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Smartphone Sales
~3.5 mins read
Smartphone sales in Nigeria increases despite downturn
December 4, 2020 

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While the total mobile phone shipments to Africa declined by 6.0 per cent year on year (YoY) in Q3 2020, shipments to Nigeria grew due to a shift from vendors to entry-level and mid-range devices.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) made this known in its Quarterly Global Mobile Phone Tracker. It said the decline in Africa’s shipments stemmed mainly from feature phones, with the delivery of the devices declining by 11.2 per cent YoY in Q3 2020 to a total of 29.4 million units.

IDC, global technology research and consulting firm, explained that by contrast, smartphone shipments were up by a healthy 14.1 per cent YoY, with 22.9 million smartphones shipped to the region during the quarter.

The growth of the smartphone market, it stated, was caused by the release of pent-up demand after countries eased their COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and by a shift in vendor strategies to offer more entry-level flagship models.

IDC said the rising unemployment rates and economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continued to shift consumer buying patterns toward affordable and feature-rich products.

It stressed that Africa’s largest smartphone markets recorded mixed performances as Egypt and Nigeria posted YoY growth in Q3 2020 while South Africa suffered a decline.

According to the data firm, smartphone shipments to Nigeria grew due to a shift from vendors to entry-level and mid-range devices. Also, it said the Egyptian smartphone market grew as vendors offered devices with more competitive prices, larger screens and improved features.

It stressed that despite, experiencing a 13.4 per cent YoY decline in shipments, South Africa continued to lead the way in Africa’s smartphone market, with shipments to the country totaling 3.3 million units.

A research analyst at IDC, Arnold Ponela, explained that while South Africa’s smartphone market experienced a YoY decline, shipments actually increased by17.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) as lockdown restrictions were lifted and the channels replenished their inventories for Q4 promotions.

Ponela said South Africa is struggling with economic hardships whereas smartphones have become an essential consumer item, making it a resilient market in a downturn.

IDC revealed that Transsion brands (Tecno, Itel and Infinix) continued to dominate Africa’s smartphone space in Q3 2020, with 42.2 per cent unit share. Samsung and Huawei followed, with respective market shares of 19.9 per cent and 8.7 per cent.

It stressed that the Transsion brands (Tecno and Itel) also dominated the feature phone landscape with a combined share of 76.6 per cent. Nokia came third with 8 per cent share of feature phone shipments.

In terms of price bands, devices priced below $200 accounted for 89.3 per cent of smartphone shipments to Africa in Q3 2020. The share of smartphones priced below $100 declined slightly from 53.8 per cent in Q2 2020 to 53.0 per cent in Q3 2020 while the share of devices priced $100-$200 increased from 34.7 per cent to 36.3 per cent over the same period.

Giving more insight, Senior Research Manager at IDC, Ramazan Yavuz, said demand for entry-level smartphones was driven by e-learning requirements since smartphones are the only devices offering Internet access for most households in Africa.
“The mid-range segment ($200-$500) declined YoY as consumers held back on upgrading to more expensive smartphones due to economic uncertainties,” he stated.

Looking ahead, IDC expects the recovery in shipments seen in Q3 to continue through Q4 2020 during the festive months, with overall shipments expected to grow 4.6 per cent QoQ.

According to the research firm, the prospects for 2021 will depend on improvements in the overall economy, which will be largely dictated by the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Checks showed that to cushion the effects of bad economy on their finances, more Nigerians are embracing smartphone financing schemes. The scheme allows intending users without adequate funding at hand to get a device of their choice after making an initial deposit, with the remaining balance spread over a period of time.

Electronic commerce platforms, gadgets platforms, and banks have introduced the scheme, which is gradually gaining attention. The scheme is not limited to Nigeria, as it has gained more traction, even better, in countries including South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, and some sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Already, through this scheme, the Global System for Mobile telecommunications Association (GSMA), predicted that smartphone connections in the region will hit 700 million by 2025. GSMA expects Nigeria to have 154 million, South Africa 73 million, and Kenya 47 million connections.

Currently, estimates from different sources put the number of smartphone users in Nigeria at between 25 and 40 million. The exact number of users is hard to pin down.

However, available data show a strong growth outlook for the local smartphone market with user numbers to at least triple within the next five to six years
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MattiasBOC
Future Of Communication (z1)
~50.2 mins read
The cord-free, standalone Oculus Quest system is one of the best options for VR fitness, exercise and workout routines. Here are our picks the best Oculus Quest and Quest 2 fitness and exercise apps to get your blood pumping.

FitXR

FitXR Screenshot 2

Originally launched as BoxVR, this Quest fitness app got revamped and relaunched with a new name and overhauled features earlier this year. The basic premise remains the same – it’s a rhythm-based boxing routine that gives you points for speed and accuracy. However, FitXR features more boxing moves, such as uppercuts and side-jabs, that weren’t present in BoxVR. A few weeks back, the platform also added new dance workouts.
Despite being an overall positive upgrade, the transition to FitXR wasn’t without its faults – some features have been changed or are completely missing. But if you’re new to the platform, you’re unlikely to notice. You can read more in our full review.

The Thrill of the Fight

thrill of the fight quest screenshot from oculus store
There are a number of boxing games available on the Quest, but The Thrill of the Fight aims to be the most true-to-life in terms of its boxing mechanics. A few rounds in the ring and you’ll be sweating profusely. We definitely prefer this one over Creed VR on Quest.
The Trill of the Fight is available on the Oculus Store for $9.99.

Supernatural

supernatural screenshot vr
Let’s not beat around the saber – Supernatural is a fitness-focused Beat Saber clone through and through. Notes fly at you in time with music, which you have to hit in-time using bats and occasionally you’ll be forced to squat to avoid obstacles.
However, the key difference with Supernatural is that you don’t pick your songs like in Beat Saber — every 24 hours, there’s a new workout playlist/routine for you to run through. The aim is to get you sweating with big arm swings and quick squats. The better you perform, the harder the routine will get, thanks to Supernatural’s adaptive difficulty.
Racket Nx is not a table tennis game but rather a game that’s been described as “racquetball meets breakout”. It’s a perfect match for the cord-less Quest, giving you full range of motion to go wild and get active. It’s one of the best examples of how to emphasize 360-degree spinning movements as core gameplay.

Holopoint

Holopoint Oculus Quest
For those looking for something other than rhythm slashing or boxing, Holopoint might be a good option.
At its core, Holopoint is an archery wave shooter that is simplistic in its game structure but unforgiving in its intensity. You’ll be playing for high scores with little sense of progression or story, but what it lacks there it makes up for movement intensity – you’ll be doing immediate and frequent on-the-spot spins and dodging enemies and arrows from left and right.

Dance Central

Dance like nobody’s watching! Get down and boogie while staying active in Dance Central from Harmonix. There’s a a bunch of popular songs to choose from and a couple of difficulty settings to keep you occupied and active.

best quest 2 fitness apps
VR

Best Oculus Quest 2 Fitness, Exercise And Workout Games [Updated Winter 2020]

DECEMBER 02, 2020

The cord-free, standalone Oculus Quest system is one of the best options for VR fitness, exercise and workout routines. Here are our picks the best Oculus Quest and Quest 2 fitness and exercise apps to get your blood pumping.

[This article was originally published in March 2020. It was edited and updated in December 2020.]
The following list is no particular order. It’s a mixture of apps and games designed with fitness and workouts in mind and some that simply get your blood pumping with short, repeatable gameplay sessions that would be easy to quickly jump into for a workout.

FitXR

FitXR Screenshot 2
Originally launched as BoxVR, this Quest fitness app got revamped and relaunched with a new name and overhauled features earlier this year. The basic premise remains the same – it’s a rhythm-based boxing routine that gives you points for speed and accuracy. However, FitXR features more boxing moves, such as uppercuts and side-jabs, that weren’t present in BoxVR. A few weeks back, the platform also added new dance workouts.
Despite being an overall positive upgrade, the transition to FitXR wasn’t without its faults – some features have been changed or are completely missing. But if you’re new to the platform, you’re unlikely to notice. You can read more in our full review.

The Thrill of the Fight

thrill of the fight quest screenshot from oculus store
There are a number of boxing games available on the Quest, but The Thrill of the Fight aims to be the most true-to-life in terms of its boxing mechanics. A few rounds in the ring and you’ll be sweating profusely. We definitely prefer this one over Creed VR on Quest.
The Trill of the Fight is available on the Oculus Store for $9.99.

Supernatural

supernatural screenshot vr
Let’s not beat around the saber – Supernatural is a fitness-focused Beat Saber clone through and through. Notes fly at you in time with music, which you have to hit in-time using bats and occasionally you’ll be forced to squat to avoid obstacles.
However, the key difference with Supernatural is that you don’t pick your songs like in Beat Saber — every 24 hours, there’s a new workout playlist/routine for you to run through. The aim is to get you sweating with big arm swings and quick squats. The better you perform, the harder the routine will get, thanks to Supernatural’s adaptive difficulty.
Play
00:00

-40:02
Mute
Settings
Enter fullscreen
Play
The most controversial part of Supernatural is its pricing model – instead of a one-off purchase, Supernatural is a $20/month subscription. For more details, check out our much bigger breakdown piece from earlier this year.
Supernatural is available in the Oculus Store for free (with a paid subscription and free one-month trial) now.

Racket: Nx

Racket Nx is not a table tennis game but rather a game that’s been described as “racquetball meets breakout”. It’s a perfect match for the cord-less Quest, giving you full range of motion to go wild and get active. It’s one of the best examples of how to emphasize 360-degree spinning movements as core gameplay.

Holopoint

Holopoint Oculus Quest
For those looking for something other than rhythm slashing or boxing, Holopoint might be a good option.
At its core, Holopoint is an archery wave shooter that is simplistic in its game structure but unforgiving in its intensity. You’ll be playing for high scores with little sense of progression or story, but what it lacks there it makes up for movement intensity – you’ll be doing immediate and frequent on-the-spot spins and dodging enemies and arrows from left and right.

Dance Central

Dance like nobody’s watching! Get down and boogie while staying active in Dance Central from Harmonix. There’s a a bunch of popular songs to choose from and a couple of difficulty settings to keep you occupied and active.

VRWorkout

vrworkout free vr fitness
VRWorkout offers one of the most intensive Oculus Quest workout experiences hands down, but it comes with some important disclaimers.
First and foremost, this isn’t an official Oculus Store app – you’ll need to sideload it using SideQuest (though it is available on Steam for PC VR). And because of that, it takes a few liberties that an approved Oculus app might not. It’s a more intense experience and more crude in its presentation, plus it requires much more room than other options on this list.

Beat Saber

beat saber purple background slash
How could we not include VR’s poster child on this list? This one should be pretty self-explanatory – a couple of levels on Expert or Expert+ in Beat Saber will get your heart rate pumping like there’s no tomorrow.

best quest 2 fitness apps
VR

Best Oculus Quest 2 Fitness, Exercise And Workout Games [Updated Winter 2020]

DECEMBER 02, 2020

The cord-free, standalone Oculus Quest system is one of the best options for VR fitness, exercise and workout routines. Here are our picks the best Oculus Quest and Quest 2 fitness and exercise apps to get your blood pumping.

[This article was originally published in March 2020. It was edited and updated in December 2020.]
The following list is no particular order. It’s a mixture of apps and games designed with fitness and workouts in mind and some that simply get your blood pumping with short, repeatable gameplay sessions that would be easy to quickly jump into for a workout.

FitXR

FitXR Screenshot 2
Originally launched as BoxVR, this Quest fitness app got revamped and relaunched with a new name and overhauled features earlier this year. The basic premise remains the same – it’s a rhythm-based boxing routine that gives you points for speed and accuracy. However, FitXR features more boxing moves, such as uppercuts and side-jabs, that weren’t present in BoxVR. A few weeks back, the platform also added new dance workouts.
Despite being an overall positive upgrade, the transition to FitXR wasn’t without its faults – some features have been changed or are completely missing. But if you’re new to the platform, you’re unlikely to notice. You can read more in our full review.

The Thrill of the Fight

thrill of the fight quest screenshot from oculus store
There are a number of boxing games available on the Quest, but The Thrill of the Fight aims to be the most true-to-life in terms of its boxing mechanics. A few rounds in the ring and you’ll be sweating profusely. We definitely prefer this one over Creed VR on Quest.
The Trill of the Fight is available on the Oculus Store for $9.99.

Supernatural

supernatural screenshot vr
Let’s not beat around the saber – Supernatural is a fitness-focused Beat Saber clone through and through. Notes fly at you in time with music, which you have to hit in-time using bats and occasionally you’ll be forced to squat to avoid obstacles.
However, the key difference with Supernatural is that you don’t pick your songs like in Beat Saber — every 24 hours, there’s a new workout playlist/routine for you to run through. The aim is to get you sweating with big arm swings and quick squats. The better you perform, the harder the routine will get, thanks to Supernatural’s adaptive difficulty.
Play
00:00

-40:02
Mute
Settings
Enter fullscreen
Play
The most controversial part of Supernatural is its pricing model – instead of a one-off purchase, Supernatural is a $20/month subscription. For more details, check out our much bigger breakdown piece from earlier this year.
Supernatural is available in the Oculus Store for free (with a paid subscription and free one-month trial) now.

Racket: Nx

Racket Nx is not a table tennis game but rather a game that’s been described as “racquetball meets breakout”. It’s a perfect match for the cord-less Quest, giving you full range of motion to go wild and get active. It’s one of the best examples of how to emphasize 360-degree spinning movements as core gameplay.

Holopoint

Holopoint Oculus Quest
For those looking for something other than rhythm slashing or boxing, Holopoint might be a good option.
At its core, Holopoint is an archery wave shooter that is simplistic in its game structure but unforgiving in its intensity. You’ll be playing for high scores with little sense of progression or story, but what it lacks there it makes up for movement intensity – you’ll be doing immediate and frequent on-the-spot spins and dodging enemies and arrows from left and right.

Dance Central

Dance like nobody’s watching! Get down and boogie while staying active in Dance Central from Harmonix. There’s a a bunch of popular songs to choose from and a couple of difficulty settings to keep you occupied and active.

VRWorkout

vrworkout free vr fitness
VRWorkout offers one of the most intensive Oculus Quest workout experiences hands down, but it comes with some important disclaimers.
First and foremost, this isn’t an official Oculus Store app – you’ll need to sideload it using SideQuest (though it is available on Steam for PC VR). And because of that, it takes a few liberties that an approved Oculus app might not. It’s a more intense experience and more crude in its presentation, plus it requires much more room than other options on this list.
Play
00:00
-06:43
Mute
Settings
Enter fullscreen
Play
Unlike any other app on this list, it uses the Quest’s controller-free hand tracking – with no controllers, the app is free to instruct you to do all types of traditional workout exercises like push-ups, crunches and more. You can read more in Jamie’s write up from earlier this year.
VRWorkout is available for free on Quest via SideQuest. To read more about SideQuest and how to sideload, check out our guide.

Beat Saber

beat saber purple background slash
How could we not include VR’s poster child on this list? This one should be pretty self-explanatory – a couple of levels on Expert or Expert+ in Beat Saber will get your heart rate pumping like there’s no tomorrow.

Synth Riders

synth riders quest
Synth Riders is, yes, another VR rhythm game and while it takes some visual notes from Beat Saber and other entries in the genre, the gameplay is quite different. You’ll hit floating spheres to the rhythm of the music, and move your hands in circular or curved motions to follow tails that fly off each sphere. It’s similar in concept to other rhythm games, but with its own spin.
The game has implemented a variety of fitness-focused features, such as a calorie counter and a fitness update that arrived earlier this year and included live VR workout sessions, guided by a trainer.
Synth Riders is available for $24.99 on the Oculus Store for Quest.

OhShape

OhShape Review
A recent addition to the Quest library, Jamie described this game as “Beat Saber for your body” and said it was a “genuinely authentic fitness game.” Get you blood flowing as your throw your body around to the music, fitting and moving yourself into all different shapes. With the intensity ramped up, you might end up burning calories faster than some of the other fitness games on this list.

Pistol Whip

pistol whip combat 3
Pistol Whip might seem like a strange entry for a VR exercise list at first, but play a couple of the levels on harder difficulty and you’ll quickly see how Pistol Whip could qualify as a workout. The ducking and constant quick movements will have your glutes and quads burning after a long session. In the past, I’ve even upped the intensity by holding my arms up in a ready-to-fire position constantly and stabilizing my aim with my non-dominant hand, adding a bit of extra arm strain to long sessions.

Oculus Move

Oculus Move isn’t a VR workout app, but rather a feature that will let you track your progress, workouts and calories burned while in VR. It was announced at Facebook Connect in September and should work Quest-wide on all of your apps.
The feature was launched as part of the recent v23 update, however Facebook did note that Oculus Move specifically would be part of a ‘gradual rollout’. Not all users will have access to it yet, but if you do, it’s the easiest way to natively track your fitness and workout sessions in VR on Quest.
Oculus Move can be enabled in the Quest system settings.
What are you favorite Oculus Quest VR exercise apps that keep you active in a workout session? Let us know in the comments.

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Garg
Googling For Gut Symptoms Predicts Covid Hot Spot, Study Finds..
~1.5 mins read
Googling for Gut Symptoms Predicts Covid Hot Spot,  study finds.. 

Gastrointestinal upsets may be harbinger of pandemic disease

Internet search data may identify hot spots four weeks earlier



H.K. Study Finds Virus May Replicate in Digestive Tract

We're tracking the latest on the coronavirus outbreak and the global response. Sign up here for our daily newsletter on what you need to know.

Internet searches on gastrointestinal symptoms predicted a rise in Covid-19 cases weeks later, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found, demonstrating a novel early warning system for hot spots of the pandemic disease.

Researchers at the top-ranked hospital in Boston compared search interest in loss of taste and appetite, and diarrhea with the reported incidence of Covid-19 in 15 U.S. states from Jan. 20 to April 20. Using Alphabet Inc.’s Google Trends online tool, they found the volume of searches correlated most strongly with cases in New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Illinois -- states with high disease burden -- three to four weeks later.

The research, published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, showed that the same approach used to monitor pandemic influenza trends more than a decade ago could be deployed for the coronavirus, the hospital said in a report this month. Patients with Covid-19 often report gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain and diarrhea, sparking interest in conducting the study.

Read More: Covid-19 May Cause Prolonged Gut Infection, Scientists Say

“Our data underscore the importance of GI symptoms as a potential harbinger of Covid-19 infection and suggests that Google Trends may be a valuable tool for prediction of pandemics with GI manifestations,” Kyle Staller, a gastroenterologist and the director of Mass General’s gastrointestinal motility laboratory, and colleagues wrote in the study.

Scientists are also testing for traces of the coronavirus in wastewater to identify places where Covid-19 is spreading.

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