Author: Tshepo Chauke

Venom: The Last Dance arrives in a quiet year for superheroes. Marvel and DC have chosen to take a breather in 2024 amidst dwindling box office returns. It was looking like this year would be Sony’s as the Big Two’s absence has left an open niche in the superhero movie market. For whatever reason, that hasn’t been the case. Following the release of Madame Web earlier this year, Sony delayed its subsequent releases for the year, opting to skip the lucrative but competitive summer blockbuster lineup. Then we got this film. Bromance under attack Venom: The Last Dance closes the…

The Checkers Sixty60 app’s new update comes with many new features set to make the platform even more appealing to South African consumers. Customers now have access to the wider Checkers Hyper range… with free delivery. With its R35 delivery fee that ensures groceries within an hour, Sixty60 is now an even more serious competitor to Amazon and Takealot. Gone in Sixty60 The update gives Sixty60 a visual refresh, featuring subtle layout and font adjustments to improve user experience. While the interface looks sleeker, some users might find the new “Discover” menu more cluttered compared to the “Search” function it…

YouTube is making changes to its mini-player. The minibar has been the standard mini-player since 2018, but now the classic picture-in-picture player is returning with a widescale rollout, with a few new trinkets to boot. Previously a desktop exclusive, the new PiP player is coming to Android devices worldwide. Speculations of its return have swirled since July, with Google’s announcement last week making it official. YouTube makes a PiP Most users can now access the new mini-player on the YouTube app by minimising the screen.  Instead of the classic minibar design, users will see a smaller window with a simple…

AI company Anthropic is dropping two new Claude updates and a Computer Use feature. Claude 3.5 Sonnet and its smaller sibling Claude 3.5 Haiku claim serious performance strides from the company’s update. Claude 3.5 Sonnet gets Computer Use and better performance. 3.5 Haiku matches the performance of Sonnet predecessor Claude 3 Opus, at a similar speed and cost to the previous Haiku model. If all of this is Greek to you, you obviously don’t code but that means you’re probably not going to let Anthropic’s AI agents take over your computer. That’s what Computer Use means, after all. Claude 3.5…

Jlab’s Epic Air Sport earbuds aren’t just for the active and sporty, though there’s plenty for them here, too. They bring a versatile feature set, packed into an IP66 rating to resist dust and big splashes. They’re great for active individuals who want a pair of sporty buds that are just as useful outside the gym. However some compromises in the sound mix might leave some audiophiles wanting a bit more. Making sport of it The Jlab Epic Air Sport earbuds look like standard sports earbuds. Their hook design means they never randomly lean out of place or fall off…

Apple is redoubling its efforts in the smart home market after lagging behind competitors like Amazon and Google. The company has dominated consumer electronics for decades, but it still struggles to be a staple in the realm of the car and the home. The company closed down its long-running car project and its current home devices have been hit and miss. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for its competitors. Amazon’s Echo has seen its momentum slow after a strong start. Other hardware releases like the company’s rolling robot, have also struggled. This leaves an opening for Apple, as the…

Meta continues to struggle in the post-Covid tech landscape as it seems the tech company wants to shake things up and shed some weight. After announcing a plan last year to shed 10,000 jobs for ‘efficiency’, the tech giant is restructuring its subsidiaries like WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and Reality Labs. Some employees will be laid off in the process. Meta analysis Last year CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared 2023 ‘a year of efficiency’, announcing a plan to cull about 10,000 jobs from their books. This followed Meta’s initial round of post-Covid mass layoffs in 2022, which saw 11,000 employees lose their…

16-year-old Shaylee van Oostrom will be at the 2024 rAge Expo with her debut manga Demon Force. Based in Kempton Park, Shaylee will be one of many brands and artists showcasing their work at the event, which takes place at the Johannesburg Expo Centre next month. Debuting Demon Force Demon Force follows a young boy who, alongside his friends, attends a school that trains and nurtures future heroes. However, his nefarious brother constantly interferes with his progress. Published by BK Publishing, van Oostrom worked with the company to develop into a fully-fledged manga artist. The two continue to work together to…

The newly announced Air 3s drone by DJI improves on its predecessor with better lowlight photography, nighttime obstacle avoidance software, and memory storage and transfer. Considering the Air 3 was already known to have great low-light sensitivity, this may be significant for fans of shooting at night or the twilights of sunrise and sunset. Airing it out The Air 3S has an improved 50-megapixel main camera, with a one-inch sensor and 24mm lens, as well as a 48-megapixel, with a 70mm (3x zoom) lens. Both cameras have up to 14 stops of dynamic range when shooting in auto (excluding slow…

Kia South Africa launched the Sonet LS this week, its latest and most importantly, cheapest, addition to the Sonet range. “The discontinuation of the Rio hatchback,” says CEO Paul Turnbull, “left many Kia customers with a great desire for a… spiritual successor priced under R300,000.” He wasn’t lying. The Sonet just falls short of the R300,000 by R5 – something Kia hopes to increase its presence in this corner of the crossover SUV market. The new and affordable Sonet LS “The new Sonet range has found significant favour amongst customers who are upgrading into the small SUV segment or who are…