IFYBRIAN

The Surface Laptop is Microsoft's first true Surface-brand notebook -- following the company's Surface Pro tablet and the Surface Book laptop-tablet hybrid -- but there's something very unMicrosoft about it: great design. Functionally, it's about as standard as a notebook gets in 2017. There's a full keyboard and precision trackpad and a small array of ports. The screen doesn't detach but it is 10-point multi-touch and it works with the Surface Pen stylus. But aesthetically the Surface Laptop offers something new. That's because the deck of the Laptop -- the part into which the keyboard and trackpad are mounted -- is covered in a fabric called Alcantra. It's an artificial material that feels like super-fine suede, which is apparently used in racing car  seats and appears to be the latest thing in consumer electronics. It looks and feels a bit strange at first, but I found it surprisingly comfortable to lay my palms on as I typed. The Alcantra as...

9mobile, formerly Etisalat Nigeria, has appointed advisers to manage the process of attracting investors to take over the telecoms company and has seen strong interest, the central bank governor said on Tuesday. The central bank and telecoms industry regulator intervened this month to save Nigeria's fourth-largest mobile operator from collapse and prevent creditors putting it into receivership, prompting a board and management change. The move also led to a name change to 9mobile. Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele, speaking after the bank's policy meeting on Tuesday, said advisers would manage the search for a major investor to acquire the company. He said 9mobile's revenue was stable, adding it had made 16 billion naira ($52.50 million) in June. It had not lost subscribers due to the debt crisis, he said. "I am very gratified at the surge by potential investors who have written showing interest. Advisers will eventually call for RFPs (request for prop...

There's one key way in which Android is massively different from its Apple-branded smartphone competition - the number of phones out there running Google's hot mobile OS. The big names are all here; Samsung, Sony, LG and HTC are all right at the fore. On top of that, there's a glut of other names in the mix, with the likes of Lenovo, Motorola and OnePlus all offering cheap smartphones - and Google's gone high end with the new Pixel range. The many variations in screen size, processor power, software features and design makes finding the best Android phone for you extremely tough. To help find the most fitting Android phone for you, we've rounded up the best Android handsets out there today, rating the phones on hardware performance, OS upgrade potential and, of course, how shiny and nice they are to have and boast about to work colleagues. This is according to my rating. Top ten android phones 1. Samsung Galaxy S8 Weight: 155g | Dimensions: 148.9 x 6...

HP  just took over the PC market lead world wide . You probably don't get how incredible this is, so here's an analogy: It's as if a crooked referee put a bunch of lead on a racer who already was overweight and shuffled him to the back of the pack, but in the end, the guy finished first. You'd seriously want to look under his T-Shirt to see if you'd find Superman's costume. This isn't Apple coming up with an iPod or iPhone and flanking the market -- this is a firm that simply pushed on the gas pedal at a time when everyone said it was going in the wrong direction (PCs were dead, remember?) -- and kicked everyone's ass. As impressive as that is, there's more. This is also basically a brand new firm with a new focus, but people still see it with all the baggage the "HP" name brings, including the bad reflection from the massive mismanagement over at its sister company, HPE -- which, in contrast to HP, had all the advantages but couldn...

Parents don't need a poll to tell them their teenagers are addicted to smartphones. After all, smartphones are a permanent fixture rather than accessories on the visages of kids of all ages these days. Even so, polls move these everyday observances from anecdotal to official problem when the numbers tilt in that direction -- and a Common Sense Media poll hit full tilt. The fact that 59 percent of parents said their teens were addicted to mobile devices was not surprising. However, the fact that 50 percent of teens admitted they were addicted was shocking. While parents feel uneasy about their kids constantly being tethered to a device, most are not sure what real harm tech addiction does to teens. It turns out that it has multiple ill effects. Loss of Empathy Empathy, the ability to understand and appreciate the feelings of other people, is a trait that is essential to the well being of society. Empathy is the reason people are kind to each other, donate...

Apple has taken the wraps off of iOS 11, the next version of the mobile operating system powering the iPhone and the iPad, at its 28th annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The release brings a slew of new features, such as peer-to-peer transactions with Apple Pay, a redesigned App Store, and improvements to augmented reality. The public beta is available now and the final version is scheduled for the fall. Apple is dropping support for all 32-bit products and apps with iOS 11, meaning devices prior to the switch to 64-bit architecture with the iPhone 5S will no longer be supported. That includes the iPhone 5c, as well as the original iPad Mini. Whether you are a developer or simply interested in trying the public beta, you can download iOS 11 for yourself with the help of our handy guide. Here’s everything we know about the update. Screen sharing and recording tools With iOS 11, Apple intends to streamline the screenshot-sharing process, and also give users the ability to rec...

The next step in the evolution of wireless WAN communications - known as 5G - is about to hit the front pages, and for good reason: it will complete the evolution of cellular from wireline augmentation to wireline replacement, and strategically from mobile-first to mobile-only.  Even though at its core 5G is more about evolution than revolution, it’s not too early to start least basic planning to understanding how 5G will fit into and benefit IT plans across organizations of all sizes, industries and missions. 5G will of course provide end-users with the additional throughput, capacity, and other elements to address the continuing and dramatic growth in geographic availability, user base, range of subscriber devices, demand for capacity, and application requirements, but will also and equally importantly enable carriers, operators, and service providers to benefit from new opportunities in overall strategy, service offerings, and broadened marketplace presence. This arti...