In case you missed it: Facebook Messenger crashes and more.

·
April 10, 2015
·
3 min read

Every day in technology is definitely an interesting day but you may not always hear about it especially since some of the things that make it interesting are behind the scenes.

Here are some of yesterday's main highlights:

  • LinkedIn acquires Lynda: LinkedIn and Lynda.com announced an acquisition that will see LinkedIn pay about $1.5billion in about 52% cash and 48% stock options. Lynda.com is arguably the largest repository of online learning videos (excluding Youtube, of course). At this moment, neither company has stated categorically what role Lynda.com will play within the larger LinkedIn framework.  Lynda.com was started in 1995 by Lynda Weinman and her husband.
  • New NCC data shows an increase in data subscriptions: NCC released a report which stated that mobile internet subscribers rose from 76,324,632 in December 2014 to 81,892,840 in January 2015 – translating to 5,570,038 new users in January alone. Considering the recent drops in cost of data by the networks, this is to be expected and that is definitely good news. More Nigerians are coming online.
  • Facebook launches a standalone website for its app, Messenger: Social networking giant, Facebook, yesterday released the web version of their standalone chat app - Messenger. The highly successful but also widely criticised (due to privacy concerns) app was unbundled from the main network a while back and Facebook tried to force user adoption by disabling chat functions within the main Facebook app. The site crashed but is now back online after about 4 hours offline.
  • Facebook (again), files a patent that could challenge Google's leadership of the online ads space: Facebook filed a patent for an ad exchange network that uses data from its social graph to target very specific people. Essentially, advertisers can target even more specific demography rather than just relying on browser behaviour which is what drives Google's ad network. Adverts will not go amiss because Facebook already has your preferences, hobbies, likes and habits from your profile which you filled in yourself.
  • Little known (at least, in certain quarters) Xiaomi breaks Guinness World Record for the most smartphones sold in a day: Xiaomi is not little in any way. They are the fifth largest smartphone company in the world, after Samsung, Apple, Motorola/Lenovo and Huawei. They sold over 2.11 million mobile phones online within 24 hours on their website - Mi.com - taking them straight into the history books and making over USD$ 335million in the process.
  • iRokoTV partners with SpectraNet to give out 30days for free: iRokoTV announced that they'll provide 30-days free video streaming service to existing Spectranet customers, as a way of providing value added services to customers to enable them enjoy their Internet service using a voucher code that will be emailed to them after they pay for their next  subscription.
  • Finally, for the gamers, Call of Duty gets a release date: Call of Duty released the trailer for this year's edition of the popular franchise and this year's own will most likely be "Black Ops 3". The proposed release date is April 26. We know some of you haven't finished playing last year's version but hey, who says you can't own both?

So, there you have it. A lot more definitely happened but these stood out for us. Wanna talk about it? Hit us up via the comments section.

Still on a journey to fully discovering self. Someone called me a unicorn once though and another, a phoenix. Phoenicorn sounds corny, same goes for uninix but unix on the other hand... Never mind.
Still on a journey to fully discovering self. Someone called me a unicorn once though and another, a phoenix. Phoenicorn sounds corny, same goes for uninix but unix on the other hand... Never mind.
Subscribe To Techpoint Digest
Join thousands of subscribers to receive our fun week-daily 5-minute roundup of happenings in African and global tech, directly in your inbox, hours before everyone else.
This is A daily 5-minute roundup of happenings in African and global tech, sent directly to your email inbox, between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m (WAT) every week day! 
Digest Subscription

Give it a try, you can unsubscribe anytime. Privacy Policy.

Still on a journey to fully discovering self. Someone called me a unicorn once though and another, a phoenix. Phoenicorn sounds corny, same goes for uninix but unix on the other hand... Never mind.

Other Stories

43b, Emina Cres, Allen, Ikeja.

 Techpremier Media Limited. All rights reserved
magnifier