Author: Brett Venter

Whether you agree with hustle culture or not, it’s becoming more essential. Working for just one place… just doesn’t cut it, unless you’re a CEO or a tech billionaire. This means, in part, becoming your own boss. Part of that includes collecting what you’re owed. It’s fairly simple when you’re working with South African companies (sometimes). But when you’re working overseas, PayPal might just be your best friend. And that’s because it’s easy to sign up. It’s even easy to get paid — just give out the relevant email address and your employer can dump cash into your account. The…

Unless you’re taking an internet sabbatical, you’re aware that Disney+ is launching in South Africa from 18 May this year. There are already some pretty tempting specials on the way. The Mouse Company doubtless has a few other methods to try and grab your attention. One of those ways involves DStv. DStv parent Multichoice has announced that Disney’s new service will be available via DStv’s Explora decoder come 18 May. It seems that there’s some additional benefit to purchasing your Disney+ subscription this way. Disney+ a DStv subscription If you’re not opting to subscribe via Disney directly and are planning…

Vodacom is chucking aside its British roots to team up with a South African football team. The goal? To provide funeral cover to South African families. And maybe to drum up a little local support for the Orlando Pirates. The two South African entities are launching a product called Orlando Pirates Funeral Cover. The service is backed by Vodacom Life Assurance Company and is open to anyone (who downloads the Orlando Pirates Official App). Vodacom acts as a defender Cover starts from R60/m, but this scales based on how extensive you want your funeral cover. The group offers cover for…

South Africa’s petrol price is a little like democracy. All of the choices are awful, but you must pick something or it all comes to a grinding halt. Just recently the country saw a minor price increase that was kept from being horrendous by a temporary tax holiday. Now, according to the latest data from the Central Energy Fund, we can expect a little relief at the petrol pump in May. But only at the petrol pump. If you’re the sort who needs to stop at the diesel pump, you can expect a further increase instead. Because, just like in…

We’ll say this about Chinese tech company Huawei — it has no idea how to give up. There’s a new product showcase ahead for the brand, set to take place at the end of this month. The event isn’t local — yet. It’ll take place in China on 28 April, but rumour suggests that we’ll see at least some of the new tech launched here in South Africa. Other bits… are far less likely to turn up. Pity. Huawei ready? Information on Huawei’s event turned up in the form of a poster published by the company itself. The image, since…

Rather than targeting the ultra-fit, Garmin’s newest wearable is aimed at the everyday person. The Vivosmart 5 is the latest in its range of fitness bands. Unlike the company’s admittedly stellar lineup of sports watches, the Vivosmart 5 sticks to the basics. You know, basics like step tracking. Sleep scores. Heart rate. Stress tracking. Pulse oxygen. The general sort of thing for people who want to be fitter but don’t need VO2 Max updates on a regular basis. Perhaps the best thing about Garmin’s new fitness band? It lands in South Africa at less than R3,000. Vivosmart 5 is alive!…

Netflix has seen a drop in subscribers for the first time in about ten years. The company has lost some 200,000 subscribers, which isn’t very much in the grand scheme of things. But it’s enough to get the company worried, since it was predicting an increase in subs not very long ago. And when companies are worried, things change. Last month, Netflix said that it was looking at ways to clamp down on password sharing. It also, recently, said it didn’t have a massive amount of interest in an ad-supported tier. Well, guess what? Changes for Netflix The streaming service,…

And now for a Twitter story that doesn’t mention Elon Musk at all… ah, dammit. Okay, aside from that one time. Twitter’s most requested feature, almost since the dawn of time, has been an edit button. That’s because Twitter is fast and human brains are slow. Typos creep in. Sure, you can delete ’em and try again. You could also try and brazen it out, but when you’ve just used the hashtag #susanalbumparty, an edit button starts looking awfully attractive. Unfortunately, it’s attractive for other reasons. Post something super-popular, get loads of engagement, and then alter it into something horrendous?…

Samsung loves to place emphasis on its fans. This much is obvious from its presentations, as well as the phone lineup literally called the ‘Fan Edition’. The only thing missing is a serious crossover. But Nintendo and Pokémon are making that happen. Kinda. Technically. If you live in South Korea. Samsung is launching a new Pokémon Edition Galaxy Z Flip 3, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a branded version of the company’s folding smartphone, but in Ash Red (a colour we didn’t just completely make up). (Pokémon) go buy it if you can Inside, it’s a standard…

By now it should be no secret that Disney+ is launching in South Africa. 18 May is the date, according to the service and a wide range of roadside advertising, but the Mouse Company is feeling a little insecure. This might be why Disney+ is asking South Africans to pre-register for the service. A little like Samsung asking buyers to pre-order their pre-orders, the service is letting users “…register their interest to subscribe to Disney+ in South Africa”. Disney+ a discount The point, obviously, is so the service can gauge local interest ahead of launch day. There’s probably some honcho…