Author: Brett Venter

Tech-maker Acer has some new notebooks heading in South Africa’s direction. That’s not unusual in itself — there’s almost always something heading down the pipe from Taiwan. But these machines, the Acer TravelMate B3 and TravelMate Spin B3, are designed with younger students in mind. To that end, both machines are set to run Windows 11 SE. This is a cloud-focused OS designed with education in mind. Specifically, education from kindergarten to about Grade 8. That does make these machines fairly specialised, in terms of software. The hardware seems to follow suit. For when you need to Acer your exams…

Nobody, except in a few very rare circumstances, ever reads the terms and conditions. This is a universal thing — nobody will wade through a 4,000-word legal document to post cat photos on the internet. Not unless they’re being paid, anyway. This is why American senators are pushing for something they call the TL;DR bill. South Africa (and most countries on Earth) could also do with similar clarity from companies. TL;DR, if you were lurking in the wrong place at the right time, famously stands for ‘Too long; didn’t read”. Its original usage was reserved for lengthy screeds posted online,…

Robotics as an industry is becoming increasingly advanced. But, as a German primary school has showed, they don’t need to be fully articulated in order to be useful. The school is using so-called avatar robots to let sick students attend their classes in a more functional way. The Pusteblume-Grundschule in Berlin currently has seven-year-old Joshua Martinangeli as a student. Joshua has a severe lung disease that requires a tube in his neck. This makes it impossible to go to school, but his robotic stand-in seems to do the job nicely. Avatar: The Last Homeworkbender Joshua’s robotic replacement sits on the…

We’ve been expecting Samsung to launch a tablet in the Galaxy Tab S8 lineup for almost a year now. In February 2021, Samsung dropped the dime on an upcoming Enterprise version of the slate. Then, in October last year, we saw the upcoming 14.6in Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra thanks to leaked CAD files. Now, basically every little detail concerning Samsung’s set of slates for 2022 has been uncovered, thanks to the German website WinFuture. The leak confirms that the upcoming Ultra is set to be humongous. It also spilt the beans on all the other tablets due for an announcement.…

South Africa’s MDASat cubesats, intended to watch over the country’s coastline, were safely deployed yesterday. SpaceX’s Transporter-3 mission seems to have gone off without a hitch. But, as remarkable as it is that SA’s got new eyes in the sky, SpaceX’s rocket steals the show. The Falcon 9 first stage that took 105 different satellites into space last night also completed its tenth liftoff and landing. Ars Technica reports that this booster alone is responsible for 550 satellites, as well as one Cargo Dragon and one Crew Dragon flight. That’s an awful lot of value from a single rocket. Time…

We’re reliably informed that you’re not a fan of cameras unless you own a Leica. Or, at the very least, wish you had the sort of money that would permit that. The new Leica M11, recently announced by the company, is due to land in South Africa soon. You can own one, but you’ll first have to meet a nigh-on R200,000 price tag. The good news is that you’ll still be able to use your M-mount lenses. The bad news is that you’ll have to buy some if you don’t have any in storage. Either way, here’s why you should…

We can’t say we didn’t see this coming: Ever since Microsoft announced the Xbox Series X, the Xbox One lineup has been on borrowed time. The Xbox One X and Xbox One S Digital Edition were discontinued back in 2020. There were still Xbox One S units being made, but apparently, even that’s changed. Actually, it changed some time ago. Microsoft also canned production of the standard Xbox One S at the end of 2020. They just hadn’t thought to mention it to anyone until early 2022. Microsoft goes hard Cindy Walker, Xbox’s senior director of console product marketing, speaking…

South African telecommunications provider Telkom has announced the launch of Easy Connect Fibre, a new internet fibre offering. The remarkable thing about it is that it’s month-to-month, meaning there’s no contract lock-in, and it doesn’t utilise a router. Instead, Telkom installs a WiFi ONT (optical network terminal), which replaces the router you’d normally have to set up. This device provides a connection to several devices at once, so you’ll connect to the web via just about anything. Taking a chance on Telkom There are two packages heading to market, for those in supported regions. There’s a 10Mbps download/5Mbps upload option…

It’s a good time to be the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The ongoing chip shortage means that the company, one of the world’s largest chip-makers, has all the business it can handle. Literally. The company’s order books are full. This was borne out by the company’s most recent financial results. The company posted a 16.4% rise in quarterly profits at the end of 2021, setting a record for the company. This isn’t surprising, given that companies around the world are slurping up semiconductors as fast as they can be made. Everyone, to TSMC: ‘Another one’ TSMC posted quarterly revenues…

We cover a lot of space news here on Stuff but it’s very rare that there’s a South African connection. Obviously, that’s not the case this time around. The South African government, in the shape of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande, has announced the launch of several satellites today. Specifically, SA is launching the first three of a nine-constellation array known as the Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat) constellation. And that launch, weather permitting takes place later today. South African outsourcing We’re not launching the three cubesats ourselves though. Oh, good grief no. If SA had…