Author: Marcé

My gamertag is more useful than a business card. I write about the tech industry, hardware, software, games, and motoring.

Early each year we get new Samsung flagships, only to have Apple try to outdo them in the latter half of the year. Each company tries to leapfrog the other in terms of specifications and features in hopes not only of keeping the faithful, well, faithful but in the hopes of winning converts from the opposing camps. The main obstacle to switching from team Android to team iOS is the perceived hassle of doing so. But fear not, we’re here to help. Whether you’ve decided to abandon Apple’s walled garden for Samsung’s curved-edge displays and mastery of low-light photography, or…

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The Cambridge Analytica saga is getting very watered-down, and we’re sure that, if you wanted to delete your Facebook profile, that it has already been done. In typical Zuckerberg fashion, Mark has apologised, and Facebook has made some changes to the accessibility of privacy settings to give users more control of what they share. The social platform has reworked the privacy settings on the mobile app in an effort to put their users at ease by helping them share only the personal info they are comfortable with sharing. Or that’s the plan, at least. Privacy Shortcuts menuApparently the info about…

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Digital classrooms are becoming more and more prominent around the world — even right here in Mzanzi, and Apple is moving into this new market. The newly announced cheaper 9.7 inch iPad has been reworked specifically with education in mind. The infamous iPad will look exactly like its predecessors, but will pack a few new features, including Apple Pencil support and updated software that will equip young learners with the right tools for the modern classroom. Battery-life and performance are among the new upgrades, and we are excited to see if this “new” device can actually compete in the education…

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Huawei has unveiled its new flagship smartphones, the Huawei P20 and the P20 Pro, at a launch event in Paris, France today. The fanciest of the two, the P20 Pro, stands out thanks to its set of three rear cameras, compared to the two rear snappers on the regular P20. The company also showed off an updated Porsche Design edition of its Mate device, called the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS, which also boasts the triple-camera setup… though as we’ve yet to see the Porsche edition Mate 10, we don’t expect we’ll see the Mate RS in South Africa. But…

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Samsung Galaxy Note 9 could launch sooner than expected Reports have surfaced that Samsung’s busy testing firmware builds for the forthcoming Galaxy Note 9. That might not seem particularly exciting, but we respectfully disagree, because Samsung didn’t start testing firmware for the Galaxy Note 8 until early April last year. That’s only a couple of weeks difference, sure, but Galaxy S9 firmware testing also started two weeks earlier than Galaxy S8 firmware tests had started the previous year, and that meant the S9 was announced in February, rather than in March as with the S8. In other words, we’re hoping…

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Phone security is a necessary nuisance, like going to the dentist or doing tax returns. Biometric security solutions like fingerprint sensors, facial mapping and iris scanning can take the slog out of keeping our mobile devices locked down, but they’re only useful is they’re speedy and work every time. With the Galaxy S9/S9+, Samsung’s managed to work out the kinks in its biometric offerings, and now we can’t imagine life without them. With data breaches, security flaws are dodgy social media apps all putting our personal information at risk you’d think people would be more careful with their phones, given…

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It’s time to get the old LAN team together, dust off those mousepads and work on your smack-talk, because the second annual Rush eSports event is coming up and there isn’t much time to get your game-face on. We know gamers don’t need excuses for late-night “training sessions”, but now they have a legitimate one. The second annual instalment of Rush will take place from 29 June to 1 July 2018 at the Sandton Convention Centre, and is inviting “long-time gaming pro’s, regular CS:GO players, and anyone who’s interested in the world of competitive eSports,” to join in the fun.…

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The humour in knowing you quite possibly clicked through to this story from Facebook isn’t lost on us, but nevertheless, here we are with some tips on how to quit the social network, or at least limit how much of your data it gets to use. Much of this is good advice for navigating Facebook generally, but it’s particularly poignant in light of the ongoing Cambridge Analytica controversy. If you can’t walk away at least you can lock things down a little better. Of course, the first instinct many people have had in light of the recent news is to…

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Laptops are getting thinner and the users are getting… less thin? The handy portables are even getting more flexible, like Lenovo’s Yoga-devices. What exactly does that say about its users? Just kidding… we are sure you are plenty flexible. Lenovo has been leading the way in flexible devices, or rather laptops that double as tablets, and according to Julian Pienaar, Product Technologist at Lenovo South Africa, all portable PC’s shipped by 2020 will be flexible devices. Now they have launched three new Yoga-devices to join the gym later this year, along with two new gaming devices. Yes, you heard correctly,…

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Are you ready to build and shoot and build some more? From today you will be able to sign up to be in line for an invitation to the iOS Fortnite Battle Royale beta. Why would you want this invitation? Because Fortnite is changing the (literal) game of multiplayer dynamics. We have seen a massive surge in free-to-play online games like Paladins and Fortnite that are changing ideas around paying for quality gaming. Or ‘not paying’, if we’re being totally accurate. The focus specifically is on quality because these aren’t the free games like those found on demo discs back in…

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