Author: Brett Venter

Remember how Apple and Samsung and others made the call to stop shipping chargers with their high-end smartphones? It looks as though budget phones, like Samsung’s Galaxy A lineup, are next on the chopping block. Samsung Galaxy A13 and Galaxy A23 handsets won’t launch this year with the 25W charge block that was a common addition with all but Samsung’s highest-end phones. The reason for this isn’t given. The company’s product pages for the upcoming budget phones simply include a footnote. It says, “25W Super Fast Charging charger sold separately.” Galaxy A-holes (in your budget) 12 5G bands support on…

If we were to ask you what the most successful Kickstarter campaign of all time was, you’d probably say, “People still use Kickstarter?” And then we’d say, “Yes, but it’s been a while since they’ve had a serious hit on their hands.” And then you’d say, “Fair enough.” But we still wouldn’t be any closer to an answer. Well, we’ll tell you. Before this week, the most successful Kickstarter was for the Pebble Time. Ancient history? Perhaps. But this E-Ink smartwatch precursor led directly to the Apple Watch on your arm. Not that it matters. The Pebble Time has been…

If the United Launch Alliance (ULA) has to retire the Atlas V rocket, then it’s going out on a good note. The ULA has shared a brief highlight video of its outgoing launch vehicle sending the GOES-T spacecraft into orbit earlier this month. It’s been trimmed down to a compact minute-and-thirty. You’ll burn through it before your boss spots you’re not working. But there’s loads of information packed into ninety seconds. Atlas V: Aging titan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSa739G2aXU The video shows the whole process of getting the Atlas V to the launchpad. It doesn’t quite begin with stacking the rocket. The 2,700kg…

Last week, Samsung was spotted doing a… not very nice thing on its newer Galaxy smartphones. An application called Game Optimising Service (GOS) was found to be slowing down apps. Loads of apps. 10,000 of them, in fact. But not a single one of those apps was a benchmarking program. Weird, that. Like OnePlus in 2021, which did something very similar, our first thought was that Samsung was attempting to lengthen battery performance. Limiting apps is a great way to do this, but it means that your phone isn’t performing as advertised. Keeping it a secret… well, that’s pretty unethical.…

If the Cana One does what it claims to do, it could be the salvation of many a thirsty person. Or the ruination of anyone with spare cash and a drinking problem. Cana, the company behind the Cana One, claims to have made the “world’s first molecular beverage printer”. In practise, that’s a little like having a Star Trek food synthesizer in your home. Only it only makes what are euphemistically called ‘beverages’. That could be anything from flavoured soda water to full-on cocktails. It’s a robot bartender, is what it is. Or, at least, that’s what it claims to…

NASA has, in recent years, hit on an interesting way to get humanity involved in various space projects. It was done with the Parker solar probe. It’s happening again for the upcoming Artemis 1 mission. Space fans, or just people who want to be part of something gigantic, can send part of themselves around the moon. Best of all, it’s considerably cheaper than Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson money to send you to the edge of space. All that’s required is an online form, and you’ll be part of history. Not an especially bulky part, but that’s kind of the…

Sennheiser may have offloaded its consumer audio division to another company last year, but that didn’t mean they were getting out of the game. Amid a few other announcements, the German audio specialists also revealed some new in-ears. The Sennheiser’s IE 600 in-ear monitors (IEMs) are remarkable in that they’re largely 3D printed. And, presumably, sound fantastic. IE 600 is a boring designation Sennheiser doesn’t really go in for interesting names for its products. It prefers to let the experience do all the talking. All users have to do is listen. Generally, that’s an activity that is rewarded. There’s no…

There’s a brand-new HTC flagship smartphone on the horizon (yaaay!). But it’s designed for use with the metaverse (awwww!). It illustrates that whole ‘the gods give with one hand and take away with the other’ rather neatly, doesn’t it? Once upon a time, back in the dim dawn of smartphone pre-history (2010), HTC fielded the most wanted smartphone in South Africa. That would be the HTC Desire, a phone so popular that the company brought it back last year. We think. HTC on the buzzword bandwagon  Word on the street (for a given value of ‘street’) is that the Taiwanese…

Samsung makes some really excellent phones. We’ve long been convinced on that score, but occasionally the company… is less impressive. Currently, the South Korean tech maker’s newer Galaxy smartphones are under scrutiny. How come? They’re apparently artificially limiting the performance of up to 10,000 apps. Which, based on all available indications, seems to be happening. Korean Samsung users discovered that a bunch of apps are being scooped into another app called Game Optimising Service. This undeletable app limits the performance of more apps than it is supposed to. And, if it’s on your phone, you’re likely affected too. Samsung got…

You have to be both deaf and blind to be unaware that there’s an ongoing Russia-Ukraine situation. It’s touching lives as far away as here in South Africa. Our recent petrol price increase? Yeah, that can be laid at least partly at the door of ongoing events in Eastern Europe. But the broader tech world isn’t exempt either. Major companies have already announced what their responses to Russia’s actions will be. A few new heavy hitters have followed suit. Netflix, PayPal, and Spotify have all taken action against Russia in one way or another. Mostly, this involves halting doing business…