IT News Africa: Most Read Articles of the week

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.

Accenture Interactive launches Fjord Johannesburg

Accenture has launched its first design and innovation studio on African soil, FjordJohannesburg. The move significantly expands the company’s design capabilities and demonstrates its commitment to unlocking Africa’s innovation potential through the creation ofexperiences that redefine industries in our constantly evolving digital era. Read more.

Airtel launches 4G in Delta

Telecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria has announced the launch of its 4G – LTE (Fourth Generation – Long Term Evolution) service in Delta State, covering major cities and towns including Warri, Effurun, Asaba, Kwale, Ughelli, Sapele, Okpanam, and Agbor, amongst others. Residents and onlookers who witnessed the launch at the Airtel Showroom located at 74 Warri/Sapele Road, Effurun by Water Resources, were full of excitement as they commended the telco for deploying 4G services in Delta State. Read more.

African cryptocurrency to be launched in December 2018

An African cryptocurrency called Afri Union Coin (AUC) (formerly known as African Master Coin), developed by Africa Master Blockchain Company (AMBC), is all set for launch to the public in December 2018. The coin will be tradable from the beginning of 2019. Read more.

F1 2018 Review

Developed and published by Codemasters, the latest Formula 1 title has officially released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. With it being the 10th installment in the Formula 1 video game franchise, Codemasters has made a number of improvements to this year’s release of the game. Read more.

Say goodbye to free Twitter

After providing free Twitter to millions of subscribers for four years, MTN’s Twitter service will come to an end at midnight on Tuesday 25 September 2018. “Free Twitter started out as a 90-day promotion in May 2014 and over time, it has become part of the landscape of social media in South Africa. MTN first gave people the free platform to experience Twitter, which then had a relatively small local following. At the time, the whole of South Africa only had 5,5 million Twitter users. To date, MTN has more than double that number on our network alone,” said Jacqui O’Sullivan, Executive for Corporate Affairs at MTN SA. Read more.

Everything you need to know about the Huawei Mate 20 Lite

South Africa’s first AI four camera smartphone – the Huawei Mate 20 lite is here. This Selfie Master is also the first smartphone in the country, according to Huawei, to bring the power of AI to your selfies. The Huawei Mate 20 lite features a 24+2 megapixel selfie camera packed with AI features to enhance every selfie you capture. Not only does the Huawei Mate 20 lite harness the power of AI to enhance your facial features through portrait lighting but can recognise, eight categories including sky, plants, flowers, beach, stage and night. Read more.

PlayStation Plus Free Game Lineup October 2018

The PlayStation Plus Free Game Lineup for October 2018 has been officially revealed. Looking back at the September 2018 lineup, gamers were offered the opportunity to download and play two huge titles – which came in the form of Destiny 2 and God of War III Remastered. While last month’s lineup was excellent, it looks like October 2018 is a bit of a mediocre one, to say the least. Read more.

South Africa: Mastercard and EasyPay take the friction out of bill payments

South Africans can now buy prepaid utility services or pay their accounts from approximately 600 bill issuers with the new EasyPay Mobile app using Masterpass, the global digital payment service from Mastercard. Announced today at the Mastercard Connecting Tomorrow Forum in Barcelona, this collaboration marks a significant milestone in Mastercard’s strategy to displace cash and reduce friction in consumer payments. Read more.

Digital transformation is the key to next generation healthcare in Africa

The benefits of the digital revolution to the healthcare sector in Africa are enormous, yet many angles must be considered if it is to prove successful. There are many people around the world who fall through the cracks in the healthcare field. They either lack the resources to see a doctor, or there is simply no doctor for them to see, something that is a common situation in developing areas within rural Africa. It is for this reason digital transformation is viewed as so important – as it offers a host of new opportunities to improve healthcare services across the continent. Read more.

Instagram co-founders call it quits

Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have officially resigned from their positions and will be exiting the company, which had been purchased by Facebook in 2012. The news was confirmed via Kevin Systrom’s blog which was updated with the following message: “Mike and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team. We’ve grown from 13 people to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over one billion. We’re now ready for our next chapter.” Read more.

By Neo Sesinye
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