10 Reasons Android Beats the iPhone

Apple's iPhone is the world's most famous smartphone, but there are many reasons Android takes 57 percent of the U.S. market and as much as 80 percent in other countries. Apple provides a completely catered, top-down experience in which it dictates exactly which apps you can run and which features your phone can have. But Android takes off the training wheels and lets consumers have a swath of hardware and software to choose from, along with access to key technologies, such as NFC pairing and haptic feedback, that Apple doesn't think its users are ready for.

1. Customization, widgets and skins
Like the father in a 1950s sitcom, Apple thinks it knows what's best for you, no matter what you need or want, so it locks down the UI and offers fewer customizations than Google. Whereas on the iPhone, you can put a few select widgets in your notification drawer, with Android, you can choose from thousands of widgets that live on your home or lock screens and provide everything from music playback to weather and note-taking. 
Manufacturers such as Samsung and LG add custom "skins" on top of the core operating system that offer a unique look and feel, along with features Google hasn't implemented yet (e.g., gesture controls and Air View). Better still, you can install your own launcher or add a custom theme, which makes your phone look and feel completely different — and yours.

2. Many more hardware options, including rugged phones
Google's marketing tagline for Android is "Be Together. Not the Same." That makes sense, because the platform appears on hundreds of different phone models around the world. You can get Android phones with giant screens, small screens, built-in projectors, QWERTY keyboards, replaceable batteries and even second displays (e.g., YotaPhone 2). 
Perhaps most important, there are many rugged Android phones that are made to survive being submerged underwater or dropped. If you want a new iPhone today, you have four choices: a large-screen iPhone 6 Plus, a midsize iPhone 6 and two old models: the 4-inch iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. None of these is made to take a beating.

3. Freedom to install any app you want
Apple may get some apps first, but it also limits which apps you can install by forcing you to go through its tightly controlled app store. If the tastemakers in Cupertino decide that an app competes with Apple or is too violent, sexual, political or controversial, you won't be able to buy it. While Google has its Play store for Android, it allows competition from alternative stores, such as Amazon's Appstore. You can also take any APK file you download and sideload it on your own.

4. A working file system
Want to copy files from your iPhone to your computer? You'll need to install iTunes and set up an account, and even then, you can move only media files, such as photos, back and forth. Plug an Android phone into your PC, and it instantly mounts as an external drive filled with folders you can drag and drop. You can also navigate through the file system on the phone using apps such as Astro File Manager or ES File Manager. Apple apparently doesn't trust you to see the file system on your iPhone.

5. Universal sharing
You see a Web page in your browser, a map in your navigation app or a photo in your gallery, and you want to share it. On Android, you can share to any service whose app you have installed: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or anything you've installed. Google doesn't need to bless an app for it to show up in the sharing menu, nor does the browser maker, the navigation app publisher or drawing app developer.
Unfortunately, on the iPhone, you can share only to the apps that the browser, photo gallery or other app specifically support. So, because Apple doesn't think much of Google+, WhatsApp or Pinterest, you can't share to them from Safari, and you won't be able to unless Apple’s gatekeepers specifically build in support.

6. A back button
Android's back button provides a really simple and helpful way to return to a previous screen no matter where you are. The button even works across apps. If you hit a link in Facebook and get transported to the Chrome browser, you can return to the social media app when you hit the back button. On the iPhone, you can use only app-specific navigation or hit the home button to end up back on the home screen. That's a lot more swipes and taps that waste your time and tire your fingers.

7. Multiwindow support
If you want to multitask on your phone, you want an Android phone from Samsung or LG. Both of those brands let you split your screen between two apps, allowing you to, for example, look at the company Web page in one window while you reply to your boss's email in another. Google hasn't built multiwindow mode into the Core OS yet; it is adding that ability in the next version, called Android M. Apple is adding a split-screen view in iOS 9, but only for tablets, not phones.

8. High-res screens
Apple is often the last to adopt new technologies  and, when it comes to screen resolution, the iPhone trails the field by a wide margin. In 2014, the company finally released its first full-HD phone, the iPhone 6 Plus — two years after the first 1080p Android handset debuted. Today, several of the leading phones have 2560 x 1440 displays, which makes them a lot sharper for high-res video viewing, reading and gaming.

9. Haptic feedback
There's nothing quite like tactile feedback when you're typing or interacting with buttons on-screen. On a computer, you usually get that feedback from the physical keyboard and the click of the touchpad or mouse. However, on a phone, you need the buzz of a haptic vibration to know that your touches have registered. All Android phones offer haptic feedback, but iPhones don't. There's a rumor that the company's new Force Touch technology, which provides haptic feedback, will appear on the next iPhone — seven years after it made its Android debut on the T-Mobile G1.

10. Full NFC support
For several years now, all Android phones have come with NFC (near field communication) chips built in. With NFC on board, you can tap to pair with gadgets, tap another phone to exchange files or contacts, tap information tags, tap to unlock a door and even tap to pay using Google Wallet. Apple incorporated NFC into the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but you can only use it for Apple Pay.

As Africa celebrates World Social Media Day

June 30 is, annually, commemorated as the World Social Media Day. This day brings to the fore the realities of a growing global community of diverse individuals who are wirelessly wired.

The Social Media Day was launched by an organisation called Mashable, a digital technology company, in 2010 to recognise and celebrate social media’s impact on global communication. While every day is essentially a social media day, today marks the sixth celebration.

Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, BBM, Instagram and a host of other social networking platforms are a next to none work or playground for both tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy individuals across the world to explore their lives.

Daily, these networking platforms record a high number of new users, thereby keeping the social media space ever busy with restive timelines.

For sure, the impact of social media, though a relatively — growing space when we focus on the African continent, cannot, and should not be undermined. Social media are growing with Africa and vice-versa.

With over 110 million active social media subscribers and 300 million active Internet users, social media are literally influencing every facet of Africa’s livelihood. This is most notable in ecommerce, online entertainment and civic engagements. They complement the traditional media, thereby forming an outstanding convergence.

The continent also boasts over 700 million mobile phones. Little wonder Africa is referred to as the mobile continent.

For the many benefits enjoyed thus far by the people — and the envisaged ones — the Social Media Africa Initiative is hosting a continent-wide virtual event to, among others, venerate the 2015 Social Media Day from an African perspective.

The African-wide virtual event is billed for today, as an all-day TweetMeet event, to deliberate on issues ranging from social media appreciation, the African reality, e-commerce, entertainment and fashion, governance and leadership, banking, among others. The event will also feature interesting meet-up sessions and other fantastic moments.

The TweetMeet is segmented into seven sessions, with each running for an average of two hours. Each session will be moderated by a proficient social media personality while having at least two competent individuals as guests to examine each subject. Questions, interventions and other engagements will not be exclusive to the moderator as members of the public are expected to contribute.

During the TweetMeet, Africa’s best from across the online and offline will engage diverse issues of interest.

The growing reality of social media in Africa leaves the continent with no option but to join the global celebration to evaluate the impact of ever-changing communication while looking forward to harnessing the dividends of the process for the benefit of Africa.

For individuals and organisations that have embraced digital technology and social media, they can join in the global celebration from any part of the world.

First, you can join the global trend via the hashtag #SMDay as well as the Africa hashtag – #SMDayAfrica.

Many leading social media organisations like Mashable and Social Media Africa Initiative have free ‘toolkits’ for individuals and organisations to download and use before and during the celebration.

Another key component of the celebration is a promotional campaign by individuals and organisations through their social media accounts and blogs. By doing this, you will be recognised as an authority in the social media space.

Thirdly, you can take and share pictures of yourself and your team members carrying posters with inscriptions such as happy Social Media Day, Social Media Day Africa, We love social media, among other creative lines.

As Africa celebrates the 2015 Social Media Day, some pertinent issues come to mind, which both users and industry experts must make conscious efforts to address. Some of the challenges are digital illiteracy, cyber security and identity theft. The challenges confronting the African social media and, indeed, the cyberspace are enormously daunting.

It is, however, hoped that with the conscious efforts by policy makers, industry experts and social media influencers, some of the challenges will be addressed. Addressing them is critical to unlocking the potential of social media and making them serve the need of the continent.

Happy Social Media Day!

Opera, Firefox, top browsers in Nigeria

With 55.57 per cent control of the market as of Monday, Opera is currently the highest patronised browser in Nigeria.

The browser started the year with 48.13 per cent market control, moved up to 52.94 per cent in May before it experienced a spark that pushed it to above 55 per cent on Monday.

The information is sourced from StatCounter, an online Internet resource organisation. Every day, the online platform tracks Internet activities in different parts of the world,        rating performances and dynamics on certain parameters.

Opera’s performance is an average of the figures it polls from four major Internet browsing platforms – desktop, tablet, mobile and console – captured by the researcher.

The figure is driven by the patronage it receives from mobile Internet subscribers, where it garnered 68.81 per cent on Monday to maintain its clear lead in the category. Even with its dominance, the charts point upward.

Opera is distantly followed by Google Chrome, which polled 12.91 per cent across various computer and mobile devices to become the second highest performing browser in the country.

With 48.84 per cent of desktop browsing activities in Nigeria conducted via Chrome, it took over from Mozilla Firefox to become the most popular browser among Internet subscribers who use computers. Its six-month average is 37.86 per cent.

Firefox, which started the year with 4.92 per cent, dropped to 35.97 per cent on Monday to settle for the second position. With 40.92 per cent, its six-month average is still the highest in the desktop category.

Across different platforms, Firefox and UCWeb Browser trail behind Chrome as the third most used browser in the country. They are competing for the third position. Both browsers control slightly above eight per cent of the Internet market each.

According to the statistics, Internet Explorer has continued to struggle, losing the market it once dominated to newer brands.

Across all platforms, Internet Explorer’s six-month average is 3.14 per cent. The overall performance is boosted by its 14.85 per cent six-month average on desktop. This indicates that it could lose more market share as more subscribers migrate to mobile platforms. This has been the trend in recent times.

Internet Explorer mobile device browser has been patronised by 1.39 per cent of the market in the past six months, on the average.

As soon as Microsoft replaced Internet Explorer with Windows series, the Internet market influencers pronounced the search engine dead. Reports say subscribers have continued to migrate to more-secure browsers.

Google, a global leader in searches, has continued to lead that area of the Internet. In Nigeria, it has sustained its leadership with 90.92 per cent six-month average in search engine performance analysis.

Google is followed by Bing’s 4.76 per cent, Yahoo’s 2.72 per cent as second and third top-performing SEs respectively. Ask Jeeves, WebCrawler and other new entrants trail behind.

Android is also the leading operating system, commanding 31.81 per cent of the market on the average in the past six months. This statistic cuts across different platforms – desktop and mobile devices.

It is followed by Series 40, with 18.43 per cent; and Window 7, which commands 11.63 per cent.

Blackberry’s market in Nigeria has shrunk to 5.05 per cent on the average in the past six months. With 3.01 per cent, Windows 8.1 is struggling to gain a space in the local market.

At the global level, however, statistics show that Chrome is the most-preferred browser. Its last six-month average is 43.53 per cent as against Safari’s 13. 52 per cent.

Internet Explorer and Firefox are third and fourth respectively. They are followed by UCWeb, Opera and IEMobile.

Do you know you can make call with Whatsapp without paying kobo?

You can do that with NEW UPDATE on Whatsapp Android Application.

There are three Taps available at the Whatsapp home page now- Calls, Chats and Contacts.
1) Click on Calls Tap
2) Click on �� at the Top-right on the screen and the list of availability contacts will be displayed (Only people using Android phone for now)
3) Click on the Contact you want to call and start enjoying free voice communication.

Note: They are neither removing Megabytes (Mb) nor credit for now. But TantoTECH don't know what might happen tomorrow.

Here's another high-speed 3D printer that creates objects in minutes

If Carbon3D's capability to print out objects 25 to 100 times faster than usual is the reason why you can't wait for it to come out, then you'll love this machine, as well. An Australian company has announced that it's also working on a super speedy 3D printer called Gizmo 3D. It creates objects out of liquid resin using a method that prints layers from the top to the bottom without breaks. This occurs within the vat of liquid resin itself: the build plate or the bottom of the vat was designed to slide downward, revealing more of the shape as its moves.

The process makes it look like items are being animated in real life instead of being printed out, as you can see in the video below. It takes the printer only 6 minutes to create an object that measures 5 inches x 3 inches using this technique. Gizmo 3D founder Kobus Toit is keeping the full details of his technology under wraps, though. He wants to wait until his Kickstarter campaign has launched in September to reveal the printer's secrets. When the device does land on the crowd funding website, you'll have to pony up at least $2,500 for the most basic model, or at least $6,000 for the fancier one.

Online petition urges Facebook to remove 'fat' emoji from status updates

A group of body-image activists are circulating an online petition that asks Facebook to remove a "feeling fat" status and emoji from status-update options.

The Change.org petition has amassed more than 14,000 signatures so far, and sparked a debate over whether the social network is promoting body-shaming.

"Feeling fat" currently appears as one of many preset options included in Facebook's drop down list of status updates. Endangered Bodies, the group behind the initiative, want the status and accompanying emoji removed because they believe it encourages body-shaming and "self-destructive thoughts."

"When Facebook users set their status to 'feeling fat,' they are making fun of people who consider themselves to be overweight, which can include many people with eating disorders," according to the petition. "That is not OK. Fat is not a feeling. Fat is a natural part of our bodies, no matter their weight. And all bodies deserve to be respected and cared for."

The two-week-old petition has 14,346 signatures as of this writing, just several hundred short of its 15,000 goal. On Twitter, the hash tag #fatisnotafeeling is also being used by people who are upset by the status option.

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable on Saturday that it offers more than 100 preset feelings based on user input:

People use Facebook to share their feelings with friends and support each other. One option we give people to express themselves is to add a feeling to their posts. You can choose from over 100 feelings we offer based on people’s input or create your own.

The social network provides resources to users who are concerned that a friend may have an eating disorder, in a dedicated help page on the topic. Facebook says it works with the National Eating Disorders Association to provide relevant information.

Instagram's new Layout app creates custom collages

Layout quickly combines multiple photos into a modern collage that you can share with ease.
Instagram wants you to forget all of those other collage apps. Today the company debuted Layout, a standalone app for iOS(Android's coming soon) that lets you create photo collages that you can then share to Instagram or Facebook. You don't even need an Instagram or Facebook account to use it.

Photo collages have already been a common sight on the Facebook-owned, photo-based social network, but you needed to employ an outside app, like Diptic or Photo Grid, to create them. Now Instagram is hoping to edge out those apps and the many others like them with Layout. So far, the app has a lot going for it up front, with a slick design and simple controls. The app also doesn't create any borders between the photos, like other collage apps do, which helps the collages you create with it feel more modern.

Within Layout, you'll see all of the photos in your camera roll, plus two categories for recent photos and faces, where you'll only see pictures of people. It's pretty neat that Layout can pick out photos with faces in them, even if it doesn't always get it perfect.

You select up to nine photos to create your collage, and as you pick photos, the app automatically plugs them into the 10 collage options available. From there, you can pick the layout you want and then tweak it as you wish.

You can move around photos into different spaces, drag the edges of each photo to change its shape or size, and move the photo around in the space to frame the part you want. You can also flip photos horizontally and mirror them to create different effects, like you see above. When you're satisfied with your creation, you can share it out and save it to your phone.

Layout is the second standalone app from Instagram, following Hyperlapse, which shoots time-lapse videos. That app was released in August 2014 for iOS and still hasn't made its way to Android.

Foldable displays from Samsung coming in 2016, LG in 2017

It has been reported in the past that Samsung has been working on a foldable display, and it looks like it’s on track for next year. In fact, some believe we might see them in tablet form by the end of this year.

Samsung isn’t the only company working on such displays as LG is too, but they are targeting 2017.

LG is also spending a considerable amount of resources on transparent displays. These types of display are already in use, but not at the consumer level. Unfortunately no target was set as to when we will see them come to market.

Kids learn to write by teaching robots

In pedagogical research, the concept of learning-by-teaching is a recognized and successful technique. The idea is that kids develop greater interest and confidence in a subject when they take on the role of the teacher and instruct someone else.

Researchers at EPFL in Switzerland have shuttled the concept into the robotic realm with their new CoWriter project, introduced this week at the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.

The system, still in prototype phase, uses tablet computers and friendly two-foot tall humanoid robots to help teach grade-school students how to write.

Instead of the robots instructing the kids, however, the kids instruct the robots — who are programmed with progressive writing algorithms that mimic human learning.

It's a kind of educational jujitsu move, of course, because the goal is to teach the kids without them even knowing it. The robots' writing is reproduced on a tablet computer, which the kids can then correct using a stylus. The 'bots draw from a vast database of handwriting samples that incorporate common errors for children in the specified learning range.

The CoWriter pilot program has been tested in primary school classrooms with children from six to eight years old, and also in a separate trial with a six-year-old student getting weekly one-hour teaching sessions.

The long-term objective is to provide an option for educators and parents to use the learning-by-teaching model with a robotic "student" who gradually improves and — perhaps more importantly — never gets tired.

"Essentially, the goal is to provide a tool for teachers that is given a new role in the classroom, that of a student who knows even less than the slowest student in the class," says study co-author Séverin Lemaignan on the EPFL project page.

Pros and Cons of Dell XPS 13 (2015)

Pros
•     Nearly bezel-less display allows it to be more compact than other 13-inchers
•     Vibrant screen, strong audio to match
•     Attractive design, well-built
•     Comfortable keyboard
•     Fast performance
•     Lots of configuration options

Cons
•    Merely average battery life, at least on the touchscreen model
•     Touchpad could use some fine-tuning
•     Doesn't come standard with a touchscreen -- and is expensive if you do opt for that feature

Summary
Other than an update to the touchpad, there's very little we would change about Dell's redesigned XPS 13: It's compact and well-built, with a gorgeous screen, fast performance and surprisingly good audio quality. You'll pay dearly to get it with a touchscreen, but even then, it's priced in line with other flagship Ultrabooks and in some ways it's a better choice, too.

Here's how you pay with an Apple Watch

Apple was quick to tout payment support on the Apple Watch, but how does it work, really? How easily could a thief go on a shopping spree with your timepiece? Don't worry about waiting until the launch to find out, as the company's Eddy Cue has spilled the beans on Apple Pay support a little early. He explains that you have to authenticate using either your fingerprint on the iPhone or a password on the Watch to start spending; after that, you can leave your phone in your pocket. That approval only works so long as the Apple Watch is still on your wrist, though, and you can even force the device to ask for a password every time (you know, in case someone hijacks your arm). In short, Apple, isn't taking any chances -- it wants you to trust that your wristwear is at least as secure as anything else you're carrying

Microsoft sues Kyocera over Android phone patents

Microsoft may be taking some steps to make nice with the Android world, but the company is still willing to pick fights when its royalty payments are at stake. The Windows maker has sued Kyocera in the US over claims that Android phones like the Brigadier and Hydro series violate seven patents on features like location tracking and messaging. While Microsoft says it's hoping things can be "resolved amicably," it's prepared to go nuclear if necessary -- it wants a ban on those phones if Kyocera doesn't cooperate. We've reached out to Kyocera to see how it's responding to the lawsuit. If history is any indication, though, it may be tempted to settle. Microsoft already has most Android manufacturers coughing up royalties, and Kyocera isn't an industry giant with loads of cash to fight back.