Author: Brett Venter

Amazon is shaping up to be the dystopian future company of our dreams nightmares. Last night the company announced a whole mess of new tech, ending off its presentation with Astro, a little robot that follows its owners around. It’s obvious that Amazon was going for a Wall-E/EVE sort of vibe, with a cutesy look that’s supposed to be endearing. But Astro’s oversized, dead eyes just bring to mind corporate horror and a scenario where it chases you down the passage while asking why you cancelled your Prime subscription. Kicked in the Astro nought So what exactly does the creepiest…

Auto-maker Volvo might have a reputation as the ‘safe’ choice but its forays into autonomous vehicles and unusual business models mean that the company is a little more innovative than most. That innovation extends to long-haul shipping, thanks to a new autonomous prototype of its VNL semi-truck. Before you go getting all excited, the new prototype isn’t fully autonomous just yet. The company’s VNL prototype integrates Aurora Driver tech, along with a collection of safety features also seen in its non-self-driving trucks. Volvo’s cargo space? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmQYAF3vsbw Volvo doesn’t go into much detail about the autonomous tech its prototype features but…

Facebook’s first standalone wireless VR headset, the Oculus Go, was launched in 2018. Unfortunately, it was retired in 2020, meaning anyone who bought one was basically only renting it for a couple of years. Or were they…? John Carmack, who some of you might recognise as the chap who gave the world iD Software, Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake, is the current consulting chief technology officer for Oculus. He’s also the chap who dropped the news on Twitter that Oculus is unlocking the software on the now-defunct headsets, so modders can repurpose the no-longer-supported hardware. Read more: VR tech can help mental…

Facebook has taken it in the neck in recent weeks, with a report from the Wall Street Journal pointing out just how bad Instagram is for teenagers — a claim the social network has denied. But the recent outcry has had an effect, with the planned Instagram Kids platform now taking a step back. An Instagram for children under the age of 13, a largely untapped market, was always set to be a tough sell but all plans for it are now on hold, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri. Not because the company thinks Instagram Kids is a bad…

It’s one thing to be in an on-again, off-again relationship but we weren’t expecting to feel that way about Samsung’s Galaxy S21 FE smartphone. The always-expected handset turned up online earlier this year but that pesky chip shortage put paid to its launch in 2021. Or so we thought. There was a bright moment where, briefly, we thought that production of the S21 FE had resumed. All was right with the world of semi-affordable flagship clones — but no, reports from South Korea indicate that Samsung might have other plans for the bits that would have made up its Fan…

One of our highlights of last year was taking Land Rover’s Defender 110 out for a few days, testing it on- and off-road. The four-door tank was an impressive experience but its slightly smaller sibling, the Land Rover Defender 90, might be an even better proposition. And that’s despite not being quite as loaded as the 110 was. Some of the pricer additions, like the reverse camera replacing the rear-view mirror, were missing (though the hardware was there) but we were more taken with the two-door Defender 90. Maybe it’s because we didn’t have to pack in an entire family…

If you measure your time like we do, then the emergence of Stuff’s October-November 2021 issue can mean only one thing: It’s (almost) October. Wait, that’s also how regular people measure time. Never mind, nothing to see here…  Except… The latest issue of Stuff, obviously, which is always worth looking at. And this issue is even bigger than usual, with a wallet-pleasing 128 pages instead of our regular 104. The reason for this is  our Load Shedding special content, which covers everything from which generators to buy to how to cook when the power’s off to how Eskom got to…

It’s not the greatest time to be Chinese and a fan of cryptocurrencies, though we can’t say we didn’t see this coming. Signs have, for months, pointed towards the Chinese government taking some sort of adversarial action towards bitcoin mining in general. But last week while most of South Africa was off for the day, Chinese officials went and made all cryptocurrency transactions in the country illegal. Pour one out for crypto The news comes by way of the Financial Times, but it’s hardly surprising. The country effectively banned bitcoin mining back in May this year, so smacking crypto right…

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule isn’t having a very good time. Its first flight into space ended with a software error that torched the test Boeing was conducting, the follow-up test was first delayed by a Russian software error that nudged the International Space Station (ISS) out of place, and then another fault, this one with a set of valves on the craft, sent the capsule back for additional maintenance. Matters haven’t improved, yet. Boeing is still attempting to figure out what’s up with the oxidiser valves on the craft. Since this is rocket science, we reckon there’s probably not a…

Look, chances are you’ll never purchase one of these James Bond-themed Aston Martin DB5 replicas for your kids. For starters, they cost £90,000 — which is a wallet-demolishing R1.8 million here in South Africa. We don’t know about you but we don’t hate our kids that much. If we had that much money to throw around we’d throw it in the direction of an education. But maybe you’ve got Bezos or Musk money lying around. We’re not gonna ask where you got it — maybe it’s totally legit (from Bitcoin or something) or maybe the Zondo Commission is going to…