Author: Brett Venter

We really, really want to like Vivo’s smartphones. They’re a relatively new company (at least in SA), they’re fighting in one of the most contested markets (in the world) and they really do know how to make a phone look good. The last time we checked in with a Vivo Android handset the results… weren’t all that great. Can the Vivo Y12, a budget-level handset costing R3,900 at retail, change our opinions of the smartphone newcomer? Off to a good start If the handset’s design is any indication, things are looking up for the brand. The few Vivo handsets we’ve…

Subscriptions are everywhere. You’re getting used to them, because Netflix, Spotify, PSN or Xbox Live Gold all seem like cool things to have. Hopefully that works for you, because the ‘feature’ is coming to cars as well. Which… makes a strange kind of sense if you stop to think about it. Coming soon now Cars as a service is a thing that has been coming for quite some time. Volvo’s Polestar, for instance, launched as part of a subscription service. But we’re also seeing more or less conventional car sales get subscription services tacked onto what used to be a…

Odds are you at least know Xiaomi exists — you really should be giving the brand more attention if that’s as far as your interest goes. They’ve been making great Android handsets since the start, at consistently good prices, and that doesn’t seem to be changing at all. The company has announced a new flagship device, the Mi 10 Ultra, obviously hoping you’re keen on a camera-centric phone at less-than-Samsung prices. Snapdragon Inside As far as phones goes (and we’re not talking about the camera), the Mi 10 Ultra is packing some serious hardware. There’s a Snapdragon 865, with its…

Oh, you thought 2020 was done messing with you? Or at least turning down the volume? Nah, there are five months left and the worst year can always get just.. that… much worse. If you’re using an Android smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip’s DSP, you’re at risk of having your handset turned into a spying device. And there’s not just one way for it to happen, either. Achilles’ heel The collection of 400 or so vulnerabilities is known as Achilles and it involves more than a billion smartphones around the world. Researchers from Check Point have identified issues with…

Are you a military nut? Here’s a webinar for you — DARPA and the US Air Force are having a showdown, pitting a fighter jet pilot against an artificial intelligence system in a simulated dogfight. Simulated because it’s not a good idea to give an AI its own jet… just yet. World first The AlphaDogFight event, set to kick off from 18 to 20 August, was originally slated to be a live-action outing in Las Vegas but the COVID-19 pandemic has turned it into an online one. And since the event’s being held online anyway… there’s a chance you can…

Tablets come in various shapes and sizes but they all tend to have more or less the same use. Browsing the net, watching Netflix, maybe a spot of light gaming when the lights go off… You know the drill. Crosscall, a French company, decided to be a little different with their Core-T4 rugged tablet. Which, believe us, you’ll be paying for. Just in terms of standard spec, if you wanted the same internals and none of the tough stuff, you could get it for less than half the Core-T4’s asking price of R11,000. Which is… fine. You’re not Crosscall’s target…

It’s quite unusual to see a smartphone with a full-on keyboard as part of its construction these days. Rarer still to find one that takes it seriously. The BlackBerry Priv and the BlackBerry Key2 are the last models we can recall that included this feature (and did it well) but… Well, BlackBerry was already in dire straits when those phones were released. So what if someone took a serious crack at it today? That’s the question Unihertz, the creators of the Titan, asked last year when they crowdfunded this device – a powerful, rugged take on a classic keyboard design.…

It’s quite something to see Samsung’s handset in action, particularly in this day and age. We got to head to Samsung’s offices, suitably masked and sterilised, to check out the company’s new hardware for ourselves. It’s one thing to see it on a live stream, it’s another to hold reality in your hand. And this bit of reality feels pretty good. Samsung’s created another solid set of smartphones here. There are two new Notes — the Note 20 and the Note 20 Ultra and, if you’re a creative sort, then you really, really want the Ultra. The video and creative…

Samsung’s headphone tech has progressed at a fantastic clip, thanks in no small part to the company acquiring Harmon (and, by extension, the great audio tech AKG was putting out) in 2016. We’ve seen the Galaxy Buds and the better buds, the Galaxy Buds+, in action — now it’s time for something a little… different. This is Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live. A real Live one Which, we’ll admit, are a little strange to look at. They look like little kidney beans and are about the same size as some of those larger options you see in the grocery store and…

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that today’s the day Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event takes place. It’s just a few hours away but if, like us, you really don’t like to wait then you don’t have to. Samsung’s gear has been gloriously leaked by Evan Blass, who has a history of doing this sort of thing. Front of the line https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/1290814720933601282?s=19 The leak takes the form of images of… pretty much everything, as well as a couple of promo videos for Samsung’s Note 20 lineup. Everything’s there — the Note 20 (in various guises) the Galaxy Watch 3, Samsung’s…