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What’s App Suspends its Services for Older Nokia Phones with the Start of the New Year

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whatsapp-nokia
Image Source: nokiamob.net

What’s App is one of the most used messenger apps across the world. It has been enhancing the user experience by making regular updates to it. But those updates and upgrades have to get some better system support to run on. Most of the older phone did not run the app due to the software and hardware compatibility issues. What’s App also announced a few years ago, that it will stop investing in the app for those older phones, and has been pulling out its support for many old phones regularly.

In contrast to that, it has now, halted its services for the Nokia phones based on the S40 platform, starting from January 1, 2019. The company had announced in the late December 2018, that it is going to cease its services for the S40 OS Nokia devices as they are no longer capable of handling the new updates to the app.

The cease has affected almost every S40 phones, especially the Asha series phones including the Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 500, Nokia Asha 501, Nokia Asha 502, Nokia Asha 205, Nokia Asha 210, Nokia Asha 230, Nokia 208, Nokia 301, Nokia Asha 503, Nokia 515 and Nokia 206, etc. The other Nokia phones include Nokia 206, Nokia 208, Nokia 301, Nokia 515, Nokia C3-00, Nokia C3-01, Nokia X2-00, Nokia X2-01, Nokia X3-02 and Nokia X3-02.5.

The company had already removed its app support from various other smartphones last year including the BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 8.0 and its older versions. But still, the app has got its support for a few old OSes, except it has not provided all the new services to its users.

WhatsApp, in a post, stated, “This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp. Those who own a phone powered by this very platform has no choice but to upgrade their device if they wish to continue using WhatsApp.”

What’s App is one of the most popular instant message service providers and with its support for the older phones, it had helped those who were not among the smartphone lovers and used the phones only to make calls and send messages. Now as What’s App has stopped its services for many of the Symbian phones and S40 platform phones, it is going to affect many of its users too.

Review 2018 : Coolest Technologies & Gadgets of the Year

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tech review 2018

The year 2018 is considered to be the year of transitions. With the new launches and new tech trends that were introduced in this year, the tech people were forced to think if the year brought the technical revolution 4.0? The year was great for the online businesses and for many startups as well. The most promising technologies (monthly) that became really popular in 2018, includes the following:

January: The year had been incredible for Amazon, and it all started with the launch of Amazon’s first cashier less Amazon Go store in Seattle in January. The store definitely represented the upcoming future.

February: Following the lead of Google and Amazon, Apple also launched its digital home assistant, the Apple Home Pod, a premium speaker and a smart hub. It is a $349 gadget, which is compact, solid and stylish. It is an endlessly entertaining system, powered by Apple assistant Siri.

March: Samsung launched its latest Galaxy smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S9, that was predicted to be almost similar to the S8 smartphone, but by the end of the year it came out to be one of the best smartphones of 2018. The look, design, software and the hardware, the smartphone has won in all the aspects.

April: Microsoft released its first Linux product having its own Linux kernel: Azure Sphere. Although the company was never in favour of using Linux in its system, finally, it had to adopt the technology.

May: The Huawei Matebook X Pro became the best laptop of the year only within the week it launched. With the terrific battery life and performance, it won the hearts of all. The laptop has a sleek design and has a gorgeous bright display. It costs $1,499 for the 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD model.

June: Proof Wristband is an alcohol tracking wearable, that helps you to track your alcohol intake, and help you limit it to a certain amount so that you can enjoy your time with your friends, without getting any harm to your health. The device is the first of its kind, based on an advanced BAC tracking ability using the Cartridge System.

July: Powered by Google Assistant, Lenovo Smart Display is a $249 smart speaker having a sharp 10-inch display and a 5-MP camera, that enables you to make video calls. The speaker has been designed for doing almost all the things that a Google Home or Google Home Mini can do.

August: The 88-inch OLED TV, LG 8K TV, was launched at the IFA technology show in Berlin. The product became the most talked about device of the event. Having a resolution of 7640×4320, it is the first ever biggest TV till now.

September: In this month, Apple launched not one but three new iPhones including the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. By far iPhone XS Max had become the most popular among them all, due to the lovely big screen, strong battery life and camera improvements. Though the smartphone is more expensive, it is still a great phone.

October: In October 2018, Microsoft launched its hybrid tablet the Surface Pro 6, having a sturdier keyboard and improved battery life. Its new type cover and the surface pen are massive improvements for it. The lightweight design of the tablet is not only attractive but also more easy to carry along. Another major launch of October 2018 is Google’s smartphone Google Pixel 3. The smartphone has incredible camera resolution, supporting the wider selfie photos. It renders excellent performance and beats its contemporaries in design as well.

November: The best smartphone from One Plus, the OnePlus 6T, comes with a larger display, bigger battery and new fingerprint technology. OnePlus 6T starts at $529 for the 6GB RAM/128GB model and runs on Android v9.0 (Pie) operating system.

December: Although there were a few major launches and announcements in the tech industries, the main headline of December 2018 was the launch of the first national security space mission rocket by SpaceX. The rocket lifted the first GPS III satellite from the US Air Force. Also, Amazon ended the year on the same note where it had started it. The company again launched another tiny version of its Amazon Go stores in Seattle (the eighth Amazon Go store) in December 2018. It clearly shows that Amazon has been successful in its experiment with the cashier-less stores.

Meghan Markle to Tristan Thompson; List of Top 5 Google Searches 2018

Google, News, Tech News / By

google search

Yet again at the end of the year, Google has released its summary of what people searched the most in 2018, or we can say the list of the Most Searched 2018. Google started with a video on its most-searched list, which included the phrase, “In 2018 people searched for Good.” The video includes the searches like, “Good things in the world,” “Good news,” “How to be a good citizen/singer/dancer/listener,” etc.

But the year was not only about searching good things but also included sports, entertainment, history, self-care, etc. The top five searches of 2018 had the FIFA world cup on the top, followed by Avicii, Mac Miller, Stan Lee, and Black Panther, on the rest of the four positions respectively. Sadly the people on the second to the fourth position was searched due to their sudden death. People searched about who Avicii, Mac Miller, and Stan Lee, were, and what was the cause of their deaths.

Among news as well, the world cup topped the list, and at the second position, the Hurricane Florence of September 2018, 2006 and 1994 were the most searched. On the third place in the most searched news were the Mega Million lotteries and its results, which got the most searched in the month of October this year. The Royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took the fourth place in the list followed by the election results on the fifth position.

The most searched people on Google in 2018 included Meghan Markle on the top for the obvious reasons, American singer Demi Lovato at the second position, Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone on third, the American actor and Internet personality Logan Paul on fourth position, followed by one of the Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, on the fifth position.

Sylvester Stallone and Logan Paul again grabbed a position in the list of the most searched actors of 2018, and this time at the top and the second positions. Pete Davidson held the third position, Bill Cosby from the famous sitcom The Cosby Show and new Netflix sensation Noah Centineo held the fourth and the fifth positions, respectively. Surprisingly no female actor reached the top five most searched actors in 2018.

People also asked many beauty questions, and questions like “How to play Mega Millions,” “How to buy Bitcoin,” also about the “Keto pancakes,” “How to vote,” etc. The Google’s list of five most searched of 2018 in all the categories is as follow:

Searches:
World Cup
Avicii
Mac Miller
Stan Lee
Black Panther

News:
World Cup
Hurricane Florence
Mega Millions Result
Royal Wedding
Election Results

People:
Meghan Markle
Demi Lovato
Sylvester Stallone
Logan Paul
Khloé Kardashian

Athletes:
Tristan Thompson
Alexis Sánchez
Lindsey Vonn
Shaun White
Khabib Nurmagomedov

Musicians and Bands:
Demi Lovato
Cardi B
Daniel Küblböck
Travis Scott
Rick Ross

Actors:
Sylvester Stallone
Logan Paul
Pete Davidson
Bill Cosby
Noah Centineo

Loss:
Avicii
Mac Miller
Stan Lee
Anthony Bourdain
XXXTentacion

Movies:
Black Panther
Deadpool
Venom
Avengers: Infinity War
Bohemian Rhapsody

TV Shows:
Story of Yanxi Palace
Altered Carbon
Buppesannivas
Motu Patlu
Roseanne

Amazon Marks Record-breaking Holiday Season Sale; Ships Over 1 Billion Items in the U.S.

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amazon
Image Source: yahoo.com

Christmas just went by and the year is about to end. After the huge festive sales and the big black Friday sale, people were excited about the Christmas shopping. According to Amazon, on Christmas too, people enjoyed lots of discounts, and with the Amazon’s Prime membership, they shipped their gifts for free. This time again, Amazon has recorded huge sales on almost everything.

Reportedly, in the last week, Amazon has shipped more than a billion items only in the US for free, that has even broken its own old records of sales. Both the Prime as well as the Trial members ordered more items than ever in this holiday season.

Though Amazon’s last earnings had disappointed its investors, the holiday season sale may help it regain the profits. The company has not disclosed the revenue it made in the sales, but still, has confirmed that it had the biggest sale ever. The company had a record-breaking business, and it registered tens of millions of people for its Trial as well as Prime memberships.

The company not only marked the sales of clothes, household items but had the most expensive branded things as its best sellers of the sellout, including the Echo, Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick 4K. It also sold the smart home devices such as Amazon Smart Plug, Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the iRobot Roomba 690.

Amazon’s CEO of its worldwide consumer business, Jeff Wilke, said that “We are thrilled that in the U.S. alone, more than one billion items shipped for free this holiday with Prime. This season was our best yet, and we look forward to continuing to bring our customers what they want, in ways most convenient for them in 2019″.

This time, Alexa became the favourite of many, and most of the people shopped using the Alexa app in the U.S. The shopping through the app got tripled this time as compared to the past year. The sale not only earned profits for the tech giant, but also the smaller businesses trading on Amazon, marked up to 50 per cent of profits.

Germany Receives the Stable Android Pie Update for Samsung Galaxy 9 & 9 Plus

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Christmas has just ended well and with that Samsung has announced that the company is rolling out the Android Pie updates for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ users from some countries of Europe. SamMobile reported that the company has started to release the updates in Germany, and later, Samsung announced that the users from countries like Netherlands and Slovakia are also going to get the new Android Pie updates.

Samsung-Galaxy
Image Source: thenerdmag.com

The release has occurred way ahead of its decided date, that was in the late January in 2019, alongside the release of the same update for the Galaxy Note 9. The Android update is a stable update and not the beta one. Right now it is only available in a few countries in Europe.

Earlier this month, Samsung had released the beta version of Android Pie for its Galaxy S9 and S9+ users in UK, France, Poland, and Germany. The users who are having Samsung Experience UX based on Android Oreo, as well as those with the One UI beta on top of Android Pie, are receiving the update, along with the Samsung’s One UI version 1.0. One UI is basically created for the users so that they can easily use the apps on their big screen phones.

The update will change the software version for Galaxy S9+ to G965FXXU2CRLI, and the software for Galaxy S9 will be G960FXXU2CRLI. The size of the update software is around 1.7GB, which is available for download on the Samsung’s download servers. The users can check the availability of updates on the S9/Plus phones from the Software Update option in the settings of their phone.

The early release of the update indicates that Samsung is getting ready for some tough competition in the upcoming year. Although the update had to roll out for every S9 and S9+ users, all around the world, only a few will enjoy it before it gets officially released in January 2019. Till then, we can evaluate the difference between the earlier and the latest Android version on the basis of the feedback from the European Galaxy S9 and S9+ users.

SpaceX Successfully Launched the 1st Security Space Mission For the US Military

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SpaceX, breaking its own previous records, launched the first national security space mission rocket on Sunday. The company had won the US Air Force’s National Security Space (NSS) contract, in 2016, and was planning to launch the rocket earlier last week. But, due to some bad weather conditions, the launch got delayed and finally, SpaceX’s 21st flight took off on Sunday.

The two-stage rocket, Falcon 9, lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, along with the first GPS III satellite from the US Air Force. Lockheed Martin has built this $500 million GPS III satellite. The GPS has been given the nickname Vespucci. The GPS is owned by the U.S. military and operated by the Air Force.

gps3
Image Source: spacenews.com

The secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson, said, “This next-generation GPS satellite is three times more accurate than previous versions and eight times better at anti-jamming. It’s the first in a series and nicknamed Vespucci after the 15th-century Italian explorer who calculated Earth’s circumference to within 50 miles (80 kilometres).”

The successful launch of the satellite can be considered as one of the victorious moment for Elon Musk as he had been trying hard to enter the market for military space launches dominated by Lockheed and Boeing Co, from years now.

In 2014, SpaceX had sued the US Air Force as it awarded the non-compete contract for 36 rocket launches, worth a multibillion-dollar, to United Launch Alliance. As a result, the Air Force agreed to open up competition for the next contract and in the next year, SpaceX won the $83 million contract for the GPS III after it demonstrated the reliability of Falcon 9 system and fulfilled all the certification requirements from the Air Force. The company dropped the lawsuit in 2015.

The GPS III contract will have a lifespan of 15 years. According to Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder, the satellite is the first to launch out of 32 in production by Lockheed under contracts.

The Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of the Launch Enterprise Systems Directorate at SMC, said, “This launch is a milestone for many reasons. For us, it marks the first competitively-awarded launch in over 10 years, the first national security space launch with SpaceX, and the first launch of a GPS III satellite. This really is an exciting time to be in the launch business.”

The other satellites in the series are still in the testing phase, and the next GPS III satellite may have its launch in the mid-2019.