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San Francisco Gets Its Own Cellular Network For The ‘Internet Of Things’

October 30, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

Internet Of Things: Sigfox’s answer is a wireless network that specializes in communicating with millions of low-power devices that don’t deal with large streams of data. The Toulouse, France-based company’s network is already covering almost all of France and Spain. Now Sigfox is pushing hard into the US. At an event on Tuesday, the company is announcing it has complete coverage of San Francisco, and is planning an Internet Of Things coverage for a total of 10 US cities by the first quarter of 2016: San Francisco, New York, Boston, Los…

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European Court of Justice Privacy Rule Could Ruffle American Tech Companies

September 25, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

A top European lawyer made a decision this morning that could prove a massive headache for American tech companies in Europe. Advocate General Yves Bot, an advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said the “safe harbour” agreement for transferring data between the US and EU is “invalid,” because of concerns over US spying. Bot’s opinion isn’t legally binding, and the ECJ judges will make a formal ruling in the coming months. But as The Irish Times notes, the judges follow such opinions “in most cases.” But if…

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Kaymu Survey shows that youth are driving e-commerce

September 17, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

People between 25 and 34 years shop the most from the local e-commerce sites, a recent study found. The 35-44 and 18-24 age brackets take up the second and third places, according to the study by Kaymu Bangladesh. “In Bangladesh, e-commerce is growing faster and we hope this market will find a strong position in world perspective also after USA, China and India,” said Quazi Zulquarnain, Kaymu Bangladesh’s deputy managing director. This segment of trade will grow faster once all parts of the country come under 3G coverage and the…

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Flurry Report Reveals U.S. Consumers Now Spend More Time In Mobile Apps Than Watching TV

September 11, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

At yesterday’s Apple event in San Francisco, CEO Tim Cook spoke about the need to bring apps to the TV’s big screen, while introducing the new Apple TV. Today, a new report from Flurry also highlights how apps have edged their way further into our lives, noting that, for the first time ever, the time spent inside mobile applications by the average U.S. consumer has now exceeded that of TV. Traditional cable TV has already been suffering in recent months, as more consumers are cutting the cord or opting never…

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Twitter removes the 140-character limit from Direct Messages

August 13, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

Twitter has today removed the 140-character limit on direct messages (DMs) for all users. The move was first flagged in June, hours after CEO Dick Costolo announced he’d be standing down as CEO of the social platform. From today, the change becomes reality, as the update is rolled out to users across the world. The changes referred to here being the removal of restrictions on who can DM whom – previously you could only DM those following you, now users have the choice to receive direct messages from anyone –…

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Enter ABC.xyz: Google will now be part of Alphabet

August 11, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

Google announced a new holding company called Alphabet today, and it’s using the domain name ABC.xyz. This is a huge win for Daniel Negari’s .xyz, and new top level domains in general. Reports Domainamewire “For Sergey and me this is a very exciting new chapter in the life of Google — the birth of Alphabet,” Larry Page, the chief executive of Google, wrote in a blog post on Monday. “We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations,…

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U.S. Senators introduce DHS Cybersecurity Bill to Protect ‘Dot-Gov’ Domain after breach

July 24, 2015February 15, 2016 Staff Writer

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to give the Department of Homeland Security more authority to protect government Internet addresses in Cybersecurity bid. The goal is to prevent more cyberattacks like recent massive breaches at the government’s hiring office. Hacks targeting the Office of Personnel Management put the personal data of some 22 million Americans at risk and prompted the resignation of OPM chief Katherine Archuleta earlier this month. The cyberattacks prompted calls in Congress for huge improvements in monitoring and protection of government systems. Reports…

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Data Breaches: First half of 2015 saw venture firms invest $1.2 billion in cybersecurity startups

July 17, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

Data Breaches Boost Funding for Cybersecurity Startups Extract: In the 2015 first half, venture firms invested $1.2 billion in cybersecurity startups, according to researcher CB Insights. That is down slightly from $1.4 billion a year earlier but up sharply from $771 million in 2013’s first half. The shift is particularly notable at Andreessen Horowitz, which used to view security companies as necessary for Internet safety but less lucrative than other technology niches. One reason is that cybersecurity startups were often acquired prior to an initial public offering, says Scott Weiss,…

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Ethiopian Entrepreneur Sophia Bekele spoke on #GES Panel in San Francisco

July 13, 2015February 16, 2016 Staff Writer

DotConnectAfrica speaks at #GES-Global Entrepreneurship Summit #AfricanEntrepreneurs #SiliconValley

Sophia Bekele, Founder/ CEO DotConnectAfrica, Yes2dotAfrica was invited to speak on Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) forum, hosted by the White House and USAID on “African Entrepreneurs & Silicon Valley Forum: Bridging Gaps and Making Connections” The forum held at the Silicon Valley Bank’s WeWork Golden Gate location, San Francisco, California, and hosted over 100 delegates comprised of VCs, impact investors, African diaspora entrepreneurs, tech leaders, policymakers and U.S. government members from Washington DC and San Francisco, focused on spurring and supporting innovation ecosystems and investment in Africa. Various high-level panel…

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