Author: Akin Naphtal

The global economic slowdown trend could continue in 2023, even leading to a mild recession. Particularly, the United States is at an increased risk of recession because of a delayed effect of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes and other tightening monetary policies, increased downward pressures on demand in its labor market, and an insufficient consumption momentum. The continued impact of the energy crisis, declining external demand, and tighter monetary policies could lead even the European economy to stagnate in 2023. READ ALSO: Meta Launches Live Roll-Out of VRS System to Mitigate Unintended Bias in Ad Exposure Orange Signs…

After developing the system in partnership with the Department of Justice for more than a year, Meta has now released the first stage of live deployment for its Variance Reduction System (VRS) for housing ads, which is designed to reduce bias, and increase the equitable distribution of ads across Meta’s apps. As explained in this overview, Meta’s VRS system measures the actual audience reach for each ad, and ensures a broader spread of exposure, based on various audience factors. As explained by Meta: “The VRS uses new machine learning technology in ad delivery so that the actual audience that sees…

One of the world’s leading multi-service telecommunications groups, recently announced the signature of a memorandum of agreement with Reservoir Sun, a leading player in self-supply solar electricity systems for companies and local government, to set up a photovoltaic power station in Bercenay-en-Othe (Aube).The station is due to go online in 2025. The project’s first major milestone is the environmental impact analysis. To fulfill its environmental commitments, Orange is increasingly turning to renewable sources of energy and wishes to accelerate this transition by making the most of solar energy on its tertiary and technical sites. The Group will therefore deploy its…

Orange and the Canal+ Group recently announced the signature of a memorandum of understanding anticipating the acquisition by the Canal+ Group of all capital held by Orange in the OCS pay TV package and in Orange Studio, the film and series co-production subsidiary. The Canal+ Group will become the sole shareholder of the two companies following this transaction. The quality of OCS service and content – currently distributed by all ISPs as well as within Canal+ cinema series offers is recognized by both industry professionals and consumers. Orange Studio has more than 200 co-productions to its credit as well as…

The Digital Economy Magazine, a leading voice on all things technology, has named Yonas Beshawred, Founder and CEO of Stackshare US as Digital Economy Personality of the week for the month of Jan 8th-Jan 14th,2023 ranking.Yonas Beshawred is the founder and CEO of Stackshare, a developer-only community of engineers, CTOs, VPEs and developers from some world’s top startups and companies. StackShare is a platform allowing software developers and tech companies to share their tools and how they use them. A graduate with a degree in business, Beshawred previously worked for one of the world’s largest consulting firms, Accenture, for 18…

AGL Energy, an Australian energy provider has teamed up with Microsoft to deploy a new innovative cloud-based data platform in order to comply with the Consumer Data Right (CDR) legislation of the country. This move will give consumers the power to access their own data and open up new ways for AGL to give personalised customer service. In August 2019 the CDR was passed by the Australian Government to give consumers more control over their data by allowing them to choose who they want to share it with and how it should be used. Under the rules, consumer data can…

Safaricom board chairman John Ngumi has resigned from the role barely 6 months after his appointment in July last year. According to a statement from the telco, Ngumi’s resignation took effect on December 22 and a new Chairman will be elected in the coming weeks. Ngumi leaves the Board to focus on developing green energy generation across Africa with an emphasis on green hydrogen. “In the brief period following his appointment to the Board, John has provided a wealth of industry knowledge and vast expertise. He has steered the Company through a general election and supported the entrenchment of our…

Over 60 million active SIM cards have been verified as the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) reminds SIM mobile phone services subscribers with unverified cards to comply before end of this month. There has been a positive response from the recent appeal by the TCRA on mobile phone services subscribers to verify the status of the registration of their SIM cards. READ ALSO: Rwanda Secures €37 Million to Digitize Public Services, Boost Drone Industry Apple to prioritise xrOS development over iOS 17 The World’s First ID App for Dogs and Cats Unveiled by Petnow The regulator has announced that unverified…

The government of Rwanda secured €37 million (approx. Rwf41 billion) loan from the French Development Agency (AFD) to transform more public services digitally and develop the country’s drone industry. The related agreement is also complemented with a €1.2 million grant to mobilize French expertise in project implementation. Providing quality services and customer care across public and private sectors has been of priority as outlined under the economic transformation pillar of the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1), the medium term national strategy (2017 – 2024). But more needs to be done in terms of necessary infrastructure. READ ALSO: Apple to prioritise…

Apple is reportedly prioritising development of its operating system for AR/VR headset. Focus on the development of “xrOS” for the headset has come at the cost of engineering resources being diverted from working on features for iOS 17 and macOS 14, a report by Mark Gurman from Bloomberg said. While features for the next generation of Apple OS releases are not known, Gurman indicates that there may not be major changes due to the Cupertino-based company’s focus on getting “xrOS” ready in time for its planned product launch later this year. Separately, work on new augmented reality features for the…