Author: Max Milella

It’s been a minute since we heard from Volocopter. We last checked what they’d been up to back in 2016, when the German company began testing its massive drones with human test pilots. Turns out it’s been working hard, and took its VoloDrone out for a public test drive yesterday to demonstrate its cargo transport potential. Drone small step https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvUz4LgAJWE If you haven’t heard of the VoloDrone, in a nutshell, it’s a gigantic drone. How gigantic? Well, it takes 18 rotors to get it off the ground, it has a maximum cargo capacity of 200 kilos and, with a cockpit…

We know South Park did a whole bit on this ages ago (circa 2015) but it really has become absolutely impossible to escape ads online. They rear their heads in just about every corner of the internet, and now they’ve discovered new territory to invade: Twitter replies.  Twitter ads to the conversation Twitter is pretty loaded with ads, to begin with. On a particularly good day for revenue, you’re likely to see an ad for every five posts you scroll through in your feed. Make no mistake, that’s no different from any other social media platform though. Welcome to e-capitalism, friends. According…

Privacy conscious Android smartphone users may want to consider switching to a new OS. A recent study from the UK has found that devices sporting the Google-owned OS are riddled with privacy issues, such as app usage tracking and telemetry info being sniffed out and sent off to third parties. And there’s no way to opt-out. Android auto-collection The researchers focused on a range of brands offering Android-powered devices: Realme, Samsung, Xiaomi, and certain Huawei gadgets that aren’t on HarmonyOS. Their findings are… troubling. According to the study, these devices collect a pretty substantial amount of sensitive user data, such…

Netflix has garnered significant internal backlash over the past week following the release of stand-up comic Dave Chappelle’s latest special, The Closer, specifically from its LGBTQIA+ employees, as well as trans activists and organisations like GLAAD. Several of them took to social media to slam the streaming service for hosting the special, with three employees attempting to access a directors meeting they were not invited to in protest. These employees were suspended, though one of them has been reinstated. Now, the trans employee resource group within the company is planning a walkout on 20 October to protest the special itself and…

After live-audio platform Clubhouse set the world on fire, every other social media service wanted to get in on the action. This included Facebook, which released its competitor, Live Audio rooms to American users back in June. Now it’s making the feature available worldwide. Additionally, Live Audio rooms can now be created in group chats. Previously, only creators and public figures could start their own rooms. A group room sounds a lot like a multi-person voice call to us, but we’re not complaining. Facebook for your ears The social media platform isn’t done there. It seems audio is the way…

In the modern world, an internet connection is pretty much mandatory, particularly while many of us are still working from home. Unfortunately, when load shedding strikes your router goes out along with your lights. This is where MiFi routers come in handy, providing internet access in your darkest hour. Naturally, you’ll need a SIM card to make use of these handy gadgets, so we’ve added some contracts with data included to our list. Hisense H220M Price from R100 p/m | mtn.co.za While this MTN-branded mobile router isn’t going to set your wireless world on fire, it’s an incredibly solid MiFi…

Just in case you’ve just come out of hibernation or are looking at a computer screen for the first time after living out in the woods for the last seven years, Facebook faced massive outages last week. Twice. Which also led to Instagram and WhatsApp going down. Now, the first half-hour of both outages saw a lot of people asking themselves, “Is something wrong here? Or is it just my electronics freaking out?”. That’s the normal reaction to not being able to get online, and it made it a little difficult to tell what was going on on Monday and…

VodaPay, Vodacom’s so-called “Super App”, is a unique digital shopping app with which users can pay for a variety of goods and, to some degree, manage their finances. It’s been in development for a while with a soft launch back in June aimed at devs and businesses. Now the app is live for all. Say hey to VodaPay VodaPay is, in essence, a digital wallet. Users can load their money into the wallet and transfer it to each other as they please, or use it to purchase from businesses that support the app, such as KFC, Clicks, Makro and Builders Warehouse.…

While we’re not going to go as far as to call all forms of social media harmful, we all know it doesn’t take much for online environments to become suitably toxic. Instagram has long been known as a potential catalyst for severe mental health problems, such as depression, owing to the falsified (or at least overblown) perfectionism depicted in people’s feeds. It’s easy to forget that users only show themselves and their lives at their best, and to start feeling insecure about their own circumstances. Now, parent company Facebook has come up with a foolproof plan to protect the mental…

If you’re a long-time Nintendo Switch owner, unless you’re incredibly lucky you’ve no doubt experienced the dreaded ‘Joy-Con drift’, a mechanical failure that causes ghost inputs when players aren’t using their joysticks. The results of which range from annoying and tedious to downright game-breaking. There are few things more annoying than a camera wildly spinning about every time you lift your thumb off the right joystick.  Nintendo has come under fire for Joy-Con drift since the Switch’s release back in 2017. The only real fix for most consumers is to buy new controllers, and those don’t come cheap. Unfortunately, it…