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No more keyboards for blackberry phones

October 9, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Blackberry announced the move to ditch the keyboard on their new smartphone yesterday at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) Technology Week in Dubai. They will now have a 5.5-inch screen smartphone, known as the Blackberry Motion, running on a Snapdragon 625 System-On-Chip (SoC) platform. The all screen Smartphone will have a massive battery of 4,000mAh, larger than the Samsung Galaxy S8+ which has a 3,500mAh battery. The phone’s other specifications(Specs) are 4 GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage. This is the second device from the modern BlackBerry. The…

UNESCO LearningCities2017: Sophia Bekele Spoke on Learning throughout life For Sustainable Development of Cities

October 4, 2017October 11, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

PHOTO: Sophia Bekele Speaking on the third International Conference on Learning Cities at Cork City, Ireland Learning cities are a crucial driver in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, advocates UNESCO. Among the set SDG targets is a goal to achieve inclusive and equitable quality education for all which requires increasing efforts, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia and for other vulnerable populations. Based on this, the third annual UNESCO ‘Learning Cities Conference’ that took place in Cork City Ireland, was a real game changer for…

Making the digital economy more inclusive

September 4, 2017 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…

Microsoft will no longer force updates on Users

August 25, 2017September 1, 2017

Windows 10 will no longer automatically take control of your computer, and flip the reset switch, at the worst moments imaginable. Mind you, Microsoft will still push updates, and it won’t necessarily be easy to completely turn them off. Shortly after Windows 10 rolled out, Windows users began noticing that their computers were automatically downloading the huge Windows 10 update file without even asking. The issue was compounded by vague and confusing update alerts that led many users to initiate the upgrade to Windows 10 without realizing it. Microsoft has…

With iPod discontinuation, what are the alternatives?

August 24, 2017September 1, 2017 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…

Riding the digital storm

August 24, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

The digital disruption storm is past the horizon and in the business backyard. Business leaders are now sensing the digital heat and are hurriedly getting equiped to survive the ‘storm-winds of digital disruption’. Across all industries, digital disruption is no longer a hypothetical—it’s reality. Digitization is changing the way products are made, marketed, and delivered, altering consumers’ behavior and expectations in turn. These changes are unlike anything the world has seen since the Industrial Revolution. Those who don’t adapt will be left behind. Organisations are under immense pressure to keep…

Robots in Japan are now Buddhist priests

August 24, 2017September 1, 2017 Editor

It seems there is literally no job that is safe from the rising tide of automation, including those who guide us into the afterlife. In Japan robots can serve as companions, helpers for the elderly, entertainment bots but now SoftBank’s humanoid robot Pepper has put itself up for hire as a Buddhist priest for funerals. Taking the German blessing bot’s idea and running with it, Pepper’s new code will let it chant sutras in a computerised voice while tapping a drum, providing a cheaper alternative to a human priest to…

Google secretly recording users through mobile devices

August 23, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Did you know that Google has been recording you without your knowledge? Some of your most intimate conversations might be sitting in a Google data centre somewhere. Just talking is enough to activate the recordings – but thankfully there’s an easy way of hearing and deleting them. The technology giant has effectively turned millions of its users’ smartphones into listening devices that can capture intimate conversations — even when they aren’t in the room. The company quietly records many of the conversations that people have around its products. The feature…

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

August 23, 2017September 1, 2017

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…

AI is now at the heart of every innovative economy

August 15, 2017August 16, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

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…