Dropbox enhances cloud storage by adding password manager and vault security features

Dropbox has unveiled a range of new features aimed at making the storage site more of a one-stop shop for subscribers.

Dropbox has unveiled a range of new features aimed at making the storage site more of a one-stop shop for subscribers. Several of the features have security in mind, while others are designed to make the site more effective for home and business users. On the security front, Dropbox is adding its own password manager. Known simply as Dropbox Passwords, the app saves your passwords in what the company describes as a “safe place” and then automatically enters them when you need to sign into websites and apps. Your saved…

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Google announced $1M pan-African Google.org Fund

Google

In recognition of Safer Internet Day, Google announced a $1M pan-African Google.org fund to support innovative ideas around privacy, trust and safety for families online across sub-Saharan Africa. It also launched its landmark child online safety programme, Be Internet Awesome, in South Africa, the Netherlands and Nigeria today. Be Internet Awesome seeks to help minors explore the internet safely and confidently, while the Google.org grant will provide funding to help develop further programmes that aim to do this – for children and their families. Funding applications will be requested through an open…

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Kibanda Online: Grocery shopping made easier

Kibanda Online

A new online platform, “Kibanda Online”  has now made buying groceries a task that can be done at the comfort of your home. The platform is a departure from many online shops whether on Instagram, Facebook or websites  which mainly trade on home appliances, cosmetics and clothes. The platform is the brainchild of 29-year-old Laurriette Rota. ‘Kibanda’ is a Swahili word meaning stall. Ms Rota says the idea initially was to help deliver groceries and other items needed regularly by the sick, elderly and physically challenged people who have a…

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Facebook and Instagram to show fewer political ads

Facebook

Facebook announced it will show fewer political ads to people on its platform and Instagram, starting with the US which faces Presidential elections this year, but won’t ban or limit those as Twitter has already done and Google to some extent. Targeting both Twitter and Google, the social networking platform said that while Twitter has chosen to block political ads and Google has chosen to limit the targeting of political ads, “we are choosing to expand transparency and give more controls to people when it comes to political ads”. “Seeing…

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twttr app making threaded conversations easier to read

twttr

At last year’s Consumer Electric Show (CES), Twitter  introduced its first public prototype app, twttr dubbed “little T” internally at Twitter. The app allows Twitter to develop and experiment with new features in the public, to see what works and what does not. The app’s main focus, to date, has been on making threaded conversations easier to read. Now, the company is ready to graduate the best of twttr to the main Twitter app. “We’re taking all the different branches all the different parts of the conversation and we’re making…

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WhatsApp users will soon have a major update

Zuri

Millions of phones will soon no longer support WhatsApp due to a major update with the popular messaging app. Older versions of Android and iOS devices will no longer be able to access the Facebook-owned app from 1 February, while certain Windows phones have already lost support. WhatsApp said the call was necessary in order to ensure the security of its users, who are advised to update to the most recent mobile operating system their smartphone supports. After 31 January, WhatsApp said “some features might stop functioning at any time” because it is no longer actively…

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Chinese farmers use videos to reach consumers

Farmers

Creating videos has become a popular sales tactic for Chinese farmers: the clips show increasingly discerning consumers the origins of the product and provide a window into rural life that captures audience imagination. For some it has helped them find a way out of poverty, which the ruling Communist party hopes to eradicate by 2020. “Everyone said I was good for nothing when they saw I’d come back,” the 31 year-old says of his return to his village after a failed attempt at running an online clothing business. “They tell…

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Facebook to equip locals with journalistic skills

Facebook

Internet giant, Facebook is partnering with Kenya’s Aga Khan University (AKU) to equip locals with digital journalistic skills to tell their Kenyan stories. The six months ‘Video Journalism Fellowship’ to be hosted at the AKU’s AKU’s Graduate School of Media and Communications(GSMC),Nairobi with beneficiaries attached to local media houses to sharpen their reporting skills. Speaking at the launch event, GSMC Interim dean Alex Awiti said the AKU-Facebook partnership redefines citizen journalism where Kenyans will tell real-life stories using their smartphones to capture video content. “Mobile journalism is a growing form…

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Instagram’s move on hiding “likes” visibility

fACEBOOK,INSTAGRAM,MESSANGER

There has been some controversy surrounding Instagram’s new effort to focus on users’ mental health. The need to paint a picture of perfection on social media is becoming more and more important to users, and Instagram wants to help stop that. But is that the company’s only motive? Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced that the platform would begin hiding likes for U.S. users earlier this year. In November, he explained that the idea behind it was to “depressurize Instagram and make it less of a competition and give people more space to…

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Twitter plans on deleting inactive accounts

Twitter

Are you inactive on Twitter and still plan on being on the app? Then you better watch out and keep an eye on your account because Twitter plans on deleting the inactive accounts. Consider being active in order to save your account. Earlier last week, Twitter said that it would in this coming month begin removing inactive accounts from their platform. But the company then walked back on that promise because of an uproar, particularly from those who had deceased relatives with inactive accounts and wanted to have some way…

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