Tag: tech

Making the digital economy more inclusive

Dianne Jacobs

Across the world, there is a strong belief that machines are quickly approaching and they will take over human jobs. This fear is not new. From the cotton gin, to the tractor, to the assembly line and beyond, jobs have faced and will continue to face threats from technological advances. But throughout these disruptions, large-scale unemployment has typically been avoided: either machines could not do many of the innately human things people could do, or technology so drastically brought down costs that new markets were unlocked, in turn requiring more…

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Nigerian Start up innovates Recycling; Q&A with Bilikiss Abiola, Founder WeCyclers

Dianne Jacobs

Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola , Founder and CEO of Wecyclers The Nigerian tech startup space is developing at speed, and stands a good chance of being the Africa’s leader.  ITBusinessDirect spoke with  Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola , Founder and CEO of Wecyclers, a company that offers  household recycling service using a fleet of low-cost cargo bikes. They are powering social change using the environment by allowing people in low-income communities in Nigeria to capture value from their waste. Question: How can you define the technology sector in Nigeria? Bilikiss: I believe it’s…

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New malware masquerades as a ride-sharing app

An update to the venerable Faketoken.q Android malware has made it easier for the program to steal your credit card information from ride-sharing apps. Faketoken attacks Russian ride-sharing apps by overlaying text boxes on the credit card information pages that can capture your credit number and other important information. Kaspersky writes: After getting onto a smartphone (judging by the malware icon, Faketoken infiltrates smartphones through bulk SMS messages with a prompt to download some picture) and installing the necessary modules, the Trojan hides its shortcut icon and starts background monitoring…

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Internet providers could easily snoop on your smart home

IoT devices often identify themselves voluntarily, usually by connecting to specific domains or URLs. Even if they didn’t, there are simple ways of profiling them based on observation and some known data. It’s certainly true that encryption is on the rise online. Data from Mozilla, the company behind the popular Firefox browser, shows that more than half of web pages use HTTPS, the standard way of encrypting web traffic. When sites like The Atlantic use HTTPS, a lock icon appears in users’ web browsers, indicating that the information being sent…

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With iPod discontinuation, what are the alternatives?

Staff Writer

Smartphones have largely replaced portable media players for most people. It’s been a few years since Apple bothered to update its iPod touch, and it’s been even longer since any other company try to offer a good Android-powered alternative to Apple’s touchscreen media player. Apple is now abandoning its traditional iPod because most people with smartphones now use them for everything. However, many current smartphones – including Apple’s – don’t have FM, and none has a DAB radio. Worse, smartphones need regular app updates and sometimes annual operating system upgrades. You…

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Globaldata: Artificial Intelligence (AI) more crucial for IoT than Big Data insights

Artificial intelligence won’t solve every problem, but its current applications are already fundamentally reshaping the way we do business and collect data. While the development of the internet of things has revolutionized heavy industry, online shopping, localized data collection and virtually every other aspect of modern life and business, innovators are still struggling over the future of the IoT, and how they’ll get there. While many see big data as the driving engine behind the IoT, savvy investors and entrepreneurs have shown that the real power behind the interconnectivity phenomenon…

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Explore the latest threats to your mobile device security

It is common knowledge that mobile devices are integral to both our personal and business lives. With cyberattacks against individuals, businesses, and government entities increasing in frequency and sophistication, it is no surprise that mobile devices are now considered by threat actors to be one of the weakest links in the IT infrastructure of most enterprises. A decade ago, mobile malware was considered a new and unlikely threat. Many mobile device users even considered themselves immune from such threats.  Currently, more than 1.5 million new incidents of mobile malware have…

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AI is now at the heart of every innovative economy

Dianne Jacobs
Technology

How do you solve an enormous problem like stagnant global growth? It would require getting more productivity from people already working flat out. The solution? Well, it comes from something other than people, of course. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to double the GDP growth rates of 12 developed economies by 2035 a study found out. The study, entitled Why Artificial Intelligence is the Future of Growth, also found that AI could significantly boost labour productivity – by up to 40pc in some cases. Between them, the 12 countries…

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Microsoft just officially listed AI as one of its top priorities

Dianne Jacobs

Microsoft just named artificial intelligence as one of its top priorities in a financial filing. The annual report for the company’s 2017 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, now includes six references to AI, up from zero in the previous annual report. And the company has plunked AI into its corporate vision statement, too. “Our strategic vision is to compete and grow by building best-in-class platforms and productivity services for an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge infused with AI,” the company wrote in the annual report, which was…

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Microsoft to include in-built eye tracking support Windows 10

Microsoft is planning to add native eye tracking support into Windows 10. The new support is primarily designed to help those suffering from neuro-muscular diseases like ALS and other disabilities to control the various interface elements in Windows 10 without a traditional mouse and keyboard. This ranges from gazing at apps to launch them, or using an onscreen keyboard to glance at characters and type out words. Dubbed Eye Control in Windows 10, the new feature will require hardware like Tobii’s Eye Tracker 4C. Microsoft has worked closely with Tobii…

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