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Andela Secures $100M Series D Funding to Build Distributed Eng. Teams and Power its work

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019 Staff Writer

Andela the company building distributed engineering teams with Africa’s top software developers, today announced the completion of a $100M Series D funding. The round was led by Generation Investment Management with participation from existing investors including Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV, Spark Capital, and CRE Venture Capital. The most recent financing brings Andela’s total venture funding to $180M. Andela was founded in 2014 to connect Africa’s engineering talent with the demand for software developers worldwide. With the Series D funding, Andela will accelerate the development of its technology platform to identify,…

Pesapal starts Payment processing for low cost Kenyan Airlines

January 22, 2019January 22, 2019 Editor

Pesapal has this year started processing payments for low cost carriers in Kenya. Jetways Airlines, Silverstone Air and Skyward Express will from now on use Pesapal’s integrated payment system to process Mpesa, Visa, mVisa, MasterCard and American Express payments on their respective websites. This not only gives travellers the freedom to pay conveniently for their flights but also makes it easier for airlines to track payments and traveller flight information. These airlines join African Express Airways in Kenya and Eagle Air in Uganda showing Pesapal’s growth as a payment processor…

Wearable device sales to hit $42 billion in 2019 says Gartner

November 30, 2018July 3, 2020 Dianne Jacobs

Gartner, Inc. forecasts that worldwide shipments of wearable devices will reach 225 million in 2019, an increase of 25.8 percent from 2018. End-user spending on wearable devices is forecast to reach $42 billion in 2019. Of that, $16.2 billion will be on smartwatches. “At the moment, the smartwatch market is bolstered by the relatively stable and higher average selling price (ASP) of the Apple Watch,” said Alan Antin. senior director at Gartner. “But the overall ASP of smartwatches is expected to slowly decline from $221.99 in 2018 to $210 in…

Apple to stop reporting how many iPhones, iPads and Macs it sells each quarter

November 2, 2018 olivia Craig

Apple said Thursday it plans to stop reporting how many iPhones, iPads and Macs it sells each quarter, in what could be a nod to flatlining growth in some of these product lines. Apple will continue to report revenue for these categories. The move was just one of the concerning announcements Apple made Thursday. The company also said it expects sales in the all-important holiday quarter to be between $89 billion and $93 billion, skewing short of analyst estimates. At the low end of that range, Apple’s holiday sales would…

Rogue Move? Facebook to start flooding WhatsApp with Ads in 2019

October 8, 2018 Editor

WhatsApp launches end-to-end encryption on messages for all its users

WhatsApp has been free, but soon users can expect a significant change in their experience of WhatsApp. The Android and iOS chat app, originally released in 2009, will start to embed paid-for content in the app’s Status feature from 2019. The Status feature is similar to Stories on Instagram and Facebook, letting users upload Snapchat-style pics and videos that can be viewed for 24 hours. Facebook wants to interrupt some of these Statuses with short ads, although details are light. WhatsApp’s co-founders were famously against ads, and supportive of encrypted…

Benin Govt abandon social media tax decree after protests

September 25, 2018 olivia Craig

After 10 days of mobilisation with more than 500 000 people being affected by the social media tax, the government in Benin have decided to cancel the tax. The government passed the decree in late August taxing its citizens for accessing the internet and social media apps reports Mail & Guardian. It taxed the use of Over The Top services like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. Mylène Flicka, an Beninese activist, working on IRAWO, a digital media platform spoke to The Daily Vox about the decree and the cancellation of the…

Surprise overdue dual-SIM support coming to the iPhones

September 13, 2018 olivia Craig

Apple’s introducing letting you embrace your inner duality with your iPhone. At Wednesday’s Apple event, the company announced the launch of dual-SIM support for the iPhone. Both the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max will offer the dual SIM card option. This will allow you to have two different phone numbers and two different carriers on the same phone. The dual SIM support is possible because Apple’s newest iPhones will have an eSIM as well as a regular nano SIM card. The eSIM means you won’t have to swap…

Apple cracking down on apps store, requires all to define a privacy policy

September 3, 2018September 3, 2018 Editor

Apple is taking an unprecedented step on its store in the fight for privacy. The tech company is cracking down on apps that don’t communicate to users how their personal data is used, secured or shared. In an announcement posted to developers through the App Store Connect portal, Apple says that all apps, including those still in testing, will be required to have a privacy policy as of October 3, 2018. The rules go into effect on October 3rd. Apple says that current software without a policy won’t be removed…