Author: Trent Meikle

If you thought AI wearables had been buried in 2024, we’ve got some bad news. Amazon’s next step in the AI game isn’t focusing on something it generated in-house, but rather an acquisition of a startup by the name of Bee. Or at least, that’s the plan. Amazon noted that the deal was yet to close, though an apparently premature LinkedIn post from the startup’s founder, Maria de Lourdes Zollo, suggests otherwise. “When we started Bee, we imagined a world where AI is truly personal, where your life is understood and enhanced by technology that learns with you. What began…

It’s slowly becoming more and more common for cars to be kitted out with increasingly average AI features, but at least the guy selling you your car is free from AI, right? Right? Apparently not, assuming the guy who sold you your car works at WeBuyCars, which recently announced it had integrated not one, but two AI tools into its platform, which it believes to be a “cornerstone of its future growth”. “We” BuyCars WeBuyCars has at least dubbed its LLM tools decidedly non-human names like “Orange” and “Blue”, which should avoid potential emotional hardship should the company ever decide to…

With only a little over two weeks to go until the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) adjusts the country’s petrol and diesel prices, the Central Energy Fund (CEF) has some good and bad news about the fuel prices that await us this August. As regular Stuff readers might know, petrol drivers will likely be treated to a petrol price cut this August, while diesel drivers will be forced to contend with a major price hike. In for a rough one for diesel drivers this August It’s worth noting that the CEF’s predictions are not set in stone, and subject to…

It must be difficult to be crowned the best mobile network in South Africa time and time again, not to mention being the go-to infrastructure provider for every new MVNO that has cropped up around the country. In order to keep up, MTN SA has announced a huge R300 million investment to upgrade its infrastructure across Gauteng. R300 million is a drop in the bucket when compared to MTN’s total R4.5 billion spend planned for all of South Africa in 2025. Of that investment will come the acquisition and construction of new base stations around SA, alongside “operational improvements,” and…

ChatGPT agent has arrived to take over your whole workflow… slowly Agentic AI is all the rage of the moment in the world of artificial intelligence, and now OpenAI, the default face of the technology, has finally caught up with something it calls ChatGPT agent. Using a computer of its own, ChatGPT agent can be tasked to complete tasks you’d rather avoid, like ordering cupcakes or planning and buying the ingredients necessary to whip up a Japanese-style breakfast for four. “ChatGPT will intelligently navigate websites, filter results, prompt you to log in securely when needed, run code, conduct analysis, and…

Video game adaptations are all the rage right now, whether it’s HBO’s The Last of Us or Amazon’s Fallout series. Netflix is hoping to cash in on that cash cow (assuming you ignore Arcane) and finally put that Ubisoft partnership to good use. The streamer has officially greenlit an Assassin’s Creed live-action adaptation for the small screen. Because that worked out for Ubisoft and Michael Fassbender so well last time, right? Just skip right to the good stuff, yeah? Snark aside, there’s a small shot this one will turn out to be good. That won’t factor into Netflix’s decision to cancel it mid-way through, but still. It’s…

There’s a good chance that most South Africans were going to skip Netflix’s The Eternaut this weekend, largely due to the series’ Argentine origins, requiring subtitles or a dub (ew) to get invested. But after Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed that the series was the first to use entirely AI-generated VFX shots to save money during production, we’re guessing public interest will continue to dip. Or, it’ll skyrocket. People are weird. Only the beginning of the end Worse yet, Sarandos said that he was “thrilled” with the final result, which involved the collapse of the building, a sequence that the CEO claims…

Despite the government’s planned shutdown of the 2G and 3G spectrums, thousands of South Africans are still stuck on those decrepit 2G devices, denying them access to the flourishing and increasingly essential digital landscape. To help combat this, Vodacom is helping “preselected prepaid customers” upgrade their 2G smartphone to a modern 4G one for only R67, in honour of former President Nelson Mandela’s birthday. That’s, like, 134 chappies, man The programme, which kicked off today, will only be available in select Vodacom stores dotted around KwaZulu-Natal before expanding to Mpumalanga and Limpopo. The company doesn’t list which stores are included…

This August, Google will officially end support for its Chrome browser on older Macs, particularly those still running macOS 11, or Big Sur, meaning it’s time to either get with the program or deal with the consequences. Fortunately, those don’t seem all that dire — if you aren’t concerned about security, of course. Still climbing Big Sur? The latest version of Chrome, Chrome 138, is the last to properly support Big Sur, before the browser switches over to Chrome 139. The company will release the first early stable update on 30 July, expanding to a proper stable release on 5…

While the Nintendo Switch 2 is still technically in its infancy, it doesn’t look it, given how quickly third-party accessory-makers have stepped up to the plate. One of those is Retro Fighters, makers of the BattlerGC Pro, which still makes a case for being your go-to Switch 2 Smash Bros. controller. That’s in the past, now. We’re more interested in the company’s new BattleDock adapter, preying playing on our love for the Nintendo GameCube. And the original GameCube controller, if we’re honest. We’ve got no issues with Nintendo’s more modern controllers, but there’s just something special about that original form, slathered…