Author: Brett Venter

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 is coming. It’s just a question of whether we’re getting the announcement in the last week of January or the first week of February next year. While we wait for that to be confirmed, there’s some new info about the handset lineup kicking around the internet. Mostly it’s new information about the king of the series, the Galaxy S24 Ultra. In addition to the (probable) processor news, you can expect a slight change in how the S24 Ultra looks compared to this year’s model. More specifics on how AI will be implemented are also known. There are…

Earlier this year, WhatsApp rolled out a feature called Chat Lock. That one allows you to lock your chats away behind a passcode or biometric barrier. Well, that wasn’t enough for some of you so now the service has come up with something it calls Secret Code. “Everyone has secrets” – WhatsApp, 2023 Secret Code is similar to Chat Lock in that it prevents folks from accessing certain chats. The difference is that this code (which should be kept secret, naturally) can also disappear the chats you want to keep secret entirely. This tricksy bit of the feature only reveals…

It might seem like spoilers have made it pointless but you can now stream Formula E’s previous nine seasons online, entirely free of charge. The newest season of the EV-powered race series, season ten, starts in January this year and this is a chance to get caught up. Especially if you have nowhere to watch it on regular TV. Sticking to the Formula E Streaming some high-speed but oddly silent racing doesn’t appear to have many terms and conditions attached, either. There’s no region lock that we can see and no limitations other than having about 90 spare hours to…

When you think of excellent over-ear headphones, you don’t think of laptop and printer maker HP. Maybe you should. The new Poly Voyager Surround 80 UC over-ears surprised us with their audio, proving that you probably shouldn’t judge a product by its sensible cardboard cover. The Voyager Surround 80 UC overs are marketed as work headphones. Anyone who has worked in an open office is aware of the importance of a great set of office cans. We were expecting… well, office cans – something serviceable enough to keep the surrounding din out and optimised for Zoom meetings but nothing special…

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…