Author: Trent Meikle

In the build-up to 4 December, the Central Energy Fund (CEF) has published yet another fuel price predictive snapshot, encompassing the country’s various petrol, diesel, and paraffin prices. It’s worth noting that the CEF’s figures (captured below) are not official and should be digested accordingly. However, the CEF’s figures still offer the most accurate representation of the ever-changing fuel prices, providing daily updates to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), the official decider of fuel price adjustments. According to the latest snapshot (captured 18 November), diesel drivers will bear the brunt of the price hike, while petrol drivers might…

Instagram’s algorithm is the definition of a mixed bag. True, it does a decent job in the Reels department, and we might even chuckle after a few minutes on the Home page, but the Explore page is truly a travesty. For something algorithmic, it does a terrible job of picking up our interests and displaying relevant content. Instagram knows it, too. That’s why it has developed what it calls a “Recommendations Reset” or “Fresh Start”. Insta gratification Instagram describes the feature as being a boon to its renewed interest in protecting teens, citing its desire for everyone to enjoy “safe,…

We’re getting that Bloodborne remaster, one way or another. Yesterday, that sentence would’ve been construed as nothing more than speculation and idle dreams. Today, it holds a little more weight after rumours came to light that Sony was interested in acquiring “media powerhouse” Kadokawa Corporation, owner of From Software. Those stem from Reuters which reports that the PlayStation-owner is currently in talks with Kadokawa, according to two people familiar with the matter. Reuters doesn’t mention who those two people might be, though Sony declining to comment on the story didn’t help matters, and only added to the story’s validity. 2 Blood 2 Borne? From Software,…

We’re a little less than a month away from Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards, and the nominees are officially in. Announced last night on YouTube in a live stream, Stuff’s personal pick for GOTY – Astro Bot – earned itself a coveted spot among some very big picks this year, all deserving of your praise and attention. And Elden Ring. That’s right, Elden Ring, the 2022 action RPG adventure cultivated by the madlads at From Software that nabbed itself the big award back in 2022 (not without controversy) is eligible to win Game of the Year again. That’s all down to the release of the Shadow of the…

We won’t pretend that Vivo’s V30 so-called ‘flagship’ didn’t leave a bad taste in our mouths. It was an overly expensive piece of tech that slapped a few LEDs on the rear before calling it a day. We knew that for Vivo to truly win us back, it would need to dazzle, and dazzle us it has. Vivo will officially bring its latest flagship – the X200 Series – to South Africa, being one of the first smartphones to debut the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 SoC. That’s a big deal, even if all you see are a couple of numbers changing…

Jake Paul 1, Netflix 0 What a weekend. Never have we seen the human race so aligned against one common enemy: Jake Paul. On Saturday, Netflix hogged more than 60 million pairs of eyes worldwide, thanks to the streamer’s most ambitious event ever – a boxing bout between a true legend of the game, Mike Tyson, and… a 27-year-old former Disney Channel star. It went just as you’d expect a fight at your local nursing home to go, except that the participants in this case each walked away with an extra $20 million in their back pockets. If only we,…

Walking into Gladiator II with high hopes for an entertaining sequel that could somehow match, or even top that of Russell Crowe’s legacy in the original film was never going to be a good idea. Fortunately, after the shambles that was Napoleon, we adjusted our expectations accordingly. Thank goodness. Gladiator II ultimately presents itself as a slightly too-long popcorn flick with enough gravity and action to entertain throughout the 2hr30m runtime. Denzel Washington shines bright among a sea of mediocrity, while David Scarpa’s script proves once and for all that he doesn’t belong at the forefront of a Ridley Scott epic, for lack…

Have you ever wanted to ask questions about the Earth, with no judgment? Moreover, would you rather get those answers from an actual, verifiable scientist, or some hallucinatory AI-powered chatbot? The latter, obviously. Earth Copilot, built using Microsoft’s AI tech and NASA’s, uh, knowledge, in a new partnership, does just that. Down to Earth AI https://youtu.be/YJs6kU4BtR4 As handy as an on-call scientist would be, it just isn’t feasible, even if NASA weren’t operating on over 100 petabytes of data. Instead, NASA will incorporate Microsoft’s AI into its data repository, supplying all the geospatial data necessary. But as NASA mentions in…

Remember Threads? Meta’s overly ambitious retort to Twitter X? No? Well, it won’t be picking up many more users once it eventually weaves ads into the mix – set to debut in early 2025 according to a report from The Information (via The Verge). Losing the thread What was once one of the very few redeeming qualities of the platform is going away soon. We’ve known this much for months since Instagram head, Adam Mosseri confirmed in a Thread that “We definitely plan to bring ads to Threads,” in April. It was more a question of when our (the royal ‘our’)…

Medical aid, we can all agree, is a necessary evil (except perhaps for the folks working in the industry and even then…). It’s a malicious system that prices itself out of reach from most, and profits off the few. Discovery Health wants to change the narrative with the launch of ‘Active Smart’ – its most “affordable” scheme to date. Sure, affordability is subjective, but Discovery’s planned entry fee of R1,350/m certainly is an attractive offering, even if you aren’t familiar with the offerings. Aimed at “young professionals” and “new entrants”, the Active Smart tier “delivers a tailored solution, meeting these…