Abilityworlds

An Apple patent application for a "Keyless keyboard" suggests the company may be considering a major change to its peripherals and MacBook hardware, by effectively using a touchscreen to create a keyboard with more versatility than a physical version can ever provide.   The application filing for "Keyless keyboard with force sensing and haptic feedback" was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on August 31 last year, and was published on March 15. The filing effectively describes replacing the physical keys of a keyboard with a glass display equipped with multiple touch sensing systems. The application claims traditional key-based inputs "lack the flexibility to accommodate expansive features offered by newer devices, operating systems, and software," and are "unable to adapt to different user needs and preferences." While touchscreen inputs have the potential for offering alternative inputs to the user, the "flat, inflexib...

Apple has issued an update to the Android version of Apple Music, fixing two recent problems with the client. The app should no longer crash when trying to open the Library view, the company said in release notes. Actual playback, meanwhile, should be "more reliable on more devices." Apple rarely updates the service on Android, presumably focused on its core audience of iPhone, iPad, and iTunes users. This week's patch is actually the second in less than a month though, suggesting that technical issues were serious enough to warrant rush treatment. The last update introduced music video improvements, such as playlists, background audio, and in-app picture-in-picture. Apple Music recently crossed 38 million subscribers. It's not known how many of those are on Android versus Apple platforms.

In a bid to stay competitive with the Face ID system on Apple's iPhone X, Samsung is reportedly adding 3D sensing cameras to next year's "Galaxy S10." The Galaxy S9. An Israeli firm, Mantis Vision, is working on some of the necessary technology, the Korea Herald said, citing other local reports. Mantis is allegedly collaborating with Namuga, which supplies modules for Intel's realSense cameras, in turn used by Windows laptop makers. Samsung beat Apple to offering facial recognition on smartphones, but because its existing technology is 2D, it can potentially be defeated by still photos or even videos. Face ID is much harder to fool, generally requiring a family member —such as a twin —or an elaborate mask. The Galaxy S9 depends on a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as its main form of biometric security. That may be understandable given the difficulty Apple suppliers experienced in making the TrueDepth camera for the iPhone X, leading to its November l...

With the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus announcement, Samsung announced that it was partnering with the University of California, San Francisco on a new app that can measure your blood pressure, called My BP Lab. It only works on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus using the heart rate monitor. The app is now available in the Google Play Store, however it is only available in the US as of right now. The My BP Lab app is actually part of a three week study that UCSF is doing with Samsung and its Galaxy S9 users. The aim of this study, is to optimize the app to provide contextualized and scientifically informed feedback. This will allow users to better understand their levels of stress and blood pressure levels and help lower their blood pressure. The other aim here is to work to improve the accuracy of blood pressure readings. And this is why the app will ask you if you have a blood pressure cuff at home, so that you can compare its readings with the readings of the blood pressure ...

Tech companies hate each other, right? Reading the popular tech press certainly makes you think so, but don’t buy into it. As much as Samsung would like to sell more phones, they also make money when Apple sells more iPhones. Google gets paid when Apple sells more iCloud subscriptions, and even Amazon stands to gain financially if Netflix keeps growing. Sound strange? Of course it does. But these companies aren’t just rivals: they’re also each other’s customers. iPhone X: By Samsung, Toshiba, Intel, and Texas Instruments The iPhone X just might be Samsung’s most profitable phone. Apple makes the iPhone X, of course, but Samsung manufactures the OLED display that makes it stand out so much. That display amounts to $130 of the phone’s $1000 price tag. Combine that with a few other high-margin Samsung parts, and some analysts think Samsung made more from each iPhone X sale than each Galaxy S8 sale —about $130 per unit. Regardless of whether that’s true, every iPhone X sold i...

I Will teaches you how to use WhatsApp's "Broadcast" feature to determine who among your WhatsApp contacts has your phone number. This process will not provide information about non-WhatsApp contacts who have your phone number. METHOD ONE: On Android 1. Open WhatsApp . It's a green app with a white phone icon encircled in white. 2. Tap ⋮. This button is in the top-right corner of the screen. If WhatsApp opens to a chat, first tap the "Back" button in the top-left corner of the screen. 3. Tap New broadcast . It's close to the top of the drop-down menu. 4. Review the list of contacts. Anyone listed on this page has your phone number saved in WhatsApp, while any absent WhatsApp contacts do not have your phone number. METHOD TWO: On iPhone 1. Open WhatsApp. This app is green with a white phone icon on it. 2. Tap Chats . It's the speech bubble icon at the bottom of the screen. If WhatsApp opens to a conver...

MultiChoice Nigeria has announced a special price offer to usher in Easter celebrations this year. The new price offer, tagged ‘Easter Explora Slash’ will see subscribers enjoy up to a 64 per cent reduction on the Explora decoder and subscription bundle. This offer is valid from March 9 to 31, 2018 and is open to new and existing subscribers. Subscribers can now purchase their DStv Explora decoders under this new price regimen in the Easter Explora Slash – the Explora decoder plus one-month Premium subscription now costs N38,300, down from N60,000, whilst an Explora decoder plus one-month Compact Plus subscription is now N33,500, down from N52,200. Furthermore, a one-month Compact subscription with Explora decoder will now go for N29, 900 as against the old price of N51, 600. According to the General Manager, Marketing and Sales, Mr. Martin Mabutho: “We are shaping our business to respond to our customers’ needs, and this price slash is in line with the company’s commitment to...

Back in November, Google added money transfers to Android Messages via Google Wallet (now known as Google Pay Send). We noticed some strings in our teardown of the Google Contacts app last week that suggested the same addition would be coming soon, and it's now hit at least one reader in Canada.     Our tipster noticed the addition thanks to a new 'Send' icon that appeared, courtesy of one of Google's server-side updates. The UI itself is basically the same as the one found in Android Messages, though you can choose which contact method (SMS, email, etc.). Google Pay Request doesn't seem to be present here, despite the fact that there was a 'Request' string in our teardown. Since this is a server-side change (it's on our tipster's Nexus 6P, but not his Pixel XL with the same Contacts v2.5), the lack of Request could just be Google having not yet finalized the addition. Even Send isn't functional for the tipster yet because he's in...

 In an effort to boost operations, Nigeria’s foremost 4G/LTE broadband operator, ntel, is planning to collaborate with 9mobile Nigeria and MTN Nigeria to roll out national roaming service in April. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ntel, Mr Ernest Akinsola, made the disclosure in Lagos at a meeting with Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA). “In repositioning ntel for growth, there is need to have a national roaming service that will push the network forward. “This roll-out will be in collaboration with two foremost operators, 9mobile Nigeria and MTN Nigeria; the service is expected to roll out in quarter two, April to be specific,” he said. Akinlola said that the collaboration would ensure complementary skills and robust customer service for all the parties. “National roaming will help us to accelerate custom acquisition. “Partnership with 9mobile which has 2G/3G will help customers to enjoy the best data with good speed. “It will help the n...

Finally, Facebook has decided to push the long-awaited video calling feature for its Facebook messenger Lite for Android. This video calling feature is available on messenger app for a long time but not available on the later version. This is a great way to be connected with friends and family. Recently Facebook announced that there were a total of 17 billion video calls that were made in the year 2017 alone with twice as many calls made in 2016. Reeling from the success, Facebook is now bringing this video calling feature on the lite version also and is expected to provide a rich experience of face to face video calling on the Android devices. The Facebook messenger lite comes with many core messaging abilities which include audio calls, sending text, sending photos, links and many more. This app is available on Google play store and also has a small size of 10MB, making it easy to download and use. The new update is rolling out to the Facebook messenger lite users on Android an...

Even in its alpha state, the first Android P Developer Preview includes a slew of user-facing and underlying changes to tinker around with. Some of the more significant changes include a redesigned notification panel and “messaging” notification style that is reminiscent of iOS in more than one way. When you first swipe down from the top, you will notice how different the notification panel appears. Google went for a rounded-corner aesthetic for the quick settings and notification areas, which are now slightly separated from each other.This differs from Android Oreo, which separates the two areas with a gray line. Apart from the rounded corners, the quick settings area also features a bit of color. When Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is on, for example, the icon bubble turns blue. When either is inactive, the icon bubble turns gray to stand out from the white, non-translucent background. Unfortunately, you cannot further expand certain quick settings for more information. You can either tog...

Preliminary research has revealed that it may be possible to create a smartphone case that can measure blood pressure through what the study’s authors call the oscillometric finger-pressing method. That’s according to a new research article published in Science Translational Medicine on March 7, co-authored by six researchers from three universities. The researchers, led by Ramakrishna Mukkamala of Michigan State University, say that by modifying a smartphone to include a force transducer, overlaid by an optical sensor, accurate measurements of blood pressure can be taken from a fingerprint. A user simply needs to follow instructions included onscreen via an associated smartphone application in order to apply the appropriate amount of pressure and receive a reading. The researchers effectively claim that the discovery could lead to blood pressure measurements becoming as easy to do as sending a text message, which would be hugely beneficial to millions of medical patients. However,...

A render depicting what’s said to be the Huawei P20 Porsche Design leaked online earlier this week, having first emerged on Chinese social media platform Weibo this Thursday. The image that can be seen above adds more credence to recent reports and manufacturer’s own hints suggesting its upcoming Android flagship will have a triple-camera setup, though it isn’t perfectly in line with previous leaks of the device. Whereas many older renders and alleged prototypes were showing three vertically arranged sensor, the newly uncovered image reveals a horizontal alignment, with one dual-camera setup and a distant third lens which may be of the telephoto variety and is separated from the rest of the system by an LED flash. Leica’s branding is clearly visible on the handset, indicating Huawei is once again partnering with the Wetzlar, Germany-based optics company in order to craft a unique mobile imaging experience for one of its smartphone families. The finish of the leaked device appears...

The launcher is arguably the most frequently viewed screen on your phone, and it's also one that Google thoroughly enjoys playing around with. Of course, we couldn't have a new major release of Android without some change in the launcher, and this time is no different. All things considered, the differences are relatively minor: there isn't another change to the shape of the icons, and the app drawer hasn't switched its scrolling behavior again either. Instead, the change is only related to the row of icons on the bottom of the homescreen, also known as the 'dock.' In reality, the dock had sort of disappeared at some point in Android's past: while the first versions of Android's launcher had a decidedly skeuomorphic dock, Android Oreo had no visual cue to indicate the dock existed at all. In Android P, however, the dock regains its rightful status by being represented by a semi-transparent shade of white. Dock in Android Oreo  Dock in Androi...

Whether on desktop or mobile, Chrome always offers to save your logins and passwords so it can easily autofill your details the next time you need to log in. In a way, if you accept that pop-up, Chrome (and thus Google) become your password manager. However, what happens if you want to use another password manager app? Migration can be a bit tough and not-so-straightforward and that's why Chrome is now offering an export function. The option has been in the works in the Chromium gerrit, and is now available in Chrome Dev on the desktop (which probably means ChromeOS and the regular browser). When you go to your Manage passwords section in settings, you should see a new overflow menu next to Saved Passwords. Tapping it unveils the option to export passwords as a .csv file. Many third-party password managers support importing login details as a .csv so this should make data migration a very easy thing and get you going with your new password manager in no time.