tech news
ByteDance Forms TikTok Global as part of Oracle Deal
Sourced from Gadgets 360. ByteDance is creating a new company called TikTok Global that will be responsible for providing all TikTok services to users in the United States and most of the users in the rest of the world. TikTok Global is expected to be majority-owned by American investors, including Oracle and Walmart (20%), and with four Americans out of the five-member Board of Directors. It also aims to create more than 25,000 new jobs in the United States and pay more than $5 billion in new tax dollars to the US Treasury. As part of this deal, Oracle will become the company’s cloud provider and all of its data will be hosted at the Generation 2 Cloud data centres. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_135.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_135.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “Oracle will...
MTN Liberia and Sendwave Partner to Expand International Remittences
Sourced from The Techie Guy Lonestar Cell MTN has partnered with Sendwave to enable customers to receive international remittances from the US straight into their Mobile Money accounts. MTN believes that using MoMo for international remittances and daily financial transactions makes life easier, safer and more convenient. “We are excited and very proud to be at the forefront of innovative financial technologies and partnerships which can help Liberians live convenient and safer lives. Our international remittances partnership with Sendwave does just that,” says Christopher Ssali, Acting GM of Lonestar Cell MTN Mobile Money. “What is even better is that with our rapidly expanding MoMo ecosystem, MoMo customers can use the money they receive to pay bills, buy goods and pay for services...
TikTok Avoids U.S. Shutdown Following 11th Hour Deal with Oracle and Walmart
Donald Trump has signed off on an 11th hour deal allowing Oracle and Walmart to purchase a stake in TikTok, allowing the popular video sharing platform to avoid a ban in the U.S. previously set for Sunday. As part of the deal, the U.S. software company Oracle is partnering with Walmart to form a new entity called TikTok Global, which will be headquartered in the United States. Oracle will host all of TikTok’s U.S. user data and will safeguard TikTok’s computer systems “to ensure U.S. national security requirements are fully satisfied,” TikTok said in a statement (via NPR). However, the deal fall short of previous demands made by the Trump Administration. The Chinese-owned ByteDance will maintain an 80% stake in TikTok as well as control over its algorithm. Additionally, ByteDance has dispu...
Trump Administration to Ban TikTok in the U.S. Starting Sunday
Update – September 19th: Donald Trump said he has approved a deal allowing Oracle and Walmart to purchase TikTok, according to the New York Times. Pending formal approval, the Commerce Department said that it would delay a previously announced plan to bar TikTok from U.S. app stores for one week. After deals to acquire TikTok by Microsoft and Oracle hit a snag, Donald Trump is moving forward with his threat to ban the popular Chinese-owned video sharing service in the US. Beginning Sunday (Sept. 20th), the U.S. Department of Commerce will block new downloads of TikTok from U.S. app stores. TikTok will continue to work for existing users until November 12th, at which point content delivery restrictions will be placed on the app, effectively rendering it unable to operate. TikTok is est...
Nvidia Unveils New Broadcast App
Image sourced from Nvidia Nvidia has officially introduced its new Broadcast app which allows users to “turn any room into a home studio”. The company believes that audio quality, camera and room setup are key to viewers’ video enjoyment. Yet, not everyone has the luxury of a dedicated home studio or can afford expensive cameras, microphones and greenscreens to improve their production quality. “With the launch of GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, we’re helping live streamers up their game even further with the new NVIDIA Broadcast app, which is available for download now.” This app “upgrades any room into a home broadcast studio by transforming standard webcams and microphones into smart devices through the power of AI”. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_cef.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_cef.td...
Pinnacle Extends Huawei Distribution Agreement Further into Africa
Fred Saayman, Huawei BU Executive at Pinnacle Huawei and Pinnacle initially commenced their partnership in 2015 and have seen some terrific growth in the past five years, including their now extended distribution agreement. In 2017 the partnership saw a 74% growth in revenue, and in 2018 the revenue growth more than tripled to 261%. With the Pinnacle and Huawei team working closely together, there has been a major focus on the AirEngine WiFi-6, OceanStor Dorado and their recently launched IdeaHub. Pinnacle’s SADC Sales Manager, Roderick Pillay, is excited for the opportunities that this extension will be creating in the SADC regions. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_4a8.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_4a8.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “The majority of our partners are not even awa...
Sony to Launch Alpha 7S III in South Africa
Sony has announced that the Alpha 7S full-frame mirrorless camera series — the Alpha 7S III — will be available in South Africa from the first week of October, for R64 999,00. [embedded content] The Sony Alpha 7S III features a brand new 12.1MP back-illuminated full-frame image sensor with ultra-high sensitivity and 15+ stop wide dynamic range. The camera boasts a host of impressive video recording capabilities, including 4K 120p and 10-bit 4:2:2 colour depth, a new heat-dissipating mechanism and dual-slot relay recording that delivers over one-hour of 4K 60p movie shooting. A brand new autofocus system, touch screen interface and side flip LCD screen make the new Alpha 7S III the ultimate creative tool for video professionals and all types of hybrid stills/video shooters. /* custom css */...
Instagram Founder could become New TikTok CEO
Sourced from Cosmico TikTok is reportedly talking to founder and former CEO of Instagram, Kevin Systrom. This comes after Kevin Mayer resigned from his position as TikTok CEO amidst contention between the video-sharing platform and the Trump administration. If Systrom were to take up this position, he would be in direct competition with his former boss, Mark Zuckerburg, at Facebook. Instagram’s Kevin Systrom becoming TikTok’s CEO and crushing Reels would be the ultimate revenge for Zuckerberg stripping his autonomy. So spicy! pic.twitter.com/CrxzgfeltM — Josh Constine -SignalFire (@JoshConstine) September 17, 2020 The Financial Times reports that TikTok’s GM, Vanessa Pappas, has taken over the CEO role in the interim. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_551.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; ...
Paratus Deploys 100Gig Fibre Ring in Zambia
Paratus Zambia confirmed the deployment of a 100Gig metro fibre ring in Zambia – marking a first for the pan-African telecommunications Group. The fibre ring is expected to utilise technology that increases bandwidth over an existing fibre network, meaning businesses can transmit data at speeds of up to 100Gbps. Coupled with the additional capacity of Paratus’ network footprint, businesses not only get speed but much-needed bandwidth for data-hungry applications, as well as reliable access to their branches, private data centres and cloud services such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon and Google Cloud. The telco believes that simply having a fast Internet connection is not enough, ‘businesses need a connection that won’t bite into their bottom line with the risk of outages. Staying operational i...
Two Alleged Digtial Fraudsters Arrested in Kenya
Sourced from Republic Title Two men have been arrested in Kenya after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) suspected the duo of fraud. According to The Star, the suspects, Kevin Sagini Oroko (23) and Dominic Otiso Nyabuto (27) were “apprehended from their hideout at Miwani Estate within Machakos town”. In their possession, authorities reportedly found more than 600 Safaricom and Airtel Sim Cards, 96 National ID cards, a number of mobile phones, KCB Inua Jamii Cash Transfer Cards, 16 Bank Agent Transaction Registers, two gambling machines, and a laptop – these items have since been confiscated. Gadgets Africa says that the DCI has been on actively breaking down schemes concocted by digital criminals over the last year – this includes plots where fraudsters send scam messages wit...
1000 Kenyan Schools to be Connected to the Internet
Sourced from ICT Authority KE Kenya’s government is planning to spend KES15 billion to allow schools to teach four subjects online. This comes after ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru announced plans to pilot a programme that would aid in digital learning. According to The Star, Mucheru appeared before the Senate ICT Committee to “answer questions about the digital literacy programme and broadband to the school project. He said planning is underway to provide schoolchildren with customised devices to aid in digital learning”. “The devices will be developed in partnership with local universities.” Mucheru also said the funds, in partnership with Unicef, would “be used to lay infrastructure such as fibre optic cables, build ICT laboratories, connect electricity, buy tablets for learners ...
3 Reasons to Love the Huawei FreeBuds 3i
Huawei recently unveiled six new gadgets at its global launch event, these include the FreeBuds 3i which retail in South Africa for just R1,999. These earphones are said to be the world’s first open-fit true wireless stereo (TWS) with advanced active noise cancelling (ANC) technologies. Here are three reasons to love the Huawei Freebuds 3i: 1. A connected ecosystem of intelligence The Huawei FreeBuds 3i offer a fully integrated ecosystem of seamless interconnectivity between all Huawei devices. As soon as the charging case is open, a pop-up notification will appear on any nearby Huawei devices, enabling users to instantly connect to their earphones. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_63b.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_63b.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } A pop-up notification will als...
