Author: Duncan Pike

As we head straight into summer, having seemingly skipped spring altogether, you’re probably looking at your greenish, debris-filled pool with dread. It’s going to take a bit of work before it’ll be ready for summer enjoyment, and you almost certainly have better things to do. Thankfully, there’s a relatively new option for lazy pool owners — the Aiper Scuba N1 robot pool cleaner. It’s meant to replace the Kreepy Krauly-type thing you’ve got hooked up to pipes, as a simpler automatic solution. It will still require small amounts of manual input from you, but that’s what kids are for. Out…

Long-time German audio maker Sennheiser today announced the HD 500 BAM, a boom arm microphone that will attach to some of the brand’s headphones and make them better suited for gaming or online meetings when you’re feeling fancy. If you’re rocking a pair of the brand’s supported headphones (HD 500 series) and don’t already have a standalone microphone, or maybe you’re looking for something that takes up less space on your desk, this could be for you. It means you won’t have to swap between headsets when you go from your online meeting to a video game to listening to…

If you enjoy the finer things in life, and one of those ‘finer things’ is buying expensive tech, Bang & Olufsen have just announced the Beo Grace, a “sculptural expression of wearable earpiece sound.” For the ordinary folks, it’s a new set of true wireless in-ear headphones. “Beo Grace is more than a pair of earpiece (sic), it is a vision of the century ahead. It captures Bang & Olufsen’s legacy of uncompromising sound and timeless craftsmanship, reinterpreted as a piece of wearable design for the modern world,” says Kristian Teär, CEO of Bang & Olufsen. Get yourself some Beo…

If you don’t own a piece of kit from Logitech, you might’ve missed that the company held its annual G Play showcase yesterday. If you do own Logitech gear, you might’ve seen an ad for the showcase appear in the company’s companion G Hub app — a move that didn’t go down well with fans. At this year’s showcase, Logitech had quite the spread of new devices, including two new mice based on its industry-favourite G Pro X Superlight, a new low-profile keyboard, two gaming headsets for PC and console gamers, and a few bits for the racing sim enthusiasts.…

Polar, the Finnish maker of health tracking gear, recently launched the Polar Loop – a new wearable that aims to take some of Whoop’s lunch money. The Polar Loop is confirmed for South Africa (by way of it already appearing on the company’s local website). It will cost prospective owners R3,700 when it becomes available towards the end of October. Where Polar’s other wearables are packed with bright displays, GPS tracking, and all the smart training tools that will fit on your wrist, it’s taken a different approach with the Loop. Here, subtlety is the main aim. If you’ve ever…

Japanese audio stalwart Yamaha recently announced two new sets of high-end headphones, the YH-4000 and YH-C3000, that promise to envelop your ears in audio luxury. Well, that’s our theory anyway, just based on the prices (and the company’s long history of making fantastic audio gear). The new cans first appeared in April earlier this year, but Yamaha chose to keep most of the details to itself… until now. They’ve managed to garner a lot of attention in audiophile circles and have sizeable shoes to fill as follow-ups to the highly acclaimed YH-5000SE flagship launched in 2022. Yamaha is at it…

After teasing the feature for the past four years, Spotify is finally rolling out lossless music streaming to its premium subscribers, starting with “select countries”. Thankfully, the feature doesn’t appear to require more money every month. The music streaming service has already increased its Premium prices in recent history (at least in South Africa), so that would be a bit cheeky. Still, we wouldn’t put that past it. I can hear Spotify clearly now “The wait is finally over; we’re so excited lossless sound is rolling out to Premium subscribers,” said Gustav Gyllenhammar, VP Subscriptions, Spotify. “We’ve taken time to…

Users of Plex, the media server and streaming platform, are being urged to change their passwords “immediately” and sign out of any connected devices following what the company calls a “security incident” that could involve user information, including “emails, usernames, securely hashed passwords and authentication data.” According to a post from the company, “an unauthorized third party” gained access to one of the company’s databases, potentially exposing user data. How many breaches is too many? Thankfully, Plex says user passwords are “securely hashed, in accordance with best practices,” meaning even if the unauthorised third party managed to take a peep,…

The new iPhone Air is finally official. The Big Fruit Company debuted its slimmed-down device as part of its annual iPhone unveiling at Apple HQ. The company has managed to get it down to just 5.6mm thick. It features a newly minted machined unibody made from 80% recycled Titanium and Apple’s improved Ceramic Shield 2 glass on the front (the back gets first-gen Ceramic Shield). All this is supposed to usher in a new iPhone experience, but we can’t help but wonder if the difference will be that noticeable when you inevitably plonk the Air in a hideous cover to…

With another September comes another round of new Apple products. The first to make it out of the proverbial gate this year is the new AirPods Pro 3. It was joined before long by a fresh batch of wearables and, finally, the iPhone 17 family. As ever, Apple has made bold claims about the improved audio, fit, active noise cancellation (ANC), and additional features. Whether they hold water is probably up for debate, but we’re sure that won’t stop some people from jumping to upgrade. It probably helps that the price remains the same (at least in the US). Apple…