This week was yet again filled with tech news stories that grabbed the headlines both across Africa and around the world.
From new innovations and digital transformation, growing economies to emerging startups, here is a round up of some of the popular stories for the week.
Interview: Virgin Money’s CEO, Andre Hugo – The benefits of going cashless
Virgin Money has launched a peer-to-peer payment app called Spot. The app lets you transfer funds from your linked bank account to a friend’s linked bank account, but without the fuss of swapping banking details, as it uses mobile numbers for identification.
IT News Africa had the opportunity to have a chat with Virgin Money’s CEO, Andre Hugo around the benefits of going cashless for merchants and consumers, and the rationale behind the rise of peer-to-peer (P2P) payments. Read more.
Apple set to launch a self-driving car
Cupertino-based company Apple is rumoured to be working on a self-driving car. The Apple Car may roll out between 2023 and 2025, predicts an analyst, as the company drives towards its next trillion, reports MacRumors. Read more.
Five ways you a can create the perfect password and why you should
Stories of people being hacked online are becoming more common these days. Many people have had their accounts, whether Facebook or Twitter, compromised. Avoiding these kinds of hacks means that one needs to use stronger passwords, but this won’t keep you secure from all the threats out there. Read more.
How digital banking can impact Africa
Mobile money can serve as a gateway to financial inclusion, it enhances the impact of international remittances on development. Digital platforms enable a significantly lower cost to serve and increased cross-selling of products in emerging markets while smartphone adoption and internet penetration are fuelling the expansion of e-commerce. Read more.
5 Reasons why modern businesses need chatbots
Far more menial tasks are being handed over to machine automation. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this is chatbots. More and more companies are using chatbots to handle customer service issues that tend to go unanswered and subsequently pile up. Read more.
Standard Bank customers are now able to use Samsung Pay
Samsung has announced that Standard Bank customers are now able to make use of Samsung Pay. According to Samsung, Standard Bank cards supported during early access are Mastercard credit and cheque cards. Samsung users who have any of the following devices can enjoy this innovation: Galaxy Note 8, S9, S8, S7, A8 and A5 | A7 (2017 Edition). Read more.
SQream and Moyo to Turbocharge South African big data analytics market
Big data analytics which together with artificial intelligence (AI) holds the promise of radically changing the world by making sense of the vast amounts of data that is being collected on daily basis around the world is about to radically change the picture in South Africa. Read more.
Shippers get serious about Cyber Threat
The NotPetya cyber-attack of June 2017 affected some 2,000 organizations across 65 countries, causing estimated economic losses of $2.5 billion to $3 billion and exposing vulnerabilities in the marine supply chain. The virus led shipping group Maersk to suspend operations as it was forced to reinstall 4,000 servers, 45,000 computers and 2,500 applications, causing congestion at a number of ports worldwide and resulting in business losses in excess of $300 million. Read more.
By Neo Sesinye
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