Author: Duncan Pike

We don’t have the data to back up this claim on hand, but there’s bound to be some crossover between audiophiles and Star Wars fans. There’s finally a product for those folks in the shape of Audio-Technica Japan’s Star Wars-themed ATH-AWSW DV wooden headphones. These limited-edition hand-crafted cans feature polished Echizen lacquer earcups adorned with two Lucasfilm-approved unique images of Darth Vader using the decorative Maki-e technique. If you’re already sold, then we have some bad news. Audio-Technica Japan is only making ten units, which will be available from its booth at Japan’s Star Wars Celebration event starting 18 April.…

Following the launch of its rebranded ULT portable speaker range last year, Sony launched the flagship ULT Tower 10 along with the ULT Field 7 and ULT Field 1. Now, it has expanded the lineup to include two versions of a slightly smaller ULT Tower 9 and two much smaller units called ULT Field 3 and ULT Field 5 to fill the numbered gaps. The shoulder strap-equipped ULT Field 3 steps into the shoes of the outgoing SRS-XE300. It houses an 86 x 46mm woofer and 20mm tweeter, and it can be operated horizontally or vertically. Although horizontal will probably…

Anyone who’s bought a laptop will know how costly the process can be. Need more RAM, storage, or a peripheral? Those usually cost eggstra. Then, there is the option to eggstend the warranty for protection if something terrible were to happen. That usually also costs eggstra. This month, Acer Africa is offering buyers of certain laptops the option of a discounted eggstended warranty. It might not be the most glamorous of offers, but if you’ve ever had to foot the repair bill for a laptop out of warranty, you wouldn’t have that smirk on your face. Protect your Acer eggs…

Sonos recently dropped the recommended retail price of its Era 100 smart speaker and Ray soundbar. The company didn’t say much publicly about the price decrease, but when the vigilant folks in the Sonos subreddit spotted the decrease in other countries, we reached out to Sonos’ local distributor, Planetworld, to confirm if South Africa would benefit. On that note, we’ve got some good news. Sonos lowers the barrier of entry We’ve confirmed that both the Era 100 and Ray have had R1,000 lobbed off their original recommended retail prices. That means both now have a new RRP of R6,000. This…

Amazon’s Project Kuiper will release its first full load of satellites into low-Earth orbit soon. The mission, called “KA-01”, for Starlink’s main competitor is currently scheduled for “no earlier than” 18h00 SAST on Wednesday, 9 April. Barring any further delays, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and transport 27 internet-from-space-enabled satellites to about 450km above the Earth. Once the satellites have successfully separated from their launch vessel, “a series of mostly automated steps to activate onboard systems” will commence as their electric propulsion systems carry them to their…

ChatGPT’s free users can finally access the model’s latest image-generating abilities. There are a few caveats, which we’ll get to, but free users can join in the fun of ripping off other folks’ creative work for their amusement. After releasing ChatGPT’s new built-in image generation capabilities last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the rollout of the update to the free tier would be delayed because “images in chatgpt are wayyyy more popular than we expected (and we had pretty high expectations).” “Hey ChatGPT, what is copyright?” The delay turned out to be just over a week, and now most…

If you were holding your breath for another fully electric SUV to become available locally, you can finally release it. Volvo Car South Africa unveiled its new EX90 flagship SUV at a launch event in Cape Town this week. Don’t panic if you had your heart set on buying the older plug-in hybrid or internal combustion engine equivalent XC90, that has just received a facelift and is sticking around… for now. Powered by electrons The ‘Ultra’ spec EX90, the only one coming to SA initially, is propelled by two electric motors, one over each axle, and a large 111kWh battery…

This definitely won’t be the first time you’ve heard about a possible Half-Life 3 release, and it probably won’t be the last. New rumours have surfaced that suggest Valve’s third main entry to the series has entered a new stage of development, which could signal an imminent announcement. Half-Life 3 almost confirmed? The latest batch of rumours comes courtesy of well-known Valve-focused data miner ‘Gabe Follower’ who shared their findings in a video on their YouTube channel. Known internally by its codename HLX, Gabe Follower has detailed what they believe to be discoveries related to Half-Life 3 of groups called…

Earlier this year at CES, Dell Technologies announced a major rebranding or “brand unification” across its PC range. This was confirmed for the local market yesterday at the first Dell Tech Rally of 2025. That means no more XPS, Inspiron, or Latitude models. Going forward, there will only be ‘Dell’. That doesn’t mean everything about the former models is falling away. Most of the good bits will remain, they’ll just have new names. There’s a new Dell in town Dell has divided its portfolio into three categories, each with three performance tiers. As illustrated above, the three categories are Dell,…

Huawei today has unveiled its latest foldable device, the Pura X, at a launch event in China. The company’s new smartphone might look a little familiar to other brands’ clamshell folding devices, like the Galaxy Z Flip 6, but its form factor hides a slightly different 16:10 aspect ratio. Most of the specs have been confirmed on Huawei’s official Chinese site, except for the chipset it uses. The odds are high that the Pura X houses one of the Kirin chips we’ve seen in other recent Huawei devices, perhaps the Kirin 9020 as seen in the Mate X6 released in…