The World Cup and the credit crunch have all influenced the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English. The vuvuzela, a horn instrument blown by football fans during the World Cup in South Africa, is one new entry. And recent financial problems led to the introduction of toxic debt – debt which has a [...]
Between playing ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ as a Stingerweb Internet Development software installed on my laptop and as a game show presented by Frank Edoho on Nigeria’s NTA (Nigerian Television Authority) one learns to differentiate between illusion and reality in using what one knows to get what one wants. In a country where [...]
A British doctor volunteering in DR Congo used text message instructions from a colleague to perform a life-saving amputation on a boy. Vascular surgeon David Nott helped the 16-year-old while working 24-hour shifts with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Rutshuru. The boy’s left arm had been ripped off and was badly infected and [...]
Even when you’re one of the largest mobile companies in the world (and certainly the largest for the business elite), things change when you find yourself at odds with a sovereign nation. Or a few. That’s the situation RIM is in right now as they attempt to reconcile their longtime promise to users (uncompromising encryption [...]
ABUJA – Attempt to sneak in rejected N6.1 billion SIM card registration fund in the 2010 Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, Budget almost led to exchange of blows on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday. Last Tuesday, the Reps voted to reject N6.1 billon included in the N69.27 billion budget proposal of the commission, [...]
Adobe Buys Swiss Company Day Software For $240 Million Adobe is strengthening its product portfolio with its intention to acquire Swiss firm Day Software, which makes Web content management systems aimed at marketers. Adobe announced an all-cash tender offer for Day’s shares. The purchase price is approximately $240 million. Many of Adobe’s products, such as [...]
Vodafone has €150,000 to spare for a pair of innovative mobile Internet startups Vodafone has launched Mobile Clicks 2010, a competition to identify and reward innovative mobile Internet startups. Now in its third year, the competition will be open to any fledgling mobile Web startup – provided your market is The Netherlands, Portugal or the [...]
Protests forced the House of Representatives yesterday to stand down a N13 billion budget proposal for “Special Projects” of which N6.1billion was earmarked by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, for the registration of all SIM cards in Nigeria. The lawmakers who argued that the N6.1 billion was unnecessary and too high for the exercise, urged [...]
ChamsAccess launches mobile internet units for rural communities for rural dwellers itching to enjoy the benefits of wide growing technological exploits of Nigeria like their counterparts in the urban areas, there is a reprieve at last. This is as one of Nigeria’s companies involved in the deployment of multi-transactional self-service terminals and Automatic Teller Machines, [...]
Google Unveils Image Search Ads — Your Ads Now With Picture Thumbnail. At its search event today, Google launched a new product that’s a part of Google Images: Google Image Search Ads. Basically, this allows anyone to advertise alongside Google Image searches in a new, more visual way. “This allows you to reach hundreds of [...]
Raptr Leaves Beta, Makes It Easier To See Which Games Your Friends Are Playing Online gaming service Raptr has just dropped its beta tag and launched its 1.0 release, and it’s safe to say that it’s finally living up to its mission statement: to make it easy to play games with your friends. A year [...]
China’s football team did not make it to the World Cup this year, but that does not mean the country’s presence has not been felt: The Asian giant has cornered the market on perhaps the most unforgettable off-field aspect of the World Cup — the vuvuzela. Ninety percent of the vuvuzelas, the plastic South African [...]
Nigeria lags behind in telephone coverage Following the(ITU) statistics released last month that over 90 percent of the world’s population is covered by mobile cellular network, experts say that Nigerian is still growing to catch up with global standard. In an e-mail response, Mayowa Owolabi, managing director of duduMobile, a mobile phone solution firm said, [...]
NNPC says three refineries ready by 2014 The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Tuesday three new refineries will be onstream by 2014, following a deal signed with China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCEC) in May. The three refineries will have a combined capacity of 885,000 barrels per day (bpd) and will cost $25 [...]
Reps decry N6 billion SIM registration plan The House of Representatives has kicked against plans by the Nigerian Communications Commission, to commit N6 billion to the recently announced registration of mobile telephone subscribers. The planned registration, announced early this year by the commission, mandates mobile phone service providers to document basic information on all subscribers [...]
Man beats daughter to death during Ghana/USA match A Texas man accused of fatally beating his 2-year-old stepdaughter when she wouldn’t stop crying as he watched a World Cup game has been charged with capital murder. McAllen Police Sgt. Joel Morales says 27-year-old Hector Castro was charged Monday after his Saturday arrest. Castro is being [...]
Liza Colburn uses her cellphone constantly. She taps out her grocery lists, records voice memos, listens to music at the gym, tracks her caloric intake and posts frequent updates to her Twitter and Facebook accounts. Liza Colburn and her 12-year-old daughter, Abigail, use their cellphones for many tasks, but make relatively few phone calls. The [...]
Amazon.com is still known by many consumers primarily for selling books, music and DVDs, even though it also offers a ridiculous variation of other products, like HDTVs, patio furniture and replicas of human fat. Now this “Other” category makes up the majority of its business. In its first quarter earnings report on Thursday, in which [...]
China has said Google‘s decision to stop censoring Chinese search results is “totally wrong” and violates its promise to abide by local laws. The US giant is redirecting users in mainland China to its unrestricted Hong Kong site, although Chinese firewalls mean results still come back censored. Beijing said the decision should not affect ties [...]
