Author: Brett Venter

The name Orion conjures up images of greatness. Think about it. There’s the constellation. The Greek mythological figure. The telescope brand. Actually, forget about that last one. There’s a new one in town, however, and he works for Mark Zuckerberg. Meta earlier this week announced an upgraded but cheaper version of the Meta Quest 3 but it also unveiled what the company considers the future of augmented reality. That would be Orion, a set of augmented reality glasses that are lighter and more manageable than most offerings. Even if they make you look like you had your specs tattooed onto…

Soon, everything you love will have ads. Even the moon, if some folks have their way. For now, though, it’s your TV that could feature ads in unexpected places. Some models of LG TV have been spotting displaying new screensaver ads. This doesn’t appear to be a widespread phenomenon yet but it is a phenomenon. The folks over at FlatpanelsHD found and recorded several instances of screensaver ads natively displayed by LG. The folks who made the TV. LG takes a chance The ads show up briefly before the screensaver kicks in and appear tailored to whichever region the TV…

The gamers at Stuff (that’s most of us) have a soft spot for PC gaming hardware specialist SteelSeries. If only we had compatible budgets. The brand’s newest gaming gear might fit the bill for something a little more budget, if only because you might have to buy two. We’re talking about SteelSeries’ new Arctis Gamebuds, in-ear buds intended to be used with Sony or Microsoft’s newest consoles. You could also use them with your PC, mobile device, and probably the Nintendo Switch, but those are unofficial usages. Song of SteelSeries At least, that’s what SteelSeries’ product lineup suggests. There are…

If you’re a human adult with a disposable income and a nostalgia problem, you’re probably the target market for the new Dab 1a electric motorcycle. The creation of Dab (the company), the EV is themed around the Nintendo Game Boy Color (apparently — we don’t believe it). Specifically the Nintendo Purple and the translucent variant of the handheld console*. This doesn’t go any way toward explaining why the company has purple Nintendo 64 controllers in its promotional images but we’ll let that slide for now. Even though we can also see Resident Evil 2 on the TV behind the bike.…

Duolingo, the app famous for having an owl mascot that hates you (and a few other things), has done yet another completely unexpected thing. Instead of Mexican takeout, you can now buy an owl-themed portable piano. No, the minds behind the language learning app haven’t lost theirs. The service offers music lessons in addition to those French and German courses you’ve been neglecting since 2021. This new product is intended to help you get to your daily piano lesson by… well, making you carry around a piano. The key to Duolingo It’s not like the company could give each user…

If you’re in the market for a wearable that isn’t made by an unholy union of Google and Samsung, Vivo’s Watch 3, newly launched in South Africa, would like you to turn your attention in its direction. The smartwatch borrows some of the design aesthetics of the more popular Android wearables but the Chinese company has taken steps to make this one its own. Mostly this comes down to a proprietary operating system, Origin OS. It’s based on Android so it should work with your device (and most of the third-party apps that exist for wearables) but it doesn’t have…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is hugely energy-intensive. How do we know? Because Microsoft is busy setting up a deal that would use the output from a nuclear reactor to supply power to the company. For AI reasons, though the company might not use the output for AI directly. The deal would see the retired Unit 1 nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island, the site of America’s closest call with a nuclear meltdown, returning online after “prematurely” retiring in 2019. The reactor’s owner, Constellation, announced its part of the deal in a release on its website. Microsoft goes nuclear The deal, which…

Some folks learn by reading. Others do better by writing things down. But what if your learning is done by listening to two people you’ve never met talk about a subject? Then a new feature of Google’s NotebookLM is for you. Called Audio Overview, it takes the documents you feed it and turns them into a, for lack of a better word, podcast that you can listen to. No more bullet points or reading or any of that hard stuff. Just let that sweet, sweet AI bump information into your head verbally. A new NotebookLM Don’t believe us? We wouldn’t…

Canva, the online image creation service that started as the value proposition, is getting ready to burn its reputation in search of more money. How? By hiking its prices by around 300%, once you get past the ‘discounted’ first year. You don’t have to panic if you’re a Canva Pro user (for now) but if your company pays for Teams, that annual subscription price is about to get considerably pricier. This is no Multichoice-sized incremental price increase, either. Canva comes for your wallet The company doesn’t offer anything you don’t already have for this increase either. Currently, South Africans pay…

It’s time once again to ask whether you really need the newest iPhone. That’s not a situation unique to the newly-announced iPhone 16 Pro Max and it’s not a difficult question to answer either. Apple does its level best each year to ensure that the answer is ‘yes’. 2024 seems to be no exception. But it may not necessarily be the case. Particularly for users who bought an iPhone 15 Pro Max at any time in the last twelve-month cycle, an immediate upgrade may not be the most sensible choice. If your iPhone is getting long in the tooth –…