Ways Technology Will Change Nigeria’s Workforce

Nigeria cannot be left behind in the fast-paced world of technology especially when it comes to the future of labour. Even though jobs are being

5 Ultimate Tech Packing Checklist For Travellers

 

5 Ultimate Tech Packing Checklist For Travellers

Technology can also ease travelling especially when you pack the right gadgets. It is important for you to pack the correct tech gadgets so that you do not spend money on buying them. This is one-way budget travellers can save money.

Power bank

For persons who cannot do without their phone, a power bank will always come in handy. On a long distance trip, you may run out of battery but with

your power bank, you can charge your battery on the go. This is very important for business people.

Headphones

Headphone are important for music lovers. When you are bored, you can easily pull it out to entertain yourself. Besides you can also use it to stay up to date by listening to news with your phone. All these may not be possible if you forget your headphone.

Charger

Your phone charger is another essential tech accessory to pack, especially if you don’t want to borrow chargers from strangers. In addition, if your phone runs out of power in an area with limited access to technology, this can keep you connected to the internet and the world.

Wifi Hotspots

Wifi Hotspots are for individuals who are always online. With your Wifi, you can connect to the World Wide Web without breaking the bank, particularly when you cannot rely on your phone data to access the internet. In line with this, you should not leave your Wi-Fi at home. Just simply keep it in a place where you can easily access it.

Specification of Techno A7 also known as Phantom Z

General Information
2G Network     GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network     HSDPA 900 / 2100
4G Network     No
SIM     Dual mini SIM
Status     Available June 2014

   
Body
Dimensions     144.5 x 71.9 x 7.9 mm
Keyboard     Touchscreen
Colors     White, Black
Cover     Plastic
   
Display
Type     IPS capacitive touchscreen with 16,000,000 colors
Size     5.2 inches, 1080 x 1920 pixels, 424 pixels per inch (PPI)
   
Memory And OS
Card slot     No
Internal     32GB
OS     Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Processors     2.0GHz octa-core Cortex-A7 CPU, MediaTek MT6592 chipset, Mali 450-MP4 GPU
RAM     2GB
   
Audio
Alert types     Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker     Yes
Audio port     3.5mm jack
   
Connectivity
2G     GPRS – up to 85.6 kbps; EDGE – up to 236.8 kbps
3G     Up to 22.2 mbs downlink; Up to 5.76 mbs uplink
4G     No
WIFI     Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, WIFI hotspot, Wi-Fi direct
Bluetooth     Yes
GPS     A-GPS
NFC     No
USB     MicroUSB v2.0
   
Camera
Primary     16MP, up to 4608×3456-pixel pictures, HDR, autofocus, Geo-tagging, panorama, simultaneous video and picture rec. camera with LED flash
Video     1080p@30fps
Secondary     8MP, up to 3264×2448-pixel pictures
   
Battery
Capacity     3030mAh Li-Ion battery
Stand-by     Up to 960 hours
Talk time     Up to 24 hours
Music play     N/a
   
Other Features
Sensors     Accelerometer, Proximity, Compass
Messaging     SMS, MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser     HTML5
Java     No
    - SNS integration
– MP4/MPEG4/H.263/H.264 player
– MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
– Document viewer
– FM radio
– Image viewer and editor
– Voice memo/dial/command
– Predictive text input
– Preloaded apps –  Gmail, Gtalk, Google Now, Youtube, Flash Share, Swiftkey
   

How The Digital Economy Can Help End Extreme Poverty

When I was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia recently as part of the U.S. government’s delegation to the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, I was struck by how much the international development landscape is changing.

Where governments were once the primary source of development assistance, today the private sector, civil society, academia and donors are all working together to discover, fund and scale innovative solutions to longtime development challenges.


Some of these solutions have already resulted in transformative innovations that have improved development outcomes.

As we at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) work together with our partners to meet the ambitious goal of eliminating extreme poverty for roughly 1.2 billion people, increased funding will not get us there alone (The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.25 per day; check out this report for more information). We need to find new ways to achieve greater impact at lower cost.

In the past two decades alone, advances in mobile technology and digital connectivity have completely revolutionized how we interact with the world around us. They also provide unparalleled opportunities to deliver social impact and economic returns to millions of people in developing countries, while engaging new actors in the development process.

How can digital tools and advances help developing countries break through to the next level of economic gains? According to Booz Allen Hamilton, the “digitization” of developing economies could yield as much as a $4.1 trillion increase in GDP among the most underserved 3.9 billion consumers.

We’re already seeing promising signs of this digitization in Africa. The convergence of social, political and economic factors, including a high demand for basic unmet public services, the spread of smartphones and broadband access and the global growth of the digital economy, is making Africa a center for development innovation.

With new business models, African countries are leapfrogging older technologies to create digitally enabled solutions for local populations.

Other parts of the developing world are also seeing positive results. As part of the WorldFish Center’s Aquaculture for Income and Nutrition (AIN) project in Bangladesh, Mostafa Kamal works to improve technical competence by providing training and small stipends to local farmers.

By introducing mobile payments for the training allowances through USAID’s Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) program, training allowances are now directly transferred to mobile wallets; it now takes 15 fewer days to transfer funds to Kamal and other trainers. In addition, mobile money has mitigated the risks associated with traveling with large sums of cash.

To help more people like Kamal benefit from the digital economy, we believe all development actors involved need to embrace a holistic approach to “digital development.”

The following are a few of my recommendations, published for the 2015 Brookings Blum Roundtable Foreign Assistance in the Digital Age:

    Catalyze Increased Connectivity: For individuals, communities and countries to thrive in the 21st century, mobile and Internet connectivity needs to be seen as a core infrastructure alongside water, roads and electricity. Connectivity can open new economic opportunities for individuals and increase access to information, yet today only 44.6 percent of the population in developing countries are mobile subscribers, only one-third have access to the Internet and women are 23 percent less likely than men to have access to the Internet.

    Enable a Digital Workforce: Building the skills and ecosystem to participate in the fast-growing digital economy is likely one of the most powerful drivers for future employment and economic prosperity. When governments and the private sector work together, they can train the workforce for this new era and help match them with job opportunities.

    Expand the Reach and Usage of Digital Financial Services: Globally, around two billion adults (disproportionately women) lack access to formal financial services, and instead rely on cash or physical assets. Digital financial services, like mobile money, can help individuals more effectively manage finances and build resilience against economic shocks.

Enhanced access to digital information and services can empower individuals and open new windows for delivering more effective and scalable development projects. Through USAID’s U.S. Global Development Lab, we’re working to help facilitate access and promote business models and technology innovation to reach communities in need.

10 best mobile phones in the world today

 

We know why you're here: you want to find out the best smartphone 2015. Come on, it makes sense: we've all got at least one mobile phone, right? We've probably got about three or four nowadays, and that counts giving your old Nokia 3310 to your Mum a few years ago.

But now

the world has changed, and from Apple to Samsung to HTC to a host of up-and-coming names, choosing your next greatest smartphone is a tricky task.

This is where we make it easy: we thoroughly test hundreds of top smartphones and have found the ten best you can spend your money on. It needs to be good, after all, given it will reside in your pocket for the next two years.

Our ranking of the best mobile phones available in the UK today celebrates the brilliance of the smartphone. We only feature the latest handsets available (unless an older model has become hyper-cheap and still offers decent functionality) as the newer models will stay serviced with software updates for longer, safeguarding you from having a broken phone with no hope of updates in a year's time.

Here's a quick video roundup of our current top 10.

We're just beginning 2015, and at the end of the year the Apple iPhone 6 and Apple iPhone 6 Plus challenged the heads of state in the smartphone world - namely the LG G3and the HTC One M8.

But if you're currently considering your next mobile phone, don't forget we're not far away from the next crop: the HTC One M9and Samsung Galaxy S6 are tipped to be coming at Mobile World Congress in March, so it might be worth waiting to see what appears then before making your decision.

• MWC 2015: What to expect

If that still doesn't help, well, there's always our extensive mobile phone reviews pages as well.

When you've decided which new phone to buy (and checked out the best mobile phone deal), why not cash in your old one with our phone recycling price comparison service?

Here are our rankings for the best mobile phones around, currently available in the UK.

10. OnePlus One

You've probably never heard of OnePlus... but if you have, you'll know why this unknown brand is suddenly sitting in our list of best smartphones in the world.

The reason is simple: it's a phone that has all the power, specs and functionality of the top dogs, adds in super-customisable software and does it at nearly half the price. We're talking big savings on cost (£229 for the 16GB version and £269 for the 64GB variant) without much in the way of compromise.

In fact, the only things it's really missing are a microSD slot and removable battery, and those are elements more for the purists than absolutely necessary.

If we're being super picky, it's not got the greatest camera set up and the design is a bit... efficient, but at this price point it really doesn't matter. And given the target audience is those that care about raw power over style, it makes sense that this is where the costs could be saved.

Quick verdict

We love the fact that a new contender can maintain such a high place in the ranking of the best phones in the world - it means that it's not just a case of 'big budget means best phone'.

We were debating whether the OnePlus One could even have gone higher, but there's one big problem that you'll have if you want to get your hands on one: they're impossible to find. Numbers won't ramp up for a while, and probably never to the level of availability of the better-known names.

But if you want a phone that offers supreme power at a really low cost: the OnePlus One is it. It's what the Nexus range used to be, and if Google ditches that program, then thankfully OnePlus has shown there will be brands to pick up the slack.