Author: Trent Meikle

Normally we’d get the ball rolling on one of these things with a snide joke, mocking WhatsApp’s light-fingered contempt for Telegram’s features. Since Telegram is the one cribbing WhatsApp’s Business notes, that isn’t possible. Oh, right. Telegram is finally adding the option to turn your profile into a business one — unlocking access to business-centric features appropriate for business owners. There’s just one catch. It’ll cost you. Blink and you’ll miss it but stuck right in the bottom of Telegram’s announcement is the caveat that Business is reserved for its R60/m paying Premium users. There are ways to get one…

Ford’s presence throughout South Africa cannot be understated. Any oke that knows how to put together a good braai is likely rocking a Ford Ranger, while the richer lot are all picking up Ranger Raptors. And don’t forget how common it is to see an Everest cruising the streets nowadays. You get the idea. South Africa loves Ford. It suddenly makes the company’s furious desire to keep pumping the market with newer models much more understandable. Ford is popular everywhere, so keeping up with demand is key. According to the company, it’s figured out a way to massively speed up…

What’s worse than the end of a long weekend? How about a fuel price increase? Anyone with a functioning tone sensor can guess we aren’t in the best of moods, and it’s all thanks to the Department’s third fuel price increase for South African motorists in a row. Only petrol drivers and a small set of diesel drivers will be forced to bear the brunt of tomorrow’s nearly 70c/l increase. The rest of the country’s diesel drivers, those living along the coast, should have an easier time of it tomorrow with a minor 2c/l decrease. The Department’s changes will be…

Anyone who’s played The Witness has probably cheated their way through a section or two. We won’t judge — anything coming out of Jonathan Blow’s mind automatically gets a pass. But if you’re using a PlayStation 5, there’s a simpler way: Game Help. It’s a collection of tips and tricks baked right into the console. It’s being expanded (and renamed) to ‘Community Game Help’ where it will crowdsource gamers’ gameplay. Would your ancestors be proud? Don’t fret, PlayStation won’t get hold of your abysmal Rocket League gameplay without your OK first. Community Game Help is an opt-in experience that will automatically record…

Dread it. Run from it. Google’s AI will arrive all the same. And now it’s here. The search giant has, perhaps unsurprisingly, retrofitted Google Search with artificially intelligent results, generating a summary of your search and essentially bypassing the traditional trove of links you’d normally find up top. Ads on the other hand… This isn’t exactly new. Google first announced what it calls the Search Generative Experience (SGE) in 2023 offering exactly what we’re describing — AI-powered Search results. The only difference? SGE is no longer an opt-in-only sort of deal. It’s more of a ‘if you want to keep…

Are you tired of companies stuffing AI into their products wherever possible? Well, would you mind suspending that weariness until the end of this article, please? We only ask because WhatsApp is doing exactly that: stuffing more AI into its messenger. That’s according to WABetaInfo, who reckons the beta for Android 2.24.7.13 update will come stocked with a new AI-powered image editor, allowing users to zhuzh up their images before sending them on their way. That’s quite a large addition — unless you’re already wielding something from Samsung’s 2024 AI-touting catalogue. And in less interesting news, WABetaInfo also made note of another feature…

Snapdragon in my pocket If you aren’t punting AI at every turn, can you even call yourself a successful company in 2024? We’re being hyperbolic, but we’re also… not. Artificial intelligence is turning up everywhere and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 SoC is living proof, with plans to infect the next wave of mid-rangers with 2023’s favourite buzzword. Following the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 revealed last year, the SD 7+ Gen 3 focuses on enhanced photography abilities, improved gaming and a wider net for AI model support. With onboard AI processing, it allows for speedier and more sophisticated…

Ever wondered why WhatsApp only lets users pin a single message per chat? Us too. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter much now. The Meta-owned messenger announced yesterday that it was refreshing the feature, finally allowing for more pins in a single chat. Three is the new magic number, according to Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp’s official Channels. If you’re still new to the idea of pinning messages, a feature that dropped near the end of 2023, it’s simple. Users can pin any message — regular text, images, polls — and have it appear at the top of the chat so that it…

If you haven’t heard the news, there’s a ‘new’ PS5 in town. The “Slim” as it’s known to everyone but Sony is landing on South Africa’s shelves in April — and the country’s local distributor is looking to shift some of the old stock to make room, ironically, for the slimmer console. It hasn’t said as much, but Koodoo’s mega PS5 sale, launched at midnight, was all the confirmation we needed. It’s worth remembering that the PS5 Slim doesn’t offer any sort of technical upgrade to the original PS5’s hardware. It’s purely a cosmetic upgrade — meaning if you can stomach…

It’s rare to be on the receiving end of a South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) headline without groaning out loud. This is one of those golden moments. It’s finally booting out some of the older content (or shuffling it around, at least) to make room for a new two-hour content slot on SABC 3 and filling it with shows from BBC Studios. That isn’t some eTV after-hours showing you might remember from your youth. We’re talking about real television from the UK’s own British Broadcasting Commission — you know, the folks that got the original The Office greenlit along with the…