Author: Brett Venter

Yesterday Telkom announced that it was handing the reigns for the TelkomONE streaming service over to the SABC. The service has been renamed SABC+ and is now a partnership between the public broadcaster and the Chinese brand Hisense. Initially, the name of the service was still vague and unconfirmed. Today, SABC+ is heading to Hisense’s VIDAA-powered smart TVs. In a bit of a kick in the nuts to Multichoice, the partnership will see 28 of this year’s FIFA World Cup matches broadcast on the platform. Unfortunately, we don’t know which games will be broadcast yet. SABC+ Football It’s not just…

At the end of 2020, the SABC and Telkom launched TelkomONE. This was a streaming service dedicated to letting the SABC claim a cut of streaming revenue in the form of TV licenses the SABC’s collection of content. We’ve heard relatively little about the service in the intervening months but now there’s finally some action. Of a sort. Telkom has announced that it is transferring TelkomONE as a whole over to the SABC. The country’s public broadcaster will surely do a magnificent job of improving on what is already a mediocre platform. Remember that TelkomONE? That previous statement might sound…

Asus has dropped its new Vivobook Pro 16x OLED onto a very crowded notebook market. It’s an excellent piece of hardware but it’s sadly marred by the fact that it’s the second time we’ve seen it this year. The previous model, which shares the exact same name, is a little slower and lacks a few features. But, by and large, it’s the same machine. The chassis design is almost completely identical. The lid is absolutely the same between both machines. Most of the differences require a closer look — the port arrangements are totally different, for example. But you don’t…

Robotics company Boston Dynamics is suing military robotics company Ghost Robotics over the design of Ghost’s robotic quadrupeds. The suit, according to Robot Report, claims that Ghost has infringed on seven different patents applicable to the Spot robot dog. Specifically, Ghost’s Vision 60 and Spirit 40 units infringe on Boston’s technology, according to the suit. The infringed capabilities include how the robots navigate stairs and gait interruption, among other abilities. Boston Dynamics sees a Ghost Boston, when queried, replied with a boilerplate “We don’t comment on ongoing litigation” statement but its motivation for the suit is even less clear. The…

Everyone knows that one guy or girl who doesn’t pay for Netflix but racks up massive viewing hours. A bit like that houseguest on your couch who won’t leave, these users tend to be hard to shift. Well, the streaming platform is giving users the ability to give them the boot. The new feature is one that has taken its sweet time coming. Netflix calls it Manage Access and Devices because it… lets you manage access and devices on an account. No more Netflix for you Using the feature is as easy as clicking over to the relevant menu (Manage…

NFTs or non-fungible tokens were super popular for a while there. That interest has taken a dive since November 2021, which means it’s the perfect time for fitness brand Nike to launch its own take*. .SWOOSH is the name of the company’s new web3 platform. It’s entered a beta, ready for rollout at a future date. The name for the platform is taken from Nike’s iconic emblem, known as the swoosh. Or, more likely, the swoosh™. This new venture uses all those lovely crypto-themed buzzwords like ‘blockchain’ and ‘web3’ and ‘please invest in this’. A .SWOOSH in the hand Nike’s…

Australia, in the face of increasing ransomware attacks, is considering making it illegal to pay off those behind these attacks. The country’s largest health insurer and its second-largest telecoms company have, in recent months, had their data locked up. That’s not the whole list, of course. Several other entities have suffered ransomware breaches recently. Ransomware, in case you missed the introductory classes, is when an outside party breaks into a system, encrypts it and demands money to give the data back. When it’s done to an individual user, as it was initially, it’s often possible to suck up the loss…

Samsung South Africa is bringing two new TV technologies to South Africa in the next few months. First up is QD-OLED, followed by new MicroLED screens that will puncture and drain all but the most well-padded of wallets. Both are a little late to the party but that doesn’t mean we weren’t expecting them to turn up. At the very least, an invitation has been open ever since both were announced. QD-OLED – Quantumania Samsung took the wraps off a new screen technology called QD-OLED at the end of 2021. A combination of its quantum dot technology and more traditional…

German auto brand VW has all sorts of high-tech ideas. NFTs and EV battery recycling are just two of these, but the folks at VW Norway are either really smart or really bored. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Norway has unveiled an EV of a completely different sort. It’s really compact, has limited range, and only moves at 20km/h. That would be awful if it was an actual car but it’s an office chair. Office chairs usually don’t move at 20km/h unless their owner was just fired and the chair was lobbed out of a high-rise window in frustration. VW moves…

Earlier this month, social media company Meta announced widespread layoffs. Some 13% of the company’s workforce will soon be looking for work. Those folks have to come from somewhere. It seems like Portal and the rest of Meta’s hardware division are taking the knock. A brief report from Reuters says that Meta is slamming the brakes on its hardware divisions. At the moment it appears that VR is safe — because of its metaverse utility — but everyone else… well… Portal to nowhere Portal, if your memory is a little short, was a lineup of smart displays. They were primarily…