Author: Brett Venter

Unitree’s Stellar Explorer robot dog might be the stuff nightmares are made of, but a pair of others, along with a robot called Rollin’ Justin, have just put in a stellar performance of a different kind. Two robotic canines, Spot and Bert, were recently tested in a joint effort that simulated a Martian environment. That robot dogs can traverse rocky ground is not surprising, but giving them commands and controlling their movements from orbit is another matter. Robot dogs need space Four robots and a NASA astronaut on the International Space Station took part in the latest Surface Avatar test…

Tesla’s Cybertruck could soon be the target of United States Air Force missiles, according to contracting documents released online and found by TWZ. The country’s Air Force Test Center (AFTC) is searching for two of Tesla’s oddly-shaped pickup trucks to roll onto a missile range, alongside some thirty other vehicles being sought. You could be snarky about it being a good use for the Cybertruck, but the US Air Force sees the vehicle as a potential battlefield threat. It’s in good company — the Toyota Hilux has been the subject of several military retrofits, including one by Turkish company Roketsan…

You might think that Unitree’s new A2 Stellar Explorer robot dog has cribbed its name from a space program, but that’s because, up until a couple of days ago, it was known as the A2 Stellar Hunter. The name has likely changed to make its advanced capabilities seem less threatening. It hasn’t worked. If anything, it has made the robot quadruped even more terrifying. Folks like Boston Dynamics have been at pains to make their four-legged robots seem benevolent and helpful, mostly because that’s good PR. The truth is that while they can be used that way, they can also…

Any South African drivers with around R4 million burning a hole in their pocket can now pick up the Corvette Stingray without venturing over to the brand’s Kentucky (formerly Michigan) headquarters. CVH Auto Group is bringing the vehicle, as well as the Corvette ZR6, into the country. It’s not surprising that the Johannesburg-based CVH is responsible for this particular entry. The company also handles Masterati sales for South Africa, meaning you’ve got your choice of American or Italian sports cars when you amble into their showroom. Drivers, buy your engines! The announcement isn’t accompanied by much information about the vehicles…

Duolingo, the app that failed to teach everyone French and German during the 2020 Covid lockdown, is welcoming a new member to its nocturnal avian family. The company has announced that it is acquiring NextBeat, a UK-based mobile gaming startup specialising in music licensing. If you have to ask ‘why’, then you haven’t been paying attention. The language learning app has branched out in recent years, offering customers everything from chess to math lessons, with a brief stopover in the world of musical instruments. One of the newer additions is music lessons. Making notes for Duolingo Exactly how the acquisition…

Google reckons that if you’re a website owner and have seen a recent dip in traffic — the kind that normally comes via search engines — it’s got nothing to do with AI Overviews. Company vice president and head of Search, Liz Reid, said in a Google blog post that “third-party reports […] inaccurately suggest dramatic declines in aggregate traffic,” claiming that, according to the company’s data, search traffic from Search remains the same as it was last year. The missive is likely in response to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, which found that AI Overviews and similar…

What’s the difference between the Kobo Libra Colour and, say, the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft? Besides the different spelling of the word ‘colour’, a fair bit. The former is made by Amazon, the latter by Rakuten Kobo, a Canadian company. That might be why the Libra Colour feels a little easier to get along with. It definitely accounts for the spelling difference. There are obvious similarities. Both brands make e-readers with E-Ink displays, and both operate storefronts where you can buy the books that live on them. But Kobo’s focus is more on hardware sales than on selling masses of digital…

If you’re one of the owners of a Sonos Roam speaker that has started overheating, you’re one of a select group of unlucky users. The company recently acknowledged that some of its 2021 portable speakers are experiencing heating issues, centred around the USB-C charging port. The problem, according to Sonos, isn’t widespread at all, though it says it is “closely monitoring” reported cases and taking steps to reduce the likelihood of problems. Not quite the fall of Roam The issue appears confined to the original batch of Sonos Roam units, which debuted in 2021. The successor speaker, the Roam 2,…

Google’s NotebookLM started life as an AI function that converts documents into audio podcasts, transitioning shortly after to a more education-focused summary tool. Next, it’s coming for the kids. Which might sound ominous, but that’s only the case if the kids using it become lazy and don’t check Gemini’s work or sources, and simply accept the connections NotebookLM makes for them. Oh. Oh, no… Anyway, here’s NotebookLM for kids Google this week said that it was making its NotebookLM tool available to “Google Workspace for Education users of all ages”, meaning that the average student must still wait a while…

If you’re in a corporate environment that uses Google Meet for virtual meetings, you’re a) super thankful that it’s not Microsoft Teams and b) about to get an all-new feature. The search giant has added a new function to its login process that uses “ultrasound proximity detection” to ascertain that you’re ready to enter a virtual room. If that sounds super-futuristic, that’s because it is. If it sounds a little disconcerting and somewhat dystopian, you’re a pessimist. Also, it is. But it’ll require Google Meet conferencing hardware to function on your laptop, so it’s unlikely to be spying on you…