Author: Trent Meikle

WhatsApp, one of the world’s largest messengers, has always been big on data security and privacy. Which is odd, since, you know… Hey, we’re not complaining. This year alone, WhatsApp’s brought us plenty of security-focused additions and now it’s adding another to that lofty pile, according to WABetaInfo. Next up? Email verification.  Gone will be the days when users needed to rely on their cellphones to get into their WhatsApp accounts – wherever they are. Once the update goes live for everyone it’ll give users the choice of logging into their accounts through an email verification code, rather than requiring…

Meet Grok (no, not that one) The only thing people might dislike more than AI is Elon Musk. Naturally, then, it’s Elon Musk that’s bringing yet another large language model into this world. One that won’t judge you for asking it how to make a very specific white powder (for baking, guys).  Coming from behind the xAI doors is ‘Grok’ – a chatbot that aims to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard. It’s planning to do that with the backing of the world’s richest man, and a little bit of humour, too. xAI recommends that those checking out ‘Grok’ -…

To the average South African, Tecno is just another budget smartphone manufacturer, albeit a rather good one. That all changed tonight, 2 November, at Tecno’s grand unveiling of the Tecno Megabook T1 – a laptop that’s aimed at students and budget hunters alike. Those reading from foreign soil might not get why that’s such a big deal. Well, it’s the first time the brand has brought something along from its global catalogue. It’s also got a certain charm that we found difficult to ignore.   Aiming for Megabook domination The star of the show, the Megabook T1, is a laptop. But…

You’ve got a friend in me Instagram Ever wanted to build the perfect best friend? No? Well, Instagram is letting you do it anyway. All with the help of AI, of course. According to several screenshots shared by Alessandro Paluzzi (via TechCrunch), Instagram is developing an “AI friend” that’s designed to be as malleable as possible.  That means the AI friend can be moulded to each user’s liking. You’ll be tasked with deciding the bot’s age, ethnicity, and personality – all from the predetermined list of character traits Instagram’s got on offer. For instance, the AI friend can be “creative,”…

For anyone who hasn’t been keeping up with the news or, frankly, just hasn’t left the house much (we get it), you might’ve missed Sony’s announcement of a new, shinier PS5. Sony’s avidly dodging the ‘Slim’ sobriquet, but we’re still going to call a spade a spade. The ‘new’ PS5 is smaller, slimmer and hitting shelves just in time for the holiday season. It’s a PS5 Slim.  Knowing the name won’t do much for those people who can’t decide whether they should hang onto their ageing PS5 or head to the store when the rumoured 10 November release for the Slim…

It’s been a minute since Stuff last got to play around with something from TCL’s catalogue. That’s because TCL has been too busy cooking up a refreshed line-up of its C-series, specifically looking to satiate our appetites with the C745, a TV meant for gamers on a budget. Being avid members of both categories, we really wanted to like this one. And we did. A lot.   “Budget” might seem like a strong (or wrong) word when you look at the R12,000 (RRP) price, but when you compare it to something from under Samsung or LG’s auspices with similar specs, things…

Bless the101 down in Africa Rain’s been having a rather successful year so far. It’s closer than ever to bringing GeForce Now to the country, it’s keeping its own 4G network alive and it’s launching its own Rain-branded 5G router later this week. It’s dubbed ‘the101’ and it’s only available as part of the provider’s rainOne package.   It’s also massively overqualified for the job. The101 is packing 4×4 MIMO AX3600 wifi and chugs along on a MediaTek T750 platform, with a quad-core ARM CA55 processor to back it all up. 2GB of RAM and 32GB of NAND storage – all…

Community Notes take a hit Elon Musk, the billionaire who seemingly flushed away $25 billion in a year, is weaponizing X’s Community Notes feature after it offended him one too many times. Any tweet that’s got a Community Note affixed is no longer eligible for monetisation after Musk mentioned that X was making a “slight change” to its monetisation programme.   Oddly enough, the idea isn’t a terrible one. It’s just, as usual, Musk’s execution that hasn’t hit the spot. By turning off monetisation on posts that essentially need to be fact-checked, it’s seeking to curb the spread of misinformation cluttering…

It’s been a busy year for Apple. Not only did it get the world in a dither over its potentially game-changing Vision Pro headset before unleashing new iPhones onto the market a little over a month ago, but now it’s also got a slate of new Macs on the way. We think. We’ll only find out later today (technically tomorrow if you’re a biltong-eater) at Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event.  Until the 17:00 PT kick-off (02:00 on 31 October in South Africa), everything Apple is hearsay. Fortunately, most of that hearsay is coming from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, whose ‘Power On’ newsletter…

Rejoice! It took a while (alright, many whiles) but the country is finally reaping its reward for being so patient. No, we’re not seeing the end of load shedding. Nor are we seeing a return to a R10 per dollar exchange rate, but we’re getting warmer. How about we just tell you, yeah? Those in charge of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy have just published November’s petrol and diesel price updates and it’s good news for the country’s ever-rising fuel prices. According to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, prices for petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin will…