Author: Brett Venter

What was it we said about compact e-readers yesterday? Honor has launched its own version, the Honor Life S3. It’s got several factors in its favour, most notably the price. Some points about the little E Ink slate aren’t quite as impressive. The worst of these is that the Life S3 is exclusive to China for the present. Which is a pity, based on the device’s local pricing. At ¥360, local readers could expect to pay just R900 for one of these critters. If you happen to know someone on business in Beijing, it’d be trivial to bring an S3…

Very small e-readers are all the rage right now. Boox, no stranger to reading tech, has just put its 3.97in Picco reader up for pre-order. This only applies, right now, if you order from Boox directly, but it’ll also wind up on Amazon soon. If even that is too far out of your comfort zone, the R1,800 ($110) reader will probably get here… eventually. As with competitor models, this sub-4in reader will slip into just about any pocket. It’ll also live on the back of a smartphone, so you don’t lose it in the depths of a laptop bag. Said…

DStv’s package changes were known as far back as the beginning of September this year. Next up, DStv Select subscribers face some serious temptation from MultiChoice. Select customers (there are terms and conditions) are the first to get a week’s free access to DStv Sports. Other package tiers will follow before the end of the year, according to the TV provider, but this hinges on the success of MultiChoice’s test. What constitutes ‘success’ wasn’t explained, but we’ve got a few good guesses. DStv Select your fighter From today, Select customers “who pay month to month, in full and on time”…

TCL’s main involvement with the Stuff team revolves around the company’s range of TV sets and other display tech. These are, admittedly, a fun time. So much so that the company’s launch into South Africa’s premium washing machine segment has us considering whether it’s time for an upgrade. The Chinese brand’s new C5 range has just landed in South Africa. They’re supposedly available at retail stores, but official pricing is still a mystery. There’s a C2 model at HiFiCorp that comes in at R11,000. Odds are the TCL C5 is pricier than that. Giving your clothes some TLC TCL Why?…

SpaceX has been fiddling with Starship for quite some time, mostly by dropping it into the ocean to see what happens. Yesterday’s Starship 14 mission, following a short delay, was the first to properly attempt orbital insertion. Whether the mission succeeded or not, we’d be talking about it. One is a spectacular fireball; the other is a technological achievement. SpaceX has delivered the latter, successfully placing the fifty-metre-long object into a path around the planet. It also managed to deploy its newest generation of Starlink satellites without issue. Starship trooper The @Starlink team has made contact with all 26 satellites…

Unless you’re a massive Addams Family fan, there’s not really a reason to make a robot that looks (and works) like a disembodied hand. Okay, fine, you might also be an Evil Dead fan, specifically the second film. Or you might be looking to make humanoid robots even harder to kill, we suppose. Whatever the folks at ETH Zurich’s Soft Robotics Lab’s reasons, they’ve gone and taught a robot hand to crawl around by itself. We’re as impressed as we are terrified, imagining successfully dismembering a crazed humanoid robot and then seeing its bits crawl after us anyway. Talk to…

Bentley’s first EV, the Torcal, hasn’t been a secret for quite some time. What it was capable of, though, was rather more shrouded in mystery, given that the luxury automaker only teased its EV in July this year. There’s no more mystery remaining, with Bentley showing off both the vehicle and its specs over the weekend. In fact, the only thing missing from the Torcal’s announcement is the price tag. Being Bentley, it’s sure to be ruinously expensive for almost everyone on the planet. But it’s also, based on the reveal, something just about every driver would love to experience.…

We first heard about Google’s Project Suncatcher late last year, when the company announced that it would attempt to build AI data centres in space. The first of those attempts will arrive this week, with a (very) small version bound for space. The point isn’t to suddenly stream answers to your inane AI queries from space. That, apparently, comes later. Instead, Suncatcher is checking the viability of sending the components up. The tensor processing units Google is using will be dispatched later this week. If they survive, the search company has more data to work with. If they don’t… it’s…

Either Xiaomi is running out of ideas, or it has too many of them. Amongst the company’s recent Chinese announcements was a surprise — the Pocket Guitar. It’s not a very small ukulele, though that would also be acceptable. Instead, it’s a smartphone case that does something interesting. Everyone who has seen a music video knows how to play air guitar, in much the same way that anyone who has ever listened to Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight immediately gains the ability to play the air drums. Xiaomi’s concept makes the ‘guitar’ part a little more tangible. Pocket Guitar…

Samsung has long been suspected of having a pair of open earbuds lurking in its development studio. The folks at Android Headlines have revealed them to be the Galaxy Buds On, the South Korean company’s upcoming clip-on headphones. The major change is in the name. Previously, the rumoured headphones were called the Galaxy Able earbuds. Now, it seems, it’s just On. Galaxy On, of course. That, plus a couple of highly detailed images of the hardware, gives us a better idea of what’s coming. Buds On the way Most of what is physically known about these new headphones is based…