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Microsoft to include in-built eye tracking support Windows 10

August 2, 2017September 1, 2017

Microsoft is planning to add native eye tracking support into Windows 10. The new support is primarily designed to help those suffering from neuro-muscular diseases like ALS and other disabilities to control the various interface elements in Windows 10 without a traditional mouse and keyboard. This ranges from gazing at apps to launch them, or using an onscreen keyboard to glance at characters and type out words. Dubbed Eye Control in Windows 10, the new feature will require hardware like Tobii’s Eye Tracker 4C. Microsoft has worked closely with Tobii…

Safaricom simplifies M-PESA access to businesses

August 2, 2017September 1, 2017 Editor

Kenya is an undisputed global leader when it comes to mobile money services. In 2007, the telecom operator Safaricom launched its mobile money service M-Pesa as a simple way to text small payments between users. A decade later, M-Pesa has become the world’s most successful money transfer service. Safaricom, a major Mobile service provider in Kenya has announced a release of a feature-rich M-PESA Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) portal to businesses in the country. Dubbed Daraja, the portal will enable businesses to easily integrate with the platform drastically cutting down…

Nigerian entrepreneur wants Silicon Valley to fund a future where Africa is included.

August 1, 2017September 1, 2017

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji , the cofounder of Flutterwave a payments API that makes it easier for banks and businesses to process payments across Africa, wants to transform how Africans pay by Connecting them to the digital economy. The 26-year-old entrepreneur founded the payments API that allows consumers to pay for things in their local currency; Flutterwave takes care of integrating banks and payment-service providers into its platform so businesses don’t have to take on the expense and burden. American investors just poured $10 million of fresh funding into it. This sizable…

Cyber spies use female ‘honey pot’ to lure LinkedIn targets

July 28, 2017September 1, 2017

MIA Ash is an attractive 30-year-old British woman with two art school degrees , a successful career as a photographer with hundreds of social media connections. She has common favorite hobbies with social media users, so when she adds a target as a friend, they probably get flattered and a little bit excited. After exchanging messages on LinkedIn, The target is happy to continue the conversation on Facebook and WhatsApp. One problem though, Mia does not exist. Instead, she’s a persona, her biography fabricated and her photos stolen from another…

Microsoft MS Paint to get axed from Windows 10

July 25, 2017September 1, 2017 Staff Writer

Microsoft plans to stop developing the iconic Paint program, nudging it a step closer to the end. The Tech Giant announced last week that it will stop actively developing Paint starting with a fall update to Windows 10, its flagship operating system. As a result, Paint could be removed altogether in future updates: The once vital component is now vestigial. In a statement, Microsoft played down the news, noting that Paint will continue to be available for free download and many of its features will remain in other places, including…

Co-operation between international tech sectors is better for everyone

July 14, 2017September 1, 2017

Technological co-operation between firms can be essential to boosting successful innovative businesses by creating networks of knowledge flows. International cooperation and collaboration between individuals, businesses and sectors has been central to the sector’s runaway growth in the tech industry. In London, a start-up can find success by working with skilled European workers backed by capital from Asian investors. The same can be said for any major tech cluster around the world. There is evidence to highlight the importance of technology collaboration for innovative businesses. For instance, Winters and Stam (2007),…

Microsoft’s new app narrates the world for blind people

July 14, 2017September 1, 2017 Staff Writer

Microsoft recently released a smartphone app that uses computer vision to describe the world for the visually impaired. The Seeing AI allows users to point their phone’s camera at a person and it’ll say who they are and how they’re feeling. They can also point it at a product and it’ll tell them what it is. All of this is done using artificial intelligence that runs locally on their phone. “Just hold up your phone and hear information about the world around you,” Microsoft promises. It seems almost magical when…

Qualcomm seeks Apple iPhone sales ban

July 10, 2017September 1, 2017

Qualcomm, the world’s biggest producer of mobile phone chips, has appealed for the sale of some iPhones in the US to be blocked claiming that iPhones using chips by rivals, such as Intel, infringe six of its patents. The company said it had asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate and impose an import block. It is the latest move in a series of disputes and lawsuits between Apple and Qualcomm BBC reports. In January, Apple filed two lawsuits against Qualcomm, claiming it had abused its dominant market…

Why has sexism festered for so long in Silicon Valley?

July 10, 2017July 10, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Silicon Valley and the wider tech industry have a problem with women. At least, that is what you might conclude after a week that has seen a leading tech investor resign after admitting his involvement in sexual harassment. In just two weeks, two powerful Silicon Valley investors have resigned from the firms they cofounded after women accused them of sexual harassment according to CNN. The men, 500 Startups cofounder Dave McClure and Binary Capital cofounder Justin Caldbeck, didn’t just cross the line once, according to the allegations. Multiple women —…