Author: Brett Venter

Tech-maker Samsung has had its eye on ever-increasing sizes of camera sensors for smartphones. First, we saw them make a 64MP edition, then there was the 108MP attempt. Then the company took a step back and checked out what a 50MP camera sensor was like, which brings us to today and the hugely overkill 200MP ISOCELL sensor. Sharing an ISOCELL with Samsung The company recently took the wraps off its ISOCELL HP1 camera sensor, which crams 200 megapixels into something that’ll fit into a smartphone. It uses 0.64μm-sized pixels, the South Korean outfit’s smallest to date, resulting in a smartphone…

Some features shouldn’t ever exist behind a paywall. Beacon, a location sharing feature in fitness app Strava, is one such item. Happily, the ability to share where you are with friends and family has just been yanked out from behind a paid subscription and given to all of the app’s users, free of charge. Something nice from Strava The way that Beacon works is similar to Uber’s trip-sharing feature — activating it lets you share a URL with whoever you send it to, and they can then keep an eye on where you are. The reason is much the same…

It wasn’t long ago that we saw audio specialist Jabra revealing new earbuds with a slant in a more medical direction, but now the company’s also got three new Elite in-ear buds heading to market for those who don’t have any particular need beyond wanting some excellent audio. There are two headliners incoming, the Elite 7 Pro, the Elite 7 Active and then the Elite 3, which is a slightly more budget version of the ‘buds. Because everyone should have a decent set of wireless in-ears, you know? Jabra looks beyond the elite The Elite 7 Pro are the company’s…

Apple’s Watch has had the feature for a while, now Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 wearable becomes the first to get an official walkie talkie app. The app, perhaps fittingly, is simply called WalkieTalkie — you can’t possibly guess what that does based purely on its name, though. Come in, Galaxy Watch 4 The official app was first spotted by the folks over at XDA Developers (on the Android store, obviously) and it allows Watch 4 owners to chat to other Watch 4 owners using only their wristwear. Just like using a walkie talkie, really. But there are limitations, obviously. You…

Look, the perfect eReader already exists — it’s called the Kindle Paperwhite (10th gen), but there are some compelling options out there from Kobo as well. And then there’s the Boox Note Air, which sounds like it was named by someone who used to work at both Samsung and Apple. Let’s be up-front with this — this eReader, which isn’t tied to an app store (though it has one), is a little pricier than the average Kindle at about R6,900 but it’s still cheaper than the Kindle Oasis, which it’s clearly targeting. And it’s also a little difficult to find…

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has confirmed that it’s retiring its Atlas V rocket from service — this is a move that has been in the works since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. See, the ULA’s long-time workhorse is built around the Russia-made RD-180 rocket engine. That made politicians uncomfortable. The ULA was ordered to stop using them back in 2014 and the last of the paid-for engines was delivered earlier this year. No more RD-180 engines means no more Atlas V rockets on sale. ULA CEO Tory Bruno, speaking to The Verge in an interview, explained that all of…

Jeff Bezos blasted into space (more or less) last month on a Blue Origin rocket, a move that didn’t impress… well, most parts of the planet that didn’t include Jeff Bezos. So it might not be the perfect time to mention that you can own your very own New Shepard rocket, for the unfortunate sum of $69. Because of how it looks, naturally. Blue Origin for beginners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_YRr1R1dH8 Perhaps appropriately, the Blue Origin rocket being offered on the Estes Rockets web store is rated for beginners. Jeff Bezos’ company doesn’t have that much experience with putting its hardware up in…

If you’ve lived on the South African coast, you’ll be aware of just how many cargo ships travel up and down our coastlines. They’ve all got engines and they all make… a bit of a mess. That’s about to change. Later this year, a ship called the Yara Birkeland will travel from Herøya to Brevik in Norway. This wouldn’t be a big deal, except that the Yara Birkeland will be completely unmanned. It’ll also be completely electric — its creators bill the Birkeland as an emissions-free vessel. Creepy cargo ship The Yara Birkeland has been in development for some time.…

Everyone’s favourite mentally ill musician, Kanye West (no judgement, it’s just a thing), has a new toy for budding artists to play with. The Donda Stem Player might look like a cross between an Ultimate Ears Roll 2 and a Fleshlight but it’s not a Bluetooth speaker — though we suppose you could use it as one, if you were really boring. What does the Donda Stem Player do? https://twitter.com/yevideo/status/1430543251442999299? West’s new device, part of a partnership with tech company Kano (you’ll see the Yeezy Tech x Kano branding at the official website), is kind of like a Bluetooth speaker,…

South Africa’s recent unrest is still very fresh in everyone’s memory. Riots, looting, politicians being banned from Twitter — it was an exciting time. Samsung isn’t quite finished with the events of July 2021 — the South Korean company has activated a system that will remotely lock “…all Samsung television sets looted from our Cato Ridge distribution centre in KZN since the 11th of July 2021.” Can… can Samsung do that? The ‘feature’ is called Samsung Television Block and it does exactly what it says on the tin. When the TV is connected to the internet — and most of them…