Author: Duncan Pike

This probably hasn’t been a good week for you if you work at or rely on internet service provider RSAWeb. Early on Wednesday, 1 February, the ISP announced that it was “observing a service-impacting event” affecting its network. Now, two days later, the provider’s status page (last updated at 10:17 AM, 03/02) indicates that, while some services have been restored, many are still experiencing issues. The ISP provided ongoing updates throughout Wednesday’s outage – for the few that still had internet access – with a notable update at 12:38 PM to say the “major incident” was complex and that the…

South African retail giant Pick n Pay, together with partners Electrum and CryptoConvert, has expanded support for Bitcoin payments to all of its 1,500 stores across the country. That includes its regular stores as well as PnP Express and Clothing stores. If you’re tired of hodl’ing your Bitcoin, now you can spend it on groceries, snacks, clothes, airtime, electricity, transport tickets, and municipal bills. What a time to be alive. More options at Pick n Pay are good, we guess CryptoConvert, the retailer’s local crypto payment partner, announced on Twitter that its CryptoQR platform was up and running at all…

In a world that didn’t really ask for them, smart displays probably haven’t done as well as their creators would hope. But that hasn’t stopped Lenovo from announcing another one. The company announced its latest ‘innovation’, the 27in ThinkSmart View Plus monitor, at the European Conference on Information Systems in Barcelona yesterday, along with the eye-watering price tag of $2,345 (R40,100). Lenovo’s target customers for this one are office folks and those working from home that spend all day in video conferences… for some reason. Maybe this is one of those things that appear way too early and only take…

UPDATE: 12:46 pm – RSAWeb has posted another update to its Twitter page. The service provider says restoration will take longer than expected. https://twitter.com/RSAWEB/status/1620735281094877184 ORIGINAL POST: If you’re currently facing internet connectivity problems, this could be why. Internet service provider (ISP) RSAWeb has reported a “service-impacting event” on its network, rendering many South Africans with intermittent to no internet service. The provider notified customers it was aware of the “service-impacting event” this morning, Wednesday, 1 February at around 07:00 am on its Facebook and Twitter accounts. Although it first mentioned the outage was only affecting its customer cloud in the…

With 2022 and its record-breaking 157 days (3,776 hours) of load shedding behind us, many South Africans are still searching for alternative power solutions. That includes new students from the class of 2022 and returning students who don’t want to deal with another year of all-nighters at the library or communal computer lab when their laptop dies. If you’re in this boat, all you really need is a decent laptop for assignments, a charged smartphone to keep you occupied during breaks, and an internet connection that won’t make you pull your hair out. We’ve already compiled a list of laptops…

Today, 31 January, Honor announced the next smartphone in its mid-range X-series, the X9a. The device will initially only be available from Telkom and Vodacom stores from the 1st and 7th of February respectively. According to an Honor spokesperson, it will be available on contract from either mobile network operator or for a once-off payment of R12,000. To sweeten the deal, Honor will throw in (not literally) a set of Honor Choice Earbuds X3 Lite with your purchase. You’ll also get a fast charger and more earphones in the box. A wild X9a appears The stand-out specs for the X9a…

You can’t compile a list of the best survival horror games these days without including Dead Space. When the original game launched in 2008, it received praise from critics and anyone else who could stomach a playthrough. Its sequels Dead Space 2 (2011) and Dead Space 3 (2013) went on to do as well, if not better. So, in 2021, when developer Motive announced that a remake was in development during EA Play Live with an eerie teaser trailer, fans of the series (us included) held their collective breaths. Today that wait is over. We’ve spent the last few days…

In the current economic climate, buying a new laptop when it isn’t strictly required isn’t at the top of everyone’s list. Rent, other bills, and food probably take preference over upgrading your still-functional laptop. But laptops don’t last forever. Accidents happen. And children are expensive. Before you rush out to buy the cheapest machine you can find, there are two questions you need to ask yourself: what do you need it to do and what can you do without? While affordable laptops have improved in recent years, there’s only so much you can get for R10,000 and under. Those after…

Surprisingly, there aren’t many companies interested in the (admittedly niche) market of folks willing to put their lives on the line filming dangerous stunts. But catching near-death action on camera isn’t the only use for these gadgets. Maybe you want to know what your dog is up to while you’re away or where your cat goes when it wanders off (spoiler: it goes to murder things). Strap one of these to them and wonder no more. Got shaky hands but still want to film things like family outings? This collection of action cams will take that duty out of… well,…

It’s usually around this time each year that gyms begin to recover from the influx of new members. Some people, armed with a list of resolutions and the determination a new year brings, realise that a whole year of working out is loads harder than it seemed when they drunkenly agreed to it at a New Year’s Eve party. Perhaps you’ve told your friends and family this is the year you’re getting into shape. You were just joking last year and the one before when you said something similar. This is the year. This is your year. The only problem…