Technology
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Guarantee Risk Solar Energy Partners SA-based Bushveld Energy (eXcess Africa) for the Establishment of 3 Solar Plants With an Output of 250MW
Local energy company, Guarantee Risk Solar Energy has embarked on a partnership with a South Africa-based Bushveld Energy (eXcess Africa) for the establishment of three solar photovoltaic plants with an output of 250 megawatts. The projects are expected to gobble at least $400 million and will be administered in phases till completion of the scheme.…
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Econet Warns of Fraudulent Investment Schemes
Telecoms group Econet Wireless has warned the public to be wary of fraudulent investment schemes being run on social media platforms. Some of these schemes use Econet’s electronic money transfer system, EcoCash, to dupe unsuspecting members of the public. One such investment scheme called “EcoCash Trades” has been circulating on WhatsApp offering as much as…
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Safaricom Launches Affordable 4G-Enabled Smartphones in Kenya
Safaricom has launched a smartphone campaign by introducing the most affordable 4G-enabled smartphones—Neon Ray and Neon Nova—in Kenya. The launching of the smartphones aims at delivering a digital experience for those who do not have smartphones. Sylvia Mulinge, Chief Customer Officer at Safaricom, said: “At Safaricom, we aim to transform lives by providing solutions to our customers. With…
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Google I/O 2019 Keynote: The 8 Biggest Announcements
Google typically hops between each I/O year to focus on either hardware or software news, and this year brought on more devices than we got from 2018. Now that the keynote’s wrapped, we can confirm a few rumors from the past few months: the Pixel 3A is real, as is the leaked Nest Hub Max…
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Disney Plus Streaming Service: Release Date, Price, Shows and Movies to Expect
Here’s everything we know about Disney Plus, the entertainment giant’s Netflix-like push into global streaming. Disney is betting big on its 2019 streaming service called Disney Plus, and it put (almost) all its cards on the table last month. In a three-hour event, Disney revealed the release date, price, shows and movies planned for its Netflix competitor. Disney…
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MTN Files Application for Listing With SEC, NSE
MTN Group Plc has filed an application for public listing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The company applied for registration of shares and a listing on the NSE. SEC confirmed in a statement on Monday that the commission had received an application from the telecom giant. The statement read in…
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MTN Share Price Rise After Board Changes
The share price of Africa’s largest mobile operator, MTN, rose 2.78 percent on the JSE after it announced several changes to its board in a bid to strengthen its executive team. The share closed at R105.30 on Friday. MTN has appointed Former Deputy Minister of Finance Mcebisi Jonas as its chairperson-designate to replace Phuthuma Nhleko,…
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Google Play 2019 App Award Winners Revealed Ahead of I/O
To kick off its I/O developer conference, Google announced the winners of the fourth annual Google Play Awards. App developers vied for nine categories that provided the best experience for users, made an impact on communities and raised quality content in the app store, according to Google. Google revealed the award nominees in April. All the winners can be found here. Here’s a…
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Spotify Doubles Apple Music Members After Hitting 100 Million Subscribers
Less than a month ago, it was revealed that Apple Music had overtaken Spotify in terms of paid subscribers in the US – a milestone for the music streaming service – but Spotify’s latest earnings report shows that it’s still well and truly dominating the overall global market. “Premium Subscribers grew up to 100 million, up 32%…
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Here is What to Expect At This Year’s Google I/O 2019 Developer Conference
Google I/O 2019 Developer Conference
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Google Introduces a New Auto-delete History Feature
Google is rolling out auto-delete controls for your activity data and location history, letting you automatically scrub information after three or 18 months so if you were worried about your Google data history coming back to haunt you, you’ll be glad to hear that there’s now an easy way to keep that history brief. While that’s not…
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Liquid Telecom Partners SITA to Deliver Provincial Broadband Services in Eastern Cape
Liquid Telecom South Africa, part of the leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, has concluded an agreement with SITA to deliver much needed broadband services to hospitals, schools, clinics and provincial offices. The high-speed broadband services will enable the Eastern Cape Provincial Government to deliver services to its citizens, using technology to enhance their overall…
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Zimbabwe: Are MNOs Really Overcharging? . . . Evidence May Not be What Customers Want to Hear
It is not every day that you see an industry regulator defending the prices of products and services offered by industry players that it regulates. But this is exactly what the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) had to do recently. Faced with a barrage of criticism and an international report (that has…
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MTN Appoints Mcebisi Jonas S.A’s Former Deputy Finance Minister as Chairman-Designate
South Africa’s Former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas
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Don’t Tempt Us To Invite MTN Says Energy Mutodi in Response to Data Tariff Adjustment
Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity & Broadcasting Services, Energy Mutodi
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Google Workers Hold a Sit-in May 1 (Workers/Labour Day) to Protest Alleged Retaliation
Google workers staged a sit-in yesterday Wednesday to protest alleged retaliation from management toward employee organizers at the company. The demonstration, which started at 11 a.m. Wednesday, will be six months to the day of last year’s historic walkout, in which 20,000 Google workers left their offices to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations directed at key…
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Econet Wireless Data Bundle Price Adjustment Largely Expected And Unavoidable
The country’s largest mobile network operator Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has adjusted its data bundle tariffs upwards in a move that was largely expected, following State-owned competitors NetOne and Telecel’s data bundle price adjustments a few days back. Econet’s new data portfolio now offers a wider selection as it now gives subscribers more bundles to choose…
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Apple iPhone Sales Drop, With Services and Wearables Offering a Boost
Apple’s iPhone sales continued to slip in its latest quarter, but the tech giant’s results were still ahead of Wall Street’s expectations. The Cupertino, California, company on Tuesday reported iPhone revenue for the fiscal second quarter fell 17% to $31.1 billion. The result beat analyst projections of $30.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. As a notable bright spot, services…
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Data Tariffs Soar As Crisis Bites
Mobile network operators became the latest sector to increase prices for their products with an upward adjustment of tariffs for broadband services following the floating of the country’s local currency against the United States dollar. Zimbabwe liberalised its exchange rate on February 22 when it introduced an interbank market for foreign currency trading. The new…
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A China’s Coffee Disruptor Luckin Plots To Raise $800 Million To Challenge Starbucks
Luckin, China’s upstart coffee brand, has an audacious plan: convince China to switch from tea to coffee, overtaking Starbucks while they’re at it. It’s an expensive proposition, so they’re relying on an IPO — and a Silicon Valley mindset. “Technology is the core of our business,” Luckin Coffee, the young unicorn that emerged last year…
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Uber is Aiming for an $84 Billion Valuation Year’s Largest IPO
Uber Technologies Inc. is seeking to raise as much as $9 billion in an initial public offering that could give the ride-hailing giant a market valuation of as much as $84 billion. Uber had previously considered targeting a valuation of $100 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, and some bankers had suggested last year that it…
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PayPal agrees to invest $500M in Uber as it extends partnership
PayPal on Friday revealed that it’ll pump $500 million into Uber as it extends a partnership the companies have maintained since 2013. As part of the extension, the online payment company will look into developing the ride-hailing service’s digital wallet. PayPal boss Dan Schulman mentioned that deal in a LinkedIn post early Friday. “This is another significant milestone on our journey…
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Who Owns Huawei? The Company Tried to Explain This Issue On Ownership But Seemed to Have Failed
Huawei’s controversial status in North America and Europe stems from a lot of different factors. At the heart of most of them, however, is the hardware maker’s alleged ties to the Chinese government. The notion of government control has been enough to cause something approaching an outright ban on its products in the States, over…
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Facebook Expects to Be Fined At Least $5 Billion by Federal Trade Commission Over Privacy Issues
Facebook said on Wednesday that it expected to be fined up to $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations. The penalty would be a record by the agency against a technology company and a sign that the United States was willing to punish big tech companies. The social network disclosed the amount in its…
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Snapchat Unveils Plans to Get Your Bitmoji Into Games
Snap will soon let game developers import your Bitmoji to use as 3D characters. TechCrunch reports that a new Bitmoji for Games SDK will support games built in Unity, the Unreal Engine, and Snap’s in-house PlayCanvas engine, and it will be free for the select developers that Snap has chosen for the platform. This is not the…
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TikTok is no longer banned in India
According to Indian lawmakers they said that TikTok was encouraging the spread of explicit content and “cultural degradation” among youth, and then they successfully banned the short video app — but only for a week or so, because the TikTok ban has now been lifted. That’s according to reports from Reuters, TechCrunch, CNN Business, and others. Technically, TikTok’s existing 120 million active monthly users…
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Microsoft Is Now a $1 Trillion Company
Microsoft has become the third US company to pass a market cap of $1 trillion. The software giant passed the milestone briefly today after a jump in stock price today following strong fiscal Q3 earnings. Microsoft joins Apple and Amazon in hitting the $1 trillion valuation ahead of rival Google. Microsoft’s stock price opened at $130 per share today, up…
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ZESA to install Cameras on Transformers to Curb Theft and Vandalism
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority subsidiary ZESA Enterprises (ZENT) plans to install cameras on transformers to curb theft and vandalism, a top official has said. Recently, the company announced that it was losing at least three transformers every night to vandalism and theft. In an interview, ZENT acting managing director Mr Burutsa Mandipezano said the initiative…
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U.S. Intelligence Latest Report Claims Huawei is Funded by Chinese State Security
Huawei Technologies Co.
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ICT To Improve Web Presence in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has a mobile penetration rate of 102.7 percent (according to PORTAZ January 2018) meaning over 100 percent of the Zimbabwean population has access to the internet, which is the biggest source of information. There is now a need for every sector of our government to have a web presence. The flagship ministry of our…
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Three Independent Power Producers Scramble for Solar Power Plants
Three independent power producers have applied to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) for licences to establish solar power plants that will add about 100MW to the national grid. The three include Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited, which seeks to establish a 1MW photovoltaic rooftop power plant at its premises in Harare; Lumigar Solar (Private) Limited that…
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Google Opens Artificial Intelligence Centre in Ghana
Google has opened an Artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory in Accra, Ghana – the first of its kind on African soil. The new lab will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop solutions in healthcare, education and agriculture and according Moustapha Cisse, who will head the centre says Artificial Intelligence could improve lives and reduce inequalities.…
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Liquid Telecom Partners Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Innovation Challenge
Liquid Telecom will serve as Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) outreach partner for Africa in this year’s edition of the inclusive innovation challenge (IIC). Through the partnership, Liquid Telecom will be encouraging African-based start-ups, innovators and technology companies to take part in various challenges. The 2019 IIC has four categories; technology access, financial inclusion, skills…
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Toshiba-Branded PCs Retired, Now Rebranded as Dynabook
The PC business unit behind the hardware has rebranded itself as Dynabook. The move comes after Toshiba sold its PC business unit to Sharp, the Japanese display maker. The tech community has already lost so much in 2019. Google+, Amazon Dash buttons, Microsoft Bands. Now, we must bid adieu to Toshiba-branded laptops. The PC business unit…
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Chad Social Media Ban Reaches 1 Year Mark With The Chadian Court Actually Approving The Blackout
Chadian President Idriss Deby (L)
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Google Stops Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL Sales
Google has discontinued the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, the company’s flagship smartphones from last year. As first spotted by Android Police, the Pixel 2 has been scrubbed from the Google Store page, and the old Pixel 2 URL now redirects to the Pixel 3 page. The Pixel 2XL was probably Google’s most competitive smartphone to date. There…
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Apple Music’s U.S. Subscriber Count Overtakes Spotify
Apple Music has surpassed Spotify’s paid subscriber count in the United States. The shift reportedly happened earlier in 2019; Apple had more than 28 million U.S. subscribers in February compared to Spotify’s 26 million paid U.S. subscribers. Similar news broke last summer from an industry source, but now months later the WSJis corroborating the report.…