San Francisco, United States | AFP | Twitter on Tuesday confirmed that a year after doubling the character limit for tweets, the average length of messages fired off in English actually got a smidge shorter. The news promised to allay concerns that raising the character limit from 140 to 280 …
Read More »Somalia summit talks tech and apps, not guns and bombs
Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Tech entrepreneurs in Somalia are holding a first ever summit in battle-scarred Mogadishu, attracting hundreds to talk about business and innovation in a city more used to conflict and suffering. The three-day event that began Tuesday was conceived by a group of young Somalis to …
Read More »Cryptocurrency bitcoin marks 10 years
London, United Kingdom | AFP | October 31, 2008 marked the birth of bitcoin. Ten years on, the world’s first cryptocurrency is at the forefront of a complex financial system viewed warily by markets and investors. From its first evocation amid a global financial crisis, in a white paper written …
Read More »Kenyatta signs into law the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Bill, 2018
Kenyan president signs controversial cyber-crimes law Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday signed into law a sweeping cyber-crimes act criminalising fake news and online bullying, with clauses that critics argue could stifle press freedom. The bill imposes stiff fines and jail terms for hacking, computer …
Read More »Google to show who is behind US political ads
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Google on Friday said that people looking to place US election ads on its platform will need to show identification, and make clear who is paying. Policy changes being rolled out come as online ad ‘duopoly’ Google and Facebook strive to avoid being …
Read More »Twitter urges users to change ‘unmasked’ passwords
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Twitter on Thursday urged its more than 300 million users to change their passwords, saying they had been unintentionally “unmasked” inside the company by a software bug. The social media site said it found no sign that hackers accessed the exposed data, but …
Read More »Google ramps up Gmail privacy controls in major update
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Google on Wednesday ramped up privacy controls in a Gmail overhaul, aiming first at businesses that use its suite of workplace tools hosted in the internet cloud. The “all new” Gmail is available to the more than four million businesses that pay for …
Read More »Learning computer programming, with no teachers and no tuition
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Aspiring software engineers Kevin Yook and Becky Chen are hunched over a computer screen, fervently discussing lines of code indecipherable to the average person. The pair of twenty-somethings are students at the Holberton School in San Francisco, founded two years ago by French …
Read More »Samsung, Fujitsu pick France for new AI research centres
Paris, France | AFP | South Korean giant Samsung said Wednesday it will set up its third-biggest research centre for artificial intelligence in France. The announcement was made by Samsung Electronics president and chief strategy officer, Young Sohn, during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. At the same …
Read More »This evil virus steals everything on your computer — without being installed
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | It’s called Slingshot and it was recently discovered by Kaspersky Labs. Incredibly, the malware is so powerful and sophisticated that it hid in routers for six years before finally being spotted. According to Ars Technica, the sophistication of Slingshot rivals similarly advanced malware apps, …
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