Author: Brett Venter

Samsung’s had a thing for massive megapixel counts in its ISOCELL sensors of late, even if the results are sometimes a little… overzealously promoted. First, there was a 64MP sensor, then Samsung jumped to that giant 108MP effort. The next takes a step back, but it’s got a few extra features in it, so that’s all right. Two-in-one Samsung’s new 50MP ISOCELL GN1 camera sensor is the sort of thing you’ll find in its upper-midrange devices, by the look of it. It combines the South Korean company’s Dual Pixel and Tetracell tech into the same sensor for the first time,…

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Are you still using your Samsung Gear VR? If you are, you may want to make the most of it. The South Korean company discontinued the Gear VR as a hardware platform in 2019, and has just announced that it’ll be winding down the software side of things as well. As such Samsung’s XR service, which handles all things VR for the now-defunct hardware, is being shut down. Dead in the water If you’ve been using the Gear VR in conjunction with Samsung XR, you’ll notice a few things right off the bat. 360° video uploads are gone, as is…

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Educating young minds is hard. That’s why teachers go to university for years before they’re allowed to shape a country’s youth. But parents all over the country have to take on that role now and have found out — this bears repeating — teaching is hard. Ubisoft hopes to make it at least a little easier. The Magic School… Computer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFjlyJEEa5g Ubisoft’s got a freebie available for… well, everyone. From now until 21 May, you can get your hands on the PC version of Assassin’s Creed’s two Discovery Tour releases. This feature was released as DLC for both Assassin’s Creed…

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Lockdown might still be at Level 4 but restrictions appear to be easing. Just… not the ones you really, really want to ease. As of this afternoon, online stores can sell their entire inventory once again — except, of course. alcohol and cigarettes. Being economical The change was announced today in a new set of regulations. Basically, online stores can now sell everything — not just the limited amount stock that South Africa’s physical stores were permitted to sell. The easing of online retail restrictions goes into effect immediately, though South African etailers and their attendant couriers will have to…

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So you’ve got your eye on a shiny new MacBook Pro, do you? Hopefully, you’ve been saving your pocket change (and car change, and shopping change and just… saving generally) — Apple’s new Magic Keyboard-toting machines will cost you at least two-thirds of an arm. Apple’s upgraded computing hardware launches this weekend in South Africa and pricing for the 13in machines starts at R29,000. That’s enough to get you a Touch Bar, a 1.4Ghz 10th-gen Intel Core i5 and 256GB of solid-state storage. Setting the Touch Bar higher There are, of course, pricier options. Every 13in MacBook Pro launching this…

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Huawei’s P30 Pro — the smartphone so good that Huawei released it twice. Sound about right? That’s just what Huawei is doing with a second release of the handset, known as the P30 Pro New Edition, heading to market soon. But why? The reasons for it should be obvious. The P30 Pro was one heck of a smartphone, but it’s got the dubious distinction of being the last Huawei smartphone released (for a while, at least) with Google’s Mobile Services installed. The phone first launched in March last year, was re-released in September (with a new colour scheme) and is…

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The world isn’t a very nice place to inhabit at the moment. It’s times like this that we should think back to the good times and Activision has made that a little easier by announcing a remastered Tony Hawk bundle for launch later this year. The bundle consists of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, suitably tweaked and upgraded for modern consoles. Oh yeah, you can get your grind on on PC (via the Epic Store), PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from 4 September this year, with all of the classic runs and gameplay modes. Only this time the…

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Finally, someone’s gone and figured it out. Social media company Twitter is letting its employees work from home. Not for the duration of a lockdown or the pandemic but for good. Speaking to Buzzfeed, Twitter confirmed that it’s allowing staff to get the job done without going into the office. Twitter staff have been at home for the past two months but the change is being made permanent. A Twitter spokesperson said “We’ve been very thoughtful in how we’ve approached this from the time we were one of the first companies to move to a work-from-home model. We’ll continue to…

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While literally everyone is taking strain during the current pandemic, it’s an especially trying time for smaller businesses. Lacking the bank accounts of larger companies, they’re basically burning cash as they wait to get back to work. And, when employment resumes, they’re going to need all the help they can get. Help that Facebook thinks it can supply. Support group The first way Facebook’s trying to give smaller businesses a leg-up in the time of COVID-19 is by launching a new *checks notes* sticker. Yeah, that’s right, a sticker for Instagram that says Support Small Businesses. Which might come in…

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