Author: Alvin Wanjala

Video formats play an important role when it comes to streaming. And more so when our internet connections are not so stable. A new video format called Versatile Video Coding (VVC), promises to make it easy to stream videos in high quality without needing much internet data compared to current standards. Announced by the Germany’s Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, the new video format is touted to video transmission in mobile networks (where data capacity is limited) more efficient. But how much data savings are we talking about here? Half! In comparison, to the current H.265/HEVC codec, which requires 10 gigabytes…

Customary to the South Korean tech giant, Samsung, it has two parallel flagship series of phones: the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note. The Galaxy S series usually sets the pace in February, with top-of-the-line hardware of the time, then followed by the Note series in August. Unlike the S series, the Note series has been known to cater for the power users with killer specs and the S pen. This year’s Galaxy Unpacked event will be held virtually on August 5 at 5 pm (local East African Time) where successors to last year’s Note 10 will be unveiled. The event…

Amazon Prime video rolls out user profiles, allowing customers to create up to six profiles

Instagram is rolling out Pinned comments to everyone worldwide. The company started testing the feature in May along with other features aimed at fighting bullying on the platform. Meant to amplify and encourage positive interactions on the platform, pinned comments give users a way to “set the tone for their account and engage with their community by pinning a select number of comments to the top of their comments thread.” A user can pin up to three top comments which will be seen at the top of the comment section by everyone. To Pin a Comment on Instagram, tap and…

Google’s Microsoft Office rival apps are finally going dark on Android. In a blog post, the company announced that it rolling out a dark theme to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides on Android. The reasons for the rollout are the usual: to reduce eye strain on low-light environments like during the night and also save on battery life – but the extent depends on a number of other factors. Plus, it’s also meant to ensure uniformity after Dark mode introduction in Android 10 last year. Dark theme on these apps will automatically adjust according to the device theme. That means…

Google Plus, which was shut down to consumers in 2019 over a security lapse and in part over “low usage and engagement” is now dead officially. Since the shutdown, Google+ has continued to provide enterprises with a “secure corporate social network,” to help co-workers keep in touch. However, Google Plus’s existence ends officially today for enterprises. As a replacement, Google has released another product called Google Currents. Google Currents is officially available now via G-Suite, Google’s enterprise app suite. Former Google Plus mobile apps on Android and iOS have been rebranded to Google Currents, hence retaining the download numbers and…

Facebook is now in India with its TikTok competitor Reels. It’s quite a timing after India took a hard stance to ban TikTok along with other 58 Chinese apps citing privacy concerns. After its debut in November last year, Facebook has recently availed Reels to France and Germany. “We’re planning to start testing an updated version of Reels in more countries,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. However, the spokesperson also added that they have “No further plans to share on launch date or countries for now.” Reels works just like TikTok: letting people create 15-seconds long videos. The…

As you already know Android 11 is currently in public beta. To run in tow with Google’s Android 11 roadmap, other smartphone companies who prefer to develop skins on top of it are also geared up to prepare a skin based on that. Android 11 is expected to be launched in Q3 and Huawei is also prepping to introduce EMUI 11. EMUI 11 will be based on Android 11. So expect tones of features that have already been announced in Android 11. That includes more the newly introduced privacy-focused features. But as usual, Huawei will also add what more to…

Google wants to give creators an easy time when responding to comments on their video. The company has started rolling out a new smart replies feature that will give suggestions of what to reply without having to type anything. Smart replies is an AI-powered which works like the smart replies feature in the Gmail and Messages app from the company. But it’s even better than that. Majorly because it supports multiple languages – now it only supports two: English and Spanish. Google could add support for more languages in the future. “This model learns comment and reply representation through a…

Phew!! The coronavirus pandemic doesn’t seem to stop. We’ve seen numbers spike locally setting a new record high of 300 cases in a day. Certainly indicating what many may not want to hear as of now: continuation of the lockdown. Elsewhere, the rhythms seem to be the same. Case in study, the US. In reality that means not everyone is following the health directives. In its power, Facebook is doing what can be done in their ability as of now – to remind you of how to take care of yourself. In regards to this, Facebook wants to remind us…