Author: Duncan Pike

VS Gaming Weekly is South Africa’s first free-to-air gaming show. It aims to provide a dedicated platform for local video game enthusiasts to stay up to date with esports news. It’ll air every Wednesday at 17:30 on SABC 3 and Telkom’s streaming platform, TelkomOne. The show will be hosted by content creators George ‘Okay Wasabi’ Mnguni and Sibu Mpanza. Together, they will provide viewers with local gaming news and content including an in-depth look at the players and teams that compete in the budding local esports scene. VS Gaming goes Weekly Telkom-backed VS Gaming is one of South Africa’s largest…

Asus’ gaming sub-brand Republic of Gamers (ROG) just announced its ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro. Both devices are focused on giving mobile gamers as much performance as possible. But, more importantly, these phones are coming to South Africa. When they do eventually land here, they will, in all likelihood, be the most powerful gaming phones available to South Africans. Other gaming smartphones from Lenovo and Xiaomi have yet to officially touch SA soil, so ROG claims the crown by default. Still, they’re pretty powerful in their own right. Cranked up all the way The ROG Phone 6 series features…

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has announced its newly updated Xiaomi 12S trio of smartphones. One of them in particular is making headlines and turning heads. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra features the new Sony IMX989, a 1-inch smartphone camera sensor. That’s… a little large for a smartphone. It’s about right for a fixed-lens camera, though. How did they find space for the smartphone bits? Depending on who you ask, size may or may not matter. But, when it comes to camera sensors, bigger is usually better. A bigger sensor can mean a higher resolution, better cooling, better low-light performance or all…

Volkswagen South Africa has announced local procing and availability for the newly refreshed T-Roc SUV. Three variants will be available to South Africans with the 1.4 TSI Design model starting at R563,800, the 2.0 TSI Design going for R627,300, and the 2.0 R-Line costing R660,400. If you’ve been waiting for one, your day has come. These go on sale at VW dealers today, 5 July 2022. A new techy interior The T-Roc finds itself positioned between the Taigo, which also recently launched in South Africa, and the Tiguan among VW’s SUV offerings. If you’ve been keeping up with car prices,…

How to look cool when you die in a ball of flames Image: Ducati via YouTube Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati has unveiled its first electric motorcycle, the V21L. It will be the brand’s official e-bike for the 2023 season of the MotoE World Cup, according to last years announcement. The V21L might be a prototype but it still has an unmistakable Ducati look. It’s packing a 150HP electric motor and an 18kWh battery. That might not be a high horsepower number but you’ll get up to speed faster than you can say “horsepower number”. This one reportedly has a top…

Update: Following Xiaomi’s announcement that the Xioami 12 would be coming to SA, we finally know which one is coming and how much it will cost. South African’s get the model featuring 8GB RAM and 256GB ROM. That’s great, 128GB fills up rather quickly. What isn’t great is the rather large price increase over the international price. This was to be expected though and it still works out cheaper than importing it yourself. The Xiaomi 12 has a local RRP of R18,000 and is available right now. Original story: Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is finally bringing one of its top-end…

Update: Well, that was quick. It looks like google.co.za is back up. The new lease will last until 25 June 2023. Let’s hope Google or MarkMonitor ticks the autorenew box before then. For all the folks thinking about trying to swipe the domain out from under Goolge’s nose, better luck next time. Original story: It’s the first day of a new month and that means, for a lot of people, subscription renewal day. But it looks like someone at Google forgot to hit the renew button ahead of the lease ending for the google.co.za domain, so it’s gone dark. The…

The Ford EcoSport has been around, in some form or another, for the last nine years. This is evident every time you go leave your house. You’re bound to see at least two on the road. Since its launch, in 2013, the Blue Oval has sold around 75,000 vehicles to eager South African buyers. There’s no denying that it filled a gap or ticked the boxes South Africans want ticked. Things have slowed down a bit in 2022. That could be because the EcoSport is starting to get a bit long in the tooth. Or maybe it’s that the EcoSport…

First National Bank is looking to benefit from the dire situation South African motorists find themselves in. The bank is giving qualifying customers even more eBucks from tomorrow, 1 July, until the end of September 2022. This is coming at a time when the fuel price is already at an all-time high. Most signs are pointing to another increase. Data from the Central Energy Fund indicates that the next one is likely to be R1.80 for petrol and R1.60 for diesel. Getting a little extra back from your bank… might take the sting out a little. FNB to the rescue…

If you were still on the fence about Sony’s claims that it’s going to be more friendly to the PC, this next bit of news should convince you. The company has just announced a new hardware brand, Inzone, consisting of gaming monitors and headsets. In both cases, you can see heavy design influences from the PlayStation 5. This makes sense. These peripherals aren’t only for PC gamers but PlayStation gamers as well. M is for ‘monitor’ Sony’s gaming monitor lineup consists of two models, the M3 and M9, for now. The flagship M9 will ask for $900 overseas which puts…