Author: Marcé

It was just a matter of time. Earlier this year, Australian publishers made a big noise about Google and Facebook acting as news aggregators and publishers, but not paying the journalists that create the content they use. Thus the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code was born.  Meet the publishers taking on big tech A few key South African publishing houses have established an industry association called Publisher Support Services (PSS). It plans to go the same route as the Australian government, and drag Google and Meta to the Competition Commission.  Made up of representatives from Media24, Arena…

Vehicle designers across a variety of luxury car brands have all had very diverse ideas of what the car of the future should look like. Generally, they include a lot of chrome, overly large wheel arches and interior straight out of The Jetsons.  Meet the BMW Concept XM  BMW’s vibing with Tesla if its latest hybrid concept is considered — the Concept XM is a production model SUV, and the second standalone M-model the brand’s ever made. And it’ll make it to market in 2022.  Its angled exterior reminds us of the controversial Cybertruck bakkie announced by Elon Musk back…

In 2020, Oppo made the bold decision to launch in South Africa during the pandemic. This meant it staggered bringing its devices into the market. Most of these devices have been budget-to-mid-range — and continuing that trend, we’ve now got the Oppo A54s to look forward to.  The budget slab comes in at just R5,000, and it’s complete with decent specs crammed into a good-looking glass sandwich.  Oppo don’t stoppo It’s powered by the MediaTek Helio G35 chipset, backed up by 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (with an SD slot for further expansion) — it should perform decently…

Earlier this year, Twitter tested the ability to downvote comments with a small pool of users on iOS. We’re guessing the test went well because new rumours suggest that the feature may come to the platform soon. In addition to Reddit-like downvotes, users may also get Facebook-like reactions on tweets. If these rumours are true, of course. A tipster known for reverse-engineering apps and software, @nima_owji found hints in Twitter’s code suggesting that the reaction and downvote features are close to launch. No, this doesn’t mean they’re available, and users shouldn’t see the features in the app yet. But if…

The world’s most affordable phone is here, and there is a long list of reasons to get one if you’re into this type of thing. Samsung’s latest lineup of foldables, the Flip 3 and Fold 3 replaces its Note range of devices, in theory. And it makes sense — this is the new era of productivity powerhouses.  That’s especially true for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 — which we already reviewed here — and it improves on its predecessor to the best of its ability. The Flip 3 does the same and allows for a phone format that we appreciated…

Last night Huawei South Africa announced that the company’s latest midranger, the Nova 9, will make its way to the country at a retail price of R13,000. The Nova 9 has been available in China and other select territories for some time. It’s also the fourth device in the Nova lineup to launch here in just four months.  You know Nova The Nova 8 launched back in August, followed by the lower-budget Nova 8i and Nova Y60 devices. The Nova 9 is technically the successor of the Nova 8 (which  we reviewed here), and features similar specs. Slightly better, of…

Stickers are nothing new. Back in the 90s, children kept ‘em in dedicated sticker books. Now they’re more… digital. And WhatsApp’s rolling out the ability to make your own personalised stickers on its web application.  Three years ago the Meta-owned messaging platform introduced the ability to create personalised stickers via its iOS and Android apps. The feature’s never been available on desktop, however, even though it did gain third-party sticker support a year ago.  Want to swap stickers? WhatsApp’s built-in Sticker Maker allows users to turn ordinary images into stickers that you can use to fill up your friend and…

About a month ago, Honor confirmed its latest handset, the 50, would make its way to a few target countries, including South Africa. The handset launched in China earlier this year ahead of its global tour. South Africans will now be able to get their hands on the mid-ranger for R14,000. The 50 is one of the first devices to launch in the country with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G chipset. We’ll soon see Honor’s ex-parent company’s latest device, the Nova 9, launch with the same chipset. Honor wins this time. Know where else Honor wins? Its devices land with full Google…

Just two months ago, Chery, the Chinese car manufacturer established its presence in South Africa (again). This meant the company was readying the launch of its lineup of vehicles in the country, and it’s starting today with the compact SUV Tiggo 4 Pro.  It’s not often that a vehicle ports a ‘Pro’ in its moniker, so we have high hopes for this one. Looking purely at the spec, the Tiggo looks like a real contender in the compact segment — a very popular one in SA. We’re interested in some time in a review unit before we can make a…

Ever felt the need to chat with Pick n Pay for whatever reason? Neither have we. Nevertheless, the local grocery retailer has partnered with Clickatell to launch a customer chat feature on WhatsApp. And no, you can’t buy milk over WhatsApp (yet).  The feature will allow the retailer’s Smart Shopper cardholders to check their loyalty points balance, block lost or stolen card,s and replace the physical card. In addition, anyone will have access to the portal via WhatsApp — there they’ll also find catalogues, COVID-19 FAQs, a store locator and the ability to enter competitions.  “[R]etail is leading the way…