Author: Brett Venter

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…

We wouldn’t have guessed that increasingly small cameras would start turning up, but here we are. The Haru Mini Retro Camera, to give it its full title, is a very tiny compact shooter currently on sale in Japan. It joins the likes of Kodak’s Charmera, which we saw late last year, as a properly pocket-sized snapper. As you’d expect from something that’ll disappear in your palm, it’s not terribly expensive. The ¥5,800 price tag works out to a little over R600. Of course, since Haru’s little compact is only on sale in Japan for now, it’ll take some doing to…

The folks over at Xiaomi France accidentally leaked (and then deleted) the page for the Chinese company’s upcoming Xiaomi Tag. If the name and the available images aren’t enough of a clue, the teeny little gadget will be an answer to Apple’s AirTag. They’re technically cheap and easy to make, so it’s surprising that there aren’t more of these from official brands. Xiaomi’s effort will function on both Apple’s FindMy network and Google’s Find Hub. Bluetooth and NFC are the connection options. Tag. You’re it Even the pricing for the device, whether it’s bought as a single unit or in…

Wearables like the ones Huawei (and many other brands) make are designed for tracking. As much as possible, really. The Watch GT 6 Pro is about to get one more tracking feature, thanks to something the Chinese company calls Diabetes Risk Study. Announced at the World Health Expo in Dubai, the “24/7 blood sugar monitoring feature” has launched for the GT 6 Pro and Huawei’s rather more unusual Watch D2. The latter device also features blood-pressure monitoring as its main function. Huawei avoiding diabetes View this post on Instagram A post shared by Huawei Arabia (@huaweiarabia) Using a…

It’s the age of AI in Everything, which at least partly explains why Uber’s Uber Eats app is getting its very own AI assistant. It won’t order you tons of unsolicited pizza (though why that isn’t already a feature is beyond us), but it will help to speed up grocery lists. Cart Assistant promises to let users build grocery lists for purchase on the app in less time. The feature promises ” fewer taps and more time saved,” though exactly how much time is being saved isn’t clear. It could cut a once-a-week ten-minute job down to just seconds, provided…

There’s something about the humble walkie-talkie that activates certain neurons. The folks at Blackview seem to know this, which is why they’ve come up with the Xplore 1. That’s a smartphone that features a decent set of regular features, plus one extra — a functional walkie-talkie. It’s not just an afterthought, either. The Xplore 1 uses a two-in-one dual-band antenna and supports AES encryption. Pair that with a range of twenty kilometres, and you’ve got a smartphone that’ll work just about anywhere (provided there’s another ‘talkie within hailing range). In town, though, expect a range closer to 4.5km. It’s all…

Plenty of noise in the humanoid robotics space is coming from China of late. There’s a little in the US and some in Russia, but we weren’t expecting to hear about Italy-based Generative Bionics’ Gene.01 in relation to working on manufacturing ships. Generative Bionics has announced a new partnership with Italian shipbuilders Fincantieri, which will see the pair developing an autonomous humanoid robot intended to work alongside human welders. Fincantieri certainly seems keen on an AI/robotics-focused future, if the company’s website is any indication. The selfish Gene.01? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYRz1uIIpwQ And so are Generative Bionics, even if we have yet to see…