Author: Brett Venter

Lego has a ton of dedicated fans, and some of those fans design new sets for the company. They don’t all get made, but some of them do… provided their creators can prove that at least 10,000 folks are interested in the design. One of the newest of these is a Functional Lego Telescope — which seems to be its actual title. And, as custom-but-possibly-retail-ready builds go, it’s rather impressive. The brick-made telescope is currently listed on the Danish company’s Product Ideas portal. It has secured around 8,000 supporters since it launched. Just two thousand to go, then? Scope out…

More countries are banning social media for teens, which means more age verification technology is on the way. Meta’s got an updated solution heading to its user accounts, and AI is obviously a huge factor. Instagram in the EU (and Brazil) and Facebook in the States will be the first to experience these solutions. It won’t be quite as simple (or easy to bypass) as a facial scan, but it might be just as concerning. Among the other protective features being launched is improved visual analysis. This system will nab clues from a user’s profile to determine whether they are…

A company in Japan is prepping to send a robot inspired by the Gundam anime into space. It’s slightly less awesome than it sounds, however. There’s no giant mech suit bound for orbit. Instead, it’s based on the Haro assistant robot that has featured in the series. Having Haro on a rocket makes more sense. Even the F90 Gundam F90 stands (canonically) just under fifteen metres tall. It’s a little difficult to get one of those on board the International Space Station, which is where Haro is headed. Gundam pilot project Haro, as a project, was crowdfunded by Space Entry…

There are several ways to write that novel you’ve always had in mind. There’s longhand, typed, smoke signals, or something like the Auteur. The still-to-be-crowdfunded device isn’t a novel concept; it’s just the latest to make the attempt. Auteur is little more than a mechanical keyboard, an internal battery, and an e-paper display — it’s like a Kindle with a fancy typing interface. It’s supposed to evoke the days when the typewriter was king. Among a certain sort of writer, it’ll find its place. But then, so does the FreeWrite. They Auteur do it Given how much the FreeWrite costs,…

Artificial intelligence is a radically new concept for human beings. Whether AI uptake is organic or whether it’s being heavily driven by the companies developing it (it’s the second one), it’s going to have an effect on how people think. Trouble is, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and the rest can issue updates faster than academics can conduct studies. Some have been done, specifically on human cognition. The results are… interesting, even if they’re limited by a) budgets and b) participant sizes. But they don’t paint a pretty picture about what artificial intelligence is doing to human thought processes. A Microsoft-commissioned study…

Over the years, Stuff has seen several companies with no business making phones make the attempt anyway. OpenAI and ChatGPT might be the next to step into those illustrious ranks, possibly alongside Chinese brand Dreame. A report from Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst who tends to focus on Apple updates, suggests that OpenAI is targeting a 2028 release of dedicated phone hardware. There are no tech specs or images yet, just talk. But that talk claims that MediaTek and Qualcomm are involved on the hardware side. ChatGPT phones it in A Chinese company called Luxshare is also supposed to be involved…

If you’ve ever wanted a little drone that even a kid could put together, the folks from Seeed Studios will sell you one. The ESP-FLY is exactly that — a miniature flying contraption composed of a small set of components that can be assembled in a few minutes. The “compact, lightweight DIY micro drone kit” will set you back around R1,000 ($60), plus whatever shipping is. We’ve checked on that, but the company won’t share that information unless you create a full account on its storefront. The power of ESP-FLY Everything needed to turn a collection of bits into something…

We already know that Meta is working on an AI version of the company’s founder. A new acquisition could give the Zuckerbot a body of its own. The platform, according to a report from Bloomberg, has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI). The startup about to be absorbed into Zuckerberg’s empire doesn’t make robots, but it does make artificial intelligence software intended to power them. ARI is joining Meta specifically to overcome “critical challenges” related to humanoid robot control. Meta’s Zuckerbot lives! The report quotes a Meta spokesperson as saying that ARI will create “models and frontier capabilities for robot control…

Stuff knows Chinese brand Dreame as a manufacturer of robot vacuum cleaners. The company has revealed (for the second time) its Aurora lineup, which doesn’t feature the company’s typical tech. The range is supposed to comprise three smartphones, and from any other company, we’d think that was incredibly weird. But since Dreame also has designs on action cams and hypercars, perhaps it can pull off a smartphone launch too. Only, the Aurora range is supposed to be three phones. Revealed to the Western world at an event last week, the phones talk a big game. Aurora sighted? Whether the Aurora…

Even Realities makes several sets of smart glasses, with the Even G2 being its most consumer-facing pair. They’re also about to get a lot more nerdy. The company has announced a new Terminal Mode for its display glasses, which lets users “interact with AI coding agents directly from your glasses.” The feature allows wearers to monitor their AI agents remotely via the glasses. Given how frequently news emerges of AI agents going rogue and deleting things, at least you’ll know about it in real time (or slightly slower). Even Realities looking Terminal It may even be possible to halt an…