Microsoft has brought new Azure datacentres to South Africa, based in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The datacentres are the company’s “…first enterprise-grade datacenters in Africa”, and will be instrumental in connecting the country (and the continent) with Microsoft’s services.
We’ve gotten used to Facebook being rather terrible at anything like protecting user privacy, being transparent about … most things, or keeping its promises. So we could be forgiven for being skeptical of Mark Zuckerburg’s newest note to the internet, which claims that Facebook is looking towards a “privacy-focused” future for the social network.
Are you excited for mid-April 2019? If you’re not, you’re either working over the holiday weekend or you’re not a Game of Thrones fan. The immensely-popular series is coming to an end but every conclusion needs a beginning. The first official trailer for Game of Thrones Season 8? That qualifies.
As if having USB 3.2 show up and confuse people with its lack of branding consistency (USB 3.2 Gen 1 vs USB 3.2 Gen 2 vs USB 3.2 Gen 2×2? Seriously?) wasn’t enough, now we’ve got USB 4.0 to worry about. We don’t really have to worry just yet, but we’re kinda wishing we did
This week’s Light Start involves some robotics, some stuff in space, a new sci-fi series from Netflix and the cancellation of Sony’s handheld console
We’ve all seen streaming take off in near-real-time, with Spotify making decent inroads in South Africa even before its official launch. Deezer, Joox, a set of wholly-local options… streaming is here to stay. And, based on a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), music streaming has taken over how most folks access music.
And now, one for the technically-inclined. You might remember, if you cast your mind back, the custom Android installation known as CyanogenMod. It might not be around any longer but LineageOS is and it’s offering intrepid users Android 9 Pie on devices that are probably not going to be supported.
Ride-sharing services like Uber have made the drive home after a night out a safer experience but there is something that we could do without: surge pricing. A new ride-sharing service, called inDriver, that’s just launched in South Africa, reckons it might have the answer to that — haggling. More or less. inDriver, a service that was pioneered thanks to a reaction to surge pricing on Russian social media, offers something that it calls Real Time Deals or RTD. Basically, those looking for a ride will set their own price for a trip and drivers nearby will see that price.…
Yesterday we found that Vodacom intended to charge its users to roll over mobile data, something that was due to come into effect thanks to last year’s Icasa ruling. A lot can happen in 24 hours. Today Vodacom has issued an update stating that that data-rollover would be free-of-charge, though there still seem to be some terms and conditions attached.
We’re just marking the launch of the March 2019 issue of Stuff Magazine, our second edition for the year and one packed to the brim with all of the tech you really want to see. Already sold? Then grab your copy wherever magazines are sold, today.
