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AI is now at the heart of every innovative economy

August 15, 2017August 16, 2017 Staff Writer

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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Snapchat acquires social map app Zenly to allow users to track their friends

June 22, 2017 Staff Writer

Snapchat has acquired Zenly, a French startup that makes a social map so people can see where their friends are hanging out, for $200m in cash plus additional stock awards. Zenly’s app lets users see where their friends currently are on a map using constant GPS in the background. People can then message these friends in the app to make plans to hang out. Snap Inc. will however allow Zenly to run somewhat autonomously. Zenly has said that its product updates will be the main drivers of user growth, which slowed…

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Microsoft to Introduce DNA data storage to its cloud

May 30, 2017 Staff Writer

Humanity has a data storage problem. Now, researchers report that they’ve come up with a new way to encode digital data in DNA to create the highest-density large-scale data storage scheme ever invented and microsoft is implementing this. Microsoft is now developing an apparatus that uses biology to replace tape drives, researchers at the company say. Internally, Microsoft harbors the even more ambitious goal of replacing tape drives, a common format used for archiving information. The tech giant believes that its data center will contain a fully functional DNA storage…

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CIO Names Founder & CEO of DotConnectAfrica Sophia Bekele “Industry Trailblazer and Internet-Governance Pioneer”

May 30, 2017June 9, 2017 Staff Writer

CIO East Africa has been following Bekele’s work for many years now and so did we, at ITBusinessdirect. No wonder the influential Business and Tech News Magazine in its May Issue 2017 decided to lay out a two page spread and a cover note on this impressive Women-In-Tech and “her significant contribution to her field” entitled “MEET SOPHIA BEKELE – Industry Trailblazer and Internet Governance Pioneer”. True enough, Bekele’s career reads as one that simply picks up and champion the most challenging causes that society has neglected or that have…

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Galaxy J7 2017 features appears at GFXBench

May 8, 2017 Staff Writer

The Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) which received Bluetooth certification last month with version 4.1 from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has now been spotted on GFXBench benchmarking website the model number SM-J730. The smartphone also received certification from Indonesian certification agency P3DN. It is also to be noted that Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) with model number SM-J727VL was also spotted on the same benchmarking website in February. Now it has ben spotted with a different model number and an even different set of specifications. Since the beginning of the…

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Uber Rival Grab Said Raising $1.5 Billion in New Funding Round

March 24, 2017April 21, 2017

Grab, Uber Technologies Inc.’s largest rival in Southeast Asia, plans to raise more than $1.5 billion in a new funding round backed by SoftBank Group Corp., people familiar with the matter said. SoftBank is pledging about $1 billion in the ride-sharing company backed by Tiger Global Management and GGV Capital, the people said, asking not to be named because the matter is private. It wasn’t clear if the money was coming from the Japanese company itself or its yet-to-close SoftBank Vision Fund. Grab’s financing could be a record for Southeast…

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Amazon brings Alexa to the iPhone

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017 Staff Writer

An incoming update for the Amazon app for iOS will add the company’s Alexa voice assistant that was previously limited to the users of its Echo speaker and other Alexa-enabled hardware. Alexa can stream books from the Kindle library or music from Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music, or purchased music. Amazon Prime members can stream playlists, stations, and over two million songs for free and many more. Inside of the Amazon App for iOS, there will be a microphone icon near the top of the screen that you can press…

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Microsoft is putting OneDrive ads in Windows 10’s File Explorer

March 16, 2017 Staff Writer

Microsoft made a lot of changes in Windows 10 that helped it put the mistakes of Windows 8 in the rear view mirror. Not all of Microsoft’s ideas are good, though. The company has shown a tendency to get a little too casual with how it promotes its services within Windows. Users have reported seeing ads to sign up for OneDrive, — Microsoft’s cloud storage service — at the top of the Quick Access screen that comes up when you open a new File Explorer window. Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage…

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Security Concerns Rising in the Age of IoT

March 15, 2017April 21, 2017

IoT has gone mainstream. Home refrigerators are chattier than ever, and emerging virtual home assistants can order wings for dinner, turn on lawn sprinklers, start the car and purchase pounds of cookies. Yet behind the headlines of these gee-whiz cyber technologies lurks a shortcoming. It is one that poses significant threats to national security but could be remedied fairly easily, some experts offer. The mobile device and sensor industries lack uniform security standards and a system of checks and balances—something akin to the safety standards for electrical devices and components…

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