All about Tech.
Zoom has now extended its live translation feature to all users — free and paid. The feature that auto-generates closed captions or live transcription during video calls was earlier only available to paid Zoom Meetings users. The option to enable subtitles will be available for Zoom video calls and as well as webinars. The San…
US electric car maker Tesla on Sunday rolled back the latest version of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software, less than a day after its release, after users complained of false collision warnings and other issues. The setback comes as Tesla is under regulatory scrutiny over the safety of its semi-autonomous driving technology, which it calls “FSD.” “Seeing some…
Facebook is rolling out a new Group Effects feature on Messenger video calls and Messenger Rooms. Group Effects bring new AR filters and effects that can be applied to everyone on a video call, at the same time. These Group Effects will be rolled out soon to Instagram, Facebook says. The social media giant says…
A common refrain about social media is that a major part of it toxic. It is often said to be a result of people following in the footsteps of social media influencers. A new study claims that banning or removing ‘extremists’ from social media can reduce the spread of anti-social ideas and conspiracy theories. In…
Google Meet is getting new audio and video locks to let hosts turn off the microphones and cameras of other participants. The new feature essentially lets you mute a user and prevent them from unmuting themselves until you unlock them. Earlier this year, Google rolled out the ability for hosts to mute everyone all at once in…
South African payment solutions provider Pay@ and local startup FinChatBot, which specialises in conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, have partnered to launch what they say will be a unique payments solution they hope to export across the continent in future. Established in 2007, Pay@ is one of Southern Africa’s leading payment solutions providers, while FinChatBot, launched in 2016, specialises in…
Vodacom South Africa is launching Eco-SIM cards made from recycled plastic as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to reduce its impact on the environment by halving its greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Vodacom will soon provide customers with new Eco-SIMs in the half-sized format made from recycled plastic, progressively replacing SIM cards currently made from new…
Chrome 95 has rolled out to the stable channel for Android, Windows, Mac and Linux users. The exact desktop firmware version is Chrome 95.0.4638.54, while on Android, its Chrome 95.04638.50, and they contain a number of fixes and improvements. It brings along improved payment authentication, and the ability for web apps to register themselves as…
Microsoft has published a new advisory warning of a security bypass vulnerability affecting Surface Pro 3 convertible laptops that could be exploited by an adversary to introduce malicious devices within enterprise networks and defeat the device attestation mechanism. Tracked as CVE-2021-42299 (CVSS score: 5.6), the issue has been codenamed “TPM Carte Blanche” by Google software engineer Chris…
Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a leading pan-African telecommunications technology group has announced the launch of its shortest terrestrial fibre route between the East to the West coasts of Africa, connecting Mombasa, Kenya to Muanda, DRC. With the completion of this route, Liquid establishes a new global internet transit route between Asia and the USA through Africa,…
The latest edition of Kaspersky’s annual IT Security Economics report reveals the growing severity of cybersecurity incidents affecting businesses through suppliers that they share data with. The average financial impact of such an event for an enterprise reached $1.4 million in 2021 which makes it the costliest type of incident worldwide, while the same type of attack…
The Attacks From All Angles 2021 Mid-year Cybersecurity Report by Trend Micro highlighted a 47% year-on-year increase in email threats as well as malicious files and URLs in the first quarter of 2021 globally. South Africa’s technology landscape is almost identical to that of other countries, which has seen black hat hackers using it as a testing…
Sendbox, the Nigeria-based e-commerce fulfillment platform for merchants in Africa, has today announced the completion of a $1.8 million seed round from investors including 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs and Golden Palm Investments. With participation from Flexport and YC Combinator as part of its 2021 winter cohort, Sendbox’s total investment raised has now reached $2 million following a pre-seed round from Microtraction and 4DX Ventures in…
Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general of the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) has inaugurated a five-day capacity training programme for members of the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) in Lagos, Nigeria, TechEconomy.ng can report. The DG said the capacity training programme aims to upskill the members of NITRA – an umbrella body for journalists reporting information…
SEACOM, a fibre-led telecoms provider and owner of extensive ICT infrastructure across Africa, has announced a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GE) upgrade for its IP network. The increased capacity of 100 Gbps equipment reduces the cost and complexity associated with procuring and maintaining multiple 10 Gbps ports and also simplifies load balancing through the flexibility of…
Don’t you hate it when your keyboard skills are superior to the power of your computer monitor? Being a keyboard warrior – in the gaming world and daily work life – is no easy feat, especially if your monitor is outdated and can’t keep up with your activity level. Throw in dull graphics and delayed…
Google Trends publishes the top searches for every day of the week and covers 4 African countries in which it sees the most activity, namely Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The top search trends from along the week provide an interesting insight into the minds of each country, what captivated users the most and what…
The 6th Orange Digital Center in Africa and the Middle East, which is committed to digital development and innovation and aims to teach young people in digital technology and improve their employability, was inaugurated by Orange Cameroon and the German Development Cooperation. The highest political and administrative authorities from Cameroon, Representatives of Germany and France in Cameroon,…
Nigerian retail-tech startup Alerzo has acquired fintech company Shago Payments as it looks to build on already impressive growth that saw its annualised September transaction volume exceed US$155 million. Founded in 2019, the Ibadan-based Alerzo is an all-in-one technology and services platform that transforms how Nigeria’s informal retail stores operate. Retailers can order stock, have it delivered…
In emerging economies, where spending billions to build public transit infrastructure can be out of reach, startups are using technology to meet the mobility needs of a rising urban middle class. Swvl, Treepz, Jatri, SafeBoda, Urbvan, Chalo and Buser are just a few of the startups that have popped up in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America in recent years, all with…
Google Search is undergoing a change that will allow users to continuously scroll results on mobile devices. With the latest update, Google Search on mobile will automatically list out more results when users scroll to the bottom of a results page. The new feature released by the search giant will eliminate the need to click…
According to Facebook vice president of global affairs Nick Clegg, Instagram will adopt new methods to steer kids away from hazardous content and encourage them to “take a break” from the platform. Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, testified before Congress on the company’s internal research that found Instagram to be hazardous, particularly for teen…
Mobile network provider, MTN Nigeria announced in a statement that the nationwide service outage that was experienced by its subscribers on Saturday, 9th October 2021 was a result of a disruption in its core network. The South African-owned company is the largest telecoms provider in Nigeria with about 71 million subscribers in Nigeria as at 2020. The outage…
Impact Africa Network is creating From Here Ventures, a $25 million venture capital fund that will invest in African firms. From Here Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in extraordinary entrepreneurs that are building revolutionary businesses in Africa. Impact Africa Network, a non-profit startup studio founded in 2019, is now in its…
You have heard about Rent Small Small, right? Well, the Nigerian property technology startup that is reorganising the home rental market has been accepted to join the Techstars Toronto Accelerator Programme starting this October. Rent Small Small is just celebrating its third year anniversary. Techstars is an operational investment company that helps founders and early-stage entrepreneurs scale their…
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has called on countries to make digital data flow for the benefit of all. On this, UNCTAD said the world needs a new global governance approach to enable digital data to flow across borders as freely as necessary and possible. The UN trade and development body…
Tech giant Microsoft has announced that it has expanded its Azure Availability Zones, making them generally available in the Johannesburg data centre region (SA North) of South Africa. Azure Availability Zones form an important building block of comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery strategy by ensuring resiliency and availability of business-critical applications and data through modernised…
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, professionals and experts in the technology sector have stressed the importance of technology in the drive towards the smart city project of the state. Specifically, Governor Sanwo-Olu expressed his administration’s commitment to greatly invest in technology, which according to him, is critical to the development of the state and nation…
A massive 2.4 terabytes per second (Tbps) Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack has been mitigated by Microsoft, the company says. The attack targeted an Azure customer in Europe and was 140% higher than the highest attack bandwidth volume Microsoft previously recorded in 2020. This attack occurred in early August of this year and is currently believed to have…
MTN Uganda is offering free shares to Kenyan investors in a bid to motivate them in buying stocks in the telecom firm. MTN Uganda yesterday opened an initial public offering (IPO) at $250-million yesterday. South Africa’s MTN Group is currently selling 4.47 billion shares in its Ugandan arm at a price of Ksh6.20 ($0.056) per…