Author: Brett Venter

Harley Davidson’s first electric motorcycle, the LiveWire, led to the brand being spun off into its own company, and the LiveWire One is the first bike to issue forth from that place. Detailed by the company in a recent release, the One launches in the States a little later this month with one important improvement over its predecessor — it’s a little bit cheaper. A real LiveWire One Which is the ideal situation for any EV, even those of the two-wheeled variety. The original LiveWire launched with a price tag over the R400,000 ($30,000) mark, so it’s kinda nice to…

Finance and payments company Square is working on creating a hardware version of a bitcoin wallet — because who wouldn’t want to lose a physical item containing several hundred thousand rands worth of currency? In all seriousness, it’s a very interesting idea and quite a technical challenge as well. The idea was first floated by company CEO Jack Dorsey (he of Twitter fame) in June this year, but it looks like it’s actually going to happen. Square off in the ring https://twitter.com/JesseDorogusker/status/1413222597207134214 Square’s hardware lead Jesse Dorogusker explained that the company wants to use the innovation to “…make bitcoin custody…

Qualcomm is inside many smartphones but it doesn’t make any smartphones. That’s still true, but it does have one that it can call it’s very own — a new handset made in partnership with Asus called the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders. Kinda just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? The catch? You’ve got to belong to the company’s new Snapdragon Insider community in order to purchase one. Oh, and it’ll cost you at least R22,000 ($1,500). Quality control from Qualcomm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_BF3KMUZWs&feature=emb_logo But is Qualcomm’s new, awkwardly-named device worth shelling out more than twenty grand for? On the face of it,…

It’s basically the never-ending franchise, like Call of Duty but without the guns — now Ubisoft’s got something a little different in mind for the Assassin’s Creed series. And we’re not sure how to feel about it. First revealed by Bloomberg, the French game developer has since confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Infinity is actually a thing. Ubisoft hasn’t detailed too much but the original report claims that it’s set to be an “evolving online platform”, along the lines of Fortnite, or perhaps Call of Duty Warzone would be a more apt comparison. Ubisoft’s going hard online Ubisoft officially confirmed that…

We might not trust them but it’s hard to deny that Facebook’s trying to make a serious go of its Portal range of video communication devices. The newest feature to grace the range of face-watching, information-collecting communication devices from Facebook is the inclusion of Harry Potter-themed augmented reality (AR) functions. The only downside, besides only being available on a Facebook-owned data-collection device? The feature’s limited to users in the States and the UK. Portal to another reality Facebook revealed the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child tie-in in a blog post on its website, explaining that Portal users can use…

Noted leaker Evan Blass is at it again, sharing yet another pre-announcement look at Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S21 FE smartphone. We’ve seen it turn up a couple of times this year, most recently in June (where it was pointed out that the global chip shortage may hit supplies of the phone in the nards), but this is the best look at the phone yet. Round and round the Galaxy S21 FE goes https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/1412804524679569412? Rather than just a static image this time around, Blass has posted a complete 360° video of Samsung’s upcoming handset. If you’re bored with just the one…

Everyone, even the people who make fun of their drivers, wants a BMW. Why? If you have to ask that question, you’ve never been inside one. They practically drive themselves, they nip through traffic at a flex of the ankle, and they’re awfully comfortable. But they can also cost more than a decent-sized South African property. If you’re a BMW fan but don’t quite have a BMW bank account, it might be time to show your love in a different way. Like, say, a sports watch from the iconic German motoring brand? A few new ones are about to drop…

[Update 8/7/21, 8:30AM] Greenidge’s CEO advisory firm got hold of us overnight armed with average water temperature figures for Seneca Lake, pointing out that the facility restarted operations in 2017 and saying that “…there has been no impact on the lake.” The firm’s representative also claimed that the woman originally interviewed by NBC has claimed on social media that the news outlet reported incorrectly. We’re unable to confirm that Abi Buddington, the woman concerned, has made that statement. She does seem to be awfully concerned with climate change in general, though. We have changed the headline to reflect the fact…

Tencent is a Chinese company that you might be most familiar with with regards to WeChat or PUBG, but it’s also got something called Midnight Patrol heading to the Chinese market. Sadly, this isn’t a game… or anything else you should get too excited about. Tencent Gaming has a new software for the Chinese gaming market. In case you weren’t aware, it’s not an ideal time to be a gamer and a minor in China, because if you are, you’re limited on how long you play video games between 22h00 and 08h00 in the morning. Underage gamers have long been…

It’s not just American and European astronauts who get to walk in space. Over the weekend, two Chinese taikonauts conducted the country’s a) first spacewalk at its new Tiangong space station and b) the first tandem spacewalk attempted by the country. Obviously, the mission outside of Tiangong was a success, or the first paragraph would have had a very different emphasis. Taikonauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo left Tianngong’s main Tainhe module on 4 July to work on the module’s robotic arm. Mission commander Nie Haisheng remained inside while this was taking place. Taking risks as a taikonaut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnKo831Om_0 A…