Category: Tech

Kuwaiti mobile operator Zain has expressed interest in acquiring a fourth-generation license in Egypt, a senior telecommunications ministry official said on Sunday – Reported Reuters.

Its telecoms regulator has approached the three current mobile service providers, Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt, and Etisalat Misr, about potentially buying 4G licenses.

The current operators have until the first week of August to submit applications for a 4G license.

Communications Minister Yasser al-Kadi told Reuters in June that Egypt would offer 4G licences in an international auction if the existing carriers were not interested.

The senior telecoms ministry official said Zain, which operates in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa, had sent a letter expressing its interest.

“Zain sent us a letter showing desire to enter the Egyptian market through 4G licenses with the set conditions put forward by the government,” the official said, declining to be named.

Zain declined to comment.

Appeared first on reuters

Snapchat “Memories” might change the way people perceive the video-sharing app, Google took a progressive step toward live-steaming, Facebook Messenger is evolving day after day, and no doubt that Pinterest will make a real revolution in the way people shop online.

1. Snapchat Memories

Now you can save Snaps to your Snapchat “Memories”. It’s a personal collection of your favorite moments to view or share them later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm1RfWn0tQ8

It’s super easy now to find Snap or Stories you’re looking for by typing keywords like “dog” or “Hawaii”.

You can use Memories to create new Stories from Snaps you’ve already taken, or even combine different Stories into a longer narrative, also you can post a Snap you took before more than a day ago to your Story. Just swipe up from the Camera to open Memories.

Snapchat said that “Memories” will be rolled out gradually for people across the world, it’s not a full-launch.

2. Google Acquired Anvato

Anvato is a platform for encoding, editing, publishing and distribution video across platforms.

According to Anvato CEO, Anvato will continue to deliver the full range of cutting edge video processing software solutions for pay-TV operators, programmers, broadcasters and live event producers as a part of Google Cloud Platform.

This is a significant sign that Google is preparing to enter the live-streaming industry strongly.

3. Pinterest’s ‘Search via Camera’ is going to change the E-Commerce forever

Pinterest has introduced a visual search technology that will make it easier to shop online for products you discovered offline, with the help of your mobile camera.

It’s as simple as, open your Pinterest mobile app camera and scan anything like a chair, sofa or dress, and Pinterest will show you all result match the item you scanned.

Retailers need to adapt this incredible feature to increase their online sales.

4. Messenger enables end-to-end encryption

Everyone became more concerned about security, so almost all popular messaging apps are trying to make their users feel more secure by adding end-to-end encryption.

Facebook started with Whatsapp a couple of months and now they adding end-to-end encryption to Facebook Messenger.

“Messenger will begin to offer an end-to-end encryption feature to a limited test group of users and it will be available for everyone within next months.” According to David Marcous, Head of Facebook Messenger

5. 11K Bots available now on Facebook Messenger, with a better user-friendly interface 

According to the head of Facebook Messenger, Bots has got over 11K on Messenger platform, while over 23K developers have signed up for Wit.ai’s Bot Engine.

The new update has a bunch of new features like:

Rating: People can now provide a star rating and open text feedback for bot developers.

Quick reply: Quick replies offer a more guided experience for users they interact with your Bot, which helps set expectations on what the bot can do. They include up to ten dynamic buttons that directly align with the most used features.

Persistent menu: The navigation for the Bot now will support up to five actions. This will eliminate the need for people to remember text commands and provides a great way to restart the flow or invoke settings.

More content types: Brands now can share GIFs, Audio, Video, and Files with their customers.

More Control: Users will be able to Manage / Mute / Ratings Now.

See you next Sunday!

Big week for Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Apple but significant bad news for Tesla. Here’s a list of the 10 most exciting updates and new stuff over the last week:

1. Facebook Changes ‘newsfeed,’ Again:

Facebook announced a significant update to the newsfeed that injects more posts from family and friends into users’ newsfeed(s) and less from publishers and brands. It’s terrible news for businesses, especially since some brands and publishers have reported a 44 percent decrease in organic reach last month, which puts extra pressure on companies to spend more on Facebook ads to reach their audiences.

If you’re seeing 1 percent organic reach from your total base, don’t be sad, many businesses get the same as you. To overcome this, try to create sharable content and spend more on sponsored stories for your good content.

2. Twitter Dashboard Mobile App:

A new mobile application to help businesses and influencers monitor their names/products/services on Twitter by setting up a list of pre-defined keywords. Also, it’s possible now to schedule tweets right from your mobile phone, in addition to instant analytics.

The dashboard is currently available for iOS users and the Web! Coming soon to Android.

3. Apple Might Buy Music App Tidal:

Apple is discussing acquiring its music streaming app; Tidal is a music platform that exclusively has copyrights for prominent artists like Beyoncé and Kanye West. Reported WSJ

Let’s see if Apple can seal the deal.

4. Facebook Launches Its Dedicated Fundraising Platform:

The social network giant gives the internet all it takes to stay on the platform. A
new product called “Facebook fundraising” is now accessible to pages to help startups to create fundraising projects within Facebook and receive donations/funds from supporters. The new product competes directly with fundraising platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Check out the Facebook fundraising platform.

5. Twitter Stickers:

Twitter has launched a new set of stickers to enable users to add unique emojis to their photo tweets. Select from a library of hundreds of accessories, emojis, and props to make your photos more fun. You can also use multiple stickers on an image, resize and rotate them, and place them anywhere on your picture.

P.S. It’s not just a sticker; soon, advertisers will be able to target Twitter users with Stickers and Emojis. Amazing? Keep up with us to know once you are available.

6. Apple’s New Patent Will Change How We Use Our iPhone(s), Literally:

A pair of Apple patent applications published Thursday indicate research into alternative input methods for iOS, namely a touch-sensitive stylus and a device capable of customizing a user interface based on whether a user is holding it in their left or right hand.

Apple is keeping many patents under the hood. Are we witnessing something cool soon?

7. ‘Android N’ Has Finally Got a Name. It’s Nougat

After the worldwide competition, Google finally revealed the name of Android 7.0. Nougat, yes, Nougat not Nutella

Watch the Android Nougat statue unwrapping!

8. Tesla Autopilot’s Crash is Under Government investigation:

Tesla Motors is facing significant issues with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after a recent fatal crash of a Model S during the Autopilot feature was activated.

What do you think about the future of Autopilot?

9. Facebook All New Events Platform is Now Available:

The new featured events are lists created by the Facebook team that show fun local things happening in specific cities. Events on these lists are drawn from art, entertainment, family, festival, fitness, food and drink, learning, community, music, and sports events.

In addition to featured events, Facebook will provide personalized, automated event suggestions throughout Facebook, including the dedicated events space. These event suggestions are algorithmically generated based on your preferences and activity, such as events you’ve connected to in the past, events popular with your friends and community, or events hosted by Pages you like. Check out more on Facebook Events features.

Will Facebook introduce its booking system?

10. Is Opera over the edge? Yes!

According to Opera Blog, Opera is the best browser that saves battery life by reducing activity in background tabs. It Wakes the CPU less often due to optimal scheduling of JavaScript timers, automatically pauses the unused plug-ins, reduces frame rate to 30 frames per second, tunes video-playback parameters, and forces usage of hardware-accelerated video codecs, in addition to a built-in ad blocker.

Will you consider Opera browser? And if not, why?

See you next Sunday.

Viber, one of the world’s leading messaging apps with more than 711 million unique users worldwide, today announces complete end-to-end encryption across all devices including Android™ and iPhone®, iPad®, Android tablets, PC and Mac desktops.

This feature will be available over the coming weeks to all users who have the latest version of Viber. It includes strengthened security in every voice or video call, message, video and photo, in both group messages and one-to-one communication. As part of this update, Viber also launches ‘Hidden Chats’ allowing users to hide specific chats from the main screen so no-one but the user knows they exist. These chats can only be accessed using a four digit PIN, providing an optional additional layer of privacy to users’ personal communications.     

“We take our users’ security and privacy very seriously, and it’s critical to us that they feel confident and protected when using Viber,” said Michael Shmilov, COO of Viber. “Because of this, we have spent a long time working on this latest update to ensure that our users have the most sophisticated security available and maximum control over their communications. We will continue to make this an ongoing priority as digital communication evolves.”   

Full End-to-end encryption

Rolling out globally over the coming weeks, users will automatically be protected by end-to-end encryption in all communications on their smartphone once they have upgraded to the latest version of Viber – v6.0 or higher. Users who are also using Viber on an iPad, Android tablet or desktop will be prompted to re-connect it to their phone using a QR code.

All communications can benefit from an additional layer of security through account verification. Users will see a color-coded lock on the right hand side of the screen indicating the level of security:

• Grey Lock: During an end-to-end encrypted conversation and call users will see a grey padlock icon. Tapping on this icon will display a tooltip letting users know that messages sent by the participants are encrypted.
• Green Lock: Users also have the option of manually authenticating their contacts by selecting that they are ‘trusted’. This means that the selected contact’s authentication key will be monitored for future changes so users can be certain that they’re talking to the right person at all times. Tapping on the green padlock will display a tooltip letting users know that messages sent by the participants are encrypted and your contact is verified.
• Red Lock: If there is a problem with the authentication key of a previously trusted user, the padlock will turn red. The breach may simply mean that a user has changed their primary phone; however, it can also indicate a man-in-the-middle-attack. To solve a possible breach state, the participant needs to be re-trusted. Tapping on the red icon will display a tooltip noting that Viber cannot verify this number.

Hidden Chats

Users will now also be able to hide specific one-on-one or group conversations from the ‘chats’ screen so that no-one knows they exist and access them using a four digit PIN. Users can hide the conversation by tapping on the info screen for a particular chat. It will then ask for a four digit PIN or, for iOS users, provide an option for a fingerprint. Users will be notified of a message in a Hidden conversation without the text of the message, or who it is from, appearing on the screen.

This is not bi-directional, meaning if one user hides the conversation, nothing will be changed on the recipient’s side.

This latest update, along with the ‘Delete’ feature – which allows users to delete messages on the recipient’s phone even after they’ve sent them whether the person has seen it or not – demonstrates Viber’s increased focus on putting its users in control of their privacy and personal communications.

 

“T-PAY participated in GSMA Mobile World Congress, from 22-28 February, held in Barcelona because T-PAY wanted to show that they are ready to for the international market, as they saw a clear appetite of international players expanding in the region and who are interested to monetize using direct billing technology – realizing its real potential to tap into our markets and access its huge growth potential,” said Sahar Salama, CEO of T-Pay Mobile.

The congress covers the latest updates in the mobile industry around the world. T-Pay had progressed aggressively in the last year, “we grew 30 times and closed the year with 30 operators and 14 countries covered in MENA and key partners on- boarded in many digital sectors like Media and VOD, Gaming, Professional Services and Classifieds,” she said.

It is worth mentioning that T-PAY current footprint covers fully the market of Arabian countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Palestine, Bahrain, Kuwait and majority of Tunis, Algeria, Iraq and Morroco markets.

T-PAY launched back in January 2014, as the first and biggest Mobile Payment Platform in MENA powered by A15, that allows users to pay for their online digital services or goods through their mobile bill or mobile balance and without using a  credit card. It mainly gives the opportunity for all online businesses booming in the region and expanding to MENA to reach new consumers and new markets with a promise of 5—10 times higher conversion rates for paying users compared to all other online payment methods.

To use T-Pay from inside apps, consumers are not required to enter their Personal Identification Number (PIN) for every transaction, only use a one-time registration process by your mobile number to pay for digital goods or services. The transaction will then be added to your monthly mobile telephone bill if you have a post-paid number, or will be deducted from your existing account if you have a pre-paid number. T-PAY supports payment flow for web sites, portals on one time and subscription basis

Considering T-Pay’s next step, she said, “T-Pay has aggressive expansion plans in 2016 on operators’ side in new countries with many exciting launches on merchants’ side.”