Author: Brett Venter

Samsung’s having a tough time this March. Following news that its Galaxy phones are throttling some apps, and promising a fix, someone’s kicked the company while it’s down. News has emerged that Samsung has suffered a considerable cyberattack. The proof of this is a 190GB data dump by hacking group Lapsus$. The group posted a teaser of the information scooped out of Samsung’s interior. It looks considerable. The company has since confirmed that the breach has taken place, saying that Galaxy source code was compromised. It appears that nothing else was, however. Samsung’s rough March The company said, in a…

Facebook, owned by Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook), is rolling out a new security feature for users. Facebook Protect is not really optional unless you plan to stop using the service, and it doesn’t really explain what it does. But it does force users to sign up for two-factor authentication (2FA), which is all you really need to secure your social media account. That, and don’t be a dumbass. According to the company, “Facebook Protect helps these high-target accounts adopt stronger security protections by simplifying security features like two-factor authentication. It also provides additional security protections for people’s…

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…