Author: Trent Meikle

Anyone with a working pair of eyes can see that Microsoft Xbox isn’t as dedicated to the homegrown console hardware space as it once was, with the recent Asus/Xbox team-up and Microsoft spending every penny on acquiring developers who focus on the software side of things. Throw in the company’s Game Pass price debacle, and it really does seem like Xbox has thrown in the towel for good. Not so fast, says Xbox. Xbox is alive and kicking – “at least for now” It’s not only keen-eyed observers who have noticed Xbox’s lack of interest. News of Microsoft officially giving…

It wasn’t all that long ago that we bemoaned PlayStation and South African distributor, Koodoo, for the absurd R19,500 price tag attached to the PS5 Pro before it eventually launched locally in December 2024. Those gamers who missed out then won’t have a price decrease to look forward to, but rather an increase to the tune of R1,500. With Xbox safely out of the way, Sony can do what it likes That’s roughly the price of a standard DualSense controller, an expensive and sought-after companion to an already outrageously priced console. Now, South African gamers are expected to pay as…

Only days after the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) imposed minor petrol price increases while diesel drivers were left jumping for joy in October, the latest round of predictions from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) reckon November’s official adjustments won’t be quite as divisive, with decreases across the board. Good news, everyone! We should remind readers that the CEF’s figures (found below) aren’t final and are subject to change. The CEF, in conjunction with the DMRE, tracks those economic factors that influence the price of fuel locally, offering daily insights into how the country’s fuel prices are…

Making rightsholders’ spirits Sora Last week, OpenAI unveiled Sora 2, the next model of its AI-powered video generation tool, which can supposedly create just about anything on command to feed its own social media-like video app… except for copyrighted characters. In the days since its launch, CEO Sam Altman says the company has received valuable feedback from users, ‘interested groups’, and most importantly, rightsholders. Up first, OpenAI plans to offer rightsholders “more granular control” over how their characters and content are generated by users on the Sora app, allowing them to opt in and have their characters’ likenesses generated for…

First National Bank (FNB) has unveiled some long-awaited and major changes for its reward scheme, eBucks, all of which serve to improve the customer experience. Up first is the launch of eBucks PayDay, which will now see all customers receive their eBucks on the same day every month — on the 15th — rather than some random date. Next, beginning in November, the bank will roll out much-needed changes to travel rewards for eBucks, and “address some of the points of frustration customers have raised in the past.” That includes eBucks customers enjoying discounts on the ‘full fare’ for domestic…

While we and the rest of the world are still waiting on Amazon’s next batch of Kindle e-readers, announced earlier this week, our retail overlords have some big plans for its hardware line-up. Surprise, surprise: they involve AI. Kindle is no stranger to artificial intelligence, and now Amazon is building upon what’s already available. Smartening up your Kindle We’ve all been there, coming back to a long-forgotten book that you put down halfway through, only to be distracted by something else. Some might enjoy re-reading those early bits to get back to see beyond what they already have. Others… don’t,…

Microsoft is, once again, raising the price of its game subscription service, Game Pass, across the board. Microsoft is also rebranding and ‘upgrading’ some of its tiers, while others are left out in the cold. The new prices start from 4 November 2025 for current subscribers. Newcomers aren’t quite as lucky. These hikes aren’t minor. They are, in fact, the most substantial increase the subscription service has seen yet. You’d think, with Microsoft’s gaming hardware slowly drifting towards an iceberg, it’d like to hold onto one of its most valuable assets yet — software. Apparently not, with some increases reaching…

If you thought SteelSeries’ Arctis Nova gaming headsets couldn’t get any more premium, you just haven’t been paying attention. There’s always room to squeeze a new descriptor onto your product’s name, and SteelSeries has opted for the ‘Elite’ branding here. It’s certainly fitting, with the ultra-premium gaming headset becoming the world’s first to be Hi-Res certified. ANC and hot-swappable batteries are just the cherries on top. SteelSeries’ super Nova https://youtu.be/6KZSG7LoBzg The company’s latest flagship entry hopes to convince gamers that it’s a proper audiophile-grade pair of cans, supporting 24-bit 96 kHz hi-res audio over a low-latency wireless signal (via the…

At an event held last night, Amazon unveiled a slew of products that were largely anticipated. Heading things up came two new Kindle Scribes — one of which adds a dash of colour to the proceedings — before all eyes fell to the retail giant’s four (that’s right, four) new Echo smart speakers, complete with new AI powers to justify the existence of Amazon’s Alexa+ subscription service. Most important are the new Kindle Scribes, especially since these are the most likely to be available in South Africa. That’s not to say Amazon’s Echo devices won’t turn up eventually, but they’ll…

In what looks to be a cost-cutting move, Sony is reportedly developing a refreshed PS5 Pro that would feature improved power efficiency, according to Polish gaming website PPE (via Notebookcheck). PPE’s source, Graczdari, has proven reliable in the past, having already unearthed the Oblivion Remastered physical edition as well as the Microsoft Flight Simulator PS5 port ahead of its official reveal. The same leaks also reveal a new DualSense V3 controller that would include hot-swappable batteries — effectively doubling the extremely poor 4-6 hours of life typical of the current DualSense model. The PS5 Pro Max? Still, until Sony confirms the launch of a ‘new’ console…