Author: Contributor
by Andrew Maxwell What a week it has been in the Apple core. In recent days the tech giant has released a litany of products, including new phones, watches, tablets, and more. The big-ticket items are clearly the new iPhone 11 range. These hint at some interesting technology directions, which will most likely spread across the mobile sector. Of course, it’s hardly radical to create a phone that is also a camera, web browser, computer, and gaming device. That idea is as old as smart phones themselves. But Apple’s continued progression down this road raises the question of whether this…
by David Seinker Mention Mauritius and most South Africans will think of its pristine beaches and luxury resorts, but this small country is becoming a big business player not only in Africa but on a global scale. Mauritius may just be an island – its annual tourist influx of 1.4 million outnumbers its own population of around 1.3 million – but this hasn’t stopped it, over the past three decades, from growing into a giant on the business front. As far as the continent goes, it’s already racked up a number of African “firsts” in terms of international business achievements.…
A UK-based business, Fourex, developed by South Africans, has opened its second round of crowdfunding to raise R16.3 million and is inviting South Africans to participate. Its first round was oversubscribed by 243%. Fourex revenue has grown by 175% in two years, reaching £1.98 million (over R36 million). Most travellers return from foreign trips with notes and coins in various foreign currencies and land up storing them in drawers. Fourex, established in 2015, provides an innovative self-service kiosk for exchanging 150 currencies in both coins and notes. Already at 67 high foot-traffic locations and growing rapidly, Fourex plans to be…
by Alexandros Antoniou The latest photo app craze can make you look like a movie star. Zao uses artificial intelligence to replace the faces of characters in film or TV clips with images of anyone whose photo you upload to the app. The effect is startlingly realistic and shows just how far this sort of “deepfake” technology has come. But it also highlights how great the risks have become of making your photos available online where anyone can use or abuse them – and the limitation of the law in dealing with this issue. One of the key problems is…
by Anne Fitchett There are about 500,000 square metres of green space in Chicago in the United States. Many of these are visible, not on the ground, but on building roofs across the city. Green roofs can be seen in a number of other cities around the world. Green roofs are usually installed on flat roofs with vegetation planted in a growing medium on top of waterproofing, root barrier and cuspate sheeting. The sheeting retains moisture in between rainfall events or manual watering. Research suggests that these roofs have a number of advantages. These include rainfall management by absorbing much…
There is a need to ensure broadband access for all in order to overcome social, economic and spatial inequality, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said on Thursday. “We all know that economic growth, job creation and entrepreneurial activity is inextricably linked to broadband access. We, therefore, need to ensure that broadband access – like health care and education – is available to all,” said the Minister. Addressing the first plenary session on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa currently underway in Cape Town, Mboweni said if the continent does not overcome social, economic and…
by Sharona Hoffman The use of artificial intelligence in medicine is generating great excitement and hope for treatment advances. AI generally refers to computers’ ability to mimic human intelligence and to learn. For example, by using machine learning, scientists are working to develop algorithms that will help them make decisions about cancer treatment. They hope that computers will be able to analyze radiological images and discern which cancerous tumors will respond well to chemotherapy and which will not. But AI in medicine also raises significant legal and ethical challenges. Several of these are concerns about privacy, discrimination, psychological harm and…
We saw in a globalized world, with infinite difficulties and conflicts. Problems of the complicated solution, disputes between countries, wars, terrorist attacks, environmental disasters, uncontrolled release of money, and many more that concern us. And we think about the number of solutions or ideals of life for all humanity. And this is where the OZOTOP Project comes with its proposal and will revolutionize the society model, providing a community free of negativity and scammers. OZTOP will be available across the world: in South Africa, Europe, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and others. The great challenge OZOTOP will offer humanity to move…
by Andrew Bahlmann Second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data surprised on the upside, with the 3.1% increase from Q1 handily beating consensus estimates at around the 2.4% level. But the data showed that the construction sector remains exceptionally depressed. In the second quarter, construction declined by 1.6%, with StatsSA noting that “decreases were reported for non-residential buildings and construction works”. This represents the fourth consecutive quarterly decline for the sector in a row, with nine out of the past 10 quarters being negative. This stretches back to the beginning of 2017. Construction is deep in crisis. A number of large…
by Prince C. Oguguo According to the 2018/2019 report from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, African countries such as Angola and Madagascar have some of the highest rates of entrepreneurship in the world. These entrepreneurs often operate on an informal, micro-enterprise scale, however, and their contribution to economic activity is minimal. This is a shame because, excluding South Africa, most industrial sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa are not dominated by large firms that tend to keep entrepreneurs at bay in more advanced economies, thus presenting opportunities for significant growth. Although foreign multinationals have (and are already playing) a key role in GDP…