We participate in marketing programs, our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions. To find out more, please visit our Term and Conditions page.
We participate in marketing programs, our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions. To find out more, please visit our Term and Conditions page.
Zynga plans to buy U.K.-based game developer NaturalMotion for about $527 million while cutting 15 percent of its own workforce.
The San Francisco-based Internet game company said it is buying NaturalMotion for hit games including CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja. It will pay $391 million in cash, plus about 39.8 million shares, according to a regulatory filing Thursday.
Zynga’s shares closed Thursday at $3.56, making the shares worth about $142 million.
Zynga will also cut 314 employees to help reduce costs and focus its work, CEO Don Mattrick wrote in a blog post. The company “wanted to create strong, dedicated teams that could succeed at the right size in relation to 2014 and beyond,” he wrote.
Zynga, founded in 2007, made its name with the casual Internet games Farmville and Words With Friends and went public in 2011. But last July, Zynga said it had lost almost half its daily game players and would get “back to basics.” Mattrick replaced founder Mark Pincus as CEO, though Pincus remains chairman. A layoff announced last June affected 520 employees.
Also on Thursday, Zynga reported revenue of $176 million for the fourth quarter of last year, down from $311 million in the same quarter a year earlier. That resulted in a loss of about $25 million, or $0.03 per share. The company narrowed its loss from nearly $37 million a year earlier.
Privately held NaturalMotion is based in Oxford, England, and has offices in London and San Francisco.
Have your friends recently texted you about spam originating from your Yahoo Mail account? If so, that may be because you (and many of your friends) were hacked.
Yahoo acknowledged Thursday that attackers now own an undisclosed number of usernames and passwords to Yahoo Mail accounts. In a blog post, Jay Rossiter, the senior vice president in charge of Yahoo’s platforms and personalization products, wrote that the attackers had most likely hacked an external, third-party database and obtained the information there.
“We regret this has happened and want to assure our users that we take the security of their data very seriously,” Rossiter wrote.
Yahoo did not say how many accounts had been compromised, nor when the attacks had taken place. However, the company says it began notifying users that the attacks had taken place, and had begun using second sign-in verification to allow users to re-secure their accounts. Users who have been affected, unsurprisingly, will be asked to change their password, and may receive an SMS text to that effect, Yahoo said.
Yahoo said that it was working with federal law enforcement to find the culprits and would take further precautions to prevent this from happening again.
Finally, Rossiter stated the obvious: “In addition to adopting better password practices by changing your password regularly and using different variations of symbols and characters, users should never use the same password on multiple sites or services,” he wrote. “Using the same password on multiple sites or services makes users particularly vulnerable to these types of attacks.”
In December, Yahoo Mail went down for several days, stranding about 1 million users of the service without email—or word from the company. While the outage began on Monday, it was Friday before CEO Marissa Mayer apologized on behalf of the company.
However, this week Mayer touted Yahoo Mail and services like Flickr as “a strong foundation for revenue growth,” even as that revenue fell by 6 percent compared with a year ago.
Ericsson a popular telecom operator in Nigeria, the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators and the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies has thrown the door wide open to job seekers who are searching for a secured and reliable job offer.
The Job seeker within Nigeria must meet the requirements stated below to earn a chance to work with Ericsson Nigeria as Sourcing Category Manager Job stage 6.
Job Details
Req ID: 5541
Job Summary
The Sourcing Category Manager shall develop cost effective Ericsson wide category strategies that are based on cross-functional requirements and business needs in both Regions and Business Units. The Category Manager is accountable for supplier business intelligence, benchmarking practice and category market knowledge, establishing a cost effective and competitive market place that optimizes Ericsson’s supplier business. The role is also responsible for the Preferred Supplier List and internal compliance to it. Through requirement alignment and opportunities from Sourcing and stakeholders, sustainable solutions fulfilling stakeholder requirements, policies, laws and regulations shall be secured.
Responsibilities & Tasks:
Define and implement cross-functional strategies
Define and secure implementation of a preferred supplier list
Define and implement applicable category targets
Create cost effective and sustainable category business solutions
Optimize category team performance
Develop the category business model and define best practices
Position Qualification
Core Competences
Leading and supervising
Working with people
Relating and networking
Persuading and influencing
Analyzing
Adapting and responding to change
Behavioral Competences
Commercial Acumen & Skills
Communication Skills
Ericsson portfolio knowledge
Facilitate diversity and awareness
Financial acumen and skills
Fundamental Leadership Competence
Knowledge sharing and collaborative skills
Leadership through cross functional networks
Market insight
Presentation skills
Team working skills
Minimum Qualififcation & Experience Requirements
At least 5 years of relevant experience
A first academic degree or equivalent qualification
Preferred Qualification & Experience Requirements
Business understanding
Change and Improvement Management Skills
Local laws and Regulation knowledge
Negotiation and argumentation skills
Sourcing practice, process and strategy knowledge
Note: Primary country and city: Nigeria (NG) || Other/Not Applicable || Lagos || SalesStratMkt&ComMgtApply Now or View Ericsson’s Profile
Techcrunch – Dell continues making bets on Android in its computing lineup with a new $129 device that brings Google’s mobile OS to any TV or display with HDMI input. The new stick runs Android Jelly Bean, also supports MHL connections (mobile high-def) and offers Bluetooth and mini USB for mouse, keyboard and other device connectivity.
In addition to onboard connectivity for Bluetooth, the new Dell Wyse Cloud Connect also offers 802.11n dual-band Wi-Fi and the standard Google Play store for Android software. It’s an enterprise and business focused device, however, and also has Dell’s Wyse PocketCloud software preloaded to help it act as a virtual terminal for remote computers.
This is, in effect, supposed to be the long-vaunted and sought-after thin client PC you can carry with you in your pocket that still manages to provide access to all your files, software and communications back home. Of course, that doesn’t mean it can’t also provide entertainment options to business travellers, since it’s capable of full HD output and should be able to easily run Netflix’s Android app.
That “multi-core” Cortext-A9 ARM SoC might not be the most muscular mobile processor in the world, but Dell does specifically tout its HD and 3D graphics abilities in its specs sheet. It has 8GB of onboard storage, and 1GB of RAM, plus a micro SD slot that supports up to 72GB of additional space.
Based solely on surface impressions, you could do far worse in a pocket computer for those gruelling weeks on the road if you’re a frequent business traveler. It’s interesting to see Dell move in this direction, effectively taking a page out of the playbook of devices like the Ouya and the Gamestick but cutting out all the nonsense and painting it with a business brush.
Weirdly, more than anything else over the past half decade at least, this makes me want a Dell computer. Go figure.
Motorola Mobility is being sold to Lenovo, in a deal worth $2.91B. Google is divesting itself of the handset division it purchased for $12.5B in 2011, but it will keep some of the assets — including patents.
“Google will maintain ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, including current patent applications and invention disclosures,” says Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside. “As part of its ongoing relationship with Google, Lenovo will receive a license to this rich portfolio of patents and other intellectual property. Additionally Lenovo will receive over 2,000 patent assets, as well as the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark portfolio.”
When Google purchased Motorola Mobility, much of the discussion swirled around whether it was buying it simply to own a hardware pipeline on which to deliver its Android juice — or whether it wanted patents for protection. The answer, as is typical, lay somewhere in the middle. Though the Motorola patents never turned out to by incredibly effective winning solo battles against Google’s patent enemies, they did work as a part of a larger tactic which has seen Google aligning itself via cross-licensing with OEMs like Samsung.
One segment of the statement today by Woodside was interesting:
Since being acquired by Google in 2012, Motorola has transformed itself, focusing on solving real consumer problems and providing amazing experiences built on a foundation of pure Android. The result has been Moto X, Moto G, and a reinvigorated Droid line. Together, these devices have won over consumers and critics alike and helped re-establish the Motorola brand around the world.
Indeed, Google’s purchase and investments in Motorola did raise the flagging manufacturer’s profile significantly over the intervening years. They have several well-received smartphones on the market and have made a lot of noise about technology innovations in wearable computing and DARPA-think-tank-director hires.
TechCrunch – Yesterday Naoki Hiroshima, an Echofon developer, posted an article about how he lost his extremely short Twitter handle @N in an extortion scheme. Hackers compromised his GoDaddy account with social engineering (calling and lying to an account rep), gaining access to his email on a personal domain.
They said that they gained access via a similar call to PayPal, who the hacker claimed gave them the last 4 digits of Hiroshima’s credit card. They then used that CC info to convince GoDaddy that they were the owner of the domain, and reset his login information.
They used that data to leverage Hiroshima into giving them — under duress — his low-character-count Twitter user name @N. This, it turns out, was the point of the entire affair from the beginning.
PayPal has since investigated and claims that it never gave out Hiroshima’s credit card number or any other personal information — though it does acknowledge there was an attempt to get the info. So, that leaves a question about whether the hacker was lying about where it got Hiroshima’s card numbers — but it doesn’t change the fact that the hack happened.
And it leaves an even bigger question. The hack is pretty well documented and it appears evident that the end result was fairly straightforward extortion. So why hasn’t Twitter simply given Hiroshima his @N username back?
Twitter, for its part, will only tell us that it is still investigating the matter.
We spoke to Hiroshima about the ordeal, and exactly how it went down. He notes that it’s highly improbable for the hacker to have gained access to his account without credit card numbers somehow, and that they claim it was via PayPal. He also says that he feels he did everything normally expected to prevent this kind of thing, but that the methods used by the hackers side-stepped any additional efforts he might have taken like two-factor authentication.
“[Two factor authentication] can’t prevent this from happening again,” says Hiroshima. “GoDaddy allowed the guy to reset everything over the phone. As long as a company only uses the last 4 digits of a [credit card] to verify [identity], this will keep happening. They should ask multiple questions.”
GoDaddy has said that it is investigating but has not responded to a request for further comment.
The vector for the attack, in the end, was the weakest link in many security procedures: people. A well documented attack on Wired writer Mat Honan last year was predicated with relatively similar tactics. The target of Honan’s attack was also a low-character Twitter account.
The question about what can be done to improve security in these matters is a long-running one. There have been some changes like two-factor authentication being offered by more vendors — but sloppy procedures like allowing account resets with credit-card numbers (especially partial ones!) remain commonplace.
And the fact is that many of these ‘hacks’ don’t take any special technical knowledge. They just require a methodical and bold operator that is willing to pick up the phone and follow a script.
Hiroshima also notes that many of these systems are designed to make it easy to change things by phone, but nearly impossible to revert them afterwards.
“They should design the system so that reverting should be easier than changing,” Hiroshima says. “That the attacker changed something was something that can happen, the problem is, i couldn’t revert the change. If someone updated something and someone else said “no” immediately after, what’s the chance of the latter guy is the attacker?”
As far as why Hiroshima’s Twitter account hasn’t simply been ‘given back’ to him — the answer likely lies in the fact that he felt so threatened by the hacker’s access to his accounts that he ‘gave’ the account over willingly. Had he held out and waited for them to cause more damage or take over the account by main force or another feat of customer service manipulation — it would have been a much simpler matter. It would have been stolen and could be returned.
Now, because the account was ‘transferred’, it’s a much murkier affair and Twitter will likely have to do a more due diligence before it takes any action. So Hiroshima will probably get @N back, but it will take a bit.
It’s worth noting that Twitter appears to have banned the @N account at the time of this writing, so the gears are turning.
Techcrunch – TechCrunch has confirmed reports that Lenovo is buying Motorola Mobility from Google. This is the division within Google that the company purchased in 2011 for $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility will go to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.
Of that $2.91 billion, $1.41 billion will be paid at the close of the deal. $660 million will be comprised of US cash and $750 million in Lenovo ordinary shares. The remaining $1.5 billion will be paid in the form of a three-year promissory note. Google will maintain ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio. Lenovo will still receive 2,000 patent assets and the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark.
According to a separate report published by Reuters, Lenovo is being advised by Credit Suisse Group while Lazard Ltd advised Google on the transaction.
“As part of Lenovo, Motorola Mobility will have a rapid path to achieving our goal of reaching the next 100 million people with the mobile Internet. With the recent launches of Moto X and Moto G, we have tremendous momentum right now and Lenovo’s hardware expertise and global reach will only help to accelerate this,” said Dennis Woodside, CEO, Motorola Mobility, in a released statement.
According to our source, Google wanted to dump the asset for some time. The company had to hold off selling the division for tax reasons.
Motorola Mobility’s performance has yet to live up to its purchase price. Since Motorola split and its consumer division went to Google, it has been a constant source of red ink. Motorola lost quite a lot of money: $248 million in the last quarter alone. Google sums this well, noting that the loss was “-21% of Motorola Mobile segment revenues.” Motorola lost $192 million in the year-ago quarter, so the trend here isn’t positive.
Google previously sold off the cable box division of Motorola Mobility for $2.4 billion.
This comes just weeks after Google purchased the hot hardware startup Nest. Since then, Nest’s role in the budding conglomerate that Google is turning into has been widely speculated about. With Motorola gone, Nest’s superstar team that includes many former Apple engineers seemingly has an empty playground.
It seems this complete’s Lenovo’s quest for an established cell phone business. It was rumored back in October that the company submitted a bid for BlackBerry. That deal clearly didn’t pan out.
Simply buying its way to the top worked for Lenovo in the past. In 2005 Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal computer division for $1.25 billion. That purchase alone caused Lenovo to be the world’s third-largest computer maker. But, using the established brand, Lenovo scaled the PC division to become the largest shipper of PCs in the world. In the last months of 2013 Lenovo overtook HP.
Just last week, Lenovo announced a plan to buy IBM’s x86 server business for $2.3 billion.
As the dust settles on this deal, it’s clear that Google took a large loss on its venture with Motorola Mobility. Google acquired an established brand with a vast portfolio of patents, a mature distribution system and a knowledgeable manufacturing arm. Even after pouring money and resources into the historic American brand, Google couldn’t make lemonade with Motorola. Maybe Lenovo, the now-leader in personal computers, will have better luck.
The recent series of internet modem dominant in West Africa and South Asia is the Huawei E303 Data Card. The data card has quickly being adopted by network service providers in those countries due to it’s high speed HSDPA/3G internet features.
Taking a closer look at your brand new data card will reveal that the IMEI is somewhat similar 86************ which contrasts with the 35*********** IMEI found on the older internet modems. This contrast is the major reason why you cannot calculate your unlock code using Universal MasterCode Calculator, old DC-Unlocker or any of the code unlocker you have used in the past.
In this tutorial I will walk you through the steps on how to unlock any of the recent internet modem, including MTN NG, Airtel NG, Huawei E303 Glo Bolt, Airtel E173 and Etisalat internet modem using DC-Unlocker. Huawei E303 Glo Bolt Internet Modem can be unlocked for free using this method.
Things you will Need
To begin the process of your modem unlocking, you will need the following items:
A working PC of course, with internet facility.
DC-Unlocker Client Version 1.00.1084 or later – Download now.
An account on DC-Unclocker with at least 4 credits.
After you have downloaded DC-Unlocker on your computer. You need to buy unlocking credits from their website. However, before purchasing unlocking credits, you need to confirm the number of credits required to unlock each modem.Unlocking E303 data cards should cost you 4 credits, but in the case of other models, you can check here to confirm the amount of credit needed to unlock them.
Unlocking Huawei E303 Data Cards
If everything is set, connect your USB Modem with the supported sim card. Allow the dashboard installation.
Disconnect to the internet and plug your USB Modem with a different provider SIM. And insert your modem to the USB port.
After some seconds, you should see a popup window requesting for the unlock code. Click the Cancel Button and exit the modem dashboard.
Locate and install dc-unlocker_client-1.00.1084.exe on your computer. Next, find the icon on your desktop and run as administrator.
Choose what “manufacturer” that your modem is. i.e. Huawei Modems
Click the magnifying glass, and it will search for plugged USB modems.
Once the modem is detected, Click on Server and enter your account details.
Go to Unlocking menu, and click on Do Job.
Wait till the unlocker program says that, unlock is successfully done.
Of course, you can use this method to unlock ZTE modems, all Etisalat, Glo, Airtel and MTN modems, just follow similar steps to the ones above.
Payment Worries for Nigerians
The payment processors available in DC-Unlocker’s are currently not supported in Nigeria and most countries. However, the company has dealers in over 50 different countries worldwide. The official dealer in Nigeria is Gurutech and charges N2,500 for DC-Unlocker credits.
If you have no intention of going through the so many long process involved in modem unlocking, or you cannot afford the N2,500 price tag from the Nigerian dealer. You can sit back and lets do the job for you. Click here for more details.
Before now, the Huawei E303 Glo Bolt Internet Modem has been an ugly nightmare for Nigerian geeks. I happened to be a victim of this nightmare, but somehow, I found an escape route. You might have wondered why Glo Bolt Modem cannot be unlocked using code unlockers or the Huawei E303 unclocking I tips posted earlier. The reason is because Glo Bolt modems has been blocked by either its manufactures or Glo themselves. When a user enters a wrong unlock code in a particular modem over ten times, the modem is blocked and can no longer accept SIM cards outside the one it was branded for, this is the exact state of Glo Bolt modems.
At some point, the possibility of unblocking or re-branding the Glo Bolt modem looks hopeless, but thanks to our team’s curiosity, we now have a solution to Unblock Huawei E303 Glo Bolt Internet Modem using firmware updater. It is free and easy to follow steps.
Requirements to Unlock Huawei E303 Glo Bolt Modem
A PC with internet access (preferably not from a modem).
Uninterrupted power supply (Your devices cannot be interrupted throughout the process). If you are using a laptop, it is recommend you charge your battery to the brim.
Unblocking your Huawei E303 Glo Bolt Modem
Run the Universal Master Code Calculator you have downloaded earlier. Put your IMlEI and hit the Calculate button. Copy the Flash code into somewhere save. We will use it as a password at some point in this tutorial.
Universal MasterCode Tool
Next, extract the contents of the HUAWEI E303 Firmware Update into a folder. Make sure the modem is connected and it has been installed with the SIM card inside it. Now exit the dashboard tray if it’s open and run E303SUpdate_21.157.31.00.850.B757.exe, put the Flash code you got earlier from the Universal Master Code Calculator when it prompt for password.
In less than 3 mins, you will have a brand new modem at your disposal 🙂 Just insert any SIM and enjoy permanent freedom. You can also download a new modem dashboard here.
Here is something for the gamers. If you need to turn your friends into war enemies, go on adventures or solve ‘head cracking’ puzzles together, the new console games is the answer you seek.
The latest PlayStation 4 titles, featuring mutiplayer facility and more advance gaming environment boast of answers for any co-op gaming style you prefer. While some of this games are available and ready to be explored, a few of them will only be available at some point in this year, but considering the interesting new mutiplayer features introduced to PS4, I think they’ll be worth the wait.
Below, we take a look at the top six co-op games to rock with your friends. Note: You can also find some of the games listed below on your old PlayStation or the new Xbox One, but nothing can be compared to the feeling of playing it on PS4.
6. Lego Marvel Super Heroes
The world is in imminent danger, and it is counting on you and your friends to save it! You and your friends will have to play alone or together as members of the well-known team to save the world in Lego Marvel Super Heroes. All the superheroes have their unique superpowers, and you’ll need all their strength to go into battle against the most venomous villains of the Marvel universe.
5. Destiny
If you are a big believer in destiny, then you will be exited for Destiny console game. Destiny was made by the manufactures of multiplayer greats Halo and Call of Duty. The promotional trailers and gameplay videos display a beautiful world for you and your friends to explore, cherish and protect. It’s part of the new “shared-world shooter” genre which combines the typical fine motor skills of a FPS game with traits that are more common to MMOs. If anyone can make wonders out of this new breed of games, it’s the folks at Bungie. This game will be available, starting from Sept. 9th 2014.
4. Watch Dogs
Unfortunately, this amazing title from Ubisoft isn’t available yet, but it’s been making some impressive noise since its initial unveiling. Not only will Watch Dogs allow players the chance to sneak and hack their ways through a fictional downtown Chicago, but the game will also have a multiplayer option integrated into the normal campaign. Your objective is to hack other players with a malicious virus before they catch and kill you. Ubisoft will let you opt out of the multiplayer if you want to focus on the single-player story, but we’re all looking forward to getting our hands on exponentially more underground cyber justice when the game launches. Right now, the release date is set as a hazy spring 2014.
3. Killzone Shadow Fall
This series has long been a PlayStation exclusive, and Killzone Shadow Fall has all the great dystopian warfare between the ISA and the Helgast that gamers have come to expect. Warzone matches players through a ringer of several traditional co-op modes (such as Team Deathmatch or Search and Destroy) all in one battle royale. Players can customize their own rules for matches, setting the modes, number of players, classes or weapons allowed, then share those creations with the online community.
2. FIFA 14
If the word “football” conjures up images of a black and white ball and rabid European fans, then you’re probably well-versed in the FIFA games. With FIFA 14, soccer is looking better than ever on the new generation of hardware. Players’ movements and behaviors have new realism and a much sharper look that old consoles couldn’t dream of matching. EA received some flak from long-time fans for removing the Tournament feature, but with many available co-op modes remaining, this is still an excellent title for going multiplayer. Create a unique footballer to send through the Pro Clubs circuit and pursue a stellar career in all-player matches. You can also go head-to-head against another gamer in Seasons and Online Friendlies, or team up with friends for two-on-two games.
1. Battlefield 4
No game delivers complex, realistic warfare as well as the Battlefield franchise. Battlefield 4 has dynamic, visually stunning maps that require players to display finesse and strategy in order to achieve victory. Technical difficulties plagued the latest release at launch, but that’s due in part to its massive scope. Now that DICE has cleaned up most of the issues, players can enjoy the classic Conquest or Rush battles, or the new Obliteration and Defuse modes. The Xbox One may be getting the expansions and other new content first, but superior graphics capabilities make the PS4 the platform of choice for the console crowd.
Techcrunch – To coincide with Apple releasing its Q1 earnings, Strategy Analytics has put out its quarterly and full-year figures for how the smartphone market has fared, along with figures on the wider mobile phone market. Overall, there were nearly 1 billion — 990 million — smartphones shipped in 2013, representing growth of 41% over 2012′s 700 million units. Smartphone shipments for the last quarter of 2013 were 290.2 million, up 34%.
Mobile phone shipments, meanwhile, were just under 1.7 billion — and as a mark of how smartphones are where all the buying has shifted, the wider mobile phone market grew only 5% over a year ago. While 41% growth sounds good, Ken Hyers, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, notes that it is actually down slightly on the 43% growth of a year ago. He says this is because of “high penetration in some major markets like the United States.” This was something that had a direct effect on Apple. Traditionally a strong player in the U.S., CEO Tim Cook noted today that Apple’s sales in North America declined.
As we pointed out earlier today, although Samsung continues to remain in the lead with its 32% of all smartphone shipments, the real story appears to be about what is happening underneath that.
Apple continues to fall (pardon the pun) and is now at 15.5% for the full year (compared to 19% a year ago) on 153 million units. And although Huawei, LG and Lenovo are all behind Apple, together they are nearly overtaking the iPhone maker in units, with a combined share of 14.6%.
That’s not to overlook that Samsung’s growth is nothing short of impressive: its 319.8 million smartphones shipped in 2013 was the “largest number of units ever shipped by a smartphone vendor in a single year,” according to the analyst group’s executive director Neil Mawston. Samsung also retained its title as the world’s biggest mobile phone maker overall: it shipped 451 million units for a 27% share of the market.
Although Apple made a point today of talking up its emerging market business, Strategy Analytics (and perhaps others, given the stock decline) are not buying it: “Apple remains strong in the high-end smartphone segment, but a lack of presence in the low-end category is costing it lost volumes in fast-growing emerging markets such as India,” writes Mawston.
As in quarters past, the Samsung/Apple juggernaut is all but dominating the smartphone world in terms of vendors.
“Large marketing budgets, extensive distribution channels and attractive product portfolios have enabled Samsung and Apple to maintain their grip on the smartphone industry,” writes analyst Linda Sui.
The question will be whether the economics of making cheaper phones will mean that the smaller vendors like LG, Huawei and Lenovo can stick around longer, or whether they will eventually find themselves in the same positions as Nokia, BlackBerry and HTC — all out of the top five rankings now partly because it eventually became unsustainable to play in the smartphone game without scale.
In any case, although in times past it seemed that the route to being a worldwide phone leader was to have a strategy of offering devices across a range of price points and feature sets, today that’s not as clear.
Over 70% of the handsets Samsung’s shipping right now are smartphones. And Apple, the number-three player in mobile sales overall, is a smartphone-only vendor. Meanwhile, Nokia’s smartphone share these days is so small that Strategy Analytics doesn’t break it out, meaning that its number-two position among mobile phone makers is based largely on its power at the lower end of the market.
However, it turns out the strategy of not having a killer smartphone lineup not only is not lucrative but eventually self-destructive.
Nokia’s global mobile phone shipments fell 25% between 2012 and 2013, from 335.6 million units to 252.4 million units. “Nokia faced tough competition from Samsung in developing markets like India, while LG and others ramped up the pressure in developed regions such as Western Europe,” writes Mawston. “Nokia’s Windows Phones have been performing relatively well, but this was not enough to offset sluggish demand for its Asha models and other feature phones during the course of the year.”
As Strategy Analytics points out, one route for smaller, national players to survive longer term is to continue to grow internationally. Huawei, it notes, is expanding in Europe; LG’s Optimus range “is proving popular in Latin America”; Lenovo’s Android models are selling at competitive price-points across China. “Samsung and Apple will need to fight hard to hold off these and other hungry challengers during 2014,” notes Sui.
A post on Techcrunch has reported that Twitter has just released an update to its Android client (coming soon to iOS) that brings new photo editing tools to the service, which are likely meant to make it easier to share photos direct and keep people out of competitive apps like Instagram. The second change adds a significant element of event discovery and real-time trend monitoring to user timelines. The event surfacing is the more interesting element, since it marks a considerable attempt by Twitter to meddle with the straightforward chronological nature of that part of its service (besides promoted content). In case a user doesn’t have any new tweets to load when you manually update it, it now brings up recommended posts from people you don’t follow, as well as trending topics and suggestions about new people to follow. In the U.S. only, it surfaces event updates for things unfolding on TV, in sports and on the news.
Each content update features a link to click through for more tweets centered on that conversation. It’s an extension of some of the other work Twitter has been doing around surfacing events and breaking news, including the Eventparrot experiment and a feature that was tested back in August to highlight nearby events via proximity-based alerts.
A couple of things to flag about this change: It only happens when there’s no other new content for a user to view, and when they express a desire for more content, which is very clever; and it represents a way for Twitter to secure its place as the source of live, real-time information about things unfolding on the ground, a reputation that Facebook clearly covets.
Others are already capitalizing on Twitter’s ability to identify and follow events as they unfold, including Banjo, but Twitter adding this as a native feature in its mobile clients could change the nature of the service at a basic level. Should it roll out globally, and expand its scope, mobile users could be using Twitter a lot more for things like local discovery than they had been previously.
Every one of us are connected through some On-line medium in this ERA Advanced Internet world. The introduction of smartphones, mobile computing, advance internet facilities such as Google Glass, internet browsers, etc., has made it incredibly easy and efficient to communicate with one another when it all boils down to social networking.
With every positive technology comes a negative view of that specific technology: Almost all of us are worried about one particular thing called online privacy when it comes to social networking. As a matter of fact, there has been a lot of negative witnesses on this type of issues, with Facebook being the latest suspect.
Recently, Facebookintroduced trending topics to its website, with Twitter and Google+ pushing more and more sophisticated technologies to keep up with people’s expectation, we still see some loopholes like users profiles being viewed without one’s knowledge and all that!
Imagine, if there is a technology which can pretty much reduce the risk of being revealed online about our conversation overall? Thinking as how possible it is. Yes! It is possible and more specifically, it is going to be welcomed by Many social media giants in the near future. Below, we take a look at some technology that will be integrated with social networking in the nearest future.
Temporary Social Messages
The next step of Social Media is about the technology called temporary social messages. It is obvious that the name of the technology itself will explain the benefit of it. As an Individual, we will be worried about our online conversations over various social media online. The worry about “not completely privatized” will always make us insecure. The benefit of temporarily messages will reduce the insecurity to a minimum level, but then there are hurdles like sexting, response from industry role models like Facebook and Twitter will make a huge difference to welcome such technology completely. As we mentioned above, the hurdles like Sexting is one of major Challenges to overcome for the complete adoption of this technology. As there may not be a proof to show up if and when the sexting cases happen through Social Media through Temporary Social Media. Nonetheless, this innovation will surely open up a wide arm in other Areas which will be welcomed by certain industries and make the use of it to the utmost level. Imagine, Industries like Banks and healthcare make the use of this innovation! The process level of policies, and basic formalities will be taken care in the speedy way.
Consequently, Common will be beneficial with the help of this technology and the Quick processes of the Industries. Not just that, Due to its nature of Temporary/ limited existing, this innovation will keep up the confidential things of Industries “secure and private”.
One such Model has already been used by one of the companies called SkyBees to communicate as it has customers all around the world. They maintain a Temporary Database server to carry this service.
At the end of the day, it is also Significant to check as How well this innovation could guarantee the Temporary nature of the messages/conversations technically.
It may look a simple technology, but then the benefits out of this for an Individual and Industries are Limitless and very much appreciative.
This post was made possible, courtesy to Basheer Ahmed, senior editor, MSys Technologies.
Mashable – At first glance, Luca Iaconi-Stewart’s impossibly detailed model of a Boeing 777 plane looks like it could be carved from wood. But if you look closer, you’ll find that it’s made of a material likely sitting in your office’s file cabinets.
The San Francisco-based designer’s 1:60-scale reproduction is made entirely from manila folders, a project Iaconi-Stewart had planned since 2008.
Throughout the painstaking building process, the designer updated his YouTube account with videos showing the plane’s progress. This time-lapse from March 2013 shows Iaconi-Stewart carefully assembling the model’s “cabin.”
Below is a picture collection from Luca Iaconi-Stewart’s Flickr page of inside the completed reproduction. Click on any of the images below to view in gallery mode. You might also check out the designer’s Flickr page for a closer look.
IDG NEWS SERVICE – In 2006, Mitchell Frost, then a 19-year-old college student at the University of Akron, used the school’s computer network to control the botnets he had created. Authorities say between August 2006 and March 2007, Frost launched a series of denial of service (DDOS) attacks against several conservative websites, including Billoreilly.com, Anncoulter.com and Rudy Giuliani’s campaign site, Joinrudy2008.com. He is accused of taking down the O’Reilly site five times, as well as disrupting the University of Akron’s network during a DDOS attack Frost allegedly launched on a gaming server hosted by the university.
Frost’s dorm room at the university was raided in March 2007. What followed, according to Frost, was a long, complicated legal battle that ultimately lead to him spending over two years behind bars and owing thousands of dollars in legal and restitution fees for his crimes. Frost was released from prison in 2012 and is now serving probation.
Frost took the time to talk to CSO about his experience and delves into the reasons why he did it, his thoughts on the punishment he received and his plans for the future.
Tell us about your background. How did you become so knowledgeable about computers and when did hacking become something that interested you?
I started on computers around a young age and I have always had a mind that wants to keep exploring and learning. Hacking didn’t start overnight, it all started by networking really. First I wanted to be able to have music without paying for it, so I joined some chat rooms on IRC (Internet Relay Chat). IRC is not used much, it’s typically used only by smaller groups of hackers and gamers. When I was younger I would spend many hours in a row on the computer, and when I woke up or had free time, just continue on with what I was working on. You build skills and make connections with others and keep moving up until you have background in hacking. Let’s just say I built my way up over the years 2000-2007.
What inspired you to do the kind of hacking you did in 2006 and 2007 to those conservative websites? What were you hoping to accomplish by hacking those particular sites? How did you choose your targets and why?
In 2006, I was young and, even at that age, I could see there was a lot of corruption and media propaganda going on in newspapers and on television. At that time, I had a rather large and complicated botnet. With the botnet, I was able to use the compromised computers for almost anything; key strokes, DDOS, servers, passwords, pranks. I had several botnets over the years from a few to thousands and didn’t do a whole lot of DDOS on servers because I had no need to.
I decided that I had to do something about what I was seeing in the world around me, so I knocked a couple of websites offline at the time thinking it will prevent the hate and conflict and fear mongering from being seen by people.
When it became clear you were going to face punishment for the attacks, did you think it would mean jail time?
They raided me in March of 2007 right after spring break. They took some computer stuff and took my roommate’s stuff and had three agencies do the raid (FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security) all with guns pointed right at my head. They brought me into a room and said “if you help yourself now it will be easier at sentencing.” I didn’t answer any questions. They released me and didn’t say much. I was scared shitless after that. I didn’t know what to do. I remember now going to a class after the raid to take a math test and was shaking so bad.
About one day later, they expelled me from the school, even though I was not charged with anything yet. I moved back home and then contacted the Federal Public Defenders office in Cleveland and was assigned a lawyer. He said cases like mine take time and to stay out of trouble and he would get back to me.
I moved back home and got a job working as a carpet-cleaning technician. From 2007 and on, I tried to live a normal life but had that fear that something was coming. I ended up meeting my wife. We fell in love and she got pregnant in December of 2009.
Around May of 2010, my lawyer said I randomly received a judge and that it didn’t look good because of her previous sentencing history. I was hoping for maybe a small amount of time or probation, considering I did not get arrested at the time of the raid in March 2007 and had not yet. I was living in fear for almost 4 years, not going to friends or out to parties and all that.
The judge ended up giving me 30 months and tried to place me under arrest right at the sentencing hearing. When she did this, it took the prosecutor and my lawyer to walk up to the bench and say I am not a flight risk with a newborn on the way and I knew about these potential charges for three years, so why couldn’t I self-report? She finally agreed to let me self-report so I can tie up some things with my family before my time.
There was some debate after your sentencing about whether or not the penalty was too harsh. Do you think it was too extreme?
Way too extreme. Who was the victim? Yes, a couple of people had their servers down for a small period of time, but the jacked-up estimates of the damages were over inflated. Example: they said it took $10,000 for them to press one button on one switch to get access back to the network. The reasoning for the sentence has to do with amount of money lost, etc. Bill O’Reilly said he needed to spend $300,000 to upgrade his systems. My lawyer did not fight or really look into their claims of money loss.
I think they should of come to some plea with me within a year of the initial raid so I could of dealt with this problem and moved on with my life. Maybe do 3-4 months in some low-security prison and some intensive probation would have been the same. Now it will end up costing me about 10 years of my life—2006 started it and by the time I’m off probation it will be 2016. All for taking some servers offline. You tell me: is that fair?
What has this experience taught you?
The experience is not over yet and is far from. I have learned to keep to myself when I see something unjust or unfair or unbalanced all I can do is stay clear of it and talk to people I know or influence and explain my point of view without any damages, physical or monetary.
Last year, there was a lot of sadness and discussion around the suicide of Reddit co-founder Aaron Schwartz. As you know, Schwartz was facing a trial after being arrested on allegations of breaching a computer network to download millions of pages of documents kept at MIT. Many feel he was being too harshly prosecuted for the crime and it drove him to suicide. What are your thoughts on that, having faced a sentence yourself?
I am very familar with Aaron Schwartz. Did you know he chose to take his case to trial because he was not guilty? He was murdered and it was made to look like a suicide. Who would ignore a plea deal with no jail time, wait for trial and then commit suicide? All he did was download some stuff from the MIT library—most of it was like 30 years old. He was prosecuted because of his ties to a grassroots movement for Internet freedom.
What’s next for you? What are you plans for the future?
I am rebuilding my life the best I can for having limited resources. I was released Election Day 2012. I was stuck living in a halfway house in the slums of Toledo, Ohio. Then I had to go up the chain of the BOP and the halfway house to get released to home detention. That took about 2.5 months.
I started probation on March 8, 2013. I work at a small store in a town where my wife’s parents let us live in a rental, so we pay them what we can. I pretty much cannot go to school because I owe so much to U of Akron and I have $50,000 in fines and restitution. They take a percentage of my pay each check to give to Bill O’Reilly. I guess when you’re worth $50 million, why not ruin some guy’s life and future and suck every check he makes?
I guess my life is not going anywhere until I am off probation. I would like to be a wireless network security consultant, or a real news reporter for the independent media. I will continue to try and make my son and wife’s life the best I can for the position I am in.
Glass, Google’s head-mounted, Internet-connected device, won’t be available commercially until sometime in 2014. Even so, there are thousands of Glass “Explorers,” or early adopters, already using the high-tech eyewear on the job. Many are discovering that, in addition to being a geeked-out plaything, Glass can in fact solve everyday business problems, help people be more productive, enhance workflows and deliver other real-world benefits.
Here’s a look at some of the practical and innovative ways Explorers are using the $1,500 prototype device in their work – from automotive repair to sports reporting.
1. Live, Remote Sales Training
Josh Cohen is CEO of TownSpot, an online video network startup. The company has no actual offices, Cohen says, with team members scattered around the country. The virtual organization structure makes it challenging to train the sales team—a problem Google Glass is helping to solve, according to Cohen.
For example, on a recent sales call to a new customer in Los Angeles, with the customer’s permission, Cohen streamed video of his view in real-time via Google Glass to an Atlanta co-worker. Cohen’s colleague could see the customer’s reactions and hear how he delivered the sales pitch, he says, adding that this type of easily set up, live and remote training “could never have been done before.”
Often, salespeople are trained by accompanying the sales leader or CEO on customer calls, Cohen notes. This usually requires flying the sales person to another location, among other costs. Glass lets Cohen virtually take multiple people on sales calls with him wherever he goes, thereby reducing travel and other training expenses.
2. Hands-free sports reporting
Andrew Abramson, the Miami Dolphins beat reporter for The Palm Beach Post, uses Glass on the job. He was interested in the device mainly for its video and photo capabilities.
”Video has become a huge part of sports reporting,” Abramson says. “While the traditional TV reporters still enter locker rooms with their bulky cameras, other reporters are often uncomfortably holding up their cell phones and shooting their own clips.”
Meanwhile, Abramson finds it much easier to wear a video camera on his face. “With Google Glass, I can shoot photos and videos simply by pressing a button or using voice commands,” he says. “I can instantly upload photos and videos to the Web without using my hands.”
Abramson has received “an overwhelmingly positive response” from Dolphins fans who follow his reports, and about half of the Dolphins’ players have tried on his pair. Reaction varies, he says, from ridicule to amazement to “Where do I get my pair?”
3. Sharing conference sessions
”Literally every day, there are different start-up related conferences and events,” Cohen says. He can’t make it to them all, but with Google Glass—and the permission of conference organizers—Cohen and his team divide and conquer.
Recording the events in real time “is easier and less obtrusive than using a video camera,” he says, and it gives employees the convenience of watching a conference or event on their own time.
4. Taking notes
Evernote, the popular note-taking Web service and application, is among the few official Google Glass apps currently available—and Shazafar Khaja, integration architect for The Kroger Company, says Evernote is the most useful app thus far for Glass.
”Before I go to meetings, I email myself the minutes from previous meetings and action items. I have all of this accessible to me in the meeting at the flick of a finger, with Glass,” he says. “I’ve also started to record (with everyone’s permission) parts of brainstorming sessions where we have ideas flying around. This enables me to be involved without having to fiddle with a phone or camera.”
Khaja admits he could do all of the above using traditional methods, “but with Glass, I’m less distracted and more focused on what’s going on.”
5. Fixing cars
Glass Explorer Will Elias says Glass has helped him with the complexity of fixing vehicles. “With cars changing so quickly, and everything computerized, I was able to work on a vehicle with the assistance of an ASE-certified mechanic,” Elias says. “He watched what I was doing (through a Glass video chat) and guided me on how to fix the vehicle correctly.”
6. Showcasing your company
Google Glass is an ideal way to show off a company’s customer service experience, notes Hilary Topper, CEO of HJMT Public Relations: “Imagine walking in and videotaping, with a first-person perspective, the way someone would be treated if they entered your restaurant, spa or bank.”
Topper’s firm used Glass to make a reality video to both showcase the firm and show off Glass. The video, Glasslandia, has received more than 50 million social media impressions,” she says.
7. Staying up to date while out and about
Matt McGee is editor-in-chief of Marketing Land and also runs the popular Glass Almanac blog. “With Glass I can get RSS feeds, Tweets, emails and so forth sent right to me while I’m out and about,” he says. “It’s great at conferences, for example, to be able to consume this kind of information while walking the halls or expo floors. It keeps me in the know.”
McGee admits that he could get these updates on his iPhone – but consuming that kind of information at a conference means stopping, find an out-of-the-way spot and reading. With Glass, on the other hand, he can keep walking and see headlines and tweets as they come to him. “I can even speak a reply,” he says. “And it’s all done hands-free with my head up, so I don’t have to worry about walking into someone.”
8. Troubleshooting a website from a distance
Cohen says the capability to share visual information immediately can help solve tech issues. If he encounters a bug or other technical glitch on his company’s website, the Los Angeles-based Cohen can say, “OK, Glass, take a picture,” and share a photo of his computer screen with his two Web developers in Virginia. The real-time sharing lets his Web developers understand the issue better and react immediately, Cohen says. The downsides of Google Glass at work
The built-in battery is notorious among Explorers for its short life, especially when video is involved. “With moderate use, the battery will only have to be charged once or twice a day, allowing you to use GPS, text messaging and occasional photos,” Abramson says. “But if you’re recording or watching video, the battery will die in less than an hour.”
Cohen bemoans the inability to bulk delete multiple cards. (Glass displays information, such as text messages, as individual cards.) Cohen can receive as many as 600 business emails per day, and not being able to tell Glass, “wipe all email cards from today,” means that Cohen can’t access any other information on his Glass without scrolling all those emails.
But the biggest limitation is the lack of Google Glass apps, most of which are limited in their features, McGee notes. Twitter won’t take a Tweet received on Glass and send it via email, he says, nor can headlines received over RSS get sent in an email. Meanwhile, the new, unofficial WordPress app seems to be geared toward photoblogging. “I’d like a WordPress app that would let me speak a headline, speak some text and then send that to my WordPress install,” MeGee says. The future of Google Glass on the job
Though Glass already helps workers in a variety of occupations, the technology could be of particular importance to specialized fields.
For example, Glass could be used to improve an airline’s baggage handling process, says Stephen Fluin, chief strategy and innovation officer for MentorMate. Most bag lines have one person scanning bags, to verify their destination and other information, and another physically moving bags. Smaller lines use one person to both tasks, picking up and putting down a scanner repeatedly. Using technology such as Glass, Fluin says, a single baggage handler could scan bags with both hands free to move the bags.
Glass Explorer Chuck Webster says third-party apps from developers in industries such as healthcare, education, security and system repair will really make Glass valuable to workers. He points to the advantage of surgeons using Glass to confer with experts during surgery, adding that early responders could also wear Glass to receive “just-in-time clinical decision support.”
Webster says Glass will likely shine when integrated with current workflow management, business process management and adaptive case management technologies. “We’re going to see some very interesting mashups between Glass and business process management software,” he says. That’s why Webster refers to Glass not as a smartphone on your face but, rather, “workflow on your face.”
This weekend AdDuplex, an advertising platform for Windows applications, announced that according to its tracked data, Windows Phone Update 3 is now installed on 15 percent of Windows Phone 8 handsets.
Microsoft tore the wrapping off of Update 3 — also known as GDR3 — in October, detailing to the media what it would include, and providing notes on its delivery schedule. Developers could get their hands on the code sooner, but the average user, as TechCrunch wrote at the time, would “get the updates between the Fall, and the early parts of 2014. Carrier considerations, testing, and the like will determine when precisely your handset gets the bump.”
To see a mere 15 percent of the Windows Phone 8 pool of handsets have the update as January comes to a close is slightly disappointing. We could, perhaps, see a surge of firmware updates come in the next few months, but it’s safe to say now that the pace of upgrade from firmware announcement to installation on a plurality of devices is a long cycle in the Windows Phone world.
I had no benchmark in mind of how far along Update 3 should have been at any given moment, but I do think that it is reasonable to say that 15 percent after a quarter is a slower uptake pace than we might have hoped for given that the software is free for consumers.
Carriers, presumably, are the sticking point. If Microsoft wants to more quickly move its new code to extant Windows Phone consumers, it will need new strategy. Unless, like with Android, Microsoft is content with fragmentation that will see its user base stratified across versions, hampering developers and not maximizing the strength of its own user experience.
Kicked to the above is the fact that Windows Phone 8.1 is on the way — likely in April. If carriers don’t get out-of-the-way, some users may end up moving to 8.1 before Update 3 trickles down to their handsets.
Top Image Credit: Flickr | Article was originally posted on TechCrunch
TechCrunch – Google will buy London-based artificial intelligence company DeepMind. The deal wasconfirmed to Re/code by Google. Re/code reports that the acquisition price was $400 million, but we’ve heard from a source that it was more. We’ve emailed Google and DeepMind for comment.
DeepMind was founded by neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, a former child prodigy in chess, Skype and Kazaa developer Jaan Tallin, and researcher Shane Legg.
This is the latest move by Google to fill out its roster of artificial intelligence experts, and the acquisition was reportedly led by Google CEO Larry Page. In December 2012, Google hired inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist Ray Kurzweil as a director of engineering focused on machine learning and language processing. Kurzweil has said that he wants to build a search engine so advanced that it could act like a “cybernetic friend.”
Google’s hiring of Deepmind will help it compete against other major tech companies as they all try to gain business advantages by focusing on deep learning. For example, Facebook recently hired NYU professor Yann LeCunn to lead its new artificial intelligence lab, IBM’s Watson supercomputer is now working on deep learning, and Yahoo recently acquired photo analysis startup LookFlow to lead its new deep learning group.
DeepMind’s site currently only has a landing page, which says that it is “a cutting edge artificial intelligence company” to build general-purpose learning algorithms for simulations, e-commerce, and games.
In 2012, Carnegie Mellon professor Larry Wasserman wrote that the “startup is trying to build a system that thinks. This was the original dream of AI. As Shane [Legg] explained to me, there has been huge progress in both neuroscience and ML and their goal is to bring these things together. I thought it sounded crazy until he told me the list of famous billionaires who have invested in the company.”
Deepmind was started about three years ago, according to LinkedIn profiles. Re/code reports that Founders Fund and Horizons Ventures are both major investors in the startup.
Earlier today I published an infographics on things you can do with your smartphone but I didn’t mention the possibility of checking the status of your television/electronics remote control battery with your smartphone.
Of course, in the modern technology it is no longer a question of ‘what you can do’ with your smartphone, it is now a question of ‘what you can’t do ‘ with your smartphone.
The latest discovery has revealed that you can check the power status of your TV set or home theater remote control with your smartphone. This is possible because most standard remote controls send signals to your home theater gear using a beam of infrared light, which a sensor on your hardware picks up. The beam of course is invisible to the human eyes, however, never neglect the power of your smartphone’s Camera! If your remote control start behaving in a funny way, you can easily use your phone to check if your remote batteries need refreshments.
Checking your Battery Power Status
To check your battery status, simply wake your smartphone and launch the Camera application. Next, switch to the front-facing camera, point the remote at the camera, and press any button on the remote.
If the remote is working properly, you should see a flicker of light come from the IR blaster as viewed through your phone’s screen that looks something that this:
If you don’t see the flicker from the IR blaster, or perhaps just a very, very dim flicker, you probably need to change the remote’s batteries. (And if new batteries don’t help, you probably need to replace your remote. Sorry.)
Of course, this trick isn’t limited to your smartphone’s camera; many digital cameras can see infrared light, despite having filters to tune it out. So if all you have at your disposal is your laptop’s built-in webcam, you may have everything you need.
The modern generation is very reliant on technology and computing to perform daily activities. This is to be expected as there is a sense of urgency associated with our present dispensation. However, smartphones usage is not dominated by business, finance, health or other categories you might expect. The leading category is the gaming category. Every now and then, someone has their face buried in their smartphone, no doubt, playing some of the most terrifying Android horror games in darkness. Indeed, smart devices are made, so we can become dull.
Smartphones And Mobile App Usage – Infographic
Smart phones has come to stay, the use of applications are evolving, companies can choose to adapt or suffer the fate of Nimbuzz. Just how far can mobile computing go? The answer will depend on what you make of it.
What really makes these devices functional and so useful is the fact that several apps can be downloaded on them. These mobile apps are available through different app stores depending on the operating system of your mobile computer.
Some examples of these apps stores are Apple store, Google Play Store, Windows marketplace etc. Below is an infographics by Xcubelabs that will show us, how people use their smartphone on daily basis.
Smartphone And Mobile App Usage Infographic [Image credit: Xcubeslabs ]
Embed this Infographic on your site
<a href="https://ewtnet.com/technology/infographics-smart-phone" title="Smartphone And Mobile App Usage - Infographic"<img src="https://ewtnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/smartphone-and-Mobile-app-usage.jpg" alt="Smartphone And Mobile App Usage Infographic" title="Smartphone And Mobile App Usage - Infographic" width="100%" height="auto" /></a><br /><a href="https://ewtnet.com/technology/infographics-smart-phone">Smartphone And Mobile App Usage - Infographic</a><br>
Smartphones play a lot of roles in your day-to-day life affair. I think most people simply prefer to relax to play a couple of games at the end of a hectic day. So going back to my initial question; I think smartphones has indeed made us smarter.
Feel free to argue, though. The comment section is open to everyone.
