Red Bull Basement is a global initiative that seeks to discover new innovations by university students and showcase them to a global audience. The aim of the competition is to inspire innovative technology ideas that can drive positive change in their local communities.

The twins were interviewed on the SABC News and they got to share their inspiration and journey in inventing the x-ray glasses. They spoke about how their high school soccer teammate got hurt back in 2019 and they had to accompany her to the hospital where they had to wait for hours for an x-ray.

The twins had the idea to invent a portable x-ray device shortly after the soccer accident. They first entered the Eskom Expo and unfortunately they didn’t win. The prototype took 2 years to build and the glasses have an infrared camera that takes pictures of the fracture that can be viewed on a small screen on the inside. The scans are then recorded and sent to the doctor.

The twins said the intention behind inventing the glasses is to improve the service at the hospitals starting with their hometown in Hammanskraal and reduce the big spaces occupied by bigger x-ray machines. They also envision their glasses being carried in the medical bags of nurses, paramedics in ambulances and even on the sports field.

Redbull gave the twins a mentor and covered the costs throughout the development process of the prototype. They got to go to Turkey for the Global Finals and they loved interacting with other young innovators. They came in second to contestants from the United States of America. Watch the full interview below.

The twins join other African inventors that have challenged and broken the general assumption that there can be no new inventions from Africa. In Zimbabwe, we have Maxwell Sangulani Chikumbutso who is a self-taught engineer. He is known for having developed a green energy technology that, he asserts, is revolutionary because it converts radio frequencies directly into clean and renewable energy.

Maxwell Chikumbutso created a radio-frequency powered television. This means that there is no power cable and the TV is powered purely by radio waves similar to WiFi and Bluetooth. Watch more on Chikumbutso’s television invention below.

The post WATCH: 22 Year Old South African Twins Put Africa On The Global Map With Digital X-Ray Glasses Invention appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

Union54 is a set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to issue USD debit cards without needing a bank or a third-party processor. Issue cards to customers, employees, stakeholders or just about anyone. From anywhere in Africa.

Union54 has 13 investors including Earl Grey Capital And Tiger Global Management and they claim to be Africa’s first card-issuing API. The startup is looking to provide a series of services, including ledger-based, acquirers/gateways, buy now, pay later, credit union, delivery companies, digital banking, credit card management, and corporate cards, to its clientele.

Mlambo and his wife and co-founder Alessandra Martini say that they’re hoping to “fill in the gaps” in these sectors, which are evident throughout Africa. The business partners have spent the last few years trying to be a challenger bank for Africa.

In an interview with CFTE (Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship) Perseus Mlambo talks about his journey as a technology entrepreneur and how the idea for Union54 came about. He talks about the challenges faced by African countries when it comes to banking and how he feels Union54 can provide solutions for such challenges.

Mlambo also talks about how often people feel ripped off when they bank with big institutions and how they wish to have better control of their finances. He says Union54 has 150 clients (corporates) within Africa and he anticipates more growth in their client base. Watch the interview below.

The post WATCH: Zambia-Based Zimbabwean Entrepreneur Creates An African Homegrown Alternative To MasterCard/Visa appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

Airbus is a European multinational aerospace corporation that designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft in Europe and various countries outside Europe

Their A380 model is the world’s largest passenger aeroplane. The model hasn’t been doing well on the market partly because they’re less fuel-efficient than more modern long-range aeroplanes. Airbus delivered the final ever A380 to Dubai airline Emirates in late 2021.

Despite the misfortunes of the A380 model, Airbus plans to bring the world’s first zero-emission aircraft to market by 2035.

The test aeroplane completed a three-hour flight from Blagnac Airport in Toulouse to Airbus’ French headquarters on 25 March. It was powered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel or SAF predominantly made of used cooking oil and waste fats and operating on a single Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine

Airbus then followed up with a second A380 flight, using the same cooking oil fuel, on March 29, flying from Toulouse to Nice. The second flight was to monitor SAF use during take-off and landing.

The fuel used was supplied by TotalEnergies, a company based in France’s Normandy region. It was made from Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), which are free of both aromatics and sulfur.

“Increasing the use of SAF remains a key pathway to achieving the industry’s ambition of NetZero carbon emissions by 2050,” said Airbus in a statement.

The company claims that flying planes on SAF could net between 53% to 71% of the carbon reductions required to meet that goal.

The post Airbus Plane Completes A Flight Using Cooking Oil As Fuel appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

New iPhone SE

The new iPhone SE is a budget phone that will retail for $429 US. It is the successor to the 2020 model but with 5G and the latest iPhone processor, A15

The device looks like the previous iPhone SE. It has a 4,7-inch rectangular display and a TouchID fingerprint sensor. It also has a 12-megapixel rear camera. It all has the classic iPhone home button for those who prefer the simpler non-complicated functionality of one. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the device was ideal for people who like smaller phones.

There has been a bit of a surprise with the pricing of the new iPhone SE at $429 US compared to the $399 US model Apple launched in 2020.

New colour additions to the iPhone 13

Lovers of the colour green can finally pre-order the iPhone 13 in “green” and the iPhone 13 Pro in “alpine green” starting Friday.

New iPad Air with M1 chip

Apple also announced the new iPad Air.  The iPad Air is a mid-range iPad. It uses Apple’s M1 processor which is the same chip used in their pricier iPad Pro and MacBook Air models. It also has optional 5G support.

The device’s front-facing camera has been upgraded to a 12-megapixel camera with a wide-angle lens and this enables a feature called Centre Stage that can follow subjects as they move around in the frame while video conferencing.

The iPad Air will cost $599 US with optional storage space and cellular upgrades. This is the same price it retailed for before and it will hit the store shelves on the 18^th of March.

The Mac Studio with M1 Ultra chip

Apple introduced the first new Mac model in a very long time with the Mac Studio. The new model is a display-less desktop computer. It’s a cube-shaped aluminium box with USB-C ports and an SD card slot in the front.

The Mac Studio is taller than the existing Mac Mini and the additional height is used for big fans to keep the computer’s temperature down.

Apple also announced a separate 27-inch display called Studio Display with 5K resolution, equipped with an Apple chip, speakers, and built-in camera.

The computer uses the high-performance M1 Ultra processor, which the company says has more power than its existing M1 chips.

The Mac Studio with an older M1 Max chip starts at $1999. The model with an M1 Ultra chip starts at $3999. The Studio Display starts at $1599.

Apple said that the M1 Ultra doubles the size of Apple’s previous M1 chips using a connection technology it calls UltraFusion. Apple said it has more transistors than any other PC chip and includes a 64-core graphics processor.

Apple said that the Mac Studio with M1 Ultra is 80% faster than the top-of-the-line Mac Pro, which retailed for over $50,000.

“We’ve transitioned nearly every product in the Mac lineup to Apple Silicon,” Cook said.

Deal with MLB to air games on Friday nights

Apple has entered into live spots as it said it will air two exclusive Major League Baseball games on Friday nights.

Apple will air live pregame and postgame shows, and it will be free from local broadcast restrictions, and won’t require an Apple TV+ subscription for now.

The games will be aired in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, Apple said.

But, it comes a week after MLB cancelled opening day due to the ongoing lockout.

Apple has made some impressive changes to its gadgets. The event ran under the theme “Peek Performance” and 150 000 people had already joined the live stream on YouTube 5 minutes before it started. This is a sign that Apple can still generate a huge demand for their products.

The post Apple Announces New iPhone, iPad Air, Mac Studio computer And More appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

If you have lived long enough in Zimbabwe you might remember that TelOne launched their Blaze LTE service in Harare, with a limited number of lines available. However, it seems like the service was oversubscribed and within days the lines ran out.

You would think that with such demand The telecommunications company would make more LTE lines available, but it has been years and there have been no developments on that front.

Well to cut a long story short, the Blaze LTE sim cards are now finally available but don’t celebrate just yet. The catch is at the moment the service is only available in Chitungwiza.

We reached out to the TelOne team on their Facebook account on the availability of the service in Harare and below is their response.

“The service will likely be rolled out to the rest of the country In due course, with the expansion service currently underway”

TelOne remains one of the most affordable internet providers in the country, especially in light of the recent price shocker from NetOne.

They also face competition from other providers like ZOL Zimbabwe which is now called Liquid Home.

Seems strides are being made in the right direction…slowly. Do you think this is good news?

The post Telone Is Finally Selling Blaze LTE Sim Cards; Here’s How You Can Get One. appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

Telone has been praised in recent years for having affordable packages. This might change with an increase of over 100 percent o ther prices.

The new prices announced on their Facebook page are in local RTGS currency but one can estimate the USD value by finding out the bank exchange rates. For instance, the Home Boost package (600 GB) is ZWL$6,295 (about USD$54) and it will be going up to ZWL$14,200 (about USD$122).

The public has not taken the price increase lightly and some people have used it as an opportunity so vent their frustrations with the service provider. People generally do not understand why Telone has hiked the prices up in USD as well instead of aligning the local currency price to the USD price.

Although Telone bundles have been the most affordable compared to other service providers , they haven’t been the most convenient to use. There have been constant complaints about service delivery on their social media platforms.

A common complaint on the Telone platforms has been the internet speeds. Their speeds have been inconsistent, and there have been problems when people stream live shows. Another common complaint has been reimbursement after replacement of stolen cables. Stolen cables seems to be a recurring challenge and it seems the service provider hasn’t been compensating clients on a satisfactory level for the downtime when the challenge is being attended to.

If Telone is going to hike their prices they need to provide a service worthy of the money they are asking for. Another challenge Telone may face is retaining paying clients based on good service delivery. They have too many complaints on their social media platforms with bad service delivery cases.

Issues like stolen cables, failing to reimburse clients for lost data when rectifying issues and unpleasant customer services experience are major when trying to get people to pay for services offered by the company. It’s impossible to satisfy everyone but Telone did not mention any plans resolve to the issues. If they at least informed the public that they are making specific changes to improve service delivery they would have gained more confidence form their clients.

Are these increases justified? We may never know what let Telone to make such a drastic change to their price list. But knowing the services they have offered in the past, these price increases maybe be pushing it a bit overboard. Their competitive edge was affordable broadband with fair speeds to get the job done. Although they remain slightly cheaper than their competitors, they may lose some subscribers with the massive price increase.

Below is the full list of prices as posted on their Facebook page

The post Telone Announces Data Package Price Hike. Is It Justified? appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

The Galaxy S22 range includes the following models: Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus and Galaxy S22 Ultra. There is a choice of four colors for the S22 and S22 Plus: Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green and White. The S22 Ultra is available in Phantom Black, Phantom White or Green and also Burgundy.

The Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus are large and small variants of the same basic design. They are very similar to last year’s Galaxy S21 but the size has been shrunk a little and parts of the display, rear cameras and internals have been upgraded. Samsung has significantly changed up the design of the Galaxy S22. It has an S Pen built into the bottom of the phone and the back is unique as the cameras sit separately.

All three models have ultrasonic fingerprint sensors under the display. They also all come with IP68 water/dust resistance keeping inner components safe. The screens are super tough thanks to Gorilla Victus Plus, the toughest Corning-made glass you can currently find on a phone.

The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus have two sizes of the same screen. Both have FHD resolution, a 120Hz maximum refresh rate and 10Hz minimum, and up to 240Hz touch sampling rate. The S22 is 6.1 inches while the S22 Plus is 6.6 inches.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra uses the largest display on offer at 6.8 inches. It features curved left and right edges. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate but can go as low as 1Hz for battery efficiency. The resolution is boosted to QHD+ for extra detail when watching video or playing games.

The screens on all three phones use Samsung’s new “Vision Booster”, a feature to adjust the display’s colors and make it look better in different lighting. The S22 is rated for 1,300 nits, and the S22 Plus and S22 Ultra for 1,750 nits of brightness.

The S22 and S22 Plus have the same selection of cameras. The back consists of a 50MP main camera, 12MP ultra wide camera and 10MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. The front has a single 10MP camera.

All except one camera of the S22 Ultra take these specs up a notch. The main camera features a 108MP sensor, and it has two 10MP telephoto cameras; one with 3x optical zoom and another with 10x optical zoom. The selfie camera has a higher resolution at 40MP.

Samsung didn’t hold back on the software either. “Nightography” features will help the S22 cameras capture more light and color detail from shots taken in low light. A new Auto Framing mode allows the phone to keep track of up to ten people in shot at once.

Officially, Samsung says the S22 series runs on a 4nm processor. The chip you get will depend on where you buy your phone. US buyers will get the S22 with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, whereas the UK (or anyone else outside the US) with have theirs equipped with the Exynos 2200. While Snapdragon chips may score slightly better on computing benchmarks than Samsung’s Exnynos ones, the 2200 is quite interesting as it has introduced AMD RDNA-powered GPU. This could make gaming a higher quality experience on the S22 sold on global markets.

Whichever chip you get, there will be 8GB RAM, and either 128GB or 256GB of storage with the S22 and S22 Plus. The S22 Ultra has a choice of either 8GB or 12GB RAM, and 128GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage capacity.

In line with smaller sizes, the battery capacities have shrunk as well for the S22 and S22 Ultra. The S22 offers a 3,700 mAh battery and the S22 Plus a 4,500 mAh battery. There is no change in the capacity of the S22 Ultra compared to the S21 Ultra. It uses a 5,000 mAh cell.

Charging speeds on the S22 have remained the same as compared to the S21. The S22 Plus and S22 Ultra have gained wired charging support. None of these phones come with chargers in the box.

Samsung is now promising 4 years of software support for the S22 series. This means you will get to keep using the phone with all the latest Android features for longer.

Only the S22 Ultra works with an S Pen. Instead of only being a separate accessory like last year with the S21, you now get an S Pen with the phone that will be kept in the phone when not in use. The S Pen you get is the most responsive Samsung’s ever made, the company says. It’s apparently 70% more responsive than the S21 Ultra’s S Pen, which should using it feel as similar to using actual pen and paper.

All the S22 phones offer 5G support, both sub-6GHz and mmWave. The S22 Plus and s22 Ultra get a few special benefits over the base S22. They get to use the Wi-Fi 6E standard for higher speed data transfers, which Samsung claims is twice as fast the standard Wi-Fi 6 capabilities of the S22.

Samsung has kept the starting prices for the S22 the same as those for the S21 series. Those are $799 for the Galaxy S22, $999 for the Galaxy S22 Plus and $1,199 for the Galaxy S22 Ultra. If you want to pre-order the phone, you can do so as from yesterday (February 9), with the retail release coming on February 25. Samsung is offering free upgrades to the next highest storage capacity version of your chosen phone if you buy a 128GB or 256GB version.

The Galaxy S22 Series is an impressive range of phones. And with the new features and software updates Samsung surely met and maybe even exceeded expectations.

The post Samsung Unpacks The New Galaxy S22 Series, Time To Trade In Your iPhone? appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

For those who do not use iPhones Face ID is a feature available on some Apple products that allows users to unlock their phones using their- you guessed it- face. This security feature can also be used to authorize purchases from the iTunes Store, App Store, and Book Store, payments with Apple Pay, and more.

That’s all changing with the release of iOS 15.4.The software was released on 27 January 2022. iOS 15.4 adds Face ID with a Mask, letting you unlock your iPhone with Face ID even when your face is covered, so Face ID is as convenient with a mask as it is without one.

With the lower half of your face covered by a mask, Face ID scans your eye area to authenticate your identity. According to Apple, Face ID with a mask recognizes the “unique features” around the eye area rather than looking at the entire face when you’re wearing a mask.

Face ID when wearing a mask also works interchangeably with standard Face ID, so your phone works in the same way when you’re wearing a mask and when you’re not.

What you can and cannot do with the update

There are also a few more limitations with unlocking angles because Face ID with a Mask needs to clearly see your eyes before it unlocks. If you wear glasses, you’ll need to go through a secondary setup process. Face ID with a Mask uses a scan of the eye area, so glasses that you wear need to be added on an individual basis. If you wear multiple pairs of glasses, you’ll need to do a scan for each one.

While standard Face ID works when you’re wearing most sunglasses, that’s not the case with Face ID with a Mask. Face ID with a Mask requires direct eye contact to work, and sunglasses obscure the eyes.

Face ID with a Mask is only available on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models. It’s compatible with the ‌iPhone 12‌, iPhone 12 mini, ‌iPhone 12‌ Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, ‌iPhone 13‌, ‌iPhone 13‌ mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and ‌iPhone 13 Pro‌ Max.

This feature does not work with earlier iPhones and it does not work with iPads. Apple has not made it clear if there is a hardware limitation that prevents the Face ID mask unlock from working with earlier versions of the ‌iPhone‌.

These are some pretty interesting updates by Apple although they will not be available for some models. The Covid 19 pandemic has necessitated some new norms. And it seems masks will be around for a long time. This is definitely a welcome feature in the Apple community.

The post Apples’s Latest Software Update Brings Face ID While Wearing A Mask appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

While that isn’t too much of a surprise, a question that keeps coming up over and over again when these hikes take place is, “why is POTRAZ allowing such ridiculousness to happen?”

Before we go into that, below are the results of NetOne’s recent price review.

This is what it will cost you to surf the internet for a month on the NetOne network (without including social media bundles):

POTRAZ

For those who don’t know, POTRAZ is an acronym for Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe. This is the board that regulates data prices in Zimbabwe. They are responsible for making sure that the data tariffs set by these mobile network operators are reasonable and justified.

So the question still stands…where is POTRAZ amidst all these data tariffs hikes?

Zimbabwe has reported the highest data tariff prices in our region despite the existence of boards such as POTRAZ. As a result, some Zimbabweans on various social platforms have finally reached a conclusion on this matter and it might just make sense. They have suggested that these unbearable price hikes could possibly be a way of reducing people’s access to the internet because a lot of political awareness and change start as just conversations on the internet.

Remember that November when a revolution started and was organised from the internet? A whole regime was changed and that is the power of the internet.

So it would make sense a lot of sense if this was a way to stop that from happening. With regards to this situation, a social media user (@doctorphill1) commented:

“social media has been and is our weapon as Citizens to spread information pertaining voting for competent leadership.”

These were the same sentiments shared by citizens when the 2022 national budget revealed controversial tax amounts on mobile phone purchases.

Do you agree with this view?

The post Ridiculous Data Bundles Price Hikes. A Political Strategy? appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

1. The HushMe

This device looks like a cross between tapping your mouth shut and some weird looking futuristic headphones. It’s designed to block the sound of your phone calls in public. The idea is that you place the HushMe, which connects to your phone, around your mouth—with connected headphones for audio. You can then take your calls without dealing with eavesdropping. I’m not giving you any ideas, but we all have those odd phone calls we do not want people to hear.

2. The Pavlok

The Pavlok is a wrist band that is designed to help you break bad habits. The band actually gives you a small and safe electric shock every time you are about to give into a bad habit. It is often used for weight loss, quitting smoking, and breaking other common bad habits. Definitely weird but very useful.

3. The Moodmetric Smart Ring

This device is designed to both monitor your feelings and help you manage your emotions. The ring can connect to your smartphone, and can apparently identify which emotions you are feeling at any given time. Talk about anger management!

4. Countertop Composter

The countertop composter is a device that turns your food scraps into compost. Although I don’t know who would want to make compost on their kitchen countertop. And I can imagine emptying it would be a mess. There are electric versions that turn the scrap into odorless compost but the price goes all the way up to 700USD. I guess it’s useful if you wouldn’t like to go through the tedious process of digging a hole in the backyard.

5. UV Toothbrush Sanitizer

This is the OCD dream. If you worry about your toothbrush being exposed to germs or if any one tempered with it whilst you were away, this is the gadget. You simply turn the UV light on and when time’s up, the case returns to being a simple shield for your toothbrush!

The post 5 Most Weird But Useful Tech Gadgets appeared first on Provoker Magazine.