The US government is pouring money into the Internet of Things

The U.S government spent $8.8 billion in the fiscual year of 2015, up from $7.7 billion in the fiscal year 2014, according to a report from Govini, which collects and analyzes data about government contracts. Overall, the federal government spent almost $35 billion on IoT solutions from the fiscal year 2011 through the fiscal year 2015.

The report split the government's IoT investments into three categories. First is infrastructure

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Xiaomi Buys 1,500 Patents From Microsoft To Aid Global Expansion

Xiaomi has signed a deal with Microsoft to acquire 1,500 patents in exchange for bundling Skype and Office apps on its smartphones and tablets, as the Chinese company seeks a way to expand its products into Western markets. The deal, which also includes a cross-licensing agreement, could hasten the launch of Xiaomi smartphones in markets such as Western Europe and North America where it is believed that a lack of a robust mobile patent portfolio is the major factor in preventing a more global launch.

The patents Xiaomi has acquired cover wireless communications, video, cloud and multimedia technologies, and come six months after the Chinese company signed a patent-licensing deal with U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm covering 3G and 4G technologies. Xiaomi has acquired 1,500 patents from Microsoft, in a deal that will

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StanChart launches mobile banking push in Africa as rivals retreat

Standard Chartered is to launch its mobile and online banking platform in eight African countries, its consumer banking chief for the region told Reuters, as the lender seeks to grow in Africa at a time when some European banks are retreating. StanChart will launch the service for its 1 million customers in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the first half of 2016, the bank's regional head for retail banking

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Here's Facebook's next major app: Moments

Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) mobile app is one of the most popular in the world. More than 1 billion people use Facebook on their mobile devices each and every day. But there's more to Facebook than its core social network. The company has an increasingly impressive array of other apps, each boasting hundreds of millions of additional users in their own right. Collectively, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram reach 2.3 billion people each month, mostly through mobile devices. WhatsApp and Messenger lead the way with 1 billion and 900 million monthly actives, respectively; Instagram adds 400 million. The company has tried many times to add a fifth to that lineup, but most of its initiatives have been outright failures. Last year, Facebook discontinued Slingshot, Riff, and Rooms after they failed to gain sufficient traction. But Facebook has one up-and-coming app that may hold considerably more promise: Moments, a photo-centric app Facebook launched

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Samsung braces for patent war

The total number of patents that tech giant Samsung Electronics holds in the U.S. increased by more than fifteen times over the past nine years, according to the company on Thursday. Samsung’s patents registered at the U.S. patent office stood at 38,809 last year, up from 2,457 in 2007

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South Africa: How the State Capture Controversy Has Influenced South Africa's Nuclear Build

South Africa is facing a critical decision that could see it investing about R1 trillion - or US$60 billion to $70 billion - in a fleet of new nuclear power stations. Proponents argue that it will greatly increase electrical base-load capacity and generate industrial growth. But opponents believe the high cost would cripple the country economically. What should be an economic decision has now been clouded by controversy, with political pressure to push through the nuclear build and the increasingly apparent rewards it would bring to politically linked individuals. The nuclear expansion programme needs to be considered exceptionally carefully given that the required financial commitment is roughly equal to the total South African annual tax revenue. Loan repayments could place a devastating long-term burden on

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You Won't Be Able to Use PayPal's App on These Phones Anymore

Shares of PayPal Holdings  (PYPL) are down by 1.68% to $38.11 late Thursday afternoon, as the San Jose, CA-based technology platform company announces it is discontinuing its apps on the Windows Phone (MSFT), BlackBerry (BBRY) and Amazon's(AMZN) Fire OS.

As of June 30, the only two of PayPal's money transaction apps remaining will be on Google's Android (GOOGL) and Apple's(AAPL) iOS.

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Intels pledges sustained expansion agenda in Nigeria

Despite various economic challenges especially in the oil and gas sector, Intels Nigeria Limited, concessionaire of Onne Free Trade Zone (OFTZ) has pledged to sustain ongoing expansion scheme. The resolve, according to the company, is expected to impact positively on its operations and that of 150 firms operating within the maritime facility. Providing update of its operations, Intels explained that critical infrastructure such as world acclaimed Liebherr crane has either been deployed or enhanced inline with global standard

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6 big changes coming to Android phones

After A, I, V, and R (as in artificial intelligence and virtual reality), the next most important letter at Google’s just-concluded I/O conference here had to have been N.That’s the letter assigned to the next version of its Android operating system, the subject of a major part of the keynote Wednesday. Google will almost certainly name it  after a dessert beginning with “n,” in keeping with its habit of thinking with its sweet tooth when christening new Android releases. While we wait for a ruling from the Google officials on that, here’s what we do know is coming from Android N when it ships later this summer:

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Samsung Galaxy Note 6 tipped to feature 6GB RAM

Samsung has launched a new 6GB DRAM chip, which adds weight to the rumour that the Galaxy Note 6 will feature a whopping 6GB RAM.

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Uber tests self-driving cars in Pittsburgh

The company is working out the bugs in its self-driving technology. The ride-hailing behemoth announced in a blog post Thursday that it has begun testing a self-driving car in Pittsburgh, home of the company's nascent Advanced Technologies Center. The car, a Ford Fusion Hybrid with a roof-full of radar, lasers and cameras, will be collecting road-mapping data as well as testing its real-world traffic reactions. Uber's interest in autonomous car technology dates to a year ago, when the $60 billion start-up began hiring Carnegie Mellon University robotics experts to staff its new center not far from the Pittsburgh-based school.

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3 Ways to Analyse SEO Content and Increase Sales

I’ve got news for you. You’re missing the fundamental point of SEO and google is laughing at you.

Why? Because while you tinker with your backlink profile and worry about the semantic variety of thematic keywords, Google is doing the one thing you aren’t:thinking about the customer.

The future of SEO lies in a customer-centric approach to search. Don’t get me wrong – we still need to build technically fast, competent platforms for the wider search environment. Technology and content KPIs and traditional streams of work are still critical in the doing. However, optimising for traditional Search KPI’s alone is akin to chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Reality is far removed from this world of fiction. I liken SEO to medical diagnosis and treatment – you may know the anatomy of a body on paper and the different effects of medicines, but

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Microsoft to sell feature phone business to Foxconn

Microsoft announced it will sell its feature phone business to a subsidiary of Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn.

In a statement released Wednesday, Microsoft says it will transfer its feature phone assets including brands, software and services to FIH Mobile and Finnish company HMD for $350 million. The deal is expected to close during the second half of this year.

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Africa: On World Telecommunication Day, UN Hails Role of It in Sustainable Development

The global sustainable development agenda recognizes the great potential of information and communication technology to accelerate human progress, bridge the digital divide and advance knowledge, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, marking World Telecommunication and Information Society Day with a call for Governments, businesses and civil society leaders to develop new technologies that have a lasting social impact. In his message for the Day, the UN chief highlighted that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals specifically call for employing information and communication technology (ICT) to realize the overall vision of a life of dignity for all people.

"These technologies provide smart

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Google's bigger I/O attracts more women, minorities

SAN FRANCISCO — Google's annual conference for software developers looks a lot like Google itself: Mostly male, white and Asian. Unwilling to accept the status quo, the tech giant is leading the charge to shake up the lopsided demographics of tech conferences and, at I/O, Google says it's making progress in closing the gender and racial gap.

The percentages of women and minorities attending the developers conference have not budged much since last year, but the numbers have, Google says. Women account for 23% of conference goers, same as last year, but I/O is 25% bigger, according to Google. Women accounted for 16% of attendees in 2014 and 8% in 2013. For the first time this year, Google

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IOSCO drives global securities markets’ growth

The International Organisation of Securities Commissions has opened the public sessions of its annual conference in Lima focusing on small and medium enterprise financing, investor protection and education, and the opportunities and challenges of new financial technologies. The public conference comes at the conclusion of IOSCO’s private meetings in which members discussed responses to the challenges facing markets regulators, according to a statement by the body. During the four-day meeting, the IOSCO Board, the Growth and Emerging Markets Committee, the four regional committees and the Affiliate Members Consultative Committee discussed policy initiatives to strengthen

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Nigeria: Oil Exploration Causes Environmental Warming in Nigeria - NGO

Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), said oil exploration by multinational companies was a major contributor to environmental warming and climate change effects in Nigeria.

Coordinator of the organisation, Mr Nnimo Bassey, stated this on Sunday at an environmental awareness campaign tagged "Break Free 2016" in Ibeno, Akwa Ibom.

He said that exploitation of crude oil and flaring of gas had destroyed the ecosystem thereby causing environmental warming in the country.

"We can break free from fossil fuel; we cannot

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Panama Papers: Full database published

The ICIJ is publishing the information in the public interest The data the ICIJ is now making public represents a fraction of the Panama Papers, a trove of more than 11.5 million leaked files from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the world’s top creators of hard-to-trace companies, trusts and foundations.

The consortium is not publishing the totality of the leak, and it is not disclosing raw documents or personal information en masse. The database contains a great deal of information about company owners, proxies and intermediaries in secrecy jurisdictions, but it does not disclose bank accounts, email exchanges and financial transactions contained in the documents.

In all, the database reveals more than 360,000 names of people and companies behind secret offshore structures. As the data are from leaked sources and not a standardised registry, there may be some duplication of names. The data was originally obtained from an anonymous source by reporters at the German newspaper Süeddeustche Zeitung, who asked ICIJ to organise a global reporting collaboration to analyse the files. More than 370 reporters (https://panamapapers.icij.org/about.html) in nearly 80 countries investigated the files for a year. Their investigations uncovered the secret

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Panama Papers: Secret offshore world feeds global inequality

At a meeting on Brexit and the law last week in Dublin, former attorney general Paul Gallagher SC emphasised the potential for instability in the UK’s referendum on leaving the European Union.

What if one of the largest economies in Europe was to pull out of such a project as the EU? Would others follow suit, or threaten to do so unless they received whatever was on their national demand wish list? How would this affect an already very fragile world order? Are we back in the 1930s, Gallagher asked, sleepwalking towards disaster?

Up until the financial crisis erupted in 2008, the US Federal Reserve

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Under The Hood: Oil Market Price And Policy Conflicts

U.S. production continues to follow oil price's rules of engagement.

But Saudi Arabia's new policy directions may upend the cartel's cohesion.

Mixed signals make bear and bull arguments feasible.

Conventional wisdom and economics say U.S. oil production will decline because prices are low enough to dissuade previous production levels, and indeed this is the case. Roughly 600,000 barrels had come off of the U.S. tally for crude oil production in March 2016 from an April 2015 peak of 9.6 million barrels per day (b/d). U.S. shale players are expected to further reduce their production output as prices in the $40 range hold back production for many of the shale basins in the U.S. On Friday, April 29th, Brent crude oil futures prices for June reached $47 and WTI nearly reached the $47 level.

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