Apple may soon acquire Jay-Z's Tidal

Apple may soon be acquiring Tidal. According to the Wall Street Journal, Tidal is the subscription streaming-music service co-owned by Jay Z, Beyonce and Kanye West and Apple is in talks to acquire it. Both parties are yet to comment on it.

It will be interesting to see if JayZ will sell Tidal which has just 3 million subscribers when it was birthed with the idea to give Spotify's 30 million and Apple's 15 million subscriber streaming service a run for their money and allegations of discriminations on those platforms.

Forget Note 6, Samsung may be skipping to Galaxy Note 7

Photo credit: Android authority

Samsung maybe skipping the Note 6 model to a Note 7 to conform with year 2017 or to keep up with the iPhone. According to rumors, the Note 7 retains its 5.7-inch screen, but adds a USB-C port  and an iris scanner for unlocking the phone with your eyes as a security feature somewhat similar to Microsoft's iris-scanning "Windows Hello" feature in the Lumia 950 . The Note 7's display will look more like the S7 Edge than the straight-faced Note 5. @OnLeaks and Android Authority have leaked an image of the Galaxy Note 7's front glass panel, as they allege

Samsung is yet to make a release on this, so don’t bet your money on these snippets.

Other suspected specs

• 5.7-inch screen
• 12-megapixel camera
• 5-megapixel front-facing camera
• IP68 certified against water and dust
• 64GB of space expandable through a microSD card
• USB Type-C port; Quick Charge 3.0
• 4,200mAh battery
• Black, silver, blue colors

Rihanna unveils Star Trek sound track 'Sledgehammer' music video

The very controversial but loved RiRi is an official Star Trekkie. Rihanna co-wrote one of the songs on the the "Star Trek: Beyond" soundtrack with Sia titled Sledgehammer. The music video can be streamed on Tidal and Vevo and shows RiRi eyebrowless in Star Trek-inspired face paint roaming around a colorful planet. You can watch the video here

The singer revealed her star trek status in an interview promoting her song, stating that she was introduced to it by her dad as a little girl. Rihanna might not be in the upcoming Star Trek flick but i think she sure would make a bad ass Star Trekker.

SCARY OR WHAT?- US CUSTOMS TO ASK FOREIGN TRAVELERS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA INFO

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking a new law to allow U.S. Customs to ask for foreign travelers’ social media details. Now known as the “social media identifier”, it is optional and it is a data field to use social media for vetting in addition to applicant contact information.  This will cover all non-citizens entering and leaving the U.S., including those traveling without a visa. Well, If you are one of those Nigerians who love to travel to the US for business or summer vacays (even though we don’t have summer), this means you may need to be social media compliant and mind what you post.

The reason for this is to enhance the existing investigative process and provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections 

Even though optional and for those seeking visa waivers, Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Centre for Democracy and Technology said "It's very hard to see travellers not filling out this item - even though it's optional - as they may fear not getting entry into the country,"

More infor from the US Federal register here 

BILL GATES LOSES $1.8 BILLION TO BREXIT

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook are the worst-hit billionaires in the U.S by the Brexit vote, losing 1.8 billion dollars and 1.6 billion dollars respectively, according to Bloomberg Billionaires ranking.

Think of it this way, the amount lost by Gates is more than Nigeria’s richest woman, Folorunsho Alakija’s  wealth of 1.73 billion dollars. Wow!

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, was also not spared as he also lost $505.3 million. Talk about a mexit.

Microsoft adds LinkedIn to its professional network for $26.2 billion

Microsoft has added LinkedIn, the ultimate business social platform, to its professional network for $26.2 billion.

Microsoft announced the billion dollar deal on Monday to acquire professional social platform LinkedIn for $196 per share.The deal which is still subject to approval by LinkedIn shareholders and regulators, was unanimously approved by both companies' boards. Both Microsoft and LinedIn are expected seal the deal by the end of the year.

Shares of the professional networking site increased by 48 percent after it was announced.
 LinkedIn will retain its CEO, Jeff Weiner but will report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

NCC deadline to Telcos on unsolicited messages elapses today

Today is the deadline for telecom operators to comply with the implementation of measures to tackle unsolicited messages. The NCC had issued telcos a June 30, 2016 deadline to start implementation of ‘Do-not-Disturb’ code. Telcos were mandated to dedicate a short code, 2442, on their networks for use by subscribers to opt-in to ‘Do-Not-Disturb’ database to register their numbers against unsolicited messages

We do hope that this deadline would be met and insisted on because Nigerians especially myself are tired of the annoying messages from all sorts of persons. However, we as consumers also need to be careful to services we opt-in to while filling forms online, giving out our data or agreeing to terms and policies. Make sure you read the fine print. As the saying goes, ‘the devil is in the detail’.

NCC, MTN Reach Agreement on Fine

The Nigerian Communications Comission (NCC) has reduced the N1.04 trillion fine imposed on telecommunications giant MTN to N330 billion. This was contained in a statement released by Tony Ojobo, Director of Public Affairs, NCC.

Following months of negotiations, the reduced sum also includes the N50 billion goodwill paid by MTN to the government. The balance will be paid in 6 tranches to the Federal Government. The agreement was signed on the 10th June 2016 and MTN is required to pay N30 billion Naira into NCC's account within 30 days of the date of the signature of the agreement

MTN is also required to tender an apology and take steps to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange soon.

France has new smartphone 'terror alert' app

France, currently host to football tournament, Euro 2016, has launched a new smartphone app to alert users to possible terror attacks. There are growing security concerns over the tournament.

The application will send users a warning “in case of a suspected attack” and also notify them about 'unexpected defences' like breaching of flood defences. The app is free to download in both French and English and is spearheaded by the French interior ministry.

 Nigeria should have this type of app. Maybe some tech guru or whizkid should think about developing something like this. It would be nice to know if there has been a Boko Haram attack or a herdsmen attack or a strike by the Niger Delta Avengers.

The app will alert users on terror attacks less than 15 minutes after the incident has been confirmed by authorities.

APPLE ANNOUNCES BIG CHANGES TO ITS APP STORE

Apple is changing some things about downloads from its App Store. 

According to industry sources, Apple is bringing some big changes such as search and subscription access. App developers stand the chance to make 15% more off sales where an app can keep a subscriber for a year or longer. Unlike previously where only certain apps, like news services, dating apps and streaming services were paid for, now all apps can be sold. 

For you Apple lovers, this may pay you better as developers may opt for monthly fees instead of one time payment.

Mark Zuckerberg, Drake, Katy Perry, Kylie Jenner's Twitter accounts hacked! You may need to change your password too

Celebrities just love being on twitter. For them, its a way to keep in touch with their fans and to ensure you keep on reveling in their awesomeness.

For the past couple of days, some of that awesomeness has been hacked into. Big names ranging from the father of social networking himself, Mark Zuckerberg to musicians like Drake, Lana Del Ray, Kylie Jenner. The hackers called 'OurMine Team' have mostly found the password's in the LinkedIn security breach. Apparently most people fail to change their passwords or use the same passwords for multiple accounts, something that experts would advice you never to do. Zuckerberg's password was 'dadada'. Witht at kinda password, not in the least surprising that he was hacked. The hackers for now though are posting racist slurs, hate speech, graphic language and content and shout-outs to themselves.

Whether you are a celeb or not though, its worth you changing your password right now. You never know what other more important accounts and data the hackers may access with your stolen password.

STEPHEN KESHI PASSED AWAY TODAY- SURPRISINGLY, IT IS NOT TRENDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA AS MUCH AS IT SHOULD

Stephen Keshi, former Super Eagles coach died today, at the age of 54. This made him the 2^nd sports legend to pass away between Saturday and today. The other was boxing legend Mohammed Ali.

Stephen Keshi’s death did not however trend on social media in Nigeria as much as Mohammed Ali’s did. While there were a lot of headlines on it and papers were awash with stories of Keshi, most television and radio stations continued their regular programming with just a passing comment on Keshi’s death. Foreigners and foreign news outlets seemed to even celebrate it better. Even stranger was that i wasn’t seeing his pictures on blackberry DPs or PMs.  On Saturday when Mohammed Ali died, the first thing that greeted me that morning were his pictures awash on most of my blackberry contacts. Glowing tributes were paid to him on twitter, instagram and facebook by Nigerians, some of whom barely knew him. Today, that same social media is eeringly silent. No one is trying to compare both sport giants but it is really sad that one of the greatest players and coaches of the greatest sport Nigerians love did not receive the celebration he deserved

Is it that we don’t know how to celebrate our own? Do we have more value for foreign celebrities than local ones? Do we lack records and data for quotes, record clips and commentaries of Keshi’s most fantastic moments? Is there something wrong with our media’s reportage?

Whatever the case may be, its definitely double standards for Nigerian social media to stand still for Ali and leave a deafening silence for Stephen Keshi. We need to look inward and learn how to celebrate our own.

RIP Keshi

Trending- Nigerians disappointed at President Buharis absence from commissioning of Ogoniland clean-up

Nigerians took to twitter to react to the commissioning of the Ogoni spill clean-up and the President's failure to attend the event despite being slated to. VP Yemi Osibajo represented him.  Here are some of the tweets below:

Throwback Thursday- Which of your old phones do you miss?

Pic courtesy: throwback tech


Ahhh I miss the good old 3310. Would never break your heart.  Lol! Which of your old phones do you miss?