Technology

NITDA rejigs, ready to fulfil mandate – DG

2016-11-25T01:32:00.001-08:00

National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has hinted that the Agency will now focus on its core Mandates, in a renewed move to serve the ICT industry and the economy better.
NITDA established in May 2001 has been a waltzing story of failures and inadequacies, unable to meet its clear mandate of fostering the development and growth of IT in Nigeria.
But Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, director general of the agency said all that is about to change because NITDA was not established as a mere ‘contract’ awarding agency. ‎
He stated this at a meeting ‎with heads of parastatsls under NITDA, CEOs, presidents of Associations and other stakeholders in the ICT industry, ‎ ‎at eNigeria conference and exhibitions 2016.
“We need collaborations to reform NITDA and make it more productive. First, I am reiterating that I am not in NITDA to award contracts. If we must, such contract must take us closet to implementing our core mandates; it has to lift the nation from economic quagmire. I have spent few months into my appointment
brainstorming with the staff on how best to serve the industry and nation at last. I am not against awarding contract, but NITDA can’t be reduced to mere administrative agency. We have to play better in our regulatory role,” he said.
‎Dr. Pantami said that the Agency’s remains committed to implementing the National Information Technology Policy, especially to articulating frameworks for the planning, research, development, standardisation, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices in the country.‎
‎He, however, craved for improved collaboration with the players, who he described as partners in lifting the fortunes of IT sector in the country.
According to him, the present administration accords local content the deserved attention, while working cordially with its foreign partners. ‎
The DG said that the scope of the Agency’s mandate is wide enough to positively impact every Nigerian, regretting that NITDA’s regulatory role has been relegated over the years.
“NITDA’s regulatory role has been relegated for a long time, but we will address that without delays. Our mandate covers capacity building too. However, we will widen the scope to cover more students especially for those in the rural areas benefit. ‎
‎He said that Nigeria loses approximately $2.8 billion annually from the importation of ICT goods and services, including a whopping $1 billion spent annually on software imports.
The DG described as unacceptable a situation locally manufactured or assembled computers represent less than 8% of all the computers used in the country.

Gov. Ahmed to build N500m Computer Village in Ilorin

2016-11-25T01:21:00.001-08:00

The Kwara State Government commitment’s to the expansion of employment opportunities and entrepreneur development has received a boost with the groundbreaking of Harmony Hub (Computer Village) in Ilorin, the state capital, by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.
Speaking at the groundbreaking, Governor Ahmed said the Computer Village would directly employ about 600 youths when fully operational.
This will be apart from the hundreds of indirect jobs that would be created in the process of its construction.
The Governor noted that the Computer Village, which is estimated to cost N500 million, would be funded through contractor financing as well as pre-sales or off-taker arrangements.
He noted that Information Communication Technology has huge potential of employment generation and empowerment.
“Nigeria’s ICT sector is reputed as the largest in Africa with $18 billion investments and 28 per cent internet penetration as of 2013,” the governor said.
Governor Ahmed promised that his government would continue to work with the network of investors and
other stakeholders to deepen the supporting infrastructure and ensure that quality standards are maintained across board with a view to accelerating the momentum of the ICT sector in the state.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Board of Directors of Harmony Holdings Limited, Prof. Halidu Abubakar, identified ICT as an integral part of doing business across the world, pointing out that the Computer Village would create specialised market for computer and allied instruments.
Earlier in his address, the Group Managing Director, Harmony Holdings Limited, Tope Daramola, had disclosed that the edifice would sit on 4,600 square meters of land.
Daramola added that the Computer Village would host a cluster of high-tech businesses and associated businesses that favour Information Technology to enable the state serve as hub in ICT business.

NCC receives 4,304 complaints on unsolicited telemarketing in 9 months

2016-11-25T01:19:00.000-08:00

The Nigerian Communications Commission received a total of 4,304 complaints concerning unsolicited telemarketing, both voice and text, within nine months, Ayoola Oke, the Chief Executive Officer of ICT Derivatives Ltd, has said.
Oke made this known at the 4th Quarter Meeting/Open Forum of the Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) on Thursday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the theme of the forum is: “Do-Not-Disturb: Panacea To Unsolicited Messages”.
He said that the complaints were received from telecommunications consumers through ‘Walk-in, Outreach Events, Letters, Emails, Consumer Web Portal and the Call Centre (622).
According to him, in the first quarter of 2016, the regulatory body received a total of 2,325 complaints on unwanted and disturbing telemarketing.
He said that of the 2,325 complaints, 13 were through walk-in to NCC’s centre, outreach events and letters from telecommunications subscribers, 28 were through emails and CWP, while 2,284 were received through
622 toll free calls to NCC’s call centre.
Oke said that in 2nd quarter, 629 unsolicited text and calls complaints were received, which included 12 walk-in, outreach events and letters to the regulatory body.
They also included 54 complaints through emails and CWP, as well as 563 complaints received through calls.
He said that in the third quarter, a total of 1,350 complaints on issues of unsolicited telemarketing were received.
Oke said: “Sixteen were through walk-in to the commission’s centre, outreach events and letters, 62 complaints were through emails and CWP, while 1,272 were through calling 622 to the call centre.
“In summary, 41 complaints were through walk-in, outreach events and letters, 144 were through emails and CWP, then 4,119 unsolicited telemarketing complaints were through calling 622, which is the code for the NCC call centre.”
He noted that the commission had been inundated with several complaints from consumers on the menace of unsolicited messages (voice/SMS).
He said: “Based on this, a direction on “Do-Not-Disturb” was issued to telecommunications service providers to dedicate a common short code (2442) to consumers.
“Consumers are encouraged to send SMS to determine the type of Value Added Service messages they want to receive, if any; aimed at reducing the number of occurrences.”

Minister urges OPS to provide support for informal sector

2016-11-25T00:54:00.001-08:00

The Minister for Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has identified non-availability of resources and poor marketing skills as the major ills militating against the Nigerian Informal sector growth, urging the Organised Private Sector (OPS) to provide advertising support for the industry.
The informal sector is a sector, which encompasses all jobs which are not recognised as normal income sources, and on which taxes are not paid. It sets the foundation for promoting the evolution of large firms that ultimately dominate the formal sector.
The Minister, while addressing participants during the KPMG Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of companies’ forum held in Lagos on Tuesday, stressed the need to stimulate the sector for growth, noting that the sector plays a very important role in the development of the economies of nation.
He lamented that limited access to capital and lack of skills are major constraints for operators working in the informal sector.
He explained that operators in the sector should be provided with the needed finance and advertising support to grow their businesses to enable the economy achieve the required production potentials.

“The informal sector is an area that we want to do as much as possible to support. Made in Nigeria campaign is actually meant to stimulate the informal sector. I will encourage you to patronise some of these our craft people.
“The way to support the informal sector is to give them incentive and we do have some good craftsmen. I was talking to some craft men at Aba and I understand that they make some high-quality shoe. The problem with these small informal sectors is that they do not have marketing skills or resources.
“Many of them do not have financing or advertising support and so on, may be some of you on the sideline of whatever business you are doing try and see if you can look for some investors of the informal sector who are producing like shoes and get them to produce. Then you support and promote them and provide advertising support for them.
“One thing with the informal sector is that they will start two good things and on the third one, the quality will drop. There are many things we can do for them. In Italy, a lot of production is made on small scale but you have some bigger company who stand behind them.
“I think that an arrangement like that could help and will be a source of making a lot of money for companies that go into that and I think is an opportunity to support the small companies,” the minister added.

mCash will help realise government’s cashlite policy – Globacom

2016-11-25T00:16:00.001-08:00

Next generation telecoms company, Globacom, has thrown its weight behind the new value payment solution, mCash, recently launched by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System in collaboration with financial institutions and telecoms operators in the country.
The innovation is aimed at making e-payment easily accessible to peasants, petty-traders, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and other low income earners who carry out their transactions in cash through the services of telecoms operators.
The company said that its advanced network is well positioned to accommodate the new payment system.
Esaie Diei, Globacom’s Head, Mobile Money Financial Business, praised the initiative and commended the NIBSS for a solution that is geared towards the cashless policy and financial inclusion drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Diei underscored Globacom’s efforts at helping to realize the Federal Government’s initiatives, especially the company’s drive at financial inclusion of the unbanked masses through its mobile banking technology.
He said: “This is why we invested in a dynamic and secured USSD Gateway for financial services to which mCash is connected.
“Glo Subscribers are, therefore, assured of a very efficient and robust system on the network.”
Diei revealed that Globacom would do everything to support the convenience and ease of making payment, especially with the mCash policy, and is proud to be associated with it.
While unveiling the mCash solution, Adebisi Shonubi, the Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS, explained that the scheme was developed to make digital payment available to a large number of people who transact their businesses with raw cash every day.
Shonubi described mCash as the most convenient and cost effective solution to address low value payment nationwide because it leverages the networks of telecom operators, which already have nationwide coverage.
Shonubi said that mCash credits the merchant instantly as against the current payment system, which allows 24 hours’ settlement.
Joe Obogo, the Principal Manager, Banking and Payment Systems Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who represented the Director, Banking and Payment System, extolled NIBSS for such a solution to delayed payments and for making it available to all.
Obogo opined that a joint operation of the banks and telecoms companies would guarantee optimum output for the industry.

Security firm Optiv files for IPO, seeks to raise $100 million

2016-11-18T23:04:00.003-08:00

Cybersecurity company Optiv Security, majority owned by Blackstone Group, filed with U.S. regulators for an initial public offering of its common stock on Friday.
The company set a nominal fundraising target of $100 million in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing showed that both Optiv and its shareholders were offering shares in the IPO, but did not disclose the number of shares being sold or their expected price.
Optiv was created when cyber security companies Accuvant and FishNet Security merged in 2015. Blackstone made a majority investment in Accuvant in 2014.
On a pro forma basis, the company posted a loss of $5.7 million on revenue of $643.8 million in the nine
months ended Sept. 30, according to the filing.
Denver, Colorado-based Optiv intends to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “OPTV”.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co, Barclays Capital Inc, Citigroup Global Markets Inc are among the underwriters of the offering.
The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

Automobile technicians decry multiple taxations, embark on warning strike in Niger

2016-11-18T22:54:00.001-08:00

The Niger State chapter of the Nigeria Automobile Technicians Association, on Friday embarked on a two-day warning strike in protest against alleged multiple taxation on its members by the state government.
According to its Chairman, Ayuba A-Oluobor, the taxes imposed on the technicians “have become simply unbearable”.
A-Oluobor told the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Minna that the levies were “so many and heavy”, making it impossible for members to break even.
“We pay for business premises, development levy, Local Government levy, sanitation levy and now registration and certification levy,” he fumed.
He explained that the association was not against the payment of taxes, but that members were paying more than the money accruing to them from their trade.
The association’s chairman said that the levy in contention, registration and certification of business, was recently imposed on the association by the Vehicle Inspection Office of the Ministry of Works.

A-Oluobor said that government did not notify the association of the levy that was being collected through a consultant, who had employed the services of security agencies.
He said: “Details of the new levy indicated that tyre sellers will pay N50,000, automobile spare parts sellers, N30,000, while automobile technicians will cough out N20,000 per annum.
“This new tax is in addition to the four levies we currently pay.”
A-Oluobor said the tax collectors had been very harsh as they lock up shops of those yet to pay.
He said: “Very often, they seize the property of people still owing.
“If this action continues, there may be a breach of peace.
“This is why we are calling on government to intervene, halt the collection and dialogue with the association.”
He said that the two-day warning strike, which commenced on Thursday, would continue if government failed to meet the group as promised.
“Right now, the warning strike is restricted to Minna, but if government refuses to meet with us, we will embark on an indefinite strike across the state,” A-Oluobor said.
The Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Mohammed Cheche, and the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Muazu Bawa, could not be reached for comments, but a top ministry source confirmed that the technicians had indeed lodged a complaint to the office.

ICT contributes 12.6% to GDP in second quarter – Shittu

2016-11-08T23:46:00.002-08:00

As at the end of the second quarter, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector increased its contribution to the country’s nominal GDP by 0.37 per cent, moving from 12.25 per cent in first quarter to 12.62 per cent.
The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, who disclosed at the ISACA Abuja’s eighth yearly international conference, said the Federal Government was redoubling efforts to increase ICT’s contribution to the country’s GDP, “as we consider it to be a veritable alternative to the oil sector whose contributions have dwindled over the past year.”
At the conference, which discussed cyber security, technology optimisation and national development, Shittu said without any equivocation, virtually all developmental moves in the world involve the application of ICT, but added that the challenge remains the security implications.
According to the minister, in his keynote address, the traditional banking was essentially
paper-based and therefore devoid of cybercrimes.
He went on: “However, in the financial services world of today, banking transactions are fast leaving the four walls of brick and mortar branches to the clouds; increasing transactions are being done via ATM, POS, Internet banking, mobile money, and NEFT; account opening is now possible on social media platforms such as Facebook.
“Besides, the information of all registered citizens of Nigeria is stored in the cloud. The electoral process today also involves use of electronic card readers. The use of CCTV is very common in most organisations and even households today.
“Mobile communication and e-mailing and social media communication are now the order of the day. Use of computers and other office support systems are obvious in all offices today. Electronic commerce and online malls are very prevalent. Electricity and transportation had also gone digital, using prepaid. This developmental approach, as good as it is, is faced with war with cybercriminal elements.”

Samsung to recall 2.8 million washing machines in US

2016-11-07T01:47:00.004-08:00

Samsung is recalling 2.8 million washing machines with a potential for a dangerous detachment of its top lid, the South Korean company and US safety officials announced Friday.
The recall delivers a new blow to the electronics giant, which has scrapped production of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphones due to risks of overheating batteries that can catch fire.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a statement the Samsung washing machine top “can unexpectedly detach from the washing machine chassis during use, posing a risk of injury from impact.”
Samsung received 733 reports of problems with the machines. Nine of those incidents involved injury, including a broken jaw and injured shoulder.
Samsung said in a statement the recall affects models manufactured since 2011 due to “reports highlighting the risk that the drums in these washers may lose balance, triggering excessive vibrations, resulting in the top separating from the washer.”
John Herrington, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics America, said, “We are moving
quickly and in partnership with the CPSC to ensure consumers know the options available to them and that any disruption in the home is minimized.”
Consumers with a recalled washer will be offered a free in-home repair or a rebate that can be applied towards the purchase of a new washer from Samsung or another brand.
Samsung faced a class-action lawsuit that claimed some of the washers were “exploding,” leading to potential injury or property damage.
The company, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, recalled some 2.5 million Note 7s in 10 markets following complaints that its lithium-ion battery exploded while charging, and then had to expand that as reports emerged of replacement phones also catching fire.

Microsoft says Russia-linked hackers exploiting Windows flaw

2016-11-02T01:34:00.001-07:00

Microsoft said on Tuesday that a hacking group previously linked to the Russian government and U.S. political hacks is behind recent cyber attacks that exploit a newly discovered flaw in its Windows operating system.
Microsoft said that a patch to defend Windows users against this sort of attack will be released on Nov. 8.
The software maker said in an advisory on its website there had been a small number of attacks using “spear phishing” emails from a hacking group known Strontium, which is more widely known as “Fancy Bear” or APT 28.
Microsoft did not identify any victims of the attacks.
A U.S. intelligence expert on Russian cyber activity said that Fancy Bear primarily works for or on behalf of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, which U.S. intelligence officials have
concluded were responsible for hacks of Democratic Party databases and emails.
Microsoft said the attacks exploited a vulnerability in Adobe’s Flash software and one in the Windows operating system.
Adobe released a patch for that vulnerability on Monday as security researchers with Google went public with details on the attack.
Microsoft chided rival Google for going public with details of the vulnerabilities before it had time to prepare and test a patch to fix them.
“Google’s decision to disclose these vulnerabilities before patches are broadly available and tested is disappointing, and puts customers at increased risk,” Microsoft said.

Salesforce’s Marc Benioff addresses failed efforts to buy Twitter and LinkedIn

2016-10-27T03:16:00.001-07:00

Marc Benioff is chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. He founded the company in 1999 with a vision to create an on-demand information management service that would replace traditional enterprise software technology. Benioff is regarded as the leader of what he has termed "The End of Software," the now-proven belief that multi-tenant, cloud computing applications democratize information by delivering immediate benefits at reduced risks and costs.

Salesforce.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff spoke on Wednesday about a pair of key acquisitions that got away, suggesting his vision for LinkedIn Corp (was different from Microsoft Corp’s and that he would have pursued Twitter Inc if shareholders had not learned of his plans.
Speaking at a technology conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal in Laguna Beach, California, Benioff declined to elaborate on what he had hoped to do with micro-blogging site Twitter.
Twitter hired bankers earlier in October to explore selling itself. Technology and media companies including Salesforce.com, Walt Disney Co and Alphabet Inc’s Google looked at the company but passed on buying it.
Some regarded Twitter as an unlikely fit for Salesforce.com, whose platform is popular among sales teams. Benioff said he was forced to drop the deal when investors began voicing concerns.

“We’ve never had a deal leak before; we don’t really understand that dynamic,” said Benioff, who is an avid Twitter user. “We had to stop because I’m running the business in partnership with my shareholders.”
Benioff was also effusive about his interest in professional social networking site LinkedIn, which Microsoft agreed to buy for $26.2 billion in June. Benioff told technology news website Recode in June that Salesforce.com made a bid for LinkedIn and was primarily interested in its recruiting business.
Benioff on Wednesday said he saw parallels between Salesforce.com’s business model and LinkedIn’s.
“We really liked some of the business fundamentals,” he said, adding few details on his vision for an acquisition of LinkedIn.
He contrasted that vision with Microsoft’s, which he said centered on mingling the companies’ data streams to make it difficult for other companies to compete. Salesforce.com has raised concerns about the deal to European antitrust regulators.
“Last time I checked, that was illegal,” he said of Microsoft’s plans for LinkedIn’s data.
Microsoft said it was confident it would gain final regulatory approval for the LinkedIn acquisition by the end of 2016.
“We’re committed to continuing to work to bring price competition to a CRM (customer relationship management) market in which Salesforce is the dominant participant charging customers higher prices,” a Microsoft spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Zuckerberg, Ambode and the emerging IT revolution in Lagos

2016-10-23T05:27:00.001-07:00

Both are young, articulate, dynamic and share a similar passion for quality education delivery. Both are also driven by futuristic ideas with a global vision. Incidentally too, both are information-savvy philanthropists and providers of veritable platforms for the youths to freely express their views. But while one is a Jewish-American, the other is Omo Naija gon-goni, as we describe true-born Nigerians in Pidgin English parlance. Yet, there is still more to their point of convergence than people may readily admit. But who really are we talking about here?
The first of course, is Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook .
His name certainly rings a loud and crisp-clear note in the vast firmament of our knowledge- economy that drives several global thoughts and processes, virtually on daily basis. He, along with his friends, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin, by their sheer creative ingenuity came up with the site which allows users to create their own profiles, upload photos and communicate with other users. That was in 2004. By the end of that year it had reached 1 million users. But it has since grown to more than 250 million people, over the past 12 years, making Zuckerberg a billionaire.

That global attention was riveted on the commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria; nay the West African Sub-region by his recent visit was understandable. It clearly signals a profound message of increasing hope for faster economic development of the megalopolis and that of the youths. There comes in the commendable giant steps, so far taken by the governor of the host state, the highly focused and resourceful,
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration to reposition the state for an all-embracing Centre of socio-economic and political. Notably, he has since assumption of office about one and a half years ago propelled his vision of Lagos as a destination of choice for any serious-minded, entrepreneur from anywhere in the world. What with the assurance of all-round, tight security network, courtesy of his donation of top-of-the range security gadgets to the police and all-inclusive community surveillance, across the state. What with the massive infrastructural development of roads, bridges and clearing of waterways to facilitate journeys by sea. What about the focus on the triple projects of Eko Atlantic City, the $300 Elegushi Kingdom Imperial City as well as the history-making Smart City, coming up in conjunction with Smart City LLC, Dubai being the first of its kind in Africa.
Indeed, it is heart-warming to note that the Co-Creation Hu CcHub, the first of the two facilities visited by Zucerberg at Yaba, Lagos was donated by the state government. Its noble aim is to further the cause of enhanced, ICT-driven entrepreneurial activities that the state is currently known for.In fact, the visitor was so thrilled that he had this to say: “ I got to talk to kids at a summer coaching camp and entrepreneurs who came to Cchub to build and launch their apps. I’m looking forward to meeting more people in Nigeria.”Truth is, that Zuckerberg had read a lot about it before his visit but needed to find out, first-hand what the true situation was.
That inspired his scientifically-honed, inquisitive mind to sneak into the city at the wee of that night, unnoticed. Beyond getting to breathe the fresh, free air of Lagos, he jugged along the modern Lekki- Ikoyi link bridge in the company of some youths to show the world that here, indeed, is the next Dubai to do business in safety, comfort and style.
That also puts to rest the fundamental questions that would have been raised if the situation was otherwise. Could he have risked his dear life to travel to a violence-prone and politically unstable city? Of course,not. Could he also have dared to meet with whiz kids of Information Communication Technology (ICT) at the Yaba-based Andela, if the enabling environment has not been provided by the state government? Certainly, not.
For instance, Andela is on record that Andela is an engineering organisation building and raising the next generation of technical leaders in Africa. As a business venture it recruits the most talented technologists in Africa and shapes them into world-class developers.
The course runs for four years. It has accepted 200 engineers from a pool of 40,000 applicants in its first two years of operation. It would be recalled that early this year, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gladly invested in Andela because it was greatly impressed by the company’s innovative model of learning and its determination to connect the global technology ecosystem, using the most talented developers in Africa.
According to Seni Sulyman, the Director of Andela, ”Marks’ visit demonstrates to all Nigerians developers and entrepreneurs that they
have caught the attention of the tech world, and they are capable of succeeding on a truly global level.”
The question now is how to build on Zuckerberg’s visit? With both the visitor and Ambode well-known as philanthropists there is need for more effective collaborations. For instance, La Roche Leadership Foundation established by Ambode in 2012 is a non-profit organisation with the mandate of developing educational and leadership skills of young Nigerians. As the state governor, efforts should be sustained, to strengthen our educational processes based on accessible and affordable information technological processes.
Zuckerberg’s visit is a potential pragmatic synergy between like minds, to build strong and sustainable socio-economic programmes, processes and projects for the benefit of Lagos and more so our job-seeking youths. That is the dancing steps of Ambode.
– Ajanaku is Senior Special Assistant to Lagos State Governor on Media and Strategy.

Hackers cripple US internet in wide-scale cyber attack

2016-10-22T02:41:00.002-07:00

Several of the world’s best-known websites were inaccessible across parts of the United States on Friday after hackers unleashed a series of attacks on a company that acts as a switchboard for the internet.
The attacks affected access to Twitter, Paypal, Spotify and other customers of the infrastructure company in New Hampshire called Dyn, which processes large volumes of internet traffic.
“The attacks came in waves,” Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from Los Angeles, said. “First targeting the East Coast of the United States, spreading then to the other parts of the country and even to Western Europe.”
“The websites that were disrupted were some of the top names in the internet: CNN and the New York Times, AirBnB, Reddit, HBO… a whole variety of sites were attacked.”
“Dyn is kind of a middle man that directs users to different websites and routes traffic from server to server in a complex way,” said Reynolds.

The attackers used hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices that had previously been infected with a malicious code that allowed them to cause outages.
“This type of attack is known as is a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS),” explained our correspondent. “They used affected computers to fire requests at the servers of Dyn simultaneously and essentially overwhelm it.”
“The complexity of the attacks is what’s making it very challenging for us,” Dyn’s chief strategy officer, Kyle York, told Reuters news agency.
York said that at least some of the malicious traffic was coming from connected devices, including webcams and digital video recorders, that had been infected with control software named Mirai.
Security researchers have previously raised concerns that such connected devices, sometimes referred to as the Internet of Things, lack proper security.
The Mirai code was dumped on the internet about a month ago, and criminal groups are now charging to employ it in cyber attacks, said Allison Nixon, director of security research at Flashpoint, which was helping Dyn analyse the attack.
The Department of Homeland Security last week issued a warning about attacks from the Internet of Things, following the release of the code for Mirai.
‘Attacks continue’
On Friday, Dyn said in a statement that it had resolved one morning attack, which disrupted operations for about two hours, but disclosed a second a few hours later that was causing further disruptions. By Friday evening it was fighting a third.
“The company fought back and was able to get things under control again,” our correspondent said. “But there were additional waves of attack. So this seems to be an ongoing situation.”
Attacking a large domain name service provider like Dyn can create massive disruptions because such firms are responsible for forwarding large volumes of internet traffic.
The disruptions come at a time of unprecedented fears about cyber threats in the United States, where hackers have breached political organisations and election agencies.
The US government has formally accused Russia of conducting cyber attacks against US political organisations during the campaign for the November 8 presidential election, including hacking of Democratic Party emails .
The US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said they were investigating the attack on Dyn.
“We still don’t know who is responsible for this attack,” Reynolds said. “But it certainly seems to be an attack that took coordination and possibly a lot of resources. So this is not some teenaged kid in a basement somewhere hacking for fun.
“The purpose behind their attack is also very vague since nothing was stolen. It was just distruptive, so some people are theorising that someone is trying to figure out how to shut down the internet.”
WikiLeaks, a whistle blowing organisation that has been publishing hacked emails that allegedly belong to Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, implied in a tweet that its supporters may be behind the attack and asked them to “stop taking down the US internet”.
WikiLeaks has recently said that founder Julian Assange’s internet access has been cut by an unidentified state actor.
Ecuador’s government later admitted that it had partly restricted internet access for Assange, who has lived in the South American country’s UK embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden since mid-2012.
WikiLeaks’ decision to publish documents affecting the US election was entirely its own responsibility, and the country did not want to meddle in election processes or favour any candidate, Ecuador said.

Facebook apologises for removing cancer video

2016-10-21T14:03:00.001-07:00

Facebook has apologised for taking down a breast cancer awareness video because the images were flagged as offensive, saying the move was “an error”.
Swedish cancer charity Cancerfonden said Thursday that its video explaining to women how to check for suspicious lumps, featuring animated figures of women with circle-shaped breasts, had been removed from the US social networking site.
“We find it incomprehensible and strange how one can perceive medical information as offensive,” Cancerfonden communications director Lena Biornstad told AFP.
“This is information that saves lives,” she said. “This prevents us from doing so.”
In a tongue-and-cheek open letter to Facebook, Cancerfonden had offered a different version of the offending round cartoon breasts.
“After having tried to meet your rules for several days without succeeding, we have now reached
a solution which will hopefully satisfy you: two pink squares! This cannot possibly be offensive,” the charity wrote, along with a picture of the new straight-edged breasts.
A Facebook spokeswoman later apologised for removing the video, saying: “We’re very sorry, our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads.
“This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologise for the error and have let the advertiser know we are approving their ads.”
The furore erupted just as the White House was lit up in the colour pink to mark breast cancer awareness month.
Facebook faced outrage in September for repeatedly deleting a historic Vietnam War photo included in a post by Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
It said the iconic photo of a naked Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm bombing violated its rules, but it later backtracked on the decision.
Facebook has a ban on posts that contain nudity, with some exceptions, such as images of works of art and women breastfeeding, or educational content.
The US social media giant counts some 1.7 billion users around the world.

Turkish Airlines bans Galaxy Note 7 from all flights

2016-10-21T13:01:00.001-07:00

Turkey’s flagship carrier Turkish Airlines on Friday said it has banned Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from all of its flights with immediate effect after reports of fire risk.
“Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices can no longer be transported on person, in carry-on baggage, in checked bags or as air cargo on all Turkish Airlines flights with immediate effect,” the company said in a warning note to passengers on its website.

The airline did not detail the reasons for the ban, but it comes after reports of exploding batteries and fires, which have led to numerous injuries.
That prompted the South Korean electronics giant to recall all Note 7 phones, including replacements. Samsung has also stopped producing the flagship handset.
German carrier Lufthansa had announced on Tuesday its ban on Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from all of its flights.
Japan this month said it barred all Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from airplanes, following moves by US regulators and a string of carriers that banned the recalled devices over fire risk concerns.

Scientists discover giant, long-necked dinosaur species in Australia

2016-10-20T12:57:00.002-07:00

Scientists unveiled fossils Thursday from a new species of giant, long-necked dinosaur unearthed in northeast Australia, speculating that its ancestors had trekked across Antarctica some 105 million years ago.
At least 14 metres (45 feet) from head-to-tail, Savannasaurus elliottorum was a plant-chomping, barrel-chested member of the sauropod group, which includes the largest land animals to ever have roamed the planet.
The discovery, along with a specimen of another sauropod called Diamantinasaurus matildae, was detailed in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.
Palaeontologists nicknamed the two dinos Wade and Matilda. Both species are thought to be unique to Australia.
How and when these and other dinosaurs made it Down Under is a source of ongoing debate, and the new find is sure to add fuel to the fire.

Some experts say they arrived far earlier than the 80-million Cretaceous period, which ended with a cataclysmic bang some 66 million years ago.
But the new find points to another scenario, said Stephen Poropat, a scientist at Uppsala University in Sweden and lead author of the study.
“We suggest that our sauropods evolved from South American ancestors,” he told AFP.
These would have crossed a land bridge onto Antarctica, skirted its edge, and then crossed another bridge to Australia.
During most of the Cretaceous, Poropat said, the polar continent would have been too cold for these lumbering herbivores to have survived the trip.
– A giant toe bone –
But a window opened about 105 million years ago, earlier research has shown, warming the region enough to make a southern passage possible.
“Antarctica was not frozen over, as far as we know, at any time” from 251 to 66 million years ago, he said in an email exchange.
Indeed, fossil records show that the landmass today covered with a two-kilometre thick blanket of ice was then dense with forests.
Because there was no ice on either pole, a spike in temperatures would not have lifted oceans — as is happening today — to erase land bridges on either side of Antarctica.
S. elliottorum was named for Australian paleontologist David Elliot, co-founder of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum — which will house the new finds — and a co-author of the study.
Elliott stumbled across bone fragments jutting up from the ground in 2005 while herding sheep near his home by the Winton geological formation, site of many earlier discoveries.
“I was hoping it might be a meat-eating theropod dinosaur,” he recalled in a statement.
But Elliott quickly realised it was something else when his wife Judith, also a scientist, clicked two pieces of bone together and held up a complete toe-bone from a leaf-eating sauropod.
After a decade of work — painstakingly removing hard siltstone from a truckload of rock-encrusted bones — they revealed one of the most complete sauropod skeletons every found in Australia.

Germany asks Tesla to stop using ‘Autopilot’ in advertising

2016-10-17T01:09:00.002-07:00

German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt has asked Tesla to stop advertising its electric vehicles as having an Autopilot function as this might suggest drivers’ attention is not needed, his ministry said on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, confirming a report in the daily Bild am Sonntag (BamS), said the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) had written to Tesla to make the request.
“It can be confirmed that a letter to Tesla exists with the request to no longer use the misleading term Autopilot for the driver assistance system of the car,” she said in a written response to a Reuters’ query.
A Tesla spokeswoman said the Autopilot term, describing a system operating in conjunction with a human driver, had been used in aerospace for decades, and that the company had always made
it clear to customers that the assistance system required drivers to pay attention at all times.
“Just as in an airplane, when used properly, Autopilot reduces driver workload and provides an added layer of safety when compared to purely manual driving,” she said.
On Friday the KBA – which reports to Dobrindt – wrote to owners of Tesla cars, warning them that their vehicles could not be operated without their constant attention and that under traffic regulations they must remain alert.
According to the BamS report, the KBA letter to Tesla said: “In order to prevent misunderstanding and incorrect customers’ expectations, we demand that the misleading term Autopilot is no longer used in advertising the system.”
Tesla’s Autopilot has been the focus of intense scrutiny since a Tesla Model S driver was killed while using the technology in a May 7 collision with a truck in Florida.

Samsung announces it is killing Galaxy Note 7 smartphone

2016-10-11T04:56:00.002-07:00

Samsung has announced it is permanently halting production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, a gadget that was intended to propel a comeback but instead has engulfed the South Korea company in a major corporate crisis.
Samsung had a been on a roll earlier this year with the introduction of the Galaxy 7, which saw its mobile sales pickup after a couple of rough years. The Galaxy Note 7, with its bigger design and stylus, also came just as rival Apple was seeing a first-time-ever slump in iPhone sales.
Any sense of victory, however, quickly turned sour amid reports of exploding Galaxy Note 7s. The company initiated a clumsy recall process that left consumers confused and angry. It seemed to finally stop the bleeding with the delivery or replacement units.
However, in recent weeks, new reports emerged that at least three replacement units had exploded.
Yesterday, Samsung announced it was “temporarily adjusting” production the phone following reports that several replacement devices had exploded.
But today, it confirmed it was shutting down production and telling all partners to stop selling whatever inventory is left, according to statement given to Bloomberg.
By Tuesday afternoon European time, it appeared Samsung had removed all references to the Galaxy Note 7 from its website. (A cached version of the site is here.)
News of the decision hit the company hard, as investors sent its stock down 7.5 percent.
It remains to be seen how much long-term damage this will cause to Samsung, which evidently has not been able to pinpoint and fix the problems causing the explosion. And it’s also unclear how much Apple, which just launched the latest version of its iPhones last month, will benefit.

Self-driving car with passengers to be tested on UK streets for first time

2016-10-11T00:58:00.002-07:00

A driverless vehicle carrying passengers will take to Britain’s public roads for the first time on Tuesday, as part of trials aimed at paving the way for autonomous cars to hit the highways by the end of the decade.
The government is encouraging technology companies, carmakers and start-ups to develop and test their autonomous driving technologies in Britain, aiming to build an industry to serve a worldwide market which it forecasts could be worth around 900 billion pounds ($1.1 trillion) by 2025.
Earlier this year, it launched a consultation on changes to insurance rules and motoring regulations to allow driverless cars to be used by 2020 and said it would allow such vehicles to be tested on motorways from next year.
A pod – like a small two-seater car – developed by a company spun out from Oxford University
will be tested in the southern English town of Milton Keynes on Tuesday, with organizers hoping the trials will feed vital information on how the vehicle interacts with pedestrians and other road-users.
“Today’s first public trials of driverless vehicles in our towns is a ground-breaking moment,” Britain’s business minister Greg Clark said.
“The global market for autonomous vehicles present huge opportunities for our automotive and technology firms and the research that underpins the technology and software will have applications way beyond autonomous vehicles,” he said.
The pod will operate fully without human control, using data from cameras and radars to move around pedestrianised areas. It was made by Oxford University spin-out Oxbotica, with software developed by the university’s Oxford Robotics Institute.
Carmakers Jaguar Land Rover and Ford are both part of driverless car projects in Britain, as major carmakers seek to head off the challenge from technology firms such as Alphabet’s Google, which is also developing autonomous vehicles.
But all parties still need to overcome technological and legal obstacles including determining who would be responsible in the event of an accident, with recent accidents involving driving assistance systems raising safety concerns.
Organizers in Milton Keynes ran a number of exercises ahead of the trial including mapping the town and conducting safety planning with the local council ahead of Tuesday’s trial. The city, around 45 miles (70 km) north of London, was selected alongside three other locations for autonomous technology projects partly due to its wide pavements and cycle path network.
Britain is aiming to be more flexible in its approach to driverless testing than some other major economies, with Germany saying it will require black boxes to be fitted in such vehicles and automakers having to navigate different rules across U.S. states.

WHO develops electronic solution to child, maternal deaths

2016-10-04T05:09:00.002-07:00

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed an electronic solution using hospital-based study on 10,000 pregnant women in Nigeria and Uganda to reduce the high labour-related child and maternal death rate in sub-Saharan Africa.
The software, an electronic health solution, tagged Simplified, Effective, Labour Monitoring-to-Action (SELMA) tool, would be built into mobile phones, tablets and other mobile devices. It promises to enhance the capacity of less skilled persons working in rural areas but does not replace the expertise of a specialist.
WHO BOLD Research Group was led by João Paulo Souza, a Medical Officer at the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research, and a professor of Social Medicine at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Other members of the team include Prof. Olufemi T. Oladapo, a medical officer at the Department of
Reproductive Health and Research, WHO Geneva, Switzerland; Dr. Bukola Fawole, an obstetrician/gynaecologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State and Dr. Livia Oliveira-Ciabati of the University of Sao Paulo.
The team, at a study dissemination meeting in Abuja, said they would have the test version ready by November 2016, which would be used in a large study next year.
Souza said: “In November, we will release it for testing, and we hope by the end of next year, it will be ready for public use.”
He said the tool also promises to identify the essential elements of intra-partum monitoring that trigger the decision to use interventions aimed at preventing poor labour outcomes that usually lead to the death of mother and child.
Intra-partum is the period from the onset of labour to the end of the third stage of labour.
Also, Fawole said: “The software is a product of SELMA. SELMA was a study that was conducted and that software has come about because we have input the data of over 10,000 deliveries from Nigeria and Uganda into that special design software which then acts as an artificial intelligence and so for everywoman that presents in the hospital in labour, the health care provider only needs to input the data of that woman and the data that already exist in that software enables the software to identify similar women who have been managed before.
“The benefits of the software is such that hopefully when the suggestions are taken, it will reduce adverse outcomes in both the mothers and the babies and we look forward to the implementation of this software when it eventually comes out.”
Oladapo on his own said: “The development of the SELMA algorithm and tool is part of the BOLD project, a larger initiative with the overall goal of reducing adverse maternal and infant outcomes resulting from labour complications through research, design and implementation of innovative tools. The BOLD project also includes the development of a passport for Safer Birth (PSB, another tool being developed as part of the BOLD project). The BOLD project has a qualitative, formative research component that will feed into the final development of SELMA at the implementation phase. In the future, the findings from this project may contribute to WHO guidelines on intrapartum care.
“As most pregnancy-related deaths and morbidities are clustered around the time of childbirth, quality of care during this period is critical to the survival of pregnant women and their babies. Despite the wide acceptance of partograph as the central tool to optimise labour outcomes for over 40 years, its use has not successfully improved outcomes in many settings for several reasons. There are also increasing questions about the validity and applicability of its central feature to all women regardless of their labour characteristics.”

WikiLeaks plans to release documents on US election and Google

2016-10-04T04:43:00.001-07:00

WikiLeaks plans to release documents pertaining to Google and the US electoral system over the next ten weeks, the organization announced today. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced the planned release schedule in a video address at the end of a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday morning, where the organization was celebrating its tenth anniversary.
Assange said the forthcoming documents will pertain to Google, the US presidential election, arms trading, war, oil, and mass surveillance. The organization plans to release them on a weekly basis over the next ten weeks, with Assange saying that all information related to the US presidential race will be published before election day on November 8th.
There was a lot of build-up to today’s press conference, in anticipation of what had been billed as an “October surprise” that could swing the US presidential election. Instead, WikiLeaks devoted most of the event to recounting its most notorious releases and refuting criticism levied against it.
Assange acknowledged the anticipation of a bombshell release in a winding address to reporters, though he declined to say whether the upcoming leaks would tilt the election toward Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
“There is enormous expectation in the United States,” Assange said of the forthcoming leaks. “Some of that expectation will be partly answered; but you should understand that if we’re going to make a major publication in relation to the United States at a particular hour, we don’t do it at 3AM.”
The upcoming releases would follow WikiLeaks’ publication in July of more than 19,000 emails from seven top officials in the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The emails, which included full names, phone numbers, and addresses, suggested that the DNC favored Clinton over her primary rival, Bernie Sanders, and led to the resignation of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. WikiLeaks did not disclose the source of the emails, but the leak was published one month after the DNC announced that its servers were compromised by Russian hackers.
Assange originally planned to announce today’s release from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been living in asylum since 2012. But WikiLeaks cancelled his appearance this week, citing “security concerns.” Authorities in Sweden have sought to question Assange since 2010 over a rape allegation, but the Australian national has dismissed the investigation as a pretext to extradite him to the US.
Prior to today’s announcement, Republican operatives had touted the WikiLeaks release as potentially devastating to the Clinton campaign. On Sunday, Roger Stone, a surrogate for the Donald Trump campaign, tweeted that the Democratic nominee would be “done” on Wednesday, following the WikiLeaks announcement.
Asked whether the upcoming releases would “destroy” Clinton, Assange appeared to downplay expectations. “Are upcoming publications significant in relation to the US election? Yeah, we think they’re significant,” he said. “Do they show interesting features of US power factions and how they operate? Yes, they do.”
Assange also denied accusations that he and his organization are specifically targeting Clinton and the Democratic Party. “I certainly feel sorry for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,” he said. “These are two people who are tormented by their ambitions, in different ways.”

NCC sets up taskforce to enhance QoS offerings

2016-09-30T04:08:00.001-07:00

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it has set up a high level taskforce to identify all issues militating against quality of service in the networks.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman of NCC who stated this at a press conference in Abuja to mark to mark his one year in office, said that the report of the committee is already being implemented for the resolution of some urgent issues militating against quality of service.
He said that the quality of service on the various networks, which includes infrastructure, service providers facilities had taken considerable attention of the commission.
“The commission has been able to identify and taken notice of the difference between the records of quality service as recorded in the switch of the service providers and from the practical experience of the consumers.
“We have therefore taken some measures to address the issue of quality of service.’’ Danbatta said that the commission was also promoting a Telecom Industry Working Group on Quality of Service that engages service providers to discuss germane matters leading to resolution of critical quality of service.

He said that the commission had also identified and engaged critical stakeholders, who were relevant in the resolution of issues of quality service, multiple taxation, and regulation, and indiscriminate shutting down of live base stations.
The NCC boss added that the commission had identified state governments as critical stakeholders whose actions may contribute positively or negatively to quality of service issues.
“We have so far made a presentation at the Governors Forum, especially to draw their attention to the National Economic Council’s resolution on multiple taxation and multiple regulations on deployment of telecom infrastructure.“We are also engaging the governors directly and so far have met and received the support of four governors who have agreed with our point of view.
“Our visits had fostered more understanding about the need to support the deployment infrastructure to energise economic activities in the states rather than discourage investments through imposition of taxes and multiple regulations.’’
Danbatta also said that spectrum monitoring had been improved to ensure sanity in the industry.
“Through efficient monitoring and value driven usage of spectrum for provision of different types of service, revenue generation for the Federal Government through frequency allocation and renewal fees have improved from the previous years.
“More than N47 billion was realised in spectrum usage and licensing within the year under review.

Automakers partner to compete against Apple and Google for autonomous car services

2016-09-30T04:06:00.000-07:00

Alarmed by the threat posed by Silicon Valley firms developing autonomous driving systems, carmakers at this week’s Paris Motor Show showed signs they are ready to hit back by cooperating in areas where they might have been expected to compete.
“This is how the automotive industry may be able to fight off the threat that Apple and particularly Google represent to their brands as digital services become more and more important,” technology investment analyst Richard Windsor said.
BMW, Daimler and VW’s Audi announced this week they would launch new traffic monitoring services next year which give drivers a view of road conditions miles ahead. They are based on video data collected from sensors in other cars and fed to the three carmakers’ jointly-owned navigation mapping services firm HERE.
Separately HERE’s Dutch rival TomTom on Thursday announced traffic data deals with truckmaker Volvo and carmaker Skoda, a VW subsidiary.

Also General Motors, Nissan and VW are experimenting with a plan to pull video data captured by their customers’ vehicles using Israeli firm Mobileye’s camera-based sensor systems, that may soon give automakers an edge over the likes of Google in the precision-mapping required for driverless cars.
However, it remains to be seen whether carmakers can charge premium prices for connected car services as technology companies like Google look to develop similar offerings for free, supported by advertising or other business models.
A deal by traffic data start-up Inrix to supply data to Google-owned crowd-sourced traffic and navigation service Waze will help drivers find parking spots on smartphones using the free app. And Renault said on Thursday it was showing a prototype of a Waze system built into its car dashboards which run Android Auto, Google’s operating system for carmakers.
Meanwhile connecting cars on the move with the Internet also needs more reliable mobile telecoms networks. With that aim, Germany’s top automakers said this week they were teaming up with telecoms network equipment makers Ericsson, Huawei , Nokia, Qualcomm and Intel to help with developing the next-generation 5G networks set to debut around 2020.
Careful driving
At the same time carmakers are now racing to plot their courses to building self-driving vehicles over the next five years, a dramatic acceleration in pace from the 10- to 15-year timeframes many had charted until pushed to speed up the process by the advances made by Google and Tesla.
“We see the car transforming from a product into the ultimate platform,” Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche told reporters in Paris.
Among the car companies there have been two camps, those who are trying to develop their autonomous driving technology in-house, and those who are outsourcing it, but that division is looking set to become less clear-cut due to the need for cooperation in some areas at least.
“Gradually all of the car manufacturers will have to get more and more involved in managing data. It’s natural. We’re going to have to work much more collaboratively,” Stewart Callegari, a Nissan product planning executive for driverless cars told reporters at the Paris show.
Fiat’s recent partnership to build self-driving vans with Google is seen by analysts as an example of outsourcing, given the Italian auto maker’s weak finances, limiting its ability to invest in its own software expertise.
Daimler, on the other hand, is firmly in the camp of vehicle makers who want to go it alone but still sees some need for collaboration.
“We need to think whether we work together analyzing the data or whether we do this on our own. This depends on the use case,” Zetsche said, adding that it made sense to work together in areas where potential cost savings resulted but did not blur the distinctions between brands.
Some partnerships like the deal between Chinese carmaker Geely’s Swedish subsidiary Volvo Car Group to develop autonomous cars with Uber, and General Motor’s partnership with Uber’s rival Lyft, are also seen as hybrid approaches.
“The automotive industry has and will continue to become a software business in many ways,” Audi of America President Scott Keogh told Reuters.

Four million businesses advertise on Facebook

2016-09-30T04:03:00.001-07:00

Over four million businesses currently advertise on Facebook, with 70 per cent outside the United States of America.
According to the Facebook, which disclosed this on Wednesday, the fastest growing region is South East Asia with the following countries: Vietnam, Indonesia, Greece, Ukraine and Philippines.
Founded in 2004, Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, claimed that its mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
The social media platform currently has 1.04 billion daily active users on average worldwide and
7.2 million daily visitors from Nigeria.
It further disclosed that the top five countries based on yearly growth are: U.S, Brazil, Vietnam, Mexico and the United Kingdom, stressing that over 85 per cent of business pages use mobile and 40 per cent of active advertisers have created a Facebook ad on mobile.
According to it, findings have also shown that more than 30 per cent small and medium sized business pages on Facebook are women owned.
Facebook’s simplest tools have helped convert these businesses to advertise. Two top examples are boosted posts or promoted pages.
More than 20 per cent of active advertisers created video ads in August. The platform disclosed that any business can use it, because it is easy to use. It pointed out that in a new mobile economy, Facebook helps small businesses become large and local businesses become global.

Google unveils free photos management service

2016-09-30T04:00:00.001-07:00

Google has unveiled Google Photos, a free photos management system that could be used to create the ultimate album and memorable wedding.
Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s Anglophone West Africa spokesman, said Google Photos also offered unlimited storage for high resolution images and videos.
“A wedding is that beautiful ceremony where two people are united in marriage and it is dependable on budget.
“Checklist done; the wedding venue, guest list, the cake, caterer, don’t forget the “aso ebi” frenzy and so on, but still, an essential item for any wedding ceremony is the photograph.
“Not capturing beautiful moments of weddings can be a disaster and so photos are essential even after the ceremony,’’ the Google spokesman said in a statement.
He said that smartphones had made it possible for almost everyone to be a photographer and Google was making it easier with Google Photos.
“Nowadays, wedding photos have moved from the usual hard copy printouts to having photo
albums that are beautifully designed by contracted photographers for weddings.
“Some have even gone a step further to have their photos posted online on various wedding blogs and websites, which is also a trend nowadays,’’ Kola-Ogunlade said.
Kola-Ogunlade said that for weddings, one could download the Google Photos app from the iTunes Store if an iPhone user or from the Play Store if an Android user.
He said that getting hold of everyone’s photo after the wedding could be tricky but listed few tips to make Google Photos the right photo app to make the process painless.
These included choosing a hash tag that was simple, yet unique enough to remember, creating a shared album in Google Photos, tracking the photos and editing photos on Google Photos.
The Google spokesperson added that the Google photos app could be downloaded from the app store on one’s device and viewed on the computer at https://photos.google.com.
He listed other Google Photos functions as the possibility of uploading as much content as one wanted for free as well as its availability on iPhone Operating System, Android and desktop apps.
“This allows one to auto-sync images and videos from your mobile devices, PC, camera or SD cards and can also upload photos through a “drag-and-drop” interface.
“Google Photos will merge two or more duplicates of photos, leaving only just one photo, thereby cleaning your storage space automatically.
“Smarter search is incorporated in Google Photos. You can search through your photos with a keyword much like what you do when searching for images in Google Search.
“For example, searching your wedding photos with the keyword, ‘food’, will return every image of food in it. You can also search with a colour keyword like red, green or blue.
“A new feature of Google Photos is that it allows you to snap few photos in succession and create an animated Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), which can be fun for your wedding photos,’’ Kola-Ogunlade added.
He said, “LASIMRA is going to address the issue of sharing using the proposed Unified Duct System (UDS) to avoid these issues from reoccurring.