Legendary musician Johnny Clegg was trending on Twitter on Thursday afternoon after a tribute version of his song The Crossing was released on YouTube. His son Jesse Clegg, Andre Fenter, Jack Parow, Jimmy Nevis, Karen Zoid and a host of other South African musicians feature on the track. According to Zoid's YouTube channel, "a group of well-known musicians came together to celebrate the life and work of Clegg and recorded a special version of his song". Though the message was merely a celebration of the man and the launch of his new charity fund, South Africans were quick to assume that Clegg...
Within a few days of one another, both Apple and Google have revealed their best performing apps and games of 2018 on their respective app stores. Both companies had several categories to fill. Google took inspiration from a “Fan Favourites” voting poll over on its store to determine what users liked best on the Play Store. Apple listed its top performers using "a global collection of top charts and selects from our editors" and awarded winners in each category for both iPhone and iPad. We’ve narrowed it down to the best apps and games overall. Have at it below. Best Apps Google Play Store Google’s...
Google has announced that it will be shutting down its smart-messaging service Allo which it launched just over two years ago. The decision comes after the company “paused investment in Allo” earlier this year, and brought its features to Messages -- Google’s SMS-based messaging service for Android. “Given Messages' continued momentum, we’ve decided to stop supporting Allo to focus on Messages,” the company explained in the announcement. Features such as desktop support, GIFs and Smart Reply have already moved from Allo to Messages. “We've learned a lot from Allo, particularly what’s possible when you incorporate machine learning features, like the Google Assistant, into...
Google’s educational “holiday hub” called Santa’s Village is back in swing for the 15th year and you can play more interactive games, learn about different regional Christmas traditions, and track Santa’s whereabouts. One of the hub’s new features comes in the form of Elf Maker, a tool where you can make your very own elf to play with. “Choose an outfit, accessories, hairstyle, and even facial hair to add some flair to your little friend,” Google says on its blog. The Santa Tracker is also back, which you can access via Maps or the Android app. “In the days leading up to Christmas,...
Facebook has launched a new feature that allows you to share your saved collection (of gift ideas) with your friends just in time for the holidays. “To help you send gift ideas more easily, we’re introducing the ability for people to share a collection of content saved on Facebook with specific friends and family,” the social network revealed on its website. Collections allow you to group saved Facebook content such as videos, photos, products and even recipes. “For example, if you create a collection of products – a holiday wish list of sorts – you can share it with a group of...
Marvel has released the second trailer for the upcoming Captain Marvel movie and it’s got fans buzzing with excitement. The trailer, which shows us more of Brie Larson as the eponymous character in full superhero mode, was released on Tuesday morning and has already racked up over four million views on YouTube. After seeing her in action, fans have no doubt that Captain Marvel can defeat Thanos and save the Marvel universe, when she's done ending wars in her own movie of course. CAROL FREAKING DANVERS JUST DEFEATED THANOS RIGHT HERE #CaptainMarvel pic.twitter.com/k1CxiWq822 — 𝓪𝓁𝒾𝒶𝓈 (@itsjustanx) December 4, 2018 Thanos watching the end of...
This weekend, the highly anticipated Global Citizen Festival took place at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. Though fans in their thousands enjoyed performances from both local and international artists such as Black Coffee, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé, the festival was marred by incidents after the gates were closed. Many attendees were left complaining about the event’s lack of security. Said people took to Twitter to express their concern and recount their experiences of robbery outside the venue at a nearby Sasol garage. Some were also denied Uber rides. Within a few hours, "Uber", "Sasol" and the hashtag #GlobalCitzenFestival began trending. "Can we please...
You can now share you Instagram Stories with a specific list of friends and followers. “Starting today, you can make a Close Friends list on Stories and share with just the people you’ve added,” Instagram revealed on its blog. This means that you can now further choose who will see your Story updates, specifically more personal ones. “Sometimes what you want to share isn’t for everyone,” Instagram notes. “With Close Friends, you have the flexibility to share more personal moments with a smaller group that you choose.” You can add contacts to this new list by going to the Close Friends tab in...
Microsoft has redesigned its Office program icons five years after its previous update. The company believes that with the fast paced and diversified digital world in the present day, Office has evolved into a “collaborative suite”. “As a signal to our customers, we’ve evolved our Office icons to reflect these significant product changes,” said Microsoft in an announcement. While the colours remain true to their corresponding Office programmes, the hues are described as “bolder, lighter and friendlier”. “Our design solution was to decouple the letter and the symbol in the icons, essentially creating two panels,” the company explains. Indeed, the new icons feature a...
Google has refreshed the UI of Google Translate's web portal, giving it a brand new look and feel. “The site’s new look is now consistent with other Google products, and updated labeling and typography make it easier to navigate,” said Google in an announcement. The new look is still simple and clean like before, but with a more modern layout, making it easier to find certain features like saved documents and your history. “We’ve added labels to each saved translation, so if you speak multiple languages, you can sort and group your translations with a single click,” the company noted further. The update...
Delving into the worlds of WhatsApp updates, WABetaInfo revealed that the app's latest beta has a new voice messaging feature. Beta version 2.18.362 includes “consecutive voice messages”, allowing users to listen to voice notes continuously if they have received more than one back to back. “When you start to play the first one, WhatsApp will automatically play all other consecutive voice messages as a sequence, so it won’t be necessary to press play on each message,” WABetaInfo explains. The website also provided a video example of the playback, noting that not all users will be able to see this feature in beta...
Facebook has announced that it will start rolling out its local news feature to more countries around the world. Called Today In, the feature will aggregate local news and alerts for people depending on where in the world they are, allowing them to see more relevant and immediate news. Currently, the feature is available in the US and parts of its surrounding areas whilst also being tested in Australian communities too. “In addition, we have started testing Today In in communities located in news deserts, places that have low supply of local news and community information, by supplementing with relevant content from...
Disney has revealed a Star Wars-themed YouTube channel for kids set to feature the new Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures show. The show will consist of a series of short animations about the original Star Wars stories, making the historical pop culture hit accessible to potential young fans. In an announcement made on Star Wars’ official site, the company said that the show aims to “introduce the classic themes, pivotal moments, and iconic characters from the Star Wars saga to the next generation.” “Debuting on the all-new StarWarsKids.com and the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel on November 30, the first six shorts...
Instagram has revealed a new set of features to help make the platform more accessible to visually impaired users. “With more than 285-million people in the world who have visual impairments, we know there are many people who could benefit from a more accessible Instagram,” the company said on its blog. To make Instagram more accessible in this regard, the two new features work through screen readers. These are programmes that read information on screens out loud to users who cannot see well. The 'automatic alternative text' feature "uses object recognition technology to generate a description of photos for screen readers,” Instagram...
Netflix is teaming up with the Roald Dahl Story Company to produce animated series based on the author's works. “Netflix is extending the Roald Dahl universe of stories for global family audiences with an exclusive new slate of original animated event series,” the company revealed in a press release. Stories such as "The Twits", "The BFG", "Matilda" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" have been confirmed. While the tales will be reimagined and expanded, Netflix claims it will remain “faithful” to the originals. “Our mission, which is purposefully lofty, is for as many children as possible around the world to experience the unique...
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These were South Africa's hottest Twitter hashtags in 2018 
