Author: Trent Meikle

Remember Melon Mobile? The mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that launched a couple of months back? We’re not surprised. It’s been quiet, unable to compete with the country’s larger (and faster) networks. The MVNO, which piggybacks off MTN, announced plans to launch eSIM support (something MTN only recently got around to doing) and what it calls family plans in October. Melon eSIMs – now seedless For the blissfully unaware, eSIMs are digital “embedded” SIM cards that require no physical installation. They’re the way of the future, what with Apple foregoing physical SIM slots entirely in some territories. “eSIM is another…

The (WGA) strike is over! The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has officially called to lift its strike order, 148 days after the Guild first began to waylay Hollywood’s production, according to a report from Variety. The East and West boards of the WGA unanimously voted to lift the strike late on Tuesday, after coming to a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). As of Wednesday, 27 September, writers are officially allowed to return to work – before the final ramification vote takes place. Great. One down, two to go, huh? The WGA released…

Nokia’s kept Stuff relatively busy this year with the release of the C32 and T10 – both finding some place in our hearts. They beat dealing with load shedding anyway. Now, HMD Global has announced the Nokia G42 5G, a 5G-capable (surprise surprise) smartphone that’s retailing for the low price of R5,000. There’s nothing particularly interesting about the G42, other than its 5G capabilities and the fact that it’ll be DIY-repairable from the comfort of your own home, as long as you’re willing to foot the import fee and cost of the parts themselves, available from iFixit. A capable budget-beater…

Until Amazon finally admits its plans for South African domination, we’re stuck with the local offerings. That’s not so bad, especially after Checkers’ recent launch of Xtra Savings Plus – a subscription-based service that tacks onto the Sixty60 app, not unlike that of Amazon’s own Prime service in the States. Tom Cruise, is that you? “In an African retail first, Checkers has launched Xtra Savings Plus, a monthly subscription offering unlimited free Sixty60 grocery deliveries, more personalised offers and an additional in-store discount,” says Checkers in a release. Essentially, Checkers is looking to save some of its more loyal customers…

Sony hack and slash Sony has been hacked. At least, that’s what a report from Cyber Security Connect is claiming, with a newcomer in the ransomware space, Randsomed.vc, taking the credit. While the group’s claims haven’t yet been verified, it says that the stolen data is up for sale, due to Sony’s unwavering stance of not paying ransome demands. “We have successfully compromissed [sic] all of sony systems. We wont ransom them! we will sell the data. due to sony not wanting to pay. DATA IS FOR SALE,” it said before hammering the point home with “WE ARE SELLING IT.”…

Because just about everything in 2023 includes the words ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI), YouTube is updating its creator tools to usher in new features that’ll supposedly “enhance creativity and let anyone create”. With the help of AI, of course. Announced at this year’s Made on YouTube event, held last week, the Google-owned video platform showed off features like a ‘Dream Screen’ greenscreen, automatic language dubbing (sorry Mr Beast en Español), and AI insights to give your content a push in the right direction. Summoning the YouTube Dream Screen If you’ve watched any sort of TikTok video ever, then you’ve probably already…

If you’ve been counting down the days ‘til the release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, we’ve got some good news. Nintendo South Africa turned up at this year’s Comic Con Africa 2023 to put on a show, featuring some of this year’s best games: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, and of course, Super Mario Bros. Wonder. We got to play it. So can you. Keen-eyed gamers will notice that we’re still nearly a month away from the game’s 20 October 2023 release date. Nintendo brought the goods early, and they’re giving everyone who’s able to hold a controller a go.…

It’s official. After showing up to Tim Cook’s Wonderlust event and listening to him talk about all the money we’d be spending on his iPhones and smartwatches, the time has finally come to buy his products. Pre-orders go live today, with orders set to start arriving at their new owners’ homes a week later, Friday 29 September. You’ll be able to place your order with cold hard cash, or through a contract with some of SA’s largest operators, Vodacom, MTN and Telkom if you’re going through the iStore direct. (If you need any help determining which has the fastest network,…

DALL-E 3 is a thing now OpenAI, the company behind the wildly successful ChatGPT large language model (LLM), has announced DALL-E 3, a much-improved text-to-image AI generator that’s supposedly safer, smarter, and can leverage ChatGPT to create prompts on the fly. DALL-E 2 is still one of the more sophisticated generative AI platforms out there, and even then, it gets things wrong – ignoring specific prompts or just making things look plain weird. OpenAI reckons those issues will be far less prominent, with DALL-E 3 being more understanding of situational context. Aside from understanding user prompts better, DALL-E 3’s coolest…

Earlier this week, Microsoft let slip a wealth of internal documents courtesy of the company’s trial against the FTC. This doesn’t look to be some dinky internal leak designed to drum up hype. Microsoft showed its entire hand here, revealing the company’s outline for upcoming consoles, a new controller, and outdated (but still valuable) release schedules for several games. Hell, it even revealed CEO Phil Spencer’s desire to purchase Nintendo back in 2020. We’re more interested in the hardware. We already know the company is reviving at least two of its greatest hits: Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV:…