Category: TECH

Wearable device New sales to hit $42 billion in 2019.

Staff Writer

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…

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Mugo Kibati Takes Over as New CEO at Telkom Kenya

artificial intelligence

Telecommunications company Telkom Kenya has appointed Mugo Kibati as its new chief executive officer, taking over from Mr Aldo Mareuse. Announcing the change, Telkom Kenya board chair Eddy Njoroge said the firm was grateful to Mr Mareuse for his successful leadership for the period he has been with the company. “Notable milestones achieved during his tenure include the expansion of the company’s network by over 50 per cent, successful rebranding of the company to Telkom and rolling out of a 4G network, resulting in the company becoming the data operator…

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Can Blockchain + Virtual Reality Boost New E-commerce In Africa

Staff Writer

eCommerce will be worth $75 billion in Africa’s leading economies, and came into existence as the solution to the stress of beating traffic to get to stores, bringing about a more convenient way of buying and selling. Today, online retail seems to be fast replacing the brick and mortar stores, and warehouses are becoming the one place to order items from. Ventures such as Alibaba, eBay, Payporte, Jumia, and Konga are cashing in big on African’s need to do convenient shopping from the comfort of their homes. While this a…

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Sources Intimate that Rocket Internet is preparing a Jumia IPO

Staff Writer
Banking Crisis

Reuters sources have intimated that German start-up investor Rocket Internet (RKET.DE) is preparing its African online shopping platform Jumia for a possible New York listing in the first quarter of 2019 which could value the firm at about $1 billion. Citi (C.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Berenberg are coordinating the IPO, the sources said. Shares worth up to $250 million may be sold, one of the sources said, adding that no final decision about the timing or metrics of the deal had yet been taken. The investor and the banks…

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Surprise overdue dual-SIM support coming to the iPhone

Staff Writer
Apple

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…

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Fintech Will Contribute New $150 Billion to Africa’s GDP.

Staff Writer

The contribution of the Fintech industry to sub-Saharan Africa’s economic output will increase by at least $40 billion to $150 billion by 2022, according to Financial Sector Deepening Africa, a development-finance organization. The industry currently employs about 3 million people directly and indirectly in the region, FSD Africa Financial Markets Director Evans Osano said in an interview on Thursday. Sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic product is about $1.6 trillion, according to data compiled by the International Monetary Fund. “If you look at the value chain, most of that money is coming…

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SEC New Suspends on Exchange-Traded Bitcoin and Ether Investment Vehicles

Staff Writer

Ether, the second-largest virtual currency, slumped 8.9% from its level at 5 p.m. New York time on Friday, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Bitcoin lost 2.1%, while the market capitalization of digital assets tracked by CoinMarketCap.com shrank to $197 billion — down about $640 billion from its January peak. Cryptocurrencies have declined for five of the past six weeks amid concern that a broader adoption of digital assets will take longer than some had anticipated. That worry was underscored over the weekend after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily…

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San Francisco judge orders new bail payment in Bitcoin

A federal judge in San Fracisco has ordered a cyber-criminal to pay their bail charges in Bitcoin, inadvertently stimulating cryptocurrency mainstream adoption. The Daily Post – a local Palo Alto newspaper – reports Martin Marisch has been charged with hacking the well-known video games company Electronic Arts, responsible for popular titles like FIFA, The Sims, and Battlefield. Marisch, the Daily Post reports, managed to gain access to EA’s central computer systems, and obtain 25,000 customer records. Had the attack not been caught, Marisch could’ve used this information for substantial financial gain.…

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Bitcoin New drop$6,000 and dozens of smaller digital tokens tumbled

Bitcoin dropped below $6,000 and dozens of smaller digital tokens tumbled as this month’s selloff in cryptocurrencies showed few signs of letting up. The largest digital currency fell as much as 6.2 percent to $5,887 as of 3:07 p.m. in Hong Kong, the lowest level since June, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Ether sank as much as 13 percent, while all but three of the 100 biggest cryptocurrencies tracked by Coinmarketcap.com recorded declines over the past 24 hours. The total market capitalization of virtual currencies dropped to $192 billion from…

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New Gaming Disorder Officially Recognized by WHO

Staff Writer
Video Game

For most of us, a round or three of Fortnite can serve as a playful escapism. But for a small number of people, the World Health Organisation is warning gaming is developing into an unhealthy addiction. The United Nations’ health agency for the first time listed gaming as an addictive behaviour disorder in its latest international classification of diseases, the ICD-11. The disorder, a “genuine” and “harmful” mental health condition, can also contribute to other problems such as lack of physical activity, an unhealthy diet, sleep deprivation and aggressive behaviour. “What…

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