Author: Duncan Pike

This week, Ford South Africa introduced to the world the newest member of the EcoSport range, the EcoSport Active. If you aren’t familiar with the lineup, where have you been for the past ten years? These things are everywhere. Now there’s one more, but this one is (slightly) different. The EcoSport Active stands out thanks to a few pieces of strategically placed black plastic and some 17in black alloy wheels. Pretty much everything else you’ll have seen before, as the Active is based rather closely on the company’s existing ‘Trend’ variation. If it ain’t broke… Ford has given the EcoSport…

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor has announced the brand’s latest series of devices – the Honor 70 lineup. It’s comprised of three models, the Honor 70, 70 Pro and 70 Pro+. This will be the first time the brand has released a numbered flagship device since splitting from parent company Huawei in November 2020. The 70 series won’t be competing with the relatively new Magic 4 phones. These won’t have every bell and whistle that those devices offer but will provide many flagship features at an attractive price with an arguably better SoC, at least according to Nanoreview. Seems like Honor…

eMedia Holdings’ free-to-air satellite television service, Openview, had a particularly good financial year. The platform’s ad revenue increased by almost 74% from R269.9 million in 2021 to R468.1 million in 2022. With content costs for the 2022 financial year totalling R446.3 million, the increase means the platform is now profitable. What that means for viewers is a wider range of channels and an upgraded decoder. Openview is all grown up, finally turns a profit The platform is planning to launch “a few” new channels, perhaps as a way to celebrate. That’s besides the channels that have already launched this year.…

The Department of Transport obviously doesn’t think SA motorists have to pay enough for the privilege to drive on SA roads. The department is investigating a new tax called a ‘traffic management levy’. It’s supposed to help finance traffic management resources. We wonder what it has been doing until now. The newly proposed tax appeared in a white paper that the department published last week. This tax could be added to existing motor vehicle licence fees, the existing fuel sales tax, or both. What will transport in the future cost? “Additional and innovative funding strategies for traffic management functions will…

Star Wars KOTOR II is coming to Switch Nintendo is bringing another old-timey classic, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, to the Switch. Affectionately shorted to KOTOR II, the sequel to the widely-acclaimed RPG of the same name will receive a few updates, performative and aesthetic. There’ll also be post-launch DLC. That isn’t really more content, just stuff the original devs left out while they rushed the launch back in 2004. If you don’t have a Nintendo Switch but still want to play the extra content, this fan-made mod on Steam will help you achieve that.…

The proverbial ink had not even dried on reports that Canon is bringing two new budget cameras to market when a new bit of news turned up to say it actually isn’t. Well, just not right away. If you were frothing to get your hands on the new Canon EOS R7, you’ll need to wait longer than originally anticipated. Blame supply issues for that. Priming the Canon Canon issued an apology regarding the delivery delays and referred to orders that exceeded expectations and global supply constraints as the main causes. Unfortunately for photographers, the R7 isn’t the only of the…

Sony held its annual investor day yesterday. That’s pretty boring unless you’re an investor, or you enjoy playing PlayStation games on PC. A specific chart shown during the presentation says Sony is expecting a massive increase of 275% year-on-year growth for PC sales. And there is little chance Sony reaches that figure without porting more games. A lot more. Previously ported games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and God of War have all done pretty well. God of War quickly became the best-selling PS game on PC soon after its launch. With its sequel still slated for a release…

Ford South Africa and SolarAfrica have initiated the first phase of the automotive company’s Project Blue Oval renewable energy programme. The project now harnesses the power of the sun for 35% of the Silverton Assembly plant’s energy needs. The Silverton Assembly plant in Pretoria, which produces the Ranger bakkie domestically and for 100 other countries, is now home to one of the world’s largest solar carports, claims Ford SA. All your sun are belong to Ford SolarAfrica’s installation certainly seems large enough for that to be plausible. The large-scale system is made up of 30,226 solar panels, 120 three-phase 100kW…

Dyson, the British company famous for over-engineering household appliances, is looking to expand into household robotics. The company revealed a series of prototype bots that it’s been working on that’ll make chores a thing of the poor past. The announcement was made more as a recruitment tool than to provide any real information on the company’s plans. What is known is that Dyson plans to hire hundreds of engineers as it hones in on autonomous devices that’ll take the weight of household chores off your shoulders. Your very own Dyson Codsworth The media accompanying the announcement shows a robot picking…

SteelSeries have a pretty good track record when it comes to gaming headsets. The SteelSeries Arctis, the previous flagship, made it onto a few top ten lists. It isn’t a stretch to expect more of the same, but better from the new Arctis Nova Pro. The company has completely overhauled the Arctis with a new design, an updated GameDAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter), and added some nifty features. That means you can probably expect to pay more than the previous version. Listen, do you smell something? The new headset is available in wired or wireless options and is compatible with PC, Mac,…