Welcome to Darlington Chikezie's Blog

  The miracle story of Moringa and Zija The story begins with one man viewing a Discovery Channel documentary on a plant grown in far away lands. As he watched, his interest piqued when he observed people literally being sustained by consuming small amounts of this miracle plant. So he began asking the right questions and the answers arrived from the likes of scientists, biochemists, and pharmacologists the world over. The man asking the questions was Ken Brailsford, a super achiever in the nutritional supplement industry, the founder of Zija and the father of herbal encapsulation.

Microsoft has a new virtual assistant, and it’s a hybrid of Siri and Google Now, with some artificial affect thrown in for good measure. The Verge’s Tom Warren dishes on the upcoming feature of Windows 8.1, describing Cortana, the digital aide in question named after an AI character from the Halo series of games.

From the  largest   technology   companies  to  early stage investors , American high tech companies and venture capitalists are increasingly supporting startups across the African continent. Whether it’s the  16 mobile apps  in Botswana that Jim Goetz mentioned in his take on  Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp ; the launch of IBM’s new innovation centers in Lagos and Casablanca;  Microsoft’s partnership with three incubators  in Africa, or the  African Development Bank’s recent summit  on how to engage the private sector more effectively, African entrepreneurship is on investors minds. In fact, 2013 was the most active year for technology investment on the continent, according to data from  CrunchBase .

My fellow nerds, our long horrendous nightmare is over. We will soon no longer have to slum with 64Gb microSD cards. SanDisk will soon start selling 128GB Ultra microSDXC cards — a capacity double that of today’s cards. Today, at Mobile World Congress, SanDisk announced the tiny card that packs a boat-load of data into something smaller than a U.S. dime and almost as thin as a postage stamp. 128GB. In a single microSD card. Thanks, science.

Samsung is introducing its Galaxy S5 smartphone today at a special event in Barcelona, but you don’t have to be there to watch the announcement live – Samsung will be streaming the event live on its YouTube account and we’ll have the stream right here for you to watch, too, so bookmark this page and check back at 11 AM PT/2 PM ET to catch all the action.

The B ritish Council will on Wednesday, 26 February, hold an interactive session with stakeholders in the Education sector to discuss graduate employability and inclusive development with a view to advancing effective policy to address unemployment challenges. Continue...

BARCELONA, Spain -- A cell phone lies at the bottom of a fishbowl for hours, far longer than the 30 minutes that typical waterproof phones are rated to survive while fully submerged. Nobody looks worried; in fact, they're proud. On the far side of the demo table is a shallow dish full with water that's been dyed blue. In drops a sheet of tissue paper, which immediately crumples as it thirstily soaks up the tinted water. A Samsung Galaxy S4 treated with nanocoating rests at the bottom of a fishbowl for hours. (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET) This is the work of a company called P2i, which manufactures the nanocoating similar to the stuff that makes raindrops slide off treated clothing.Next to it, another tissue bobs lazily on top. Push it deeper into the water and the liquid just pools, then slides off. Occasionally, some drops will get between the fibers, giving it a wet feel, but the gauzy paper fabric won't soak.

After three years of running Piers Morgan Live, CNN has confirmed plans to cancel the prime time show due to poor ratings. According to the   New York Times ,   the host of the show Piers Morgan, who stepped up as the replacement for Larry King (who ran for 25 years), said last week that he and CNN president Jeff Zucker had discussed   the show's failure to connect to the network's audience and had decided to cancel it. The last shows will be aired in March.

Could  Monday  start any better for shoppers in Nigeria? Today, Jumia.com is giving away one PS4 every hour at an amazing discount of 50%. Yes, you can be the lucky person to purchase this state of the art console at just N64,995; Saving you a whooping N65,000.   Can’t wait to get your hands on a PS4? Here’s how -  Jumia   will be placing a PS4 randomly in various categories on the website, every hour there will be a countdown to the next discount  here . Simply browse through the various categories within the hour and get closer to grabbing this offer. Remember fastest a finger grabs the ps4 at the unbelievable price. Continue... Also fans on Facebook aren’t left out, simply visit the  Jumia Facebook  page, share the #Jumiamadness post and stand a chance to win a N10,000 shopping voucher to be used on  Jumia.com.ng .

The new Nokia X. (Credit: Nokia) BARCELONA, Spain -- You would think that Nokia's first Android smartphone would make for the start of a tense relationship with soon-to-be parent Microsoft. Well, you'd be wrong.

Burstly , the makers of an in-app ad management platform called  SkyRocket  and the  parent company  of popular mobile app testing platform TestFlight, has been acquired, we’re hearing. Though we’re working to get more information on this now, including deal terms, our understanding is that Apple is the acquirer here. We’ve been pointed in Apple’s direction by a few of sources, and it makes sense as several odd things have been going on with TestFlight in recent days. On Wednesday, TestFlight announced it would be  terminating Android support  as of March 21, for example, while also announcing that it was discontinuing its TestFlight SDK. According to support  documentation , only existing teams will be able to continue to upload builds with the SDK. New users and those who have never uploaded the SDK are now being asked to remove it from their builds. The company also shut down FlightPath, its  mobile analytics solution that entered into beta last year , following the Burstly/

Photograph by George Osodi for Darlingtons blog “It’s not OK for us to be doing this, we know, but the government is not looking after us at all,” says Daniel Sekibo (pictured). “There were no jobs here, so what do we do?” As night falls on a recent evening in the mazelike creeks of the Niger Delta, several oil thieves plunge into the dense, green mangroves along the Nun River. Above the forest, black coils of smoke rise to the sky. The river hums with outboard motors as skiffs carry residents to communities in the web of Nun offshoots. The boats halt at military checkpoints, barges manned by idle soldiers. Silhouetted passengers raise their hands to show they are unarmed and not transporting stolen oil. Daniel Sekibo leads the way. We are making our way to a camp near a Nigerian Agip Oil pipeline where he and his team, young men in their teens through thirties, refine stolen oil. The camp is a 15-minute walk from their village center, which is little more than a bar on a

Just because WhatsApp will “operate independently” doesn’t mean Facebook won’t put its 6,000-employee muscle behind its  new acquisition . We’ve heard a lot about how WhatsApp will save Facebook from losing the international messaging war, but sources close to the parent company tell me it actually did a lot to help Instagram. Here are the ways you can expect it to do the same for WhatsApp.

Today’s collective gasp at the frothy valuations and pace of mobile transformation in the Internet business comes courtesy of  Facebook  ( FB ) . The social network announced  after the close of the market on Wednesday that it has acquired mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion. As several commentators tweeted, reaching simultaneously for the low-hanging comedy fruit: “They should call it WTFapp.”

The Lagos Sector Commander FRSC, Chidi Nkwonta has said that the upgraded Driver's License being issued now in Nigeria can be used in 3 states in America as well as some countries in Europe.

It was a night of glitz and glamour when HP Nigeria recently launched the HP Officejet Pro X series – the world’s fastest desktop printer which has earned a Guinness World Record title for unsurpassed speed at the Abora Hall, Eko Hotel and Suites. It was launched alongside new introductions in the HP Elite Portfolio powered by Windows 8 Pro.  Continue...  

Last week Microsoft announced that its new CEO is Satya Nadella, and that its first CEO, Bill Gates, would be spending time at the company helping with product decisions. It was the culmination of a long bout of CEO bingo. The role that Gates will now play at the company he founded is interesting: Will he help Nadella’s strategic vision? Would he help the re-org solidify? We have a better answer to that question today, as Gates  took again to Reddit  to answer the Internet’s questions. Asked directly what his new role at Microsoft will entail, Gates  elaborated  on what he sees coming up in technology, noting that Nadella specifically asked him to help out:

Rumours that primary Windows Phone OEM Nokia has been two-timing Microsoft by keeping an Android phone project on its backburner have been doing the rounds for a while now (aka the rumoured  Nokia Normandy  device). But yesterday the  Wall Street Journal tipped more fuel on this fire, citing “people familiar with the matter” confirming that Nokia will unveil an Android powered device at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona later this month. Now there’s plenty of WTF here. Not least because Nokia is about to hand over its mobile making division to Windows Phone maker Microsoft in exchange for a substantial pile of cash ( €5.44 billion /$7.2 billion). So why would Microsoft, which has its own mobile platform, sanction its soon to be mobile making division to build an Android-powered device?

A leaker  took to Reddit earlier today  and listed details of Microsoft’s coming Windows Phone 8.1 surfaced through early access to the update’s software development kit (SDK). In addition to a host of feature upgrades, the changes include work by Microsoft to bring Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows RT closer together. That aligns with the  statements  of Microsoft executive Julie Larson-Green: “We have the phone OS, we have Windows RT, and we have full Windows. We are not going to have three.” It has been mostly clear that Microsoft intends — given that it cannot, and will not end the desktop-friendly flavor of Windows — to merge, in some capacity, Windows RT and Windows 8.1. Today’s leaks, as noted above, fit that model. Microsoft declined to comment.

Former Daily Show correspondent  John Oliver returned  to host this year’s Crunchies , the tech industry awards show co-hosted by Gigaom, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch. And he didn’t pull any punches. After starting off the night by immediately yelling “f*** you” to an audience member whose wolf whistle struck him the wrong way, the host launched into some more pointed commentary about the tech industry in general, including its not-so-positive sides. With what was sometimes darker humor, he joked about everything from the Google bus protests to the NSA. He even made up his own awards, one of which was for tech’s best “cartoon villain.” And two people “won” it.

Top comedian Ayo Makun popularly known as AY is getting ready to unveil his multimillion Naira premium Night club, MVP. MVP is  an all-new luxurious and premium class club, lounge& restaurant located in the heart of Lekki at Ommission Emporium, Plot 16 Block 46, Bisola Durosimi-Etti Drive, Lekki Phase1, Lekki, Lagos. It will be officially opened on   Friday, April 18 through Sunday April 20 , 2014.  

Oh no! Such a sad report. A  military transport plane carrying relatives of members of the armed forces veered off the runway and  crashed on take-off in southern Algeria today February 11th, killing all 103 people onboard. The plane was  carrying 99 passengers and 4 crew members. According to reports coming from news agencies in Algeria, the Air Algerie plane,  a Boeing 737,  which is the country's national airline, crashed after one of its engines caught fire as it took off in the  remote city of Tamanrasset in the Sahara Desert. A spokesman for the airline told AFP that " There was a mechanical problem on take-off". This is the first major accident in the history of Algeria's national airline, set up in 1962.

After winning the Next Rated Artiste 2013,  Sean   Tizzle  has shown there's no stopping him. The singer and his team went to South Africa to shoot the video for his latest hit single 'Kilogbe" and 3 other unreleased songs off his much awaited debut album titled "Ther Journey' which is set to drop in April all directed by cinematographer, Sesan. Continue to see  behind the scene pictures from the videos...

Adedibu’s son, 30 others escape death in near plane crash in Abuja 31 passengers, including the son of late Ibadan politician, Lamidi Adedibu, Sen Kamoru Adedibu, escaped death yesterday after an Overland Airlines aircraft they boarded caught fire shortly before take off at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja yesterday. Saturday Tribune reports that the plane, scheduled for Ibadan from Abuja at 4:52p.m. was about to take off when it started emitting smoke from one of its engines. One of the passengers who spoke with Saturday Tribune said the about 31 passengers of the plane were already seated before the incident. “We first observed that engineers were frantically fiddling with the plane’s engine. Then we suddenly saw smoke. It is not funny at all. All of us, including a senator, rushed out of the plane. Continue... “We were subsequently evacuated by airport officials. As I am speaking with you now (8:30p.m.), we are waiting for another plane from Ilorin, which we

Imagine a school where playing video games is encouraged during classes and may even replace exams. A new educational programme uses SimCity to test children on vital problem-solving skills. Video games usually get in the way of homework.  GlassLab , however, is a collaboration between educators and technologists. Uniting commercial game studios and educational groups the aim is to embrace gaming technology to transform the learning process and make it more relevant to the demands of the 21st Century.  They could even one day replace traditional exams. SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge, which has just launched, is an educational version of the video game SimCity. Designed for teenagers, students play the role of a city mayor, managing a city with some pressing pollution problems.    BBC Future spoke to Jessica Lindl,   general manager of GlassLab, at the Silicon Valley-based gaming company, EA (Electronic Arts) about how games could prepare children for jobs

Is praising a child good or bad for them? (Thinkstock) We assume that enthusiastic words motivate children to try harder. But when you look at the evidence, it’s not that clear-cut. It all depends on the wording. Your child presents you with their latest artistic creation. It’s a painting of a figure with very long thin legs, no body and big hair. It’s you. In the corner there’s a bit of yellow which you’re told is the Sun and beside it some patches of purple paint. If you’re being honest you’ve seen better, but as your child waits for your reaction, what do you say? “That’s amazing. It’s the best painting I’ve ever seen. It’s completely fantastic.” Your child beams as the picture is attached to the fridge door for the rest of the family to see. But is that really the best thing to have said? We tend to assume that we all enjoy receiving praise, and that it will motivate us to try harder. But when you look at the evidence, it’s not that straightforward. It all depends on the w

Facebook's Paper app aims to show newsfeeds in a new way Continue reading the main story Facebook has been asked to change the name of its new app Paper by a firm which has an app of the same name. The original Paper was developed by start-up FiftyThree and won Apple's 2012 iPad app of the year. It allows people to sketch on their iPad and has garnered 100 million users. Facebook's Paper is designed as an alternative way to read newsfeeds. The social network has not commented on the request to alter the name. Facebook's Paper had largely positive reviews when it was released on Apple's iTunes store on 3 February, with some saying it was better than the Facebook app. It provides both human and algorithm-generated articles and photos in a range of categories. It is currently only officially available in the US.

Will the Chinese dream be extended to operating systems? After assuming power in late 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared what he called China's dream - his inspiring vision for the future of the world's most populous country. Continue reading the main story The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, borrowed the same phrase when it reported the unveiling of what was claimed to be a fully home-grown operating system for tablets, smartphones and even PCs. Dubbed China Operating System (COS), it will take on Google, Apple and Microsoft "to realise the China dream in the field of operating systems". But will this dream be taken seriously? Home-made? Chinese bloggers and even some state-run newspapers have been quick to cast doubt over the claim that the software is genuinely developed and made in China.

Indian-born Satya Nadella has risen through the ranks of Microsoft since joining the company in 1992 Continue reading the main story Related Stories Microsoft's new man at the top To-do list for Microsoft's new boss Microsoft earnings beat expectations Technology giant Microsoft has announced that  Satya Nadella will be its next chief executive . Indian-born Mr Nadella is currently Microsoft's head of Cloud and Enterprise, which builds and runs the firm's computing platforms and developer tools. He takes over from Steve Ballmer who announced plans to step down last year. Company founder Bill Gates said there was "no better person to lead Microsoft". Mr Gates is stepping down as chairman, it was also announced, but will take up a new role as a technology adviser and will also retain a seat on Microsoft's board. Microsoft's lead independent director John Thompson will take over as chairman. 'Proven leader' "Microsof

The will of former South African President and world hero, Nelson Mandela was read to his family members today February 3rd. Reading the 40 page will, Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke said Mandela's third wife, Graca Machel, is entitled to half the estate under South African marital law but could waive her claims and opt for specified assets that include properties in her native Mozambique. Machel has not made a decision on whether to weave her rights, Moseneke said. The will directs that each of his children and some of his grand-children are to receive $300,000. His upscale Johannesburg house, where he spent most of his life after being freed from apartheid prison, would be home to his deceased son Makgatho's children.