How we communicate via messaging apps like WhatsApp is constantly changing; with a recent development allowing users to share photos and videos that disappear from message threads after they have been viewed. But still, many of us can be left confused or in a state of anxiety over what some small ticks in the app actually mean. Since the invention of the dreaded ‘read’ or ‘seen’ notifications on the Facebook-owned platform; you have probably doubted yourself so many times on your knowledge of the tick system. Have they read? Have they ignored it? Should you send a prodding question mark?…
Author: Abiodun A.
Aminu Yar’Adua, 36, the son of the deceased former President Musa Yar’Adua, has been remanded in prison for allegedly killing four people in an auto crash. The incident occurred in Yola, Adamawa State. It was reported that Yar’Adua was remanded in prison by a Magistrate Court in Yola on Thursday. Yar’Adua, a student of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) Yola, was charged to court for allegedly causing death by dangerous driving on June 23, 2021. According to the Police First Information Report (FIR) tendered in court by the prosecutor, Insp. Zakka Musa; the accused had crushed six people…
A woman has filed a criminal complaint against New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, accusing him of sexual misconduct. The woman alleged that Cuomo reached under her shirt and groped her breasts. Equally important, the woman is the first to file a criminal complaint among 11 women who have accused the politician of sexual misconduct. This was disclosed by an aide to the New York Governor. The New York Post reports that the criminal complaint was filed on Thursday with the sheriff’s office in Albany County. Sheriff Craig Apple told the medium that he contacted the Albany County district attorney’s office,…
On Monday morning, during a live BBC news broadcast; journalist Yalda Hakim was interrupted by a phone call from a Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen. Shaheen sought to reassure Hakim and British viewers watching at home that; the people of Kabul were safe and that the Taliban wouldn’t seek revenge after recapturing the Afghan capital for the first time in 20 years. Shaheen isn’t just calling Western journalists live on air. He is also one of a handful of Taliban representatives on Twitter; making announcements to hundreds of thousands of followers about the intentions of the organization; which in recent weeks…
Samsung has confirmed that it will stop showing ads in default apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme. It follows comments made by its mobile chief TM Roh in an internal town hall meeting reported by Yonhap. “Samsung has made a decision to cease the advertisement on proprietary apps including Samsung Weather; Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme,” the company said in a statement given to The Verge. “The update will be ready by later this year.” “Our priority is to deliver innovative mobile experiences for our consumers based on their needs and wants;” the company said. “We value…
Apple recently announced that it will roll out an update later in the year (in the US); that will help curb child sexual abuse. However, the feature hasn’t been very well received since Apple said it would scan everyone’s iPhone for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). After the backlash; Apple revealed details about how the new iPhone child sex abuse system works. According to the company, a user’s content will be scanned when it is uploaded from an iPhone or iPad to iCloud. Here’s how Apple will scan iPhones for child sex abuse photos. Apple will assign each image “hash…
Google has taken the wraps off the latest of its Xa series accessibly priced smartphones. The new Pixel 5a with 5G (there is no 4G version) can be checked out on Google’s US devices site; but no official product page was available for UK dwellers at the time of writing. If you do live state-side you can pre-order the new Google Pixel 5a today for $449 or $18.71pcm for 24 months. It probably won’t be disputed that the Pixel 4a 5G was well regarded in general for the price. It might have lacked some bells and whistles of Chinese challengers…
Qualcomm is showing off the type of drones that could wind up being built on its dedicated Flight RB5 5G platform. The chip-maker has released a new reference design that contains all the latest connectivity and processing tech it has been talking up since last summer. That’s the exoskeleton above, which is equipped with a Qualcomm Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor that can capture 200 megapixel photos and 8K video at 30 FPS. In addition, the drone can record in 4K at 120 FPS with support for HDR. At its core, the Flight RB5 5G platform uses the QRB5165 processor…
Tinder has confirmed that it will be making ID verification available to its users on a voluntary basis as it aims to boost safety across the platform and reassure its users. Verification of identity is something of an internet hot potato. On one hand you have many calling for more mandated verification of ID; on the other, the argument that verification can put people at risk and would deter those speaking out against real world harms. Tinder has made it clear that verification of identity on the platform will be voluntary; unless it’s mandated by law in a particular region…
Five children and an adult were taken to hospital with injuries after a Tesla Inc Model 3 crashed in a school car park in southern England on Monday; the Telegraph newspaper said. At least one person was said to have been pinned under the electric car in the car park in Sussex; the report said bit.ly/3sp9TtL, also adding that the exact number was not clear. The National Health Service’s South East Coast Ambulance Service said bit.ly/37L1xDq one person was in critical condition and three had potentially serious injuries. It was not known if there was a driver behind the wheel…
Microsoft had released Windows 11 for its testers with a refreshed design. Windows 11 comes with rounded corners, a centred taskbar, new widgets and more. The OS is moving towards being more like the Apple macOS in terms of look and feel. While the widgets have been around for a while, they are now accessible directly from the taskbar. Now, Microsoft has updated several of its apps. There is a new Snipping Tool that gets features from Microsoft’s Snip & Sketch app. If you press the “Win,” “Shift” and “S” keys on your keyboard simultaneously, you will activate the software…
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. It was the third most downloaded social media app on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It was also the most downloaded overall non-gaming app in the world in the month of July 2021, as per a Sensor Tower report. This Facebook-owned platform is extremely popular among users for displaying their clicked images and is used extensively by creators and companies for showcasing their work. While it is fun to surf through these images, it can get annoying sometimes; especially when a friend shares images…
Alphabet’s Google failed to reach a settlement with a TV channel it has blocked that is owned by a sanctioned ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin; the Tsargrad channel said in a statement Monday. Tsargrad accused Google of delaying substantive negotiations, according to the statement. Google didn’t immediately comment. Last month, a Moscow court of appeals paused a hearing until Monday to allow settlement talks over the case; in which a lower court ordered the U.S. technology giant’s YouTube to unblock the Tsargrad account or face escalating fines. The next hearing will be delayed until Sept. 20, a representative for…
If you opened your Reddit app today and noticed a new video button next to the search bar; you could be a tap away from experiencing the forum platform’s take on TikTok. TechCrunch writes that the video feed, which pulls content from subreddits you follow along with some you don’t; started rolling out to iOS users on Friday. Loading up the feed on my own Reddit iOS app; the experience is unavoidably TikTok-like. You can scroll through a vertical, perpetual list of videos featuring content from the wide world of Reddit. Interaction options include upvoting and downvoting; along with commenting,…
Reddit suffered an outage for about 90 minutes early on Thursday; leading people to panic and descend on Twitter to complain. The micro-blogging platform was full of Reddit users tweeting about the outage and talking about how they needed it up and working the soonest. Reddit shut down at about 12:30 PM AEST (8 AM Indian time) and it was restored by 2 PM AEST (9:30 AM Indian time). People started to notice when other Reddit users started tweeting asking if the site was down. The outage was then confirmed by other news portals including Gadgets 360. This lead to…
Apple Inc.’s main assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. projected sales of gadgets like smartphones will drop sequentially this quarter; spurring concerns that chip and component shortages may affect iPhone production before the holiday season. Sales at the Taiwanese manufacturer’s consumer electronics business; which includes the iPhone, will decline this quarter compared with the previous three months, the company said Thursday. The downbeat projection caught analysts by surprise, given the third quarter is often the peak production season for a global electronics industry that scrambles every year to get devices in front of shoppers before the year ends. The…
Zambia restricted access to WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms; while voters in record numbers waited for as long as 10 hours to cast ballots in a tense presidential race. Queues in parts of the capital, Lusaka, extended for hundreds of meters (yards). That could suggest the turnout in Thursday’s general election could be the highest since the 1991 ballot that marked the return to multi-party democracy in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer; according to University of Zambia History Professor Bizeck Phiri. “The numbers are very overwhelming,” he said by phone. “It’s unprecedented in the history of voting in Zambia.”…
Facebook on Friday began rolling out encryption for voice or video calls made through its Messenger texting app, ratcheting up privacy for users. The move comes as the sanctity of data on smartphones becomes an increasingly sensitive topic. Encrypting text chats on Messenger has been an option since 2016. The number of audio or video calls made on Messenger has surged since then to more than 150 million daily, prompting Facebook to add the option of scrambling exchanges from one end to the other to prevent snooping. “The content of your messages and calls in an end-to-end encrypted conversation is…
Bandits have killed nine persons in an attack on Bejingo, Dantudu, and Tulutu villages in Birjin ward, Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State. An anonymous source in the local government said that the assailants attacked the villages on Saturday, raiding houses. Eight men and one woman were among those killed by the assailants. Several others were also injured during the incident. The bandits also rustled an unspecified number of animals including sheep, goats, and cattle, forcing a number of villagers to flee their homes and take refuge with relations in neighbouring communities. Police authorities in the state are yet…
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has nabbed a woman with 100 wraps of heroin and two parcels of the same substance at the departure hall of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos. Director of Media and Advocacy at the NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Mr Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday. The woman, identified as Mrs Nnadi Nora Chinyere, was arrested during an outward clearance of passengers on the Qatar Airways flight to Florentine, Italy on August 3. Drugs found on her were concealed in five containers of hair relaxer cream. Days later on…