Author: Trent Meikle

It’s been a lively couple of months for South Africa’s largest broadcaster, MultiChoice. Not only did it recently helm the relaunch of Showmax following a partnership that saw the broadcaster come together with Sky and NBCUniversal, but it’s also been fending off a buyout attempt from French media group Canal+ for the past month. After it brushed off Canal+’s initial R105/share buyout offer at the beginning of February, MultiChoice said that it felt the group had severely undervalued it. We’ve got to admit, it’s got a point what with the sports stranglehold it currently has. Canal+ has since returned, according…

Acer reckons “owning a laptop isn’t just a convenience – it’s a necessity.” Of course Acer would say that, it’s just launched a brand-new laptop and they aren’t going to buy themselves. But it does also have a point — owning a laptop has become a necessary crutch for most students and “young professionals” as Acer calls ’em to get by in this world. Considering the heavy marketing towards the country’s younger demographic, it makes sense that this thing is cheap. Or, let’s say, cheap for Acer. The company has organized a partnership with Game to sell the devices exclusively…

iPads, iPads, get your iPads here! This might be a little difficult to believe, but Apple is foregoing the dramatics and plans to launch a slate of new products “in the next several weeks” via a regular old press release on its website, with no event on the horizon. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and his ‘Power On’ newsletter, those products are the refreshed iPad Pros, 12.9in iPad Air, Apple Pencils and some Magic Keyboards for those iPads. And we haven’t even gotten to the Macs, yet. As for those, we will see the new 13- and 15in MacBook Airs…

If you’ve been paying attention to the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) latest run of petrol price predictions for March 2204, you haven’t turned up expecting good news. For the naive few who had any hopes of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy blessing the country with a decrease in fuel prices… we’d wisen up before continuing to soften the disappointment below. But that’s just us. Yup. The Department just published March’s official petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin prices and… they’re not pretty. It’s not all bad news, however. The increases promised won’t be coming into effect until midnight on…

Electric vehicles (EVs) are all the rage lately, which makes a kind of sense considering what the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy usually has to say regarding fossil fuel prices at the end of each month. A big issue, as ever, is money. So when we hear that Volvo has finally launched the EX30, its cheapest EV to date, in South Africa, our ears prick up. The EX30 was officially unveiled last week at Johannesburg’s Victoria Yards and is bringing with it a starting price of “just” R776,000 and the “smallest CO2 footprint of any Volvo car to date.”…

After what turned out to be a busy and AI-filled beginning to the year, Samsung is showing no signs of slowing down. A fresh crop of leaks just turned up surrounding the South Korean company’s incoming mid-ranger, the Galaxy A35, and we’re inclined to believe them. See, it isn’t coming from some C-grade outlet — but rather a team-up between AndroidHeadlines and Steve H. McFly (AKA @OnLeaks). These aren’t the first Galaxy A35 rumours to surface. In early January, AndroidHeadlines gave us what appeared to be a real peek at the device’s official renders ahead of Samsung’s official unveiling. Which, according to…

When you think of AI, you’re probably put in mind of some soon-to-pass apocalyptic event that wouldn’t be out of place in James Cameron’s head. Or AI toothbrushes. One of the two. Fortunately, we’re still in the ‘making cool stuff’ phase, and now Adobe’s throwing its tech — centred around music production — onto the ever-growing pile of generative AI use tools. A Doo be Doo be Do bye-yeah https://youtu.be/J6jhWyU5lBY It goes by the unimaginative name of Project Music GenAI Control, announced during the Hot Pod Summit earlier this week. The idea isn’t a new one. It’s essentially a platform…

As much as we love WhatsApp, navigating around the place can be a hassle. The Meta-owned messenger has spent the past few months renovating the app in the hopes that won’t be the case for too much longer. After hearing what’s next in store for Android devices — a feature going by the name of “search by date” — from the horse’s official WhatsApp Channel, we reckon we’re one step closer to a hassle-less land. Back to the Past The feature is as self-explanatory as it gets. The update — which is already live on Android — allows users to…

Ever since Honor’s emancipation from the now Google-less Huawei, we found ourselves spending more and more of our time in their company. Having somewhat recently played with the higher-end Honor 90 and less recently the scrappier X9a – which we praised as an “admirable all-rounder” – we were keen to see what Honor had in store next for South Africa. That turned out to be the Honor X9b, a follow-up to that scrappy mid-ranger we had a good time with about a year ago. It’s (almost) everything a sequel should be; improved specs, a new letter in the name, a…

If you thought the news of DStv’s price hikes (plural) was already putting excess strain on your wallet, you’re going to hate the newest info from Vodacom’s end. The operator announced last week that it was gearing up for its annual price hike that’ll be hitting its postpaid and fibre products soon enough. You have until 1 April 2024 to mentally (and physically) prepare for the increase. Vodacom isn’t messing around this year Vodacom’s justification for the hike is lodged firmly behind Stats SA’s announcement of 5.3% headline inflation for January 2024. Vodacom’s increases are less than 5.3%, coming in…