Author: Brett Venter

Anyone paying even the remotest attention to last week’s news will have noticed that soon-to-be-former American president Donald Trump was toppled from his Twitter throne, with Facebook’s various platforms following suit. The ban, initially a temporary initiative, quickly became a permanent deplatforming for the departing politician. In Facebook’s case, Trump is banned from posting to the social network at least until he is no longer the American president. In Twitter’s case, Trump is banned indefinitely. The reason given is that Trump’s “…statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence…”, eventually finding that Trump’s account is in violation…

It was late last year that Sony let slip that it would be launching Airpeak, its own drone, on the market. We guess all that practise with making fans for games consoles somehow naturally translated to tech that actually takes off (instead of just sounds like it’s about to). At this year’s CES, the Japanese tech-maker revealed a little more of its drone ambitions. Specifically, the drone itself, in a video presentation that shows off some of its skills in action. Not much is known about the drone on a purely technical level — we don’t know what sort of…

An LG Rollable might sound like something you can buy at one of the more adventurous Amsterdam coffeeshops but it’s actually the official name of the South Korean company’s most ambitious phone to date. And remember, we’re talking about a company that released the LG Wing in the past six months. While we’ve been aware of LG’s aims in this direction for a while, we didn’t have much information about a possible rollable smartphone. Now… we’ve got a name, and a timeline for release. But not much else. Locking down an LG Rollable LG presented little more than a teaser…

Samsung’s first Unpacked event for 2021 is nigh — really nigh, as in later this week. As is now traditional, there are more and more leaks taking place. The newest leak claims to know what sort of pre-order goodies Samsung is offering for its handsets, from the top-end Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G right down to the vanilla S21. And the best part about this leak is that one of these items isn’t official as yet. The other, however, is definitely already on sale (even if it’s officially still a secret). Making the S21 Ultra 5G even sweeter Samsung’s supposedly offering…

Nokia used to have a very specific reputation when it came to cellular phones but these days it’s all about affordable handsets with excellent software support. The newest of these is thought to be the Nokia 6.3 or Nokia 6.4, which will replace the company’s Nokia 6.2 handset. Whatever it winds up being called, we already know what it looks like. Nokia’s newest has been outed in renders located by OnLeaks (via website Voice.com). The uncertainty about the handset’s title is because Nokia may jump right from 6.2 to 6.4. Or they may be difficult with their naming and stick…

It’s no secret that Facebook-owned WhatsApp is a popular service, used by billions of people around the world. But Facebook’s recent mandatory shift towards sharing user data with the main Facebook service has seen users in South Africa turn away from the data-siphoning app and towards something that is less likely to wind up trying to psychologically profile you so it can sell you stuff. Like Telegram, or Signal. But what do you do with your WhatsApp account? You could just keep it on your phone but it’ll continue sending data back to Facebook HQ — even if you’re not…

There are two persistent Apple rumours that just won’t go away. One is the existence of an Apple-made television set, and the other is Project Titan, an Apple-made self-driving car. We’ve heard whispers about it since around 2014 but recent months have seen the rumours spike. Most recently, a Hyundai spokesperson seems to have confirmed the existence of Project Titan, saying that “We understand that Apple is in discussion with a variety of global automakers, including Hyundai Motors. As the discussion is at its early stage, nothing has been decided.” Possibly Project Titan The project may finally bear fruit, some…

For ages, the richest man in the world was Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon (and numerous other things, we assume). The torch has now been passed to Elon Musk, the mind behind SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company and other ventures we haven’t been told about because they involve the ongoing construction of a moon-base (probably). The cost of being Elon Musk CNBC reports that Elon Musk’s personal worth is now sitting at over $185 billion… that’s with a b. This is thanks to a jump in Tesla’s share price, which closed at $816 per share yesterday and gave the…

The PGA Tour, which is a group of men whacking a small ball around a whole lot of land, has secured a new wearable tech sponsor. Normally that’s not something we’re concerned with, but it’s how that tech will be utilised that’s especially interesting this time around. The PGA Tour’s big Whoop Whoop is set to become the official wearable device of the PGA Tour, as well as a sponsor. Big… er… whoop, really. But there’s something unusual happening as a result of the partnership. Player biometric and heart-rate data will be displayed, as captured by Whoop’s tech, “…during defining…

Just about every large tech company has an incubator inside somewhere, where researchers do strange and sometimes wacky things in the hopes that they’ll turn into money. Samsung’s research lab is called C-Lab and it’s where things like… well, like this are born. Ahead of CES this year, Samsung has revealed which of its C-Lab projects are getting to meet the outside world. The presentation is divided between C-Lab and C-Lab Outside efforts and the difference between the two should be pretty obvious. The first consists of internally-created Samsung projects while the second are startups that Samsung is funding. C-Lab…