tech news
MultiChoice Sees Surge in Earnings Amidst Subscriber Boom
Image sourced from The Vanguard Nigeria /* custom css */ .tdi_4_dc2.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_dc2.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } South African broadcasting conglomerate MultiChoice Group reports that it has added 1.4-million 90-day active subscribers to its services between the beginning of 2021 to 31 March. MultiChoice also reports that earnings were exceedingly robust despite the ongoing pandemic. This is partly due to the 7% growth year-on-year of its subscribers. The Johannesburg-based corporation ended 2020 with 20.9-million subscribers – 43% from South Africa, while a further 57% of subscribers from the rest of the continent. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_d36.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_d36.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Growth in the Face of COV...
The Haller Foundation Partners with Deciwatt to Improve Accessibility for Safe Sources of Light and Electricity in Kenya
Deciwatt’s NowLights supply renewable, sustainable energy. The Haller Foundation, a grassroots NGO registered in the UK and based in Kenya, is continuing its efforts to support smallholder farmers in the country through its Partnership with Deciwatt – an organisation and charity that provides sustainable, low-cost, low-energy lighting and electricity to rural communities across the globe. To aid the Haller Foundation’s efforts in supporting and enriching the lives of smallholder farmers in rural areas in Kenya, Deciwatt supplied 12 sustainable NowLights to the Foundation in support of the re-launching of the Haller Foundation’s award-winning Haller Farmers App. “We’re really excited to be building on our existing relationship with The Haller Foundation, where we supplied Gravity Ligh...
South African Animation Studio Wins International Film Award
Mama K’s Team 4 on Netflix. Image sourced from Quartz. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_787.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_787.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Annecy International Animation Festival has awarded South African animation studio, Triggerfish, the Mifa Animation Industry Award. “This is to highlight the pioneering role that the company has played in animation in South Africa, and Africa most widely,” says Véronique Encrenaz, head of Mifa. Previous recipients include Christopher Meledandri, founder of Illumination (Despicable Me); the co-founders of Aardman, Peter Lord and David Sproxton (Wallace & Grommet); Marc Bonny, the creator of Gebeka Films (My Life As A Courgette); Eric Beckman, founder of GKIDS (Wolfwalkers); and Women in Animation (WIA). /* cust...
Vivo to Launch Flagship V21 Smartphone in Kenya
Image sourced from GSM Arena. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_0c5.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_0c5.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Chinese tech company Vivo, often stylised as vivo, is gearing to launch the vivo V21 smartphone in Kenya this month. A flagship model with a focus on taking industry-leading selfies is set for the new generation and will be an addition to the V-series smartphones available locally. V21 Specs The V21 will be the first device globally to come with a 44MP selfie camera equipped with both Optical Imaging Stabilization (OIS) and Electronic Imaging Stabilization (EIS) technologies to accurately detect movements and shaking and calibrate the camera accordingly to eliminate motion blurs and produce high-definition selfies as a result. /* custom css */ .tdi_3...
EA Games Struck by Massive Hack, FIFA 2021 Source Code on Dark Web
Sourced from Electronic Arts Inc. Gaming mega-publisher EA has been struck by a massive data hack. The hackers responsible have absconded with the source code for the hugely popular FIFA 21, as well as the source code for EA’s Frostbite Engine – the game-running shell and development tools behind FIFA as well as EA’s next big release Battlefield 2042. The source codes are reportedly currently being auctioned off in hacker forums on the dark web. The criminals behind the attack are only accepting offers from big-name members of the hacking community. Stolen Source Codes Source codes are the raw coding behind any application or programme. With a stolen source code and the right know-how, a user can duplicate a programme – for example, a video game – and do whatever they may wish to it. Usual...
SA Government Loses Majority Stake in South African Airways
Sourced from The African Report. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_700.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_700.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } The South African government has lost the majority stake of its ailing airline, South African Airways (SAA) through a deal with its new strategic partner Takatso Consortium. Public Enterprise Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced the news that the government has reached an agreement with Takatso Consortium, a private company, that will now own 51% of the airline, with the government remaining with a minority stake at 49%. “Government and the ANC [have] indicated over some time the intention to restructure SAA. The airline was placed into business rescue in December 2019 and since then our objective has been to ensure a viable and competitive airli...
Accelerated eLearning Adoption Could Contribute to More Impactful Outcomes in the Education System for Africa
/* custom css */ .tdi_4_262.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_262.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } The world of digital has broadened the play and fuelled greater expectations as it shifted the traditional perspectives around time and space. The proximity to the customer is incrementally getting shortened, while the expectation for service leans towards the now. Those who lay claim to the gift of intuition have even pondered the veracity in the statement that the world as we know it has come to an end. But it has, in the process, ushered in a new one that is full of possibilities and diverse opportunities. Never has there been a better time for the re-imagination of one’s destiny. The dexterity to meander the future is not and should not be exclusive as it was before. The perv...
Battlefield 2042 Announced Following Explosively Insane Cinematic Trailer
Image sourced from Electronic Arts. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_e30.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_e30.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Games publisher EA and developer DICE have finally unveiled the trailer for EA’s next incarnation of its Battlefield series of first-person shooters. Now, featuring a futuristic setting following its predecessor’s historical WW1 theme, Battlefield 2042 was announced with an accompanying cinematic trailer rendered with DICE’s in-game engine. The trailer is an adrenaline-spitting, bullet-filled hell where “explosive” is an understatement. Time will tell if actual gameplay will come anywhere near matching the trailer’s hyper-intensity. Sensitive viewer warning – bloody violence. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_15c.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_1...
Vulnerabilities in Windows and Chrome Used in Series of Highly Targetted Attacks
In April, Kaspersky experts discovered a number of highly targeted attacks against multiple companies utilising a previously undiscovered chain of Google Chrome and Microsoft Windows zero-day exploits. One of the exploits was used for remote code execution in the Chrome web browser, while the other was an elevation of privilege exploit fine-tuned to target the latest and most prominent builds of Windows 10. The latter exploits two vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows OS kernel: Information Disclosure vulnerability CVE-2021-31955 and Elevation of Privilege vulnerability CVE-2021-31956. Microsoft has patched both today as part of Patch Tuesday. Zero-Day Attacks Recent months have seen a wave of advanced threat activity exploiting zero-days on the internet. In mid-April, Kaspersky experts...
SA President Ramaphosa Finally Gives Greenlight for Private Companies to Boost Country’s Power Grid
Image sourced from SAFA /* custom css */ .tdi_4_c82.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_c82.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the SA government will finally lift the threshold for embedded generating electricity capacity from 1 MW to 100 MW in South Africa. This move will allow private households and businesses to self-generate power on a larger scale. Ramaphosa says that the increase in embedded generating capacity threshold is vital in creating new ambitious, bold and urgent responses to aid with the country’s ongoing energy crisis. “We are today announcing a significant new step in further reforming our electricity sector towards achieving a stable and secure supply of energy,” the President says. /* custom css */ .tdi...
Confidential Computing – Why Privacy Should be the Heart of Digital Experiences
Image sourced from Intel. In this past year, the consumer experience came to the forefront. As we faced various stages of lockdowns, we turned to online banking, seeing our doctors remotely, running our businesses using technology and socialising through a screen. Digital interactions became a part of our lives – ever-present and normalised as we navigated changes swept in by this pandemic. As our digital interaction became seamless and permeated through every aspect of our lives, privacy continued to be top of mind. We carried out our lives predominantly online – making many of us more vulnerable to fraudsters. As we navigated living our lives digitally, data theft dominated 2020 as the most common attack in the Middle East and Africa. Across the region, data theft and leaks accounted for...
Mobile Authentication Can Be the Key to Negating Cybercrime in East Africa
Image sourced from BICS. The rapid pace of digital transformation in East Africa has had a significant impact on not only how people live their lives, but also on how communication and commerce are conducted, allowing the modern customer to do everything – immediately. This has also had the unintended consequence of altering the way we are targeted by fraudsters and cybercriminals, notably changing the nature of cyber threats and attacks that we face in a mobile-first digital world. The Price of Cybercrime According to an Accenture report published in 2019, the total value at risk of cybercrime over the next five years is an estimated $5.2 trillion. The average cyberattack costs $13 million, according to the same report, with phishing, social engineering and stolen device crime making up $...
