Apple activates official Twitter account ahead of Sept. 7 event

It seems Apple has finally decided to curate an official corporate presence on Twitter, as evidenced by the activation of a long-dormant verified account bearing the company's name on Friday.

The account, @Apple, has yet to post tweet, but already boasts more than 43,500 followers as of this writing. Apple registered its handle in September 2011, leaving it untouched until today.

As seen in the screenshot above, Apple’s profile photo has been updated to display a simple black Apple logo, while the larger header photo contains teaser art created for the upcoming Sept. 7 media event. Judging by the cover graphic, @Apple’s first post might be a live-tweet from next week’s keynote.

Long averse to promoting its products and services on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, Apple more recently has taken steps to up its social media game. Alongside customer support portals like@AppleSupport, which launched earlier this year, and regional accounts dedicated to promoting App Store and iTunes releases. Another account, @AppleNews, debuted last year and surfaces fresh content featured in the Apple News iOS app.
The @Apple account comes just in time for next week’s special event, at which the company is expected to introduce next-generation iPhone models and Apple Watch hardware. Also rumored to debut are new headphone models marketed under the Beats brand.

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Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime launched with octa-core CPU, 5.5-inch display

The Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime, images of which leaked over a week ago, has been officially launched. The device is now listed on the South Korean company’s Vietnam website, revealing its design as well as key specifications.

The listing reveals that the device is powered by an octa-core 1.6GHz processor, and sports a 5.5-inch full HD display. It comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB expandable internal memory, and packs in a 3,300mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the handset features a 13MP rear unit and an 8MP front sensor. It measures 151.5 x 74.9 x 8.1mm and comes with connectivity options including WiFi b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, Glonass.

As for price, the Galaxy J7 Prime carries a price tag of VND 6,290,000, which translates into around $280 at current exchange rates.

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Report: ‘iPhone 7’ packaging leaks emerge, also list bundled Apple ‘AirPods

More questionable photos alleging to show the back of Apple's "iPhone 7" packaging have popped up, with the most recent boxes out of Russia suggesting that Apple's as yet unannounced Bluetooth "AirPods" will be included with some models.

The alleged “iPhone” box pictures were sent to AppleInsider on Thursday, and show details for a 256-gigabyte “iPhone 7.” Like Thursday’s leaked packaging, the new pictures claim that wireless “AirPods” are included with the phone but this time included with the smaller “iPhone 7,” instead of just with the “iPhone 7 Plus.”

Only one of the pictures has a clear focus. While the “AirPods” are listed as included, the Lightning to headphone jack adapter depicted on other box picture leaks is not listed.

 

Casting some doubt on authenticity, the label on the back of the box is also clearly a sticker. Apple has recently been printing directly on the box backs, with the shift to printed packaging and away from a sticker on the box taking place with the launch of the iPhone 6.

The text is centered on the sticker, also in contrast to iPhone 6 and 6s packaging having left-justified text. And recent iPhone models have not printed the product name large at the top of the box, like is shown in the latest Russian leak.

However, some Apple products in the past have had centered text and a large product name printed on the back of the box, including the iPad mini 2 and Apple Watch.

Despite the images appearing to be from a shrink-wrapped pair of retail boxes for the device, paper “proof” listing box contents is easy to forge. The images, if legitimate, could indicate Apple will have a staggering amount of individual model numbers, spanning not just models, but colors, capacities, and now the choice of wired or wireless bundled earbuds.

The company has been rumored for some time to have completely wireless earbuds in development, with no tethering wire spanning the two buds. A recent regulatory filing confirmed the rumors that the wireless earbuds are called “AirPods,” in a slight alteration of the original wired “EarPods” name.

The new “iPhone 7” is expected to be revealed during Apple’s Sept. 7 event. New models are rumored to be slightly thinner design than the iPhone 6 family, made possible by removing the analog headphone jack, necessitating wireless or Lightning earbuds. The larger 5.5-inch “Plus” variant has been said for some time to feature a dual-lens camera design, and 3 gigabytes of application RAM.

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SimbaPay Launches Free UK to Nigeria Money Transfers

SimbaPay, a digital money transfer provider has announced the launch of its money transfer service to Nigeria which would allow Nigerians living in the UK to send money to any bank account or mobile phone in Nigeria instantly.

The money transfer service offers zero fees for money transfers to Nigeria from the UK and would gradually roll out to Nigerians living in other EU countries.

Nyasinga Onyancha, CEO of SimbaPay says the company is excited to be “eliminating high money transfer fees for Nigerians in the UK who are sending money to their loved ones.”

The SimbaPay app, which is available for iOS and Android devices, also allows users to send money from the UK to Kenya.

DEMO Africa unveils 30 tech start-ups to pitch in Lagos

DEMO Africa today released a list of 30 technology start-ups from across Africa that will pitch their products at its 2015 edition to be held in Lagos, Nigeria in late September.

The list features eight Nigerian startups, including Mavis Computel, Oga Venue, TalkingBookz, CarpartsNigeria, Zuvaa, SmartEdu, PoshRite, iKon Tracker as well as eight Kenyan startups including InsureAfrika, Abacus, SimbaPay, ENT-Mobile, Bitsoko, BambaPOS, Shield Finance and LipaPlus.

Also, South Africa’s Edge Books, Bozza and Eco-mc2 as well as Ghana’s Zeepay and Flippy Campus, together with Egypt’s LockName and Raye7, Cameroon’s Koomza and Feem Wi-Fi, Zimbabwe’s IPC eProductivity and RoadRules, Uganda’s Roundbob, Tanzania’s Tango TV and Ivory Coast’s Airshop would also pitch at the event.

Interestingly, eight of the startups are finance-related while other popular sectors include Education, Transport and Logistics, Retail, Communication and Media and Entertainment.

The event will be co-hosted by DEMO Africa, Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications Technology and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in collaboration with LIONS@FRICA partnership and VC4Africa.

Xbox exclusive games coming to Windows 10

Microsoft is finally wetting gamers appetite with Windows. In an announcement made at the E3 conference today by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, Microsoft will be bringing support for Xbox only games to Windows 10.

This means we should expect games like “Killer Instinct”, “Gears of War: Ultimate Edition” to be playable on Windows 10 – “We’re going to allow people to play on PC, to play on console, to play back and forth”, Phil says regarding the game “Killer Instinct”.

Additionally, Head of Game Studio Roy Fergusson noted that Gears of War: Ultimate Edition will be available for PC soon, with support for DirectX 12 and 4K resolution. :)

Multichoice Introduces Its New Decoder, DStv Explora In Nigeria

MultiChoice has officially introduced its new decoder called DStv Explora into the Nigerian market, after it launched in South Africa in early August.

The Explora comes with a 2 Terabyte (TB) hard drive, which is four times the size of those in DStv’s 2 Tuner which has a 500 GB storage capacity. It would also allow up to 220 hours of HD recording in addition to 20 movies in Box Office and 60 hours series of Catch Up content, although subscribers would have to wait until Q1 2014 to have access to the Box Office.

A company representative told TechLoy that more features will be added to the Explora in the next couple of months that would provide a great TV viewing experience to its subscribers.

The DStv Explora is currently being sold at Multichoice offices in Lagos for a retail price of N65,000 (without installation) and N71,300 (with installation).