IT News Africa: Top Tech Stories of the Week

Top tech news
(Image Credit: Darryl Linington).
Top tech news
Get the latest top technology news from IT News Africa. (Image Credit: Darryl Linington).

Hosted by IT News Africa, and sponsored by Telkom, the Healthcare Innovation Summit was held at the Protea Fire & Ice Hotel, Johannesburg on the 19th of August 2015.

During the course of the past Healthcare Innovation Summit, IT News Africa recorded each round table discussion. The first video in the round table series covers: “Telemedicine as a model for healthcare service delivery; Is Africa ready for care at a distance?”

The team at IT News Africa hopes you have a great weekend. The top tech stories for the week can be found below as well as the first video in the series can be found below:

News

Nigeria: 37 million mobile lines deactivate for safety and security
Nigerian telecom operators have been ordered by Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, to deactivate 37.79 million mobile phone lines as part of a move to eradicate the Boko Haram insurgency within three months. Read More.

Digital fuels growth in Africa’s entertainment and media industry
After more than a decade of digital disruption, the African entertainment and media industry has entered a new landscape – one where the media is no longer divided into distinct traditional and digital spheres, according to a report from PwC titled Entertainment and media outlook: 2015 – 2019 (South Africa – Nigeria-Kenya). Read More.

Trademark battle begins between Mi-Fone & Xiaomi in Africa
Mi-Fone has issued legal letters to Chinese Smartphone giant Xiaomi and their African distributor, objecting to their upcoming plans to distribute smartphones across Africa. Read More.

10th Annual eCommerce award winners revealed
What was once a predominately online event has manifested into a night of glitz and glamour at RoomFive in Rivonia, where the who’s who and the up and coming entrepreneurs of the eCommerce industry celebrate the 10th year of the prestigious South African eCommerce Awards. Read More.

Online job portal begins operations in Tanzania
Everjobs, Tanzania’s newest online career portal, recently started its operations in Tanzania. During a press conference, Co-founder and Managing Director for Africa Eric Lauer introduced the company officially to the public. Read More.

Samsung unveils Digital Village in DRC
Samsung Electronics Africa has launched its Digital Village in the community of Kasenga, 250 kilometers away from Lubumbashi. Read More.

Top Opinions

Why Deep Dives into SA’s townships could change FinTech innovation
The marked increase in activity around the disruption of digital currency and fintech in South Africa is partly due to two factors: firstly, large banking is waking up to the fact that more nimble and versatile finance platforms will soon start eating into their bottom line, and secondly, the very real needs experienced by the man on the street are driving developers to find clever and innovative fintech solutions to meet those needs. Read More.

DDoS extortion attacks – a new threat to look out for
It is a testament to the sustained evolution of the cybersecurity landscape that we are still regularly seeing the emergence of new threats. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and ransomware are both well-established methods of cyber-attack, but we have recently seen a new tactic that combines elements of both: DDoS extortion attacks. Read More.

Gadgets and Gaming

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Review
The Metal Gear Solid series has never failed to disappoint. Even back in 2008, when the Metal Gear Solid series graced the original PlayStation console, we were introduced to stealth and tactical espionage orientated gameplay that far surpassed any other title. Fast Forward to 2015, and the Metal Gear franchise has evolved from what could be described as pixelated greatness to cinematic perfection. Read More.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Review
Originally launched in 2006, as an Xbox 360 exclusive, Gears of War took the gaming world by storm. It was by far one of the best looking games at the time, and its gameplay mechanics were absolutely phenomenal. What also made the original Gears of War great was the fact that it had a cover system that actually worked. Apart from the gameplay mechanics, Gears of War also introduced us to a great, although overly muscular, set of characters, who had more heart than any other character featured in a video game to date. Read More.

Until Dawn Review
Developer Supermassive Games and publisher Sony Computer Entertainment will be officially launching Until Dawn very soon. With still some time to spare before release, you are most probably wondering whether or not this title is actually worth picking up? Well, it’s safe to say yes… if you like horror games that is. Read More.

Meet the $35 USD smartphone
Orange has unveiled the Klif smartphone. According to Orange, the Firefox 2.0 powered device was developed by Mozilla’s Egyptian subsidiary Mobinil, and made by Alcatel. Read More.

PlayStation Plus Free Game Lineup September 2015
The PlayStation Plus Free Game Lineup for August 2015 was pretty great. We received the likes of Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, God of War Ascension, and Limbo. Much like last month, the PlayStation Plus Free Game Lineup for September 2015 also features a great set of games. Read More.

Darryl Linington