Author: Brett Venter

NASA’s latest Mars rover dropped off a little helicopter the other day and Ingenuity, the little box-sized chopper, was finally due to take its first flight yesterday on another planet. It, of course, succeeded, or we wouldn’t be talking about it right now. Ingenuity’s 39-second flight lasted long enough to a) prove that it’s possible to fly a human craft on an alien planet and b) enter the history books, because it’s the first time that anyone’s ever done that. So let’s take a look at what history looks like, shall we? That’s some Ingenuity https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1384202604620632074? As you can see…

Fitbit is usually all about accessible fitness gear, a theme that even runs through its Versa lineup of devices. But the newly-announced Luxe is a slightly different approach — the band is still recognisably a Fitbit but it’s a little more fashionable than we’re used to from the company’s wearables. The Fitbit Luxe is the first new device to issue forth from the company since it was acquired by Google. The company is after a more everyday look with its new bracelet design, a focus confirmed by the partnership with jewellery brand gorjana, the focus of the also-announced Fitbit Luxe…

Elon Musk’s SpaceX may be blowing up Starship prototypes left and right but the company has still managed to snag NASA’s approval for the Artemis lunar program. SpaceX’s Starship human landing system (HLS) is set to function as the Artemis lunar lander, which will land humans on the moon in… a couple of years. The contract is for a fixed sum and will net Musk’s company a tidy $2.89 billion. That’s about R41 billion in South African money. Space for SpaceX This arrangement is a little weird, however. NASA will use its own Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft…

Depending on how you look at this, this is either a company looking out for its staff or a massive corporation squeezing everything it can out of its workers. Amazon, according to Jeff Bezos’ final letter as CEO to company shareholders, is making use of “sophisticated algorithms” that rotate the physical effect on staff more effectively around their muscle-tendon groups. Which, you know, should be a good thing. Performing a single, repetitive task isn’t good for you — it doesn’t matter what the task is, eventually repetitive motion will do you in. And if anyone other than Amazon brought this…

2021 is the year where tech events are hoping to make an in-person comeback, with IFA being the second major expo hoping to stage an in-person event later this year. It’ll join the deferred Mobile World Congress taking place in late June/early July in opening its spaces to the public — only IFA kicks off in September this year. IFA it happens at all The event will return to its full size, after being relegated to an online-only event in 2020, the year we’d all rather forget. There was limited in-person attendance at Messe Berlin last year but the organisers…

We saw it rumoured not long ago and now it’s official — the DJI Air 2S is a thing and it’s actually dropped the Mavic title. We’re not sure what the means for the company’s product lineup but it’s interesting nonetheless. DJI is punting the drop as an all-in-one but it looks more like an upgrade of the Mavic Air 2, something that the Air 2S title is also suggestive of. But the visual similarities can’t be denied either. In terms of shape, it’s just a few lines off from last year’s versatile consumer-accessible drone. Deep inside the DJI Air…

There’s a new Samsung Unpacked event coming up, which means it’s time for a selection of Samsung leaks. The Galaxy Tab S7 Lite is the most recent of these; emerging via notable leaker Evan Blass, who frequently has official Samsung imagery before anyone else. Odds are we’ll see the Galaxy Tab S7 Lite launched later this month as an ‘also on the list’ rather than a headliner, which is fine because we probably know everything there is to know about it already. Exploring another Galaxy The 12.4in tablet is expected to launch in June this year, so a late April…

Last week we took a look at the most budget friendly notebooks available in South Africa at the moment. Sadly, the pickings are a little slim at that price point and we had to sneak in a couple on special just to flesh out the list. This bracket, of notebooks between R5,000 and R10,000 has a little more going on. And yet… we’re still not there yet. Stuff is often asked to provide laptop options but, unfortunately, here in SA portable computers only start becoming interesting around the R15,000 mark. That doesn’t mean the cupboard is bare — we’ve collected…

Chinese tech-maker TCL has had a few interesting ideas in the folding smartphone department over the past few years, but its current idea is perhaps its most ambitious. Called Fold ‘n Roll, it’s a folding smartphone that can also roll outwards — giving it three screen modes instead of just two. There are three different screen sizes for the TCL device — a 6.87in smartphone size, an 8.85in tablet and then an oversized 10in tablet thanks to that whole ‘rolling’ aspect of the prototype. TLC from TCL The design borrows something similar to LG’s now-defunct Rollable concept, combined with TCL’s…

Headphone maker Urbanista has come up with a solution to our largest complaint surrounding wireless headphones — the battery life. Sure, most high-end sets will get you around 20 hours of use on a charge but what if you’re the absent minded type? Either you invest in a set of wired cans or you grab yourself a paid of Urbanista’s Los Angeles headphones Urbanista warfare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLe8O8sNl8s What’s so special about these things? Well, they include a material called Powerfoyle, a term that sounds like it needs a ™ attached to it. And with good reason. The material, made by a…