Beijing, China | AFP | Social media app TikTok has taken down accounts that were posting propaganda videos for the Islamic State group, a company employee said Tuesday, in the latest scandal to hit the popular platform. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, claimed some 500 million users globally …
Read More »AVIATION: Boeing wants it to fly, but travelers fear the 737 MAX
New York, United States | AFP | On September 12, Boeing started putting out 30-second videos in which employees tout its planes’ safety, hoping to reassure travelers about the 737 MAX that’s been grounded worldwide since two crashes that killed 346 people. “Safety is at the core of our …
Read More »World’s fastest ant clocks nearly a metre per second
Paris, France | AFP | It’s official: The Saharan silver ant is the fastest of the world’s 12,000 known ant species, clocking a blistering 855 millimetres — nearly a metre — per second, researchers said Thursday. Measured another way, the six-legged sprinter covers 108 times its own body length per …
Read More »Bill Gates Foundation talks digital finance in Uganda
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | People do not need a stock exchange account but instead need an account to save their money safely and be able to make small transactions. This is what stood out from a speech delivered by Warren Carew, representing Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at …
Read More »Google in smartphone push with motion-sensing Pixel 4
New York, United States | AFP | Google stepped up its smartphone ambitions Tuesday with updated Pixel handsets, touting a move toward computing with a simple hand wave or spoken command. Pixel 4 models boasting features including gesture and face recognition debuted at a “Made by Google” event showcasing new hardware …
Read More »Across Sub-Saharan Africa, tech-enabled micro-insurance is the next big thing
INSURANCE AND MOBILE PHONES: Policymakers across the region need to implement policies and practices that stimulate growth Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | The Sub-Saharan African region is set to be the hotbed for mobile phone services as the young population owns more devices in the next six years. …
Read More »Facebook researchers use maths for better translations
Paris, France | AFP | Designers of machine translation tools still mostly rely on dictionaries to make a foreign language understandable. But now there is a new way: numbers. Facebook researchers say rendering words into figures and exploiting mathematical similarities between languages is a promising avenue — even if a universal …
Read More »Volkswagen Rwanda starts ride-hailing service
Volkswagen (VW) is testing a new ride-hailing business in Rwanda that it hopes to expand in Africa starting with Ghana and Ethiopia. | THE INDEPENDENT | The ride-hailing service is Volkswagen’s South Africa chief Thomas Schaefer’s Trojan horse for breaking into the new car market. VW’s ride-hailing cars are assembled …
Read More »Africa moots for joint position on Global technology
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Africa Information and Communications Technology consortia groups, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Uganda Communication Commission – UCC are lobbying all ICT departments across the African continent to come up with a joint position on global technology. The position agreed upon …
Read More »Zuckerberg’s Facebook extends fact-checking programme to Uganda
Paris, France | AFP | Facebook on Tuesday announced the expansion of its third-party fact-checking programme to 10 new African countries in partnership with Agence France-Presse and other media. The programme will be available in Ethiopia, Zambia, Somalia and Burkina Faso in partnership with AFP; in Uganda and Tanzania …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price