Author: Brett Venter

One of these days, different fields of robotics will merge and give humans something to be really scared of. Genesis AI’s newest demonstration of its robot hands paired with, say, Honor’s Lightning robot would be legitimately terrifying. Imagine an artificial humanoid with the ability to outrun you and then make scrambled eggs directly afterwards. Scary, right? Sure, people can already do that, but it’s much more freaky when a machine does it. Thankfully, Genesis AI’s robotic hands are an isolated contraption. They’re not attached to an overly mobile torso or anything just yet. Genesis 1x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWVLDTvH1Hk That doesn’t mean that…

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch range does an excellent job of tracking what’s going on inside your body, but it could be doing more. The South Korean company recently published a study showing that its Galaxy Watch 6 can predict, with about five minutes’ notice, when a wearer is about to faint. Galaxy Watch’s faint echoes That’s a handy feature to have, since it gives people a chance to get a) help, b) a softer place to land, or c) the car pulled over, so there’s no additional traffic complication. The catch is that getting your “prediction of vasovagal syncope” on your…

Huawei has launched a raft of new products, right on time. As expected, one of these is the Watch Kids X1, plus a Pro variant. Both devices have an interesting take on the standard smartwatch face by making it (somewhat) modular. The standard X1 features a flippable, twistable face, while the Watch X1 Pro’s body detaches altogether. In the latter case, the device can be converted into a little portable camera. There’s an extra accessory for that bit, allowing kiddoes to snap shots without, you know, having access to a whole smartphone. Always Watch Kids X1 Both devices have quite…

It’s time for another dose of retro-futurism, this time in the form of the TypeFrame PS-85 CyberDeck. The folks at Raspberry Pi spotted this one initially. The reason for that is obvious — this custom-built computer uses the company’s own Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board as its main component. It’s the creation of one Jeff Merrick, who originally set out to build something different from this Alien-inspired slab of hardware. The distraction resulted in him making the TypeFrame PS-88.  It also resulted in the PS-85. It may be slightly less convenient to work on, but it looks infinitely cooler.…

Electric scooters are more common overseas, but with current petrol prices, it might be time to switch. Pure Electric has entered the country via distributor Core, but you’ll have to visit the company’s own website to nab one. Or drop by an unspecified retailer. It beats walking or burning dead dinosaurs to go to the corner shop, sure, but you’ll need at least R9,000 to avoid wearing out your soles. If you opt for Pure Electric’s most expensive model, it’s considerably higher. Pure fun? That would be either the collapsible Pure Flex or the X McLaren model, both of which…

Lego has a ton of dedicated fans, and some of those fans design new sets for the company. They don’t all get made, but some of them do… provided their creators can prove that at least 10,000 folks are interested in the design. One of the newest of these is a Functional Lego Telescope — which seems to be its actual title. And, as custom-but-possibly-retail-ready builds go, it’s rather impressive. The brick-made telescope is currently listed on the Danish company’s Product Ideas portal. It has secured around 8,000 supporters since it launched. Just two thousand to go, then? Scope out…

More countries are banning social media for teens, which means more age verification technology is on the way. Meta’s got an updated solution heading to its user accounts, and AI is obviously a huge factor. Instagram in the EU (and Brazil) and Facebook in the States will be the first to experience these solutions. It won’t be quite as simple (or easy to bypass) as a facial scan, but it might be just as concerning. Among the other protective features being launched is improved visual analysis. This system will nab clues from a user’s profile to determine whether they are…

A company in Japan is prepping to send a robot inspired by the Gundam anime into space. It’s slightly less awesome than it sounds, however. There’s no giant mech suit bound for orbit. Instead, it’s based on the Haro assistant robot that has featured in the series. Having Haro on a rocket makes more sense. Even the F90 Gundam F90 stands (canonically) just under fifteen metres tall. It’s a little difficult to get one of those on board the International Space Station, which is where Haro is headed. Gundam pilot project Haro, as a project, was crowdfunded by Space Entry…

There are several ways to write that novel you’ve always had in mind. There’s longhand, typed, smoke signals, or something like the Auteur. The still-to-be-crowdfunded device isn’t a novel concept; it’s just the latest to make the attempt. Auteur is little more than a mechanical keyboard, an internal battery, and an e-paper display — it’s like a Kindle with a fancy typing interface. It’s supposed to evoke the days when the typewriter was king. Among a certain sort of writer, it’ll find its place. But then, so does the FreeWrite. They Auteur do it Given how much the FreeWrite costs,…

Artificial intelligence is a radically new concept for human beings. Whether AI uptake is organic or whether it’s being heavily driven by the companies developing it (it’s the second one), it’s going to have an effect on how people think. Trouble is, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and the rest can issue updates faster than academics can conduct studies. Some have been done, specifically on human cognition. The results are… interesting, even if they’re limited by a) budgets and b) participant sizes. But they don’t paint a pretty picture about what artificial intelligence is doing to human thought processes. A Microsoft-commissioned study…