Gist Coven

In the nearest future, you will be able to order for pizza online and a motor device which you can see in this post will deliver it to your doorstep. The Toyota e-Palette Concept, which is currently on display at the CES convention, is a flexible, all-electric vehicle with autonomous driving that can take on various roles. Toyota’s versatile study can be outfitted with purpose-built interiors depending on the user’s needs, and it can fulfill different roles, from pizza delivery to ride sharing. “The automobile industry is clearly amidst its most dramatic period of change as technologies like electrification, connected and automated driving are making significant progress”, said Toyota’s President Akio Toyoda.  Just as important, we are developing mobility solutions to help everyone enjoy their lives, and we are doing our part to create an ever-better society for the next 100 years and beyond.” The Japanese automaker’s latest venture into the future of mobility is par...

West Africa’s biggest solar power plant came online on Wednesday (29 November) as Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, inaugurates a novel scheme to boost renewables and cut energy dependence on its neighbours. The 55-hectare plant at Zagtouli on the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou will be able to churn out 33 megawatts – enough to power tens of thousands of homes. Presiding over the opening ceremony will be Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and his visiting French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, whose country partially funded construction of the facility. “For the past six weeks the plant has been in a test phase with production of 14 MW, and will reach a peak of 33 MW during December, sufficient sunshine permitting,” said the site’s construction manager, Stephane Nosserau. “This is West Africa’s largest plant in terms of installed capacity,” added construction overseer Saidou Nana. The plant’s 129,600 260-watt solar panels are capable of ann...

Let’s just say we LOVE this proposal in the heart of Lagos Island right next to the historic Cathedral. “On Sunday evening @ojay_lagos proposed to his sweetheart, Tamilore Faboya, using an Elevate media Ng digital billboard.” “Deeper than words, beyond right. Die for your love; beyond life.” “These were thoughts on OJ’s mind when he was barreling down to Marina to propose to the love of his life. You see he had a plan to propose to Tammy at 6.30 and he was almost behind schedule.” I'll say It was the most honest and beautiful proposal deep set in the old city of Lagos with no one but them and everyone with them. Watch

Apple supplier Foxconn has admitted to using illegal intern labour to assemble the iPhone X. Students said they worked 11-hour days, which is a breach of Chinese labour law. The scandal comes after Apple reportedly faced delays in getting the iPhone X to customers. Apple supplier Foxconn has said that it will stop using illegal intern labour in its factories that are used to assemble technology products for some of the world's biggest companies, according to a report by BBC News. Foxconn's use of interns on its production lines was first reported by The Financial Times. Six students told the newspaper that they regularly work 11-hour shifts assembling Apple's new iPhone X, which is a breach of Chinese labour law. The Financial Times said that a group of 3,000 interns worked in Foxconn's factories. The students, who were reportedly aged between 17 and 19, told The Financial Times that their work at Foxconn was work experience that they had to do in order to co...

Google admits to collecting Android users’ locations even when devices are disabled, a Quartz investigation reported on Thursday. “It seems quite intrusive for Google to be collecting such information that is only relevant to carrier networks when there are no SIM card or enabled services,’’ Matthew Hickey, a security expert and researcher, told media in London. Since the beginning of 2017, Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers and sending the data to Google’s system, according to a Google spokesperson. Therefore Google has access to data about individuals’ locations and movements, even when their phones are turned off or disconnected from the Internet, which violates the privacy of smartphone users. The spokesperson said the collected data was never used or stored and promised that by the end of November, Android phones would no longer send cellular tower location data to Google.

Facebook on Wednesday said it would let some of its users see whether they liked or followed pages belonging to Russia-linked operatives that sought to sow political divisiveness around the 2016 US presidential election. A new page to be published on Facebook's help center by the end of the year will show whether some accounts interacted with the Russia-linked accounts, Facebook said in a blog post. "This is part of our ongoing effort to protect our platforms and the people who use them from bad actors who try to undermine our democracy," Facebook said. Roughly 150 million Facebook users saw posts shared by pages belonging to the Russian propaganda organization known as the Internet Research Agency, Facebook previously told US investigators. While Facebook will show some users the affiliated pages they liked or followed, the company maintains that technical and privacy reasons keep it from showing whether such propaganda was shown as a paid ad or as a post in...

Apple Stores in the United States and United Kingdom have begun the sale of gaming robots, MekaMons, built by a Nigerian-British, Silas Adekunle. Adekunle’s company, Reach Robotics, struck the deal with Apple recently. The product, with a price tag of $299.95, went on sale from November 16 in the shops and online. Apple has the exclusive deal as the robots can also be operated with an iPhone and other smartphones. Reach Robotics, an augmented reality gaming company, creates robots for both fun and STEM education. Adekunle, who was born in Nigeria, moved to the UK when he was 11 years old. He is an engineer who graduated with First Class Honours from the University of the West of England in Bristol, with a Bachelor of Science in robotics technology. He previously worked at GE Aviation and Infineon. “We’ve created an entirely new video gaming platform,” said Adekunle in a press release, published by Black Enterprise. “MekaMon straddles both the real and virtual worlds while t...

To celebrate its 10th year anniversary, itel Mobile Technology has launched into the Nigerian mobile market its latest models, S32 and S12.The two models is an upgrade on the previous products, as both come with dual selfie cameras, and finger print sensor for selfie freaks. The phone comes with a 5.5 HD IPS display, 2.5 D curve display touch, 8.0MP rear cameras and live filters, front soft light, android TM 7.0 nougat, 1GB RAM, 16GB ROM, Quad core, 1.3 GHz processor and 3000mAh battery. Speaking at the unveiling in Lagos, the Marketing Communications Manager, itel Mobile, Oke Umurhowo, said, the new itel selfie centric phones are affordable, sleek and of high quality. “At itel mobile, we understand the demand of our customers, hence the reason we are introducing the most affordable dual selfie camera phones in Africa. These new itel phones come with an innovative front camera that can accommodate more people in a single selfie,” he said. Umurhohwo continued: “Compared to the...

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has, over the weekend, stated that with the Bank Verification Number (BVN) in place, biometrics will soon be used for transactions on the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) instead of the existing pin code. The Chairman, Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), Dipo Fatokun, ‎made this known during the Year 2017 annual retreat of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) held at the Best Western Plus Hotel, Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo state capital. He made this known at the retreat with the theme: “Operationalising a Four Sided Approach to Preventing Fraud” were top officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the US Consulate, Lagos, Consumer Protection Council (CPC) ,Union Bank of Nigeria Plc,  Access Bank, First Bank, Mobile Money Operators, among other stakeholders in the financial sector of the nation’s economy. According to Fatokun, introduction of biometrics‎ into the banking system was part of the effort of the CBN to ens...

German regulators have banned certain types of smartwatches marketed to children, saying the devices have been used to listen in on school classrooms and run afoul of Germany’s surveillance restrictions. The Bundesnetzagentur, or Federal Network Agency, said in a statement issued Friday that watches that would allow parents to “listen unnoticed to a child’s environment” constitute an unauthorized transmitting system. The agency said parents have been using watches marketed to children between the ages of 5 and 12 to monitor teachers. It didn’t name specific brands, but advised schools to be on the lookout for such devices. The agency also says that if buyers of the products become known to authorities, they will be told to destroy the watches. The Bundesnetzagentur regulates telecommunications, power and other networks.

The Joint Mobile Sanitation Agency of Nigeria (JOMSAN) yesterday held a workshop in Abuja to sensitise its members on its preparedness to halt multiple mobile tax collection across the country. Dukeson Godwin, national chairman of JOMSAN, an umbrella body of local councils mobile advertisement revenue collectors, said the workshop would culminate in the inauguration of a special task force against multiple taxation of vehicles. He said the group, which is voluntary and independent of government, observed that advertisement-bearing vehicles were being made to pay multiple taxes in all 774 local government councils of the country. Godwin said JOMSAN was partnering with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) to ensure the success of the initiative. He added that the group’s task force in the six geo-political zones would enforce the new directive, which he said, is backed by the police. He explained ...

Social media giants Twitter is taking new steps to ban certain advertising after revealing that bots linked to Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election used the platform to spread their message. “State-sponsored attempts to “interfere with and disrupt” the election are “not something we want on Twitter,” the San Francisco social media company said on its blog. Twitter said it will donate the $1.9 million in advertising revenue it has obtained since 2011 from Russia Today to outside research about Twitter’s use in “civic engagement and elections.” Sputnik and Russia Today, also known as RT, won’t lose their ability to post to Twitter — meaning they can continue using the service to circulate articles, videos and opinion pieces. Twitter’s move comes as social media platforms face increased scrutiny for their failure to stop bots, foreign governments and anonymous ads from spreading misinformation and propaganda. Twitter and Facebook have both pledged t...

Farmcrowdy, Nigeria’s first and leading digital agriculture platform has introduced a new category of funding small scale farming in Africa by allowing Nigerians to venture and sponsor agriculture; and launched of its first app for Android, iOS and Windows mobile devices. Techstars Atlanta alumnus, Farmcrowdy is reshaping the way in which people participate in farming and food production, through using their online platform to source funds from sponsors, whose money is used to secure land, plant crops and meet the funding needs of boosting food production with small scale farmers. Farm Sponsors can expect to see returns after harvest of 6-25% between a 3-9 month period, depending on what farm type they choose. Since the launch of its website 12 months ago, Farmcrowdy has recorded close to 1,000 unique farm sponsors, aggregated a combined 4,000 acres of farmland in Nigeria for farming purpose and grown over 150,000 organic chickens to date. Having worked with close to 2,000 smal...

The RoadPal app was created to serve as a pal (friend) to all road travellers. The founder, Tairu Emmanuel says the app will provide users with traffic alerts, robbery alerts, accidents and nearby places that matter to the user while on the road. Launched in October, RoadPal is designed to be multi-purpose. As such, the mobile app will also direct users to some strategic places such as fuel stations, automobile workshop, hospitals for emergency cases, etc. With the app’s explore option, users will be able to locate other places of interest. It could be eateries, hotels, shopping malls, ATM stands, etc. We believe road users want more than just traffic update or info. They also want to know things happening on the road — robbery, accidents, or rituals (especially in the night) — and easily access services like car fixing without having to wait on a mecahnic for long. These are the some of the things RoadPal wants to provide to users across Nigeria starting with Lagos State. R...