Author: Trent Meikle

If we can’t escape the continually expanding AI headlines, then neither can you. This time, at least, it’s YouTube getting involved in 2023’s keyword and actually using it for some good. With the help of Aloud – a company that specializes in AI-powered dubbing and pulled from Google’s Area 120 incubator –  the platform is turning its talents to helping creators to dub their videos in other languages, YouTube announced on Thursday, according to The Verge. Me gusta y suscríbete The idea is a stroke of brilliance from YouTube. While the platform’s larger creators such as Mr. Beast already pay…

We’d forgive you not for knowing that there was a Nintendo Direct yesterday. Which Nintendo Direct, you ask? That’s our point exactly. Nintendo announced on Tuesday that it was their turn to show off what’s coming to the Switch, now that PlayStation, Xbox, and Geoff Keighley have had their fun. The Direct wasn’t particularly long, taking up just over forty minutes in total. But, despite Tears of the Kingdom’s continually expanding reach,  Nintendo’s event wasn’t totally devoid of new content. The presentation was a mix of both old and new. Did that mix bring us any news of a port…

If you thought your job was safe from the grasping hands of AI, think again. Especially if that job involves being a commentator for the upcoming Wimbledon Tennis Championships highlights taking place later this year. If, for some reason, that applies to you… maybe a chat with your boss is in order. In what appears to be a first in the professional history of the sport, the higher-ups are employing a generative AI model to commentate on all of the tournament’s video highlights. As the sport of tennis’ least-interested fans, we’re not all too fussed at the idea of artificially-generated…

After Microsoft’s recent announcement of a more expansive, and if we’re honest, sexier Xbox Series S, we weren’t expecting another update from the company quite so soon. Unfortunately, the news isn’t as joyful as the previous lot. In a recent statement to The Verge, Xbox announced that it would be hiking the prices of the Xbox Series X – its flagship console – in most countries alongside a price hike for the company’s Game Pass subscription. Yup, that means South Africa must bear witness (and bare their wallets) to the coming onslaught of hikes. Take a hike Perhaps ‘onslaught’ is…

Remember 2021? South Africa was still in lockdown; we were an entire Fast and Furious movie behind and Spotify said that it would add HiFi audio to its platform before the year had ended. Two years on, and Spotify’s ‘HiFi’ audio is nowhere to be seen. Unless you’re looking at Apple Music or Tidal, both of which have since added lossless streaming to their platforms at no extra charge. “Supremium”, really? Fortunately, Spotify’s own take on lossless streaming might finally be on the way, according to a Bloomberg report. A little later than expected, sure, but on the way all…

Suzuki’s all-new Grand Vitara has hit South Africa’s shores, bringing with it a chance for Stuff to sample the automaker’s new flagship model; the 1.5 GLX 6AT AllGrip Hybrid. As the name suggests, this is an all-wheel driver, with Hybrid functionality to boot, making it a real machine on the offroad. We would know. Stuff set off through torrential rain in George, in the Western Cape, through long stretches of muddy track and possibly the most dangerous of South Africa’s hazards — plain-old concrete roads, potholes and all. Yeah, we gave it a proper test. Before going any further, there’s no skirting…

WhatsApp’s got another update on the way, this time choosing to focus on privacy in a big way. There are actually two new features to dive into, the first being a way for users to automatically silence spam calls, and something entirely new known as ‘Privacy Checkup’. According to the Meta-owned company’s announcement, protecting its user’s privacy “remains the driving force behind what we’re building at WhatsApp.” Yeah. Okay. Spam, be gone! Lawsuits aside, we’ve been keen to test the update’s spam call blocker since it was unearthed in the app’s beta program a few months ago. Dubbed ‘Silence Unknown…

As if the countless Transformers movies or James Cameron’s series surrounding this eerie topic weren’t warning enough, Mecedes-Benz is bringing ChatGPT voice controls to its cars. The AI chatbot has slowly wended its way into every nook and cranny of our lives; our PCs, smartphones, news, film, and finally, motor vehicles. At least it’s not our vehicles. Not yet. Mercedes’ first test is limited to the US, though we don’t expect that to remain the case forever. Exhausting  The idea, obviously, is to improve the brand’s current ‘Hey Mercedes’ assistant, or as Mercedes puts it; make it “even more intuitive.” The…

Somehow, we’re already in June. The middle of June to be specific, which means we’re just over two weeks away from the Department of Energy’s official decision that’ll determine the fate of the country’s petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin prices in July. Fortunately, we don’t need the Department of Energy to get some sort of idea of where those prices are headed in the here and now. That’s a job for the Central Energy Fund (CEF), with its latest predictions pointing towards a (slight) drop in petrol prices. Diesel, on the other hand… Good news for petrol drivers Before we…

NASA’s got a plan NASA is erring on the side of private lately, with the recent announcement that it would be making numerous Space Act Agreements with seven of the world’s largest private space companies – all in the name of space discovery and the “U.S commercial low Earth orbit economy”, of course. If that sounded sarcastic, it wasn’t. That’s because these agreements are unfunded – meaning no unnecessary money enters the wrong pockets – we’re a little more inclined to believe them. Though no money is being exchanged, NASA is instead offering up its exceptional wealth of knowledge, plus…