Author: Brett Venter

We’ve been hearing about it for weeks, even if we weren’t expecting Windows 10 to be supplanted, and now it’s official. Microsoft’s Windows 11 has been revealed and it looks, on first glance, like a very clean take on the company’s operating system. But then, that’s always the case with a fresh install of Windows (we don’t talk about Windows 8 any more). There are some serious changes afoot, despite how familiar the interface looks. That’s… sort of the point. Microsoft is leaning hard into the idea that this is the Windows you’re used to, with some furniture shuffled and…

The iPod is a beloved piece of tech, although it’s one that has been made redundant by all the other tech out there — specifically the smartphone and the rise of streaming. Nobody needs a dedicated music player any more — even if that hasn’t stopped folks from making them. Apple’s iconic music player is no more, but you can go back and revisit the past thanks to a browser-based version of the music hardware. Although it’s not made by Apple, it does, of course, support Apple Music. And it’s a fan of Spotify. Spotify the iPod difference The creation…

When a scientific enterprise refers to itself as the “Noah’s Ark of science”, we have to start asking what they know. Earth 300 is a proposed scientific superyacht that wouldn’t look out of place in a Roland Emmerich movie about surviving the apocalypse. We’re still trying to decide if that’s a good thing. Exploring the Earth 300 It’s certainly ambitious. The craft, if it ever winds up being built, will be a 300-metre floating scientific laboratory, powered by a type of nuclear reactor called a Molten Salt Reactor that is supposedly safe and emission-free. The tricky bit will be making…

Samsung’s got a Mobile World Congress event kicking off next week, with smartwatches in the spotlight. One of those is the Galaxy Watch Active 4, a device that has seemingly been revealed (almost totally) before the 28 June event. But that’s nothing unusual for Samsung. Details have been turning up for some time now, so this latest batch just adds to the growing pile of what we know. Here’s what that consists of (so far). Galaxy Watch Active 4 looks like a watch Perhaps the most striking thing about this leak is just how much Samsung’s action-focused wearable looks like…

The idea of Starlink, SpaceX’s internet access beamed down from space, is quite an interesting one. We know for sure that the service will be launching in South Africa at some point, but there’s first the matter of coverage to sort out. Well, that problem might just about to over. Starlink company president Gwynne Shotwel said earlier this week that global coverage could be in place by September this year. That’s… faster than we were expecting. Starlink out of reach? Nah Shotwel said, reports Reuters, “We’ve successfully deployed 1,800 or so satellites and once all those satellites reach their operational…

Tide, if you’re a South African internet user, was last seen in 2018 during something called the Tide Pod Challenge. The company is back now, though, with something far more awesome and something considerably less stupid — a partnership with NASA to create the first laundry detergents designed for space. The Tide is turning (to space) Seriously. It’s not all 3D-printed human organs and travelling to other celestial bodies, NASA’s also putting money behind doing chores on the International Space Station. And, admittedly, on longer space missions. Currently, International Space Station (ISS) astronauts wear their clothing over and over again…

Welcome to the new capitalist hell-scape. Facebook, arbiter of reality and holder of information (which it then hands over to those with the money for it), has decided that WhatsApp could use a few new features. Not features that will make communication better, though. That would make far too much sense. No, Facebook is expanding the rollout of Shops to the messaging app, because capitalism demands that you’re always thinking of buying something at every point in time. Facebook finds new ways to Zuck Shops, in case you’ve forgotten, are online stores hosted on the social media platform. In a…

SMS spam is almost (almost!) as annoying as spam phone calls that are immediately followed by some robotic voice attempting to sell you something or tell you they need you help to locate John Connor or something. WASPA, the South African Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association, has a new tool that might help with that. Ant-Man and the WASPA It doesn’t have a fancy name, it’s just called the Numbering Lookup Tool and it’s available online. If you want to work out which company is constantly sending you spam messages, all you need to do is head over to the…

Despite how we feel about Mobile World Congress taking place in person this year, it’s happening. And Samsung, as always, has a bunch of stuff to show off at the event. We’re expecting smartphones, obviously, but that’s what we always get at MWC. Also on the cards? The company’s new smartwatch ecosystem, the marriage between its Tizen OS and Google’s Android Wear. What ever will Samsung Wear?  The South Korean tech maker revealed its new Wear OS at this year’s Google IO event, but it’s at Samsung’s virtual MWC briefing that we’re going to get a deeper dive into what…

Last week we saw that Facebook was starting to test adverts inside various VR apps. One of those (and the only one mentioned by name) was Blaston, a paid-for VR game made by Resolution Games. Only… they’re not going to be participating any more. It turns out, people don’t really take kindly to advertising being added to a product they have paid for. Customers seem a little resistant to being milked for more with absolutely zero additional value being offered. Who could have possibly seen this coming? Perhaps… anyone who has tried this before, like, say, Electronic Arts? Facing off…