Author: Brett Venter

Google launched its AI Mode in South Africa in the second half of last year. Now, the company has added an additional feature for the country. It’s aimed at the sort of people who find other humans dreary (or who struggle to pick up a phone). AI Mode hopes to upskill (and dehumanise) your dinner plans, letting users “go from planning to booking in just a few steps,” according to the company’s blog post. The impression the post gives is that the feature is aimed more at visitors hoping to indulge in “South Africa’s world-class dining scene” than at locals.…

It sounds a bit like a joke, but Meta is reportedly working on digitising its head and founder, Mark Zuckerberg. The company isn’t planning to release the Zuckerbot onto the wider internet, according to the report. Instead, it’s being used internally. If the report had come from any source other than the Financial Times, we’d question just how real the apparent development is. Specifically, the AI-powered chatbot will communicate with Meta’s staff in Mark Zuckerberg’s style, using his mannerisms and thought processes. That’s very Meta It won’t simply be a chatbot, either. The new function will make use of a 3D…

The PocketTerm35 is the latest cyberdeck-like device we’ve seen in the past few months, and it looks like this one is ready for retail. More or less. Unlike Rabbit’s possibly ill-fated Project Cyberdeck and the completely home-made CyberPlug, you can buy one of these right now. In theory, anyway. A website called WaveShare has these up for sale, but we’re unable to get one through to the checkout screen so shipping data becomes available. It might be a regional issue, or perhaps something else, but that hasn’t stopped us from wanting one. Serving your PocketTerm35 There are two versions of…

Both Samsung and Apple are expected to field wide-format foldable smartphones soon, but Huawei’s Pura X Max could beat them both to market. There’s no doubt that the Chinese brand’s phone exists, since Huawei unveiled its design itself. Whether anyone here will be able to afford it is another matter. The new-format foldable is expected to go official at a Huawei event in China next week. It won’t be alone at the 20 April unveiling, either. The company is expected to debut its Pura 90 series devices at the same time. There will doubtless be a few accessory announcements tucked…

It took time for Motorola’s Razr 60 smartphone to launch in South Africa. Hopefully, the wait for the Razr 70, newly seen in leaked renders, won’t be quite as long. Even if it takes its time, however, we’ve already got much of the 70 on sale here at home. The folks at YtechB have seen what look to be official renders of Motorola’s upcoming foldable, combining it with a series of leaked information for a comprehensive overview of the unreleased handset. The images show all three colour options — Sporting Green, Hematite, and Violet Ice — while the other details…

YouTube Premium is about to get more expensive. It’s not happening in South Africa, or at least not right away. But pricing increases in the US are almost always followed by cost upgrades in other territories. South Africa may already have had its turn, back in 2025, when the price escalated to R82/month. But American pricing is set to rise between R17 and R67 per subscription, and it’s not unreasonable to expect that Google might attempt similar customer-milking tactics elsewhere. Paying a YouTube Premium There doesn’t, at present, seem to be any specific reason for YouTube’s subscription fee to rise.…

You may have missed it, but cassette tapes appear to be heading the same way vinyl LPs did during the hipster years. Companies like GadHouse are hopping onto the trend, with the company’s new Miko portable cassette player having just launched. Of course, GadHouse isn’t the only one that has noticed the trend. Other tech has begun including the older audio format in its lineup, from oversized audio to something more retro-futuristic. The Miko is a lot more traditional, to the point where it’ll still work with a pair of AA batteries. Miko has it taped? It doesn’t have to,…

It’s been a while since Canon added anything new to its PowerShot family, but rumours suggest that the Japanese company has something cooking. Something small and easy to point. An update or successor to the Canon PowerShot V1 is reportedly in the works, according to the folks at CanonRumours. They would know, obviously. PowerShot through the heart The main new feature coming to the apparent snapper is an all-new sensor. The 1.4in sensor from the V1 is supposed to be going away and replaced by something smaller. But smaller may not mean worse, since it’s supposedly more advanced than its…

In an effort to revive Wall Street audio snobs from the 1980s, audio company Trettitre is working on a wall-mounted audio system that’ll provoke comment, if nothing else. The setup covers several bases, from vinyl LPs to cassette tapes and compact discs, with a little modern wireless connectivity thrown in. The only tricky bit? It’s being funded via Kickstarter, so it might never arrive. But with more than $850,000 in backing at the time of writing (the company was looking for $3,000, which is a good sign), you might just get your oddball audio setup. Quadrophonic Trettitre The audio system…

After years of being dominated by the Kindle, ereaders have finally started to explode. No, not like that. The Durobo Krono is just the latest reader hoping to tempt you away from Amazon’s increasingly walled garden of fiction. It might just do it, too. See, the Krono isn’t just an ereader, though the 6.13in E-Ink display makes it ideal for that purpose. It’s also got audio and AI ambitions, as well as a twiddly bit at the back that you’re unlikely to keep your hands away from. Krono shift Durobo used a 300ppi Carta 1200 display for its newest reader’s…