Author: Brett Venter

Wipeout is one of the game series that made the PlayStation platform what it is today, but actual games have been sparse of late. Wipeout Rush is the latest entry into the storied series but the mobile game, developed by a company called Rogue, is a far cry from anything like the iconic futuristic high-speed racer. Actually, Wipeout Rush sounds appropriate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qmulgPZ2cg On the surface, it looks as though Rogue has nailed everything. The music (it’s not The Chemical Brothers, but very little is), the robotic voice that will tell you what your weapon pickups are, the visuals… it should…

Boston Dynamics Spot robotic dog is, depending on who you ask, either an existential threat to humanity or an essential tool that has a load of potential as a robotic companion. However you feel about that (and those are just opinions, yeah?), it’s a fact that Spot the robo-dog is now much less reliant on human control than it was previously. Spot just wants to be a good doggo https://twitter.com/dog_rates/status/1220392791408177152?lang=en Boston Dynamics’ robotic canine has just received a new update (called Release 3.0) that enables all sorts of new behaviours for the yellow quadruped. Perhaps the most exciting is the…

The universe is a large place. So large that we can’t see all the way to the other side of it (yet). The solution? A simulated universe, of course. That’s just what scientists from around the world have created: Uchuu (which is Japanese for ‘outer space’), an artificial universe that you could totally download — if you had enough storage space available. Making a simulated universe Uchuu is a 2.1 trillion particle simulation that is 9.83 billion light-years from side to side, created using a dedicated astronomy supercomputer called ATERUI II. Even using a supercomputer, the simulation took years to…

We’ve been following the SpaceX-powered Inspiration4 mission ever since it was announced that someone could go to space by donating money to St Jude children’s hospital and now, the mission has finally taken place. If you, like us, weren’t able to stay awake long enough to catch the launch live, you have to know that everything has, so far, gone according to plan. Inspiration4 goes well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pv01sSq44w If you haven’t checked the video out yet, you can catch the archived stream at the embed above. If you’re mostly concerned with the launch and orbital insertion of the all private-citizen mission…

You’re not using a good camera unless it costs about as much as a second-hand car, apparently, and Canon’s new EOS R3 certainly fulfils that particular role. If you want one of these 24MP shooters when they drop in November this year, you can expect to pay at least R100,000 for the body-only configuration. Make it quick with the EOS R3 But why would you splurge a solid R100k on a ‘mere’ 24MP camera when you can spend less (or far more) on cameras with a much higher megapixel count? Well, the EOS R3 is all about speed, according to…

Are you ready to see history happen this week? SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission is perhaps the strangest mission into space we’ve ever seen. It consists of four people who are — technically — not really qualified to be there. They’re not astronauts, though they have received some training, and they’re going to spend three days in orbit before the SpaceX capsule they’re travelling in brings them back to Earth. Inspiration4 the future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pv01sSq44w The mission kicks off on 15 September (hey, that’s today!) at around 20h02 Eastern Time (oh, that’s 02h02 on 16 September, here in SA), with a little leeway…

Apple may have announced a pair of iPhone 13 models but that just means that the well-heeled (and obsessed) also have the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max to look forward to. These are typically the camera powerhouses, which is saying something when stacked against the photography improvements to the stock iPhone 13s, but there’s also loads of power to look forward to. Here’s what you need to know about Apple’s 2021 pair of Pro smartphones. Paging the iPhone 13 Pro Apple’s new Pro phones are, obviously, more powerful than last year’s models. But, as with the last few years,…

Apple’s gone and made its Watch Series 7 official and, as we expected, they haven’t done a bloody thing about the battery life. You’re still looking at eighteen hours on a charge, only this time Apple’s speeded up your charge time so you can actually use it while you sleep as well. Eight minutes will net you eight hours of sleep tracking, while 45 minutes will get you to 80% of charge. But how about the rest of the device? The Watch Series 7 goes (kinda) big Also as expected, Apple’s newest Watch hasn’t made many changes to the internals…

We’ve long maintained that Microsoft’s Hololens AR tech is destined for great things, just as soon as folks work out how to make it work without costing $3,000 for a single headset. We’ve seen them do some amazing things so far — to the point that the US military wants a bunch of them for training purposes. But now they’re working out in space, on board the International Space Station (ISS). Hololens facilitates NASA’s T2AR Earlier this year, astronauts on board the ISS made use of Microsoft’s Hololens hardware — in conjunction with custom-built software made by NASA — to…

‘If it’s not broken, why fix it’ seems to be Amazon’s approach to the user interface (UI) for its Kindle range of e-readers. The incredibly well-loved (in the Stuff offices, at least) device only rarely sees an update to how it functions on a software level. So when something new turns up, it’s worth paying attention. Something new from the Amazon If you’re fond of nothing more than a good (digital) book, then the change in your Kindle’s general look and feel is something you’re going to be intensely interested in. The folks over at Ars Technica spotted Amazon’s new…