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Top 5 Most Trending Stories – Week in Review

As this week comes to a close we take a look at the stories that resonated most with our readers. Tech often reflects the world around us as viewers gravitated towards stories involving services that offer aid and information on how to navigate life as it is today. From Vodacom’s new chatbot protecting its customers to Nedbank’s free online education courses. The launch of Nokia’s C2 smartphone in South Africa, to the best apps to use instead of Zoom, and the 5 worst video-calling apps to use if you value your privacy. Find out more about this week’s top articles: 5. Vodacom’s Chatbot Answers up to 20 000 Customer Queries per day /* custom css */ .tdi_3_cf9.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_cf9.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Vodacom has put in place numerous features to aid ...

Nigerian Man Receives Death Sentence via Zoom – A Look at the Future of Correctional Systems?

Sourced from Innovation in Politics. A man in Nigeria was sentenced to death via the popular video conferencing app Zoom this week – this after courts in Nigeria turn to video-conferencing platforms as the country struggles under nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19. CNN reports that in a virtual court hearing on Monday, Olalekan Hameed was found guilty of murdering his mother’s employer in 2018 and had been sentenced to death by hanging, a practice still prevalent in the country’s penal system. A judge at a court in Lagos delivered the ruling to Hameed, who appeared remotely from prison via Zoom, along with his lawyer and prosecutors who also joined the hearing remotely, justice ministry spokesman Kayode Oyekanmi told CNN. Hameed has since denied the charge and remains in prison, says Oyek...

Remote Connections Up 44% During Lockdown in Nigeria

Sourced from AFP. Many organisations across Africa are finding themselves transitioning their workforce to remote work at home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. IT departments are re-architecting their environments on the fly to allow for remote access. Now, according to a report by Serianu, Pan-African based Cybersecurity and Business consulting firm, “in Nigeria, remote connections have increased by around 44% since the onset of COVID-19 with the highest increase realized in March 2020 after the president declared lockdown in key cities. Lagos is, by a vast amount, the most affected state, hosting over 40% of the identified vulnerable connections put at over 4,500 vulnerable connections.” The Guardian Nigeria goes on to note that the report marks increased usage of these services cau...

Ericsson Appoints New Head of South and East Africa

Ericsson has announced the appointment of Todd Ashton as the Vice President and Head of Ericsson South & East Africa. Prior to assuming this role, Ashton served as the Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Global Customer Unit Axiata within Ericsson in Market Area South East Asia Oceania & India. “We are committed to our customers’ success in Africa while also building a strong position in the continent as the market evolves to 4G and 5G. Throughout his years of experience, Todd has demonstrated strong leadership and has been successful in driving growth in very competitive environments. I am confident Todd has the right background and experience to lead the customer unit and deliver on our customers’ commitments,” says Fadi Pharaon, President of Ericsson Middle E...

Respond, Restart, Re-create – How SMEs can Survive Lockdown

Sourced from SAP The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused disruption across the globe and has led to two simultaneous crises. The first is the illness itself – with tens of thousands of fatalities globally and healthcare systems strained, or at capacity. The second is an economic slump, resulting from the closing of borders and supply chain disruptions. Many countries have also imposed strict lockdown and social distancing measures. While vital to prevent the spread of the virus, it is worth remembering the very real economic impact measures like this can and are having in South Africa, and around the world. Unlike large enterprises, which often have a level of resilience built-in, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) still rely on having customers physically present in the shop, rest...

Tokyo Game Show 2020 Cancelled due to COVID-19

The organisers of the Tokyo Game Show have announced that this year’s event has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. TGS 2020 was scheduled to take place from 24 to 27 September at the Makuhari Messe convention centre just outside of Tokyo, Japan. Now, the organisers are planning to host an online event instead. The Verge reports that this is the first-ever time TGS has faced cancellation since the convention began in 1996. Sadly, this news won’t come as a surprise to anyone. Almost every in-person gaming event this year has been struck from the calendar, including E3 and Gamescom, the biggest shows in the US and Europe respectively. TGS 2020 was likely to have gained a great deal of attention this year in comparison to an average year because of its status as the last major trade ...

F5 Networks Acquires Shape Security

F5 Networks – a company that helps make apps operate faster, smarter and safer for the world’s largest businesses, service providers, governments and consumer brands – has completed its acquisition of Shape Security, a leader in fraud and abuse prevention. Marcel Fouché, Networking and Storage General Manager at value-added distributor Networks Unlimited Africa, a channel partner of F5 in sub-Saharan Africa, comments: “A number of experts view this merger and acquisition as being a game-changer for comprehensive application security.” “The purchase of Shape Security adds protection from automated attacks, botnets, and targeted fraud to F5’s world-class portfolio of application services in order to further protect customers’ digital experiences. This agreement will accelerate F5’s growth mo...

Doing Business in a Post-Lockdown World

Sourced from Business News Daily At the beginning of March, few anticipated the significant impact the COVID-19 pandemic would have on the lives of all South Africans. As the gradual easing of the strict lockdown conditions continues, thoughts turn to how companies will begin their recovery. Ian McAlister, GM of CRS Technologies, looks at what to expect. From Friday 1 May, South Africa transitioned to Level 4 lockdown conditions which will result in several more industries resuming operations, albeit in a limited capacity. And while all the details around operational issues are still to be confirmed, expectations are that at least 1.5 million South Africans will be returning to work. In part, this is designed to get the economy back up and running following several weeks of virtual non-act...

HPE Offers Digital Learning Platform to all South Africans

Sourced from Silicon Angle Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced that it will give 30 days free access to the company’s Learning-as-a-Service Platform – provided users register before the end of May 2020. Offering around 5000 hours of training across numerous modules, the HPE Digital Learner Platform acts as a global example of how digital learning is exploring access to education and skills. “As a prominent global edge-to-cloud Platform-as-a-Service provider, HPE is acutely aware that COVID-19 has increased the pressure on technology companies to innovate ever-more effective remote operability”, says Renay Rampersadh, Education Manager at HPE South Africa. “COVID-19 has not only cast the demand for remote capability into stark relief, but has also highlighted the shortage of skil...

‘Animal Crossing’ Boosts Nintendo’s Profits as Videogame Demand Soars

Sourced from WccfTech. The success of the Nintendo Switch during the worldwide pandemic has propelled Japanese entertainment company to a stand-out year. Nintendo says that it had made 352-billion yen ($3.3-billion) in operating profit for the fiscal year ending in March – a 41% surge from a year ago. Profit in the three months leading to March more than tripled compared with the previous quarter. Sales were driven in a large part to the massive success of the Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons – a game set on an island utopia where players can interact online and visit each other’s island. During the first six weeks of the game’s release, the company sold more than 12-million units of the game. Animal Crossing and the hardware it runs on, the Nintendo Switch game console, have been ...

Gozem Benin Integrates Etisalat Moov Money into App

Gozem has officially integrated Etisalat Benin’s mobile money capabilities to its app.  Essentially, the integration means that Gozem customers can now use Moov Money to safely top up their Gozem wallets and take trips without cash. This move could see hundreds of Gozem users in Benin benefiting from the simplicity and security of Moov Money at a time when the need for a cashless society is a growing trend and a global strategic imperative. “In addition to existing payment options offered in our app, Gozem users can now alsobenefit from the security and convenience of paying with Moov Money. We are proud tocontinually improve our service offering and work alongside Moov Benin to offer ourcustomers more choice and convenience,” says Pierrick Houée, Country Manager for GozemBenin. Moov ...

Global VPN Use Exploded in March

With millions working from home, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the global usage of VPN demand swell. Demand for commercial VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) in the US jumped by 41% between 13 March and 23 March according to research from Top10VPN.com, a VPN research and testing company in the U.K. Network World writes that VPNs were already a growing industry before the coronavirus outbreak struck the world and the subsequent shutdown of workplaces. The global VPN market was forecast to grow 12% year-on-year and be worth $70-billion by 2026, according to a Global Market Insights 2020 survey. North America was forecast to remain the leader in VPN usage, with around 30% market share. Top10VPN.com found global VPN demand increased by 41% over the second half of March and remains 22% higher tha...