Construction giant Dewalt has entered the smartphone market with a tough Android-powered handset designed for building industry workers.

The £379 (108,184.39 Naira) device is designed to survive a 2m drop on to concrete and can operate in temperatures ranging from -20C to 60C.

Rival firm Caterpillar has already established itself as a brand in the physically tougher smartphone sector.

The so-called "tough phone" market is flourishing.

"Lots of people in the trade and construction industries, as well as outdoor sports enthusiasts, have realised that just having a thicker case isn't going to see them through," said James Booker, purchasing manager at UK firm Tuffphones.

Caterpillar's Tough Smartphone. 

To be certified as a "tough phone", handsets have to undergo more rigorous physical tests, including being subjected to tumbling - turned over and over inside a device for long periods of time, Mr Booker explained.

They also have to be water and dust proof.

Because they are sturdier, they can also incorporate a bigger battery, he added - the Dewalt phone claims to offer up to eight hours of talk time.

"One of the main things about traditional smartphones is that they are svelte and slim - there's an obvious correlation with how large a battery they can get in there," Mr Booker said.

While most of its specifications are fairly standard for the sector, Dewalt's MD501 phone comes with in-built QI wireless charging, which is unusual, he added.

Its touchscreen is made of commercially manufactured Gorilla Glass - a highly robust but thin type of glass that works with gloved hands.

The handset is a collaboration with Global Mobile Communications, a rugged phone specialist.

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Google in its 11-year legal battle with an authors group. 

The Court said it would not hear an appeal from the Authors Guild, which claimed Google breached copyright laws by scanning books without permission.

The technology giant began the process in 2004, so it could include extracts in a searchable database, and it was sued by the Authors Guild in 2005.

The Supreme Court's judgement is the final ruling on the matter.

Google's database of books lets people search through millions of titles and read passages and selected pages from them.

While some of the books in the database are old titles that are no longer protected by copyright, millions are more recent publications.

The Authors Guild had argued that the project undermined authors' ability to make money from their work.

Google said its database was a "fair use" of protected works, describing it as "a card catalogue for the digital age".

The firm could have faced billions of dollars in damages claims from authors if it had lost the case.

The Authors Guild said it was "disappointed" that the Supreme Court would not hear its appeal.

The organisation's president Roxana Robinson said: "We believed then and we believe now that authors should be compensated when their work is copied for commercial purposes".

A Google spokeswoman said: "We are grateful that the court has agreed to uphold the decision of the Second Circuit which concluded that Google Books is transformative and consistent with copyright law."

According to a new report by Ming-Chi Kuo, a renowned Apple analyst, who claims that the iPhone will be seeing a whole new design in 2017, dropping the iconic aluminum casing for an all-glass enclosure with AMOLED screen. This follows on from another of Kuo’s reports in late March, where he first suggested Apple will return to an iPhone design akin to the iPhone 4. It does not seem like the iPhone 7 for 2016 will be seeing such a major overhaul, breaking Apple’s tick-tock pattern of a significant chassis redesign every other generation.

Kuo believes that Apple will be moving to an all-glass enclosure, dropping aluminum completely as it will no longer appear modern or fresh in 2017. Apple’s smartphone competitors are also adopting aluminum designs in droves, making it more likely Apple will want to differentiate with entirely new materials.Kuo does not elaborate on how Apple will make the next iPhone entirely out of glass, so currently the specifics of the drastic redesign will have to be left to the imagination. Apple used glass for the iPhone 4/4s front and back, but this was sandwiched together with a stainless steel band. It’s currently unclear how an iPhone could be constructed primarily out of glass.

The new glass phone will also feature a new AMOLED display panel, which will be thinner and lighter to compensate for the slight weight increase of glass compared with metal exteriors. Kuo does not believe that drop test issues will be a roadblock in Apple’s decision making, given the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s already relied heavily on glass front and back. Last week, Apple reportedly reached a $2.6 billion agreement with Samsung to supply OLED panels for iPhone displays.

It definitely seems like Apple is saving a major new iPhone form factor for 2017, which leaves Apple’s 2016 iPhone 7 refresh somewhat in question. Leaks to date have shown very modest changes for the iPhone 7, with a design largely the same as the existing iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models. It certainly looks like Apple’s next big refresh for the iPhone will not come to light this year, perhaps earlier in 2017 if not the fall. So far, the biggest new thing for the iPhone 7 appears to be the addition of a dual-camera for better pictures, although rumors have indicated this will be exclusive to the 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus.

Whatsapp, which was acquired by Facebook and is becoming the fastest growing communication company in world, has come up with a new feature on their app. This feature is known as End-to-End Encryption. It has been integrated into the latest versions of their app. When end-to-end encrypted, your messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, and calls are secured from falling into the wrong hands.

Let us see some of the Merits of this new feature. 

• Security by Default

WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is available when you and the people you message use the latest versions of our app. Many messaging apps only encrypt messages between you and them, but WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you're communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even Whatsapp. This is because your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them. For added protection, every message you send has its own unique lock and key. All of this happens automatically: no need to turn on settings or set up special secret chats to secure your messages.

• Speak Freely

Whatsapp Calling lets you talk to your friends and family, even if they're in another country. Just like your messages, Whatsapp calls are end-to-end encrypted so Whatsapp and third parties can't listen to them.

• Messages that Stay with You

Your messages should be in your hands. That's why Whatsapp doesn't store your messages on our servers once we deliver them, and end-to-end encryption means that Whatsapp and third parties can't read them anyway.

• See for Yourself

Whatsapp lets you check whether the calls you make and messages you send are end-to-end encrypted. Simply look for the indicator in contact info or group info.

Alphabet, the parent firm for Google, became the world’s most valuable company Tuesday as a jump in its share price helped it vault past tech rival Apple.

In opening trade following a robust earnings report, Alphabet shares rose 2.9 percent to lift its market capitalization to $543 billion while Apple’s value declined to $530 billion with a modest dip in trading.

Alphabet’s quarterly profit rose five percent to $4.92 billion on the back of strong online advertising revenue, particularly from searches done by holiday season shoppers using smartphones or tablets.

Google ad revenue climbed globally, gaining on both mobile devices and desktop computers, according to Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat.

The California-based Internet colossus said its revenue topped $21.3 billion in the final three months of last year.

The earnings report was the first in which recently formed parent corporation Alphabet separated money made by Google from what it calls “Other Bets” such as its work on self-driving cars or providing Internet service using high-altitude balloons.

The new structure under Alphabet is expected to offer more transparency for investors worried about Google investing in money-losing projects.

While Google is best known as the dominant player in Internet search, it has launched a variety of trailblazing projects in recent years that are marginally related at best to its core operation.

Alphabet subsidiaries include Google, Nest Labs, and Google X labs devoted to big-vision new technologies such as self-driving cars, along with such projects as smart “Google Glass” spectacles, drones, health care and Google TV, none of which has become a major source of income.

Industry tracker eMarketer expected Google to remain the dominant player in worldwide search advertising, raking in $45.58 billion in revenue this year to claim a share just shy of 57 percent of total spending on such ads.

12 richest people in history

1. Cornelius Vanderbilt – His net worth was around $185 billion (in today’s money). He made most of his fortune from investing in railroads.
2. The Rothschilds – Not a person, but the whole family’s net worth during the 19th century was around $400 billion.
3. J. P. Morgan – Inherited a lot of money from his parents and invested it. He made $41.5 billion.
4. John D. Rockefeller – One of the wealthiest person in the history with net worth of $340 billion. He controlled 90% of the oil industry in the USA during the 19th century.
5. Andrew Carnegie – His net worth was over $300 billion. He made his fortune in the steel industry.
6. Sam Walton –  Founder of the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. His net worth was $65 billion in 1992, which equal to around $100 billion counting with the inflation.
7. Henry Ford – Founder of the Ford Motor Company. His net worth was around $200 billion.
8. William The Conqueror – His peak fortune was around $210 billion in the 11th century.
9. Bill Gates – Founder of Microsoft. His peak fortune was $101 billion, which is $136 billion in today’s dollar.
10. John Jacob Astor – Fur trader and real estate investor. He made over $100 billion.
11. Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov – The last tsar of Russia. His net worth was around $300 billion.
12. Mansa Musa I of Mali – Also known as King of Kings. He ruled the Malian Empire. Most of his wealth was in gold, with today’s prices worth around $400 billion.

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