Author: Max Milella

It’s been all over the news recently that mining Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general, is a very energy-demanding task, to the detriment of that beaten-but-still-standing old horse we call the environment. Over the weekend, Elon Musk and several other “leading Bitcoin miners in North America” had formed a “Bitcoin Mining Council” dedicated to addressing the sustainability issues surrounding Bitcoin mining. Musk and Co(uncil) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1396914548167233537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1396915801492439044%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2021%2F5%2F24%2F22451900%2Felon-musk-bitcoin-miners-council-sustainability Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy CEO, tweeted yesterday that he was, “pleased to host a meeting between Elon Musk & the leading Bitcoin miners in North America”. He announced the forming of a Bitcoin Mining Council that would…

Telkom has published its year end 31 March 2021 financial results and, to no-one’s surprise, its mobile unit has continued to grow and has once again left its fixed-line business in the dust. Not only that, but its mobile subscriber base has now grown to over 15 million subscribers strong. Telkom’s take-home These results remain consistent with Telkom’s anticipated shift in revenue mix as it recognises that, “the probability of new revenue streams exceed legacy”. “Over the past five years, we have been investing in new revenue streams to evolve our business from a legacy to next-generation business. Today, next-generation…

When Twitch originally introduced its tag-system back in 2018, it only applied to content being streamed, not to streamers themselves. “We intentionally designed that system for creators to be able to describe what they were streaming, not who they were or what they stood for,” the live-streaming platform says. Now it’s backtracking on that, telling creators to “celebrate” themselves and their communities with over 350 new tags centred around their identities. Twitch tags to tell your story The slew of new tags covers a range of identity attributes, including race, gender, nationality, ability and disability, sexual orientation and more. The…

Audi has recently released a concept for a premium fast-charge hub for Audi EV drivers to charge their cars. Rather than charging directly from a city’s power grid, these hubs will have lithium-ion batteries that charge over night. Customers can charge up their cars from this bank, leaving the grid unaffected. The German manufacturer plans to bring the concept to reality later this year in (you guessed it) Germany. Audi EV charging: better, faster, stronger Audi already has a few EV’s on the market, with a slew incoming in the next few years. So it would follow that it wants…

Snap, widely known for Snapchat, is also known for its Spectacles line of high-tech glasses that wearers can use to take photos and videos, even in 3D. Its newest addition to the line seeks to go even further than that, with fully integrated augmented reality (AR) tech. Snap’s high-tech specs Alongside a demo showing a virtual butterfly flitting about the Spectacles’ displays, Snap explained how their new glasses work. The Spectacles’s frames are kitted with four microphones, a touchpad, and a pair of stereo speakers, along with a pair of front facing cams used to examine what you’re looking at…

Meet the Beosound Explore, the newest portable speaker from Bang and Olufsen. It may look a little tame considering the audio maker’s lineup of more extravagant (or abstract) designs, but make no mistake: this bad boy has some pretty impressive tech packed into it, the most exciting of which being the inclusion of the new standard for Bluetooth connections, Bluetooth 5.2 Explore anywhere with the Beosound Bluetooth 5.2 is partially responsible for the tiny speaker’s 27-hour battery life, says The Verge. It’s also significantly more efficient when it comes to transferring audio from your devices, so you can get more…

Spotify has announced a new virtual concert series, the first leg of which is set to run through May and June this year. You can buy tickets starting today, and the first line-up consists of Bleachers, Leon Bridges, girl in red, Rag’n’Bone Man and The Black Keys. Spotify rocks the (virtual) stadium The timing is a little weird if you ask us. With COVID-19 vaccine rollouts in many countries starting to pick up speed, in-person events don’t seem as outlandish as they did seven months ago when we were neck-deep in the pandemic with no breaks in sight. Spotify had…

Another year, another Google I/O event, and this one was a doozy. The company revealed a mad slew of announcements in the realms of software updates, new features, and even some cool AI developments. Google also took a moment to brag about how their are now 3 billion active Android devices all over the world, and we’re obliged to congratulate it for that. That’s no small feat. Anyway, here are the biggest announcements from I/O 2021. Google Photos Photos got a pair of pretty cool updates. The first is a “cinematic moments” feature that takes to images and turns them…

Food Lover’s Market wants to reward its loyal customers, so it’s launching a new campaign with some pretty super prizes. From now until mid-August this year, you can grab your favourite Marvel Hero’s mug on a mug by shopping at Food Lover’s Market. Get a Marvel mug on your marvellous mug The Marvel Super Hero Mug campaign, as it’s called, is “an extension of the drive to create a great shopping experience during these tough economic times”. Market managing executive Travis Coppin explains that “As we have seen with previous campaigns, rewards programmes are hugely popular with our shoppers and, with the…

A few weeks back, Apple revealed that it was ready to let the conservative-inclined social media platform Parler back onto its App Store shelves, but only if it abided by Apple’s content moderation policies. Now, having agreed to these terms, Parler is officially back on the app store. Parler returns Parler’s apparent mission statement is, “free speech for all”, pitching itself as the bastion for truly free discussion amidst a sea of social media outlets with what it sees as restrictive content moderation policies. Unfortunately, free speech on Parler kind of translates to: “say any controversial thing you’d like”. The…