Author: Brett Venter

If DJI’s last two terrestrial product releases failed to fill you with joy, perhaps the new budget-focused Neo drone will spark some happiness in you. Set to launch in South Africa on 20 September and priced at R4,000, this little critter puts 4K video in the palm of your hand. Literally. It’s freaking tiny, of course, weighing just 136 grams. It’s being pitched at anyone who takes video or photographs of themselves regularly — so influencers and wannabe influencers — and it has the camera needed to make itself attractive to that market (and the rest of Instagram). Emperor Neo…

For excellent premium hardware in an unexpected place, look no further than Microsoft’s range of Surface devices. It’s been a few years since the range launched in South Africa and the software giant remains bent on making its partners look… well, budget-focused. Microsoft won’t call it that, of course. The Surface Laptop and Surface Pro, among other products, are “reference designs” but they’re really examples of what companies could do with a Windows-based machine. The newest batch to launch in South Africa, the Laptop 7 and Pro 11 two-in-one, are all that, plus baked-in AI. Scratching the Surface itch So…

No Man’s Sky might rank as the best comeback story in gaming. The highly ambitious space exploration game went from a mediocre launch to… well, 2024 by adding more than players could have asked for – all for free. Aquarius, the game’s latest update, adds something completely unexpected. Fishing. It’s an odd thing to find in a game that has let players explore derelict spaceships, mine planets (extensively), discover entirely new universes, build bases, and learn alien languages (very slowly) but it’s also a welcome addition. Instead of facing off against automated guards, you can relax and throw a line…

Asus has jumped on board the Copilot+ train, first with the Vivobook S 15 and now with this tasty little number, the Zenbook S 16. While the S 15 retails for R30,000, you’re expected to part with R41,000 to stuff this one into your laptop bag. Is it worth the extra premium to upgrade from Snapdragon to AMD, even with the chassis upgrade thrown in? That’s ultimately up to you but Asus has put forward a compelling case. It may not be a Mac killer for Apple superfans but anyone looking for that level of build quality should give the…

This month it seems as though everyone has a double-folding smartphone on the way to market but it looks like Huawei will be the first to introduce one on stage. If you don’t count TCL in 2019. And Samsung in 2021. But since Samsung is (still) working on the concept, as is Tecno, the Chinese giant may steal a fair bit of thunder. From Apple specifically. Reports indicate that Huawei has an event planned in Beijing, China for 14h30 CST (China Standard Time) on 10 September. In case you need us to do the math, that’s less than twelve hours…

It’s been a minute since anyone said anything new about Midjourney. You remember them, right? The service that popularised creating custom images using little more than a sentence prompt before OpenAI and ChatGPT came along to suck all the oxygen out of the room? In a bid for everyone’s attention, the company has announced a mysterious new hardware product. It’s not saying what it is or even giving proper hints as to what it has in mind, it’s just looking for interested souls to join the team. A Midjourney to the future We’re officially getting into hardware. If you’re interested…

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold devices are excellent, even if they’re retreading old ground more and more frequently. Something new is needed and that something might well be another version of the phone. Noted leaker Evan Blass (@EVLeaks) revealed, in a now-protected tweet, that Samsung’s upcoming folding smartphone release — also taking place in 2024 — will be called the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition. Samsung summons backup It’s likely that someone at Samsung got to Blass (temporarily, we’re sure) but not before the information spread… well, all over the place. The Special Edition handset will, according to the leak, feature an…

LG has a funny way of drumming up interest. The South Korean company likes to pre-announce its announcements so you know what it’s announcing when it announces it. The newest announcement from LG? ThinQ ON, a new smart home hub, will turn up at IFA 2024 in Berlin next week. It might look like a hockey puck (or an Amazon Echo) but this little pucker has some personality, according to the company. That’s because this smart home device includes a voice assistant, powered (of course) by AI. ThinQ ON that ThinQ ON isn’t just intended to control LG’s own products,…

Like a tie-in video game that was somewhat delayed, Nokia owner HMD is finally getting around to releasing its Barbie smartphone. If you recall, the best Ken movie ever made was released to general acclaim at the end of last year. For a time, everything was pink. Now it can be again. HMD mentioned that it was releasing this phone, as well as its hard-to-locate Heikenen edition, at the beginning of this year. It’s not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, being a dumbphone (what did HMD mean by that?), but it’s astonishingly retro. And pink. Come on, Barbie,…

Windows 8. Juicero. Any hardware made by Facebook/Meta. The blockchain. NFTs. Artificial intelligence. All are famous (but stupid) products that didn’t (or don’t) offer any real utility to customers. The next technology blunder? On-demand sunlight. If you’re an investor sitting in a pitch meeting for Reflect Orbital, the company ‘attempting’ this, it has to sound cool as hell. The ability to call in sunlight on a darkened area of the world using nothing but a smartphone app? Incredible. Here’s a billion dollars. As a practical idea? Maybe that’s a stupid thing to invest in. Stupidity in orbit On the surface,…