Author: Duncan Pike

China’s rocket makes a splash China successfully delivered another piece of its Tiangong space station to orbit recently. The lab module will provide crew members with space and short-term living quarters. It will also be the main entry/exit point for extravehicular activities. The other result of this milestone is some rocket debris in the Indian Ocean. The country used one of its Long March 5B rockets to launch its module into orbit. But as soon as it had done the job, it was swiftly discarded.Which meant roughly twenty tonnes of rocket came hurtling back to Earth. Some of it was burned…

SA Rugby and Dell Technologies have something a little unusual for rugby fans attending international matches. The two have teamed up to provide attendees with a virtual reality (VR) experience. Rugby fans and wannabe players can test their skills in a simulated stadium environment to see if they have what it takes to play. Perform well, and Rassie could be calling on you to warm up at half-time. No, not really. Rugby but in 3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3VrrATxv10 This new VR experience forms part of SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux’s new digital initiative to reach a younger, tech-oriented audience. It ties in…

You might’ve missed the big announcement (because there wasn’t one) that Nanoleaf products are now available in South Africa. Well, you could always import them. But now you can pay roughly half that price and if you encounter a problem, you don’t have to send them across the planet. If you’ve never heard of Nanoleaf before then we guess you don’t watch much Twitch. It seems almost every streamer has some form of Nanoleaf product on their wall. This probably isn’t an accident. If you’re still lost, we’re talking about modular smart LED lights, in this case, the Triangles in…

Decorex Africa 2022 is underway at the Sandton Convention Centre. Among the stalls and booths showcasing frameless showers and every kind of tile imaginable, is Audi. If you’ve seen the brand’s latest e-tron range, you’d understand why Audi is showcasing them. They’re rather easy on the eyes. As is Audi’s concept for the ‘Garage of the Future’. But you’d expect that from a partnership with South African interior designer Donald Nxumalo. “Every space has a story to tell” The optimistic idea Audi is pushing here is elevating the lowly garage to a better-integrated (and better-looking) part of the home. It…

Mini, the popular British car manufacturer, has unveiled a preview of its latest concept car. The EV, dubbed the Concept Aceman, was revealed yesterday in Dusseldorf. It will be the company’s second fully-electric car after 2020’s Mini Cooper SE. Although, unlike 2020’s EV, this one was designed from the start to be fully electric. Mini didn’t just yank out the internal combustion engine (ICE) and stick in an electric motor and a couple of Duracells. The future according to Mini This might be Mini’s second fully-electric EV but it’s the company’s first electric crossover model. Mini says it will fall…

Not long ago Xiaomi announced that it was bringing one of its flagship devices, the Xiaomi 12, to South Africa. But that’s the high-end stuff. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer has also announced the expansion of its budget lineup in South Africa with the Redmi 10A and 10C. For the cash-intolerant The two devices are mostly similar with a couple of exceptions, namely the chipset and camera array. The Redmi 10A packs a MediaTek Helio G25 while the Redi 10C features a Snapdragon 680 processor. Neither chip supports 5G and that’s fine. These are budget devices, after all. The Redmi 10A…

Dell’s latest ultrabook, the XPS 13 Plus, is now available in South Africa. The whole schtick with ultrabooks is to pack as much performance as possible into a portable form factor without sacrificing battery life and thermals and without getting too loud. Dell’s XPS (“eXtreme Performance System”) range has done this, with varying degrees of success, since 1993. We’ll have to wait for a review sample before we can definitively say so but, at least on paper, the XPS 13 Plus seems to live up to the ultrabook moniker. X as in eXtreme You do need to make some sacrifices…

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves The first trailer for a new Dungeons & Dragons movie dropped, to the surprise of many, at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). The movie, which is loosely based on the tabletop role-playing game of the same name, seemed to be stuck in development hell for what seemed like forever. Until now.Instead of going with a dark fantasy theme, like Game of Thrones, this movie is definitely playing to a wider audience so Paramount can rake in more money. And we’re very much okay with that. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night)…

If you’ve used a newish Bluetooth audio device, you might’ve seen the words ‘Fast Pair’ somewhere on the box. As you might’ve guessed, it’s Google’s solution for quickly pairing a Bluetooth device to your Android phone. With devices that support it, putting the device in pairing mode near your phone should result in a popup with a picture of the device asking you to ‘Connect’. Tap that and that’s it. You needn’t fumble through the Bluetooth menu, pick a device and hope it connects the first time. It also saves the device to your Google account to make reconnecting easier.…

With the second quarter of 2022 in the rearview mirror, many companies are releasing their Q2 earnings reports. Tesla is one of those companies and it reported a profit of $2.26 billion in Q2 2022. While that’s better than the company’s Q2 2021 profit of $1.1 billion, it’s down around 31% from the $3.3 billion in Q1 2022. Also included in the letter to investors was the news that Tesla has sold off 75% of its $1.5 billion Bitcoin investment, netting the company $936 million. Change of heart? That Bitcoin investment was made last year, a few months before the…