Author: Brett Venter

Last week, two noteworthy events occurred in and around space travel. First, Jeff Bezos offered to give NASA $2 billion if they’d let Blue Origin construct the Artemis lunar lander, a contract originally awarded to SpaceX. Second, the International Space Station (ISS) was tipped out of orientation by a misfiring thruster from its new Russian module. We’ve got updates on both of those events: The follow-up to Bezos’ offer and the reason why the ISS was knocked a little off course for a bit. Blue Origin must be feeling blue Jeff Bezos’ appeal to NASA to be awarded SpaceX’s Artemis…

In another stunning example of cancel culture, Google is cancelling Android Gingerbread, otherwise known as Android 2.3.7. As well as every other Android device running an earlier version of the operating system. This isn’t isn’t going to render your ‘it-belongs-in-a-museum’ device inoperable, but it is going to have a considerable affect on the (probably already limited) functionality of whatever piece of history you’re using. It’s the Android Gingerbread, man According to a Google support document (first located by Liliputing), “As part of our ongoing efforts to keep our users safe, Google will no longer allow sign-in on Android devices that…

When you hear that there’s an object in space that shouldn’t be there, the immediate reaction might be panic. But the objects found in the asteroid belt of our solar system by a team of scientists are no cause for concern. Rather, they might give us very important clues as to how our solar system formed. Asteroid addiction Using a combination of visual and near-infrared spectroscopic observation, the scientists, in a paper led by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronomer Sunao Hasegawa, have identified 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia, two asteroids drifting around between Mars and Jupiter (with Elon Musk’s…

It took quite a road to get here but the August-September 2021 issue of Stuff Magazine has finally arrived. Whether you’re picking the magazine up in print or digital format, you’re in for a packed issue. We’ve got a closer look at the first Honor smartphone with Google Mobile Services installed, a set of sneakers made out of Lego (assuming you buy two sets), a new Game and Watch from Nintendo and a new set of Beats — and that’s just in the first few pages of this brand new issue.  Also contained within the pages of the August-September 2021…

Earbuds are a relatively new audio segment and, like all new territory, it’s being wildly contested. Sony’s WF-1000XM4 in-ear ‘buds are perhaps the best entry to come out of the Japanese company’s extremely well-stocked audio engineering labs. By extension, that means that these are perhaps the best wireless earbuds on the planet right now. But don’t go getting all indignant. There’s a very small chance that you could secure better audio quality from your earbuds, but then there’s a sacrifice made elsewhere. The battery life may not be up to par or the companion app is weak or perhaps the…

The MLM thruster at the centre of the very recent scare at the International Space Station (ISS) has nothing to do with multi-level marketing. Last night, a newly-docked Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) — called Nauka — pushed the ISS out of orientation when its thrusters fired without warning. NASA says that the crew on board the space station “…was never and is not in any danger”, and for once we believe this particular sort of announcement. The folks on the ground are constantly monitoring the status of the ISS, because it’s space and there are many, many things that…

It feels like it’s been forever since we had a new Huawei smartphone announcement to marvel over. Hopefully, the reveal of the Huawei P50 has been worth the wait. If you live in China, then perhaps it has because that’s the only place the new HarmonyOS handset with the intimidating (camera) bulge has been confirmed for. There are, of course, two different models for fans to look out for — the stock 6.5in 90Hz OLED-screened P50 and then the 6.6in 120Hz OLED P50 Pro, which you’ll see in our header image above. Typically a Huawei flagship would use one of…

Looks like we’re going to have to get off the couch now — robots like Oregon State University’s (OSU) Cassie are officially running 5km tracks now and we’re going to have to be faster than they are. You know, just in case. It’s not like we haven’t seen this coming. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot has steadily been improving its athleticism over the years, so it was only a matter of time before a bipedal machine joined us on a Parkrun. Thankfully, many of us will be able to beat Cassie’s 5K time — the robot managed to complete the run…

If it’s good enough for Jeff and Elon, it must be good enough for the fine folks at Porsche, right? The German automaker has become the latest company to take steps in a spaceward direction, having dropped the princely sum of $75 million (a little over R1 billion) on a German aerospace startup, reports the Financial Times. The company made the investment, along with several other companies, in Isar Aerospace in order to get it off the ground — figuratively and literally. The startup aims to provide low-earth orbit satellite launch services to its customers, putting it in competition with…

It’s a very good time to be one of the companies that collectively make up Big Tech. Apple, Microsoft and Google have all posted their most recent sets of financial results and they’re definitely the sort that would be stuck up on the fridge by proud parents CEOs. Apple and Google have both set records with this batch of financials, while Microsoft is just doing rather well at present. However you look at it, none of the companies mentioned is in any trouble at all when it comes to making cash during the pandemic. Big Tech likes big money Apple’s…