Author: Duncan Pike

The Asus Vivobook S 15 is the first Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-powered Copilot+ laptop to launch in South Africa. Although first-generation products almost always suffer from teething issues (this one is no exception), the Vivobook S 15 managed to impress us in ways we were hoping for and in a few we didn’t expect – highlights include decent performance, great battery life, and a surprisingly good webcam. Still, it isn’t perfect and Windows on Arm has a ways to go before it achieves the same level of adoption as its much older, industry-standard x86 brother. But that might not take…

Do you love the smell of burnt rubber and recently ignited hydrocarbons? What about the roar of a naturally aspirated V8? If you answered ‘yes’ to either of those then you’ll probably want to head to the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit over the next three days to experience what the Festival of Motoring has to offer. The new stuff on show If your interests include swanky new cars then you’re in luck. Ford, Suzuki, VW, Baic, Chery, and Jaecoo all unveiled new vehicles at yesterday’s media showcase that are on display at their respective stands to look at, touch, and…

Guangzhou Automobile Group, better known as GAC Motor, has officially launched in South Africa. The relatively new Chinese automotive manufacturer held its local launch and unveiling of its second SUV crossover model to arrive in South Africa, the GAC Emkoo, in Melrose Arch on Tuesday, 27 August. The company’s first model, the GAC Emzoom, launched in South Africa earlier this August while a third, fully-electric model called the Aion Y has been tipped to show up later this year or early next year. Get your GAC on The GAC Emkoo arrives in SA in Executive and Executive Plus derivitives. Both…

If you had told us at the height of stage-6 load shedding last year that Eskom would not only suspend its rolling blackout program (for 150 days, 7 hours and 48 minutes, but who’s counting?) but also roll out its own electric vehicle (EV) car chargers in 2024, we would have laughed in your face. Yet both have now happened with the state-owned power utility partnering with Gridcars to launch several new EV car chargers across the country. Eskom joins the EV industry The power utility has rolled out a mix of direct current (DC) fast charging chargers that’ll supply…

If you’re a fan of PC games, the decline of the American frontier, or both, you’ll probably be pleased to know that there’s been some movement regarding Red Dead Redemption’s long-awaited PC port. The game’s PlayStation Store page was briefly updated to read “Experience the epic western adventures that defined a generation – now on PC for the first time ever.” It isn’t properly clear if it was an honest mistake, a purposeful tease, or a genuine oopsie but the edit didn’t stick around for too long before it was removed. That leads us to believe PC gamers will finally…

What Disney’s cooking Disney held its annual D23 expo over the weekend where it showed off trailers for soon-to-launch titles, released morsels of info for recently announced projects, and took the wraps off a few new things that most people probably saw coming anyway. That doesn’t only include strictly Disney titles either, films and series from Pixar, Marvel, and the Star Wars franchise also showed up. Among the most exciting headlines, at least from where we’re sitting, was the new trailer for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. This Disney Plus series will feature Jude Law as Jod Na Nawood and will…

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…