Niger deletes 1.7 million mobile phone numbers

Niger has deleted 1.7 million mobile phone numbers, according to a report by Reuters. The African country says it is an attempt to improve security, and affects nearly all carriers operating in Niger to a degree. The country has about 5.4 million mobile customers, leaving nearly one third of them without a number.

Niger telecoms regulations committee ARTP asked that all citizens identify themselves by a November 24th deadline, which was meant to “fight against various forms of insecurity.” Bharti Airtel was the worst affected carrier, with 916,701 customers losing their numbers. Orange, a French provider operating in Niger, lost 628,407 numbers. Two other carriers were also affected, but not nearly as bad.

The move comes when Niger arrested a known terrorist who was planning attacks in the capital city of Niamey. The man was stopped when attempting to board a bus for Mali, where French forces had a terrorist arrest of their own. The man arrested by the French was wanted in Niger for killing a U.S. diplomat and Saudi tourists, and has been sought by the FBI since those attacks.

It’s not yet known if information given by either arrestee caused Niger to delete mobile numbers, or if this is part of some effort to free up unused profiles. It could also be at the behest of carriers, though we can’t imagine why they’d do that. Given the geography of Niger, we’d like to think they’re just taking all necessary precautions to avoid further conflict.

Sprites et web mobile

Connaissez-vous les sprites ?

Les sprites sont une technique de regroupement d’images venue du jeu vidéo : La technique consiste à regrouper plusieurs versions d’une image dans une seule.

Elles servent à animer des personnages ou à regrouper toutes les images d’un univers dans une seule ressource, afin de la charger plus vite, ou de changer tout le thème de l’univers en une seule ligne de code.

Dans le monde du web mobile, cette technique est également très pratique : Elle réduit le nombre de requêtes réseau, fluidifie l’expérience utilisateur et offre quelques autres avantages.

Voici comment les utiliser.

Les sprites vont vous permettre de facilement changer toutes les images selon le device ratio du terminal en utilisant les media-queries en CSS. Et, avec le parc de terminaux actuel, rien que pour Android et iOS on a déjà 6 résolutions différentes.

Voici un exemple de fichier sprite.css tel que nous l’utilisons :

Chaque version pointe vers une image de taille différente. Le ratio 2 pointe par exemple sur une image deux fois plus grande que le ratio 1, que l’on affiche sur le même nombre de pixels afin d’avoir une densité de pixels plus élevée.

Les versions iOs sont la version standard mdpi (qui équivaut à @1x) et la version @2x. Les autres règles ciblent Android et ses multiples versions. Notez l’exception de la résolution 1.3 qui correspond aux tablettes Google Nexus 7. Plutôt que de lui faire une version d’image spéciale, nous avons choisi (après tests) de lui mettre l’image hdpi.

Avec cette CSS, chaque terminal charge uniquement l’image qui lui est propre et charge d’un seul coup l’ensemble des images de l’application. Cela améliore grandement la fluidité : au changement de page, les images s’affichent instantanément car elles ont déjà été chargées.

Dans cette même CSS nous ajoutons ensuite l’ensemble des composants visuels de l’application, avec leur position dans la sprite et leur taille :

Une fois cette CSS réalisée, il devient très simple d’utiliser une ressource dans le code HTML. Par exemple, pour ajouter une icône dans un lien, on va simplement écrire :

Certaines ressources ne pourront pas être mises en sprite. C’est le cas des textures ou fond qui doivent se répéter. Les règles CSS background-repeat fonctionnent mal avec les règles de background-position. Il n’est actuellement pas possible de répéter une portion d’une image de fond rien qu’avec des règles CSS.

Vous devrez donc séparer ces images de la sprite et réutiliser les media-queries pour cette image là spécifiquement dans votre CSS.

Côté design, faire une sprite pour chaque résolution n’est pas chose facile. Nous vous conseillons de partir de la plus grande sprite (xhdpi), de garder pas mal de zones blanches entre les images et de toujours caler vos tranches sur des position divisibles par 2.25, 2, et 1.5

Il existe des outils pour générer des sprites : des sites en ligne et des scripts Photoshop.

Nous vous recommandons fortement d’utiliser ce genre de script pour générer vos sprites. Avec Photoshop et quelques connaissances en script vous pourrez également ajouter le redimensionnement des images aux différentes résolutions.

AngularJS, pas encore prêt pour le mobile

Mardi dernier avait lieu la soirée de présentation d’AngularJS par nos amis de Sushee et OrangeLabs via CodeDarmor, l’occasion de voir si cette librairie javascript est aussi révolutionnaire qu’elle y paraît.

Au final, si l’effet whaou est bien là avec le « two way data-binding », notre avis reste mitigé.

Le data-binding est ce qui rend les démos AngularJS bluffantes : à chaque modification des données du modèle, la vue se met à jour. Vous pouvez mettre des références à des données partout dans votre DOM, AngularJS les tient à jour pour vous.

Fini les modifications sur DOM à la jQuery, la librairie s’en charge. La séparation « modèle, vue, contrôleur » est enfin possible en HTML5. En un mot : Génial!

Sauf que pour effectuer cette magie, AngularJS scrutte les événements de modification du DOM, doit maintenir des références sur les différents items et leur noeud dans le DOM et peut être amené à mettre à jour tout le scope de votre contrôleur alors que seule une petite valeur a changé dans votre objet.

Si vous voulez des animations, AngularJS ajoute également automatiquement des classes à tous les éléments du DOM lors de leur ajout, suppression ou déplacement. Y compris les éléments que vous n’animerez pas.

Tout cela est très pratique, c’est certe un peu sauvage comme façon de faire mais la plupart des navigateurs habituels sont capables de manipuler tout cela sans que vous n’y voyez quoi que ce soit.

Par contre, si vous embarquez vos applications HTML5 dans une application native, ces manipulations vont vite ralentir votre application, les « webviews » étant beaucoup moins puissantes qu’un « vrai » navigateur.

Bien que ce point des performances soit bloquant pour nous, il nous faudra garder un oeil sur AngularJS, car de nombreuses personnes travaillent déjà sur comment adapter AngularJS au mobile sans perdre trop en performance.

AngularJS est donc un framework JavaScript prometteur mais nous allons probablement devoir continuer encore un petit peu avec Handlebars et Zepto

AngularJS, not yet ready for mobile

Last Tuesday it was held the night of the AngularJS presentation by our friends Sushee and OrangeLabs via CodeDarmor, to see if this javascript library is as revolutionary as it sounds.

Ultimately, if the effect whaou is with "two-way binding data," our opinion remains mixed.

Data binding is what makes to give incredible AngularJS: data of changes in the model, the view is updated. You can update the references to the data throughout its DOM, AngularJS keeps up-to-date for you.

Finished changes to DOM in the jQuery, the library is in charge. 'Model, view, controller' separation is possible in HTML5. In a word: awesome!

Except that to perform this magic, modification of scrutte of AngularJS of the DOM events, must maintain the references in various articles and its nodes in the DOM and may need to update the scope of your controller, while only a small value has changed in its object.

If you like animations, AngularJS automatically adds also classes to all elements in the DOM when you add, delete, or move. Including items not be encourage.

All this is very convenient, way to make a little wild like certe but most common browsers are capable of handling all this if you don't see anything.

On the other hand, If you send your HTML5 native, applications use these manipulations will quickly decrease your application, the "webviews" being much less powerful than a 'real' browser.

Although this point of performance is blocking for us, we will have to keep an eye on AngularJS, because many people are already working on how adapt AngularJS to the mobile without loosing much performance.

AngularJS is therefore a promising JavaScript framework but we may have to continue a bit with handlebar and Zepto

AngularJS, pas encore prêt pour le mobile

Mardi dernier avait lieu la soirée de présentation d’AngularJS par nos amis de Sushee et OrangeLabs via CodeDarmor, l’occasion de voir si cette librairie javascript est aussi révolutionnaire qu’elle y paraît.

Au final, si l’effet whaou est bien là avec le « two way data-binding », notre avis reste mitigé.

Le data-binding est ce qui rend les démos AngularJS bluffantes : à chaque modification des données du modèle, la vue se met à jour. Vous pouvez mettre des références à des données partout dans votre DOM, AngularJS les tient à jour pour vous.

Fini les modifications sur DOM à la jQuery, la librairie s’en charge. La séparation « modèle, vue, contrôleur » est enfin possible en HTML5. En un mot : Génial!

Sauf que pour effectuer cette magie, AngularJS scrutte les événements de modification du DOM, doit maintenir des références sur les différents items et leur noeud dans le DOM et peut être amené à mettre à jour tout le scope de votre contrôleur alors que seule une petite valeur a changé dans votre objet.

Si vous voulez des animations, AngularJS ajoute également automatiquement des classes à tous les éléments du DOM lors de leur ajout, suppression ou déplacement. Y compris les éléments que vous n’animerez pas.

Tout cela est très pratique, c’est certe un peu sauvage comme façon de faire mais la plupart des navigateurs habituels sont capables de manipuler tout cela sans que vous n’y voyez quoi que ce soit.

Par contre, si vous embarquez vos applications HTML5 dans une application native, ces manipulations vont vite ralentir votre application, les « webviews » étant beaucoup moins puissantes qu’un « vrai » navigateur.

Bien que ce point des performances soit bloquant pour nous, il nous faudra garder un oeil sur AngularJS, car de nombreuses personnes travaillent déjà sur comment adapter AngularJS au mobile sans perdre trop en performance.

AngularJS est donc un framework JavaScript prometteur mais nous allons probablement devoir continuer encore un petit peu avec Handlebars et Zepto

AngularJS, pas encore prêt pour le mobile

Mardi dernier avait lieu la soirée de présentation d’AngularJS par nos amis de Sushee et OrangeLabs via CodeDarmor, l’occasion de voir si cette librairie javascript est aussi révolutionnaire qu’elle y paraît.

Au final, si l’effet whaou est bien là avec le « two way data-binding », notre avis reste mitigé.

Le data-binding est ce qui rend les démos AngularJS bluffantes : à chaque modification des données du modèle, la vue se met à jour. Vous pouvez mettre des références à des données partout dans votre DOM, AngularJS les tient à jour pour vous.

Fini les modifications sur DOM à la jQuery, la librairie s’en charge. La séparation « modèle, vue, contrôleur » est enfin possible en HTML5. En un mot : Génial!

Sauf que pour effectuer cette magie, AngularJS scrutte les événements de modification du DOM, doit maintenir des références sur les différents items et leur noeud dans le DOM et peut être amené à mettre à jour tout le scope de votre contrôleur alors que seule une petite valeur a changé dans votre objet.

Si vous voulez des animations, AngularJS ajoute également automatiquement des classes à tous les éléments du DOM lors de leur ajout, suppression ou déplacement. Y compris les éléments que vous n’animerez pas.

Tout cela est très pratique, c’est certe un peu sauvage comme façon de faire mais la plupart des navigateurs habituels sont capables de manipuler tout cela sans que vous n’y voyez quoi que ce soit.

Par contre, si vous embarquez vos applications HTML5 dans une application native, ces manipulations vont vite ralentir votre application, les « webviews » étant beaucoup moins puissantes qu’un « vrai » navigateur.

Bien que ce point des performances soit bloquant pour nous, il nous faudra garder un oeil sur AngularJS, car de nombreuses personnes travaillent déjà sur comment adapter AngularJS au mobile sans perdre trop en performance.

AngularJS est donc un framework JavaScript prometteur mais nous allons probablement devoir continuer encore un petit peu avec Handlebars et Zepto

Samsung: When the mobile Division stifles profit

By Jean-Louis Petrod on July 26, 2013

At the time, all manufacturers their benefits quarterly, Samsung reveal, is no exception to the rule, and profits of $6.96 billion 2013 announced in the second quarter. An impressive number, it should not necessarily with S4 Galaxy sales among the more than satisfactory, first, even if estimates.

Record sales of mobile phones, if you, an increase of 9% compared with the first quarter of the year and 54% compared with the second quarter 2012.

A quarter who get benefits of Samsung constantly, but despite the Korean not less than 23.4 million units are the latest high-end phone for sale and one-third of the 71 world over smartphones millions in the second quarter of 2013 all manufacturers combined, this growth does not necessarily based on the mobile market.

Cost of the Mobile Division reduce the advantages of Samsung.

Therefore, we look at the detail of the Samsung's profits, it fast, that most of the profits mainly electronics products is recorded in the second quarter of 2013 of the Korean public, followed by computers during mobile devices only in third place come. Then come the screens then the profits of semiconductors by the brand.

Despite an overall growth of about 8%, Samsung mobile Division operating profit nevertheless fell by 3% during the same period therefore suggest that income, the levels start to stabilize.

Made a marginal profit expected by the generated costs, especially in marketing, introduction of new products, but also in research and development.

Also saturated indicating that decreased sales of tablets of the brand now developed markets and fast-growing emerging markets.

Samsung always in difficulties-growth in the second quarter of 2013.

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Xavier Niel wants to export free mobile in Belgium

By Jean-Louis Petrod 21 June 2013

It was in an interview with magazine trend trend, Xavier Niel spoke for the first time his desire to free mobile in Belgium exportto the expression. A new direction, that would be a natural extension for him, even if we imagine that local operators have nothing to the idea already shaking. It must be said that revolutionized the market historical operators such as orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom pushing the side of us who radically fourth French operators, to reject their own low-cost offering. Will happen soon as well as on the side of Belgium? This is what we are trying to define.

For Xavier Niel restored free mobile to offer competition with the most affordable prices. Of course, this perspective from the point of view of the consumer are, we do not complain, because it is thanks to this new situation now any unlimited packages provide for less than £ 20.

So back to our extension offer free mobile sheep in the Belgium territory on the Xavier Niel plans.  An idea that currently germinates in the head of CEO of Iliad, although at the moment no concrete project is underway for the simple reason, the not operator for sale at the moment.

Free mobile one day in Belgium?

As explained, the sixth capacity of France, currently contains install the offer within the limits of the Belgian a buyout would require in the mass, as the Belgian authorities give much less easily mobile as the French Government new licenses.

As you will understand, read from this article, nothing is currently underway, but the interest, which seems the Belgium Xavier Niel on idle, that the obstacle to the realization of this project is quite passable and the day where possible will become all so possible.

The battery of our smartphones will be the next mobile revolution?

By Gabriel Manceau June 18, 2013

The battery of our smartphones is in most cases the Achilles heel of our laptops, our shelves and our computers. , While technology and miniaturization of components are evolving very quickly, is not the case screens the capacity of the batteries are fighting autonomy to offer two days for products, which is constantly problematic in our pockets.

Two pioneers that technology today speak the Reuters site and evoke the future of our mobile terminals that their autonomy is at the heart of their evolution. They cite the fact that the sensors more and more to manage the physical activity or temperature are at the heart of these products to the brightness. The Google Glass are just a new stage in this level. All sensors which will continue to develop the autonomy of mobile devices that take a turn at this level.

The autonomy of our Smartphone is still way...

"Mobile devices are limited by battery technology, is not a problem of the calculation," said Hosain Rahman, Director of the jawbone. Meanwhile, says Karen Itani, CEO of Athir Labs, there are other things that within five years, as our smartphones out where distance, to do a real will move forward, but also for jump now the biggest challenge is miniaturization of batteries and thereby an important capability".

This new impetus should come from Google and Apple, which at present the market of smartphones to check and should be new innovative things in this area. It is an approach initiated by the views of the mountains company by buying Motorola, known, that to make the terminals with a good autonomy. For the Andronautes, who are we, Moto-X are all eyes then, turn the benefits from the know-how of the two companies. Autonomy could be also the 'workhorse' of the next nexus phone. What do you by developing our mobile devices at this level?

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Free: mobile subsidized prices with package to EUR 25 per month?

By Gabriel Manceau 14 June 2013

Subsidized free mobile cell phones talk to them. It is the voice of the credit Switzerland which are now reserved for competitors from the entrance of the fourth mobile operator in the premium offerings this time by to listen. After doing very poorly to other operators with the launch of low-cost offers free left a level?

Free mobile launch in subsidized cell phone nor gain more market share. If the operator has started strongly, its competitors of the limiting case offers have competitive. This time it is the Xavier Niel company, the "" copy could SFR, Bouygues and orange, while prices to break, how she could do this in his start in January 2012. Once again, this would be not everyone like.

Free mobile: soon mobile subsidized rates?

Credit Switzerland published his crystal ball and subsidized mobile packages ' priced broken 25-30 euros per month, against around 40 euros per month for premium offers '. Therefore, you understand that would be the fourth operator can give you a phone discount with a package that would be in the 12 or 24 months, but a pure competitive tariff, you each month 10 or would have to pay less than that of other operators 15 euro.

"The impact on the sector will be less severe, that at the start of free mobile almost a year is and a half", he says. It must be said that the shock during the release of mobile packages in free especially violent been. Xavier Niel mentioned the possibility to propose new surprising things. What do you think of the arrival of such offers would you be interested in?

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Samsung: it is 16 sizes of screens for 26 mobile terminals, much?

By Gabriel Manceau 13 June 2013

Do you know the sizes of the screens from Samsung ? The British company that counted for you, and they are not less than 16 different diagonals, which on 26 terminals of the brand currently on the market. The strategy of the tsunami disaster for the Korean manufacturer that flooded the market in the mobility of its products.

If this seems little, is that a choice has been made and that the dual-SIM models and those adapted, by certain mobile operators were not counted. The screens of smartphones and tablets Samsung range from 3 10.1 inches up to. A summary shows the pervasiveness of the brand and covers all types of applications, even if it means when create was the case with the note, for example, which will see its third model.

16 Sizes of screens from Samsung!

It is so that the manufacturer number has become one phone from Nokia, which existed during the hours of glory, also 40 devices on the market before Apple and number one Smartphone. At that time, the competition was also much less violent. Today should be the Korean "constant innovations to strong demand from consumers want to meet, more and more technology and innovation. A frequency, one even from one year to the other versions is, which has changed little.

Samsung terminals from Screenresolutions

26 Models with 16 sizes of screens from Samsung will not be enough to ensure the sustainability of one of the largest companies in the world, which already begins to turn round when it comes to smartphones and tablets. The company is well known and is currently working on a 3.0 design, which should bring a fresh future products.

One of Samsung's strengths is its components to produce in-house and cover all markets, from entry-level to out to very high end. The company has long. What do you think of this strategy and the multiplication of the terminals?

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Intel CloverTrail +: very powerful, but also the most efficient mobile processors!

By Gabriel Manceau 11 June 2013

Intel CloverTrail + is the new mobile processor of the famous founder. Experience in the PC World of brand comes with its new SoC is powerful, but also more efficient in energy than what is currently on the market. A real tour de force!

Every year, processors, to equip our smartphones and tablets are more powerful, but that means also a large consumption of batteries, melts them also most important. This is partly due, which explains that the autonomy of our products from one year to another is stagnant. Intel CloverTrail + may come around this circle with performance over quantity, but also the lowest consumption under the new SOC to break

Intel CloverTrail + competition stunned

Tests conducted by ABI Research, multiple processors, including Exynos 5 to compare, octa and Exynos 5250 from Samsung, the 600 Snapdragon from Qualcomm and NVIDIA Tegra 3. The goal is to compare the devices already on the market. Intel CloverTrail + switches it on Lenovo 900. The results speak for themselves, this latter fact better results than all competitors, except on the part of the graphic or made Exynos 5 octa a better result. The consumption of the Intel is 0.85 amp against 1.38 for the latest SoC Samsung and 1.79 for the Snapdragon.

A tower of strength for the foundry, which offers a dual-core CPU clocked at 2 GHz, which can do better than the competition with four or eight cores. It must be said, that the manufacturer not from nothing comes and that his experience in the world of the PC was winning the best possible chip with a power updated foolproof design report. The next generation will be of course much better.

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Vonage Mobile adds video calling for Android 2.3 and up

Vonage is releasing an update to both its Android and iOS apps today to offer users completely free video calling over both Wifi and mobile data. The video calls are of course locked to only being available between two Vonage users, but will support some pretty handy features. You can choose to display either your front or rear camera, which can let you show off what is going on around you. While in a call you can also seamlessly switch between a video and just audio, something that isn't simply done on most video calling solutions.

This puts Vonage more squarely in the camp of services like Skype, which seem to dominate the space currently. The app says it hasn't yet been updated, but when we took a look the feature seems to be live now. So if you're a Vonage user, go grab your update. Those who haven't yet given Vonage a try may now be compelled to give it a shot as well. 

"Forever tinkering with gadgets."

Mobile Kansakuntien podcast: kamera-uusinta

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