Author: Trent Meikle

Good news everyone. We never thought we’d hear ourselves say that for the continuation of load shedding, but here we are. Eskom has confirmed stage 2 will be sticking around until at least the end of the week. After that… we’re heading back to stage 1. Cue the applause. #POWERALERT1 Stage 2 loadshedding will continue to be implemented on Wednesday and Thursday at 16:00 –00:00 and be reduced to Stage 1 on Friday pic.twitter.com/P84AFQBDuy — Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) October 12, 2022 It’s not over yet “Due to the persistent shortage of generation capacity, stage 2 load shedding will continue…

The Meta Quest Pro is real, despite our (and Meta’s own employees’) wishes. And the worst part? It’ll set you back $1500 (roughly R27,000). Mark Zuckerberg  officially revealed the headset on Tuesday, saying it’s aimed at “making the metaverse a reality.” On a quest to be bad The Quest Pro is Meta’s follow-up to the Quest 2, a far cheaper VR headset that didn’t cost more than two PlayStation 5’s to own. Zuckerberg claims that the Pro model was designed for work, rather than the VR headsets’ common use – gaming. “It’s work-focused”, Zuckerberg told reporters in Washington in late…

“Welcome to another episode of the Bro Jogan Experience” is the welcome you’ll hear in this fictional podcast between Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs. Now, you might have noticed a problem with that last sentence. “It’s not called the Bro Jogan Experience” and you’re absolutely right. There’s also the matter of Steve Jobs not being alive anymore. That doesn’t matter to Play.ht, a company that sells its voice synthesis services to the highest bidders. “Jamie, dig up Steve Jobs real quick” The podcast begins with fake Joe Rogan introducing his next guest, the late Steve Jobs. Of course, it was…

Just two weeks after announcing its partnership with Showmax, Vodacom is back at it again – this time, teaming up with Amazon Prime Video. Customers under the prepaid and contract umbrellas will have access to cheaper streaming deals, with the bonus of some mobile data to start watching. Primed to take the market by storm Customers looking to save on Amazon Prime Video can only do so through the Prime Video Mobile Edition which limits users to one mobile device and caps the quality to standard definition. This is fine, considering you’re paying R60/month for a subscription, with the first…

Have you ever been in a group chat of 512 people and thought ‘There aren’t enough people in here. We should add another 512.’ If you have, that’s pretty weird. But, your dreams are coming true. WhatsApp is increasing the cap on group chats to allow 1,024 users to join a single group, up from 512. Mash that mute button  Just the thought of returning to your phone to find over 1,000+ messages waiting scares us. Still, it’s a far cry from Telegram’s 200,000 group cap, although that’s aimed at business and enterprise users. It’s possible that we could see…

YouTube is changing how users identify themselves, forcing unique handles onto us. This is standard practice for most social media platforms – but not for YouTube. Users will soon be known as @InsertNameHere, across both channels and Shorts. Please, please, pick a sensible username. Don’t fly off the handle Channel names won’t be disappearing, but the creators behind them will be unique handles. It’s likely that the change was brought in to crack down on the number of impersonator accounts on the platform. “We want to ensure creators can craft an identity as unique as their content while giving viewers…

By the end of last year, 2021 had the most load shedding South Africa had seen with 1,169 hours of rolling blackouts in total. 2022 is nearly done and with two months still to go, we’ve almost doubled the total hours. A quick glance at EskomSePush tells us we’re sitting on 2,096 hours in total. So we think it’s safe to say the SA government could use a little help. Luckily, Germany seems willing and able. The European country has pledged a further €355 million (R6.2 billion) to help pull South Africa away from the coal-fuelled nightmare we can’t wake…

South Africa’s go-to source for load-shedding schedules, EskomSePush, is getting an upgrade soon. It’ll add water-shedding schedules (because that’s a thing now), calendar support, and fire reporting. Hermann Maritz and Dan Southwood, the app’s developers, said this was only a taste of the new features to come while speaking with Rapport. EskomSePush is levelling up What was once a side hustle for the two developers, has grown to become a full-time job. The app has gained notoriety and with it, users, as Eskom continues to implement load shedding. It now has over 6.6 million installs, with a daily active user…

Apple goes USB-C It could be time to say goodbye to lightning charging – at least, in the case of Apple’s AirPods and Mac accessories. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, he believes that Apple is looking to do away with lightning charging and making the switch to USB-C. The change has to do with the European Union’s recently approved mandate that will force all devices sold in Europe to use USB-C ports as the standard. The mandate is not yet law in Europe, though European Parliament approved the changes last week. If Gurman is to be believed, we could see…

The day has finally arrived – after a record-breaking number of days of load shedding, Eskom has confirmed load shedding’s suspension. Mark your calendars for tomorrow, 8 October at 5 AM. #POWERALERT1 Loadshedding will be suspended at 05:00 on Saturday morning owing to lower weekend demand and adequate emergency generation reserves. pic.twitter.com/DNJV0IDZqH — Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) October 7, 2022 Power levels over “While the generation capacity constraints persist, the suspension of load-shedding is possible due to the anticipated lower weekend demand, as well as adequate levels of emergency generation reserves,” the power utility stated. Try and enjoy your…