Author: Max Milella

You can do a lot of stuff other than message your friends with WhatsApp these days. Renew your car licence, pay for some goods and even order yourself some fried chicken. Now, you can hail a ride with it, thanks to a collaboration with Uber. Need a ride? Send a WhatsApp. The feature is being first tested in India, in the city of Lucknow, which makes a lot of sense since that’s where WhatsApp’s biggest audience lies. Nearly half a billion people. With it, users will be able to book rides through a WhatsApp chat bot. The Meta-Uber partnership allows…

Social media platforms like TikTok and their biggest creators have a symbiotic relationship. Those millions of views top content creators pull in earn platforms a lot of money, so it’s in their best interests to create creator incentives to keep producing content.  TikTok has a handful of payout opportunities now, like its new tip-jar feature. The wildly successful platform has now decided to take creator monetisation to the next level with ‘Creator Next’, a hub with unlockable tools that “offer a variety of ways for the TikTok community to reward their favorite creators.” TikTok and its creators take their relationship…

And here we thought the Steam Deck was the only dark horse handheld competitor coming after the Switch. Now, thanks to a few leaks, it turns out Razer has one in the works too. And it’s making it with Qualcomm. A Razer sharp console These leaks come by way of VideoCardz, a reliable game-hardware news site. Alongside a few cheeky snaps, the site also gives us a look at some key specs and a working title for the console: a Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x and Razer Handheld Developer Kit. For a modern handheld built by Razer, the console certainly looks the…

Jack Dorsey only just stepped out of the office, and Twitter is already pumping out changes. The newest one goes towards its privacy policy, specifically regarding the publication of “private media”.  Until now, this policy has prohibited the publication of things like phone numbers, home addresses, and ID documents. This is typically referred to as ‘doxxing’. Now Twitter’s expanding that scope to include pictures of private individuals. Twitter-ing on the side of caution The amendment appears as follows on Twitter’s official blog:  “NEW: media of private individuals without the permission of the person(s) depicted.” In essence, this means that users…

We can add Panasonic to the list of companies that faced hacker attacks this year. The Japanese tech conglomerate has sent out a press release announcing that it experienced a data breach earlier this month. According to the release, Panasonic discovered that its internal network had been accessed by an unauthorised party on the 11th of November. A subsequent investigation found that the intruder had managed to access private data stored on one of the company’s servers. Panasonic pandemonium “After detecting the unauthorized access, the company immediately reported the incident to the relevant authorities and implemented security countermeasures, including steps…

As much as we’re moving back into some semblance of normality, the pandemic has had a pretty striking effect on our approach to work. Notably, the hybrid-work model seems more viable, and even attractive than ever before. Huawei, like many other tech brands, is well aware of this and has a new series of business-oriented laptops catering towards the new hybrid-work model: its MateBook B series.  From Huawei to B The MateBook B comes in 3 flavours: the B7-410, B3-520, and B3-420. Of these the B7 is the premier model, with the latter two being slightly less powerful but still plenty…

Acer has a pretty wide range of notebooks catering to everyone from gamers to designers  to students. Now it has a new demographic in sight: environmentalists. Sustainability is one of the hot-button issues for tech manufacturers these days, and the Aspire Vero appears to be Acer stepping into the ring. The Vero’s chassis and bezels are made of 30% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, which Acer says results in nearly 20% fewer carbon emissions in the construction process when compared to similar laptops. Additionally, the screen is apparently 99% recyclable, and the laptop’s packaging is entirely recyclable. It’s also refreshingly light.…

Xiaomi announced earlier this year that it plans on stepping into the electric vehicle arena, but the Chinese techmaker already has some pretty hefty ambitions. Or delusions of grandeur, depending on how you look at a glass of water. Regardless, Reuters reports that the company’s upcoming EV factory, which will be located in Beijing, should be able to produce 300,000 vehicles a year. Xiaomi oh my Chinese economic agency Beijing E-Town confirmed to Reuters that Xiaomi would be setting up shop in Beijing and should be pumping out EVs at 300,000 cars a year by 2024. Furthermore, Xiaomi will also plant…

It’s been a turbulent time for live sports, but by and large, things seem to have returned to some semblance of normalcy. Which is great, because the 2022 Fifa World Cup is now less than a year away, and MultiChoice wants to bring it to you in 4K. 4K kickabouts Barry Dubovsky, MultiChoice CEO, told TechCentral on Thursday that 4K streaming is on the horizon for DStv and Showmax Pro (Showmax’s premium subscription), and that while it can’t make any promises, it’s set on having that ready in time for the Qatar Fifa World Cup. “Going forward, though, absolutely, we are seeing…

Russia isn’t known for its progressive socio-political climate. The opposite is true, in fact. The Eastern European nation has an anti-“gay propaganda” law, and Reuters reports that it’s currently investigating streaming giant Netflix for breaking it. Russia-n to accusations The investigation comes following Olga Baranets’, the Russian public commissioner for protecting families (yes, that’s a thing), accusing Netflix of breaking the aforementioned law. The law was introduced in 2013, and specifically prohibits the transmission of “propaganda on non-traditional sexual relations” to Russian minors through programs labelled 16+. This, and Russia’s general stance on “non-traditional” (i.e. anything non-binary and non-heterosexual) has been…