Author: Trent Meikle

South Africa is obsessed with TV boxes. We’re… not sure why. It might have something to do with our failing economy coupled with a general lack of smart-enough TVs out here. Maybe it’s because Xiaomi’s first attempt at a full-on TV box was just too good to ignore. Whatever the case, Xiaomi’s gone and done it again with the Xiaomi TV Box S (2nd-gen). If you were hoping for any drastic changes here, look elsewhere. Differences are slim and Xiaomi knows it. That’s why you’ll struggle to find the first iteration of the TV Box at stores that don’t deal…

At least these will be Playables The nicest thing we can say about Google’s Stadia is that its death was swift. Despite the very tragic (and public) demise of the platform, Google isn’t giving up on gaming entirely. According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal (TWSJ), the search giant has been working on a new gaming initiative that’ll bring online games to YouTube. Known as ‘Playables’ (for now, at least), the service will allow users to play games – instantly, apparently – on YouTube’s dedicated iOS and Android apps and the platform’s website. TWSJ has intimated that…

PlayStation once again matches its biggest rival. Just yesterday, Microsoft announced that a price hike was on the horizon for the company’s Xbox Series X, along with its ‘Netflix for games’ Game Pass subscription tiers. This morning, with as blank a face as possible, PlayStation’s South African distributor, Gamefinity, warned MyBroadband that a PS5 price hike was coming. Sooner than you might’ve hoped for. And on payday as well… This is the second time South Africa has suffered a PS5 price hike since its launch in 2020, though the first was due to a broader hike from Sony’s higher-ups. The…

If we can’t escape the continually expanding AI headlines, then neither can you. This time, at least, it’s YouTube getting involved in 2023’s keyword and actually using it for some good. With the help of Aloud – a company that specializes in AI-powered dubbing and pulled from Google’s Area 120 incubator –  the platform is turning its talents to helping creators to dub their videos in other languages, YouTube announced on Thursday, according to The Verge. Me gusta y suscríbete The idea is a stroke of brilliance from YouTube. While the platform’s larger creators such as Mr. Beast already pay…

We’d forgive you not for knowing that there was a Nintendo Direct yesterday. Which Nintendo Direct, you ask? That’s our point exactly. Nintendo announced on Tuesday that it was their turn to show off what’s coming to the Switch, now that PlayStation, Xbox, and Geoff Keighley have had their fun. The Direct wasn’t particularly long, taking up just over forty minutes in total. But, despite Tears of the Kingdom’s continually expanding reach,  Nintendo’s event wasn’t totally devoid of new content. The presentation was a mix of both old and new. Did that mix bring us any news of a port…

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…