Author: Trent Meikle

Netflix? Gaming? On a TV? We’ve known about Netflix’s ambitions to bring its library of games to TVs and computers for some time now. It was still just rumoured back in March before the streamer multimedia house confirmed it themselves through a very limited test two months previously. Now, the cloud service is making its way through the US as part of a wider test, allowing subscribers to play games on smart TVs or Chromecasts and the like. The whole idea, according to Netflix’s vice-president of Games, Mike Verdu, is to turn the cloud streaming division into “a value add,”…

Perhaps a tad naively, we jumped into our first EA Sports FC 24 session with bright-eyed enthusiasm, ready to experience something, anything, that would justify EA’s massive breakaway from the FIFA moniker for the first time since 1993. We left dull-eyed, tail tucked between our legs, having experienced a game that felt almost identical to its predecessor.   It’s become the thing to take a giant dump all over EA Sports’ latest effort – and rightfully so – whether it’s Madden, NBA 2K or FIFA. That’s (mostly) EA’s fault for failing to come up with an original idea since Ultimate Team’s…

Stage 2 is back Things are looking up for South Africa. South Africa’s through to the semi-finals, petrol and diesel might be cheaper in November and Eskom left the lights on all through Sunday. Nothing lasts forever though, especially when Eskom is involved. Stage 2 officially returns today, 16 October, from 16:00 until 05:00 on Tuesday morning.   Stage 2 will make a comeback at 16:00 on Tuesday until 05:00 on Wednesday morning, with that pattern set to repeat until further notice according to Eskom. You can thank Eskom’s “stable generation capacity” for the calmer-than-usual schedule, with the state-owned utility working…

Netflix is getting into the retail world (for some reason) Right as Netflix gets out of the DVD rental business, it’s jumping back into the world of physical. Just not in the way you’d expect. The streamer, which is raising prices (again), is officially getting into the retail sector, according to the folks over at Bloomberg. It’ll be opening its own entertainment-focused stores, designed to house merch, live and dining experiences related to Netflix’s inventory of IPs. “We’ve seen how much fans love to immerse themselves in the world of our movies and TV shows, and we’ve been thinking a…

There are all sorts of unusual wearables designed to track a variety of sports metrics and bodily functions, from something as simple as a smartwatch to smart socks and even some yoga pants. Now, smart mouthguards are the next big thing for heavily physical sports, and World Rugby is bringing them into the mainstream. Rugby tournaments already enforce non-smart mouthguards to help prevent damage to the teeth and mouth lacerations but won’t do much for a head injury. World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, has announced that it’ll be introducing smart mouthguards that can detect head impacts and high acceleration,…

DDoS for the lose One of the largest DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks ever just happened and, like most of the record-breaking attacks we’ve seen in the past few years, it was Google Cloud leading the charge to get it shut down. In its announcement, Google alerted the world to a flaw that could make another DDoS attack on this scale successful in the future. The attack saw a peak of over 398 million requests per second (RPS), an attack that’s 7.5 times larger than the last big DDoS that took place in August this year. “For a sense of scale,…

If you’ve been paying attention to WhatsApp’s updates over the past year, you’re probably aware of Locked Chats – the app’s answer to hipsters, cheaters, or those who are a little too paranoid. WhatsApp followed it up with an update that would station some extra security outside the chats in the form of biometric credentials, PINs or passwords. Great, right? Wrong. The change only allowed users to use their devices’s local PINs or passwords, turning away anyone looking for something a bit more personal to WhatsApp. It only took four months, but WhatsApp finally got around to custom passwords. At least,…

Can you remember the last time the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy gave South African drivers a break from the ever-rising cost of petrol? That would be July if your brain doesn’t go that far back. And that’s just petrol. Diesel drivers last saw a drop in June. Well, that might change next month. Petrol on your mind? That’s if the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) figures are correct (and they usually are). The CEF regularly makes predictions on the coming month’s fuel prices by looking at the current price of refined oil and the Rand/US Dollar exchange. Now, it’s…

PS5 Slim After months of rumours that all but confirmed the existence of a slimmer, refreshed PS5, Sony has finally made the new console official. Oddly enough, Sony’s left off the ‘Slim’ moniker that it usually affixes to its refreshed consoles – despite it bringing a (slightly) smaller stature to the party. The new PS5 comes with a 1TB SSD (seriously, not even 2TB?), a 30% size reduction, and a 24% cut to the original’s weight. The big change here is the loss of the built-in disc drive, meaning players will have to buy a detachable UHD Blu-ray Disc Drive…

Living in the X echo chamber In another turn of events for X under Elon Musk’s reign, the platform is adding a new control that’ll let users block replies from unverified accounts – also known as non-paying members. Surprisingly, the ‘feature’ isn’t limited to X Premium subscribers and will allow unverified users to block other unverified replies. The idea is simple – allow paying members to feel superior and avoid any humiliation for the simple fact that they paid R1,700/year for a blue tick. It might even convince a couple of those sitting on the fence, potentially helping to pull…