Author: Brett Venter

Facebook has (quietly) launched a new app aimed squarely at couples. And, while a great idea in practice, the company could have done a little more work when it came to naming said app. Called Tuned, it’s “[a] private space where you and your significant other can just be yourselves”, according to the app’s description. The problem is the name. If you told a friend that you’d just Tuned a significant other, you’d probably be due for a slap in the head. Especially if you’re from KZN. What can we say, regional differences? That’s not the only problem with the…

Some useful information if you happen to be caught in an apocalypse: It’s possible to turn a car into a ventilator. Specifically, a Tesla Model 3, as the engineers at the company have shown in a recent video. It’s a little more intricate an operation than can be executed by your typical road warrior, though. It helps if you have access to a pile of Tesla components, as well as a number of additional bits. You can’t just wheel a Model 3 into a chop shop and wheel out a ventilator, plus scraps. Greater than the sum of its parts…

We’ve had Samsung’s Big New Thing™ for a couple of weeks now. After the initial excitement of seeing the Galaxy S20 Ultra, large, live and in action, how has Samsung’s newest star held up? That’s the question we’ve come here to answer today. If you want the short answer so you can bugger off and do some more ‘work’ at home, here it is: the S20 Ultra is hugely powerful but you’re paying for features you don’t really need (and which don’t really work, if you’re human). Still reading? Yeah, you should be. It’s impossible to sum up a smartphone…

We as South Africans all have the same job at this moment in time — we’re supposed to flatten the curve. Some of us do this by staying at home, others by providing essential services (you might want to keep the word ‘essential’ in mind next time you greet the folks who put in your petrol or sell you groceries, yeah?). The majority of us are supposed to stay away from as many people as possible (what introverts call “a good week”). And, according to Google, we’re doing okay on that score. Data from the company’s Mobility report shows that…

Apple’s all about the high-end, usually. There have been two notable exceptions: the Apple iPhone 5c and the iPhone SE, which were still on sale until fairly recently. A new version of the iPhone SE might be on its way, according to info from 9to5Mac, as well as Apple’s own online store. Now SE here 9to5Mac reports that Apple’s iPhone SE is coming back. Originally rumoured to take the iPhone 9 name (since Apple skipped the naming convention to go right to the X), the Apple-focused website claims that plain old ‘SE’ is what we’re getting. The design will reportedly…

We’ve already seen that Absa and Standard Bank have plans afoot for (some of) their customers for financial relief during the current medical crisis. Now FNB has detailed its plan to keep their customers liquid during this trying time and it seems… pretty comprehensive. Relief kicks in from 1 April this year and carries on until 30 June 2020 — the same three months other banking institutions are offering customers. What FNB offers to its clients is a little more detailed than we were expecting, however. The devil’s in the details In common with other banking institutions, FNB’s offering customers…

If you’re a typical South African then you’re concerned about several things at the moment. Whether you’ve got enough supplies to hold out till the ‘end’ of the current lockdown, whether you’ll catch the COVID-19 virus on your next essential supply run, and how you’re going to pay your rent at the end of the month. Well, a couple of banks have thoughts about that last point. Lockdown means there’s less work going around and a large percentage of South Africa’s population doesn’t get paid if they don’t work. To that end Absa, Standard Bank, and TymeBank have all launched…

It hasn’t taken long for bored individuals to work out fancy new ways of inflicting themselves on people who want nothing more than to get on with their lives without, well… asshats turning up and ruining things. The sudden boom in popularity of video conferencing app Zoom has seen the launch of Public  Zoom hangouts as a way of replacing more conventional social contact. Of course, some people have gone out of their way to spoil it. 

It’s here at last and the streets are quiet — at least where we all are. Lockdown has commenced, which means a lot of us have free time on our hands. Some are choosing to finally learn that musical instrument, while others… they might want to take a shot at some new software skills. Apple hopes tho help there. The smartphone, computer and software maker has made its Final Cut Pro X software free to try for a full 90 days — which is a long time to spend with R5,000+ post-processing software. And its Logic Pro X music production…

Thanks to some American hostility Huawei’s got to do its own thing at the moment, meaning it can’t rely on Google having its back. The company unveiled its new digital assistant — which takes the place of the Google Assistant on (some of) its flagships — during its P40 livestream today and… it sounds awfully familiar. What’s in a name? Mostly it’s the name giving us pause. In common with most tech companies, Huawei’s chosen a female name for its new digital assistant. But why this one? The AI-powered helper, which doesn’t do anything unexpected for a mobile assistant, is…