Tech Thursday: 2017 Top 10 tech fails and wins

2017 was a great year for tech. It was the year we saw cellphones and social media becoming more powerful tools of change. We also saw Africa becoming a key player in tech innovations that are improving the lives of people. Here are our tech wins and fails of 2017:

Tech wins in 2017:

1. Facebook became a fully integrated social media application

Facebook radically improved their social media product to compete with SnapChat and Instagram this year. In November, the tech giant announced its new experience called Stories, connecting Messenger Day and Facebook Stories. They also improved on their privacy settings, video chat capabilities, app specifications and curbing hate speech and abuse.

2. WhatsApp introduced some exciting new developments

WhatsApp became one of the most widely used social applications in 2017. With that it strengthened the privacy settings for its more than one billion users. They introduced security technology that prevents any interception as messages and media travel between devices. They also introduced a new feature that allows users to revoke or delete messages seven minutes after sending them.

3. Tech companies today do better than their predecessors

Tech companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, or ‘GAFA’, make up the four leading tech firms in the world (outside of China). Together they make over three times the revenue of Microsoft and Intel combined (‘Wintel’, the dominant partnership of the previous cycle), and close to six times that of IBM. They have become ten times more powerful than their predecessors through a diversified portfolio, ad revenue and competitive response.

4. South African apps are improving the way we see tech

2017 saw the rise of local app developers competing with international companies and taking a big share of the app market. Mobile money app, Snapscan is now used by over 25 000 merchants across South Africa, Liberty SA developed Stash to help consumers save the change they have whenever they spend and Stokvel app manages group savings and allows users to record payments and claims from members. Transport app GoMetro also made inroads giving its users access to information on public transport across SA including Gautrain, MyCiti, Rea Vaya and Golden Arrow buses across Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

5. New organic battery transforms how medical implants are powered

Scientists at Queen’s University’s Ionic Liquid Laboratories (QUILL) research centre revealed  that they are working on a flexible, organic, decomposable battery that moves with the body and could change how we power medical implants and other electronics. The battery can hold three times the charge of its counterparts, is non-flammable and does not leak.

6. Africa is a power player in tech innovations that could change the world

The African continent showed its true power in tech innovation this year with a number of different inventions that could make life easier for African communities. In Northern Togo, Lalle Nadjagou developed 3D printers using e-waste and have begun putting a machine in each school within 1km of the workshop. In Uganda, Brian Turyabagye has created a biomedical smart jacket that can diagnose pneumonia faster than a doctor. South Africa also now houses the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere and one of the largest in the world. Software Company, Aerobotics has developed a combination of satellite, drone and artificial intelligence technology to help farmers analyse agricultural data. These are only a few of many innovations in the African continent.

Tech fails in 2017:

7. Government wants to regulate online streaming services

2017 was a good year for streaming and web services around South Africa. We saw the popularity of networks like Netflix and Showmax grow, so it was disappointing to know that the South African Department of Communications is working on an Audio-Visual and Digital Content Policy for SA set to regulate streaming services such as Youtube, Netflix and Showmax. Government announced that it was working on a draft document that would outline new regulations dealing with South Africa’s shift away from television to online streaming services. This means certain streaming shows would be prohibited or even censored.

8. Mining Bitcoin uses as much electricity as 159 individual countries’ annual usage

Bitcoin was one of the key buzzwords in 2017. The digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, became a popular form of making money for people around the world. This would’ve been a big win if new research by PowerCompare.co.uk hadn’t shown that the amount of energy used by computers mining bitcoin globally has already exceeded the amount used on average by 159 countries.

9. A new era of fake news disrupted news credibility

Fake News became a bigger topic around the world this year. This was exacerbated by a new software developed at Stanford University that now makes it possible to manipulate video footage of public figures allowing someone else to literally put words into their mouths. Face2Face records the facial expressions of a person as they talk into a webcam and then superimposes those facial movements onto the face of the original person. The research team demonstrated their technology by manipulating videos of George W Bush, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. This a huge tech fail when considering the already confused perception around news online.

10. The war between Uber and metered-taxi drivers escalated

MOST READ: NEWSFLASH: Uber driver dies in hospital after June attack. Read more: https://t.co/XBJ2JWpYlH #newsflash #uber pic.twitter.com/R7kNWTX8iQ

— Pretoria Rekord (@RekordNewspaper) July 18, 2017

In 2013, the Uber app arrived in South Africa and began to shake up the taxi market. In 2017, South Africa saw an increase in violence against Uber drivers in an ongoing turf war that was started by metered taxi drivers at different zones around Johannesburg. The metered-taxi drivers say that Uber drivers are stealing their business and that their service is illegal. This turf war resulted in an Uber driver’s car being set alight by metered-taxi drivers outside Loftus Versveld in Pretoria. The driver survived the fire, but died on 17 July from his injuries. Many other drivers and passengers have been caught in the crossfire and suffered injuries.