Online arm of DIGITALX magazine, the source for news and trends in technology business, gadgets, the Web, government policies, mobile, and social media. Published in Lagos, Nigeria.
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50 Cent launches new headphones range
| Even though we weren’t “In Da Club”, the Candy Shop, or the Disco Inferno, 50 Cent made out time this morning December 7th to show off his brand new line of headphones.If you don’t already know, 50 originally tried to get the ball rolling in the personal audio business with Sleek Audio earlier this year, until some licensing issues led him to become CEO of his own company, SMS Audio. This morning we were lucky enough to see the fruits of his labor in the form of two new sets of Personal audio system, Street by 50 (wired) and Sync by 50 (wireless).Let’s go over the details on these new headphones.As far as the innards go, Sync by 50 (wireless) headphones use 40mm drivers with Kleer wireless technology integration. In other words, they’re the only wireless headphone set to incorporate full on-board controls. The wireless headphones can be used by up to four people listening from one source (Hey! Silent raves for everyone!) at up to 50 feet away. The integration of Kleer technology offers 16-bit digital sound, which should give you clear quality even without all the wires. Sync by 50 headphones is available in both black and white.Street by 50 headphones also use 40mm drivers and come in black and blue flavors. If you get a chance to go ears-on with both the Sync and Street models you'll say bass was impressive without losing the mids and highs. It is worthy to be noted that the Street by 50 headphones, made of ultra-flexible polymer, is pretty durable and bend every which way when stressed.In all, I would say these are some pretty solid options if you’re in the market for a new set of high-performance headphones. Street by 50 and Sync by 50 headphones are available now for $299.95 (N47,992) and $399.95 (N63,992) respectively, so if you’re interested go ahead and start saving now. |
Facebook going public in 2012
| Facebook is planning an initial public offering (IPO) of $10 billion between April and June next year which would value the social network at a huge $100bn.This is according to sources “familiar with the matter” who have spoken to the Wall Street Journal. Should the IPO go ahead for a figure of $10bn, it will be the largest ever for an internet-based company and make it only the fourth US company ever to float for $10bn or more.A Facebook IPO has been rumoured for a long time. A floatation usually happens around the time companies break the $100 million revenue barrier, however Facebook is now set to debut with more than $4bn of revenue. A spokesperson for Facebook said: "We're not going to participate in speculation about an IPO.”Back in May, LinkedIn floated on the stock exchange with its stock more than doubling from the initial share price on the first day of trading, giving the company a value of around $9bn. The stock has since fallen by 36 per cent.At the beginning of the month, Groupon floated for $805m but its share price has tumbled 42 per cent in the last five days of trading. Sources claim that founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has warmed to the idea of going public, having long been against the idea.Facebook has even gone so far as to draft a prospectus, which is a document all companies planning an IPO have to file with the Security and Exchange Commission in the US, and which outlines the company's business.With Facebook currently attracting 500m active users per day, and 800m registered users, the potential for revenue growth is rather large. Indeed Facebook's revenue, driven by its online advertising business is expected to hit almost $3.8bn this year, up from $1.86bn in 2010 - highlighting its growth and potential. In other news, Mark Zuckerberg who is already the 14th Richest man in America according to Forbes' (at $17.5 Billion) would jump seven spots to become the 7th Richest if all goes well as planned with the Facebook IPO. |
A Nikon the world has never seen
| It has taken a while – a little over three years to be precise – but Nikon has, at long last, joined the compact system camera (CSC) market with the launch of the Nikon 1 system. Nikon USA calls it, "A Nikon the world has never seen"...and it happens to be very, very small.The Nikon 1 J1 is a stylish compact system camera featuring a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor and the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds of up to 60 frames per second at full resolution, Full HD video capture, an ultra-fast hybrid auto-focus system, Smart Photo Selector and a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 also offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, as well as Metered Manual. Also on board is a built-in pop-up flash with a guide number of 5, a 3 inch rear display and an electronic shutter. There are two models in the range at present; the consumer-targeted J1 and the more photography enthusiast-orientated V1. Given the £250-odd price gap between the two models, the differences between them are actually rather less pronounced than you might expect. The J1 doesn’t get the 1.4million-dot EVF of the V1, but does sport its own built-in flash (the V1 requires the optional Nikon SB-N5 flash unit to be attached to its proprietary hotshoe). Inside, however, both cameras are both very similar, although the V1 does distinguish itself on account of offering a mechanical shutter that provides a bit more flexibility than the J1’s electronic-only shutter, along with a faster maximum flash sync speed of 1/250sec as opposed to the J1’s maximum 1/60sec.The Nikon 1 J1 is a great point and shoot system camera providing ease of use, image quality in a compact body and as with the V1, it represents a bold and brave step by Nikon into the compact, mirrorless system camera market.The camera does what it is designed to do very well but might not be a camera for everyone giving the cost as compared to semi-professional cameras. |
This Printer Automatically Prints the Stuff You Love on Facebook and Twitter in a Newspaper the Size of POS Receipts
It's little, very little - it will easily sit in the palm of your hand. It is called the Little Printer and what it does is to collect bits and pieces of information from your social connections and print them in a 10-inch newspaper. Yes. A newspaper in the size of a POS receipt.
The Big Idea is this: Every day you see stuff on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google, etc and you just forget about them. Or at best, take a quick glance and save on your phone to read later. But. What if you could subscribe to these websites via a smart phone app, the same way you do on Float and Flipboard, and let the machine curate content that will later be printed at your desk – or your nightstand -- twice daily? That way you can have your own extremely handy personalised bulletin, which you can then file away or stick on your fridge.
The Little Printer is one of the mind blowing futuristic gadgets coming from the London design consultancy, BERG. After one year of developing the concept and tweaking the product, they think this very adorable toy-like printer is ready to help you liberate the content you love from behind the screens of your mobile phones and PCs to the physical world.
Um, why paper, you ask. Exactly. I thought the modern world was shredding the idea of printing altogether. But CEO Matt Webb disagrees. Actually, he argues, paper is the interface of real life social networking, not the 700 billion social networking type but the small-size, small group of family and friends kind of social networking. He believes you can get personalised notes from people close to you, get reminded of their birthdays, get pictures and other things you share through regular updates collected and printed for you by this new little sidekick.
He told CoDesign, "Each information source we think of as a personalised 'publication' that you subscribe to from a kind of 'app store for paper,' collated into a delivery that arrives at a chosen time."
How it works: Powered by BERG Cloud, Little Printer uses a thermal printing process and is connected directly to the internet. It will be available for preorders in 2012 with content from Facebook, Foursquare, Nike, and The Guardian (UK).
Now You Can Play Video Games with Your Pee
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Reading magazines and newspapers in the toilet is about to get some competition as a favorite restroom activity now that there's a new way to play video games. A British company, Captive Media, has designed video games installed at restroom urinals that men control with their stream of urine, the BBC reports. Men relieving their bladders can aim at different sensors placed in the urinal to control the outcome of the game.There are three games to choose from: a skiing simulation, a trivia quiz with multiple choices, and a knock-down-the-penguins shooting gallery.This (pee-deo) game is the brainchild of Gordon MacSween and Mark Melford, the owners of the game’s maker, Captive Media who thought they should give customers something more interesting to aim at. Gents can control the games – with names like Clever Dick and On The Piste – simply by moving their stream left and right.The average trip to the men's room lasts 55 seconds in Britain, giving just enough time for a short advertisement before and after a round of the video game.The console was tested in Cambridge before being released at a London pub. The makers will open the floodgates to other bars and clubs in the next few months, Sky News says. Why stare at a blank tiled wall in front of a urinal when you can play a video game with your pee?
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New Facebook Game: Four Degrees of Baba Suwe!
For years, people all over the world have lived by the theory that says there are not more than six steps between you and the remotest person to you. For instance, if you want to connect yourself to American President Barack Obama, you'll successfully achieve it by the time you look for somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows Obama. This theory is called Six Degrees of Separation. It's the same theory that inspired the popular parlour game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.Now, after analysing the relationship among its 800m+ users across the world, Facebook remixes that old belief: Now, says the social networking juggernaut, there are only 4 Degrees of Separation, not Six. If you're looking in the same country, the distance shrinks to about 3 degrees. You'll find the details in a study conducted by facebook in conjuction with Università degli Studi di Milano, and published in a blog post on Monday under the title: Anatomy of Facebook.So, if you're one of those who've been wondering how to share in Baba Suwe's N25m windfall, log in to Facebook and you'll most probably find a direct link to the now very affluent comedian by counting, not six, but three easy "hops" (or steps). By the way, the Baba Suwe account (unconfirmed) has only 775 friends on Facebook - there's plenty room for you.
Happy linking!
It Looks Like Facebook is Making a Phone and the Phone Will Be Available in 2012
The folks at AllThingsD did some wonderful reporting on a mobile phone being secretly developed by our friends at Facebook. The device is codenamed 'Buffy' and it will be intensely integrated with your Facebook experience - that's apart from making calls, of course.
When asked about it, here's what a Facebook spokesperson said: "Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We're working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, harware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world."
Others who are close to those working on the project say Buffy will run a seriously tweaked version of the Android OS which supports HTML5 as an application platform, though it will be very similar to the Facebook iPad app. They also mention that Mark Zuckerberg and his team initially thought of giving the phone out for free and with no contracts, until they realised that it would cost about $700 to make one. Also, the idea of no contract sounded ridiculous to mobile service providers. So now, Facebook, which has over 350m mobile users and 475 mobile operator agreements worldwide, is talking to HTC and Samsung to help bring Buffy to life.
As early as April 2012. Trustworthy sources revealed to Silicon Alley Insider that the HTC model would probably hit the market in Q2 of next year. The Samsung model, said the sources, would likely come later, in Q4 of the same year or Q1 of 2013.
But these hot questions remain unanswered: How exactly will a facebook phone work? What special attraction will it have? And, if Facebook were giving phones away, in which markets? Do you Like the idea of a Facebook Phone?
Video Game Shatters record for all forms of entertainment with $775 Million Worldwide
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This will be a big surprise for regular folks and non-gamers. But for us gamers, geeks and techies it’s no surprise at all - Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is selling like honey-dipped hotcakes. According to a press release published last week, the game has earned more than $775 million worldwide in the first five days since its release on the 8th of November. MW3 has broken the 5-day record previously held by Call of Duty: Black Ops, which had earned $650 million by this point in its release. And the year before that, Modern Warfare 2 held the 5-day record at $550 million. “With $775 million of sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in its first five days, Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for three consecutive years across ALL forms of entertainment,” said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in the press release. “Life-to-date retail sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded $6 billion worldwide, which makes Call of Duty one of the most valuable entertainment properties in the world.” The press release also offers some record-breaking numbers regarding their presence on Xbox LIVE. According to Microsoft, gamers have logged more than 7 million multiplayer hours by the end of the day when it launched on November 8—breaking the record previously held by Black Ops last year which had 5.9 million hours. In addition, 3.3 million unique gamers played Modern Warfare 3 on November 8, again breaking a record held by Black Ops, which saw 2.6 million the year before. The 3.3 million figure, says Microsoft, is the highest number of concurrent players ever on Xbox LIVE. Modern Warfare 3 is very popular…Want to know what the buzz is all about? Go get yours
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Samsung's New TV Advert Laughs at the iPhone
Apple fans worldwide were utterly disappointed when the Cupertino, California based tech giant didn't release the much gossipped about iPhone5 but instead unveiled the iPhone 4S whose saving grace has been Siri, the game changing speech recognition application.
But why keep waiting like sheep? That's the question that Samsung is asking in its new commercial for the Galaxy S2. Released this week, the ad, titled "The Next Big Thing", will not run in Nigeria but eh, it will connect with hundreds of iPhone fanboys over here, including me.
Check it out:
Timelines Sued Facebook over 'Timeline' But That's Not the Only Reason Facebook Is Delaying the Highly Anticipated Feature
One reason for the frustrating delay is probably the copyright infringement suit filed by Timelines, Inc, a small company of five emplyees in Chicago which owns timelines.com. Timelines is contending that Timeline by Facebook may "quite possibly eliminate" its business. Actually, this case should not stop Mark Zuckerberg's Web octopus from launching Timeline since the judge refused to grant an injunction against it, but it appears Facebook takes the upstart company very seriously. Before the litigation began, the Facebook overlords had hijacked the page set up by Timelines, Inc. It only restored it after the preliminary hearing.
Recently a judge allowed the parties in the case to shift hearing from early December to January 24 so they could properly prepare.You may argue that Facebook's version is Timeline(s), not Timeline, and that Twitter also has a Timeline, but apparently, Timeline, Inc considers facebook a bigger threat, being a larger company and all and because Facebook's Timeline looks a lot more similar to Timelines than Twitter's. More, the US patent office considers Timeline and Timelines as the same.
But beyond the suit, Facebook isn't sure if Timelines is ready for the whole world yet. According to Sam Lessin, Facebook's product manager for Timelne, speaking to Mashable's Lance Ulanoff, switching over to Timelines may not go so smoothly because people would need to understand the concept of Timelines first. That's why the social giant is taking its time by letting first adopters spread the word first.
If you'd like to experience Facebook Timeline before the rest of the world, click here. Or if you use it already, please share your creative cover photos with us.









