Author: Trent Meikle

Twitter… on Instagram *applause* Meta’s been briefing creators on it’s upcoming text-based app — now looking at a possible late June launch. Details are in my newsletter but I’ll list some highlights 🧵 pic.twitter.com/KYqqXjrRmD — Lia Haberman (@liahaberman) May 19, 2023 As weird as using Elon Musk’s Twitter has become, there’s still no real substitute for the real thing. Sure, Mastodon and Bluesky are chugging along, though with far fewer users to make the platforms interesting enough to actually use. Meta is attempting to make use of the ensuing chaos, with rumours of Facebook’s parent company planning a launch of…

OpenAI has unveiled ChatGPT on iOS, with a free app hitting the App Store today for both iPhone and iPad. There is news of an Android release too with OpenAI confirming that a release is coming “soon”. Uh, thanks. We’ll keep an eye out next time ‘soon’ rolls around. Welcome to ChatGPT A mobile version of ChatGPT has certainly come as a surprise. There was  no mention of a mobile port even being hinted at until today. But anyone with a brain (and an internet connection) could see that some form of mobile integration was on the way. Well, here…

Okay, seriously. Did the world need another Mortal Kombat? The answer is yes. Yes, it does. Especially one that’s making full use of the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC, and… the Switch’s power? Yeah, that should work out just fine. Lucky for us, that’s exactly what’s happening. NetherRealm Studios has announced Mortal Kombat 1. No, that’s not a typo. This isn’t just another Mortal Kombat continuing where Mortal Kombat 11 left off. This is Mortal Kombat 1 – a soft reboot of the series that places Liu Kang in the heavens in the form of a God. We think.…

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is an entirely new phone. It just… doesn’t look like it. Stuff always knew it was going to be good. The question is: how good? The 14 Pro Max is better than its 2021 counterpart, though only just. If it weren’t for Apple’s new Dynamic Island or 48MP shooter, the decision would be far more clear-cut. That’s not a knock against Apple. It’s quite the opposite. Anyone that knows Apple expects their smartphones to enter the realm of ‘overkill’ thanks to their hefty metallic bodies, excellent displays and (arguably) the best cameras on the market.…

In a move that we’re surprised Fortnite didn’t do first, Nicolas Cage is stepping into Dead by Daylight – beard, slicked-back hair and all. Cage is set to reprise his role as… well, himself, taking on the role of a survivor in the survival horror game. Because of course he is. According to developers Behavior Interactive, “It’s the performance of a lifetime,” as if that was a surprise to anybody. Does it say more about us, or Cage, that we automatically assumed he’d be a killer? The crossover over we didn’t know we needed It’s the performance of a lifetime.…

The illustrious man-of-wings, also known as Michael Keaton, is returning to the stiff-necked cowl of Batman in Ezra Miller’s The Flash. We… and we cannot stress this enough, do not care about the Flash. We do care about Keaton’s third “return” as the Batman, in the form of Lego’s Batcave Shadowbox, partly based on the 1992 film; Batman Returns. The Lego Batcave Shadowbox’s name wasn’t chosen solely because it sounds cool. That was just a happy accident. It got its name because it’s a Lego set that’s designed to be played with and sit on your shelf. How that equates…

WhatsApp’s been on a bit of a roll lately when it comes to shipping out updates. That tradition continues with the latest addition – Chat Lock. The point, as you’ve probably already figured out, is to keep a specific chat (or as Meta puts it: “extra special chat”)  hidden behind a password, pin or fingerprint. Banish them to the shadow realm And for once, we’re talking about a feature that’s definitely coming, rather than some in-the-works beta feature spotted by WABetaInfo. Mark Zuckerberg announced the feature yesterday, along with the accompanying blog post. We also know when it’ll be arriving…

Has anything ever felt more counterintuitive than using electric cars, in South Africa, in 2023? Not really. Yet, we love them anyway. Enter the Ora Funky Cat, from Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors (GWM), as South Africa’s cheapest electric car. Despite the country’s ongoing issues where electricity is concerned, going the electric avenue counters our next big issue – the absurdly high petrol prices. The car will simply be known as the GWM Ora in SA (thankfully) and will be joined by the GWM Tank, with both being shown off at the Nampo Harvest Day this week (16 – 19…

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has arrived. And… It’s a game-changer. We mean that both literally and figuratively, with our ten-plus hours of playtime (occasionally interrupted by the Mother’s Day festivities and that power crisis we’re facing) confirming that Tears of the Kingdom is about as far removed from being Breath of the Wild DLC as anything could be. Our aim here is to assuage the fears of folks that see this as an overhyped, overpriced Nintendo cash grab following Breath of the Wild’s success. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, Breath of the Wild’s…

Netflix is saving $300 million in 2023 Oh, Netflix. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, we see a report from The Wall Street Journal that suggests the big red N is planning to cut its annual spending by around $300 million in 2023. It’s not as bad as it sounds – Netflix isn’t cutting down on content (it already did that). According to people close to the matter, the streamer is cutting costs due to its continually delayed password crackdown that was due to hit in the first quarter of 2023. Netflix’s password shakedown is still set…