Author: Brett Venter

Who says you need rockets in order to make a difference in space? Well, Elon Musk, obviously. But that’s not the only way you can contribute. The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) has announced that it will be taking part in the United Arab Emirates’ upcoming lunar rover mission. The UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre will see its first lunar rover mission, the Rashid Rover, arrive on the Moon’s surface on 25 April this year. And South Africa will be taking part. SA isn’t building the rover — that’s already done. Nor are we contributing to the launch.…

The world of NFTs may be slowing down but there are some places where so-called digital collectibles are still alive and kicking. Emphasis on the ‘kick’ bit of this. Nike’s .SWOOSH platform, announced late last year, is gearing up to perform its very first drop. Dubbed Our Force 1 or OF1, the first set of digital sneakers from the dedicated digital accessories platform are based on the brand’s Air Force 1 sneakers, which were first released in 1982. These collectibles will become available in two sales — the First Access sale and then a wider general sale. You know, kind…

SpaceX’s Starship was supposed to have its first proper test flight last night, finally putting to bed ages of anticipation for the debut of the company’s Super Heavy rocket. Unfortunately, it’s called rocket science for a reason and the launch didn’t take place. SpaceX opted to cancel the launch of the gigantic interplanetary rocket precursor, thanks to one of those pesky engineering faults. Specifically, a pressurisation valve on the lower of the rocket’s two stages froze up, leading to the company scrubbing the launch. Starship, take two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5QXreqOrTA The call was made during the launch’s live stream last night, postponing…

If you’re a South African resident, you can’t really afford to be without back power. This could be something as simple as a 10,000mAh internet backup or as involved as the Switched 307Wh Portable Power Station. The big difference? Battery capacity and, of course, price. Batteries are expensive. Why do you think the average EV costs more than R1 million? If you’ve got R6,000 or so that could go into keeping a room lit and several devices (internet, certainly, and smaller TVs) powered, then Switched’s 300W/307Wh battery pack is worth considering. It’s incredibly easy to set up and use, it’s…

When it was speculated that AI was coming for human jobs, the last career we expected to come into conflict with artificial intelligence was ‘sports commentator’. It’s not that bad right now — Paul Stubbs and Kaya Malotana will probably still be commentating for a while yet — but it is a real fear, courtesy of IBM. And, of course, the US Masters tournament. That’s right, the sport being used to test generatively-created commentary is golf. The Masters Tournament, taking place this weekend, has a digital counterpart. This is available via the Masters app and website and, this year, the…

Waze is Google’s other traffic service, one that relies on its users updating the other folks using it. It’s also the weirder member of the family, prone to… unusual behaviour. If the service had made this announcement earlier in the month, we’d have thought it was a joke. The big new feature? Astrology. But not in the way that you think. The new feature is called Zodiac and it does indeed involve astrology. But it’s not using pseudoscience to navigate you to your next destination, though a practical implementation of that would be hilarious. Waze of seeing the future Instead,…

Microsoft’s Surface range of products are, by and large, all excellent pieces of hardware but their slim design suffers from the same issues plaguing Apple’s MacBook Air and other ultrabook lineups. There just aren’t enough ports. Enter the new Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock, which ramps up connection options with nine new ports. It’ll do so at a price, however. The newly-announced Microsoft accessory will turn up in the American market, (makes sense) with prices starting at $300 (R5,350 — which only sorta makes sense). The big change? It’s designed for Microsoft (or any) computer hardware that supports Thunderbolt 4/USB-C. Surface…

It’s an interesting time to be an internet user. The brains over at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) today detailed the recent trends in cybersecurity threats, both internationally and in South Africa, offering some insight into what South Africans can expect from criminal activity online. The group also detailed the products and services it has at its disposal to help mitigate cyberattacks and other online threats. These range from the kinda-awesome (a network traffic dongle-slash-early-warning-system) to the actually-scary (biometrics for kids). But first, what to expect from the internet in 2023: CSIR, you can’t go in there…

Artemis II, NASA’s upcoming manned mission around Earth’s moon, officially has a crew. Moreover, there are at least three firsts taking place. NASA’s sending a woman and a person of colour on the mission — this much has been known for ages — but it’s also sending a Canadian. Believe it or not, that’s never happened before. This is Artemis II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mua1Lysc_JQ On the mission is Gregory Reid Wiseman (commander), an experienced astronaut and pilot who has spent time on the International Space Station. Joining him are Victor Glover (pilot), who was involved with the first manned Crew Dragon flight,…

If you weren’t aware that the year is flying, let’s point it out for you. It’s already time for the April May 2023 issue of Stuff Magazine. If you’re marking your calendars with ferocious regularity, you’ll know that we’ve just entered the second quarter of the year. And that can only mean one thing — smart homes. By which we mean, the current issue of Stuff (in stores now) will show you how to smarten up your home. It’s not quite a full-on ChatGPT conversion but it’ll do for now. Smarter speakers (yes, with AI in ’em), appliances, gadgets, cameras…