Author: Brett Venter

The rise of ‘X as a service’ has led to this point — automaker VW is considering implementing a charge for its upcoming autonomous driving tech, and it’s possibly not going to be a one-off. Instead, VW’s board are kicking around ideas pertaining to future vehicle features, including an hourly charge for autonomous driving. The price point? Around $8.50 (€7) an hour, which doesn’t sound too unreasonable… if you’re an American or European. Here at home, though, that’s R120 or so an hour, which makes taking an Uber everywhere the (likely) cheaper way to avoid doing any of the driving…

NASA might be taking photos of the Martian surface with a helicopter, but they’re used to this sort of thing. China’s Zhurong rover is doing much the same, only it’s a bit lower-tech than the American effort. China’s first rover has sent back its first selfie, as well shots of the lander and the surface of Mars. Zhurong, and thanks for all the fish The images were snagged in a variety of ways. The weirdly haunting image of the country’s Mars lander was shot by the Zhurong rover itself, using its on-board cameras. The horizon shows some mountainous regions in…

Jeff Bezos is heading to space on one of his Blue Origin rockets on 20 July this year. He’s taking his brother with him, because family dinners get awkward otherwise. But there was another seat up for grabs, going to the highest bidder. Well, the bids are in and the (so far) mysterious passenger was willing to part with $28 million (R385 million) in order to secure a set next to Jeff and Mark. Blue Origin of the species https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUcQmETFmds&feature=emb_logo The seat on the reusable New Shepard’s Crew Capsule was sold at an auction this weekend, with some twenty bidders…

Look, there are a few things that keep a country, a workplace, a household going. We’re not talking about love or togetherness or teamwork. No, no, no, we’re talking about coffee, the brown substance without which nothing gets done. The acceptable way to drug yourself during the day. The cause of an entire global industry revolving around hot water. The… okay, you get the point. But it’s hard to have coffee when you’ve woken up to load shedding Stage Whatever-it-is-this-week, which means it’s hard to get your brain out of neutral and focused on your job. Because you feel the…

Sony has been teasing its Airpeak S1 drone for long enough, first showing it off briefly in 2020 before giving us a proper look at this year’s CES. We didn’t get much more than a few hints about what the drone can do but that’s changed. Sony’s first foray into flying fthings is officially here. And it’s officially expensive. If you want to lay your hands on one (you’ll see why you want that in just a minute) you’ll have to shell out at least $9,000 — or about R123,000, which makes the Airpeak S1 more than something you just…

It was bound to happen eventually. El Salvador has become the first country in the world to accept bitcoin as legal tender. The new law was signed by the country’s president Nayib Bukele and accepted by its Congress, officially adopting the cryptocurrency as a method of payment. First El Salvador, then… the world! President Bukele said of the move in a tweet, “It will bring financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development for our country.” The idea, in part, is to aid El Salvadorians living abroad to send remittances back home, while companies and even the government will have…

The best kind of work has to be getting paid for someone else’s – but, like the internet (and law enforcement) would say, that’s illegal. It’s paid off for the JBS meat plant attackers, to the tune of around $11 million. That’s about R150 million in South African terms – not a bad payday for nothing more than stopping other people from doing their jobs. JBS does negotiate with terrorists The meat supplier has issued a statement confirming that it has paid “…the equivalent of $11 million in ransom in response to the criminal hack against its operations.” According to…

Facebook doesn’t have the best history when it comes to creating its own hardware. There was a smartphone that didn’t go anywhere and we’re not counting the Oculus stuff – they paid for that. Its more modern attempts – witness the Portal range – have proved more successful, leading the company to think that it can launch a smartwatch. Yup, there’s a Facebook smartwatch on the horizon. Here’s what’s known so far. Watch, out for Facebook The wearable device hasn’t been officially announced but it’s coming – we should see it turn up in about a year’s time, though it’ll…

Facebook might be a little annoyed at both Google and Apple, what with both companies instituting policies that stand to cut down on the social network’s earnings. Now, we’re not saying that’s what has fuelled its latest feature for creators on the platform, but we’re not not saying it either. Facebook intends to launch a breakdown of what creators on its platforms stand to earn for events. But it’s not just going to include Facebook fees. The estimate will also include the percentage both Google and Apple take. Facebook’s revenge Which is, you know, a sensible thing to do. Online…

One of the most powerful tools of the information age (no, not Mark Zuckerberg — he’s merely a powerful tool) is social media. But, like any tool that was developed with no idea what it might one day become, it is inherently broken. It’s broken because it claims to be a specific thing — a place where speech can be heard — but it’s incapable of delivering on that claim. Because, at its heart, social media is really about two things. Neither of them is speech. It’s all about data and profit. One leads to the other, but both rely…