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Feeling outraged, tickled or touched by something you spotted on Facebook? Now you can say so, after the social media giant added five new reactions to its basic “like” button. “Like, love, haha, wow, sad or angry” — the expanded “reactions” feature rolled out globally on Wednesday is designed to let users show a range of emotions. Notably absent from the new emoticons is a “dislike’ button, something sought for years by Facebook users, but which has been ruled out by the California company to avoid a barrage of hateful expressions. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the right way to do this with our team. One of my goals was to make it as simple as pressing and holding the Like button,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said on his page, immediately drawing tens of thousands of “like,” “love” and other expressions. “Not every moment you want to share is happy. Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years ...

Feeling outraged, tickled or touched by something you spotted on Facebook? Now you can say so, after the social media giant added five new reactions to its basic “like” button. “Like, love, haha, wow, sad or angry” — the expanded “reactions” feature rolled out globally on Wednesday is designed to let users show a range of emotions. Notably absent from the new emoticons is a “dislike’ button, something sought for years by Facebook users, but which has been ruled out by the California company to avoid a barrage of hateful expressions. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the right way to do this with our team. One of my goals was to make it as simple as pressing and holding the Like button,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said on his page, immediately drawing tens of thousands of “like,” “love” and other expressions. “Not every moment you want to share is happy. Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years ...

By Emeka Aginam  While the ongoing 2016 Mobile World Congress , MWC, is in full swing in Barcelona, Spain, the GSMA yesterday announced that the number of active mobile money accounts worldwide now exceeded 130 million, with more than 100 million new registered users added in 2015. According to the latest report on the state of financial services worldwide, there were 1 billion mobile money transactions in December 2015 at around 33 million per day which is more than double the amount PayPal processed globally. With 411 million registered mobile money users during the time in question, according the GSMA report, there were at least 19 countries with more mobile oney accounts than bank accounts According the report, with 30 services with more than 1 million active users, only 5 of those services actually have more than 5 million active users. The report also added that there were 271 active services in 93 countries. The figure the report said is more than the number of officially...

By Johan Jemdahl  In Q3 2015, Nigeria was among the top five countries worldwide in terms of mobile subscription additions, and Nigerian businesses are increasingly adopting mobile-first strategies. But, while 4G LTE deployments began in some sub Saharan countries the transition and deployment in Nigeria hasn’t come out of the starting blocks, subscriptions were predominantly still GSM and WCDMA in 2015. This is expected to change rapidly as we look towards 2021, when the mobile broadband access options, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE, will account for almost 80 percent of subscriptions. So, how do we get there from here? How will mobile operators leverage the reach, maturity and increasing affordability of today’s 3G technology, while continuing to invest in their LTE rollouts, to deliver mobile broadband for everyone? Logically, many operators start by leveraging their existing 2G GSM network assets. GSM coverage supports basic mobile telephony services such as voice, SMS and low-speed da...

WE join other delighted Nigerians in applauding the recent deal between the Nigeria Air Force NAF and the Nnewi, Anambra State-based Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing (IVM) Company Ltd. Under this deal, IVM manufactures spare parts for the Air Force to keep its Alpha Jets platform fully operational in the war against the Boko Haram terrorists in the North East. According the Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, the Force would have been made to ground the Alpha Jets had it not been for the gallant efforts of the indigenous motor manufacturer “as no help was coming from outside the country”. The IVM, according to the Air Force Spokesman, helps to modify and overhaul the brake assembly of the MB-339 for adoption on the Alpha Jets. The significance of this collaborative effort is fundamental. It is a wonderful example and prompter on the need for us as a country to begin to look inwards for solutions to our problems, which we had foolishly depen...

By Emeka Aginam  At the ongoing 2016 Mobile World Congress holding in Barcelona, Spain, Alcatel added flavour to the mobile phone ecosystem with the introduction of its premium IDOL 4 series. Built on the success of its trend-setting IDOL 3, the uniquely designed IDOL 4 and IDOL 4S smartphones take everything up a notch with a new boom key and an augmented multimedia experience. “The IDOL 4 series marks another milestone in ALCATEL innovation,” Dan Dery, Chief Marketing Officer at ALCATEL, said, adding that, “The Boom Key boom-ifies everything, from the sound to photos to gaming. Something we’re really excited about, and something I’m eager to show my friends is that we’ve augmented IDOL 4’s multimedia experience. A screen that offers a stunning display from any angle, an all-in-one powerhouse audio eocsystem and a professional-caliber camera.” Speaking further on the unique features of the device, Alex Katouzian, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies,...

By Emeka Aginam  New research released yesterday by the European Commission and the 5G Infrastructure Association has outlined how 5G can transform a broad range of vertical sectors including automotive, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing as well as media and entertainment The study was released at the ongoing 2016 Mobile World Congress holding in Barcelona by the the European Commission and the 5G Infrastructure Association in their 5G Public-Private Partnership whitepaper entitled “5G Empowering Vertical Industries”. At a press conference yesterday, Mr. Günther H. Oettinger, European Commissioner, Digital Economy and Society, and executives from Ericsson, ERTICO- ITS Europe, Huawei, Nokia, Orange, SES, Telenor shared their views on the impact of 5G on the digital society and economy, as well as requirements from vertical industries, business models, architectures, and standardisation aspects of 5G. Speaking on the development, European Commissioner, Günther H. Oettinger...