Author: Trent Meikle

There are all sorts of unusual wearables designed to track a variety of sports metrics and bodily functions, from something as simple as a smartwatch to smart socks and even some yoga pants. Now, smart mouthguards are the next big thing for heavily physical sports, and World Rugby is bringing them into the mainstream. Rugby tournaments already enforce non-smart mouthguards to help prevent damage to the teeth and mouth lacerations but won’t do much for a head injury. World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, has announced that it’ll be introducing smart mouthguards that can detect head impacts and high acceleration,…

DDoS for the lose One of the largest DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks ever just happened and, like most of the record-breaking attacks we’ve seen in the past few years, it was Google Cloud leading the charge to get it shut down. In its announcement, Google alerted the world to a flaw that could make another DDoS attack on this scale successful in the future. The attack saw a peak of over 398 million requests per second (RPS), an attack that’s 7.5 times larger than the last big DDoS that took place in August this year. “For a sense of scale,…

If you’ve been paying attention to WhatsApp’s updates over the past year, you’re probably aware of Locked Chats – the app’s answer to hipsters, cheaters, or those who are a little too paranoid. WhatsApp followed it up with an update that would station some extra security outside the chats in the form of biometric credentials, PINs or passwords. Great, right? Wrong. The change only allowed users to use their devices’s local PINs or passwords, turning away anyone looking for something a bit more personal to WhatsApp. It only took four months, but WhatsApp finally got around to custom passwords. At least,…

Can you remember the last time the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy gave South African drivers a break from the ever-rising cost of petrol? That would be July if your brain doesn’t go that far back. And that’s just petrol. Diesel drivers last saw a drop in June. Well, that might change next month. Petrol on your mind? That’s if the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) figures are correct (and they usually are). The CEF regularly makes predictions on the coming month’s fuel prices by looking at the current price of refined oil and the Rand/US Dollar exchange. Now, it’s…

PS5 Slim After months of rumours that all but confirmed the existence of a slimmer, refreshed PS5, Sony has finally made the new console official. Oddly enough, Sony’s left off the ‘Slim’ moniker that it usually affixes to its refreshed consoles – despite it bringing a (slightly) smaller stature to the party. The new PS5 comes with a 1TB SSD (seriously, not even 2TB?), a 30% size reduction, and a 24% cut to the original’s weight. The big change here is the loss of the built-in disc drive, meaning players will have to buy a detachable UHD Blu-ray Disc Drive…

Living in the X echo chamber In another turn of events for X under Elon Musk’s reign, the platform is adding a new control that’ll let users block replies from unverified accounts – also known as non-paying members. Surprisingly, the ‘feature’ isn’t limited to X Premium subscribers and will allow unverified users to block other unverified replies. The idea is simple – allow paying members to feel superior and avoid any humiliation for the simple fact that they paid R1,700/year for a blue tick. It might even convince a couple of those sitting on the fence, potentially helping to pull…

OpenAI’s own chips OpenAI, the company best known for its ChatGPT LLM, is reportedly considering stepping into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) chip production, according to Reuters, which has sources close to the matter. It’s even gone as far as considering a potential acquisition that’ll make that reality a little more attainable. These discussions have supposedly been on the table since last year at least, though OpenAI hasn’t taken the plunge just yet. If the reports are true, CEO Sam Altman has made acquiring more chips a top priority within the company, having previously blamed the lack of GPU…

Steam Deck 1.5 In a world filled with Steam Decks, ROG Allys, and Logitech G Clouds, it’s only a matter of time before one of those handhelds gets a 2 affixed to their name. It looks like Valve, which kicked off the mini-PC hype back in 2022, will be the first to mark the occasion sometime in 2025 according to Steam Deck developer Pierre-Loup Griffais. That doesn’t mean we won’t be seeing a refreshed Steam Deck before then. This is apparently the plan at Valve HQ. The first hint of a new Steam Deck came when a mystery device by…

No more headlines on X When it comes to Elon Musk’s X, the last thing we care about is aesthetics. We’re there to keep tabs on his daily shitposts and let our audience know when we publish articles (which you can follow here) – that’s about it. In a move that nobody asked for, Musk has removed headlines and snippets from links posted to the platform, following through on a promise he made back in August. The idea, apparently, is to make the platform’s home page look a little cleaner and potentially lessen some instances of clickbait, forcing articles to…

Having just recently spent months in the company of the Honor 90, we’re open to pretty much anything the Chinese brand throws South Africa’s way – especially when the devices they’re pushing cost less than R3,500. That’s the deal Honor is promising with its latest two devices, the X6a and X5 Plus – budget devices that’ll set you back R3,300 and R2,700 respectively. Code of Honor A good price isn’t all that’s important in a smartphone. It’s got to be capable of the basics: making phone calls, receiving messages and, most importantly, booting up Clash of Clans. Fortunately, Honor’s chosen…