First, Cloud. 
The 16GB iPhone has always been the entry level/most affordable option. Its the ‘let me try out the iPhone with this little money I have and see if it’s a good choice‘ iPhone. For so long only a few have mastered the art of deleting photos and creating enough room for OTA (over the air) firmware updates. Others will always complain and gripe every time they get a Storage almost full message on their device.
Well, Apple is trying to make life easier for you. With the crashing of the pricing for iCloud storage, you can now get 50GB for only $0.99/mo. That’s about ₦200 right now. I know a lot of people who won’t mind shelling out ₦2,400 a year for all that storage space. It could be a lot bigger obviously, but its way better than having to delete those new live photos you’re about to be obsessed with.

Second, Apple TV.
Now this is interesting. A lot of people out here in Naija with an Apple TV seem to just have it for show. They could almost not use it to its max capacity. That’s about to change.
With the new Apple TV you can have pretty much all games catered to iOS on your TV. Imagine the possibilities.

Image courtesy of Apple

The AppStore already has significantly more titles than what’s on offer on the Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U combined. From simple games like Crossy Bird which was demoed to even more graphic intensive ones like the Asphalt racers we’re used to and other action packed games, there’s a lot on offer.
Even better is sports! MLB was demoed at the event but there was no BPL. At some point, it seem the Premiership could end up on Apple TV. With the dual view feature you can watch Stoke City play against Chelsea while Garry Monk’s Swansea continue to school LVG’s boys on the other half.
Local multiplayer is also making a comeback. What was seemingly being phased out by the current gen’s console makers’ obsession with “everybody has to be online and play against each other” mindset is being – in a weird way – being challenged here by Apple. Be honest, wouldn’t you love to play Split Screen Angry Birds Go with your friends?

3D Touch.

Image courtesy of Apple

I hear a lot of people saying that this will cause a lot of confusion. ‘How many milliseconds do I hold it down for before it does what?‘. No, it shouldn’t be a problem. As a matter of fact, it will be a big miss for Apple if its a problem. The Apple Watch 1.0 was the test bed. It will not be wise to say they’ve perfected it but it will definitely pan out to be a smooth experience that becomes intuitive the more the user interacts with the device.
So, keep calm and 3D Touch already!

iPad Pro, 
Don’t even go there. This one doesn’t concern you. Except your company is willing to shell out all that cash to get you a Pro and an accompanying Pencil, leave it.

iPhone Upgrade Program
Don’t bother. You need a valid US personal credit card. Unless you have that, just act like you didn’t hear that part of the announcement.

Screen grab from the Apple Website

In the end, 3D Touch seems to be the only new tech from Apple. Everything else had been done before by a lot of their competition but its just ‘way cooler’ now because well…its Apple. The new upgrade program too is a nice touch. I see a lot of other OEMs trying to imitate and probably not do it as well.

So you’re in front of your laptop or with your tablet and you open four or five different tabs on your Chrome browser including YNaija, Bella Naija, Naij and maybe 360nobs. You’re switching back and forth between tabs and scrolling endlessly to get your latest gist. This might not seem tedious at first but after a lengthy period of scrolling and clicking and shuffling you might get exhausted.

How about you get all that info aggregated in one place? This is the awesomeness of the Amebo app.

1. It is FREE
What more can you ask for? An app that charges you zero to deliver all of your favorite content in one place is being doled out like jollof rice at an Owambe. All you have to do is find the corresponding app store and download it for free. There’s almost no excuse for not downloading this app if you like your Naija gist delivered to you daily on a platter.

2. Neat and hassle free
The designers at TexSoft who created this app have been able to design a clean and intuitive user interface for an otherwise rowdy, heavy traffic gist lane. It feels very rewarding just scrolling through to catch the headlines or tapping for the full info. The user experience is comparable to many other high profile apps out there.

3. Offline Mode
What if you’ll be away from network signals for a few days or a week or even more? No worries! The application saves all the data you have loaded from the last time you used the app so you can read anywhere. That includes in the jungle or even far out in the ocean.

4. Minimal Data Consumption
This app barely takes a toll on your data subscription for those who are wary about how many kilobytes they consume per second, per app, per day. Even those who don’t care will stay not caring because they will barely notice the data taking a hit.

The official site fo the app is at amebo.ng. The app is available on the Google Play Store, Blackberry Appworld, Nokia Ovi Store and the Windows Phone Store. iOS users will have to wait. I don’t think these guys own a Mac…yet.

Have you been using the app? Do you like it? Would you rather go back to browsing the websites instead? Leave your thoughts down below.

I love taking photos. I also don’t believe these photos should just sit on my hard drive so I love sharing my photos. It could be on facebook, instagram or on a blog. It’s not everytime you take photos that you have access to a PC. Other times you love to share directly from your mobile device. What do all these have to do with drag and drop? Let me explain.

Imagine you want to add a folder of photos to your phone so you can share some of these photos whenever you feel like. But your phone doesn’t let you add these files until you launch a music player. This is my issue with the iPhone.

iPhone 5 Image courtesy of Apple.com

The only reason the iPhone wouldn’t be top of my list as my favorite phone is because I can’t simply drag photos onto it. I mean why is it so hard?! I just want to drag photos to my phone so I can share whenever. Other phones from other ecosystems (Android, Windows Phone, even Blackberry) let you seamlessly drag files across. This is the most basic of operations.

On iTunes, there is manual syncing for music; which means you can drag and drop audio files that may or may not be legally downloaded to your Apple device. So why is it so hard to drag photos that you have taken with your own hands in your own time to your own phone?

In the not so far future, Apple may tout this as a feature in one of their press conferences: “Introducing Drag and Drop!!!” – and make it a big deal. Until then, it just sucks that such an elegant device can be missing such a basic feature.

Nokia Lumia 920 Image courtesy of phonearena.com

Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 last month and so far it has had relatively good reviews. I have always been a fan of the OS even though I haven’t had a chance to use it for a lengthy period. I am looking forward to owning one soon and in the meantime, I have come up with 3 reasons why you too should get a Windows Phone:

1. It is Different: Blackberries, iPhones and Android devices (even though they don’t function entirely alike) look the same from the OS perspective. There are icons on your screen that you tap to launch applications. Some apps have icon badges for notification (in iOS), others don’t. They are just familiar across the board.
Windows Phone on the other hand is different. It is innovative. You have tiles that update with notifications based on the application. It is a refreshing look and feel when compared to other platforms.
Now that Jony Ive is the Chief of User Interface over at Apple, we may be seeing something new in the future of iOS. Until then, Windows Phone nails this department.

2. Synergy: I am assuming majority of the people reading this article are in front of a Windows PC. If you are, there’s already a good enough reason for you to own a Windows Phone. When the operating system on you PC and your phone are made by the same people, (e.g iPhones and the Mac), you tend to feel at home and find comfort in knowing that you can synchronize data across the platforms with ease. From office documents to Outlook mail, you will notice seamless integration which makes taking work on the go a breeze. Not to mention the uniformity of the user interface with the release of Windows 8.

Windows Phone 8 UI Screenshots Image courtesy of techradar.com

3. It Will Make You Look Cool: Let’s face it, most of your friends own Blackberries or iPhones or some Android device. You crashing the party with a Nokia Lumia 920 or a HTC 8X will make people ask questions. Make them want to caress your phone (be careful though, before they swipe it). The Windows 8 devices are few and are beautifully designed. They are bound to turn heads and gather attention. Get one already you vain person, you!

There are many other reasons like ‘Kids Corner’. A feature that allows you create a guest account for your kids and grant them access only to apps that you want. But in the mean time, think on these three. Enjoy.

So Apple rolled out the iOS 5.1 update to some of their devices today (iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, iPod Touch 34d and 4th generation, iPad and iPad2) and if you have one of them you are able to upgrade now. We upgraded ours; specifically the iPad 2 and here are some screens to show the process.

It’s pretty straightforward. If you go into your settings and under ‘General’ you select ‘Software Update’ it shows you the pending update and allows you to download and install over the air. Neat and simple.

If you don’t already have one, get one. And before you start complaining that ‘oh no, not another account!’, wait. As long as you have a Gmail account that ends with ‘@gmail.com’, you’re good. It’s a free service so you shouldn’t worry about paying any fees. The reason you have to get an account is because you need it to set up the phone. Afterall, it’s a ‘Google phone’ so you shouldn’t feel too uptight about this.

2. Make up your mind on Hardware

The fact that Android is open source means that it is available on different hardware from different manufacturers; the most popular being HTC, Samsung, Motorola, LG and Sony Ericsson.  There are other manufacturers but these five have the best and most popular phones running Android.

Samsung Galaxy S II – Currently one of the highest rated Android phones 3. Know your specifications

After you’re done deciding on hardware, you need to make sure your phone is fast enough to give you a smooth user experience. The current generation of Android phones range from 1GHz single core processors to dual core processors! It is easy to get carried away and get a 800MHz processor because of the price but I warn you, the phone might disappoint you after your first major firmware update. The least specs you should be going for is the 1GHz snapdragon processor. The HTC Desire is a very good phone from last year and still is. It’s a good place to start your Android experience.

4. Skins

Manufacturers like HTC include a skin for their Android phones called HTC Sense (pictured). It is supposed to make for a more intuitive user experience but some people consider it an obstruction. Samsung have their corresponding TouchWiz and Motorola have their Motoblur. You might want to look into the phone you’re getting to make sure the skin is something you’ll like and will not be a nuisance. On the other hand, some phones come with stock android like the Droid X from Motorola and the  T-Mobile G2X from LG. This is raw Android without any fancy skin atop. I kind of prefer this because it is less demanding on your phone’s hardware.

All the other stuff, you’ll have to experience it yourself when you start using the device. Before you know it, your new smartphone will be your new best friend. And then you start pointing and laughing at your friends still rocking their symbians and blackberries (with all humility though) Android is a fun, easy to use operating system. Be reminded though, that user experience will vary across different hardware and make sure that you are exactly sure about what you want before you invest in one. Feel free to leave comments and ask questions! Thanks for reading!

Even though the amount of apps I have access to are limited to my OS version and my phone specification, I have to say, this operating system is advanced! Either on Wifi or on 3G, I get the best out of my phone; this is really a smart phone. As much as the HTC Desire was my dream phone (it still is, by the way) I have to say that I’m cool with what I have for now, and that the Android platform in general is a particularly good look and feel. This is only the beginning.

This phone is ‘ginormous’ with a 4.3-inch touch-screen display and weighing in at 155g (5.47 oz). It has dimensions of 2.6 x 5.0 x 0.4 (in.). The Droid X might not be too lenient on you if you have small hands but it packs all the goodies
in the bag to make it worthwhile.It is equipped with an 8.0 megapixel camera with 4X digital zoom that captures 720p HD video at 24fps. It has 3 microphones in which two are for noise cancellation. Besides the 8GB internal memory, it comes shipped with a 16GB microSD which is expandable to up to 32GB giving you a total of 40GB.
Even thought the Android 2.1 is the preinstalled OS on this device, the manufactures announced an update to Android 2.2 (Froyo) for the device. This is not surprising considering the hardware can handle it; the phone’s processor is a 1.0GHz TI OMAP3630 which is comparable to the Snapdragon processor used in some other ‘heavy duty’ smartphones.
The Droid X seems a likely candidate in outselling the iPhone 4 this year but can they handle the challenge? Apple’s iPhone 4 sales have been record breaking since launch and they show no signs of slowing down thanks to their large, devoted fan base. They have sold about 1.7 million units of the iPhone 4 already and their only challenge seems to be the Achilles’ heel in their antenna. The Droid is already sold out in major stores in the US as at the time this was written and new shipments don’t arrive till the 23rd of July.
Before one starts drooling for an unlocked version of the phone, it should be pointed out that it is a CDMA phone. This implies that it will not work on your regular GSM networks. Bummer. This was what killed it for me because the Droid X has everything I have always looked out for in a phone.  The one thing users might not really like about the phone is the Motorola software atop the Android. Unlike the HTC Sense which is arguably a magical experience on the HTC HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5, the Motorola counterpart looks pretty but doesn’t really deliver (for instance, why would I want to add all my twitter followers to my contacts list?!)
For customers who have already purchased the iPhone and are having problems with reception, Apple is giving away free cases for the phone that is supposed to alleviate the problem. They claim to have gone back to the drawing board to see where the problem is from and that for people who purchase the phone on or before September 30th, they get a free casing.
Bottom-line, the Droid X is a big phone for people who want to consume data and probably do some work on the go. It is fast, has a decent battery life and does really good photos and videos. If I owned an iPhone 4 and was currently pissed and looking for a replacement, I’d let my case rest with Steve Jobs and just reach out for this awesome alternative.

So recently I graduated from college; not with the kind of grades you would hope for, but good enough for one to be thankful he’s out of school :). During the entire grad period, I noticed almost (and I mean almost) everyone I knew – friends or otherwise – had one type of Blackberry or the other. I was privileged to handle and mess around with a Storm2, a Bold2, one type of Curve and a Javelin. And I gotta tell ya, I still haven’t seen the wow factor. RIM, the company that owns the Blackberry lines of Smartphones are going through their record books right now and wondering what exactly they did right this time to have made so much money in this part of the world in such little time. Over the past year (or so) there has been an influx of Blackberry devices in Nigeria in particular and the major reason being because of the Blackberry service that allows the owners communicate for ‘free’ among other Blackberry owners across the globe. This is a major perk that still drives a lot of people towards the BB market; matter of fact it’s so crazy right now that people don’t even bother asking you if you have a BB all they want is your pin: “Abeg wetin be you pin?” …[reply] “Uh, dude… I don’t even own a Blackberry!” A lot of consumers have acquired the phone without considering the cost of managing the device. Before the Blackberry service can be active, on has to have a data plan which requires you pay a monthly subscription to your service provider. The average price range is within the N5,000 range which is equivalent to about N60,000 a year. This might not sound like much but when you realize that’s how much you’re spending just to chat, it might get frustrating. It is easy to argue that the Blackberry has a web browser and other social networking apps like the facebook app and the twitter app etc. but one should also consider the user experience with these other devices. I could ping or get pinged all day on my BB without any complaints. But sorry to say, I would rather surf the web, read blogs and check e-mail on my HTC HD2 or my iPod touch [not saying I have both :(]. This is mainly because of the user experience involved. In this day in age where touch-screen smart phones are a way to go because of their landscape keyboard that gives less room for error while typing (don’t even mention the Storm here) and the joy of pinch-and-zoom to zoom into web pages enabling easy reading of the print, I think I’m better of without a pin! The Blackberry devices are a good set of Smartphones that have a budding application store (nothing compared to Apple’s AppStore or the Android Marketplace) and a decent keyboard that takes some getting used to depending on what kind of keyboard you are coming from. The concept behind ‘pinging’ is kinda cool but there’s more to smartphones and mobile devices than just instant messaging. Finally, I don’t see me getting a Blackberry except it has a fully functional landscape keyboard (screw that haptic feedback crap), a motherload of applications and a more dynamic user interface. Then I might consider not getting the HTC EVO 4G or the iPhone 4 or the Droid/Droid X or the HTC Desire or the HTC Incredible or any other smartphone that’s not a BB. NB: All company names and products mentioned here are properties of the individual or organization. All rights remain reserved.