By Elvis EROMOSELE The COVID-19 pandemic is not letting up. It continues to race and rage across the globe. With 92 million cases and almost two million deaths, one expects every hand to be on deck to curb the spread. The World Health Organisation (WHO) advises that if COVID-19 is spreading in your community, stay safe by taking some simple precautions, such as physical distancing, wearing a mask, keeping rooms well ventilated, avoiding crowds, cleaning your hands, and coughing into a bent elbow or tissue. Yet, in Nigeria, where the second wave is blossoming, crowds have besieged National Identity Management Commission…
Author: DigitalTimesNG
WhatsApp this week published an FAQ clarifying the terms of its updated privacy policy and responding to concerns that the firm behind the text-messaging app shares personal information with parent company Facebook. WhatsApp noted the update doesn’t affect the privacy of messages with friends and family, and instead relates to messaging businesses through the platform, according to a report by CNET. The company also said the update “provides further transparency about how we collect and use data.” WhatsApp emphasized that neither it nor Facebook can see users’ private messages or hear their calls, noting that it also doesn’t keep logs of who people message or call, can’t see…
President Donald Trump has been banned from uploading videos on YouTube “in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence”, the platform said. YouTube, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, said it had removed new content from the president’s channel on Tuesday for violating its policies, according to a report in Sky News. Trump will be unable to upload anything “for a minimum of seven days,” a spokesperson said. 1/ After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our policies. It…
TradeDepot, the Business to Business (B2B) eCommerce platform for consumer goods in Africa, has released new insights from its market data that highlights the trends that will shape Nigeria’s retail sector in 2021. TradeDepot said in the report that the impact of the pandemic, rising inflation, border closures and other issues drove significant changes in behaviour for retailers, distributors and manufacturers in 2020. As the sector settles into the new year, TradeDepot predicts that some of the main trends that shaped 2020 – particularly smaller packaging for consumer goods and increased spending on food and essential goods due to dwindling…
Kaspersky experts expect growing economic turbulence along with the impact of COVID-19 to contribute to an increase in cybercrime across South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria this year. “Even though every country globally has had to deal with the pandemic in its own way, developing economies across Africa have been especially hard hit by national lockdowns and limited business activity. “And thanks to the increased connectedness of people, the rise in unemployment will not only see a spike in traditional crime, but this will also extend to the digital environment – something we are already seeing,” says Lehan van den Heever,…
Samsung Nigeria, Tuesday, launched brand new additions to the Galaxy A series- the Galaxy A12, A02s and A02 devices into the Nigerian boisterous mobile phone market. The launch also witnessed the introduction of the face of Galaxy A series, Joseph Akinwale Akinfenwa AKA Joeboy. The Galaxy A12 device, for instance, comes with a stylish rear quad camera design that features a 48MP main camera. Together with the 6.5-inch large display and 5,000mAh massive battery, the Galaxy A12 is the affordable device that offers an incredibly wide array of features Nigerians want. Iretiogo Oke, Head of Marketing at Samsung Nigeria said,…
International media reports say that Ford and Nissan are scaling back production in response to semiconductor shortages. Ford is idling an SUV factory in Louisville, Kentucky this week, moving up downtime previously scheduled for later in 2021. Nissan, meanwhile, is reducing output at its Oppama plant in Japan. CNBC, ABC News and The Verge report that other brands may face trouble as well. Volkswagen said in December that it was altering production in China, Europe and North America in light of the shortage. Fiat Chrysler and Toyota have also talked about production issues. GM hasn’t had to cut production, spokesman David Barnas told CNBC, but…
Quantum Operation Inc, a Japanese startup at the ongoing virtual CES 2021, is claiming to have solved one of the biggest problems in medical technology: Noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring. Quantum Operation Inc, exhibiting at the virtual show, says that its prototype wearable can accurately measure blood sugar from the wrist, according to a report in engadget.com Looking like a knock-off Apple Watch, the prototype crams in a small spectrometer which is used to scan the blood to measure for glucose. Quantum’s pitch adds that the watch is also capable of reading other vital signs, including heart rate and ECG. The…
Analyst firm Gartner forecasts that worldwide end-user spending on wearable devices will reach $81.5 billion this year, representing an 18.1% increase over 2020 where spend reached $69 billion. The growth is being attributed to increased remote working and a higher interest in health monitoring, according to a report in neowin.net. According to the company’s data, spend in this market has been increasing since 2019 and is expected to continually grow through to 2022. In 2019, spend totalled $46.1 billion while spending in 2022 is expected to more than double to $93.8 billion. Though smartwatches were the biggest driver of the wearable market…
Signal and Telegram, WhatsApp’s rivals got massive boosts after the messaging app announced last week that it would make users share some personal data with its parent company, Facebook. Recall that WhatsApp told users they would have to agree to let Facebook and its subsidiaries collect WhatsApp data – including phone numbers and locations – before February 8 or lose access to the app. But WhatsApp has since clarified that this affects users only outside the European Union and the UK and said that the change “does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family in any way.” However,…