Author: Contributor
Huawei South Africa has partnered with the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies to deliver a tailor-made 5G course for the department’s women staff. The training is an extension of the DCDT’s Women’s Month initiative that aims to expose female employees to various technologies and solutions that will enable the digital transformation envisaged by the fourth industrial revolution, commonly referred to as ‘4IR’. Deputy Minister Pinky Kekana attended and addressed delegates on the importance of skilling and re-skilling of Women in the ICT space. The Deputy Minister further went on to say, “In our effort to build a Capable 4IR…
Acknowledging National Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October, peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin marketplace and digital wallet provider, Paxful, is shining the spotlight on the escalating need for security awareness amongst users when trading in digital currency. With criminals becoming increasingly technically proficient, the benefits of cryptocurrencies are also being exploited. Virtual currency related crime is on the rise in South Africa, with hackers using peoples’ phones to mine cryptocurrencies according to cybersecurity experts. As the popularity of crypto assets such as bitcoin grows, various South African authorities including the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) have started the process for reviewing the impact of…
by Nick Longrich Are we alone in the universe? It comes down to whether intelligence is a probable outcome of natural selection, or an improbable fluke. By definition, probable events occur frequently, improbable events occur rarely – or once. Our evolutionary history shows that many key adaptations – not just intelligence, but complex animals, complex cells, photosynthesis, and life itself – were unique, one-off events, and therefore highly improbable. Our evolution may have been like winning the lottery … only far less likely. The universe is astonishingly vast. The Milky Way has more than 100 billion stars, and there are…
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has transformed end-customer expectations, putting pressure on brands to evolve their offerings. Loyalty programmes are by no means exempt. Clients are seeking fairness, flexibility and an offering that has lasting benefits as well as aspects of instant gratification. They’re looking for a solution that deepens gamification and transcends it. Here, Francois Uys, Head of Digital, Marketing and Communications at Sanlam Reality, outlines some of the top trends for the loyalty space in 2019 and 2020. Trend one: The ‘democratisation of loyalty’: Customers increasingly desire authenticity and recognition of their individual needs regardless of their assets. Younger…
by Mark Liu The tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook have all begun to use machine learning to give you tips on what to wear. Is fashion styling the next field to be disrupted by artificial intelligence (AI), or will the human eye remain supreme? It’s too soon to know for sure, but understanding what machine learning is good at and how that overlaps with what fashion is all about can help us make some educated guesses. Get that look One thing machine learning does very well is find patterns and common features among groups of items. Taking advantage of…
By Gwenael Trotel The financial services landscape is fast changing. Technology is disrupting traditional offerings and those who have previously been unable to access banking services are now being brought into the fray through digital and more accessible offerings. It is not only the likes of Western giants like Facebook, which recently announced the launch of its digital currency Libra, who are shaking things up. African players are making steady progress in bringing the continent closer to a cashless society. According to 2015 figures from the World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa is home to 350 million unbanked individuals, which accounts for…
MyBroadband Insights has released its Q3 2019 Mobile Network Quality Report, which shows that MTN has the best mobile network in South Africa. The report is based on 314,751 speed tests which were performed by thousands of MyBroadband Android Speed Test App users across South Africa between 1 July and 30 September 2019. The research shows that South Africa had an average mobile download speed of 24.68 Mbps and an average upload speed of 9.03Mbps. MTN had the highest average download speed at 35.31Mbps, followed by Vodacom on 31.19Mbps, Telkom on 22.42Mbps, Cell C on 17.18Mbps and Rain on 16.71Mbps.…
Our annual iThemba Walkathon is just days away and we’re lucky enough to be able to bring some of South Africa’s best to the stage for your entertainment. Get in the Avon Justine Walkathon spirit by pre-listening to some of the artists we have lined up to perform for you on Sunday. Ami Faku Brenda Mtambo Nkanyezi Kubheka Karabo Mogane Ma Nala Lioness Berita Just Themba Dr Sindi Van Zyl DJ 1D We’re also pleased to announce our amazing main stage hosts Skhumba Hlophe and Jason Goliath who’ll keep our energy up throughout the day and our fantastic line-up of…
A total amount of R13 650 000 in funding was awarded to twenty finalists at the Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards 2019. The R1, 3-million winners are Regenize, a free recycling service with a rewards system, The OptiShunt, a device that prevents blindness in glaucoma patients and Specialised Seating for Disabled Children, custom chair and tray tables for children with physical disabilities. Specialised Seating for Disabled Children also won the People’s Choice award voted by guests at the awards. Social Innovation Award winners The Social Innovation Awards are aimed at innovators, entrepreneurs and institutions with prototypes or early-stage businesses that…
by Subhash Kak Many advanced artificial intelligence projects say they are working toward building a conscious machine, based on the idea that brain functions merely encode and process multisensory information. The assumption goes, then, that once brain functions are properly understood, it should be possible to program them into a computer. Microsoft recently announced that it would spend US$1 billion on a project to do just that. So far, though, attempts to build supercomputer brains have not even come close. A multi-billion-dollar European project that began in 2013 is now largely understood to have failed. That effort has shifted to…