Author: Smart Megwai

Mercedes-Benz has announced it is partnering with tech giant Google to advance automotive technology and develop the next-generation digital luxury car experience. Through this “long-term strategic partnership,” Mercedes-Benz will be the first car company to use Google Maps Platform’s updated in-car data and navigational features to create its own branded…

Africa’s largest mobile network, MTN, earlier notified its subscribers of a need to implement a “network freeze,” which is scheduled to begin today, February 24, 2023. With less than 48 hours to the highly anticipated presidential elections, many Nigerians have entered panic mode following the notice from MTN. This news has also…

On Saturday, February 25, 2023, Nigerians will go to the polls to elect a new president. Many of them, however, still have questions about the voting process and what to expect at the polling places where they will exercise their voting rights. INEC says it has made a virtual assistant available…

Uber has announced new features on its mobile app to make it more effortless for users to set up rides and also track progress. The ride-hailing service said this is the “first in a series of updates,” which means drivers as well as riders are to expect more updates “in…

Binance, a platform for exchanging cryptocurrencies, has announced it will begin accepting bank transfers from customers in South Africa. With the addition of this feature, customers can buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum through their linked banking app or online portal. Binance’s Hannes Wessels is quoted in an article as saying…

WhatsApp, the messaging platform owned by Meta, is rumoured to be developing a one-to-many tool in the form of a private newsletter feature. There are hints of a “Newsletter” feature in the beta version of WhatsApp Messenger for Android 2.23.5.3, as reported by WABetaInfo. The feature is currently in the…

Several would-be authors are reportedly using ChatGPT to write and publish fiction and how-to guides on Amazon. Reuters reported a Saleman from New York, “created a 30-page illustrated children’s e-book in a matter of hours” and has so far made $100 from the book’s sale. Schickler used text prompts to…

The government of Nigeria is constantly thinking of new ways to promote the use of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the eNaira. Bloomberg reported yesterday that the nation’s Central Bank has been in discussions with new “technology partners” to create a new and improved system to manage the…

Google Chrome has been around for over a decade (14 years, to be precise). The software has been a “resource beast” that has been using more and more of a computer’s memory and battery life without seeming to care. Google has finally taken steps to reduce the browser’s impact on…

Google Meet has added 360-degree virtual backgrounds for mobile users to use during video calls. This is on top of the library of immersive backgrounds that the service already has. This new feature, which uses your phone’s gyroscope to follow your movements, was announced by the company last month and…

YouTube is currently testing an update to its YouTube Studio app that will let users upload and manage podcasts. This is part of its continued expansion into the podcasting space, which the video service introduced last year.  We’re running an experiment that lets you create a podcast or set an…

Chipper Cash, an African platform for international payments, laid off another 12.5% of its workforce last Friday, just ten weeks after laying off the previous 12.5%. (affecting its engineering team the most). Chipper Cash’s VP of Engineering, Erin Fusaro, revealed that many of her close friends and colleagues in the…

WhatsApp has started rolling out picture-in-picture mode for iOS video calls. The new feature, first spotted by 9to5Mac, was introduced in December last year as a beta test and allows you to use other apps while your WhatsApp video call is on. Similar to other apps, WhatsApp will minimise your video call to a small window allowing…

Is this the Twitter 2.0 Elon Musk promised? The company seems to be developing in ways that nobody anticipated. Perhaps there is some underlying logic to their actions that we’re missing. Elon and his team’s most recent announcement says that users who are not also signed up for Twitter Blue will no…

Mark Zuckerberg, on Thursday, announced the launch of Instagram’s new broadcast channels, a move that can be seen as a copycat of an already existing feature on the Telegram app. Now, users who choose to subscribe to a channel can receive updates and messages from their favourite creators. Similar to Telegram Channels,…

Twitter CEO Elon Musk says he may resign by the end of 2023, a year after millions of Twitter users voted for him to resign, a poll he said he would honour. Musk said in a video uploaded to YouTube, “I need to stabilise the organization and just make sure…

Even though 5G is much easier to get to now than it was before, its performance and dependability will probably keep you on LTE for a while. There’s hope, though, with the new Snapdragon X75, the world’s first modem-RF system by Qualcomm. Snapdragon X75 has been tagged, “ready for 5G Advanced…

The National Bank of Rwanda has told all financial institutions in the country that they can’t do “any crypto-related activities” until a regulatory framework is put in place. The East African country has followed the examples of Zimbabwe and Nigeria by making it illegal for banks to handle transactions in…

Meta announced on Tuesday that it will shut down its live shopping feature on Instagram. The company, which made the announcement on its support page, noted that this move “will help us focus on products and features that provide the most value to our users.” So, beginning March 16th, creators…

Treepz, a leading mobility startup in Africa, has just announced the official launch of its operations in Kenya. This comes after the company made strategic investments to raise an additional $1.2 million over the past year. GIIG Africa Fund, MoAngels, Roselake VC, Unpopular VC, Goodwater Capital, and BKR Capital have…