Author: Duncan Pike

Fortnite building returns Around two weeks ago, at the start of Fortnite’s Chapter 3 Season 2, Epic Games removed building from the game. It called the game mode Fortnite Zero Build and said it would only be temporary. Maybe some people missed the last part of that announcement as they began removing clumps of their own hair over the decision. Well, Epic Games has re-added building alongside the Zero Build mode. The decision to remove building in the first place surprised many long-time fans. It was one of the factors that allowed Fortnite to surpass PUBG (previously called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds)…

Dyson, the company that loves to over-engineer things, has turned its attention to pollution. Specifically, noise and air pollution that gets all up in your personal space. The Dyson Zone is the company’s first attempt at a wearable air filter you can listen to. If its approach to this is anything like its approach to moving air around, then the Dyson Zone might not be that bad. That is, if you don’t mind paying through the nose and looking like Bane from The Dark Knight Rises on his morning jog. Airflow and acoustics are powerful agents As Dyson’s engineers explain,…

The MateView GT is Huawei’s first attempt at a gaming monitor. It comes in two sizes, a 27in standard edition and a 34in ultrawide sound edition. Huawei sent us the latter to review. The 27in standard edition isn’t available in SA so there wasn’t much choice on the matter. We spent some time with MateView GT, using it for both work and gaming. Its performance surprised us. You may also be impressed, but is it worth R14,000? We have other questions too. Mostly, why? Why pick a 34in curved ultrawide to introduce your brand to the gaming market? We’ll focus on…

Sony’s newly-announced PlayStation Now subscription service is cool and all, but what does it mean for South African gamers? Is it worth getting over (or as well as) Xbox Game Pass? Allow us to help you get there. If you missed the announcement, Sony revealed changes coming to the currently offered PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now services. From June 2022, PS Plus is expanding, offering three differently priced tiers. PS Now will be incorporated into PS Plus and ceases as a standalone service after June. Current PS Now subscribers will be migrated over to PS Plus Premium while staying at…

With the ROG Strix Scar 17 (2022), Asus has managed to make high-end performance gaming cheaper somehow. We’re not saying it’s cheap. R55,000 is not cheap in anyone’s books. But it might be cheaper than you’d expect for this much performance. If you’re looking for great gaming performance in a laptop that can act as a desktop replacement but you don’t possess a blank cheque, the ROG Strix Scar 17 (2022) makes a compelling argument for why you should consider it. The Scar adds character Right out of the box, you’ll notice this kind of bends the definition of ‘portable’.…

Finally, some good NFT news. A non-fungible token has sold for R1.9 million in an auction to raise money for a museum that documents the anti-apartheid struggle of South Africa. The NFT was created from the original arrest warrant issued in 1961 against Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid activist that went on to become SA’s first democratically elected black president in 1994. The money raised will go towards keeping the lights on at the Liliesleaf Museum Heritage site. The museum has been struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, and eventually had to close its doors indefinitely in September last…

WhatsApp testing larger file sharing feature The folks at WhatsApp continue to play catch-up to Telegram features. This time it has to do with the maximum file size one can send on the platform. According to WABetaInfo, who are usually spot on, WhatsApp is working on allowing users to send media files up to 2GB in size. The feature is still in very early beta and is only available to users in South America on WhatsApp beta version 2.22.8.5, 2.22.8.6, and 2.22.8.7.If this update makes it to the stable version on WhatsApp – the one we all use – it…

Do you know what the best kind of customer is? An existing customer. Apple knows this all too well. This is why it’ll always find ways to make more of them. A recent Bloomberg report reckons that Apple is working on a hardware subscription model intended to bring even more people into Apple’s ecosystem. Apple would charge a monthly fee and in return, subscribers get a new iPhone, or other Apple product, for the subscription period. So, basically what Mobile Service Providers already do, minus the SIM card. This is aimed at the people who really want to give Apple…

The Republic of Gamers division at Asus, as the name suggests, has a keen focus on a specific market. Can you guess which one? The subbrand is well-known for making fairly decent —  if at times over-priced — gaming gear. Their newest creation, the ROG Strix Scope RX TKL Wireless Deluxe keyboard has a lengthy name. And an even longer list of features. We’ve spent the better part of the last month using the Strix Scope RX TKL pretty much all day, every day. Now it’s time to tell you if it’s worth your hard-earned money. Form over function Keyboards,…

When a global company like Samsung, Microsoft, or Nvidia has its data stolen, images of clandestine operatives hammering away at keyboards in a darkened room come to mind. Individuals capable of such actions must be well-trained and possibly even state-funded. As a mad Titan once said, “Reality is often disappointing.” It turns out the mastermind behind the recent Microsoft data breach, might just be a UK teenager living with his mother. Hacking Microsoft as an extramural activity  According to a Bloomberg report, security researchers investigating the recent string of high-profile hacks said they managed to trace the attacks, in part,…