It is equipped with a 3-inch multi-touch screen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and a 3.2 Mega Pixel camera.

It won’t support 3G or 4G data speeds, but it will come with a Nokia Xpress Browser which is able to compress internet data by up to 90%.

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Posted in Gadgets

Samsung to introduce 5G network by 2020, with download speeds in excess of 1Gbps

Samsung Electronics Co. has said on Monday May 12 that it had successfully tested super-fast fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology that would eventually allow users to download an entire movie in one second.

Samsung claimed the test using the 28 Gigahertz (GHz) waveband of more than one gigabyte per second over a distance of two kilometres.

The new technology will be available for commercial use by the year 2020 and would offer transmitting speeds “up to several hundred times faster” than existing 4G networks according to a statement.

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Posted in Gadgets, internet, Samsung

Quotes for the week: Bill Gates

This week, we are giving you seven of Bill Gates’ quotes.

In case you don’t know Bill Gates, he was the world’s richest man for 13 consecutive years from 1995 to the 2007 and is currently the second richest man in the world.

Bill Gates is the owner of Microsoft Corporation – owner of the widely popular Windows Operating System – with headquarters in the U. S.

Bill Gates was a dropout from Harvard University. Despite this, he rose to build an empire which is benefiting many people today.

Here we go:

“I failed in some subjects in exam, but my friend passed in all. Now

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Posted in people, quotes

Anyim Pius Anyim claims “Millennium City” Project will provide more than 50,000 jobs

The secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, on Friday at the 15th convocation lecture of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) said the Centenary City Project would provide more than 50,000 construction jobs and 5,000 permanent jobs for Nigerians.

The former Senate President was represented at the occasion by his Senior Special Assistant on Research and Documentation, Ferdinand Agwu.

In a lecture titled “Celebrating Nigeria at 100, Successes and prospects of a United Country”, he said the city would host 100,000 people at the end of its five-year development.

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Posted in Business, politics

Dangote gets $4.25bn (670bn naira) loan to build the biggest refinery in Nigeria

Nigerian billionaire Alhaji Aliko Dangote while speaking at the ongoing World Economic Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, revealed that Dangote Group of Companies has secured loans of up to $4.25bn (670bn naira) from a consortium of banks to build an oil refinery.

This is in a bid to help Nigeria reduce her overdependence on oil imports.

Refining “is an excellent business to get into”, he said on Wednesday in an interview in Cape Town. 

“We have already secured $4.25bn from two offshore banks and the rest are

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Posted in people, technology

Discovery: your runny nose could be leaking brain fluid instead of mucus

For anybody who has ever witnessed catarrh, the experience to say the least was not a palatable one.

But what if your catarrh has been troubling you for too long and what you thought was a serious catarrh is not even a catarrh but something worse?

This rare condition occurred to Joe Nagy who had thought his runny nose was caused by allergies, or hay fever. Only after 18 months did the Arizona resident discover that it was a bigger problem.

“Broop! This clear liquid dribbled out of my nose like tears out of your eyes,” he told My Fox Phoenix. “I go, ‘what is this?’”

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Posted in science

No more internet access in Syria

There has been a blackout of internet activities in Syria since Tuesday evening (Syrian time) according to US tech firms monitoring Web traffic and the State Department.

State Department tweeted “Syria is currently experiencing an internet blackout as of this afternoon”.

A web monitoring firm Umbrella Security Labs also reported a “significant drop in traffic from Syria” starting around 6:45pm GMT.

“OpenDNS resolvers saw a significant drop in traffic from Syria.” Tuesday shutdown effectively “disconnects Syria from internet communication with the rest of the world,” the company said.

“On closer inspection, it seems Syria has largely disappeared from the internet,” said Umbrella’s Dan Hubbard.

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Posted in Machines, politics, technology

Tecno to build phone factory in Nigeria and … erm, doesn’t want you to call it a ‘China phone’ again

At the launch of its latest smartphone TECNO P3, the fast growing mobile phone company has decried the ‘China phone’ (otherwise known as chinko phone) tag which continues to haunt its products, despite its efforts to meet the rising and varying needs of the nation’s phone users.

China phone (or chinko phone) is a tag used to describe substandard mobile phone products which are sold at a lower price compared to the established mobile phone brands.

The Vice President of Tecno group, Arif Chowdhury, said this yesterday at the launch of the product in Lagos.

“We know the African market and what the people want. We produce what is in demand and not just sell what we have. We will be launching smartphones with high screen resolution while improving our after sales service. With feedback that we have received from our various customers, you will see a more improved Tecno in Nigeria soon.” He said, adding that very soon, consumers would accept Tecno mobile as a unique mobile phone brand instead of the ‘China phone’ perspective.

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Posted in Gadgets, technology

The insanely intelligent genius called Albert Einstein

 In case you have not heard of him before; a case I would consider to be rare, there was a man who once lived between the late 19th century and mid-20^th century.

He developed the theory of special relativity, general relativity; he discovered the law of photoelectric effect, and the mass-energy equivalence formula E=mc² which is dubbed “the world’s most famous equation”

He was so prominent that he is generally considered as the most influential physicist of the 20th century.

This same man won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.

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Posted in people, Specials

FG to spend $3.7 billion (581 billion naira) on Power Improvement

At a meeting with Nigerian Canadian association, Vice President Namadi Sambo revealed that the Federal Government has approved the sum of $3.7 billion (about 581 billion naira) to improve power transmission in a bid to increase the total grid generation to 20,000MW.

A statement by the spokesman to the Vice President, Alhaji Umar Sani, noted that the President Jonathan administration was committed to the provision of the necessary infrastructure and that efforts are being exerted in the areas of power supply, transportation, aviation, ICT, agriculture, provision of affordable healthcare services, addressing the educational advancement issues and the provision of good governance.

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Posted in Machines, politics

Quotes for the week: Albert Einstein

This week we are bringing you five of the genius’ array of quotes:

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

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Posted in people, quotes

First ever solar airplane takes off in the U. S.

Solar Impulse, the first ever solar-powered aircraft, took off yesterday 3rd of May at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California.

The plane took off at 6am in the morning and is set to be on a tour across the U. S. till it gets to the New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport – its final destination – in July.

Some of the airports it is expected to visit include Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Lambert St. Louis International Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport.

Each flight leg is expected to take about 19 to 25 hours, with 10-days stop in each city.

Its first flight is to Phoenix, Arizona where it is scheduled to land at around 1am today, May 4.

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Posted in facts, Machines, technology

Watch video of the Boeing 747 that crashed in Afghanistan

A cargo plane going from Afghanistan and bound for Dubai crashed few moments after take-off from the Bagram air base near Afghan capital, Kabul.

7 people were reportedly killed from the plane crash. 6 of them were from Michigan while the seventh was from Kentucky.

One of the pilots, Brad Hasler just married his long-term girlfriend two weeks ago. They already have a child and were expecting their second child.

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Posted in Machines, technology

The current most expensive car in the world

In the history of car making, there have been many categories of cars based on people’s chosen configurations.

It could be about size for some people while some go for design. This post goes for cost.

We want to bring you the most expensive car in the world.

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Posted in Machines, Specials

Mobile phone data could help to plan a bus route and reduce traffic

In a competition titled Data for Development (D4D) run by Orange cellphone network, IBM researchers have claimed they can use cellphone records to plan better bus route.

IBM in about 500,000 of the records, the data includes the nearest tower (mast) to the person making a call, along with any changes of nearest tower during the call.

IBM used the data to figure out the routes took while making calls in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city.

IBM then cross-referenced the journey data with the existing bus network and traced the likely effects of making 65 changes to the network.

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Posted in Gadgets, technology

The first website back online to commemorate 20th anniversary of World Wide Web

A British physicist Tim Berners-Lee launched a world-changing invention twenty years ago when the first ever website became available on the internet on the 30th of April, 1993.

Tim Berners-Lee had invented the World Wide Web as an employee of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (NERC) in 1989. However the first website came on the internet in 1993.

NERC has resurrected the extinct first web page to the internet on the 30th of April, 2013 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the launch of the World Wide Web.

The first website was in text only HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format and was about teaching people how to use the new invention.

The CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer in a statement on CERN’s website said;

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Posted in history, internet

The first ever built skyscraper in the world

Today, it would be a massive waste of time to start counting the number of skyscrapers in the world. But no matter the amount of skyscrapers in the world, it all began somewhere.

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Posted in history, Specials