How To Remain Private On The Internet

By Perkins Abaje

A major issue of concern, over the years, for internet utility users and experts is the increasing case of cyber spying on the web.  I have considered ‘internet privacy’ as a fundamental area of concern and interests and due to the many years of surfing the net, I have generated interests in studying several means and methods to “internet privacy”.

Ideally, it is advisable to keep and remain private in visiting some websites on the internet as hackers have the tools and capabilities to monitor every online activities being carried out by you.

This short piece is to introduce you to a tool I discovered recently; used and verified as appropriate in providing fast, private and secured browsing experience. The web application is called “disconnect_me”. With just few clicks, you can as well start using this online tool to be secured and protect your online data.

Download and install disconnect me here

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New Research: Smart Flood Systems Development With Hybrid Communications Channel

Photo credit: Telegraph UK

I am currently at the delivering stage of a research work I started about 11 months ago with the subject "New Research: Smart Flood Systems Development With Hybrid Communications Channel" This research work will provide telemetry services to support flood risks assessment programme in parts of England.

Working in a team as a 'student lead' researcher; I will forward details of the research scope, findings and results as soon as we have reached the critical advanced stage of the research work.

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New Research Reveals How Africa Tweets

Twitter activity in Africa during the last quarter of 2013 peaked on the day of Nelson Mandela’s death, according to How Africa Tweets, a new study analyzing Twitter activity on the continent. In an interview with Allan Kamau, head of the Nairobi office of strategic communications agency Portland, we discussed the context of these findings and what they mean more broadly for social media engagement and usage in Africa.

Rahim Kanani: What were some of the most significant findings of your research on Twitter usage in Africa?

Allan Kamau: The main focus of the study – the second of our How Africa Tweets series – was the volume of tweets coming out of Africa’s 20 most populated cities. We found that Johannesburg was the most active city we tracked, with the rest of the top five dominated by South African and Egyptian cities. Kenya – the East African tech powerhouse – came in sixth overall, while the most active West African city was Accra, which came in eighth overall.

For this study, we also explored which languages were being used the most for tweeting across the continent. While it may not be surprising that English was the most common by some margin, we were delighted to see the number of local languages also being used on Twitter. The top three might be English, Arabic and French, but the rest of the top ten includes Zulu, Swahili, Afrikaans, Xhosa and other major African languages.

Finally, we were very happy to see more brands and companies making use of Twitter in Africa. When we ran our initial study in 2011/2012, we found that the majority of traffic on Twitter in Africa was driven by social conversation. Now we’re seeing brands like Samsung, Adidas and Magnum using the platform to reach consumers. And while this is happening to a lesser degree with politicians and government, it’s something we hope to see more of in the coming years – using social media to engage directly with citizens, consumers and other key audiences.

Kanani: What surprised you the most about what you discovered?

Kamau: The largest surprise for us was the low number of geo-located tweets coming out of Lagos. The Nigerian mega-city is undeniably one of Africa’s major tech-hubs. So we were very surprised to see that, based on geo-located tweets, it was the 12th most active city in Africa. It may be that users in Lagos are less likely to enable location services than those in other cities, or that Facebook’s dominance in West Africa means that Twitter simply doesn’t have the relative numbers that it has in other major cities.

Kanani: More broadly, how would you describe the social media landscape and usage in Africa?

Kamau: It’s safe to say that the Twittersphere in Africa is becoming more sophisticated. Where the conversation back in 2011 was mainly social – people linking up with friends, discussing plans or culture – we’ve seen a step-change over the last two years.

Brands are using Twitter for promotions and competitions. Sports clubs are using it as a broadcast tool for their fans (the Orlando Pirates in Johannesburg were one of the most discussed topics overall during our time period).

Twitter has become a serious tool for news sharing in Africa as well. The largest spike in activity over the course of the last three months of 2013 occurred on 5 December, the day of Nelson Mandela’s passing. As the rumours spread and his death was confirmed, we saw related hashtags (#Mandela, #RIPNelsonMandela, #Madiba) popping up across the continent as the news was shared.

Kanani: In terms of advocacy and galvanizing people to take action on some social or political issue on the continent, how should activists interpret these results?

Kamau: We’re starting to see Twitter used to discuss political issues in Africa. During the period of time we tracked, we saw conversation around #KenyaAt50 (the anniversary of Kenya’s independence) take off. And shortly after, #SickAt50 – a hashtag that was initially linked to a healthcare strike but quickly became more generally critical of the government – rose up to the same level of activity.

The last few years have proven that social media has immense power for mobilising people around an issue. Everyone – in the developed and developing worlds – needs to realize that social media is here to stay and its power cannot be denied. It might not always be Twitter, Facebook and Weibo that are the most popular, but people around the world have gotten a taste for being able to make their voices heard; and with more people coming online every day, this is only going to grow.

Kanani: Where is all of this heading 5 or 10 years from now?

Kamau: We’re on the cusp of a massive explosion of smartphones in Africa. With major phone makers now developing sub-$50 phones specifically for emerging markets, it won’t be long before basic dumb-phones are replaced with Nokia Ashas or Mozilla’s new $25 smartphone. More smartphones will have an immediate and tremendous impact on communications in Africa.

We’ll see social media use sky-rocket over the coming years. This could be with the major world players like Twitter and Facebook. But it could also come in the form of home-grown social media platforms like MXit or 2go. MXit has already seen huge growth within its home country of South Africa and is seeing decent growth in other African markets.

Regardless of the platform, the numbers of social media users is sure to grow and we would expect to see ever greater sophistication of the ecosystem in the coming years. Africa will follow the trend of more developed social media markets, where platforms like Twitter become established channels for serious discussions – a place where governments and business leaders are able to engage naturally with consumers and citizens.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Original publisher: Forbes 

Original author: Rahim Kanani

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Twitter Launches Profile Redesign

Social media website, Twitter is currently undergoing huge virtual transformation. Twitter today launched a complete profile redesign that will be officially released soon.

The new design features a photo-patterned layout resonant of Facebook and Google+. The fundamental redesign is only effective for a selected group of users for now, but will be officially out globally in few weeks.

For Twitter, visuals have been a growing concerned to meet up with global standards and users’ satisfaction.

As disclosed by Twitter’s designer David Bellona said that the new Web profiles will feature a larger profile photo, a header (cover) photo, and the ability to pin your favorite tweets to the top of your profile.

And we trust Twitter to keep the innovation going as seen with Facebook's design evolution recently.

~ Perkins Abaje

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Turkey Blocks Access To YouTube

Turkey has blocked access to YouTube just a day after a court ordered the government to lift a ban on Twitter imposed by the Prime Minister.

The Turkish telecoms authority TIB said today it has taken an "administrative measure" against the Google-owned video site.

Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan singled out the video-sharing website for criticism on Tuesday after previously accusing Twitter of trying to undermine the personal privacy of those within his government.

"What is this thing called Twitter anyway?" he said on state television. "It is a company, involved in communication, social media, et cetera. Now, you look at it and actually see YouTube behind this. They do not have a representative here, but work with the lawyers of YouTube." Twitter had hired the same law firm YouTube has used during a dispute with Turkish authorities in 2008, when the site was also banned.

Mr Erdogan promised to "rip out the roots" of social network Twitter after a series of tweets appeared on the site that appeared to incriminate him and other top officials in relation to corruption. The site was banned last week, however Turkish users began changing internet settings in order to get around the block.

London-based Turkish journalist Figen Gunes said: "It was only a couple of hours ago the YouTube ban was announced but already in Google when one makes a search by writing 'YouTube ban' in Turkish, the second suggestion that comes up is about 'how to bypass the YouTube ban'. The previous YouTube ban and the recent Gezi movement in Turkey showed how the young generation is tech-savvy and still proves to be.

"The main opponent CHP's president Kemal Kilicdaroglu says Mr Erdogan has been scared of 140 characters so that's why Twitter has been banned.

"Now, the YouTube ban informs us that Erdogan is striving to hold on to power regardless of international pressures reminding him of the importance of the rule of law. The YouTube ban is against the freedom of expression and it should be overturned immediately."

Yesterday a Turkish court overturned the ban on Twitter, ordering the government to restore the service. It was unclear whether an appeal would be lodged, but more court action is now likely following the new YouTube ban. The block had caused uproar within Turkey, with the Turkish bar association and journalists' union bringing the court action citing a breach of freedom of expression.

- Press Association

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Twitter to launch mobile advertising product for apps - report

(Reuters) - Twitter Inc plans to release a mobile-advertising product in the next few weeks that will allow app-makers to encourage downloads of their software, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.

The format will lead users to the advertiser's page in a mobile app store where they can download the software, Bloomberg said.

There had been speculation that Twitter and other internet firms would try their hand at this sort of marketing, which has proven lucrative for Facebook.

Twitter expects the app-install advertisements to attract advertisers in the e-commerce and gaming industries, according to Bloomberg.

Twitter representatives were not immediately available to comment.

(Reporting by Rohit T.K. and Narottam Medhora in Bangalore; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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Google Researchers: Journalists, Media Under Attack From Hackers

By Jeremy Wagstaff

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Twenty-one of the world's top-25 news organisations have been the target of likely state-sponsored hacking attacks, according to research by two Google security engineers.

While many internet users face attacks via email designed to steal personal data, journalists were "massively over-represented" among such targets, said Shane Huntley, a security software engineer at Google.

The attacks were launched by hackers either working for or in support of a government, and were specifically targeting journalists, Huntley and co-author Morgan Marquis-Boire said in interviews. Their paper was presented at a Black Hat hackers conference in Singapore on Friday.

"If you're a journalist or a journalistic organisation we will see state-sponsored targeting and we see it happening regardless of region, we see it from all over the world both from where the targets are and where the targets are from," Huntley told Reuters.

Both researchers declined to go into detail about how Google monitors such attacks, but said it "tracks the state actors that attack our users." Recipients of such emails in Google's Gmail service typically receive a warning message.

Security researcher Ashkan Soltani said in an earlier Twitter post that nine of the top-25 news websites use Google for hosted email services. The list is based on traffic volumes measured by Alexa, a web information firm owned by Amazon.com Inc.

California-headquartered Google also owns VirusTotal, a website that analyses files and websites to check for malicious content.

"TIP OF THE ICEBERG"

Several U.S. news organisations have said they have been hacked in the past year, and Forbes, the Financial Times and the New York Times have all succumbed to attacks by the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of pro-government hackers.

Huntley said Chinese hackers recently gained access to a major Western news organisation, which he declined to identify, via a fake questionnaire emailed to staff. Most such attacks involve carefully crafted emails carrying malware or directing users to a website crafted to trick them into giving up credentials.

Marquis-Boire said that while such attacks were nothing new, their research showed that the number of attacks on media organisations and journalists that went unreported was significantly higher than those made public.

"This is the tip of the iceberg," he said, noting a year-long spate of attacks on journalists and others interested in human rights in Vietnam, including an Associated Press reporter. The attacks usually involved sending the target an infected email attachment masquerading as a human rights document.

While many of the world's biggest media players have been targeted in these attacks, small news organisations, citizen journalists and bloggers were also targeted, Huntley said, noting hacking attacks on journalists in Morocco and Ethiopia.

The problem, Marquis-Boire said, was that news organisations have been slower than other businesses in recognising the threat and taking action. "A lot of news organisations are just waking up to this," he said.

Many journalists are now taking individual action to protect their computers and email accounts, he said. "We're seeing a definite upswing of individual journalists who recognise this is important."

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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Proposed NSA Reforms Vindicate My Data Leaks, Says Edward Snowden

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Former security contractor Edward Snowden, addressing a sympathetic crowd at a tech-heavy event in Austin, Texas, on Monday from a secret location in Russia, said proposed reforms at the National Security Agency show that he was vindicated in leaking classified material.

Snowden, who faces arrest if he steps foot on U.S. soil, spoke via a video link to a packed house at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) gathering of tech industry experts, filmmakers and musicians. He said the U.S. government still has no idea what material he has provided to journalists.

"I saw that the Constitution was violated on a massive scale," Snowden said to applause, adding that his revelations of government spying on private communications have resulted in protections that have benefited the public and global society.

NSA officials declined to comment on the Snowden remarks.

Last year, Snowden, who had been working at a NSA facility as an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, leaked a raft of secret documents that revealed a vast U.S. government system for monitoring phone and Internet data.

The leaks deeply embarrassed the Obama administration, which in January banned U.S. eavesdropping on the leaders of friendly countries and allies and began reining in the sweeping collection of Americans' phone data in a series of limited reforms triggered by Snowden's revelations.

Major companies also tightened up safeguards. But Snowden said the efforts are still not enough to protect privacy properly, calling for stepped-up encryption that would make mass government surveillance too costly to conduct.

"The government has gone and changed their talking points. They have changed their verbiage away from public interest to national interest," he said, adding that this poses the risk of losing control of representative democracy.

He said the government's priority has been an expansive and ill-executed system of massive information collection instead of protecting the vast amounts of intellectual property that support the U.S. economy.

"We've got the most to lose from being hacked," Snowden said.

U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo, a Republican from Kansas, wrote to SXSW organizers, calling on them to withdraw the invitation to Snowden, who he said deceived his employer and his country.

"Rewarding Mr. Snowden's behaviour in this way encourages the very lawlessness he exhibited," Pompeo wrote.

To many in government and at the NSA, Snowden is a traitor who compromised the security of the United States. But for many at the conference he is a hero who protected privacy and civil liberties.

"To me, Snowden is a patriot who believed that what he did was in the best interests of his country," said Roeland Stekelenburg, creative director at the Dutch Internet firm Infostrada.

Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he currently has asylum. The White House wants him returned to the United States for prosecution.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)

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INFORGRAPHIC: The Journey of WhatsApp

It is still amazing to note that WhatsApp, a 5-year-old instant messaging platform is worth a whooping sum of $19 billion dollars. 

WhatsApp has over 450 Million active users; this is the first time in history that an instant messaging social media platform will have such a massive user-base within a short time.

Statistics have shown that WhatsApp’s journey has been smooth and rewarding. Woodpeck3r just designed an Info-graphic called ‘Journey of WhatsApp’ and you will be much interested to see this below:

Photo Credit: Woodpeck3r

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#OpenData: About 88% Of Nigerians Are Gearing Up To Vote In The 2015 Election - NOIPolls

By NOIPolls

Photo Credit: BBC News 

PRESS RELEASE

The recently released Election Poll results by NOIPolls Limited has revealed that majority of adult Nigerians claim to be registered voters (75%). Also, of the 25% yet-to-register, the vast majority (92%) plan to register in time for the 2015 elections. The results further revealed that majority of registered voters (88%) are eagerly looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections; while citing the need “to exercise their right to vote as Nigerians” (40%) and “to vote for the right/good leader” (31%) as the top reasons. On the other hand, of the 12% of registered voters who do not look forward to voting, the most cited reasons include the suspicion that “their vote will not count” (36%), they “Don’t have the time” (22%), and they “Don’t Trust the Elections” (21%). These are the key findings from the Countdown to the 2015 Election Poll conducted in the week of February 17^th 2014.

Brief Background
In January 2014, Mrs. Augusta Ogakwu; the Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on February 14, 2015; while the State Assembly and Governorship elections are scheduled for February 28, 2015. Mixed reactions have trailed the election timetable; some Nigerians applauded INEC for the timely release of the schedule for the elections while others have questioned the decision to hold the presidential and National Assembly polls before the governorship and state assembly elections. They argued that holding the presidential poll first would have a bandwagon effect on the subsequent elections[1].

As Nigeria prepares towards the 2015 polls, INEC Chairman; Attahiru Jega has painted an optimistic picture of the 2015 elections saying the lessons of the 2011 elections had been learnt and new processes are now in place to make the coming elections “much better than anything in the past.” Questions that are currently swirling around and being debated in the polity include” Has the PDP been weakened irrevocably? Can the APC hold itself together? Will Jonathan win if he runs again?”[2]

Against this background, NOIPolls conducted its Countdown to the 2015 Elections poll to seek the views of Nigerians regarding the 2015 general elections. This is the second in the series of election polls conducted by NOIPolls (the first one was conducted in April 2013) and the first in the series of bi-monthly polls that will be conducted as Nigeria countdowns to the actual elections in 2015.       

Respondents to the poll were asked five specific questions. In order to gauge the proportion of registered voters, respondents were asked: Presently, are you a registered voter? Overall, the majority (75%) responded positively, claiming they are currently registered voters; while25% of Nigerians responded negatively.

Further analysis by geo-political zones, indicates that the South-East zone (83%) has the highest proportion of registered voters, while the North-West zone and the South-South zone (both 28%) have the highest proportion of those that are not yet registered. In addition, the age-group that has the highest percentage (89%) of registered voter is 46-60 years.

 

---

[1] The Sun Newspapers

[2] Premium Times

 

Respondents who are not registered (25% of the total) were further asked: If No, do you plan to register in time for the 2015 elections? Responses to this question revealed that the overwhelming majority of those not registered; 92% plan to register in time for the 2015elections, while only 8% are not interested in registering at all.

When current findings are compared with results from the previous poll conducted in 2013, there is a significant 16-point increase in the proportion of Nigerians who are yet to register, but indicate they have plans to register in time for the 2015 elections.

The third question sought to gauge the level of enthusiasm among registered voters. Registered respondents (75% of the total) were asked: Are you looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections? Overall, the majority of registered voters (88%) indicated they are looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections; while 12% of the respondents claim they are not looking forward to voting in 2015 elections.

Findings based on geo-political zones show that the South-East zone (93%) had the highest proportion of respondents who are looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections. This is followed by the North-Central zone with 92% and the North-West zone with 89%. 

Furthermore, when these findings are compared with the previous poll conducted in 2013, there was a slight 2-point decline in the proportion of Nigerians who look forward to voting in the 2015 elections. 

Subsequently, in order to gain insights into factors stimulating the keenness to vote, Nigerians who are looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections (88% of registered voters) were further asked: If yes, why are you looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections? Bearing in mind that this was an open-ended question, the findings revealed that the majority (40%) are looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections because they want “toexercise their right to vote as Nigerians”, while 31% are stimulated by the need “to vote for the right/good leader”. Furthermore, 10% are looking forward to the elections in order “to vote for a change of government”, while another 7% mentioned “for transformation / better Nigeria.

 Analysis based on geo-political zones revealed that the South-West zone (47%) has the highest proportion of Nigerians who are stimulated by the need “to exercise their right to vote as Nigerians”, while the South-East zone (41%) accounts for the largest proportion of respondents that look forward to 2015 elections in order “to vote for the right/good leader”. Also, the South-South zone (30%) has the highest proportion of respondents that indicated “to vote for a change of government”.

Furthermore, trend analysis of the findings obtained from the previous poll revealed a significant 10-point decline in the proportion of respondents who are motivated by the need to vote for the right/good leader; it was 41% in 2013. Furthermore, there was a slim 2-pointincrease in the proportion of Nigerians that want to vote in order to exercise their right to vote as Nigerians in 2014.

Finally, in similar way respondents who indicated they are not looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections (12% of registered voters) were asked: If no, why are you not looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections?  Results indicate the majority (36%) are of the opinion that “their vote does not count”, this is followed by 22% who say “they don’t have time” and 21% who say they have “no trust in elections”. In addition, 14% claim there are demotivated towards voting in the 2015 elections  due to “insecurity” and 5% are of the opinion that the “Nigerian system is bad”.
 
Gauging the responses from the geo-political zone standpoint reveals that the North-Eastzone has the highest (87%) proportion of respondents who think “their vote does not count” while the North-West zone has the highest proportion of respondents who claim “they don’t have time” (45%)  and  also indicated “insecurity” (45%) as a demotivating factor to voting. In addition, the South-West zone (41%) accounts for the highest proportion of respondents who have “no trust in elections”.

When these current findings are compared with the results obtained in 2013, there was an 8-point decline in the proportion of respondents that indicate their “vote does not count” even though it remains the popular opinion among respondents that are not looking forward to voting.

 

In conclusion, findings from the election poll reveals the majority of Nigerians are registered voters (75%) and of this proportion, the overwhelming majority; 88% are looking forward to voting in the 2015 general elections. More findings also reveals that the overwhelming majority;92% out of 25% who are not yet registered plan to register in time for the 2015 elections. Furthermore, in 2014 there was a significant 16-point increase in the proportion of Nigerians who are yet to register but indicated they plan to register in time for the elections. In addition, the vast majority of registered voters are looking forward to voting in the 2015 elections (88%). The most popular reason (40%) given by those that are looking forward to voting is “to exercise their right to vote as Nigerians”, while the most popular reason by those who do not look forward to voting (36%) is that “their vote will not count”. Finally, as the 2015 elections draw closer, it’s clear that voter apathy will be a major deterrent since the majority of Nigerians are currently highly enthusiastic about voting in the upcoming 2015 polls.

Survey Methods
The opinion poll was conducted in February 17^th to 19^th 2014. It involved telephone interviews of a random nationwide sample. 1,000 randomly selected phone-owning Nigerians aged 18 years and above, representing the six geopolitical zones in the country, were interviewed. With a sample of this size, we can say with 95% confidence that the results obtained are statistically precise - within a range of plus or minus 3%. NOIPolls Limited, No. 1 for country-specific polling services in West Africa, which works in technical partnership with the Gallup Organisation (USA), to conduct periodic opinion polls and studies on various socio-economic and political issues in Nigeria. More information is available at www.noi-polls.com
 

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Disclaimer
This press release has been produced by NOIPolls Limited to provide information on all issues which form the subject matter of the document. Kindly note that while we are willing to share results from our polls with the general public, we only request that NOIPolls be acknowledged as author whenever and wherever our poll results are used, cited or published.

NOIPolls hereby certifies that all the views expressed in this document accurately reflect its views of respondents surveyed for the poll, and background information is based on information from various sources that it believes are reliable; however, no representation is made that it is accurate or complete. Whilst reasonable care has been taken in preparing this document, no responsibility or liability is accepted for errors or fact or for any views expressed herein by NOIPolls for actions taken as a result of information provided in this report. Any ratings, forecasts, estimates, opinions or views herein constitute a judgment as at the date of this document. If the date of this document is not current, the views and content may not reflect NOIPolls’ current findings and/or thinking.
 

_______________________________________________________________________
Press Contact
The Editor
Email: editor@noi-polls.com

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WhatsApp To Add Voice Calls After Facebook Acquisition

By Leila Abboud and Eric Auchard

BARCELONA (Reuters) - WhatsApp will add free voice-call services for its 450 million customers later this year, laying down a new challenge to telecom network operators just days afterFacebook Inc scooped it up for $19 billion.

The text-based messaging service aims to let users make calls by the second quarter, expanding its appeal to help it hit a billion users, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.

Buying WhatsApp has cemented Facebook's involvement in messaging, which for many people is their earliest experience with the mobile Internet. Adding voice services moves the social network into another core function on a smartphone.

On Monday, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg defended the price paid for a messaging service with negligible revenue. He argued that rival services such as South Korea's KakaoTalk and Naver's LINE are already "monetizing" at a rate of $2 to $3 in revenue per user per year, despite being in the early stages of growth.

Media reports put WhatsApp's revenue at about $20 million in 2013.

"I actually think that by itself it's worth more than 19 billion," Zuckerberg told the Mobile World Congress. "Even just independently, I think it's a good bet."

"By being a part of Facebook, it makes it so they can focus for the next five years or so purely on adding more people."

WhatsApp's move into voice calls is unlikely to sit well with telecoms carriers.

WhatsApp and its rivals, like KakaoTalk, China's WeChat, and Viber, have won over telecom operators' customers in recent years by offering a free option to text messaging. Telecom providers globally generated revenue of about $120 billion from text messaging last year, according to market researcher Ovum.

Adding free calls threatens another telecom revenue source, which has been declining anyway as carriers' tweak tariffs to focus on mobile data instead of calls.

WITH, NOT AGAINST

Since the advent a decade ago of Skype's voice over Internet service, which Microsoft Corp has acquired, and the rise of Internet service providers like Google Inc, telecom bosses have gotten used to facing challengers whose services piggyback on their networks. But carriers complain that the rivals are not subject to the same national regulations.

Mats Granryd, the CEO of Swedish mobile operator Tele2, said he was happy to partner with the likes of WhatsApp because of the additional data traffic they generate. But he shared the concerns of other network operators that they must operate under strict national regulations that Internet companies are not subject to.

"They (Internet firms) need to be regulated a little bit more and we need to be regulated a little bit less," said Jo Lunder, who heads Russian mobile network operator VimpelCom.

Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said he did not understand how such an important acquisition as the Facebook-WhatsApp deal could go unchallenged at a time when European network operators were facing intense regulatory scrutiny.

"These types of deal are a clear indication that the world is changing and the regulations don't fit anymore," Colao said on the sidelines of the conference.

Both Facebook and WhatsApp CEOs have cast themselves as partners to telecoms network operators.

On Monday, Koum also announced a partnership with E-Plus, the German subsidiary of Dutch group KPN, under which it will launch a WhatsApp-branded mobile service in Germany.

The European Parliament is set to vote on Monday night on a package of proposed telecoms market reforms which among other provisions would restrict the ability of carriers to charge internet companies like Facebook to give them an enhanced service in handling their network traffic.

(Additional reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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Technology Giant Samsung Launches New Galaxy S5

Reported by Press Association

Photo Credit: Daily Mail 

Samsung sought to frame its new Galaxy S5 smartphone as a lifestyle product as it emphasised a built-in heart-rate sensor and improved camera features over its slightly larger size.

One of the main appeals of Samsung phones has been their size. The screen has steadily increased since the 4in (10.2 centimetres) on the original S from 2010, while the iPhone made that jump to 4in only in 2012 and has stayed that way since.

But the S5 pushes the screen to only 5.1in (13cm), measured diagonally, from 5in (12.7cm) in last year's model. Instead of size, Samsung touted the new phone's ability to adapt its screen to changing external conditions and to dim it to avoid disturbing others nearby.

The phone has a 16 megapixel camera, sharper than the 13 megapixels in its predecessor. It promises faster auto focus and the ability to blur the foreground or background of an image to emphasise a subject.

Samsung made the latest announcement during the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain.

The new phone will go on sale worldwide on April 11. The company did not announce a price.

The S5 has a fingerprint sensor to use in place of a passcode to unlock the phone or make payments through PayPal. It is a feature still rare in phones, though Apple introduced it in last autumn's iPhone 5s.

Samsung's Galaxy S series has emerged as one of the strongest challengers to Apple's iPhones and has helped the Korean company surpass Apple as the world's largest smartphone maker. According to Gartner, Samsung's smartphones had a worldwide market share of 31% last year, compared with 16% for Apple's iPhones.

A chief complaint about Samsung phones has been the company's tendency to pack them with a slew of features, some of which do not work well with each other or at all. Recent phones have sported an Easy Mode, with larger icons and fewer customisation choices. It is as though Samsung acknowledges that its devices have become too complex for many people to use.

Samsung showed restraint this time.

"Samsung is betting big on wellness, fingerprint reading and camera autofocus, while keeping a very similar look and feel for its hardware and software," said Nick Dillon, a senior analyst at the research firm Ovum. "The updates are so minor that on first glance most consumers would be hard pressed to notice that it has changed from the previous version."

But he said that is to be expected "given the maturity of the smartphone market and the pressure on Samsung not to mess with its winning formula".

The heart-rate sensor on the S5 can be used before and after exercise to measure fitness activities. It is not meant for continuous tracking. Samsung also unveiled a fitness band, Gear Fit, to complement two new computerised watches announced on Sunday. Those will be available on April 11 as well.

"These devices are Samsung's commitment and vision to great experiences that matter the most to us all," Samsung European executive Jean-Daniel Ayme said.

Parents, meanwhile, will enjoy the ability to hand the phone to a child without worry. Just place it in a child's mode and only approved apps can be accessed. Your child cannot send your boss an email or post an embarrassing picture on Facebook when all you intended was to have your child play Candy Crush Saga.

The phone is also water resistant.

"Our consumers do not want eye-popping technology or the most complex technology," said JK Shin, Samsung's head of information technology and the mobile communications division. "Our consumers want durable design and performance. Our consumers want a simple, yet powerful camera."

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New Post: Network Router Caused WhatsApp's 'Biggest' Outage

Photo Credit  KnowYourMobile

(Reuters) - WhatsApp founder Jan Koum on Sunday issued an apology and blamed a network router for Saturday's outage of the mobile messaging app.

"We are sorry about the downtime," wrote Koum. "It has been our longest and biggest outage in years. It was caused by a network router fault which cascaded into our servers."

"We worked with our service provider on resolving the issue and making sure it will not happen again."

WhatsApp was down for more than three hours on Saturday just days after Facebook bought it for $19 billion.

The five-year old company currently has about 450 million users worldwide and is the leading smartphone-based messaging app.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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New Post: LG Plans Launch Of First Smartwatch

(Press Association) LG Electronics has said it will launch a computerised wristwatch later this year, entering a nascent market where Samsung, Sony and smaller companies such as Pebble are already jostling for dominance.

Park Jong-seok, president of LG's mobile communications division, said early smartwatch models failed to demonstrate why consumers should buy them. He said LG's strategy is not to release a half-baked product but, like other smartwatches, the LG smartwatch will be paired with a smartphone.

The South Korean company announced its smartwatch plans at a mobile industry fair in Barcelona, Spain. Mr Park made his comments during a pre-announcement briefing last week.

LG was a late comer in both smartphones and tablets compared with its home rival Samsung, now the world's largest maker of smartphones.

LG spokeswoman Kim So-yeong declined to comment on news reports that LG will manufacture an Android-powered smartwatch for Google. LG already makes some of Google's Nexus mobile products.

Part of LG's efforts to boost its mobile brand in the crucial North American market was to collaborate with Google. It manufactured Google's Nexus 5 smartphone, the first mobile device to be powered by KitKat, which is the latest version of Google's Android operating system, and the Nexus 4 smartphone.

LG Electronics finished 2013 as a fourth-largest smartphone maker in the world according to research firm Gartner. But the No 4 title does not mean its business is profitable.

LG's mobile division is among the distant second-tier group in the market where nearly all profit is taken by the two leading companies - Samsung and Apple. LG lost 58.5 million US dollars (£35.2 million) in the final three months of 2013 due to hefty marketing costs and falling smartphone prices.

Samsung, which sold 1 million Android-powered Galaxy Gear smartwatches to retailers and mobile carriers last year, dropped Google's Android in its latest announcement of smartwatches.

Samsung unveiled two new smartwatches yesterday on the eve of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Both are powered by lesser-known operating system called Tizen, developed jointly by Samsung and Intel Corp.

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