Author: Duncan Pike

Today, BYD officially unveiled its latest plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the Atto 2. It joins the ever-growing ranks of the compact SUV segment as the newest ‘cheapest plug-in hybrid’ in the country, beating out BYD’s own Sealion 5. The Atto 2 is built on BYD’s DM-i (Dual Mode-intelligent) hybrid technology platform and offers two derivatives for South African motorists to pick from: the cheaper Comfort model and the pricier Dynamic. They start at R450,000 and R490,000, respectively. Here’s what you’re getting for your money. Building its dream, one model at a time BYD is positioning the new Atto 2 between…

Having money to pay for stuff is cool, but not having to pay for stuff is even cooler. With the rising cost of video games, we’re confident most folks would agree that a free game is a good thing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t play much or have any interest in said game. There’s something about claiming a freebie that scratches a particular itch. You might not want to play it now, but that could change in the future. On the other hand, hearing you’ve missed out on claiming a freebie can sting, even though you haven’t really lost…

Meze Audio, the Romanian audio company responsible for iconic headphones like the 99 Classics and their 99 Neo sibling, has announced its latest flagship headphone — the ARTA. If you want your headphones to look as good as they sound, you’ll probably be interested in these… until you see the price. Meze describes them as “a passion project years in the making, born from the desire to push the limits of conventional headphone sound and design.” Sure, art is subjective, but we think it’s nailed the latter almost enough to warrant using words like “futuristic” and “bionic fluidity” to describe…

Audi has just announced the Nuvolari, its first hybrid supercar and successor to the iconic R8. It features a distinctive design language that R8 fans will spot from afar, and enough ‘F1-inspired’ technology that makes us question how the company managed to make it road-legal. That probably isn’t something you’ll have to worry about. Not that this will be too expensive (it will be), but that Audi is only making 499 of them, with deliveries starting next year. “With the Audi Nuvolari, we are accelerating technological progress,” says Gernot Döllner, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. “It…

If you’ve been thinking we need more soundbar options, you’ll be pleased to know the folks at WiiM have obliged with the WiiM Bar. The company has positioned this soundbar, which it calls a “display-first” soundbar, as the solution for audiophiles who are also cinephiles, and vice versa. The company says it is “designed to bring powerful home theater sound, deep WiiM control, and at-a-glance playback visibility into one elegant living room device.” A WiiM away from great audio One thing that sets this soundbar apart from others is the 2.1in circular full-colour touch display in its centre. You can…

If you’re still using Office 2019 on your Apple devices, you should seriously think about jumping ship. From 13 July 2026, Microsoft’s apps in the Office 2019 for Mac package will enter what the company calls “reduced functionality mode” and lose the ability to create and edit documents. It also affects outdated apps on iPhone and iPad, but not the Windows version of Office 2019. End of life, time to pay Support for Microsoft’s one-time purchase Office 2019 for Mac officially ended in October 2023. However, the apps remained operational. Come 13 July, or in a little over 5 weeks,…

Nvidia kicked off Computex this week with its announcement of RTX Spark, a “superchip” built around the promise of improved on-device AI. Nvidia’s term, ‘superchip’, might be a bit of ambitious marketing, but the product is certainly more than just the company’s first CPU. RTX Spark consists of a 6,144-core Blackwell RTX graphics card (similar to an RTX 5070 desktop GPU), a 20-core Grace 3nm ARM CPU that it co-designed with MediaTek, and 128GB of unified LPDDR5X memory. As for its on-device AI abilities, Nvidia is throwing around a 1-petaflop performance figure for FP4 AI workloads. That tracks, on paper,…

Xiaomi has announced today that its upcoming upper mid-range Xiaomi 17T will launch in SA soon. Seven days from now, Xiaomi will presumably make the new device available for purchase or pre-order. It hasn’t said how much the device will cost, but it has indicated almost everything else about the device. Here’s what we know. Just the one Xiaomi, then? Between the Xiaomi 17T and 17T Pro, it seems SA is only getting the base model. The bigger, faster, more expensive device wasn’t mentioned by Xiaomi in its announcement. Maybe it makes a surprise appearance, but we doubt it. We…

Dell recently announced the XPS 13, a Windows-based laptop that it hopes will take back some market share it lost to the MacBook Neo. Starting at $600 (or R9,750 directly converted) for students and $700 (R11,370) for everyone else, it is Dell’s cheapest laptop that it says “redefines what a compact, accessible and premium laptop can be.” Do the XPS 13 specs match the claims? This is, apparently, “the thinnest, lightest XPS laptop ever made.” At 12.7mm thick and 1kg heavy, it does seem that way. It’s even slightly lighter than the Neo, by about 225g. That makes sense given…

The BYD Shark 6 was the country’s first plug-in hybrid bakkie when it launched last year. It immediately caught our attention with its unique offering, so we were pretty excited to jump in to see if it lived up to the hype. There are a few caveats, but after driving it around for a week, we’re happy to report that it did. But if you’re in the market for a new bakkie, your mileage may vary depending on what you’re looking for. If the only thing you care about is off-road capability or towing a caravan around, you might get…