tech news
Google to Begin Charging Photos Users for Storage
Image sourced from Pymnts Google has revealed that it would start charging Photos users who exceed 15GB, beginning 1 June 2021. The cloud service, which stores more than 4 trillion photos, will not count photos that have already been uploaded towards the 15GB limit. “This change allows us to keep pace with the growing demand for storage,” says Google Photos VP, Shimrit Ben-Yair. “We know this is a big shift and may come as a surprise, so we wanted to let you know well in advance and give you resources to make this easier.” In an official statement, Google says “Starting June 1, 2021, any new photos and videos you upload will count toward the free 15 GB of storage that comes with every Google Account or the additional storage you’ve purchased as a Google One member. Your Google Account...
5 Disruptive Technology Predictions for 2021
Disruptive technologies are accelerating society’s digital transformation journey. In a recent report, NTT revealed five trends that hold promise to help local organisations unpack their postures with regards to safety and security, support sustainable growth and reduced environmental loads: All-photonics networks (APNs) will power global communications: APNs will enable end-to-end, information transmission between the terminal and the server and will allow us to operate an ultra-low power-intensive sustainable communications environment. This particular trend will influence the local market over the long term as networks overcome legacy infrastructure and regulatory constraints. Cognitive Foundation (CF) technology will connect and control everything: the centralised management and agile ...
Mastercard Partners with Payment24 to Streamline Payment Solutions
Mastercard and Payment24 have partnered to offer a payment solution that will help fleet management companies streamline payments, create efficiencies and prevent fraud. Payment24’s platform will use Mastercard’s payment technology which is expected to enable drivers to quickly and seamlessly make fuel payments anywhere Mastercard is accepted, without requiring additional approvals at the pump. Commercial fleet management companies will have more control and visibility into driver’s spend, with the option to add purchasing controls to eliminate fraud. For instance, a company could opt to enable the driver to pay digitally for border post charges or for accommodation and meals, removing the need for costly and unsafe cash advances. The fuel solution is flexible and adaptable to customer nee...
Huawei Launches Rural Telephony Project in Ghana
Image sourced from Ghana Web Huawei and Ghana’s Ministry of Communications have launched the Rural Telephony Project which aims to provide voice and data services for over 3.4 million people in underserved and unserved communities. This initiative, in partnership with China National Technical, is expected to save the government up to 70% of the cost of traditional cell sites and extend the national mobile communication coverage from 83% to 95% – greatly accelerating local economic development whiles improving people’s livelihoods. Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo-Addo, President of Ghana, says that “Government is committed to ensuring that every Ghanaian, irrespective of tribe, religion, class, location or identity has access to affordable and reliable voice and data connectivity”. “To this e...
Apple Introduces its New MacBooks, Mac Mini and M1 Chip
Apple took to the global stage to unveil its new MacBooks – the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro – Mac Mini and M1 Chip. Here’s a closer look at each of its new devices: Apple M1 Chip The tech giant showcased the first Arm-based Macs that run on Apple Silicon chips (the M1) instead of the Intel processors. According to Gadgets Africa, the M1 is meant to be “the most powerful chip in any Apple computer. M1 is also engineered to offer the ultimate performance while also demanding as little power as possible. This would help Macs in preserving power and lasting for long on battery”. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_cea.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_cea.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } MacBook Air The new MacBook Air – which is the first of its kind to run the M1 Chip – is expected to be “t...
Huawei to Unveil MateBook X Pro in South Africa
Huawei is expanding its PC range in South Africa with the addition of the MateBook X Pro. The device is expected to launch on 16 November. The MateBook X Pro flaunts an elegant metallic body with meticulous diamond cut edges, making it as easy on the eyes as the 1.33KG lightweight portability makes on the users day-to-day life. The device also features an enviable battery life, which work hand-in-hand with the PC’s unique systems that enable intelligent energy saving management and process management. This means that users can watch videos on their devices for up to 13 hours, work regularly for 15 hours or browse webpages for up to 11 hours. One of the biggest pull factors of this device is the Ultra FullView display, created by Huawei’s research into leading industrial design capabilities...
TikTok says Trump Administration has Yet to Review Ban Deadline
Sourced from Cosmico TikTok has called for the US Court of Appeals to review the ban by Trump administration’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The social media platform says that it has been weeks since it received an update about the deadline for ByteDance – TikTok’s parent company – to sell off US assets. “For a year, TikTok has actively engaged with CFIUS in good faith to address its national security concerns, even as we disagree with its assessment,” reads a statement from TikTok. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_4dd.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_4dd.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “In the nearly two months since the President gave his preliminary approval to our proposal to satisfy those concerns, we have offered detailed solutions to finalize t...
7 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021
COVID-19 will continue to be a key focus for organizations’ IT and security teams, says cybersecurity solutions company Check Point. “The pandemic derailed business-as-usual for virtually every organization, forcing them to set aside their existing business and strategic plans, and quickly pivot to delivering secure remote connectivity at massive scale for their workforces,” says Pankaj Bhula: Check Point’s EMEA Regional Director. “Security teams also had to deal with escalating threats to their new cloud deployments, as hackers sought to take advantage of the pandemic’s disruption: 71% of security professionals reported an increase in cyber-threats since lockdowns started,” “One of the few predictable things about cyber-security is that threat actors will always seek to take advanta...
MTN South Africa Partners with Ozow to Make MoMo Transfers Simpler
MTN South Africa has partnered with Ozow to make loading funds simpler for Mobile Money (MoMo) users. “We see this partnership as one more step in our efforts at displacing cash and enabling greater digital and financial inclusion for all South Africans. The rapid growth of mobile money services this year points to the growing demand among South Africans for safe and efficient ways to store, send and spend money via their mobile device,” says Thomas Pays, CEO and co-founder at Ozow. MTN MoMo was launched at the beginning of 2020 and crossed the one million user milestone in June. It offers users an easy way to send money to friends and family members as well as access to a range of value-added services such as purchasing prepaid electricity, renewing car licence discs, and purchasing produ...
Econet Teams Up with Alphabet to Expand Network Connectivity in Africa
Econet has teamed up with X’s Project Taara – Alphabet’s moonshot factory (formerly known as Google [x]) – to expand and enhance affordable, high-speed connectivity to communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. This makes it the first roll-out of Taara’s wireless optical communication technology in Africa. Taara’s links offer fibre-like speed internet access in areas where it’s not economically viable, or too difficult to install fibre, for example, over rivers or in areas where it is unsafe to dig trenches for cables. Econet will deploy Taara’s technology in Africa across Liquid Telecom’s Fibre Optic Backbone and Mobile Network Infrastructure starting in Kenya. “This technology and our partnership with Taara forms an important building block towards realising our vision of a digitally c...
ProLabs Enables Networking Upgrades for Healthcare Industry
Technology is transforming the way people shop, bank and travel, and perhaps one of its next big challenges is to make major inroads into how they receive healthcare. But reports on progress in the area of healthcare and technology uptake are conflicting. According to global consultants McKinsey, based on their healthcare research released in 2019, “The adoption of digitally enabled tools for diagnosis, treatment, and management… has been modest”. On the other hand, German-based global consultancy firm Roland Berger, in the same year, released a study entitled “Future of Health: An industry goes digital – faster than expected”. According to the 2019 Roland Berger paper, in which 400 international healthcare experts were asked to predict the medium to long-term changes in healthcare, the he...
Four reasons why SA app developers should integrate their apps with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS)
Since the launch of HUAWEI AppGallery, Huawei’s app store, in 2019 Huawei has been focused on assisting app developers. Huawei’s approach has always been to ensure that consumers get the best of both local and global apps on their devices, which means that it places great importance on making sure that SA developers get all they need from Huawei to develop and integrate their apps with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). Here are four reasons why SA app developers should integrate their apps with HMS: Developers have access to global markets By integrating apps to HMS, developers have more exposure to Huawei’s device base, increasing the number of consumers who have access to their apps via HUAWEI AppGallery. Over 490 million people in 170 countries are monthly active users of Huawei mobil...
