Author: Trent Meikle

Last week hosted Black Friday. Today is Cyber Monday. Saturday was… well, Saturday. But it was a very Black-Friday-centric weekend of ‘deals’ if you can call them that. Only a few of these deals were actually any good, and most were downright tragic. Still, that didn’t stop people from spending their hard-earned money on deals that we’ll (probably) see again in a month or two. How do we know this? Well, FNB does tend to make a spectacle of things. The bank reports that on Black Friday its customers spent more than R3 billion collectively – R748,546,200,000 less than what…

SpaceX unleashes a Dragon This weekend saw the launch of Space X’s Dragon spacecraft, which arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday at 15:00 SAST. Unfortunately, Luckily, the launch and subsequent docking at the ISS went off without a hitch – bringing in supplies, new solar arrays, and a bunch of scientific experiments for the astronauts up there to keep themselves busy. The Dragon, which launched using a Falcon 9 rocket, wasn’t the only other spacecraft hanging around the ISS parking lot. It joined the Crew-5 Dragon, a Cygnus-18, a Russian Soyuz MS-22, and two unnamed Russian supply ships.…

‘Tis the day of deals – some that actually save you money, and some that charge you more (you know who you are, the company formerly known as Kalahari). Yes, Black Friday! Fortunately, the former applies to Vuma’s Black Friday weekend deals – only available from today, 25 November, until 28 November. Aside from the deals – which we’ll get into – if you order over Black Friday weekend, you’ll be able to get three months free (available with specific ISPs). Go check them out. Always check the Ts and Cs Stuff was sent a list of deals from Vuma’s…

Vodacom is getting into the healthcare game, launching the country’s first computer-aided emergency services dispatch system. Vodacom has worked with the Northern Cape Department of Health to get the launch off the ground, making healthcare more accessible to everyone (in the Northern Cape). That’s not to say that it won’t benefit the entire country. Vodacom hasn’t said as much but we expect that the Department and Vodacom are treating the launch as a sort of trial run. Should it be successful, we could see Vodacom pair up with other provinces. The two entities have been working on a solution to…

Yesterday, Eskom received a lifeline in the form of 50 million litres of diesel from PetroSA. Diesel isn’t free – and someone needs to pay the bill. It won’t be Eskom – at least not for the time being. It was the power provider’s poor management of money and maintenance that got the country into this mess in the first place. Who then? According to energy analyst Clyde Mallinson, it could be South Africans covering the bill. The 50 million litres of diesel arrived at the Ankerlig and Gourikwa power stations yesterday, which allowed Eskom to downgrade the country to…

With the price of data being what it is in South Africa, you (literally) can’t afford to be careless with yours. Scrolled a little too long on Twitter, looking for a meme that disappeared in the refresh? Your data is finished. And the worst part? You’ll never see that meme again. It lives on only in your memory now. YouTube doesn’t want that to happen when you’re on its platform. It intends to keep that data alive for as long as possible, so you watch as many ads as physically possible. To that end, it’s introducing three new features, each…

Unsurprisingly, as one of the few legal places to watch the FIFA World Cup in the country, Showmax Pro broke viewership records on Sunday during the tournament’s opening match. Though many might label the match-up as a boring one (Qatar vs. Ecuador), it still became Showmax’s most-watched sporting event on the platform. But are we really surprised? The match itself contained controversy, which possibly drew more viewers in than it may have initially garnered. The full-time score saw Ecuador take the victory 2-0 over Qatar – the first time in history a host nation has lost its opening match. Something…

After a rough week for Eskom and by extension, the country, the power provider finally has some good news. PetroSA, a state-owned oil company, has offered 50 million litres of diesel to the power utility, available immediately. Eskom announced its inability to purchase more diesel last week, which led to its Ankerlig and Gourikwa power stations hitting the off switch on their open-cycle gas turbines. If you’re thinking “50 million litres is probably enough to last Eskom ages, right? Right?” Nope. At its current burn rate, the much-needed lifeline is set to only last around two weeks at most. Yikes.…

We’ve had just over a week to come to terms with the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) predictions. It was rough – a petrol increase of R1.00 looked likely – and diesel was on its way down for the first time in ages. If you thought that was good, you’ll love the predictions this week. According to statistics captured yesterday, 23 November, the CEF predicts a huge drop for diesel drivers. Petrol drivers aren’t as lucky to have a complete reduction, though the numbers are certainly more favourable compared to last week. Disclaimer time: these numbers aren’t final. The CEF makes…

November is the month of Black Friday – the last Friday of the month when people lose their minds over middle-of-the-road deals that they (probably) wouldn’t have bought any other time of the year. When a South African network provider has deals, however, it’s probably a smart idea to check them out. MTN has joined the fray with MTN Supersonic – for customers whose connection is at home and/or on the go. Deals began last Friday, 18 November and are running until 4 December. SIM-only Deals First up, we have MTN’s SIM-only deals. You have the choice of three deals:…