The Much Anticipated SAMSUNG S4

The much anticipated Samsung S4 is being released later on today (3 pm P.T and 6 pm E.T) in New York. The eye speculation software is rumored to be a major feature after Samsung filed for an Eye Scroll patent in January. With this software, screen movements will result from eye movement that the user does. The phone will be able to respond to any intentional eye movement that will allow clicking by blinking and automatic scrolling up, down and to the next page, a concept that has been previously researched on desktop computing. 

Much as it is a commendable application of artificial Intelligence, there may be certain cons that come with it. For instance, the behavior of the tracking software could be easily disrupted by public distractions and could bring some awkwardness in public for the user if they have to move their eyes in certain ways. 

Another speculation revolves around the floating touch technology that allows for screen movements with as much as the hovering of the finger on the screen without actually touching it. Wireless charging is another feature anticipated for and may even allow for the communication of the phone with charging mats and stands that may allow data transfer which will help with syncing data to the phone.

Other budding rumors include the impressive Exynos 5 processor (8 processors!!). To cater to the problem of battery life that most smart phones face, the LITTE architecture ensures 4 powerful Cortex-A15 cores for power hungry functions and additional 4 Cortex-A7 for simple functions. This way, in most instances the powerful cores will shut down unless warranted to work depending on the gravity of the functionality. 

In conclusion, key features include

·         System: Android 4.1 O.S

·         Screen : 5-inch screen

·         Resolution : 1920*1080

·         Camera 13mp rear and 1.9 mp front, LED flash, Video 1080p

·          Memory :2GB SD RAM, 32GB expandable

·         Network : GSM/ WCDMA/LTE

·         Transmission : GPS, WIFI, Bluetooth 4.0

Samsung prides themselves in being at the forefront of dynamic technology and constant innovations .From the past gadget releases, they hardly disappoint. Looking forward to the Samsung S4.

My MWEA (Mobile Web East Africa) experience.

The MWEA 2013 technology event went down last week at the Southern Sun Mayfair Hotel. It ran from 19th of February til the 21st. I got to attend it for one day but was so bummed since i wish i had attended the conference on all the days. The main focus for this year was taking Monetisation and content creation dialogue to the next level.

There were several speakers from world renowned organisations that shared priceless information concerning trivial matters that every budding or established developer should put in mind. The sessions were interactive as well because of the round table format and the 15 minutes break that was offered to discuss and internalize on what the speaker had presented. Not only did it offer a chance to exchange ideas on trivial marketing issues, it also offered an awesome platform for networking and meeting new people in tech industry because most of the attendees were major key players from different major tech organisations throughout Africa . The open bar after the Wednesday session was a particular delight :)

Some of the key aspects that were discussed during the Mobile Marketing East Africa Focus day(19th) included highlighting major factors for monitoring and measuring mobile web marketing campaigns and how to go about conceptualization, construction and execution. It also focused on how to apply creative and design principles to mobile marketing and its fusion with responsive design especially in matters to do with digital marketing. With relevant case studies such as Guinness VIP, presentations were made to show how mobile has, and can enrich the presence of brands. Lastly, the speakers explored on future considerations that can be implemented to increase impact and deliverance.

The Main Conference day offered an array of insight to me. Some of the key issues that were highlighted include suggestions on how creativity can contribute to the tech mobile platform and if the more creative and traditional industries can intertwine with the technology industry. One speaker talked about how creativity can be used as a catalyst for disruptive innovation and creation through citing very helpful case studies. Another key highlight was the subject on distribution and entertainment in relation to the mobile savvy consumer with relevant examples from key companies such as Buni t.v, IROKO partners and Retroviral Digital Communications.

This is just but a brief summary of some of the key aspects that made me a bit more insightful than i was before. Hopefully, i will be able to share each and every aspect that i have talked about in detail to spread the insight. It was simply awesome and i have no idea why i have never attended the previous conferences. Looking forward to next year's Event and i hope to see you there.

ps: The venue was spectacular.

Blackberry 10 Making a Comeback!!

It was exciting yesterday when blackberry released the blackberry Z10 that runs on a new Blackberry 10 platform. A comeback for blackberry that aims at transforming mobile communications as a whole as well as its business brand. IOS and Android have dominated the market for the past five years and one wonders if the launch of this new OS is a bit too late.

Unlike its predecessors that ran on RIM, BB10 platform was specifically designed to run completely on touchscreen with new user experience. So, what makes it different?

• A software keyboard that swipes words to the keyboards and enables prediction and mimics the physical version experience.
• The BB Hub is a universal inbox that offers you a chance to get all your messages from emails, twitter, Facebook, linked In which can be navigated through swiping because it does not have a physical home or back button.
• BBM now allows video calling because of the BBM video and voice features. 
• BBM balance that allows users to separate their personal and work life.
• BB world store that has over 70,000 applications for its users. Not only does it have apps, but video and music as well with popular apps such as twitter, angry birds, Facebook and Skype available.

Specifications overview:

Design	Size	Height 130 mm / 5.12 in Width 65.6 mm / 2.58 in Depth 9 mm / 0.35 in
	Weight	137.5g / 4.85 oz
	Navigation	All-touch screen, with intuitive gesture based navigation
	Keyboard	On screen BlackBerry Keyboard (portrait/landscape), featuring contextual auto-correction, next-word prediction, and a personalized learning engine that gets to know the way you type
	Dedicated keys	Volume Up/Down, Mute, Lock (for Power On/Off)
Display	Resolution	1280 x 768 resolution, at 356 PPI 24-bit color depth
	Screen size	4.2" diagonal 15:9 aspect ratio
OS & desktop software	Operating system	BlackBerry 10 OS
	Desktop software	BlackBerry® Link software for your computer to enable synchronization of data and media
Performance	Processor	Dual Core 1.5 GHz
	Memory	2GB RAM 16GB Flash
	Expandable memory	Removable microSD memory card – slot under battery door (Up to 64 GB)
	USB Ports	USB 2.0 high speed port – allows charging and data synchronization of the device with a USB cable
	HDMI Port	Micro HDMI for connection to your HDTV or projector
Power	Battery	1800mAH removable battery
	Battery Life	Up to 10 hours talk time (3G) Up to 13 days standby time *Note: Battery life claims are for Model STL100-3
Camera & video	Rear camera	8 megapixel auto-focus camera Back Side Illumination for better low-light performance 5-element F2.2 lens Dedicated ISP (image signal processor) with 64MB frame buffer Flash, continuous and touch to focus, image stabilization Enhanced Super Resolution Digital Zoom (5x) 1080p HD video recording 4 DOF (Degrees of freedom) video stabilization Time Shift mode for pinpointing and adjusting individual elements of your picture
	Front camera	2 megapixel fixed-focus camera Image and video stabilization 3x digital zoom 720p HD video recording
Multimedia	Image formats	BMP, WBMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, SGI, TGA
	Audio & video formats	3GP, 3GP2, M4A, M4V, MOV, MP4, MKV, MPEG-4, AVI, ASF, WMV, WMA, MP3, MKA, AAC, AMR, F4V, WAV, MP2PS, MP2TS, AWB, OGG, FLAC
	Audio & video encoding/decoding	H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC, MP3, PCM, Xvid, AMR-NB, WMA 9/10, WMA10 professional, WMA-LL, VC-1, VP6, SPARK, PCM, MPEG-2, MJPEG (mov), AC-3, AMR-WB, QCELP, FLAC, VORBIS
Apps	Pre-loaded apps	BlackBerry® Hub, Contacts, BlackBerry® Browser, BlackBerry® Calendar, BBM, Text Messages, BlackBerry® World, BlackBerry® Remember, Docs To Go™, Pictures, Music, Videos, Story Maker, Facebook®1, Twitter®1, LinkedIn®1, Foursquare®, BlackBerry® Maps, Games, YouTube®, Voice Control, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Compass, File Manager, Box, BlackBerry® Connect for Dropbox, Print To Go, Smart Tags, Settings, Adobe® Reader, Phone, Camera/Video Camera/Time Shift, Setup, Help, SIM Toolkit, Search
Security		Password protection, screen lock, and sleep mode BlackBerry® Balance™ offering dedicated profiles to keep work and personal data separate and secure
Alerts & notifications		Tone Vibrate On-screen or LED indicator
Voice input/output		Integrated hands-free speakerphone Hands-free headset capable Bluetooth headset capable
Network & connectivity	Network bands	Z10 Up to 4G LTE Quad band LTE 2, 5, 4, 17 (700/850/1700/1900 MHz) Tri band HSPA+ 1, 2, 5/6 (850/1900/2100 MHz) Quad band HSPA+ 1, 2, 4, 5/6, (850/1700/1900/2100 MHz) Quad band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) Z10 (4G - Verizon) Up to 4G LTE LTE Band-13 (700 MHz) CDMA Cell-band and PCS-band (800/1900 MHz) WCDMA Band-1 and Band-8 (2100/900 MHz) GSM/EDGE Quad Bands (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
	Wi-Fi®	802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz 4G Mobile Hotspot
	Bluetooth®	Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (LE)
	GPS	Assisted, Autonomous and Simultaneous GPS Preloaded with BlackBerry Maps application
	NFC	BlackBerry® Tag with NFC technology enables communication between BlackBerry smartphones and other NFC-enabled devices with a tap
Sensors	Advanced Sensors	Accelerometer Magnetometer Proximity sensor Gyroscope Ambient light sensor
Accessibility		BlackBerry® Magnify, for customers with partial vision - Learn more Adjustable screen brightness, scalable fonts Teletypewriter (TTY) Support

The new low cost smart phone in the Kenyan market - The “Intel Yolo Smart Phone” Review.

Kenya is privileged to be the launch market for Africa's first Intel-powered smartphone, the “Intel Yolo Phone”. Intel has partnered with Safaricom to introduce the phone to the Kenyan mobile phone market at a reasonable cost of KES. 10,999/=. If you fit the bill, you may want to check out the Yolo as soon as possible

The Yolo phone may not be the thinnest device out there, its dimensions being 110.5*61*12.6mm and weight 132g. It has a 3.5 inch TFT multi-touch capacitive screen with HVGA resolution at 480*320 pixels. From the front view, you can see 4 touch sensitive controls at the bottom (namely Back, Home, Recent & Menu). You may not notice the volume rocker on the left and power button on the right due to their perfect blending. At the top, there is a USB/Power port and the 3.5mm audio jack. The back features a 5.0MP camera, the phone speaker at the bottom, a white “Intel Inside logo” and they just had to put it there too, a white “Safaricom logo”. At the bottom of the phone, there is a slot that to fit your nail in order to remove the rear cover for the purpose of inserting the Battery, Sim card and a microSD.

The phone responds very well to touch and its screen is scratch resistant.  It is supplied with high quality earphones hence good quality sound. The loud speaker is ok too, more like normal quality. Inside the phone’s packaging, apart from the phone and headset, you will find the USB cord, Charger and a “getting started guide”.

Intel Yolo is pre-installed with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. Other pre-installed applications include Wireless display app (WiDi) which works by rendering a second virtual display broadcast via WI-FI to a receiver on the TV or PC. Chrome browser and doubletwist are other applications that come bundled in the phone. When the phone is purchased from a Safaricom store, you get a one year subscription to McAfee mobile security application. Not forgetting it also comes with a pre-installed SwiftKey keyboard, Swiftkey for Intel, which is a premium keyboard that makes the typing on phone quite easy and responsive.

The rear facing camera is a 5MP one and comes with a Burst shot feature (enables capture of up to 7 simultaneous photos) and panorama mode feature (for shots in panorama mode).

The Intel Yolo phone has a 1500mAh battery is quite good, say, it gives you a full day use on social media if that’s what you like to do.

IN SUMMARY:

• Dimensions -110.5X12.6mm -132g
• Display and user Interface -Size: 3.5″Capacitive touch TFT, 60HZ-Resolution: HVGA(480X320)
• Application Processor -1.2GHz IA CPU w/512KB L2$ -Intel(R) Hyper-Threading Technology -512MB 2-ch LPDDR2 memory -Avatele passage Lite MSIC

• Camera -5MP rear-facing Camera-No front-facing camera
• Cellular  -Intel Xmm265, HSPA+ Rel.7, Cat 14/Cat6 (21Mbps DL/5.8Mbps UL);-2G Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900 -MHz; GPRS EDGE Class 10; HSPA+/UMTS Quad-Bad 850/900/1900/2100 MHz (I/II/V/VIII)
• Connectivity-Wi-Fi (802.1bgn 1×1 2.4Gz) , BT2.1=EDR, FM Rx, (A)GPS; Micro-USB 2.0 type-B with USB charging
• Audio -3.5mm audio jack (w/ FM Rx Support)-integrated Hands-Free
• Speaker – 1 analog microphone-Single vibra motor (haptics + silent ringtones)
• Sensors -Accelerometer, Compass, Proximity, Ambient Light Sensor
• Storage -4GB eMMC -MicroSD card slot (internal
• Battery  -Removable Li-IOn Battery Pack 3.7V, 1500mAh

Conclusion: This is a phone worth having. The price of KES. 10,999/= is good, keeping in mind it has Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich!

MWEA(MOBILE WEB EAST AFRICA) 2013 HYPED EVENT

It's official: Mobile Web East Africa 2013 will take place at the Southern Sun Mayfair in Nairobi on February 20th and 21st.  The agenda is live on the event website and registration is open, so why not take a minute to have a look at what has been  planned?

 
92% of the people who came along last year rated MWEA as the best event that they had ever attended and all key players are back on board for 2013.  Plus, they're going to be joined by the likes of MEF, iROKO Partners, Junk Mail Publishing and Thought Works, illustrating the growing international feel of the conference.
 
They will be implementing the popular interactive round table format once again, although this does mean that total capacity at the venue is limited to just 140 attendees.  Due to early registrations they are already more than half full so if you're serious about attending this year I recommend that you register ASAP.  There's a $123 discount available to anyone who reserves their place on or before this Friday, 25th January. 

I believe that this will be the best Mobile Web East Africa event yet.  Visit the event website to see why I'm so confident or drop an email for the latest up to date information concerning the Mobile Marketing East Africa Focus Day that will be running.

Tips & Tricks to help you save your battery life.

Data hungry mobile android and iPhone users are having severe issues with the battery life they have to deal with. for an interesting comparison of data user trends, click here. to ensure data usage and battery drainage are minimized, here are relevant things to keep in mind:

   

• Bluetooth: ensure that its always off if you are not using it. this way, battery life is conserved. 
• Charging : When charging your phone, ensure you do it frequently rather than waiting for it to be close to dead; this is because when it is almost charge-less, the battery will do more work during the charging.

• Applications : Stay wary of the applications that  forward you with non important messages and keep on blinking or displaying messages on your screen. in so doing, you save a lot of charge.
• Data hogging applications should also be avoided. A good example is GPS. it will run alongside applications such as twitter for geolocation services. if you have it installed, ensure its off when not in use.
• Location Applications: these applications will often look for places you currently at and pinpoint it out for the sake of social media mostly. when not in use, turn them off or visit the application settings and turn off location tracking.
• Syncing Applications : these are the apps that use the push technology eg. email. the best way to deal with this is to ensure that syncing is done less frequently by setting the period to as least frequent as possible.

• Ringtone Vs. Vibrate : Vibrations tend to use up more battery power than having a vibrant ringtone. therefore  avoid being on vibration at most times.

• Screen Timeout : Ensure that it is set to the minimal time out period available. the option to set your timeout is on the Settings Menu. this particular setting ensures you dictate the amount of time your phone takes to stay lit after a tap, after receiving input or any other kind of usage.
• Brightness : Lowering the brightness of your screen will save your charge a lot. this can be done through the settings (Menu> display> Brightness.)

• WiFi : Ensure that your WiFi is constantly turned off to avoid sniffing on the network since a lot of power is used/ lost through this.

• Lastly, always monitor your battery performance and usage.( Settings > About phone > Battery use ) This helps in making the best choice concerning what actions to take to save your battery life.

Phone Cases that will drive you Crazy!!!!

A friend of mine sent me some beautiful iPhone case photos that i loved a bit too much. I therefore looked for more designs and inspiration. Some people may view them as being over the top but on the other hand, life is too short to have a boring phone case! ( I said that :-) ). The cases are actually functional since they act as protective barriers against scratches, falls, wear & tear and dust . You can get them to match with what your wearing, get them to go with your moods for the day or to match your boyfriend's outfit if your that kind of girl :-) . I stumbled upon some cool designs;  thought i would share them with you:

 and my personal favorite :-) ....

It is possible to customize your android phone case by yourself if you are feeling artsy. All you need is transparent or rubber cases that match the size of your phone. When using transparent cases, you can use paint (on the transparent case) to evoke a design you like or you can stick a picture/graphics/patterns/messages to it that you love/relate to. When using rubber cases, you can use spray adhesives to stick chunks of your old jewelry pieces, buttons and brooches in a design you find appealing. You can incorporate fabric as well by having to recycle old blanket pieces, tweed, leather and denim.
Otherwise, if you want them ready made, you can check at Mr. Price. They have iPhone and Blackberry cases that are absolutely beautiful.
Am on a project aiming to make one for myself. I will share it with you once i am through.