Author: Brett Venter

Starlink, the Elon Musk-backed satellite internet service that will turn up in South Africa any day now, will offer its users a choice. There’s the original Dishy McFlatface satellite base station, which looks like a DStv dish on a tripod. Then there’s the new thing — a smaller rectangular design. Starlink’s new star Starlink’s original dish, used by those participating in the company’s beta, is fairly conventional in terms of design. This new one, though, looks like it’s designed to be delivered by a Cybertruck. It’s a strange design for a satellite receiver, but it’s got a purpose. It’s smaller,…

If you thought that Huawei would get a better deal in the States with the departure of former president Donald Trump, you would be mistaken. Current president Joe Biden has signed the country’s new Secure Equipment Act, which puts the brakes on for several Chinese companies. The USA says ‘Biden’ to Huawei The act prevents companies considered to be security threats by the United States — Huawei and ZTE among them — from securing new equipment licenses from US regulators. The act was approved earlier this year, passing through the country’s House and Senate almost unanimously. The terms of the…

Remember last year, when it was really, really difficult to find a PlayStation 5 console anywhere? Remember how 2021 so far has seemed like a carbon copy of 2020? Can you see where we’re going with this? Yup, it seems like Nintendo isn’t the only console maker to encounter issues with supplying enough consoles for the end of the year. Sony’s gigantic new plaything also faces supply issues for the end of this year. The reason? The same reason every other tech-maker on the planet is having issues — the ongoing semiconductor shortage. We like our PlayStation 5 consoles rare…

Ever since Facebook brought up its whole metaverse idea, it’s all the tech world seems to be able to talk about. Samsung, purveyor of all sorts of technology for much of the world, isn’t immune to that, it seems. The South Korean tech maker has announced its latest set of mobile RAM, its first 14nm LPDDR5X hardware. The company says it is “…designed to drive further growth throughout the high-speed data service applications including 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse.” Samsung enters a new electric dimension Which, apparently, means that the metaverse is coming for us all. In all…

NASA has a fairly aggressive timeline for returning humans to the moon with its Artemis lunar missions. The original projection for arrival was set to be 2024, but the space agency has just revised that timeline. Humans, according to NASA head Bill Nelson, will return to our deserted and dusty satellite sometime in 2025. The reason why will surprise you. Artemis rises a little later than expected Actually, the reason won’t be surprising at all. Legal wrangling over the awarding of the Artemis lunar lander contract to SpaceX, which recently ended with Blue Origin’s case being tossed, is the main…

Sending people out into space is really tricky, but it is getting them back that’s the really important bit. SpaceX’s Crew-2 crew, astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur (NASA), Akihiko Hoshide (JAXA), and Thomas Pesquet (ESA) returned safely to Earth early this morning on board the company’s Crew Dragon Endeavor capsule. Crew-2 in capsule form https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLdl-wM7kGo The Crew-2 capsule carrying the astronauts winding up their six-month stay on the International Space Station splashed down in the ocean near Pensacola, Florida at 22:33 Eastern Standard Time last night — or at 05:33 this morning here in South Africa. The crew orbited…

In June this year, we heard about the Airspeeder M3 eVTOL, a craft made by Australian company Aluada Racing. At the time, it had completed a test-flight. Now, it’s experienced a taste of competition, in the form of an actual drag race. Which, if you’re going to race flying vehicles, is probably the way to start. You certainly don’t want to begin the experiment by sticking ten of them on a starting grid and seeing what happens on the first corner. These eVTOLs are dragging it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgBegdGyUis As part of getting ready for the EXA race series, which should…

If you needed any further signs that the ongoing chip shortage was causing issues for just about everybody, BMW’s waving the neon display you need. The company has confirmed that it is temporarily removing touchscreen functionality from certain models, due to the shortage. BMW joins the “party” The news that BMW was yanking touchscreens from some of its vehicles first turned up on the Bimmerfest forum, before being confirmed by the company to Autoblog. The German automaker joins the likes of Nintendo, Intel, and others who have taken steps to mitigate the fallout of the current semiconductor shortage. If you’re…

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, is moving faster than it normally does. In addition to performing all sorts of new software functions intended to make us think it was all about virtual reality the whole time, the company is reported to be working on physical stores. The stores, which would be used to showcase Facebook’s Meta’s physical products, apparently aren’t a done deal, according to the New York Times. Discussions reportedly began in 2020, but have yet to be finalised so it’s not a certainty that we’ll see the company get physical with the world. Meta physical stores……

Blue Origin’s protests against rival space company SpaceX being awarded NASA’s Artemis lunar lander contract have come to an end. The lawsuit filed by the company was dismissed in a ruling by the sitting judge, effectively terminating the company’s opposition and paving the way for SpaceX to get on with building that lunar landing vehicle. Blue Origin feeling blue A very brief ruling granted NASA’s motion to dismiss,”…under Rule 12(b)(1) and Rule 12(b)(6) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims”. SpaceX’s motion for judgment was granted, Blue Origin’s motion for judgment was denied. The reasons for the dismissal…