Author: Brett Venter

There are a few things genuinely terrifying about living in Africa, and one of those is the proliferation of venomous snakes. If a black mamba or boomslang gets you, you’d best hope there’s someone nearby with a package of antivenom. But it’s a pain in the backside to make (horses are involved) and isn’t always terribly effective, even when it is on hand. Danish researchers at DTU (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet) Bioengineering seem to have hit on something useful for the African market — a nanobody-based antivenom. A round of antivenom, please The researchers recently published a paper in Nature dealing…

You can’t fault Chinese brand Oppo for trying. The company’s new Reno 14 is a visually impressive smartphone that should handle most of what you can throw at it. However, no amount of shiny wizardry on the phone’s backplate can disguise the fact that there isn’t much difference between this model and last year’s Reno 13. We’ll get to all that in a moment, but there’s also the price to consider. At R20,000 (R22k, at some outlets), Oppo really has to yank some performance tricks out of the bag to make this a compelling buy compared to the Samsung Galaxy…

Something new could be coming to Google Maps, and if Android Authority’s sleuthing is correct, it’s a feature that simplifies navigation. Since the last few major features of the find-your-way app have upped the complexity, it could be a welcome change. But Google’s plans aren’t about reducing your cognitive overhead. Instead, it’s a power-saving mode for your mobile device. Intended to extend battery life on longer trips, the upcoming feature would strip out everything except for where you’re going. At least, that’s what is lurking in the 25.44.03.824313610 beta of Google Maps for Android. Maps could go dark Several lines of…

Huawei is gearing up to release a Mate 70 Air, a rival to Apple’s iPhone Air and Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge, if a recently leaked posted (and a bunch of specs) is to be believed. Whether that’s a great idea, with Apple scaling back the iPhone Air and Samsung (possibly) canning the Edge lineup entirely, remains to be seen. Visuals of the handset, taken from a physical poster, show a very skinny handset with an unmistakable Huawei camera bump. The curved edges (visible above) are apparently a consequence of the poster and are not part of the final design. Pity.…

If you’re one of the many folks having fun with OpenAI’s Sora video generation, you may also be willing to pay for it. That’s the thinking over at the AI company’s headquarters, which will soon begin charging users for additional generations. It’s not cheap, either, particularly if you’re South African. According to Sora’s head, Bill Peebles, users looking to generate more videos in a day will have to pay for that option. An additional ten videos will cost R70 ($4) and can be purchased through the service’s iOS app. Sora about that That’s a little steep if you’re South African,…

Just Dance might be the last of the music-based games that flooded the scene back when the Xbox 360 was the king of the consoles (it wasn’t even close, Sony). Ubisoft’s title has launched on plenty of platforms, but we wouldn’t have guessed that the newest place to play it would be an LG smart TV. And yet, here we are. Just Dance Now will soon be playable on LG’s smart TVs, according to an announcement from the South Korean tech maker. There’s only one catch about accessing the dance/exercise game via the LG Gaming Portal when it launches in…

There’s something almost mystical about supersonic aircraft, but since the Concorde’s retirement in 2003, they haven’t spent much time in the public eye. NASA and Lockheed Martin’s new X-59 — the only designation for the Lockheed Skunk Works-made craft so far — could change that. The impressively pointy plane has just completed its first test flight. The aircraft is intended to “pave the way for faster commercial air travel,” meaning it’s something of a spiritual successor to the British Concorde. There’s something unique about this one, assuming it scales up to carrying commercial passengers. It’s supposedly a “quiet supersonic aircraft.”…

That didn’t take long. Nvidia was the first company to pass a $4 trillion valuation, and now, less than six months later, it has sped past the $5 trillion mark. The new milestone was crossed yesterday when the company’s stock value reached a new high of just over $211 (R3,650) per share, reseating the high-water mark that folks like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft now find themselves chasing. Whether it deserves its valuation is an argument for another time. Nvidia: They are trillions Nvidia’s 5% increase in value is driven by, you guessed it, ongoing AI purchases, but there are…

Samsung Internet is the browser you may or may not have encountered in your South Korean smartphone. If you haven’t spotted it, you’ve either opted for Chrome from the outset or you have never signed up for one of the company’s Samsung ID accounts. Never fear, you’ll soon get to ignore the browser on another platform. That’s because the company’s Internet browser is coming to PC, in a limited form at first. The tech maker says this will facilitate “a more fluid and connected experience across the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem.’ Samsung’s thing of Internet The desktop version of the browser…

EVs are fun and all, but where are all the electric buses? Turns out they’re on order, at least for South Africa. MAN, the company that makes those hulking great trucks that clog up traffic on your way to Durban, has revealed that SA is due to receive 100 new electric city buses, thanks to an order by Paruk Group. Whoever they are. Perhaps the coolest bit is that while the vehicles have been ordered, they’re not being shipped here. Instead, the Lion’s Explorer E buses will be made here, with construction split between KZN and Gauteng. The Lion’s Chassis…