How to Replace Your Wallet With Your Phone

There's something liberating about walking around without your wallet. No giant clump of leather, plastic or fabric pressing itself against your thigh. No awkward outlines in your pocket. No shuffling and shifting in your seat just to retrieve it.That is, until you realize you've lost all your money, tickets, rewards cards and coupons.

While there isn't anything that will replace your driver's license or other government identification, there are a slew of apps that can effectively replace the rest of your wallet, streamlining your life and preserving your favorite pair of jeans.

Google Wallet

What it replaces: Cash, credit cards, loyalty cards and coupons

Launched in 2011 and available on iPhone and Android, Google Wallet gives you the ability to make purchases in stores and online, as well as withdraw cash from ATMs with your phone or a card.

By attaching your credit cards, debit cards and bank account to the platform, you can make direct payments with whichever sources you want through Google Wallet. You can also keep a balance on Google Wallet, and make direct transactions with legal adults in the United States with an email account.

Recently, Google rolled out a new instant buy feature for iOS, which had already been on Android for a year.

If your wallet is bursting with loyalty cards, Google Wallet will integrate those, too. Some brands like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have apps that already do this, which you can access through Google Wallet. For everything else, just scan the card, and it becomes a scannable bar code in the app.

And with Google Wallet, you'll never have to worry about coupon clutter: You can access offers from sites like Valpak and redeem the offers in-app.

Passbook

What it replaces: Travel and entertainment tickets, loyalty and rewards cards

"Wait, I thought you had the tickets!"

There are few worse feelings than the horror of getting to a venue and realizing you don't have what you need to get in. With Passbook, a native app for iPhone, you can store and scan almost any kind of ticket you need, whether it's a boarding pass for a flight or box seats for a baseball game.

Like Google Wallet, there's a wide variety of apps that work directly with your account and can be integrated with Passbook. For almost everything else, you can scan the ticket and present an electronic version when it's needed.

Venmo

What it replaces: Your credit and debit cards

Opened to the public in March 2012 and available for iPhone and Android, Venmo allows you to make direct transactions with your phone contacts. You can connect a credit or debit card to your account to make payments, and a Venmo balance will accrue from payments you receive from friends. You can also connect your bank account to your Venmo profile, which allows you to cash out your Venmo balance.

While Venmo doesn't let you purchase items like Google Wallet does, it's a useful tool for splitting checks and immediately reimbursing your friend when he spots you if you don't have any cash. And while it won't replace your wallet by itself, it will definitely reduce the hassle and risk of carrying around large amounts of legal tender.

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Source: Mashable

Microsoft acquires Nokia devices, services business.

Microsoft Corp has announced it has completed its acquisition of the Nokia Devices which allows the two companies to come together as one to deliver a family of devices and services that will delight consumers and empower businesses.

Already, the acquisition has been approved by Nokia shareholders and by governmental regulatory agencies around the world.

Accordingly, the completion of the acquisition marks the first step in bringing these two organizations together as one team.

As part of the transaction, Microsoft will honor all existing Nokia customer warranties for existing devices.

Reacting on the new development, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, said that, “Today we welcome the Nokia Devices and Services business to our family. The mobile capabilities and assets they bring will advance our transformation.

“Together with our partners, we remain focused on delivering innovation more rapidly in our mobile-first, cloud-first world.”

Reporting to Nadella is former Nokia President and CEO Stephen Elop, who will serve as executive vice president of the Microsoft Devices Group, overseeing an expanded devices business that includes Lumia smartphones and tablets, Nokia mobile phones, Xbox hardware, Surface, Perceptive Pixel (PPI) products and accessories.

Microsoft welcomes personnel with deep industry experience in more than 130 sites across 50 countries worldwide, including several factories that design, develop, manufacture, market and sell a broad portfolio of innovative smart devices, mobile phones and services.

Windows Phone is the fastest-growing ecosystem in the smartphone market, and its portfolio of award-winning devices continues to expand.

It would be recalled that in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to IDC, Windows Phone reinforced its position as a top three smartphone operating system and was the fastest-growing platform among the leading operating systems with 91 percent year-over-year gain.

With the Nokia mobile phone business, Microsoft will target the affordable mobile devices market, a $50 billion annual opportunity,2 delivering the first mobile experience to the next billion people while introducing Microsoft services to new customers around the world.

Microsoft will continue to deliver new value and opportunity, and it will work closely with a range of hardware partners, developers, operators, distributors and retailers, providing platforms, tools, applications and services that enable them to make exceptional devices.

With a deeper understanding of hardware and software working as one, the company will strengthen and grow demand for Windows devices overall.

Source: Vanguard

Samsung Galaxy S5 and New Gear Devices Now Available Globally

Samsung's new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, today goes on sale in 125 countries, including the U.S. It also becomes available in Europe, Middle East, Latin America and most markets in Asia.

The company's trio of fitness devices — Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit — also become available today.

Launched during this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is a powerful device, with a 5.1-inch screen, a quad-core, 2.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 16/32GB of storage and a 16-megapixel camera. It's waterproof and dustproof, and comes with a fingerprint scanner and a heart-rate monitor.

In the U.S., you can get it at every major carrier, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, for the price of $199 with a two-year contract.

The Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are the company's new, sleeker and lighter smartwatches, the biggest difference between the two being plastic (instead of metal) case and the lack of camera on the Neo. The Gear Fit is a smaller, leaner fitness wearable with a 1.85-inch Super AMOLED curved touchscreen. All three devices are water-resistant, and come with a heart-rate monitor.

Google Starts Scanning All Android Apps For Malware

Google is taking new steps to ensure Android users are protected from malware and other harmful apps.

The company announced Thursday it is expanding its app verification service to monitor all the apps on users' devices — including those downloaded from the Google Play Store.

Previously, when the Verify Apps service was enabled, only apps from third-party app stores were scanned, and only upon installation. Now Verify Apps will check every app before it is installed — and will regularly check that all of a user's installed apps are "behaving in a safe manner."

"Because potentially harmful applications are very rare, most people will never see a warning or any other indication that they have this additional layer of protection," said Android security engineer Rich Cannings in a blog post. "But we do expect a small number of people to see warnings (which look similar to the existing Verify apps warnings) as a result of this new capability."

Google's malware scanner for Android will now include apps downloaded from the Google Play Store.

IMAGE: GOOGLE

Google already has a system, codenamed "Bouncer," that analyzes each app uploaded to the Google Play Store for malware. But this service doesn't check apps from third-party stores or applications that have already been downloaded.

The Verify Apps setting, found under the security settings menu on most versions of Android, is enabled by default on Android smartphones and tablets.

What the Heartbleed bug is, and how you can protect yourself (and your servers)

Over the last couple of days, you may have heard about the rather ominous sounding Heartbleed bug — a bug that affected hundreds of millions of websites, exposing usernames, passwords, encryption keys, and other sensitive data. This bug went undiscovered for two years, meaning it’s highly likely that some of your data was exposed, and may have been scooped up by enterprising hackers — and unfortunately, given the nature of this bug, there’s almost nothing you can do about it. As of this morning, despite the frenzied installation of security patches, a huge number of sites are still affected by the bug, and they will likely remain so for months to come. Read on to find out more about Heartbleed, and what you can do to protect yourself.

What is the Heartbleed bug?

Heartbleed is a bug in OpenSSL’s implementation of the SSL/TLS protocol. OpenSSL is an open source library that manages secure, encrypted communications for the majority of online web servers. If the server supports encrypted communications — i.e. it accepts addresses that start with https:// — then there’s a good chance that it’s vulnerable to Heartbleed. You can use the Heartbleed test website to see if a site is vulnerable to the exploit.

I won’t get into the technical details of what caused the Heartbleed bug in the first place — the Heartbleed website has all the info you might need — but I’ll tell you roughly how it works and what data it exposes. Heartbleed, official designation CVE-2014-0160, is a bug in OpenSSL’s heartbeat extension. It isn’t important to know what this extension does, only that it was poorly coded (in coder speak, it lacked bounds checking). This bug can be exploited by a hacker to read blocks of 64KB from the server’s RAM. The hacker can only grab one 64KB block at a time, but he can keep going back for more until he’s gathered all the data he needs.

With access to the server’s memory, the jig is up. Passwords, security certificates (encryption keys), other sensitive details — they’re all stored in memory, and they’ve all been exposed for the last two years thanks to OpenSSL’s Heartbleed bug.

Yahoo was vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug, but has now been fixed

How to protect yourself/your servers from Heartbleed

If you’re a server admin: The Heartbleed bug has been patched in version 1.0.1g of OpenSSL. If the updated package isn’t available for your distro yet, the compile-time option of -DOPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS will also mitigate against the bug.

If you’re a web surfer: The short and rather unpleasant answer is, there isn’t much you can do to protect yourself from Heartbleed. If a website requires you to log in (to post a comment, to check your email) there is a good chance that hackers have had two years to glean your password from the server’s memory. The bug is exacerbated by the fact that it leaves no trace in log files, so there’s no way of telling if a password or encryption key has been exposed.

It sounds dramatic, but a bug of this magnitude basically necessitates that almost everyone on the internet changes their passwords. There is a very high chance that your name and password is currently sitting on a server that is vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug. If you’re a server admin, you really need to issue new security certificates for any affected domains.

Before you go and change your passwords, though, bear this in mind: Until all of your websites have updated to a secure version of OpenSSL, you’re still vulnerable. How long will it take for the entire web is using a secure version of OpenSSL? Larger websites should be fairly quick to react to an exploit of this magnitude. By the end of the week, I would be surprised if there are any big web services that are still vulnerable.

As always though with security vulnerabilities, though, it isn’t the big sites you need to worry about: It’s the forums and smaller e-commerce sites that don’t have dedicated administrators that will probably be vulnerable for months or years to come. These smaller sites are notorious for running software that is months or years out of date, because no one can be bothered (or knows how to) perform the requisite updates. If you know someone who runs a smaller website or forum, send them a link to this story or to the Heartbleed bug website. Tell them that they really need to update to the latest version of OpenSSL.

The Heartbleed bug will cause ripples for years to come — and in the short term, possibly a tsunami of high-profile hacks as well, unless big websites move very quickly indeed. Following the bug’s public disclosure on April 7, there has already been a marked increase in the number of users reporting hijacked accounts. If a hacker manages to obtain the security certificates for a high-profile target, like a bank or government — which is a very likely possibility — there’s almost no limit to the amount of damage that could be done.All because of a sloppy bit of coding by the OpenSSL team.

The downside of smart phones

The Nokia 3310 was the highpoint of digital technology in 2000. There were quite a number of reasons for this, but one stood out-it was a mobile phone. It was the dawn of the GSM revolution in Nigeria, and it was a status symbol to have any mobile phone at all. Fourteen years down the line, things have changed radically. The Nokia 3310 and its counterparts have been replaced by the smart phone movement; phones that don’t just do everything, but let you do everything. Despite their mega popularity, smart phones do have a downside. Here are some reasons why:

•Cost

Topping the list of smart phone disadvantages is the sky rocketing price tags. Even the cheapest smart phones are not a walk in the park. And the best of them could pay some rents for a year. Despite our love for technology, for a nation that has 60% of its citizens living below poverty line, it is no wonder that quite a number of people would think twice about purchasing a smart phone

•Distractions

Before the GSM revolution, calls were mostly scheduled. As mobile phones became more common place, calls were shorter because of high tariffs. But with smart phones, there is a beep nearly every second of the day; pings, emails, whatsapp messages, alarms, skype requests…the list goes on and on. Now, more than ever before, technology is helping people with their daily activities. But on the other hand, never in human history have so large a number of people been so easily distracted from their daily lives because of technology.

•Security

There is practically nothing you can’t do on your smart phone. This should be a good thing right? Well, not always. A stolen smart phone could mean that someone else has access to your bank accounts, personal notes, business ideas, etc. Another issue of insecurity when it comes to smart phones is their propensity to attract thieves.

•Ruggedness

There aren’t many smart phones that can fall to the ground and resurrect without incidence. Painfully, many Nigerians go about with broken screens from fragile phones.

FG begins open data initiative

In an effort to support Federal Government’s objective of driving innovation, investment and economic growth by enabling access to government data, the Ministry of Communication Technology yesterday kicked off the Open Data Development Initiative
The Initiative is a consultative and inclusive process that will open up high value datasets from across government ministries to Nigerian citizens, businesses and the rest of the world, for free.

The commencement of the process makes Nigeria the world’s first federal Open Data initiative to simultaneously launch inclusive and continuing consultations with both government and nongovernment communities on their Open Data priorities to develop the country’s national Open Data implementation plan.

The Nigeria Federal Open Data Initiative, supported by the World Bank and DFID aims to highlight the potential efficiency, innovations and public value that can be achieved when government uses technology to open its data Over 50 countries have launched federal-level Open Data initiatives. The impact on economic growth can be transformative; an analysis by global consulting firm McKinsey indicates that Open Data generates more than $3 trillion of new economic value for the U.S. economy alone. Also the weather data of the US is worth $30b annually, while the total worth of Global Positioning System GPS data is worth $90b.

In her opening remarks, the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnso said that, ‘’Data is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of our life. When analysed and presented in an intelligent format, data is essential to making informed decisions that produce value. The essence of publishing non-sensitive government data online is to deliver value-adding insights that benefit citizens.

‘’ We would like to ensure that our Open Data initiative is driven by demand. We will be guided by the practical needs of Nigerians to ensure that Open Data fuels innovation and grows the Nigerian economy” .

The launch of the Open Data Initiative heralded by an Open Data Stakeholder Engagement Workshop brought together more than 120 representatives from across MDAs, and the private and nonprofit sectors to identify priorities and actions to inform the implementation of the Nigeria Federal Open Data.

The Workshop is designed to explore the role of Open Data in organizational innovation; highlight the public value that can be created by opening government data, as well as challenges and mitigation strategies associated with these efforts; discussing best practices and lessons learned in opening up government data from across regions, through the lens of the Nigerian context and enable data user communities (including MDAs, citizens, and businesses) to identify valuable datasets that can drive innovation, investment and job creation.

‘’ We would like to ensure that our Open Data initiative is driven by demand. We will be guided by the practical needs of Nigerians to ensure that Open Data fuels innovation and grows the Nigerian economy” .

The launch of the Open Data Initiative heralded by an Open Data Stakeholder Engagement Workshop brought together more than 120 representatives from across MDAs, and the private and nonprofit sectors to identify priorities and actions to inform the implementation of the Nigeria Federal Open Data.

Source: Vanguard

Microsoft appoints Satya Nadella as new CEO

Microsoft Corp, Tuesday,  announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Satya Nadella as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors effective immediately.

This is even Bill Gates steps up to new role as Technology Advisor as John Thompson assumes role as Chairman of Board of Directors.

Before now, Nadella previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.

Responding to the new appointment, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s Founder and Member of the Board of Directors said that, “During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella.

“Satya is a proven leader with hard-core engineering skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together. His vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth.”

Since joining the company in 1992, Nadella has spearheaded major strategy and technical shifts across the company’s portfolio of products and services, most notably the company’s move to the cloud and the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world supporting Bing, Xbox, Office and other services.

During his tenure overseeing Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business, the division outperformed the market and took share from competitors.

Reacting with excitement to the new appointment, Nadella admitted that Microsoft is one of those rare companies to have truly revolutionized the world through technology, adding that he could not be more honored to have been chosen to lead the company.

Nadella said. “The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.”

For Steve Ballmer, who announced on Aug. 23, 2013 that he would retire once a successor was named,

“Having worked with him for more than 20 years, I know that Satya is the right leader at the right time for Microsoft,” “I’ve had the distinct privilege of working with the most talented employees and senior leadership team in the industry, and I know their passion and hunger for greatness will only grow stronger under Satya’s leadership.”

John Thompson, lead independent director for the Board of Directors, will assume the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors and remain an independent director on the Board.

“Satya is clearly the best person to lead Microsoft, and he has the unanimous support of our Board,” Thompson said. “The Board took the thoughtful approach that our shareholders, customers, partners and employees expected and deserved.”

5 African start-ups to get grants from Microsoft 4Africa

Committed to helping Africa improve its global competitiveness, the software giant, Microsoft Corp. has said that five African startups from Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya will get innovation grants designed to provide the financial support needed to cross borders and empower the next generation of developers and entrepreneurs in Africa.

Microsoft 4Africa initiative is expected place tens of millions of smart devices in the hands of African youth, bring 1 million African small and medium-sized enterprises online, upskill 100,000 members of Africa’s workforce, and help an additional 100,000 recent graduates develop skills for employability, 75 percent of whom Microsoft will help place in jobs.

Accordingly, the grant, Microsoft said is part of the company’s 4Afrika Initiative, which was launched in February 2013 to facilitate the company’s active engagement in Africa’s economic development to improve its global competitiveness.

It would be recalled that last year , Microsoft 4Afrika had extended the Microsoft Ventures partnership program to Africa, with startup accelerator 88mph as its first partner.

Through the 4Afrika Initiative, Microsoft is now extending its support to include grants to startups, selecting five startups as the first set of recipients.

The startups, Microsoft said were selected based on the uniqueness and scalability of their solutions, their business models and the relevance of the key problems they are addressing. The solutions and apps developed by the startups are relevant to consumers and the African market, ranging from agriculture, education and consumer (gaming).

The startups that will receive funding will include:

• access.mobile LLC (Uganda) : A solution with a key focus in the agriculture and healthcare industries, giving enterprises the ability to collect, analyze and share clear, real-time information about their operations and supply chain activity.

• Africa 118 (Kenya): A mobile directory services solution that helps bridge the information gap both for enterprises and consumers.

• Gamsole (Nigeria): A mobile game production company creating Windows games, with downloads topping more than 4 million.

• Kytabu (Kenya) :A textbook leasing application for low-cost tablets. Students can save more than 60 percent of their education cost by renting their textbooks on an hourly, weekly, monthly, school term or annual plan.

• Save & Buy (Nigeria): A Web and mobile platform that enables Nigerians to save toward the purchase of items conveniently and securely through e-commerce channels.

In addition to grants, Microsoft will provide technical support and mentorship to help these startups develop their businesses through the company’s Center of Expertise.

This group of Microsoft technology enthusiasts focuses on using Microsoft tools and technologies to solve business problems.

The 4Afrika Initiative aims to help startups break through barriers and reach new heights with the help of Microsoft’s data platform solutions, unified communications, optimized desktops and enterprise project management.

Responding to the capacity building program, Amrote Abdella, director of startup engagement and Partnerships for 4Afrika, aid that, “As part of the 4Afrika initiative, we are excited to be supporting startups that have developed innovative solutions that address key issues in Africa,

. “Our support is aimed to showcase the importance of local innovation, but, more important, it highlights the great potential that African innovators have in competing with world-class developers and entrepreneurs.”

Similarly, Abiola Olaniran, CEO of Gamsole, which has already developed some of the most popular Windows Phone games in Africa, said, “The Microsoft 4Afrika innovation grant provides a great support as it helps entrepreneurs to further bootstrap their companies without giving up equity or control. It allows us to not miss out on the kind of fast growth that only major cash infusion can provide.”

“A critical success factor in driving the economic success of entrepreneurs in Africa is access to capital together with a solid incubation foundation. Microsoft 4Afrika is partnering with local organizations in creating opportunities for ‘smart capital’ to be available to our young innovators,” Fernando de Sousa, general manager for Microsoft 4Afrika, said adding that, “Smart capital combines access to finance, technical skills development, business mentoring, sharing of global best practices and access to markets with the infrastructure provided by local partners to enable world-class companies to emerge from Africa.”

Source: vanguard

Five habits of Nigerian mobile users

If there’s any country that has experienced the digital revolution in its entirety, it is Nigeria. The GSM boom from 2001 changed the face of technology. But it didn’t end there; it birthed a new culture for the Nigerian people, creating funny habits, language and traditions. Perhaps it might be imperative to give insight on some of them.

Multiple lines, multiple phones: This is always blamed on poor telecomm services. But it has more to do with new styles and tastes that technology has ushered in. 63 % of Nigerian phone users have more than one line. Little wonder the porting phenomenon has not been well received. The use of multiple lines has also made dual-sim phones a hit in the Nigerian market.

Flashing: Nigerians, no matter how wealthy, are ever on the look-out for cheaper ways to do things. This has ushered in a culture widely known in Nigeria as flashing. Flashing is the art of beeping a receiver with the intention of getting him to call back. Some users have so mastered the use of flashing, that it is impossible for any receiver to pick their calls even for a split second. Depending on the situation, a flash could mean: “call me back I don’t have credit,” “wake up, it’s time to go,” “have you checked the beans on the fire,” “I just wanted to say hi” etc.

Mr. Fix it: Nearly every Nigerian has become a self-appointed engineer. If a Nigerian’s phone freezes, he takes out the battery and reboots. If it falls into water, he dries it out under the sun. If the speaker is faulty, he turns it to the back. If the keypad is faulty, he uses cellotape.

Show offs and trend setters: For many mobile users in Nigeria, the slogan is: If it’s new in the mobile market, then we’ve got it! Forget third world, we spend just as much on mobile technology as the so called developed economies. And if we’ve got it, we’ll show it off; to our friends, to our enemies, to strangers and to everyone else.  It doesn’t matter whether the tablet is more expensive than the clothes on our back, or we can’t afford to load that expensive phone with credit, we’d set the trend and get the gadget.

How we pick foreign calls: The typical Nigerian has two standard behaviours when he is about to receive an international call from a number he doesn’t recognize. Firstly, he lets the person on the other end of the line speak first. He lets the person introduce himself to be sure that he isn’t about to be conned. Once he’s sure that the coast is clear, he changes his accent immediately to suit the caller

Source: Vanguard