Author: Brett Venter

OpenAI is supposed to be working on its own hardware. One of these, designed by Jony Ive, may or may not be a pen. Likely to launch first, the other is supposed to be a smart speaker. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has still more detail about the device’s specifics. It sounds… tasty. Literally, in this case. The unnamed speaker is supposed to be doughnut-shaped — a circular speaker with a hole in the middle. Less tasty? The projected price for one of these things. And the fact that previous ‘movable’ rumours were entirely overblown. Doughnot do that, OpenAI According to Gurman’s…

Current wearable tech is pretty nifty, but the CHARM (Continuous Health Analyzing Ring Module) could put our current lot to shame. Once it stops being a serious research project and makes the jump to something commercial, at any rate. The health device, detailed in Nature, measures “glucose, ketone, ascorbic acid, uric acid, lactate, and alcohol from passive osmotically extracted sweat.” It’s also, as you can see from the image, quite a bulky critter. It’s not the sort of thing you’d wear all day. Yet. Even so, it’s capable of continuous monitoring for twelve hours at a time. CHARM school More…

Artificial intelligence claims to be able to do many things. Translation is one that (mostly) works. Google’s Gemma Translator puts that function into a little offline device that promises to listen to (and translate) languages for you. The search giant showed off the product, built with an outfit called Antigravity, yesterday. The coolest thing about it might not be that it’ll work entirely offline. It may be the fact that you can build your own version relatively easily. Gemma squashed Meet the Gemma Translator! A fully offline device powered by Gemma 4 E2B built with @Antigravity. Running entirely on a…

The Huawei Pura 90s Pro both closely resembles and looks nothing like its immediate predecessor, the Pura 80 Pro. The older phone included rounded corners and a generally more curved design than this year’s model. There also wasn’t a lowercase ‘s’ on the box. But this year, you can expect more angles and a blockier presentation. Whether it’s been nicked from the iPhone’s design rather than Samsung, that just seems to be the way folks are going these days. But what you will get is a decently powerful smartphone (this time with 5G) that is laser-focused on delivering an excellent…

Fitness brand Coros has a decent, if underappreciated, presence in South Africa. Now, it looks like its R6,000 running watch, the Pace 4, will be joined by the company’s Pace 4 Pro soon. Details of the wearable’s existence emerged via Indonesia’s regulator, which outed the Pace 4 Pro in one of its listings. 5KRunner points out that these listings usually mean that a launch is weeks away. Odds are we’ll see something official soon. Changing Coros We’re forced to wait until something new turns up anyway. The listing doesn’t provide many details beyond the full device name. ‘Coros Pace 4…

Huawei has launched its newest headline wearables. The Watch GT 7 and GT 7 Pro made their first official appearance at an event in China and subsequently online, and they’re about what you’d expect from the brand’s wrist tech. The Pro is the obvious contender for folks with money or a decent line of credit, but the Watch GT 7 probably won’t disappoint either. Last year’s Watch GT 6 launched here and proved especially capable at helping cyclists to move their legs vigorously. So we know they’ll turn up in South Africa. Huawei said as much at its launch for…

Xiaomi has been talking up its automotive ambitions for years. The company’s SU7 EV has proved popular in its home country; the new Skynomad N90 Max hybrid might become even more so. At least, for larger families with camping ambitions. See, the N90 Max may just live up to its name. The hybrid SUV features seven seats, massive range, and (in China), a sub-R1 million price tag. It’s also packing a few cabin-conversion features that’ll make it more attractive for day trips. For weekend outings? There’s also the Xiaomi Skynomad N90 Max Camping Edition. Reach for the Skynomad First, the…

Late last month, an online leak revealed that automaker BYD was launching Xiao Di, its very own humanoid robot. Now, the brand says that it’ll make an appearance early this month. Several outlets in China received communications about the new robot, as well as the early August reveal. Exactly when it’ll launch remains a mystery, but the teaser includes the line, “At the beginning of August, a new friend wants to meet you.” The initial leak showed a version of the robot that looks almost cartoonish. Other images being shared present a more utilitarian aspect. Xiao Di due Some slight…

If you’re missing even more AI integration in your life, and you’re a Bolt customer, you’re in luck. The ride-sharing service has announced the global rollout of ChatGPT support for its services. ‘Global’, in this case, includes South Africa. There’s no real sign that this is something locals are after. South Africans are reportedly fairly high adopters of AI, but Bolt is typically seen as a low-cost alternative to Uber. There may not be as much intersection between the ride-sharing platform’s users and ChatGPT locally. Still, it’s there if you need it. Artificial Bolt At the moment, the entire process…

We’ve been tracking Honor’s Robot Phone since the beginning of this year. Most recently, the gimbal camera’s details were revealed by the company itself. Now, almost everything else about the odd handset has also been revealed, thanks to a Chinese leaker. Digital Chat Station has a decent track record of product details out of China, and their latest round of information gives out practically everything Honor’s unusual phone will feature. It’ll all be confirmed in a little over a week, but there’s no harm in having a decent idea of what’s coming. Inside the Robot Phone According to the leak,…