Author: Duncan Pike

Microsoft kicked off the first day of Gamescom with a trailer and announcement-filled event. Among the announcements and trailers were some of the expected showings like Forza Horizon 5 and Flight Simulator. Surprisingly, more info or another trailer for Halo Infinite was absent. If you missed the hour and a half event, we’ve rounded up the best trailers and announcements for you all in one place. The Forza Horizon 5 cover cars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fytkGUU7jk Earlier this year at E3, Microsoft showed us it’s putting more emphasis on landscapes and biomes of Horizon 5. Nowt Gamescom, we’ve seen what the featured cars will be. The Forza series likes to…

Following today’s announcement, Telkom Mobile becomes the latest operator to support eSIM enabled smartphones on their network. If you hadn’t heard of it before, using a digital eSIM (Embedded Subscriber Identification Module) means users can connect to a mobile network without a physical SIM card. eSIM Pros and Cons As the ‘e’ in eSIM suggests, users will download a network profile onto an embedded module in their phones that cannot be removed. You’ll need to activate that profile to gain access to the network. You’ll need either a prepaid or post-paid plan with the mobile operator of your choice. Currently,…

The motor industry never ceases to amaze. How much do you need to hate the smell of horse dung, to bolt a box — in which you cause a series of small explosions — onto some rods connecting four wheels? Quite a lot, we’d say. Fast forward a hundred years or so and we’re building full-sized cars out of Lego. The eyes of children around the world (and some grown-ups) grew with wonder when Lego recently revealed its built-to-scale model of the Toyota Supra GT, constructed from a total 477,303 pieces. We wonder who counted them all. We’re kidding, it…

A few weeks ago, Xiaomi launched another of its top smartphones, the Mi Mix 4, only the ‘Mi’ part was absent from its banding. So now, it’ll just be called the ‘Xiaomi Mix 4’. It turns out this wasn’t a mistake or a one-time occurrence, but a deliberate omission. This will be the company’s direction for all future releases. No more Mi for Xiaomi In a statement to XDA-developers, the Chinese manufacturer said that the change will take effect from Q3 2021. The company said this change “will unify our global brand presence and close the perception gap between the brand and…

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…