<ul>
<li class="">Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has resigned</li>
<li>The ride-hailing service was under pressure from investors</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/travis-kalanick/">Travis Kalanick</a> stepped down Tuesday as chief executive of Uber, the ride-hailing service that he helped found in 2009 and that he built into a transportation colossus, after a shareholder revolt made it untenable for him to stay on at the company.</p>
<p>Mr. Kalanick&#8217;s exit came under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber&#8217;s investors, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous because the details are confidential.</p>
<p>Earlier on Tuesday, five of Uber&#8217;s major investors demanded that the chief executive resign immediately. The investors included one of Uber&#8217;s biggest shareholders, the venture capital firm Benchmark, which has one of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber&#8217;s board. The investors made their demand for Mr. Kalanick to resign in a letter delivered to the chief executive while he was in Chicago, said the people with knowledge of the situation.</p>
<p>In the letter, titled &#8220;Moving Uber Forward&#8221; and obtained by The New York Times, the investors wrote to Mr. Kalanick that he must immediately leave and that the company needed a change in leadership. Mr. Kalanick, 40, consulted with at least one Uber board member and after hours of discussions with some of the investors, he agreed to step down. He will remain on Uber&#8217;s board of directors.</p>
<p>&#8220;I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,&#8221; Mr. Kalanick said in a statement.</p>
<p>The move caps months of questions over the leadership of Uber, which has become a prime example of Silicon Valley start-up culture gone awry. The company has been exposed this year as having a workplace culture that is rife with sexual harassment and discrimination, and has pushed the envelope in dealing with law enforcement and even partners. That tone was set by Mr. Kalanick, who has aggressively turned the company into the world&#8217;s dominant ride-hailing service and upended the transportation industry around the globe.</p>
<p>Mr. Kalanick&#8217;s troubles began earlier this year after a former Uber engineer detailed what she said was sexual harassment at the company, opening the floodgates for more complaints and spurring internal investigations. In addition, Uber has been dealing with an intellectual property lawsuit from Waymo, the self-driving car business that operates under Google&#8217;s parent company, and a federal inquiry into a software tool that Uber used to sidestep some law enforcement.</p>
<p>Uber has been trying to move past its difficult history, which has grown inextricably tied to Mr. Kalanick. In recent months, Uber has fired more than 20 employees after an investigation into the company&#8217;s culture, embarked on major changes to professionalize its workplace, and is searching for new executives including a chief operating officer.</p>
<p>Mr. Kalanick last week said he would take an indefinite leave of absence from Uber, partly to work on himself and to grieve for his mother, who died last month in a boating accident. He said Uber&#8217;s day-to-day management would fall to a committee of more than 10 executives.</p>
<p>But the shareholder letter indicates that his taking time off was not enough for some investors who have pumped millions of dollars into the ride-hailing company, which has seen its valuation swell to nearly $70 billion. For them, Mr. Kalanick had to go.</p>
<p>The five shareholders who demanded Mr. Kalanick&#8217;s resignation include some of the technology industry&#8217;s most prestigious venture capital firms, which invested in Uber at an early stage of the company&#8217;s life, as well as a mutual fund firm. Apart from Benchmark, they are First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures and Fidelity Investments, which together own more than a quarter of Uber&#8217;s stock. Because some of the investors hold a type of stock that endows them with an outsize number of votes, they have about 40 percent of Uber&#8217;s voting power.</p>
<p>Mr. Kalanick&#8217;s resignation opens questions of who may take over Uber, especially since the company has been so molded in his image. And Mr. Kalanick will probably remain a presence there since he still retains control of a majority of Uber&#8217;s voting shares.</p>
<p>Taking a start-up chief executive to task so publicly is relatively unusual in Silicon Valley, where investors often praise entrepreneurs and their aggressiveness, especially if their companies are growing fast. It is only when those start-ups are in a precarious position or are declining that shareholders move to protect their investment.</p>
<p>In the case of Uber — one of the most highly valued private companies in the world — investors could lose billions of dollars if the company were to be marked down in valuation.</p>
<p>Uber, which has raised more than $11 billion from investors since its founding in 2009, has a wide base of shareholders apart from the ones who signed the letter. Uber&#8217;s investors also include TPG Capital, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, mutual fund giants like BlackRock and wealthy clients of firms like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.</p>
<p>In the letter, in addition to Mr. Kalanick&#8217;s immediate resignation, the five shareholders asked for improved oversight of the company&#8217;s board by filling two of three empty board seats with &#8220;truly independent directors.&#8221; They also demanded that Mr. Kalanick support a board-led search committee for a new chief executive, and that Uber immediately hire an experienced chief financial officer.</p>


Uber founder Travis Kalanick resigns as CEO

<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/mike-juang/" rel="author">Mike Juang</a> | <span class="twitter-url"><a href="http://twitter.com/mikejuangnews">@mikejuangnews</a></span></p>
<p>There&#8217;s never been a better time to go droning.</p>
<p>Rising varieties, advancing technology and falling costs are making drones flexible, specialized and ubiquitous. New drones, like <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/25/dji-spark-drone-unveiled.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/25/dji-spark-drone-unveiled.html">the $499 DJI Spark</a>, are heralding a wave of affordable, high-quality drones that are simple to use. It&#8217;s easy for anyone to make a drone fly — and becoming easier to make money from the technology.</p>
<h2>First, you will need to make a small investment</h2>
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<p>It still takes money to make money. The first step in becoming a drone entrepreneur is to make a small investment.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re looking to fly for anything other than fun, <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/" href="https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/">the FAA requires all pilots to have a Remote Pilot Airman Certificate.</a> Any drone more than 0.55 lbs must <a class="inline_asset" title="https://registermyuas.faa.gov/" href="https://registermyuas.faa.gov/">also be registered with the FAA</a>. While <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/appeals-court-strikes-down-faa-registry-recreational-drones-n763871" href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/appeals-court-strikes-down-faa-registry-recreational-drones-n763871">a recent ruling has thrown the FAA&#8217;s authority into flux,</a> &#8220;best practice is to comply with FAA regulations,&#8221; said Christopher Beall, an attorney at Fox Rothschild who specializes in drone litigation.</p>
<p>Then learn to fly well, as in really well. Know your drone inside and out, what it&#8217;s built for and how it flies. Drones built for filming (stable with a high-quality camera but slow) are very different from racing drones (built for durability and speed) and surveying drones (designed to carry specialized equipment, like a LIDAR unit).</p>
<p><b>Start-up costs</b>: $150 (for the license); $5 (for each drone registration)</p>
<h2>Start shooting photos and videos</h2>
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<p>Take it out for a spin and see what you can photograph.</p>
<p>&#8220;Fantastic drone footage doesn&#8217;t necessarily need to be traditional aerial or &#8216;top-down&#8217; style,&#8221; said <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/06/thats-no-balloon-its-a-drone-halo-takes-to-the-skies-as-latest-trend-in-uavs.html">drone photographer and Spacial founder Will Chatham</a>. &#8220;Often, the best drone videos are ones that break this mold.&#8221;</p>
<p>Videographer Tim Sessler, for instance, uses <a class="inline_asset" title="https://vimeo.com/163590531#t=2m27s" href="https://vimeo.com/163590531#t=2m27s">a drone fitted with a zoom camera to create a &#8220;dolly zoom&#8221;</a> (also called the &#8220;Vertigo effect,&#8221; after the Hitchcock classic).</p>
<p>Make interesting enough videos and you might even be able to win prizes with your work. Just be sure the work is solid: Festivals are rare, and your entry will compete against pros and industry veterans. The <a class="inline_asset" title="http://nycdronefilmfestival.com/" href="http://nycdronefilmfestival.com/">New York City Drone Film Festival</a> awards prizes like <a class="inline_asset" title="http://freeflysystems.com/alta-8" href="http://freeflysystems.com/alta-8">a $17,500 Alta 8 drone</a> and a $5,000-per-month grant to a top director for one year. The <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.drone-filmfestival.com/" href="http://www.drone-filmfestival.com/">Peugeot Drone Film Festival in Europe</a> will sponsor a winner to create a drone film for six weeks and puts a DJI drone, travel stipend and two cars at the winner&#8217;s disposal.</p>
<p><a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.airvuz.com/" href="https://www.airvuz.com/">Drone video websites like AirVuz</a> (think YouTube for drones) allow you to set up donation and tip buttons and can even get you hired for freelance filming assignments.</p>
<p><strong>Payout</strong>: Freelance filming opportunities; festival grants and prizes that can run to the thousands of dollars</p>
<h2>Fly commercially</h2>
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<p>From <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/14/the-future-arrives-amazons-prime-air-completes-its-first-drone-delivery.html">Amazon package deliveries</a> to <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/18/drones-will-transform-the-way-food-is-grown-next-year.html">scanning farms for increased crop yield,</a> commercial drones are finding niches in every field.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many of the industrial applications of [drones] are being adopted by survey and engineering firms,&#8221; said Jordan Rising, director of flight and technology at <a class="inline_asset" title="http://flight-evolved.com/" href="http://flight-evolved.com/">commercial drone specialists Flight Evolved</a>. &#8220;Most of these companies are hiring pilots who can likely expect to make between $50,000 and $70,000, depending on their expertise and the equipment they are operating.&#8221;</p>
<p>Many of the drone pilots who can command the upper salary range are ex-helicopter pilots, not novices. Weekend drone gigs, or contract work, can net $2,500 to $7,000 per job, depending on the type of role. Specialized <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.dronebase.com/" href="https://www.dronebase.com/">drone job boards, like Dronebase.com</a>, are a good place to start, says Tyler Mason of AirVuz. &#8220;Some industries (i.e. real estate) will post on the site that they&#8217;re looking for pilots, and pilots can then accept the jobs from the Dronebase website.&#8221;</p>
<p>Camera drones are being used to capture <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/drone-cameras-big-budgets-how-la-real-estate-trailers-are-selling-mega-mansions-989237" href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/drone-cameras-big-budgets-how-la-real-estate-trailers-are-selling-mega-mansions-989237">dramatic real estate videos</a> for the residential real estate sales market, an example of growing types of paid freelance work available to drone pilots.</p>
<p><strong>Payout</strong>: $2,500 to $70,000, depending on experience and expertise</p>
<h2>Win a drone race and become a sponsored pilot</h2>
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<p>How does <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/13/drone-racing-league-six-figure-salary.html">a $100,000 contract sound</a>?</p>
<p>An easy way to score a big payout is to start competing in drone races and hopefully win races and sponsorships.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s allowed [pilots] to quit their jobs and do what they do full-time,&#8221; DRL co-founder and CEO Nick Horbaczewski said in an interview with CNBC earlier this year. Dominate the global field and you might even score the $100,000 contract, plus sponsorships from big technology firms such as Samsung.</p>
<p>Even <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.airvuz.com/blog/how-to-make-money-flying-your-drone" href="https://www.airvuz.com/blog/how-to-make-money-flying-your-drone">social media companies like AirVuz</a> and <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.florotors.com/" href="https://www.florotors.com/">framemakers like FloRotoRs </a>sponsor pilots, helping defray the cost of parts like frames and spare propellers. Beware — <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/10/drone-invasion-is-moving-from-photography-and-deliveries-to-racing.html">races are fast (up to 60 mph), crashes are fierce,</a> and replacement parts are a must.</p>
<p><strong>Payout</strong>: Up to $100,000</p>
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3 ways you can turn a cheap drone into a money-making job

<div id="article-byline"><span class="author"> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/journalists/heather-somerville">Heather Somerville</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/journalists/joseph-menn">Joseph Menn</a></span> <span class="location"><span class="divider">|</span> SAN FRANCISCO</span></div>
<p>Uber Technologies Inc Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick told employees on Tuesday he will take time away from the company he helped to found, one of a series of measures the ride-hailing company is taking to claw its way out from under a mountain of controversies.</p>
<p>Kalanick&#8217;s move comes after a months-long investigation led former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was hired by Uber to look into its culture and workplace practices after a female former employee publicly accused the company of what she described as brazen sexual harassment.</p>
<p>Uber on Tuesday released the recommendations from that report, which include reducing Kalanick&#8217;s sweeping authority and instituting more controls over spending, human resources and the behavior of managers. (<a href="http://bit.ly/2rX2xA5">bit.ly/2rX2xA5</a>)</p>
<p>Kalanick&#8217;s departure, even if it is temporary, is a thunderclap for the Silicon Valley startup world, where company founders in recent years have enjoyed great autonomy and often become synonymous with their firms.</p>
<p>It also marks a pivotal moment for the world&#8217;s most valuable venture-backed private company, which has been largely defined by Kalanick&#8217;s brash approach.</p>
<p>Kalanick, 40, said he needed the time away to grieve for his recently deceased mother and to work on his leadership skills, according to a staff email seen by Reuters. He did not say how long he would be away.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we are going to work on Uber 2.0, I also need to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that this company needs and that you deserve,&#8221; Kalanick wrote in his email. &#8220;During this interim period, the leadership team, my directs, will be running the company.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to a source familiar with the matter, Kalanick can return to the company whenever he would like.</p>
<p><strong>MORE OVERSIGHT NEEDED</strong></p>
<p>The company on Tuesday shared with its staff 47 recommendations for management and policy changes that were unanimously adopted by the board on Sunday. Kalanick was not at the meeting, said a source who was present.</p>
<p>The meeting was marred by private equity executive David Bonderman making a sexist remark about women talking too much. He later resigned from the board of directors, calling his comment &#8220;careless, inappropriate, and inexcusable.&#8221;</p>
<p>The recommendations from Holder&#8217;s firm, Covington and Burling, include adding an independent director to the board and considering an independent chair; mandated manager training; and a bigger and more independent audit committee to oversee spending and management.</p>
<p>&#8220;I would now suggest to any startup, here are the Covington rules, and when you get passed 100 people, put these in place,&#8221; said Steve Blank, a startup founder and mentor and adjunct professor at Stanford University.</p>
<p>Other recommendations prohibit romances between bosses and their subordinates and create clearer guidelines on the use of drugs and alcohol.</p>
<div id="attachment_91805" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-91805" class="wp-image-91805 size-large" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Uber-Flickr-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="360" /><p id="caption-attachment-91805" class="wp-caption-text">Photo: Flickr.</p></div>
<p>&#8220;I think it paints a picture of a company pretty out of control with no oversight from the board or basic controls,&#8221; said Elizabeth Ames, senior vice president at the Anita Borg Institute, which advocates for women in technology.</p>
<p>At Tuesday&#8217;s employee meeting, human resources chief Liane Hornsey thanked the former employee who wrote about harassment, Susan Fowler, for being a catalyst for the changes. She received applause from employees, according to the source at the meeting.</p>
<p>Holder&#8217;s recommendations stressed the importance of a new chief operating officer. The company has been searching for a No.2 executive for more than three months and is also looking for a chief financial officer.</p>
<p>A number of senior Uber managers left in recent weeks as the Holder investigation and a parallel probe focused strictly on sexual harassment and other employee complaints, conducted by the law firm Perkins Coie, moved forward.</p>
<p>The most recent departing executives included Emil Michael, head of business and Kalanick&#8217;s closest confidant, and Eric Alexander, who ran the Asia Pacific region.</p>
<p>Uber said last week it had hired two women to fill top roles: Harvard Business School management professor Frances Frei will serve as an executive coach and Apple Inc marketing executive Bozoma Saint John was hired to mend Uber&#8217;s brand. Uber also added a second woman to its board, Wan Ling Martello, an executive vice president at Nestle, to serve as an independent director.</p>
<p>There are 14 people at Uber who report directly to Kalanick and who will likely take on more responsibility in his absence. They include Ryan Graves, head of operations and one-time chief executive at Uber.</p>
<p><strong>FOUNDER POWER</strong></p>
<p>Uber grew to a valuation of $68 billion in seven years amid non-stop controversy. It has upended the tightly regulated taxi industry in many countries and changed the transportation landscape, but has run into legal trouble with a rough-and-tumble approach to local regulations and the way it handles employees and drivers.</p>
<p>Uber has suffered a series of damaging setbacks in recent months, including a federal probe into the company&#8217;s use of technology to evade regulators in certain cities and a trade secrets lawsuit filed by Alphabet Inc&#8217;s self-driving unit, Waymo.</p>
<p>Some venture capitalists say Uber&#8217;s challenges should serve as a warning that the Silicon Valley ethos of leaving founders in control of companies, even after they grow into big corporations, can be a dangerous proposition.</p>
<p>&#8220;Inevitably, this will help drive the pendulum back toward better governance inside an organization,&#8221; said Robert Siegel, a lecturer at Stanford University and venture capitalist at XSeed Capital. &#8220;Sometimes we conflate great business leaders with strong personalities with great governance.&#8221;</p>
<p>(Reporting by Heather Somerville and Joseph Menn; Editing by Bill Rigby, Peter Henderson, Jonathan Weber and Lisa Shumaker)</p>
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Uber CEO takes leave of absence amid sweeping changes after scandals

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<li>Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he bought Bitcoin at $700</li>
<li>Bitcoin surged past $3,000 over the weekend</li>
<li>Wozniak said he bought Bitcoin mostly to see what you could do with it.</li>
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<div class="source"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/" rel="author">Todd Haselton</a> | <span class="twitter-url"><a href="http://twitter.com/@robotodd">@robotodd</a></span></div>
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<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="http://player.cnbc.com/p/gZWlPC/cnbc_global?playertype=synd&amp;byGuid=3000626557&amp;size=530_298" width="530" height="298" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak revealed he bought bitcoin when it was at at $700 during an interview with CNBC at eMerge Miami on Monday.</p>
<p>Wozniak didn&#8217;t disclose how much he acquired, but the <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/11/bitcoin-bulls-runs-wild-as-cryptocurrency-surges-above-3000.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/11/bitcoin-bulls-runs-wild-as-cryptocurrency-surges-above-3000.html">cryptocurrency surged above $3,000</a> over the weekend, meaning he gained $2,300 even if he just bought a single bitcoin.</p>
<p>&#8220;I remember getting interested in bitcoin some time ago,&#8221; Wozniak said. &#8220;It was $70 for a bitcoin, man and I went online and you had to have a special bank account at a special bank and I couldn&#8217;t buy any bitcoin so I gave up. Eventually I got some of them at the $700 stage and it went down to $350. I didn&#8217;t invest, I did it so I could play with bitcoin.&#8221;</p>
<p>Wozniak said he wanted to see what it was like to try to shop with bitcoin, at places like restaurants and hotels. &#8220;It&#8217;s not that easy to do yet, but it&#8217;s getting there. I was just playing around trying out how to buy and sell stuff and I didn&#8217;t care I lost a ton of money, but now I&#8217;m way up,&#8221; Wozniak added</p>
<p>Woz also touched on blockchain technology and why he thinks it&#8217;s important. &#8220;I like the blockchain technology,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Every single transaction is noted and saved, and that probably has a lot of good security and traceability and looking-back aspects to it &#8230; That&#8217;s probably why a lot of banks are interested in it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Bitcoin was priced at about $700 in June of last year before losing value, and again in late October and early November before it began skyrocketing in value this year.</p>


Apple co-founder Wozniak bought bitcoin at $700 for fun: ‘Now I’m way up’

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<li>Follow these tips if you&#8217;re tired of going over on your data</li>
<li>The iPhone has an area that shows you how much data you&#8217;re using</li>
<li>You can even see which apps are consuming the most data</li>
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<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/" rel="author">Todd Haselton</a> | <span class="twitter-url"><a href="http://twitter.com/@robotodd">@robotodd</a></span></p>
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<p>The end of the month is nearing and, boom, suddenly you&#8217;re hit with a notification: You&#8217;re starting to run out of data. &#8220;Would you like to pay $9.99 to purchase more data?&#8221; a message asks. That&#8217;s the best case scenario. Worst case, you don&#8217;t see the message, or your kids ignore it, and suddenly you&#8217;re faced with an expensive phone bill.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s the worst, and it&#8217;s a problem that many consumers without unlimited data plans still face. The good news is you can help avoid getting hit with these messages and possible overages by keeping a closer eye on your data usage each month.</p>
<p>The iPhone has a built-in feature that shows how much data you&#8217;ve used during a pre-determined period. I&#8217;ll show you how to turn it on at the beginning of each carrier bill cycle so that you can keep an eye on your data usage all month long.</p>
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<h2 class="subtitle">Open the settings menu on your iPhone and tap &#8220;Cellular&#8221;</h2>
<div id="attachment_128147" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-128147" class="wp-image-128147 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/1.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" /><p id="caption-attachment-128147" class="wp-caption-text">Todd Haselton | CNBC</p></div>
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<p>On this page, you&#8217;ll see all sorts of data management options. Let&#8217;s take a look at how you can use them to your advantage.</p>
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<h2 class="subtitle">View your current data usage</h2>
<div id="attachment_128148" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-128148" class="wp-image-128148 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" /><p id="caption-attachment-128148" class="wp-caption-text">Todd Haselton | CNBC</p></div>
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<p>You can see how much data you&#8217;ve already used by reading the &#8220;Current Period&#8221; line. Take note of this if you&#8217;re interested in how much data you&#8217;ve already used, because we&#8217;re going to reset it to zero.</p>
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<h2 class="subtitle">You can also prevent certain apps from downloading data – like those that might be particularly offensive during a specific month.</h2>
<div id="attachment_128149" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-128149" class="size-full wp-image-128149" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/3.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" /><p id="caption-attachment-128149" class="wp-caption-text">Todd Haselton | CNBC</p></div>
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<p>This is particularly useful if you have kids who complain they aren&#8217;t sure how they&#8217;re using so much data. Look here and you&#8217;ll find your answers.</p>
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<h2 class="subtitle">Now scroll to the bottom of the page and tap &#8220;reset statistics&#8221;</h2>
<div id="attachment_128150" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-128150" class="size-full wp-image-128150" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/4.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" /><p id="caption-attachment-128150" class="wp-caption-text">Todd Haselton | CNBC</p></div>
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<p>This resets your data usage. You&#8217;ll want to repeat this at the beginning of each billing cycle so you can see how much data you&#8217;re using. If you&#8217;re unsure how much data you&#8217;re allowed each month, check your last bill or contact your wireless carrier.</p>
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<h2 class="subtitle">Check weekly</h2>
<div id="attachment_128151" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-128151" class="wp-image-128151 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/5.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" /><p id="caption-attachment-128151" class="wp-caption-text">Todd Haselton | CNBC</p></div>
<p>Keep an eye on that &#8220;Current period&#8221; section weekly to see how much data you&#8217;re using. Setting a calendar reminder can help. If you&#8217;re limited to 1GB per month, you&#8217;ll want to budget 1GB per week or less so that you&#8217;re not bouncing from Wi-Fi hotspot to Wi-Fi hotspot just to surf the web.</p>
<p>Pro tip: Carriers sometimes include this information in their apps, so consider downloading the Verizon, Sprint, AT&amp;T or T-Mobile app to keep a second eye on your monthly data usage.</p>
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How to set up your iPhone to avoid expensive surprises on your phone bill

<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/arjun-kharpal/" rel="author">Arjun Kharpal</a> | <span class="twitter-url"><a href="http://twitter.com/ArjunKharpal">@ArjunKharpal</a></span><br />
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<p>Huawei will become the top personal computer maker in the world in three to five years, leapfrogging the likes of <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a>, <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/992-HK" target="_self" data-gdsid="2463" data-inline-quote-symbol="992-HK">Lenovo</a> and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/HPQ" target="_self" data-gdsid="20154" data-inline-quote-symbol="HPQ">HP</a>, a top executive at the firm told CNBC on Wednesday, just days after launching new notebook devices.</p>
<p>In May, the Chinese firm took the wraps off of the MateBook X, MateBook D and MateBook E — the X is a laptop that competes directly with Apple&#8217;s MacBook line of products. For its part, the company says it is bullish on its plans in the PC space.</p>
<p>&#8220;Whenever Huawei decides to enter an area, make a product, our target is always to be a global leader,&#8221; said Wan Biao, chief operating officer of Huawei&#8217;s consumer business group. &#8220;I think this comes from Huawei&#8217;s unswerving input in R&amp;D, and our innovation capabilities. I think these has already been proven in our smartphone products.&#8221;</p>
<p>When asked how long it will take to sit at the top spot in the market, Wan said the &#8220;process would take about three to five years.&#8221;</p>
<p>The PC market has been declining for several years, but it recorded 0.6 percent growth in the first quarter of 2017, according to data from IDC. Given that low growth, it&#8217;s an incredibly tough market.</p>
<p>HP, Lenovo, Dell, Apple, and Acer make up the top five players in the world by market share, IDC said. So if Huawei becomes number one, that would mean beating out those top players. Wan, however, said he&#8217;s confident.</p>
<div id="attachment_127783" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-127783" class="wp-image-127783 size-large" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Huawei-Flickr-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" /><p id="caption-attachment-127783" class="wp-caption-text">Photo: Flickr.</p></div>
<p>&#8220;Of course, we are confident because of Huawei&#8217;s powerful innovation capabilities. In fact, in the laptop space some technologies are the same with smartphone. In the meantime, with the development of AI, AR and VR [artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality] technologies, the chance to succeed will only grow bigger for a strong innovative company,&#8221; Wan told CNBC.</p>
<p>Huawei&#8217;s consumer business is relatively young and began with smartphones. The Chinese giant is seeing success: reported revenues in its consumer business group were up 42 percent year-on-year in 2016 to 178 billion yuan ($26.19 billion). Smartphone shipments were up 29 percent to 139 million units, and Huawei is now the third-largest smartphone vendor in the world by market share.</p>
<p>Wan&#8217;s projection of being the top PC maker in only a few years mirrors similar bullishness from the company about smartphones. In 2016, Richard Yu, the CEO of the consumer division at Huawei, told CNBC that the firm would be number one in smartphones by 2021.</p>
<p>It may seem odd that Huawei is entering a stagnant market, but the tactic is to try and create an ecosystem of products for consumers. Not only does Huawei have smartphones, but it also sells smartwatches and Wi-Fi routers. Laptops are another edition to the portfolio.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think for Huawei&#8217;s strategy, one of the most crucial points is the connectivity of all things. Every object in the world should be able to connect … Therefore Huawei is also developing our business over these notions,&#8221; Wan said.</p>


Huawei will leapfrog Apple and HP to lead the PC market in five years, top exec says

<p><a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/6758.T-JP" target="_self" data-gdsid="6180" data-inline-quote-symbol="6758.T-JP">Sony Corp</a> has sold more than one million units of its virtual reality (VR) headset globally, the Asia chief of the Japanese firm&#8217;s gaming unit said on Wednesday, as a relatively low price helps push the product into an early lead.</p>
<p>Sales of the PlayStation VR headset, released in October, have &#8220;exceeded our expectations,&#8221; Atsushi Morita, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia, said in an interview.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are boosting production and a supply shortage should be solved accordingly,&#8221; Morita told Reuters.</p>
<div id="attachment_127705" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-127705" class="wp-image-127705 size-large" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Playstation-VR-Flickr-1024x688.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="430" /><p id="caption-attachment-127705" class="wp-caption-text">Photo: Flickr.</p></div>
<p>The sales momentum supports analysts&#8217; view that Sony is in a good position to build an early lead in the high-end VR headset race with its more modest price tag and by tapping the nearly 60 million users of its flagship PlayStation 4 console.</p>
<p>The headset, designed to work with the PlayStation 4 rather than requiring new equipment, retails at $399, cheaper than <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a> Inc&#8217;s $599 Oculus Rift and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/sonys-playstation-vr-headset-sales-top-1-million-units.html" target="_self" data-gdsid="3423">HTC</a> Corp&#8217;s $799 Vive.</p>
<p>According to researcher IDC, about 2 million VR headsets were shipped worldwide in the first three months of 2017. Excluding cheaper smartphone-based headsets, Sony ranked top with 429,000 units.</p>
<p>Morita stressed it was still the beginning of Sony&#8217;s long-term vision of VR eventually taking over functions offered by television sets.</p>
<p>&#8220;I believe that VR technology is the (greatest) innovation since the birth of television,&#8221; he said. &#8220;VR allows you to travel to World Heritage sites or to space while staying at home. It&#8217;s like a time machine or a door to anywhere.&#8221;</p>
<p>Follow CNBC International on <a class="inline_asset" href="https://twitter.com/cnbci" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a> and <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.facebook.com/cnbcinternational" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a>.</p>


Sony’s PlayStation VR headset sales top 1 million units

<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/jordan-novet/" rel="author">Jordan Novet</a> | <span class="twitter-url"><a href="http://twitter.com/jordannovet">@jordannovet</a></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Facebook plans to move WhatsApp, which is used by more than 1 billion people, from IBM&#8217;s SoftLayer cloud to Facebook&#8217;s own data centers.</li>
<li>The WhatsApp messaging app relies on more than 700 high-end IBM SoftLayer servers.</li>
<li>WhatsApp is one of IBM&#8217;s high-profile customers for its cloud service, which lags behind market leader Amazon Web Services, as well as Microsoft Azure.</li>
</ul>
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<p><a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a>&#8216;s WhatsApp messaging service, which is used by 1.2 billion people across the globe, is planning to move off of <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/IBM" target="_self" data-gdsid="20553" data-inline-quote-symbol="IBM">IBM</a>&#8216;s cloud and into Facebook&#8217;s own data centers, according to a person familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>The WhatsApp move, which could begin later this year, would result in IBM losing a high profile customer for its public cloud. A source claims that WhatsApp has been one of IBM&#8217;s top five public cloud customers in terms of revenue, and was at one point spending $2 million a month with IBM. (IBM says WhatsApp is not currently one of its top five public cloud customers.)</p>
<p>IBM&#8217;s public cloud business lags behind <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AMZN" target="_self" data-gdsid="9399" data-inline-quote-symbol="AMZN">Amazon</a> Web Services (AWS), which is on top with 33 percent of the market in April, as well as <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/MSFT" target="_self" data-gdsid="25619" data-inline-quote-symbol="MSFT">Microsoft</a>&#8216;s Azure cloud, according to <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/28/cloud-market-share-data-synergy-research.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/28/cloud-market-share-data-synergy-research.html" target="_self">Synergy Research</a>.</p>
<p>Facebook <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/02/19/facebook-to-acquire-whatsapp-for-about-16-billion.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/02/19/facebook-to-acquire-whatsapp-for-about-16-billion.html" target="_self">acquired</a> WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 and has left the app running on the servers it has always used. Other companies that Facebook has acquired over the years initially used similar IBM SoftLayer servers, and Facebook was quick to bring them in-house, another source said. But with WhatsApp, Facebook has taken a much longer time.</p>
<p>Part of the reason was prioritization. When Facebook bought WhatsApp, it was already in the midst of a <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.wired.com/2014/06/facebook-instagram/" href="https://www.wired.com/2014/06/facebook-instagram/" target="_self">yearlong migration</a> of its Instagram photo-sharing app, which it acquired in 2012, from AWS to its own data centers.</p>
<p>Also, Facebook separated its own Messenger messaging and calling app out from the core Facebook app months after the WhatsApp acquisition, and the social network&#8217;s CEO, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/mark-zuckerberg/" target="_self">Mark Zuckerberg</a>, didn&#8217;t want WhatsApp to &#8220;get Facebooked&#8221; — in other words, to get integrated with its own apps too soon, a source said. Since then both Messenger and WhatsApp have gained hundreds of millions of users.</p>
<p>At IBM, WhatsApp is considered a poster child for its cloud, two sources said — just as AWS has the likes of Airbnb and Netflix to boast about, while <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Alphabet&#8217;s</a> Google points to Snap and Spotify. (<a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/SNAP" target="_self" data-gdsid="163704" data-inline-quote-symbol="SNAP">Snap</a>, which operates the Snapchat social media app, has committed to paying Google $2 billion and Amazon $1 billion for hosting over five years, the company <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/09/snap-cloud-bill-aws-google-cloud-higher-than-2016-revenue.html" target="_self">disclosed</a> in February.)</p>
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<p>IBM hasn&#8217;t broadly advertised its business with WhatsApp, although the company has detailed WhatsApp&#8217;s usage in an off-the-record case study, a source said. It shows that WhatsApp runs atop more than 700 high-end servers split between data centers in San Jose, California, and Washington, D.C. At one point Facebook was spending nearly $2 million per month on the IBM cloud, a second source said.</p>
<p>&#8220;WhatsApp has been a great client of IBM Cloud as they used our global footprint and capabilities to scale their business,&#8221; IBM said in a statement. &#8220;We are proud of the role of IBM Cloud in their success. It is completely natural for Facebook to seek synergies across their business.&#8221;</p>
<p>Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>People sent 63 billion messages on WhatsApp on New Year&#8217;s Eve, Facebook said. That usage requires hefty computing resources. Presumably, the WhatsApp app will operate more efficiently once it&#8217;s using Facebook servers, which could help Facebook save money. It&#8217;s unlikely — although not impossible — that WhatsApp&#8217;s users will notice any changes during the migration.</p>
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<h4 class="subtitle">A common move as companies grow</h4>
<div class="group">
<p>Relying on a third-party cloud provider is common for young companies, which have to choose their priorities. But cloud costs can add up as companies grow. Dropbox and Zynga are among the companies that have reduced their dependence on AWS.</p>
<p>When WhatsApp started in 2009, its engineers chose to run the underlying code on hosted servers from SoftLayer, which was then an independent company.</p>
<p>Typically in the public cloud, software that would normally run on a single server is chopped up into slices that are known as virtual machines, and can also be further divided into containers, all of which lets them run more efficiently with less hardware.</p>
<p>But WhatsApp has long circumvented this type of cloud resource, opting instead to use so-called <a class="inline_asset" title="http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/3/31/how-whatsapp-grew-to-nearly-500-million-users-11000-cores-an.html" href="http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/3/31/how-whatsapp-grew-to-nearly-500-million-users-11000-cores-an.html" target="_self">bare-metal servers</a>, which can deliver better performance. The SoftLayer public cloud was best known as a provider of these bare-metal servers when IBM acquired SoftLayer for $2 billion in 2013, and its bare-metal offerings remain available alongside virtual machines under IBM&#8217;s Bluemix portfolio of cloud services.</p>
<p>While Facebook has housed its own servers and storage in co-located facilities from the very early days of the company, it started building its own data centers in 2010, following in the steps of Alphabet&#8217;s Google. Facebook has also designed a lot of its own data center hardware to improve efficiency, and has released many of the designs under the Open Compute Project, allowing low-cost manufacturers to build and sell the hardware to both Facebook and other companies. The company has saved more than $2 billion in data center costs by building in accord with the designs that it has shared in the Open Compute Project, an executive <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.infoworld.com/article/2895067/data-center/facebook-open-compute-project-billions-in-savings.html" href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/2895067/data-center/facebook-open-compute-project-billions-in-savings.html" target="_self">said</a> in 2015.</p>
<p>Last week Laurent Potdevin, CEO of athletic goods retailer Lululemon, <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/02/lululemon-ceo-blames-ibm-for-site-outage.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/02/lululemon-ceo-blames-ibm-for-site-outage.html" target="_self">faulted IBM</a> for an outage of its website. But IBM did score a victory recently, signing <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/LLOY-GB" target="_self" data-gdsid="23680" data-inline-quote-symbol="LLOY-GB">Lloyds Bank</a> to a 10-year deal, according to <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/06/lloyds_confirms_ibm_cloudy_outsourcing/" href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/06/lloyds_confirms_ibm_cloudy_outsourcing/" target="_self">The Register</a>.</p>
<p><i>Disclosure:</i> <i><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/03/nbc-invests-500-million-in-snapchat-ipo.html" target="_self">CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap</a>.</i></p>
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Facebook is planning to move WhatsApp off IBM’s public cloud, source says

<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Even information that is carefully hidden or deleted can be identified and disclosed</em></p>
<p>From intentionally erased emails to deleted SMS’s; through techniques using forensic technology, no one should get away with fraud. Forensic technology is one of the most important aspects of forensic investigations and is recognised as a crucial stakeholder to law enforcement.</p>
<p>As technology permeates every aspect of our lives, it is no wonder that solving crimes has become almost futuristic in its advances. In fact, some people still find it hard to believe that forensic technology techniques are actually putting people behind bars, but the truth is that there are a number of incredibly amazing forensic technologies that you probably never knew existed.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for the criminals, but fortunately for the law, lacking the above mentioned knowledge has been the downfall of many fraudsters because – for the longest time – their rationalisation is that they can get away with it.</p>
<p>It is true that the changing nature of business has created new opportunities, but also new risks and potential threats, including but not limited to:</p>
<ul>
<li>The increasing sophistication of fraud, organised crime and terrorism, more complex legislation and regulations, some with increasing extra-territorial reach</li>
<li>Developing challenges around technology</li>
<li>Complex cross-border disputes</li>
<li>Pitfalls from expanding into emerging markets</li>
<li>Dependencies on unfamiliar business partners and more complex supply and distribution channels;</li>
<li>Theft and misuse of intellectual property</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Forensic technology as the solution </strong></p>
<p>If companies want to avoid losing money to fraud, they need to have proper measures in place and engage with reputable service providers that can render credible and sustainable technology solutions in a professional manner.</p>
<p>It is important to engage with a team that is able to respond to crises caused by white-collar crime quickly, efficiently and with a solutions-orientated mind-set. Dealing with allegations of fraud, misconduct or other improprieties, such as violations of laws, regulations or organisational policies, has become mission critical for businesses. That’s why it is important for companies to ask themselves; what is it that they see, can see, or think they can see?</p>
<p>Failing to have correct measures in place to deal with fraud might hinder financial growth and negatively affect stakeholder confidence for organisations. Therefore, adequate measures must be in place and appropriate provisions must be made to discipline guilty parties accordingly.</p>
<p>Organisations may however lack the resources with the right skills to proficiently conduct cost-effective and objective investigations. As fraud and misconduct siphons billions each year from organisations worldwide, damages reputations and puts public trust in the marketplace at risk, boards and management at all levels are obliged to rapidly address such matters.</p>
<p>Through detailed inquiries and examinations, including the use of leading data analytic techniques, we believe that there must be impartial means to establish truths, evaluate implications, identify appropriate remedial actions, submit restatements if necessary and communicate with regulators or external auditors if needed. This may need to be done for Legal counsel, Executives, Audit and special committees.</p>
<p>Organisations that effectively monitor and swiftly respond to potentially damaging situations or fraudulent incidents are better placed to deal with potential repercussions, thereby reducing adverse financial, reputational or operational impact. And, if you have the right partner; who can provide robust and practical advice on all forms of investigations, misconduct and disputes resolutions, overall compliance best practices and, can deploy technology tools to aid you in dealing with large amounts of data and documents for detecting and preventing fraud effectively – we can confidently assert that no one should get away with fraud in your organisation.</p>


Fraud and Technology: No one should get away with it

<ul>
<li>Apple is launching peer-to-peer payments in iOS 11.</li>
<li>It&#8217;s called Pay Cash and lets users send money to family or friends.</li>
<li>They can even transfer the money right out to a bank account.</li>
<li>This will compete with Square Cash, Venmo and other solutions.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/" rel="author">Todd Haselton</a> | <span class="twitter-url"><a href="http://twitter.com/@robotodd">@robotodd</a></span></p>
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<p>Apple just announced that iOS 11 will support peer-to-peer payments through a new feature called Pay Cash, making it a direct competitor to similar services offered by Square Cash, PayPal, Venmo and even Facebook.</p>
<p>Peer-to-peer payments allow one user to pay another one through their smartphone. You might use it to pay a friend for pizza, for example, or to split a meal at a restaurant. It&#8217;s an industry that&#8217;s been growing in popularity, and one Apple has been rumored to enter.</p>
<p>Pay Cash will allow you to easily send money to family and friends, transfer it to and from your bank, and to even use it for Apple Pay purchases.</p>
<p>It&#8217;ll be a part of iOS 11, which launches later this year, Apple said Monday at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.</p>
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Apple launches peer-to-peer payments to take on Square, PayPal and Venmo

<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/" rel="author">Todd Haselton</a> | <span class="twitter-url"><a href="http://twitter.com/@robotodd">@robotodd</a></span></p>
<ul>
<li>IMac Pro is the most powerful computer Apple has ever announced.</li>
<li>It includes a super-sharp 5K display.</li>
<li>It&#8217;ll start at $4,999 and will launch in December.</li>
</ul>
<p>Apple unveiled the iMac Pro on Monday, saying it&#8217;s the most powerful Mac ever made.</p>
<p>It will ship with an 8-core Xeon processor, a 10-core processor or an 18-core processor, the company announced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.</p>
<p>The iMac Pro features a 5K display and, thanks to the added muscle under the hood, can support two additional 5K displays, something Apple says it has never offered before. The processing power is enough to help Apple power VR, too, which will be supported in macOS High Sierra, the latest macOS operating system.</p>
<p>Apple said folks can expect real-time 3-D rendering, a 1080p FaceTime camera for sharper video chats and more. It will start at $4,999 when it launches in December. You can expect that price to increase as you outfit the computer with more powerful processors.</p>
<p>The iMac Pro wasn&#8217;t the only computer announced during the show. Apple also announced refreshes to the iMac, the MacBook Pro and the iMac during WWDC.</p>
<p>And it announced <strong><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/05/apples-launches-peer-to-peer-payments.html" target="_self">that iOS 11 will support peer-to-peer payments through a new feature called Pay Cash</a>.</strong></p>


Apple unveils ‘the most powerful Mac we have ever made’

<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/" rel="author">Todd Haselton</a> | <span class="twitter-url"><a href="http://twitter.com/@robotodd">@robotodd</a></span></p>
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<p>Apple unveiled its home speaker during WWDC 2017 on Monday. The device, called HomePod, will go toe-to-toe with existing competitors such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home.</p>
<p>Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller said Apple wanted to combine good speakers with smart speakers you can talk to, referencing Sonos and Amazon Alexa. Schiller said the speaker &#8220;needs to rock the house&#8221; free from distortion. It also needs to have &#8220;spatial awareness&#8221; to make the music sound good no matter the room size. It also needs to be fun to use, Apple said.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s powered by an A8 processor that Apple says helps it tap into the cloud and provide the best audio experience in your room. There are seven tweeters inside, too, and 6 microphones that allow you to talk to the speaker. &#8220;Hey Siri,&#8221; brings the speaker to life and then you can ask it to play music.</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t just about music, though. You can also ask HomePod to control HomeKit devices and adjust the air conditioning or lights. Or you can ask it for the news, weather, traffic, sports scores, to text someone with messages and set reminders.</p>
<p>Also, Schiller made a point to say that Apple cares a lot about its user&#8217;s privacy, so nothing is ever being sent until you say &#8220;Hey Siri.&#8221;It uses an anonymous Siri ID, too, so your searches aren&#8217;t tracked back to you.</p>
<p>Amazon&#8217;s $179.99 <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Echo-Bluetooth-Speaker-with-WiFi-Alexa/dp/B00X4WHP5E" target="_self">Echo device</a> offers tight integration with Amazon services like shopping and audiobooks, in addition to integrations with services such as Nest, Uber, Fitbit, Domino&#8217;s and Pandora. Amazon also offers a $49.99 Dot speaker and the $229.99 Echo Show, which features a screen. Google&#8217;s $109 competitor, <a class="inline_asset" href="https://store.google.com/product/google_home?utm_source=madeByGoogle&amp;utm_medium=MS&amp;utm_campaign=google_home_BN" target="_self">Google Home</a>, offers similar options.</p>
<p>Apple&#8217;s speaker will launch this December in white or gray and will cost $349.</p>
<p><strong>This story is developing, check back for more.</strong></p>
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<p><span class="articleLocation">JOHANNESBURG</span> (Reuters) &#8211; Net1 UEPS Technologies will invest 2 billion rand ($153 million) for a 15 percent stake in debt-ridden South African mobile operator Cell C, scaling back its commitment in the original deal to take over the company.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>Net1, a payments company with extensive operations in emerging markets, is part of a group led by Blue Label Telecoms, an airtime distributor, working to cut Cell C&#8217;s debt to 6 billion rand from around 20 billion.</p>
<p>Net1 has however dropped its plan to take a stake in Blue Label as part of the deal.</p>
<p>Cell C, the number three mobile operator in Africa&#8217;s most advanced economy, has struggled the past decade to compete in a mature market where Vodacom and MTN hold sway.</p>
<p>&#8220;Net1 and Blue Label have agreed that Net1 shall confine its investment to a total amount of 2.0 billion rand, which will be invested into Cell C,&#8221; Blue Label said in a statement.</p>
<p>Net1 will no longer subscribe for the Blue Label shares, both companies said in separate statements.</p>
<p>Net1 had previously said it would buy 2 billion rand worth of Blue Label shares and pay a further 2 billion rand for a 15 percent stake in Cell C.</p>
<p>The airtime distributor said it has signed agreements with other investors to take Net1&#8217;s place and subscribe for 2 billion rand worth of Blue Label shares.</p>
<p>Blue Label said last year it would pay 5.5 billion rand for a 45 percent holding in Cell C, a company founded in 2001 by Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Oger Telecom and former director Zwelakhe Mankazana. ($1 = 13.0715 rand)</p>
<p>(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Keith Weir)</p>


Net1 caps investment in South Africa’s Cell C at 15% stake

<p>Mobile technology has contributed to identity theft being the top white collar crime in the world and yet existing authentication methods such as passwords and biometrics have failed to counter this. Seeing the gap some of Africa’s leading computervision scientists at the University of Johannesburg in partnership with business developed a world first technology, code-named aiDX, at aiThenticate Computervision Labs to answer one of the most difficult, challenging and urgent questions of our time: “Who is someone actually?”.</p>
<p>André L Immelman, CEO of aiThenticate Computervision Labs, reckons the lab comprising of 16 computervision scientists could develop into the world’s next Google.</p>
<p>The technology due to go to market next month has been engineered as the next generation authentication technologies. It could be used by banks to identify customers and police to recognise criminals. Unlike conventional biometrics, such as fingerprints, faceprints, voiceprints and irisprints, which are all based on simple geometry: connecting key features to form a pattern that is then associated with a particular individual,  aiThenticate Computervision Labs&#8217;s technology uses deep science to answer the “who is someone actually?”question, says Immelman.</p>
<p>[bc_video video_id=&#8221;5453251731001&#8243; account_id=&#8221;1571595826001&#8243; player_id=&#8221;default&#8221;]</p>
<p>aiThenticate Computervision Labs&#8217; technology uses proprietary algorithms that simulate human cognition, its scientist have successfully managed to develop the next generation of authentication technologies, reckons Immelman.</p>
<p>&#8220;The human brain simply operates at a much deeper, far more advanced level than what is possible with conventional authentication methods. Extensive field tests have shown that, as the next generation authentication technology, aiDX eclipses, and in fact, surpasses the overall performance of conventional authentication methods by a factor of some 20x on average,&#8221; says Immelman.</p>
<p>Moreover, as an optimetric technology, aiDX can be deployed on any device that’s equipped with a digital camera, including standard, off-the-shelf Android or iOS smartphone or tablet, adds Immelman.</p>


Africa creates world-first next generation digital identification technology to fight identity theft

<p>Lin Taylor | Thomson Reuters Foundation</p>
<p>A &#8216;period emoji&#8217; on mobile devices could help break the taboo of menstruation, according to an international child rights group, which is pushing for an icon to help highlight the stigma that girls experience when they menstruate.</p>
<p>Menstruation is still taboo in many countries around the world, where it&#8217;s often considered embarrassing or shameful. Women refer to periods using some 5,000 euphemisms, such as &#8220;on the rag&#8221; and &#8220;Bloody Mary&#8221;, a 2016 survey of 90,000 people in 190 countries found.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Girls and women have told us about the embarrassment and shame they suffer when it&#8217;s their period. We need to make it easier to talk about something that is part of everyday life,&#8221; said Danny Vannucchi, Plan International&#8217;s campaigns manager.</p></blockquote>
<p>While there are symbols for avocado, a telescope, and even a unicorn, menstruation is not represented as an &#8217;emoji&#8217;, a small icon on smartphones and tablets commonly used to express emotions or physical things.</p>
<p>But that is something Plan International wants to change. The charity last week launched five &#8216;period emojis&#8217; and invited the public to vote for their preferred icon. As of Monday, more than 15,000 people had voted, it said.</p>
<p>The winning design will be submitted to coding consortium Unicode for consideration, which distributes emojis across mobile devices.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not saying that an emoji would solve all of these problems, but it will start a conversation, and raise awareness of the challenges women and girls face worldwide – and that can only be a good thing,&#8221; Vannucchi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p>
<p>He said issues related to reproduction and the sexual health of girls are often considered &#8220;dirty&#8221;, so girls are forced to keep quiet about menstruation which adds to the taboo.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s completely normal, but in many settings there is still a false belief that menstruation is dirty and shameful,&#8221; he said.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>&#8220;These taboos can have a damaging impact on the lives of girls and adolescents, from missing school because they face bullying or unfair treatment, to causing infections due to a lack of menstrual hygiene education and products.&#8221;</p>
<p>On any given day more than 800 million women between 15 and 49 have their period. However, globally 1.25 billion women do not have access to a toilet during menstruation, according to the charity WaterAid.</p>
<p>The United Nations estimates that due to a lack of facilities, one in 10 girls in Africa will miss school during their period and will eventually drop out of school as a result.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women&#8217;s rights, climate change and resilience. Visit <a href="http://news.trust.org/">news.trust.org</a> to see more stories)</p>


Charity calls for ‘period emoji’ to address taboo of menstruation

<p><span class="articleLocation">Tiisetso Motsoeneng | JOHANNESBURG</span></p>
<p>Botswana&#8217;s state-owned power utility has invited bids to build a 100 megawatt (MW) solar power plant to boost energy security in the diamond-rich southern African country.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>In a document published on its website, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) said it expects energy demand to more than double to 1,359 MW by 2035 from around 600 MW.</p>
<p>&#8220;BPC would therefore like to engage companies into a joint venture for the development, implementation and operation of a 100 MW solar power plant with suitable storage capacity,&#8221; it said.</p>
<p>The development is expected to start two years from the appointment of a preferred partner.</p>
<p>Botswana is facing power supply deficit and relies on electricity imports from South Africa and Mozambique, though the 300 MW expansion of its coal-fired Morupule B power plant could pave the way to self-sufficiency in electricity generation.</p>
<p>However, the expansion of Morupule B, which currently generates about 260 MW, has been stalled by a dispute over an $800 million guarantee between the contractors and government.</p>
<p>(Writing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by David Goodman)</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/special-report/2017/02/20/solar-powered-africa-never-more-possible-and-less-expensive/</p>


Botswana power utility invites bids to build 100 MW solar plant

<p>Saheli Roy Choudhury | <span class="twitter-url">@sahelirc</span></p>
<p>HYDERABAD, India — Voice-powered virtual assistants, underpinned by artificial intelligence, like <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple&#8217;s</a> Siri, <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AMZN" target="_self" data-gdsid="9399" data-inline-quote-symbol="AMZN">Amazon&#8217;s</a> Alexa, <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Google</a> Assistant and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/MSFT" target="_self" data-gdsid="25619" data-inline-quote-symbol="MSFT">Microsoft&#8217;s</a> Cortana are becoming regular fixtures in people&#8217;s lives. They&#8217;re present at homes, on devices and watches and in cars, sending driving directions, weather updates, meeting reminders and the occasional joke or two when prompted.</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/01/04/amazon-is-selling-tvs-that-you-can-talk-to/</p>
<p>Beyond that, they remain limited in their ability to hold conversations with users, the same way real people might. Efforts are on, however, to use machine learning and real-time big data analytics to make virtual assistants understand multiple languages, accents, contexts and nuances to hold more human-like conversations.</p>
<p>International Data Corporation <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS42439617" href="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS42439617" target="_self">predicts global spending on cognitive and AI solutions will see significant investments</a> over the next several years, and could achieve a compound annual growth rate of 54.4 percent through 2020.</p>
<p>Microsoft, for example, is turning to an unlikely group to bridge the gap between human-machine interactions: bilinguals. Of specific interest is the practice of code-mixing, which is when speakers switch back and forth between multiple languages in a single sentence or conversation. It&#8217;s commonly found in multilingual societies.</p>
<p>A handful of Microsoft researchers in <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/india/" target="_self">India</a> started Project Mélange, where they are studying the use of code-mixing among Indians online. They are trying to figure out how virtual assistants might be taught to respond to a user switching between, for example, English and Hindi in a conversation.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-41936 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/microsoft.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="490" /></p>
<p>&#8220;Compartmentalization of mixed languages (by multilinguals) have gone away with each coming generation,&#8221; Kalika Bali, a researcher at Microsoft, told CNBC in an interview. &#8220;So younger people use mixed languages in more and more phases of their lives.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;To have a digital assistant, something like Cortana, you have to be able to understand (the user base),&#8221; she said, adding current systems weren&#8217;t trained to pick up multiple languages in a single conversation.</p>
<p>Microsoft&#8217;s philosophy is that virtual assistants should not be too intrusive on a user&#8217;s space and time, and only show up when they need to, Sundar Srinivasan, general manager of the AI division in India at Microsoft, said in a recent interview. Srinivasan&#8217;s team works on Cortana and Microsoft&#8217;s search engine Bing at the company&#8217;s development center in Hyderabad.</p>
<p>&#8220;A personal assistant is only as effective as you want her to be,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Cortana is available on Windows 10 and in selected smartphones running on the Windows operating software. It has about 140 million monthly active users versus about <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/10/microsoft-windows-10-on-500-million-devices.html" target="_self">500 million devices currently running Windows 10</a>. The program is not available in many regions, but Srinivasan said Microsoft plans to expand it into other markets and onto more devices in the future.</p>
<p>By comparison, Google Assistant is available on both Android and iOS platforms, which <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3725117" href="http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3725117" target="_self">support about 99.8 percent of all smartphones in the world</a>.</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/02/27/smartphones-dead-in-five-years/</p>
<p>Srinivasan explained that Cortana was not like other Microsoft products such as Office, where the company could add features as and when needed. Instead, Cortana &#8220;needs to really understand human beings, and the bar for that is very high because that means we have to train the assistant with lots of human speech data,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going to take us time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Bali said the researchers&#8217; code-mixing study was inspired by observations from an anthropologist who was looking at the use of technology among Urdu-speaking youth in Hyderabadi slums. They were found using the internet to befriend and interact with girls from Brazil, who primarily spoke Portuguese. English, however, was the primary language for that communication, which piqued Bali&#8217;s interest and she had asked to see the data collected by the anthropologist.</p>
<p>&#8220;When I started seeing this data, I saw that not only were they using this very pidgin English kind of thing, but (they were) effectively communicating with each other,&#8221; Bali said, referring to the type of code-mixing that was happening in these conversations.</p>
<p>The team looks at every aspect of code-mixing, including text, speech, understanding and recognition. Bali said they also look at generational variations and why people switch between languages in a single conversation — for example, sometimes it&#8217;s for humor and at other times it&#8217;s to change topics.</p>
<p>But it may take years before a voice-powered virtual assistant can eloquently switch back and forth in multiple languages to respond to users. The biggest challenge now for Bali and the researchers is getting access to adequate data sets for study.</p>
<p>&#8220;Trying to solve just mono-lingual natural language processing and understanding has taken years. Now we&#8217;re talking about mixed stuff and where are we going to get data from?&#8221; Bali said. &#8220;Because everything is data-driven. And what are we going to do? It just seemed like a very difficult problem to solve but we were all so excited about this that we just went on.&#8221;</p>
<p>Currently, the team uses data collected from Twitter to study how users would switch between languages. Studies, Bali said, already showed Indian men who spoke English and Hindi tended to switch to the latter when they had to express negative sentiments or abuse. Women who are having a conversation in English, however, tended to stick with that language even when the content took a negative turn.</p>
<p>Teaching machines to interpret code-mixing could also potentially lead to developments in areas of opinion mining, customization and a better interpretation of nuances and context, Bali said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think this would definitely help to bridge the gap in the human-computer interaction. The fact that you can actually talk to a machine the way you would normally talk to your friend is something we still need to wrap our heads around.&#8221;</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/04/28/artificial-intelligence-will-replace-half-jobs-next-decade-says-widely-followed-technologist/</p>


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Uber founder Travis Kalanick resigns as CEO

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Net1 caps investment in South Africa’s Cell C at 15% stake

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