South Africa’s cheapest electric BMW
It’s been nine months since BMW brought the i4 to the South African market. There was just one problem – it only brought with it one model – the i4 M50, a performance-based car that comes with a R1.6 million starting price. But BMW’s stealthy drop of a new entry-level model brings the i4-series into more people’s reach. Say hello to the i4 eDrive35 M Sport, the cheapest fully electric BMW on the (South African) market. So far.
Besides looking beautiful and costing less than its performance counterpart, there are more reasons why one might choose the eDrive35 over the M50. For one – it runs further – as the lithium-ion battery under the hood has a net capacity of 67kWh, providing a range of 483km before needing a recharge. Powering the rear axle is an integrated motor that’s capable of generating 210kW and 400Nm of torque.
So, what does South Africa’s cheapest fully electric BMW cost? The starting price is set at R1,285,000, though BMW forces an R8,300 Parking Assist Plus package onto customers, meaning the actual price is R1,293,000 all-in. As ever, BMW offers a whole host of extras including a glass sunroof and larger wheels, which cost more than a month (or two) of rent for regular folk. Then there are BMW’s dubious subscription-based extras.
If EVs aren’t your thing, check out our first look at BMW’s 3 Series.
Source: cars.co.za
Oppo’s next flagship
Oppo has announced that it would unveil the next in its Find X series of flagships. This year, it’s the Find X6 we’re looking forward to, with the Chinese manufacturer announcing the reveal would take place tomorrow, 21 March, via a Weibo post.
It seems as if Oppo will be drawing all eyes towards its cameras yet again. In the teaser, Oppo states that the X6 series will “open a new era of mobile imaging” based on machine translation. And, if the leaks are true, we could be seeing Sony’s IMX989 image sensor make an appearance. Those leaks also mentioned the Find X6 could feature three 50MP rear lenses with a 32MP selfie cam on its front.
Digging deeper, we’re likely to find Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, with the Pro possibly featuring a Gen 2 or Dimensity 9200 chipset (though that may be reserved for the Chinese variant). As for when we’ll see the Find X6 hit South African markets… we couldn’t say. If it gets the same treatment as the X5, it’ll first launch in China, with a global rollout slated for a few months down the line.
Source: Android Central
Take note
We’ve all been there. While on your journey through whichever fictional world you’re exploring, whether it be Skyrim, Hyrule or Velen, you’ll forget your route. Perhaps an NPC gave you directions, that you’ve now forgotten in your quest to fulfil your brain’s dopamine receptors. Or a puzzle has a long string of code that it requires you to remember at a later date. No thank you. A piece of paper will work just fine. Or, you could use Steam’s upcoming ‘game notes’ to save you a bit of time.
“Valve is working on a ‘game notes’ system,” according to Pavel Djundik, a SteamDB creator and data miner, “which will be available in the Steam library, and on the web.” That… doesn’t tell us much. We can guess that it’ll allow gamers to jot down game-specific notes in-game, without the need for a piece of paper or a notes app.
When Steam will grace us with its ‘game notes’ presence, we don’t yet know. Djundik also gave a hint for another incoming Steam feature, saying that Valve is “also working on a notifications page, similar to the notifications page in the mobile app. The new notification system should also be used in the Steam client, once they finish replacing old vgui parts of the client (outer shell, settings, server browser, etc).”
Source: PC Gamer
Kiff, bru
Meet Kiff and Barry – a squirrel and bunny that have recently found their way into an animated children’s show – Kiff. You’re probably wondering why we’re telling you this. Well, the series – which premiered its first two episodes on Disney+, DisneyXD and the Disney Channel last week – was created by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal – two of South Africa’s own.
Kiff was inspired by the creators’ experiences growing up in the City of Cape Town. The series follows Kiff and Barry, a squirrel and bunny living in Table Town – a place where animals and “magical oddballs” can congregate to live their lives, peacefully. Despite Kiff‘s best efforts, it doesn’t always work out that way.
Whatever your feelings on the series – bear in mind, this is for children – it’s great to see South African talent getting in with one of the largest media companies in the world. The two showrunners appeared in an interview on Animation Magazine, explaining the effort and hardships of running a show while living thousands of kilometres away. Two years later, their work has paid off, with the series’ first season containing 30 half-hour-long episodes.