Author: Duncan Pike

Hot on the heels of yet another update to its ‘courageous’ but buggy redesigned app, Sonos held its Q3 earnings call late on Wednesday, 7 August where CEO Patrick Spence announced the company would be delaying two new product launches scheduled for Q4 this year to focus on cleaning up the app. While Spence said the company’s Ace headphones were big contributors to the company achieving “year over year revenue growth” and “results that slightly exceeded [their] expectations” in Q3, he also mentioned the growth was “overshadowed” by issues relating to the redesigned app. Sonos enjoys its slice of humble…

When the Sonos Ace headphones launched in June, we praised them as a decent first effort. The company made a lot of choices we liked, including the understated design, premium materials, physical controls, and surprisingly good transparency mode. They also have a party trick up their sleeve that helps set them apart from the competition – a feature called TV Audio Swap. Unfortunately, the feature was very limited at launch. It was only available to iPhone users who also owned a Sonos Arc, the company’s high-end soundbar. In South Africa, that’s a small pool. Now, two months after the Ace…

According to a recent report from 404 Media’s Samantha Cole, leaked internal communications from Nvidia show the continuation of what appears to be the industry trend of big tech companies taking the ‘ask for forgiveness instead of permission’ approach regarding the data they use to train AI models. Even when employees raised legal and ethical concerns, managers reportedly told them that the company’s practice of scraping millions of hours of videos from YouTube, Netflix, and other data sets was “an executive decision” in one instance and called “an open legal issue” in another. If you were still on the fence…

Jacaranda FM has announced a new initiative aimed at local female entrepreneurs. The #HerPerfectPitch2024 competition is running throughout South Africa’s Women’s Month and is set to award the winning participant with “over R2 million in business assistance.” Jacaranda FM’s managing director, Deirdre King, highlighted the importance of shining the spotlight on local female entrepreneurs. “Women who are purposeful in bolstering the economy are also hiring other women, creating stronger communities of female entrepreneurs as they connect through #HerPerfectPitch2024.” Female entrepreneurs can win with Jacaranda FM The station is looking specifically for female entrepreneurs who’ve been in business for at least…

It was only a few months ago that Spotify expanded its ‘test’ and locked song lyrics behind its premium paywall. Thankfully for free users, the company will reverse that decision and make song lyrics available to all users. Hopefully, other companies take note and think twice before trying to charge for once-free features. It was just a prank Speaking to Engadget, a Spotify spokesperson said the company was “always testing and iterating” and that it would be restoring its lyrics feature to full power for free users “over the coming weeks.” When Spotify began its test of charging for access…

Following the March launch of the flagship Honor Magic V2 and Magic 6 Pro, Honor SA has officially announced it will bring all three Honor 200 devices to SA shelves. The Honor 200 Lite is already available but when the Honor 200 and Honor 200 Pro debut at a local launch event on 24 July, it will mark the first time that Honor will launch the ‘Pro’ model of its upper-mid-range number series in SA. It should be an Honor The headlining feature of the hero Honor 200 Pro is its photography abilities. For hardware, you’re looking at the same…

With the local launch of the Vivobook S 15 on Friday last week, Asus is the first laptop manufacturer to bring a Copilot+ PC to South Africa. If that’s enough to warrant a purchase for you, then you’ll be happy to know that they’re already available for R30,000. Happy shopping. For the more discerning consumer, who at least wants to know what they’re getting for their money — or if you’re doing the sensible thing and waiting for reviews — here are the important bits. ‘First’ — Asus, probably The Vivobook S 15 draws its AI powers from a Qualcomm…

Remember the good old days when food was cheap and you didn’t absolutely require a Microsoft account to use your new Windows PC? With the company’s continued push to get its users to use an account, not to mention the price of eggs today, that era is on its last legs. Microsoft’s latest attack against local Windows account fans is the removal of an official guide on how to convert an MS account into a local offline account from the Windows 11 documentation. Microsoft account or get lost Of course, the company still offers instructions on how to convert your…

It shouldn’t be surprising that Ghost of Tsushima, a third-person open-world action-adventure and one of Sony’s last titles to launch on the PlayStation 4, has arrived on PC. Developed by Sucker Punch Studios and ported by Nixxes Software, it is the latest previously exclusive PS title to receive the PC Master Race treatment – and it only took four years. It debuted on PS4 in July 2020 towards the end of that console’s lifespan. The PS5 launched a few months later but it was only in August 2021 that Sucker Punch released an expanded Director’s Cut version of the game.…

Oppo has officially launched its Reno 12 series in South Africa during a local launch event on Wednesday, 19 June. The Reno 12 Pro is the first model of Oppo’s new smartphone range to arrive, though it says the Reno 12 FS will show up in July while the Reno 12 F 4G will hit stores in August 2024. Those models will join the A79 and A58 as part of Oppo’s broader range for South African consumers, but until then, the Reno 12 Pro gets all the limelight. This time ’round Oppo is introducing its very own AI tech which…