Author: Brett Venter

How much are you willing to pay for that WholesomChungus420 handle on X? Assuming it’s available, having gone dormant because whichever Redditor had it previously died of basic cardio, you’ll need to pay twice. And then keep paying, until you, too, expire in some unlikely incident involving a terrified badger and a VW Microbus. X, formerly Twitter (yes, we know you know by now), is launching its X Handle Marketplace that will let subscribers purchase usernames that were snagged by folks who never used them, or simply stopped posting. There’s a catch, though. To browse the options and give Elon’s…

Samsung could miss its usual on-shelf date for the new crop of high-powered Galaxy S26 smartphones you absolutely have to upgrade to next year.* There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that a (rumoured) rebrand of one of its handsets turned out to be a bad idea. The other is that the base model might not be ready in time for its annual announcement. Missing the Galaxy S26 We can speculate at least one more reason why Samsung might be pumping the brakes. The South Korean company is supposedly making its own Qualcomm headline chipsets this year,…

Redmagic, a sub-brand of Chinese company ZTE, has announced its new Redmagic 11 Pro smartphone for the Chinese market. It’d be cool enough to drool over even if it was only slated for launch in that country, but with a pending international launch on 7 November, we might see it somewhere outside of its home grounds at some point. Why should we care about the 11 Pro? Two reasons — an absolutely massive battery, and the world’s first (available at retail) liquid cooling system. Will those features be entirely practical? Possibly. Were they developed solely to stand out from the…

Social media giant Meta has been focused on its teenage users of late, spurred on by leaked reports that its AI products were interacting inappropriately with youngsters. One of the changes that resulted from this new focus was the creation of teen accounts, which recently got even cleaner on the company’s Instagram platform. Next up? More robust parental controls concerning AI chatbots across the company’s services. A new Meta That’s the plan, anyway, since Meta hasn’t quite finished baking its solutions. In an effort to show everyone that something is being done, it has outlined changes coming to chatbot access.…

It’s been a few short years since Microsoft banished Cortana, its ill-fated voice assistant, from Windows 11 computers. This has been in preparation for Copilot to step in and take its place, it seems, as Windows 11 users are getting a new voice assistant. One that responds to ‘Hey, Copilot’. Why? Microsoft’s consumer chief marketing officer, Yusuf Mehdi, reckons that “voice will now become the third input mechanism to use with your PC”, though he doesn’t explain how that’s supposed to be a good thing. He does explain that Windows users “should be able to talk to your PC, have…

Oppo is set to unveil its Find X9 and Find X9 Pro smartphones later this month at an event in Barcelona, Spain. The devices aren’t brand new, having already launched in China, but they’ll be travelling globally at the upcoming 28 October event. Of course, ‘global’ doesn’t always mean global. There’s no sign yet whether South Africa is on the list of launch countries, but there’s always the chance that we’ll have a chance at something new from the Chinese brand. After all, the Find N2 Flip made it this side of the world. Perhaps we’ll find a new Find…

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge was launched last year in response to competitors having thinner phones on the market, but the Galaxy S26 Edge might never happen. The reasons why aren’t given, but there’s only really one that would prompt Samsung to drop the hammer so quickly. The S25 Edge may not have sold that well. The company hasn’t said as much, though multiple outlets have said that sales weren’t up to scratch. Now, a report out of Korea reckons that the S26 Edge is going away. This is on the say-so of an unnamed Samsung executive who doesn’t seem hopeful…

Another day, another smartphone, but at least the Xiaomi 15T is available in South Africa. Right now, in fact, provided you’re willing to buy one (or snag a contract) from Vodacom. The price tag is R15,000, or at least R700/m if you’re going the rental-style route, but the way Xiaomi talks about this thing, you’re getting a decent deal. That’s because it’s all about the camera for the Xiaomi 15T. The Leica 5x Pro telephoto camera specifically, appearing for the first time in the Chinese brand’s T-series smartphones. Don’t worry if you forget that point. Xiaomi will be reminding all…

If your chief complaint about your ereader is that it’s inconvenient to turn pages, the new Kobo Remote is probably the product you’ve been desperately (but lazily) searching for. The company announced the little page-turner at a R550 ($30) price point, with a 4 November launch date overseas. It’ll take time to get here, if at all, but when it does, you’ll be freed from the tyranny of engaging your shoulder, elbow, and finger to poke at a touchscreen simply to read the next sentence. You may have to move your thumb, assuming the little controller is lightly gripped in…

At least Apple doesn’t tease us for long. The American tech maker has unveiled its new M5 MacBook Pro models, set to go on sale internationally later this month. That wasn’t all Apple had in store — upgraded iPad Pro models, a revamped Vision Pro, and a few other bits and pieces were on the menu for its semi-stealth announcement. There’s… a reason it hasn’t made a huge deal of its new high-end notebooks. Mainly, the MacBook Pro devices aren’t terribly different from the M4 models. Apple, being the marketing masters that they are, calls the unchanged parts “renowned features”.…