Author: Duncan Pike

It’s been a few months since Netflix’s subscriber count did an about-turn, right into the dumpster. The streaming giant reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022. Since then, the company has been flinging a few ideas around to see what sticks. For one, it’s taken a page out of Multichoice’s book and is testing limiting the sharing of passwords. But that doesn’t seem to be going too well. Now, Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos is reportedly in talks with potential advertisers, including Google and American media company NBC Universal. We’re sure there are more in the…

So, you find yourself traipsing the mall, sussing out the drip on offer when oh no, your phone says it’s about to die. What with load shedding, you weren’t able to charge it up before you left home. Do you head back home and potentially miss out on some schweet deals? Adoozy says no. Take one of their power banks, for free (kinda). The company recently launched the first power bank rental network in the country. Possibly in the world. It seems like an odd thing to rent out. The company aims to combine the convenience of charging while on…

Ford turned 119 this year. To celebrate, the automotive stalwart is making more than 100 years of its archival material freely available to everyone online. The Ford Heritage Vault lets fans of the brand, motoring journalists, and car enthusiasts sort through artifacts from the Blue Oval. No library card needed The digital vault contains over 5,000 curated old-timey photos and product brochures of Ford, Lincoln, and Edsel vehicles. These span from 1896 to the brand’s formative year in 1903, all the way to the company’s centennial in 2003. That must’ve taken a while to scan. Everyone is welcome to peruse…

You will have heard about the metaverse by now. It seems like every tech company is vying for a piece of this bland pie. Meta Platforms, the original baker, along with other major tech companies, are all banding together to form the Metaverse Standards Forum. It will ensure nothing metaverse-related goes on without their knowledge. Oh, and to also foster the development of industry standards and so on. Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Huawei, Ikea(?), and 31 other companies make up the forum so far. But, curiously, Apple, one of the largest companies in the world, is not on that list. Apple…

First National Bank (FNB) is always trying to speed things up. This time, it’s hitting the road. The bank is testing tap-to-pay options at toll gates for clients with Visa and Mastercards. If it works out, that’ll mean no more fumbling for change or handing over your card to a stranger. The physical card is a dying breed FNB’s head of mobile payments, Jason Viljoen, says that limited network coverage was the main reason for not rolling out a feature like this sooner. But things seem to be moving faster now, as more mobile spectrum becomes available to mobile network…

According to independent mobile network research firm Tutela, Vodacom outranks the other major mobile operators in South Africa. That is specifically with regards to the quality of its 4G and 5G coverage. It’s no good having the fastest download speeds if you can only achieve it once a month. Vodacom comes out on top From January to March 2022, Tutela investigated the mobile network experiences of South African consumers. That research entailed around 18.9 billion measurements across the major mobile network coverage areas in the country. The company then determined if the quality of the different mobile networks met or…

Edgars is the latest South African store looking to hop on the delivery bandwagon. But on EdgarsSixty60, things will work slightly differently. Edgars is partnering with South African logistics company Pargo for a click and collect option at its stores. Does this still count as delivery? If you aren’t familiar with click and collect, it’s very similar to regular shopping. But with less walking and forgetting what you wanted to buy. You shop online and fetch your stuff at the nearest pickup point when it suits you. This allows people living in difficult to reach areas that might not qualify…

If you were greeted by a 500 error when trying to access a service that connects to the internet this morning, it might be because Cloudflare is throwing a tantrum. Well, some parts of it anyway. The outage started just after 08:30am, today 21 June, and has affected connection to several popular services like Discord, Crunchyroll, Feedly, Coinbase, Shopify, League of Legends, and Valorant. When is web3 getting here? You also might be blissfully unaware of the issues. Lucky you. Cloudflare have indicated the outage isn’t worldwide but the company’s CTO, John Graham-Cumming, said on a Hacker News forum that…

Honor has officially launched in South Africa, following its split from parent company Huawei. With the launch, the Chinese smartphone maker is bringing a few of its handsets to the country. It recently launched its flagship Magic 4 series, with SA receiving the Lite and Pro models. Stuff has been using the Honor Magic 4 Pro for the past few weeks. If you’ve never heard of Honor before, cast your mind back to pre-2020 Huawei phones. The Magic 4 Pro is like that, but new and shiny. And unlike the Huawei phones of today, this one ships with Google’s full…

NASA’s Voyager probes are soon in for a long slumber NASA will begin shutting off some onboard systems of its two Voyager probes soon. The two probes, which were built in the 1970s, are still operating, but their power levels have been dropping in recent years. The fact that the probes are still operating is remarkable, as they were only designed for a four-year mission. Now, 44 and a half years on and the probes’ power levels aren’t what they were, so NASA wants to start switching off some systems to keep them going for as long as possible.Voyager 1…