Author: Brett Venter

Generative AI — products like ChatGPT and Meta’s own LLaMA — is the newest technology race. Google, the world’s most popular internet search provider (and also Undisputed Mobile OS Champion), is, for once, a little behind the pack. But it’s got ideas on how to catch up. The internet giant’s plans are, at heart, exactly the same as everyone else’s: jam artificial intelligence in there somewhere. Unlike GM’s plan to stick ChatGPT in cars, Google’s implementation should prove actually useful. Provided you’re a Workspace customer and when the company gets around to releasing it. Just Google AI it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DaJVZBXETE Google’s…

Firefly Aerospace has been in the works for a couple of years now. It launched an unsuccessful rocket in 2021 followed by a more effective launch last year. Now, the company is branching out, thanks to a new NASA contract. Rather than just orbital insertions, the company has been contracted to drop a lunar lander or two on the far side of the Moon’s surface. The newly awarded NASA contract is worth a little over R2 billion (roughly $112 million) and called for the delivery of “…two agency payloads, as well as communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit”.…

Last year Facebook and Instagram gave their users the ability to share the surely-still-valuable NFTs they own with the rest of the world via Meta’s platforms. This year… it’s being deemphasised in favour of 2023’s sexiest tech gold rush. The company hasn’t put it that way, of course. Meta’s commerce and fintech head Stephane Kasriel explains that the company is “…looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus.” NFTs are forever temporary In more practical terms, this means that Meta is “…winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and…

If you bought one of Gizzu’s 300Wh or 500Wh power stations after 1 November 2022, there’s a chance that your device is subject to a voluntary recall. South African distributor Syntech made the announcement, explaining that it has received reports that some devices — specifically the GPS300 and GPS500 Power Stations — are at risk for overheating while charging. Get back to Gizzu Following reports over the last few days, the company said, Syntech immediately contacted its global manufacturing partner, who initiated an investigation, which confirmed a temporary battery manufacturing flaw may have affected a small number of units in…

South Africa’s just launched a new digital payments system, called PayShap (because of course it is) in conjunction with four of the country’s major banks. Absa, First National Bank, Nedbank, and Standard Bank are all participating in this new system which should make interbank transfers and payments a far simpler and cheaper affair. A safer affair too, if the official statements are any indication. There are currently two ways for users to receive payment. Either they can use an account number, the way folks have been doing ever since filling out those paper slips in a bank was a thing,…

Smartphones have, in recent years, become an increasing mission to repair. With the launch of its G22 smartphone, Nokia is looking to push back on that trend. The device has been designed to be simple to fix, meaning it’ll spend less time in the shop if you drop it. Or you could just not send it in at all. Smartphone repair company iFixit has partnered with the brand to release the Nokia G22 with spares and the tools you’d need to install them yourself. You know, in case anything goes wrong. Getting a fix on that G22 iFixit CEO Kyle…

Apple has dragged its feet when it comes to launching its rumoured augmented reality headset for long enough. According to a new Financial Times report, company head Tim Cook made the call to release Apple’s AR hardware to the public despite pushback from the company’s design team. This goes some way towards explaining the numerous delays from Apple despite copious amounts of information being available. According to the report, Apple has argued over the timing of its virtual reality hardware launch since the project’s inception in 2016. It’s on Tim Cook’s head Apple is all about design. It’s a major…

Volkano is known in South Africa as a budget tech brand. Side-stepping the inconveniences of load shedding in this country is expensive. You can kinda see how these two might go together. The Volkano Constant Mini Network UPS is an affordable 8,800mAh battery pack designed to keep your internet running without interruption and… you should probably go and buy one. Now. Unless you have solar, anyway. Hard to locate The slim blue box that was delivered to Stuff’s offices recently is surprisingly hard to locate in stores. That’s probably got more to do with demand than its attractiveness. Inside the…

Data centres suffer from several constant issues. The two prime problems are heat and security. An American tech startup, Lonestar, reckons that building these centres on the Moon would solve both issues. For a while, anyway. And, when considered logically, a lunar data centre isn’t a terrible idea. Building a computing device that exists somewhere there’s no atmosphere means that cooling costs are massively reduced. With no air conditioners to shut down and far less power draw, maintaining the centre would prove more affordable — once you get it to the lunar surface, anyway. The security benefits seem obvious. If…

Facebook and parent company Meta are well known for their practice of cloning features from competing services. Whether it’s grabbing audio functions from Clubhouse or reproducing new apps entirely, there are few original ideas coming out of the company. Well, here’s another one of those. The project is known internally as P92 and is supposed to be a standalone text-based app that supports ActivityPub. Which, if you’re paying attention, is the technology that underpins Twitter rival Mastodon. Getting Meta with Twitter The information on the P92 project turned up via an Indian website, MoneyControl. It was later confirmed by the…