In an age that's mostly predominant with the likes of WhatsApp and Viber, as far as free texting services and apps are concerned, it's pretty easy to forget early pioneers of the idea like BlackBerry's BBM service. However, BBM is still aiming to go strong with yet another addition to its BBM service. Shortly after releasing a brand new Voice Chat option for BlackBerry's Messenger on both Android and iOS platforms, the Canadian manufacturer has announced that it will also introduce stickers as a yet another new feature for BBM users.

The new option comes following the earlier introduction of the same on services such as Facebook Messenger, Line, Kakako Talk and many other messaging apps. So it's only natural that BlackBerry will also try to gather the same kind of popularity with the user base it still has for the BBM service. And while the option of finally being able to make use of stickers in the BBM messenger service sounds pretty exciting (especially to the hard core BBM users), it will indeed come for a price. Hence, those who wish to make use of these newly added stickers will have to purchase them via the BBM Shop.

Apart from that, BlackBerry has also announced that it has now kicked off a limited external beta for stickers at the BBM Shop, although it still remains unclear whether everyone can access it or the user will have to be accepted into the beta. For all the Android and iOS users, who didn't have access to BBM-based stickers as of now since it was only limited to users running devices with BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry Stickers is a separate application for BB 10 OS devices that allows BBM users to spice up their chats with friends by adding stickers.

And as things stand, BlackBerry will surely do the same for Android and iOS users and will be aiming to release separate applications for stickers. However, a confirmation related to the same is yet to be passed on by the Canadian company. 
As of now, there are 35 different stickers that are available for BlackBerry 10. Out of these 35, 20 are animated and will have to be purchased, whereas the rest 15 are static and are currently available for free.

Browse The Web For Free With Opera’s Web Pass

Everyone hates ads! Pre Internet era, ads used to nag us between TV and Radio programmes. However, Opera has a plan that can make you hate ads less. How? Well, the Norweigian company introduced this ingenious idea where a mobile user gets to surf the Internet for free (via Opera Mini of course) in exchange for watching ads. The ads basically pay for your web-browsing fees to your operator.

This is very similar to the free web browsing plans that cell phone operators in India use giving free access to Twitter and Facebook pages via customised versions of browsers or the portal. An ad is played either at intervals or will be played at the beginning of the pass access period giving users plenty of browsing time in between. Once the free-browsing period ends, the user is lead to a soft landing page, which will either ask the user to pay for browsing or simply engage with another free-browsing session powered by ads.

Opera’s Sponsored Web Pass is currently not available in India, but it would be great to see a platform that benefits the advertiser as well as the user.

BlackBerry has just announced that starting today, all EA titles in BlackBerry World are free to download. This of course varies by your region and device, but you should be able to snag at least a few items at no charge. You have between now and February 28th to get in on the fun. 

The discount should be reflected very soon for most users, and then you can grab up all the EA goodies you can handle at no charge. Including Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, Tetris, Boggle, Battleship, Monopoly, Dead Space, Need for Speed Undercover and more.

Hit up the link below to check them out, and if you are seeing the free goods, be sure to let us know what region you're in.

Check out the free EA Titles in BlackBerry World

Facebook buys WhatsApp instant messaging: $19 billion

Facebook Inc's purchase of fast-growing messaging startup WhatsApp for an eye-popping $19 billion largely won approval from analysts, who said the deal made strategic sense as it will solidify the social network's position as a leader in mobile.

Facebook shares closed up 2.3 percent at $69.63 after falling as much as 3 percent in early trading as investors got over the initial sticker shock of the deal value.

At least two brokerages downgraded their recommendations on Facebook to "hold" but the overwhelming majority of analysts remain positive on the stock.

Facebook is paying more than double its annual revenue for a chat program that has little revenue. The purchase price is slightly more than the market value of Sony Corp.

But analysts noted that WhatsApp has over 450 million users and boasts a higher level of engagement than Facebook.

"Facebook is the leading global social-sharing utility. Now, it has a significant opportunity to be the leading global communications utility," RBC Capital Markets said in a note.

WhatsApp is much stronger than Facebook Messenger in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Australia and has attracted users at a time when it appears that young people are turning away from Facebook.

Analysts said the price tag for WhatsApp, founded in 2009 by former Yahoo Inc employees Jan Koum and Brian Acton, seemed reasonable from the point of view of value per user.

Facebook is paying $42 per user, compared with a market value per user of $170 for Facebook and $212 for Twitter, Deutsche Bank's Ross Sandler said.

WhatsApp's user base is less than half that of Facebook's 1.2 billion but the chat program's users are more active. On any given day, 70 percent of WhatsApp users are active, compared with 62 percent for Facebook. WhatsApp's users are expected to reach 1 billion by 2015, according to many analysts.

"Looking past the sticker shock of $19 billion ... We view (the deal) as an offensive move to gain additional share of the consumer's time spent," Credit Suisse analysts said, noting that Facebook was paying about 11 percent of its market value to gain a 30 percent rise in engagement.

 MONEY FACTOR

Of the 44 analysts who cover Facebook, 37 have a "buy" or a "strong buy" rating on the stock

Analysts have commended Facebook's ability to make money from its mobile app. Now they will want to see how it will earn money from the chat app's huge number of users.

While we don't expect messaging to be a meaningful near-term or even long-term revenue driver, the real value could be the evolution of the platform to incorporate new functionality such as payments, app distribution, social features ...," Macquarie Equities Research analyst Ben Schachter said.

Facebook has fallen behind in mobile phone messaging apps in emerging markets, where many are accessing the Internet on fast-growing 3G mobile networks for the first time on smartphones.

Asian rivals such as Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat, Naver Corp's Line and Rakuten Inc's Viber are well ahead of Facebook messenger across much of Asia.

Facebook has been buying apps with large numbers of young users as part of Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's strategy of helping users share any kind of content with anyone.

The company's $1 billion deal to buy photo-sharing application Instagram in 2012 and its recent $3 billion failed overture to buy SnapChat - used by teenagers to send texts and photos that disappear after a few seconds - followed unsuccessful attempts to develop rival apps.

"Large-scale networks like WhatsApp are rare and provide (a) significant monetization opportunity (i.e. YouTube) justifying valuation over time," SunTrust Robinson Humphrey's Robert Peck said in a note.

Analysts estimate WhatsApp users share 19 billion messages, 600 million photos, 200 million voice messages, and 100 million video messages per day.

Still, some analysts said Facebook was paying a high price to keep WhatsApp from being snapped up by a rival such as Google Inc.

Facebook shares would have been pressured by more than single-digit percentages in after-market trading if Google had purchased WhatsApp instead," Stifel analyst Jordan Rohan said in a note.

Pivotal Research's Brian Wieser, who downgraded his rating on Facebook shares to "hold" from "buy," said he expects Facebook shares to face pressure in the near-term as investors come to terms with the risk of future acquisitions.

What does this mean to BlackBerry

Facebook Inc's $19 billion bid for fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp sent shares of BlackBerry Ltd higher before the opening bell on Thursday as investors placed bets that the smartphone maker's own messaging platform has been undervalued.

BlackBerry shares were up as much as 9 percent in trading after the bell on Wednesday as the deal boosts valuation metrics around the company's own BlackBerry Messaging service.

BlackBerry Messaging, or BBM, was a pioneering mobile-messaging service, but its user base has failed to keep pace with that of WhatsApp and other upstarts, in part because BlackBerry had long refused to open the service to users on other platforms.

WhatsApp, with a user base of about 450 million, has grown rapidly. Its service works on Apple Inc's iOS platform, Google Inc's market-dominating Android operating system and with devices powered by both the Windows and BlackBerry operating systems.

BBM remains popular, even though BlackBerry devices have waned in popularity. Late last year, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company finally opened the messaging platform to users of iPhones and Android devices, and the number of the service's active users has grown to more than 80 million.

However, investors have attributed little value to the asset within the company. In a note to clients on Tuesday, Raymond James analyst Steven Li broke out a sum-of-parts valuation of BlackBerry and pegged the value of BBM at merely $240 million, or $3 per user.

Facebook's valuation of WhatsApp translates into roughly $42 per user, and that could lead investors and analysts to rethink their valuation of the asset within BlackBerry.

BlackBerry has given no indication of interest in selling the asset. While there has been some speculation that the company might try to carve out the unit, or even sell it, new Chief Executive John Chen has so far hinted that BBM remains a core asset.

Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um said the Facebook-WhatsApp deal presents potential upside to his own valuation of BBM.

"However, unless management plans to sell the unit, it is, in our opinion, difficult to add the incremental value given the unit is likely loss-making and will require investments," Um said in a note to clients on Thursday.

Facebook's acquisition prompted TD Securities analyst Scott Penner to boost his own valuation on BBM to $800 million, or $10 per user, from $400 million, or $5 per user.

"Engagement metrics of BBM stack up well with WhatsApp," Penner said in a note to clients. "And this deal does highlight the value of messaging platforms."

Sam Mobile are ‘confirming’ the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S5, quoting Samsung ‘insiders’ as always. The Galaxy S5, which will be announced (unless we have all completely misinterpreted Samsung’s rather obvious hints) next week at Mobile World Congress during their Unpacked 5 event, and will reportedly house the fingerprint scanner in the Home buttonand display your fingerprint on screen for some sexy security visuals. 

This is interesting for two reasons: it means it won’t be an on-screen or rear-mounted scanner and it also means the Galaxy S5 will have the good old physical Home button, a feature many of us were hoping to have seen the last of. According to Sam Mobile’s sources, the same physical button configuration we already know from the Galaxy S4 and S3 will reappear on the next flagship. The Home button scanner apparently works similarly to the HTC One Max – with a swipe gesture rather than a brief press like the iPhone 5s’s TouchID scanner.

Galaxy S5 owners will reportedly be able to register up to eight individual fingerprints on one device and attach to each of them a default task or app shortcut. It is uncertain whether this means you could let other people use your phone but only to access a particular app or action without completely unlocking the device. A sandboxed guest mode like this would be great for girlfriends or little brothers who simply must play with your phone. You could set it up so your little bro could unlock your S5 and play Angry Birds, but nothing else. But this is just me speculating.

However, Sam Mobile’s insiders have told them that Samsung has developed a Personal Folder and Private Mode which is controlled with fingerprints (but can also be unlocked using more traditional methods like a PIN or password). Apparently it will allow you to fingerprint lock your private apps, widgets and other sensitive content. Furthermore, you will be able to sign into certain websites using just your fingerprint and access your Samsung account the same way.

For some peculiar reason, Sam Mobile declined to share any images of the process in action, claiming they want to keep something for Samsung to surprise us with next week. As always, don't believe everything you read, but if this confirmation is indeed true, then Samsung are putting fingerprint control front and center like nobody else has before, and if the whole process is as seamless and responsive as we would hope, then we may be looking at a whole new way of interacting with our phones – putting more digits to work than just our thumbs. I guess now we get to speculate on an iris scanner in the Galaxy Note 4...

You can try out paid Android apps for free

Ever want to just try out a paid Android app first before you shell out the money for it? There’s been a few that I’ve been on the fence about spending the money, seeing as I’m unsure of whether I’ll use the app of whether it does exactly what I need it to do. Well, with a few tricks you can within a 48-hour time period. 

There are actually two methods that you can use to “try out” paid apps without having to commit the charges to your credit card. The first method can be used to try out an app and then receive a refund within 15 minutes of “purchasing” the app. The second method can extend that time to about 48 hours.

Please note: these only work for apps purchased officially through the Google Play Store.

15 minutes of fame

• 1- Purchase an Android app through Google Play
• 2- Play/Use the app for less than 15 minutes..
• 3- Head back to Google Play.
• 4- Press the Menu button and choose My Apps.
• 5- Scroll down and select the app in question.
• 6- Select Uninstall and Refund. If you haven’t even installed the app yet, you’ll only get the Refund option.

There you go! There app will now uninstall from your device and a refund will be issued for the original amount of app. However, if you’ve accidentally gone past 15 minutes, you’ll have to try out the second method. 

48 hours

It is important to note that for this method to work, the app in question must fall under the umbrella of Section 3.4 of the Android Developer Distribution agreement:

3.4 Special Refund Requirements. The Payment Processor’s standard terms and conditions regarding refunds will apply except the following terms apply to your distribution of Products on the Market.

Products that can be previewed by the buyer (such as ringtones and wallpapers): No refund is required or allowed.

Products that cannot be previewed by the buyer (such as applications): You authorize Google to give the buyer a full refund of the Product price if the buyer requests the refund within 48 hours after purchase.

 The gist of it: You can get a refund up to 48 hours after you’ve purchased an app as long it’s not something you can preview, such as a wallpaper or a ringtone.

• 1- Go to your account for Google Play from your PC/Mac. (https://play.google.com/store/account)
• 2- Log onto your Google Account
• 3- Under the Options for the individual item you want refunded, click Report a problem
• 4- From the options presented, select I’d like to request a refund
• 5- Fill out the reason that you’d like to request a refund and click Send Report
All done! Google does however note that they will be “only able to make exceptions to our refund policy in cases where there are extenuating circumstances.” And as such, we cannot guarantee that the method will work all the time. However, in all our tests, we’ve received a refund for purchased content.
Have you tried out this method? 

Microsoft To Support XP Anti-Malware

I guess we can say that Microsoft does monitor the pulse of its community of users. While the pressure to continue support for Windows XP has not really yielded any practical results, it seems that the noise surrounding the “death” of Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP has prompted Microsoft think twice. Not long after the official announcement, Microsoft backtracked, saying the XP anti-malware support is going to continue in spite of the end-of-life date having been determined for the popular operating system.

This is certainly reason for Windows XP users to rejoice, but we cannot deny that the end-of-life date for XP is not going to disappear into thin air. That stands, and the XP anti-malware support is also on its deathbed.

For now, XP users have to be satisfied with the fact that Microsoft will continue to release signatures that will protect computers running on XP from malware. Until July 2015, that is.

These signatures covers Microsoft Security Essentials, among other things.

Again, this is but a respite for Windows XP users. Support for the widespread operating system will still end on April 8 of this year. Additionally, existing Windows XP users will NOT be able to download Microsoft Security Essentials after the said date. As such, if you do not have any plans of ditching Windows XP any time soon, you ought to make sure you have Microsoft Security Essentials downloaded before April 8. After that, you will continue to receive the updated signatures, keeping you at least safe from malware, which we know seem to favor Windows.

Another piece of positive, related news: third party anti-malware software will continue to be supported, and they will have updates on XP for the next year. Just how long that will last, we don’t really know.

So, dear Microsoft XP loyalists, your week is off to a (somehow) good start!

New Wireless Networking Breakthrough

Technologist and serial entrepreneur Steve Perlman on Wednesday announced his new company, Artemis, and demoed its pCell technology.

pCell technology "consistently delivers full-speed mobile data to every mobile device concurrently, regardless of how many users are sharing the same spectrum at once," he claimed.

The theory is legitimate, but "you certainly do not have the whole network's capacity available to an unlimited number of users," Philip Solis, a research director at ABI Research, told The media.

"The more users the network would try to communicate with simultaneously, the more complicated the signals would become," Solis continued.

How pCell Technology Works

Instead of trying to suppress interference, the pCell exploits it -- combining radio signals transmitted from multiple pCell base stations to, in effect, create a personalized wireless network around each mobile device. Think of it as a globe that accompanies the device. This gives each user the full capacity of the pCell.

The pCell's underlying technology is what Perlman's company,Rearden, calls Distributed Input-Output Technology, or DIDO.

DIDO's capacity has been demonstrated to reach 10x the limit prescribed by Shannon-Hartley calculations -- and it might be able to hit 1,000x that capacity, claimed Reardon. That's because, instead of users and access points all sharing the same channel, each user and access point (AP) gets, in effect, a personalized channel.

When a user clicks on a streaming video website in a DIDO setup, the data is sent to the DIDO data center, which processes the video data into a radio signal waveform and sends it to the DIDO AP. The characteristics of the waveform are determined by algorithms on the back-end servers. That lets each PC making a request pick out its own video stream. The response uses the full bandwidth of the channel.

Uploaded data also gets the full channel bandwidth.

DIDO is cloud-based. The technology has been successfully tested at frequencies from 1 MHz to 1 GHz.

DIDO APs indoors have a transmission range of more than one mile. In outdoor configurations, DIDO APs have used Near-Vertical Incidence Skywave to provide coverage of an area 500 miles in diameter.

The pCell technology works in all mobile bands, as well as in unlicensed spectrum -- such as 900 MHz in the Americas -- sharing spectrum with other unlicensed devices.

Benefits of pCell

pCell is compatible with standard, unmodified out-of-the box LTE devices such as iPhone 5s and 5c, Samsung Galaxy S4, LTE dongles and MiFi devices, Perlman said. Standard LTE devices can run at full LTE speed throughout pCell coverage areas, and they can hand off to conventional cellular where there's no pCell coverage.

Wireless carriers and independent ISPs can deploy pCell far faster and at lower cost than conventional cellular, using base stations called "pWave radios" instead of building cell towers. Those stations can be placed anywhere convenient.

pCell currently is in trials with Artemis' partners in San Francisco. It will be ready for first commercial deployment in one market at the end of 2014.

Issues with pCell Technology

Wireless carriers reportedly have not expressed any interest in the pCell, and that might prove its undoing.

"You need both wireless carriers and consumers to agree to install access points and share bandwidth, even through devices users are carrying,

But this would still not eliminate the need for cell towers mask as a means for back-haul connectivity.

While many users are put off with the Windows Phone operating system that is running on Nokia smartphones, there is no getting away from the fact that the devices feature market leading cameras, and now it seems that the Nokia OIS camera tech is going to be open to all handset manufacturers.

For a long time now Nokia has provided customers with a great experience in terms of the main camera provided, and is something we found out ourselves recently with the Nokia Lumia 925.

The company has been improving this further with a recent firmware update, but the exclusive deal that the Finnish manufacturer had on the ST Microelectronics L2G2IS two-axis gyro component has apparently ended.

This helps video capture remain stable even if the user has unsteady hands and is used in the likes of the Nokia Lumia 1520, Lumia 1020, Lumia 925, and Lumia 920. This system is superior to what is used in the likes of the Nexus 5 or HTC One, but now that the deal has expired the company is allowing the optical image stabilization technology to go onto the open market for anyone to use.

The component is not cheap and costs $1.70 on the condition that it is purchased in bulk orders, but with big companies getting on board should see the price come down, and this could see the likes of Apple and Samsung finally offering OIS inside their smartphone cameras.

Whats-App New update with new and interesting functions

The WhatsApp app has just received a mega update with new and interesting functions in addition to two widgets that will significantly enhance user experience. Here are the most significant changes in WhatsApp that is released on the app through Google Play.

The number 1 instant messaging service received a significant upgrade with many striking improvements and changes and it's about time if you ask me. The new version should arrived to Google Play, but if you are in a hurry like I was, you can download the WhatsApp APK.

Pay for someone

As we all know or soon discover, WhatsApp is a paid app, which many people dislike having to pay for (but there are very good reasons for paying for WhatsApp). For some users, it seems like they only needed to cough up a single down payment. The rest of us have to renew this service every year with a fee of 99 cents. The developers have now added an interesting feature: you can buy a subscription for a friend, just like inviting them out for coffee. And if you are feeling extra generous, you can even buy them a subscription for one, three or even five years. This I’m sure will be really useful for those who have neither a Google Wallet nor a Paypal account.

In order to view this function, go to Settings then Account Information, Payment information and once there click on the menu to see the new option to pay for a friend.

New Camera and widgets

The improvements don’t stop there either. There are also two new widgets and one of them in fact hints at another of the changes that I consider the main and most important in the history of WhatsApp updates: they’ve now included the possibility to take pictures directly from the application.

There’s a new WhatsApp Camera widget that is basically a shortcut icon. This function is also included within each chat, found under the paperclip icon. When opening the camera viewfinder, a message will say "Send WhatsApp photo or video". After pressing the shutter, you will be redirected to your WhatsApp contacts for sharing. What’s more, the preview video or photo after sharing is much better.

Finally, there is a new widget allowing you to read the latest unread messages in much more detail than in the notification bar.

What do you think of the update?

It looks almost certain now that Nokia is going to release a low cost handset in the coming weeks that has an operating system that is based on the Android platform, and now ahead of any official launch the Nokia X is at the centre of a supposed spec confirmation claim.

There have long been rumours and leaks about Nokia working on a new handset that will run some form of Android software, and while the company is almost under the full control of Microsoft these rumours continue to emerge.

Now serial tipster’s evleaks that has already provided both images and specs for the handset that started with the title of Nokia Normandy, has taken to Twitter again to provide some more details about the handset.

A lot of the information we have already heard such as the dual core processor clocked at 1GHz, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of onboard storage expandable by microSD card, 1,500 mAh battery, and 5-megapixel rear facing camera.

There are also claims now that Android applications will be available from a special Nokia Store along with other 3rd party stores, which fits in with all the other rumours that have long suggested the device will have a special version of the Android operating system onboard.

We have even seen the handset listed on a retailer’s website in Vietnam, but more recently there has been talk of some higher end Nokia Android handsets coming later this year.