Author: Marcé

As part of its annual review, First National Bank (FNB) announced it’s replacing its current Gold account with a new account called Aspire. Aspire clients will be able to pay their bank fees with eBucks and will gain access to a sleek new black bank card.  “This year, we are transforming our FNB Gold to FNB Aspire, with a monthly account fee that’s reduced from R109 to R99 for customers who earn between R180,000 and R450,000 per annum. The Aspire proposition offers exceptional value to individuals and families, including a 50% reduction in spousal monthly account fee and up to…

Don’t take too much time deciphering which lockdown level and which load shedding stage South Africa is currently in, we’ll help you out. Following Pres. Ramaphosa’s family meeting last night, South Africa currently stands in Level 2 lockdown. And as of 4PM on Monday, 31 May, the country is plunged into Stage 2 load shedding. Announced a mere two hours before the next stage of load shedding is slated to commence, Eskom published an official statement detailing why the country’s residents will face more outages during one of the country’s coldest days of the year so far. Eskom’s ‘high breakdowns’…

Today, Huawei’s former sub-brand Honor announced the availability of its brand new wearable, the Honor Band 6, in the UAE. Interestingly, Huawei’s gearing up to launch its very own Huawei Band 6 in South Africa next week, according to the local event invite.  Rise of the Band 6s The Honor Band 6 features a 1.47in AMOLED display — it’s reminiscent of the Huawei Watch Fit wearable launched last year. Of course, expect to see a wide range of health and fitness features, such as expected health monitoring and automatic exercise tracking. You’ll even get two-week battery life, and it’ll turn…

Last week we reported that streaming giant (and e-tailer) Amazon had its eye on famous Hollywood-era movie studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios (MGM). Now it’s been confirmed the company has paid $8.45 billion to acquire the studio. According to reports, Amazon’s had a keen interest in the studio since at least December, which means it has been in negotiations for a while. MGM Studios’ catalogue includes TV shows and films that are considered household names — like the iconic James Bond films. Amazon’s new arm This means Amazon Prime can build out its inventory to include titles like Bond, Legally…

It’s important to consider consumer technology little helpers, instead of heavyweight medical assistants. Of course, it’d be irresponsible to solely rely on a smartphone, a smartwatch or a smart scale to give medical advice, but these tools can be used in tandem with a medical professional to help track and treat a variety of chronic illnesses.  In June 2019, the World Health Organisation estimated that around 50 million people worldwide were diagnosed with epilepsy. It’s currently one of the most common neurological diseases that affect humans of all ages.  Meet Aimee and her chronic illness The same was true for…

It looks like Fitbit is taking a page from Apple and Samsung’s book, which means it’ll support USB-C charging following the Luxe device, slated for sometime in the next month. Strangely, details on an exact launch date for the Luxe are still scarce, but we’re guessing that’s what a COVID-related product launch schedule looks like.  Fitbit’s new standard The Luxe is also the first fitness tracker to launch under Google’s ownership, so it’ll be interesting to see whether the company tweaked the software to fit its own. But most interestingly, product images that have been found online clearly show that…

Huawei may announce its Harmony OS in June It’s been a second since we last heard about Huawei’s very own operating system: Harmony OS. Announced in 2019 following increased pressure from the Trump administration, Huawei planned to roll out its Android competitor. We just had no idea when it would happen. Until now.  New reports

Today, BMW Group’s Mini brand launched its Mini Sharing service pilot in the hub of Johannesburg: Sandton. Located at Black Brick, a community-focused living space, Mini Sharing will make five Mini Cooper SE electric vehicles available for use around the city. This means anyone in need of a vehicle for a day, can download the Mini Sharing app (available on Android and iOS) and book some time with South Africa’s cutest EV.  In 2020, we spent some time with the Cooper SE, and it came down to this: There aren’t many things in this world that can bring a human…

This is why we can’t have nice essential things. According to Eskom’s September 2020 interim reports hailing from the hard-lockdown era, a total of 3.513GWh’s worth of electricity was stolen from South Africa’s embattled power utility in just six months.  Following a few quick calculations, that equates to 3% of the total electricity consumed throughout that period. At R1.41 per kWh (cost per unit in areas where power theft is a problem), that accumulates to a whopping R4.95 billion — money that could have filled a small hole in Eskom’s production schedule.  Eskom vs the People’s electricity Of course, illegal…

The more the world asks for affordable, small electric vehicles, the more electric SUV’s are pushed out to market. Now, we’re excited to announce that there’s another option: an electric bakkie. Ford recently announced its first all-electric F150 ‘truck’ – the ‘truck of the future’ as Ford would have it – and we’re inclined to want one, along with almost all Americans.  The F150 hippie version It’s a smart move, considering the F150 is the most popular vehicle in the US, from a car manufacturer that’s vowed to incrementally increase the production of sustainable vehicles. The F-150 Lightning is one…