Wednesday

Nokia 3.1 Review, Quick Specs and Price

The Nokia 3.1 is the successor of 2017's Nokia 3 smartphone, and it comes with beefed-up hardware and the latest software version. It was launched alongside the successors of the other high-end and budget Nokia smartphones launched in 2017, the Nokia 2.1 and Nokia 5.1.

Nokia 3.1


The Nokia 3.1 is slightly larger than its predecessor, comes with a faster processor with double the number of cores, double the memory, better cameras, a stronger battery and the latest software updates. Considering that the Nokia 3 was the company's most successful smartphone in 2017, the number of upgrades on the Nokia 3.1 aren't surprising.

Nokia 3 Specifications Review

Nokia 3.1 Specs

Design & Display

The Nokia 3.1 comes with a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display which has an HD+ (720 * 1,440) pixel resolution. It's covered with 2.5D curved glass and protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, like the Nokia 3.

The smartphone keeps the looks of the Nokia 3, featuring a polycarbonate back and metallic (aluminium) frame. It has a thickness of 8.7 millimetres and weighs just 138.3 grammes.

Storage & Performance

The Nokia 3.1 comes in two memory variants, the first with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, and the second with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory. Both can take an external microSD card with a size of up to 128GB to complement the default storage.

The smartphone is powered by an octa-core 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750N processor which promises a 50% increase in performance over its predecessor. Graphics rendering will be better too, thanks to an improved Mali T860 GPU.

Battery & Camera

The Nokia 3.1 packs a 2,990mAh battery, an upgrade from the 2,600mAh unit powering the Nokia 3. It comes with a 13MP camera on the rear (with a LED flash) and an 8MP camera with 86.4-degree wide-angle lens on the front for taking selfies.

Connectivity & Software

The Nokia 3.1 comes with a dual SIM slot and supports 4G LTE connections, including those with Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) functionality. It runs on Android 8.0 Oreo and will be upgraded to Android 9.0 P when the final build is released later in the year.

 

Nokia 3.1 Price and Availability

The Nokia 3.1 comes in Blue with Copper, Black with Chrome, and White with Iron colour options and will be available for sale starting from June. The 2GB RAM version costs $160 (N58,000) while the 3GB RAM version costs $195 (N72,000).

Tuesday

Creating a Video From Pictures Using Movavi Video Editor

Would you like to create a video from some pictures that you have captured in the past? It could be photos from a vacation, a special occasion, or even just with a particular person that is important to you.

By compiling your photos into a video, you could transform them into a memento of sorts. In fact if you dress it up with some stylish animated transitions, solid background music and a few other bells and whistles – it will really stand out. Assuming you’d like to do all of that, there’s no easier way than with Movavi Video Editor, this guide will show you everything you need to know about how to Create a Video From Pictures Using Movavi Video Editor.

Movavi Video Editor

Guide to Create a Video From Pictures Using Movavi Video Editor

1. Create Project in full feature mode
All that you need to do to start compiling a video from your pictures is launch Movavi Video Editor and select the ‘Create project in full feature mode’ option to open the editor.

RECOMMENDED - How to Create a Video Guide from Scratch with Movavi Screen Capture Studio

2. Add Media Files
Next you should add the pictures that you want your video to comprise of by clicking on the ‘Add Media Files’ button and selecting them.


3. Timeline
In the ‘Timeline’ area you’ll be able to see all the pictures that you added to Movavi Video Editor and can drag them around to position them in the order that you want. If you like you could drag and drop image files in that area as well, to add them to your video.

By this point you should have the structure of the video all laid out, so the next step is to start giving it a bit of polish and jazzing it up. There are a lot of ways in which you can do that with Movavi Video Editor, but a good place to start is by adding some background music by clicking on ‘Add Media Files’ and selecting the song you want to use.

Movavi Video Editor


Adding Transitions
Another way to make your video stand out is to place transitions between some (or all) of the pictures. In Movavi Video Editor you can either open the ‘Transitions’ tab and drag and drop specific transitions between pictures, or you could click on the ‘Transition Wizard’ icon above the ‘Timeline’ to add them to all your pictures.

On top of all that Movavi Video Editor’s features will let you apply filters and special effects to your video, transform the frame and orientation, enhance the pictures, or add creative captions to it. Simply put you’ll have no shortage of ways in which to make your video look truly impressive.

As you can see using Movavi Video Editor as a picture video maker is easy and straightforward. At the same time it will place numerous powerful features at your disposal and give you a lot of options to customize your video and make it look and feel exactly the way that you want it to.

Nokia 2.1 Review, Quick Specs and Price

The Nokia 2.1 is the 2018 version of the Nokia 2, one of the new Android smartphones launched by HMD Global in the last year. The Nokia 2.1 was launched alongside the Nokia 3.1 and Nokia 5.1, also refreshes of the Nokia lineup in 2017.

Some of the specifications are similar to those of the Nokia 2, but there are upgrades in some departments, especially in the hardware. The phone comes with a bigger display and a more powerful processor, and everything is topped with the latest software and promises of an update to the next version of Android.

Nokia 2.1 Review


Design & Display

The Nokia 2.1 comes with a 5.5-inch display which has an HD (720 * 1,280) pixel resolution and anti-fingerprint coating. This is an upgrade from the 5-inch display present on the Nokia 2, although it appears that the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection has been sacrificed in the process.

In terms of design, the Nokia 2.1 looks pretty much like its predecessor. It has a polycarbonate back with a metallic frame, but the speaker count has been increased to two, both front-facing. The phone is still lacking a fingerprint sensor.

Storage & Performance

The Nokia 2.1 is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform processor with a clock speed of 1.4GHz and an Adreno 308 GPU handling its graphics. The RAM size remains 1GB, and there's still 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 128GB via microSD.

Battery & Camera

Not much has changed in these sections; the smartphone sports an 8MP camera with autofocus and a LED flash on the rear, while a 5MP camera handles selfie photography at the front.

The Nokia 2.1 packs a 4,000mAh battery, which is a little downgrade from the 4,100mAh unit powering the Nokia 2. There's no sign of fast-charging yet, though.

Connectivity & Software

The Nokia 2.1 comes with a dual SIM slot and supports 4G VoLTE network connectivity. It runs on Android 8.1 Oreo (Android Go edition) out of the box and will be upgraded to Android P (Android 9.0) when the final build is released by Google later this year.

Nokia 2.1 Specs


  • 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with HD (720 * 1280) pixel resolution & anti-fingerprint coating.
  • Dimensions 153.6 * 77.6 * 9.67 mm.
  • Weight - 174 grammes.
  • 1.4GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform Processor.
  • Adreno 308 GPU.
  • 1GB RAM.
  • 8GB Internal Memory, expandable up to 128GB via microSD.
  • 8MP Rear Camera with Autofocus and LED Flash.
  • 5MP Front Camera.
  • Dual SIM Slot.
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE.
  • 4,000mAh battery.
  • Android 8.1 Oreo (Android Go), upgradeable to Android P.

Nokia 2.1 Price and Availability

The Nokia 2.1 comes in Blue with Copper, Blue with Silver and Grey with Silver colour options and will be made available for around $115 (N42,000) in July 2018.` 

Google Assistant Screen Search not working? Here's a fix

Here's A Quick Fix to Google Assistant Screen Search not working - Google Assistant has many uses related to searching for and finding out information, one of which is to find things on the internet related to what is currently displayed on your phone screen. This feature, called Google Assistant Screen Search, was first introduced as Now on Tap in the days of Google Now. The feature hasn't been working properly of recent, with many users (including me) getting a Nothing found on screen result. In this article, I'll show you how to use the Google Assistant Screen Search despite this bug using a workaround.

To use the Google Assistant Screen Search feature, you have to start Google Assistant (by long-pressing your phone's home button or manually launching the application) and tapping the What's on my screen? button. However, when I tap the button immediately after launching Google Assistant, I get the following result:



This is not a one-time glitch. It happens over and over again and is probably a bug in the latest update to the Assistant app. There's currently no fix for it, but there's a workaround, and it's not by clearing the cache and data for your Google app, uninstalling and reinstalling the Assistant application, or installing the beta version of the app. It takes a simple thing: patience.

When you launch Assistant, wait for around 3 seconds before tapping the What's on my screen button. If this doesn't work for you, wait until the four dots at the bottom of the screen turn into a microphone before tapping the phone, and the feature should work properly.



We hope Google will fix this soon in an update to the Assistant application. Till then, you're welcome.

How to Send message to Contacts on WhatsApp without saving their number

Looking for a way to send message(s) to a phone number without having it saved as contact in your WhatsApp? Here's how, works for both Android and iOS devices.

From inception till now, WhatsApp has been a peer-to-peer messaging platform, which means that you have to personally know someone, or at least have their primary phone contact before you can message them. In fact, you have to save the contact of the individual you wish to message via WhatsApp on your phone, with or without a name...or do you?

In this article, I'll show you how to send messages to a contact on WhatsApp without saving their number.



Without much ado, there are two ways to send messages to an unsaved phone number on WhatsApp, and one is easier than the other (takes fewer steps). These are explained below:

Method 1

Unsaved number with one or more groups in common

If the contact you want to send a message to without saving is on the same WhatsApp group chat with you, you can message them easily. Simply open the WhatsApp group, find any message sent by that contact to the group, and click on the contact's number displayed on top of the message.

In the menu that appears, select Message [contact's number] and a new chat will be opened for you and that contact. You can then proceed to send messages to the contact without saving their phone number.

Another way you can do this, if you can't readily find a message sent by the contact to the group (or don't want to), is to open the group info page (from the overflow menu or by clicking the group name at the top of the group chat) and scroll through the list of members until you find the particular contact's number.

Then click on the number and select Message [contact's number] and a new chat will be opened for you and the contact.

Method 2

WhatsApp Click to Chat

WhatsApp has a feature called Click to Chat with which you can send messages to numbers not saved in your phone's address book directly. To do this, you'll need to create a special URL with the contact's phone number in international format. When the URL is clicked or visited in a web browser, a new chat will be opened between you and the contact on WhatsApp (on your phone or on WhatsApp Web).

To create the special link, add the contact's phone number at the end of this link https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=. To get the international format of a phone number, remove the 0 at the beginning and add the country code without the + (and the leading zeros if the country code starts with zeros).



For example,

If the phone number is 08012345678 and the country code is +234, the international format for WhatsApp Click to Chat will be 2348012345678 and the link will be https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=2348012345678.

Again, if the phone number is +001-(555)1234567, the link will be https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=15551234567.

Monday

List of devices with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4 and 4+ Fast Charging

Fast charging used to be associated with the most premium of devices, but competition in the technology industry has seen this flagship feature trickle down to high-end and mid-range smartphones, though it's more likely to be in a device in the former category than the latter. There are different fast charging technologies available from different OEMs and across different devices, but there's no doubt that Qualcomm's Quick Charge is the most popular of them. If you're looking for devices that support the latest Qualcomm Quick Charge 4 /4+ fast charging tech, this article provides a list of them.



Quick Charge 4 and 4+ are the latest versions of the quick charging tech from popular chip maker, Qualcomm, and they were launched early in 2017. But despite the fact that they've been in existence for more than a year now, the number of smartphones that support and use them are relatively low.

Many OEMs that use Qualcomm have decided to stick with Quick Charge 3.0, and that's largely due to the fact that there's not much difference between the two quick charge versions, and many OEMs are coming up with such technologies of their own for use on their devices. Oppo has VOOC, OnePlus has Dash Charge, MediaTek has Pump Express, and even Google's Pixel devices use USB Power Delivery (USB-PD).

However, some other OEMs have seen some light in the dark tunnels that are QC4 and QC4+, and have taken the plunge. These are listed below:
  • BQ Aquaris X2.
  • BQ Aquaris X2 Pro.
  • Razer Phone.
  • Smartisan R1.
  • ZTE Nubia Z17.
Is it ironical that these smartphones all support Quick Charge 4+?

Sunday

Nokia 1 Review, Quick Specs and Price in Nigeria

The Nokia 1 is on the bottom of the chart containing the new Android smartphones launched with the Nokia brand name by HMD Global since the resurgence of the brand last year, and as expected, it's a basic smartphone with low-end features and a budget price. But it's not all low-end as we are used to.

The Nokia 1 comes with Android Go, a build of the latest version of the Android operating system, Android 8.1 Oreo that's designed to run efficiently on low-end and entry-level smartphones like the Nokia One. That means you get the latest software features available in the Android ecosystem on a phone that costs less than a hundred dollars. Fair bargain, if you ask me.

Nokia 1

The Nokia 1 also brings something back from the old Nokia we all knew -- Nokia Xpress-on covers that make it as easy as a case swap to change the look of your smartphones. This is made possible by the design of the device, which has the front covered in black bezels and a silver frame, and the entire back and part of the frame covered by the Xpress-on cover. That way, you can simply use an Xpress-on cover with another colour of your choice, and you get a fresh-looking device.

Other features of the phone are pretty basic, but they're not disappointing. The display is covered with a 4.5-inch IPS LCD FWVGA screen and the phone is 9.5 millimetres thick, even though the battery has a capacity of only 2,150mAh.

The Nokia 1 is powered by a 1.1GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6737M processor paired with a Mali-T720 GPU. It has 1GB of RAM for multi-tasking and 8GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via its external hybrid micro-SD/Nano-SIM slot.

Its 5MP main camera takes decent shots that are brightened by its accompanying LED flash, but you can't expect much from the 2MP camera on the front. For a budget smartphone, the Nokia One supports a wide range of (global) 4G LTE bands, even more than you would find on a far more expensive high-end smartphone.

Nokia 1 Specs

Nokia One


  • 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with FWVGA (480 * 854) pixel resolution.
  • Dimensions: 133.6 * 67.8 * 9.5 mm.
  • 1.1GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6737M Processor.
  • Mali-T720 GPU.
  • 1GB RAM.
  • 8GB Internal Memory, expandable up to 128GB via microSD.
  • 5MP Rear Camera with Autofocus and LED Flash.
  • 2MP Front Camera.
  • Hybrid Micro/Nano SIM Slot.
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE.
  • 2,150mAh battery.
  • Android 8.1 Oreo (Android Go).

Nokia 1 Price and Availability

The Nokia 1 is already on sale for $85, and is available in Nigeria for around N25,000.

Wednesday

How to mute posts and stories from an account in Instagram

Instagram recently added a new feature that allows users to mute accounts they follow, thereby preventing them from seeing what they post on the application. This feature was announced on the 22nd of May on the official Instagram blog and is one of the steps the company is taking to give its users more control over their timelines.



The feature is called Mute, and allows you to simply stop seeing what certain accounts that you follow post on your feeds, as well as their Instagram Stories, instead of outrightly unfollowing them. With the feature, you can still keep following an account, visit their profile page to view their posts and stories, get notified when they tag you in a post or comment, but you'd not see their posts and stories in your feed again.

There are three places from which you can mute an account.



  • From your feed, open the overflow (...) menu in the right top corner of the post, tap on Mute and choose between muting just the account's posts or both posts and stories.
  • From the stories pane (at the top of your feed), press and hold on a story and tap on Mute.
  • The above two steps, but from the account's profile page.
Whenever you decide to start seeing the account's posts in your timeline again, you can simply unmute the profile. The account user won't get notified when you mute and unmute them, so there's no need to be afraid of stepping on toes.

This feature which has been available on Facebook for years is still rolling out and might not be available to all users yet, so don't panic if you can't find the option in your Instagram feed now.

Tecno Pouvoir 1 Specs & Price in Nigeria

The Tecno Pouvoir 1 is the first in a series of battery-focused smartphones recently launched, albeit quietly, by Tecno Mobile. Pouvoir is the French word for Power, which means the smartphones in this series will pack enough power to satisfy the daily smartphone needs of consumers in regions where epileptic power supply is the norm.

The Tecno Pouvoir 1 already has a successor, the Tecno Pouvoir 2 released recently into the market. The highlights of the device include a monstrous 5,000mAh battery that can get you going for up to two days, and a dedicated hardware button that can be used to perform different functions. The only thing missing here is a fingerprint scanner.

Tecno Pouvoir 1 Specifications Review


Design & Display

The Tecno Pouvoir 1 comes with a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display which has an HD (720 * 1,280) pixel resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio, like most smartphones launched by the OEM in recent times, although it's not as bezel-less as the Tecno Camon X.

The phone bears a resemblance to the Tecno Camon X and uses capacitive buttons for navigation. Its thickness of 8.8 millimetres is reasonable when you consider its large battery size.

Storage & Performance

The Tecno Pouvoir 1 is powered by a MediaTek MT6580 processor which runs on four cores (quad-core) and at a maximum speed of 1.3GHz, and is assisted in terms of graphics processing by a Mali-400 MP GPU.

The smartphone comes with 1GB of RAM for multi-tasking and has 16GB of onboard storage which can be expanded up to 32GB with the use of an external microSD card.

Battery & Camera

The Tecno Pouvoir 1 packs a 5,000mAh battery that guarantees a usage time of up to two days on heavy use, and even more than that with monitored use. It doesn't come with fast charging, however, meaning you'll have to wait a long while to get it from 0 to 100%.

The smartphone sports an 8MP camera with dual-LED flash and autofocus on the rear, while a 5MP camera at the front produces selfies, brightened with the aid of a LED flash present beside it.

Connectivity & Software


The Pouvoir 1 runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with Tecno's HiOS layered on top for extra software features. It comes with a dual Nano SIM slot but doesn't support 4G LTE network connectivity.

Tecno Pouvoir 1 Specs

  • 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with HD (720 * 1280) pixel resolution & 18:9 aspect ratio.
  • Dimensions 154.5 * 77.2 * 8.8 mm.
  • 1.3GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6580 Processor.
  • Mali-400 MP GPU.
  • 1GB RAM.
  • 16GB Internal Memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSD.
  • 8MP Rear Camera with Autofocus and Dual-tone LED Flash.
  • 5MP Front Camera.
  • Dual Nano-SIM Slot.
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE.
  • 5,000mAh battery.
  • Android 7.0 Nougat with Tecno HiOS.

Tecno Pouvoir 1 Price and Availability

The Tecno Pouvoir 1 costs $129 (around N40,000) and will be made available soon in Nigeria.

Tuesday

Tecno Pouvoir 2 Specs & Price in Nigeria

The Tecno Pouvoir 2 is the successor of the Tecno Pouvoir 1 that was quietly launched earlier in April. If you're trying to figure out how to pronounce the name; don't bother, it's French for Power. The phone comes with a mammoth 5,000mAh battery capacity, and considering the fact that there are now two devices in the series, it's safe to say the Tecno Pouvoir series has come to replace the battery-focused Tecno L series.

Tecno Pouvoir 2 Specifications Review


Design & Display

The Tecno Pouvoir 2 imitates recently-launched Tecno devices in terms of display size, featuring a 6-inch IPS LCD display which has an HD+ (720 * 1,440) pixel resolution, like the Tecno Camon X Pro. It also has an 18:9 aspect ratio which makes the phone seem not all that big.

The smartphone's bezels are at a minimum, and it has a metal unibody design that gives it a premium look and feel. The device is just 8.5 millimetres thick, despite its humongous battery capacity, and sports a fingerprint scanner placed below the LED flash on the rear.

Storage & Performance

The Tecno Pouvoir 2 is powered under the hood by a quad-core 1.3GHz processor and Mali-400 GPU. The processor is unnamed, but it's most likely one made by MediaTek.

The device comes with 2GB of RAM for multi-tasking and has 16GB of internal storage onboard, which can be expanded up to 128GB with the use of an external microSD card.

Battery & Camera

The Tecno Pouvoir 2 packs a 5,000mAh battery that can power the device for more than two days before requiring a recharge. This is the largest battery capacity we've seen on a Tecno device so far, but it's quite very disappointing that it doesn't come with a fast-charging mechanism; now you'll have to charge the phone for upward of four hours in order to get it to 100%.



The Pouvoir 2 sports a 13MP camera with autofocus and dual-tone LED flash on the rear, while an 8MP camera helps to take selfies with a basic bokeh effect at the front. The phone also comes with a software feature that allows you to unlock and lock the phone (and apps) with face recognition, similar to FaceID on high-end smartphones.

Connectivity & Software



The Tecno Pouvoir 2 comes with a dual micro-SIM slot and supports 4G LTE network connectivity. It runs on Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box with Tecno's custom UI for its Android smartphones, HiOS layered on top.

Tecno Pouvoir 2 Specs



  • 6-inch IPS LCD display with HD+ (720 * 1440) pixel resolution & 18:9 aspect ratio.
  • Dimensions 159.8 * 76.8 * 8.5 mm.
  • 1.3GHz Quad-core MediaTek Processor.
  • 2GB RAM.
  • 16GB Internal Memory, expandable up to 128GB via microSD.
  • 13MP Rear Camera with Autofocus and Dual-tone LED Flash.
  • 8MP Front Camera.
  • Dual Micro-SIM Slot.
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE.
  • 4G LTE.
  • 5,000mAh battery.
  • Android 8.1 Oreo with Tecno HiOS.

Tecno Pouvoir 2 Price and Availability

The Tecno Pouvoir 2 is currently available in online retail stores for N47,000 and will be made available in offline retail stores in Nigeria soon.