iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C to Debut in 51 More Countries by Nov. 1

Apple announced that the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C will be available in 35 new countries on Oct. 25 and in another 16 countries on Nov. 1.

Here's a map of the countries, color-coded by release date:

The iPhone 5S and 5C will be available in the following countries on Oct. 25: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, French West Indies, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion Island, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand.

Those models will be available in the following countries on Nov. 1: Albania, Armenia, Bahrain, Colombia, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, India, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE.

Apple's latest smartphones are already available in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK. After Nov. 1, they will be available in a total of 62 countries. The iPhone 5, which launched in September 2012, was available in about 100 countries by the end of 2012.

Via Mashable

Samsung's curved smartphone is the Galaxy Round, launches in Korea tomorrow

Samsung's concave phone is very much real, and after being teased in leaks hours earlier, SK Telecom has announced it'll launch the Galaxy Round on its network as soon as tomorrow. The device's highlight is obviously the gently curved 1080p 5.7-inch OLED screen, and Samsung is also promising a melee of software tweaks for the smartphone, aimed at making the most of it. For example, tilting the phone to the side will offer up notifications, battery levels and more at a glance. Other specifications revealed so far include a 7.9mm profile and that it weighs less than the Note 3, at 154g.

Curiously, it looks pretty different to the curved-screen prototype smartphone that Samsung displayed at CES earlier this year -- if the Galaxy Round is facing down, there's no way to peek at notifications without flipping it over. The new phone will also pack the necessary LTE radios and a 2,800mAh battery, launching initially in a 'luxury brown' color option for just over 1 million won -- that's around $1,000. 

Via Engadget

Full 2013 VMAs Winners List: Justin Timberlake and 'N Sync Steal Show

Justin Timberlake broke the record for longest performance ever at the MTV Video Music Awards, roping in his 'N Sync pals for part of it. The Internet — and the celebrity guests — erupted into uncontrollable applause at the sight of the boy band, which split in 2002.

Here's a complete list of winners:

• Video Of The Year: Justin Timberlake – “Mirrors”
• Best Hip-Hop Video: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton – “Cant’ Hold Us”
• Best Male Video: Bruno Mars – “Locked Out of Heaven”
• Best Female Video: Taylor Swift – “I Knew You Were Trouble”
• Best Pop Video: Selena Gomez – “Come and Get It”
• Artist To Watch: Austin Mahone - “What About Love”
• Best Collaboration: P!nk feat. Nate Ruess – “Just Give Me A Reason”
• Best Video With A Social Message: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – “Same Love”
• Best Rock Video: Thirty Seconds To Mars – “Up In The Air”
• Best Art Direction: Janelle Monae feat. Erykah Badu – “Q.U.E.E.N.”
• Best Choreography: Bruno Mars – “Treasure”
• Best Cinematography: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton – “Cant’ Hold Us”
• Best Direction: Justin Timberlake feat. JAY Z – “Suit & Tie”
• Best Editing: Justin Timberlake – “Mirrors”
• Best Visual Effects: Capital Cities – “Safe and Sound”
• Song Of The Summer: One Direction – “Best Song Ever”
  Via Mashable

The dirty BIG secret of WhatsApp... the second check mark does NOT mean your message has been read!

As BlackBerry gets set to take its native BBM instant messaging service cross-platform to Android and iOS, there's no doubt the incumbent it wants to crush is WhatsApp. Over the last couple of years WhatsApp has grown to have a huge base of users across platforms and around the world. Jump into any phone app store, and WhatsApp will always be near the top of the list. 

WhatsApp has been successful because it gained critical mass in filling a void that BBM could have and arguably should have done years ago. Anybody who's used BBM and watched the rise of WhatsApp knows WhatsApp essentially ripped off BBM in form and function, and has been playing catch up to BBM on a feature by feature basis. Most people I know don't love WhatsApp - they simply tolerate it, as it gets the job done well enough for the most part. The thing is, it really doesn't.

One critical feature that WhatsApp is sorely missing that a lot of users simply do not realize is a notification that your message has been read by the recipient. On BBM and iMessage for that matter, D and R are used as notifications to the sender. The D represents that the message has been delivered to the phone. The R represents that the message has been read by the recipient. The value of the R is super critical, as it's what keeps you in the loop on the status of your conversation and that it's happening in real time.

Instead of a D and R, WhatsApp uses checkmarks to represent message status. Based on the precedent set by BBM and WhatsApp, I think a LOT of WhatsApp users out there mistakenly take this to mean that one checkmark means the message has reached the phone while the second checkmark means the message has been read. I have seen this happen in my life often - where people think I've read their WhatsApp message and ignored them in replying because they see two checkmarks on their end, yet in reality I haven't even read the message on my phone. This is often referred to as the "dirty R" when it comes to BBM, but the concept of the dirty R doesn't exist on WhatsApp as there is no read confirmation.

As stated in WhatsApps' official FAQ:

- (one check) message successfully delivered to the server.
- (two checks) message successfully delivered to the phone of your chat partner.

Note: this does not indicate that the message was read, just that it was delivered.
Also note that in a group chat you will only see one check mark indicating that the message was successfully delivered to the server.

It's in WhatsApp's FAQ that this is the case, so they're not hiding this lack of funtionality, but from my observations its definitely a BIG misunderstanding among WhatsApp users out there. And to me, the value of the read confirmation is EXTREMELY important. The read confirmation is what makes an IM client a reliable form of communication between individuals.

And thus, I think it's an important message for WhatsApp users to know. It's also another compelling reason why I believe BBM is a better service, and when it does become available on Android and iOS I want to see all my WhatsApp' using friends, colleagues and family members on Android and iOS switch to BBM immediately.

Spread the word. 

Via CrackBerry

7 Ways Mobile Apps Are Driving Revenue for Businesses (Part 2)

This is the 2nd part...

4. Dynamic Offers

When you tie in technologies like push notifications and geotargeting, magical things start to happen. Businesses can use data collected through geotracking and ad campaigns to deliver just-in-time offers. Groupon Now is just the tip of the iceberg. The power of mobile apps allows businesses to do all sorts of cool things to boost revenue.

For example, movie theaters and very time-sensitive inventory that goes to waste at a particular time and can’t be recovered. The theater could track and send a coupon to users who are nearby and looked up information about showtimes but didn’t make a purchase. A bar with a slow night could offer an impromptu extended happy hour to past patrons who are nearby.

5. Pushing Through the Funnel

Ever walked into a store, shopped around a bit, and then walked out without making a purchase? That’s called a "bounce." Online, users bounce for a variety of reasons and on mobile the reasons are even greater. Users might not have a credit card handy, typing in account information is considered too tedious or they simply get distracted and put their phone back in their pocket.

Fortunately, one way to combat transaction abandonment is through automatic address fill-in. Using a phone’s GPS, transactional apps can detect a user’s location and automatically fill in address data. Seamless, the leading online food delivery service, has been aggressively marketing its mobile apps that automatically detects a user’s location to fill in a delivery address and display restaurants able to deliver there.

6. Data Gathering

One of the really powerful tools available to online businesses is that they can easily track every move customers make from the moment a user lands on the site. What engaged users and what turned them off? Where, exactly, in the online store did a user go and what did they do when they got there? These are really easy questions for webmasters to answer, but good luck figuring that out in brick-and-mortar store. That is, unless you’re using the Wi-Fi signals emitted from smartphones in your customers pockets and purses. Tracking signals from mobile devices is opening a whole new world of analytics and data-gathering opportunities for retailers stuck in the physical world.

7. Compete Anywhere

Many brick-and-mortar retailers complain about showrooming, the practice whereby shoppers visit a physical store to inspect the goods in person all the while intending to ultimately make their purchase online, where prices are usually cheaper. While the traditional retailer might be on the losing end of that transaction, the customer and online retailer are winning. Price comparison tools are helping etailers drive additional traffic and sales. Amazon, for example, even went so far as to offer a $5 discount to shoppers who scanned items using their price comparison tool.

Mobile apps are helping businesses increase revenue largely by increasing efficiency. Instead of advertising to broad spectrum, users can be narrowly targeted. Businesses can lure back customers who haven’t been in a while but are nearby. Customers can shop during small pockets of time that would have have previously gone to waste. Businesses can precision-discount inventory in the last moments before it would have gone to waste. And all these little efficiencies are resulting in more revenue for businesses while, by and large, enhancing the overall experience for users.

Via Mashable

7 Ways Mobile Apps Are Driving Revenue for Businesses (Part 1)

Read this article recently on Mashable written by Ryan Matzner and thought it would do you good. But due to the length of the article I'll be posting it in two parts for easier reading.

From leveraging specific features like GPS all the way down to the mere fact that people are walking around with Internet-connected computers in their pockets, smartphones open a whole new world of opportunities for marketers at businesses from large and small. The following are some key ways businesses are getting an extra boost via mobile apps.

1. Geo-Targeted Push Notifications

Back in 2010, then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt talked about how the future of mobile would be autonomous and serendipitous. That is, mobile devices would present users with information about the world around them in an automatic way. In Schmidt’s example, as he walked around a particularly storied neighborhood of San Francisco, an app would passively display information about the history of places he passed. But the technology has become a reality, and a boon to business. Here are some ways businesses could use geo-targeted push notifications.

• A band on tour could notify fans in a particular city that tickets there are nearly sold out or remind concert-goers to show up early so they don’t miss the opening act
• A national chain could easily send city- or region-specific notifications about special offers based on what users in that area are interested in
• A restaurant could boost loyalty by sending a special offer to customers who had been in the past year but not in the last two months
• A store could announce a sale on umbrellas coupled with a weather alert to nearby users when it’s predicted to rain soon

2. Additional Sales Opportunities

One of the single biggest opportunities for businesses to leverage mobile apps is that smartphones have opened a whole new world of shopping and engagement opportunities. Interactions between customers and businesses have grown to become geo-agnostic. The morning commute, waiting in line for movie tickets and sitting in a doctor's office are all places people could be using their smartphones to shop your store or engage with your brand.

These pockets of free time that were previously biased toward reading, can now be used by consumers for so much more. A mobile app maximizes opportunities for reaching users in these new pockets of time. A push notification might remind users of a nearly abandoned shopping cart, bringing them back into the shopping experience. A more seamless experience of stored login and billing information means an easier path to transact.

3. Geo-Targeted Advertising

The classic targeted ad story goes something like this: A potential homeowner is stuck in traffic on his daily commute home and looks out his window to read a sign on a new housing development that says, “If you lived here, you’d be home by now.”

Now multiply that times a billion and you’ve got the power of modern, smartphone-powered targeted advertising. These smart ads can target users by their specific location, displaying ads that are geographic and contextually optimized. Businesses can make on-the-fly tweaks to campaigns based on what works in a particular geographic location. They can also display coupons to potential users nearby or help users find the business by advertising directly on a map.

Via Mashable

NCC Launches First Phase of Mobile Number Portability

Nigerian mobile phone subscribers have joined subscribers in other countries worldwide that port their numbers from one network operator to another with the inauguration of the first phase of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)  yesterday in Lagos. The second phase would be inaugurated with the fixed wireless operators like Visafone and Capcom in due course, according to the commission.

Singapore was the first country to inaugurate MNP in 1997, followed by United Kingdom and The Netherlands in 1999 while Spain, Switzerland and Sweden inaugurated MNP between 2001 and 2002. United States inaugurated in 2003, South Africa in 2006 and Ghana in 2012 while Nigeria just joined the league.

Explaining how number portability works, the Chief Operating Officer of Interconnect Clearing House of Nigeria (ICHN), Mr. Uche Onwudiwe, said any subscriber, who wished to port their numbers would first have to visit the recipient service provider to make his intention known. “The subscriber is given a form to fill his personal details and would be asked to send 'Port' to a short code, 3232.

“When this is done, Interconnect Clearing House, the company with the hosting right to manage exchange of traffic for the MNP scheme, will then send a message to the telecoms operator, informing it of the intention of the subscriber to port from its network to another network. “The recipient network will then give the subscriber a new SIM card and a confirmation text is sent to the subscriber. “It takes 48 hours to complete the porting exercise,” Onwudiwe said.

"Mobile Number portability has been a huge success around the world, because it helps to level the playing field, giving all operators more opportunities to grow their subscriber bases and revenues. We therefore urge our service providers to make it successful," he said.     

All GSM operators were present at the inauguration where they expressed their readiness on the implementation of the service in Nigeria. Reeling some of the conditions for porting, Juwah said subscribers would be allowed to port to another network free of charge, once in every 90 days.

In technical parlance, Mobile Number Portability is a process that allows subscribers to migrate from one network to another, in search of better service quality, while still retaining the original phone number, irrespective of the network the subscriber chooses to migrate to.

Via ThisDay

RVP treble fires Manchester United to 20th Title

Robin van Persie bagged a magnificent first-half hat-trick to fire Manchester United to Premier League title glory with a 3-0 win over Aston Villa. Sir Alex Ferguson believes no player has ever made as great a mark on his title-winning teams as Robin van Persie has done this season.

The Dutchman clinched Manchester United's 20th league title with a hat-trick to defeat Aston Villa and ensure they have won the league with four games to go. It took Van Persie's tally to 28 goals for the season since his £24 million move from Arsenal and his league strikes have been worth 25 points to Arsenal.

And Ferguson said that Arsene Wenger, who reluctantly sold Van Persie to United in August, told him to expect an even better footballer than he realised. He added: "I think Robin is such a great player for Arsenal and when a great player becomes available and you feel United should have him you have to go for him. I think we had an expectation of him - his performance last season was incredible. I remember Arsene saying 'he's a better player than you think.' I knew he could gel into the team."

After a two-month goal drought, Van Persie has now scored five goals in three games and is leading the race to win the Golden Boot. And Ferguson said: "He has been unbelievable. His early form that first six months was fantastic. He hit that spell where he hadn't scored a goal and every striker has a dry spell but when he scored that penalty kick at Stoke I thought, he's alive now and today he was unbelievable."

Via ESPN

Yahoo! Unveils Brand New iOS App, Including Built-In Summly Summaries

Yahoo! acquired startup Summly for somewhere around $30 million just one month ago, but it’s already bearing fruit. First, there was the Summly summarized version of its Q1 2013 earnings last week, and now there’s a brand new flagship Yahoo! iOS application out today (for U.S. users only for now) with Summly summaries built right in.

The Summly acquisition attracted a lot of attention, in part because it was helmed by 17-year old Nick D’Aloisio, and because part of its technology was based on a licensing arrangement with SRI, the same company that originally spawned Siri, Apple’s virtual voice-powered assistant software. It’s been speculated that gaining access to that license in part motivated the acquisition.

The app offers Summly summaries of news stories it provides, in a “virtually endless” newsfeed that foregrounds images shown off full-width on the iPhone’s display. Search is said to be improved, both for video and images, and you can drill down to different categories and select topics that interest you, as well as flag those that don’t to make for improved content selection. If you’re logged in with your Yahoo! ID, those choices will also percolate across platforms, meaning you’ll get better results on Yahoo! on the desktop as well as on mobile.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about this new app is the speed with which the Summly integration was achieved. Even if things were rolling behind the scenes before the announcement of the acquisition, the product cycle looks to have been quite short. And Yahoo! has also just delivered completely redesigned weather and mail apps for iPhone and iPad, respectively, making its near-simultaneously launch of this re-imagining all the more impressive. Looks like some of the efforts CEO Marissa Mayer has put in place to focus the team, including the decision to end remote work, have indeed done their job and focused the team.

Via TechCrunch

Corruption reports on Nigeria exaggerated – Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday again admitted that corruption was currently pervading the nation’s system. He however said the reports of the menace were being exaggerated.

Jonathan spoke at the presidential power reform transactions signing ceremony held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, barely three days after the United States government indicted the Federal Government of massive and widespread corruption.

According to the US Department of State’s report, government officials and agencies frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. This was contained in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012, which was released on Friday.

In the report, the judiciary and security agencies, especially the police, were said to be lacking in transparency. But Jonathan insisted that although there were cases of corruption in the country, the menace was being “over-amplified.”

The President said, “Let me continue to assure Nigerians that yes, there are issues of corruption in this country but somehow it has been over amplified. “People should watch how we have been conducting government business. We have been bringing down the issues of corruption gradually.

On the signing of the power transactions, the President told Nigerians that his government cared for them and that he would not rest until he fixed the nation’s power sector.

Via Punch

Launching my Online and Social Media PR Business today!

Morning one and all. Its Tuesday, the 16th of April 2013! And I'm officially launching my Online and Social Media PR Business today! I've been thinking about this for a while now and I guess the time is right, for me to unleash my creative talents for the benefit of mankind. 

And for those who would like to create a niche for their brands, I'll also be doing Brand Consulting. I'll be using this blog as my main medium. I've been doing this Online and Social Media PR business casually for a while, but its time to take it to the next level. 

Keep it locked! You'll be glad you did! 

Telephone: +234 802 203 7729, +234 810 694 5030

BB Pin: 2A001C3F

e-mail: ayoleyijohnson@gmail.com

Twitter: @BloodyNigerian

Justin Bieber Has the Fakest Twitter Followers

Not to enrage the Bieber Nation or Beliebers or whatever Bieberian name tweens and post-tweens call themselves now, but it looks like a lot of the people who follow him on Twitter are fake. In fact, he has the highest number of fakeout Twitter followers out of the top 10 Twitter accounts. 16.7 million accounts are fake! 2.6 million are inactive! Those numbers are ridiculous.

Bieber has 17.8 million real followers (a lot! but certainly a lot different from his listed 37.2 million followers) which puts him in second place in Twitter popularity behind Lady Gaga, who has 19 million real followers. The fake stats were found by Statista using the Socialbakers tool which weeds out fake accounts by looking at their tweets to see if they include spamworthy words like "diet", "make money" and "work from home". It's not too surprising that all these popular stars have so many fake followers (Et tu, Barack?) because massive popularity is a magnet for spam leeches.

Via Engadget

TOP 50 RICHEST FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN THE WORLD 2013

50. Alessandro Nesta (Montreal Impact) - £16m
49. Yaya Toure (Manchester City) - £16.5m
48. Michael Essien (Real Madrid - loan) - £16.5m
47. Shunsuke Nakamura (Yokohama F Marinos) - £17m
46. Ashley Cole (Chelsea) -£17m
45. Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus) - £17m
44. Xavi (Barcelona) - £17.5m
43. David Trezeguet (River Plate) - £17.5m
42. Clarence Seedorf (Botafogo) - £18m 
41. Daniele De Rossi (Roma) - £18m
40. Park Ji-Sung (QPR) - £18m
39. Damien Duff (Fulham)- £18.5m
38. Paul Scholes (Manchester United)- £19m
37. Andrea Pirlo (Juventus) - £19.5m
36. Joe Cole (West Ham United) - £19.5m 
35. Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich) - £20m
34. Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich)- £20m
33. Neymar (Santos) - £20m
32. Petr Cech (Chelsea) - £20m
31. Francesco Totti (Roma) - £20.5m
30. Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich) - £20.5m 
29. Miroslav Klose (Lazio) - £20.5m
28. Alessandro Del Piero (Sydney FC)- £21m
27. Nicolas Anelka (Juventus - loan) - £21.5m
26. Wesley Sneijder (Galatasaray) - £22m
25. Fernando Torres (Chelsea) - £25m
24. Didier Drogba (Galatasaray) - £25m 
23. John Terry (Chelsea) - £27.5m
22. Franck Ribery (BayernMunich) - £29m
21. Iker Casillas (Real Madrid) - £30m
20. Robinho (AC Milan) - £31m
19. Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) - £32m
18. Robbie Fowler (Unattached) - £32.5m 
17. Frank Lampard (Chelsea) - £33m
16. Ryan Giggs (Manchester United) - £34.5m
15. Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy) - £35.5m
14. David Villa (Barcelona) - £37m
13. Raul (Al Sadd) - £38m
12. Michael Owen (Stoke City) - £40.5m 
11. Thierry Henry (New York Red Bulls) - £41m
10. Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United) - £42m
9. Rivaldo (Sao Caetano) -£45.5m
8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG) - £47m
7. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)- £50m
6. Samuel Eto’o (Anzhi Makhachkala) - £52m 
5. Ronaldinho (Atletico Mineiro) - £63m
4. Kaka (Real Madrid) - £66.5m
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (RealMadrid) -£112m
2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - £115.5m
1. David Beckham (PSG) - £175m 

UCL Semi-Final: Barcelona draws Bayern Munich!

There was relief all round in Spain as La Liga's big two were kept apart at this morning's Champions League draw in Nyon, with Barcelona drawn against Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid to face Borussia Dortmund, in two mouth-watering Spanish v German semi-final ties.

Barca's game against Bayern, who will be coached from next season by former Barca boss Josep Guardiola, would be a clash of footballing styles, predicted Barcelona's football sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta. "I believe this is a great tie, all the four teams are great teams," Zubizarreta said. "They are a great team, a great club. We will try and play our football, it will be a mix of styles. I hope we get back to playing the way we like, and to make it to Wembley, a place which is magical for us."

Ex-Madrid striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy then paired Madrid with Dortmund, with Jose Mourinho's side having the second game at home at their Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. The sides met at this stage in 1997/98, when then holders Dortmund were eliminated by Madrid, who went on to win their seventh European Cup that season, with current Bayern boss Jupp Heynckes then Blancos coach.

The games will be played Tuesday April 23 and Wednesday 24, with the return games the following week - April 30 and May 1. The final takes place at Wembley on Saturday May 25, when the winners of semi-final 2 (Dortmund or Madrid) will be the designated 'home' side.

Via ESPN

Hacker claims he can remotely hijack airplanes using an Android app

Hugo Teso, a security consultant who also happens to be a trained commercial pilot, says he's developed an Android app that can make an airliner "dance to his tune" by attacking its flight management systems. The hack was demoed at this year's Hack In The Box conference in Amsterdam, where Teso showed how the app -- called PlaneSploit -- can seek out targets from the ground by infiltrating radio broadcasts between aircraft and air traffic control, and then use a second communication system to send malicious messages to that could "take full control of the plane" or indirectly affect the pilot's behavior. PlaneSploit is proof-of-concept software, designed to work in a closed virtual environment, so it's not like we're going to see it pop up on Google Play any time soon, but just the fact it exists will hopefully help to keep the puppet masters out of real-world planes. And no, there's no Windows Phone version.

Via Engadget

Samsung Galaxy Mega is official and comes in 6.3- and 5.8-inch sizes

We knew Samsung was planning more devices, but we didn't expect the arrival of two Galaxy Mega smartphones at the same time. Both are apparently headed to Europe some time next month, continuing to prove that Samsung are willing to test out any screen-size. The 6.3-inch model has an 'HD display' (we're chasing the precise resolution, though it's likely 720p) alongside a dual-core 1.7GHz processor, Android 4.2 and an 8-megapixel camera. Software features like Air View, Multi Windows, Pop-up Play will make sure you have plenty to do on that giant screen. The Galaxy Mega arrives somewhere between Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy Note II, although we're hoping it'll be priced slightly more humbly than either neighbor. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 houses LTE and HSPA radios, while you'll get GPS and GLONASS to aid any location-based antics. There's a 3,200mAh battery and internal storage that can be expanded by microSD up to 64GB, with 8 or 16 gigs (there's two models) built-in to begin with.

Via Engadget

Barca stars credit Messi with comeback

Jordi Roura has hailed Barcelona's "extraordinary" achievement in making six successive Champions League semi-finals by edging past Paris Saint-Germain yesterday night, which Barca's players accepted they would not have managed without the contribution of a half-fit Lionel Messi. With Messi on the bench nursing a thigh injury, Javier Pastore's well-taken strike put PSG deservedly 1-0 ahead on the night, and 3-2 on aggregate. However, the Barcelona forward entered the fray with less than half an hour remaining, and helped create the goal for Pedro Rodriguez that saw Barca through to the last four on away goals.

Barca had looked rudderless and anxious without their talisman, which Roura said was more to do with how well PSG had performed than his side's 'Messi-dependence'. Goalscorer Pedro had no doubt where most of the praise should be directed when speaking with Canal Plus after the game. "Messi made a great effort," he said. "He is very important for the team. He worked very hard all week to be with us tonight. We need to thank him and congratulate him for helping the team. He turned things around when he came on. He is the best."

David Villa, who took Messi's incisive pass and then laid the ball off for Pedro to hammer in the crucial goal, also hailed the Argentine's commitment to the Barcelona cause. "Leo is the best player in the world," Villa told reporters. "He changes the game just by being on the pitch. We have to recognise his dedication and commitment, for playing after being injured. With his help, we managed to qualify."

Via ESPN

Expect more power cuts, minister tells Nigerians

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, yesterday said there would be more power cuts in the days ahead due to ongoing maintenance works on installations across the country. Nebo, while explaining why there was a sharp drop in power supply at a briefing in Abuja, said the country lost 1,112 megawatts of generated electricity in two days due to the shutdown of the Chevron gas plant.

He said, “A few days ago, precisely last week Friday, Chevron shut down its gas plant for maintenance purposes, which was to take place between Friday and Saturday. And the technical crew in the power sector knew about the shutdown and this was in order to make sure that damages are not done before losing the gas entirely.

“From time to time, there is going to be shutdown and it happened two times recently between Benin and Osogbo. If you don’t shut down these plants in order to have a safe restarting process, you are going to lose the equipment. Once routine maintenance is done, the process of restarting the machines that were shut down takes some time.”

He said two power stations were affected by the recent shutdown, stressing that the oil company and the ministry’s technicians had to maintain the plants.

The minister added, “That is why between two and three days, we lost some 1,112MW. That means Omotoso and Olorunsogo plants were forced to shut down because there was no gas supply. By design, Chevron has to maintain the gas pipelines and it was so.

“You will notice that from Monday, we started seeing some increase that has stabilised. Right now, we have over 3,300MW.” Nebo gave an assurance that occasional system failures would be addressed.

He said, “With regards to occasional system failures, we are in the process of reviving the huge section of the transmission machinery, especially the lines that are aged, failing, dilapidated and in need of replacement. We are working on that.

Via Punch

Lessons from the List of World's Most Valuable Companies

You've probably heard that two corporate heavyweights, Apple and ExxonMobil are fighting for the distinction of being the most valuable company on the planet. That made me curious about who the top ten are, and what lessons could be learned.

To determine the top ten, I used market capitalization to measure the value of the companies. That's simply a matter of multiplying the number of shares they have outstanding by the price of their stock, and here they are:

It turns out that the top ten produced some interesting statistics:

• Their combined value is over $2.1 trillion, or about 12 percent of the U.S. national debt.
• Nine are based in the United States while one is based in China.
• Apple and ExxonMobil have large leads on the others.
• Four are tech, three energy, and one each are retail, diversified, and a holding company.

Will Apple or ExxonMobil still be number one at the end of the decade? Will one of the next eight take over? Perhaps the new champ won't even be a top ten today.

I went back to the beginning of 2000, when Microsoft and GE were fighting for the top slot and Apple wasn't a contender. Hard as it is to imagine now, you may not have even heard of Google at that time. In fact, half of today's top ten weren't in the top ten back then. Further, Intel was number seven on the charts in 1999 -- today, it barely breaks the top 50 at #48.

The lesson here is that the future is very uncertain. For those who might want to put all their eggs in one of these corporate heavy hitter's' basket, it's important to consider that some of these top ten will fall from grace by the end of the decade, and other companies we've barely heard of today will become household names.

Which ones do I bet on? All of them.

Written by Allan Roth on CBS MoneyWatch

Allan S. Roth is the founder of Wealth Logic, an hourly based financial planning and investment advisory firm that advises clients with portfolios ranging from $10,000 to over $50 million. The author of How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street, Roth teaches investments and behavioral finance at the University of Denver and is a frequent speaker.

Nollywood actress Kate Henshaw steams up the cover of WOW

Ageless actress, Kate Henshaw covers the new edition of Wow magazine and she looks extraordinarily gorgeous! The actress who celebrates her twenty years on screen this year stays fresh, young, and beautiful as she struts her stuff in an over-the-knee dress which transforms her into the queen that we all know she is.

Cover 

Photography by Obi Somto
Styled by Adebayo Oke-lawal
Assisted by Ian Audifferen
Make Up by Banke Meshida-Lawal for BM Pro
Hair by Ola Hair

Via YNaija

100 vehicles vandalised, many injured in Lagos violence

No fewer than 100 vehicles were vandalised and many injured when urchins, otherwise known as “Area boys” on reprisal invaded four streets in Akoka and Pedro in Somolu Local Government Area of Lagos State. The hoodlums were said to have arrived the area through the Somolu Market pretending to be holding a candlelight procession for a man, identified simply as Old Skool.

The man was allegedly stabbed repeatedly by some youths during a rally organised by the Somolu LG Chairman, Mr. Gbolahan Bago-Stowe to mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Solanke Street. Old Skool died on Easter Sunday, thus creating tension in the Akoka part of the LG.

More than 70 hoodlums stormed the streets between 10pm on Sunday and 1am on Monday, destroying vehicles parked on the streets and inflicting injuries on many residents. A resident, Mr. Ernest Molokwu, said he was beaten up by the hoodlums while his commercial bus was vandalised.

On Solanke Street for instance, they counted 25 damaged vehicles, including one belonging to the Supervising Councilor for works, Somolu LG, Mr. Segun Adebiyi.

A woman, who identified herself only as Bisi, said the hoodlums collected her two phones. Bisi alleged that a community centre in the area which was built by the LG had become a hideout for criminals. “We know them (suspects) but anytime we report them to the police, they are only arrested for a while and later released. That community centre on Ojo Street is a den of robbers,” she said.

The LG boss while addressing aggrieved residents, promised to make sure that the suspects were brought to book.

Bagostowe said, “The residents are not helping at all. They know these hoodlums and where they live. If these hoodlums are arrested, I promise to make sure that they are prosecuted. I will hold a meeting with OP MESA, the police and the Community Development Association to make sure that we put an end to this problem."

Via Punch