Author: Duncan Pike

The South African labour department seeks to fine Huawei South Africa for its non-compliance with local labour laws. A statement from the Department of Labour alleges that the local branch of the Chinese tech firm hires an estimated 90% foreign workforce. This is well above the 40% limit imposed by employment equity regulations. The labour department has filed a court order in which it seeks a R1.5 million fine, or 2% of Huawei SA’s turnover from 2020, whichever is higher. Huawei South Africa’s response In response to this news, the official Huawei statement is that the company is “committed to…

Runaway rocket might belong to China A few weeks ago, we reported that a runaway SpaceX rocket was on a collision course with the moon. Well, it still is, but it might actually belong to China and not SpaceX after all. Bill Grey, author of the Project Pluto software that tracks near-Earth objects, was the first to bring the rocket to everyone’s attention. After the story was picked up around the world and gained more attention, others have had a squizz at Grey’s findings. Grey explains in a message on his website that a NASA engineer contacted him to suggest the…

In January this year, the few BlackBerry fans left in the world were forced to say goodbye to legacy services for devices still running BlackBerry OS. Following that, it was found that the few BlackBerry apps still running on Android would reach the end of their run in August, later this year. Even then, not all hope was lost. All the way back in August 2020, BlackBerry granted OnwardMobility the rights to develop a new Android-based, 5G-enabled, physical keyboard touting BlackBerry device. That was supposed to launch last year. It didn’t. Then in a January blog post, OnwardMobility proudly exclaimed…

During Thursday evening’s State of the Nation address, President Ramaphosa spoke at great length about many things. We were only really interested in the tech bits. Namely, what’s going to be done about load shedding, how the move away from analogue TV is going and the spectrum auction set to take place next month. Load shedding plans President Ramaphosa detailed the government’s plan to secure an additional 15,400MW of generation capacity that should (hopefully) adequately cover the current 4,000MW generation deficit. Old dilapidated power stations, the poor maintenance thereof and the effects of state capture were fingered as causes for…

If you’re one of those people that like to peruse the classifieds looking for a deal and haven’t been on OLX in a while, we’ve got some bad news. OLX South Africa has closed down. Like, all the way down. You’ll be greeted by the image below if you head to the website now. Reports of the closure started emerging on Tuesday, 1 February 2022. Press F to pay respects In the site’s defence, it does redirect you to Property24 or Autotrader – two OLX subsidiaries. That’s great if you were looking for a car or a house, but if…

Samsung has just announced (like, right now) the launch of the newest range of tablets, the Galaxy Tab S8, S8+ and S8 Ultra. If you, like us, keep one eye on your news feed and the other open and watching for leaks then this’ll hardly be a surprise what with the plethora of leaks we’ve seen. We’ve been expecting the S8 range of tablets for quite some time now. Ever since the S7 range, the last flagship tab by the company, launched in August 2020. That quickly became the best Android tablet you could get, until now. Introducing the Galaxy…

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 series were the first smartwatches to launch with Google’s new Wear OS 3.0 in August last year. The partnership with Google allowed Samsung to offer more integration than what was available then. Despite that, when the watches launched they lacked Google Assistant support. Buyers still had to put up with Bixby. Well, that’s going to change soon, or “in the coming months”, according to Samsung. Along with Google Assistant support, users will also get a few updates with a focus on health monitoring. The strangest of which is sleep coaching. It will assign you a “sleep…

Meta will switch off its Express WiFi project this year, the company announced last week. Originally launched in 2016, the project was aimed at connecting regions where other forms of connectivity, like ADSL and fibre-optic networks, aren’t readily available or established. It’s not going to just switch it off without any warning. The company said it’s “winding down” — but how that directly affects current customers is anyone’s guess. Unless you’re Kenya, then you haven’t had access to the service since the end of 2020. So consider this a warning if you or your business is currently using Express WiFi.…

EA just had its Q3 earnings call during which it admitted that the Battlefield 2042 launch didn’t quite go as planned. It really didn’t need to say it out loud, we were all thinking it. Admitting there’s a problem is the first step though, right? “We did have a challenge in Q3 as the launch of Battlefield 2042 did not meet expectations,” said CEO Andrew Wilson. “Developing this game with our teams working from home for nearly two years ultimately proved to be challenging,” he added. EA isn’t going to give us up or let us down (again)(we hope) Sounds…

If for some reason you didn’t already know, there’s loads to watch on Netflix. No, we’re serious. Having extensive choice is great, for the most part. It means that no matter how niche your tastes, you’re bound to find something to watch that you’ll enjoy. Getting to that point can be a little tedious. You know how it goes. Your friend’s cousin tells you about this great show that ‘you simply have to watch’. So you acquiesce and say you’ll put it on your list. Then later, when you’re browsing for something to watch while your food gets cold, you…