Author: Brett Venter

When Google isn’t working out new ways to creatively monetise user information, it’s working on other initiatives like better internet access or renewable energy. In the case of the latter, the company has just announced a new geothermal power project in Nevada that has come online. You might ask yourself what Google knows about geothermal power. You’d have a point, but a little extra thought would also tell you that they could just, you know, Google it. But yes, the search giant has teamed up with Fervo, a clean-energy specialist, to create a facility that it calls the first of…

Why should Apple fans get to have all the fun? Ayaneo, a company better known for its game consoles, has announced a new Retro Mini PC that looks like… well, a retro mini PC. In practice, it’s a little like Apple’s Mac Mini only nowhere near as powerful. But that’s fine, because it’s also nowhere near as expensive. And, if you happen to head over to IndieGogo, you can snag an AM01 Retro Mini PC  for even less than the projected R5,000 ($261) retail price. The project isn’t really being crowdfunded – the AM01 was only looking for $6,670 and…

Meta’s major cash cow, its ad-serving business, is in jeopardy in Europe. The company was recently fined for some of its practices in the region and incoming legislation calls for a greater ban on behavioural advertising. If it passes, Mark Zuckerberg’s income stream will be seriously curtailed. That was why the company attempted to run ahead of the change by implementing a subscription fee for ad-free access to Facebook and Instagram (separate payments, obviously). At the time it was just a rumour but Meta has since rolled out the Subscription for No Ads (SNA) in Europe. But nothing is ever…

Just in time for Black Friday, hackers are reported to have made off with a substantial amount of South African financial information. In return for keeping that information under lock and key, Brazilian hacker group N4ughtySec is demanding $60 million. Which, in a country that uses the dollar as currency, might seem almost reasonable. But the sum demanded of Experian and TransUnion, of $30 million apiece, works out to well over a billion rand. It’s R1.129 billion, as a matter of fact—hardly pocket change. Hacker collection You’d think that financial institutions like TransUnion and Experian might prefer to keep something…

Japanese space company ispace may have encountered some of the hazards of space exploration earlier this year when the Hakuto-R lunar mission failed but that doesn’t mean that the folks behind it are giving up. Company head Takeshi Hakamada announced at a recent event in Tokyo that Mission 2 would be taking place shortly. Moreover, it would include a new micro rover for exploring the lunar surface. Rovers are generally named — Curiosity, VIPER, and possibly Roo-ver (that one’s Australian) — but ispace’s dinky little craft has yet to get a title. The new lander, on the other hand, has.…

Honor’s gone big in South Africa since it returned to the country after… everything that happened. The last major smartphone to cross our desk was the Honor 90 but the company’s about to hit triple digits. There’s a launch event planned in China later this week but supply chain chatter has already spilled (most of) the beans. The Honor 100 and 100 Pro handsets are expected to turn up at the company’s 23 November event. Most of the details and, indeed, images of the phones are already out in the wild so you don’t have to wait for the official…

YouTube and the rise of artificial intelligence aren’t exactly strangers but we haven’t heard an awful lot that sounded like it wasn’t going to be an immediate dumpster fire (so far). That might change with two new AI tools for the video-sharing platform that could make life easier for creators. Or, you know, considerably more difficult. These new features, according to a new blog post, are called Dream Track and Music AI Incubator. There’s more to these products than just the name, which tells you barely anything. The first allows creators to use artificially generated voices for 30-second clips. The…

If you’ve taken the time to poke around Amazon’s online store — South Africans are much more likely to do this in 2024 — you’ll know there are all sorts of things you can buy. Missing from the list of oddities, at least so far, has been a full-on motor vehicle. Yeah, that’s changing. Don’t get too excited, though. South Africa doesn’t even have a local Amazon outlet (yet). We won’t be on the list for vehicle purchases until other countries have it right. The online retailer and Hyundai have created a new partnership that will see the Korean automaker…

It’s been a couple of years since the Steam Deck first made its appearance on the gaming scene. In that time several copycat contenders have shown up, including the Asus ROG Ally. But, given that it’s 2023, it’s just about time the original hardware got an upgrade. And that’s exactly what Valve has just announced. The major difference between this and 2021’s version? 2023’s Steam Deck is launching with a 7.4in OLED screen and an increased price point. That second point is not just to make up for the switch from LCD to OLED, either. There are a few other…

If you’re not working on generative AI in 2023, you’re nothing. That’s the prevailing sense you get from the many (many) announcements flying out of every orifice of the internet this year. Samsung’s planning to yank something out of a hole of its own soon, announcing Samsung Gauss. It is, based on context (but also fact), the South Korean company’s very own generative AI and it’ll turn up in the next few months, according to an announcement made at the company’s AI Forum event. What’ll it do? It seems like it’ll power something called Galaxy AI. Gauss, I think I…