INEC goes Satellite on constituency delineation

THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC says it has concluded plans to adopt satellite services in the proposed review of the electoral boundaries and constituencies in the country.

Chairman of INEC, Prof Attahiru Jega disclosed this when he paid a courtesy visit to the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASDRA in Abuja.

Jega who expressed satisfaction with the quality of facility at NASDRE and the capacity of the personnel, said that the review of the country’s electoral constituencies is long overdue as they were developed in 1996 based on the 1991 census.

He said that the 1999 constitution empowers INEC to review the division of states into senatorial districts, federal constituencies, state  constituencies and FCT electoral wards, at intervals of not less than 10  years.

He however, stressed the need for the review of the existing electoral constituencies in order to ensure more equity in political representation, warning that if electoral boundaries are not adjusted periodically, it could lead to mal-apportionments.

He however, urged NARSDRA to partner with INEC to actualize the project through the use of satellite services, by getting high resolution  imagery covering the entire nation as at 2012 in hard and soft copies.

“We will therefore want NASDRA to help us in getting high resolution imagery covering the entire nation as at 2012 in hard and soft copies. We also want imagery showing new settlements in Nigeria by states in hard and  soft copies. Also, we will need imagery of population density in Nigeria in hard and soft copies.

“INEC will like to have locality list of Nigeria in hard and soft copies as well as street maps of Nigeria in hard and soft copies.”

New Tab-Book comes tablet, PC in one package

If detaching your tab from the keyboard which is one of the wave making innovations recently will deprive you of your cherished Qwerty typing experience, there is no need to be sad.

As long as technology is dynamic and the Nigerian market is gradually becoming choice destination to wonderful innovations across the world, there must be an alternative.

You may not even wait long for the miracle to happen. This is as LG electronics has already chosen a smart way to re- enter the computer market, introducing the Tab-Books models H160 and Z160.

The new Tablet-Notebook hybrid cleverly combines the light weight and mobile capabilities of a tablet with the comfort and functionality of a full QWERTY keyboard in one product. The Tab-Book boasts of a physical one-touch slide-out keyboard that emerges from underneath its 11.6-inch multi-touch screen. With the keyboard extended, the screen rests at a 40 degree angle, optimal for both typing and touch computing.

No wonder, General Manager, Media division, LG Electronics West Africa operations, Mr. Jae Sang Lee boasted: “Together, these devices represent our latest steps forward in the PC segment”. While the Tab-Books offer full QWERTY keyboards, mobile functionality and all the benefits of  exceptional IPS picture quality, the Ultrabook lineup combines incredible computing power, good looks and maximum portability. These two products are exceptionally versatile, particularly suitable for today’s on-the-go consumers.”

Across the world, the demand for tablets and notebook PCs grows from strength to strength, with many consumers finding them simple and elegant for doing business while on the go. In Nigeria, too, these devices are becoming worthy companions considering the number of upwardly-mobile professionals as well as tech-savvy individuals, going for them.

It could be why LG’s Product Manager, Information technology for West Africa Operations, Mr. Sunny Bangera noted that “LG’s new hybrid PC devices offer a stylish, industry leading light weight alternative and meticulously constructed with features that reinforce greater stability and longevity.

Google has a new Tablet,new connection to tv

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Google on Wednesday unveiled a slimmer, more powerful tablet computer on its Nexus brand and a thumb-sized device that lets popular mobile gadgets feed online content wirelessly to television sets.

The ramped-up second-generation Nexus 7 by Taiwan-based Asus made its debut along with a Chromecast dongle that plugs into television sets to let people easily route online content to big screens.

Mario Queiroz, head of Google TV, said Chromecast “won’t clutter your entertainment cabinet. It simply disappears behind your TV once it is plugged in.”

The new connector device went on sale for $35 online at Google play and will also be sold through Amazon and Best Buy in the United States.

“Cast” icons built into applications for online video services YouTube and Netflix let people use smartphones, tablets or laptop computers to easily direct online videos to television screens, a demonstration showed.

‘If you know how to use YouTube on your phone, you know how to use YouTube on your TV,” Queiroz said while describing the vision behind Chromecast.

“Any device in your home can become a remote control for the television.”

Google also made available a software kit for developers to synch mobile apps with Chromecast. Online radio streaming service Pandora is among those with Cast application features “in the works,” according to Google.

Google is also working to let people “cast” online content from Chrome web browsers to televisions.

Content fed to televisions is delivered directly through home Internet connections, with smartphones, tablets or laptops serving essentially as remote controls, according to Queiroz.

“We are paving the way for more apps to come,” he continued. “Over time, we expect the technology to be embedded in a range of devices from our partners.”

The Nexus 7 ramps up Google’s challenge to Apple’s iPad with a slimmer tablet to be easily slipped into a pocket or handbag and allow easy access to rich online content or services.

Nexus 7 is about two millimeters thinner and slightly narrower than its predecessor, which was released a year ago.

“It actually makes a huge difference when holding it in one hand; it fits more easily in a purse or jacket,” Android vice president Hugo Barra said after pulling a new Nexus 7 from a rear pocket of his pants.

Nexus 7 has a high-definition screen and speakers that allow for virtual surround sound listening of films, games, or music.

Nexus tablets will be available in three models, all with seven-inch high-resolution screens. Two Nexus 7 models will connect to the internet just using Wi-Fi, while one will be synched to US high-speed telecom carrier networks.

Nexus 7 prices will start at $229 and top out at $349 in the US market.

Wi-Fi only versions will go on sale in the United States on July 30, with Nexus 7 tablets to be released in France, Australia, Britain, South Korean and a few other countries in “coming weeks.”

Nexus 7 will be the first tablet powered by a new 4.3 version of the Android “Jelly Bean” mobile operating system.

“We from the Android team are investing a lot in tablets,” said Sundar Pichai, who heads the Android and Chrome teams at Google.

“By our count, almost one in two tablets sold worldwide is based on Android.”

More than 70 million tablets powered by Google’s Android software have been activated worldwide, according to Pichai.

Prices are falling for most tablets as sales surge, with many analysts expecting tablets to outpace PC sales soon. ablet shipments are expected to grow 67.9 percent to 202 million units this year, according to a Gartner report.

Made in Nigeria car dream still alive says "NAC"

The country’s dream of assembling and patronising its own cars is still alive, says National Automotive Council, NAC.

NAC Director-General, Mr. Aminu Jalal, said the country must not give up on the pursuit of its automotive agenda.

To ensure that the dream is kept alive, Jalal said the Council has set aside the sum of N3.5billion as seed money for a fund to be accessed at single digit interest rate to those who purchase locally assembled vehicles, all in the effort to encourage Nigerians to buy made-in-Nigeria vehicles.

He said the implication of killing the dream of Nigerian made car means that the country will continue to fund jobs projects abroad to the tune of over $3.5billion annually at the expense of its teeming masses of unemployed and the existing huge investment in manufacturing and assembly.

“The Nigerian market, estimated at N600 billion annually is sufficient to sustain a local automotive industry if the investment environment is right. The automotive technology is over a hundred years old and no one needs to reinvent the wheel” 

He lamented that about 50,000 new and 150,000 used vehicles were imported into Nigeria yearly.

Nigerians spend an average of N400 billion on importing passengers’ cars and by the time you add trucks and other vehicles, the amount Nigerians spend on imported vehicles will be running to N600billion annually, adding that the money can be plowed into the country’s automotive industry.

“Apart from the existing Assembly plants with a combined capacity of nearly 100,000 vehicles per annum, there exist numerous automotive body building facilities with impressive capacities”.

NAC he said remains relevant because the industry is strategic and its activities must be integrated to be meaningful. It is essential that an agency is in place to plan, coordinate and provide common infrastructure just as he adviced government on appropriate policy intervention. This is the practice in all countries that similarly aspires.

“Nigerians have mastered the act of vehicle assembly and even the production of a long list of automotive components and parts including all automotive glass, brake pads, all light and reinforced plastic parts, Seats, exhausts systems, fuel, air and oil Filters, some pressed parts, wire harnesses, tyres, batteries, cables, trim etc”.

An entirely green plant, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Limited, IVM, supported by NAC in Nnewi, is recorded to have produced over 2,000 pickups vans buses in only three (3) years of its existence. The IVMs are what you would call a Nigerian brand as they are named after the Chairman and Chief executive –INNOSON. IVMs have very high local content and the company continues to pursue this program vigorously with the support of NAC. The Council has extended support to over 20 component manufacturers including Dunlop which received over N1.4 billion to establish its Radial Steel Truck tyres, although the lowering of import duty on truck tyres in 2005 crippled the tyre industry.

Several motorcycle plants and indeed the first Motorcycle Tyre manufacturing plant in Nigeria have received NAC support. The Nigerian Automotive Manufacturers Association, NAMA, the Automotive Local Content Manufacturers Association, ALCMAN, the auto sector of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, can all attest to this.

Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41-megapixel camera confirmed ahead of Today's launch

Just a few days before its expected launch on Thursday in New York, images from Nokia’s 41-megapixel PureView Windows Phone smartphone have leaked — and they’re phenomenal. Furthermore, after a slew of case and chassis leaks, and some speculation about the phone’s name, the same leak confirms that the 41-megapixel phone will be called the Nokia Lumia 1020.

This information stems from the Flickr account of Joe Belfiore , the manager of Microsoft’s Windows Phone division. Hidden amongst hundreds of photos shot with a Sony DSC-RX100, there are two photos taken by a Lumia 1020 — the photo above, and the photo below . Take a moment to appreciate just how awesome the quality of the first photo is. Prior to Belfiore’s uploads, it wasn’t clear if the phone — code named the Lumia EOS — would be called the Lumia 909 or 1020. It’s possible that Belfiore has pulled the wool over our eyes by altering the photo’s EXIF data before uploading to Flickr, but highly unlikely.

Ever since the release of the 808 PureView, a stillborn Symbian-powered smartphone that produced stunning photos (below), Nokia has teased us with the eventual release of a Window Phone with the same 41MP sensor. While the Lumia 1020 will be equipped with a 41-megapixel sensor, it will capture photos using just 31MP when shooting 16:9 photos (7728×4354), or 38MP at 4:3 (7152×5368). Realistically, though, due to prohibitive file sizes, you won’t use either of these resolutions: Instead, the Lumia 1020 will come with the option of shooting oversampled images. With oversampling, clusters of  pixels are averaged/combined to create a high-fidelity, but lower-resolution (~5MP) images. In the two photos above, their resolutions are only 4- and 5-megapixels respectively — but as you can see, the image quality is far superior to a normal 5MP smartphone camera sensor.

Oversampling is only part of the story, of course — as you can see from the rather sizable bulge in the back of the leaked Lumia 1020 chassis, the sensor itself, and the accompanying Carl Zeiss lens, are big. When it comes to sensors, the size of the individual photosites really does matter. There is a reason that digital cameras with APS-C sensors, such as Canon and Nikon DSLRs, are capable of shooting such high-quality and low-noise photos — and why 35mm (full-frame) DSLRs are even better than that.

There’s no word on pricing, but we’d expect the Lumia 1020 to be similar to the Lumia 920 — perhaps with a slightly lower-spec screen or SoC, to keep profit margins high. Alternatively, the 1020 could become Nokia’s new flagship, and be priced accordingly — but considering how fat and heavy this thing is likely to be, that’s unlikely. The Lumia 1020 will almost certainly come with the same Amber software update that shipped with the Lumia 925 — and using all of those awesome Smart Camera features with a 41-megapixel sensor sounds very exciting indeed.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? NOKIA IS REALLY COMING OUT WITH A BIG BANG.......THUMPS UP NOKIA LUMIA

‘With technology, Nigeria can feed Africa’

Founder and Chairman of Econet Wireless, Mr. Strive Masiyiwa  has said that Nigeria can feed the rest of Africa if the country will muster the courage to replicate the uncommon revolution of  telecommunication in the agricultural sector.

Mr. Masiyiwa made the assertion Monday at the Centenary summit of the Rockefeller Foundation tagged ‘‘ Realizing the Potential of African Agriculture’’, held  in Abuja.

He said that Nigeria had experienced uncommon revolution in the telecom sector since 2001 and has become a reference point to the rest of the world.

He then canvassed for a repeat of that transformation in the nation’s agricultural sector, using technology’s enabling tools, which he said are capable of making Nigeria a major exporter of food to other countries of the world.

‘‘Since 2001, when Nigeria issued the first telecom license, there has been a revolution here in the telecom sector.  Why can’t Nigeria do the same in the agriculture sector to transform it? F or me, agriculture is now a business. So, Nigeria can do what it did to telecoms in the agric sector, to redirect the focus for economic growth.

‘‘Nigeria, big as it is, has to be the pilot of Africa and be the solution to Africa’s food needs. We believe that it is going to be done by the small scale farmers and youths with the enabling technology. It requires a paradigm shift from old people to young people, who will focus on agro business, processing and manufacturing,’’ he stated.

Earlier, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina said Nigeria was selected to host the celebration because of the long history she has with the foundation, since the 1960s.

With the introduction of Electronic Wallet  for fertilizer distribution in Nigeria, the minister said that the Federal Government had ended corruption in fertilizer distribution which lasted for over 40 years and reached over 1.5 million farmers in one year.

He said that plans were on to reach 10 million more farmers in 2013. The aim, according to him, is too make Nigeria self sufficient in food production by 2015.

‘’We shall use mobile phone to connect our centres of research and learning to farmers. We will acquire soil kits and distribute them to farmers. Under our strategy, we shall create a new career of extension system as a replacement to the old order.

Google Brings Voice Calling Back to Gmail, Now Under Hangouts

Gmail users who upgraded Google Talk to Hangouts back in May were up in arms after discovering that doing so removed the ability to make voice calls. Google addressed this issue on Tuesday after it finally introduced voice calls to Hangouts.

"For those of you who have taken the plunge and are using desktop Hangouts in Gmail, Google+ and the Chrome extension, we've heard loud and clear that you miss the ability to make calls from Gmail, so today, we're happy to announce it's back," Alex Wiesen, a senior software engineer, wrote in a blog post.

Citing new features such as adding multiple phone numbers and video participants to the same call, as well as playing sound effects with the Google Effect app, Wiesen said the newly dubbed "Hangouts calling" is "better than before." He added that calls to the U.S. and Canada are free from countries where Hangouts calling is available, while international rates are reasonably priced.

To make a call, users must click the phone icon in Gmail, and the "Call a phone" menu item in Google+ and the Chrome extension. Those who don't yet have Hangouts in Gmail — but want to try it — must click on their profile photo in the chat list, and select "Try the new Hangouts."

Making calls from Hangouts will roll out over the next few days.
Are you excited that voice calling is back in Gmail?

Google Glass Add its First Website Browser

Google finally added a website browser to Google Glass. The company announced a few new updates to its high-tech specs on Monday, making it easier to find new content and communicate hands-free.

"We've been exploring ways to let you quickly dive deeper and get exactly the information you need, right when you need it," the company wrote in a Google+ post "To test it out, search for something and then tap on the 'View website' screen to bring up the web page."

When a user is on a webpage, different commands on Google Glass' touchpad will mimic a mouse's movements on a laptop or a finger's movements on a touchscreen. For example, to scroll down a webpage, a user must slide his finger forward on the touchpad.

To zoom, slide two fingers forward or backward. Hold two fingers down on the touchpad and move your head around to pan; as you look around, tap to select the center of the screen.

The company wrote that it is also ramping up efforts to help users better communicate hands-free with others. Now, you can ask Glass to read text messages aloud or use voice commands to write and send responses.

Google added that the updates will automatically be pushed to Glass in the upcoming days.

Google updated Map for Android

Google has updated Maps for Android, adding several new features, including a new design for the app.

The new version — for both smartphones and tablets — got a cleaner interface that's similar to that of the app's iPhone version, which launched last December.

Other features include enhanced navigation with live traffic updates, incident reports and traffic rerouting. Finally, Explore offers a new way to browse and discover popular local points of interests.

The app is expected to roll out to Android 4.0.3+ devices over the next few weeks