Author: Brett Venter

We’re all familiar with the concept of Happy Hour. The hazy trip to the bar, the battle to carry far too many drinks back to the group, the money still leftover in your wallet. Ah, those were the days. Well, Huawei has something similar heading in South African shoppers’ direction. It’s called ‘Lucky Hour’. The concept is broadly similar to the alcoholic counterpart. Purchase something from Huawei’s online store at a specific time of day and you’ll get a specific price. Now, this wouldn’t work if it was more expensive than usual. Instead, there’s a discount on offer. The only…

Meta really wants the metaverse to succeed. In fact, given the name change, it would be fair to say that it needs the metaverse to succeed. We’ve seen many examples of Mark Zuckerberg’s company pushing harder into the VR space. Now there’s another one — Project Cambria. Project Cambria is the code name given to Meta’s upcoming virtual reality headset. It’s expected in September this year. When it arrives (if it arrives), it’ll be fielding some high-end hardware. But that’s not where the project ends. More VR hardware, four headsets in all, are expected by the end of 2024. Unearthing…

Yeah, sure, May the Fourth is just Disney propaganda designed to get nerds talking about Star Wars. It’s free publicity for the Mouse Company, but it’s also a genuine phenomenon. Star Wars, the story of space magicians who battle using the Force, has been a big deal since 1977. So what if it was designed from the start to sell toys — that’s marketing done right. It’s done so right that we’ve compiled a list of games that you should buy today. Because, being May the Fourth, pretty much anything related to George Lucas’ space opera is on special. And,…

Space is hard. If it wasn’t, everyone would be doing it. Space is also expensive, which is why the major drive is towards rockets that can be used more than once. In order to do this, rockets must be recovered. Either you land them, as SpaceX does, or you can try and catch them. Rocket Lab, a private American company, attempted the latter over the weekend. But that comes back to ‘space is hard’. Landing rockets isn’t easy to do. Frequently it’s hilarious, you’re not the one watching millions of rands in engineering disappear in an orange fireball. Rocket Lab…

Now that all those lovely public holidays have finished, it’s the perfect time for load shedding to come back. Because the average person tends to be more upset when it’s cutting into their time than the boss’ time. Hence, you’re far less likely to cause physical harm to one of the politicians who allowed things to get this far. Caution: Load shedding ahead South Africa can expect the lights to go out starting from 17h00 this evening. Eskom said that Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented as a result of “…a shortage of generation capacity”. This is being blamed…

They make laptops for everything these days. If you’re editing video, there’s a specific machine. If you’re playing games, there are a host of options. And if you’re just after something within your price range, chances are you’re covered. Badly, but covered. And then there’s the office machine. Asus’ entry into this category is the ExpertBook B9, a visually understated notebook with a considerable amount tucked under the hood. The Asus ExpertBook B9400 might be a slightly older notebook, but it still has it where it counts. From its slim, light chassis to the good-enough 14in display to the 11th-gen…

Early next month Meta, the company that used to be called Facebook, is opening a new store. Unusually for the online-focused company, its very first Meta Store will be a physical place. One where shoppers can go inside and test out all manner of the tech designed to keep them as online as possible. The Meta Store will officially open on 9 May, at the company’s campus in Burlingame, California. Sarcasm aside, it’s not that different from the experience stores operated by everyone from Samsung to LG to Apple. That’s very… Meta Expect three main product lineups on showup. The…

There are many, many, many reasons you might want to stay inside, to borrow a term from Commandant Eric Lassard. It’s cold, or wet, or raining, or part of your usual route has fallen into a sinkhole. All of these are possibilities for South African cyclists. For the days when you just don’t wanna, cycling trainers make it possible for you to get the cardio in without needing to don your sunglasses. Maybe it’s just a way to trick your brain into thinking you’re playing a video game. Cycling trainers are, essentially, stationary bikes that operate in front of the…

Showmax, South Africa’s first home-grown streaming service, catches a little flack because it caps out at 720p. We’re still expecting a 4K announcement (any day now, guys), but in the meantime… the service has gone in the other direction. By which we mean there’s a new Max Data Saving mode available for its iOS app. The feature, which amounts to about 50MB of usage in an average hour, will launch on Android soon as well. The Showmax must go on There are already two different data-saving modes for Showmax’s app. There’s Low (300MB/hr) and Data Saving (100MB/hr), which use far…

A lot can change in three weeks. At the beginning of this month, Elon Musk was Twitter’s largest shareholder. A few days later, he was looking to take over the entire thing. This led to all sorts of worries and speculation, almost none of which has proved to be correct. So far. Today? Today, Elon Musk has succeeded in his bid to take over Twitter. The final sum for the platform is $44 billion, or a little short of R700 billion. That’s less than twice the amount of money Eskom owes to… everyone. Elon Musk wins? So what’s going to…