iPhone 17 local pricing is a breath of fresh Air
It shouldn’t be surprising that South Africa will see Apple’s latest crop of iPhones arrive this Friday, 19 September — the same day as the States. The bit that many local Apple fanboys were waiting for this year was official pricing, and SA’s local Apple distributor, Core Group, has finally obliged.
The big question this year was whether Donald Trump’s tariffs would add a few extra zeroes to the price locally. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened. In fact, this year’s batch of flagships is cheaper than the iPhone 16 was in 2024. If all you’re after is a new ’17’, the cheapest model you can pick up is the iPhone 17 256GB for R20,800 — while the crème de la crème (an iPhone 17 Pro Max 2TB) will set you back a whopping R52,500.
More interesting this year was Apple’s unveiling of the ‘iPhone Air‘, the thinnest of Apple’s flagships that’s still packing the new A19 Pro chipset — at the cost of a smaller battery and only one camera. If it’s the slimmer form factor you’re after, you’ll need to fork over at least R26,000 for the pleasure.
You can check out all of the iPhone 17 prices down below, currently available for pre-order:
| Model | RRP |
| iPhone 17 (256GB) | R20,800 |
| iPhone 17 (512GB) | R26,300 |
| iPhone 17 Pro (256GB) | R28,600 |
| iPhone 17 Pro (512GB) | R34,000 |
| iPhone 17 Pro (1TB) | R39,500 |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max (256GB) | R31,300 |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max (512GB) | R36,800 |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max (1TB) | R42,000 |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max (2TB) | R52,500 |
| iPhone Air (256GB) | R26,000 |
| iPhone Air (512GB) | R31,500 |
| iPhone Air (1TB) | R36,800 |
Kodak enters its Charmera
Retro is all the rage now, and Kodak is cashing in on the hype with the Charmera — a dinky little shooter that’ll fit on a keyring — and inspired by the company’s first-ever single-use camera back in the ’80s. It’s officially ‘back’, despite never really ever being ‘there’ to begin with, complete with nostalgic packaging that’s meant to tickle a part of your brain. Specifically, the part that doesn’t mind parting with $180 (∼R3,100).
It’s also being sold as a blind box, meaning you won’t know which of the seven designs above you’ll actually get until you open the box. Anyone picking these up has a 1/6 chance to snag one of the more colourful designs above, while the see-through ‘secret edition’ is there to drive FOMO through the roof with a 1/48 chance of pulling it.
As for the camera itself, it features a 1 ⁄ 4 inch CMOS sensor, a 35mm lens, and charges via USB-C. Put all that together, and it’ll snag 1.6-MP images at a 1,440 x 1,080 resolution. It also shoots video at 30fps. It’s not meant to replace your everyday shooter — especially only weighing in at 30g — but Kodak is relying on the cutesy form factor and blind box nature to help it reach that sales quota. It’s also mighty cute.
Nintendo revives its worst-selling console, this time as an accessory
If you were fortunate enough to miss out on the utterly bizarre Virtual Boy from the ’90s, Nintendo is hoping it can finally convince you that its cutting-edge ‘VR’ technology is actually worth it — except this time it’s going up against some real competition in the space. The Virtual Boy is back, this time as a Switch 2 accessory.
Not only will it set you back $100 (∼R1,730) to pick up the plastic replica of the original console, but you’ll also need a subscription to the company’s Switch Online + Expansion pack to play the now 30-year-old games (of which only 22 were ever released). Yup, it’s a good ol’ Nintendo scam, and fans will almost certainly lap it up.
Worse yet, only fourteen of those games are actually coming to the Switch Online + Expansion Pack service starting 17 February. Those include such “hits” as Mario’s Tennis, Galactic Pinball, Space Invaders and… Tetris. You’ll also need the Switch 2 itself, which serves as the Virtual Boy’s display and slots right in.
Nintendo is also selling a $25 (∼R400) cardboard Virtual Boy, which does at least offer players a more affordable entry point to revive those original games from the ’90s, even if they still require a subscription to play. Nintendo currently only has plans to sell these to Switch Online members in the US and Canada, though past dealings tell us Nintendo South Africa will get stock eventually, though at a severely inflated price.
Hades II is out this September
Now that the hype surrounding Hollow Knight: Silksong has died down somewhat, Supergiant Games has capitalised on the momentary void by finally unveiling the launch date for the official v1.0 release of Hades II — 25 September. Of course, without a PC, Nintendo Switch, or Nintendo Switch 2 at hand, you won’t be playing.
That’s because Nintendo probably gave Supergiant Games a comically big red bag of money in order to halt the game’s console release elsewhere and prop up the Switch 2’s line-up. It’s a pretty smart idea considering how much of a success the first Hades was, which also launched on the Nintendo Switch before branching out.
The original Hades was a masterstroke for the roguelike scene and helped shape the genre’s landscape. Hades II, which now stars Melinoë, sister of Zagreus and the immortal Princess of the Underworld, as she attempts to defeat Chronos — the Titan of Time. Players have so far been limited to the early access version of the game on PC, with the full v1.0 release aiming to tie up an ongoing story.
