Author: Trent Meikle

Right on schedule, Apple has unveiled a host of new smart home products. Top of the list is the Apple TV 4K, a much-needed refresh of the outdated 2022 model. It has a new remote and the A19 chip that powers the last-gen base iPhone 17 and 17e. All these upgrades are in the name of Siri AI. This being the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K, the Fruit Company’s got the formula down. Now, it’s all about refining annoyances users have dealt with for the past four years. We can’t promise it’s succeeded — not ’til we’ve tried it ourselves –…

Epic Games was, unsurprisingly, one of the first to board the AI hype train, but even we didn’t think it’d stray quite this far from the righteous path. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier recently got a look at the goings-on inside Epic and paints an ugly picture. Development has reportedly been delayed internally on an untitled Disney game, with employees instructed to adopt more AI tools, with one director apparently stating: “no more hand-written code”. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for ’em The full quote is somehow even more alarming: “Developers on the game, a shooter…

Budget smartphones with a rear display might be the new meta. Honor’s X5d s was the latest to hop on the bandwagon, and a new leak suggests HMD (you might know them as the producers of Nokia phones) is doing the same. It’s not yet official, but a usually reliable HMD source has spilt the beans about the upcoming HMD Pulse 2T Pro (via GSM Arena). HMD’s got a Pulse We’ve even got pictures of the thing, courtesy of @smashx_60 on X. What we don’t have is pricing, but with the swathe of leaked specs, it’s easy to see this will…

A decade later, and Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky is still pumping out updates on the regular. For free. More than that, it’s always looking for new places to put its procedurally-generated world consisting of 18 quintillion planets. The Nintendo Switch 2 was the most recent console to get the game, and now it’s heading to mobile this month. Not all mobiles, mind. Hello Games confirmed yesterday that the darling of the gaming industry would launch on iOS and iPadOS on 28 October, meaning Android devices are still missing out. Considering the developer’s track record, it seems fair to expect it there…

One of the most requested features from WhatsApp is scheduled messages, no question about it. Somehow, this pretty basic feature that other messaging apps have taken for granted this past decade has eluded WhatsApp engineers thus far. No longer, it seems. WABetaInfo reports that ‘Scheduled Messages’ are nearly ready. “Got it. This article will go live on 12 October 2026” First spotted in early testing back in February, the return of Scheduled Messages to the beta programme is significant. It means Meta’s messenger is still in development, even if it hasn’t been announced in an official capacity to the public.…

As if you needed any more proof of Checkers Sixty60’s dominance in the grocery delivery space, Shoprite Holdings today announced that the beloved delivery app now sells mobile data, airtime, and other vouchers. Instead of wasting petrol (in this economy?!), buyers will receive their purchases instantly via SMS. Keep doing what you’re doing, Sixty60 Airtime and data bundles are already among the most-purchased services in the country, unsurprisingly. As many as 95% of consumers surveyed reported that they use them, according to the retailer. “While these services continue to be purchased through physical channels, digital platforms are increasingly important, with…

Last night, Johannesburg played host to Xiaomi’s higher-ups as the company unveiled the Redmi Note 17 Series. Comprising the Redmi Note 17, Note 17 Pro, and Note 17 Pro Max, the trio represents Xiaomi’s mid-range smartphone line in the country. All of ’em are 5G-capable, with the cheapest of the lot starting at R10,000. Xiaomi hasn’t priced buyers out of the rest of the line-up either. The midder-range Redmi Note 17 Pro will set you back R13,000 locally, while the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max is available for R16,000. Whether they’re actually worth the investment is another matter entirely, one…

We’ve known about Apple’s smart home plans for quite some time, though we only recently learned just how involved LG has been in the development. Yesterday, images of the devices in the upcoming collaboration leaked, and it seems we’ll get our first (official) look at ’em on 13 October during Apple’s ‘Welcome Home’ event. Apple’s Greg Joswiak, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, shared a short teaser for the event. Invitations have also been sent out to certain members of the press, inviting them to an in-person Apple Experience in New York, kicking off at 09h00 ET. That’s 15h00 SAST,…

Non-player characters (NPCs) are one of the most important elements of any video game. They help sell the lie developers are building, even if they’re a little generic — especially in bigger open-world titles. Now, PlayStation wants to make NPCs a little smarter, using — you guessed it — AI. Microsoft and Sony are both looking for any excuse to add artificial intelligence to their consoles. In a Sony patent filed recently called “AI-adapted non-player character for video game system,” the patent describes a system that aims to make NPCs more realistic. It’ll need data to make that happen. And…

If there were any company you wouldn’t trust to keep an eye on your home, Palantir would probably top the list. A close second might be LG in light of recent events in which it was alleged that LG’s smart TVs are listening in. It’d make sense, then, that Apple would team up with LG to make a whole range of smart home devices. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that the two entities were banding together for Apple’s rumoured smart home push. On the menu was a smart doorbell, a smart thermostat, a smart deadbolt lock, a mixture of indoor and outdoor security cameras,…