Author: Trent Meikle

South African mining companies Nkwe Platinum and Zijin Platinum have joined forces with MTN and Huawei South Africa to create South Africa’s first 5G-enabled smart metal mine. Weird… right? 5G and mining aren’t usually two words thrown around together. The partnership will see MTN and Huawei provide the 5G, while Nkwe and Zijin supply the mines. MTN and Huawei are providing more than just 5G broadband access. Once they’ve had their way, the mines will become way more efficient, in multiple ways. Not only will the network providers be supplying 5G broadband, it’ll also offer remote vehicle control, IoT (internet…

We’ve all become quite familiar with the scourge of load shedding. Over the last week, South Africa entered the Darker*Ages, also known as Stage 6 load shedding. With the power being off for most of our waking hours, it’s putting a heavy strain on everyone. MTN, on the other hand, is working on a plan to make the most of the situation. Load shedding 1, MTN 0 The plan, for MTN, requires as many generators and battery packs as possible. The company says that it’s getting harder and harder to keep its tower battery charged up. Because of this, MTN…

It’s official. Google’s Switch to Android is finally useful. The app designed to wirelessly transfer data from an iPhone to an Android now supports all Android 12 devices. No matter which Android device you make the switch to, you’ll be able to transfer your data across without a hassle. When the Switch to Android app was first released, it only supported Google’s own Google Pixel phones. Which was… odd. Google has slowly come to realise that considerably more users will switch from an iPhone if their choices involve more than ‘Pixel’. If you’re making the leap from iPhone to Android,…

Vodacom’s #CodeLikeAGirl initiative has been flying high since its inception, with girls all over the country looking to get involved. Since its debut in 2017, Vodacom has involved over 2500 young girls in the programme, with a further 1500 planned to join throughout the year. The idea behind #CodeLikeAGirl is to teach young girls valuable skills in the world of coding. Specifically in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It also attempts to bridge the gender gap in the coding community in South Africa. It seems the company is accomplishing more than just coding lessons. The programme…

It’s been a few months since Google announced that Gmail was getting a fresh new look. The change-up is nothing major, focusing on moving around the Meet, Chat, and Spaces tabs. Despite the new UI (initially) being an optional one, it still seemed to activate people’s fight or flight response. Many folks are resistant to change. Starting today, however, the new UI is being pushed as the default view, according to this post from Google. Now, before everyone starts to lose their minds, just know the change isn’t a permanent one. Instead of choosing the new UI, you’ll need to…

Renewable energy sources are all the rage right now, and for Mercedes-Benz South Africa, it’s no different. The manufacturing plant for Mercedes-Benz in East London just took a big step in reducing its carbon footprint. After a successful trial of Photovoltaic (PV) technology, the German car makers are more confident than ever in achieving its goal of reducing CO₂ emissions entirely. Photovoltaic tech is essentially what we know as solar panels, and the energy we receive from the sun. The East London manufacturing plant began testing the viability of solar energy in order to cut down on its carbon footprint.…

One of South Africa’s biggest supermarket chains, Shoprite, was recently involved with a massive leak of client information. The ‘hacked’ data has now found itself being auctioned off on the dark web, with a starting price of 20 Bitcoin, or about R6.7 million. A group known as RansomHouse claimed credit for the attack, which took place at the beginning of June. Shoprite initially responded to the attack, stating that there may have been a ‘possible data compromise’ which involved a few money transfer clients. In reality, the actual data stolen was much worse than Shoprite made it seem at first…

Spotify has launched a brand-new feature named Live Events which was designed to discover new concerts taking place in your city. Spotify launched the update on Thursday last week, and we’re glad to see it’s an update that works in South Africa too. The music streamer will do anything it can to avoid adding lossless audio. Despite promising the feature would be added before the end of 2021. But we’re not complaining (that hard). The addition of Live Events is definitely a welcome one. No more scalpers Live Events is a free feature available to any country (it seems) with…

ZTE recently launched a new 4K Ultra HD Android-based TV-Box. The best part? It’s launching in South Africa. The launch of the forgettably named B866V2K is the first time ZTE’s TV hardware has reached South African shores. ZTE is working with Ellies Electronics as the official distributor of the new Android 11 TV box. South Africans are getting the hang of streaming Android TV boxes in South Africa have certainly started seeing a rise in popularity over the past couple of years. As streaming services become more and more popular, so do streaming boxes. It also helps that WiFi is…

It’s nearing that time of the year again. The Girl Gamer Esports Festival is nearly upon us. This year the global tournament will be taking place in our very own backyard of Cape Town. The event has been running since 2017, and is showing no signs of slowing down. As you might have guessed, the goal of the event is to promote competitiveness in the world of women’s gaming. The all-inclusive event is taking place over the coming weekend, 25 June until the 26 June at the ATK Arena in Cape Town. GO LoL “A once male-dominated field has shifted…