Author: Duncan Pike

Gamescom 2021 is nearly upon us, and as with pretty much every event of its kind, it will also be an online-only event. We’re sure the show floor and everything on it will be sorely missed. But if an online event this year means we can have in-person events next year, we’re all for it. The upside is that now you don’t have to wear pants while you watch. What you can look forward to You can look forward to seeing the latest news, trailers, reveals and announcements from a few of the usual names. Xbox, Bethesda, Activision and EA…

Play Call of Duty: Vanguard alpha this weekend Image: Activision Although Call of Duty: Vanguard is still months away from its 5 November full release, PS4 and PS5 owners will have an exclusive chance to try out the all-new Champion Hill multiplayer game mode this coming weekend. The new game mode is launching as an open

Toyota South Africa and African Cyber Gaming League (ACGL) are partnering up, to create a new gaming platform for casual and professional esports athletes alike – The Toyota Gaming Engine (TTGE).  TTGE will serve as the central point for members to “be part of a community of enthusiasts, compete in challenges, tournaments and events, track their progress and earn their way to great prizes,” reads a press release. Strap in with The Toyota Gaming Engine Obviously, with Toyota South Africa being the driving force behind this project, the esports titles are racing focused. These include WRC 9, the official game of the…

NASA and Google have released a new collaborative video that imagines what it would look like if NASA’s Perseverance rover signed up to Google Photos. The short vid is equal parts celebration of what the plucky rover and his pal the Ingenuity helicopter have achieved over the last six months and an advertisement for Google Photos. There’s something very charming about this anthropomorphism. https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1428101420339712000 Yes, it’s already been six months since Perseverance landed on the Red Planet and started snapping pics with its array of cameras. In this video, we see what it would look like if the rover uploaded…

Microsoft is making changes to Windows 11 before its eventual launch, as one might reasonably expect. The changes have been met with varying responses, from lukewarm to slightly outraged — at least by some people. The first change in question is how Windows 11 lets users change their default internet browser. If you weren’t aware, since its stable release in January, Microsoft’s new chromium-based Edge browser has been steadily growing its user base. In June this year, it overtook Firefox to become the third most used browser, behind Safari and Chrome. The battle of the browsers To give Microsoft its…

Today Shoprite, the retail giant that owns the Checkers brand, announced it was testing a concept for an automated Checkers store it calls Checkers Rush. The store will use “advanced AI camera technology” to identify the products you take off the shelves — and the ones you put back, we’re hoping — then will bill your bank card when you exit. This will mean, in theory at least, no more standing in queues and waiting to pay. This concept is by no means a world first. Nor would it go to Amazon either as you might have guessed. It would…

There have been whisperings and murmurings about a fabled folding Google Pixel device for years. Hints at the device were first seen in 2019 after the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold and Huawei’s Mate X. Now, new information has come to light that suggests we could see a foldable from the search engine giant before the end of the year. A developer that goes by cstark27 spotted the folding Pixel’s codename, ‘Passport’, within the code of the Android 12 beta. This suggests that the foldable will be powered by the newly announced Google Tensor chips, like the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.  https://twitter.com/Cstark_27/status/1425511232774283267…

Yesterday, Intel announced that it would be launching its new high-end consumer GPU lineup — that it’s calling Arc — to the market early next year. The new brand will encompass both the software behind the cards and the physical cards themselves. The chipmaker will be bringing the first of multiple generations to market in Q1 of 2022, codenamed ‘Alchemist’. Future generations under the codenames Battlemage, Celestial and Druid will follow. Intel vs AMD vs Nvidia Previously known as DG2, the Alchemist arc-based GPUs will come in both desktop and notebook flavours. It looks like Intel wants to bring the flight…

New details and some specs have snuck past the closed taps of Xiaomi and dripped into our news pool. Taken from the XiaomiUI Telegram group, the display, camera and chipset specs for the potentially upcoming Mi 11T and Redmi K40 Ultra were revealed. The Mi 11T, which was identified by its codename ‘Amber’ and model number K11R, looks like it’ll be equipped with a 120Hz display with a 20:9 aspect ratio. This would be a small downgrade from the 144Hz display of the Mi 10T but maybe that’s because Xiaomi will be using an OLEN panel instead of an LCD like…

Deepfakes can put you in a movie promo Image: Warner Bros. If you've always wanted to see yourself on the big screen and act alongside big names in the industry, now's your chance. Your likeness can appear with Hugh Jackman without needing to do all the hard work like acting or being emotionally vulnerable and