Author: Brett Venter

It’s a good day for anonymously sourced AI news. Amazon is reportedly looking to boost its Alexa smart home platform by connecting the system to a generative AI. Since doing this is incredibly expensive, the company is also considering a monthly subscription fee for access to this boosted Alexa. The suggested fee, which would run between R100 ($5) and R200 ($10) a month, only applies to the second tier of this new augmented Alexa, according to the folks who spoke to Reuters about Amazon’s plans. A less capable version would remain free for all users. Amazon explores The project, internally known…

Everybody wants a piece of the AI action in 2024. Everybody. TikTok parent company ByteDance is reportedly setting up a partnership with American firm Broadcom to design and produce its own AI chipset. The move is in response to commercial tensions between the US and China. The 5-nanometre application-specific integrated chip would be developed with the assistance of Broadcom, with ByteDance getting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to perform the actual fabrication. At least, that’s the word according to several sources. TikTok AI? Everybody needs, or thinks they need, AI-capable chipsets and TikTok’s overlord is no exception. And since the company…

If you’re a gamer, you may have heard of the Embracer Group, a Swedish games publisher that hasn’t had a great time of late. Even if you haven’t, you’ve likely heard of the properties that the group owns. Like Saint’s Row, which is uh… gone. Well, developer Volition is toast, as are several other outfits. But the massive holding company reckons it has an answer to that, and the 80 or so other cancelled projects. AI. Embracer embracing AI The group announced in its annual report that it would adopt artificial intelligence as part of its game development process. Embracer…

South Africans speak colloquially about power bricks but the Energizer UE50001PQ is a neatly compact but entirely literal example of one. It features similar dimensions, slightly scaled down, to a conventional face brick. The massive battery capacity means it’s also fielding a similar weight. As with most products of its type, usage isn’t especially complicated. If your power brick isn’t simply plug-and-play, your product has failed. But there’s enough for us to examine in a review almost as tightly packed as the UE50001PQ itself. Built like a brick How do you go about describing a plastic-encased rectangular cuboid with any…

Earlier this year, Sony took the wraps off a mixed reality headset it calls its “spatial content creation system”. The XR headset is intended to help folks making content for VR and AR systems by giving them an interface that jibes well with said systems. Following the announcement, Sony went fairly quiet about the system. It was waiting for the Augmented World Expo (AWE), currently running in California, to take the hardware out for a spin. Sony’s alternate reality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNMH3TNnH-c Potential users have to be in attendance (like the folks in the video above) in order to experience the tech.…

There’s a debate on which is more emotionally draining — working in retail (or hospitality) or working in a call centre. The answer is obvious, however. It’s the call centre. At least dealing with the worst of humanity in person offers the possibility of smacking your dimwitted tormentor upside the head. Call centre agents just have to take the abuse. Yes, mute buttons exist but all calls are recorded and it’s easy to get fired for mouthing off in a moment of weakness. Japan’s Softbank reckons it might have the answer and it involves AI. Specifically, AI designed to ‘cancel…

Apple’s Vision Pro is a tremendous experience but it’s also one that you have to pay through the nose for. We’re not the only ones who seem to think so — The Information has a report claiming that Apple has opted to suspend development of the Vision Pro’s successor in favour of something more folks can afford. The report, if true, isn’t all that surprising. Apple scaled back production of its augmented reality hardware soon after it was announced, perhaps because it’s hard to convince even iPhone fans to part with $3,500 for something experimental. Even if it is awesome.…

We want to love all of the Denon PerL Pro earbuds. We do. But two aspects of these excellent-sounding in-ears prevent a complete love affair. One of these is purely aesthetic and you might find you’ve got a different opinion to us. The other… that one’s pretty universal. But these do sound great. As well they should for roughly R7,500. It’s possible to find them for less than R6k and you should consider picking a set up at that price, but you’ll have to make do with some less-than-stellar active noise cancelling. We’ve seen relatively affordable in-ears best Denon’s buds…

X, formerly Twitter, might have its issues but its doing enough that other companies are nicking its ideas. YouTube is testing a Community Notes-like features for videos on the platform, another stunning example of Google’s continued brilliance in the field of online services.* It’s not a done deal but the search giant is testing a feature that borrows heavily from X’s (mostly successful) Community Notes function. The United States is the initial rollout location, pending a successful test of the feature. YouTube taking Notes YouTube is at least starting small. A narrow subset of users and creators on the platform…

Samsung has been big on its Galaxy FE range of late but there was one thing missing: the Galaxy Watch FE. That’s no longer the case as the South Korean giant has revealed its first affordable wearable, predictably named the Galaxy Watch FE. It’s set to arrive, internationally at least, from 24 June, with an LTE version of the device launching later in the year. Local pricing isn’t confirmed yet but will probably come in at around half of the Galaxy Watch 6’s R7,500 launch price. Whether the FE can compete with that wearable’s current price remains to be seen.…