Author: Brett Venter

It’s hard to innovate the humble game controller, but not impossible. GameSir, purveyors of third-party gaming hardware, has introduced its X5 Alteron, a mobile gaming controller intended to serve more than one role when attached to your smartphone or tablet. The hardware, a collaboration with Hyperkin, follows the usual design of a clamp that you’d stick a smartphone into, but there’s one difference. The new controller, on display at CES 2026, is modular. X5 Alteron in sight Modular hardware has been a tough sell for a while — see the LG G5, Project Ara, and… okay, the Framework laptop is…

The Acer Predator ES Storm Pro isn’t the first time the Taiwanese tech maker has stepped into the portable mobility sector, but it’s certainly the newest. Acer unveiled an entire slate of new tech at CES 2026, most of it in the laptop and portable computing sector, but this entry in the Predator line is the most unusual thing the company has on display this year. What is it, exactly? The Predator ES Storm Pro is a “performance-focused e-scooter designed for varied urban conditions.” With an IPX5 rating, it’s perfect for Cape Town creatives who only venture to the office…

Eyeglasses have been around for centuries, dating back at least to the 13th century and possibly even the 2nd century. IXI Eyewear, a Finnish company, reckons it has found a way to do them better. Smart glasses that are just… well, glasses? What a novel thought. When you hear the term ‘smart glasses’, the first thing that comes to mind is some technological innovation involving AI, information flow, or just turn-by-turn directions hovering in front of your eyes. If you are one of the millions who wear eyeglasses for vision correction, these innovations fall a little flat. Because… well, it’s…

Lego is no stranger to oddball bricks, having previously made light-up and even augmented reality versions. The big new thing is Smart Play, a more intelligent series of sets that use new Smart Bricks, Smart Tags, and Smart Minifigs (the proper noun status was Lego’s idea) to enable more than just brick-building. Whether the new range, announced at this year’s CES conference in Las Vegas, will have better shelf-life than the company’s recent Hidden Side range remains to be seen, but at least the Danish company is trying. That’s the Smart Play The launch of Smart Play does mean that,…

Everyone wants a shiny new EV, but electric motorcycles get far less attention. Verge Motorcycles’ upgraded TS Pro EV bike could change all that. The fast-charging speeds of its new solid-state batteries are noteworthy, even if the promised 600km range doesn’t quite pan out as advertised. The basic stats for the EV motorcycle are only slightly terrifying. All versions of the two-wheeled death machine are capped at a top speed of 200km/h, but most will reach half that speed in just 3.5 seconds. We reckon Verge could do it faster, but riding a bike kinda requires that drivers can stay…

Amazon’s Alexa+ (or Plus, depending on your numerical literacy) is a bold move for any AI company in the 21st century — it’s AI that you have to pay for. But if you do happen to pay for the service, you’ll soon be able to access it via your web browser. Alexa+ the internet According to Amazon, its paying Early Access customers “want Alexa wherever they are,” resulting in a new browser-based version of the service. It’s supposed to permit the company’s AI to “help in every aspect of [a customer’s] day, and to truly serve as a personal assistant.”…

Everybody’s trying to create hardware that convincingly uses AI. Subtle’s new Voicebuds reckon they’ve cracked the formula (an opinion the Stream Ring shares about itself). There’s little chance it’ll do worse than the ill-fated (and mostly non-functional) Rabbit R1, at least. Subtle pitches its Voicebuds, as the name suggests, as a way to use voice commands in places and settings that don’t usually support it. The company feels that voice inputs struggle because it’s “too public in shared spaces and too unreliable in noisy ones.” The Voicebuds are supposed to help. Rather, Subtle How? By “providing dictation, calls, voice notes,…

If you thought Samsung’s recent AI drive for its range of products was extreme in 2025, you’re in for a slight shock. The company has confirmed that it intends to double the number of AI-supporting devices it releases in 2026, compared to the 400 million AI gadgets launched in 2025. For those who struggle with basic math (no, not you), that’s 800 million devices heading to market in 2026 that will feature Google’s Gemini AI. Why Samsung isn’t fleshing out Bixby isn’t immediately explained (hint: it’s either a) Google’s money is too attractive or b) Bixby is a bit crap…

The Consumer Electronics Show always has its share of wild and wacky tech, but we weren’t expecting Pixar’s Wall-E to turn up. Nor were we expecting LG to launch a robot that folds laundry for you, but that’s something the world really needs to prevent the Couch of Shame™. You know the one. A Chinese company called Zeroth actually unveiled a slate of robots — one of which looks very much like the cute little animated die-hard, Wall-E. But, due to international copyright law, it can’t be sold outside of China. Instead, Western customers will have to make do with…

One of the better storefronts for PC games, and one built on DRM-free older titles, GoG.com is no longer owned by CD Project RED. The good news is that Good Old Games hasn’t gone far. If anything, it’s reverted to one of its original owners. The platform said in a release that one of CD Projekt’s founders, Michał Kiciński, has “acquired 100% of the shares in GOG, formerly part of the CD PROJEKT Group.” Given the current state of the gaming industry, this move to make the platform more like Valve’s Steam could be a very good thing. GG GoG…