Author: Trent Meikle

Talk about bad timing. Like Guerilla Games tip-toeing around Breath of the Wild in 2017 (and later, Elden Ring), Google just held its annual I/O developer conference where it put a heavy significance on artificial intelligence. You know, just a day after OpenAI, which is considered to be the leader in the industry, brought GPT-4o to life. Coincidence? We think not. Still, this is Google we’re talking about. It’s pretty difficult to knock the steam out of an event like I/O, and rightfully so. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, took to the stage to unveil a flurry of new AI-powered features, heavily…

OpenAI, the forerunner of this marginally terrifying Skynet-type world we’re currently living in, just dropped a new flagship AI model going by the name ‘GPT-4o’. The “o” stands for ‘omni’ and understandably so, considering the model’s ability to understand input from text, audio and imagery — while regurgitating replies in equally impressive ways. Did we mention that it was free? In a blog post detailing GPT-4o, OpenAI says it will roll out “iteratively” over the coming weeks, though its text and image capabilities have already hit ChatGPT*. Users on the free tier will have no trouble using GPT-4o, though those…

Being an entry-level smartphone in South Africa might just be the most overpowered cheat code there is. Attach a sub-R3,000 price tag, and you’ve instantly got a fair few eyebrows raised. That’s the route Tecno’s latest addition to the market, the Spark 20C, has headed. The mobile brand, currently peddling its devices in over 70 markets globally, introduced the country to the successor of the Spark 10C just last week. Sure, the R3,000 price will do a lot of the heavy lifting, at least in the phone’s early life. See, Tecno is simply getting customers through the door with that…

Your iPhone is now a Spider-Man-playing machine Forget about Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4. We’re more interested in Peter Parker’s early beginnings from the PS1 days, where Neversoft laid the groundwork for what a Spider-Man game could be. Unless you’ve held onto both your PS1 and the 24-year-old game, however, you’re stuck watching longplays on YouTube. Or… you could take advantage of the new Gamma PS1 emulator that just hit the App Store. Thanks to the App Store’s new rulebook, emulators which don’t require any sort of jailbreaking knowledge are slowly becoming the new normal for iOS and iPadOS devices. We recently saw…

With Amazon finally entering the South African online retail scene, though to somewhat subdued applause, Takealot finally has some real competition. To that end, the latter has launched TakealotMore — a monthly subscription designed to give the retailer’s die-hard customers access to “unlimited” “free” deliveries across Takealot. Mr D has been included in the deal, too (Ts & Cs apply). “This groundbreaking subscription service offers millions of South Africans exclusive monthly benefits to eliminate delivery costs and enhance shopping convenience,” Takealot said in a press release. We’ll have to see about that. Considering Amazon’s Prime-less landing, Takealot could solidify its…

Apple moves fast. On Tuesday, 7 May, the Fruit Company ‘let loose’ a slew of new M4- and M2-touting iPad Pro and iPad Air models, along with a fitting line-up of overpriced ‘Pro’ peripherals — including a new Pencil and Magic Keyboard. Today, South Africa’s iStore has put the devices up for pre-order (minus the Magic Keyboard), along with a solid date to expect the devices to be in your hands. That’ll be next week Friday, 17 May, matching the US launch date. It’s a rarity that South Africa is so on the ball regarding Apple products, but we’re not…

There’s no denying Netflix’s quality when it comes to mobile gaming. In the two years or so since it began pursuing the mobile market, it’s added a couple of iconic titles to its catalogue. Those include Tomb Raider, GTA, Hades and soon, Braid, Anniversary Edition. That’s just one of the five new games hitting the Netflix carousel this May. It looks like a good month for mobile gamers. Joining in on the fun isn’t free, though. First, you’ll need one of Netflix’s several subscription tiers (any will do) before you can hop into May’s highlights: Sonic Mania Plus and Braid, Anniversary Edition. They’ll be joined by Katana…

Remember the Nintendo World Championships? Of course you don’t. It was a videogame competition, born in the 90s, that invited gamers to go fast. Real fast. Specifically, it involved a custom-made NES cartridge containing three games, Tetris, Super Mario Bros, and Rad Racer, all modified for a competition-style event to see who could pull off a win in the fastest time. It’s called speedrunning. Now, Nintendo is resurrecting the NWC. Sorta. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition isn’t another round of the official tournament, though it’s maintaining that speedrunning ideology that made the show such a hit. Instead, it’s a new Switch title that’ll…

It had to happen eventually. After months of waiting for the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DoE) to reduce South Africa’s petrol prices, June will likely deliver on that dream. That’s according to a new batch of fuel price predictions from the Central Energy Fund (CEF), captured yesterday 7 May, promising a petrol and diesel price reduction in June. It’s worth tamping down those expectations in the meantime. The CEF is a state-owned energy company that reports to the DoE, and keeps an eye on the ever-changing fuel prices to give South Africans a relatively accurate idea of what…

Apple is back at it again, this time at the company’s ‘Let Loose’ event currently streaming over on YouTube ‘live’ from Apple Park. Today, if the teases leading up to the event weren’t obvious enough, is all about the iPad. In fact, Tim Cook called it “the biggest day for the iPad since its introduction.” Big words, and some big shoes to fill. Filling your head with iPad Air First up on the announcement list is the iPad Air, now being sold in two sizes for the very first time. There’s the original 11in model, reimagined to stand up to…