Author: Stuff writer

Instagram, which used to be photography heaven, is increasingly switching focus to Reels which are basically TikTok videos with additional filters. The Meta-owned platform announced this week that it’s adding features to inspire creators and also help them to manage the content on Instagram Reels. It’s only a matter of time before most social media platforms morph into the same thing with only the branding separating the lot. Now that TikTok has most of us addicted to endless hours of flicking, expect multiple venues where that’s possible. Platforms are adding more features to entice content creators. Instagram is just the…

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging services are calling on the UK government to reconsider parts of the Online Safety Bill (OSB) that will give it the right to snoop into private chats on their platforms. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? That’s because governments around the world are hungry for your personal information. Most have opted to use the law to their advantage. The UK government wants the right to force tech companies to grant it access to messages that are protected by end-to-end encryption. This ensures that messages between people chatting on the platforms are not intercepted by…

As a country, South Africans have become accustomed to strange things happening under the cover of darkness. Just when we were getting used to the relief of lower load-shedding stages, Eskom sent the country into darkness with Stage 6 shedding over the weekend. In the latest instalment of strange things happening in South Africa, power utility Eskom opted to send out Stage 6 load-shedding alerts despite the country facing an effective Stage 8. Over 7,000 MW of electricity was cut from the grid on Thursday last week. What’s the deal, Eskom? Energy experts have accused Eskom of misinforming the country…

Content creators on Twitter will finally get a cut of the money that the social media platform makes from their work, but there’s a catch (or so it seems). The platform’s ‘Chief Twit’, Elon Musk, says creators can cash in on content ranging “from long-form text to hours-long video”. Naturally, Musk made the announcement on Thursday in a tweet. Twitter is trying to be supportive For the next 12 months, Twitter will keep none of the money. You will receive whatever money we receive, so that’s 70% for subscriptions on iOS & Android (they charge 30%) and ~92% on web (could…

Very few people have the time or energy (or ability) to diligently remember separate usernames and passwords for each of their accounts on each device. Thankfully, Fitbit owners will soon have one less account to worry about. This week, Google reiterated its intent to phase out Fitbit accounts in favour of using a Google account with the fitness devices. If this is the first you’re hearing about this, your Fitbit account isn’t going away just yet. It’ll still work for at least another year or two. “You aren’t required to move to a Google Account immediately but will need to…

Humanity collectively had its first out-of-this-world experience and ventured into space to explore the universe beyond Earth 62 years ago today, on 12 April 1961. The world commemorates International Day of Human Space Flight on 12 April, a day when Soviet pilot and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel to space when he orbited Earth. This historical event opened a world of possibilities and opportunities for humankind. Many remember astronaut Neil Armstrong’s famous “One small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind” quote from just 20 years ago when he landed on the moon, but few…

Video-sharing and social media platform YouTube is adding new features, but they aren’t for everyone. The new features are for premium members paying for a less disruptive experience on the platform. The rest of the world (those doesn’t pay for Premium) will have to continue enduring the constant irritation of ads and miss out on the new features. YouTube Premium has 80 million subscribers. Currently, subscribers pay for features like ad-free listening across devices, offline viewing and listening, and background play which keeps your video playing while you’re using other apps or your screen is off. Crispier YouTube videos, anyone?…

On Tuesday morning, Elon Musk simply tweeted “X”, a subtle announcement of significant business changes for the parent company of the social media platform he bought last year. Twitter, Inc., the parent company of the social media platform with a similar name, has been absorbed into Elon Musk’s ‘X Corp’. Not to be confused with ‘X-Corp Business Solutions’, a local information and communication technologies company that sells printers and office phones (among other things). Say goodbye to Twitter, Inc. Details of the merge, first spotted by Slate, were revealed in court papers dated 4 April 2023 in a case involving…

Why pay for it when you can get most of it for free? It seems most users on Twitter don’t see much value in paying for Twitter Blue, the subscription-based service that comes with a verification badge that now seems to be losing value and credibility. This follows Twitter owner Elon Musk’s announcement that starting in April this year, only people on Twitter Blue would get the verification checkmark that was previously reserved for the authentication of public figures. 2.6 million people visited Twitter Blue’s sales page in March this year, but only 116,000 of these users subscribed to the…

Messaging platform WhatsApp now has a feature designed for work-centered conversations to keep teams in check and in the loop about their tasks. The platform teamed up with Any.do, a task management platform, to create WhatsApp for Teams. The new feature enables those working in a team remain updated about their tasks and to chat about these using WhatsApp. You know, instead of sending an email. WhatsApp with that WhatsApp for Teams, which is linked to Any.do, allows users working on the same tasks to quickly create and assign tasks on the platform. It sends reminders to team members as…