Light Start: Takealot shells out millions, WhatsApp goes dark, the PS5 will be “affordable” and Google buys Fitbit
Marcé
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Takealot shells out R4 million to customers
Even if you don’t really follow global sports events, this weekend was a collective win for South Africa when the Bokke demolished England in the Rugby World Cup Final. It was a particularly big win for around 350 Takealot customers who received full refunds on their Samsung TVs. Takealot ran a promotion throughout the RWC period, which gave clients the opportunity to buy a Samsung television and win its full value back. Y’know, if the Bokke won the golden world cup. The promotion was limited to a certain variety of Samsung TVs. Either Takealot really loves its customers or it underestimated the Bok-capabilities. But now the company needs to shell out just about R4 million to refund 346 customers. If you’re one of the lucky refundees, congratulations — you made the right call by betting on green and gold. Takealot said that it’ll roll out the refunds over the following ten days. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Welcome darkness my old friend…
Dark mode has taken over our mobile screens in just about every app imaginable. What’s still missing, though? WhatsApp’s due for a darker upgrade very soon. According to WABetaInfo, the latest WhatsApp beta version suggests WhatsApp is working on two varieties of dark mode – with a third option possible on the way soon too. The first dark mode implementation uses a grey tone for the background with pitch-black used for menu items and other interactive parts of the app. The second option is inverted, with the pitch-black colour used for the background, and the greyish colour found for all the menu items. It’s not quite clear whether the dark theme will only be available to Android 10 and iOS 13 system-wide dark theme users. We’ll prefer it as an option within the app itself because then everyone can WhatsApp in the dark.
Here in the land down under (not the one with the kangaroos, mate), we’re used to exceptionally expensive tech. Even when developers try to make tech even cheaper, import taxes and insane markups make it virtually impossible to afford the newest tech. Which is why Saffas are clenching to find out what Sony’s next-gen console will cost. The PlayStation 4 landed at R7,000, and naturally, we’re worried about the PS5 landing price. According to Specialist PlayStation website, PushSquare Sony is focusing on “market penetration and market acceptability with its next-gen hardware”. Which means that the company wants to set a price that consumers will accept as fair, to “maximise the device’s install base early on.” If this is anything to go by ()it really isn’t all that much), the PS5 will land around the same price that the PS4 did. And the best part? We’ll probably see OPS4 prices drop considerably when it does…
It looks like Google’s planning to track much more than just our online activity with its most recent acquisition. After days of rumours, Google announced that it would be acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion. So, Google can now track out physical activity too? We reckon this acquisition is meant to help the giant take on its main competitor — Apple. Hardware is becoming an ever-growing part of Google, and wearables are one category that it has always struggled with. This is especially worrying because Apple’s wearables are some of the best in the world. Hopefully, it can use Fitbit’s hardware (and brilliant software) to take on Apple and Huawei in the wearable market. The Verge reports that “Fitbit’s hardware chops have always been great, giving Google a much stronger foundation to build on for future Android-integrated wearables devices.” Luckily, it looks like Fitbit will stay true to its user privacy and security features, and will put up a fight if Google tries to exploit that data.
Source: The Verge[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
