TECH NEWS

Kampala, Uganda | Julius Businge | World leaders have seen their follower numbers grow exponentially in March 2020 as citizens are looking for guidance on matters COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest 2020 World Facebook rankings by BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe). During the month of March, the 721 pages of …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Big Tech firms set to report quarterly results in the coming days are facing the challenge of spotlighting their roles battling the coronavirus pandemic without seeming as though they are cashing in on upheaval from the health crisis. The normal talk on profits and revenue …

Masaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A video by children of the charity group The Masaka Kids African has gone viral after they performed musician Drake‘s ‘Toosie Slide’ challenge. One of their videos got over a million views after the musician Drake posted the performance on his Instagram account. The …

  Johannesburg, South Africa | THE INDEPENDENT | AGeoPoll survey on Sub-Saharan Africa shows that there is concern that many nations on the continent are poorly prepared for a pandemic as easily transmissible as COVID-19.  Many are frightened about coronavirus spreading in their countries, others about its economic impact, especially …

Paris, France | AFP | Half of the world’s school and university students affected by class closures because of the coronavirus outbreak — from pre-primary to university level — do not have access to a computer for home-schooling, the UN’s educational agency said Tuesday. Highlighting “startling digital divides” between the rich and poor, a UNESCO …

Kampala, Uganda | Isaac Nkechi | Various media outlets, particularly social media, were awash with stories linking the roll-out of 5G mobile network to the novel coronavirus-Covid-19 pandemic over the past weeks. These included spurious theories claiming that 5G makes people more susceptible to the virus while some more extreme proposals even …

Kampala, Uganda | Isaac Khisa | Airtel Uganda added 150 more network sites last year bringing the total number of network sites that the telecom company owns to 2,000, according to the its Managing Director, V.G Somasekhar. Somasekhar, who spoke to the journalists via Zoom, a cloud-based video telephony, online chat, …

San Francisco, United States | AFP |  Is now the time to launch a new iPhone? Despite a pandemic-induced global economic crisis, Apple is widely believed to be set to release a reduced-priced handset that aims to fill a gap in its lineup, as early as this month. Google could also …

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Google and Apple unveiled a joint initiative Friday to develop a coronavirus smartphone “contact tracing” tool that could potentially alert people when they have crossed paths with an infected person. The move brings together the largest mobile operating systems in an effort to …

  Washington, United States | AFP | With an aircraft carrier forced into port and staff at bases handling nuclear missiles hit by COVID-19, the US military wants rivals to understand: don’t test us, we have not been weakened. Statement after statement from the Pentagon has sought to deliver that …