Author: Brett Venter

Some people buy computers, others make the hardware they’ve always needed. The creator of the CyberPlug, a person known as PickentCode, is the latter sort. And the result, a portable computer designed to integrate components via an embedded breadboard, is something we never knew we needed in our lives. Sadly, these are unlikely to wind up at retail. A home project, the CyberPlug is in its third generation after the first two “had issues that made them unpleasant to use.” The components for making one of your own are, happily, easy to get and not all that expensive. CyberPlug that…

Epson’s EcoTank L8050 printer is an older unit — it’s been around for some time — but it’s still comparatively unusual, in that it’s just a printer. There’s no scan or copy function, which we’re used to seeing from Epson’s EcoTank lineup. It just accepts paper and spits out… paper with stuff on. That paper varied, with the L8050 particularly rated for photo printing. That’s at least part of the reason why you’ll get six ink shades as opposed to the usual CMYK quartet we’re used to seeing in home printers. There are two extra shades — Light Cyan and…

If you speak softly (until the nineteenth hole) and swing a big stick, the Honma x Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro partnership could be of interest to you. The hardware used for the tie-up between the Japanese golfing gear company and Huawei is almost identical to Huawei’s standard-issue gear, but there’s something that’ll make it stand out on your wrist. That something is a golden titanium bezel with a cute little mole logo, Honma’s trademark, embossed in the face. If you’re toting one of these, along with, say, one for the Japanese outfit’s R991,500 14-karat gold/platinum Beres 09 club sets,…

Yahoo, one of the survivors of the original Dot Com bubble, was once a major player in the search engine space. Between them, Ask Jeeves, and Google, the company used to be a serious option when tracking down information online. If, hearing that the company’s search engine has recently undergone an upgrade, you were to say, “They’re still doing that?”, then you’re not alone. And yet, here we are. Yahoo has announced a new proprietary “answer engine” that will run inside all of the company’s products, including the Search option that definitely still exists. Called Yahoo Scout, the service is…

It’s been said before, but it bears repeating: The internet was always supposed to be a different thing from what we have now. Advertising came along and killed the internet’s potential, helped along by the companies that hold most folks’ experience in the palms of their hands. Not because it was better, in any way. Instead, it was done because it was more convenient for the people making money out of your web searches, doomscrolls, and other online activity. Apps — you know what apps are — were sold to the world as a more convenient way to get the…

Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold is heading to more countries outside South Korea, which means we’re getting closer to realistic pricing when (and if) it appears in South Africa. Turns out, in America, finding updates is as easy as calling someone at a store and asking for details. Making you pay TriFold That only works if you’re in the States, however. Samsung is said to be launching sales of its double-folding smartphone in the US, but it’s limiting sales to in-person only. It’ll also only debut the phones at a limited number of physical locations. As to what it’ll cost, reports suggest retail pricing…

South Africans will recognise HMD as the company that resurrected (and then buried) Nokia, the latest death-and-rebirth for the Finnish brand. The Nokia brand has since been replaced with the company’s own range of tech, and that range is expanding. Instead of just smartphones — even the rugged ones — the company is branching out into audio and wearables. The audio isn’t new; HMD has previously launched its Amped earbuds, and it’s following those up with a range of Dub-branded products, with the Dub X50 Pro being the one worthy of your attention. The HMD will see you now Why…

Google’s Pixel phones often get new Android features first, but one of them — scam detection — could be coming to Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S26 lineup soon. The feature is an interesting one, claiming to protect users from suspicious behaviour from various quarters. Whether it does… that’s something we’ll have to see for ourselves. The still-Pixel-exclusive feature uses Google’s AI, because what else is the company going to do with it? Scam detection ensures “get notified about potential scam calls as they happen”, but Google also says that it “is not 100% accurate and scammers constantly change their tactics. Always use caution…

When something is called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, it has to be faster than everything else that came before. A report claiming knowledge of Qualcomm’s upcoming chipset upgrade reckons it will be. Okay, it always was, but it might be considerably faster than the previous generation of mobile chips. It’s got some distance to go before it’ll beat the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 that is expected to power the likes of Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 phones. Those should feature a clock speed of 4.74GHz, a Samsung-specific upgrade on the stock hardware that will run at 4.61GHz.…

Raspberry Pi seems to be taking the idea of ‘enhanced verticals’ very seriously, announcing that its customers can now buy flash drives from the company. These are, according to the company, “high-quality USB 3.0 flash memory drive[s] optimised for Raspberry Pi computers.” It’s not like portable storage is hard to get, so the introduction has caused some head-scratching. The modular PC maker obviously sees some revenue there, however. Hey, it’s cheaper than adding generative AI to your Pi 5. A flash of Raspberry Pi  The aluminium-encased flash drives are available in two sizes — 128GB and 256GB — and retail…