Author: Duncan Pike

The South African Government is once again making changes to the national school curriculum. These will focus on bolstering the country’s output of mathematics, science, and technology students. New subjects, including robotics and coding, are being added to the curriculum with supporting equipment and software to boot. When asked how schools would be supported in this endeavour, education minister Angie Motshekga wrote in a parliamentary Q&A that the department plans to leverage existing STEM programs. The future is bright The Dinaledi Schools project, launched in 2005, is one such program. This was later combined with the Mathematics, Science and Technology…

Yet again, the leaks have been almost entirely accurate. Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 5 has been announced and it’s bringing a new Pro edition along for the ride. Today, at Samsung’s Unpacked event, the company revealed the variations of each device. If you guessed that they’re separated mostly by colour and whether they have LTE or not, well done you. Samsung’s been taking notes But that’s not the only difference. The vanilla Galaxy Watch 5 comes in 40mm and 44mm flavours while the Pro is only available in a 45mm size. Samsung has also opted to ditch the physical rotating…

Several leaks over the last few weeks have pointed to Samsung releasing its new Galaxy Fold 4 and Galaxy Flip 4 handsets this week. Early images of the devices suggested that nothing much has changed on the visual front. There were also concerns that hardware upgrades were more iterative than innovative. Well, it’s all official now and the leaks were spot on about the design bit, at the very least. The Fold 4 and Flip 4 both bear striking resemblances to the previous generation of Samsung foldables. But there are a few changes in sight. Fold or Flip 4 the…

The brand new, Google-owned undersea fibre optic Equiano cable has finally reached South African shores. It made land at Melkbosstrand in the Western Cape at a Telkom facility. But why does this matter? Well, this undersea Internet cable is supposed to bring down Internet prices and increase bandwidth for South Africans when it eventually comes online in the next month or two. We have touchdown This cable started its undersea journey in Portugal and extends down the west coast of Africa. When it was first announced in 2019, the idea was to have it land in Nigeria first. But in…

The folks at Spotify have been hard at work over the past few months. Just over a week ago, the company rolled out a new type of playlist that uses its algorithmic smarts to create a playlist based on what your Spotify friends are listening to. Now, the company has turned its focus on its mobile app interface and also its online digital audio workstation (DAW). Music and podcasts, separately With Spotify calling it quits on the Car Thing, it has more time and (human) resources to work on other things. One of those things happens to be its mobile…

Usually, when something works well the general consensus is to not change it until it’s necessary. Or, in other words, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ We think Asus and ROG might’ve missed the memo because it has released another mouse with a joystick slapped on the side. The ROG Chakram X, first seen at CES this year, is an update to the ROG Chakram, first seen at CES in 2020. The X sports a new sensor, more buttons, and different switches. Our first thought was that this was going to be nothing more than a cool gimmick you…

Yesterday, Netflix announced the release of its upcoming supernatural drama series, The Brave Ones. Set in the parallel worlds of South Africa and the supernatural world of African gods and divine beings, the six-episode series will feature the mystical and supernatural in a setting viewers might not have previously encountered. Netflix is making an effort for local stories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGc8omP4aM Nigerian-born Akin Omotoso, the show’s creator, also serves as director and executive producer for this project. He’s joined by EPs Robbie Thorpe and Stan Joseph and directors Rolie Nikiwe, Tosh Gitonga, and Stephina Zwane. If Netflix’s synopsis is accurate (why wouldn’t…

Yesterday, Eskom was kind enough to make everyone aware that load shedding was a possibility once again. It hadn’t even been two weeks, so it was about time. Not that we’re looking forward to it or anything, it’s just kind of expected at this point. We’re starting off on Stage 2. It will be implemented from 16h00 today, Wednesday 3 July, until 24h00 and then over the same time tomorrow, Thursday 4 July. Only for two days… so far As it mentioned in the notice sent out yesterday, Eskom is citing losses in power generation capacity for the reason we…

When it comes to wireless Bluetooth headsets, Yealink is relatively new to the game. Well, new to making headsets with two ear cups that also wouldn’t look out of place on your commute. Currently, the company has two models on offer, the BH72 and the BH76. The main differences are the BH76 features active noise cancellation (ANC) and better codec support for high-quality music playback. We received a set of the former for review which came with a wireless charging stand. There’s also a version without the stand. If you’re familiar with Yealink, you’ll have already guessed who and what…

Spotify is finally shipping out a ‘feature’ that has been around since listening to music on the go was invented. The streaming service will separate the ‘Play’ and ‘shuffle’ buttons in its mobile app. But, before you get too excited, you’ll need to be paying for Spotify before you can access such an advanced feature. Now That’s What I Call A Feature Spotify says it’s rolling the feature out because “[m]usic—and how you listen to it—should be yours to control.” This might sound like a small change but it does alter the way you control your listening experience. Before the…