Tech World

"We have completed the steps necessary to finalize Microsoft’s acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business. The transaction will be completed this Friday, April 25, when we’ll officially welcome the Nokia Devices and Services business as part of the Microsoft family,” Microsoft said in a statement. Microsoft also stated that the purchase would allow the company to speed up innovation. “The completion of this acquisition follows several months of planning and will mark a key step on the journey towards integration. This acquisition will help Microsoft accelerate innovation and market adoption for Windows Phones. In addition, we look forward to introducing the next billion customers to Microsoft services via Nokia mobile phones.” As with any multinational agreement of this size, scale and complexity, the two companies have made adjustments to the original deal throughout the close preparation process. “We’ve entered into numerous agreements to address ...

Kenyans can now access information on tax obligations through their mobile phones. The taxman and the Japan International Cooperation Agency have in place a short message service to enable taxpayers inquire and get instant feedback. Known as Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), the service allows cellular telephones to communicate with a service provider's computers and will be available from all mobile phone firms. "Taxpayers will request information from KRA and get instant feedback through SMS," a statement said on Tuesday. Taxpayers will access data on domestic taxes, individual Personal Identification Number company Personal Identification Number, temporary car exportation status as well as tax station checker. Importers and exporters will access information on the various custom tax obligation including the bill of lading, clearing agents status and manifest amendment status among others. The service, which started on June 25, will al...

None of us is a one-dimensional cutout. We work, we play, we travel, we have a family, hobbies and goals. We travel to new places, meet new people, find new jobs, and pick up new interests. For some of us, nothing is more important than spending time with the family; for others, adventure comes first. Meanwhile, technology is blurring the lines between laptop, tablet, and desktop, making it that much easier to find a device that fits your life. Whatever inspires you, there’s something out there that can turn that inspiration into reality. These empowering devices all have something in common, and it’s something you’ll probably never see: a powerful Intel processor. Intel’s leading-edge technology lets you run the apps, play the games, and do the work you want to do without interruption. And because that technology prioritizes power-efficiency, you’ll be able to work, play, and communicate for hours. Here’s a helpful guide to the many portable devices that Intel ...

Microsoft acquired Nokia earlier this year to bolster the Windows Phone platform, but it's thus far refused to snuff out Nokia's flirtation with Android, the Nokia X series. In fact Microsoft's devices group announced the latest addition to the Nokia X series of Android phones on Tuesday, the Nokia X2—the fourth entry in the Nokia X line, but the first announced under Microsoft's watch. Like the three previous Android handsets bearing the Nokia name, the X2 is really more of a "gateway device" to the hardcore Windows Phone experience than a full-fledged Android handset. The device runs the Android Opens Source Project (AOSP) version of Android that doesn't include any Google services or apps, re-skinned with a Windows Phone-like feel. The main screen is also loaded with Microsoft services including OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook.com, and Skype. Nokia services like HERE Maps are also present in place of their Google counterparts. But un...

If getting rid of superfluous apps on your smartphone doesn't solve the problem, reinstalling factory stock software likely will. Like rehab -- or the drunk tank -- for our lethargic, wrong-side-of-the-tracks smartphone inhabitant, this operation may sound like a big deal and a lot of work, and unfortunately it is, because you have to reconfigure your apps. One of the disadvantages of retaining a phone after the expiration of a two-year contract -- as many of us do -- is that those older phones have accumulated a few years' worth of digital gunk. They're clogged up like an aging sewer on the wrong side of town. Just like on a PC, bits of app and OS code become discombobulated -- orphaned from the parent program. Onboard digital debris becomes disoriented like a drunk stumbling out of a favored hole-in-the-wall; jumbled lethargy sets in, and the device can take forever to start or become sticky in operation. Well, just like a PC -- or a run-down apartmen...

Determine where best to free up space. Take a look at the Pictures and Videos space used in particular. Look for the numerical value next to the descriptive label. Video and images, unlike music, often don't need to be stored on the device and can be moved. HD video is a major memory hog. Photographs and music are other forms of media that take up a lot of space. It's a good idea to prune an Android device periodically, for a few reasons. A mishmash of apps, some aging, have all kinds of on-device routines running that can negatively affect performance. Worse, some are continually accessing the Internet and eating into your data cap -- unlimited wireless Internet on mobile devices is practically nonexistent these days. Plus, the accumulation of apps and their associated data hogs now limited storage memory. It's common to see no expandable storage options on may current phones. I've written about ways to speed up a slowing phone before. In "Ho...

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:   FIRST Emergency: The Emergency Number worldwide for all Mobile Phones is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and your mobile will search any existing network in your areato establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialled even if the keypad is locked. This works on all phones worldwide and is free. It is the equivalent of 000. SECOND Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your c...

The digerati mostly greeted the iPhone 5 last week with a collective yawn. So much was already known – a longer, larger (yet not wider) screen, thinner body, a new connector offering instant obsolescence for hundreds of accessories – that its Tom Daley-like lack of splash was declared, in this Olympic year, to lack enough of the technology motto citius, grandior, vilius (faster, bigger, cheaper) – even if it is the first two. Like statisticians poring over Olympic outcomes, they declared too that it didn’t break any records – not the biggest screen, not the world’s thinnest phone, not packing the most features. But as anyone who watched the Games would tell you, it’s not the record-breaking that matters; it’s the experience. That starts when you hold it: raw specifications (18% thinner than last year’s 4S, 20% lighter, 12% less volume) don’t explain how it seems to float in the hand, and how typing or swiping feels like touching the very pixels. (New processes ...

Education For years teachers have been battling against the use of mobile phones in class. But that is changing as schools start to embrace the sophisticated technology many of their pupils carry in their pockets. At its most simple, teachers allow students to use the internet for research. But imaginative lessons take it a step further. One teacher describes a history lesson that required students to do mock archaeology around the classroom to find hidden quick-response barcodes. Once found, the students scanned them with their smartphones and video clips about the subject appeared on their screens. And it is not just secondary schools. Increasingly, primary schools are using iPads and other tablet computers, which are quick to set up and young children take to because they are so intuitive. But the uptake has been painfully slow. Valerie Thompson is head of the e-learning foundation that helps schools to provide children with computers. "Schools are the last...

Microsoft is showcasing a new virtual assistant as part of an upcoming update for Windows phones. The assistant, named Cortana, tries to be chatty like Siri on Apple’s iPhones and iPads, while anticipating information you might want, like Google Now on Android devices. Cortana will warn you of conflicts when you add items to your calendar, and it will remind you to ask about the new dog your sister just got the next time you communicate with her, whether that’s by phone, chat or email. It will offer to remind you of upcoming travel by scanning your email. Microsoft says the feature is in a “beta” test mode as the company tries to improve its voice recognition capabilities. In fact, during Wednesday’s announcement, Cortana made numerous mistakes, including offering weather in Celsius when the request was for the Kelvin temperature scale. Cortana is among the new features coming to a Windows Phone update called 8.1. The company says it will be available on new phones in about a...

New Facebook tool finds your friends (CNN) -- Your phone always knows where you are. And now, if you want, your Facebook friends will always know where you are, too. Facebook is introducing a mobile feature called Nearby Friends that taps into that steady stream of location information so friends can track each other in real time. The idea is to make it easy for people to meet up in real life, so they can have conversations in person instead of comment threads, temporarily replacing Likes and LOLs with eye contact and actual laughter. A live meet-up is also an excellent opportunity to grab a selfie with your pal and upload it to the Facebook owned Instagram. In a refreshing change, the new Nearby Friends feature is not turned on by default. Friends will not be able to see where you are unless you decide live-tracking is something you want in your life and visit Facebook's settings to turn it on. Making a potentially invasive new feature opt-in suggests...

This week, the major telecommunications carriers in the United States finally agreed to make a mandatory “kill switch” option available on all cell phones by 2015. It’s a move that has been praised as a long time coming and slammed as incremental. However, it has also been resisted in certain corners by those who feel that the option will be abused. No one disputes that mobile phone theft is on the rise. The San Francisco police department has reported that a whopping 67% of all theft cases are related to mobile devices; 10% of phone owners have reportedly had a device stolen at some point. Consumer Reports claims that 1.2 million phones were stolen in 2012, with 3.1 million reported thefts in 2013. The question is whether a manufacturer-enabled “kill switch,” a method of disabling a device remotely, would be an effective means of short-circuiting a thriving market in stolen devices. US carriers have previously balked at manufacturer-implemented kill switches. Sam...

A cell phone emits about 1 Watt of electromagnetic radiation. Most of that zooms away to find a cell phone tower. The tissues of the user will absorb a part of this radiation. These tissues include the caller’s hand, ear, scalp, skull, and brain. The closer a tissue is to the cell phone’s antenna, the more of the radiation the tissue absorbs. For some reason, however, none of those raising fears about cell phones causing cancer are concerned about skin cancers on palms, fingers, or ears. The frequency of the typical cell phone radiation is about 2.5 GHz, two and a half billion flips back and forth per second. The radiation travels at the speed of light — 186,000 miles per second — and dividing the one by the other and correcting for the units I used for the speed, shows that the wavelength of this radiation is about 10 centimeters or about 4 inches. As the electric fields of the waves pass through the body’s tissues, the fields grab and try to shake any molecules or parts of th...

Best smartphones, mobile phones, phones. Whatever you call them they all share the same thing. They’re the hottest kind of tech. They sell millions, and make billions and there's plenty more to come in 2014, but which should you choose if you're buying right now? The first thing is to decide the platform you want to side with. There’s the iPhone and its easy to use iOS mobile operating system, an army of Android phones powered by Google, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 and – new kid on the block – BlackBerry 10. iOS offers the best apps and games, Android the most fiddling potential. Windows Phone 8 is the slickest and BlackBerry 10 is on hand for those who want something a bit different. 2013 was another big year for smartphones with the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S joining the Nokia Lumia 1020 and Android phone greats like the Sony Xperia Z1 and Nexus 5 as standout newcomers. We should of course not forget about the TrustedReviews Product of the Year the Motorola Mo...