technology news
MTN Ranked as the Most Admired African Brand
MTN has again been ranked as the ‘Most Admired African Brand’ based on spontaneous consumer responses in Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands 2020 survey. The survey, which was released on Monday, shows that MTN is also the only African brand in the rankings of the ‘Most Admired Brands in Africa’. Covering 27 countries, representing around 80% of the population and the GDP of Africa, the group is now also considered one of the continent’s most admired media brands. MTN Mobile Money – through which MTN provides more than 35 million Africans access to financial services – remains one of Africa’s most admired finance brands. The Group also maintained its top position in the telecoms provider category. “We are thrilled to receive these accolades as the continent celebrates Africa Day,” says ...
The Major Benefits of All-flash Storage
Fred Saayman, Huawei BU Executive at Pinnacle Since flash storage debuted into the mainstream storage arena, its uptake has been skyrocketing in data centres across the globe, and shows no signs of slowing down. This isn’t surprising as more and more storage and speed is needed in the age of big data, and all-flash arrays are the ideal solution, particularly as the cost isn’t nearly as high as it was a decade ago. This is according to Fred Saayman, Huawei Business Unit: Executive, at Pinnacle ICT, SA’s leading local ICT distributor. “All-flash storage has many benefits over hybrid solutions. Perhaps the most compelling is its latency, as all-flash arrays usually see sub 1ms latencies on a mixed workload, and peak latency above 5 ms is highly unusual. If you compare this with SANs, for...
Africa Data Centres Joins NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Centre Program
Sourced from Shutterstock Africa Data Centres announced it has joined the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Centre program, allowing organisations across the African continent to connect with AI-ready facilities for seamless, rapid and cost-effective AI deployments. Africa Data Centres is the first and only network of interconnected, carrier- and vendor-neutral data centres on the African continent. Being a part of the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Centre program will allow companies across a wide range of vertical markets to adopt NVIDIA DGX systems for AI and data analytics hosted locally at Africa Data Centres, along with a range of other managed hosting and colocation services that support business-critical data, applications and back-end systems. “Africa Data Centres is an ideal partner for NVIDIA’s DGX-...
UK Cybersecurity Review May Mean the End for Huawei 5G Deal
Sourced from Getty Images. The UK’s National Cybersecurity Agency is expected to conclude that US sanctions against Huawei will make it impossible to use the Chinese company’s technology as planned for implementation of 5G throughout the country. Announced on Sunday, this emergency review is designed to pave the way for the country’s government to push for the total elimination of Huawei equipment in British phone networks by 2023, while also having the political consequence in dispersing a Conservative backbench revolt. The Guardian reports that this move will amount to a hasty reversal of the policy announced by ministers in January to limit Huawei to 35% of the British 5G network supply. The move likewise may irritate China, and add hundreds of millions in costs to UK-based BT and other...
Mining Sector Set to Lead Economic Recovery in Zambia
Sourced from Lusaka Times. Despite a challenging business environment in many sectors across the globe, Zambia’s wealth of natural resources continues to open the door for new investors and opportunities. As the world begins its recovery and gradual reopening in the face of the pandemic, traditional industries require energy, innovation and reinvention. ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc. – the mining conglomerate whose major shareholder is the Government of the Republic of Zambia – is signalling its intention to take on a leadership role in Zambia’s recovery with its announcement this week that they are partnering with a new strategic mining play – Array Metals. This company has an estimated inferred resource by JORC standards of 3 million tonnes of gold ore in Mumbwa, with 2.53.5grams per ton...
vivo to Launch Two New Devices in South Africa
vivo Mobile has announced that it will be extending its offering in South Africa with the introduction of two new handsets. The Y12 and Y30, both evolutions in the Y-series will enter ahead of 5G towards the end of 2020. vivo CEO, Jeff Cao says that the company plans to sit rank the top tier segment of cell phone brands in the country within the next three years. “vivo plans to provide South African consumers with a user experience beyond expectations through technology and innovative, trendsetting products,” adds Cao. Here’s a closer look at vivo’s new devices: vivo Y12 The vivo Y12 is available in Aqua Blue or Burgundy Red and requires just one hand to work as it’s specifically designed for gesture controls. It sports an AI Super-Wide-Angle Camera on the back while the front is fitted wi...
New Device Uses Shadows to Generate Electricity
Sourced from Royal Society of Chemistry, Singapore. In an interesting twist in emerging technologies and the energy sector, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has created a device called the Shadow-Effect Energy Generator. The device is able to create an electrical charge using the contrast between shadow and light. It sounds like something out of a science-fiction novel, Yahoo News reports that the team behind the device capitalised on the illumination contrast caused by shadows as an indirect source of power. “The contrast in illumination induces a voltage difference between the shadowed and illuminated sections, resulting in an electric current. This novel concept of harvesting energy in the presence of shadows is unprecedented,” says research team lea...
Google Maps is Making Wheelchair-Accessible Locations Easier to Spot
Sourced from Google. In honour of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Google is adding a long-overdue feature to its Maps app that puts details about a location’s accessibility facilities front and centre. With the “Accessible Places” feature enabled, business and points of interest with wheelchair-accessible entrances are marked with a wheelchair icon along with information about whether accessible seating, restrooms, and parking are available. Previously, all that information was tucked away in a location’s “About” menu, which users would have to navigate to for every destination individually. “With this feature ‘rollout’, it’s easier to find and contribute wheelchair accessibility information to Google Maps,” Google Maps software engineer Sasha Blair-Goldensohn says in a company blog po...
Is Technology Africa’s Biggest Undiscovered Gold Mine?
Technology has the potential to fundamentally transform societies. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and broadband are becoming central to the societal developments around the world – enabling rapid improvements to industrial production and societal services, positively influencing the way we live and interact with our environment. Africa is home to over a billion people and the population is expected to grow in the coming years. It is projected to grow from 17% in 2020 to 26% in 2050 and 39% by 2100 of the global population while the share of Asia will fall from 59% in 2020 to 55% in 2050 and 43% in 2100. It is also a continent with the most growing economies and many from a low base; 9 of the 20 fastest growing in 2020 according to the IMF with rates above 6% of GDP (not ad...
Windows is Getting A New Apple-Like Upgrade
Sourced from The Sun UK. Windows search is getting a massive upgrade in the guise of Mac’s Spotlight search function with a tool called PowerToys Run. Launched this past Tuesday and still in a very early stage. CNN calls the new feature “promising”, a search box that could put the Start Menu and Windows key-R shortcuts out of business. The new tool was announced at Build, Microsoft’s annual developer event. It was held virtually this year for the first time in its history because of the coronavirus pandemic. Other highlights included new Google Docs-like features for Office and some Edge browser updates. The new search tool pops up in the middle of your screen, spurred forth by an Alt-Space shortcut, and is incredibly fast at finding files, programs and other items. It’s much faster than t...
Competition Commission Approves Cell C Recapitalisation
Image sourced from Town Press The Competition Commission announced that the proposed acquisition of Cell C assets by Gatsby SPV has been conditionally approved. “The Commission has recommended to the Competition Tribunal to conditionally approve the proposed transaction in which Gatsby SPV intends to acquire certain assets of the mobile network operator, Cell C,” the Commission in an official statement. Weekly Media Statement : @CompComSA gives #CellC deal a conditional approval pic.twitter.com/LjfWtDAlvs — CompComSA (@CompComSA) May 21, 2020 “The Commission found that the proposed transaction is unlikely to result in a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in any relevant markets – further found that the proposed transaction does not raise any other public interest concerns,”...
How Telecoms Can Rebuild Nigeria in the Wake of COVID-19
Sourced from the Guardian Nigeria. The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic has had and could continue to have long-lasting devastating effects on all social and economic sectors. For Nigeria, the pandemic can be seen as an eye-opener and a rude awakening to a new normal-knowledge economy. Apart from certain ingenious initiatives in Lagos and a few other states, Nigeria’s overall response to the pandemic has been less than satisfactory, writes The Guardian Nigeria. New, upcoming phases of recovery and thriving will be defining for the country. Now, in this crisis, it has become clear that telecommunications are playing a large role in retaining any semblance of normalcy in the country. In the recovery stage, telecoms could continue to help manage the transition out of COVID-19 related stagnation as...
