Big Announcements: A 'HeartBerry' Attack, A Shocking Sale, And Two Applauds.

So here are some recent announcements made by different companies that caught my attention. Some were shocking, others were exciting and promising.
All the same, they were made and the deals signed off as well as preparations in full gear towards their plans and new status.

Let's start with my country home. You must know the major online stores we have in Nigeria. Yudala, Jumia, Konga, DealDey, etc. Well, here's the announcement that shocked me about a week ago, having to do with one of them online stores. DealDey! Awo!

Don't take it the wrong way, I'm not their manager or anything, but it came to me as a shock as I have always loved them and didn't expect that the company would be sold off.
I truly didn't expect this sale. What do I really know about these things? Not so much. I mean considering the fact that it was acquired by a foreign company at an undisclosed amount. Lots I guess.

The acquisition was made by an African subsidiary of Swiss media and e-commerce company called Ringier. Ringier Africa Deals Group is a joint venture between Swiss Ringier Africa AG and South African Silvertree Internet Holdings Ltd. Why? Is it about the money? *crying in my underwear*
Anyways, don't mind me. I guess I'm just taking it personal. After all, you still have Konga.com and lots of money too @Sim Shagaya. Chop knuckle! 👊

Now onto the next big announcement. This one is a little shocking too although, I think we saw it coming.
Is Facebook dropping BlackBerry support?... Uhm! Was that a question to be answered or was it rhetoric?
The caption as it reads here says: "Facebook Joins WhatsApp In Dropping BlackBerry Support" *ding*.

WhatsApp, which made a hesitant and half-hearted debut on the BlackBerry platform three years ago announced towards the end of February 2016, its decision to rescind. And we know BlackBerry has been struggling lately. Now Facebook. Really?
You want a 'HeartBerry' Attack or what? E no good o!

I've never really been a BlackBerry fan, but I don't know if this is fair. All at once, from two major social networking platforms? That is just cruel.
This means that the latest BlackBerry 10 operating system will not support Facebook and WhatsApp features.
Well, phones like the BlackBerry Priv will be able to run Android apps, meaning that it will continue to run the Android version of Facebook. So I guess that's a good thing. All hope isn't lost. *take hearts*.

Moving on! It's BMW! (Applaudise). BMW was among the first auto manufacturers to introduce integration with iPhones in 2011. Now, the company has announced that BMW apps will integrate with Android devices. Awesome! ✊
It made the announcement at the New York International Auto Show held last month.
For starters, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify, are the first three apps to work with the iDrive system in the 2016 BMW 7 Series, and as you know, they are all about music. Rock On!

Users would need to download the BMW Connected app to stream music from their phone through iDrive via Bluetooth.
You can still give a thumb up or down to a song in Pandora, access playlists and browse on Spotify, and your saved favorites in iHeartRadio are there, along with live radio stations across the country. Score!

Finally, Sony wants to make PlayStation games for iOS and Android. Yay! The company is also making a few changes to its board and status with its Sony Computer Entertainment evolving to Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Its mobile gaming arm - Forward Works, will now be led by its Atsushi Morita. Nice! Whoever you are.

Well, with these announcements, I believe I've been able to convince you that there was a 'HeartBerry' Attack, A Shocking Sale, And Two Applauds (Debaters Club). Thank You.

Do You Know About Flipagram's New Features?

As you may already know, in today's world, communication is very key to survival and staying relevant. Even in relationships, especially in relationships, and that applies to the Tech World too. More and more apps are adding features like messaging to keep their users locked in for longer and wanting more. Apps like Flipagram - an app that lets you merge pictures and video snippets with music to create your own beautiful stories - have added a direct messaging feature to make your creations more fun and interactive. It allows you to send your Flips through to specific friends or group of friends without leaving the app. Whew! Finally! It's something that used to be an "ish", where you had to leave the Flipagram app in order to send Flips to people directly. Not anymore! The DM (direct messaging) feature now has a prominent place directly to the right of the + at the bottom of the screen that you press to create a new Flip. It replaced the music button which now appears in the explore section. You find friends to message by following them and them following you back in the app. The messaging interface will appear on a different screen where you can exchange messages as well as Flips with friends. The app has over 40 million registered users and has consistently hovered in the top 10 photo and video apps in the key US Market. Messaging is in many ways the killer app on mobile at the moment with apps like WhatsApp and Messenger (both owned by Facebook) now used by billions of consumers. Just so you know, Farhad Mohit is the co-founder and CEO of Flipagram. The company has been around since 2013. I'm pretty sure some people still don't know about Flipagram and what it does... (look who's talking, *me* I only got to know about it in 2015). Well, it helps you stitch photos and video pieces into a slideshow that can be shared on internet platforms like Facebook or Twitter or Instagram... (like I haven't said that already) which brings us to another interesting feature to come to Flipagram, or more like a transition of the app from an editing app to a social network. A really bold step right? It says it wants to keep those precious moments inside its own app so that users will follow and like and share them with one another inside Flipagram just like it's done on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Although the usual progression is from starting with the network to adding tools, Flipagram seems to be transitioning from a tool app to a social company. Mohit when asked in an interview about this reverse-order of progression had this to say (this has been edited for clarity and size) "The question you have to ask yourself as a starting company is how are you going to get a lot of users interested in your product? The answer for us and for some others was to make it as simple as possible with enough utility" he said "I actually think there are a lot of examples of folks that started out as a utility or tool and then kind of expanded that out into more of a network. Instagram is a good example of one of such. It really just started out making your photos prettier for Facebook" Mohit founded and sold Shopzilla and Bizrate for over $500 million as far back as 10 years ago. An enterprenuer Indeed! Despite the fact that lots of people still do not use or know what Flipagram is all about, it's really here to stay. What's not to love about this company. With Direct Messaging feature and the app's supposed transition into a social network platform, I say these guys are not thinking of bowing out anytime soon. And neither are we. One more reason why we love Life In A Jet Age. Happy Flipagramming! Adios!!!