Author: Trent Meikle

If you’ve ever paid for WinRAR, then you’ll love WhatsApp’s new ‘Plus’ subscription, now officially live in South Africa. Before you get yourself in a tizz — no, the Meta-owned messenger isn’t charging you for messages. Yet, anyway. This is a completely optional subscription that’ll slightly (emphasis on slightly) enhance the app. For a monthly fee, of course. Meta’s new subscription may not sound like that bad of a deal at R29/m, but considering what you’re getting… well, let’s just say it could be more substantial. We expect that to change eventually, once WhatsApp makes good on its promise to…

You’ve gotta go outside sometime. And when you do, what better way to greet that old friend, vitamin D, with some tunes blasting out behind you? The effect is a little better with a couple of friends (and walls) surrounding you, beverage of choice clutched in their hands. Whipping out Sony’s ULT Field 5 at Parkrun is an easy way to catch some hands (they will catch you), even if you technically could get it there without first breaking your back. That’s not a knock against the ULT Field 5 we had in for review, either. It slots nicely into the ULT…

It took a while, but Standard Bank Connect is finally getting into the eSIM game. Embedded SIMs are old hat for many of South Africa’s more popular MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators), but now that the bank has reported strong growth via Connect since its relaunch in 2024, it certainly seems keen to propel it to new heights. “[eSIM] allows customers to activate mobile services digitally and store multiple profiles on a single device, making it easier to switch between numbers or plans,” the bank said. Connecting eSIMs According to the company, Connect has seen “solid” year-on-year growth, having recently…

Bolt was never really going to compete with Uber for the #1 spot in the e-hailing scene in South Africa, but the company’s latest changes have now set its operations to hard mode. Passengers hoping to secure a ride via Bolt must now hand over their ID number and a selfie before they can do so — all in the name of safety. ID or goodbye Users unwilling to part with their ID number and good looks (for free, anyway) — and we’re guessing there’ll be a fair few who don’t — can jump ship to one of the other…

TenX SpaceX Love him or hate him, Elon Musk — the guy behind Tesla, SpaceX, and, ugh, X — is now the world’s first trillionaire. It’s not like he’s sleeping on a lumpy mattress disguising his amassed wealth, though. His fortune is all theoretical after Musk moved to raise a record $75 billion in SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) last week. It didn’t take Forbes long to declare Musk the world’s first trillionaire on Friday, after share prices were pegged at $135 per. As the CEO, chairman, and chief technical officer of the space company, Musk currently owns about 4.8 billion shares,…

These days, it seems companies are all competing to make the most impressive gaming monitors, with faster refresh rates and glorious OLED panels. But what about the creatives without gaming ambitions? That’s where something like Xiaomi’s A27Ui comes in, a 27in 4K IPS display designed to get the creative juices a-flowin’. Sure, you could plug your PS5 or gaming PC into this display for those 4K visuals, but a 60Hz refresh rate and 6ms response time mean it’ll be useful for nought but single-player games. Any hopes for playing competitively fly right out the window once you drop the pretty-pricey R7,000 that…

Once South Africa’s cheapest EV at R341,000, BYD’s Dolphin Surf casually cruised through the taxi-ridden streets with a chip on its shoulder. By the time we got our hands on the steering wheel, however, things had changed. But there’s nothing wrong with second place, is there? We spent a week or so in the company of the more expensive ‘Dynamic’ trim, which primarily adds some range over the ‘Comfort’ for a couple more bucks. Although at that point, is it really fair to call the Dolphin Surf Dynamic the second-cheapest EV in the country? Truth be told, we prefer words.…

There’s a new Lego Lord of the Rings set in town, meaning to draw the eye of just about anyone who walks by, owing to the 8,278 bricks that’ll need to be assembled. The set captures the iconic Minas Tirith in brick form, as seen in the fantastic Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s set to arrive this June with a whopping R13,000 price tag. A Lego set is never late… While the Tower of Guard presents an appropriate face from the front, there’s a bit more opportunity for play here than we expected. Flip Minas Tirith around, and you’ll find the Throne…

Set to rival Meta’s Ray-Ban supremacy, Samsung and Google showed off the design(s) of the duo’s long-rumoured smart glasses this week, co-developed by Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. If you missed the whole smart glasses pitch when Meta popularised them a few years back, these similarly rely on artificial intelligence — Gemini, in this case — that the user interacts with while wearing them. The glasses are set to launch this Spring. Another Google Glass? https://youtu.be/s4Lav_gsMPo The four-way resulted in two distinct pairs of glasses, though the technology inside them will remain the same. First up is Gentle Monster’s, which…

If the likes of Toyota, Geely, VW, Jetour, or Chery from this month alone couldn’t convince you that you needed an EV, then perhaps iCaur will do the trick. The Chinese brand confirmed the all-new, all-electric 03T SUV had launched in South Africa, bringing two derivatives with it — the 2WD and AWD. If you weren’t at least tempted by Geely’s E2 at R340,000, we doubt iCaur will have much more success with the R640,000 starting price here. While iCaur reckons the car has launched, it won’t turn up in showrooms ’til 28 May. That’s not exactly what we’d call…