Author: Brett Venter

Okay Apple, can we have a loan? It’s not like you can’t afford it these days, especially after posting record financial results for the first quarter of 2015. Let’s start with the bigger, smaller number first. Apple has recorded a stellar round of net profit for Q1 2015 of $18 billion, up some $5 billion from the same quarter last year. In order to achieve this total, Cupertino had to rack up $74.6 billion in revenue for the period. By the numbers, Apple set a record for iPhone sales over the period by selling 74.5 million iPhone devices (we’re guessing…

Is this going to be the hub of your home of the future? Ideum certainly thinks so. We’ve seen Ideum’s ideas before, with their work to turn smartphones into game controllers, but this is something else. The Ideum Duet is a coffee-table sized tablet that the company is currently showing off and we can certainly see how it would function as a decent part of a connected home – which seems to be their main target for this tech. It looks an oversized tablet, coming in either 42- or 46-inch versions, but it’s a bit more ambitious than that. Twins,…

There’s no denying that Facebook is extremely popular. Even if you’re not looking at their user base (massive), just check out their buying power (Oculus Rift and WhatsApp, anyone?). Now they’ve got an eye on the less accessible parts of the internet market with Facebook Lite, a low-resource, teeny little Facebook app that has been released for Android in a limited number of countries. But what is Facebook Lite? According to its Google Play page (and it’s free, of course) it’ll give users access to the social network while using less data while being usable on slower mobile data connections.…

Fancy yourself a keen student of photography using that most humble of cameras, the smartphone? And we’re not talking about selfies here (or if we were, it’d have to be something exceptional). If you do, you modest person you, then the Sony World Photography Awards’ newest category might be for you. The competition, which is hosted by the World Photography Organisation, will this year include a category for images taken using a mobile device. Any mobile device, it doesn’t really matter what it is, is eligible but we’re guessing you can’t strap a tablet onto a DSLR and compete that…

We’ve taken a look at Project CARS, a next-gen driving simulator that will be coming into SA through publisher Namco BANDAI and local distributor Megarom Interactive, but it’s been off our radar for a little while now. Part of that is because the release date seemed rather far off but that’s no longer the case. Slated for a 20 March release this year, Project CARS is set to blow players away with some of the best-looking visuals we’ve ever seen in a racing title. It doesn’t hurt that the team behind it, Slightly Mad Studios, has been putting in a…

Don’t you just hate it when you see something obviously fake appearing in your social media stream, shared by someone who should have known better? We certainly do but that’s just our inner pedant speaking. Still, having folks arguing over the veracity of the latest made-up internet survey or pretty much anything reported by Fox News is a good way to waste time and ruin friendships. Facebook has introduced a new feature that will use you, and everyone else who can see a hoax for what is is, to reduce the number of false posts spreading around the social network.…

So our space-based internet is on the way then, is it? Yesterday there were reports that Google was looking at investing in Elon Musk’s company, reportedly because of SpaceX’s plan to create a satellite-based internet service that would orbit the planet at a height of 1,200 kilometers and provide access to people on the ground. SpaceX has since confirmed, on their website, that two new investors will be providing the company with $1 billion in investment. The two companies are Google, as was rumoured, and Fidelity. According to SpaceX, the investment will see the pair owning just below 10% of the…

Stuff has gushed on about the OnePlus smartphones, as has just about everyone else lucky enough to lay their hands on one. But it’s pretty tough to get your own device, unless you have an invitation to buy one (Apple should try that one of these years). That is, until today. Later on this evening you, and everyone else on the planet, will have a short windows that will allow you to buy one instead of having to pre-order it. And why would you want one? A 5.5-inch HD display, Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM, a CyanogenMod OS and either…

Internet in space can only be a good thing, especially when it is able to stretch to Mars where we can one day play out our Doom 3 fantasies in a space station on the red planet. And an orbiting internet connection is the next ambitious plan from SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk and it seems that Google might be getting in on that action. Well, they would, wouldn’t they? A report from website The Information claims that Google is looking at investing in SpaceX, specifically because of their plan to create a space-based internet. According to the report,…

Back in 2008 when South Africa’s electricity issues started in earnest, with the whole country being subject to rolling blackouts (or ‘load-shedding’, if you’re trying to soften the blow), Eskom announced plans for a solar heating rebate project that would have seen homes that switches to solar energy for heating geysers securing some extra cash in addition to a lowered electricity bill. Eskom has just announced that the rebate programme, which saw homes being awarded cash back of up to R12,000 for their solar installations, will be shifted from under the eyes of the utility and over to the Department…