Category: MOBILE

Nigeria proposes New law to tax local online purchases

Staff Writer
Voice App

Online purchases in Nigeria could soon come with a tax bill in part of plans to raise more revenue to fund a record budget, Nigeria’s government is considering a 5% Value Added Tax (VAT) specifically for online purchases. Babatunde Fowler, head of Nigeria’s federal tax agency, says the government may appoint banks as agents to deduct 5% VAT on all local online purchases with a bank card. The policy could be in place by early next year, Fowler said in an interview with Premium Times, a local online newspaper. This…

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Meet Google’s new Gallery Go, an offline, lightweight alternative to Google Photos

Staff Writer

Gallery Go is a new app from Google designed to let people with unreliable internet connections organize and edit their photos. Like Google’s regular Photos app it uses machine learning to organize your photos. You can also use it to auto-enhance your pictures and apply filters. The difference is that Gallery Go is designed to work offline, and takes up just 10MB of space on your phone. Gallery Go is just the latest lightweight version of an app designed for developing markets like Nigeria, where Google announced the new app.…

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New Mobile-based online lending firms Regulations

Staff Writer

Mobile-based online lending firms should be regulated to avoid their usage as channels for introducing illegally-obtained cash into the financial system, Central Bank of Kenya governor Patrick Njoroge has said. In a presentation to parliamentarians Wednesday, Dr Njoroge singled out Tala, Branch and Okash — three highly-popular digital money lenders — as credit-only mobile lending institutions that could be easily used to launder illicit cash. Money laundering, which involves transferring and disguising illegally obtained cash to make it look legitimate, is mostly used by criminals and the corrupt to clean…

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Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram in worst new ever worldwide outage for the internet giant

Facebook said it was “back at 100 percent” after an outage on all of its services affected users in various parts of the world. Online monitoring service DownDetector reported on Wednesday that the outage began around 12:00 GMT and affected Facebook as well as its Instagram and WhatsApp services. “The issue has since been resolved and we should be back at 100 percent for everyone,” the company tweeted at 00:06 GMT on Thursday, adding they were sorry for “any inconvenience”. A Facebook spokesperson, also speaking on behalf of Instagram and…

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GoAfrica New partnership with Foxconn

Ordinary Kenyans can now afford to buy iPhones at lower prices after goAfrica, an online platform, partnered with Foxconn and iFP to ship reconditioned smartphones to the local market. The smartphones are expected to retail at between 20 and 30 percent lower than what new smartphones cost in Apple Stores. “We are offering quality products to the market at an affordable price,” said goAfrica general manager Boniface Munywoki. The appetite for iPhones has grown steadily in the local market in the past few years, but the high cost of new…

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Vodacom and Safaricom new process to buy M-Pesa brand.

Staff Writer
Vodacom

Vodacom and Safaricom are in the process of buying the M-Pesa brand from parent company Vodafone, in a deal reportedly worth over R190 million. Vodacom mentioned the deal in its recent full year results announcement, saying it expected the acquisition of the popular mobile money service to “further accelerate our mobile money growth plans in Africa”. Vodacom group CEO Shameel Joosub confirmed the plans in an interview with ITWeb, saying Vodacom, through a joint agreement with Safaricom, has done a deal with Vodafone to “take over M-Pesa completely”. “So, Safaricom…

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Google new ties cut with Huawei.

Alphabet Inc’s Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world. Holders of current Huawei smartphones with Google apps, however, will continue to be able to use and download app updates provided by Google, a Google spokesperson said, confirming earlier reporting by Reuters. “We are complying…

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WhatsApp to roll out a new feature to block others from adding you to groups

WhatsApp forwarding

In a very much welcomed move, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has announced that it will roll out a feature in the coming weeks that gives users much more control over group chats in the app. The company will soon add a new privacy tool to the app that allows a user to block anyone from adding them to a group chat. The feature comes as concerns have mounted over the past few years that WhatsApp group chats are being used to spread fake news and disinformation. Under the new controls, a user…

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Global Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) Best New Market to hit USD 143.5 Billion By 2025

Vivo

New York, NY, Feb. 26, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zion Market Research has published a new report titled “Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) Market by Node Component (Sensor, Logic Device, Processor, Connectivity IC, and Memory Device), by Network Infrastructure (Storage, Gateway, Ethernet Switch and Routing, and Server), by Solution (Software and Platform), and by Application (Home Security and Smart Domestic, Wearable Technology, Personal Healthcare, Asset Tracking, Smart Office, Smart Homes, and Others): Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, and Forecast, 2018–2025’’. According to the report, the global consumer internet of things (CIoT)…

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Mobile App New ‘State of Mobile 2019 Report’

Voice App

Global app store consumer spend reached $101 billion in 2018, up 75 percent from 2016. This figure is expected to exceed $120 billion in 2019, according to mobile data and analytics provider App Annie. The company released its annual The State of Mobile in 2019 Report — a comprehensive guide for businesses looking at mobile. Screenshot from App Annie 2019 Annual State of Mobile Report China accounted for nearly 40 percent of total consumer spend in 2018. Globally, on a category level, games accounted for 74 percent of consumer spend…

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