FBI warns that driverless cars could be weaponized

 
Self-driving cars are being assessed as a “game changing” vehicle and a potential “lethal weapon” according to an internal FBI report, and could be exploited by criminals or terrorists seeking to program explosive-stuffed cars to be self-driving bombs.
The report was obtained by the Guardian after the newspaper made a public records request. FBI predictions included the statement that self-driving cars would ultimately “have a high impact on transforming what both law enforcement and its adversaries can operationally do with a car.”
Criminal “multitasking” is being anticipated despite the potential beneficial impact on road safety, and there have been sporadic suggestions that the vehicles could operate as rolling bombing platforms for terrorists – a means by which to conduct suicide bombings without the suicide aspect.
Companies like Google are in the process of developing the self-driving cars which are without a steering wheel and would travel at just 25 mph.
The vehicles use a combination of lidar (laser ranging), radar, video cameras and GPS to overcome obstacles on the road and reach a destination safely.
While still a prototype, the possibility that the cars could “revolutionize” high speed car chases and other criminal activity is on the cards.
“Autonomy … will make mobility more efficient, but will also open up greater possibilities for dual-use applications and ways for a car to be more of a potential lethal weapon that it is today,” said the report.

Reuters / Stephen Lam

One possibility that was expressed was the chance that people could shoot from the windows of self-driving cars without having to worry about keeping an eye on the road.
In a section of the report sub headed ‘Multitasking’, it states that “bad actors will be able to conduct tasks that require use of both hands or taking one’s eyes off the road which would be impossible today.”
The FBI report runs contrary to the message that self-driving vehicle developers are trying to put out the cars are safer than those operated by people.
Google has stated of its prototype that: “They’ll be designed to operate safely and autonomously without requiring human intervention. Our software and sensors do all the work. The vehicles will be very basic but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button.”
However, the FBI does anticipate some benefits when it comes to catching criminals.
“Surveillance will be made more effective and easier, with less of a chance that a patrol car will lose sight of a target vehicle,” said the report.
“In addition, algorithms can control the distance that the patrol car is behind the target to avoid detection or intentionally have a patrol car make opposite turns at intersections, yet successfully meet up at later points with the target.”

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5 Privileges Ugly Girls Have

1. You never have to deal with "friend-

zoning" guys.

I am not an ugly girl, so it's hard for me

to find a guy friend who doesn't

want to get in my pants, date me, or

marry me. It's like guys, please, I'm

only one girl—and I'm young! I don't

want to be tied down. And every day

I have to go through the tedious process

of sitting my guy friends down and

saying, "No, I don't want to date. No, we

are not an item. No, I only hooked

up with you last week because I was

blackout drunk and Hot. NO. NO.

NO." Turning down guys is exhausting.

Plain Janes never have this problem

because they know that if any guy is

hanging out with them, it must be their

personality (because it's clearly not

for looks). You don't have to deal with

friend-zoning guys because you

already know that they are clearly not

interested. You ugly girls have it so

lucky, and I don't think you fully

appreciate that.

2. You never have to worry about making

the most of

your prime.

Since I'm a beautiful person, people are

always telling me to be careful

because looks fade, and what will I have

then? I mean, I see myself as in a

perpetual prime, and I guess in a worst-

case scenario, eventually, when I'm

like forty I'll sort of lose my natural

glow. However, by that time I'll

already be married to a rich suitor and

still living a carefree life. But—yes,

here comes that horrid "but"—what if I'm

not married to a rich man and

my natural glow seems to run away from

me? It's terrifying to think that

life might get harder than this. I already

have to deal with being perfect—

it's unfair for people to expect me to do

more right now because it's my

"prime."

With ugly people, you're in a perpetual

flat line, so no one expects you to

make the most of your beauty "while it

lasts." You'll always be ugly, so no

matter whether it's today or fifty years

from now, you're never going to get

any luckier with getting lucky. You guys

have no expectations or supposed

"timeline" of youth—you have all the

time in the world to be ugly. I

supposedly only have a decade to be

Helen of Troy.

3. You get to put on make-up and enjoy

the joys of

dressing up.

Since I always look perfect, I don't get

the joy of putting on make-up and

dressing up every day. I mean, every girl

remembers those dress-up days

when we were little and we'd throw on

dresses and make-up. Dressing up is

so much fun! But as a naturally beautiful

woman, I can wear sweatpants and

still get complimented on looking

perfect.

You Plain Janes still get to enjoy the

little joys of putting on lipstick, eye

shadow, and blush like you're a little kid.

You get to transform yourself

from the ugly duckling to the cuter little

princess with several swipes of a

brush. I don't get to experience that

exciting, fun transformation that I

reveled in as a little girl.

4. You don't have to deal with weirdos

always hitting on

you.

OMG, don't get me started on having to

walk around with annoying number

that the barista Sharpied on your

morning coffee, having to avoid the

smirks and winks of countless men on

the subway to work, having to tell

the new hire again that no, you do not

want to go get drinks, having the

intern snap a photo of your Bottom when

he thinks you're not looking, or having

the schoolboys chuckle and whistle as

you grab lunch at your favorite food

truck.

Can a woman go through one day

without being the center of attention for

her unparalleled beauty? It's exhausting

being me already (see the other

bullet points), and I don't want to have

to deal with another stockbroker

asking me for my number at cocktail

hour; I don't want to flirt with the hot

single dad at the supermarket.

Stop hitting on me. I need some "me"

time.

You Plain Janes are always left alone to

do your own thing, and that

solitude makes me so, so jealous.

Seriously, ladies, enjoying being alone

and ignored—you don't know how hard it

is on the other side of the

attractiveness train tracks.

5. You still enjoy getting compliments.

When you are naturally beautiful like I

am, people act like it's their job to

remind you that you are blessed with

good looks, and it's so sad. I get

complimented so much that I get no

pleasure from the phrases that once

made me feel so giddy inside. It's as if

"You look amazing," "You look

great," and "You are so beautiful" have

become "Hello."

With ugly people, you still get that

excitement that people are admiring

your new haircut, cute top, or recent

manicure. I mean, when you get

praised for everything, nothing feels

special anymore.

Always being complimented on my

beauty has become rather, well, tragic.

Read More

7 Reasons Why You Should Get Married Early.

In fact, there are certain plausible

advantages of getting married at a

younger age. The belief that early

marriage comes as a burden and an

incomprehensible commitment, is not

really a standard that applies to all.

So, here are some reasons that explain

why marrying early can be a good

decision.

#1. The perfect age saga

Marriage is more about the 'perfect

person' than the 'perfect age'. Many

argue on the necessity of being prepared

for marriage. But in reality, you can

never be prepared for it whether you are

in your 20s, 30s or 40s.

So, if you find your prince charming or

dream girl at an early age, then there is

no point actually waiting for long to get

married. It is all about spending the

beautiful moments of your life with the

person you love. So, think about finding

the right person rather than waiting for

the right time to arrive.

#2. You get more quality time with each

other

The young couples usually do not have

the pressure of achieving parenthood

immediately after their marriage. In fact,

they get enough time to know and

understand each other before the

biological clock starts ticking. So, when

you get married early, you have a lot of

time on your hands before you indulge

into family planning or saving money for

future.

You can enjoy your life with your partner

without worrying much about these

things. You can see the world together

and steer your life the way you want it.

#3. More harmonious relationship

You are more likely to be a companion

and a friend to your partner rather than

just being a husband or a wife. While

you would be learning to live life as

adults, you would be more flexible with

each other and more open to

compromise.

Also, you will have enough time to

adjust with each other's temperament,

and understand one another before you

delve into more serious and deeper

responsibilities of life. This way, you are

likely to be more compatible than the

couples who get married late.

#4. More lovemaking time

You will get to experience those beautiful

moments of cosy lovemaking with your

partner more frequently as compared to

those who get married late. It surely will

help you to feel strongly connected with

your partner emotionally as well as

physically.

And since you do not have the pressure

of having kids right after your marriage,

there is ample time to thoroughly enjoy

this time with each other. Also, many

researches show that after having kids,

the couples usually experience a dip in

their lovemaking activities due to

reasons like low energy, lack of time etc.

#5. Sharing each milestone

The milestone of achieving parenthood is

of course one thing, which every couple

experiences together. But when you

marry early, there is a lot more that you

achieve as well as celebrate together.

Whether it is buying your first car,

moving in to your own home, achieving

success in career- the happiness

increases manifold when you have a

partner by your side to share these

amazing experiences of life.

#6. Being a great parent

As you would have spent so much time

together, you are expected to share a

really strong bond with each other. This

level of understanding between the two

of you is one of the key requirements of

being a great parent.

When you attain parenthood in your

twenties, you are all the more excited as

well as energetic to spend time with your

child. On the other hand as you grow

old, you might be burdened with issues

like financial well-being of your family or

your own health. This will take away the

time from you to be with your child.

Furthermore, seeing your child become

independent before you retire is an

achievement in itself.

While you become a proud parent at the

right time, do not let it take away the

charm from your married life. Here are 5

Ways to Spice Up Your Marriage after

Kids

#7. A second chance

Although this is not at all desirable, but

if at all things go terribly wrong in

marriage, the younger couples get a

slightly better chance to bring everything

back on track. Since they would have

already shared many ups and downs

together, they would know how to handle

each other during tough times.

Surely, an early marriage is no recipe for

success. But, it is necessary to

understand the nuances of a marriage to

make it an accomplishment. Getting

married by mid-twenties is a great

option and with the above reasons, we

hope you know why.

Read More

You Are Worthy! 7 Things You Should Never Tolerate In A Relationship/Marriage

There are many things you should never

tolerate in a relationship, though many of

these things are MUCH easier said than done.

We are complex beings and while we may

rationally know we should not be with

someone for some reason, it is not always so

easy to "just walk away." Always remember

that you are a worthy being and that you

never "deserve" harmful things a partner may

inflict upon you; so don't forget this list of

things you should never tolerate in a

relationship by Olivia Simone!

1. Cheating

Of all the #things you should never tolerate in

a relationship, cheating is an obvious one.

Cheating should not be tolerated in a

relationship for several reasons. One, if your #

partner is cheating, you don't know what

diseases he may be picking up from others,

and these could jeopardize your own health.

For another, cheating breaks trust, which is a

major foundation of a healthy relationship. If

you happen to feel, given your particular

circumstances, that working through an

incident is an option you want to explore, fine,

but do NOT, by any means, tolerate perpetual

cheating. A cheater is not worth your own

well-being.

2. Lying

In addition to cheating, perpetual lying should

not be tolerated as trust is a key foundation in

any relationship. A white lie here and there is

not necessarily something to get worked up

over, but if you catch your #partner lying to

you on a regular basis, it's time to rethink

your relationship with that person.

3. Out-of-Control Tempers

Anger is a natural human emotion. Everyone

feels angry at times, but anger and an out-of-

control temper are two drastically different

concepts. If you find that your #partner

punches holes in walls, takes his anger out on

you in an inappropriate manner, makes

threats, breaks things, etc., this is not a

healthy expression of anger and can lead to

devastating consequences in your

relationship. Do not tolerate this behavior.

Either insist that he seek treatment options for

his temper or drop him.

4. Physical or Sexual Abuse

Abuse of any form should not be tolerated in a

relationship. Unfortunately, many people fail

to recognize #signs of domestic abuse for a

number of reasons. You must first realize that

no matter what, you NEVER deserve to be

abused. If your #partner hits you, beats you,

rapes you (and yes, this includes marital rape)

, or inflicts any sort of physical violence on

you, try your best to get out of the situation. I

know this is often easier said than done, but

realize not all #men are like this and that you

are worthy of someone who will treat your

body with respect!

5. Mental or Emotional Abuse

Mental and emotional abuse are often even

harder to detect than physical or sexual

abuse. If your partner uses manipulation,

threats, belittlement, or any other means of

making you feel unsafe, insecure, or bad about

yourself, this is most likely a form of abuse as

well. Do not tolerate a #partner who makes

you feel unworthy. And remember, no matter

what he says to knock you down, the shame is

on him, not on you.

6. Harm to Your Children

If you find that your partner has in any way

jeopardized the well-being of your children,

get rid of him immediately. Whether they are

his children or not, he must respect them as

well as you. If your children ever say that they

have been inappropriately touched, harmed

physically, etc. by your #partner, he MUST go.

NEVER tolerate a #man who harms your

children.

7. Disrespect

Ultimately, all of these things can be boiled

down to disrespect in some manner. If you find

that your #partner is not respecting your

body, thoughts, emotions, etc., find someone

else who will.

These are some of the things I don't feel

should ever be tolerated in a relationship.

What other #things do you think should never

be tolerated in a relationship?

Read More

5 Signs That show You're Not Ready For A New Relationship.

Here are 5 signs that means you're not ready

to get into a new relationship after a breakup.

.

1. You still think about your ex

This sign is epidemically common especially

when you had strong affection for your ex. It

mostly occurs when you're alone and your

mind tend to wonder away and leads you to

those memorable moments you had with your

ex. You tend to smile and wish the

relationship hadn't crumbled.

If you still experience such, it simply means

you're not ready for that new relationship, you

still have intimate feelings for that your ex

and you need to obliterate it in order for you

to move on completely and be happy with your

new love.

2. You compare your current relationship with

your prior one.

In most cases, the individuals involved are

usually the centre of comparison.

That is, when you tend to compare your

current gf/bf with your ex..

Humans are heterogeneous in character and

attitude, therefore you should expect a

contrasting character between your boo and

your ex.

They maybe most behaviours that you poised

towards your ex that he/she approved and

finds no wrong in it, but when you exhibit

same behaviour towards your new boo, he/she

gets irritated. When you experience such, it

simply means you need to do some little

adjustment that will be suited for the

happiness of you and your boo without

causing harm to yourself. (it doesn't mean you

should change who you are).

But when you find yourself saying or thinking

this.. '' If it were to be John(your ex) he

wouldn't react this way''...

This is a clear indication that you haven't

gotten over your ex, and definitely your new

relationship may hit the rocks in sooner time.

3. You still checkup/peep on your ex on social

media

This happens when you intentionally surf

through your ex's photos, status updates,

tweets etc.

In epitome, you want to know whats recent

about your ex.

This is a clear indication that you haven't

moved on and you're certainly not ready for a

new relationship. There's still that deem

feeling lingering in your heart that you haven't

been able to do away with.

If you still experience this, you're definitely not

fit for a new relationship.

Take time to heal and don't rush into a new

relationship, you may rush out!

4. You get uneasy at the sight of your ex and

snub him/her

you may disagree with me,, but I'm positive

about this!

If really you've completely moved on, there's

definitely no problem in responding to a

pleasantry passed by your ex. You guys can

chill for a while and have a brief talk asking

about each others' wellbeing (it doesn't meant

you're still in love). No harm in that! Afterall

his/she is not an ebola patient that you see

and change rout or throw your face to another

direction. - if you still do this, you're not ready

for a new relationship cause you haven't

gotten over the last one.

5. You secretly wish your ex would apologise

This usually happens during early stages of a

break up.

That moment your phones rings and you hope

its your ex calling to apologise!

In most cases, such feelings may take a

longer time to wear off (depends on the

individual).

It may not only be during the early stages of

a breakup, but the moment you keep wishing

for your ex to return back is a clear indication

that you're not ready for a new relationship.

NOTE: don't get into a new relationship in

attempt to forget the last one and don't date

someone in attempt to forget your ex.. It may

bounce back!

True love is harnessed when the heart is free,

and not when its occupied by the emotional

thoughts of the past!

When you've experienced a breakup, don't rush

into a new relationship, take time to heal and

move on..

FEEL FREE TO ADD YOURS!

Read More

How To Identify A Good Wife Material

1. She must be God-fearing

2. She must not be materialistic

3. She must show signs of being a good home

maker

4. She must show signs of discipline

5. She must always be sensitive to your needs

6. She must not be crafty or being too smart

7. She must be humble and obey the man

8. Even if she is the rich one, she must be

submissive (forget about all these feminist

rubbish) a woman cannot make a home

without a man.

9. She must not disclose her man's short-

comings to a third party, not even parents.

10. She must always be cheerful.

If you are a Woman, score yourself over 10

and let's see if you are a good wife material.

Read More

How to Properly Move Your Blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

Ok so you've been a user of WordPress.com

for a while now. Things have been pretty nice

so far, but you've come to a point where

you're ready to go beyond WordPress.com.

You want to install plugins and customize

your themes. You want to really start

monetizing your site and be in full control.

Well you are at the right place. While today's

article won't discuss the differences between

WordPress.com and WordPress.org

, we will take a look at a question that a lot of

users have been asking us: how to move your

existing WordPress.com blog to a self-hosted

WordPress.org site. In this step by step

tutorial, we will show you how to properly

move your blog from WordPress.com to

WordPress.org. We will cover how to transfer

all of your WordPress.com content to a

WordPress.org site (yes this include images).

We will also cover how to keep all of your

search engine rankings along with how to

redirect your existing users to your new site.

Are you ready? Let's start transferring your

WordPress.com blog over to your new self-

hosted site.

Things You Need Before You Start

You will need to have a domain name and a

good web hosting company that knows

WordPress. We highly recommend that you

use Bluehost because they will give you a free

domain and 50% off their hosting plan

(special for WPBeginner users). Bluehost is

also an officially recommended hosting

provider of WordPress.

If your WordPress site already has a custom

domain name, then don't worry. We will cover

that as well. Lastly, you will need access to

your WordPress.com account, so you can

easily move all of your posts, pages, images,

comments, and other data over to your self-

hosted WordPress site.

Before you get started with this migration

tutorial, we want to let you know that we can

migrate your site for FREE as part of our Free

WordPress Blog setup service. This will be less

hassle for you, but if you are someone who

likes learning and doing things yourself, then

follow our step by step tutorial below.

Step 1: Exporting Data from WordPress.com

Sign in to your WordPress.com account and

go to your blog's Dashboard. Click on Export

under Tools menu.

Clicking on the Export tool will take you to a

new page where you will be asked to choose

between Free or Guided Transfer.

Choose the Free option by clicking on Export.

On the next screen you will be asked which

data you want to export. Select "All Content"

and press the Download Export File button. An

XML file will be downloaded in your computer

which will contain all of your posts, pages,

images, comments, custom fields, categories,

tags, navigation menus and other information.

Step 2: Setting up WordPress

Now that you have exported your

WordPress.com data, the next step is to set

up a fresh WordPress install on your web

hosting. WordPress is very easy to install, and

it only takes a few clicks. We have a step-by-

step tutorial on how to install WordPress

within 5 minutes . Once you have installed

WordPress, it is time to import your content

into your new self-hosted WordPress website.

Step 3: Importing Content into Self Hosted

WordPress Site

To import your old content from

WordPress.com to your new site, you need to

click on Tools » Import option in your self-

hosted WordPress.org dashboard.

Next click on WordPress. You will be asked to

install the WordPress Importer plugin. Once

you install it, activate and run the importer

plugin. It will take you to a screen where you

will be asked to upload your WordPress.com

XML file that you downloaded in step 1 of this

tutorial.

Note: if your file size is larger than 2MB, then

you have two options. One is to ask your web

hosting company to increase that limit

temporarily, so you can get on with the

process. The other option would be to split

your file by using a WXR file splitter.

When you start importing, you will have the

option of assigning your old content to a

current user or create a new user. You'll also

have the option of importing your old

attachments (you want to make sure that you

check this box to ensure that your images are

imported).

If you took the optional step of exporting your

old links/blogroll, then you should take this

time to import them. The process is pretty

much the same as above. Go to the Import

page from the Tools tab, click on Blogroll,

install the plugin, choose the location of the

exported link/blogroll file and import it.

Step 4: Setting your WordPress.com blog to

private

The final step would be to set your

WordPress.com blog to private. If you don't

want to redirect your old users to your new

site, then go ahead and follow this step. Go to

the Reading page under Settings tab, from

your WordPress.com Dashboard and select the

last option, "I would like my blog to be private,

visible only to users I choose" .

Attention: If you have been writing for

sometime, and you have a loyal audience,

then it does not make sense to leave them

hanging. Furthermore, if your blog has been

out there for a while, then chances are that it

is indexed in Google and other search engines.

You should keep all the search engine juice

and easily redirect your old users to your new

blog.

Step 5: Redirecting Visitors and Preserving

SEO

Redirecting users to new location with a 301

header is the standard solution to keep search

rankings while moving a site from one location

to another. Since you don't have access

to .htaccess on WordPress.com, you can not

make any changes by yourself to retain search

engine rankings. However, WordPress.com

offers a paid upgrade, Offsite Redirect, which

provide this functionality. Go to

WordPress.com blog's dashboard and click on

the Store menu item. The upgrade you are

looking for is called Offsite Redirect. At the

time of writing this tutorial, this update was

reasonably priced at $13 USD per year. This

upgrade provides 301 redirect which allows

your site's visitors and search engines to be

automatically redirected to your new site.

Some of you will ask how long should I keep

paying for this Offsite redirect feature? The

answer is for as long as you want to. However,

we personally think that 2 years would be

enough time for your old users to memorize

your new domain name

If you are changing domains, then another

thing you want to do is update all in post

URLs. If you ever inter-linked your posts, then

those links have to be updated. Use our article

on how to update URLs when moving your

WordPress site

.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We wrote this article in January 2013 and

since then we've received tons of great

questions. A lot of which we've answered via

email or in comments, so thought it would be

nice to compile it at one place where everyone

can see them.

What happens with my WordPress.com

Subscribers?

Thankfully, WordPress.com allows you to

migrate your subscribers with one condition.

You must use Jetpack plugin which adds the

same subscribe functionality that you had at

WordPress.com. Once you install and activate

the Jetpack plugin, you would need to contact

the WordPress.com team and ask them to

migrate the subscribers for you. Our hope is

that in the later versions of Jetpack, this will

become easier and users will be able to do it

themselves.

Can you help me transfer from WordPress.com

to WordPress.org for FREE?

Absolutely. We offer migration from

WordPress.com as part of our free WordPress

blog setup service. If you need our assistance,

then simply signup. It's free

What are the costs of switching to

WordPress.org?

WordPress is free. However, there are some

minimal web hosting costs. We recommend

that you read this article on: Why is

WordPress free? What are the costs and what

is the catch?

Will my images break?

No they will not. When you transfer using the

import file, all attached images are

downloaded and the link is updated. However

there is one caveat that we noticed. If your

image URL starts with files.wordpress.com,

then they will not be converted. If you notice

that the image URL has not changed and still

points to WordPress.com, then we recommend

that you use import external images plugin,

and it will take care of that.

I registered my domain through

WordPress.com, can I still move?

Yes you can. WordPress believe in empowering

users and giving them full control of their

content. If you already have a domain name

through WordPress.com, then all you need is a

web hosting account. We recommend that you

setup with Bluehost or any of these other

WordPress hosting providers. During the

signup phase, you will be asked do you have a

domain or want to register a new one. Simply

select the option that I have a domain name,

and insert the domain that you registered at

WordPress.com. Next thing you would have to

do is change the nameservers to point to the

hosting provider. We're able to assist with this

as part of our free setups service. You can

also ask your web hosting provider for

support.

Will my website go down when I switch?

If you do it correctly, then NO. The method

we've suggested above will ensure that your

website never goes down. If you're worried,

then know that we are here to help. You're

welcome to use our free setups service at

anytime.

We hope that you found our guide on

switching from WordPress.com to self-hosted

WordPress.org to be helpful. If you have any

questions, then please let us know by leaving

a comment below.

Read More

Five Simple SEO Secrets

SEO services are booming, but what's

the simplest way to optimize your site

without spending a boatload of money?

Last year, Econsultancy estimated that

the search engine optimization (SEO)

industry was worth more than $514

million.And during the last twelve

months, it's grown even more.

The world's biggest brands devote a

massive chunk of their marketing

budgets to SEO. They employ some of the

world's best analysts to optimize their

sites. But that doesn't mean you need a

huge budget to get started with SEO. In

fact, there are plenty of things you can

do yourself.

Let's look at five secrets of simple SEO –

they're things you can do right away to

optimize your own website.

1. Know Your Keywords

Keyword research is the root of every

optimization project. Keywords are like

an elevator pitch for your site: they

summarize what you do in a few words

or phrases.

When choosing keywords, be specific

without being obscure. Never try to

optimize for a single word: instead, think

of a string of words that accurately

describe what you do. You can use

various free online tools to get ideas.

Tip: Ask friends, family or customers to

tell you what they'd search for if they

were looking for your business.

2. Invest in Great Content

Optimization is the key to ensuring that

search engines rank your website

favorably in their results. But in order for

optimization to work, the content on your

site needs to be awesome!

Content simply refers to the text on your

homepage, your blog posts, videos

you've produced, and any podcasts

you've published. Focus on producing

the best content you can – or pay

someone to create it for you! Make it

compelling, detailed, substantive,

accurate and entertaining.

Tip: Keyword cramming is old news and

will probably result in a penalty anyway

So, don't do it! Instead, focus on creating

real, interesting and valuable content.

3. Obtain Quality Links

Now that your content is in place, you

should start getting links back to that

content. There are also some things you

can do to accelerate the process.But

beware: some methods are better than

others.

First, links must be authentic, and they

should be earned genuinely, through

connections with other sites. Old school

techniques (paying for links, spamming

forums or placing links on directories)

don't work. Now, you must pursue good

quality links and build on your progress

over time.

Tip: Link building isn't something that

you can do in one weekend. It takes

months, so plan your strategy

accordingly and start creating a content

calendar that you can follow for months

4. Be Sociable

Back in 2012, SEO experts noticed that

social signals affect Google rankings. A

signal could be anything – from a

retweet on Twitter to a Like on Facebook.

Additionally, Google may factor in Google

Authorship credentials.

While social signals won't work miracles

on their own, they are an important

factor to consider as you develop your

optimization strategy. Consider hiring a

social media assistant to post content to

various channels, and then measure

results from each one to hone and

improve your strategy.

Tip: Short on time? Focus on one or two

channels. Some businesses naturally do

better on some networks, but get little

return on investment from others.

5. Measure and Improve

Optimization is important, but without

metrics, you'll never really know whether

your efforts are paying off. But if you

track and measure from the beginning,

you can continually improve

Google Analytics is the bare minimum for

measurement and metrics – and it's free.

But it doesn't always give you a

complete picture. Shop around, or try

other free SEO analytics tools. The

important thing is to take time to

measure.

Tip: Let your analytics data build for at

least a month before you make any

changes, and don't tweak too many

things at once.

Action Plan

Using these tips as a starting point,

create a three month SEO strategy. Write

down your action steps, and be

disciplined about completing each one

Invest time and energy into optimization

and you'll start seeing great results.

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Travel To Dubai From Nigeria With Return Ticket To Lagos For Just N60,000

Dubai is without a doubt, the prime destination to be at this December to celebrate the New Year with your loved ones! The beautiful Arabian city of Dubai is one of the few cities in the world that has undergone such a rapid transformation, from a humble beginning as a pearl-diving centre to one of the fastest growing cities on earth.

Dubai today is a tourism, trade and logistics hub and has earned itself the reputation of being the ‘gateway between the east and the west.’ It is also considered as the dynamic nucleus of the Arabian Gulf region. Home to just over 2 million people from more than 200 nationalities, Dubai is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

As a Nigerian citizen, you can enjoy the bliss of traveling to Dubai from Nigeria with minimum worry this season.

VConnect, Nigeria's largest local search engine; has rolled out a promo to give you that opportunity to enjoy cheap dubai vacation this New Year with a return ticket to Lagos,Nigeria for just N60, 000. The flight is set to take off on the 26th of December and returns on the 2nd of January 2015.

The VConnect Dubai promo which kicked off early last month runs till December 15th 2014. Some winners have already emerged from the draw that took place on the 28th of November. More winners will emerge on the other two draws that will take place on the 5th and 12th of December 2014.

Winners of Dubai Trip Promo by VConnect

Below are some of the winners from the first draw.

Vconnect Dubai trip promo winner : Hammed Akeem

According to Hammed Olamilekan Akeem, one of the winners from the first draw, “He really didn't believe it until he was announced as one of the winners” and Mr Adebola Isiaq Alalade went further to state that that was the first time he had ever won a draw.

You too can be one of the winners to smile into the New Year in Dubai and will get to be a part of the exciting VConnect Lagos-Dubai-Lagos flight.

How To Participate in Dubai Trip Promo

Visit the website, www.vconnect.com, click on the “Grab It” and register your details. 

Ensure you complete the process. Completing the process will make you to be eligible for the Lucky Draw.

Wait for the lucky draw. If announced as a winner in the lucky draw, you can go head to make the N60,000 payment. Once payment is confirmed, your ticket will be issued to you.

NOTE:

==> All flight`s and in-flight`s services to be taken care of by Arik Air Nigeria
==> Payment Details would be emailed to the lucky draw winners on their registered email address.
==> Winners can take up to five family members along. Each member of the family will have to pay his/her individual ticket fee (N60,000 each).

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Tecno H7 Review: The most affordable high-performance Quad-core Smartphone

Unboxing: A few surprises In the Box

This is a very exciting part for many and this time, Tecno has some little surprises for you in the box. The H7 comes in a white compact and well branded box. You will actually have to break two seals to get to the H7 and when you do, you find the H7 neatly packed in. Below the H7, you will find compartments that house white earphones, the back cover, the battery and the travel charger. The H7 also comes with a pre-installed screen protector and an 8GB memory card.
In two separate packages within the same box, you will find the new Tecno Smart Cover and a white 5200mAh battery bank with a USB cable. There is also a manual (that no ones reads), a promotional Palm Chat Flyer and a 13 month warranty card. There is something new with the H7; Yes!  even though there are two SIM slots, one of them is surprisingly a Micro SIM.  You will have to go to your service provider to cut you a Micro SIM card as your ordinary SIM won’t fit in the second slot.

H7 Specifications

Released: May 2014
Available: June 2014 (in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria – Africa)
Colors Available: Black, White, Elegant Blue and Coffee
SIM: Dual SIM ( 1 Mini and 1 Micro)
Operating System: Android 4.2 Jelly Bean upgradable to 4.4 Kitkat
Network: GSM/WCDMA
Band: GSM900/DCS1800/W2100
CPU: 1.3GHz Quad core MediaTek 6582 Processor
Memory: 4GB ROM, 1GB RAM, Micro SD Slot expandable up to 32GB
Battery: Capacity – 2020 mAh, Talk time – 6.5 Hours, Standby time – 200 Hours
Data: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 3.75G
Dimension: 143.5*72.7*8.75mm
Weight: Not Verified
Camera: 8.0MP BSI Rear, 2.0MP BSI Front camera, Auto focus, (Image size : Front-facing 1600*1200 Rear-facing 2448*3264) Flash Light, Video recording, Video calling.
Display: 5.O” TFT – IPS display with 540*960 Resolution
Entertainment: FM radio, Voice recording, E-book reader, Built-in games
Connectivity: GPS navigation, WIFI（WLAN), Bluetooth V.3.0, 5 pin Micro USB port, 3.5mm Earphone jack.
Sensors: Gyro -sensor, Light sensor and Proximity sensor.
Common Tools: Torch, Calculator, World clock, Alarm, Memo, Calendar.
Multimedia: Audio format – MWAV/MP3/MIDI/APE/MP2/AMR/FLAC
Ringtone format – MIdI/MP3, Video format – AVI/3GP/MP4/MKV/WEBM
Image format – BMP/JPG/GIF/PNG

What’s New?: Interface, Tweaks and Features

The NEW UI
We first saw this new UI teased on the Tecno H5 that we reviewed. We aren’t sure when Tecno first featured  this new UI but it sure does look great on the H7. We will be doing a review of the new UI separately but it sure has changed the Tecno experience significantly. What we aren’t sure is if Tecno is boldly coming out to say they have their own custom UI like the HTC Sense or the Samsung’s TouchWiz or Huawei’s Emotion. For now they seem to be keeping it under wraps since they haven’t given it a name yet.

USB OTG (On The Go): Directly plug your flash to your phone!

USB On-The-Go, often abbreviated USB OTG or just OTG, is a new feature that allows USB devices such as digital audio players or mobile phones to act as a host, allowing other USB devices like a USB flash drive, digital camera, mouse, or keyboard to be attached to your phone. What this means is you can actually connect a USB flash drive or other device to your phone like you do on a PC.

Dolby Sound Effect: Great sound finally on your Tecno

Tecno is making all efforts to improve their phones in every way and this is one of those features. Many of you may not notice the difference but Tecno included the “Dolby” sound effect in the H7 making its sound better. Think of it like HTC and beats in the HTC One.

Dual SIM but one is a Micro SIM

Of course we love the dual SIM feature and we wrote about the fact that its one of those features that are actually important in designing a phone for Africa. The difference here is that with the H7, Tecno made one of the SIM slots a Micro meaning the ordinary SIM card won’t fit in the 2nd slot. We aren’t sure whether the move was a design issue to help make phones slimmer — fortunately, both slots are 3G capable.

Smart Cover: A much smarter phone cover

This time, Tecno has included (not just the ordinary flip cover/case but) a smarter cover that allows you to answer calls and access notifications without opening the cover. Flipping the cover on and off the screen will automatically wake up the phone or put it to sleep while the interactive view window allows you to accept or reject incoming calls all without opening the cover. The Smart cover isn’t  magnetic so it doesn’t clip onto the screen like we expected. Our initial fear was that this will make it susceptible to operating the phone unintentionally but to our surprise, we did not experience any issues with it while we had it.

Display: Not an HD display but it’s good all the same

For many of us, it’s hard to tell the difference between Smartphone/Device displays. IPS, TFT, LCD, AMOLED, HD, QHD etc. We will be dealing with that in a separate article. That said, the H7 has a resolution of 540*960 that is sharp and bright enough for all your viewing pleasure. Also, this time Tecno has shifted from the usual TFT to an IPS display. IPS (In Plane Switching) display technology is said to have benefits like low power consumption that improves your battery life compared to TFT (Thin Film Transistor) displays.
*(We weren’t able to verify if Tecno is using a purely IPS or TFT display or both as the specs on the Tecno website assert that the material from which the screen is made is TFT and the resolution is IPS which is quite confusing)

Design: Lovely design in a cheap plastic body

Design is a major decision driver when purchasing a phone and Tecno has maintained a pretty impressive design on it’s latest phones — something that remains crucial for their performance. The H7 has an excellent flat design with a Tecno Logo both on the front and the back.
The H7 is only 8.75mm thin, with dimensions of 143.5*72.7mm. The phone size and weight feels light and comfortable in the hand even though we also weren’t able to verify the actual weight of the H7. In the new design Tecno replaced the upper charging port with a lower one while keeping the audio jack above. They have also removed the dedicated camera button leaving the Volume Keys on the left and the power button in the right. Its unfortunate that they replaced the poly-carbonate back cover with a totally plastic one that also feels cheap. We also had to get used to accessing the Volume and Power buttons as they felt very thin and a little hard to reach.

Performance: H7 will handle anything you can throw at it

To fire it up, the H7 comes with a 1.3GHz Quad core MediaTek 6582 Processor. This is further aided by the 1GB RAM that gives you somewhat enough memory to multitask and run all the apps you want at a go. We put the H7 to the test and we found a couple of interesting things.
The H7 is fast and fluid in responding to commands and opening up apps almost instantly without actually slowing down. We were also impressed with the fact that we deliberately opened so many apps and kept switching between apps in the task manager and the H7 remained fast and responsive. To take it a notch higher, we clogged the phone memory and the RAM with as many apps as we could run concurrently (about 15) to see when the H7 would slow down.  We managed to hit 30 more apps on top of the pre-installed ones(about 60) before the H7 slowed down which we found quite impressive.
As usual, we downloaded some games like Temple Run, Angry Birds that many times put the phones processor and memory to task and the H7 still ran smoothly.

Pre-installed Apps: Whatsapp, Facebook, Chrome and many others to help you get started

As always Tecno brings you a phone with a couple of pre-installed apps that they think you will need. In the H7, a couple of Apps came pre installed. There’s the Google Apps that come on every Android Phone like Google, Maps, Calendar, Navigation, Gmail, Clock etc. then there’s the Tecno Installed apps that include Facebook, Opera mini, UC browser, Carlcare, Flash share, Palmchat, Gameloft, WhatsApp, flashlight,
Unlike in the Phantom A+ Tecno omitted the Quick start Guide App (the one that gives you a quick tutorial on using the phone), Assistant which was a repository of App APK’s you can install even when offline was replaced by PalmPlay which literally does the same. Tecno has also  has added the BackUp and restore App, Blackberry’s BBM messenger, Du Battery Saver Pro version, a Wallpaper and themes app, Chrome Browser, GO keyboard among others.
The Problem with the pre installed apps is that after activating your phone, most of them need updates and they use up phone memory but fortunately, you can uninstall them at will.

Camera: Significantly Improved but still no Image Stabilization

The H7 comes comes with some salient but major improvements to the camera. ( We will be doing a separate full H7 camera review) However, I will run you through the features the H7 camera has.
With an 8MP rear and 2MP front Camera, Tecno this time embedded BSI (BackSide Illumination) technology that improves a camera’s low light performance. Both the back and front camera have BSI embedded making the new Tecno camera better in comparison to the Tecno Phantom that didn’t have this improvement. The Images are also significantly sharper in resolution with no added pixels to the camera.
The H7 camera settings allow you to manipulate exposure, White balance, ISO and multiple color modes among others. Tecno also added Touch and Voice capture to the H7 that lets you capture an image by touching any part of the screen or by just saying “Capture”. Another new feature is the Photo frames that superimposes a frame from which you then can take an image giving the photo a different feel.
Our major disappointment with the H7 camera is that Tecno has still refused to include image stabilization or what we normally know as “anti shake”. What this means is that both you and your subject have to be very still for you to capture crisp images. Any shake will get you blurry images making it difficult to take action images. Another disappointment is that the flash cannot fire up when recording Video which is disappointing.

Entertainment: 8GB SD card, 5” IPS display, Dolby Sound and Games

As always most Tecno phones are made with entertainment in mind below we look at what makes the H7 made for entertainment.
Earphones
The earphones are white in color and about a metre in length. They are the normal 3.5mm jack pin so they should be able to work on many of your other appliances as well. We were quite disappointed with the Phantom A+ earphones in delivering quality sound and also in their durability. We see a notable improvement in sound quality with these ones even though there’s nothing particularly outstanding. The earphones also have one control button that allows you to pick a call when connected to the phone but can also pause and play a song when listening to music.
Revamped Music App
Tecno took the time to revamp the music App. First and foremost is the quick access buttons they added for the app. Swipe the Phone menu from the Home screen to the left and you can access Music or Radio. You can also access music from the lock screen by swiping it to the left and the phone will play music while still locked.
The Music App now has tiles that help you browse music by Album, Artists, Genres playlists or all music. From the all songs tab, you can swipe left or right to go to the next song or you can use the controls.
Multiple media formats
The H7 supports multiple music formats with chances that it will play most of if not all your usual formats for both Video and Audio
Large screen  Display
The 5’ large display gives you enough screen real estate for a crisp resolution to enjoy your movies and videos. The resolution is sharp and the display also had really good viewing angles for your viewing pleasure.
Games
Tecno sometimes misses the mark on the games especially for the fact that they are competing with lots of award winning games from the PlayStore. This has however not stopped them from providing you with so many games in  partnership with Gameloft. Some of the games include Danger Dash which is just like Temple Run and Green Farm 3. Most notable is the RF Tecno Football App which must have been included in the Spirit of World Cup. The game is graphic intensive and very detailed and most football fans would love it. Tecno also included a Gameloft apps store that has lots of free and paid games. We played both Danger dash and Green Farm 3 and enjoyed them
Radio
As is the norm, the H7 has a Radio and this time, they have added a record feature so you can record your favorite show for listening later.
SD card
In the H7 Tecno also included an 8GB SD card to get you started and should it not be enough, you can upgrade it to a maximum of 32GB for all your music and Movies.
The above features make the H7 an entertainment hub of sorts – everybody wants a phone that will keep them entertained.

Battery: 2020 mAh Battery Could Have Been  Better but together with the Battery Bank, We are Fine

As usual battery is a crucial thing to consider when buying a smartphone.  The H7 comes with a 2020 mAh battery which we put to the test. On a full charge, We went 10 hours on 3G but without heavy usage. We did the usual; picked up a couple of calls,  occasionally checked social media, emails, texting and chatting on Whatsapp — light usage.
With heavy usage, the H7 battery couldn’t take the heat. On a full charge, we were  constantly surfing the web, checking email, tweeting, facebooking and chatting on Whatsapp simultaneously. We took a couple of breaks in which we were listening to music and later caught a couple of episodes of “Orange is the New Black”. We also played games for a cool half hour and it was clear that this was too much for the H7 to take at a go. Just like any other smartphone or at least the mid-range ones, the H7 gave us a maximum of 5 hours before the battery let go.  We concluded that If you are a heavy user, you will need back up power which Tecno gave us in the 5200mAh power bank which then nullifies our would be complaint.
We also made some more observations. We found that the H7 battery charges very fast filling up to 100% in about an hour or an hour and a half tops.  We also noticed that there was heating up around the Camera while phone is charging which is an inconvenience. This happened especially if you are charging while using the phone at the same time. We tried charging the H7 with 3G turned off and without using the phone and there was no heating at all.
We also noticed that the battery has what we are choosing to call “Resilience”. We first noticed this in the Phantom A+ but lately most Tecno phones have the same feature. Even at a battery level of 5% you can run major applications (even on 3G). At 1% we could still use the camera. There are smartphones that won’t let you run some applications when the battery goes below a certain percentage.

5200 mAh Battery Bank: Two refills on one charge.
Adopting a better design than the Phantom battery bank, the H7 battery bank is also double in power with 5200 mAh and it also feels more solid. It  has a torch that Tecno claims can light for up to 70 hours. The battery bank took 4 hours to fully charge and charges faster when plugged into power than when on USB. The Bank delivered an impressive 1 and a half charge cycles to the H7 when it wasn’t in use. When we charged while using the phone, it delivered one charge and reserved a little power for emergency.

Price & Availability: You can actually buy one now

The Tecno H7 is currently available in Uganda at the Tecno headquarters for a retail price of 520,000 Ugx (about $ 200) which is about 33,000 Nigerian Naira, and 17,500 Kenyan Shillings. It’s also available from the various Tecno partners and vendors around the country but prices may vary depending on where you purchase from.

What We Liked

1. New UI
2. 13 months Warranty
3. Fast charging
4. Battery Bank
5. Smart Cover
6. Affordable Price and Wide Availability

What We Didn’t Like

1. plastic back cover
2. No dedicated Camera Button
3. No image stabilization feature in New Camera
4. Heating up around camera when charging while on 3G

Bottom Line/ Score

The H7 is another example of a beautiful phone at an amazing price point with actually very less trade offs since it’s as good as any other mid range smartphone out there. Tecno made significant improvements and this time they actually made a phone that we had less to complain about and more to celebrate. Most of the would-be complaints are swallowed up by the fact that the H7 comes at an affordable price point given its abilities. If anyone desired the H7 to do any better than it’s already doing, they would just have to top up and get one of the “Big Name” brands and I bet you (many times) you will still be disappointed.

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Tecno Phantom Pad II (G9) Review and Price

This is Tecno’s third tablet and is in my opinion way better than the first. The Tecno Phantom Pad II also known as Tecno G9 is now available in Nigeria and I just got one from a dealer N32,000 in Lokoja, Kogi State.
First of all, the specs
Display: 7.85 inch
Dimension:
1.3ghz Quad-core mediatek 8382 processor
Camera: 5mp at the front and back with format at 2592*1944
Android 4.2.2 operating system
Sim: Single Sim (Regular Mini sim)
Battery Capacity: 4200 mAh
Data: Support up to H+ (3.75g)
Wifi: Yes
Bluetooth: v4
Microusb port
Storage: 16gb
Ram: 1gb DDr3
Flash light: yes
Video Recording: 720p
Charger: Input: 100-240v, 500ma; Output: 2amp,5v
The tablet came with the following accessories; 2A charger, Ear piece and Rubber Casing

The android version 4.2.2 on this tab is the same as the one on the first Tecno n9 8 inch tablet but is much more fluid and sleek. This may be due to the newer mediatek 8382 processor on it. The former 8 inch tab used the older quad-core mediatek 8389. 

The volume keys and the power are located to the left of the tablet and the micro usb port is at the top of the tablet.

The icons are finer and the screen is sharper than the older tab. The size is 7.85 inches and is considerably smaller than the eight inch tablet. Check images below to see for yourself

Older one is the larger of the two

8 inch vs 7.85 inch

The rubber casing is transparent at the back and it switches off the screen if it is closed from the back and front. I think it should come with some magnetic pressure on it.

The tablet also has a new function called smart motion which puts your incoming call on silence by moving your tablet downwards to the left. This will be useful whenever you are in a crowd or public place.

BATTERY

Took me about 2 hours to charge to 100% from 10% and it takes an average of 8 to 10 hours of web browsing, playing light games like angry bird, etc

CONCLUSION

I will place this tablet above the Samsung Galaxy 2(s) and 3 tabs, and the older sibling 7 and 8 inch tecno tabs. This is because of the fluidity and sheer power of the processor.

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Tecno H6 Review: The lowest price we’ve seen for a power packed mid-range smartphone

With really good specs, a premium design, an entertainment and a good enough battery, the H6 makes a really good deal for a smartphone. The Tecno H6 packs in a lot of features, functionality, an awesome 8MP camera and a steady performance for a mid range smartphone. We dive into an in depth review of the Tecno H6 starting with unboxing.

Unboxing

The H6 has minimalist packaging, not as fancy as, say the Tecno H7 or the Tecno Phantom Z. It doesn’t come with a battery bank or a memory card (but at its price, I am even surprised I even get a phone at all). The box contains the H6 of course (with a screen protector pre-installed), a 2350 mAh battery, a flip cover, a travel charger and earphones. The box is still neat and well branded like with most Tecno smartphones.
You have to break a seal to open the box and when you do, you find the beautifully designed H6 on top in a rectangular soft pouch. (make sure the seal on the box is intact at the time of purchase or it might be a fake phone) Below the pouch is another black box that has the earphones, travel charger, USB cable, the back cover, the flip cover, a manual, a warranty card and a battery all neatly wrapped and packaged. Now let’s look at the specifications of the H6.

Tecno H6 Specifications

Released: October 2014
Available: November 2014 (in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria )
Colors Available: Black, White, Grey, Pink and Aqua)
SIM: Dual SIM ( 1 Mini and 1 Micro)
Operating System: Android 4.4 Kitkat upgradable to 5.0 Lollipop
Network: GSM/WCDMA
Band: GSM900/DCS1800/W2100
CPU: 1.3GHz Quad-core Processor
Memory: 1GB RAM, 8GB ROM, Micro SD Slot expandable up to 32GB
Battery: Capacity – 2350 mAh.
Data: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 3.75G
Dimension: 129.7*64.5*9.8mm
Weight: Not Verified
Camera: 8.0MP Auto Focus Back Camera with Flash, Video Recording, Video Calling. 2.0MP Front Camera
Display: 4.5” IPS touch screen display with 480*854 Resolution/240 dpi
Entertainment: FM radio, Voice recording, E-book reader, Built-in games
Connectivity: GPS navigation, WiFi（WLAN), Bluetooth V.3.0, 5 pin Micro USB port, 3.5mm earphone jack.
Sensors: Gyro -sensor, Light sensor and Proximity sensor.
Common Tools: Torch, Calculator, World clock, Alarm, Memo, Calendar.
Multimedia: Audio format- WAV/MP3/MIDI/APE/MP2/AMR/FLAC/Ogg, Ringtone format- Midi/MP3. Video format- 3GP/MP4, Image format- BMP/JPG/GIF/PNG

What is New?

Home Button
The home button isn’t like the house icon we knew as synonymous with Android. Starting with the Phantom Z, the new Tecno home button is a touch sensitive square with rounded corners that also acts as a notification LED light. When the display is off, the home button illuminates as notification light.
Kit Kat
The H6 is one of the few Tecno phones running Android 4.4 Kitkat. Unfortunately, it’s hard to experience Kitkat per se because it’s mostly covered up in the new Tecno UI that now powers their smartphones. From what we see, the H6 is updatable but we do not know if Tecno will release an Android Lollipop 5.0 update for their phones.
Tecno UI (User Interface)
The User Interface (UI) is what we have seen since the Tecno H5 and from Tecno’s consistency, we are now sure that Tecno has it’s own custom UI just like Huawei, HTC, or Samsung. Let’s take a look at a couple of features of the new Tecno UI.
We have the improved notification panel that you slide from top to bottom. When you slide it down, It reveals quick access buttons to apps like the torch, calculator, camera, recorder and timer. It also shows the time, network and the a switch button.
The switch button then reveals a quick access panel to a host of shortcuts. The panel includes shortcuts to settings, brightness control, flight mode, battery level, WiFi, Hot Knot, Bluetooth, data switch, GPS, hotspot switch, data usage, audio profiles, auto rotate, screen time out, power save, low power and ultra power modes.
Hot Knot
This is the new Tecno NFC (Near Field Communication) of sorts. It’s a file/data exchange function that allows you to share data by tapping the screens of two Hot Knot enabled Tecno devices together. It’s different from “Flash share” because they seem to be primarily different technologies. We aren’t sure If Hot Knot can enable actual Near Field Communications since Tecno doesn’t offer this information. We are yet to confirm.

3 Power saving modes
Knowing that battery is one of the major issues most smartphone users complain about, Tecno has built 3 battery saving modes to help you make the best of your battery.
Power Save: When turned on, this feature lets you vary how much power is used by the different functions of the phone to save on battery.
Low Power: We didn’t notice any change when this feature was turned on via the quick access panel. We are still tinkering and if we find out, we will let you know.
Ultra Power: The ultra power saving mode literally switches off all functionality and only lets you access your phone, contacts, messages and clock. Nothing else will work with the ultra power mode turned on. We also aren’t sure how long this extends the battery life but from out tests here at Dignited, we saw that the battery life was quadrupled. Meaning if you had 10% battery that could last you 4 hours, you could get 16 hours in ultra power mode. Of course it would last that long if you aren’t making calls consistently.
Inadvertently Mode
This helps keep your phone off when it is in your pocket so that you don’t make the wrong calls or let your phone operate itself by mistake while in your pocket. This feature was previously unavailable in earlier Tecno models and comes in really handy.
Screen-casting or mirroring:
This allows you to project the device’s screen to another screen. If you have a TV that supports screen-casting, you will be able to cast your device’s screen to the big TV screen. It’s like having a second and very huge screen. You could literally watch a movie wirelessly from your phone on a big screen with this screen casting feature.
Tricks
Tecno has also included a couple of fancy tricks in the Tecno H6. We first saw these tricks in the Tecno H7 and Tecno R7. The H6 allows you to tap the screen to wake it up or put it to sleep without having to press the power button like done in earlier models. All you have to do now is double tap the screen to wake it up or put it to sleep.
Tecno has also added the quick start function that helps your phone start up faster than usual. You can also call a contact displayed on the screen by just waving your hand over the screen. The same can be done to answer a call – Just wave your hand over the screen when you receive a call and the the call will automatically pick up. The H6 also allows you to mute a call by flipping the screen over.

Display: Not the best resolution but you won’t notice the difference

It’s sometimes hard to notice that the H6 only has a resolution of 480*854. and a 240 dpi (Dots Per Inch) As much as these seem on the low end of the display meter, H6’s 4.5’ IPS display looks sharp and colorful with lots of bright colored wallpaper. We had a good experience with viewing images and video even with the supposedly low resolution.

Design: Beautiful but still plastic

The Tecno H6 like many Tecno phones has a beautiful design. From the rectangular form factor with soft curves, the slightly protruding camera, to having the perfect size that fits in your hand, the H6 nails design. The charging port has been taken to the bottom and the earphone jack left on the top. The power button as always has been kept on the right with the volume keys to the left.
The problem comes with the easy to scratch plastic back cover that also feels cheap. It means one year down the road, you H6 won’t be looking so good. A poly-carbonate back cover would have actually fixed this but Tecno has insisted on plastic for all phones except the Phantom A+ and the Phantom Z.
The new home button that doubles as a notification light is a plus from Tecno – We love it.

Pre installed Apps

As always, Tecno packs their phones with lots of apps they believe you might need. Thankfully they give you the option to uninstall them if you so wish. They also give you a couple of app APKs (Android Application Package) that you can install offline should you need them. In the Tecno H6 we notice a few important apps that are worth mentioning.
The first is the Du Speed Booster. This basically helps you speed up your phone by clearing up junk files, cache and anything that might be slowing down your phone automatically.
The second up is the new Opera Max app that basically helps you manage your data better by showing you which app is taking your data and giving you advanced controls to manage your data usage. Those are the apps we found worth mentioning.

Performance: Fluid and fast all the way

The Tecno H6 features a 1.3 Ghz clock speed with 4 independent (a quadcore) processor, 1GB RAM and 16GB of ROM. This was enough to keep the phone fast and fluid.
We were looking for signs of lagging, freezing, crashing or anything that created a bad user experience. For the 3 weeks we had the phone, we didn’t find any. We succeeded at activating all the 3 sleeping cores with a lot of activity but the H6 remained responsive and fast amidst the multiple apps that we had opened in the background. We mixed work and play in trying to determine how the H6 would react in different scenarios and we weren’t surprised that the H6 handled everything we threw at it.
We also shifted all the apps that could allow to shift to the SD card freeing memory space to keep the phone fast.

Camera: Improved Low light capabilities

The Tecno H6 features an 8MP primary camera and a 2MP secondary camera. Tecno has improved it’s camera app since the phantom A+. They have added a couple of features and  functions that make taking pictures a lot more fan. They have also addressed a couple of previous complaints we had in earlier Tecno models.
The H6 camera allows geotagging of photos so that you can get the location a photo was taken from if you don’t remember. It also allows you to choose different shutter sounds or none at all.
The H6 also has customizable keys that allow you to choose which key/button to act as the shutter key – This solves the lack of the a dedicated camera button. For Instance we were able to program the volume down key to trigger the shutter.
The H6 camera also allows you to adapt settings like Exposure, Color, White balance and ISO. You can also set the camera to detect faces, touch, wave or speak to capture. Add time watermarks to your photos so you know what time you took them. For selfie lovers, you can use the self timer to take photos without pressing any button to trigger the shutter. Let’s look at the improvements made.
Faster Shutter Speed: This basically helps you capture photos faster reducing the possibility of blurry photos. Together with faster auto focus, the faster shutter speeds allow you to capture crisp and sharp images. Unfortunately even the faster shutter speeds cannot replace the need for Image stabilization.
Better Low Light photography: We weren’t able to establish the aperture of the H6 but we definitely saw an improvement in low light photography
Better Video: The H6 can shoot lovely full HD videos with good sound too. Even at night, we were able to shoot quality videos with the help of the flash.

Entertainment: All you need to stay entertained

SD Card:  The H6 comes with 16GB memory but doesn’t come with an SD card.The SD card slot can takes in up to 32GB to store all your favorite entertainment.
Speakers and Earphones: We didn’t notice any better sound with the speakers but suffice to say that it is good enough. The earphones gave us a very good listening experience with really good sound. We enjoyed them very much.
Radio and New Music App: As with most Tecno phones, the H6 has an FM radio. There’s nothing much to write about the Radio except it’s functional and easy to use. Like noted above, one of the best things is that with the earphones, the H6 delivers good sound that enhances your entertainment experience.
The new music app also helps navigate and easily find your favorite music. It helps you quickly access music by swiping your menu to the left. The app automatically categorises your music and allows you to create your favorite playlists. The Music app also has quick access to music controls like repeat, shuffle, skip among others. You can also play your music from the notification panel or via a music widget without necessarily going to the app.
Movies and Video: The H6 display is also big enough for your video and movies with a resolution good enough for a crisp image. The H6 is also perfect for entertainment because of the support for multiple formats it has. All this coupled with good sound on the earphones delivers a good entertainment experience.

2530 mAh Battery: Good enough but you still need to get a battery bank

One thing we love for sure is how fast the H6 battery charges. In about an hour or less, the Tecno H6 battery fills up. Unfortunately, It equally drains fast especially with heavy usage. Since the H6 doesn’t come with a battery bank, you probably want to invest in one.
According to our battery tests, the battery could last a day if you didn’t turn 3G often and received a couple of calls here and there. With 3G and constant use in a mix of calls, music, chatting, watching Video and checking email, the battery could only go for between 5-8 hours
The battery saving modes come in handy but since all they do is disable the extra functionality that you so often need especially internet, one might find them not so useful.

Tecno H6 Price and Availability

The Tecno H6 is available across Africa but specifically in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria among others. In Uganda, you can get the Tecno H6 from the retail store at the Tecno head office at Plot 20 William Street Rene Plaza, Kampala. You can also get it at the recently set up fancy Tecno store at Lugogo Mall at only 350,000 Ugx ( about $ 126)
Tecno H6 Price in Kenya (Ksh. 9,500 about $105)
Tecno H6 Price in Ghana (GHC 430 about $134)
Tecno H6 Price in Nigeria (18,500 Naira about $103)

What we Liked

• Kitkat and New UI
• Hot Knot
• Battery Saving Modes
• New Tricks
• Price and Availability
• Fast charging battery
• Inadvertent Mode

What We didn’t Like

• Plastic back
• No Battery Bank
• No memory Card

Wrap Up

Just like we did for the Tecno Phantom, we would love to review the H6 after one year to see if we would have the same opinion of it then. But for now we are very much impressed with the performance and price of the Tecno H6. If you want a good first time Android experience or if you want to buy a gift for someone, The Tecno H6 would be it.
Do you own the Tecno H6 or would you want to own it? Let us know what your experience with device has been.

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