Facebook is pushing an alert to all users tomorrow, but before you freak out, don't worry, it's has nothing to do with your personal data this time around. Facebook users on Wednesday will receive a push alert from the social network to "take action" and follow in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela. The former South African president would've celebrated his 100th birthday on 18 July 2018, and the social network in particular wishes to inspire "its global community to reflect on Mandela's legacy of compassion, justice and care for the community", the company writes in a release. "Nelson Mandela dedicated his life...
5.2-million more people are now subscribed to Netflix worldwide, but that number has fallen well short of the company's forecast. It's the first time Netflix has missed its user growth forecasts since Q1 2017. In Q2 2018 the streaming giant added just 670 000 US based subscribers -- less than its prediction of 1.2-million. "We had a strong but not stellar Q2, ending with 130-million memberships. Membership growth was 5.2-million, the same as Q2 last year, but lower than our 6.2-million forecast," the company writes in its investor letter. In Q1 2018, the company added 7.4-million subscribers, beating its predictions by a million...
On this day in 2012, the internet was blessed with "Gangnam Style". The song itself birthed that iconic horseriding jig, and a slew of other memes and parodies leeching off its popularity. But the video, and track by Korean artist Psy, may have also helped to catapult K-Pop into everyone's collective consciousness. Beyond that, it helped YouTube serve an additional 3.1-billion views to its users. No doubt the company's pretty happy about that. But "Gangnam Style" is ionic for a number of reasons: It became the most-liked YouTube video of all time in September 2012, but faded to fourth place It became the...
In April 2018, MTN launched its new social media bundles aimed specifically at WhatsApp users. Those purchasing the network's WhatsApp Bundle would be charged R10 for 1GB on the service. But this is about to change for some. According to a statement issued by the company on Monday, MTN will increase the price of the bundle to R30. The reason? To protect its 3G network quality. "Social media usage remains a dynamic and ever-changing environment. Our commitment remains to continue driving down the cost of data with a strong focus on alleviating pressure on the most vulnerable in our society," explains Mapula...
After a few weeks of rapid increases, Cape Town's dam levels have seemingly plateaued. This week the City of Cape Town's latest report saw an increase of just 1.8% to the overall storage levels. They now stand at 55.1%. Going dam by dam, most notable is the Theewaterskloof Dam's current level. It's now at 40.7% full, up by 1.7% over the previous week. It's now doubly as full as it was in July 2017, and just 15% off its 2015 levels. Notably, less than three months ago, the Theewaterskloof Dam was just over 10% full. The Voëlvlei Dam is now 54.6% full, jumping...
Elon Musk labelled a British caver who helped orchestrate the extraction of the Thai football team from a cave system a "pedo". The Tesla and SpaceX founder began his tirade on Sunday after British caver Vernon Unsworth suggested that Musk's mini-submarine -- which a team of his engineers were developing from spare SpaceX parts -- wouldn't have helped in the rescue mission. "He had no conception of what the cave passage was like," Unsworth stated in the interview. "He can stick his submarine where it hurts." "Just a PR stunt," he added. Unsworth also suggested that the rigid sub would not have been...
There is no such thing as a perfect driver. Sometimes, people unknowingly break the rules or forget to do something really important -- like stopping at a red robot! Whatever the reason, people do make mistakes -- as is clear in the videos below! Have a look at these antics by drivers who probably didn’t get their license first time round. Parallel parking is hard There are many people who have been driving for years and still avoid parallel parking. As some would say: “the struggle is real!” But sometimes, parallel parking is the only option… Watch this driver struggle to...
It's Friday, and we hope that England fans have calmed down by now, especially considering the below data. On Wednesday night, when Croatia put two goals past Pickford to book their place in their first ever World Cup final, there were a lot of F-bombs thrown around on the internet. Notably on Reddit in particular. Through a trending post on r/dataisbeautiful, Reddit user u/PieGeters documented the timeline of comments posted to the r/soccer subreddit that included the word "fuck". According to u/PieGeters, was created "in an hour at work". Uses of the word "Fuck" in the r/soccer match thread during yesterdays game between...
Did you know that you can type in Morse code through Android's Gboard keyboard? The feature was this week added to the iOS version, with further improvements also added to the Android version initially enabled after its I/O 2018 conference earlier this year. The layout isn't dissimilar to the traditional QWERTY layout bar the two input options: dots and dashes. All 27 letters of the alphabet can be represented by typing these two symbols in a given order, and Gboard also displays text predictions in both text and Morse. While the option likely won't appeal to heavy texters, the keyboard does allow external...
It’s Friday the 13th. It's an infamously creepy day and all I’ve been thinking about are the odd things I notice whenever I’m signed in to Facebook or Google. Can you relate? If you can, let us know which one of these occurrences you've experienced online today. Logging into Facebook and seeing an ad for something you Googled the previous day. Example: Curiously researching smoothie recipes and then seeing ads for juice blenders. Waiting for a flight and being notified of a delay via Google before the airline even has time to make an announcement (flight number included!) Facebook asks you to...
So... my World Cup predictions are out the window. France will play Croatia in the final after the teams beat Belgium and England respectively. The latter was quite the cracker, with Croatia scoring just a few minutes into the second half of extra time. England simply had no reply. But what the win also gave Croatia is the largest search spike on Google than any of the other semi-final teams this past week. We look at this, and more search anomalies, in the below piece. Croatia sees biggest search spike after England triumph Within the week of the semi-finals, Croatia saw the largest global...
Microsoft Windows' often used but even more often forgotten text processor Notepad is getting an update. In the latest build of Windows 10 marked as 17713, Notepad is earmarked as one of the programs receiving a new lick of paint. "With Build 17666, we introduced extended line ending support for Notepad. We’re excited to share that today’s build has a few more surprises in store based on what you’ve been telling us!" the company writes in an update. Firstly, users can zoom text in Notepad similarly to Microsoft Word. There's a new menu option available, while the CTRL and MouseWheel combo will...
If you loved District 9 and Elysium, and also happen to be a fan of 1980s cyborg policemen, you're going to love today's news. South African born director Neill Blomkamp will be directing a new RoboCop film, according to an MGM Studios' tweet. "Very excited about this," tweeted Blomkamp, confirming the news on his own Twitter account late Wednesday. Very excited about this https://t.co/0R38DzSXp5— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) July 11, 2018 Terminator co-writer Justin Rhodes and original RoboCop creators Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner are also working on the project. Speaking to Deadline in an exclusive, Blomkamp seems into it too, and is concentrated on...
DStv has today announced that all subscribers -- regardless of their selected package -- will receive the "full complement" of SuperSport channels to view from 13 July for no additional charge. The company announced Wednesday its plans to introduce "SuperSport open time" and open access to the 13 channels for a limited period. This includes SS1 through to SS12, as well as the 24-hour news channel Blitz. "Sport has a beautiful way of uniting friends and families, and sometimes even strangers. This is our way of thanking our customers for their support," said Multichoice CEO Calvo Mawela. During this period, users can also stream...
Drake's 25-track album Scorpion may not be as revolutionary as some of his earlier work, but there's no doubt its as popular as sliced bread. It's his eighth chart-topping album and racked up over a billion streams in its first week on the internet. But there's another reason why this album is so popular, and it's got to do with one song in particular. "In My Feelings" is typically Drake, meshing R&B and hip-hop seamlessly to create one head-bobbing summer banger. But it's also spurned an entirely new dance phenomenon. Initially dubbed the #DoTheShiggy challenge, the fad was created by Instagram comedian...
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Here's how the F-word trended on Reddit after Croatia beat England 
