Author: Trent Meikle

The Nintendo Switch, like the wife in Pixar’s Up, has had a good, long (really long) life, but it’s time to move on – leaving room for a younger, fresher Nintendo Switch to breathe some life back into us, the consumer. That hasn’t happened yet, but Nintendo inches closer to an official announcement by the day. It has now mentioned the “Successor to the Nintendo Switch” on two separate occasions. The first was a tweet by Nintendo’s president Shuntaro Furukawa confirming an announcement was on the way, sometime before March 2025. Yesterday, Furukawa finally remembering his X.com password, returned to…

Sony PlayStation has finally loosened its grip on the PS5 Pro embargo, meaning that many videos unboxing the staggeringly expensive R19,500 console have hit the internet without reprimand. Digital Foundry has also obliged. This isn’t just about catching a first, proper glimpse of the still-hideous console, but about confirming those specs Sony was a bit hesitant to reveal in the build-up to its release. Real Pros read the manual https://youtu.be/xfUyi-Nfyuc As expected, the unboxing didn’t deliver many surprises. It still rocks up in the same white box Sony has used for years including HDMI and USB-C cables, and a single DualSense…

We’ve all done it. No matter how invested you may be in the third-season finale of Lost, life somehow gets in the way and the rest of the adventure falls away, forever. Getting back into the series is nigh impossible without a full-scale rewatch to clue you up on the intricacies being woven, but who has the time? Exactly. What you need is an X-Ray. Prime Video’s new AI feature aims to catch you up without the rewatch. No more excuses Called ‘X-Ray Recaps’, the idea is to use generative artificial intelligence to fill you in on whatever series you’re…

Did you know South Africa manufactures its own electric vehicles (EVs)? Sure, it’s one little company working out of Stellenbosch going by the name MellowVans, but still. It’s cool. Even if the so-called MellowVans are just fancier-looking tuk-tuks with an electric motor that’ll only go 130km on a single charge. What’s less cool is the company’s decision to partner with Itemate Solutions to “introduce an innovative mobile store solution tailored for telecommunications companies in Africa.” Essentially, MellowVans plans to partner with South African telcos – Telkom, MTN, etc. – to better help their sales through a ‘mobile storefront’. Is mobile…

A smarter, dumber Alexa It’s not just you. Amazon has taken an unusually long time to give its Alexa assistant the artificial intelligence (AI) treatment, despite its many competitors slathering their every product in the stuff. The delay is not by choice, according to a report from Bloomberg, which reckons the transition hasn’t gone quite as smoothly as Amazon had hoped. As such, the company’s planned rollout, which was scheduled for late 2024, has been pushed back to 2025, according to “a person familiar with the matter.” Amazon instead pivoted to a quieter, softer launch that involved the announcement of…

It’s that time of the month again, folks. Except this time, we don’t have any good news to share, contrary to the past couple of months. In fact, the news we do have to share is all bad, with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) publishing the official petrol and diesel prices (via the Central Energy Fund) earlier this morning, announcing a (minor) price hike across the board. Bad news for petrol and diesel drivers Fortunately, this doesn’t match the R1+ price hikes South Africans have felt before. The DMRE has kept the figures relatively tame this month, despite…

It may only be the first of November, but Samsung isn’t messing about where Black Friday is concerned. Traditionally, stores save their best deals until the last Friday of the month but South Africa does things a little differently. Samsung unveiled its catalogue of Black Friday deals earlier today, which run from today until Monday, 2 December. Is that all you got? “This year, the tech giant is rolling out the red carpet for South Africans, and redefining the Black Friday narrative as an opportunity for every shopper to become the leading character in their own shopping story,” Samsung South…

Because Google can’t simply backtrack on the artificial intelligence (AI) hype, we’re the ones who have to suffer so Google’s line can go up. This time, it’s Google Maps’ turn to receive the AI treatment, supposedly employed to help its users find more places to visit. More so than the literal GPS, we mean. It’s doing so by adding more than 150 new explorable cities to Immersive View, and a revitalised search that’ll give Google’s Gemini AI something to do. Just search whatever you’re looking for – using natural language, of course, like “places with a vintage vibe in SF” –…

Despite being the main selling point of the iPhone 16 and iOS 18 as a whole, it’s taken Apple over a month to get Apple Intelligence into the hands of users through the recent iOS 18.1 / iPadOS 18.1 / macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates. And yet, it’s still incomplete, with plans to roll out the entire suite of AI features as late as December. No matter. This small taste of the Apple Intelligence lifestyle is enough to pass judgement. We’ve spent the past couple of days messing about with Apple Intelligence on an M2 iPad Air, getting a feel for…

This is it folks. Months of speculation have led up to this point – this very week, this very day. All for it to culminate in Nintendo coming out of the woodwork to announce the… Nintendo Music app? That’s not a joke, either. Nintendo, supposedly on the cusp of revealing a successor to the wildly popular Switch has unveiled a mobile streaming app, unlocking The Legend of Zelda, Mario, and Wii Shop tunes for iOS and Android. Nintendo Music to get you in a Switch 2 mood https://youtu.be/DQ5EeImWYaI This is Nintendo, so of course, there’s a fee involved. Only those subscribed…