Whatsapp To Introduce Free Calls From April 2014

• Mankind
• February 25, 2014
• Tech
• 41

WhatsApp Inc., the mobile messaging service that agreed to be acquired last week by Facebook Inc. for $19 billion, said Monday that it would offer voice calling as early as April, allowing free phone calls among WhatsApp’s 465 million users. Jan Koum, the co-founder and chief executive of WhatsApp, also said during a speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that he is hoping to grow the service to one or two billion users. Mr. Koum said that the WhatsApp voice product would “focus on simplicity” as it has with its text-based messaging service. He said that WhatsApp would first release a version of the voice service for Apple Inc.’s, iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android platforms, followed by services for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone, as well as some phones by BlackBerry Ltd. and Nokia Corp.

“We want to continue to have that minimalistic approach to the product,” he said. “We at WhatsApp want to get out of the way and let people communicate.” Mr. Koum added that the voice product would “use the least amount of bandwidth, and we optimize the hell out of it.”

Speaking about the Facebook acquisition announcement earlier this month, Mr. Koum said that the product wouldn’t change, stressing that WhatsApp would remain independent. He cited Instagram’s example, after the acquisition of the photo-sharing service by Facebook.

Mr. Koum said that WhatsApp was likely valuable to Facebook because “we both want to make the world more connected,” though Mr. Koum stressed that WhatsApp wanted to know “as little as possible” about its users, including details such as a user’s name. “There are no plans to change anything that we do with the product today,” he said, using words like “minimalistic,” “utilitarian” and “uncluttered” to describe his philosophy.

- See more at: http://www.naijaloaded.com.ng/2014/02/25/whatsapp-introduce-free-calls-april-2014/#sthash.J4RztGoq.dpuf

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Nokia Unveils Its First-Ever Android Handsets: Nokia X, X+ & XL

• Mankind
• February 24, 2014
• Tech
• 56

Finally, Nokia has joined the Race of the Andriod Manufacturer, Believe this is a Great move from Nokia.. Nokia has evolved round almost all the Mobile OS from Java to Symbian to Meego to Windows and Finally to the World Leading and Widely used OS “Andriod”..

See Features of the New Nokia Andriod Phone X, X+ and XL Here

Nokia introduced a new family of smartphones, the Nokia X series of phones. The first three phones in the family – the Nokia X, X+ and XL – run on the new Nokia X software platform, that is based on Google’s Android.

The phones under the Nokia X family are not pure Android phones; these phones instead run a forked variant of Android, similar to the way Amazon does for its Kindle Fire lineup. Nokia has taken the open-source elements of Android and has pulled in other elements of Asha and Windows Phone to offer users a different experience.

The downside here is that Nokia X users can’t have access to the Google Play Store for apps. However, the phone will run Android apps, but Nokia will curate a list of such apps. A recommended source for the apps is the Nokia store, says the company. In other words, the new platform, Nokia X, is based on the Android Open Source project (AOSP).

Features such as the Play Store belonging to Google are not included in these phones as they maintain Microsoft’s own services, including Here Maps, and the Bing search engine.

As far as hardware goes, these phones aren’t comparatively impressive. The X and X+ each have a 4-inch WVGA display (800 x 480), a 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, microSD support, a 5MP camera and a 1500mAh battery.

The X+ differentiates itself in that it offers more storage and more memory. The XL appears to have similar stats as the X+, including the 5-megapixel camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, except that it has a larger 5-inch WVGA IPS display (resolution not available yet).

Looking at the software, most people would probably have a hard time telling it’s Android. That’s because it’s not really Android, but more of a forked version of the mobile operating system. It’s a lot like Amazon’s Kindle Fire devices—theres no visible Google or Android badging.

In fact, it appears that everything is going to hook into Nokia and Microsoft apps and services: Nokia’s stock apps and Android app store, and Microsoft’s cloud and search services. Nokia has also installed its Fastlane UI for quickly navigating between social networks and messages.

- See more at: http://www.naijaloaded.com.ng/2014/02/24/nokia-unveils-first-ever-android-handsets-nokia-x-x-xl/#sthash.IYOGHgKI.dpuf

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