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,…
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Wearable device New sales to hit $42 billion in 2019.
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…
Read MoreApple New Decision on reporting it sells each quarter
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…
Read MoreInstagram Is Down Worldwide, Users Unable To Log In
Instagram seems to be down for a lot of users worldwide. Its website and app both are inaccessible at the momentum. More than 1,000 people worldwide have reported problems with the Facebook-owned platform early on Wednesday morning. Attempts to log in on a desktop browser are producing a blank page with the message: ‘5xx Server Error’. On the mobile app users are being told that their feed cannot be refreshed. Frustrated users expressing dissatisfaction on Twitter suggested the Instagram outage stretched across the globe with the app not working in…
Read MoreBenin Govt abandon social media tax decree after protests
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…
Read MoreSurprise overdue dual-SIM support coming to the iPhone
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…
Read MoreFacebook’s new camera AR platform is the new home for Nokia classic, Snake Game
HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, brings the classic snake game up to date with augmented reality. Snake Mask and Snake Real World filters bring the game to a new generation of fans. The addictive premise of the game remains the same, but with a fun AR twist fans can now be the apple-munching Snakes. Snake Mask utilises new Facebook AR technology to bring Snake to the widest audience possible. Snake at the zoo? Snake at the beach? Snake… on a plane? Now it’s all possible when Snake is…
Read MoreFacebook-owned Instagram to allow users to apply for new verification
Users will soon apply for verification on Instagram as the social media giant platform rolls out a number of new features aimed at increasing transparency and engagement. Instagram said it was rolling out the feature locally to clear the air around its verification process which had become the centrepiece of several conspiracy theories including paid-for blue badges and fake influencer accounts. “Our community asked us for more transparency around this issue, and with today’s announcement we’re sharing clear details about verification requirements and eligibility criteria,” Instagram’s strategic partner manager APAC,…
Read MorePinterest to give advertisers New promoted video tool.
Pinterest is continuing its push into video as a potential avenue for advertisers by today saying that it will offer advertisers a promoted video tool that takes up the width of the entire screen. While Pinterest normally offers users a grid that they can flip through — compressing a lot of content into a small space — taking up the full width of the screen with a promoted video would offer advertisers considerable real estate if they’re looking to get the attention of users. The company also said it’s hired…
Read MoreChina’s largest car-hailing service Didi redesigns new ar-pooling platform.
China’s largest car-hailing service Didi, has redesigned its platform after being criticized for the ‘socialization’ feature that saw drivers inappropriately commenting on the looks of female passengers reports ZDNet. The service has been halted since May 12 after a 21-year-old flight attendant reportedly died at the hands of a 26-year-old driver in China’s Henan province on May 6. The flight attendant had booked a ride through Didi and was allegedly killed by the driver who was also found dead in a river by police, according to Chinese news reports. Didi…
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