Author: Brett Venter

Meta and Palmer Luckey haven’t had the best history — the company parted ways with the Oculus founder under less than pleasant terms — but it may be that Mark Zuckerberg and Luckey have made up. Why? Money, of course. And American military contracts. The Wall Street Journal reports that Meta and Luckey’s Anduril Industries are partnering up to build a system called EagleEye, a battlefield augmented reality that would have Tom Clancy (and Ubisoft) salivating. Meta guns for more money Comparisons between the proposed EagleEye hardware, destined for the United States Army, and Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future…

Amazon’s previous Paperwhite was such a strong device that it was, at the time, difficult to imagine how it could be improved. The Kindle Colorsoft proved to be a less-than-stellar upgrade, and, as with most tech in 2025, there are diminishing returns from upgrading practically everything. But if you’re coming from anything that doesn’t already feature a USB-C charging port, this is the Kindle to own. That’s not altogether hard to believe. There are small upgrades to the Paperwhite, though little in terms of design unless you’re exceedingly observant. These really matter if you’re coming in from two generations back,…

It’s been a few days without a new affordable Chinese smartphone. Those suffering withdrawal will be pleased to learn that Honor’s 400 Lite has officially launched in South Africa, available both on contract or for cash. If you’re heading the contract route, you’ll pay as little as R360/m for 36 months (via MTN) while a cash purchase will set you back R7,800 — a little under Honor’s R8,000 recommended price for the handset. That puts it into the upper reaches of the budget range, but what are you getting for your money? Weighing up the 400 Lite It’s safe to…

It was just a few short weeks ago that Microsoft announced Copilot for Gaming, a dedicated AI assistant that will ensure you never get good enough to play ranked games ever again. Well, it’s here, and while it’s not quite as OP as a Call of Duty aimbot, it will help you over at least a few game hurdles. Provided, that is, you’re okay with using the mobile beta that has just launched. South African gamers can also get in on the action, as we’re among the launch countries alongside Albania, Brazil, Chile, and several others. @Copilot, is this true?…

History is a circle, meaning that if you wait long enough, it’ll come around again. That notion was driven home for us when a Kodak FunSaver 35mm disposable camera turned up at the Stuff offices. The technology never died out when digital took over, it just went into hiding. Now it’s back where we can see it. Yellow jacket Anyone who remembers old disposables from the 1990s will be at home here, more or less. The Kodak FunSaver is as uncomplicated as it gets. The ISO 800 film is pre-loaded, the built-in flash… isn’t. There’s a button on the front…

Last month, we saw a teaser video of Unitree’s G1 humanoid robot going one-on-one with an actual human opponent in a boxing ring. That has since morphed into a full-on robot fight between two of the company’s G1 robots, complete with a referee and turnbuckles. Climbing the Unitree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORfeXznBdro The robots aren’t quite ready for playing dirty (at least, not on purpose), and they won’t be winning at your local fight club any time soon, but it is plenty disconcerting to see a pair of robots knocking each other about. It might be time to start brushing up on your…

That’s why these are called ‘test flights’, right? SpaceX made its ninth attempt at sending the frankly massive Starship, plus a Super Heavy booster that had been previously used for a test, into orbit. Progress was made on the program, but it still failed to achieve its goals. The progress comes via the spacecraft making it further into the mission than it ever has before. The failure is that Starship exploded before it could deploy a handful of dummy Starlink satellites from the Pez dispenser system SpaceX is developing. Double blow for Starship The 122-metre-tall rocket assembly had travelled farther…

If you buy a smart ring from Samsung, expect to pay R8,000. The Oura Gen 4 isn’t much better, except that you’re resorting to Amazon for your purchase. Chinese brand Colmi has a local distributor for its far more affordable lineup, which includes the Colmi R10 Smart Ring. At less than a quarter of Samsung’s Galaxy Ring price, what’s the catch? Enter the Ring On the surface, there’s little to be concerned about. It’s… well, it’s a smart ring, a plasti-resin circlet for your finger packed with sensors and terminals for charging it up from the lightweight case. It’s light…

Xiaomi has joined the likes Apple and Samsung in the ranks of tech companies that make their own processors. During an event in Beijing last week, the Chinese firm unveiled its new XRing 01 mobile processor, an advanced chipset that will debut in a couple of Xiaomi’s higher-end devices. The news of the processor’s announcement leaked a few days before the official announcement. Even so, Xiaomi still managed to impress. It might match Samsung, Apple, and others for in-house capability, but it’s the only company besides Apple making 3nm processors internally. Grasping the brass XRing 01 Exactly how the XRing…

Amazon continues to develop its internal usage of AI services it eventually hopes to sell to other businesses. Instead of an AI that tries to read your mind based on past behaviour (we used to call those ‘marketing emails’) or simply shop for products on your behalf, this one will attempt to talk you into submission. The online retail giant is testing new AI-generated audio summaries that shoppers can listen to instead of reading all that boring old text — a feature that’s certainly worth building a new data center over a protected wetland for. Sounds of the Amazon Rajiv…