Author: Brett Venter

Bet you weren’t expecting to see the Vatican, the seat of Catholicism, turn up alongside artificial intelligence in a Stuff headline. Right? Nevertheless, that’s just what has happened. One of the world’s oldest institutions has embraced AI, bringing live AI translation features to Holy Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. The change will let visitors access Mass in 60 languages, using their smartphones. A QR code at the entrance, or inside the Basilica itself, will also assist. The Vatican’s Mass driver There’s no secret sect of robed AI developers inside the Holy See. At least, we don’t think that’s the case.…

You can call it propaganda if you want to (it probably is), but Unitree’s G1 robots have just put on a very impressive display of synchronised martial arts. The feat took place at the CMG Spring Festival Gala, a televised event celebrating the Chinese New Year. Several of Unitree’s robots took to the stage, assisted by high production values, human opponents, and some very creative programming. It’s no secret that the Unitree G1 has been practising for this event, but it’s still a remarkable display of confidence from the Chinese robotics company. If even one of its robots collapsed or…

Huawei has a few announcements lurking in our near future. One of those is certainly the Band 11 Pro (likely with a Band 11 to go with it), which has turned up online ahead of anything official coming out. The fitness wearable, aimed at less data-serious users, will include titanium alloy in at least a few models of the upcoming device. Much of this information comes via leaker Roland Quandt, who has something of a track record. Building on a leak last week, we’ve got a fairly good look at what Huawei’s new casual band is packing. Visuals released look…

The Blackview Rock 2 Pro is just the latest of the company’s products we’ve been checking out from afar. There was the industrial tablet that contains a full projector, and the rugged smartphone that also includes a walkie-talkie. This one’s a little less spectacular. But only a little. The Rock 2 Pro is absolutely a rugged device, but it drops much of the fancier tech features in favour of a large 400-lumen torch as part of the rear panel. That’s bright enough to let you find your way around a darkened garage. It’s not so bright that it’ll chew through…

We’ve seen the Chinese company’s Magic V5, so now it’s time to check out the Honor Magic V6. It’s not official, yet, though a reveal is expected sometime around 1 March this year. But whether intentionally or not, it has turned up in images from China. The images, posted on the country’s Weibo social media platform, show Hong Kong actor/singer Nicholas Tse handling the upcoming handset. Magic V6 engine Actual details of the upcoming folding smartphone are less apparent, even though we can see it very clearly in the Chinese images. Honor’s boast last time around was that the Magic…

There are several ride-hailing apps in South Africa. You might even use this one. InDrive covers a limited number of cities in South Africa, but even that coverage needs to be funded. There are several ways this could happen, but the company has settled on in-app advertising. The addition is a new one that is rolling out to several countries where InDrive’s services are available. South Africa has joined the list, ostensibly to “cover operating costs without increasing driver commission rates or pushing higher fares onto passengers.” Ads InDrive This means users of the app (and the ride service it…

Sub-R10,000 laptops are a serious pain to find in 2026. Acer will attempt to hit that price point with its new e10 ETBook range, now launching in South Africa. We say ‘attempt’ based on previous releases in the series, as the current lot doesn’t seem to be at retail outlets yet. When they get there, though, you’ll have a choice between the ETBook 15.6in — which features AMD Ryzen processor options — and the ETBook 14in, which sports an Intel Core i3 chipset. e10 ETBook (a flight home) Acer’s new e10 ETBook models are supposed to address “the evolving demands of…

Sony’s WF-1000XM6 in-ear buds are finally official, with a launch date for South Africa among the data points we didn’t have. If you want the really important info first, here it is. The XM6 buds launch in SA on 3 April this year, and you’ll pay R8,000 to stick a pair in your ears. Also inbound is a new Sand Pink (so just… pink) model of the WH-1000XM6. Those’ll set you back R11,000 for a set. Whether you’ll choose the new shade over the existing models (now priced at R9,000) is up to you. WF-1000XM6 inbound It’s not like…

If you didn’t realise that Xiaomi is also involved in the robotics space, you haven’t been paying attention. The company announced its CyberOne humanoid robot back in 2022. It’s been fairly quiet on that front until now. The Chinese company has just unveiled a new Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model used for training robots that it reckons is “optimized for high performance and fast and smooth real-time execution.” The really cool thing is that it is making said model open-source. Xiaomi: how to train a robot The VLA model has an actual title, of course. The training package is called Xiaomi-Robotics-0, and…

The heads at FIFA love to use the World Cup to debut or amplify new tech in one way or another. This year will see (in part, we’re sure) a new sort of assistant joining the security teams in Mexico. Specifically, the event will have robot dogs on patrol, according to a report from the Manila Times. Four of them, to be precise, will be patrolling areas of Guadalupe this June for the footballing event. They’ll be escorting police officers, because FIFA isn’t quite powerful enough for its own private army. Not yet. FIFA, you sly dog https://youtu.be/KIfNbEtBrXs The Mexican…