Author: Brett Venter

They make robots for everything these days. Cars can drive themselves, and humanoid and canine robots exist. What’s next? Golf robots, of course. Researchers at Paderborn University in Germany have come up with Golfi, the least imaginatively named putting robot in existence. We don’t mean ‘putting’ in the sense of ‘putting that thing over there’. We mean ‘putting that golf ball into that very small hole’. Totally different pronunciation. Golfi goes golfing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKJV6QrNbtE The little golf robot does most of its work via part of a Microsoft Kinect camera unit. Specifically, the 3D camera used to peer into rooms to…

If there was one significant improvement Stuff would make to the Jaguar I-Pace, it would be to fully amour it up. Just kidding. At a little over 2,100kg, Jaguar’s EV is already a tank. But someone out there was looking for a little extra protection and they turned to Armormax, a South African company, for help. The result is the world’s first armoured Jaguar I-Pace. And since the EV was a beast to begin with, the company making the upgrades managed to do their work without substantially increasing the car’s weight. Just 200kg of additions were stuffed inside the vehicle.…

If you’ve been paying attention to alarmist outcries in recent years, you might have encountered the term ‘killer robots’. These are machines used specifically to kill humans. And not like guns or knives (a knife is just a very simple machine). Rather, they’re able to track and assassinate targets without human intervention. Loads of folks are understandably upset about the possibility. But it was thought that these robotic antagonists would be more likely to turn up on a battlefield than in a neighbourhood. But there’s always that one guy. In this case, the wombat taking things too far is the…

Checkers might offer one of the country’s foremost delivery apps but there’s at least one time of year that it attempts to get you in stores. This weekend’s Black Friday sale, whether South Africans are at the standard, Hyper, or dedicated baby stores, is all about being there in person. And that’s because the grocery store’s deals require that you physically touch them in order to purchase them. It makes a sort of sense. Sending those folks with the barcode scanners around to harvest massive sales won’t leave much for anyone else to buy. Plus, stores crammed full of people…

It should come as no surprise that Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, is looking for more ways to make money. The company experienced its first layoffs (ever) recently, shedding 13% of its workforce in a stroke. The chaps on the WhatsApp and Messenger teams, as well as the metaverse group, are relatively safe because Zuckerberg reckons that’s where the money is. VR hardware is the company’s only remaining hardware and now a relatively untapped resource is about to be tapped. That may raise cash for the social network, but users are almost certainly getting the short end of…

The brand new Audi S8 TFSI quattro became available in South Africa today. For most, that’s just a thing that happened. For others — those with loads of cash or a really excellent car allowance — it’s a call to hit the dealership as soon as possible. How can you tell which list you’re on? Well, if you’ve got nigh-on R2.8 million just lying around doing nothing, then the Audi S8 might well be the vehicle for you. Your home probably already has solar power, so a stunning V8 sedan in the driveway is the next way to drive the…

Say what you want about South Africa but we’re a creative lot. A company called BunduTec has debuted a new camping trailer called the BunduTrail. Because it’s a trailer. And you take it to the bundus. Which isn’t that big of a deal, surely. Every South African has seen a glamping setup heading for the bush the day before a long weekend has kicked off. But this particular camping setup is impressive enough that even the camping purists will be eying its occupants with a tinge of jealousy. Taking the BunduTrail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu6bfEYhkBs The jealousy is because of how easy this…

Auto manufacturers are coming for your home. Specifically, your home’s electrical system. Hyundai is the most recent company to turn its sights in the direction of the domicile with the launch of Hyundai Home. Revealed this year at the Los Angeles Motor Show, the Korean company’s ambitions are about making purchasing an EV more attractive. The company plans to do this by way of its new Home marketplace. It’s almost a one-stop shop for all things solar — because if you could fuel your car more or less free, you totally would. Hyundai Sweet Hyundai This sort of action isn’t…

Earlier this month, Stuff got to go hands-on with the Asus ROG Phone 6. It’s an absolute monster of a gaming phone, capable of processing all the frames you can fire at its pristine screen. But it’s not a true high-end smartphone if no special edition exists. With that in mind, Asus has a custom version of its handset heading to market. It’s based around Diablo Immortal, the mobile game that was ruthlessly mocked when it was announced that turned up to be not that awful after all. Diablo’s Asus ROG Phone 6 is no joke Weirdly enough, this version…

UPDATE: Eskom has taken things down a notch, switching between Stage 4 and Stage 2 for the next few days. #LoadsheddingUpdate#stage4 loadshedding (instead of Stage 5) will be implemented continuously until 05:00 on Tuesday morning. Thereafter Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented daily at 05:00 – 16:00. Stage 4 will be implemented daily at 16:00 – 05:00 until further notice. — Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) November 21, 2022 ORIGINAL STORY: Perhaps you take the weekend off from social media or maybe you expected Twitter to stop working over the weekend. Either way, you might have missed that load shedding…