Author: Trent Meikle

After a month of the Central Energy Fund’s predictions bringing us down, it’s time for the Department of Energy (DoE) to officially dash our dreams with March’s petrol and diesel prices. If you’ve been blissfully unaware of the incoming price increases, we hope you enjoyed your ignorance while it lasted. In fact, you should head out to your nearest petrol station and fill up as soon as you’re done reading this. Unless of course you aren’t phased by the increase or you don’t pay for your own fuel. In that case, carry on with your regular Tuesday. Read More: Eskom…

Oppo is back. This time it’s launching the A78 5G in the South African market, a mid-range device that should get the job done without breaking the bank. Oppo’s A78 5G officially hits South African shelves later this week and it’ll do so at less than R9,000. Sticking to a budget First, the important stuff. Oppo’s thrown in a 5,000mAh battery that competes with Samsung’s latest flagship: the S23 Ultra. Where Oppo loses that edge is with 33W wired charging, something that Samsung just managed to beat with 45W wired charging. At least this one won’t cost you R31,000, right?…

One of South Africa’s largest banks, Absa, is one of the few groups leading the development of the country’s renewable energy dreams. The bank reached a financial close last week on three new upcoming wind energy projects. Each is based in either the Western or Eastern Cape. Absa going green(er) The Western Cape will get two wind farms, each capable of producing 140MW, while another project is getting its life in the Eastern Cape, producing 84MW of green energy once complete. In total, Absa has spent R12 billion to get its three new renewable energy projects off the ground. “The…

We could see two more Apple mixed-reality headsets soon Despite insistent rumours that the world will finally get to see Apple’s first mixed-reality headset sometime this year, further rumours have sprung up claiming that Apple is already working on two new headsets. That’s according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who says that Apple’s goal is to cover all bases with a premium and budget offering by 2025. From where Apple’s standing, a cheaper headset makes a lot of sense. If the rumours are true, Apple’s first foray into virtual and augmented reality will be an expensive one. As in $3,000 (R55,000) sort…

Barely a month has passed since Honor announced the X9a would be making its way to the South African market before it’s taken the wraps off its next South African launch. Today, it’s the Honor X7a’s turn in the spotlight. It’s about sending a message Other than the 6,000mAh battery, everything else about the X7a falls into the ‘budget’ category, which should keep the price tag in the realm of ‘attainable’. The 8GB of RAM is coupled with 128GB of storage which is made better with the ability to expand storage with an SD Card up to 1TB. The X7a…

Ah, Bixby. Samsung’s answer to the infinitely more popular (and arguably better) Siri that Apple cultivated all the way back in 2011. We’ve dealt with Bixby for the past six years – only ever calling upon its services as a virtual assistant accidentally. Until you remember that you can turn it off, that is. But Samsung’s latest AI additions to the helper might warrant a resurrection from the ‘disabled apps’ list. Specifically, the South Korean conglomerate is rolling out Bixby Text Calling – a feature that’ll answer phone calls for you. Hey Siri Uh, hey Bixby? Picture this — you’re…

Yesterday saw the launch of Sony’s latest piece of hardware – the PSVR 2. There’s just one teensy little problem – the cost. Do you have R13,000+ just lying around? Yeah, us neither. And that’s without factoring in what you’ll pay to get your hands on one of the console’s new games. Don’t let that dwell on your mind too much, though. PlayStation’s first venture into the virtual world didn’t perform exceptionally well (at first). But in the six years since it launched, its catalogue of games has grown, building up a solid enough foundation for the PSVR 2. Now,…

We’ve got less than a week to go before the Department of Energy (DoE) makes March’s petrol and diesel prices official across South Africa. According to the Central Energy Fund’s latest round of predictions, it’s not looking so good for either petrol or diesel drivers. But we’ll get to that. Today, we actually have some good news sprinkled in, however minor it may be. Anything to help offset next week’s expected price hikes is good in our books. The “Good” News Finance minister Enoch Godongwana says the National Treasury will not increase the General fuel levy and Road Accident Fund…

Internet from anywhere We’ve been waiting for Elon Musk’s Starlink to roll out for years. According to a report from PCMag, that just might be happening. This isn’t an official rollout of the service, mind you. No, that’s apparently still in the pipeline. SpaceX has begun sending out emails to interested parties, offering a “global roaming service” that works “almost anywhere on land in the world,” for those that can’t access the service regularly. Two people reportedly received the email despite being outside Starlink’s list of available countries. The two people in question told PCMag that they signed up for…

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was always going to have a tough go of it. It was the series that Marvel chose to kick off Phase 5 of the MCU, while simultaneously introducing the series’ next ‘big-bad’ — bringing a scope far too massive to a series whose primary focus has always been on small stories (and people). That isn’t to say that there aren’t things that didn’t work. The scope of the Quantum Realm and all the quirky, eccentric characters that it brings with it was something we were interested in seeing more of. And when Kang the Conqueror…