Author: Trent Meikle

You’ve probably heard of Teenage Engineering before. If it isn’t selling music tech, then it’s selling PC cases that charge you more for the privilege of building it yourself. This time it’s sticking to music with the release of the PO-80 Record Factory which, as the name suggests, lets you cut and play your own vinyl jams. As long as the “jams” you’re creating sound nothing like this, we’re all good. We have a vinyl cutter at home: As is common with Teenage Engineering, the Record Factory is designed to be built at home. Once it’s assembled, you’ll be engraving…

Like every social media before it, Twitter is adding its own version of TikTok’s infinite video feed. Because why not? The app’s explore page is making some changes too, showing users “some of the most popular videos being shared on Twitter.” You are not special Twitter describes the TikTok-like feature as an “immersive media viewer”, a fancier way of saying it wants in on TikTok’s market. Tapping on any video in your feed will make it full screen. Scroll down and you’ll “start browsing more engaging video content.” iOS will be the first to get the new video feed. Twitter…

We’re nearing the end of September, which means a couple of things; October’s official petrol prices are around the corner, and FNB is extending its R2/l petrol promotion. Overall, it’s shaping up to be a pretty good month where petrol is concerned. Well, maybe not so great for diesel, according to the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) stats, captured on 28 September. Are you a tank half full or tank half empty kind of person? As always, you can’t take these numbers as fact. The CEF’s predictive numbers are based on the current price of oil, and the current Rand/Dollar exchange.…

After announcing the end of its eBucks petrol promotion last month, FNB has confirmed that the promotion will continue to run until the end of December. And it’s thrown a couple more promotions in too. FNB felt that with the ever-rising fuel and petrol costs, it would continue its promotions to help us through these tough times because they are lasting. Not yet gone and never forgotten Customers that qualify for eBucks will continue to earn R2/l in eBucks at any Engen stations around the country. This doesn’t just happen automatically – there are a couple of steps to follow.…

You may want to sit down for this. What we’re about to say might shock you. Are you sitting? Good. Eskom confirmed yesterday that Stage 4 would stick around for a while longer, due to a lack of diesel. Are you shocked? So are we. Not because Eskom is keeping load shedding around. Because Eskom hasn’t pushed us a stage or two higher. To make matters even worse, the power provider confirmed the shutdown of the Camden power station. Yes, the entire station. Failure to dock #Loadshedding Thread Loadshedding will unfortunately remain implemented at Stage 4 throughout the night and…

Netflix has released a second trailer for The Playlist – a miniseries chronicling the path Spotify took to becoming the top music streamer in the world. The series looks to be a serious business drama, with all the meetings, parties and backstabbings you might expect from the story. Charting Spotify’s story If you were a fan of David Fincher’s The Social Network, then you’ll probably enjoy The Playlist. Though, if you aren’t a fan of subtitles, then this one may not be for you. The series was shot in Swedish which, considering Spotify was originally launched there, makes sense. Read…

An investigation has been looking into some of Wall Street’s largest banks. Again. American regulators are addressing the banks’ use of unauthorized messaging apps and how they handle information passing through them. To counter this, the investigators have forced the banks to hire a ‘WhatsApp Cop’ to ensure these apps aren’t used again. On top of this, the eleven banks involved must pay fines that exceed $2 billion. You’re under arrest – would you like to block this contact? Amongst the offenders were Bank of America Corp., Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Each has been forced to hire…

A lack of jet fuel at Cape Town International Airport could lead to issues with schedules and possibly cause flight cancellations, according to the Airline Association of Southern Africa (AASA). “These restrictions are now likely to result in disruptions to airline schedules and possibly cancelled flights at a time when the industry and the economy can ill afford it,” AASA said. We don’t have liftoff The airport believes that the shortage won’t lead to any disruptions, with a shipment of fuel arriving in the early days of October. There are still a few days’ worths of jet fuel left to…

After years of spending all of its time on hit-and-miss movies and TV shows, Netflix can finally add ‘game developer’ to its Twitter bio. Yesterday, the company announced its own internal gaming studio, Netflix Games, based in Finland, Helsinki. Hello Netflix Games This isn’t Netflix’s first rodeo but it is the company’s first internal studio. Earlier this year, Netflix paid enough money to call NextGames – another Helsinki-based mobile dev – its own. This joins the company’s other pair of devs – Boss Fight Studio and Night School Studio. Netflix has released around 26 games, though none have performed nearly…

In this age of expensive data, Capitec Connect has emerged –  that’s the bank’s own mobile virtual network operator. With it, Capitec plans to break into the mobile market with cheap data that never expires. It’s managing this by piggybacking off of the Cell C network, which itself piggybacks off the MTN network. “South Africans have been complaining about the cost of data. It’s expensive and complicated. Bundle pricing, off-peak and peak rates, and the fact that your data expires are all things that make no sense,” said Gerrie Fourie, Capitec’s CEO. Better than all the rest Yes, data bought…