Author: Brett Venter

Skild AI, a company backed by Amazon and Japan’s SoftBank, has unveiled Skild Brain, “a unified, omni-bodied brain to control any robot for any task.” It’s being touted as AI-driven, but that’s to be expected in 2025. A few years back, it would have fallen under the banner of machine learning. Still, the concept is a cool one. Rather than focusing on a single robot’s functions, Skild AI’s software is an “omni-bodied foundation model, which can work on quadrupeds, humanoids, table-top, mobile manipulators, and more.” The idea of a unified robotics operating system has its attractions, since robots presently come…

What are robot vacuum cleaners but little drones that scuttle around on the floor? That seems to be the thinking at DJI, which teased a little guy called Romo — the company’s first robot vacuum. There’s little to go on besides the teaser image (above) and the time for the full announcement, but a few aspects are apparent right off the bat. We’ll have full details next week on 6 August, when DJI will unveil the Romo in its entirety at 20h00 in its native country. The announcement should be visible here in South Africa at 14h00 on 6 August.…

Operating under a budget is never fun. It often means being cut off from device features that folks with fatter wallets take for granted. Local brand Orion’s BlackWave BTH-200 over-ear headphones offer at least a few upgrades on your typical set of super-cheap headphones, while retaining the ‘super-cheap’ designation. How cheap? How does R400 a set grab you? If you happen to subscribe to Pepkor’s +More service, that price drops to a frankly bonkers R180. Either price is great, but the lower one will ask you to part with (and agree to share) your information. Four hundred bucks? If you’re…

Jack Dorsey is busy learning new skills, with two recent app launches appearing on TestFlight. One of these, Bitchat, has made the jump from test environment to the full-on App Store, making it available for loads of Apple users. The app has undergone a slight name change, perhaps because of how its title could be interpreted. Now known as Bitchat Mesh, the app can be downloaded for iPhones, Macs, and iPads, with installation even possible on the Apple Vision Pro. Bitchat work As for why you might download the app, that was clearly spelt out during Dorsey’s TestFlight phase. Bitchat…

Asus’ ExpertBook range has long been an excellent way to get yourself through the average workday, and the new ExpertBook P3 is no different. Solidly capable hardware, Asus’ always-excellent display panels, and a durable chassis make the P3 a contender for being your next PowerPoint-sharing office rig. The only sticking point is the price. Depending on your office IT setup, your money could be better spent on an M3 MacBook Air or similar. It’s possible to tuck one of Asus’ new office machines into your cart for R19,600, a couple of hundred bucks less than Apple’s own office darling. If…

Google has revealed the existence of Web Guide, an AI tool that will “intelligently organize the search results page, making it easier to find information and web pages.” Given how much the company’s Search product has decayed in recent years, this could well mark an improvement — though with a larger carbon footprint than the previously-functional Search from days gone by. I’ll be your Web Guide The feature is currently in testing, meaning users must opt in if they’d like to play with the new functions. It’ll supposedly unlock a more powerful version of Search by grouping links “in helpful…

Chinese robotics company Unitree is following its G1 humanoid robot’s martial arts tournament with a new, more affordable ‘bot. Called the Unitree R1 Intelligent Companion, it’ll set buyers back a little over R105,000 ($5,900) if they’re keen on sticking a walking, fighting robot in their homes. Why you’d do that is a little less certain, but there’s no denying that it’s an affordable humanoid robot — relatively speaking. Buyers can customise the little guy to suit their needs, meaning Unitree expects you to figure out what you want to use the R1 for. Taking the R1 Unitree Introducing | Unitree…

Once a land known for extraordinary violence (and amazing beards), Denmark will soon lay claim to a different sort of fame. The country will soon, in conjunction with Microsoft and the Denmark-based Novo Nordisk Foundation, host the world’s largest quantum computer. Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund announced the joint investment in QuNorth, the title for the quantum computing project. R1.65 billion (€80 million) will be thrown at the project by the non-profit arm of pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk. Denmark your progress Though the project is known as QuNorth, the computer itself will be named Magne (or ‘mighty), after one of…

OpenAI has a history of not generating any revenue. It’s great at hauling in investor funding (for now), but revenue generation remains a mystery to the company. That could be why the artificial intelligence specialist is looking to take a cut of sales made through its ChatGPT tool. The Financial Times reports that Altman’s company intends to implement a checkout system that will permit users to conclude sales without exiting ChatGPT. There are a couple of benefits to this — sellers remove a step to purchase, while OpenAI gets a piece of the action. OpenAI’s offer Which, if you think…

Slack is the latest company to jam a set of artificial intelligence aids into its product, launching a series of tools intended to make users more productive. How far we’ve come as an industrial society. The messaging app is getting AI writing assistance, allowing users to side-step the thinking process and get on with putting out those briefs in record speed. It’ll also have a natural language component for tweaking written work that was selfishly created without asking a computer to do the initial work. Less Slack-ing Slack’s writing assistant will also perform other, largely trivial, functions for human beings.…