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Partners
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Good morning!
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It's today guys. Join us physically at the Landmark Event Centre by 10 am for Technext Coinference; a series of immersive sessions on the future of the blockchain in Africa. Don't be a stranger. Say hi, if you run into me in person.
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What's also on my mind as we enter this new weekend is Elon Musk's new humanoid. Will you be buying one?
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Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.
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Join us and key industry insiders on Monday the 3rd of October, 2022 for a deep dive into the conversation around blockchain and decentralised finance in Africa.
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Summary of the news
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- TikTok is set to launch an e-commerce business in the US
- FG said it would honour 5 tech entrepreneurs with national awards
- Google appears to have disabled Google Translate in some parts of China
- Elon Musk unveiled a humanoid ‘Optimus’ robot at Tesla’s AI Day
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TikTok to launch e-commerce business in the US
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TikTok is due to enter a partnership with Los Angeles-based TalkShopLive to launch its live shopping platform in North America by outsourcing its operation, the Financial Times reported last weekend citing two people familiar with the operations.
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The companies are still finalizing the arrangements, the FT report said, adding that no contracts have been signed so far. TikTok did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment while a representative for TalkShopLive declined to comment.
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Bytedance-owned TikTok's live shopping platform TikTok Shop is available in Asian markets including Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. It was launched in the U.K. last year, according to the report.
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TikTok Shop allows users to buy products through links on the app during live broadcasts, and the Los Angeles based TalkShopLive app works on a similar concept. TalkShopLive describes itself as a "live streaming, social buying and selling platform", on its website.
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A word from our partners!
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Fincra offers several different flexible payment solutions for global businesses. Businesses across multiple sectors can easily accept online payments via cards, bank transfers and Pay with PayAttitude giving customers the convenience and flexibility they want.
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Fincra also has POS Terminal, which provides various payment collection options like Pay with Transfer and Pay with Card for in-person transactions.
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Buhari to honour 5 Nigerian tech entrepreneurs with national awards
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As Nigeria marks its 62nd independence day, President Muhammadu Buhari will confer National Honours Award to 437 Nigerians on October 11, 2022, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
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The award recognises notable Nigerians and friends of Nigeria who have rendered service to the benefit of the nation. For the 2022 batch, five ecosystem players in the Nigerian tech ecosystem were listed as awardees, according to a list seen by Benjamindada.com.
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The tech entrepreneurs who are also among the awardees include: Paystack's co-founders; Ezra Olubi & Shola Akinlade, co-founder at Flutterwave & Andela, Iyin Aboyeji, Ola Brown of Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment and Funke Opeke, founder and CEO of MainOne.
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The award is coming a few weeks after Atiku Bagudu, the Governor of Kebbi state during an address at the Progressive Young Leaders Summit in Abuja claimed that the success of Paystack and Flutterwave is a reflection of President Buhari's efforts to stabilise the economy.
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Google might have disabled Translate in parts of China
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Google appears to have disabled access to Google Translate in parts of China, redirecting visitors to the Hong Kong domain — which isn’t accessible from the mainland. According to users on Reddit and site archives viewed by TechCrunch, Google swapped the Google Translate interface at translate.google.cn with a generic Google Search page at some point within the last 24 hours.
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The change is reportedly impacting the translation features of apps like KOReader, a document viewer, for China-based users, as well as Chrome’s built-in translation functionality. Google hasn’t responded to a request for comment; we’ll update this piece if we hear back.
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Google has a long and complicated relationship with the Chinese government. In 2006, the company entered the Chinese market with a version of its search engine that was subject to government censorship rules.
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But after state-sponsored hacks and government-ordered blocks on Google services in response to YouTube footage showing Chinese security forces beating Tibetans, Google shut down Google Search in the mainland and briefly rerouted searches through its uncensored Hong Kong domain.
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A word from our partners!
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For an exclusive 8-week mentorship program for you to take the next step in your Web3 Development Journey, register for the Polygon Bootcamp Africa Class of 2022 slated to hold this September.
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Elon Musk unveils humanoid ‘Optimus’ robot
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk showcased his much-touted humanoid robot “Optimus” at the electric vehicle maker’s “AI Day” event last week.
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The billionaire has said a robot business will be worth more than its cars, hoping to expand beyond self-driving vehicles that have not yet become a reality despite his repeated promises, the Guardian reports.
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A prototype of the robot walked on stage and waved to the seated audience. A video of the robot carrying a box, watering plants and moving metal bars in the automaker’s factory was shown.
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“Our goal is to make a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible,” Musk said at the event at a Tesla office in Palo Alto, California. “There’s still a lot of work to be done to refine Optimus and prove it.”
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Musk said currently humanoid robots were “missing a brain”, saying they don’t have the intelligence to navigate the world by themselves, and they were also very expensive and made in low volume.
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By contrast, he said, Optimus would be an “extremely capable robot”, to be made in very high volume – ultimately millions of units – and it was expected to cost much less than a car, at under $20,000.
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Latest in funding
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Other stories we are following
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