Egypt has disrupted voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services this week for users who use messaging apps like Apple’s FaceTime, Viber, Skype, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
The key reason is ostensibly security concerns, but there’s also a suspicion there are economic incentives for local telcos who have complained to regulators about free calls via such apps.
The partial disruption comes on the back of a three-month nationwide state of emergency after terrorist attacks on Palm Sunday (April 9) killed 47 people in two churches. The regressive emergency law allows authorities sweeping powers including monitoring personal communications without judicial oversight and shuttering media outlets

Late last year, Egypt also blocked the highly encrypted app Signal forcing users to download a virtual private network (VPN) program as with this month’s partial block – messaging still works without a VPN.
A controversial cyber-security law has been on the books for a few months and the NTRA has signaled its tacit support for it. Earlier this month, an Alexandria lawyer was sentenced under a newly legislated counter-terrorism law to ten years in prison and a five-year ban from using the internet for Facebook posts deemed insulting to president Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
The economic argument that has been put forward by the regulator and other Egyptian telecommunications providers before maintains that customers’ calls should be charged and that users are ‘free-riding’ by using internet data.
“Our demands are simple: we want quicker and affordable internet without constant disruptions so we can be like other countries that respect freedom of expression” Abdel Naby said. “The government cannot keep on using terrorism as an excuse to disrupt apps”
The most populous Arab country has one of the slowest internet speeds worldwide ranking in the bottom five countries for broadband and 95th for mobile.
Egypt is the latest African country disrupting internet services in recent months following in the footsteps of Cameroon and Morocco.

In the early days, new Twitter users were given an avatar that looked like a businessman walking along; later, it got changed to a bird, and since 2010 it's been an egg. Now Twitter is updating the default avatar again to something much more generic.

The social media site decided it was time for an upgrade. Now, for those people who haven't uploaded profile photos, instead of seeing a white oval inside a bright colored square, you'll see a generic silhouette of a dark gray head and shoulders against a light gray background.

"It's time for something new -- something that encourages people to upload their own photos for more personal expression," Twitter wrote in a blog post

Twitter gives three reasons for the change: to bring the default avatar into line with its recent rebranding efforts, to encourage users to actually get around to personalizing their profile, and to get away from the negative connotations that accounts with egg pictures have drawn in recent years. Originally chosen for being "playful, fun, and unique", the era of the egg avatar is over, Twitter says.

Instead of varied colorful eggs, Twitter said the new default profile image has these traits: generic, universal, serious, unbranded, temporary and inclusive.

Twitter has been tinkering with several of its features over the past few days. On Thursday it announced it was adding a little more room to its 140-character limit in reply tweets. On Wednesday Twitter said videos from Periscope could now play directly in Moments, which is the site's up-to-the-minute curated collection of tweets, videos and discussions.

Twitter is giving its users a little more space.

The social network said Thursday that when people reply back to fellow users, usernames will no longer cut into the 140-character limit in tweets.

Usernames, such as @thecleanmachine, the Twitter handle for Sasank Reddy, a product manager at the social network, will now appear above the tweet's text, rather than within it.

"So you have more characters to have conversations," Reddy said in a blog post Thursday.

Users will now be able to tap on "Replying to..." to see and manage who's in their conversation, instead of seeing a bunch of usernames at the beginning of a tweet, Reddy added.

For example, when a user is replying to say, tweets from public figures like President Muhammadu Buhari‏ –
@MBuhari or the American president Donald Trump at either @realDonaldTrump or @POTUS, neither of Trump's Twitter handles will figure into the 140 characters. However, if you want to add or tag other people, you'll still have to type in their @username and that will factor into the character count.

Some Twitter users have pointed out the new reply feature lets you tag a seemingly unlimited number of people, raising concerns that it could be use to spam a large number users with a single tweet.

So, don't be that dude who tags 30 people in every tweet -- just don't.

The reply update comes after Twitter tweeted in September it will no longer count photos, videos, polls, quotes and GIFs toward its 140-character limit. The social network also told users and developers last spring changes were coming.

Thursday's new feature is the second Twitter-related update in as many days. On Wednesday, the social network said videos from Periscope can now play directly in Moments, Twitter's up-to-the-minute curated collection of tweets, videos and discussions.

Facebook Messenger wants to be an offline social gathering tool, not just an online chat app. Today it’s adding a new Live Location feature that lets you share your real-time location on a map for an hour within a private direct or group message thread. The recipients can then see an estimate of how long it would take you to reach them by car

“Live Location is super helpful when trying to coordinate with friends, telling people how close you are when you’re on your way to an appointment or even sharing where you are with your roommate when you’re on your way home at night” writes the feature’s product manager Selena Wang. It’s rolling out for all iOS and Android Messenger users today. Messenger could now challenge location apps like Foursquare Swarm and meetup apps like Down To Lunch.

Live Location is Facebook’s second big attempt at maps in Messenger after its first one blew up into a privacy scandal and was scrapped in 2015. Many users were sharing their momentary exact location with each message, which a Harvard student found could be scraped into a Marauder’s Map through a Chrome extension he built showing exactly where a friend had been. Facebook rescinded the student’s internship offer, made him take the extension down, and switched to only letting users send their one time current or future location.

That static location feature is still available, but now there’s Live Location too. This time, though, you can’t leave it on by default. Head of Messenger David Marcus posted that “Many of us make plans on Messenger that involve finding each other, or letting friends and loved ones know we’re on the way. Sharing your location will also help some of you feel safer on the way home.”

To use Live Location:

Inside a message thread, tap the Location button or find it in the More menu
On the map, tap the blue bar to start sharing your Live Location. The recipients will see your exact current location on a map for 60 minutes, and an ETA by car for you to reach them

A clock in the corner of the map counts down until your location sharing expires, and you can hit Stop Sharing at any time Of course, battery life is a big issue with location features since GPS can drain your device’s energy quickly. But Facebook seys it feels confident that Live Location uses a standard amount of battery, and Marcus writes “We put a lot of time and effort into . . . minimizing battery consumption to the point you wouldn’t even have to think about it.” Though it’s still worth keeping an eye on it.

Alongside the Active Now status indicators and Messenger Day’s “Who’s up for?” filters, Messenger is becoming a much more full-featured utility for getting together with friends. That could give it an advantage over strict chat products and dedicated visual communication apps.

Offline gathering is a still a largely unsolved problem. It’s tough to know who’s available to hang out and close enough for that to be convenient. To win in this space, a product needs social graph ubiquity, location sharing, to be a place users already check frequently, and to have a messaging component for planning. Swarm, Down To Lunch, and a graveyard of other apps have always missed a critical piece.

Messenger could succeed since it piggybacks on Facebook identity and is already where people are organizing meetups. For all our fancy apps, we still need a way to fight the loneliness and get face to face in person. Remember, though. Now if you say “on my way”, you better not be lying while still home in your pajamas.

The drudgery of uploading one photo at a time to Instagram has ended! Now you can add up to 10 photos and videos at once.

Don't worry about overwhelming your followers with a slew of photos, though. It's kind of like a Story. A bulk upload is consolidated into one post. The first image is displayed in your feed and blue dots at the bottom of the photo lets your followers know that they can swipe to see more images.

Adding multiple images and videos is super easy:

From the home screen, hit the + icon at the bottom of the screen.

1. Tap the first image you want to add.
2. Tap the Select multiple icon on the bottom right of the image.
3. Tap on the additional images you want to add and tap an image again to deselect it. If you don't like the order of your images, tap and hold on the image you want to move, then drag it to the right spot.
4. Tap Next at the top of the screen as usual to edit your photos. You have the option of editing each photo individually, or adding the same filter to all your images at once. If you want the same filter on all the images, just tap on your chosen filter without selecting a photo. If you want to edit photos individually, just tap on one, edit and tap Done. Rinse and repeat. When you're done editing, tap Next and add a caption. Unfortunately, all of your photos will just have one caption.
5. Tap Share when you're done. On your profile grid, your followers will see an icon in the upper right side of a photo to let them know it is a post with multiple images. They just need to tap and swipe on the photo to see more.

Does it work with Stories?
Uploading multiple images at once would be awesome for creating a Story, right? Unfortunately, this new trick doesn't work with the Story function, yet.

nice job op....and Nigerians need to know 10 best Google Adsense alternatively http://www.afriteche.com/2017/03/google-adsense-alternatives.html

www.afriteche.com all about technology and phone reviews

nice development but guys check my signature out

you are right but I believe computer village is something else when it come to technology tools and repairs in Nigeria

Donald3d:
You can say computer village and Alaba is the China/Japan of Nigeria -
Silicon Valley is more like Yaba

I uses Firefox and chrome for my site...I blog about technology http://www.afriteche.com

computer village ikaja is acclaimed west Africa largest technology market and host some of the best brain you can find anywere in the world.....from the entrance to the last small business owner you will see creativety and vibrant Africans ready to take Africa and the world if the right tools and appropriate environment is provided..

this technology market is located in the capital of lagos state Nigeria and host millions of people daily buying and selling all forms of technological tools and it also host some offices of the world biggest mobile phone brands...like Nokia, Samsung and tecno mobile, infinx and including Nigeria biggest mobile phone store Slot. this Nigeria silicon valley also have its own story.

taking a walk through this over crowded tech market what came to my mind is silicon valley; but the difference here is in silicon vailly ideals get founded and here ideals get killed; don't ask me why I believe you know the obvious reasons.in all of this what i  keep asking my self is what make the difference.? why do technology get developed in silicon valley and it can be copied and decoded in computer village? why can't we get seed and startup founds,and what is the role of government in all this; this question keep coming to my mind and still unanswered.

after some hours in this west Africa technology powers house I began to wonder why as the government delepretly chose to ignore an industry like this that can empower over 1 million youth in a single unite  but opt to transfer technology that will enable Nigeria  produce toothpick by 2018 hmm funny you think but true, and it's not totally a bad ideal because it's a shame we still import toothpick in 2017.

I will be completely wrong to lay blame on the side of the government without talking about the pravate sector because in silicon valley government don't found ideals but pravate company and individuals do. the role of the government is to provide the enable environment which computer village dont have and allow investors and developer's to have a playing feed to grow on. it's more easer to get a telecommunications company to sponsor a musical show than to found app developer's or set aside start up in my country. this so called big four telecommunications company only sponsor entertainment show.

http://www.afriteche.com/2017/03/the-silicon-valley-world-nothing-about.html

make una come block me again oooooooo.....

NOKIA 3310: EVERYONE FIRST PHONE IS BACK; THE REVIWE http://www.afriteche.com/2017/02/nokia-3310-everyone-first-phone-is-back.html

Enter the new Nokia 3310, a lovingly crafted homage to the iconic handset with a helping of modern-day upgrades. If you were a fan of the 3310, the likelihood is you’ll want to pick this up.

Nokia 3310 still remain one of the most popular mobiles of all time, remembered for its near-indestructible build, long-lasting battery and legendary Snake (well Snake II if we’re being accurate) game, and the team licensing the Nokia phone name has jumped at the chance to reignite the love for a phone which was once the leader in the mobile market.

New Nokia 3310 battery and camera

The original Nokia 3310 was also known for its long battery life, and there’s good news for those eyeing up the new 3310.

A removable 1,200mAh power pack is an instant upgrade over the 900mAh of the original, and thanks to the improvements in phone efficiency the new Nokia 3310 boasts 22 hours of talk time and up to 31 days of standby.

That’s a huge upgrade over the 2.5 hours of talktime and 260 hours (around 11 days) of standby on the original Nokia 3310. You can charge the new 3310 with a standard microUSB cable too, so you won’t need to trawl eBay for the old-school charger.

The first 3310 arrived before manufacturers started putting cameras in phones, but this is 2017 and it makes sense for the new Nokia 3310 to sport a snapper – even if it is rather understated.

What you get is a 2MP camera on the rear of the phone. There’s no flash, HDR, panorama mode or anything fancier than a simple point and shoot app with a digital zoom. It’s not going to dazzle you then, but we can see it being a handy feature on a secondary smartphone.

We snapped a few quick pics during our hands on time with the new 3310 and image quality is as acceptable as you'd expect from a low-res camera.

New Nokia 3310 price and release date

The Nokia 3310 price has been set at €49 (around $40, 12.900NGN), placing it perfectly as a secondary phone purchase and it’s one that will likely appeal to Nokia fans.

Some may balk at having to even pay that much for a ‘dumb phone’, but the spec sheet of the new 3310 does enough to justify the cost.

There’s no firm new Nokia 3310 release date just yet, with the firm only confirming that it will be available sometime in Q2 (April-June).
New Nokia 3310 design and display

Looking at the new Nokia 3310 front-on and there’s no mistaking the phone it is paying homage to.
You’ll be able to pick up the new Nokia 3310 in the traditional dark blue and grey of the original, but also in the new, psychedelic yellow and ‘warm red’. We managed to check out all four colors during our hands on time, and our favorite was the good old dark blue.[img][/img]


The design is solid, but we can't help but wish Nokia had stuck a little closer to the original 3310 look and feel. We could accept thicker device, and a rear which somewhat resembles the original would have been nice.

Meanwhile the display feels like a real blast from the past, but it’s a significant upgrade over the old 3310. The new Nokia 3310 has a 2.4-inch, 240 x 320 full color display which is bright, but hardly crisp.

Of course you’re paying very little for the phone so it’s not an issue, but don’t go trying to tap the menu items. Touchscreen this ain’t.

Text is perfectly readable though, and the new version of Snake is playable. They’re not blockbuster graphics, but if they were it would ruin the appeal of this phone.
The distinctive border around the screen and the layout of the 'num' keys give you the retro throwback, but Nokia has majorly slimmed down and modernized the design making the new 3310 supremely pocketable.

It tips the scales at just 79.6g, making it comfortably lighter than the 137g original, and once you slipped it into your pocket you’ll forget it’s even there.

The plastic construction feels solid, but only time will tell if it will withstand the kind of beatings the first generation Nokia 3310 survived time and again.

http://www.afriteche.com/2017/02/nokia-3310-everyone-first-phone-is-back.html