Author: Trent Meikle

This… this is why AI was created. Not to help you earn that degree (that you didn’t really earn) or fire all the junior staff at the company you’re managing. It’s all been about gathering a group of humanoid robots onto an astroturf pitch and forcing them to do battle in the beautiful game. That’s exactly what China’s RoBoLeague World Robot Soccer League has done. It’s all autonomous, meaning there’s no room for human intervention. That’s cool and all, but can we bet on it? https://youtu.be/jNTfbvgbJ_g Not that it needs any help. As entertaining as it is to watch these…

The last time South African motorists were forced to contend with a petrol and diesel price hike was back in February this year. Now, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has confirmed that South Africa’s months-long streak of falling fuel prices will finally come to an end tomorrow, Wednesday, 2 July. As usual, that’s when the DMRE will adjust the country’s fuel prices at all the pumps, leaving you just enough time to get to the nearest garage and take advantage of those current prices before the change kicks in. These aren’t minor increases either, with diesel drivers…

It’s never been easier to watch humanity take to the skies (and beyond that) with the help of NASA’s free streaming service, NASA+. Actually, scratch that. The space agency has somehow made tuning in to the various space walks, rocket launches, and gorgeous views that much simpler by partnering up with Netflix. Far out, dude Announced yesterday, NASA confirmed that the service, which launched in 2023, was headed to the king of streaming sometime “this summer”, meaning anytime between now and September for interested Saffas. NASA makes it clear why Netflix was picked for the job — its 700 million…

Tired of your Discover Weekly sucking? Spotify thinks you are, which is why it’s making fundamental changes to how the algorithmic playlist operates (again), just a few short months after it told Business Insider something similar. Despite Spotify’s updates, it seems the issue has persisted — and is possibly worse than ever — with users reporting (via The Verge) the playlist dishing out the same songs again, with no real distinction between genres. Spotify ups its Weekly Discovery game As Discover Weekly turns ten, it’s clear that Spotify is committed to making it suck less. According to the company, the playlist…

Meta’s going after your private images, too The idea that Facebook wants access to your smartphone’s private camera roll isn’t a very comforting thought, but it’s even more disturbing once you see why it wants access. According to a report from TechCrunch, the company is suggesting users AI-generated versions of their own images, including ones they haven’t even uploaded. Meta isn’t pulling this off by sneakily penetrating your smartphone’s defences. It’s simply asking users for access by opting into Facebook’s “cloud processing”, where it can generate new ideas straight from your gallery, such as collages, recaps, AI restylings, and photo…

Remember when Google set fire to its search engine when it introduced what it calls “AI overviews”? Yeah, YouTube is bringing us its own take on the feature, the search giant announced in a blog post yesterday. It’s one of two AI features coming to the platform, except this time, Google is reserving it for its paying customers only. Can we pay YouTube to turn off AI for good? https://youtu.be/6COYibrEk54 Google tests AI overviews inside YouTube. Whether you’re keen to see the new AI Overviews implemented into YouTube search or are simply hoping to get in a room with the…

Mario Kart World has a lot riding on it. It’s the first new mainline Mario Kart released in over a decade, for one thing, but it’s one of only two Switch 2 exclusives Nintendo saw fit to drop alongside the new console itself. Not to mention the innovative new price tag of $80 (R1,530). Yeah, World needed to be big, both in terms of scale and from a consumer standpoint. It’s the Switch 2’s early life force. Fortunately, Nintendo hasn’t disappointed. It’s just a pity about that R1,530 price (R2,000 if you want the new and ugly box design) because Mario Kart World –…

In January of this year, Dying Light celebrated its tenth birthday. But don’t let that fool you; Dying Light is still going strong, despite its sequel only dropping three years back, and its standalone DLC, The Beast, launching in August. Even all these months later, the developers are still cooking, announcing a free audio and visual update for Dying Light. It’s called the Retouched Update. And it’s out today. Seeing Dying Light in a whole new… https://youtu.be/abQYwONaKgk To be clear, this isn’t a remaster. Developer Techland makes this clear in its most recent blog post announcing the update. This is still the same game you…

Go ahead, leave those car keys at home. Samsung, in a bid to catch up to functionality offered by its competition — like Google Wallet — has added the ability to store digital car keys for your shiny new Merc, allowing users to lock, unlock, and start their car remotely from inside the Samsung Wallet app. Samsung’s all keyed up This isn’t Samsung’s first go-around. It first provided these powers to other manufacturers a few years back, though South Africans weren’t able to join in on the fun. This new Mercedes-Benz utility, on the other hand, is available to any…

We’re only a few months away from that dreaded 14 October date, when Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10. Unless, of course, you’re willing to cough up the $30 for another year of purely security-related updates. Or at least, that was the plan. The company has backtracked on its original Extended Security Updates (ESU) plan somewhat, now offering customers the ability to grab another year of updates entirely for free. Kinda. There’s always a catch… Anyone deadset on sticking with Windows 10 on their personal computer until its bitter end (or they can’t quite make the jump to…