A selection of tech news from Nigeria and Africa at large.
Google Sheets Taking Over | Software Development In Nigeria | Apple’s Life-Saving Satellite | Renault Google Cloud | Nigerian SME Software
________________________________________________________________________________________
Google’s spreadsheets could soon be taking over even more of your working life – Techradar
Keeping track of how your big workplace projects are progressing could soon be a lot more straightforward thanks to a new Google Sheets update.
The spreadsheet software is introducing a new timeline view that will provide a clearer and more intuitive perspective on how your work is progressing, and provide project management tools within the platform for the first time.
The new view, described by Google Workspace as a “visual layer” displays project information stored in Sheets, such as the task start and end date, description, and owner. Users can also view more information about the project in the sidebar by clicking on a card within the timeline, and also track progress over time by accessing updated versions of the timeline at various time intervals (day, week, month, quarters, year, and multiyear).
Google Sheets timeline
“The timeline view enables you to easily interact with project information and can help you manage things like marketing campaigns, project milestones, schedules, cross-team collaboration, and more,” a Google Workspace update blog post announcing the news noted. Read more here.
Tom Speaks On State Of Software Development In Nigeria – Independent News
Renowned business consultant and owner, of Trinidad Corporation, Dr Trinity Tom, has spoken on the state of software development in Nigeria and its future.
Tom said that since the early 2000s, information technology has been a booming sector in Nigeria, paving the way for multiple industrial and digital revolutions. Nigeria’s newly found digital revolution saw the arrival of mobile phones, GSM, the internet, the email revolution, online Yahoo messenger talks, and penpals, he added.
He noted that the information, communications, and technology (ICT) sector (the “tech sector”) is now one of Nigeria’s fastest expanding. Despite the COVID-19 epidemic, the industry produced 15% of the country’s GDP in 2020, ranking second only to agriculture. This maintained a five-year trend, with the industry rising at an 18% annual rate between 2016 and 2019.
Renowned business consultant and owner, of Trinidad Corporation, Dr Trinity Tom, has spoken on the state of software development in Nigeria and its future. Read more here.
Apple’s life-saving satellite feature could arrive in your iPhone 14’s next update – Techradar
One of the biggest announcements to emerge from Apple’s iPhone 14 launch event concerned the company’s potentially groundbreaking Emergency SOS via Satellite feature – but until now, we’d heard precious little about when it might actually arrive.
In a new support post (H/T MacRumors), Apple says Emergency SOS via Satellite “will be available with an iOS 16 software update coming in November 2022.” iOS 16.1 rolled out at the end of October, and iOS 16.2 is expected to launch in December, so it follows that the life-saving feature could arrive with iOS 16.1.1 in the coming weeks.
iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 betas are already out in the wild, and we know that Apple is preparing to roll out a fix for a persistent Wi-Fi bug that’s been pestering iPhone 14 customers since the launch of iOS 16.1. For our money, then, Emergency SOS via Satellite will arrive on the iPhone 14 alongside this imminent software patch. Read more here.
Renault deepens partnership with Google to become preferred cloud supplier – Ripples Nigeria
French automaker, Renault, has announced deepening its partnership with tech giant, Google, in a bid to expand its partnership in software services for future Renault vehicles.
Renault Chief Executive, Luca de Meo, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
The French multinational automobile manufacturer, established in 1899, explained that Google will become its preferred cloud supplier.
“We want to make the car an intelligent object that learns and one that can be upgraded over the air like a mobile phone,” Luca de Meo said.
Ripples Nigeria gathered that the partnership is aimed at developing a set of onboard and offboard software components that are dedicated to “Software Defined Vehicle” (SDV). Read more here.
Retail Management Software Solution for Nigerian SMEs Launched – Thisday News
NeuRMS, a new scalable management software solution for retail businesses, specifically developed for Nigerian business owners, has been launched.
Speaking at the launch event in Lagos recently, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NeuRMS, Mr. Lanre Olaniyan, said the software solution was designed to address challenges faced in managing retail business in Nigeria, and to meet the growing needs of today’s customers in the digital era.
“NeuRMS is a software, developed to help Nigeria’s over 48 million Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to retain the foreign exchange that they spend on purchasing foreign developed retail management applications. NeuRMS retail management software helps retail business owners drive more sales with business applications that include point of sale features, inventory management, retail customer relationship management, vendor management, business analytics, business reporting, employee data management, and more. The product has been carefully designed with the peculiarities of Africa’s diverse economies and societies in mind, a journey that started in 2020, during the global COVID-19 crisis,” Olaniyan said. Read more here.
