Author: Brett Venter

Google is giving some of its users Guacamole. That’s not some weird code, that’s an actual menu setting appearing on some Android devices. It’s a new setting, named after the tasty green paste you put on your toast if you can’t afford a house of your own, and it’s related to the Google Assistant. It’s also not officially official yet, so we’ve only got a very basic idea what it really does. Spicy guacamole As spotted by Android Police, some users are finding that there’s a new setting in the Google Assistant menu. It doesn’t, at this point, actually do…

Last week at Apple’s Spring Loaded event, the tech-maker announced plans for paid podcast subscriptions (with Apple taking a healthy cut of proceedings). Spotify, it seems, might follow suit by launching a similar offering for its users. It might be time to dust off that podcast idea and finally start recording. Spotify hits the spot All the more because the anonymous sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal have claimed that Spotify, unlike Apple, won’t be taking a percentage of potential revenue, nor is there supposed to be a fee involved in setting yourself up to take payments. In addition,…

This year’s been all about space exploration, with several countries reaching the red planet and NASA in particular showing off by deploying their first off-world helicopter. Ingenuity has taken the long road there but from its first test flight, undertaken last week, the little chopper has since conducted two more flights. Ingenuity in the air The second of the helicopter’s test flights took place on 22 April and saw the little craft rise to about 5.2 metres above the Martian surface. There it hovered, pitching forward enough to fly about two metres before returning to the ground. It was on…

Fujifilm makes a range of interesting camera tech, in particular its Instax range of instant cameras which are hugely popular everywhere. Less prominent is the Instax Mini Link, a pocket-sized printer designed to give you instant camera-style images from your mobile phone. Fuji’s partnership with Nintendo might just change all that. Switch-ing to Fujifilm See, Fujifilm and Nintendo are teaming up to drop a few products. One of these is a Nintendo-themed version of the Instax Mini Link app designed specifically for the Nintendo Switch. You’ll be able to print out moments based on “…game play, screenshot of a game…

May has a special place in a certain sort of person’s heart — we’re referring to Star Wars fans, of course, and they’re set to be especially pleased next month. Lego’s coming out with an all-new Lego R2-D2 build for the month of May and it’s a big one — 2,314 pieces of blue, white and grey plastic are set to make for a fun time. Rebuilding R2-D2 The plucky little Star Wars droid has taken many forms over the years. We’ve seen a robotic Sphero version of R2-D2, we’ve seen him represented as a PlayStation 4, an airplane, even…

Finally, we’re getting to the more exciting stuff — it’s only after you pass the R10,000 mark and verge up on R15,000 that notebook computers start to really take shape. High-end processors, substantial allocations of RAM, decent amounts of storage — you know, what you’re looking for when you head out to buy a notebook. But finally making it to decent hardware is a little hard on the wallet. You need up to R15,000 (and we’d recommended getting as close to that price as possible) to play in this particular pool but you’ll be glad you made the investment. Durable…

The thing about sending humans to Mars (we’re going, okay?) is that we have to breathe there somehow. We can’t take along enough oxygen for a year and just hope for the best. Perseverance, NASA’s most recent Mars rover, took along MOXIE, or the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, along with it to try and solve this little issue. Perseverance pays off again And solve it it might. NASA has announced that MOXIE, the toaster-sized addition to the Mars rover, has done was it was intended to do and converted some of Mars’ carbon dioxide-based atmosphere into oxygen. Specifically,…

Do you have a selection of Samsung Galaxy devices gathering dust at home? The South Korean company’s Galaxy Upcycling at Home program is here to do something about it, assuming you’re not already doing the whole ‘downstreaming’ thing with your older smartphones. Samsung has long had its eye on the internet of things (IoT) and the company’s upcycling program is an extension of this. Long story short, Samsung wants you to turn older Galaxy devices into SmartThings sensors, using a new feature in the SmartThings app. Upcycling at Home Specifically, Samsung’s downgrade program can be used to turn an older…

Amazon is many things — they’re one of the largest companies in the world, they’re a less-than-pleasant employer, and they’re also home to some seriously futuristic (some might say dystopian) tech. Amazon One is a little bit of both, a payment system that’s straight out of the future and a little scary. And it’s heading to more stores in the States. Putting a price on Amazon You might be familiar with Amazon Go, the online retail giant’s experimental stores that let you wander in, select your goods and wander out. The company has pioneered other similar technologies, including the Dash…

An under-appreciated aspect of virtual reality is its potential for fitness but that’s something that the newly-leaked HTC Vive Air headset is planning to address. The wireless headset surfaced on the World Design Awards website recently, before anything like an official announcement of the device was made. And not just a hint of the  Vive Air’s capabilities, either. We’ve got clear looks at its design, including the material used in its construction, and a neat little description that explains exactly what we’re looking at. It’s a VR headset, but you’re supposed to get it sweaty. Viva la Vive Air It’s…