Recently, I wrote an article discussing how rapid technological innovation may ultimately have far reaching impact on the job market through jobless growth. This week, I would like to take the opportunity to look at some of these technical innovations and developments more closely. Here are seven pretty mind-blowing achievements in a world that is quickly becoming fully automated.Robotic Cars If you think you can hold on to your job as a driver, think again. Back in September, a German company ...

Mobile money has made more of an impact in Africa than a number of other emerging market regions. In fact, through services like Safricom’s M-Pesa, people on the continent have been using their mobile phones for financial transactions since long before Google brought out its wallet. But can emerging markets on the continent, and elsewhere, take mobile money beyond money transfers?This is, after all, how the whole mobile money market emerged with M-Pesa: People buying airtime from agents and ...

Companies in the tech industry have now reached financial heights of being the most successful companies in the world (Apple) and attaining valuations of US$18-billion upon their IPO’s going live (Groupon).Startups, however, have found that, as with the rest of the global economy, belts have become tighter. Venture capitalists and angel investors are no longer as willing as they once were to provide that much-needed funding.Despite talks of a "tech bubble" in the wider industry, the problems faced by ...

Social Strategists Beware! Your workload is going to increase! From 22 November Facebook will no longer allow the automatic import of Blog and RSS feeds into Profiles.A long-used strategy by social networkers has been to link their blog posts and websites via RSS directly to their Facebook profiles. This meant that every time they put up a blog-post, it would automatically "push" the information onto Facebook, creating a note.This allowed for great interaction with fans, followers and friends -- building ...

The future of Yahoo! Inc it seems remains uncertain. China's Alibaba Group and Japan's Softbank are in talks with private equity firms about making an unsolicited bid for Yahoo!, reports Bloomberg.The bid would be for all the shares of California-based Yahoo!, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.Yahoo! has been through a tumultuous journey, moving from one rumour to another, since the axing of colourful of chief executive Carol Bartz in September. The company has been looking to ...

A smack down has been laid on BlackBerry from the mighty Google and comes in the form of total Gmail app removal from the Blackberry store.From November 22, Google will no longer be supporting its Gmail app for BlackBerry. If it is already installed, the app will continue to work. Google said that it has stopped development in order to concentrate on the mobile browsing experience.BlackBerry users who want to access Gmail will have to go through the web browser ...

Google has announced new research findings detailing smartphone usage in South Africa. The findings reveal that South Africans are opting for smart devices -- 15% of South Africans now have smartphones. Half of the new smartphone users, though, have only been using a smartphone for the past 12 months. The survey found these users consider their smartphones to be as important as their purses and keys, with 83% of mobile subscribers not wanting to leave home without their smartphones.Google's findings ...

With a single leaked email, Adobe effectively announced the end of Flash for mobile. The email, intended for Adobe's partners, details the demise of one of the company's flagship products.The following email comes courtesy of ZDnet.Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or ...

After months of campaigning, activists have cause to celebrate following Facebook's decision to finally relent to calls for pages celebrating rape culture to be shut down, reports the BBC.These pages, with names such as "You know she's playing hard to get when your [sic] chasing her down an alley," were not a new phenomenon. Campaigns and petitions to get them removed, however, only began in earnest in August of this year. Despite the widespread support these campaigns received, Facebook was ...

New CEO Alan Knott-Craig is ringing the changes at MXit, a key emerging market mobile social network. Recently it was announced the company's restructure would mean more focus, innovation and job losses. Knott-Craig bought MXit a few months ago for an undisclosed sum from founder Herman Heunis and emerging markets internet giant Naspers.The mobile youth messaging service operates in 128 countries. It is represented in international markets that include Malaysia, Kenya, India, Indonesia, United Kingdom, United States, ...