A viral video can topple a politician or spark a national debate in seconds. But behind the speed and excitement of digital journalism lies a growing dilemma: how do we keep our facts straight, stay ahead of fake news, and protect our credibility in a world where the tools we use aren’t always ours to control?

Journalism in Ghana used to be a straightforward, one-directional business: print newspapers in the morning, evening broadcasts on radio and TV done. You’d get your information from a few trusted voices like the Daily Graphic, Joy FM, or GTV.

Reporters carried notebooks, flip phones (if they were fancy), and a good dose of courage. The newsroom was the heart of the operation, and deadlines were sacred.

Then technology walked in slowly at first, then like a gale wind. Today, the newsroom fits in your pocket, and journalists tweet news before the newsroom even hears about it. Let’s dive into how tech has re-engineered storytelling, audience engagement, and the very soul of Ghanaian journalism.

From Pen and Paper to Pixels and Platforms

Then, in the early 2000s and before, journalists travelled long distances to file stories. The tools of the trade were analogue: typewriters, cassette recorders, and physical archives. If you missed the evening news, you simply missed it.

Now, technology has flattened these barriers. Mobile phones, affordable internet, lightweight audio/video recorders, and platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Twitter have made every journalist a walking newsroom.

Multimedia storytelling is now the norm video clips, photos, and voice notes, all uploaded in seconds.

Even fact-checking can happen in real time using digital tools.
Case in point: Viral stories on platforms like Facebook reach millions before traditional outlets even react.

Democratising News: Everyone’s a Reporter?
The rise of “citizen journalism” means anyone with a smartphone can break news. This has democratized information but also created challenges. Misinformation, propaganda, and fake news have become real threats.

Platforms like Adomonline, MyJoyOnline, GhanaWeb and Citinewsroom now compete with bloggers, influencers and even taxi drivers live-streaming events.

There has been a shift from the old approach. Journalists must now be even more credible, faster, and more tech-literate.

Newsrooms train their staff in digital ethics, social media analytics, and multimedia production skills that would’ve seemed alien to the old guard.

Broadcasting Goes Live and Interactive
Live broadcasting, once expensive and limited to major stations, is now accessible to anyone. With Facebook Live, X Spaces (formerly Twitter Spaces), and TikTok, even rural reporters can stream breaking news directly from the scene.

Stations like Multimedia Group and Citi FM use social media to broadcast political shows, interact with listeners, host polls, and receive feedback instantly. Gone are the days when the audience was silent.

I remember my days at Life FM in Nkawkaw, where we relied mostly on newspapers for news stories and monitoring the major stations for stories with no means of recording actuality.

Time has really changed.
The next wave is already here. Podcasts offer long-form storytelling, AI tools assist in transcription and fact-checking, and data journalism is emerging slowly but surely.
Newsrooms in Ghana are experimenting with AI-assisted content creation, providing transcription tools and image recognition for research, which has become a game-changer.

Podcasts and webinars are now providing media houses with the platform to reach niche audiences, to mobile journalism kits for remote reporting. We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible.

The Challenges associated with this technology are many, and the management of newsrooms must catch up.

Speed often trumps accuracy. That’s a problem. Lack of verification is becoming a threat. With the pressure to be first, journalists sometimes publish unverified information.

In 2021, during the alleged kidnapping of musician Castro and the incident involving the Takoradi “fake pregnant woman”, several outlets rushed online with breaking news only for later facts to expose inconsistencies.

Just recently, after the six female potential recruits of the Ghana Armed Forces died in a stampede, letters flew all over the internet, indicating the Deputy Defence Minister had resigned, with some media houses broadcasting without verification. It was later labelled as fake information.

The rush for clicks undermined trust, and it highlighted the need to balance speed with fact-checking.

Also, Ownership of platforms is a challenge we can not overlook because Stories live on platforms that are not owned by creators, but by Facebook and YouTube. Their rules can change overnight.

Ghanaian media houses like Adom TV, Joy News, GHOne TV, Adom FM and others rely heavily on social media for live streams and content distribution.

However, if Facebook randomly flags a broadcast or YouTube changes its algorithm, viewership plummets.

In 2023, several Ghanaian channels were unexpectedly demonetised or shadow-banned due to stricter content rules, reminding us that these platforms are rented space and not owned territory.

Technology didn’t just change Ghanaian journalism; it shook its foundations. The role of the journalist is evolving from gatekeeper to curator, moderator, and educator.

The promise? More voices, more access, smarter storytelling. The challenge? Staying credible and innovative in a crowded, noisy world.

The path forward is clear: blend traditional values with modern tools. Journalism may look different now, but its purpose remains deep by telling the truth, giving the voiceless a platform, and holding the powerful accountable.

Ghanaian journalism is evolving. And that’s a good thing.

Speaking on Joy Prime’s Prime Time show on Wednesday night, the highlife pioneer criticised the current wave of music that prioritises speed and convenience over depth and effort.

According to Ambolley, many young artists now rely too heavily on computers and software rather than learning instruments or honing strong lyrical content.

“Shortcuts in music are not good. It makes your music ‘sharp sharp’; it doesn’t last,” he stressed, explaining that “sharp sharp” refers to a fast-food style of music production that lacks soul, substance, and staying power.

Ambolley, who is credited with pioneering rap-infused highlife in the 1970s, lamented that many artists are bypassing the learning process that once shaped musicianship. He noted that in earlier times, artists had to study music theory, master instruments, and perform live—disciplines that fostered originality and patience.

“Now, a beat can be downloaded, lyrics patched together, and a song uploaded within hours, often without much human interaction or creative collaboration,” he said.

The veteran also criticised the impersonal nature of modern collaborations, recounting how some younger artists send him tracks for features but release them without his input on the final version. “When they send the music, I do my part, but after that, they don’t come back for me to listen to the entire song. Before I know it, it’s on air,” he explained.

Despite his criticism, Ambolley acknowledged bright spots in the industry. He praised songwriter and performer Kofi Kinaata for maintaining storytelling and lyrical depth while remaining relevant in the modern scene. To him, Kinaata represents a balance between old-school discipline and contemporary creativity.

Ambolley also highlighted the importance of mentorship, warning that many upcoming musicians lack honest guidance. “If you don’t have good people around you, there’s no one to advise you when the path you’re taking is not the right one,” he cautioned.

He urged young artists to treat technology as a tool rather than a substitute for skill, practice, and cultural grounding, adding that Ghana’s music future depends on musicians returning to the fundamentals of their craft.

Prime Time airs every Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Joy Prime, featuring in-depth conversations with cultural icons, artists, and thought leaders shaping Ghana’s creative landscape.

Source: Lois Ampea-Badu

The basic school competition held its judging and pitching event for twenty teams in the Ashanti region to display their innovations that seek to proffer solutions to societal challenges and pique their interest into science and engineering fields.

Founder of GSTEP, Constance Agyemang, emphasized that the country’s current education system heavily focuses on theory, leaving a gap in practical training.

She indicated that there is a need to invest in laboratories and tools to allow students to put their knowledge into action.

“Our Junior High School students are just thinking about what they can do in the world, and we want to just give them a way to see how STEM relates to real world situations,” she said.

Ms. Agyemang explained that many students, when given the chance, are capable of identifying problems and creating their own solutions without relying on others.

She believes that encouraging the use of local materials and Ghanaian innovation is essential to drive long-term development and boost confidence in local solutions.

This year’s GSTEP challenge has introduced a more practical approach, including the early distribution of technical set of things, the building of structures, and idea pitching.

These are designed to help students develop prototypes and sharpen their business, technical, and teamwork skills.

The judging and pitching event saw twenty teams of young innovators from different schools in the Ashanti region square up for the top positions ahead of the grand finale.

One of the stand-out projects this year came from the Smart Traffic Managers team.

Lordina, a member of the group, explained that their Smart Traffic Management System, which is solar-powered, was inspired by frequent knock downs.

She recounted the ordeal an old woman in Bechem, a town in the Ahafo Region, encountered when struggled to interpret the traffic lights.

Their innovation aims to make pedestrian crossings safer, especially in communities where road accidents are common.

She highlighted the experience and benefits from the program.

“The house STEM has helped us to learn some of the basics of STEM and also how to connect electronic devices,” she said.

Another innovation came from team Eco-Fuel Agenda, whose project tackles deforestation and the reduction of carbon emission.

Team member, Yaa Gyasiwaa Opoku shared that their eco-fuel, which is made from rice husks, burns at a lower temperature than charcoal and offers a more sustainable option.

“Our idea stands out from the existing solution by burning in a lower temperature and our prototype is also made from rice husks and the other existing ones are made from firewood that’s why we chose that,” she said.

A judge for this year’s event, Toyin Dania stressed the excitement among schools and praised how the competition encourages self-expression.

She pointed out that projects like a traffic light system designed to assist pedestrians should catch the attention of authorities.

“I wonder what the Ministry of Roads is doing because we need this. We need good roads and safety, and our children need to feel safe on the road and not be run over because someone’s not observing,” she said.

Ms. Dania added that such youth-led innovations reveal the creative thinking among students and should be supported.

“The Government should encourage students at the basic school level since such programs tell what exactly people are thinking and would want to use it to help the community,” she said.

She also called on parents, citizens, and individuals to contribute to encouraging the creativity of young Ghanaians.

The GSTEP program has impacted more than 30,000 students across Ghana, providing them with the tools, confidence, and experience to pursue STEM- driven solutions.

The 2025 GSTEP Exhibition & Awards Ceremony is scheduled to take place on the 16th and 17th of July 2025 at the National Theatre in Accra.

During the event, all 50 finalist teams from the Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Eastern Regions will showcase their innovative projects to key stakeholders in the education sector, as well as the general public

During the first-quarter press briefing on April 9, the Minister underscored technology as a key pillar for positioning Ghana as a leader in the global digital economy.

“The technology sector is critical in positioning Ghana at the top of the digital and competitive global economy,” he stated.

He also referenced President John Dramani Mahama’s pre-election pledge to launch the 1Million Coders initiative—an ambitious programme aimed at equipping one million young Ghanaians with vital digital skills.

“This programme will provide young people with the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital and competitive world,” the Minister explained.

According to Sam George, the initiative is designed to empower the youth to succeed in fast-growing sectors like business process outsourcing and knowledge management.

The Ministry, he said, has quickly moved to operationalize the 1Million Coders programme, bringing President Mahama’s vision closer to reality.

“We have acted swiftly to ensure that this vision becomes a reality, preparing our youth for the future of work,” he added.

He also highlighted ongoing efforts to mobilize partners and secure the necessary resources to ensure the programme’s successful implementation.

“Through strategic diplomacy and public-private partnerships, we are committed to delivering the results required to upskill our youth and ensure they are prepared for the challenges of the future,” the Minister concluded.

• NPP gurus storm Ntim Fordjour’s residence to halt arrest by NIB [Video]

• Minority slams NIB over attempted arrest of Ntim Fordjour

• I gave him a sensitive job in gov’t – Nitiwul shocked over NIB Director’s…

But he has acknowledged the gap in effective communication of scientific research and knowledge to influence policy.

He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Capacity Building Workshop for Media Excellence in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Reportage held in Accra.

“The most industrialised countries achieved what they have now because they focused on science education and technology advancement. I have profound respect and appreciation of the media can play in the advancement of STI. I realized the lack of proper communication during my tenure as a deputy minister,” he said.

Nearly 30 journalists drawn from across Ghana participated in a five-day workshop.
The weeklong training exposed the journalists to tenets of science and technology reporting in the advancing national developments.

The training is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office and in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST).

British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson, highlighted the importance of journalists in the dissemination of scientific ideas and findings to impact society.

“Together, all of you are building a network of journalists who understand science, technology and innovation, who see the impact STI is already having in Ghana. I hope you’d see the huge potential science and technology will have in Ghana in the near and further off future,” she said.

Ten journalists out of the 28 participants including the Multimedia Group’s Anass Sabit and Emmanuel Bright Quaicoe were awarded grants to pursue stories in the science and technology field.

They are expected to have further training in science reporting. at the Imperial College – London.

In an exclusive interview with Asempa FM, President Kufuor said technology and digitalization are global trends indispensable to modern governance. He emphasized that Ghana needs a leader who understands and appreciates them, as Bawumia has “consistently” done.

“We need somebody like him who understands modern trends in global affairs and also technology and digitalization. These are the trends in developed countries like America and others,” former President Kufuor said.

Stressing the significance and enormous impact of technology in the world, President Kufuor referenced the influence of a young American billionaire, saying he is able to “call the shots” because of his background in technology.

“About this digital technology, have you heard about Elon Musk in America?” the former President asked his interviewer, Osei Bonsu (OB).

“When was the last time in the past years that you heard one man was so powerful as Elon Musk is? He is so powerful that when he speaks, the American President, the Russian President, all listen. It is because of this new technology he controls, even though he is very young.”

“These technologies are very important and key to the transformation of the country, and Bawumia has clearly shown how he wants to apply them in our banking system, electoral system, governance system, and tax system to help our business people grow their businesses. He has also shown how he wants to apply it in healthcare—just look at the drone system and all that.”

Reiterating his belief in Bawumia, the former President added that over the years, he has observed the conduct and presentations of the Vice President and is convinced that he is the “man of the moment” to take the country forward.

“I have observed him and his policies, which is why I say he is the man of the moment. We need all these things he talks about.”

ALSO READ:

Climate financing director unveils new initiatives at COP29 finance day

Trump picks Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his Department of Health and Human Services secretary

These minerals are essential for making advanced technology including smartphones, semiconductors, lithium batteries, laptops and electric vehicles. The list goes on.

China produces 60% of the world’s rare earth elements supply and processes 90% of it.

It gives the country unparalleled power – power it’s willing to use.

Since July last year, China has introduced export restrictions on three important critical minerals: gallium, germanium and antimony.

The US Geological Survey says China produces 98% of the world’s gallium and 60% of its germanium.

Both are used to make semiconductor chips, which power the world’s advanced technologies.

The export controls are the latest frontier in a trade battle between China and the West, and it’s heating up.

The US is attempting to block China from accessing its advanced technology and semiconductor chips.

Chim Lee, senior Asia analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit, says: “This is about how China is still feeling threatened.”

“It is using critical minerals to have stronger leverage in its trade negotiations with Western countries,” Mr Lee says.

“It is showing that it can, and it will retaliate.”

The mountains and mines of Yunnan Province

Yunnan province in southern China is known for its mountains, more than its mines.

But travel away from the main highways and you find valleys littered with small mines that process critical minerals.

We come across three of them only a short drive from each other on a rainy, misty day.

Even the closest village is called ‘Kuangshan Zhen’ or Mine Town.

Opposite a mine, we met a local farmer, Mr Tan. He tells us the mines are a national asset.

“It means a lot of economic revenue,” Mr Tan explains. “This mine produces lead, zinc and germanium. They are our country’s treasure.”

China is committed to protecting its treasure and says its export restrictions are “fair, justified and non-discriminatory” and not targeted at any one country.

The country’s latest export restriction is on antimony. It came into force in September.

China mines half the world’s supply of antimony, and it is a key ingredient for military applications including night vision goggles, flares and infrared sensors.

‘Potential price shocks’ to come

The northern British city of Durham feels far from the global competition to dominate resources.

But on the outskirts of the city a pioneering British company, called Pragmatic Semiconductor, is getting ready to expand its manufacturing hub of wafer-thin, flexible semiconductor chips.

Richard Price, Pragmatic Semiconductor’s co-founder and its chief technology officer, says: “As countries like China – but also other countries around the world – look at tariffs, protections and export controls, it will place shocks on the supply chain.”

“We’re likely to see potential price shocks.”

Across the world resource-rich countries are rushing to develop their own reserves of critical minerals.

But demand for these precious metals is surging and China has already raced ahead.

This was the unanimous call from speakers at a virtual conference aimed at linking innovation startups and researchers to alternative funding sources for their enterprises and research outcomes organized by Heritors Labs, in collaboration with its funding partner, the RISA Fund.

The virtual conference which formed part of activities of the Women in Innovation and Research  Conclave (WIRC), deepened participants’ insight and understanding of the workings of and funding mechanisms of venture capitalists, angel investors, crowd-funding and seed funders.

The Chief Executive Officer of Heritors Labs Limited, Derrydean Dadzie, indicated in his brief remarks: “Women innovators and researchers are often disenfranchised from accessing funds for their research and innovations, and in most cases, they do not have the opportunities that are available on the market to enable them to thrive in the ecosystem.”

To him, the online conference was to encourage partnerships, collaborations and investments in commercially viable innovations and research outcomes across the SME and startups ecosystem.

Programme Lead at Heritors Labs, Barbara Aidoo, delivered a compelling message at the Meet the Money Pathway webinar, a core aspect of the Women in Innovation and Research Conclave (WIRC).

“Women innovators frequently encounter barriers when it comes to securing funds. Our aim with Meet the Money Pathway is to explore alternative finance models—like crowdfunding and angel investment, and partnerships with institutions like Impact Investing Ghana and Calbank Ghana—that offer women-led ventures the support they need,” said Barbara.

One of the speakers, Mr. Daniel Appiah, Head of Commercial Banking for Calbank Ghana, explained that banks prefer to disburse their limited funds to established businesses compared to those in the SME and startup bracket due to identifiable risks in the sector.

“The debt exchange programme has wiped out a substantial portion of banks capital, and they are now looking at where the little money left could be deployed to get immediate returns to shore up their capital, which is challenging for SMEs and startups,” he noted.

However, he stressed that most banks have deployed solutions that enable them to support budding enterprises right from the start, including the offering of technical support in the form of financial education to groom such businesses to be ready for funding.

“Banks know the exact funding sources for SMEs and startups as well as the peculiar interests of these investors. It’s therefore about how we can prepare such businesses to be ready and qualified for these funds, which are largely available, and that’s what most banks are doing now. At Calbank, we’re providing such assistance through our Calbank SMEs Academy,” he explained.

Another speaker, Ms. Justina Mensah, a programme officer at Impact Investing Ghana, emphasized the lack of specific funding for researchers in the country at the moment but added that with the right positioning, innovators and researchers could benefit from crowdfunding, angel investors, and other long-term capital for their businesses.

“The reality is that in Ghana at the moment, there is no specific funding vehicle for research but it’s not impossible. Angel investing is one great area that startups can look to; we also have venture capitalists and crowdfunding, which have become options for startups and SMEs, especially those in research and innovation,” she noted.

She added: “But the caveat is that the research or innovation must be viable and of value to these investors. This means that researchers and innovation startups have to be well-positioned to secure funding, including examining the funding positions and requirements of these investors.

On her part, Ms. Eunice Asantewaa Ankomah, a certified digital financial services consultant, encouraged participants to leverage digital tools to build business records to attract investment from the banks and other potential investors.

“There are several digital technologies that can be used for bookkeeping, which makes it easier for startups and SMEs to present attractive financial records that would entice banks to invest in their business,” she advised.

The financial consultant further encouraged innovators, researchers and tech startups to forge strong partnerships with banks that can track the growth of the business based on their financial transactions to enable them secure loans when the need arises.

Source: Joy Business

READ ALSO:

• Budget shortfalls to be substantial in Ghana, Nigeria – Fitch Solution
• EOCO honours former and current heads for distinguishing themselves
• Stakeholders’ involvement key in preventing cocoa smuggling – COCOBOD

He made this statement while addressing the Directors General of Copyright Offices in the West Africa sub-region at the opening of the three-day workshop on Wednesday, September 18, 2024,  at Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra.

He said people in the cultural and creative industries are at a crossroads of creativity and innovation where copyright plays a vital role in the dispensation of creativity.

“…we must acknowledge the challenges we face. The rapid advancement of technology has complicated the landscape of copyright. From piracy to unauthorized use of creative works, these issues demand our immediate attention and action,” he said.

Agyapa indicated that, copyright is not just a legal framework; it is by extension, the foundation upon which our arts and culture thrives.

He further noted that copyright enables inventors/creators, artists, and cultural practitioners to gain recognition get rewarded for their invaluable contributions to society.

He therefore charged the participants of the workshop to make decisions that would help protect the intellectual property rights of creatives.

“As Director Generals, you play a pivotal role in the implementation of copyright laws. Your position is central in fostering an environment where creativity flourishes, while also respecting the rights of those who create the products. It behooves you to be champions of private copyright, ensuring that our artists, creative practitioners, and creators receive a fair deal for their works,” he noted.

The Minister however acknowledged the contribution of EVOWAS in shaping the intellectual property landscape of the creatives in the sub-region.

“ECOWAS has made significant strides in strengthening the capacity in its member states, assessing the status of copyright office and protecting intellectual property and fostered collaboration with international organizations. Which has been very instrumental in addressing copyright challenges,” he mentioned.

The workshop was meant to advance the implementation of the directive on a harmonizing provision related to the right to remuneration for private copying with the UEMOA Member States.

The program also aims to build on the advancements made in the harmonization process within the UEMOA area, to achieve a broader harmonization across the Region.

Organised by the ECOWAS Commission, this workshop, most importantly aims to adopt a strategy for the harmonization of private copying in all ECOWAS member states.

Source: Kwame Dadzie

READ ALSO:

• Dont stay in abusive relationships, its not healthy – Empress Gifty [Video]
• Michael Blackson urges Ghanaians to elect God-fearing leader after losing $1M Eurobond investment 

He has also called for continued advocacy to pave the way for a future where education driven by technology serves as a catalyst for peace and prosperity for all.

Major General Gyane believed that beyond education, e-learning initiatives must be able to significantly contribute to advancing peace and security in Africa.

He was addressing a session at the 2024 E-Learning International Conference, hosted by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.

The Conference was held under the theme: “Fostering Excellence in E-Learning across Diverse Disciplines with Special Consideration on Progress, Challenges and Prospects”.

“I anticipate a rapid expansion of our E-Learning initiatives to overcome any significant hurdle, including technological infrastructure limitations, varying digital literacy levels among participants, and the need for continuous adaptation to evolving pedagogical methodologies.

Situations like these underscore the importance of robust support mechanisms and strategic management in ensuring the sustained effectiveness of digital education programmes,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Gyane, citing the KAIPTC as one institution making good use of e-learning for advancement, noted that by equipping peacekeepers and security professionals with advanced skills and knowledge, “we endeavour to empower them to navigate complex challenges in conflict zones and promote sustainable peacebuilding efforts across the continent.”

The KAIPTC, he said, had designed courses such as the Protection of Civilians, Criminal Justice Executives, Investigating Sexual and Gender-based Violence, Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism, Maritime Security and Transnational Organized Crime Course and a host of others.

He envisaged that in the next five years, the KAIPTC would strategically expand course offerings, enhance technology infrastructure and deepen engagement with stakeholders.

The Centre would commit to staying at the forefront of digital education by continuously evolving methodologies and embracing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and data analytics.

The Commandant noted that the strategic management of E-Learning at KAIPTC was not merely about embracing technological advancements, but also about leveraging them to foster positive change and sustainable development across the African Sub-region.

READ ALSO:

• Keep protecting Ghana’s democratic gains – Bawumia urges Police
• Large number of fishes, and water bodies contaminated with mercury – EPA

The English top fight will use the same cameras and software that UEFA uses in the men’s Champions League. That is slightly different from the technology which FIFA has used, where a match ball with a chip inside provides an array of data.

The Premier League confirmed in a statement that it believes the SAOT will be ready to use following one of the autumn international breaks.

The Premier League believes the use of SAOT will save around 30 seconds per decision. It hopes its introduction will bring an end to situations where play continues after a possible offside because the assistant referees have been instructed to keep their flags down before then being brought back some time later after an attack has ended.

Instead, the assistant referees will have a voice in their earpiece informing them of the semi-automated offside decision and can raise their flag immediately.

The existing manual framework for Video Assistant Referees (VAR) has attracted criticism this season, most notably for Luis Diaz’s incorrectly disallowed goal against Tottenham Hotspur in September. Though the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) — the organisation responsible for refereeing in England — admitted that was a “significant human error”, the time taken for offsides in general to be reviewed by VARs has also been criticised.

Amid that criticism, the Premier League has been monitoring the technology amid behind-the-scenes testing before now deciding to approve its use for next season.

Since the implementation of VAR technology in the Premier League in 2019, offsides have been subject to a review process. That involves the VAR manually calibrating offside lines by using a freeze-frame of when the ball last touched an attacker in order to judge whether a player is offside.

A Premier League statement read: “At a Premier League Shareholders’ meeting today, clubs unanimously agreed to the introduction of Semi-Automated Offside Technology.

“The new system will be used for the first time in the Premier League next season, and it is anticipated the technology will be ready to be introduced after one of the Autumn international breaks.

“The technology will provide quicker and consistent placement of the virtual offside line, based on optical player tracking, and will produce high-quality broadcast graphics to ensure an enhanced in-stadium and broadcast experience for supporters.”

This, according to the Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Justin Kodua Frimpong, will be done through extensive development in agriculture with the Agency’s Regional Flagship programmes.

Another focus area will be the empowerment of individuals and cooperatives who want to learn a trade or skill and set up on their own.

The Chief Executive Officer was speaking at a ceremony to commission the YEA’s new ultra-modern office complex to serve as the Headquarters for the newly created Oti Region.

He said the new office will aid in bringing job opportunities closer to the teaming youth in the Oti Region, and his outfit will forge a closer relationship with the Regional Coordinating Council to implement the numerous modules and projects including the YEA Jobcentre, the Artisan Directory, Flagship Projects, Work Abroad Program, and the numerous Entrepreneurship support programmes.

READ ALSO:

• Toilet rolls are harmful to your anus- Doctor warns

• 5 men jailed 15 years each for robbery, possession of firearms

• UTAG Strike: Lecturers begin impeachment processes against leaders [Listen]

The Regional Minister, Joshua Makobu, who prides himself as a former employee of the Agency, praised the Akufo-Addo government as a government that believes in the empowerment and development of people through all reasonable means, a reason for which he is a Regional Minister today.

He welcomed the innovative efforts of Mr Frimpong and his team and called for a deepened collaboration between the two outfits to create more opportunities for his people.

“As a Regional Minister, I wish to state my unflinching support for the job creation agenda of YEA which is perfectly in line with Government’s Industrialisation drive,” the Minister said.

Mr Makobu took the opportunity to urge participants to buy into the E-Levy proposal to allow the government to create more jobs as emulated by YEA.

The regional YEA director, David NKabunam, praised the government for the numerous infrastructural developments taking place across the region since its creation.

He was of the belief that the completion of the YEA office will motivate the youth in the area to take advantage of the job centre to seek better opportunities.

The Amankrado of Dambai, Nana Kwadwo Bunchu, expressed gratitude to the government for how Dambai, particularly, and the entire Region is rapidly seeing a face-lift since the region was created.

He called on the youth to take advantage and make good use of the YEA office.

As society evolves, the demands of the society and the structures needed to sustain the society also change, requiring the members of the society to fashion new and innovative ways in response to the changes.

In today’s world, technology has become an integral and ubiquitous part of our lives.

Technology has, in many ways, changed the way human beings interact with their environment to the extent that it is impossible, at the moment, to imagine a world without the benefits of technology and digital innovations.  

One thing that remains key, however, is the opportunity technology provides for us to address social challenges and find solutions that make life easier and better.

The many opportunities provided by technology, aside from helping organizations to streamline their processes and improving efficiency for enhanced customer experience, have also served as catalysts for remedying wider challenges facing society, from healthcare to education to the very sustenance of society.

Technology has effectively removed physical obstacles that prevent people from engaging as members of a modern world.

One of the areas where the world has seen perhaps the most impact relative to leveraging the benefits of technology to solve social problems or respond to the demands of peculiar circumstances is education.

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic put a huge strain on traditional modes of teaching and learning.

Today, E-learning and smart classrooms are said to be ‘breaking down the walls of traditional classroom’ and opening new opportunities to both teachers and students.

Without the benefits of technology, society would have come to a hiatus. Technology provided the world a way out and a fluid way to continue the process of education albeit with some challenges.

Education will not be the same again as many curricular have become democratized for parents, guardians, and students alike to self-learn with very little supervision and accreditations

Technology has been acknowledged in many ways as a critical enabler for poverty alleviation.

It has been argued that technology can help reduce poverty by creating jobs and allowing businesspeople in developing countries to reach a wider market through e-commerce.

Thus, having access to internet opens vast opportunities for people to empower themselves economically.

In Ghana currently, there are over 10,000 online businesses owned, in most cases, by young people.

And as data penetration increases, the awareness created by the pandemic will long remain in shaping up how small and big businesses gain access to markets and capital.

In healthcare, the benefits of technology have been enormous.

From diagnostics to treatment and management of diseases, technology continues to revolutionize healthcare delivery across the world.

The digitization of hospitals and other healthcare facilities is making healthcare delivery more efficient and convenient.

The benefit of electronic medical records is allowing hospital administrators and healthcare givers to access patient records from anywhere as well as interact with colleagues and patients no matter their location to give collaborative care.

Tele-medicine is also set to grow exponentially in the coming years to expand the reach of expert care globally.

The introduction of easy, fast, and convenient online payment systems is reducing the amount of time spent in hospitals and eliminating long and unbearable queues that usually characterize the settlement of bills in hospitals.

Apps and platforms such as the Health Pay App enable patients/guardians/ benefactors irrespective of their location to facilitate the payment of bills to allow either themselves or their beneficiaries receive the much-needed treatment as and when required.

In the important area of agriculture, technology has become the critical answer needed to respond to the dietary needs of the world’s ever-growing population.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has predicted that by 2050, the world will need to produce 70% more of what the world is producing now to be able to effectively feed the people of the world.

Framers and agricultural companies are introducing farming technologies to be able to produce more and meet demands.

Technology has had a transformational effect on the world by providing a range of new ways to tackle some of the most pressing issues the world faces.

As the world evolves, so will the problems society face.

But in technology, the world can always find relevant and timely solutions to deal with whatever challenge comes our way.  

Patrick George Quantson, Head of Digital Transformation, Stanbic Bank 

Ivy, who is also the co-founder of Development in Vogue, an organization empowering women to take up opportunities in technology industry is an expert in coding.

Making her announcement on Twitter, she revealed she is optimistic about the opportunity to make bigger impact at Microsoft.

ALSO

• Hollard Ghana to prepare business students for global market

• What benefits UNIPASS will bring to Ghana’s ports – Amaglo explains in this video

The tech expert currently holds an MPhil. in Mathematical Statistics and a Bachelor’s Degree in Actuarial Science

She is passionate about using technology to revolutionize Africa and beyond by providing training, mentorship and job placement for African women in tech.

Ivy Barley also won a $10,000 prize as one of the 10 finalists of the Kwese #GoGettaz competition organised in Kenya.

Crime wave

South Korea’s Internet and Security Agency (Kisa) which investigates net crime, said it had started an enquiry into how the thieves gained access to the exchange’s core systems.
Kisa blamed the earlier attack on Youbit on cyber-spies working for North Korea. Separate, more recent, attacks on the Bithumb and Coinis exchanges, have also been blamed on the regime.
No information has been released about who might have been behind the latest Youbit attack.
In a statement, Youbit said that customers would get back about 75% of the value of the crypto-currency they have lodged with the exchange.
It said it was “very sorry” that it had been forced to shut down.
The exchange added that the hackers did not manage to steal all the digital cash it held because a lot was lodged in a “cold wallet” – a secure store used to hold the assets that were not being traded.
Youbit was one of the smaller exchanges active in South Korea. The majority of Bitcoin trading in the country is done on the Bithumb exchange which has a 70% market share.
More and more cybercriminals have tried to cash in on the boom in virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. Many have created malware that seeks to use victims’ computers to create or “mine” valuable currencies. Others have simply attacked exchanges and other crypto-cash service firms to get at large numbers of bitcoins at once.
Earlier this month, hackers got away with more than $80m in bitcoins from NiceHash, a Slovenia-based mining exchange.

• Will a robot take your job?
• Intelligent Machines – A BBC News investigation

India, the authors write, will only have about 9% of jobs replaced by emerging technologies.
The authors see tasks carried out by mortgage brokers, paralegals, accountants, and some back-office staff as especially vulnerable to automation.
Jobs requiring human interaction such as doctors, lawyers, teachers and bartenders are seen by McKinsey as less prone to automation.
Specialised lower-wage jobs, such as gardening, plumbing and care work, will also be less affected by automation, the study predicted.
In developed countries, the need for a university education will grow, as jobs that require less education shrink.
In the US alone, 39 to 73 million jobs may be eliminated by 2030, but about 20 million of those displaced workers may be able to easily transfer to other industries, according to the McKinsey report.
In the UK, 20% of current jobs will be automated over the same period, the author’s forecast.
How long will it take for your job to be automated
The authors believe the world will see a transition on the scale of the early 1900s when much of global industry switched from farming to factory work.
But they caution that new technology will yield new types of jobs, similar to the introduction of the personal computer in the 1980s which led to technology support work, and online business.
The report’s authors urge governments to enact plans to retrain their citizens.

The two companies jointly introduced the Galaxy Note 8 unto the Ghanaian market with an easy payment plan that can enable Ghanaians to purchase the device.

Described as the next level Note, the Galaxy Note 8 targets consumers who want to do bigger things with smartphones.

With Galaxy Note 8, consumers get a bigger Infinity Display that fits comfortably in one hand, the S Pen to communicate in more personal ways and Samsung’s best-ever smartphone camera to capture stunning photos.

Speaking at the launch, Eugene Nahm, Managing Director of Samsung Ghana, the technology manufacturer continues to uphold its commitment to lead the industry in battery safety. The Galaxy Note8 battery has undergone the 8-Point Battery Safety Check process hence making it the safest smartphone in the world.

Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Dan Sackey, stated that the partnership with Samsung will give more access to their clients, it will also enable them spend less time in banking halls in order to have enough time to do the things they love.

According to the bank, one can pay GHc14 a day over a 12-month period for the device.

Renowned Ghanaian artist Bright Ackwerh did a live display of the S Pen and gave a testimony of how the device makes it easier for him to sketch his artworks.

From the risk of mass unemployment to the deployment of autonomous robotics by criminal organisations or rogue states, the new Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics has been set the goal of second-guessing the possible threats.

It is estimated that 30% of jobs in Britain are potentially under threat from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, according to the consultancy firm PwC. In some sectors half the jobs could go. A recent study by the International Bar Association claimed robotics could force governments to legislate for quotas of human workers.

Meanwhile nations seeking to develop autonomous weapons technology, with the capability to independently determine their courses of action without the need for human control, include the US, China, Russia and Israel.

Irakli Beridze, senior strategic adviser at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, said the new team based in the Netherlands would also seek to come up with ideas as to how advances in the field could be exploited to help achieve the UN’s targets. He also said there were great risks associated with developments in the technology that needed to be addressed.

“If societies do not adapt quickly enough, this can cause instability,” Beridze told the Dutch newspaper de Telegraaf. “One of our most important tasks is to set up a network of experts from business, knowledge institutes, civil society organisations and governments. We certainly do not want to plead for a ban or a brake on technologies. We will also explore how new technology can contribute to the sustainable development goals of the UN. For this we want to start concrete projects. We will not be a talking club.”

In August more than 100 robotics and artificial intelligence leaders, including the billionaire head of Tesla, Elon Musk, urged the UN to take action against the dangers of the use of artificial intelligence in weaponry, sometimes referred to as “killer robots”.

They wrote: “Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at time scales faster than humans can comprehend. These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.”

Last year Prof Stephen Hawking warned that powerful artificial intelligence would prove to be “either the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity”.

An agreement was sealed with the Dutch government earlier this year for the UN office, which will have a small staff in its early stages, to be based in The Hague.

Beridze said: “Various UN organisations have projects on robotic and artificial intelligence research, such as the expert group on autonomous military robots of the convention on conventional weapons. These are temporary initiatives.

“Our centre is the first permanent UN office for this theme. We look at both the risks and the benefits.”

Twitter currently limits tweets to 140 characters, but has doubled that to 280 characters for a small group of users.

The current character limit was “a major cause of frustration” for some users, the firm said in a blog post.

The firm has been suffering from slowing growth and the shift could be one way for the firm to widen its appeal and attract new users.

“Trying to cram your thoughts into a Tweet – we’ve all been there, and it’s a pain,” Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen wrote.

Ms Rosen said the longer character limit was being tested in all languages bar Japanese, Chinese and Korean which she said could convey more information in a single character.

“We understand since many of you have been Tweeting for years, there may be an emotional attachment to 140 characters – we felt it, too.

“But we tried this, saw the power of what it will do, and fell in love with this new, still brief, constraint,” she said.

Analysis, Dave Lee, BBC North America technology reporter

With constant concerns over hate speech, propaganda bots, and trolling – you might wonder why Twitter is spending its time worrying about doubling the character limit.

Me too, if I’m honest.

But whatever – Jack Dorsey is right to point out that the 140 limit was only ever a technical limitation owing to the limits of text messages, something the service hasn’t had to worry about for a long time.

So why not make it a little longer?

It won’t be a dramatic change.

Twitter will hope it increases the engagement and attention times of its users.

Marketers will have more characters with which to get their message across, which might make Twitter a bit more cash.

Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey was one of the first to try the new limit out, saying it was “a small change, but a big move for us”.

But not all users were convinced. Writer Sarah Kendzior said it was too long

And The Times journalist Sathnam Sanghera pointed out that US President Donald Trump, famed for his prolific tweeting, could get more characters.

View image on Twitter

 Follow

Sarah Kendzior 

✔@sarahkendzior

In case anyone is wondering why 280 characters is a bad idea, it’s because THE TWEET IS NOW TOO LONG TO FIT ON TWITTER

9:33 PM – Sep 26, 2017

•  3838 Replies

•  232232 Retweets

•  708708 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

But Twitter said the change could mean people tweet more frequently.

“When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people tweeting,” Ms Rosen said.

The disabling in mainland China of the Facebook-owned app is a setback for the social media giant, whose chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has been pushing to re-enter the Chinese market, and has been studying the Chinese language intensively. WhatsApp was the last of Facebook products to still be available in mainland China; the company’s main social media service has been blocked in China since 2009, and its Instagram image-sharing app is also unavailable.

In mid-July, Chinese censors began blocking video chats and the sending of photographs and other files using WhatsApp, and they stopped many voice chats, as well. But most text messages on the app continued to go through normally. The restrictions on video, audio chats and file sharing were at least temporarily lifted after a few weeks.

WhatsApp now appears to have been broadly disrupted in China, even for text messages, Nadim Kobeissi, an applied cryptographer at Symbolic Software, a Paris-based research start-up, said on Monday. The blocking of WhatsApp text messages suggests that China’s censors may have developed specialized software to interfere with such messages, which rely on an encryption technology that is used by few services other than WhatsApp, he said.

“This is not the typical technical method in which the Chinese government censors something,” Mr. Kobeissi said. He added that his company’s automated monitors had begun detecting disruptions of WhatsApp in China on Wednesday, and that by Monday the blocking efforts were comprehensive.

Facebook declined to comment, following past practice when asked about WhatsApp’s difficulties in China.

Lokman Tsui, an internet communications specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that WhatsApp seemed to have been severely disrupted starting on Sunday. But he said that some WhatsApp users might still be able to use the service.

The Chinese authorities have a history of mostly, but not entirely, blocking internet services, as well as slowing them down so much that they become useless. The censorship has prompted many in China to switch to communications methods that function smoothly and quickly but that are easily monitored by the Chinese authorities, like the WeChat app of the Chinese internet company Tencent, which is based in Shenzhen.

“If you’re only allowed to drive one mile per hour, you’re not going to drive on that road, even if it’s not technically blocked,” Mr. Tsui said.

The disruption of WhatsApp comes as Beijing prepares for the Communist Party’s congress, which starts Oct. 18. Held once every five years, the congress chooses the party’s leadership, which in turn runs the country. Next month’s meeting is expected to reconfirm President Xi Jinping’s nearly absolute grip on power, but considerable uncertainty remains over who will join him on the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the party’s highest-ranking group.

Over the past several years, China has not only stepped up censorship but also closed numerous churches and jailed large numbers of human rights activists, lawyers and advocates for ethnic minorities.

The shutdown of WhatsApp prompted considerable dismay on Chinese social media.

“Losing contact with my clients, forced back to the age of telephone and email for work now,” one user complained on Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging site.

Even WhatsApp is blocked now? I’m going to be out of business soon,” another Chinese social media user said on Weibo.

In China, even the use of email is fading as residents embrace the convenience of WeChat. The messaging service, which has 963 million active users, bears some similarities to WhatsApp but has a wider array of features and one crucial difference: close ties to the government. This month, WeChat sent a notice to users reminding them that it complied with official requests for information.

When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, it agreed to open online data services and other enhanced telecommunications services to international competition. But it obtained the assent of other W.T.O. members to retain restrictions on the media. Technology multinationals, heavily dependent on the Chinese market, have been reluctant to accuse Beijing of falling short of its W.T.O. commitments.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative has opened a formal investigation into whether China is violating the intellectual property of American companies, but it has released few details. The trade office has not said whether the inquiry will include the blocking of products that rely on American intellectual property, or whether it will focus more narrowly on cases in which China has allegedly purloined or otherwise copied it.

WhatsApp has a strong reputation among cryptographers for security, which may have been what drew the attention of Chinese censors. The app provides so-called end-to-end encryption, which effectively means that even Facebook does not know what is being said in the text, voice and video conversations passing through its servers.

WhatsApp’s video, file sharing and other advanced features rely partly on broadly used internet data transfer protocols, and were disrupted over the summer. But its text messaging function relies on a different, heavily encrypted method for moving data that has seldom been used by companies.

The latest disruption of the WhatsApp messaging system suggests that China’s censorship apparatus may have figured out how to target the more uncommon and heavily encrypted data transport protocol as well, Mr. Kobeissi said.

Other services provided by American technology companies are available in mainland China. The country tolerates Microsoft’s Skype service for phone calls, which does not provide end-to-end encryption and as a result is easier for governments to monitor. Beijing also allows Apple’s FaceTime service, which has end-to-end encryption but does not have a WhatsApp-like feature allowing users to exchange secret codes — letting WhatsApp users combat what are known as “man in the middle” attacks.

By blocking the heavily encrypted WhatsApp service while making less secure applications like WeChat available to the public, the Chinese government has herded its internet users toward methods of communication that it can reliably monitor.

Residents of mainland China can still use services like WhatsApp if they first connect to virtual private networks that provide them with communications channels to servers outside the Chinese mainland. But the government has also been cracking down on virtual private networks in recent months — and even when those networks appear to be working, they sometimes do not allow access to services that the government is particularly targeting.

But here’s the kicker on why Samsung is adding the “Pro” moniker: both laptops come with an S Pen, laden with both Windows Ink and Samsung’s Air Command. In some way, it’s an extension of Samsung’s family, with long-time Galaxy Note users being all too familiar with the ways of their new laptop’s stylus. It also speaks to the trend with Windows laptops this year: almost everywhere you look, pen support is getting added. Windows 10 has also gotten a number of updates to better support pens this year, most notably with the Creator’s Update that arrived this spring.

New Samsung customers never exposed to the S Pen will have the option of a revered input tool. According to Samsung, this particular version of the S Pen is the same seen on the Note 8 — 0.7mm tip, 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity — with the only difference being a unique plastic casing used to fit the Notebook 9’s chassis and curvature.

At first, knowing I had the S Pen within a Windows machine didn’t drastically change the way I went about using the Notebook 9 Pro. Maybe it’s due to the traditional clamshell design and its large size (I’ve been testing the 15-inch model), which doesn’t instill a “tablet-first” usage style. What I personally found great about the S Pen is how unremarkable it is; docile, passive even. There’s no need to charge it, but it still works well for precision tasks — signing documents, editing photos in Lightroom or Photoshop, and doodling in Paint3D.

Completing basic productivity tasks would have been easy with just the Microsoft Precision touchpad. It’s fairly-sized, accurate and comfortable to use. However, having the S Pen always at your disposal makes using the Notebook 9 Pro feel just a tad more intuitive than all the other clamshell computers at the coffee shop.

Also, if you’re wondering where the S Pen lives: it’s inside of one-way slot, near the front lip of the laptop. It takes a few tries to slide it out in one motion, but soon you get used to it and thus get better at finding it. It’s a much better solution to storing the pen than most other laptop makers have offered, which usually consists of fabric loops or weak magnets that frequently don’t work. The S Pen becomes part of the machine, instead of just an accessory.

But beyond the smart storage system, the S Pen’s novelty is thin. The S Pen becomes “just another Windows Ink stylus” — albeit probably one of the better ones — and I go back to using touchpad and keyboard.

By comparing the Notebook 9 Pro’s keyboard and touchpad to two other laptops of the same size, I’ve been able to appreciate just how good they are. Travel isn’t shallow — like the Macbook Pro 15-inch — instead it has a soft but tactile feel. Individual keys are slightly rounded, with good build quality with little to no flex — whereas the keys on HP’s Spectre x360 15-inch had less feedback with more flex. Meanwhile, the Precision touchpad driver continues to be the best that Windows has. Input is precise and the touchpad is roomy, but not nearly as roomy as the Macbook’s.

Not everything about the Notebook 9 Pro’s hardware is rosy, however. For one, there are no front-facing speakers, since they’re both mounted underneath. The result is audio that feels distant, lacking vibrancy despite producing solid mids and a pinch of bass.

Cooling management is also a noticeable fault. The Pro will start heating up during a video or a few tasks running the background, keeping your lap warm and toasty — it shouldn’t be.

However, there’s only one thing that really grinds my gears with the Notebook 9 Pro. It’s the location of the power button. It’s on the right-hand side, right next to the microSD card slot. It sounds harmless, but in practice it’s fairly sensitive — it’s sloppy. Not only that, but the button protrudes from the side. It doesn’t take a reviewer to quickly realize you will be accidentally putting the Pro to sleep almost as often as you pick it up.

Also, far less of an issue but one related to its industrial design: the two-tone grey is unsightly. My opinion is by matching the darker hue of the palm rest with the exterior, the laptop would appear to be as “pro” as its name suggests. Right now, it looks like nearly every other laptop in Samsung’s lineup.

Samsung knows that many of the higher-end Windows laptops begin to converge on features, functionality, and even materials. Windows machines with touchscreens and styluses are more commonplace than ever, so what has Samsung done to differentiate itself? Besides the S Pen, it’s using the double-edged sword of bundled software. Added functionality at the cost of cleanliness.

For some, included apps like McAfee, Quick Settings app (also the F1 key) and SideSync to name a few, could be useful additions. But most people will find little use for them.

Of all the bundled software, only the Quick Settings app was worth being added to my taskbar. Within the app, you can control everything from the color tone of the display, high performance mode, video HDR, auto booting when you open the lid, USB charging and even a “silent mode”; masking the Notebook 9 Pro as a fanless, power-conscious laptop. It’s a bit like an extended version of the options available in Windows 10’s own Action Center.

Other features within the Quick Settings app are more gimmicks than anything else. For example, the digital privacy filter and “block camera recording” features. Let me explain.

A screen privacy filter is usually a physical feature or add-on, sometimes paired with clever software (see: HP’s Elitebook x360). But on the Notebook 9 Pro, there’s no physical privacy filter — it’s all software-based. Samsung only allows you to increase / decrease the opacity of windows by adding an opaque black layer over the display, making it impossible for even you to see what’s on-screen. I’d say try again, Samsung — this is certainly a feature users would appreciate, but right now it doesn’t really work.

Meanwhile, the camera blocking functionality is disabled (read: doesn’t work) if Windows Hello is enabled. This renders it the whole feature meaningless, since you’re exchanging one supposed form of security for another (and making logging into your computer more cumbersome in the process).

On the discussion of battery life, it’s unremarkable. I’ve pulled through seven to eight hours of moderate usage that includes multiple Chrome tabs, a lengthy Lightroom session, and 80 percent display brightness, with Bluetooth and keyboard backlighting on. Heavier usage may land you at the six hour mark, which isn’t stellar but not abysmal either.

Also, despite the use of a proprietary charging port, the USB-C port on the Notebook 9 Pro is capable to receiving charge from a battery pack or power outlet. So there are two ways to charge the Notebook 9 Pro, which is handy.

Solid power for good value always gains points in my book. Despite the compromises in audio, button placement, screen resolution and weight (4.8 pounds), the Notebook 9 Pro has a niche it can fill, even if that niche is as small as the S Pen.

The Notebook 9 Pro is for the user who wants a large screened Windows laptop, with the added benefits of an S Pen and plenty of power for your dollar. If you’re a fan of the Galaxy Note smartphone, it’s even better.

The added utility of a pen in a laptop doesn’t make using it worlds better, but in the case of the Notebook 9 Pro, it doesn’t take away from it either.

The newest iPhone, whose name has already leaked out as iPhone X, will be like the original in that it will be higher in price than most people are used to paying for phones, it will be constrained in availability due to the difficulty of its manufacture, and it will serve as a status symbol for its owners. Some will purchase it to signal their wealth, many will acquire it as a totem of their Apple fandom, and almost all will desire it simply by virtue of its limited availability and exclusivity.

When Apple launched the original iPhone, it was wildly different from the devices we called “phones.” In 2007, Nokias with T9 keypads were doing battle with BlackBerrys sporting full, three-dimensional QWERTY keyboards. Today, it’s no longer possible for any company to break so far from the norm — the mobile market moves too quickly, leaks are abundant, and phone designs are too mature for such revolutionary change — but Apple’s goal with the iPhone X is to indeed signal a new path for mobile devices. Sure, the Cupertino company will have the usual iterative updates to its lineup in the shape of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models, but the X version will be the one that tells us where Apple wants to go.

The most immediate and obvious change will be in the obliteration of the bezels above and below the iPhone X’s screen. Together with the round home button, those bezels have come to define the iPhone (and even smartphones in general) in simplified graphics and emoji. Apple’s decision to do away with them seems only cosmetic, but it also moves the company away from the fingerprint authentication technology that the iPhone’s Touch ID helped to usher into the mainstream. Where the iPhone X is going, it won’t be needing either a home button or a fingerprint sensor, and the rumors ahead of its launch indicate that Apple will move to less proven forms of biometric ID like facial recognition.

A good way to think of the iPhone X is as a sort of technology preview. Reading through all the leaks and off-the-record Apple reports, a picture emerges of the iPhone X as a radical redesign that strains at the edges of what can be done with current tech. It’s a break from Apple’s traditionally circumspect approach in one key way: the company is relying solely on Samsung to provide the requisite OLED displays, whereas it usually favors a diverse pool of component providers to minimize risk. Maybe for Apple internally, the iPhone X means as much “experimentation” as anything else. The company can’t afford to take many chances with the hundreds of millions of iPhones it sells every year, but a limited-edition model can serve as the proving ground for new technologies.

Much in the same way that the flagship smartphone of today turns into the mid-range device of tomorrow, so too the best elements of Apple’s cutting-edge, limited-edition, super-flagship of 2017 are likely to wind up in the regular iPhone of 2018.

With pricing anticipated somewhere around and above $1,000, Apple is set to position the iPhone X as a whole new class of device. This isn’t an unfamiliar tactic for the company, which in prior times introduced the Retina MacBook Pro at retina-searing prices just for those who really wanted — and could afford — to buy one. Gradually, the Retina MBP took over and became the only MBP option available, but its start was simply as an indulgence for people eager and wealthy enough to be super early adopters. That’s the play with the iPhone X as well, except the iPhone’s influence, recognizability, and social significance are all vastly greater than those of a MacBook laptop.

For regular consumers, the iPhone X will be defined simply by its exclusivity. As with the original iPhone, merely obtaining one will be a feat in and of itself. Beyond being limited in number and difficult to afford, the iPhone X retail units might not even arrive particularly soon, as multiple pre-launch reports have suggested an extended delay after the official announcement.

Odds are that the struggle to get an iPhone X will just feed into the desire for it — much as you might see with rare, limited-edition mechanical watches or special edition sports cars. Apple has spent the past few years cozying up to luxury brands like Hermès, and now it seems to be borrowing a trick from their playbook while serving its own technical goals. By releasing what is essentially the 2018 iPhone in a very early and very limited edition, the Cupertino company is getting the benefits of both experimentation and exclusivity.

The two, Miss Agyirakwa Monney Bernice and Doreenda Nikoi Kotei-Sika, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students at the Kwame Nkrumah Science and Technology (KNUST) respectively have developed an app which has been electronically fitted into waste bins to direct the public on proper waste disposal.

They emerged winners at the 2017 edition of the MTN Girl Code Project in Kumasi.

The project which is a partnership between Women in Technology Africa and the MTN-Ghana Foundation is a five-day boot camp which equips young women with basic coding techniques and business validation processes to enable them develop solutions to problems in their communities.

Some of these apps and business ideas focused on breast care, kayayei, food and sanitation.

The winners have pledged to broaden their innovation which will go a long way to solve the sanitation problems in the country.

According to them, they will partner sanitation agencies to produce such waste bins for the primary and Junior High Schools (JHSs) across the country as a way of inculcating good sanitary practices and hygiene into pupils.

They also called on Government to support such ideas in its bid to keep the country clean.

A facilitator and Ghana Chapter Lead for Women in Tech-Africa, Selasi Dzikunu expressed delight at the partnership between her outfit and  MTN-Ghana.

She said this had afforded the ladies the opportunity to develop modern applications to address needs on the market.

Data and Channel Manager for MTN-Ghana in charge of the Northern Business District, Steven Asare urged Ghanaian women to take particular interest in the study of science and technology.

According to him, there is a lot to accomplish if ladies attend their hearts to pursuing courses in the area of science and technology.

The home button is the key to the iPhone and the design hasn’t changed much since it launched in 2007. Currently, users click it to return to the starting app grid that greets them multiple times a day. They hold it down to talk to the Siri digital assistant. Double click it and you get multitasking where different apps screens can be swiped through like a carousel.

Apple is preparing three new iPhones for debut next month. One of the models, a new high-end device, packs in enough changes to make it one of the biggest iPhone updatesin the product’s decade-long history. With a crisper screen that takes up nearly the entire front, Apple has tested the complete removal of the home button—even a digital one—in favor of new gesture controls for tasks like going to the main app grid and opening multitasking, according to the people and the images.

In the new, high-end iPhone, Apple also plans a taller screen with rounded corners, a cutout at the top of the display for the camera and sensors, and new antenna locations, the images show. Apple often tests different designs and the details may differ from what the company ultimately releases. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Across the bottom of the screen there’s a thin, software bar in lieu of the home button. A user can drag it up to the middle of the screen to open the phone. When inside an app, a similar gesture starts multitasking. From here, users can continue to flick upwards to close the app and go back to the home screen. An animation in testing sucks the app back into its icon. The multitasking interface has been redesigned to appear like a series of standalone cards that can be swiped through, versus the stack of cards on current iPhones, the images show.

The new model’s overall size will be similar to that of the iPhone 7, but it will include an OLED screen that is slightly larger than the one on the iPhone 7 Plus (5.5-inches), people familiar with the product have told Bloomberg News. The phone will have symmetrical, slim bezels around the entirety of the screen, meaning the area below the screen that used to house the home button and the area above the screen for the earpiece have been removed. The earpiece, facial recognition sensor, and selfie camera are instead present in a cutout, or “notch,” at the top of the screen, the images show.

The new screen is rounded on the corners, while current iPhone screens have square corners. The power button on the right side of phone is longer so it is easier to press while holding the device in one hand, according to the images and the people.

The screen is also noticeably taller than the iPhone 7 Plus’s screen, meaning it could show more of a web page or additional text messages, the people said. The phone will still have six vertical rows of apps, showing 24 icons on each page, excluding the dock, a grey bar at the bottom that houses commonly used apps. The dock is redesigned with a new interface similar to the one on the iPad version of iOS 11, the images show.

Apple has opted to not hide the notch area at the top of the screen, showing a definitive cutout at the top of apps with non-black backgrounds. The cutout is noticeable during app usage in the middle of the very top of the screen, where the status bar (the area that shows cellular reception, the time, and battery life) would normally be placed, according to the images. Instead, the status bar will be split into left and right sides, which some Apple employees call “ears” internally. In images of recent test devices, the left side shows the time while the area on the right side of the notch displays cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity and remaining battery life. Because of limited space, the status bar could change based on the task at hand, according to a person familiar with the testing.

The color reproduction of the OLED screen means that when the display shows black, it blends in nearly perfectly with the phone’s notch and thin black edges on the front, presenting a seamless look, according to the people familiar with the product. The screen itself, however, is flat like current and past iPhones and lacks the fully curved displays of the latest Samsung phones.

Apple also plans to include a stainless steel band around the phone which the glass curves into. The steel band has small antenna cuts on the corners like past iPhones to improve reception, the images show. Apple previously used steel sides and a glass casing for the iPhone 4 and 4s before moving to a mostly metal back and sides with the iPhone 5. The iPhone 6 line and newer have had completely metal backs.

Apple also is planning two additional new iPhone models that use faster processors, but include the same screens as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The new devices will debut at Apple’s September launch event alongside upgraded Apple TV and Apple Watch models.

A Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and accompanying stylus. Richard Drew / AP
Apple has been following a September launch cycle, but this one will be particularly special, marking the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Apple, of course, isn’t commenting. But revenue projections of $49 billion to $52 billion for the next quarter indicate Apple may have something big in store.
It’s expected Apple’s newest generation of iPhones will have edge-to-edge displays worthy of rivaling Samsung.
Developers have been busy sifting through code — particularly in the recently released firmware for the Home Pod, Apple’s smart speaker that goes on sale at the end of this year.
In the code, developers found hints about what we can expect from the iPhone 8. Steve Troughton-Smith reported on Twitter that the new iPhone will have facial recognition technology. The finding was also confirmed by iOS developer Guilherme Rambo on Twitter.
 

 Follow

Steve T-S 

✔@stroughtonsmith

I can confirm reports that HomePod’s firmware reveals the existence of upcoming iPhone’s infra-red face unlock in BiometricKit and elsewhere

2:03 AM – Jul 31, 2017

•  6868 Replies

•  1,3881,388 Retweets

•  2,3232,323 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

But it could extend beyond just using biometrics to unlock your phone.
There’s also been some speculation the new iPhone could potentially be able to read your emotions. Last year, Apple acquired Emotient, a company that uses artificial intelligence to read facial expressions.
It’s unclear what purpose the emotion tech could have — but it could tap in to an entire new functionality for the pocket-sized devices so many of us rely on in our day-to-day routines.
Also expect Google to be back with a second generation of its Pixel smartphones later this year. The first generation Pixel phones won rave reviews for their cameras, but demand far outpaced supply, leaving plenty of potential eager customers without a chance to buy one of the premium phones.
Google hasn’t confirmed whether — or when — new Pixel phones could be arriving; however, earlier this year, Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of hardware at Google, told AndroidPIT that a Pixel 2 is definitely in the works.
“There is an annual rhythm in the industry. So, you can count on us to follow it,” he said. “You can count on a successor this year, even if you don’t hear a date from me now.”
If Google sticks with that “annual rhythm,” the world should be meeting the next generation of Pixel phones sometime in October — one year after the devices were first released.
The bottom line: Whether you’re an iPhone loyalist or looking to try a new Android phone, it’s going to be a busy few months for new releases. The question is — which one will you choose?

To reach such an equilibrium, the players need to understand the consequences of their own and others’ potential actions. During the Cold War, for example, peace among nuclear powers depended on the understanding the any attack would ensure everyone’s destruction. Similarly, from local regulations to international law, negotiations can be seen as a gradual exploration of all possible moves to find a stable framework of rules acceptable to everyone, and giving no one an incentive to cheat – because doing so would leave them worse off.
But what if technology becomes so complex and starts evolving so rapidly that humans can’t imagine the consequences of some new action? This is the question that a pair of scientists — Dimitri Kusnezov of the National Nuclear Security Administration and Wendell Jones, recently retired from Sandia National Labs — explore in a recent paper. Their unsettling conclusion: The concept of strategic equilibrium as an organizing principle may be nearly obsolete.
Kusnezov and Jones derive insight from recent mathematical studies of games with many players and many possible choices of action. One basic finding is a sharp division into two types, stable and unstable. Below a certain level of complexity, the Nash equilibrium is useful in describing the likely outcomes. Beyond that lies a chaotic zone where players never manage to find stable and reliable strategies, but cope only by perpetually shifting their behaviors in a highly irregular way. What happens is essentially random and unpredictable.
The authors argue that emerging technologies — especially computing, software and biotechnology such as gene editing — are much more likely to fall into the unstable category. In these areas, disruptions are becoming bigger and more frequent as costs fall and sharing platforms enable open innovation. Hence, such technologies will evolve faster than regulatory frameworks — at least as traditionally conceived — can respond.
What can we do? Kusnezov and Jones don’t have an easy answer. One clear implication is that it’s probably a mistake to copy techniques used for the more slowly evolving and less widely available technologies of the past. This is often the default approach, as illustrated by proposals to regulate gene editing techniques. Such efforts are probably doomed in a world where technologies develop thanks to the parallel efforts of a global population with diverse aims and interests. Perhaps future regulation will itself have to rely on emerging technologies, as some are already exploring for finance.
We may be approaching a profound moment in history, when the guiding idea of strategic equilibrium on which we’ve relied for 75 years will run up against its limits. If so, regulation will become an entirely different game.

10) Equatorial Guinea
This central African country has a population of 894,464 individuals. Equatorial Guinea had only 500 internet users in the year 2000. Now with 181,657 internet users in 2017, the country has seen a growth of 36,231.4% seeing them ranked as 10th on this list.
9) Algeria
Situated in North Africa, Algeria has a population of 41,063,753 individuals. With only 50,000 of Algeria’s population having internet access in 2000, the growth to 18,580,000 has seen an increase of 37,060.0 %. This growth sees Algeria ranked 9th on the list.
8) Chad
A landlocked central African country, Chad, has a population of 14,965,482 individuals. In the year 2000, Chad only 1,000 people who had access to the internet. Now with 387,063 of the population having access to the internet, Chad has seen a growth of 38,606.3 % making them the 8th fastest on the list.
7) Nigeria
West African giant Nigeria has a population of 191,835,936. Nigeria had only 200,000 people connected to the internet in 2000. This has risen to 93,591,174 people recording a 46,695.6 % growth, which ultimately sees them come in at number 7 on this list.
6) Rwanda
Rwanda is a landlocked East African country with a population of 12,159,586. With only 5,000 people having access to the internet in Rwanda in 2000, the rise to 3,724,678 has seen a 74,393.6 % growth. This growth sees Rwanda ranked 6th on this list of fastest and biggest internet growth in Africa.
5) Liberia
Liberia is a West African country with a population of 4,730,437. In the year 2000, Liberia had only 500 people with access to the internet. A growth of 78,912.6 % has seen this number rise to 395,063 and see Liberia ranked 6th on this list.
4) Congo
Central African country Congo, not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of Congo, has a population of 4,866,243 individuals. With only 500 of them with internet access in the year 2000, the rise to 400,000 has seen a growth of 79,900.0 %. This growth sees the Congo rated as 4th on this list.
3) Ethiopia
This East African country has a population of 104,344,901. With only 10,000 having access to the internet in 2000, the rise to 11,538,000 has seen an internet growth of 115,280.0 %. This growth rate sees Ethiopia come in at number 3 on this list.
2) Somalia
Somalia is an East African country which has a population of 11,391,962. Only 200 people in Somalia had access to the internet in the year 2000, this number has increased to 660,000 which is a growth rate of 329,900.0 %. This sees Somalia come in at number 2 on this list of the biggest and fastest internet growth in Africa.
1) The Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a country with a population of 82,242,685. In the year 2000, the Democratic Republic of Congo only had 500 people who had access to the internet. This has now risen to 3,101,210 which is a growth of 620,142.0 %. This growth sees the Democratic Republic of Congo come in at number 1 on this list of the African countries with the fastest and biggest internet growth.

The study showed that the same people, who were sharing vast amounts of public posts, were also sharing low quality content.
As a result of the research, Facebook said it would “deprioritise” posts being shared from those accounts.
The new policy will only apply to links for individual articles and domains – pages, videos, photos, check-ins or status updates will not be affected.
Facebook said it aimed to make people’s news feed more “informative”.
It said: “By taking steps like this to improve news feed, we’re able to surface more stories that people find informative and reduce the spread of problematic links such as clickbait, sensationalism and misinformation.”
Meanwhile, Facebook is also reported to be rolling out a new Discover tab for Messenger that will make it easier for users to find and engage with brands and chatbots, Business Insider reports.
The tool, which was unveiled during a Facebook conference in April, is part of the company’s strategy to make Messenger a go-to communication platforms between users and businesses.
The social network said it wants to make the app more like the Yellow Pages and make it easier for users to get in touch with businesses.
While users will be able to use the Discover tab to “find the businesses they care about”, this will also mean businesses will also be able to pester users more easily.

Communities often oppose plans to build a clinic in their town or village fearing it will be targeted, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.
Keeping a standardised track of attacks on health facilities and workers has been a major challenge in conflict zones.
But a new digital instant messaging tool that relies on smartphone application WhatsApp has been developed by the WHO and its partners to detect, verify and log the devastating consequences of such attacks.
It is hoped the WhatsApp-based tool will provide vital evidence for the international community, which in the future could be used to hold perpetrators to account.
Syria has been named the most dangerous place on earth for healthcare providers by a Lancet Commission on Syria report, published in March, which revealed that more than 800 medical workers had been killed since 2011.
Nearly half of hospitals in non-government controlled areas were attacked and a third of services hit more than once between November 2015 and December 2016, according to a separate study published by Elamein and others.
The new tool piloted in Gaziantep by health organisations working in Syria involves a WhatsApp group of nearly 300 trusted contacts on the ground.
After the initial alert of an attack, further details are logged and cross-referenced with a range of sources in a central database.
‘WHO’ YOU GONNA CALL?
Mobile messaging is the fastest-growing digital communication phenomenon ever, according to a report compiled this year by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
From the Syrian hospital alert system to refugees who share information about safety at sea, digital messaging services like WhatsApp, owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Inc, are becoming indispensable in fast-unfolding humanitarian crises.
Their potential is growing every day, experts say, with 3.6 billion people globally expected to use messaging apps by 2018.
In Syria, the WhatsApp tool identified 402 attacks against health facilities and medical workers between November 2015 and December 2016. It is also designed to report attacks on ambulances and patients.
The tool is already being deployed in Jordan and Pakistan, and the WHO plans to roll it out in Iraq and Yemen. The U.N. agency is also considering its use in other troubled hotspots, including in Africa.
AFRICAN APPS
While smartphones are less widespread in Africa, the number of users almost doubled between 2014 and 2016, reaching 226 million.
In Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania, up to 90 percent of smartphone owners regularly use at least one messaging service, such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, according to a study issued last month by GSMA Mobile Economy.
During the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, 25,000 people subscribed to the BBC’s first “Lifeline” humanitarian service using WhatsApp. It disseminated public information via audio, image and text message alerts to combat the disease’s spread.
In Somalia, a country grappling with drought and attacks by the al Shabaab militant group, messaging apps also play a critical role for the diaspora, said Amor Almagro, a spokeswoman for the World Food Programme.
“It’s one of the ways by which they stay in contact with their families in Somalia, get news from home and arrange for money transfers through the informal networks,” she said.
FANNING THE FLAMES
But instant messaging is far from a panacea in crisis zones, and some experts say it can also be used to fuel violence.
In Central African Republic, diamond smuggling gangs are plundering the country’s resources and funding conflict by making illegal sales via WhatsApp and Facebook, said a recent report by NGO Global Witness.
Connectivity disruptions are another hurdle.
Earlier last month, Somalia plunged into an internet blackout lasting more than three weeks, after a cargo ship damaged an underwater cable.
Other countries simply pull the plug. In 2016, 11 African governments suspended internet connections during elections or protests.
A 2016 paper by Adebayo Fayoyin of the United Nations Population Fund warned of a “new media utopianism”, adding “technology is a tool of development, not an end in itself”.

But several experts said the measures did not do go far enough.
“Presenting audiences with context is helpful,” said Tom Felle, a senior lecturer in digital journalism at City University.
“But it does nothing to stop the spread of this material, or to stop traffic going to fake news peddlers who are making money out of creating this material.”
Facebook has been criticised as being one of the main distribution points for fake news, which many think influenced the 2016 US presidential election.
Voters were also flooded with hoax stories during the French presidential election in May.

‘Updated AI’

The firm has previously been reluctant to take down potentially fake news stories, arguing that it does not want to be an “arbiter of truth”.
Instead it identifies potentially false stories through a mixture of artificial intelligence (AI) and user detection. These are then sent to independent fact-checkers who place a flag next to hoax stories to alert readers.
On Thursday, however, the firm said it would start using “updated machine learning” to enhance detection.
“If an article has been reviewed by fact checkers, we may show the fact-checking stories below the original post,” added Sara Su, product manager of News Feed, in a blog.
A spokesman later clarified that these stories would not be “direct responses” to fake articles, but factually accurate reports that offered an alternative.

‘Related articles’

On Thursday, the firm rolled out a new “Related articles” feature in the US, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
The feature, which the firm has been testing since April, places links to other news coverage beneath highly popular or questionable stories, offering users “more perspectives and additional information”.
Brooke Binkowski, managing editor of fact-checking magazine Snopes, told the BBC: “I applaud their efforts to ‘flood out’ fake news, a method of which I have been a proponent for a long time.”
However, she said that while AI was “a good tool, it is also a blunt one”.
Mr Felle said if the firm really wanted to stop fake news, it needed to back the news industry in a better way.
“If Facebook wants to help journalism it needs to put its hand in its pocket and support quality, trusted news organisations to better reach audiences, and advertisers.”

• Amazon.com
• GetMixBin.com, henribendel.com and victoriassecret.com
• Henri Bendel, Nordstrom Rack, Tory Burch and Victoria’s Secret shops in the US, Canada and Mexico

Some of the cases were still on sale on eBay’s UK store until the BBC brought the matter to the firm’s attention.
MixBin liquid glitter cases already appeared to have been removed from Amazon’s UK site.
Neither of the two internet retailers provided comment when asked.

Lost combination

The team’s work began when Mr Siedle’s wife Alicia bought a safe on eBay that was cheap due to the previous owner not knowing what the combination was.
“She gave it to me for Christmas,” Mr Siedle said.
The mechanism in the safe consists of three dials which, when aligned, allow the safe to be opened. Each dial can be any two digit number – meaning one million potential combinations.

But the robot doesn’t simply try every combination. It is able to suss out one of the dials within 20 seconds by detecting the size of indents on the dial. In simple terms, the “solution” indent is slightly larger than the “incorrect” indents. In the demonstration, this method meant the team discovered the third and final number was 93.
The other two dials cannot be measured – but eliminating one greatly reduces the number of possible combinations.
It was made easier when the team also discovered that the safe’s design allows for a margin of error to compensate for humans getting their combination slightly wrong.
For example, if one dial is set to open at 14, using 15 and 13 will work as well. It meant the robot could check every third number, making it possible to quickly test the remaining combinations much faster than a human being.
Using this method, they could cut down the number of possible combinations to around 1,000 – a far more manageable challenge.

Bic pen

Before the attempt, Mr Siedle told the BBC the robot could be easily adapted to tackle any combination safe.
“We designed it for a particular type of safe, but it doesn’t really matter – you can actually 3D-print a coupler that can match any safe that you may have.”
Some SentrySafe models come with an additional lock and key, but the team was able to unlock it by using a Bic pen.
“No matter how much money you spend on a safe… nothing is impervious,” Mr Siedle said.

Microsoft’s graphics program Paint has been included in a list of Windows 10 features that will be either removed or no longer developed.

Paint has been part of the Windows operating system since its release in 1985 and is known for its simplicity and basic artistic results.
Paint’s successor, Paint 3D, will still be available.
The list was issued as part of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, which rolls out in the autumn.
Microsoft says that features on the list will be either removed from Windows 10 or “not in active development and might be removed in future releases”.
Other features facing the axe include the Outlook Express email client, which is replaced with the built-in Mail app, and the Reader app, which will be integrated into Microsoft Edge.
The BBC has contacted Microsoft for comment.

RIP Paint

People have expressed disappointment at the news on social media, with many tweeting “RIP” messages.
Welsh YouTuber Chaotic described Paint as “the greatest thing to have ever existed” – perhaps with tongue in cheek.
The artist known as Jim’ll Paint It uses the program to create artwork on outlandish themes, commissioned by strangers. He has nearly 700,000 followers on Facebook.
“Paint hasn’t been all that since they messed about with it anyway. I’m running XP on a virtual machine because it’s the best one,” he tweeted.
“They should just release the source and make it public domain,” tweeted games developer Mike Dailly, creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto.

View image on Twitter

 Follow

FIRST Global @F1RSTglobal

Zhang Heng Awards for Engineering Design go to Teams #Mexico #Mali #India

10:05 PM – 18 Jul 2017

•  136136 Retweets

•  314314 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Other special medals were presented in recognition of various achievements. Tunisia won the international excellence award, Mali won the engineering design award, South Sudan won the courageous achievement award, and Nigeria won the international journey award.
Below are the ranks of the participating African countries at the end of the competition.
Benin – 7
Liberia – 12
Nigeria – 25
Mozambique – 29
Mali – 30
Zambia – 32
Sierra Leone – 37
Cameroon – 43
Equatorial Guinea – 50
Namibia – 52
Senegal – 55
Zimbabwe – 56
DR Congo – 58
Ghana – 66
Rwanda – 68
Cabo Verde – 69
Burundi – 73
South Africa – 77
Malawi – 81
Tunisia – 83
Niger – 89
Burkina Faso – 93
Gabon – 96
Morocco – 100
Seychelles – 105
Gambia – 106
Tanzania – 109
South Sudan – 117
Uganda – 128
Sudan – 135
Ethiopia – 136
Egypt – 142
Ivory Coast – 143
Botswana – 145
Kenya – 148
Lesotho – 150
Algeria – 154
Togo – 155
Madagascar – 157
Libya – 159

Here are some of the CHG90’s important specs and features:

play

The CHG90 uses a VA LCD panel, which is an ultrafast panel with a response time of only one millisecond. That might not mean much to someone who mostly uses computers for work, but gamers who play fast-paced games could appreciate the CHG90’s minimal response time.
• It has a refresh rate of 144 hertz, which means each pixel can refresh 144 times per second, and makes for high-frame-rate gaming — if your graphics card can handle high frame rates.
• It uses quantum-dot technology from Samsung’s HDTV lineup for better brightness and color accuracy than regular LCD monitors.
• It also features HDR10 for even better colors and contrast.
• It’s the first monitor to feature AMD’s FreeSync 2 technology, which helps your PC’s graphics card communicate with the monitor for smoother gameplay without screen tearing or stuttering.
You can split up the layout of the screen with the CHG90’s software, as Windows 10 doesn’t have any settings or support for such a wide screen.

Here’s a closer look at Samsung’s CHG90 software.

playHere’s a closer look at Samsung’s CHG90 software.
(Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider)

The CHG90 costs $1,500, and it’s available for preorder now.

You can preorder the CHG90 monitor on Amazon and at local Micro Center stores.

Qualcomm, the world’s biggest producer of mobile phone chips, has appealed for the sale of some iPhones in the US to be blocked.

It claims that iPhones using chips by rivals, such as Intel, infringe six of its patents.
Qualcomm said it had asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate and impose an import block.
It is the latest move in a series of disputes and lawsuits between Apple and Qualcomm.
In January, Apple filed two lawsuits against Qualcomm, claiming it had abused its dominant market position.
It also alleged the chip-maker had broken an agreement between the two companies, by denying Apple access to chip technologies it was entitled to use under the terms of a licensing deal.
The latest disagreement concerns six patents relating to energy-saving features on the iPhone, which Qualcomm says Apple has used without permission.
According to the news agency Reuters, Qualcomm has also filed a lawsuit seeking financial compensation from Apple.
“Apple continues to use Qualcomm’s technology while refusing to pay for it. These lawsuits seek to stop Apple’s infringement of six of our patented technologies,” the company said in a statement.
Apple referred the BBC to a previous statement on Qualcomm, in which it said the company’s business practices “harmed the entire industry”.
“They supply us with a single connectivity component, but for years have been demanding a percentage of the total cost of our products – effectively taxing Apple’s innovation”, it said.
“We believe deeply in the value of intellectual property but we shouldn’t have to pay them for technology breakthroughs they have nothing to do with.”
Qualcomm said it hoped the ITC would begin an investigation in August.