IT News Africa: Top Stories of the Week

January 2015 has been quite a month. Not only did popular social media networks Facebook and Instagram face downtime this month, but IBM has also been placed in the spotlight for allegedly preparing for the largest employee cull in history.

Also gracing the headlines this week was Ericsson. The company has now partnered with MTN in an attempt to drive e-waste disposal and recycling in Benin. Moving over to Kenya, the Communications Authority of Kenya is looking to identify ICT access gaps with the country.

In Namibia, Telecom Namibia has revealed that it intends to complete phase 1 of its latest fibre grid during the course of Q1, 2015. The team at IT News Africa hopes you have a fantastic weekend. Our top stories of the week can be found below:

News

South Africa on a solid path towards financial inclusion
South Africa is making significant headway in furthering financial inclusion, according to a new MasterCard report entitled “A Progressive Approach to Financial Inclusion.” Read More.

Facebook denies social network hack
On 27 January 2015 social networking platforms Facebook, Instagram and Tinder suffered an hour long outage. The outage resulted in Facebook and Instagram users within Africa, as well as the rest of the world, being unable to connect to these services. Read More.

Ericsson to drive e-waste disposal and recycling in Benin
Ericsson and MTN Benin have partnered under their Ecology Management Program, to launch the first electrical and electronic equipment waste (e-waste) collection and awareness drive in Benin. Read More.

Fuel alert app FillApp hits South Africa
According to application developer TouchFoundry its latest application dubbed “FillApp” is set to save consumers money when it comes to the recent volatility price of fuel in South Africa. Read More.

Kenya: CA seeks to identify ICT access gaps
The Communications Authority of Kenya is seeking a consultant to identify regions facing challenges in access to ICT services as it prepares to implement the Universal Service Fund’s functions. Read More.

SACF submits comments on Integrated ICT policy
Submitting comments on the integrated ICT policy discussion paper today (Friday 30 January 2015) to the Department of Telecommunications and Postal services, ICT industry forum, the South Africa Communications Forum (SACF) has revealed that it is upbeat about prospects for an inclusive and modernised national ICT policy that is capable of enhancing national development in a converged ICT ecosystem. Read More.

Opinions

Should Internet connectivity be provided as a basic Municipal service?
Municipalities are increasingly playing a powerful role in the Internet connectivity market. Broadband is generally recognised as a strategic tool in building the information economy and society. Read More.

Moving beyond the start-up phase
Building a great business in Africa involves more than just hard work, good networking skills, and a fair degree of luck. Whilst the core of any good business venture in Africa is a business that enables you to satisfy a customer’s need in a unique or different way, the challenges that face entrepreneurs in building a truly scalable business can create significant complexity, and potentially requires a different set of skills than those that are needed to create the organisation. Read More.

Are smart homes becoming easy prey for hackers?
While the increasing use of home automation technology to create your version of a ‘smart house’ may be all the trend and seem practical, Richard Keymer Head of Pre-sales at SecureData Africa warns of the flipside in that once an automation system is established and can be operated remotely online, then chances are it can be hacked. Read More.

Interviews

IFS targets Africa as key growth market
Alastair Sorbie is currently CEO and President of IFS, a position he has held since 2006. Sorbie joined the Swedish ERP solutions provider as managing director in 1997, when IFS entered the UK market. Watch the interview here.

Top Feature

Is IBM set to perform the largest employee cull in history?
According to a report published on Forbes, IBM is set to perform the largest corporate employee cull in history. The report comes from long-time Silicon Valley journalist Robert X. Cringely. According to Cringley, 110 000 jobs could be on the line if the report is indeed factual.

Since the report was published IBM has since stepped in to rubbish the report. According to IBM, it is cutting jobs, as disclosed in its latest earnings report published last week, but those reductions will affect “several thousand” employees, a “small fraction” of what Forbes reported. This is according to an emailed statement from IBM to Reuters. Read More.

Top Lists

10 vital tips to avoid excessively high mobile phone bills
More and more Africans are consuming value-added services over their mobile devices as data charges and smartphones become cheaper. With the festive season that just passed – most of us could do with advice on spending less money on our mobile devices. Read More.

2014′s Most Important Africans in Tech
The technology space in Africa is growing at an exponential rate. Naturally, the African continent is booming with potential in this sector.

Over the past few months, we have seen a great number of influential technology leaders as well as entrepreneurs greet the technology scene with innovative concepts and inspirational ideas. These African tech leaders are essentially placing Africa on the “map of innovation”. Read More.

Gadgets and Gaming

PlayStation Plus February 2015 Lineup Revealed
The PlayStation Plus Free Game Lineup for February 2015 is looking good. Not only do we get to venture into the epic world of Transistor on the PlayStation 4, but we also get to slip into the shadows with Thief on the PlayStation 3. Read More.

Dell unveils 4K Ultra HD 15-Inch Mobile Workstation
According to device manufacturer Dell, it has been listening to consumer feedback and has responded by incorporating new features into its flagship mobile workstation the Dell Precision M3800. The company revealed that the device now has a 4K Ultra HD touch display option, Thunderbolt 2 technology and offers an Ubuntu-based developer edition. Read More.

Dying Light physical release date unveiled
echland has revealed the updated global launch dates for Dying Light. The game will have a worldwide digital release on PC of January 27, 2015. In North and South America, the digital release and physical copies for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will be available at the same day. Read More.

Review: Asus Fonepad 7
ablets and smart devices are evolving. While standard tablet devices offer users the ability to download apps, surf the internet, play games, take photos as well as make VOIP calls… very few actually offer users the ability to make and receive phone calls using a carrier SIM card. Asus has now met this demand with its latest low-cost tablet/smartphone hybrid device. Read More.

Review: Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
Nintendo is really treating gamers to some spectacular titles lately. While Nintendo did have a bit of a bad run during the launch phase of the Wii U, it is great to see that the console has risen from strength to strength over the past year. Nintendo’s latest title to hit the Wii U, which comes in the form Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, is one of the Nintendo Wii U’s highlights of 2014. Read More.

Review: Dragon Age Inquisition
The Dragon Age series has seen its share of ups and downs with Dragon Age: Origins being a great first entry while Dragon Age 2 unfortunately fell somewhat short in some areas. After much anticipation, Dragon Age: Inquisition has been released and looks to right some wrongs while still delivering a thoroughly enjoyable RPG experience. Read More.

Review: Xbox One – Then and Now
Microsoft’s Xbox One console caused a great deal of hype and controversy in the gaming industry when it was first announced. Microsoft leaned towards enforcing Digital Rights Management (DRM) in the early stages; however, the company saw fit to reverse the decision in order to capture its audience once again. While Microsoft hit a massive hole in the road with DRM, the truth is… that was then, and this is now. The Xbox One has been around for just over a year, but has the console moved from strength-to-strength over that year? Read More.

Review: Nextbook 2-in-1 Windows Tablet
When looking at the average price of a Tablet, Smartphone, or even a Laptop you can expect to come across devices prices that don’t essentially fit the budget. As Africa is becoming more mobile driven consumers as well as businesses are looking towards cheaper, yet fully functional devices. Read More.

Darryl Linington