Author: Trent Meikle

If you thought your job was safe from the grasping hands of AI, think again. Especially if that job involves being a commentator for the upcoming Wimbledon Tennis Championships highlights taking place later this year. If, for some reason, that applies to you… maybe a chat with your boss is in order. In what appears to be a first in the professional history of the sport, the higher-ups are employing a generative AI model to commentate on all of the tournament’s video highlights. As the sport of tennis’ least-interested fans, we’re not all too fussed at the idea of artificially-generated…

After Microsoft’s recent announcement of a more expansive, and if we’re honest, sexier Xbox Series S, we weren’t expecting another update from the company quite so soon. Unfortunately, the news isn’t as joyful as the previous lot. In a recent statement to The Verge, Xbox announced that it would be hiking the prices of the Xbox Series X – its flagship console – in most countries alongside a price hike for the company’s Game Pass subscription. Yup, that means South Africa must bear witness (and bare their wallets) to the coming onslaught of hikes. Take a hike Perhaps ‘onslaught’ is…

Remember 2021? South Africa was still in lockdown; we were an entire Fast and Furious movie behind and Spotify said that it would add HiFi audio to its platform before the year had ended. Two years on, and Spotify’s ‘HiFi’ audio is nowhere to be seen. Unless you’re looking at Apple Music or Tidal, both of which have since added lossless streaming to their platforms at no extra charge. “Supremium”, really? Fortunately, Spotify’s own take on lossless streaming might finally be on the way, according to a Bloomberg report. A little later than expected, sure, but on the way all…

Suzuki’s all-new Grand Vitara has hit South Africa’s shores, bringing with it a chance for Stuff to sample the automaker’s new flagship model; the 1.5 GLX 6AT AllGrip Hybrid. As the name suggests, this is an all-wheel driver, with Hybrid functionality to boot, making it a real machine on the offroad. We would know. Stuff set off through torrential rain in George, in the Western Cape, through long stretches of muddy track and possibly the most dangerous of South Africa’s hazards — plain-old concrete roads, potholes and all. Yeah, we gave it a proper test. Before going any further, there’s no skirting…

WhatsApp’s got another update on the way, this time choosing to focus on privacy in a big way. There are actually two new features to dive into, the first being a way for users to automatically silence spam calls, and something entirely new known as ‘Privacy Checkup’. According to the Meta-owned company’s announcement, protecting its user’s privacy “remains the driving force behind what we’re building at WhatsApp.” Yeah. Okay. Spam, be gone! Lawsuits aside, we’ve been keen to test the update’s spam call blocker since it was unearthed in the app’s beta program a few months ago. Dubbed ‘Silence Unknown…

As if the countless Transformers movies or James Cameron’s series surrounding this eerie topic weren’t warning enough, Mecedes-Benz is bringing ChatGPT voice controls to its cars. The AI chatbot has slowly wended its way into every nook and cranny of our lives; our PCs, smartphones, news, film, and finally, motor vehicles. At least it’s not our vehicles. Not yet. Mercedes’ first test is limited to the US, though we don’t expect that to remain the case forever. Exhausting  The idea, obviously, is to improve the brand’s current ‘Hey Mercedes’ assistant, or as Mercedes puts it; make it “even more intuitive.” The…

Somehow, we’re already in June. The middle of June to be specific, which means we’re just over two weeks away from the Department of Energy’s official decision that’ll determine the fate of the country’s petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin prices in July. Fortunately, we don’t need the Department of Energy to get some sort of idea of where those prices are headed in the here and now. That’s a job for the Central Energy Fund (CEF), with its latest predictions pointing towards a (slight) drop in petrol prices. Diesel, on the other hand… Good news for petrol drivers Before we…

NASA’s got a plan NASA is erring on the side of private lately, with the recent announcement that it would be making numerous Space Act Agreements with seven of the world’s largest private space companies – all in the name of space discovery and the “U.S commercial low Earth orbit economy”, of course. If that sounded sarcastic, it wasn’t. That’s because these agreements are unfunded – meaning no unnecessary money enters the wrong pockets – we’re a little more inclined to believe them. Though no money is being exchanged, NASA is instead offering up its exceptional wealth of knowledge, plus…

Seriously, WhatsApp has been knocking it out of the park lately. Unique usernames, locked chats, and of course, the edit button. Meta’s messenger is due a “bad” update soon, right? Yes, but that won’t be happening any time soon if the rumours over at WABetaInfo are true (and they usually are). This time ’round, Meta is working on multi-account support. Living a double life As it stands, the only way to have two instances of yourself across two WhatsApp accounts is to use your phone’s built-in Dual Messenger feature which works… fine, though it can be a hassle to set…

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta isn’t the be-all-or-end-all content platform it hoped it would be by now. Creators are flying this way and that between YouTube, Twitch, and even TikTok and the few that decide to give Meta, or more specifically, Facebook, a chance rarely ever seem to stick it out long-term. Now, Meta is making some changes in the hopes of driving more creators towards itself with the expansion of its “performance bonus program.” Across the Meta-Verse The first change concerns Meta’s performance bonus program, which pays a premium to creators in exchange for more engagement on their Facebook posts. Meta…