Author: Trent Meikle

If you live in South Africa and can’t be bothered to pay those kings of the streaming world every month, you’re left with very little choice to keep your TV’s pixels moving at night. Unless you’re playing a real-life version of Sea of Thieves, you’ll have to make do with the basics like SABC+, RugbyPass TV, or Freevision Play — a brand-new (and free) streaming service catering for South Africans unveiled yesterday. Coming from Sentech, a state-owned broadcasting company, Freevision Play is described as a “ground-breaking over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platform,” that offers a “wide array of local and community…

If you’ve already pre-ordered Microsoft’s newly-announced Copilot+ AI PCs, the first of which are set to launch next week, just to get your hands on the company’s Recall feature then we’ve got some bad news. Microsoft is reconsidering the feature’s public rollout, citing a desire to provide a “trusted, secure and robust experience for all customers.” Who could’ve guessed customers weren’t too fond of the numerous security risks? Those Copilot+ PCs are still launching next week, 18 June, only with one of its key features missing. “We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the…

Netflix does live shows now, didn’t you know? So far, though, it’s focussed all its energy and money, not on live sports streaming, but on frankly odd spectacles bound to attract eyeballs. There was the Netflix Cup, the Slam, and the mockery of a boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson lined up for November, and now… there’s no way around this – Netflix is putting on a live hotdog-eating competition. We won’t pretend we’re not above it all. When the big day comes in September, we’ll be grabbing the popcorn and plopping ourselves down on the couch to…

Samsung is bringing a whole new meaning to the term ‘smart shoes’. Where other people see shoes they’ll wear once out of fear of dirtying them, Samsung sees the ‘Shortcut Sneakers’ — a limited edition pair of tekkies that’ll queue up your playlist or answer a call from Mom with a Wizard of Oz tap of the heels. Where do we sign up? In the Netherlands, apparently. See, Samsung hasn’t gone through a mid-life crisis just yet. It is still making and selling smartphones and TVs, but it’s getting into the shoe business because… it can. The Shortcut Sneaker, according to…

Ladies and gentlemen, a new era has dawned. At Samsung South Africa’s Unbox & Discover event in Johannesburg this afternoon, the South Korean outfit took the wrapper off some shiny AI-touting TVs that you can already pre-order on Samsung South Africa’s website (if your wallet can handle them). Wondering what Samsung is so riled up about? Upscaling. You know, giving a bump to the visual fidelity of your content, even if there isn’t much to work with, quality-wise. Specifically, though, it’s the NQ8 AI Gen 3 and Gen 2 processors handling all the upscaling that’s got Samsung all hot and…

Today, Wednesday 12 June, saw Acer Africa’s Ignite showcase go live in Johannesburg, where media were given the chance to experience the company’s incoming products firsthand and get an idea of where the brand is headed. Surprisingly, it’s headed to a factor in Boksburg to begin manufacturing its monitors locally, according to a report from Hyptertext.  Acer isn’t interested in doxxing the facility right now, so it’s keeping the exact name and location of the factory under wraps for the time being. But it did confirm that manufacturing was set to begin sometime in July, where it’ll be receiving necessary parts…

If you’re wondering why that full tank of petrol cost you just a little bit less this week, it all has to do with the country’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy decreasing South Africa’s petrol and diesel prices by a whopping R1+ — something it hasn’t managed since January of this year. Now, it’s looking to replicate the feat by the time July rolls around. That’s according to a fresh crop of predictions coming from the Central Energy Fund (CEF), foretelling yet another R1+ drop in prices for both grades of petrol. Should the CEF’s predictions hold until the…

We’ve spent the better part of three years waiting for Spotify to get its act together and deliver on its promise of hi-res audio — announced in February 2021 — and it looks like the streamer is finally following through… for a price. According to “a person familiar with the plan,” speaking with Bloomberg, Spotify’s plan involves an extra $5/m and a keen prayer that customers won’t remember Apple Music already added lossless audio in 2021. Worth the wait? Spotify ‘HiFi’ is reaching mythical status at this point. In April, Reddit users noticed a couple of strings of code buried deep in…

It’s all Apple Intelligence this, Apple Intelligence that… The Fruit Company did not work all year on features like customisable home screens (we’re not joking) and a whole lot more, for them to be immediately forgotten after they were announced at last night’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). That’s why we’re here. To keep the memory of the newly announced macOS Sequoia alive. Hidden among all the usual AI-powered features headed macOS’ way, there are a couple of decently useful features we’re keen to test out. We don’t get to play right away, however. Developers still need time with the beta…

Like clockwork, Apple has officially brought iOS 18 to life at its Worldwide Developer’s Conference 2024 (WWDC). Arguably the biggest reveal was the unveiling of Apple Intelligence (how could we shorten that?) or the flashy iPadOS 18 reveal of a native calculator app, and yet here we are, discussing the biggest changes hitting your iPhone in the next couple of months. Unless you’re a developer, that is. Apple has put out a private iOS 18 beta to get app makers caught up to speed ahead of the global rollout, currently pencilled to release around the time the iPhone 16 hits…