Author: Brett Venter

Kohler, the company behind the Dekoda toilet camera and several other smart toilet gadgets, appears to have fallen short of its claimed “end-to-end encryption”. Unless it meant that it can see your rear end from its end, in which case, they were being largely honest. Okay, so you might not wind up with pictures of your butthole on the internet as a result of the smart device maker’s security issues, but since the company “can access the data stored on its servers” from its toilet cameras, somebody could well get a gander at… something. And then use it to train…

It’s been just a few short months since Meta unveiled its latest crop of AI-featuring wearable devices, and while the company has received positive feedback from these, Zuckerberg and friends obviously feel there’s more they can do. Enter Limitless, a wearable AI device maker newly acquired by the social media/internet giant. The company could well use its tech to release a new type of wearable — one that goes around your neck rather than sitting on your skull. Meta learns new limits It can be argued that AI is hanging around humanity’s neck already like an exceedingly well-cooled albatross, but…

Casio’s wristwear has always been up for a good partnership or two, meaning that the brand’s upcoming Stranger Things crossover isn’t much of a surprise. Branded versions of the company’s  G-Shock DW-5600STT-1 and Vintage AQ-800EST-1A wristwatches are bound for countries outside of Japan. Is South Africa on the list? Perhaps, as both the brand DW-5600STT and AQ-800EST models are listed on Casio’s South African website. Whether you’ll be able to buy them is another matter, but since the availability date is given as December 2025, it may take a while to confirm. Casio turn it up to Eleven As is…

Crocs, the shoes made famous by Idiocracy before the trend of wearing them really took off, has a brand new partnership incoming. Microsoft has paired up with the world’s most hideous (but inexplicably comfortable) shoe in the past, releasing a Windows XP edition of the plastic footwear. Next up? An Xbox-branded set. There is a catch if you’re a South African gamer looking to adorn your feet with plastic game controller replicas. The shoes are only available (for now) on the official Crocs website. You’ll have to join a waitlist to order them, too. What a lot of Crocs The…

Want the most advanced motorcycle helmet in the world? Then cast your eyes towards the Shoei GT-Air 3 Smart, a brain bucket made in conjunction with a company called EyeLights. It’ll cost you a cool R24,000 (€1,200) to protect your cranium with one, but you should be checking out Shoei’s headgear even if it’s not packed with tech. And what tech it is. EyeLights reckons the GT-Air 3 Smart is the world’s first helmet with fully supported augmented reality built into the visor — something we’ve been expecting for some time. BMW has already offered bikers similar tech, in glasses…

One thing you’ll notice with every ‘free’ AI service is that it eventually transitions to paid features. Samsung’s Galaxy AI appears to be no different, with the South Korean company dropping the first hints that you’ll eventually have to give it more money (probably on a monthly basis) to get upcoming functions to work. That doesn’t mean you can discard your Galaxy AI-featuring smartphone in disgust right now — the existing set of ‘free’ functions appears to be staying free. For a while at least. Anything new, though? That could be another matter entirely. Paying Samsung’s price The folks over…

Can you call it an EV-only showroom if there’s only one sort of EV in it? Technically, yes. Online smart home store mUther has unveiled a store that sells only EVs — a first for South Africa, apparently. The first (and only, at least to start with) vehicle to grace the Boksburg facility’s floor is the Dongfeng Nammi Box (most references dispense with the ‘Nammi’). mUther The store is called the mUther Xperience Hub (someone better get Chris Claremont on the line for uniform designs). The store, the creation of company head Alex Staniland, opened its doors on 17 November…

You can now play Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, if you’re willing to risk your boss’s wrath and jump through a few hoops at the same time. It won’t feature the fantastically smarmy Tim Curry chewing on scenery (that’s Red Alert 2), but the game’s bonkers cutscenes and excellent real-time strategy gameplay will at least let you while away a boring Friday at the office. The game is playable on all major browsers, but the folks behind the project reckon you should avoid Firefox if you’d prefer decent performance for your skiving-off time. That leaves Chrome, Edge, and Safari…

It’s super easy to get kids hooked on illicit substances. Just make it free a time or two. Now imagine if teachers were users too. That’s more or less what OpenAI’s ChatGPT is arranging by creating a free (for now) version of its service specifically for educators. The good news is that ChatGPT for Teachers is currently limited to verified teachers in the US, although we expect it to expand to other markets — likely India first — soon. Learning something about ChatGPT What does the new educator-targeting AI service provide? According to OpenAI, they’ll get “a secure workspace to adapt materials for…

Antigravity, the drone-making spinoff from Chinese action camera maker Insta360, has a new presentation that’s supposed to either a) make you think ‘this is pretty cool’, or b) give you a creeping sense of anxiety. The company has released a video of Unitree’s G1 robotic humanoid flying one of its A1 drones. The showcase is supposed to point out how simple it is for anyone to pick up an Antigravity A1 and just zip off into the skies with it. The concern is that robots are able to perform relatively human functions like… flying a drone. Don’t let anyone tell…