India has banned Tencent’s Xriver, Garena’s Free Fire, NetEase’s Onmyoji Arena and Astracraft and 50 more apps with apparent links to China, the latest in a series of similar blockings over the past one and half years on national security …
According to Kaspersky’s survey (www.Kaspersky.co.za) devoted to using dating apps during the pandemic*, fraud is an increasing problem for those who use such platforms in Kenya. Almost 29% of them faced fraud attempts last year. Almost th…
Google has announced that it’ll shut down Currents, which was introduced in 2019 as a replacement for Google Plus for G Suite. In a blog post, the company says it’s “planning to wind down” Currents, and that it’ll push the people who were …
Tinder is bringing back the idea of the “blind date” through a new in-app feature, launching today. Except, in this case, Tinder isn’t sending out two members on a blind date together — it’s introducing them to one another through a social…
Pearpop, the social media collaboration marketplace, is diving head-first into crypto.
With big-name backers like The Chainsmokers, Alexis Ohanian, Mark Cuban and Snoop Dogg, Pearpop is launching Pearproof, a web3 app that allows cre…
Right on schedule, Google today announced the first developer release of Android 13. These very early releases, which are only meant for developers and aren’t available through over-the-air updates, typically don’t include too many user-fa…
It’s a great time to be in the fraud detection business in crypto and fintech. Crypto in particular has faced some high-profile scams recently, and many companies operating within the ecosystem are beefing up their compliance capabilities …
Kenya’s central bank has called on the public to share their views, before May 20th, on the possibility of adopting a digital currency, just one day after it emerged that Zambia is also testing its viability too.
Nigeria became the fi…
The technology needed to electrify and automate cars is coming of age in tandem with the technology that powers augmented reality. Automakers keen on capturing the attention of their customers, and even attracting alternate forms of revenu…
Mdundo, an Africa-focused music streaming service, is banking on more partnerships with telcos across the continent to grow its earnings and user base. Last year, the company signed deals with MTN and Airtel in Nigeria, and Vodacom in Tanz…
Earlier this year YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki laid out an overview of what the video behemoth was planning for the year ahead, including a strong hint that it was considering the introduction of NFTs for creators to connect in a different w…
There are thousands of pounds of bitcoin mining equipment still in transit from China to Texas, part of a multi-month caravan, as Texas Governor Greg Abbott makes courting the bitcoin industry a pinnacle part of his re-election campaign in…
MoviePass’ 2.0 kickoff press conference got off to a suitably rocky start. After a high energy introduction montage of upcoming film trailers, founder and new owner Stacy Spikes took the stage amid some audio issues, eventually switching o…
Apple plans to introduce a number of changes to make it harder to misuse AirTags to track someone.
The button-sized devices are designed to work with Apple's 'Find My' network to locate lost items.
The company sai…
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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Wednesday, February 9, 2022! I just got a look at the initial run…
Tiger Global-backed ShareChat and Times Internet-owned on-demand video streaming service MX Player have agreed to “strategically merge” their short video apps Moj and MX TakaTak, the two firms said Thursday, in a move they said would creat…
Meta's Oversight Board has advised the social network to change its policy on allowing the sharing of people's addresses, even if the information is considered public.
Meta requested the advice last year - the first time it …
Samsung has announced a range of new Galaxy smartphones, offering improved cameras and the option of a stylus.
The firm talked up the use of recycled materials such as repurposed fishing nets and used water bottles.
…
Hydrogen pioneers Verdagy — from “verde” for green, and “agy” for energy — raised $25 million from a fistful of strategic investors in the energy sector in a bid to take a messy, not-that-environmentally-friendly process of making hydrogen…
GoTo Global, an Israeli mobility company that offers shared micromobility and car-sharing services in Spain, Israel, Malta and Germany, is going public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) through a merger with shell company Nera Tech Med…
TikTok may be the most successful app that has emerged from China and is making impressive international inroads, but there is a host of smaller entertainment apps built in China that are also replicating their models overseas.
Tiya is …
Exercise brand Peloton is attracting bid attention from the likes of Amazon and Nike, according to reports.
They have been attracted by the soaring sales of Peloton's exercise bikes and treadmills during the pandemic.
Suitors have no…
Months after TikTok was hauled into its first-ever major congressional hearing over platform safety, the company is today announcing a series of policy updates and plans for new features and technologies aimed at making the video-based soc…
Nvidia’s deal to acquire Arm is off, the two companies and Arm owner SoftBank announced Tuesday.
With this, there is also a major leadership change at Arm. The company’s current CEO, Simon Segars, is leaving his post, effective today, w…
Last year was record-breaking for African startups. I know I’m probably starting to sound like a broken record, but the astronomical growth is worth highlighting again and again.
In this piece, I spotlighted what influenced this venture…
Let’s say you’re a freelance engineer in Nigeria working for a U.S. company; how do you facilitate forex conversion from dollars to naira? I bet it involves using a third party or a local Bureau De Change, essentially a foreign currency ex…
In climate circles we spend a lot of time talking about manufacturing and power generation in the effort of cutting CO2 emissions. It’s pretty rare that I get a whiff of a company that has a clear path toward cutting global carbon emission…
Today, Partech Africa publishes its annual report on VC Funding for African Startups. In 2021, amid global VC growth, Africa tech still grew faster than any other region with 2x the activity of last year and more than 3x the amount investe…
Dating app company Bumble, Inc. is making its first acquisition with today’s news that it’s adding the fast-growing French dating app Fruitz to its family of applications. Though Bumble, Inc. already has an international footprint as the p…
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have been worst-affected by Meta’s plan to discontinue its low-cost Express Wi-Fi internet, launched five years ago to drive connectivity in underserved regions.
Meta (formerly Facebook) quietly issued …
Israel's government will set up a commission of inquiry to examine allegations that the police used spyware to hack the phones of Israeli public figures without authorisation.
Officials, protesters, journalists and a son of …
Meta has announced a new feature to allow more personal space for people's avatars in virtual-reality worlds.
The metaverse is still at concept stage but the latest attempts to create virtual worlds are already facing an age…
California-based electric vertical takeoff and landing startup Joby Aviation plans to offer an air taxi service in South Korea in partnership with SK Telecom (SKT), one of the country’s largest telecommunication companies. The two partners…
MainOne (www.MainOne.net), the leading provider of connectivity solutions for businesses in West Africa is empowering enterprises to adopt Cloud technology by connecting businesses across the region directly and privately to public cloud s…
Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple has made Face ID useful again in iOS 15.4 by finally adding the ability to use the face unlock feature while wearing a face mask.
I’ve been testing out the new iOS 15.4 beta for a few…
If you’ve seen the option to downvote replies on Twitter, you’re not alone. The experimental feature, which Twitter started testing last year, is now being shown to a global audience, says the company.
The option to downvote was initial…
A top VR web browser is closing down. Today, Mozilla announced it’s shutting down its Firefox Reality browser — the four-year-old browser built for use in virtual reality environments. The technology had allowed users to access the web fro…
It’s that old chestnut: You are a fancy-pants brand wanting to make a product that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside because you only use fair-trade, sustainably grown ingredients and materials, but you don’t know where to turn. Nex…
Google today announced a new version of Workspace, the company’s productivity service that you probably still refer to as G Suite. With the new — and free — Google Workspace Essentials plan, Google wants to bring more business users onto t…
A true “metaverse” may not yet exist, but that hasn’t stopped marketers from adopting the buzzword to promote their apps and games on mobile app stores. According to new data shared today by Sensor Tower, there are now 552 mobile apps that…
Sound the horns, unveil the banners, cue the parade. Snap is profitable.
And we don’t mean adjusted-EBITDA profitable, adjusted-operating-income profitable, or even the infamous non-GAAP-net-income profitable. It’s real-profit profita…
Multiple oil transport and storage companies across Europe are dealing with cyber-attacks.
IT systems have been disrupted at Oiltanking in Germany, SEA-Invest in Belgium and Evos in the Netherlands.
In total dozen…
Can Indian microblogging app Koo beat Twitter?
That's certainly the goal, according to co-founder Mayank Bidawatka, who says Koo expects to surpass Twitter's 25 million-strong user base in India this year.
It had …
Championing the spirit of ingenious innovation, Canon (www.en.Canon-cna.com) showcased the prestigious output of its Laser and inkjet products along with its third party Dicom solution at the Arab Health Exhibition in an endeavor to provid…
Scale AI’s path to becoming a $7.3 billion company was paved in real data from images, text, voice and video. Now, it is using that foundation to get into the synthetic data game, one of the hotter and emerging categories in AI.
They …
Kenyan insurtech startup Lami Technologies has acquired Bluewave Insurance Agency for an undisclosed amount as it seeks to make insurance covers accessible to more people across Africa.
Bluewave insurance, also a Kenyan startup, was f…
Hopper, the mobile travel booking startup and app that lets users book flights, hotels, cars, and — most recently — short-term home rentals a la Airbnb and VRBO, has been on a fast pace of growth in the wake of Covid-19 travel restrictions…
Major supermarket chains have begun testing an automated age-verification system, to avoid the wait for staff at self-checkouts when buying alcohol.
The trial will use cameras that can estimate each customer's age.
…
Social media giant Facebook has seen its daily active users (DAUs) drop for the first time in its 18-year history.
Facebook's parent company Meta Networks says DAUs fell to 1.929bn in the three months to the end of December,…
In a bid to unlock the future of imaging, Canon’s (www.Canon-CNA.com) new high-performance, high-speed camera EOS R3 packs a punch with 24.1 megapixel back illuminated stacked CMOS sensor, DIGIC X imaging processor, 6K/60p RAW video record…