Browse every article
10,681 articles
Car prices skyrocket due to a global shortage of semiconductor chips
This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to South Africa, though. Across the world, car prices have soared due to a shortage of semiconductor chips. As a result of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the shortage of these chips — as The Wall Street Journal reports — is due to a surge of Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia (including Malaysia) where
Billionaire miner, Andrew Forrest sees next fortune in rush for clean energy
It took Andrew Forrest a little over a decade to build an iron ore empire to challenge the global majors. Now he’s set himself an equally ambitious timeline to create a global powerhouse in clean energy. The Perth-based billionaire, widely known as “Twiggy” in Australia, has been scouring the planet’s far-flung regions including Kyrgyzstan and
Listen to our Windows 11 and Microsoft Surface roundtable
On Tuesdays for the remainder of the year, The Verge’s flagship podcast The Vergecast will be featuring additional new episodes, with each focused on a specific topic usually discussed on our regular Friday shows. Today, we start our run with a discussion on the reviews we haven’t talked too much about yet on the show:
Fujifilm launches wide-format version of its Instax Link mobile printer
Fujifilm has announced a new mobile printer that uses its larger Instax Wide format film. The Instax Link Wide Smartphone Printer is a similar idea to the existing Instax Mini Link: hook up your phone over Bluetooth and use an app to edit and print your own Polaroid-style snapshots from your camera roll. Instax Wide film
Samsung announces Unpacked 2 event for Wednesday Oct 20th, right after Apple and Google
Samsung has just sent out invitations for an event it is holding online on Wednesday, October 20th at 7AM PT / 10AM ET. It’s called “Galaxy Unpacked Part 2,” which is possibly an indication that rather than all new Galaxy phones, we may be seeing iterations on existing ones. With Samsung’s announcement, we’ll now have
Icasa to challenge Telkom in court
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has vowed to fight the court case that Telkom filed to block the regulator from taking back emergency radio frequency spectrum. Telkom approached the North Gauteng High Court last week to file papers to interdict Icasa from taking back the temporary spectrum it assigned at the start of
Nokia TVs coming to South Africa
South African electronics company Ellies says it will launch Nokia Smart TVs and other TV products in the country before the end of the year. The products are made by StreamView, a company that designs, develops, and manufactures official Nokia-branded smart TVs, set-top boxes and related products for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Under the
Russian hackers now targeting high-profile Gmail accounts
Google is sending 10,000 USB security keys to users such as politicians and human rights activists which the company views to be at high risk, according to a blog post. The tech company warned more than 14,000 users to guard them against APT28 — also known as Fancy Bear — a Russian cyber espionage group
South Africa takes R3 billion loan for green energy
Pacific Investment Management Co. has agreed to lend a South African state development bank 3-billion rand ($210 million), the first deal in a United Nations program to fund green energy in Africa. The debt securities from Pimco, which manages $2.2 trillion in assets, will be used to refinance debt that South Africa’s Development Bank of
A robotics engineering student creates first USB-C charger iPhone X
Apple hasn’t created a USB-C iPhone despite years of rumors, but that hasn’t stopped a robotics engineering student from creating one. Ken Pillonel has placed a working USB-C port inside an iPhone X, allowing the phone to charge and transfer data over USB-C instead of Lightning. Pillonel has spent months on the project in his
Instagram app will now alert users when the service goes down
Instagram is testing a new feature that will alert users when the service is having major technical difficulties. The alert will appear as a notification in users’ Activity Feed when “people are confused and looking for answers,” says Instagram. In other words: when the app’s systems take a serious and prolonged nose-dive, as they did last week. It’s
Boeing Starliner test flight delayed until 2022
NASA has officially pushed back the launch of its Orbital Flight-Test 2 until next year, as it continues to work on an oxidizer isolation valve issue on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, the agency announced. The agency said in a blog post that it’s continuing to assess potential launch windows for the mission: “The team currently is
Sources: Google launching a new Nest Hub in 2021 that uses Soli for sleep tracking
Google is planning to release a new Nest Hub in 2021, sources familiar with the matter tell 9to5Google. This upcoming Smart Display will feature sleep tracking powered by the company’s Soli radar technology. Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group first unveiled Soli in 2015, but it did not launch on a consumer device until 2019. The sensor
Google’s plans for Fuchsia OS teased in job listings
Google says “it’s time” to now bring its mysterious Fuchsia operating system to “additional smart devices and other form factors” beyond smart displays, according to a number of job listings first spotted by 9to5Google. Fuchsia is Google’s newest operating system which was released earlier this year for the company’s first-generation Nest Hub. There’s been a
Google Pixel 6 camera will get “Magic Eraser” and “Face Unblur”
Google’s next flagship Pixel smartphones will get security updates for five years and feature powerful new camera capabilities. That is according to leaked promotional product pages for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro from Carphone Warehouse, which was spotted by renowned smartphone leaker Evan Blass. The now-deleted pages confirmed some specifications and features that have been rumoured
New online car licence disc renewal portal launched
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has launched an online payment gateway allowing South African motorists to register, renew, and pay for their licence discs online. The new option is available on the NaTIS online platform and is facilitated by FNB. FNB Public Sector CEO, Sipho Silinda, said the digital payment option reduced cash-handling risks
New electricity deal to help end power outages in Joburg
The City of Johannesburg has entered into a two-year power purchase agreement with the privately-owned Kelvin power station, which it says will significantly help reduce electricity outages across the metropole. Kelvin Power Station is the only large privately owned coal-fired power plant in the country. Located near OR Tambo International Airport. Until 2001 the power
Nasdaq wagers on sports betting trend, sees retail brokers joining
Oct 7 (Reuters) – Sports betting will likely occur through exchanges and retail brokerages like Robinhood Markets Inc (HOOD.O) in the future, the head of North American markets at Nasdaq Inc (NDAQ.O) said on Thursday. Nasdaq in June took a stake in Sporttrade, a start-up that plans to launch a sports betting app in New
Eskom blackouts are back
Eskom has announced it will implement stage 2 load-shedding on Thursday and Friday night to replenish depleted emergency generation reserves following breakdowns at several power stations. “Stage 2 load-shedding will be implemented starting tonight from 21:00 to 05:00 in the morning, and will again resume on Friday night at 21:00 to 05:00 on Saturday morning,”
Tesla is moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that the company is moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, where it has been building a new factory for a little more than a year. Musk said Tesla will continue to operate its electric vehicle factory in Fremont, CA, and that he even plans to try