New Nokia 3310 launched, 17 years after its debut

Owning a Nokia 3310 was a pretty big deal in 2000, and now the iconic phone is back 17 years on to take on smartphone giants such as Apple and HTC.

The revamped phone, which was phased out in 2005, was launched today at the Mobile World Congress, and comes with new features that would have seemed massively advanced on the Millennium.

One of the greatest advantages of the handset over its modern rivals was its battery life, and this version is no different. The colour-screened phone will have up to a month’s standby time and delivers more than 22 hours of talk time.

But instead of 3G of 4G it relies on 2.5G connectivity and is powered by the the S30+operating system – which has a far smaller web browsing range than iOs or Android.

Its camera will be two mexapixels and, yes, it comes with Snake preinstalled!! It will set you back about £41 but there is no confirmed release date yet.

Nokia don’t make phones itself anymore, so instead it is being made by Finnish start-up HMD. Chief executive Arto Nummela told the BBC: ‘It’s almost like a digital detox or a holiday phone.

‘If you want to switch off to an extent but you still need to have a [mobile] lifeline, it’s a brilliant solution.

‘Why wouldn’t you buy this like candy? If you see this hanging on the shelf at the checkout in a [see-through] package, then you’d just buy it as an accessory.’

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NCC warns consumers against counterfeit phones

Acting Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has declared that between 15 to 20 percent of phones in the Nigerian market are counterfeit.

Danbatta said this at a stakeholders meeting on combating counterfeit and sub-standard Information and Communications Technology devices, held in Abuja. According to him, the high incidence of substandard phones affects both the quality of service in the telecommunications industry and the health of consumers.

The NCC boss said, “Counterfeiting is a growing economic problem affecting a wide range of products. In the ICT sector, mobile phones are especially targeted with 250 million counterfeits sold annually.

“This number constitutes about 15 percent to 20 percent of the global mobile phone market. Apart from the obvious negative economic impact of this ugly trend on the manufacturers of genuine products; it also impacts negatively on governments, authorised dealers and others in terms of brand devaluation, loss of revenue, copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition, loss of tax, cost of compliance with applicable national legislation, national security and loss of employment opportunities.

“This menace also poses danger to the health and safety of consumers and equally breaches the privacy of consumers. For us, we are very concerned with the negative effects on communication network operations as it concerns degrading equality of service delivery.”

Speaking at the event, Director, EMEA, for Mobile Manufacturers Forum, Mr. Thomas Barmuller, said 21 percent of substandard and counterfeit mobile phones are found in Africa and in the Middle East.

According to him, counterfeit phones and ICT products come with real threat and also put personal and private information at risk.

On quality of service, Barmuller said one in four dropped calls is caused by fake phones, which he said, cause delay in handover during mobile communication by 41 percent while every third handover actually fails.

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Photos: People are making this picture of Kanye West their phone background and it’s brilliant

It’s hard to deny that there’s something pretty damn inspirational about the above picture of Kanye West. With his hands aloft in the air, he’s all the motivation you need to get through what seems like an impossibly sluggish Friday.

But it turns out that said hands are also pretty handy at something else too – holding iPhone notifications like an absolute boss.

Michael Butler realised that earlier this week, and now his genius idea has received over 154,000 retweets from people who dished praise on the genius idea.

Now, they’ve followed suit too.

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Ambode’s phone hacked: Two arraigned in court

The Department of State Security (DSS) on Wednesday arraigned two artisans before an Isolo Magistrate Court for allegedly cloning the mobile line of Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.

The suspects – Rilwanu Jamiu and Balogun Stanley Oyewole who claimed to be a cocoa dealer, were said to have attempted to perfect a N50 million transfer with the said mobile line.

Prosecuting counsel from the DSS, Mr. Peter Okerinmodun told Chief Magistrate Adeola Adedayo that the suspects were arrested after using the cloned mobile line of the Governor to send a text message to the Accountant General of the State requesting for transfer of N50 million.

He said the suspects conspired with others now at large to commit the crime on February 10, 2016 at about 10:02hours.

Count one reads: “That you Rilwanu Jamiu (M) of No 10, Giwa Street, Oka Akoko Street, Lagos and Balogun Stanley Oyewole (M) of No 65, Unity Street, Ikotun, Lagos and others at large on 10th February, 2016 about 1002hours at Lagos within Lagos Magisterial District, conspired to commit felony to wit: obtaining by false pretence and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 312 (2) and (3) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State.”

Count two reads: “That you Rilwanu Jamiu, Balogun Stanley Oyewole of the above addresses, and others at large, on above date, time and place fraudulently cloned the Glo line of His Excellency, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, with intent to induce him by false pretence and used the Glo line to send a text message for the transfer of a sum of fifty million Naira (N50m) and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 312 (2) and (3) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State.”

After the charges were read to the accused persons, they pleaded not guilty, while the prosecutor asked that they should be kept in protective custody pending the outcome of the legal advice of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) in view of the fact that their lives could be endangered by other suspects who are on the run.

But Magistrate Adedayo overruled Okerinmodun, saying the DSS ought to have kept them in custody judging by the fact that their lives could be in danger. She said since the offence for which the accused persons were charged to court was bailable and the fact that the Magistrate Court is a court of summary trial, she was inclined to grant bail to the accused persons.

She, therefore, admitted them to bail in the sum of N1 million each and two sureties in like sum.
Magistrate Adedayo ruled that one of the sureties must be a religious or community leader within the jurisdiction of the court, and that the accused persons must provide five years tax clearance certificates.

She further ordered the accused persons to be remanded in Kirikiri Prison pending the perfection of the conditions attached to their bail, and adjourned the matter to May 10, 2016.

-PM

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A new smaller, cheaper iPhone has been unveiled by Apple

A smaller, cheaper iPhone has been unveiled by Apple, as one of a number of new products and updates announced at its launch. The iPhone SE will have a four-inch screen and will be aimed at emerging markets and possibly China.

The more compact phone design comes after Apple expanded the size of the screens in its high-end iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus phones in 2014 to as large as 5.5 inches. Other products unveiled at Apple’s Cupertino, California headquarters, include an iPad Pro to replace the IPad Air 2, as well as updates on existing tech.

Before the launch chief executive, Tim Cook, defended the company’s refusal to comply with a U.S. court order to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in a December attack in San Bernardino, California.

He said that ‘Apple has a responsibility to protect customers’ data and privacy’ adding it ‘will not shrink from that responsibility. The iPhone SE will rely on the same processor and have many other features in the larger 4.7-inch iPhone 6S, which came out six months ago.

Like the iPhone 6S, the iPhone SE will be able to take pictures at 12 megapixels. By comparison, the iPhone 5S’s camera is limited to 8 megapixels. The iPhone SE will also be equipped with a longer-lasting battery than the iPhone 5S and have faster wireless connections. It will also work with Apple Pay, the company’s digital wallet.

Prices for the new iPhone will start at £359 for a model in the UK with 16 gigabits of storage. It will be free if customers commit to a two-year contract with their wireless carrier, as was the case with the 5S.

Orders for the iPhone SE will start Thursday. The phone will begin shipping March 31 in the U.S. and several other countries.

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