Municipal-provided light at the tunnel's end
Here’s something we think we can all agree is good news. Eskom CEO André de Ruyter expects load shedding to end this week. But that’s only if the power utility can bring enough power generating units back online. Since the beginning of June, Eskom had to implement stage 6 for the second time since load shedding started all the way back in 2008. The most recent escalation resulted from striking workers, which meant Eskom couldn’t stick to its schedule of getting faulty generation units back up and running.
As the end of July approaches, things should start to get a little easier as unit 2 of the Koeburg nuclear power station returns to service. It should add around 920MW of power to the national grid. This should help but it’s only a temporary fix. South Africa desperately needs more power generation capacity and until we get more of that, the relief will probably only be temporary. President Ramaphosa said he has a plan but we don’t know what the whole thing looks like just yet. Let’s hope that additional capacity is cleaner and more reliable than the dirty coal-fired plants we currently use.
Source: TechCentral
Play Cyberpunk 2077 in traffic
Elon Musk still hasn’t made good on his promise that Tesla owners will be able to play games like The Witcher or Cyberpunk 2077 in their cars. But that could change next month. Replying to a tweet, the CEO said “We’re making progress with Steam integration. Demo probably next month.” That isn’t to say Tesla “drivers” can’t play any games. There are several available through the built-in Tesla Arcade. But Sonic the Hedgehog and Cuphead aren’t really the same as The Witcher or Cyberpunk.
There aren’t any more details going around at this time, like if Teslas will be able to run all games and if users will be able to purchase games from their cars. The Tesla Model S and X come with an AMD Ryzen CPU and discrete RDNA 2 GPU. Pretty much the same as current-gen gaming consoles. So there shouldn’t be any reason why the cars won’t run most games, even if the framerate is capped to 30 or 60 frames per second. And we’re sure Steam won’t mind if there’s yet another way for people to give it money.
Source: The Verge
More malware-infested apps found on Google Play Store
If you’ve downloaded Vlog Star Video Editor, Creative 3D Launcher, Wow Beauty Camera, Gif Emoji Keyboard, Razer Keyboard & Theme, Freeglow Camera 1.0.0, or Coco Camera v1.1 from the Google Play Store then you should probably stop reading this and remove them if you still have them then run a malware scan on your devices. We’ll wait. Those apps, discovered by security researcher Maxime Ingrao, have already been removed from the Play Store. But not before netting roughly 3 million downloads combined.
According to the Bleeping Computer report, the apps contained malware named Autolycos. Once on a device, the malware would subscribe users to expensive premium subscriptions. As is usually the case with malware, it runs in a way so that the user might not notice the abnormal behaviour unless they were looking for increased device system usage. This particular malware also requested to read SMSs so that it may intercept One Time Pins. With access to those, someone would be able to cause quite a bit of damage. So let’s be careful when installing apps, even if they come from the supposedly malware-free Play Store.
Store: Bleeping Computer
Twitter – now with more bird
If you’re a regular Twitter user and have been wanting more bird from the bird app then you’re in luck. A writer over at The Verge first noticed that the app has replaced some of its chimes and dings with simulated bird chirps. Specifically, when you pull down to refresh your feed. You get one to say that it’s loading and one to say that it’s done. We think. Our Bird is a little rusty. The Verge writer found it on their iPhone but we tested it on an Android device as well. That means it isn’t relegated to just one OS and that Twitter is shipping this change out to a wider audience. Nice to see some changes going out to more people.
If you’d prefer to hear chips than a ding when you refresh your Twitter feed, go right ahead. You might need to update your app if you aren’t running the latest version. If it still doesn’t work you could always try turning it off and on again.
Source: The Verge