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Microsoft's developer conference, Build 2015, heralded the re-branding of Internet Explorer (IE) to "Edge", the Redmond behemoth promptly instructed brand protection company MarkMonitor to register a couple of domain names, including MicrosoftEdgeSucks.com and other related name variations. Microsoft Edge is the result of a back-dated project codenamed Project Spartan, and to serve as default browser for Windows 10, specially optimized for touch and with a host of in-built extras like reading mode.

It is a lightweight browser with a layout engine built around web standards interoperable with the modern web.

Microsoft Edge is a key part of the upcoming Windows 10 operating system, and it's hugely important to the success of the revamped Windows platform. And It was made available as part of Microsoft's Windows 10 Technical Preview for developers' to spin, so here's what we think is cool and what sucks.

What's Cool?

The Edge new look in contrast to Internet Explorer has different sized icons, and the navigation bar is now thicker and has a more uniform selection of buttons that makes it easier for use with touchscreen devices. While the tabs have been moved to a separate row, making the overall layout a bit more logical, now more akin with Chrome and Firefox pattern.

Albeit, reading mode isn't a new concept, but having it in-built is unique with Microsoft Edge (most browsers require an extension to enable the feature), and implementation is equally slick.

Web annotation is another area Edge outwits other browsers, with tap of a button users can take a screenshot onto which they can start drawing, either with a mouse or finger.

The new rendering engine in Microsoft Edge makes it a bit quicker than the latest version of Internet Explorer, although more subtle when it comes to user experience.

What Sucks?

Missing Edge support for the legacy MSHTML engine for backwards compatibility, and therefore does not support legacy technologies such as ActiveX and Browser Helper Objects, but instead uses an extension system.

Offline reading mode and roaming across devices features are also missing in the current release. However, since there are still more features to come, so we keep our fingers crossed.

Overall, we think the experience is blissfully simple and smooth, with the obvious decluttering of bogus Internet Explorer features that made it unpleasant to users.

Microsoft Edge: What's Cool & What Sucks?

The internet brings choice and convenience into our homes, connects us with the rest of the world within seconds, provides a host of opportunities to those who have access to it, and even reminds us just how funny a cat (Grumpy Cat) can be. We would all be a little lost if the Internet was to disappear, so spare a thought for the organizations that have come to rely upon the Internet as a means of communication, networking, and drawing attention to themselves.

Charities, like the rest of us, have had to move along with the media revolution in order to keep themselves noticed, and the Internet has, in most cases, become many charities’ main source of marketing, and a hub for fundraising and donations.

While in the past they may have relied upon paper leaflets, posters, and by word of mouth, the Internet allows charities to pool far more resources than ever before; a wealth of information from numerous sources, videos that illustrate causes and campaigns, buttons for making donations and sharing fundraising ideas, and communities dedicated to a single cause are all helping to pull many charities into the future, as well as ensuring they gain our attention today.

Why the Internet is an essential tool for charities?

The Internet provides a ready-made platform for promotion, and applications such as Twibbon enable us to support our favorite causes in the most public of ways, with a sticker on our profile pictures and pages. As well as increasing the amount of resources on offer, the Internet can also expand a charity’s reach far beyond the local community; SEO isn’t just useful for online retailers, after all.

Without the internet, many charities would simply struggle to keep up with their counterparts; if the information isn’t online these days, it will simply pass most of them by. And keeping up with these daily digital advancements, charities place themselves in a better position to grow and develop in our hearts, minds, and on the webpages as well.

The importance of the internet for charities on a global scale

As the saying goes that “charity begins at home,” that is equally true of our access to many charities online. We are far more likely to have heard of causes close to home than we those overseas, and it can be difficult to raise funds, and donate to charities for which we have little understanding; the internet, however, is fast bridging the divide. Charities in Africa, for instance, can find it particularly difficult to compete with those from western world, yet they rely on global support and foreign funding to simply exist, sometimes far more so than national charities that have access to government funding or expensive marketing campaigns.

The Gede Foundation, which was founded by Jennifer Atiku in 2002, has a particularly compelling cause for us to support, and it is only due to the internet that many people will have heard of it. This worthy cause is dedicated to eradicating the stigma of HIV and AIDS, as well as breaking other taboos, supporting those affected by HIV/AIDS, striving to research, and encouraging the government to research treatments and cures.

Its cause is a global one, and is not just relevant to Nigeria, the country in which it was founded; due to the internet, and its ability to communicate on a global level, people outside of Nigeria are now talking about the Gede Foundation, and are recognizing that the stigma of such diseases really does exist, even on our own doorstep. In addition, Jennifer Atiku and her expanding team are able to share details of their research network, their various programs, and appeal for further assistance.

The internet really does shrink the world, much to the gain of charities in the furthest reach. It is, therefore, absolutely essential for charities to make their online presence felt, perhaps even more now than ever before. As the ways in which we discover information changes, so too do the ways in which we support charities and donate to causes close to our hearts; only by staying current, and keeping information within easy reach, can charities, particularly those miles from our doorsteps, hope to gain our hearts.

How the Internet has become an essential tool for Charities

Microsoft Build 2015, developers conference which commenced on April 29, and is currently in full swing, has availed full details on the road map for Windows 10 as one operating system across PCs, smartphones, tablets, and the Xbox One game console.

Microsoft focus on multiple platforms has come to fore even as it demoed what is liken to running Windows apps on a PC – or what it called “universal apps”.

The company has clarified on the rumor that Android apps will be able to run on the new Windows platform, announcing that developers not only can port their Android app codes to Windows 10, but also iOS apps. It is enabling this with two new software development kits: Java and C++ code (Android), and for iOS developers, Objective C code.

The apps will port over to Windows as universal apps and can equally be used on Windows 10 desktops.

Developers hoping to expand their app offering to Windows 10 will have lesser friction, as they can reuse their Android code to bring their apps to Windows 10 and iOS apps can be converted to Windows 10 apps.

Microsoft Build 2015: Windows gearing up for big changes?

The distinct purpose of any Backup software is to recover data after its loss, be it by data deletion or corruption. EaseUS Todo Backup is just such a backup and restore utility tool. It easily back up your entire system's data, including settings, or just what you want it to store, partitions or full disks, and restore your system in the event of a hard-disk crash.

EaseUS Todo Backup doesn't need any long learning curves, as it is the most comprehensive free backup solution out there, supporting both file and image backup. And it is easy to use and integrates well with all Windows versions.

The Different Backup Types



  • Full Backup
  • Differential Backup
  • Incremental Backup


The Full Backup involves a copy of the entire data on a selected disk or partition. While this is the most complete type of backup, it is also the most time-consuming. And it is the basis for other types of backup; a full backup is always created first.

Differential Backup, on the other hand is backup of data that has changed since last full backup. The differential backup will not take longer to process, as it depends on the level of changes to data. It is a quicker backup process than conducting a full backup, and also fast to restore.



To backup your system simply Launch the program. And from the main window which is made up of two main areas, comprising the navigation bar on the left side lists the primary backup features and the rest of the operations area. Now, select the feature that you want to perform and follow the prompted windows in the operations area.

A schedule will be set for all the backup operations, click ‘Schedule’ to customize automatic backup plan.

EaseUS Todo Backup displays nicely on the various drives and partitions on your system. Also, it is available in a $29 Home version that adds dedicated Outlook backup and restore.

It includes system snapshots, a ready-made Windows PE boot disk ISO, free support and for additional $10 you get the Workstation version that also supports dynamic disks, recovery to dissimilar hardware, and conversion of backups to virtual hard drives, as well as a license that allows for business usage.

Apart from a little advertising, there isn't much to complain about with the free version of EaseUS Todo Backup software.

EaseUS Todo Backup Review: Free Back up for Windows PC and Server

Mozilla rolled out Firefox 37 earlier this week with support for opportunistic encryption (OE), sort of a bridge between none encryption (clear text) and full HTTPS encryption. It attempts to encrypt the communications channel otherwise falling back to unencrypted communications.

Albeit, It will not afford protection against an active man-in-the-middle attack compared to HTTPS. OE provides unauthenticated encryption over TLS for data that would otherwise be carried via clear text.

Opportunistic encryption does not provide a strong level of security as authentication may be difficult to establish and secure communications are not mandatory.

However, users, can at least get a modicum of protection from passive surveillance (such as NSA-style data slurping) with OE supported sites, as Firefox support is only half of the equation for opportunistic encryption.

According to Mozilla developer, Patrick McManus, website owners will still have to enable support on their end for the feature to work, and has outlined two-steps to get up and running with OE.

Firefox 37: Opportunistic Encryption (OE) better than HTTPS?

WeChat is a mobile messaging (text and voice) service developed by Tencent, a Chinese communication company, and first released in January 2011. It is currently the largest standalone messaging app by monthly active users, with about 438 million users; and over 65 million outside of China.

It provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, sharing of photographs and videos, and location sharing.

Also, it allow users exchange contacts with people nearby via Bluetooth, as well as providing various features for contacting people at random, along with social networking services integration. And users' photos can be embellished with filters and captions, and a machine translation service is available.

WeChat app is available on Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Symbian phones, and there are also Windows and OS X clients but these require the user to have the app installed on a supported mobile phone for authentication.

WeChat: How it Works & Download links for Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone

The African Blogger Awards are the first program that measures online and social influencers’ reach and influence through analytical data. This provides the opportunity for influencers to be measured objectively against their peers based on their reach, resonance, and relevance.

Entries to the 2015 African Blogger Awards are now open to bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters, Facebookers and YouTubers across Africa. And categories include Advice, Fashion and Beauty, Events and Nightlife, Education, Sports, Political, Technology and Gadgets, Youth Culture and many others.

“The inaugural African Blogger Awards set the benchmark for the discovery of truly exceptional, African publishers and their unique story telling approach. We are ecstatic about the potential publishers that we will be exposed to, during this year’s competition”, says Mike Sharman, co-founder of the African Blogger Awards.

To enter is absolutely free, however entrants are required to register their blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube profile (or a combination) on Webfluential.com - a platform designed to quantify the reach, resonance and relevance of these users with over 1000 active, legitimate followers.

The Awards also give brands and the marketing industry an objective measurement of the most relevant online and social influencers to include in their campaigns, making sure that they achieve the greatest possible impact for their marketing spend.

This year's winners will be based on the latest analytical metrics, so even if you entered last year, you'll need to re-enter this year to qualify.

All bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters, Facebookers and YouTubers who are permanent residents of any African country are eligible to enter the African Blogger Awards. While, Winners in each category will receive a web banner announcing their achievement that can be personally leveraged through their social networks and a commemorative trophy.

Register for the awards by clicking here, and note that entries closes on April 9, at midnight GMT+2, and results will be announced on May 5, via the competition’s Twitter profile, @African_Blogger, from 11h00 GMT+2.

Entries for The 2015 African Blogger Awards now Open

Microsoft's Bing scored some points in predicting the outcome of several events in 2014, which included FIFA World Cup, US Elections, and the Scottish independence vote, and now has also resorted to its crystal ball to pinpoint what technology to expect in 2015.

Bing predicts, analyses search and social signals, among others to uncover emerging trends that it expects to break in the coming year.

Bing's predictions for technology in 2015 includes: Wearables, Digital Personal Assistants (like Cortana), Home Automation, Virtual Reality and 3D printing.

The predictions consider things like search intent and contextual understanding to distinguish the difference between what is truly a trend versus something that's just a buzz.

Microsoft is harping on earlier successes to pitch itself against Google as the go-to destination for predictive technology. And may perhaps, establish Bing Predicts in the space following more successful outcomes.

Bing Predicts: What Technology to Expect in 2015?

Insights for Office is Microsoft's newest enhancement added to Office Online, which includes online versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, and Outlook, plus access to your calendar, People contacts, and OneDrive cloud storage.

It avails Office users on any modern browser, ability to highlight a word or phrase, right-click it, and search for more information on those specific terms.

Microsoft has provided several options, including copy and paste, and the ability to add a hyperlink. With the new addition, Insights bring up a right-hand sidebar that offer up information from Bing Snapshot, Wikipedia, Image Search on Bing.com, and more.

Albeit, Insights is still an online-only feature for now, some of its improvements might migrate to Office 365.

Microsoft, however is yet to add it to its Office 365 roadmap, but as the company is poised into positioning all derivative of Office (both, Office Online and Office 365 or its standalone software), may eventually collapse the versions into a unified experience.

Microsoft: Insights for Office gets smarter Context

Sway is a free way to publish and share content, as a simple content creator for documents that can be shared online. Sway preview debuted in October as the latest free Office app, and is still an invite-only service.

Sway allows you to import images from your PC, Twitter, Facebook, or a variety of other sources, including images from the Creative Commons repository on Bing.com and use them to illustrate your stories. It equally makes it easy to start building layouts that look professional.

It's intuitive, and keep track of what you’re writing, and will pre-populate relevant images when it's time to look for an image.

There's a critical limitation, however, akin to Microsoft's norm, printing is not enabled for Sway and may limit its effectiveness in some circles.

You can sign up for an invitation at Sway.com to try out the service before launch date.

Microsoft Sway: Shareable Content Creator of the Future?

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