WWDC 2025, Apple’s annual developers conference, starts at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET. Monday. Last year’s event was notable for its focus on AI, and this year, there is considerable pressure on the company to build on its promises, and to change the narrative after months of largely negative headlines. As in previous years, the company will focus on software updates and new technologies, including the next version of iOS, which is rumored to have the most significant design changes since the introduction of iOS 7. But iOS 19 (or 26, if other rumors about the new naming system are true) isn’t the only thing the company will announce at WWDC 2025. Here’s how you can watch the keynote livestream. iOS is getting the most dramatic design change in over a decade When Apple introduced a major overhaul to iOS back in 2013 with the launch of iOS 7, it felt jarring for many users with the shift from the prior skeuomorphic design with gradients and real-world textures to the more colorful, but flat, design style that reflected Apple’s then chief design officer Jony Ive’s taste for minimalism. Now, new reports suggest that an upcoming redesign could provoke a similar level of reaction. Reports suggest the new design may have elements referencing visionOS, the software powering Apple’s spatial computing headset, the Apple Vision Pro. If true, that means the new OS could feature a transparent interface and more circular app icons that break away from the traditional square format today. This visual redesign could be implemented across all of Apple’s ecosystem (including even CarPlay), according to Bloomberg, providing a more seamless experience for consumers moving between their different devices. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | July 15 REGISTER NOW iOS will change its naming system According to Bloomberg, Apple will announce a change in the naming system for iOS at this year’s WWDC. Instead of announcing the next version of iOS as iOS 19, Apple’s operating systems will shift to being named by year. That means we could be set to see the launch of iOS 26 instead, alongside the OSes for other products, including adOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26. Apple may keep the AI news light this year While it might be challenging to top the news related to Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, the company is expected to share a few updates on the AI front. The company has seemingly been caught flat-footed in the AI race, making announcements about AI capabilities that had yet to ship, leading even some Apple pundits to accuse the company of touting vaporware. While Apple has launched several AI tools like Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools, Photos Clean Up, and more, its promise of an improved Siri, personalized to the end user and able to take action across your apps, has been delayed. Meanwhile, Apple has turned to outside companies like OpenAI to give its iPhone a boost in terms of its AI capabilities. At WWDC, it may announce support for other AI chatbots, as well. With Jony Ive now working with Sam Altman on an AI hardware device, Apple is under pressure to catch up on AI progress. Image Credits:Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto / Getty Images In addition, reports suggest that Apple’s Health app could soon incorporate AI technology, which could include a health chatbot and generative AI insights that provide personalized health-related suggestions based on user data. Additionally, other apps, such as Messages, may receive enhancements with AI capabilities, including a translation feature and polls that offer AI-generated suggestions, per 9to5Mac. Apple will likely make the most of a number of smaller OS updates that involve AI, given its underwhelming progress. Reports suggest that these updates could include AI-powered battery management features and an AI-powered Shortcuts app, for instance. iPhone users may get a dedicated gaming app Bloomberg confirmed a 9to5Mac report that said Apple is developing a dedicated gaming app that will replace the aging Game Center app. The app could include access to Apple Arcade’s subscription-based game store, plus other gaming features like leaderboards, recommendations, and ways to challenge your friends. It could also integrate with iMessage or FaceTime for remote gaming. Image Credits:Gabby Jones/Bloomberg / Getty Images Updates to Mac, Watch, TV, and more Along with the new design, reports suggest that Apple’s other operating systems will get some polish, too. For instance, macOS may also see the new gaming app and benefit from the new AirPods features. It’s also expected to be named macOS Tahoe, in keeping with Apple’s naming convention that references California landmarks. Apple TV may get a visual overhaul, but also changes to its user interface, the new gaming app, and other features. AirPods to get new features In addition to Messages getting a translation feature, Bloomberg reported that Apple could also bring a live-translate language feature to its AirPods wireless Bluetooth earbuds, allowing real-time translation during conversations. The iPhone will translate spoken words from another language for the user and will also translate the user’s response back into that language. A new report from 9to5Mac also suggests that AirPods may get new head gestures to complement today’s ability to either nod or shake your head to respond to incoming calls or messages. Plus, AirPods may get features to auto-pause music after you fall asleep, a way to trigger the camera via Camera Control with a touch, a studio-quality mic mode, and an improved pairing experience in shared AirPods. Image Credits:Darrell Etherington Apple Pencil upgrade According to reports, the Apple Pencil is also receiving a new update, one that will benefit users who wish to write in Arabic script. In an effort to cater to customers in UAE, Saudi Arabia, and India, Apple is reportedly launching a new virtual calligraphy feature in iPadOS 19. The company may also introduce a bi-directional keyboard so users can switch between Arabic and English on iPhones and iPads. No hardware announcements? There haven’t been any rumors regarding new devices, because no hardware is ready for release yet, according to Bloomberg. Although it’s always possible that the company will surprise us with a new Mac Pro announcement, most reports are saying this is highly unlikely at this point. Some reports indicate that Apple may also announce support for a new input device for its Vision Pro: spatial controllers. The devices would be motion-aware and designed with interaction in a 3D environment in mind, 9to5Mac says. In addition, Vision Pro could get eye-scrolling support, enabling users to scroll through documents on both native and third-party apps. Bloomberg had reported in November that Apple was expected to announce a smart home tablet in March 2025, featuring a 6-inch touchscreen and voice-activated controls. The device was said to include support for Home Control, Siri, and video calls, but has yet to launch. Following the discovery of a filing for “HomeOS” by PMC’s Parker Ortolani, speculation has arisen that Apple may unveil the software for the device at WWDC.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Windows 11 gets post-quantum cryptography and various fixes in build 27863 Taras Buria Neowin @TarasBuria · May 23, 2025 13:40 EDT Microsoft is rolling out a new Windows 11 preview build in the Canary Channel. Build 27863 is not the biggest one, and there are not that many updates. However, it contains some important changes, like post-quantum cryptography, which Microsoft announced at its annual Build conference earlier this week. Windows 11 now supports the post-quantum signature algorithm ML-DSA in the NCrypt and BCrypt cryptography API surfaces, as well as the Crypt32 certificate APIs. Other changes in Windows 11 build 27863 include three fixes. One resolves error 0xc0370106 upon Windows Sandbox launch that occurred in the previous Canary build. Another fix patches the bug with core Windows surfaces not being able to load in safe mode. Those include File Explorer, Start menu, and other elements. Finally, build 27863 fixes problems with the msftedit.dll library, which was causing apps like Sticky Notes and Dxdiag to crash on systems with certain locales, such as Hebrew or Arabic. Known issues include the following: Improtant Note for Copilot+ PCs: If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”. You may see an Administrative Templates error message when opening Group Policy Editor. If you click OK you should be able to proceed as normal. One of the causes of this is fixed with this flight – there’s a second fix we’re working on which will be included in an upcoming flight. We’re investigating an issue where the taskbar is unexpectedly not showing acrylic material after upgrading to this build. We’re working on the fix for an issue where audio devices with high sampling (like 192Hz) and multiple channels aren’t producing sound after upgrading to this build. Thanks Insiders that provided detailed information in your feedback! [Input] Pen input may be non-responsive on some PCs that support pen for inking. [Task Manager] Search and other options such as filtering in Task Manager does not work. You can find the official announcement post here. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and several foundational models, is officially regarded as one of France’s most promising tech startups and is arguably the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. But compared to its $6 billion valuation, its global market share is still relatively low.  However, the recent launch of its chat assistant on mobile app stores was met with some hype, particularly in its home country. “Go and download Le Chat, which is made by Mistral, rather than ChatGPT by OpenAI — or something else,” French president Emmanuel Macron said in a TV interview ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris. While this wave of attention may be encouraging, Mistral AI still faces challenges in competing with the likes of OpenAI — and in doing so while keeping up with its self-definition as “the world’s greenest and leading independent AI lab.” What is Mistral AI? Mistral AI has raised significant amounts of funding since its creation in 2023 with the ambition to “put frontier AI in the hands of everyone.” While this isn’t a direct jab at OpenAI, the slogan is meant to highlight the company’s advocacy for openness in AI. Its alternative to ChatGPT, chat assistant Le Chat, is now also available on iOS and Android. It reached 1 million downloads in the two weeks following its mobile release, even grabbing France’s top spot for free downloads on the iOS App Store. This comes in addition to Mistral AI’s suite of models, which includes:  Mistral Large 2, the primary large language model replacing Mistral Large. Pixtral Large, unveiled in 2024 as a new addition to the Pixtral family of multimodal models. Mistral Medium 3, released in May 2025 with the promise of providing efficiency without compromising performance, and best for coding and STEM tasks. Devstral, an AI model designed for coding and openly available under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially without restriction. Codestral, an earlier generative AI model for code, but whose license banned commercial applications. “Les Ministraux,” a family of models optimized for edge devices such as phones. Mistral Saba, focused on Arabic language. In March 2025, the company introduced Mistral OCR, an optical character recognition (OCR) API that can turn any PDF into a text file to make it easier for AI models to ingest. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Who are Mistral AI’s founders? Mistral AI’s three founders share a background in AI research at major U.S. tech companies with significant operations in Paris. CEO Arthur Mensch used to work at Google’s DeepMind, while CTO Timothée Lacroix and chief scientist officer Guillaume Lample are former Meta staffers. Co-founding advisers also include Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve (also a board member) and Charles Gorintin from health insurance startup Alan, as well as former digital minister Cédric O, which caused controversy due to his previous role. Are Mistral AI’s models open source? Not all of them. Mistral AI differentiates its premier models, whose weights are not available for commercial purposes, from its free models, for which it provides weight access under the Apache 2.0 license. Free models include research models such as Mistral NeMo, which was built in collaboration with Nvidia that the startup open-sourced in July 2024. How does Mistral AI make money? While many of Mistral AI’s offerings are free or now have free tiers, Mistral AI plans to drive some revenue from Le Chat’s paid tiers. Introduced in February 2025, Le Chat’s Pro plan is priced at $14.99 a month. On the purely B2B side, Mistral AI monetizes its premier models through APIs with usage-based pricing. Enterprises can also license these models, and the company likely also generates a significant share of its revenue from its strategic partnerships, some of which it highlighted during the Paris AI Summit. Overall, however, Mistral AI’s revenue is reportedly still in the eight-digit range, according to multiple sources. What partnerships has Mistral AI closed? In 2024, Mistral AI entered a deal with Microsoft that included a strategic partnership for distributing its AI models through Microsoft’s Azure platform and a €15 million investment. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) swiftly concluded that the deal didn’t qualify for investigation due to its small size. However, it also sparked some criticism in the EU.  In January 2025, Mistral AI signed a deal with press agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) to let Chat query the AFP’s entire text archive dating back to 1983. Mistral AI also secured strategic partnerships with France’s army and job agency, shipping giant CMA, German defense tech startup Helsing, IBM, Orange, and Stellantis. In May 2025, Mistral AI announced it would participate in the creation of an AI Campus in the Paris region, as part of a joint venture with UAE-investment firm MGX, NVIDIA, and France’s state-owned investment bank Bpifrance. How much funding has Mistral AI raised to date? As of February 2025, Mistral AI raised around €1 billion in capital to date, approximately $1.04 billion at the current exchange rate. This includes some debt financing, as well as several equity financing rounds raised in close succession. In June 2023, and before it even released its first models, Mistral AI raised a record $112 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Sources at the time said the seed round — Europe’s largest ever — valued the then-one-month-old startup at $260 million.  Other investors in this seed round included Bpifrance, Eric Schmidt, Exor Ventures, First Minute Capital, Headline, JCDecaux Holding, La Famiglia, LocalGlobe, Motier Ventures, Rodolphe Saadé, Sofina, and Xavier Niel. Only six months later, it closed a Series A of €385 million ($415 million at the time), at a reported valuation of $2 billion. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from existing backer Lightspeed, as well as BNP Paribas, CMA-CGM, Conviction, Elad Gil, General Catalyst, and Salesforce. The $16.3 million convertible investment that Microsoft made in Mistral AI as part of their partnership announced in February 2024 was presented as a Series A extension, implying an unchanged valuation. In June 2024, Mistral AI then raised €600 million in a mix of equity and debt (around $640 million at the exchange rate at the time). The long-rumored round was led by General Catalyst at a $6 billion valuation, with notable investors, including Cisco, IBM, Nvidia, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and others. What could a Mistral AI exit look like? Mistral is “not for sale,” Mensch said in January 2025 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Of course, [an IPO is] the plan.”  This makes sense, given how much the startup has raised so far: Even a large sale may not provide high enough multiples for its investors, not to mention sovereignty concerns depending on the acquirer.  However, the only way to definitely squash persistent acquisition rumors is to scale its revenue to levels that could even remotely justify its nearly $6 billion valuation. Either way, stay tuned. This story was originally published on February 28, 2025 and will be regularly updated.

Amazing sound for everything you listen to. FxSound corrects the limitations of your devices and compressed audio. FxSound is (technically) a 90's kid at heart. It's roots are in a program called DFX Audio Enhancer, born in 1999. This audio processor was a huge hit, and sold millions. As much as we dug all the crazy colorful skins and old-school sound, it was eventually time to move into the future of audio. With a few major overhauls and some polish, FxSound was born. We wanted to build on the pedigree and foundation of DFX, so we kept the best aspects while modernizing the sound and look. The result is the FxSound you see here today. Now, we made FxSound so that you can download it, turn it on, and just watch the cool bars bounce without touching the settings. Out of the box, it's got a great, all-around tone, with a good amount of volume and space added to your sound. But there is so much more under the hood, and with a little active effort FxSound can go from a nice audio quality booster to a fully customizable, powerful audio suite. Read on to learn more about how to use FxSound, and learn a little bit about your audio along the way. Video Games Surround sound to create full immersion into your virtual world. TV and Movies FxSound smooths and improves audio for your favorite shows and movies. Transcription FxSound boosts your clarity to save your sanity. Rewind less, get paid more. EQ Balanced your sound with our 9-band EQ with customizable center frequencies. Visualizer Feel your music in a new way. Effects Boosted bass and volume that will make your neighbors complain. Presets Presets professionally designed for music, gaming, movies, transcription, and more. How does FxSound work? Home stereo systems and PC's are built with a compromise: keep hardware affordable at the cost of quality. FxSound compensates for low quality hardware by targeting and processing sound's timbre, volume, spatial balance, and dynamics. What this means for you is clearer, louder, deeper, and balanced audio. Install our lightweight program, let it run quietly in the background, and enjoy your new audio experience. How does FxSound boost volume? FxSound is built to provide a dynamic yet controlled increase in volume. We prevent harmful peaking to make listening less fatiguing. Along with our equalized boost means you can increase your volume without distortion. (Unlike some other volume boosters out there). How does FxSound improve sound quality for music? Your music files, even ones labeled as "high quality", have some compromises. Some of the original data is removed to make the file a more manageable size. When you stream your music, even more 1's and 0's are cut out to make it fast to deliver. As such, your favorite songs become flat, dull, and lifeless. This is where FxSound comes in. FxSound helps by giving you the highest possible audio passthrough and output. Then, with targeted EQ, you can bring up those compressed areas and return your music to its proper form. How does FxSound help with gaming? Video games are one of the most acoustically rich, audio-saturated situations you'll encounter. Music, sound effects, ambient sounds, spatial processing, audio cues, warnings, indicators, and dialogue all crowd into your headphones or speakers. Unless you're dropping serious coin on a hi-fi gaming setup, you'll lose detail and miss important sounds. And if you're lucky enough to have that high-end gear, you can't always dial in global settings to fit your hearing profile. FxSound will pass your game's audio through at a higher bitrate than almost any other digital sound card. With EQ and effects, you can apply a smoother, richer, more clear experience to your favorite games. When looking to get that edge (and finally joining your high ELO friends), give FxSound a shot. What's New FxSound 1.1.33.0 Beta Changelog Volume normalization supported through RMS normalization Bugfix: Tray icon added back after explorer restart Context menu changes for playback device selection In mini mode, window will be always on top Ukrainian language support added Translation corrections in Arabic, Bosnian, Croatian, Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish FxSound 1.1.31.0 Changelog Fixed the unhandled exception and crash in the application after installation Notifications not displayed during output device change is fixed Correction in Swedish translation

Addressing Architectural Trade-offs in Language Models As language models scale, balancing expressivity, efficiency, and adaptability becomes increasingly challenging. Transformer architectures dominate due to their strong performance across a wide range of tasks, but they are computationally expensive—particularly for long-context scenarios—due to the quadratic complexity of self-attention. On the other hand, Structured State Space Models (SSMs) offer improved efficiency and linear scaling, yet often lack the nuanced sequence modeling required for complex language understanding. A combined architecture that leverages the strengths of both approaches is needed to support diverse applications across environments. Introducing Falcon-H1: A Hybrid Architecture The Falcon-H1 series, released by the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), introduces a hybrid family of language models that combine Transformer attention mechanisms with Mamba2-based SSM components. This architecture is designed to improve computational efficiency while maintaining competitive performance across tasks requiring deep contextual understanding. Falcon-H1 covers a wide parameter range—from 0.5B to 34B—catering to use cases from resource-constrained deployments to large-scale distributed inference. The design aims to address common bottlenecks in LLM deployment: memory efficiency, scalability, multilingual support, and the ability to handle extended input sequences. Source: https://falcon-lm.github.io/blog/falcon-h1/ Architectural Details and Design Objectives Falcon-H1 adopts a parallel structure where attention heads and Mamba2 SSMs operate side by side. This design allows each mechanism to independently contribute to sequence modeling: attention heads specialize in capturing token-level dependencies, while SSM components support efficient long-range information retention. The series supports a context length of up to 256K tokens, which is particularly useful for applications in document summarization, retrieval-augmented generation, and multi-turn dialogue systems. Model training incorporates a customized microparameterization (μP) recipe and optimized data pipelines, allowing for stable and efficient training across model sizes. The models are trained with a focus on multilingual capabilities. The architecture is natively equipped to handle 18 languages, with coverage including English, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, French, and others. The framework is extensible to over 100 languages, supporting localization and region-specific model adaptation. Empirical Results and Comparative Evaluation Despite relatively modest parameter counts, Falcon-H1 models demonstrate strong empirical performance: Falcon-H1-0.5B achieves results comparable to 7B-parameter models released in 2024. Falcon-H1-1.5B-Deep performs on par with leading 7B to 10B Transformer models. Falcon-H1-34B matches or exceeds the performance of models such as Qwen3-32B, Llama4-Scout-17B/109B, and Gemma3-27B across several benchmarks. Evaluations emphasize both general-purpose language understanding and multilingual benchmarks. Notably, the models achieve strong performance across both high-resource and low-resource languages without requiring excessive fine-tuning or additional adaptation layers. Source: https://falcon-lm.github.io/blog/falcon-h1/ Deployment and inference are supported through integration with open-source tools such as Hugging Face Transformers. FlashAttention-2 compatibility further reduces memory usage during inference, offering an attractive efficiency-performance balance for enterprise use. Conclusion Falcon-H1 represents a methodical effort to refine language model architecture by integrating complementary mechanisms—attention and SSMs—within a unified framework. By doing so, it addresses key limitations in both long-context processing and scaling efficiency. The model family provides a range of options for practitioners, from lightweight variants suitable for edge deployment to high-capacity configurations for server-side applications. Through its multilingual coverage, long-context capabilities, and architectural flexibility, Falcon-H1 offers a technically sound foundation for research and production use cases that demand performance without compromising on efficiency or accessibility. Check out the Official Release, Models on Hugging Face and GitHub Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit and Subscribe to our Newsletter. Asif RazzaqWebsite |  + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences.Asif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Google DeepMind Releases Gemma 3n: A Compact, High-Efficiency Multimodal AI Model for Real-Time On-Device UseAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Step-by-Step Implementation Tutorial for Building Modular AI Workflows Using Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 3.7 through API and LangGraphAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Meta Researchers Introduced J1: A Reinforcement Learning Framework That Trains Language Models to Judge With Reasoned Consistency and Minimal DataAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Sampling Without Data is Now Scalable: Meta AI Releases Adjoint Sampling for Reward-Driven Generative Modeling

Technology  Rate this post Africa is a large and beautiful continent. It has many countries, cultures, and people. Each country is unique. Some are small, while others are very large. In this article, we will explore how many countries are in Africa. We will also learn some interesting facts about them. How Many Countries Are in Africa in 2025? As of 2025, Africa has 54 recognized countries. These countries are members of the African Union (AU). Some sources may list 55 or 56. That is because of disputed territories. However, the official number is 54 countries. What Are These Countries? Here is a list of all 54 African countries: Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Are There Any Disputed Regions? Yes, there are. Some regions are not fully recognized. The most well-known is Western Sahara. It wants independence. Some countries support it. Others do not. It is a disputed region. That’s why numbers may vary across sources. What Is the African Union? The African Union (AU) is like a family of African countries. It helps them work together. The AU has 55 members. This includes Western Sahara. That is why some people count 55 countries. But the United Nations recognizes 54 countries in Africa. How Is Africa Divided Geographically? Africa is usually divided into five regions: North Africa – Includes Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan. West Africa – Includes Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and many more. Central Africa – Includes Cameroon, Chad, and Congo. East Africa – Includes Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. Southern Africa – Includes South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. These regions are based on geography and culture. Each region has its languages and traditions. Which Is the Largest Country in Africa? Algeria is the largest country by land area. It is in North Africa. It covers over 2.3 million square kilometers. Which Is the Smallest Country in Africa? Seychelles is the smallest African country. It is a group of islands. It is located in the Indian Ocean. It has a population of less than 100,000 people. What Is the Most Populated Country in Africa? Nigeria has the most people in Africa. It has over 223 million people in 2025. That is a huge number. Nigeria is also a strong economy in the continent. Which Country Is the Youngest? South Sudan is the newest African country. It became independent in 2011. It was part of Sudan before. How Many Languages Are Spoken in Africa? Africa is full of languages. Over 2,000 languages are spoken across the continent. Some countries have more than 100 languages. What Are the Most Spoken Languages? Some common languages in Africa include: Arabic (mainly in North Africa) Swahili (East Africa) Hausa (West Africa) Amharic (Ethiopia) English and French (used in many countries) These languages help people from different tribes talk to each other. What Religions Are Practiced in Africa? Africa has many religions. The most common are: Islam – followed mostly in North and West Africa Christianity – followed in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa Traditional African Religions – still practiced in rural areas Religion plays an important role in African life. What Makes Africa Special? Africa is the second-largest continent. It is rich in culture, wildlife, and history. It has deserts, rainforests, and savannas. Africa is home to the Sahara Desert, the Nile River, and Mount Kilimanjaro. Is Africa Growing Fast? Yes, very fast. Africa has one of the youngest populations in the world. Many people are under 25. Cities are growing. Technology is spreading. New businesses are starting. Africa is changing quickly. Top Cities in Africa Some of the largest and busiest cities are: Lagos (Nigeria) Cairo (Egypt) Johannesburg (South Africa) Nairobi (Kenya) Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) These cities are centers of business, culture, and government. Tourism in Africa Africa has many tourist spots. People visit for safaris, beaches, and ancient places. Some famous places include: Pyramids of Egypt Serengeti National Park Victoria Falls Table Mountain Sahara Desert Tourism is growing fast in many African countries. Conclusion Africa is a vibrant and powerful continent. It has 54 unique and independent countries. Each one adds value to the continent. From deserts to cities, from languages to religions, Africa has it all. Knowing how many countries are in Africa helps us understand its diversity. Africa will continue to grow in 2025 and beyond. Tech World TimesTech World Times (TWT), a global collective focusing on the latest tech news and trends in blockchain, Fintech, Development & Testing, AI and Startups. If you are looking for the guest post then contact at techworldtimes@gmail.com

At Unity, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are employee-led networks that foster an inclusive workplace by providing support around shared identities or life experiences that have historically been marginalized or underrepresented in the workforce. The purpose of ERGs is to champion an inclusive culture by modeling our company values of empathy, respect, and opportunity, and to build a sense of belonging. Membership in ERGs is open to all employees, regardless of whether they self-identify with the target demographic; allies are welcomed and encouraged to join in creating a culture of inclusion. Today we have a total of nine ERGs, nearly half of which were launched in 2022. Continue reading for a look back at all that our ERGs accomplished in the past year and to learn more about what each represents.The Access ERG was launched earlier this year and is a group that resonates with many people at Unity. The group hosted multiple meetings with guest speakers, covering various topics such as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) literacy, guide dogs, and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. Leaders have also raised awareness and donations for nonprofits outside of Unity that are doing important work for communities with disabilities and neurodiversity.Employee feedback: “This is the most wonderful [update]. Thank you so, so much for researching, advocating, and sharing [recording transcripts].”In 2023, the Access ERG aims to normalize accessibility so that all team members with disabilities or neurological divergences have equal opportunities and rewarding careers. Seemingly small things, like having transcripts automatically enabled for Zoom meetings or introductions with visual descriptions, can make a big difference for someone with an auditory or visual impairment, respectively. They also plan on aligning with our accessibility council, focused on Unity’s product accessibility, to ensure that employees with disabilities are core stakeholders.The Asian ERG spent the past year recruiting new members through its monthly community meetings and also built an excellent event lineup. The group kicked off the year with a bang by putting together a video that featured Unity employees from around the world who each shared how Lunar New Year is celebrated in their respective cultures. Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is observed in North America during the month of May, so the Asian ERG organized four virtual events to raise awareness, including a Stop AAPI Hate presentation by Dr. Russell Jeung. In October, members gathered locally in offices with the Hindu and Sikh community to paint Diya lamps, and to taste locally sourced traditional food and sweets in celebration of Diwali, the Festival of Lights.In 2023, the Asian ERG leadership team aims to drive internal engagement and continue to grow community membership, as well as to continue collaborations with other ERGs such as the LGBTQ+ and Muslim groups by co-presenting discussions and events that tackle intersectional issues. The group also wishes to build partnerships with other companies and non-profit organizations, so as to create volunteer and networking opportunities for Unity’s Asian community. Finally, they are passionate about helping members develop and grow internally and are looking into ways to provide resources that can help guide the Asian diaspora in navigating their careers and to implement a mentorship program to promote a culture of learning.B-United, Unity’s Black ERG, has grown extensively over the past year. The group celebrated several amazing events for Black History Month in February (U.S. and Canada) and October (United Kingdom), and continued to honor Black culture throughout the year. An event that stands out was a fireside chat featuring one of Unity’s Black board members, whose story was impactful to hear for all who attended. The company was also able to send several B-United members to AFROTECH, which offered a unique chance to see and network alongside Black professionals across many areas of the tech industry. The conference was also the first time many of our group members met in person, since the ERG was established during the pandemic in 2020.In 2023, B-United plans to continue the momentum they’ve built and provide even more employees with opportunities to get involved. Creating psychological safety for our Black employees is essential for them to be able to thrive at Unity. This ERG can help be another space outside of someone’s immediate team for community building and career support.The mission of the Caregivers ERG is to partner with Unity to advance understanding and inclusion for employees who find themselves frequently in a caregiving role, be it for children, parents, or for other meaningful relationships in their lives. Founded this year, the group hosted a virtual volunteer event in partnership with our Social Impact team to send care packages to children in hospitals this holiday season. Balancing the care of others with impactful, meaningful work can be taxing for employees, and this ERG is dedicated to bringing resources, policies, and appreciation to its community so that, as a company, Unity is better able to retain, support, and provide equal opportunities for caregiving employees.Employee feedback: “I want to thank everyone for joining the kick off meetings this week. It’s really nice to meet new people at Unity and feel less alone.”Unity currently offers a variety of benefits for caregivers including family planning support and a flexible return to work program in the US and parental leave. In 2023, the Caregivers ERG intends to provide resources to make the return to work easier for employees who take leave for caregiving and to make flexible schedules a top priority.ComUnidad, Unity’s Latinx ERG, saw great improvements in its membership numbers, overall engagement, and group structure in 2022. The community grew to over 200 total members and attributes this growth to the time spent building a solid leadership structure and foundation to support the functions of the group. Growing its leadership team from four to nine this year allowed them to engage more with Unity’s Latinx community through events and community gatherings and to avoid leader burnout. Most notably, the group had a strong showing during Latinx Heritage Month (observed in the U.S. from September 15–October 15) when it hosted five events and increased its overall event engagement by more than 10%.In 2023, ComUnidad plans to continue its efforts to grow membership by offering more incentives for new Latinx employees and allies to join the ERG. This includes plans to provide more professional development opportunities and in-person events.What a busy year it has been for the LGBTQ+ ERG: The group organized more than a dozen events, many of which were in collaboration with other ERGs, such as a short film screening with the Asian ERG and Queer Icons trivia with the Latinx ERG. The team also hosted workshops on being an ally, a talk about the history of Drag Kings, a fireside chat with its executive sponsors, and launched a book club. In June, the group created a collective video to show what Pride really means to members of the community within Unity.Employee feedback: “I want to say how pleased and grateful I was to see [a] company-wide post specifically call out the LGBTQ+ community. A lot of companies tend to [take a much more vague] ‘Pride for everyone!’ approach – the acknowledgement of Pride's history is much appreciated, so thank you ”One of the LGBTQ+ ERG’s biggest goals for 2023 is to improve the sense of community for its members, as well as to offer opportunities for personal and professional growth. Group leaders are proud to have increased membership by over 12% in 2022, especially after a focus on gaining more global representation, but recognize there is still work to be done.The Muslim ERG is the first of its kind at Unity and a unique one in the tech industry, too. Through spreading awareness about issues that impact the community and Islamic culture, the group aims to set up frameworks that ensure that Muslim employees can practice their beliefs with respect and comfort. Leadership has collaborated with other ERGs, such as the Asian and Women ERGs, on issues that affect the intersectional communities. They’ve also hosted celebrations for Ramadan and Eid, including three successful fundraisers (tied to the internal employee match program) and informational sessions about Ramadan and how to be “in it together” for all. The fundraisers centered around food drives for war-torn countries and rebuilding education infrastructure in disaster-stricken nations due to global warming. As part of its end-of-year festivities, the Muslim ERG hosted baklava cooking and arabic calligraphy workshops to bring a bit of the Arabic culture to the diverse workspaces of Unity, and to make members feel more connected during the holidays.In 2023, there is great opportunity for this ERG to make an impact on Muslim employees and to create more allies and intersectional collaborations. The group’s leaders aim to work with internal teams to support onboarding of new employees who have been hired in or are relocating from Muslim-majority countries by introducing buddy systems, as well as to create inclusive workplaces globally for current employees. Together, the Muslim ERG looks forward to another good year for inclusion and diversity at Unity.The Service Members ERG is designed for veterans and military families, and chose a name and logo that would appeal to Unity’s global employee base. Members of the ERG believe service members and their families have unique skill sets and experiences to offer. Formed over the summer of 2022, the group hosted its first open workshop, led by a U.S. Army combat veteran, on how to cultivate a resilient mindset in an ever-changing world in September. To close the year, they hosted a children’s toy drive through Toys for Tots, which is run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve.In 2023, the Service Members ERG would like to grow its member base and bring more allies into the fold. With the new acquisition of ironSource, and the majority of its employees having served in the Israeli Defense Force, we believe there are many peers who would be interested in connecting with and learning from this community.What a year it has been. The Women ERG started off 2022 by introducing its first executive sponsors, who aim to build a continuous partnership in order to realize desired objectives and key results for women at Unity. The highlight of the year was, of course, the group’s impressive lineup of events during Women’s History Month in March, which included an influential Unity Women Panel, a showstopper that inspired all who tuned in and was supported by women leaders within the company. Another focus area for the ERG this year was to provide support for professional development, which led to the launch of its Peer Mentor program. Finally, the Women ERG announced the rollout of its Ambassador program, which is designed to provide additional support for events for employees in both virtual and in-person settings, and even found time to volunteer.As it looks to 2023, the Women ERG wants to support its members as best they can and iterate and improve processes. The leadership team is excited to show members all that they have prepared in an effort to bring more focused events and to increase engagement among women at Unity.We look forward to continuing to foster inclusion and diversity at Unity through these and more employee initiatives and extend a huge thank you to all who participated in ERG programming – both internally and externally – throughout 2022. Cheers to all that we can continue to accomplish in 2023!If you are interested in learning more about Unity’s Inclusion programs, check out our Inclusion & Diversity page. You can watch videos produced by our ERGs on our LinkedIn Life page or read through our Faces of Unity blogs, highlighting individual ERG leaders.