Bitcoin reached a new high of $47,000 after Tesla invested $1.5 billion into the cryptocurrency. The electric car manufacturer says that it will “begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment” for its products in the future. In a report, Telsa says “in January 2021, we updated our investment policy to provide us with more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity. As part of the policy, we may invest a portion of such cash in certain specified alternative reserve assets.” “Thereafter, we invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy. Moreover, we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limit...
Image sourced from Hypebeast Elon Musk is making headlines after causing the price of Dogecoin to surge to an all-time high. On Sunday, the tech entrepreneur tweeted “Who let the Doge out”, resulting in a 53% rise over the last 24 hours. Dogecoin’s record value is now 8.2 cents with a market value of $10 billion – making it the 8th biggest cryptocurrency, according to Bloomberg. 🎶 Who let the Doge out 🎶 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2021 Dogecoin was introduced in 2013 as a joke. Initially, founders Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus wanted to satirize the growth of altcoins by turning the doge internet meme into a cryptocurrency. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_667.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_667.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Their joke quickly grew in pop...
Image sourced from TimesLIVE The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has proven ‘minimally effective’ against the South African variant, according to the Wits Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics (VIDA) research unit. So far, South Africa has received one million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. In an official report, researchers from South Africa and the UK found that “viral neutralisation by sera induced by the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 coronavirus vaccine against the B.1.351 coronavirus variant were substantially reduced when compared with the ‘original’ strain of the coronavirus”. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_ec0.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_ec0.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, Sarah Gilbert revealed that efforts are alrea...
2020 can be defined by dramatic change. On every front, from health to economic, political to social, the pandemic has forced individuals and businesses to adapt in a hurry. The long-term effects will not be truly understood for at least another year, but in the short term, some more agile businesses are making quick decisions and shifting priorities. How? With the ability to transform quickly thanks to two enablers – a culture where change is anticipated, and a stable platform of digital capabilities. Take DHL Express, for example: Suddenly faced with the unprecedented growth of online shopping deliveries, it quickly scaled its IT platform to fulfil this demand. Or Philips, which invested in best-in-class process excellence to ensure business continuity and well-documented enterprise arch...
Sourced from Cosmico TikTok has launched an Android TV app, available from the Google Play Store – making it even easier for users to spend hours watching shortform videos. According to 9to5Google, the TikTok app works similarly to the regular app where “videos are shown in a feed [and users] can flip through to see more content”. The difference is that using the Android app, users will see a vertical version of the video with the title, category, and comments off to the side of the screen. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_806.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_806.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “[Our] shortform videos are fun, genuine and creative. And now, we’re bringing that fun content to your television,” reads an official statement from TikTok. “Whether you’re a sports fanatic, ...
Telkom has announced the appointment of Dirk Reyneke as Chief Financial Officer – to be taken on with immediate effect. He succeeds Tsholofelo Molefe who has resigned to join MTN Group. According to TechCentral, Reyneke was previously CFO of Telkom’s wholesale division, Openserve, and before that, he was CFO of its property business, Gyro. He was also a director of finance and operations at ABSA. The company has also announced changes to its board which include naming Kholeka Mzondeki as the chair of its social and ethics committee, Fagmeedah Petersen-Cook to a member of the nominations committee and Keith Rayner to the investment and transactions committee. Airtel Africa and Telkom Under Investigation by the Communications Authority of Kenya Airtel Africa and Telkom have been placed under...
2020 highlighted the importance of secure, reliable communications networks. Following a revealing year that made digital communication channels and remote working the norm, there are a few tech trends that are likely to play out over the foreseeable future. With this in mind, Nic Laschinger, CTO of Euphoria Telecom, has shared five telephony trends to expect in 2021: 1. Farewell to the landline As the world embraces digital communication systems, the traditional landline is being left behind. Telkom’s recent discontinuation of its copper line-based ADSL service is yet another strong indicator that South Africa is moving more towards higher bandwidth, more reliable connectivity solutions. In South Africa, between 20 and 22 million people in South Africa use smartphones. And an ever-increas...
Xiaomi has shared the first look of its quad-curved waterfall screen concept smartphone. The device is said to “extend the limits of the display to infinity” thanks to its 88-degree all-round curves. An official tweet from the company reads, “Meet our first #QuadCurvedWaterfallDisplay concept smartphone. Everything you see on the display flows over the edges smoothly and seamlessly, just like water.” Meet our first #QuadCurvedWaterfallDisplay concept smartphone. Everything you see on the display flows over the edges smoothly and seamlessly, just like water. 🌊 #InnovationForEveryone pic.twitter.com/8pwo80qKhl — Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) February 5, 2021 /* custom css */ .tdi_3_d09.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_d09.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } The concept device feat...
Founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has revealed that he will step down from his role in Q3 of this year. He is expected to transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board while Andy Jassy will become CEO. Founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has revealed that he will step down from his role in Q3 of this year.Click To Tweet “Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence,” writes Bezos. Amazon began as an idea some 27 years ago. Today, it employs 1.3 million dedicated people, serves hundreds of millions of customers and businesses, and are widely recognized as one of the most successful companies in the world. “As Amazon became large, we decided to use our scale a...
Teraco has secured R2.5 billion towards the construction of Africa’s largest data centre – a 38-megawatt hyperscale platform in Ekurhuleni, South Africa. Teraco’s newly appointed CFO, Samuel Erwin, says that the shareholders and lenders have a long-term vision for Africa’s digital transformation and support its continued investment in data centre infrastructure to serve the sub-Saharan African market. Erwin joined the company in 2020, bringing with him a wealth of corporate and investment banking experience where he led a team responsible for providing debt financing to clients across the African continent. He says that this funding round, and continued investments in data centre construction, align with Teraco’s support of the South African Government’s investment drive and Teraco’s 2020 ...
MTN has launched its Supersonic AirFibre offering in South Africa. The product is said to overcome distance and a lack of infrastructure in urban, township and rural communities to bring fibre-quality connectivity to more households across the country. “We are breaking down the traditional barriers to entry that have denied much access to a modern, connected life”, says Calvin Collett, MD of MTN SA’s ISP: Supersonic. “From Soweto to Swellendam, we believe that every household deserves the speed and benefits of fibre-like connectivity, and through AirFibre we believe we can achieve this.” Supersonic AirFibre is expected to bring high-speed, inexpensive, and uncapped connectivity solutions to areas in which traditional fibre installations are not available. Built on unlicensed spectrum, the ...
2020 demonstrated how overwhelmingly important a connected infrastructure and digital services have become for the daily functioning of society. This realisation has led to a shift in attitudes to privacy and the way citizens, organisations and governments perceive it. With that in mind, here are five trends that lie ahead in the privacy field in 2021 – according to Kaspersky: Consumer privacy is going to be a value proposition and will, in most cases, cost money. Increased data gathering during the pandemic, and growing political turmoil that crossed into digital platforms, have combined to yield rapid growth in public awareness of unfettered data collection. As more users look to preserve their privacy, organisations are responding by offering privacy-focused products – the number and di...