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Job Vacancy: Data Solutions Sales Specialist, IBM, Lagos

Ebenezer Obasi
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Job Vacancy: Data Solutions Sales Specialist, IBM, Lagos

What does your dream job look like? Does it include working for a globally recognized technology and innovation firm? IBM is about to make your dream a reality.  

  The tech-savvy company headquartered in US is looking to add a data solutions specialist to their branch in Lagos, Nigeria.   Data Solutions Sales Specialist is responsible for developing Storage Brand/Product solutions that address client’s business needs (both industry and business) and delivers client value while supporting Storage brand specific business strategies. 

Required

  • Bachelor’s Degree
  • At least 4 years experience in Unix Brand Sales in the Region
  • At least 3 years experience in Implementing Account/Territory Planning
  • At least 4 years experience in Leading Channel Development
  • English: Fluent

Preferred

  • At least 5 years experience in Unix Brand Sales in the Region
  • At least 4 years experience in Implementing Account/Territory Planning
  • At least 5 years experience in Leading Channel Development

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.   You can apply directly for this job position on this page or read more about IBM here.

Job Vancancy: Africa Corporate Communications Leader, MasterCard, Lagos and Johannesburg

Ebenezer Obasi
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0
Job Vancancy: Africa Corporate Communications Leader, MasterCard, Lagos and Johannesburg

As usual, EwtNet is keen on bringing to your notice the most mouth-watering of all jobs openings. And what other company would you rather work for, other than MasterCard?

With the company seeing off competitions from Interswitch and Visa, partnering with Payoneer and extending their dominance in Africa, MasterCard has set sights on employing a new employee to play the role of corporate communications leader in Africa.

The jobholder will be based in Johannesburg, South Africa or Lagos, Nigeria, he or she will report to the Communications Manager: Africa. This individual will lead all communications functions across two divisions – South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa – including: External and Media Communications, Social and Digital Communications, Internal Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility and Event Management.

Responsibility

  • Tell the MasterCard Africa story at a global level, both internally and externally. This includes writing error-free, on-message content tailored to a wide range of audiences and channels including blog posts, newsletters, media releases, speeches, briefing documents, internal employee stories, social media posts etc.
  • Lead MasterCard’s communications strategy and media presence across Africa. Work with the Communications Manager: Africa, the MEA Communications Vice President, senior management, country mangers and business unit leads to devise and implement successful communications programs at local and pan-African levels, allocate resources and direct execution.
  • Manage MasterCard’s PR Agencies in Africa including day to day management, development of strategy, overseeing contracts and budgets, continuously scope for better vendors, etc.
  • Work with Marketing to put in place a solid social media communications platform to ensure optimized share of voice for MasterCard in social networks across Africa and effective two-way communication therein.
  • Manage major South African, Sub-Saharan and African events especially those attended by the Region’s President or by senior visiting executives like the MasterCard Africa Knowledge Forum, World Economic Forum Africa, African Banker Awards, etc. This includes creating high-level briefing packs, scheduling senior executive meetings, managing PR agencies, etc.
  • Lead and implement MasterCard MEA’s strategic and interactive employee communications and engagement programme in Africa, using all existing internal communications channels to ensure the company’s African story is well told within MasterCard.
  • Conceptualize, plan and manage employee events including year-end functions, team off-sites, town halls etc.
  • Lead employee volunteering efforts by identifying charitable causes, coordinating with NGOs and mobilizing employees.
  • Support the Communications Manager: Africa and MEA Comms VP to ensure structures, personnel (internal and agency), resources, workflow, and communications processes are in place to deliver a solid pan-African strategic plan against the SA and Sub-Saharan African business objectives and the MEA Communications strategy.

Required Skills & Expertise

  • Distinguished track record as a high achieving communications executive with a demonstrated capacity to build and execute communications programmes that support business growth within a dynamic and changing corporation.
  • Superb writing skills and the ability to simplify complex topics.
  • Excellent project management skills and the ability to effectively collaborate across countries and business units.
  • Team player who will work well with senior business and functional leaders of MasterCard South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Keen understanding of the African scene beyond just media and into culture, economy, socio- politics and development agenda.
  • Educated to degree level, with a minimum of six years’ experience in corporate communications – either in-house or at a public relations agency.
  • Journalistic experience an advantage.

You can apply for this job using the online job portal found here. Feel free to refer your friends to this page if you have anyone capable of fitting into this role.

Larry Page; the main man of Google; puts Sundar Pichai in control of more of Google’s products.

Jake Bruton
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Larry Page; the main man of Google; puts Sundar Pichai in control of more of Google’s products.

On Friday of last week, Google boss Larry Page sent out a memo to staff that Sundar Pichai – the man responsible for Android, Chrome, and Google Apps, will be taking on the responsibility of even more Google products. These products include Maps, Search, Research, Commerce, Ads, Infrastructure, and Google+.

Page said that the move would help free up more time for him to focus on bigger projects, such as new products and strategies for the corporate, while Pichai puts his concentration on the already-existing business units. Such a move like this makes most believe that a move like this is putting Pichai steps closer to getting the top job of Google, and he will most likely be taken over the seat when Larry Page decides he’s done.

Pichai was born Pichai Sundararajan in the Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras) in 1972 and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Technology from IIT-Kharagpur in West Bengal, a Master’s degree from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
After a brief spell at management consultants McKinsey & Company, Pichai held various positions at Applied Materials before joining Google in 2004 as a product manager. He originally focused on Google Apps but later took responsibility for Chrome and Chrome OS, too.
After Andy Rubin left the Android team in March of last year to concentrate on Google’s robotics ambitions, Pichai also added the mobile OS to his responsibilities, and has been the public face of the division ever since.  – history source from theregister.co.uk.

What do you think of this move by Mr. Page? Comment below with your opinions.

WeeShare! is now hubshr.com

Jake Bruton
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WeeShare! is now hubshr.com

Today (10/26/2014) WeeShare! re-branded, it’s new name now “hubshr” and it’s new url www.hubshr.com. The changes began earlier in the morning, and were in active development up until late in the evening. The original post from the hubshr news blog:

“WeeShare! will no longer be WeeShare! Hi, nice to meet you, my new name is hubshr. hubshr.com to be exact! … is what the website WOULD say to you if it COULD talk.

Anyways, I’ve been wanting to do rebranding on the name of WeeShare! (now hubshr – remember!) for quite some time, so I decided to do it while it was still small. hubshr is also now a top level domain, we are now a .com! You can still access hubshr by using weeshare.ws but the main domain will be hubshr.com forever now. Along with this, our logo and icons have changed to – just a different name and font however. This re-brand was for our name and domain only; I will admit I was thinking about theme color changes as well but black is the color of sophistication and luxury: which is what I believe transparent and open-source social networking is like. So, enjoy the new name and ease of domain!”   With that, the official Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ pages for the online service made changes. The homepage of the website was re-styled as well, with a new “modern” look (picture below). As another additive to the re-brand, the support of third-party videos was added to the website as well.  

New logo
New singe-letter icon
The 1st promotional image for the new named service
The brand new homepage shows you the info of the service and a nice, quiet motionimage of New York City.

Job Vacancy: Graduate Computing Pre-Sales Technical Consultant, Hewlett-Packard, Lagos, Nigeria

Ebenezer Obasi
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Job Vacancy: Graduate Computing Pre-Sales Technical Consultant, Hewlett-Packard, Lagos, Nigeria

If your dream job is to work with Hewlett-Packard or HP, here is good news for you: The American multinational information technology corporation is looking for a technical consultant to take charge of its Printing and Personal Systems department in Lagos.

The company announced the vacant position on their official job site yesterday, hoping to find applicants with the following qualification:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in IT related discipline (graduation from 2013 onwards)
  • 1 year of experience in a similar position
  • Ability to design and propose PC and Mobile client architectures and solutions for customers.
  • Current knowledge of computer client technologies, hardware, Operating systems, Deployment and Management solutions
  • Broader knowledge of the IT industry, technical directions and IT solutions.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Good presentation Skills
  • Good level of Technical English
  • Ability to search out knowledge and self-train.
  • Ability to build and maintain strategic customer relationships

The person in this position is expected to carry out the following responsibilities:

  • Provide technical in depth technical presales support to customers and sales team in multiple computing product and solution areas.
  • Act as trusted advisor to customers based on in depth understanding of the industry and the customer’s unique business strategy and drivers.
  • Build and develop relationships with key technical influencers, decision makers, and top executives.
  • Actively participate in ongoing account planning with the PPS salesperson in opportunity analysis, technical deal qualification and competitive analysis
  • Proactively promote, propose and help ensure delivery of computing full portfolio of products, solutions and services to customer and account team.
  • Maintain positive total customer experience (TCE)
  • Technically support sales account team in competitive tenders.
  • Support the sales team in creating and proposing the right solution and answering the technical sections and aspects of tenders, RFI and RFP customer requests.
  • Providing closed-loop feedback to product divisions.
  • Maintain and manage a competitive and appropriate level of technical and professional competence.
  • Regular reporting of activity and results.

You can apply directly for this job by visiting the job page. Click Apply and create a free account.   If you have no interest in this job, kindly help a friend by sharing this page on social Facebook, Twitter or anywhere your friends are. GoodLuck!

TwitPic Data Barely Surviving as they Hash out Twitter’s Terms

Ebenezer Obasi
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0
TwitPic Data Barely Surviving as they Hash out Twitter’s Terms

It’s been over a month since Twitter came after Twitpic  over the service trademark, threatening to remove the service’s access to Twitter’s API. Today, CEO Noah Everett has announced that they have reached an agreement with Twitter that will let them stay alive – but a mare survival.

And in a somewhat happy turn of events, Twitpic has announced that it has reached an agreement with Twitter to keep Twitpic photos and links alive, giving Twitter control over the domain and the full photo archive.

However, the agreement also states that Twitpic will no longer be taking any new photos or data and will exist in a read-only mode. Apps on the App Store and Google Play have been removed, but users will still be able to log in, delete content or the account itself, and export and/or download data.

This comes after a “roller coaster ride” of the past few months. In September, Twitpic founder and CEO Noah Everett announced that the service would shut down after Twitter came after the service over the Twitpic trademark, threatening to remove the service’s access to Twitter’s API.

“This came as a shock to us since Twitpic has been around since early 2008, and our trademark application has been in the USPTO since 2009,” Everett wrote in a blog post.

Shortly thereafter, rumors circulated that Twitpic might be bought in order to save the service and the data that lives on it, until Everett once again admitted defeat and announced that he had given up on finding acquirers.

It’s with a heavy heart that I announce again that Twitpic will be shutting down on October 25th. We worked through a handful of potential acquirers and exhausted all potential options. We were almost certain we had found a new home for Twitpic (hence our previous tweet), but agreeable terms could not be met.

According to the blog post from today, which you can read below, it seems Everett won’t be staying on at Twitter or Twitpic.

Today marks the end of a difficult battle for Twitpic, whether it’s a happy or sad ending.

First off I want to say thank you to everyone who has used Twitpic over the years and for your patience with us over the last couple of months. As you know it’s been quite the roller coaster ride.
We weren’t able to find a way to keep Twitpic independent. However, I’m happy to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to give them the Twitpic domain and photo archive, thus keeping the photos and links alive for the time being. Twitter shares our goal of protecting our users and this data. Also, since Twitpic’s user base consists of Twitter users, it makes sense to keep this data with Twitter.
What this means for Twitpic users:

  • Twitpic will no longer be taking on new photos or data (the site will be in a read-only mode)
  • The iOS and Android apps have been removed from the app stores and will no longer be supported
  • You will still be able to login to your profile to delete content or delete your account on Twitpic.com
  • You can still export and download your data / photo archive on Twitpic.com

This will be my (@noaheverett) final chapter with Twitpic, and again I want to say thank you for allowing me to be a part of your photo sharing memories for nearly seven years. It has been an honor.

Microsoft Spots New Vulnerability in Microsoft Office – Your PC may be at Risk

Ebenezer Obasi
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0
Microsoft Spots New Vulnerability in Microsoft Office – Your PC may be at Risk
Heads up! In what feels like a throwback to the late 90s/early 2000’s, Microsoft has discovered one helluva bug in Microsoft Office. Executed properly, the bug could be exploited to take over your entire system running just about any version of Windows.

You can find Microsoft’s full disclosure on the bug here, but here’s the bulk of what you should know:

  • This bug is being exploited in the wild, though Microsoft only knows of “limited, targeted attacks” so far
  • It affects Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and Windows RT. XP isn’t mentioned as Microsoft no longer supports it — but yeah, it’s probably affected too.
  • If executed properly, the exploit gives the attacker the same permissions on your system as whatever type of user you’re currently logged in as. If you’re an admin, that means full admin rights — code execution, app installs, etc.
  • If you have Window’s User Account Control feature enabled, it’ll throw up a prompt asking if the file is okay to execute. If you aren’t 100% sure that the file is legit, avoid doing so.
  • The bug is part of PowerPoint’s OLE system, which lets you embed things like spreadsheets into a presentation. It’s supposed to be fairly well sandboxed; alas, it looks like someone found a gap.
  • Microsoft says that hacked presentations e-mailed to users and hacked presentations sitting on the web are potentially dangerous. The short version: avoid all but the most-trusted PowerPoint presentations right now.

So just how gnarly is this bug? Says Microsoft (emphasis ours):

An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.

But should you panic?

Nah. Do a few things things, and you should be safe:
1) Play it smart about what presentations you open
2) If you’re on a build of Windows that has User Account Control as an option, enable it (it should be on by default, in most cases.) This won’t fix the bug outright, but it’ll throw up a big permissions prompt that’ll remind you not to open mystery files.
3) Check out this advisory page from Microsoft, which offers up a temporary patch until Microsoft finalizes a security update.

Queen Elizabeth II takes to an iPad to send her first Tweet

Ebenezer Obasi
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0
Queen Elizabeth II takes to an iPad to send her first Tweet

Think about your first tweet. Mine was sent from a desktop, but I’m sure plenty of people sent their first tweet from a smartphone.

But before you can ever send a tweet, you have to sign up for an account. And, of course, you have to type out an actual message. Only then can you press that little blue Tweet button and begin your Twitter journey.

The Queen, however, does things a bit differently.

In her first tweet, she promoted the opening of the Information Age exhibition at the Science Museum, signing the tweet with her official signature: Elizabeth R. The R stands for Regina, which is the Latin for Queen.

The tweet was sent from the British Monarchy’s official account, which has over 750,000 followers. At the time of writing, the tweet has more than 20,000 retweets and almost as many favorites.

It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.
— BritishMonarchy (@BritishMonarchy) October 24, 2014

There was some controversy over whether or not the Queen actually typed out the tweet herself, as videos of the occasion only show her strolling up to an iPad on a lectern, removing a glove, and pressing a single button. However, pictures taken before show her typing on an iPad. Still, TweetDeck shows that the tweet was sent from an iPhone, as you can see in the picture below.

The British Monarchy told the Verge that this discrepancy was due to “processology” (whatever that means), and insisting that the tweet was sent personally by the Queen. They even tweeted about it.

Personally, I don’t mind if the Queen has someone else type out her 140-character knowledge bombs. After all, Ashton Kutcher can’t even handle the pressure and he leads no empires.

SOURCE: Twitter, Engadget via TechCrunch. [Image credit: @BritishMonarchy] MORE COVERAGE: Time Magazine

Video: J-deite Quarter – A Working Transformer Built by Japanese Hobbyists

Ebenezer Obasi
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Video: J-deite Quarter – A Working Transformer Built by Japanese Hobbyists

A pair of Japanese hobbyists have built a transforming robot that can walk or, when in sports car form, drive around autonomously. It’s called the J-deite Quarter and is four feet tall. The goal, apparently, is to make a full-sized transformer… just because they can.

The team consists of Kenji Ishida and Wataru Yoshizaki of Brave Robotics and Asratec. The team has been working on transformers since 2012 when they released a table-top model. They hope to make a full, eight-foot model in the next year.

Some specs, for those who want to know all the details on their future robotic overlords:

Height in robot mode/length in vehicle mode: 1.3 m,
weight: 35 kg, maximum battery power: 3 kw,
operating time: 1 hour, number of seats: 2,
controlled by V-Sido OS.
Power source: servo motor manufactured byFutaba Corp.[Robot Mode SPEC]
Maximum walking speed: 1 km/h, gripping weight: 0.1 kg.[Vehicle Mode SPEC]
Maximum traveling speed: 10km/h, minimum road clearance: 40 mm.

That’s about half a mile an hour walking and about six miles an hour driving, which isn’t fast but I suppose it’s a start. That means Megatron and Starscream will be long gone before J-deite Quarter makes it to the scene of the crime (unless it rode on the back of Optimus Prime.) Now if they could only program it to explain the ridiculous Transformers movie storylines we’d truly be in business.

Source: Simplebotics via TechCrunch

Lenovo G505, HP 255 and 5 budget laptops for Nigerian college students—we picked the best

Ebenezer Obasi
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Lenovo G505, HP 255 and 5 budget laptops for Nigerian college students—we picked the best

Going to  college in Nigeria could be financially cumbersome towards the end of each semester—especially when it is imperative to get a new laptop and you didn’t manage your finance during the semester.

Your bank account is nearly tapped out, and you still need to buy text books, handouts and lay in enough ramen noodles to last through the winter.

Yeah, we’ve all been there. Fortunately, Moore’s Law is still in play, so today’s budget notebook is yesterday’s workhorse. Pretty much any modern laptop can handle the gamut of productivity chores—word processing, number crunching, email, and the like—but all of the machines in this roundup can also tackle media editing and encoding sessions, and deliver respectable entertainment experiences.

To strike the best balance between performance and affordability, I gathered the top five laptops I could find for ₦60,000 or less. Benchmark busters they’re not, but they aren’t budget busters, either.

Also Read: Infinix Diamond, Ankara Q2 and 6 ‘Premium’ Affordable Android Phones/Tablets you can buy for ₦9,999+

Lenovo G505 (₦58,000) — Buy Online

Working on an environment that demands great sound system? Lenovo G505 offers you the best option. Thanks to its stereo speakers with Dolby® Advanced Audio™ v2, graphics card options up to the speedy AMD Radeon 8570M VRAM, and optical disk drive options up to a Blu-ray Disc™ combo, the G505 offers stunning, stutter-free visuals and immersive sound for a fuller, more satisfying home entertainment experience.

The AMD E1-2100 APU Processor powered laptop comes with a Windows 8 operating system and a RAM of 2GB. The pre-installed Bitdefender Anti‎‐Virus Plus gives maximum security to the user for 1 year and can be renewed afterward.

Key Specifications:

  • Windows 8 OS
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • 1TB (1,000GB) Hard Drive
  • AMD E1-2100 APU Processor
  • 15.6-Inch, HD Display
  • Inbuilt Wireless Adapter
  • AMD Radeon Graphics
  • DVD RW Optical Drive

The actual price for Lenovo G505 is currently ₦86,400 but can be bought online for ₦58,000 (discount rate). See product page for full specification and purchase.

Dell Inspiron 3541  (₦59,990) — Buy Online

Dell Inspiron 3541 is a well packaged Windows 8.1 laptop with an AMD E1-6010 Dual Core Processor, Free Dell Sleeve, Microsoft Office 365 Personal, 8GB Flash Drive and 2 years free call service with Skype.

The device is suitable for gaming and performing high resolution display tasks, boasting of 15.6-Inch (1366×768) HD display unit and AMD R2 dedicated graphics card.

Key Specifications:

  • Windows 8.1 OS
  • 2GB DDR3 RAM
  • 500GB Hard Drive
  • AMD E1-6010 Dual Core Processor
  • 15.6-Inch (1366×768) HD
  • DVD RW Optical Drive
  • Inbuilt Wireless Adapter

You can purchase or see complete features and specification of Dell Inspiron 3541 on the product page.

HP 255 G2 (₦58,600) — Buy Online

HP 255 is a multi-tasks Windows 8 laptop powered by a 1 GHz, AMD E1-2100 Dual Core Processor and 2 GB RAM, certainly not the fastest PC on this list but the 15.6 Inch, HD display unit will make up for its shortcoming.

The laptop has a 500 GB storage space, DVD RW Optical Drive and yes, it has an inbuilt wireless adapter.

Key Specifications

  • Windows 8.1 OS
  • 2GB RAM
  • 500GB Hard Drive
  • AMD Dual-Core E1-2100 APU with Radeon HD 8210 Graphics (1 GHz, 1 MB cache)
  • 15.6-Inch (1366×768) HD
  • Intel HD Graphics
  • DVD RW Optical Drive
  • Inbuilt Wireless Adapter

The actual amount for this device is ₦75,000 but can be purchased online for just ₦58,600. See pricing and full specifications.

Also Read: Sony & Samsung Tablets Dominate the Top 5 Most Expensive Android Tablets in Nigeria

Acer Aspire E1-510 (₦53,500) — Buy Online

When it comes to producing quality PCs, Acer is second to no one. Acer Aspire E1-510 carries the same DNA, featuring a durable plastic case and a 4-cell Li-Ion with extended life capacity—if you are in an area where electricity is an issue, you might want to stick with this product.
The practical yet stylish notebook is loaded with powerful and useful features like multimedia tools and convenient connectivity features‎‎.‎‎ This is a stylish notebook which comes with 15.6 inch, HD LED Backlit display‎‎,‎‎ powered by Intel Pentium processor with Linux OS to provide a faster and user friendly experience‎‎.‎‎ It has Intel HD Graphics that deliver ultimate graphics needed for gaming‎‎,‎‎ 500GB Hard disk drive also provides ample space for storage‎‎,‎‎ HDMI and USB 3.0 ports for faster data transfer.‎‎
Key Specifications
  • Linux OS (Windows 8.1 & 7 OS Compatible)
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • 500GB Hard Drive
  • Intel Celeron Processor
  • 15.6 Inch, Active Matrix TFT Color LCD
  • 4-cell Li-Ion Battery
  • DVD RW Optical Drive
  • Inbuilt Wireless Adapter
The researcher friendly laptop is on sale for ₦53,500 online and ₦71,500 in most shops offline. See full product specifications and pricing.

Acer V5-123 Mini Laptop (₦49,900) — Buy Online

If you think the products listed above are a little above your budget and you don’t mind sacrificing the option of listening to another Davido’s single, you can bite the bullet and go with an Acer mini laptop without a CD Drive.
The Aspire V5 Series puts inspiring performance in a thin and light form. A choice of elegant views adds to the charm. Breathe life into your entertainment and enjoy hands-on control with Acer Aspire V5-123. Its built-in speakers sweeten the deal with splendid sound. The laptop features;11.6-Inch WXGA HD, AMD Radeon trade; HD display with 2GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive which provides enough space for you to store your files, data, photos, and music. You can connect to the world wherever you are with your laptop, the WiFi enables you to browse and surf the web, you can also transfer data to other devices via bluetooth. This laptop comes with a free mouse, bag and headset.
Key Specifications:
  • Windows 8.1 OS
  • 2GB RAM
  • 500GB Hard Drive
  • 11.6-Inch WXGA HD Display
  • Intel HD Graphics
  • Inbuilt WiFi 802.11 bgn Adapter
Although Acer Aspire V5-123 has no CD Drive, you can still connect a CD Drive via the USB port. Saving over ₦10,000 compared to other products listed above. Purchase or see more about this product on its product page.

Ello vows never to be like Facebook and makes its ad-free promise a legal one

Ebenezer Obasi
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0
Ello vows never to be like Facebook and makes its ad-free promise a legal one

It’s one thing to say your social network will never be like Facebook, it’s another to enshrine that promise in legal documents. Ello, a social site whose claim to fame is an anti-ad manifesto, is doing just that by filing to become a public benefit corporation.

A benefit corporation is a company that chooses to be socially conscious of how its decisions affect not just shareholders or investors, but also its customers, employees, and the environment. Ello won’t get any tax benefits for being a do-good social network, but the charter the company filed prevents current and future investors and owners from ever profiting from ads or user data.

“In other words, Ello exists for your benefit, and will never show ads or sell user data,” Ello founder Paul Budnitz wrote in a Thursday Ello post.

Ello is growing rapidly, ballooning to 1 million members in the last two months, according to Wired. Another 3 million are waiting to be let in. The network also announced that it raised $5.5 million in venture capital, but its investors had to sign the ad-free charter, which you can read in full here.

So if ads are off the table forever, how will the social network make money? Budnitz plans to model Ello after the most successful company in the world: Apple.

“We will make money, and we are a business, and we have been really open about that since the beginning,” Budnitz told Inc. in an interview earlier this month. “Our model is based on a very successful business model that has been applied to all kinds of other things except social networking, which is the iPhone model. In its most basic form, Ello will be fun and free to use. But after that there are features that some groups want really badly—for example one of the most requested features is the ability to control multiple accounts from a single log in. We might charge a dollar for that. It would be like the App Store.”

That sounds good, but it’s not exactly similar to how Apple makes money. Apple’s model is to sell you expensive hardware at a comfortable profit margin, and the software and services—and even the App Store—enhance the experience to make you want to buy the hardware. Apple wouldn’t give you a basic iPhone for free and then upcharge you to add more features that you want really badly. If you wanted features Apple isn’t providing, you’d probably go buy a different phone.

Anyway, Ello is technically still a beta network that has tons of ideas about features to add but isn’t fully built out yet. Users are dying for a “like” or “favorite” button, which Budnitz says is coming, but don’t expect the feature to be like Facebook’s or Twitter’s. Budnitz in an Ello post earlier this month recommended people use the bread emoji to signify a nod or thumbs up. It’s a little unconventional, but, hey—that’s Ello.

In the meantime, the network has added a notification center, blocking and muting functions, and is working on better search, an NSFW mode, sound and video embeds, and a couple much-needed apps. Ello might never be as big as Facebook, but if it keeps working to woo skeptics, it might just be a viable alternative.

Originally posted on TechHive

Apple Pay’s Could Emulate Bluetooth File Share and Enable Phone-to-Phone Payments

Ebenezer Obasi
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0
Apple Pay’s Could Emulate Bluetooth File Share and Enable Phone-to-Phone Payments

The launch of Apple Pay this week is giving many people their first taste of NFC payment technology, which allows them to buy things in a store by bringing an iPhone 6 close to a compatible terminal.

But the NFC standard also allows payments to be made directly between smartphones. Apple and its competitors, such as Google Wallet, don’t offer support for that part of the standard, but the technology already exists inside many of today’s NFC-equipped phones and could one day allow retailers to accept NFC payment using smartphones. It would also be technically possible for individuals to exchange money with their friends through the same system.

The NFC standard defines three modes for the technology.

The first, and most simple, is for reading small snippets of information such as phone numbers or Web addresses from wireless tags. The second, used by Apple Pay and Google Wallet, involves the phone emulating an NFC payment card. The third allows the NFC chip to function as a card reader.

It’s this third mode, if enabled by Apple or Google, that would allow a smartphone to accept payments.

Smartphone payment systems are already common in some countries. Perhaps the most famous and recognizable is the Square system, which uses a small magnetic stripe reader that plugs into a phone’s headphone jack. In Europe, some companies offer card readers for more secure chip-based payment cards, but nothing exists yet for NFC.

“We’ve been working on it at Mastercard for a little while,” said James Anderson, the company’s senior vice president of emerging payments. “We’re interested in turning every phone into a payment acceptance device.”

But while many of the NFC chips used in smartphones support it, not every phone could necessarily be used to accept payments.

There are a number of requirements for NFC payments, such as the minimum and maximum distance over which the NFC transaction can take place and the speed with which it happens. Terminal manufacturers design for these requirements, but not all smartphones have necessarily been built with these in mind.

“There may be situations in which the two devices may technically be capable of exchanging data for payment, but may not be able to achieve the read ranges and/or response times required for them to be certified as contactless payment capable,” said Sam Shrauger, senior vice president of digital solutions at Visa.

For now, the industry is watching closely to see consumer reaction to Apple Pay. If it takes off, competitors such as Google would probably step up their offerings and the NFC payments field would become a lot more competitive. That might bring new features such as phone-to-phone payments into play.

US Court Officially bans Aereo from streaming live TV to devices

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US Court Officially bans Aereo from streaming live TV to devices

Aereo can no longer relay TV shows to its customers using its teeny-tiny antennas (for now, that is), according to US District Judge Alison Nathan. 

It’s been a while since the Supreme Court decided that the service violates the law by “transmitting performances of copyrighted work to the public,” but it’s only now that a judge has issued a temporary ban order. For those who’ve forgotten what it is: Aereo used to stream live or nearly-live programming to its subscribers’ phones, laptops or tablets for $8 a month.
Each customer is assigned a minuscule antenna of his own (pictured above), which captures shows from the airwaves, as well as a DVR that stores recordings for a later time. Now, though, it’s no longer allowed to beam on-air TV shows to people’s devices anymore. Even worse, Judge Nathan has refused to acknowledge it as a cable service, which means it can’t reinvent itself as one — even if it’s now willing to pay those licensing fees.

Wondering what’s next for Aereo? Well, the jury’s still out on whether it can record and store programs to be aired at a later time. The judge didn’t grant TV networks their request to stop the company from doing so, since they didn’t include it as part of their demands when they first filed a lawsuit. She’s currently investigating whether she should grant that request, though — and whether to order a final, permanent ban against Aereo. If you want to know more about the temporary injunction, prepare to pore over 17 pages of legalese before checking out the official court documents.

[Image credit: AP] SOURCE: Scotusblog, Bloomberg, Hollywood Reporter,Injunction (Scribd) Via Engadget.

Job Vacancy: Senior Procurement Manager, Nexius, Inc.

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Job Vacancy: Senior Procurement Manager, Nexius, Inc.

Are you looking to work from the comfort of your home? End-to-end wireless services and software solutions company Nexius is looking for honest applicants with excellent communication skills to work as senior procurement manager.

The position is open to everyone residing in US and not limited to any city. Since it’s a virtual office, you have the option to work from home or anywhere you are comfortable.

Job description

Nexius is the leader in delivering end-to-end wireless services and software solutions to industries worldwide. The company’s ~1000 dedicated professionals serve as subject matter experts, providing Technology Strategy, Network Services, and Software Solutions to many of today’s leading organizations. Nexius closely collaborates with their customers to deliver the strategic insight, proven experience, and practical knowledge necessary to transform their business through wireless.

Nexius is on a steady path of growth in the U.S. and globally, ranking as the 103rd fastest growing business in America by Entrepreneur Magazine and in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and the Inc. 5000 lists. Headquartered in Allen, Texas, Nexius has offices in Washington DC, Seattle, Dallas, Puerto Rico, Dubai, London, Sao Paulo, Mexico and Argentina.

Senior Procurement Manager

We are hiring a Senior Procurement Manager. This role will be part of the Corporate Operations team. While our corporate headquarters is based in Allen, TX, we are willing to consider virtual work for the best-qualified candidate.

Responsibilities:

  • Develops and implements an efficient, effective strategic sourcing, procurement and distribution function in support of the strategic and operational objectives of the company.
  • Develops and implements a compliance program and regulations to prevent fraud and ensure adherence to best practices in any procurement activities.
  • Lead the Procurement organization and drive sourcing business objectives and strategic initiatives, with focus on market project related services procurement activities.
  • Manage activities related to strategic and tactical purchasing for services, suppliers/GCs.
  • Develop and manage the Procurement including setting targets and monitoring performance
  • Collaborate with other Supply Chain functions to improve organizational, system and process efficiency
  • Coordinate with planners & deployment primes from regional markets to forecast demand and create supply plans that ensure availability of services needed, including but not limited to Construction, Site Acquisition, Installation, A&E, etc.
  • Ability to lead complex negotiations and secure the best price & commercial terms for the company (subcontractors and material vendors).
  • Monitor supplier performance to assess ability to meet quality and delivery requirements.
  • Implement new or improve the existing Purchasing processes.
  • Optimize the supply base and drive supplier spend consolidation where applicable
  • Develop material/services costs forecasts or standard cost lists.
  • Develop a supplier engagement model to select, evaluate and manage suppliers.
  • Gather and analyze supplier performance data & metrics.
  • Build Supplier Relationships at a senior level to help the company’s purchasing & negotiation position. Work closely with key suppliers on cost reduction and other value add programs
  • Document Procurement processes such as workflows.
  • Ensures the Procurement team has the tools, processes, skillsets and training to successfully perform procurement activities.

Skills:

  • Excellent communication skills, negotiations , and ability to drive a win-win deal.
  • Sound Managerial skills including the ability to lead a team.
  • Continuously looks for ways to improve processes and business practices.
  • Possesses entrepreneurial qualities.
  • Stress tolerant and decisive.
  • Able to collaborate , honest, trustworthy, and transparent

Experience:

  • Experience leading the development and implementation of strategic procurement plans including purchasing, sourcing and vendor selection. Best if this experience is in the Telecom industry – network deployment.
  • Experience in leading teams of up to 7 people or more
  • Established relationships/contacts with General Contractors (GCs) in the telecom services space nationwide or in specific markets is a huge asset.

To apply for the job, you will have to sign up on Nexius job portal. View job posting on Nexius website.

Amazon Takes $170 Million Hit on Fire Phone

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Amazon Takes $170 Million Hit on Fire Phone

In case you didn’t know, here’s the crazy thing about Amazon: it isn’t really known for turning a profit. Just think about that for a second. The company that wants to sell you everything, get it to you by any means necessary and serves as the backbone for a considerable chunk of the internet doesn’t usually make money at the end of the day. And even with that financial truth entered into the record, people — from Wall Street types to armchair prognosticators — cheer whenever Amazon avoids losing as much money in a quarter as they expect it to. Today is not one of those days.

Amazon’s Q3 results dropped not too long ago, and it packs some big numbers. While the Everything Store raked in $20.58 billion in revenue (which is more than what most small countries make in a year) it just wasn’t enough to please those pesky shareholders — the company’s stock price is down over 10 percent in after-hours trading. Amazon’s business model is the epitome of spending money to make money, except what operating profits they do post are pretty meager and big losses like today’s (think $437 million) aren’t rare. In fairness, this quarter has been a really busy one for the folks in Seattle. After all, Amazon snapped up Twitch for a billion dollars, expanded its same-day delivery service in six cities across the United States, and launched a phone that no one actually seems to want (if you’re reading, Bezos, we’d still like hard sales numbers for that thing). The question is, how much longer can Amazon afford to spend and spend and acquire and expand and develop before shareholders — the people who back the company with their own money — decide that Amazon’s not going where they want it to?

Update: So our wishes for firm Fire Phone sales numbers haven’t been answered, but we’ve now got a better idea of how it’s doing thanks to the company’s CFO. During the company’s earnings conference call, Amazon’s Tom Szkutak said it took a $170 million hit “primarily related to Fire phone inventory valuation and supplier commitment costs.” Yikes.

Via Engadgets

TestFlight Beta Testing Goes Live For All iOS Developers

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TestFlight Beta Testing Goes Live For All iOS Developers

Apple has pushed its TestFlight Beta testing service live for everyone, the company revealed on its developer news portal today. Registered developers can now invite up to 1,000 beta testers to try out their iOS apps, using emailed invitations sent via the iTunes Connect portal. TestFlight, the beta testing service Apple acquired sometime within the last year, allows developers to build teams to try out software before it launches, and report back bugs in order to prepare apps for a public launch.

TestFlight had still been usable by devs between Apple’s acquisition of the service and now, but this marks the completion of Apple’s transition of the service to a built-in part of its developer tools. Now, TestFlight invites are distributed via iTunes Connect, as mentioned, and a dedicated TestFlight app provides the central resource for testers in terms of providing feedback and getting new builds as they’re released by developers, instead of the web portal TestFlight used pre-acquisition.

Once external testers are invited to TestFlight, they’ll receive a link to download the official app from the App Store. There’s no longer any need to install provisioning profiles on tester devices with this shift, and there’s no need to for users to manually find and send their device’s UDID to participate. The official app will also send notifications when new builds of an app they’re testing is available, which is much more convenient than getting an email, as was the case before.

To make an app available for the 1,000 external testers that this launch enables, an app has to pass a Beta App Review, which means it’s subject to the same App Store Review Guidelines that apply to final releases. New versions with big changes require a new review before being pushed to testers, and developers can test up to 10 apps at a time, both internally (which requires no review approval, and which is available to 25 admin or tech level team members in iTunes Connect) and externally.

Apple has shared more about how to get started with TestFlight here, and developers who are looking to get more help can head over to the App Review team contact page (developer account and login required).

The new TestFlight offers a lot of convenience features that should make it easier for developers to gather feedback from actual users, instead of just tech-savvy early adopters, but that review requirement might add some time to how fast builds can go out. At any rate, it’s nice to see wider beta testing options finally built directly into the platform.

Video: Astrobotic Technology to Land a Robot on the Moon and Send Live Video Back to Earth

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Video: Astrobotic Technology to Land a Robot on the Moon and Send Live Video Back to Earth

Astrobotic Technology, a private technology company, is planning to land a robot on the moon.

“Whether men have reached the moon” has long been kept to bed as researchers compete to earn a $30 million fortune from Google to beam video back from the moon.

A researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, Daniel Shafrir, and his team want to do something incredible: they want to send a rover to the moon and then let us, the Earthlings, control it and look out of its stereoscopic cameras as it tumbles around that barren alien rock. The researchers are working to win a $30 million prize from Google to beam video back from the moon.

The team, called Astrobotic Technology, has to complete the Google Lunar XPrize, a mission to land a robot on the moon and send live video back to Earth while moving it at least 1,600 feet. As you can imagine, this is harder than it sounds, given that they have to help the robot escape Earth’s orbit.

Shafrir, game designer Ben Boesel, and astronomer Dan Arnett are working together to connect the robot to an Oculus Rift which, in turn, would control the robot. The team said they hope to let children worldwide see what “only 12 other people” have seen on Earth. They will build their lunar lander and fire their little robot, Andy, after Andrew Carnegie, into the stratosphere to pull this off.

PlayStation 4 Update Coming Next Week With ‘Share Play’ Feature

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PlayStation 4 Update Coming Next Week With ‘Share Play’ Feature

PlayStation 4 update: Back in August, Sony started teasing a new feature they call “Share Play.”. Though we’re still waiting to see just how well it works, the idea itself is wonderful: once enabled, you can let your friends play your games with you (or by themselves, even) from across the vast Interwebs without them owning a copy of the game.

Up until now, Sony was pretty vague about when this feature would launch, noting only that it was coming “this fall.” Thanks to a quiet announcement on Twitter, however, we’ve now got a date: October 28th.

PS4’s next software update, Masamune, will be available on 10/28. Includes Share Play, USB Music player, and more! pic.twitter.com/FjfgcY91Ki
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) October 23, 2014

As the tweet above mentions, an update that Sony expects to ship on 10/28 will include Share Play, along with the ability to play music (MP3, MP4, M4A, and, for some crazy reason, 3GP) off of a USB drive while playing a game.

As for the “and more” that leaves that tweet oh-so open ended, the update also brings the long-awaited YouTube app, a better voice command system, and the ability to tweak the background color of your PS4’s homescreen.

While Share Play sounds incredible, there’s a footnote or two that Sony seems to be downplaying a bit that might make it a bit less incredible. For example: sony has previously confirmed that Share Play sessions are limited to 60 minute chunks — so don’t expect to be able to blast through an entire game on a buddy’s remote console without shelling out for your own copy eventually.

On the upside, the feature should work with all PS4 games right out of the gate — so it’s not something that’ll only work on a title-by-title basis.

Via TechCrunch

You can now Add Friends by Username in Telegram Messaging App

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You can now Add Friends by Username in Telegram Messaging App

The Telegram Messaging App, the security-focused messaging app, now lets you add friends without necessarily knowing their phone number (see the step-by-step guide on how to add a username in Telegram). An update to the iOS and Android apps today has introduced the option to register a a username, although all users must still bind their account to a phone number.

The advantage of a username is that you can share your contact details for Telegram without revealing your phone number, thus safeguarding some level of privacy.

Usernames must be a minimum of five characters — so you can’t make up for losing out on a one-letter Twitter handle here — and can contain letters, numbers and underscores.

You are also free to change your alias, so long as the new one is not already taken.

That’s not quite all from this Telegram update. The company has also taken a leaf out of Snapchat’s book with a new feature that lets users ‘Tap and Hold to View’ photos, video and voice messages that are sent with a self-destructing timer. Prior to this update, Telegram users had to tap on media to load it.

Importantly, Telegram has now amended said self-destructing timer for media so that it only begins once the content has been opened. That means that photos, videos, etc do not self-destruct before being read.

Founded by the brothers behind Russian social network VK, Telegram launched in October 2013 with a promise to make mobile messaging more secure. The service gained some serious momentum after Facebook agree to buy WhatsApp, when it clocked 8 million downloads in a matter of days, primarily from users concerned with Facebook’s approach to user data.

Earlier this year, Telegram revealed that it has 35 million monthly active users, 15 million of whom use it daily. Co-founder Pavel Durov confirmed to TechCrunch that, as of March 2014, more than 18 billion messages were received by users of the service per month.

Those stats are far smaller than WhatsApp — which has over half a billion monthly users — and others, but they are impressive for such a new entrant in the messaging space.

New Microsoft adapter lets Xbox One’s Kinect play nice with PCs

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New Microsoft adapter lets Xbox One’s Kinect play nice with PCs
Xbox One owners can attach their Kinect motion sensors to Windows PCs and tablets thanks to a new adapter introduced by Microsoft.

The new $49.99 adapter is specific to Kinect sensors built for Xbox One, and it plugs into the USB 3.0 port of Windows 8 PCs. Microsoft already sold a separate $199.99 Kinect for Windows v2 motion sensor, which plugs directly into PCs without the need for an adapter.

There will be no difference in the performance of the Kinect sensors, Microsoft said.

Kinect sensors can recognize movement and gestures, which then allows users to participate in games. It can do much more for PCs than a simple webcam-style monitor. Kinect sensors, for example, can work with Windows applications like Microsoft’s 3D Builder, which allows the scanning of 3D objects.

Software developers are working on various PC applications that take advantage of Kinect sensors, which are also used in engineering, design, and healthcare applications.

To further fuel developer interest, Microsoft on Wednesday also released the Kinect SDK 2.0, which is available for download. It is an update from the June preview and has more than 200 updates and improvements.

With SDK 2.0, “developers can commercially deploy Kinect apps in the Windows Store for the first time,” Microsoft said.

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