Washington, United States | AFP | People who received regular lifestyle counseling online were able to lower their blood pressure as much as a medication would, researchers said Saturday. Their study involved 264 people with high blood pressure and an average age of 58. The subjects’ average blood pressure began at …
Read More »Five of Israel’s largest tech deals
Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | US giant Intel announced Monday it would buy Israeli car tech firm Mobileye for more than $15 billion (14 billion euros), the largest cross-border tech deal in the Jewish state’s history. Mobileye makes advanced driver assistance for car manufacturers, and has already collaborated with Intel and …
Read More »Baidu CEO defends state support of Chinese firms
Beijing, China | AFP | State support for private firms is crucial in China’s market, the head of the mainland’s online search giant Baidu said Thursday, following complaints from European businesses that Beijing-backed firms are pushing out foreign competitors. “I think state support of private companies is absolutely necessary. In the …
Read More »AU’s .africa joins the internet
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | In the beginning was .com, followed by a host of other .somethings, but on Friday, 32 years after the world’s first domain name was registered, the African Union has launched .africa for the continent. Africans who want to register a website will be able …
Read More »Tech entrepreneur reflects on challenges of cashless economy
By: Andrew S. Kaggwa Financial technology experts from 40 African countries are converging this month in, Lagos, the commercial city of Nigeria, to share their innovations, rethink their current models and gain valuable market insight of the African digital financial services market. Stone Atwine, the Ugandan CEO and founder of …
Read More »Smartphones are revolutionizing medicine
Boston, United States | AFP | Smartphones are revolutionizing the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, thanks to add-ons and apps that make their ubiquitous small screens into medical devices, researchers say. “If you look at the camera, the flash, the microphone… they all are getting better and better,” said Shwetak …
Read More »Dubai aims to launch hover-taxi by July
Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | Dubai has tested a Chinese prototype of a self-driving hover-taxi, its transport authority said on Monday, with the aim of introducing the aerial vehicle in the emirate by July. The test of the one-man electric vehicle comes as the city state in the …
Read More »Algorithms: the managers of our digital lives
Paris, France | AFP | Algorithms are a crucial cog in the mechanics of our digital world, but also a nosy minder of our personal lives and a subtle, even insidious influence on our behaviour. They have also come to symbolise the risks of a computerised world conditioned by commercial …
Read More »Report indicates WhatsApp is vulnerable to snooping
London, United Kingdom | AFP | The Facebook-owned mobile messaging service WhatsApp is vulnerable to interception, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday, sparking concern over an app advertised as putting an emphasis on privacy. The report said that WhatsApp messages could be read without its billion-plus users knowing due to …
Read More »Facebook faces fines for ‘misleading’ information in WhatsApp buyout
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The EU charged Facebook on Tuesday with providing “misleading” information when it sought approval for its blockbuster $22-billon buyout of the WhatsApp mobile messaging service. The commission said the EU’s greenlight of the buyout, announced in October 2014, was not put back into question but …
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