Author: Brett Venter

We can’t say we didn’t see this one coming from a long way off. Apple launched a physical credit card, then Huawei decided to take a shot at it. It was only a matter of time before Samsung did the same, followed by… well, any other smartphone maker that thinks it can also be a bank. To be totally fair the newly-announced Samsung Money card is a debit rather than a credit card — putting the South Korean company in competition with the likes of Google more than Apple or Huawei. Called it We’ve been expecting the launch, or something…

This year sucks. By any objective metric, more people are having a hard time in 2020 than are not. If you’re not feeling some kind of undue pressure, you probably employ a full-time chef. But, beyond the 2020 suck-factor, folks are still buying smartphones. In large enough numbers to keep the various players happy, it seems. But there can only be one leader. Unless there’s a perfect tie, and that seems a little statistically unlikely given the volumes smartphones move around in. The most popular smartphone of 2020 to date? That’d be Apple’s iPhone 11, which has shipped more than…

Private space company SpaceX is about to do something for the first time. This week the company launches its first human passengers into space, a major test for the Elon Musk-backed outfit and a stepping stone on its route to Mars. 

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 will be along a little later this year, even if the launch format is set to be a little… unconventional. This means, though, that it’s time for Samsung’s well-oiled leaks factory to spring into production and dribble out bits of totally-not-planned info for its fans. The latest bit of dribbling from the Samsung factory is a pair of new renders of the upcoming smartphones. They show that Samsung’s going big this year. Really big, at least as far as screens go. Screen test Samsung’s Galaxy Note series has long bridged the gap between smartphones and tablets,…

Apple gave the Apple Watch the ability to give its users an Electrocardiogram, or ECG, back in 2018. That was a great idea, since knowing what your heart’s up to is key to living longer. And almost all of us want to live longer. So it was only a matter of time before Samsung followed suit on the feature. Coming soon (but not here) Samsung’s first watch to feature built-in ECG is the Galaxy Watch Active2, a piece of kit you might already own. But yours… can’t check to see whether you have atrial fibrillation (AFib). It’s probably got the…

Just before South Africa’s lockdown kicked off, we started up a giveaway for an Epson Ecotank L5190 printer. We’ve been sitting on the winner’s details because, well… nobody’s been allowed to go out and deliver it to our lucky winner. That’s all changed now. Many of us’ll be working from home for a while longer, so an addition like the Epson L5190 is bound to be a welcome one. Unfortunately we only have one to give away — which is a pity because it’s an excellent piece of office hardware. Everyone should have one. Because of this giveaway, one person…

Butts are amazing things. You can sit on them, obviously, but we’ve also made them fly, we’ve used artificial ones to test out smartphones, and we’ve even seen car companies test out car seats using robotic butts. Now they can do at least one more thing (that we’re allowed to write about) — they can start cars. In a manner of speaking. Get on your butt and do something You might be familiar with the Polestar 1, the electric vehicle spun off from Volvo’s productions lines. It’s one heck of a vehicle, even though we’ve yet to see it on…

You know how DC and Warner Bros. have been trying to fight the entertainment juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe? And how it was trying to follow suit with grim, broody movies that were nonetheless interconnected? Remember how that worked out for them? 2017’s Justice League was supposed to be DC’s version of The Avengers, the first Marvel film to tie up the threads of the previous MCU films all neat and tidy(ish). Only that didn’t work out so well. What should have been a three-hour film was pared down to two, and the change in director from Zack…

Twitter’s gone and done something else (again) instead of giving us all the Edit button we so desperately want (and probably shouldn’t ever get). The social media service is testing the ability to choose who can reply to a tweet. Any tweet. A few minutes of thought should make it clear that this is a terrible idea. The ability to limit replies in your tweets will effectively put a stop to getting ratioed. That’s… not a good thing. If you’re being ratioed, you probably screwed up pretty bad. Building a better bubble https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1263145271946551300 The test is currently running but with…

When the world went into lockdown (with a few notable exceptions — looking at you, Sweden) tech events were cancelled left and right. They’re still being cancelled, as a matter of fact, but there are also signs of recovery. Like Samsung’s newly-detailed launch event for the upcoming (and inevitable) Galaxy Note 20, which takes place this August. Unpacked online Samsung usually goes all-out for its twice-annual Unpacked events. It tends to be a lavish, well-organised global event which is… very hard to pull off. This year, though, the event has to contend with the likes of COVID-19 and social distancing.…