UNVEILING SONY XPERIA: XZ PREMIUM; The world’s first smartphone with a 4K HDR display

Sony Mobile has taken the wraps off a new smartphone it's calling the Xperia XZ Premium, which might possibly be the company's most cutting-edge flagship to date.

Starting off with the Xperia XZ Premium, the smartphone falls in the high-end branch and looks to take on the iPhone 7 Plus and Google Pixel XL. On first glance, the Xperia XZ Premium looks similar to last year's Xperia XZ. However, to give it a more expensive look, Sony has provided Gorilla Glass on the back as well that is highly reflective and will likely be prone to fingerprint and smudges.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium runs on Android 7.0 Nougat and is fitted with a 3230mAh battery. The device measures 156x77x7.9mm and weighs 195 grams, making it slightly thinner but heavier than the Xperia XZ.

SIM CAPABILITY
Single SIM, Dual SIM, Nano SIM
MEMORY AND STORAGE
4GB RAM, 64GB (Single SIM)/64GB (Dual SIM) UFS internal memory6
WEIGHT
195g
DIMENSIONS
156 x 77 x 7.9 mm
DISPLAY
5.5'' 4K HDR Display, TRILUMINOS™ Display for mobile, X-Reality™ for mobile, Dynamic Contrast Enhancer, sRGB 138%
CAMERA
19MP Motion Eye Camera, 1/2.3” Exmor RS™ for mobile memory stacked sensor, 960 fps Super slow motion videos, Predictive capture, Anti-distortion shutter, Triple image sensing technology

the phone is built to withstand splashes, spills and unexpected showers

This is thanks to the phone's super-fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, which is also capable of Cat 16 LTE download speeds of 1GB per second meaning you could fill up the ample 64GB internal storage in little over a minute of downloading. Alongside the Qualcomm CPU is 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage which can be upped with a MicroSD memory card.

NOKIA 3310: EVERYONE FIRST PHONE IS BACK; THE REVIWE

Enter the new Nokia 3310, a lovingly crafted homage to the iconic handset with a helping of modern-day upgrades. If you were a fan of the 3310, the likelihood is you’ll want to pick this up.

Nokia 3310 still remain one of the most popular mobiles of all time, remembered for its near-indestructible build, long-lasting battery and legendary Snake (well Snake II if we’re being accurate) game, and the team licensing the Nokia phone name has jumped at the chance to reignite the love for a phone which was once the leader in the mobile market.

New Nokia 3310 battery and camera

The original Nokia 3310 was also known for its long battery life, and there’s good news for those eyeing up the new 3310.

A removable 1,200mAh power pack is an instant upgrade over the 900mAh of the original, and thanks to the improvements in phone efficiency the new Nokia 3310 boasts 22 hours of talk time and up to 31 days of standby.

That’s a huge upgrade over the 2.5 hours of talktime and 260 hours (around 11 days) of standby on the original Nokia 3310. You can charge the new 3310 with a standard microUSB cable too, so you won’t need to trawl eBay for the old-school charger.

The first 3310 arrived before manufacturers started putting cameras in phones, but this is 2017 and it makes sense for the new Nokia 3310 to sport a snapper – even if it is rather understated.

What you get is a 2MP camera on the rear of the phone. There’s no flash, HDR, panorama mode or anything fancier than a simple point and shoot app with a digital zoom. It’s not going to dazzle you then, but we can see it being a handy feature on a secondary smartphone.

We snapped a few quick pics during our hands on time with the new 3310 and image quality is as acceptable as you'd expect from a low-res camera.

New Nokia 3310 price and release date

The Nokia 3310 price has been set at €49 (around $40, 12.900NGN), placing it perfectly as a secondary phone purchase and it’s one that will likely appeal to Nokia fans.

Some may balk at having to even pay that much for a ‘dumb phone’, but the spec sheet of the new 3310 does enough to justify the cost.

There’s no firm new Nokia 3310 release date just yet, with the firm only confirming that it will be available sometime in Q2 (April-June).
New Nokia 3310 design and display

Looking at the new Nokia 3310 front-on and there’s no mistaking the phone it is paying homage to.
You’ll be able to pick up the new Nokia 3310 in the traditional dark blue and grey of the original, but also in the new, psychedelic yellow and ‘warm red’. We managed to check out all four colors during our hands on time, and our favorite was the good old dark blue.

The design is solid, but we can't help but wish Nokia had stuck a little closer to the original 3310 look and feel. We could accept thicker device, and a rear which somewhat resembles the original would have been nice.

Meanwhile the display feels like a real blast from the past, but it’s a significant upgrade over the old 3310. The new Nokia 3310 has a 2.4-inch, 240 x 320 full color display which is bright, but hardly crisp.

Of course you’re paying very little for the phone so it’s not an issue, but don’t go trying to tap the menu items. Touchscreen this ain’t.

Text is perfectly readable though, and the new version of Snake is playable. They’re not blockbuster graphics, but if they were it would ruin the appeal of this phone.
The distinctive border around the screen and the layout of the 'num' keys give you the retro throwback, but Nokia has majorly slimmed down and modernized the design making the new 3310 supremely pocketable.

It tips the scales at just 79.6g, making it comfortably lighter than the 137g original, and once you slipped it into your pocket you’ll forget it’s even there.

The plastic construction feels solid, but only time will tell if it will withstand the kind of beatings the first generation Nokia 3310 survived time and again. 

DON JAZZY LAUNCHES A FREE WiFi CALLED FLOBYT

Don baba J, launched his latest business initiative, a free WiFi service -Flobyt in Lagos on Friday.

Collins Ajereh, better known as Don Jazzy, is a Nigerian record producer, singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur launched his new business initiative. the unveiling was held at Renaissance Hotel in Lagos. Don Jazzy partnered with founder of Tsaboin, Dele Odufuye, to make the dream come true.

The founders say Flobyt is a free WiFi service installed across partner locations in Lagos like eateries, parks, taxis, buses, restaurants, cafés and many other businesses.
The service is free for patrons of a business who wish to access the Internet while in the premises of the patron locations. The Internet router itself is a plug-and-play device that, according to the founders, does not require much technical know-how to operate.

Speaking at the occasion, Don Jazzy said investing in Flobyt has been a life-long dream of his.
He said, “I have always wanted to play big in the technology space and I looked for people who were sound and had a beautiful track record in the technology space. This is my first business investment in the technology space that is public while I remain a silent partner in others.

“I am really interested in driving Flobyts reach beyond Lagos. Our Wi-Fi is the fastest in town and those who stream our music and content as entertainers are from the US and the UK. We believe that if we improve our services the numbers can improve.”
In addition, Don Jazzy revealed that at specified locations, between 10-30 people can be connected to Flobyt at the same time while in locations with higher traffic, Flobyt Max can provide internet service to 10 – 80 concurrent users

Mr. Odufaye said, “You simply walk into any of our partner outlets and patronise them. While you are at that, you can log into Flobyt’s free WiFi service available. Join the “Flobyt FREE Wifi”. If your browser pops up for authentication, just visit www.mavinrecords.com or click on “Free Access” button shown to you.

“We are using state-of-the-art WiFi technology equipment that balances speed, quality of service, security and data consumption. This equipment is lightweight and easier to manage. These are the technological and business edges.”

He said, “If it benefits my own company its going to benefit every other entertainer. Now fellow artistes can now have more people accessing their music and if you are staging an event, they can invite Flobyt to activate the venue. That way, they can reach their core fans that are gathered at the event.

The Wifi service will be free and without restrictions for customers who wish to access the internet while in the vicinity of a Flobyt partner location. The service works by serving users a few ads during their session while granting unrestricted access. Flobyt is not the first free WiFi solution in Nigeria, there's currently GoSpot and and few others, but the cofounders are working to make it the lasting solution.

SEVEN MOST SECURED MESSAGING APP

few days ago the news of German's spying on Nigeria media and revelations about mass NSA surveillance, combined with the fact that the UK government is now requiring ISP's to record all internet traffic with the infamous snooper’s charter, has made privacy a very precious commodity. The truth is, we live in an age of internet surveillance and data logging, where companies do almost anything to get our personal information. Thankfully, there has been a rise in secure messaging apps, which focus on keeping our privacy intact through end-to-end encryption and other ways.

check out this 7 most secured messaging app to use to keep save online and add yours to the list

1. Threema

Threema is one of the most popular secure messaging apps available today and deservedly so. It does what it’s supposed to do, that is keeping data out of Governments, corporations and hackers hands.

 threema brings end-to-end encryptions of messages, group chats, media shared and even statuses.The developers have also made sure that your privacy remains intact no matter what, as it deletes any messages on the server once they are delivered while other details like groups & contacts are stored on device’s local storage. 

To use Threema, you don’t need an email id or phone number and the app provides you a unique Threema ID. Along with the security features, Threema is a comprehensive messaging app, thanks to some really unique features like poll, ability to send most file types (pdf, gif, doc, mp3, zip etc..) along with the usual features like sending texts, voice messages.

2.Signal

Signal Private Messenger was released earlier this year and it brought functionality from the two older Open Whisper Systems apps, TextSecure and RedPhone. Along with Threema, Signal is one of the most downloaded secure messaging apps and it too deserves all the attention.

The app is automatically in sync with your address book and this makes it really easy to encrypt your communication with all your contacts. In this way, you do not need unique login credentials for accessing the app and initializing its effectiveness. Among its features, you get cool archiving options for better organizing everything on your phone.

If you check their official website, you will see Edward Snowden and his testimonial: “Use anything by Open Whisper Systems” and this definitely shows something! It is also worth noting that there are no logs kept and the company does not have access to your communication.

3. WhatsApp

In April last year, WhatsApp enabled end-to-end encryption across all platforms, meaning conversations can't be read by anyone but you and the person you're messaging. Not only are your chats protected, but WhatsApp provides a security code so you can verify that someone isn't intercepting your messages and passing them on (this is called a ‘man-in-the-middle’ attack). 

At this point, you might recall earlier this month there was a warning about a vulnerability in WhatsApp’s secure messages, but this was later proven to be false.

WhatsApp is available for both Android and iOS – you'll need to have a verifiable mobile phone number to register initially (it’s also available for desktop computers).

4. Cyber Dust

Cyber Dust is a cool secure messaging app, which along with security & privacy brings features that are pretty sleek. It likes to call its messages Dust and broadcast messages Blast.

All the Dusts and Blasts are heavily encrypted and are never stored in a permanent storage. The app along with others on this list prevent screenshots as well. The messages disappear within 100 seconds or in 24 hours, if it remains unopened by the recipient. 

Every Cyber Dust message is encrypted with its own unique 128-bit AES encryption along with added security through RSA 2048-bit key. Cyber Dust is a social media platform as well as being a secure messaging app, as it lets you follow people.

5. Facebook Messenger

Like WhatsApp – unsurprisingly – Facebook uses the Signal protocol to employ end-to-end encryption with its optional ‘secret conversations’ feature in Messenger. Open Whisper Systems has confirmed this was all implemented correctly.

After starting a secret conversation you can send any content you would in a regular message such as text, a photo or video. Group messaging isn't supported.

You can set messages to disappear. However, if someone reports your conversation it'll be decrypted and sent to Facebook. Messenger is out for Android and iOS, but the source code isn't available so there's no way to check for vulnerabilities or intentionally installed backdoors.

6. Wickr Me

Wickr is available for both Android and iOS. Not only does it feature end-to-end encryption but it can strip out metadata such as the timestamp from conversations. Messages can also be programmed to self-destruct after a certain period of time has expired. The app includes a handy wipe feature to securely erase messages.

Although several security organisations have audited Wickr Me's code, it hasn't been released publicly so there's no way to check it for security bugs or deliberate backdoors. It’s also not very clear how effectively the app can delete data, so Android users should be sure to encrypt their device, too.

7. FrozenChat

Aside from its cool name and funky design, FrozenChat also offers end-to-end encryption with OTR (Off the Record) messaging. This means that not only are your messages protected and you can verify who you're speaking to, but you also have deniability – anyone can forge a message after the conversation is over. In other words, it's impossible to prove any message was sent by you. 

FrozenChat is open source and also supports the open XMPP protocol which is used on thousands of servers. These are run by volunteers so there's no one central server that can be seized or taken down. Sadly, FrozenChat is only available for Android.