tech news
Investment in Digital Transformation is Expected to Reach $7.4 trillion by 2023, says Report
As organizations look to transform their business operations and revolutionize customer service, Digital Transformation (DX) is at the top of most CXOs’ agendas; in fact, DX spending is expected to approach $7.4 trillion between 2020 and 2023, a CAGR of 17.5%. However, according to the latest industry data released today from Veeam Software, almost half of global organizations are being hindered in their DX journeys due to unreliable, legacy technologies with 44% citing lack of IT skills or expertise as another barrier to success. Moreover, almost every company admitted to experiencing downtime, with 1 out of every 10 servers having unexpected outages each year — problems that last for hours and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – and this points to an urgent need to moderniz...
Energy Leaders Give Insight on the Future of Kenya’s Oil and Gas Transition
Sourced from Construction Review Online. Kenya’s oil and gas industry is in a state of transition, as its major oil and gas development — Blocks 10BB and 13T in Turkana — has been put on hold, with Tullow Oil submitting a notice of force majeure to the Kenyan Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, citing complications from COVID-19. Meanwhile, Uganda’s Lake Albert Project is moving ahead, with Total announcing plans to acquire Tullow Oil’s stake in the project. The massive development in Uganda, which is set to include a pipeline and refinery, could easily have an impact on regional oil and gas developments and opportunities. In a webinar, Kenyan energy industry leaders shared strategies and thoughts on how Kenya’s oil and gas sector can deal with the implications caused by COVID-19. According ...
Facebooks New Photo Transfer Tool Goes Global
Facebook has announced that it’s Google Photos transfer tool is officially available to all users across the globe – after first being released in the US and Canada in April. “Today, we’re releasing a tool that will enable Facebook users to transfer their Facebook photos and videos directly to other services, starting with Google Photos,” says the company in an official blog post. This tool allows users to create copies of photos and videos from their Facebook account that can be transferred to their linked Google Photos account. The company says that it believes if users share data with one service, they should also be able to move it to another. Here’s how to use the photo transfer tool in five steps: Step 1: Go to “Your Facebook information” in your Facebook settingsStep 2: Select “Tran...
Twitter Clarifies Policies on Misinformation After Labelling Trump’s Tweets
Image sourced from Mission Statement Academy Twitter has taken to social media to set the record straight regarding the platform’s new policies on misinformation. In a series of Tweets, Twitter says that it’s is not focused on flagging or labelling every piece of misinformation as it’s rather tackling the content with “the highest potential for harm”. This is, according to the company, because people have insisted that the platform “shouldn’t determine the truthfulness of tweets,” but rather “provide context to help people make up their own minds in cases where the substance of a tweet is disputed.” We are NOT attempting to address all misinformation. Instead, we prioritize based on the highest potential for harm, focusing on manipulated media, civic integrity, and COVID-19. Likelihood, se...
Ride-Hailing Businesses Begin to Recover
Sourced from Forbes. Uber Technologies Inc.’s global rides business is down 70% from this time last year, a small improvement from its rock-bottom fall during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Though slight, it is an indication that recovery is coming, albeit slowly. The decline in rides seems to be offset, if partially, by a boom in food delivery. Uber Eats’ gains have more than doubled, and they continue to accelerate, says Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, speaking at a virtual tech conference hosted by Bank of America. Bloomberg reports that the ride-hailing company intends to continue to look for opportunities in the food delivery market. Khosrowshahi declined to comment on Uber’s proposal to buy Grubhub Inc., which was first reported by Bloomberg last month. Since being so hars...
Dropbox Launches New Password Manager in Private Beta
Sourced from TechSpot. Dropbox has quietly launched a new password manager named Dropbox Passwords. The app is only available in a private beta on Android, and although it can be downloaded, users won’t be able to use it yet – at least not until they get an invite. The app’s Play Store listing notes that the app is currently “in development” and therefore may be unstable. Sourced from Dropbox. While still currently in a very basic state, like most password managers, it creates unique passwords, stores them in a single place and synchronises them across your devices in order to automatically and quickly fill-in login fields. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_44e.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_44e.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } There’s still no mention of other useful features like i...
Nashua Appoints New CEO
Nashua has announced the appointment of Barry Venter as CEO – the company says this comes at a time when the challenging economic and social times we face would have many on the run. Venter’s career has mostly been within the ranks of Nashua Group. He says “Nashua forms part of my DNA as I have grown and evolved over 22 years with this business. It is an aspirational, truly South African brand and the value system and culture within the business is very important to me.” Venter started at the very bottom in Nashua – he was a contractor, worked in the warehouse, packed SIM cards and even sold second-hand phones to dealers – along the way, was exposed to great mentorship and opportunities, moving into IT to implement new technology and create a call centre before moving back onto the busines...
Slack and Amazon Join Forces to Take On Microsoft Teams
Sourced from TechSpot. Slack is partnering with Amazon in a multi-year agreement that means all Amazon employees will start to use video-conferencing and business communication platform Slack. This deal comes on the heels of Slack facing increasing competition from Microsoft’s Teams platform. The deal will also see Slack migrate its voice and video calling features over to Amazon’s Chime platform, alongside a broader adoption of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon’s roll-out of Slack to its employees is a key part of the deal, thanks to an enterprise-wide agreement. It’s not immediately clear how many of Amazon’s 840,000 employees will be using Slack, though. Up until today, Slack’s biggest customer has been IBM, which is rolling out Slack to its 350,000 employees. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_7e...
Twitter Suspends Account that Posts Exact Copies of Trump’s Tweets
Image sourced from Al Jazeera In an attempt to prove that social media giant Twitter is more than lenient when it comes to its A-list users, an account under the name ‘@SuspendThePress’ copied and posted US President Donald Trump’s tweets. This account will tweet what the President tweets. Let’s see if it gets suspended for violating twitters TOS. Follow along with this social experiment. Report any tweets that violate the rules. Thank you. — Will they suspend me? (@SuspendThePres) May 30, 2020 This experiment comes shortly after US President Donald Trump threatened to regulate or even “close down” social media platforms – after a number of his tweets were branded as containing misleading information. According to TechWeez, the owner of the account “wanted to see how long it would tak...
4 Free Sites You Can Use To Create Your Perfect Website
Sourced from the Random Passion Project. A great way to advertise yourself or your business, especially nowadays, is with a website. A personal website shows potential employers or clients that you are technically informed and ICT-conscious. Personal websites can be great outlets for your creativity, a fantastic way to get your message out there, and sometimes even the prefered way to do business. Here are 4 free platforms where you can create your own websites: 1. Webnode /* custom css */ .tdi_3_566.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_566.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Webnode is a slick, modern and professional website maker and editor. They use stylish and responsive themes, and it features a very intuitive way to work through building your own website. The website-creation...
Vodacom Partners with WITS University to Ensure Continued Online Learning
To help students stay on track to successfully complete the 2020 academic year despite not being on campus, Vodacom has partnered with the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in Johannesburg to keep students connected to higher learning activities. The network provider says that it has committed to providing each student with a 30GB data bundle to remain connected and continue their education while they are away from campus. “We can all agree that success begins with education. For many students, remote learning is a challenge as they do not have the means to access online learning materials,” says William Mzimba, Chief Officer for Vodacom Business. “As remote learning becomes a necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vodacom Business is proud to partner with WITS to support education a...
Zoom Denies End-to-End Encryption to Free Users
Videoconferencing company Zoom confirmed this week that it won’t enable its end-to-end encryption for free calls because it wants to allow law enforcement access to these calls if necessary. Zoom’s statement about the policy reads: “Zoom does not proactively monitor meeting content, and we do not share information with law enforcement except in circumstances like child sex abuse. We do not have backdoors where participants can enter meetings without being visible to others. None of this will change,” says a spokesperson. “Zoom’s end-to-end encryption plan balances the privacy of its users with the safety of vulnerable groups, including children and potential victims of hate crimes. We plan to provide end-to-end encryption to users for whom we can verify identity, thereby limiting harm to t...
