Author: Brett Venter

Anyone can tell you that Minecraft is one of the most popular — and lucrative — games ever made. Creator Notch, who was made a billionaire by Microsoft — is one. Microsoft’s accountants would chime in too. We’re also fairly certain. But ask the players and those who have played the blocky open-world title this way will tell you that the best way to play it is in virtual reality. This is a shame because Microsoft has said that it’s ending support for “VR/MR devices”. VR and MR stand for virtual reality and mixed reality, two technologies that are just…

If you’ve got kids you’re doubtless preparing for a slew of costumed kiddos to come traipsing past your house at some point this weekend. No, South Africa hasn’t gone all American — we don’t observe the Halloween holiday directly — but any excuse for kids to dress up and have sweets makes marketing sense. So do seasonal video game specials, like the one the Xbox store is currently running. Odds are that if you don’t have kids, you probably still act a bit like one. An Xbox gaming marathon on the spookiest weekend of the year, perhaps with a little…

There are different ways to celebrate Halloween, even in South Africa. Sure, you can raise your heart rate with high-end horror, of varying intensities, but there’s also the option to kick back, relax, and have a little fun. That’s the whole point of dressing up and asking strangers for candy, the only time you’re allowed to do that as an child. With that in mind, as well as the limitations of the South African version of Prime Video, we’ve selected ten enormously entertaining titles from Amazon’s streaming platform to tide you over until All Hallow’s Eve. These range from seriously…

Checkers may have made trips to the grocery store almost superfluous but there are occasions when you need to speak to actual humans. And, you know, push a cart. If only there was a better way. There might be, and it’s called Palletrone. Palletrone, the creation of a team of Seoul National University of Science and Technology researchers, might one day revolutionise the humble shopping cart. It’s like a regular food conveyance except that it doesn’t ever touch the ground. There’s no possible way this could go wrong. Palletrone flying high https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hvRhZIhFR4 If it’s not obvious from the name, which…

Most South Africans know TCL as a television manufacturer, but the brand also sells tablets and, now, smartphones in the country. The TCL 505 is one of the first to land on our somewhat volatile shores. To that end, it’s a seriously budget smartphone. Originally, it was supposed to feature a recommended retail price of R2,000, but we’ve only been able to track it down at a R2,600 price point. Being one of the first devices to come to SA, it has a couple of tasks. It has to make an impression on the market but without risking too much…

When you name your robotic quadruped after the terrifyingly hard-to-stop honey badger, you’re probably trying to send a message. Unlike Boston Dynamics’ Spot, which is supposed to be relatively benign, this little guy is capable of cornering folks in water as well as land. MAB Robotics, a tech company based in Poland, recently demonstrated its four-legged critter. It’s not enough that the diminutive quadruped walks with the same senseless menace that most robots of its type do. It’ll scuttle across the bottom of a pool with equal skill. Aquatic quadruped https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p66uxwUgboY We shouldn’t have to point out just how scary…

It’s a good time to work in e-commerce in South Africa. It’s an even better time to be Pargo, the click-and-collect delivery service that has seen an uptake in business since its earlier days on the local landscape. Speaking in an interview with Reuters, company co-founder and CEO Lars Veul explained how the service intends to go continent-wide as a result of its South African popularity. Pargo has more than 4,000 pick-up points in the country, many in less formal stores like spaza shops. Pargo goes international South Africa was just the start, according to Veul. “We’re looking at an…

There’s a school of thought on the internet that anyone receiving a MacBook upon starting a new job may find their employment a little shaky. If the IT department hands you a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, on the other hand, you’re likely to be employed for as long as you want to be. There may even be some truth to that. MacBooks tend to be favoured by the stylish, the startup, the move-fast-and-break-things sorts, and those companies occasionally disappear overnight. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon, on the other hand, is a more staid and serious computer for the kind of person…

Earlier this week SpaceX achieved a new milestone in its quest for reusable rockets — it caught the 71-metre tall Super Heavy booster that sent the fifth version of Starship into orbit (for testing reasons). That’s not an easy feat to pull off, since it’s the equivalent of catching a fifteen-story building. That’s on fire. But the company intends to do even better. According to company head Elon Musk, the next achievement being targeted is to catch Starship itself. The timeline for that is, optimistically, early next year according to Musk. SpaceX reaches for the stars Hopefully early next year,…

Following Microsoft’s initial news, Amazon has followed Google in saying ‘Wait, we can do that?’ and announced that it is investing in nuclear power “to address growing energy demands”. The announcement follows on the heels of several from the company, including several new Kindle models. Will we see a nuclear-powered Kindle at some point? Probably not. But nuclear AI? That’s far more likely. Like Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that it will implement Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in its business. Also like Google, the company isn’t developing the tech for this itself. Instead, it has signed several agreements…