Author: Brett Venter

When it comes to rocket science, you really want your safety systems to work but testing them is something you hope doesn’t happen. Blue Origin’s rocket launch earlier this week had an opportunity to test out its crew capsule safety systems when the launch failed. The reason for the failure hasn’t been established. The rocket was heading up to its destination with a full load of scientific instruments when something when wrong. Scratch one Blue Origin rocket Booster failure on today’s uncrewed flight. Escape system performed as designed. pic.twitter.com/xFDsUMONTh — Blue Origin (@blueorigin) September 12, 2022 The launch could have…

More restrictions may be on the horizon for Multichoice subscribers. Irdeto, a company wholly-owned by the South African broadcaster, announced this weekend the launch of a new DRM system. DRM stands for digital rights management. If you play PC or console games, you’d be familiar with the term. If you’re a paid-for-TV subscriber, it’s a little less likely to be in the front of your mind. Well, now’s a great time to start paying attention. Showmax users recently lost access to the ability to share streams and a greater crackdown might be on the cards. Not much of a Multichoice…

Time to see how old you really are. Merriam-Webster, the folks who make dictionaries and catalog words, have made some 370 words official this month. Your reaction to the list will tell you more or less what your mental age is. Are you Gen Z-level or readying yourself for a ‘Get off my lawn’ future? Our headline has already functioned as a sort of barometer. If ‘sponcon, ‘yeet’, ‘sus’, or ‘metaverse’ are making your eyes twitch, you really don’t want to see the rest of the list. If you’re greeting the news with joy, you’re… actually, you’re probably a Scrabble…

It used the be that the lowest specs required to run the latest Android version called for 1GB of RAM. Android 13 has changed all that. In 2017, smartphones running Android 8 needed just 512MB of RAM. In 2020, that number jumped to 1GB. For 2022, Google requires at least 2GB for devices to run Android 13. Don’t go thinking you can get around the requirement by running the Go edition. That is the Go edition of Android. Upgrading Android 13 It’s not the only requirement Google’s Android 13 Go edition is introducing. A minimum of 16GB of storage is…

A technology previously available to Batman and people who kidnap ambassadors’ daughters in action movies, Koe Recast is bringing spookily accurate voice changing to more users. Yes, you can get apps and physical devices to change your voice for you. But Koe Recast lets you do it in real-time, without anything getting in the way. “Bring the money. Come alone” Or, at least, it will. The AI-powered technology is still in development, though you can try it out today if you want to. The app will convert up to twenty seconds of vocal audio, with a few caveats, into something…

Quite often, when a company has landed on a decent design for something, it’ll stick around for a while. There’s no point in going to all that effort for a single sales cycle. There’s probably a psychologist somewhere who determines the optimum time to keep a design. They certainly told Samsung that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 could look more or less identical to the Galaxy Fold 3. It makes sense, from a business perspective. Ever since the Galaxy S6, Samsung’s hung onto a design for at least two years. The Galaxy Fold 4 shouldn’t be an exception and yet……

Netflix is trying to make its presence felt in the mobile gaming space. This takes several forms, but the very best way to do this is to release games. Lucky Luna is the latest of Netflix’s mobile titles, a pixel art platform game that sees players taking control of a little girl. Not just any little girl, obviously. Protagonist Luna explores the game’s setting in a bid to find out the secrets of her past. The game’s based on Japanese mythology, in case the little fox mask didn’t clue you in. Charming and lucky Luna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jhfofq-ehw In terms of design,…

Last night, Apple revealed a new feature for its iPhone lineup. Satellite connections are on the menu. But if you were watching Huawei’s conveniently-timed Chinese Mate 50 series announcement, technically the Chinese company got there first. Technically. Huawei’s Mate 50 and Mate 50 Pro were revealed earlier this week. Along with the standard set of upgrades, the ability to send text messages using China’s global BeiDou satellite network has been included. What this means is that users can communicate even when they’re outside of cellular coverage areas. More than a Mate 50 Aside from the suspicious claiming of one of…

Early last year, Twitter launched an initiative called Birdwatch. It’s a bit like Wikipedia but for combating misinformation. Driven by the community, the program has gone from being a pilot program to something larger. Now, it’s about to grow even more. Twitter announced via a blog post that the program is looking to onboard even more contributors keen to make their slice of the platform a better place. For them, obviously. Birdwatch: The Gathering The way Birdwatch works is that participants identify tweets that they believe contain misinformation. These identifications and notes are visible to other ‘Watchers. If enough of…

Regular broadcast TV faces an uphill battle for viewers. That much isn’t up for debate. Traditional avenues of entertainment here at home, like the SABC and DStv, are bleeding eyeballs. Ew. No. Not like that. They’ve got fewer viewers. If former Disney head Bob Iger knows anything about it — and he should — those platforms are in for an even rougher time. At least they’re not alone. Streaming killed the TV star Iger said at Vox’s Code conference that traditional TV in all of its forms (including satellite) “…is marching to a distinct precipice, and it’s going to be…