Author: Tshepo Chauke

Hisense South Africa has unveiled its locally manufactured CanvasTV. The product is manufactured at Hisense SA’s Atlantis, Western Cape facilities. It’s notable because, when the CanvasTV is idled, it detects a viewer’s presence and displays art pieces without a backlight, allowing it to double as furniture and decor. Where have we seen that before? CanvasTV goes hard in the paint The CanvasTV’s Art Mode is the model’s calling card, transforming the device into digital artwork, similar to the Samsung Frame’s Ambient Mode. Combined with Dolby Vision and an anti-glare Hi-Matte display, Art Mode is not made to just be a…

Centurion-based creative arts academy Open Window is partnering with Sony to work with the Korean company’s Burano cameras. The initiative is facilitated by digital broadcasting equipment provider Visual Impact and hopes to make a notable contribution to the South African film industry with better talent coming out of art and film schools. Sony Opens Window of opportunity Open Window was founded in 1993 as a basic art school but has since expanded into digital arts and technologies. The institution offers courses in film, design, photography, animation, and game development. It has partnered with Sony to train its students using its…

Meta is expanding the scope of its Instagram Teen Accounts experience to Facebook and Messenger. Meta says the new Teen Accounts will begin rolling out in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, with expansion to the rest of the world coming soon. It’s not exactly clear when ‘soon’ will be, as the social media company only states that it intends to “make these updates available in the next couple of months.” Meta for kids (yikes) The new restrictions to the program include further protections to Instagram Live and DMs. Teens under sixteen must get permission from their parents to go…

South African distributor Enviro Automotive Group is announcing the arrival of the Riddara RD6 double cab electric bakkie. It will be the second fully electric bakkie available locally following the launch of the Maxus T90 in 2023. What is a ‘Riddara’? Riddara is a subsidiary of Chinese automaker Geely, and the RD6 signals its return to the South African market after exiting the country about a decade ago. The new electric bakkie will be offered in 4×2 and 4×4 configurations, with the former incorporating a single electric motor mounted to its rear axle offering 200kW and 384Nm of peak power…

MTN looks to muscle in on Showmax’s territory with its announcement of plans to launch a streaming service for its African customer base. The company announced the project recently, only sharing its collaboration with a European software firm, emphasising its intention to provide diverse and localised content for its wide-ranging audience across the continent. MTN’s revenue stream The service will be built with European cloud-based broadcasting company Synamedia, which will develop the software infrastructure. MTN also says the service will have a “diverse monetisation model,” entailing tiers like subscriptions, ad-supported content, and free streaming channels with targeted advertising. Beyond that,…

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD Auto SA is introducing three new vehicles to the local market. The Shark 6 and Sealion 6 and 7 are big cars – the former a bakkie (BYD’s first in the country), the latter are SUVs – representing a further expansion into SA for the brand. The new vehicles join the ATTO 3 launched in 2023 and the Dolphin hatchback and Seal sedan launched in 2024. “We are thrilled to introduce the BYD Shark, SEALION 6, and SEALION 7 to South Africa,” said Steve Chang, Managing Director of BYD Auto SA. “These vehicles reflect…

Amazon has unveiled an advanced AI agent that automatically completes tasks on users’ behalf. Nova Act is the retail company’s newest addition to its Nova suite of AI models and follows the implementation of an AI-powered product tracker. Catch you in the Act Nova Act is Amazon’s Artificial General Intelligence Labs’s first product. The company says its “dream is for agents to perform wide-ranging, complex, multi-step tasks like organizing a wedding or handling complex IT tasks to increase business productivity.” Act works for both consumers and developers and does most of its heavy lifting through an ability to break down…

Top-tier soccer leagues like England’s Premier League and Spain’s LaLiga are rapidly integrating big data and AI-driven technologies to enhance decision-making, fan engagement, and global reach. From automated offside calls to real-time analytics, these innovations are reshaping the sport. VAR gets help Starting 12 April, the English Premier League will introduce semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), reportedly cutting decision times by 30 seconds. The technology debuted at the 2022 World Cup and uses sensors from up to 30 tracking cameras on a stadium’s roof, pinpointing player positions and generating 3D offside animations for fans. SAOT mainly aims to speed up reviews…

Big news for Comic Con Africa, as this year’s edition has been brought forward by a month. Organisers of the event say it’s because of an upcoming international event that has yet to be announced. The unnamed event, along with extensive renovations to the Joburg Expo Centre, mean this year’s con will be held in August instead of the usual September timeslot. Comic Con Africa 2025 is happening sooner This international event (any guesses?) will necessitate renovations that will take considerable time, leaving the Comic Con Africa organisers with no choice but to bring the con forward by a month,…

City of Joburg officials celebrated the culmination of a free WiFi project rollout across all Rea Vaya stations in the city. The project was completed by the Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC) and is a move towards Joburg revamping its digital culture. Take this development with a healthy grain of salt, of course, since the Rea Vaya project remains financially precarious and has previously lost internet access on all stations. Rea Vaya logs back in MTC says it plans to track network performance and user feedback in a bid to ensure the project’s success. All 35 of Rea Vaya’s BRT stations…