Techvoize - Sept/Oct 2013

WHAT`S INSIDE!

HOTSTUFF | APPS | REVIEWS | TUTORIALS | SECURITY | BUYER`S GUIDE

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2013

TUTORIAL

CONTROLLING YOUR COMPUTER WITH ANDROID DEVICE

10

iPhone Apps

BUYER`S GUIDE INTERVIEW AND INSIGHT REPORT

THE MIDDLE EAST

ECOMMERCE MARKET

FEATURED WHAT IS BIG DATA?

ELIAS GHANEM, MD PAYPAL MENA

2013 LAPTOPS & SMARTPHONES TO SHOP FROM

SECURITY

8 THINGS NEVER TO DO ONLINE

3

2

1

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EDITOR`S LETTER First and foremost, I would like to thank all those who have taken time out to send us their feedbacks on the last issue of Techvoize; I really appreciate the positive remarks, constructive criticism and suggestions.

With our vision in mind to make all the big grammars in IT understandable by day-to-day consumers we have selected some interesting topics that you would definitely love, starting with the most talked about word these days in Enterprise IT, which is “Big Data” What really is Big Data? Expert Talks on Page 63.

Also during the month, Elias Ghanem, MD PayPal MENA shared with us on the need for a digital wallet as PayPal and how it’s easing consumer online transactions as well as online commerce for storeowners across the region to accept payments on their online stores.

My concern for online security is ever increasing and this has brought about the need for us to share on “8 Things Never to do Online” that can compromise your Internet life, that you can find on Page 70, more so, with the advent of a lot of gadgets and smartphones being released in the past months we have done some quick reviews on few of the recently released smartphones on Page 48.

Osahon J. Osabouhien

Apps, Apps, Apps there are a lot of great apps for your iPhone and I have taken time to recommend 10 apps that you can find on mine, that would ease your daily life. If what you need is to manage your spending habit, your business or just need something to take you out of your stress you will find it all from Page 28.

Lastly, don’t forget to send us your feedback and keep engaging with us on social media as much as you can.

I also recommend that you find time to see RUSH as it was worth the time and if you can find yourself the Grand Theft Auto V please do, as it’s been a busy year so far.

Yours Truly,

Kessiena Majemite Editor-in-Chief This Publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in any part without written permission of the publishers. Where opinion is expressed it is that of the Author and does not necessarily reflects the editorial views of the publisher or Techvoize All information in Techvoize is checked and verified to the best of the publisher`s ability. however the publisher cannot hel responsible for any mistake or omission enclosed in the publication.

Techvoize Magazine is manage by VOIZE MEDIA FZ LLC

kessdaniels@techvoize.com

KessDaniels

@Kessdaniels

CONTENTS COVER STORY PAGE

4

iPhone 5s The New Flagship of Apple

THE MIDDLE EAST ECOMMERCE MARKET iPhone 5C: Breaking out from its Tradition iPhone 5S: The New Flagship of Apple

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PAGE

26

14

HOTSTUFF

6 28

PAGE

PAGE Middle East Sees Significant Rise in Mobile Usage

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42

APPS

TECH HEADLINES

PAGE

35

NOKIA LUMIA 1020 ARRIVES Motorola Moto X Bridging Multiple Platforms Game of the Month

5 APPS TO ORGANIZE YOUR DAILY LIFE ANDROID APPLICATIONS FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES GET YOUR FINANCES STRAIGHT WITH THESE APPS YAHOO ACQUIRES IQ THE LAUNCH OF PS4 UBUNTU EDGE PROJECT FAILED GOOGLE IS PREPARING A MAJOR UPGRADE TO CHROME WEB BROWSER APP STORE IS NOT AS FULL PROOF AS WE THOUGHT MIDDLE EAST SEES SIGNIFICANT RISE IN MOBILE USAGE

GAMING LAPTOPS REVIEW

SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 ZOOM HTC ONE REVIEW

LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOUR iOS CONTROLLING YOUR COMPUTER WITH ANDROID DEVICE GMAIL EXTENSION FOR GOOGLE CHROME USERS

#BIG DATA: WHAT REALLY IS IT?

ONLINE SHOPPING SECURITY HOW TO STOP HACKERS 8 THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER DO ONLINE 2013 LAPTOPS TO SHOP FROM TOP 10 SMARTPHONES

REVIEWS PAGE

45

TUTORIALS PAGE

56

PAGE

46

GAMING LAPTOPS REVIEW LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOU iOS

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57

FEATURE ARTICLES

PAGE

62

SECURITY PAGE

67

BUYER`S GUIDE PAGE

71

BEST LAPTOP OF 2013

PAGE

72

INTERVIEW AND INSIGHT REPORT Elias Ghanem Managing Director, PayPal Middle East and North Africa The global retail landscape is at an inflection point, and over the last few years, online commerce has smashed down barriers in the Middle East. As 2013 is coming to a close, we are seeing new trends emerging in ecommerce: the Middle East is embracing online shopping both with local e-merchants attracting local buyers but also cross border e-commerce exponentially growing with international e-merchants catering to local consumers or even setting e-shops in the Middle East.

Shoppers are using all forms of technology to browse and shop, and particularly on their smartphones. With these trends revolutionizing commerce in the Middle East, conversations around ‘online’ and ‘offline’ retail are quicklylosing their relevance. As consumers get used to shopping across a variety of channels and platforms, both locally and globally, the impetus is on retailers to innovate to offer 24 by 7 multi-channel shopping experiences and connect betterwith consumers.

The Middle East, one of the world’s fastest growing Internet population and e-commerce market, is well positioned to embrace the new retail environment. Smartphones have become ubiquitous in the Middle East, already accounting for 65% of the mobiles in the top 3 markets (KSA with a 63% penetration of smartphones, Qatar with 70%, and UAE with 74%), and almost 35% across the region. This means that a majority of consumers in the largest markets now walk around with the Internet in their pocket, a wealth of information at their fingertips and a new and powerful tool to transact and make payments anytime, anywhere. It is our great pleasure to share the PayPal Insights: e-commerce in the Middle East report. This report explores the latest trends and data on how e-commerce but also m-commerce are radically changing the retail landscape and the way consumers shop and pay in the Middle East.

ISSUE 2 | PAGE 4

As more and more consumers rely on paying their bills through their electronic devices, more companies are looking through the breakthrough that e-commerce had brought to the daily lives of the citizen. Reliability is the key foundation on a succesful system that will allow consumers to pay through their devices. The limited physical presence on actually going through payment transaction is one of its strongest suit in the market however it is also the biggest obstacle to go over with.

The Middle East

Ecommerce Market

“This is the era of the connected consumer who is always with a networked device in hand. A new generation of shoppers is coming on board whose first experience with online commerce will be through mobile devices and social networking.”

The Mobile Generation

The Middle East’s online commerce market

This is the era of the connected consumer who is always with a networked device in hand. A new generation of shoppers is coming on board whose first experience with online commerce will be through mobile devices and social networking. Retailers looking to attract highly connected, digitally savvy consumers will have to offer them a multi-channel experience across online, mobile, social and in-store. In many cases, retailers in the Middle East are at the early stages of their online journey, with a huge opportunity to leapfrog their international counterparts. The Middle East has a storied tradition of trade, commerce, and wide selection of goods to offer consumers. Online and mobile channels can become a new way for these merchants to reach yet an even wider audience. Today, online commerce platforms available to retailers in the Middle Eastare dynamic, affordable, and in manycases open source, allowing merchantsto cost effectively embrace the latesttechnologies. There is also a hugecompetitive advantage to be garneredby retailers integrating online and mobile footprints in addition to their traditional offline presence. We are already seeing many leading e-retailers like MarkaVIP, Souq.com or Namshi offering their customers the choice to shop 24/7 across multiple channels and pay in an easier and safer way to with PayPal.

The past year has seen huge and exciting changes for online commerce in the Middle East. The PayPal Insights: e-commerce in the Middle East report conducted in conjunction with Ipsos shows that the Middle East’s online commerce market grew 29% from $7 billion in 2011 to $9 billion in 2012. Last year, we had predicted that the Middle East’s online commerce market will reach $15 billion by 2015 and this year’s growth reveals that the market is on track to meet our projected growth figures. This growth was driven by a massive jump in the Middle East’s online commerce population, as well as a flood of local retailers coming online and offering local consumers what they could only have found outside of the region before.

Remaining innovative and maintaining relevance in the new retail environment is the biggest challenge all retailers are facing every day in the Middle East.

ISSUE 2 | PAGE 6

In 2012, there were over 30 million people shopping online in the Middle East, an increase of 65% from 2011. The healthy growth in online spending in the Middle East is due to a number of factors: new consumers purchasing online for the first time; retailers establishing an online presence or increasing the sophistication of their current online offering; a number of major international retailers marketing directly to consumers in the region and finally, the explosive growth of mobile commerce.

Finally, it is now easier than ever to get products delivered to the Middle East, with concierge service such as Shop and Ship from Aramex, which enables consumers to shop from any international merchants, even ones that do not deliver in the Middle East.

Top online commerce spending categories

Top reasons to shop online

While travel remains the most popular item for online shoppers, the PayPal Insights: e-commerce in the Middle East report has revealed increases in spending on other items such as computers, consumer electronics, and fashion and jewelry.

Convenience, lower prices and variety are the key drivers for domestic online purchases. For domestic retailers, the message is clear – consumers in the Middle East are more willing than ever to take out their digital wallet for a wider range of products online as they enjoy the convenience of shopping anytime, anywhere without having to step into a store. Consumers list convenience as their number one reason to shop online in 26% of cases, lower prices in 18% of cases and variety of products and offers in 15% of cases.

Domestic online commerce Along with the dramatic growth in spending and the online commerce population, cross-border e-commerce is booming in the MENA region, with more than 70% YoY growth. The growth is driven by the limited choice currently available in the MENA region. While everyday new e-merchants open their e-store in the region, the majority of the shopping remains cross border distributed among the US (35%); Asia (30%) and Europe (25%), the intra MENA region represents already 10% of e-trade. Indeed, local online offering is growing.

The PayPal Insights: e-commerce in the Middle East report shows that consumers in the Middle East love to shop on Souq.com or Wysada to discover new trends and incredible products.

Key concerns of online shoppers Security is a concern for all online shoppers, whether it comes in the form of payment fraud, non-delivery or counterfeiting. MENA shoppers listed security as their number one concern for shopping online in 40% of cases. As the online commerce environment expands and changes in the Middle East, there is a greater need for a simple and safe payment solution for a multichannel shopping experience. Enabling more secure online transactions for businesses and consumers, regardless of what channel they go through, is central to PayPal’s proposition.

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PayPal enables consumers to make safer online payments by not sharing its users’ financial details with millions of merchants worldwide that accept PayPal. The “PayPal Buyer Protection” program protects online shoppers if they don’t receive an eligible item (physical goods) they have purchased from websites that accept PayPal, or if they receive an eligible item which is significantly different than described on the website. We also protect our merchants from fraudulent transactions to help them sell with more confidence to domestic and global buyers.

PayPal Partnerships that would help sustain and facilitate the Middle East Online Commerce.

Am going to give you an answer for the UAE and MENA, We launched PayPal here back in November last year, and we have been doing a lot of things to expand and improve the services, We opened one new market, which is a big market that is Egypt, now Egyptians can use PayPal to shop online and that’s a major accomplishment. Secondly we partnered with Aramex across the region that is about the ‘shop and ship’ this enables buyers from this region to buy outside (overseas) or within and get their goods delivered to their doorstep, we also partnered with QNB (Qatar National Bank) which is an important one, beyond these three milestone we brought in a lot of merchants, because we believe that the opportunities here is not you and I buying from outside but you and I buying from within, and which will enable the commerce to grow here, so we have already today all the large airlines across the region includes Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates Airlines, we also have domestic and regional

ISSUE 2 | PAGE 8

Fashion and Electronic Players that includes SOUK, MARKAVIP, COBONE, Namshi, SUKAR and we just signed JadoPado recently and others that are building the local eco-system are joining PayPal.How we are going to improve the product, today PayPal here from a consumer’s point of view, enables you to link the card to your VISA, MASTERCARD and AMEX debit or credit cards to your PayPal account and the world is in your hands, as you buy from overseas the transactions, there would be a FX that would be applied because your card is in local currency and the transaction is in USD and this is working nicely and smoothly but this is limited to the carded population (i.e. people who have a credit card), the opportunity here is to go beyond the credit card population to the debit card population and the goal is to the bank accounts, to get us there this is exactly what the QNB partnership is about, today in Qatar and across the region it’s in the oven I would say is being implemented. I-segmentation.

Now on the Merchant side, today merchants are using PayPal more and more this therefore creates a true need for more payment options, the same acquirers who do the offline business have served this market until now. Online is a different business and you don’t apply the same approach as you apply to the offline business, today banks acquires are quite expensive when you want to open your online store, they charge you a deposit between 10,000 – 100,000 USD that’s a fortune, lets say you are an SME you give them that and you close the business that’s it. Then they charge you a one-time setup cost of about 5,000USD and every month the charge you between 50,000 and 100,000USD that’s a lot of money before you even start the business, With PayPal is it cost nothing to setup a merchant account within minutes.

September 10, 2013 marked a break from tradition for Apple – it unveiled not one, but two new iPhones, including the vibrantly colourful iPhone 5c. Once again, UAE is one of the few countries that get the chance to take a first look on one of the most frequently used mobile device in its market. So how does iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S stack up to the competition? Here is how Techvoize sees the new Apple in the market.

PRICE The iPhone 5c was rumored to be a cost effective iPhone compared to its predecessors. And though it is slightly cheaper than the iPhone 5S, the iPhone 5C is expected to still bring sour taste in the mouth and a heavy cut in the budget. Of course, until its official release in the market comes out and let us knows the true value of the mobile phone, it is still not clear how much the phone will be. Cross finger, we hope that the price of iPhone 5C will be cheaper than thought.

The iPhone 5c forms a new approach for Apple.

Whether that is necessarily a good or bad thing is debatable. The iPhone 5 was a fantastic smartphone last year, and is still one of the best around.

And as we see to it, people buying the iPhone 5C expecting to get a next generation smartphone will not be disappointed. One thing we would really look forward to is the different color and new direction that it will bring, plus the point that the front camera has improved much.

Smartphones aren’t all about numbers and specifications; however, as the experience of the phone is what counts the most. The iPhone 5C is undoubtly going to be a slick experience.

I guess the hip new look of the iPhone 5C is what will matter most.

“The finger print scanner is perhaps one of the biggest change in iPhone 5S. It is somehow really cool but raises a lot of eyebrows with it. So whether it is a great new thing or the downfall of the new flagship, then it’s early sales will tell us all about it.”

Zoom. Reinvented.

Nokia Lumia 1020 When Nokia releases the preview of its Lumia 1020 smartphone, the biggest buzz that surrounded the atmosphere is the rumor that it has 41MP camera built with it. True enough when it was formally released in the market it appears to have a very strong camera in terms of megapixels and the rival smartphones seems be alarmed. However, with both Samsung and Sony already having camera-centric phones in the market (namely Galaxy S4 zoom and Xperia Z1, respectively), the competition is just heating up.

So let’s find out what Nokia Lumia 1020 is all about:

Nokia Lumia 1020 Operating system

Windows Phone 8

HERE location services

Free global HERE Maps and HERE Drive+;Free HERE Transit available in the Store

Display

4.5� AMOLED WXGA (1280x768), 2.5 D sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass 3, PureMotion HD+, ClearBlack, high brightness mode, sunlight readability, super sensitive touch, Nokia Glance Screen

Battery

2000 mAh battery, wireless charging supported via cover

Processor

1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4

Main camera

PureView 41 MP with optical image stabilization, Resolution: 7712 x 5360. Includes Nokia Pro Camera.

Xenon flash for still images, LED flash for video

Front facing camera

HD 1.2 MP wide angle

Memory

2 GB RAM, 32 GB internal memory; 7 GB free SkyDrive cloud storage

Camera

Design

The 41MP camera of this smartphone is surely a photographer’s delight. What Nokia’s way of processing images does is reduce the noise to a minimum, thus providing you extremely clear photos, even in low lights. You can operate the phone’s camera in either automatic mode or manual mode (namely the Pro Camera app). The handset boasts of 3x (lossless) digital zoom, ISO settings between 100 to 4000, shutter speed from 1 to 16,000 and optical image stabilization.

Lumia 1020 has several ‘Lenses’ that we have seen in previous Nokia smartphones, such as Panorama, Cinemagraph, Camera 360 and Smart Cam.

Nokia Lumia 1020 is, basically, Lumia 920 with a huge camera hump at the back. The device has the same specifications and operating system as last year’s Nokia flagship, but with the added benefit of a powerful camera. The most powerful camera in any smartphone, in fact. However, this does not bode well for the overall design of the handset. Though it is slimmer and lighter than Lumia 920, it cannot be put flat on a table or any other surface. The design could have been better, but thankfully it is not as bad as Galaxy S4 zoom.

Plus, we found that the huge camera hump does not adversely affect the everyday usage or seem awkward to hold in the hand.

The standard camera app takes 5MP photos, while you need to use the Pro Camera app to take the 38MP photos. Nokia Pro Camera lets you shoot in manual mode, which means you have full control of the camera settings. On the other hand, the standard mode adjusts the settings automatically, giving you the best possible image quality under the available lighting conditions.

The only issue we see so far is that the smartphone heats up when the camera is used for too long. In fact, if mobile internet is kept active while taking photos, the phone heats up in just 15 minutes. We don’t know whether this issue plagued just our review unit or all Lumia 1020s in the market, but it certainly needs to be looked into considering camera is the device’s key selling point.

Performance Windows Phone 8 resides inside the Nokia Lumia 1020, and if you’ve ever used Windows Phone before, it will be incredibly familiar to you. This version of Windows Phone 8 is called Amber, available only to Nokia devices, and it’s the latest version of the Microsoft platform.

It adds a few nifty new features to the software, but it’s not a major overhaul of the platform or anything. Having Windows 8 as an OS, it has its advantages and disadvantages especially when we talk about the support of apps. Most of the big-name apps are on Windows Phone 8, like Facebook, Twitter, CNN, Foursquare and more. However some incredibly popular apps like Instagram and Vine is not working in Windows 8. This lack of app support is what usually turns people off from adopting the Windows Phone platform.

Display The Nokia Lumia 1020 comes with the same PureMotionHD+ AMOLED display as the Lumia 925. There’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top, to keep scratches away and provide extra impact resistance. The company chose to move away from LCD panels for its flagships after the Lumia 920. AMOLED panels have the advantage to be slimmer, with more vibrant colors and far superior contrast due to the naturally deep blacks.

Nokia has even supplied the Lumia 1020 will a cool color profile app that lets you tune the saturation and color balance to your liking. If oversaturated colors aren’t your thing you can go tune them down to more realistic levels and if you like that effect you can go all the way up. As far as image quality is concerned, the Lumia 1020 display performs excellently. It has good brightness levels for an AMOLED screen (it’s on par with the Samsung Galaxy S4) not far behind the Lumia 920. Going from LCD to AMOLED was worth it, especially considering the excellent viewing angles and the deep blacks typical for the technology.

WHERE TECH TALKS

We live in an incredibly digital world. We spend countless hours in front of the screen of a desktop or notebook during work hours, we eyeball our smartphones and tablets on the go and, when we get home, it’s more of the same.

There are plenty of reasons for this increase in usage but most recently it has been accelerated by the penetration of social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. These platforms have virtually transformed computing devices into easy-to-use, highly engaging communication platforms that can be used by the young and old alike.

ISSUE 2 | PAGE 24

Spurred on by their use of social media, people who once looked at a computing device purely as a ‘work’ device, have taken up social/casual gaming, VoIP calls, online shopping and more.

As a result it’s now common to find entire families online, embracing the latest and greatest computing devices whereas in the past, you were only likely to find younger members of the family indulging themselves.

What this means is that today households actually need multiple computing devices, so that every member of the family has his or her own personal device and therefore a connection to the digital world. Each

of these devices is used to both produce and consume content. The problem is with so many devices and so many users, how do you manage all the data?

You see there are several different computing platforms (PC, Mac, Android, iOS, Windows Phone etc.) and each has its own way of handling data and, surprise, surprise, they don’t seamlessly integrate with each other. For small pieces of data such as, say, a couple of photographs, you can just e-mail them or use a service like Dropbox. However, what happens when you’ve got several dozen photographs on your iOS device and you want to share it with another family member who might have an Android device? In this case your options are to hand over the physical device (not ideal if you have content on your device that you don’t want anyone else to see), upload them to a social site where you lose control of your data, download them to a PC and show them off or upload them to the Android device. These are far from ideal or elegant options but thankfully there is a way to get around these challenges.

A network attached storage (NAS) device can be connected to your home’s WiFi access point or router and can then be accessed by any device on the network. In the past these devices were complicated and expensive and so were mainly used by SMBs and enterprises. Today’s NAS enclosures are almost plug and play, are relatively inexpensive and thanks to their features and apps allow you to store and share content across multiple devices and platforms. The idea is to store all of your data on the NAS device and use the apps or other features to access or share your content.

The best part is if you have a broadband Internet connection and your mobile computing devices have a mobile data package or have WiFi access, you can access the content stored on the NAS even when you’re on the move.

Today there are plenty of home and small office (also known as SOHO – small office home office) aimed NAS devices on the market and if you are a power user or just have hefty storage needs, you can choose from one of the growing number of drive-less NAS enclosures. These SOHO aimed devices are generally designed with up to five drive bays, so after purchasing one of these units you’ll need to look at drives like the WD® Red™ family, which are designed and prequalified specifically for use in SOHO NAS systems that offer between 1-to-5 drive bays. Technology like NASware™ and NASware™ 2.0 which is found on the WD® Red drives™, makes the integration process between NAS and drives a plug and play experience – there’s no guessing involved when choosing a drive for drive-less SOHO NAS systems.

With a four or five-bay NAS that is fully populated with drives, you have the ability to choose from one of several RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) options to give you a balance of storage capacity, data protection and performance. RAID 6 is a good choice that balances these three aspects – in fact this particular form of RAID can recover data even if the NAS experiences a failure from two drives.

Owing to the storage capacity, breadth of features, which includes sharing data across multiple platforms and remote accessibility, as well as data security that these NAS systems offer, the adoption of these devices in the home and small office space is expected to grow significantly in the coming months and years. In fact market intelligence firm IDC has forecasted that by 2017 there could be nearly 13 million NAS systems in use, a chunk of which will be 1-to-5 bay SOHO systems.

PAGE 25 | ISSUE 2

Game of the

Month

Amidst the turmoil, three very different criminals plot their own chances of survival and success: Franklin, a street hustler looking for real opportunities and serious money; Michael, a professional ex-con whose retirement is a lot less rosy than he hoped it would be; and Trevor, a violent maniac driven by the chance of a cheap high and the next big score. Running out of options, the crew risks everything in a series of daring and dangerous heists that could set them up for life.

The biggest, most dynamic and most diverse open world ever created, Grand Theft Auto V blends storytelling and gameplay in new ways as players repeatedly jump in and out of the lives of the game’s three lead characters, playing all sides of the game’s interwoven story.

All the classic hallmarks of the groundbreaking series return, including incredible attention to detail and Grand Theft Auto’s darkly humorous take on modern culture, alongside a brand new and ambitious approach to open world multiplayer.

Scenario Our largest open world yet - by far - and spanning vastly diverse cultural and geographical areas, the entire world of Grand Theft Auto V is open from the very beginning of the game to explore. Visitors to the greater metropolis of Los Santos and the countryside of Blaine County will encounter faded celebrities, meth heads, party people, violent gangs, hikers, bikers and every other manner of colorful denizen. You’ll be able to traverse everywhere from the tops of the mountains, through the streets of Los Santos and to the depths of the ocean floor.

PAGE 29 | ISSUE 2

StumbleUpon StumbleUpon is a content discovery tool tailored to your personal interests. The app categorizes anything from interactive computer games to online services, and can help people outside of your immediate reach discover your content.

Once you’ve set up your profile, you will be prompted to select the interests that appeal to you. These interests will dictate what content shows up while you’re stumbling. Later on, StumbleUpon will suggest other interests it thinks you might like.

Category: Entertainment Best for: Getting leads of your interests

Crossfader

One of the best mixing and music apps today. Crossfader is definitely for Dj’s and music enthusiast. This app to teaches some aspiring DJ’s how to properly crossfade mix and use sound effects! This version had a light feeling to it and is much easier to control. Interface has a very crispy look to it and unique in its own way.

Category: Music - Best For: Starting to Learn How to Mix

Snapguide Snapguide is a simple, beautiful way to share and view step-by-step how to guides. Discover new things to cook, build, wear, play and more. Create your own guides and share what you love making with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and more. Discuss your interests with other people who share your passions.

Category: Guides - Best For: Learning New Things

So here you go again for iPhone lovers, our top pick for this month’s best among the rest apps in iTunes. Some of these could be really be useful in our daily techy lives and some will just kill time as we have nothing to do. Enjoy our picks and try it by yourselves. Let us know how you feel.

Also you can tell us your favorite apps in the market and we will grade them for you.

Android devices play a big role in our daily lives as well as for business purposes. There are plenty of great applications that can benefit small and medium businesses. Here are some free applications for you to check for your business.

If y ou want t o access y our c omputer from wherever y ou are, then PocketCloud Remote Desktop is the application for you to have. It works reliably through any Wi-Fi, 3G or The best and free mobile Office application that you can get

4G connection. The free version supports only 1 computer

for your Android device i s Kingsoft Office. It s upports 23

but if you want to a ccess multiple computers, t he paid

different files including DOC, DOCX, XLS, PDF and more.

version is available for just $14.99. Both versions give you

In addition to t hat, i t also support cloud s torage s uch as

RDP/VNC s upport, Auto Discovery, M ultitasking, T ouch

Google Drive, Dropbox and a few others. Suffice to say that

Pointer and many more.

this is the best application for you to get.

If you want to sync projects and to-do lists with your teams, then t he D o Social Productivity application is t he best application for you to do that. You can share tasks, projects Even when it is not used for business, Evernote is a killer

and notes with anyone in your company. It also automati-

note-taking application. The premium version gives you an

cally synchronizes the data between the web app and your

ad-free experience, bigger storage as well as PIN lock for

Android device. The fact that Do is also available through

your notes. Through E vernote, y ou c an create to-do lists,

various other platforms makes it a very interesting app to

save notes, put images, maps, voice notes and many more.

have for any small to medium businesses.

ISSUE 2 | PAGE 34

Get Your Finances Straight with These Apps

BBM Available for Android and iPhone BlackBerry will roll out it’s iconic mobile social network – BBM™ for Android™ and iPhone customers around the world from Today (September 21) , BBM will be available as a free download in Google Play™ and the App StoreSM. Customers will be able to download BBM by visiting www.BBM.com from their smartphone browser.

“BBM is a very engaging messaging service that is simple to use, easy to personalize and has an immediacy that is necessary for mobile communications,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President for BBM at BlackBerry.

“With more than a billion Android, iOS, and BlackBerry smartphones in the market, and no dominant mobile messaging platform, this is absolutely the right time to bring BBM to Android and iPhone customers.”

BBM will be available as a free download for Android smartphones running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean (Android 4.x) beginning at 7AM EDT on September 21. BBM for iPhones running iOS 6 and iOS 7 will become available for each market on the App Store schedule of 12:01 AM local time on September 22.

For more information, or to download BBM for Android or iPhone, visit www.BBM.com.

Later this year, BBM Channels will provide a forum for active, real conversations between you and the people, brands, celebrities, artists, service providers, communities and more, that matter to you. By creating a Channel, individuals and brands can engage their friends and communities in conversations sparked by their thoughts, ideas and passions. Subscribing to a Channel will let you join conversations with people who share your interests. In addition, BBM Video calling and BBM Voice calling are planned for availability for Android and iPhone in a future version.

ISSUE 2 | PAGE 40

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Middle East Sees Significant Rise in Mobile Usage When it comes to e-commerce, 60% of UAE mobile users searched for products and services daily. Of this group, 49% sought travel-related information with 38% having made a purchase or booking. Mobile app usage is now ubiquitous, with 23 apps downloaded on average per month per user.

In the KSA, smart phone penetration is only slightly lower at 73% but consumers here seem to have a stronger appetite for travel with 52% searching for related content.

Amer Al Halabi, Regional Manager of MENA for HotelsCombined, said: “Mobile has clearly created a new business opportunity in hotel booking and it’s an ideal channel through which to sell rooms that otherwise would remain unoccupied. Mobile devices are an essential medium to engage customers on the move.”

HotelsCombined’s range of smartphone and tablet apps has been available to MENA consumers for over two years and remains the only hotel price comparison apps providing a fully-localised Arabic user interface. The apps, which are available in 39 languages, also cater to the expat communities of MENA by providing hotel rates in all major currencies.

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“Users are genuinely surprised to find that the same hotel room is being offered at completely different rates on different sites. As a hotel price comparison service, we take away the aggravation of finding the best deal by comparing all the main travel sites within one app. These price options, supported by in-depth hotel content, provide users with all the information they need to make their booking. We also find great interest for our mobile solutions from business partners, particularly our while label model,” Halabi further added.

As technology advances and as the mobile industry grows, more and more applications are dominating the market of today. The business and market transactions have been abudantly influenced of these technological advancements and sooner than later we all might see new instances that technology will be incorporated to business transactions.

UAE will expect more growth in the upcoming years as all residence, investors and employees, tries to be more competitive and as mobile advancement offers more advantages, people are expected to grow with accustomed to it.

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Photo By: Herbert Iponla

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Display The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen that features a resolution of 540x960 pixels and a pixel density of 256ppi. Samsung has cut corners when it comes to the phone’s display, and it clearly shows. While the low resolution of the display is somewhat offset by its smaller size, we still feel that Samsung should have included at least a 720p display on this imaging-focused phone. Images and videos don’t look as sharp as they do on some phones in the same price range that offer a 720p display.

AMOLED displays are known to offer oversaturated colors and the images taken on the phone at times look different when you transfer them to another device, due to this reason. Samsung has tried to mitigate the issue by offering an Adapt display setting that optimizes the S4 Zoom’s display for different situations.

Camera The Galaxy S4 Zoom is primarily a point and shoot camera.

The device sports a 16-megapixel BSI sensor with a 10x optical zoom, great for taking pictures in low light conditions.

It also has optical image stabilisation for preventing blur caused by shaky hands.

The Zoom’s camera app can be accessed by tapping the camera app icon, holding down the dedicated physical camera button or using the Zoom-ring control. This last function lets you twist the zoom lens left or right and select from up to six shooting modes: Auto, Night, Animated Photo, Macro, Landscape and Beauty Face.

The camera app lets you shoot both stills and videos, and choose from four different shooting modes: Auto, Smart, Expert and My Mode. Auto mode is the most straightforward option and controls all of the camera’s settings for you.

Smart mode lets you select from 25 different preset options such as Drama Shot, Fireworks, Night, Best Photo, Continuous Shot, Best Face, Kid Shot, Landscape, Dawn, Snow, Food and a host of others.

On the S4 Zoom, Manual lets you control all the camera’s settings, including shutter speed and Aperture. Color Wizard gives users the ability to adjust their image’s color by manipulating the EV, color saturation, contrast and sharpness.

The My Mode function lets you quickly choose between five preset shooting modes including Beauty Face, Landscape, Macro, Animated Photo and Night. We tended to stick with the Manual mode, as it gave us the ability to meter the amount of light we wanted to let into the camera’s lens.

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ets. Although these are not enabled by default, users can place select third party widgets, in addition to a choice between access to their favorite apps and camera. Users can also enable lock screen shortcuts that allow them to unlock directly into their respective apps. The phone offers a choice between the familiar Ripple effect and the new Light effect for the unlock animation.

Performance The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Exynos processor. It has 1.5GB RAM, and a Mali 400 chip for processing graphics. Our review unit had 8GB of built-in storage (expandable 64GB) out of which 5.4GB was available for our use.

Software The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the OS and TouchWiz Nature UX, Samsung’s own UI that includes custom apps in addition to a skinned interface.

Some people prefer stock Android to any kind of skinning, and Samsung’s TouchWiz UI has been panned for employing big, glossy and cartoon-like icons and menus. The intent might be to make the UI more userfriendly, but it ends up looking anything but pleasant.

With Android 4.2, the S Zoom gets lock screen widg-

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With Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the overall experience of navigation through the S4 Zoom’s interface was decent. However, we did experience occasional lag. For instance, launching the camera app and getting back to the home screen was a bit jerky. Similarly, if you’re using some graphics heavy widgets, you’ll find that they’ll reload once you exit an app. At times, we also noticed minor lag in the form of dropped frames while playing some graphics heavy games like Asphalt 7, when we were running a few apps in the background.

However, most casual games including Temple Run 2 and Subw ay Surfers run fine.

Battery The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom comes with a 2330mAh battery, and in our usage, it lasted us a full workday.

We charged the phone in the morning (at around 9am), and with medium to heavy usage, including 1-1.5 hours of phone calls, two email accounts with push notifications, playing some music, taking some photographs, Twitter notifications and WhatsApp chats, the phone lasted a good 9-10 hours.

Photos taken with Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Photographer: Herbert Iponla

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WHERE TECH TALKS

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FEATURE ARTICLES

Written By: Osahon J. Osabuohien, OCP Application Developer / IT Consultant follow @fintis in twitter for more relevant articles

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#BIGDATA: What Really is it?

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What technology drives big data?

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Well, that’s about it. Take care of these 8 rules and you won’t be facing any hassles on the internet.

And that’s a promise!

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Top 10 Smartphones

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