Windows 10 will bring FLAC support on phones and small tablets

Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President, Operating Systems Group at Microsoft has been busy on Twitter answering a lot of questions around the future of Windows 10. Ever since last week’s event, when Microsoft showcased a lot of exciting details about the future of its popular OS and the tech world users have been impatient to receive answers to a few pressing question, mostly regarding Windows 10 on mobile devices.



The smoke was already clear around legacy app support on smaller devices and today Joe has shared another much anticipated piece of information – namely that Windows 10 on mobile devices will have native FLAC support.

Built-in lossless audio playback in desktop distributions of the OS has been discussed on numerous occasions and was confirmed relatively early in Windows 10′s lifecycle. However users were not exactly sure what to expect on the mobile front. As it turns out every eligible Windows mobile will receive FLAC support as well, but in later build. Insiders will perhaps have a chance to take a sneak peak first, but even they still have some waiting to do.

Source

Qantas to trial Samsung Gear VR headset for in-flight entertainment

Some are using their VR headsets to play a flight simulator and get a first-person perspective of the cockpit. Qantas Airways wants to flip this on its head and use a VR headset – namely the Samsung Gear VR – take you anywhere you want while in a first class cabin of select Airbus A380 flights.



Select first class lounges (in Sydney and Melbourne) will also get the Gear VR so you can preview your destination.

Another use is to view movies on a large virtual screen, instead of the small display you normally get. And if you find yourself missing the feeling of flight those games give you, you can get a real-life view of the landing through the plane’s external cameras.

The Samsung Gear VR is a headset that combines with a Galaxy Note 4 to provide an experience similar to the Oculus Rift (the Rift DK3 uses the Super AMOLED screen of the Note 4). Jaunt and Tourism NT will provide live-action footage of various destination.

The Gear VR headsets will be offered to first class flyers in Sydney and Melbourne’s lounges and in the first class cabin of A380 flights between Australia and Los Angeles. The trial will start in mid-March and run for three months.



While Qantas is the first airline to offer a VR headset, Airbus has a patent on VR helmets that integrate with the seats on the plane.

Made In Chelsea's Louise Thompson and Binky Felstead pucker up for a saucy smooch

Although her status reads ‘in a relationship’ that didn’t stop Louise Thompson from puckering up to her Made In Chelsea co-star Binky Felstead.

The two best friends took to their Instagram pages to share a series of playful snaps during a night out on Thursday.

Louise - who is currently romancing American heartthrob Alik Alfus - simply captioned her snap, ‘My binkles,’ while, Binky wrote alongside hers, ‘I lov [sic]’.

Sealed with a kiss! Louise Thompson and Binky Felstead pucker up for a saucy smooch during a night out on Thursday

The pictures showed them cosying up to one another as they engaged in a cheeky little kiss - for fun.

The MIC stars – who were also joined by a female companion - appeared to be in great spirits as they enjoyed a variety of tasty cocktails.

During the festivities, Binky shared one of Louise posing solo with a beverage in her hand.

Close pals: The pictures showed them cosying up to one another as they engaged in a cheeky little kiss - for fun

Catch ups: The Made In Chelsea stars, who were also joined by a female companion, appeared to be in great spirits as they enjoyed a variety of tasty cocktails

UK users can now send and receive money straight through Gmail

Google Wallet is just one of countless Google services that have become so intertwined in our everyday lives that we hardly notice it. And if you own an Android device and have ever purchased an app from the Play Store that money did indeed get wired through this very service.



The payment platform is now becoming even more readily accessible thanks to a recent Google update that integrates payments straight into Gmail. For now only UK users, aged 18 and up can enjoy the new functionality and it does look like a time-saver.



What Google has done is pretty clever. Instead of fitting new menus and sections into their webmail interface they have decided to enable money attaching. The concept is very intuitive, albeit slightly odd. Want is more natural than writing to somebody and enclosing a few bucks. Well now you can do that and sending money is as simple as attaching a photo.



Once the money gets transferred it winds up in the other party’s Wallet account from where it can either be spent as in-store credit at the Play Store or easily transferred to your bank account. This could potentially lead to an increase of digital purchases from Google’s online outlet as tech-savvy users are sure to pick up on the effortless gift-giving opportunities.



In order for the new feature to work you do need to setup a Google Wallet account as that is the platform that does all the heavy lifting behind the scenes to handle the transaction. As with everything else Google takes security seriously and promises the same level of assurance with the new money sending interface that they already offer through Google Wallet.



Speaking of the payment platform users can make use of the money wiring functionality from there as well. So even if you don’t use Gmail you can still send and receive money from the wallet web and mobile interfaces.

The new feature has already started rolling out to adult within the UK, so next time you write an email be sure to check for the £ icon in the attachment options.

Source | Via

HERE Maps crosses the 3 million mark in Play Store downloads

After it was unleashed from Windows Phone exclusivity, the HERE Maps app has shaped up to be on a steady rise in the Google Play Store. Less than a month ago, the app was at the 1 million milestone, and today 3 million downloads have been reached.



HERE Maps’ main selling point has always been its support for offline navigation. Currently the database spans 118 countries the world over, and turn-by-turn voice navigation is available in multiple languages.

True, Google maps offers an offline feature, but its implementation is somewhat inconvenient and limited. HERE’s take is simpler, relying on downloaded maps of entire countries and letting the user access the search feature without a data connection. Naturally, having an internet connection brings in extra capabilities, including satellite imagery and real-time traffic updates.

The number of downloads of the app may appear dwarfed by Google Maps’ over a billion, but it has to be kept in mind that nearly every Android smartphone comes with that preinstalled. HERE, on the other hand, is an optional download, that’s been on the store for a mere couple of months.

Source | Via

Microsoft is giving away a free Lumia 435 for every Lumia 535 buyer in Italy this Valentine’s Day

Slowly, but surely, we’re starting to hear more and more about this year’s Valentine’s Day offers and deals. The latest such promotion to get unearthed comes from Italy, where Microsoft is preparing a pretty sweet deal.



If you buy a Lumia 535 from February 4 to February 15, you’ll get a free Lumia 435. This is however limited to Italy, so if you’re not there, you can’t take advantage of the offer.

You don’t even have to buy the Lumia 535 from a specific store. Any purchase counts, whether made online or offline, even if you get the device from an Italian carrier. After you’ve bought the Lumia 535, you simply go to the special website Microsoft has set up for this promo, enter your details so your purchase can be identified, and that’s it. You then patiently wait and Microsoft will start shipping the free Lumia 435 units on February 23. You will have to register on the website between February 4 and February 22.

A “buy one, get one free” offer always sounds neat, and this one might help Microsoft move some product over in Italy. Neither the Lumia 535 nor the Lumia 435 are high-end devices, but getting two smartphones for the price of one is still pretty good.

Source (in Italian) | Via

Paper by Facebook for iOS updated with improved Camera Roll and photo sharing

Just a few months after adding support for the larger displays of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Facebook has updated its Paper app for iOS to version 1.2.5, bringing improvements to Camera Roll and photo sharing, as well as faster performance.



Photos and videos are now organized by the date they were taken, making it easy for you to find what you’re looking for while selecting media to share. In addition, the updated app also introduces the ability to share photos from the new Favorites album introduced in iOS 8.

Finally, the update also brings along performance enhancements that are designed to improve responsiveness of several parts of the app, including photo uploads. The updated app is available for download from the App Store.

Via

These Samsung Galaxy S6 concept renders might be right on the mark

We stumbled upon a duo of Samsung Galaxy S6 concept renders that might not be too wide off the mark. The images suggest that Samsung’s highly anticipated 2015 flagship will feature similar look as the Galaxy Alpha.



Codenamed Project Zero, Samsung Galaxy S6 is expected to feature radical new design, coupled with cutting edge hardware. A design language that combines what we’ve seen in the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and the Galaxy A family of smartphones shouldn’t catch anyone by surprise. These products were the first to mark a departure from the heavy use of plastic for the Korean company.



Purported specs of Samsung Galaxy S6 include Exynos 7420 chipset with octa-core CPU, 5.2” QHD display, 3GB of RAM, and 20MP camera. The device is expected to launch during MWC in Barcelona.

Microsoft launches Office for Android, Outlook for iOS and Android, updates OneDrive

Under its new leadership, Microsoft has embraced other Mobile platforms and Office for Android is officially available starting today (having gone through a preview stage). Also, it’s bringing Outlook to Android and iOS and updating the OneDrive apps to handle photos better.



Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android tablets offer an “unmistakably Office experience”, which means the Ribbon UI.

The apps support what you’ve grown to expect from their desktop counterparts, including Track changes and comments in Word, formulas and PivotTables in Excel and transitions and embedded video in PowerPoint.

The requirements for the apps are – a tablet with a 7″ screen or more, an ARM processor with 1GB or more RAM and Android 4.4 KitKat. Lollipop is not officially supported yet though the apps should still work. If you have one of the few 10+ inch Android tablets, you’ll need an Office 365 license to create and edit.





Outlook for iOS and Android is a rebadged Acompli (which Microsoft acquired in December). The app became popular for its swipe interface – a left/right swipe can schedule an email, archive it, delete it, move it or flag it. The app also sorts emails into Focused and Other tabs and learns from your reading habits which email goes where.





Next up is OneDrive. Until now it treated files the same, but now it’s taking special care of photos. It will aggregate photos from your computer, phone and email inbox so they are easy to browse. With the help of Bing tech you can search photos by location and content – people, beach, sunset, dogs, all automatically tagged.

Meanwhile, OneDrive for Business is landing on Mac and iOS.





Source 1 • Source 2 • Source 3

Bill Gates working on a Personal Agent project at Microsoft

When Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft chairman last year, he vowed to “substantially” increase the time he spends at the company, with a particular focus on “ambitious scenarios,” though he didn’t reveal what exactly he would be doing. However, in an Ask Me Anything question and answer session on Reddit yesterday, Gates revealed that he is currently working on a project dubbed Personal Agent.



“One project I am working on with Microsoft is the Personal Agent which will remember everything and help you go back and find things and help you pick what things to pay attention to,” he said. “The idea that you have to find applications and pick them and they each are trying to tell you what is new is just not the efficient model – the agent will help solve this.”

While that sounds something which would fit in nicely to Cortana, the software giant’s virtual assistant which is coming to desktop soon, Gates specifically mentioned that it would be a cross-platform product, meaning that in addition to Windows it would also be available on devices that run iOS and Android to say the least.

Given the fact that Microsoft has been working in the digital assistant space for a while now, and co-founder Bill Gates is helming the project, it would be interesting to see how the product shapes up.

Source | Via

HTC will launch online store in Taiwan next month to better fight against Xiaomi

HTC is set to start operating its own online store in its home market of Taiwan. This has been known ever since December, when HTC North Asia President Jack Tong made the plans official. The store will officially open at 10 pm local time on February 4.



The move is said to be all about better positioning HTC to compete head-on with Chinese competitors such as Xiaomi when it comes to the sales of cheap smartphones.

As you may know, Xiaomi employs an online-only business model, and HTC is apparently willing to test whether the online channel could help it achieve better sales in Taiwan. However, the company remains cautious about its new venture. According to the aforementioned exec, HTC expects just 10% of its revenue in Taiwan to come from the online store.

For starters, it will offer willing customers two phone models: the Desire 816G, and the Desire 526G (pictured above). These are rather affordable midrangers, so HTC isn’t looking to experiment with selling its flagship One (M8) in this way just yet. Perhaps if the store is successful, the company will replicate it across Asia.

Source | Via

Octa-core Windows 10 phones expected to arrive soon

January 21 marked an important milestone for Microsoft as the Windows 10 Next chapter event took place and revealed an amazing amount of new information concerning the future of the popular OS on both desktop and portable devices. One of the things that became abundantly clear is that us tech giant is really making progress and investing in its new One Windows philosophy.



Windows 10 on smartphones and tablets will essentially share the core of the full distribution and more importantly will support a uniform app ecosystem that allows the same applications to be used seamlessly across the entire range of Windows 10-powered devices. This is all very exciting, but even though Microsoft cleared the smoke around a lot of aspects of the new OS there are still some pressing questions of availability and future devices. As we have already reported, the new OS will surely be available for the Microsoft Lumia 435, 735 and 930 and if Microsoft keeps its word, most other current Lumia devices as well. This is an admirable decision, but we can’t help that the Microsoft mobile family is severely lacking on flagship models lately. Luckily this might change pretty soon.



This is more than a simple hunch and is backed up by a few recent facts. First, the extended hardware support that was promised to arrive with Windows Phone 8.1 GDR2 is now set to ship with Windows 10, so support will be present. From there it is just a matter of producing the right hardware and a recent GDC session, titled “Sustained Gaming Performance in Multi-Core Mobile Devices (Presented by Microsoft)”, may just confirm such plans:

Modern mobile devices and smartphones are reaching the computing capabilities reserved until recently for desktop PCs. Windows 10 phones and tablets with 8 CPUs and very powerful GPUs are expected soon. Despite significant progress in reducing power consumption these devices are able to draw more power under sustained load than can be safely dissipated with current passive cooling technologies. Windows 10 and the hardware it runs on are designed to safely handle such situations, mostly by reducing the system performance – which could affect game-play negatively. Learn to counter this effect by designing games that achieve sustained thermal-to-quality tradeoffs in these systems.

This sounds promising enough, but for the time being “near-future” is a very vague concept. However we are still hoping to see new flagship Lumia phones in 2015.

Source | Via

This could be a case for the upcoming Apple iPad Pro

Purported live photo of a protective case for the yet to be announced Apple iPad Pro made the rounds online. The image was posted by Nowhereelse and is said to come from a reliable source.



The photo gives us a potential glimpse of the upcoming tablet’s hardware controls. A notable new feature that the large-screen iPad might bring is high-quality sound – the quartet of evenly placed cutouts on the case are most likely made for speakers.

Furthermore, the image clearly reveals cutouts for the tablet’s volume rocker and Lightning port, as well as its camera. Cellular connectivity is also all but certain – the slot on the side of the case is likely for a SIM card.

Curiously, the leaked case falls in line with an artist rendering of the iPad Pro from a few days ago. The 3D model of the upcoming slate also showcases four speakers.

Apple iPad Pro is expected to launch at some point in Q2 or Q3 this year. The full-size slate is all but certain to launch with an optional stylus.

Source (in French)

I wanted to kill myself because I was broke –Halima Abubakar

If not for divine intervention, actress Halima Abubakar would have been dead by now. She disclosed this in an exclusive chat with Saturday Beats.

The actress said she went into depression some time ago and considered suicide as the only option of getting away from that state. And guess why Halima was depressed and wanted to kill herself -she was broke!

She said, “There were a lot of things that were wrong with me and led to my depression. I was angry, broke, people lied against me and they were also using my name to lie. I was deceived by the people I loved. I was seriously broke at the time and I had lots of responsibilities.

“There were many charity projects I was involved in and I was doing everything with my money. Everything just got to me at the same time and I felt fed-up. I wanted to kill myself because there was nobody to help me. It happened two years ago and it also occurred last year. I thank God I did not kill myself because I realised that nothing is worth it. I was upset with myself when I got back to my senses because the people you want to kill yourself for do not really care about you. It was a terrible phase in my life,” she said.

When asked why her boyfriend could not help her out, Halima said he compounded her case instead of helping out.

“He was not helping matters. I wanted somebody that would listen and not say that I was lying or exaggerating the extent of what I was going through. Whenever I tell him I am sad, he wants to give me money but it is not all about money all the time.

“Yes, I said I was broke but it was not only about money. I was broken emotionally. If there is no hope, I feel I am broken. I needed a listening ear. The definition of broke is relative but Nigerians think it is only about money. Money was also involved. The first major problem I had was money; then I was also emotionally broken,” she said.

The dark skinned actress said she was grateful to her family because they helped her sail through during the troubling period.

I made MI popular –Kelly Hansome

Popular singer, Kelly Hansome, is reputed as one of the most controversial artistes in the Nigerian music scene. He has had rifts with several artistes ranging from his former boss, Kenny Ogungbe to Don Jazzy, D’banj and even MI.

But the singer may be tired of all the ‘beef’ with his latest single, Baba Olowo where he praise-sang all the people he has had issues with.

Some might see such moves as a marketing strategy since he is no longer as popular as he used to be but in an exclusive chat with Saturday Beats, the artiste said, “Praising people on my new song was not a strategy and my reason for doing it is because it is their time. They are the rave of the moment.”

Hansome believes that the issue he had with MI in particular, made the rap artiste to become popular today.

“A lot of people take things too personal at times, especially MI and Baba Keke. They took my music too personal. If I did not beef MI, he would not be where he is today. I am not the one that made him, he has Chocolate City and Audu Maikori to thank for that and they are my friends but at the end of the day, it was a marketing strategy for them. I put him at a point where people could listen and appreciate his music. I am looking forward to us working together.

“MI is at the top of his game; he has several endorsement deals. Because of the issues I had, the endorsement I was supposed to have with Globacom was cancelled and I don’t blame the company.

“Most of these people are successful today because they were able to cover up their controversies but the record label I thought was my record label did not cover up my controversy. Instead, they were the ones pushing it outside. In their mind, I had already been sentenced to death; they did not want me to be on top of my game again so that people would think they made me. I don’t know why they did that to me, I wish they could give me a reason. I wish we could be put on national television and speak our minds and clear the air. I have no hard feelings towards anybody. If they could not kill me then, they cannot kill me now,” he said.

He told Saturday Beats that he has since apologised to the people who felt offended by his song especially Ogungbe and MI.

“I see Baba Keke as my father; I don’t know how he sees me. The truth is that he is old enough to give birth to me and when it comes to business, he taught me virtually everything I know. If your father should shout on you when he is angry, it is your duty to go and meet him later to apologise. I went to meet him and said that I knew he was angry and wanted the best for me so we should forget everything. I apologised as a son and he ought to forgive. I called MI and told him that we could not continue with the beef and that was it,” he said.

Oil slump: Banks face financial distress

Falling oil price, which is expected to hit the economy harder later in the year, will make some weak banks to run into financial distress, it has been learnt.

Financial distress is a term in corporate finance used to indicate a condition when promises to creditors of a company or bank are broken or honored with difficulty, according to Wikipedia. It says if financial distress cannot be relieved, it can lead to bankruptcy.

Top bankers told our correspondent on Thursday that some financial institution had started seeing signs that the year would be very difficult owing to the falling oil prices.

The development, they said, might make profits in some banks to tumble within the third and fourth quarters of the year.

“This year is going to be very difficult from what we are seeing already; some banks will run into financial distresses but I don’t think any bank will collapse,” a top official of one of the top banks said.

Analysts had said that a number of regulatory measures aimed at stabilising the economy would also make it difficult for banks to make higher profit this year.

The Managing Director, Afrinvest West Africa Limited, an investment advisory firm, Mr. Ike Chioke, said reduction in banks’ fee income would make the year a turbulent one for the financial institutions.

He said, “It is going to be very challenging for the banking sector this year. You remember a gradual progression of the CBN trying to reduce the fee element that the banks do enjoy. The Commission on Turnover for example has been reduced from 5 to 3 and one per mille. By 2016, it will be reduced to zero.”

“The CBN has also come up with a lot of measures to control the foreign exchange. All of these are taking away the fee incomes that the banks would ordinarily have enjoyed. So, I see that some banks will be in a place where their cost structure may be too difficult for the income generated to carry. So, they will have to find new ways to generate additional income.

“But trying to find new ways to generate additional income in an environment where there is declining revenue overall for the federal, state and local governments is going to be very difficult. It is going to be a depressed year for the banks.

Good ones may probably report something closer to 2014 if they are lucky but the 2014 results have yet to released; the 2014 result is probably going to be weaker than 2013. So, it will be a hard time. If the banks are having difficulty, you would expect that the rest of the economy.”

The Managing Director, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi, had recently said falling oil prices would cause “serious economic headwind” this year and that banks would be forced to record very significant increase in the non-performing loans in their books.

Chike-Obi said, “We can see that there is an economic headwind coming to Nigeria this year; and when the economic headwind comes, it will certainly impact on the Non-Performing Loans levels. So, we expect an increase in the NPL levels this year.

Fitch Ratings had in a report released on October 8, 2014 said that although the banks’ NPLs were below five per cent as of last year, it would not be sustainable in the long run. This, it said, was because regulatory measures by the CBN might make the NPLs to rise further this year.

Fitch, in the report, also said actions aimed at protecting the economy and the banking system by the CBN would make the profits of the Deposit Money Banks for this year to drop.

Solange Knowles causes a stir in neon yellow top and matching skirt while catching a flight at LAX

Solange Knowles sure knows how to attract attention.

Beyonce's younger sister showed off more her own signature style on Friday as she arrived at Los Angeles International Airport ahead of a flight.

Solange, 28, was bouncing along in a neon yellow knit set that featured a loose-fitting turtleneck with wide cuffs and a matching skirt that ended in jagged edges to her skins.

Bright in neon yellow: Solange Knowles couldn't be missed as she arrived at LAX wearing a very bright top and matching skirt on Friday

The ribbed material had a 3-D effect thanks to sprouting threadlike details, and adding further contrast to the mix were a pair of white mules and round-framed shades.

The newlywed - who married music mogul Alan Ferguson on November 16 - appeared to be a Solo Star on this trip, accompanied only by a bodyguard who handled her luggage so she could walk lightly.

Solange paid no heed to curious bystanders, preferring to focus on her iPhone from curb to security check-in.

It's sprouting: The singer's ensemble was made of a material that had an interesting 3-D threadlike detai

We can’t verify results without Buhari’s permission –UK varsity

Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

The University Of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), now known as Cambridge Assessment, in response to requests to prove the authenticity of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s exam certificate, has said on Friday that it will not be able to do so.

In a statement made available on its website, the institution said, “We can only confirm or verify results at the direct request of or with the permission of a candidate.”

“This is in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The organisation also confirmed that according to the Regulations for 1961, African Language papers, including those for Hausa were set for the West African School Certificate.

Established over 150 years ago, Cambridge Assessment operates and manages the university’s three exam boards and carries out leading-edge academic and operational research on assessment in education.

Manny Pacquiao shows humble side dining with Prince Harry at Buckingham Palace as Floyd Mayweather faces 'we want Pacquiao' chants watching basketball in Los Angeles

While Floyd Mayweather was sat courtside watching Los Angeles Clippers play Brooklyn Nets and listening to the deafening chants of 'we want Pacquiao, we want Pacquiao', the Filipino fighter that the world of boxing is so desperate to see him take on was far away, dining in a palace.

It sounds akin to the lavish lifestyle that Mayweather needs no encouragement to flaunt on his Instagram page, but Manny Pacquiao was demonstrating the opposite characteristics as he and his wife Jinkee took Prince Harry up on his invitation to dine with him at Buckingham Palace.

Pacquiao has a formidable reputation in the boxing ring; his record of 38 knock-outs in 55 victories could be enough to deter the usually brash Mayweather from engaging in a bout that could raise at least £200million for the pair.

Manny Pacquiao (centre)poses for a picture with Prince Harry (right) and his wife Jinkee (left)

Pacquiao (left) presented Harry (right) with a pair of signed boxing gloves to commemorate the visit

Floyd Mayweather, meanwhile, was watching Los Angeles Clippers take on Brooklyn Nets in basketball

Robert Morales, an LA based basketball reporter, tweeted about the chants aimed at Pacquiao

But the iconic Filipino boxer was truly humbled to be in the presence of royalty and was reportedly invited by Harry to have dinner with him before being given a tour of the palace.

'Dinner with Prince Harry is so nice thank you Lord,' Pacquiao said on his own Instagram page.

The boxer handed the prince a signed pair of gloves, and wrote alongside another picture that 'it was a great experience.'