Author: Stuff writer

Sometimes you shouldn’t share the same content with your group of friends your family group, and your workgroup. It’s always tough explaining your festive pictures to your colleagues when you get back in January or justifying other posts to your grandparents and aunts over the festive season. Instagram hopes to make (some of) those conversations a thing of the past. More on that in a moment, however. This week, Meta-owned Instagram introduced Notes – which let users post short 60-character notes that use only text and emojis. “To leave a note, go to the top of your inbox, select the…

The 2Africa subsea cable that’s expected to boost Africa’s connectivity has finally arrived in Cape Town, South Africa. Once laid out around Africa, the spun-out 45 000km cable will connect the western and eastern parts of Africa. It’s expected that the project will officially go live in 2023.  The high-tech cable is designed to have 180Tbit/s capacity on “key parts of the system”. MTN says it’s expected to deliver reliable internet capacity and improved internet performance across Africa. A brand new wave of connectivity has landed! MTN GlobalConnect, in partnership with 2Africa consortium, has landed a 45 000km 2Africa subsea…

Get ready to go head-to-head with the best basketball players in the world when the National Basketball Association (NBA) launches the official All World augmented reality (AR) mobile game in 2023. The AR game launch follows a partnership between the NBA, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), and American software development company Niantic in June this year. Niantic is the developer behind AR titles Pokemon Go and Pikmin Bloom. The officially-licensed game will be available free-to-play on Android and OS devices on 24 January next year. Check up. ⛹️🙌 01.24.2023#NBAAW pic.twitter.com/I7Cy3giz5Q — NBA All-World (@nbaallworld) December 12, 2022 Gamers will…

If you live in South Africa, owning a car with high-end security features doesn’t make you you immune to theft. In Mzansi, festive season travel can easily turn sour as criminals also prepare for their festive season by stealing your car. In fact, a local automotive intelligence says criminal syndicates are using “sophisticated technology to target high-end and luxury vehicles featuring keyless or smart entry systems and emergency start capabilities”. If you’re traveling this festive season, or just driving out to buy some milk or festive treats, look out for these vehicle theft trends that could leave you walking into…

Some of us are slowly starting to forget our passwords. We’re not sure if it’s the festive season kicking in or if we just have too many passwords to remember. It’s probably the latter. If you’re on Google, and many other apps, you’ll hopefully not have to remember your passwords by the time January arrives and you log back into reality. Google has finally made passkeys available for Chrome users after testing them since October. Passkey-secured logins can be used instead of passwords on desktop and mobile devices that run Android, macOS, and Windows 11. Read More: FIDO says it’s…

In another installment of news involving Twitter and the sum you might have to pay for its services, Twitter Blue subscribers using iPhones are set to pay more than others for the premium service. Rapid, unpredictable changes at Twitter have become the norm since the platform’s acquisition by Elon Musk in October of this year. This is just the latest installment. Apple iPhone users may have to pay R190 ($11) per month for a Twitter Blue subscription while those on web and Android pay just R120 ($7) per month. The higher price is to accommodate the 30% cut that Apple…

Meta has finally given WhatsApp users realistic avatars that can be used as profile pictures or stickers.  “Your avatar is a digital version of you that can be created from billions of combinations of diverse hairstyles, facial features, and outfits,” said Meta in a post on Wednesday. Users are also able to customize them by adding details including race, skin tone, clothes, and accessories. The introduction of avatars is long overdue on WhatsApp. Other social media platforms, including WhatsApp competitor Telegram, and Meta-owned social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, have had a range of stickers to choose from ages. Meta…

Adobe is finally allowing artists to conditionally submit and sell AI-generated images on Adobe Stock, according to a report by Axios. Despite resistance from parts of the online art industry, Adobe has joined Shutterstock’s recent acceptance of AI-generated content. Artificial Adobe Despite resistance from multiple industries ranging from science to art, artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t going away. In fact, it’ll only become more entrenched in our lives. The sooner we accept the fact, the sooner we can all start enjoying its benefits and finding ways to regulate it. To avoid copyright issues and other ethical complications, Adobe lists a set…

You no longer need to disclose your phone number on Telegram in order to chat on the messaging platform. This is great news if you’re on chat groups and don’t want to share your phone number with the rest of the group. No more “Hi, I got your number from the group” messages from those contacts who eventually end up contacting you outside the group. Telegram this week announced that it’s dropping the SIM card and phone number requirement restriction primarily used for verification. To date, users on Telegram and WhatsApp required a phone number to sign into the platform…

You may claim to simply look ‘younger’ or that you’re using a filter to shave a few years off your face, but that probably won’t help you much if you’re trying to date on Facebook. The social network’s latest announcement has made sure of that. “We’re bringing our age verification tools to Facebook Dating to verify that only adults are using the service, and to continue our efforts in preventing minors from accessing it,” announced Facebook on Monday. Starting on Monday this week, the Meta-owned platform will use an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to ensure that only those 18 years…