technology news
Telkom Kenya and Airtel Subscribers Fall Over Failed Merger, says CA
Image sourced from Bandwidth Blog Telkom Kenya and Airtel have recorded a 16% fall in mobile Internet subscribers after consumers grew uncertain over a proposed merger of the telcos, according to Gadgets Africa. A report by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) reveals that there were only 38.85 million Internet subscribers as of March 2020 – this resulted in a decline from 46.46 million in the same period last year. “The merger deal collapsed last month with Airtel Kenya and Telkom Kenya citing unacceptable conditions placed on the proposed amalgamation besides delays in receiving regulatory approvals,” reports Business Daily. “The companies had entered into an agreement on February 8, 2019 to combine their mobile, enterprise and wholesale divisions, a proposed deal that led to uncert...
HPE Finalises Acquisition of Silver Peak
Sourced from Silicon Angle Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has completed the acquisition of Silver Peak, an SD-WAN company, in a transaction valued at $925 million. Silver Peak will become a part of Aruba, an HPE company. The acquisition is intended to strengthen Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform), helping to advance enterprise cloud transformation with a comprehensive edge-to-cloud networking solution covering all aspects of wired, wireless local area networking (LAN) and wide-area networking (WAN). “WAN transformation is a key component of HPE’s Intelligent Edge and edge-to-cloud vision and growth strategy,” says Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE. “Armed with a comprehensive SD-WAN portfolio with the addition of Silver Peak, we will accelerate the delivery of a true distributed clo...
South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria Suffer 28 Million Malware Attacks
Sourced from IDG Connect More than 28 million malware attacks have been recorded in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria so far this year, according to research from Kaspersky, as well as 102 million detections of ‘grey zone’ software or potentially unwanted programs (PUAs). PUAs are programs that are usually not considered to be malicious by themselves. However, they are generally influencing user experience in a negative way. For instance, adware fills user device with ads; aggressive monetising software propagates unrequested paid offers; downloaders may download even more various applications on the device, sometimes malicious ones. While calculating interim results of threat landscape activity in African countries, the researchers noticed that PUAs attack users almost four times more often...
Cell C Joins #SavingTheClassOf2020 Project
Image sourced from Town Press As the fourth industrial revolution becomes reality on a global scale, the need for learners to master STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects has never been more important. According to STEMblogSA, this revolution will create more jobs than technology displaces, but STEM skills will be more critical than ever, given that between 65% and 85% of jobs that will exist in the future, currently do not exist. STEM subjects don’t just equip learners with know-how about how jobs in the future will work, it teaches them critical and creative thinking to navigate this space. In South Africa, the importance of STEM education is vital. The country lags behind a lot of other nations in the world in equipping its youth with STEM knowledge; in 2019, ...
4 Reasons to Love the Huawei Watch Fit
Huawei recently unveiled its newest wearable – the WATCH FIT. It is the first Huawei sports smartwatch to feature a rounded rectangular watch face design combining a dazzling 1.64-inch AMOLED display, which lends itself to displaying more content and better interactive experience. This watch is expected to bring a more ‘cohesive connected experience’ to consumers in their everyday lives. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG, says that “great user experiences are always founded on innovation, but our journey of innovation always begins and ends with consumers”. The device is officially launching on 1 October. Here are four exciting features to look forward to from the Huawei WATCH FIT: 1. Lightweight design – This device has a unique, perfectly proportioned square form and a dazzling ...
Opera Launches New Android and Desktop Browser Update
Opera has revealed new versions of its Android and desktop browsers – Android version 60 and Opera for desktop version 71. The new version of Opera’s flagship browser for Android ships with a completely redesigned Sync feature that uses a straight-forward QR-code reader to establish a seamless connection between Opera for Android and the Opera desktop browser on Windows, macOS or Linux. The latest version of Opera’s desktop browser, on the other hand, introduces a useful Easy Files feature. When attaching files in the Opera browser, Easy Files presents the user with their most recently downloaded files in a visual form, helping them select the desired files quickly, without having to search through folders or remember the file names. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_645.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: le...
Certain TikTok Accounts are Promoting Scam Apps, Research Shows
Sourced from Cosmico Avast claims to have found a total of seven “adware scam apps that were available on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store”. These apps have since been downloaded over 2.4 million times, generating roughly $500,000 for the creators. The security firm also discovered three accounts that are ‘aggressively’ pushing the apps on TikTok, one of which has more than 300K followers, while on Instagram a profile with more than 5,000 followers has been promoting one of the apps. “The apps we discovered are scams and violate both Google’s and Apple’s app policies by either making misleading claims around app functionalities or serving ads outside of the app and hiding the original app icon soon after the app is installed,” says Jakub Vávra, Avast threat analyst. “It i...
Cartrack Launches Personal Safety App in South Africa
Cartrack has launched Karu Safety, a rapid response safety app that dispatches emergency security assistance for people in need. Founder and Group CEO, Zak Calisto says the launch of Karu Safety was a natural evolution for the company. “We’ve been in the software business for 16 years and consistently introduced ground-breaking innovations that have made significant contributions towards the growth of the industry globally. We have unparalleled experience and insight into the need of people living in South Africa for personal safety. We too are concerned with the growing safety concerns in our communities. We view this new service as our duty to respond to the dire call from the South African people for affordable and accessible safety,” says Calisto. The Karu Safety app dispatches a ...
BBD Achieves AWS Advanced Partner Status
BBD has announced that they have achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Advanced Consulting Partner status in the Amazon Partner Network (APN). After meeting rigorous requirements, achieving this status comes in recognition of BBD’s proven track record in expertly architecting, building, migrating and managing client workloads in the cloud. “Achieving this status from the largest provider of cloud computing services in the world validates our ability to accelerate our clients’ journey to the cloud while ensuring optimised performance once there,” says Tony van der Linden, BBD’s head of research and design. As cloud technology matures and workplaces move into a cloud-first and technology-driven norm, BBD draws on the expertise of their certified cloud specialists to offer ...
Airtel Africa Introduces ‘Amazing’ Data Bundles
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Africa has introduced a new range of data bundles that could see customers receive up to 15GB of free data. According to Gadgets Africa, new daily, weekly and monthly data promotion will allow customers to get 500MB free data every day – depending on their data plan. For a weekly plan, customers can get Free 3.5GB – 500MB is awarded on a daily basis for 7 days. For a monthly plan, customers can get Free 15GB – 500MB is awarded on a daily basis for 30 days. Here’s a closer look at the data bundles: /* custom css */ .tdi_3_2b2.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_2b2.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Airtel Nigeria Introduces New Unlimited Data Plans Airtel Nigeria has introduced a new range of unlimited data plans – known as ‘Unlimited Ultra Plans’. Th...
Continuous Intelligence: The Newest Trend in Data Analysis
Continuous intelligence (CI) provides organisations across industry sectors with a more effective way of conducting data analysis. Being able to do so at greater scale, with higher volumes, and in near real-time will ensure their data will deliver even more business value. CI refers to the design pattern in which real-time analytics are integrated within the workflow of the business, analysing current and past data to suggest actions in response to events. Think of it as automating data analysis on a large scale. Gartner predicts that by 2022, more than half of major new business systems will incorporate CI using real-time contextual data to improve decisions. In basic terms, this enables organisation to improve the cycle time of its data to derive continuous business benefit from it. Furt...
5 Ways to Effectively Defend Against Cyberthreats
Sourced from Republic Title Garmin and Twitter recently joined the ranks of a string of global organisations that have fallen victim to crippling cyberattacks. A little closer to home, last year, the City of Johannesburg’s network was also hacked and held ransom for a hefty 4 bitcoins (worth around R520 000 at the time). While the nature of these attacks may be different, it’s clear that cybercrime is on the rise and companies of all sizes and across all sectors need to be vigilant. An ideal environment for cybercrime It’s no surprise that these attacks are becoming more common in today’s increasingly connected society. The rise of online applications and services means unprotected users are more exposed than ever before. Added to this, the current pandemic has pushed man...
