Author: Brett Venter

Can’t sleep? Is it a recent thing? Google Trends data suggests that your recent bout with insomnia might have more than a little to do with the stresses of lockdown. Global searches on the search engine for the terms “insomnia” and “can’t sleep” reached an all-time high in April this year. It’s not exactly clear what the reasons behind the spike are, but the timing is very suggestive. April 2020 is right in the middle of most lockdowns around the world, or as countries were prepping extreme social distancing measures. It’s been a stressful time all-round and stress… stress stops…

Mobile service provider MTN intends to launch its 5G network in South Africa from this month. The initial launch was supposed to be from 1 June, but this has been delayed. When the service does launch, a little later this month, MTN’s 5G will be available in SA in MTN’s LTE coverage areas and at LTE price points. This is broader coverage than we were expecting for 5G’s initial rollout. It’s a conspiracy MTN’s spilt the beans in its Y’ello Trader magazine, which explains that the service would go live from 1 June this year. The fine print for the…

Want to feel old? Audio specialists Sennheiser are turning 75, meaning they’ve been around since 1945. That’s one heck of a history when it comes to tech, where companies sometimes count their life-spans in months (in which case, it might blow your mind to realise that Nintendo is 131 years old this year). To celebrate, Sennheiser has released a special edition of its iconic HD 25 headphones. They haven’t changed from the same, amazingly-detailed headphones first released 32 years ago — they’ve just got a new colour scheme. That’s yellow for the earcups, inspired by Sennheiser’s (also iconic but super-retro)…

It’s tough to manage a walkout in protest of your place of employment at a time when everyone works from home but if any workplace can do it, Facebook can. That’s just what took place yesterday, as hundreds of Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout in protest of the company’s policies on Donald Trump’s posts on the service. Unlike Twitter, which recently began fact-checking the contentious American president and which marked Trump’s recent tweets concerning ongoing protests as “glorifying violence”, Mark Zuckerberg has attempted to keep Facebook out of the volatile situation. The reasoning, according to Zuckerberg, is that Facebook…

Earlier this year we got a look at Under Armour’s HOVR Machina shoes — some rather intelligent running kit designed to synch with Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active2 (the Under Armour Edition, naturally). We’ve know about the new Samsung wearable for ages but it’s finally here in South Africa. You get what you pay for It’s not going to be cheap to get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 Under Armour Edition — but if you’re already rocking the fitness brand’s HOVR shoes you kinda owe it to yourself to take advantage of the cadence-based, real-time tracking and coaching…

There are a whole lot of things we miss as a result of lockdown. Sitting down somewhere while someone else does the cooking (and dishes). Seeing human faces. And group exercise, because we’re just overly-complicated primates at heart. But yeah, gyms aren’t going to be a thing for a while. Which might be why Samsung’s rolled out Samsung Health access for its 2020 smart TVs. No more couch potato It’s not going to replace that warm (but icky) feeling you get sitting down at a weight machine and realising that Carl forgot to wipe it down (again) but it will…

It’s against this backdrop and, seemingly, for this reason that Google has cancelled its Android 11 unveiling and beta, which was due to kick off later this week. 

When it comes to gaming, there are three camps — there are Sony and Microsoft fans, and then PC gamers who think they’re better than everyone else. There are Nintendo fans and mobile gamers as well but mostly it is PlayStation versus Xbox. Every time there’s a new generation, the battle begins anew. So it is with the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5. In historical terms, we’ve seen the opposing factions alternating taking the lead, with Sony’s PlayStation 4 being the current ‘best’ console. Microsoft has placed most of its cards on the table so far and it’s…

When you’re stuck out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but two broken legs and a smartphone, how do you get medical care? It’s possible to contact someone but where do you send them? That’s the problem that addressing service what3words has attempted to er… address. And now, thanks to Vodacom, it may just save your life. The mobile service provider has zero-rated what3words on its network.

We can’t say we didn’t see this one coming from a long way off. Apple launched a physical credit card, then Huawei decided to take a shot at it. It was only a matter of time before Samsung did the same, followed by… well, any other smartphone maker that thinks it can also be a bank. To be totally fair the newly-announced Samsung Money card is a debit rather than a credit card — putting the South Korean company in competition with the likes of Google more than Apple or Huawei. Called it We’ve been expecting the launch, or something…