Author: Trent Meikle

“Who’s a good bot? You are!” Responding to feedback, Twitter will enable a light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2023 It’s been less than a week since Elon Musk locked Twitter’s API behind a paywall and, as ever, Musk has once again moved the goalposts, stating that bots providing “good content” will be allowed to stay. Eligible bots (according to who?) will have access to a “light, write-only” API instead of paying the $100/m fee that was initially discussed. At the time, Musk justified the company’s stance by claiming…

We’re almost there, just a couple more hours until the first month of 2023 is over. Usually, we’d feel better about that – what with our bank accounts feeling somewhat happier than they did over the Christmas break. But we’re not so happy. After what was a beautiful start to the year with an R2+ decrease in prices, the Department of Energy is back to its old ways. We’re officially getting another petrol and diesel price increase. So, while the day is still young, quickly head out to the nearest petrol station and fill up. Or, if you can stomach…

Fidelity ADT, a security company in South Africa is pairing up with Vumacam to launch a R60 million SafeCity initiative that’ll see around 1,850 new (and functioning) security cameras spread across Joburg. 350 of these are being installed in areas that have never had cameras security before. So, if you’ve got a specific destination in mind where all your dodgy dealings go down, you might want to avoid heading back there for a while. At least until all the cameras are either stolen or stop working. Next Friday should work. Joburg is watching Through the SafeCity initiative, the 7,000 already-installed…

It’s not often that the world sees a laptop that isn’t trying to do one of two things; unlock some hitherto unknown sensitivity towards flashing lights or pierce its new owner’s skin with its sharpened edges. That’s (more or less) what you get with the latest gaming laptops, though more and more ‘business-centric’ brands have begun swaying their design teams towards whatever they think is the ‘new look’. Dell is different. It has no issues releasing a clean, yet still plain-looking laptop. It proved as much with the Inspiron 16 5620. It would much rather just let the internals speak…

Like the beginning of every zombie film, South Africa is considering calling for a national state of disaster. The only difference? Ours isn’t for anything nearly as cool as zombies. Our predicament involves Eskom, which is somehow far more depressing. You know, what with the constant bouts of load shedding that are crumbling the economy? Not so natural Whether the country meets the criteria needed to officially declare a state of disaster is still being explored said President Cyril Ramaphosa at the African National Congress strategy meeting on Monday. The last time South Africa fit the bill was just over…

For years, PlayStation Plus was the service every PlayStation owner had to have in order to play most of their games online. It didn’t cost much and had the bonus of offering up two or three “free” games each month. Whatever your thoughts were, it was a decent service – even when PlayStation decided that giving its subscribers Tennis World Tour 2 was a good idea. Last year saw the service change (almost) entirely. In an effort to try and match Xbox’s wildly successful GamePass, PlayStation split its PS Plus service into three tiers. The first – Essential – was…

Apple – the first company to ever be worth more than $3 trillion (yes, with a ‘T’) – has plans to officially raise the prices on the App Store in several countries. Unfortunately, South Africa is one of those unlucky countries, joining the UK, Colombia, Egypt, Hungary, Nigeria and Norway. Hooray. First petrol, and now the App Store? According to a note sent out by Apple to developers, the increased prices are set to come into effect on 13 February 2023. Here’s a full list of the updated prices on the Apple Developer site (see page 8 for SA). While…

“We’re just going for a walk” This Thursday, 2 February, two astronauts currently residing on the International Space Station (ISS) are planning a trip into the void, leaving the comfort of their ‘home’. The plan is simple. Spacewalk out to the exterior of the ISS and (hopefully) finish the job that’ll eventually allow future astronauts to upgrade the station’s power system. The astronauts in question are Nicole Mann (NASA) and Koichi Wakata (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). This is the pair’s second spacewalk together. Less than a month ago, the duo began work on installing new exterior struts on the ISS…

Do you remember Stuff’s last February petrol and diesel price prediction? We signed off rather hopeful that there wouldn’t be any way for anything to drastically change the upcoming petrol and diesel prices. Well… we’ve learned a valuable lesson about underestimating South Africa. According to data captured by the Central Energy Fund (CEF) on 20 January, the country was expecting an increase of around 25c/l in the petrol department and a 5c/l increase for diesel drivers. New data from the CEF has surfaced – captured on 25 January – slating the country for an increase of double what was predicted…

The launch of Amazon’s marketplace within South Africa has been pushed back, according to a “well-placed” source who spoke with Daily Investor. Jeff Bezos’ empire was initially meant to expand sometime next month, though it seems that date has been pushed back to the end of 2023. Just in time for that Christmas push, huh? We have Amazon at home Despite having already secured warehouse space and agreeing to terms with South African courier companies and fast-moving consumer goods retailers, the company is slowing the rollout until Q3 or Q4 at the latest. It’s possible that the constant threat of…