Category: Software

Meta grants Donald Trump access to social media accounts

Following a two-year ban for his online behaviour during the January 6th uprising, Meta has announced that it will reinstate Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

The ban was imposed in response to the January 6th uprising. Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs for Meta, provided an explanation for the decision in a blogpost that he published on Wednesday.

He stated that the former president of the United States would be allowed to return to the platforms “in the coming weeks,” but “with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offences.”

Concerns have been voiced by a variety of organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Free Press, and Media Matters, regarding Facebook’s ability to stop the spread of false information and prevent future attacks on the democratic process.

“Make no mistake – by allowing Donald Trump back on its platforms, Meta is refuelling Trump’s misinformation and extremism engine,” said Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of media watchdog Media Matters for America. “Make no mistake – by allowing Donald Trump back on its platforms, Meta is refueling Trump’s misinformation and extremism engine.”

“When Trump is given a platform, it ratchets up the temperature on a landscape that is already boiling – one that will put us on a path to more violence.” — “When Trump is given a platform, it ratchets up the temperature on a terrain that is already simmering.”

Read also: Elon Musk Monetizes Twitter, Frowns At Impersonation

How Trump Was Banned

After the disturbances that took place in the Capitol on the 6th of January 2021, Trump was banned from all Meta platforms. During the riots, he made unproven claims that the election had been stolen, praised protesters who were getting more violent, and criticized former Vice President Mike Pence while the crowd threatened his life. All of these actions took place while the crowd was threatening his life.

In reference to Meta’s decision, the Democratic representative for Illinois, Jan Schakowsky, offered some remarks. In a tweet, she made the following comment: “This is a risky choice. The reinstatement of Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to the former president Trump would only serve to stoke the flames of hatred and division that led to an uprising.”

“The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying – the good, the bad, and the ugly,” Clegg said in a statement. “This will allow them to make informed choices at the ballot box.” This was in reference to the decision to let Trump come back to the United States.

“Should Mr. Trump continue to upload content that is deemed to be in violation of our guidelines, that content will be removed, and he will be suspended for a period of time ranging from one month to two years, depending on the gravity of the infraction.”

Sama African content moderator quits Meta

Request For Trump’s Restoration

It is unknown whether or not the former president will resume posting content on Facebook and Instagram; however, the former president’s 2024 campaign hinted at a desire to do so in a letter to Meta petitioning the company to restore his access to Facebook. The letter requested that Meta restore the former president’s access to Facebook. According to what was stated in the letter, “We feel that the restriction on President Trump’s account on Facebook has substantially altered and restricted the public conversation.”

This decision is likely to have an impact on how other social media companies handle the delicate balancing act between free speech and the moderation of content when it comes to world leaders and other newsworthy individuals. Given Trump’s renewed bid for the presidency of the United States, this decision is likely to have an impact.

Those who work to protect users’ privacy and security online have voiced their concern that the return of Donald Trump will lead to an increase in the spread of misleading information as well as actual acts of physical violence. Even after he was banned from all of Meta’s sites, the former president has continued to spread unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, primarily on his own network, Truth Social. This is especially concerning, given that he was the one who initiated the ban.

In spite of the fact that there was considerable anticipation for it, individuals who favour civil rights responded with harsh disapproval. “Facebook has regulations, but they under-enforce them,” claims Laura Murphy, an attorney who undertook a two-year audit of Facebook that is scheduled to end in 2020. “I worry about Facebook’s capacity to understand the real world harm that Trump poses,” she said. “I find it hard to believe that they can.”

February 7, 2023
Instagram’s Founders Launch News-Based App, Artifact

Instagram’s duo founders have launched a new news-focused app called Artifact, four years after giving up ownership of their previous social media app.

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, on Tuesday, January 31st, announced the unveiling of Artifact, an app that is powered by artificial intelligence and offers a personalised news feed for its users.

From left to Right: Instagram co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom at the 2019 SXSW Conference and Festivals. Chris Saucedo/Getty Images

Systrom had explained on Twitter that people who want to sample Artifact would need an invitation, although they may presently sign up on a waitlist.

Krieger had also disclosed on his Instagram page that he and Systrom “have been working with a talented team” for no less than a year to launch the service.

According to him, “we’re gradually letting people in as we scale up,” while also hinting about the waitlist to join.

According to a CNET report, the advent of Artifact demonstrates how AI is increasingly influencing how people consume material, particularly news, on social media platforms. TikTok, a popular short-form video app, employs an algorithm to display users’ films that they might be interested in on their “For You” page.

Read also: Russia Plans to Launch “Rossgram” After Restrictions from Meta’s App

Casey Newton of Platformer, who interviewed Systrom about Artifact, described it as a “sort of TikTok for text, though you could also call it Google Reader resurrected as a mobile app or even a surprise attack on Twitter.”

However, Systrom informed Newton that the news-based app had additional features, such as a stream of news pieces shared by people you follow, which includes their comments on the article. It also allows users to communicate with friends about current events via private direct messages.

This Is How Artifact Works

The news-based app is more concerned with articles than with photographs or videos.

Users are asked to choose 10 or more topics to tailor their news stream when they sign up. The app, like TikTok, offers a “For You” page and counts how much of an article a user has read. If a user begins reading more interior design stories, for example, the app’s “For You” page displays more of those types of content. The app also contains a “Headlines” section that highlights recent news articles.

This means users of Artifact get a feed of handpicked news pieces from notable media companies down to minor bloggers. Once a user clicks on an article, the app will show related articles as it learns more about the user’s reading habits.

According to Platformer, which was the first to disclose the launch, the app will propose content based on interests and allow for debate with friends. A user’s feed will become increasingly tailored based on what they click on, while a main feed will display popular content from huge media companies down to minor bloggers.

Read also: Instagram to introduce “Gifts” and “Repost” features

Systrom And Krieger: From Instagram To Artifact

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger founded Instagram in October 2010 and later sold the photo-sharing app to Facebook for $1 billion in 2012. After less than a decade at the Facebook-owned company, the entrepreneurs quit in September 2018.

The business partners stated publicly that they were excited to rediscover their “creativity and curiosity.” However, rumours surfaced that there were difficulties between the co-founders and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Since their departure, the duo has also developed a website to track the spread of COVID-19 in 2020.

Now in 2023, with the launch of Artifact, they are fully back to take a piece of the pie in the social media world.

Let’s keep fingers crossed to see how well the app will perform in the coming months.

February 6, 2023
ChatGPT Users To Pay $42 Subscription Fee

Cutting-edge AI chatbot, ChatGPT has fixed a $42 subscription fee for users who want to enjoy all the interesting features the text generator has to offer. The AI programme has set restrictions for users who are not subscribed to a plan on the AI technology.

Tech expert and founder of James Ivings shared the update via Twitter on Saturday, 21st January 2023. The tweet had an image of his ChatGPT account with a dropdown instruction to upgrade his membership on the platform. He thus wrote, “ChatGPT goes paid today!”

According to Ivings tweet, the ChatGPT pegged its monthly subscription fee at $42 per month, with premium services for users who subscribe to the plan. Subscribers would enjoy easy access to and use of the programme even when demand is high, at a faster response speed. Paid users would also get priority access to new features.

Read also: OpenAI, Microsoft to challenge Google with ChatGPT-powered Bing

Users of the free plan are not blocked out of the text generating program, ChatGPT will give such members less priority. Unpaid users will be able to access ChatGPT only when demand on the text generator is low and enjoy standard response speed and regular model updates.

Ivings tweet, which has over 3.6 million views, has garnered mixed reactions, with 500 Twitter users sharing their concerns and over 3000 others retweeting the information.

$42/mo is cheap

— Digital Lawrence (@DigitalLawrence) January 21, 2023

For context, $42 is about N29000 a month and about N348000 a year in Nigeria..Not so many people would afford this..

— PE (@Peteribeabuchi) January 21, 2023

Also reacting to Ivings’ tweet, an IT expert, Guillaume Bardet, conducted a Twitter Poll to find out people’s preference for the free and paid plan. Results showed that 52.3% of the voters chose the free plan, while 16.7% preferred the professional plan. However, 31% of the users were apparently there to observe as they chose the third option, which was a popcorn emoji.

It was fun while it lasted lol the real question now is who’s upgrading?

— Guillaume Bardet (@GuillaumeBardet) January 21, 2023

Prior to ChatCPT’s subscription update, there have been speculations in recent days about whether or not the AI bot would continue to be free for users.

Why ChatGPT?

ChatGPT was created by one of the leading artificial intelligence research laboratories in the world, OpenAI, which is a significant leap in natural language processing and image generation.

When the AI program was launched, the platform hit one million users in 5 days, a feat which took the social networking site Facebook months to achieve. However, it didn’t topple Instagram’s Android app, which was launched in April 2012 and crossed one million registrations on Android in just 24 hours.

Because of the revolutionary conversational AI chatbot abilities, ChatGPT is still one of the buzzwords in late 2022, and it will be in 2023, with thousands of articles on “How to use ChatGPT” content gradually increasing on search engine results pages.

This new subscription move by OpenAI will result in users turning to other free text-generating programs with far less buzz than ChatGPT, as many of its users are unhappy about the company’s monetization decision.

However, the free version of ChatGPT has been tried, and it still works excellently, though it experienced some lagging in the speed at which the AI bot generated a response to the question.

ChatGPT Users’ Concerns Could Be Google’s Breath Of Fresh Air

Users’ possible attention shift from ChatGPT due to subscription concerns would be great news for Google. This is because Google has transcended being just a search engine to becoming the world’s preferred entry point to the internet. Google is pretty much more than a noun; it is now used as a verb in sentences, with phrases like “Google it.”

So, with talks around the world on whether or not ChatGPT could one day replace Google’s search engine, there is a good enough reason for the global search engine to be worried.

In December 2022, Google issued a “code red” over the growth of the AI bot ChatGPT, The New York Times reported. The report highlighted that Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, instructed some teams to focus on building out AI products. The move comes as talks abound over whether ChatGPT could one day replace Google’s search engine.

In the coming months, we’ll get to see how the world adjusts to ChatGPT’s subscription plans and how they will affect its competitors.

So, would you be interested in paying $42 monthly for full access to ChatGPT?

January 24, 2023
Nokia, UNICEF provide digital education to Senegalese children

Nokia, a major manufacturer of mobile devices and telecom infrastructures has partnered with UNICEF to provide more accessible digital education and training in some regions of Senegal, West Africa, in an effort to reduce the digital gap.

The company tweeted that Nicole Robertson, Vice President of Environmental, Social, and Governance, praised this collaboration. “I am delighted to announce Nokia’s partnership with UNICEF to advance digital skills and coding for children and young people in Senegal.”

Nokia helps close the digital divide by connecting underprivileged populations. Connectivity and digital skills increase employment, education, healthcare, and digital economy involvement.

Nokia and UNICEF planned to include instructors and students in the desolate areas, with over 100 teachers and over 10,000 middle school pupils.

The term “digital divide” is used to describe the gap between those who have access to digital experiences and those who do not, such as technology, the internet, etc.

Digital illiteracy, or the inability to use and maximize digital technology to its fullest potential, and a lack of infrastructure are two common causes of the digital divide.

Read also: Safaricom and Nokia collaborate on Africa’s first 5G slicing trial

Nokia and UNICEF’s digital divide solution

To achieve their objective of providing children and teachers in the remote area of Senegal with access to the Internet and digital education, Nokia and UNICEF have developed a comprehensive plan with the provision of specialized digital training, internet upgrades, and coding training.

According to Silvia Danailov, UNICEF Representative in Senegal, UNICEF protects children and youth from the digital revolution. Digital technology should assist all children in the classroom and at home, regardless of their background.

“This catalytic relationship with Nokia is a big step in improving Senegal’s children’s education through innovative technology.”

It’s remarkable how technology is changing the world. Tech is humanity’s biggest potential in the modern age. Coding will also be incorporated into UNICEF Finland and UNICEF Senegal’s training.

15 Most In-Demand Tech Skills In 2023

More on UNICEF and Nokia

UNICEF, officially the United Nations Children’s Fund, is a UN agency that provides humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. With a presence in 192 countries and territories, the agency is one of the most well-known social welfare organizations. UNICEF provides vaccines, illness prevention, HIV treatment for children and mothers, nutrition, sanitation, education, and disaster assistance.

Nokia, a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company, was founded in 1865. Nokia’s headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, in the larger Helsinki metropolitan area, but its roots are in Tampere, Pirkanmaa.
Over the past 150 years, the firm has worked in many fields. Since the 1990s, it has focused on large-scale telecommunications infrastructure, technology development, and licensing. It was founded as a pulp mill and has long been associated with rubber and cables. Nokia helped design the GSM, 3G, and LTE mobile phone standards. Nokia sold the most mobile phones and smartphones worldwide for a decade, starting in 1998.

January 24, 2023
15 Most In-Demand Tech Skills In 2023

Technology is one of the fastest growing industries across the world because it affects practically every aspect of human existence. With this awareness, most nations and businesses are working to better prepare for this advancement. This is why companies all over the world are in need of professionals with advanced information technology skills to enable them to maximise technology for their business growth and expansion.

What Does This High Demand For Tech Skills Mean?

This means there is a high demand for career professionals skilled in tech, which has created ample opportunities for individuals interested in the tech space to stay relevant and employable. Just like economists say, when demand is high, prices go up. The same goes for the technology sector. It is one of the industries with the best paying employment opportunities, which makes it more enticing for individuals to venture into.

If you’ve been thinking of a convincing reason you should go into tech, the high remuneration is definitely a good reason, while the ability to largely work remotely is another.

Read also: The emergence of a tech hub: Nnewi Tech Faculty

Here are 15 tech skills in high demand in 2023 that you can learn to launch your tech career and start earning big bucks

Software Development

Software development is one of the most in-demand and well-paying careers in the technology industry. Developers design, test, and manage software applications, and they are frequently in high demand by businesses of all kinds.

Website Development

Another lucrative field in the technology industry is web development. Web developers build and maintain websites and web apps, and they frequently collaborate with designers, marketers, and other experts to produce user-friendly and visually beautiful websites.

Analytics and data science

As more businesses rely on data to make business decisions, the demand for data scientists and analysts is increasing. These experts employ statistical and computational tools to extract insights from data and assist firms in making data-driven decisions.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is one of the fastest-expanding sectors of technology, with several job prospects. As more businesses move their data and applications to the cloud, cloud computing technologies such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform are in great demand. Cloud computing professionals can work in a range of roles, including cloud architect, cloud administrator, and cloud security specialist, because they assist in storing, managing, and analyzing data in the cloud.

Read also: NITDA Urges Youth to Upgrade their Skills in Blockchain Technology

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a key issue for firms of all kinds, and experts in this field are in high demand. Security analyst, security engineer, and security consultant jobs are in high demand because they seek to secure organizations’ networks, systems, and data against illegal access and cyberattacks.

Network and Information Security

As the number of cyber threats grows, so does the demand for network and information security expertise. These people work to keep networks, systems, and data in organizations safe from unwanted access and cyberattacks.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are two of the most interesting and fast-growing areas of technology, and people who know a lot about them have a lot of job opportunities. These people work on making algorithms, models, and systems that can look at data and make predictions about it.

Technical Writing

Technical writers make things like user guides, online help systems, and other kinds of documentation for tech products and services. They are in charge of making difficult technical knowledge understandable to non-technical audiences.

Technical Support

Technical support employees help customers who are having trouble with technology products or services. They are in charge of finding and fixing bugs and other problems with technology so that consumers can get the most out of it.

Technical Sales

Customers are sold technology items or services by technical sales specialists. They are in charge of comprehending consumer requirements, recognizing opportunities, and closing sales.

Technical Project Management

Technical project managers are in charge of technology project planning, organization, and management. They work closely with teams of developers, designers, and other experts to finish projects on time and under budget.

Technical Training

Technical trainers are responsible for teaching people how to use technology products or services. They create and deliver training programs and frequently collaborate with clients, workers, and partners.

Technical Consulting

Technical consultants work with their clients to find out what kinds of technology they need and then give them expert advice on how to meet those needs. They frequently deal with a variety of clients and projects and are usually self-employed.

Technical Recruiting

Technical recruiters are in charge of locating and hiring top talent for technology firms. They work closely with the people in charge of hiring to figure out what the company needs and find the best candidates for the job.

Technical Marketing

Customers are marketed to by technical marketers that sell technology products or services. They work closely with product teams, sales teams, and other stakeholders to come up with and carry out marketing strategies.

5 African Technology Conferences to attend in 2023

Heads Up

It’s important that you know that some of these professions may require you to be knowledgeable in coding or programming languages, depending on the firm or organization you work for. If you are not interested in coding, you can look for opportunities that do not require coding skills.

You must understand, however, that the technology industry is ever-changing, and more tech jobs may require coding and programming knowledge in the future.

January 23, 2023
OpenAI plans premium, paid version of ChatGPT for businesses

OpenAI has hinted that it may soon release a premium, paid version of the well-known chatbot, ChatGPT, for business users.

ChatGPT is a conversational dialogue model that has been trained by machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize and respond to natural human language.

A free service utilizing the AI chatbot was made available in November 2022. According to sources, OpenAI is reportedly already examining several revenue models for ChatGPT services.

OpenAI has developed a Google Form that serves as a waiting list for the service for interested people. As an experimental program, OpenAI states that they do not currently have any plans to make paid professional access publicly available.

Read also: OpenAI, Microsoft to challenge Google with ChatGPT-powered Bing

How do OpenAI plans work?

The waitlist form, intended for business usage, already describes the advantages consumers have access to with the premium edition. This includes unlimited texts, no throttling, and no blackout (unavailability).

Additionally, according to OpenAI, individuals chosen will be required to pilot ChatGPT Professional and set up a payment procedure after completing the waitlist form. There are a few inquiries regarding how much consumers are prepared to pay for the ChatGPT Professional in the Google form.

One question asks, “At what price (per month) would you consider ChatGPT to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it?” Another question is, at what monthly price would you consider ChatGPT a bargain?

Microsoft is adding OpenAI writing technology to Office

The financial growth of OpenAI

The mission of OpenAI, a non-profit organization that was founded in 2015, has been to “guarantee that artificial general intelligence (AGI), which exceeds humans at the majority of economically productive tasks, benefits all of humanity.”

The AI startup declared in March 2019 that it was establishing OpenAI LP, a new “capped-profit” business, to enable it to boost its investments in talent and computers while including checks and balances and achieving its objective.

Microsoft partnered with OpenAI a few months later, investing $1 billion. Microsoft may invest $10 billion in OpenAI, the parent firm of ChatGPT, to boost its worth to $29 billion.

Over 1 million people utilize ChatGPT. However, it is unclear if it can continue as a free service. Sama Altman, the CEO, replied to a Twitter user on December 5th that the computing cost is eye-watering.

January 13, 2023
Twitter discovers flaws in 235 million accounts and email addresses

Following the discovery of a flaw in Twitter’s security, the personal information of 235 million of the platform’s users was made available to the general public.

After thieves broke into the Twitter service and exposed it to other hackers, the service’s 235 million users’ email addresses and passwords were made available to hackers. This allowed hackers to access the accounts of 235 million Twitter users. The criminals were able to access the service after they had made it vulnerable to further cyber attackers.

This database is going to be utilized by hackers, political hacktivists, and of course, governments, which will further erode our privacy, according to Alon Gal, co-founder of the Israeli security company Hudson Rock, who found the advertisement on a large underground marketplace.

Alon Gal discovered the advertisement on the website of a criminal organization known as Hudson Rock. Alon Gal is of the opinion that the information included in this database can be exploited in order to target certain persons. As a direct result of this, he anticipated that there would be “a lot more hacking, targeted phishing, and doxxing.”

Read also: Financial phishing, cyberattacks surge In Kenya and Nigeria

It is speculated that the records were compiled sometime in the second half of 2021 by exploiting a flaw that was present in Twitter’s system. This would place the compilation of the records in the latter half of 2021.

This information was obtained from a report that was written and distributed by the Washington Post. It was possible for anyone who had access to an email address or phone number and had shared either of those pieces of information with Twitter to discover any Twitter account that had shared either of those pieces of information.

This flaw made it possible for anyone to discover any Twitter account that had shared either of those pieces of information. In other words, the vulnerability allowed anyone to discover any Twitter account that had shared either of those pieces of information. This was made possible for anyone who wanted to do so.

More on the Assault

Since Mr Gal’s first post about the study on social media on December 24, Twitter hasn’t said anything about the claims or answered questions about the breach. This is the case even though Twitter has had over a week to do so.

Fraudsters can use email addresses to try to change passwords and take over accounts. This is a big problem, especially for accounts that don’t have two-factor verification.

Email addresses present a significant risk because of this. This is especially important to keep in mind for any accounts that do not have two-step verification enabled.

Attacks on the Twitter accounts of notable people, such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, President Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Wiz Khalifa, Warren Buffett, and Apple, caused the platform to catch fire in the year 2020.

Other notable targets included Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and Apple. Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and Apple were among the other prominent individuals targeted.

Several important people, like Apple, Joe Biden, and Michael Bloomberg, were successfully targeted by the campaign. Apple is one of the many well-known organizations that had its account information taken in a recent data breach. Because the malicious hacker had access to the organization’s own resources and computer systems, he was able to carry out the attack with great success. This was one of the reasons why the attack was so successful.

Elon Musk plans to delete 1.5 billion inactive Twitter accounts

January 12, 2023
Microsoft is adding OpenAI writing technology to Office

By integrating AI technology from OpenAI into its programs, Microsoft may give Office users a means to write text for projects.

With tools like Stable Diffusion that produce artwork from straightforward cues, AI has become more common in the creative industries over time. It now appears that Microsoft is thinking about utilizing that same technology to aid its users in inputting text on a page or in a presentation.

Microsoft aims to integrate OpenAI’s artificial intelligence into Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and other programs, a source with intimate knowledge of the company’s plans told The Information.

Users will be able to utilize this to add long passages of automatically generated text to a document depending on a prompt. An AI-generated email that is written for the user based on the message they want to convey to the recipient can also fall under this category.

Read also: OpenAI, Microsoft to challenge Google with ChatGPT-powered Bing

Microsoft and OpenAI partnership

After investing $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, Microsoft has been working on innovative technologies for its products for years. There hasn’t been much information available since then, but in 2022, Microsoft introduced the Copilot coding-assistance tool.

According to a report, Microsoft may employ ChatGPT from OpenAI to substitute natural language search results for a list of links in Bing.

The integration of the same technologies into the Office productivity package, now referred to as Microsoft 365, is one of Microsoft’s future objectives, according to current and former workers.

These efforts include enhancing Outlook email search results, such as figuring out the emails a user would be searching for even if they don’t use specific keywords. The use of chatbot-like software may also include automatic email responses, suggestions for writing style improvement, and other features.

ChatGPT’s impact on Microsoft products

Although the results are unknown, ChatGPT may surpass Clippy, a discarded Microsoft Office Assistant.

With ChatGPT, users can enhance the outcomes of their Outlook searches. AI may also produce and recommend email responses using solely natural language, among other things.

It helps analyze data and text in Excel. BBC Science Focus reports that ChatGPT has ingested 570 GB. ChatGPT can also generate and edit Word or Outlook text templates, answer questions, and add creative text modules.

Microsoft uses AI to generate PowerPoint slides from Teams Meeting transcripts.

Microsoft already uses AI in Word, PowerPoint, Teams, and Microsoft Editor, but ChatGPT will help them dominate the office software market.

The main challenge may be getting reliable data for the AI model and addressing privacy concerns like personalized models for individuals without compromising data.

The meteoric rise of ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence chatbot, worries Google

Microsoft’s advantage over its rival

Google and Microsoft are two of the world’s top IT companies and ardent rivals. Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure are their main cloud-scaling competitors. They both employ search engines and AI to improve operations.

They offer computer vision, natural language processing, machine learning, and cloud-based platforms and infrastructure for building and running AI applications.

Both corporations have heavily collaborated and acquired artificial intelligence to expand their AI and cloud services. Since Microsoft aims to use ChatGPT and OpenAI in Bing, Google may struggle to compete in search and productivity products.

Additionally, Microsoft might add it to the office suite as an add-on product and charge for it, which would increase its advantage over rivals in the commercial and consumer software industries.

January 12, 2023
The emergence of a tech hub: Nnewi Tech Faculty

With the rise of technological advancement and the demand for technological skills, having a tech faculty that serves as a physical training center for technological skills is a positive development. Upon discovery of the existence of such a training facility in the city of Nnewi, a part of south-eastern Nigeria, Techpression deemed it fit to speak with the founder, Mr. Bill Achusim, for more updates.

Mr. Bill Achusim, founder of Nnewi Tech Faculty, Nnewi

The Nnewi tech faculty is said to be the first indigenous tech hub in the city of Nnewi, which gives the residents of Nnewi and environs such as Uzobolo and others access to a physical training center where highly in-demand technological skills can be accessed.

Mr Bill Achusim said, “We are a tech hub here in Nnewi, the first indigenous company in the city, where people can get training for modern technological skills like software engineering, data science, artificial intelligence, etc.”

The tech hub has a unique style of tutoring. They do not use the conventional classroom style; they make use of general rooms for students and a community style of teaching. The hub is operated by eleven instructors and four auxiliary staff. Mr Achuism started the Nnewi tech faculty over six months ago after his relocation from Lagos to Nnewi.

Nnewi, when compared to Lagos, is quiet and less commercial, which posed as a deciding factor for the founder. The passionate founder is said to have started the hub as a free training service in his family compound before expanding to a suite in the city in the last two months. The expansion and promotion of the hub have been fueled by the testimonies of the students to their acquaintances. The founder’s motivation for the project was the existing desire and passion in the hearts of the indigenes for technology.

Read also: Nigeria turns into a hub for technological innovation and research – Kola Oladejo

The Achievements of Nnewi Tech Faculty

Some trainees and tutors at Nnewi Tech FacultyThe Nnewi Tech Faculty has been able to mentor over thirty tech enthusiasts to a professional level in the first six months of its establishment. They have over 70 registered students currently in the process of becoming experts. They have been able to offer and encourage technology collaboration in their community, particularly in the church and schools.

Their program is structured and can accommodate trainees as young as five years of age. This, according to Mr Achuism, is the best age to start learning coding and programming.

“We have achieved so much progress in the past by mentoring over thirty people, many of whom were trained free of charge. “We are also charging the lowest prices in the world to learn any skill, ranging from data science to artificial intelligence, because we are actually community-focused,” he remarked.

The Nnewi Tech Faculty also has projects in MedTech and FinTech. They are making a POS app, a hotel booking app, a medical diagnosis app, a pharmaceutical app, and more.

The demand for the hub’s services is growing, which means that plans are being made for a bigger building in the future. The future expansion would include a hostel to accommodate nonresidents of Nnewi.

He explained that “Although there have been one or two hubs to be the first people actually to train people, the challenges are fundamental challenges of Nigeria, and I don’t want to get into politics. We thank God.”

Read also: Nigeria: Edo State wants India support to train Science and Tech teachers

How Nnewi Tech Faculty Manages Competition

The hub seems to welcome the idea of the existence of other tech hubs because, according to the founder, they facilitate needed collaboration.

“The people who design the app are supposed to work with the people who develop the app and the people who do the database.” “So, having more tech hubs in Nnewi will be very wonderful,” he said.

The founder compared the presence of other hubs to the presence of different high schools, which makes it possible for the schools to compete with each other in quizzes, debates, and other ways.

In technology, there are many different niches that need to be managed, so he said that demand is greater than supply.

In technology, there are many different niches that need to be managed, so he said that demand is greater than supply. For these and other reasons, more hubs are needed to show the people of Nnewi how important it is to know how to use technology.

On account of online courses and the potential competition they present, the founder remarks, “People are requesting online courses, so we are trying to get a global audience with online courses.”

The management of the Nnewi tech faculty is also assured that no online course beat their module of physical training. Their training is reported to guarantee a junior-level experience with three months of training and a minimum of three weeks to become conversant with basic operations.

How has the business been funded

The hub has not benefited from any funding and has been self-sufficient. The founder recalls initial assistance from his father during the relocation of the hub from his family residence to the town. The suggestion for such expansion also came from his father.

Current Location of the Nnewi Tech Faculty

Advice from the Founder to Aspirants

“I always encourage everyone to keep doing what they love to do and to keep believing in themselves.” “All you need is to remind yourself that you can do what you want to do, not what people want you to do, and if it is what you want to do, nothing can stop you,” he said.

Mr Achuism also assured every aspirant who looks up to him as a role model that a career in technology is a good choice and that all they needed to do was stick to their convictions and work hard.

His Word on a Marble

“What you believe always happens, and the belief in a thing makes it happen,” he said.

It is commendable that such a tech hub exists in the southeast of Nigeria. Mr Bill Achusim has done a good job impacting his community. The mantle now falls on the indigenes and youths to seize the available opportunity.

January 11, 2023
Google Chrome now has memory and energy saving features

Storage and power consumption have caused many users to experience trouble browsing over the years. In order to bridge this gap, Google is introducing two new features that will make browsing easier.

Memory Saver and Energy Saver are Google’s two new performance settings that can be found in the Chrome browser.

According to Google, the new modes enable users to reduce the amount of memory that Chrome uses by as much as 30 percent and extend the battery life of their devices when the battery life is running low.

Read also: Google Topic Filters Make Searching Easier

How will the new Chrome mode work?

Memory Saver mode frees up memory that was previously being used by tabs that aren’t being used at the moment, which should result in a more dynamic browsing experience. In addition, you have the option of excluding significant websites from the Memory Saver’s context in order to ensure that they continue to operate at their full potential.

Energy Saver mode will maximize the amount of time that the device’s battery can last when a device that is running Chrome has less than 20 percent of its battery life left. This is accomplished by reducing the amount of background activity and visual effects (such as smooth scrolling) on websites that contain animations or videos. When you forget where you put your charger, every minute counts, even though it’s not clear how much longer the battery life could potentially be extended.

Chrome mode availability

Today, as part of the most recent desktop version of Chrome (m108), both of the new modes began operational to users, and they will be accessible globally for Windows, macOS and Chrome OS in the coming weeks. Chrome’s Memory Saver and Energy Saver features will be accessible through the browser’s settings panel (accessible via the three-dot menu). Both of these features can be enabled or disabled separately at your discretion.

Top 10 Nigerian Google Searches 2022

Related updates from Microsoft

The announcement made by Google comes just one day after Microsoft revealed that its Edge Browser was responsible for closing 1.38 billion tabs in the month of September alone. Microsoft claims that putting a tab to “sleep” in Edge will save approximately 83% of the memory that it would have normally occupied. A couple of years ago, the company launched its version of these features, which can put tabs to sleep automatically after five minutes of inactivity (or as little as 30 seconds), and then once again improved it with the release of Edge 100 earlier this year. A gaming mode is also included in Edge, and when it recognizes that you are using one personal computer to play a game, it will automatically adjust itself to use less CPU.

December 28, 2022