Author: Brett Venter

Last week, Samsung was spotted doing a… not very nice thing on its newer Galaxy smartphones. An application called Game Optimising Service (GOS) was found to be slowing down apps. Loads of apps. 10,000 of them, in fact. But not a single one of those apps was a benchmarking program. Weird, that. Like OnePlus in 2021, which did something very similar, our first thought was that Samsung was attempting to lengthen battery performance. Limiting apps is a great way to do this, but it means that your phone isn’t performing as advertised. Keeping it a secret… well, that’s pretty unethical.…

If the Cana One does what it claims to do, it could be the salvation of many a thirsty person. Or the ruination of anyone with spare cash and a drinking problem. Cana, the company behind the Cana One, claims to have made the “world’s first molecular beverage printer”. In practise, that’s a little like having a Star Trek food synthesizer in your home. Only it only makes what are euphemistically called ‘beverages’. That could be anything from flavoured soda water to full-on cocktails. It’s a robot bartender, is what it is. Or, at least, that’s what it claims to…

NASA has, in recent years, hit on an interesting way to get humanity involved in various space projects. It was done with the Parker solar probe. It’s happening again for the upcoming Artemis 1 mission. Space fans, or just people who want to be part of something gigantic, can send part of themselves around the moon. Best of all, it’s considerably cheaper than Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson money to send you to the edge of space. All that’s required is an online form, and you’ll be part of history. Not an especially bulky part, but that’s kind of the…

Sennheiser may have offloaded its consumer audio division to another company last year, but that didn’t mean they were getting out of the game. Amid a few other announcements, the German audio specialists also revealed some new in-ears. The Sennheiser’s IE 600 in-ear monitors (IEMs) are remarkable in that they’re largely 3D printed. And, presumably, sound fantastic. IE 600 is a boring designation Sennheiser doesn’t really go in for interesting names for its products. It prefers to let the experience do all the talking. All users have to do is listen. Generally, that’s an activity that is rewarded. There’s no…

There’s a brand-new HTC flagship smartphone on the horizon (yaaay!). But it’s designed for use with the metaverse (awwww!). It illustrates that whole ‘the gods give with one hand and take away with the other’ rather neatly, doesn’t it? Once upon a time, back in the dim dawn of smartphone pre-history (2010), HTC fielded the most wanted smartphone in South Africa. That would be the HTC Desire, a phone so popular that the company brought it back last year. We think. HTC on the buzzword bandwagon  Word on the street (for a given value of ‘street’) is that the Taiwanese…

Samsung makes some really excellent phones. We’ve long been convinced on that score, but occasionally the company… is less impressive. Currently, the South Korean tech maker’s newer Galaxy smartphones are under scrutiny. How come? They’re apparently artificially limiting the performance of up to 10,000 apps. Which, based on all available indications, seems to be happening. Korean Samsung users discovered that a bunch of apps are being scooped into another app called Game Optimising Service. This undeletable app limits the performance of more apps than it is supposed to. And, if it’s on your phone, you’re likely affected too. Samsung got…

You have to be both deaf and blind to be unaware that there’s an ongoing Russia-Ukraine situation. It’s touching lives as far away as here in South Africa. Our recent petrol price increase? Yeah, that can be laid at least partly at the door of ongoing events in Eastern Europe. But the broader tech world isn’t exempt either. Major companies have already announced what their responses to Russia’s actions will be. A few new heavy hitters have followed suit. Netflix, PayPal, and Spotify have all taken action against Russia in one way or another. Mostly, this involves halting doing business…

We’ve been expecting it, now it’s official. Apple has set a time and date for its first event of the year. “Peek Performance” is the name of the game, because the company’s pun writers never miss an opportunity. When can we expect to get a peek at this? 8 March, at 20:00 South African Standard Time. Peek Apple What can we expect to find at Apple’s event? That’s less certain than usual because the company’s being more obtuse than expected. But it’s a strong bet that there’s a new iPhone SE on the way. There’s also, according to Bloomberg’s Mark…

Still using a Fitbit Ionic? It isn’t super likely that you’re still using a fitness tracker that launched in 2017 and left production in 2020. Or perhaps not. Maybe you look after your stuff. But if the Ionic still forms part of your fitness arsenal, you should know that they’re being recalled. Why? Well, the same reason basically any tech is recalled in this day and age. Battery issues. Some of the trackers are overheating. That’s a bad thing to have in something that lives next to your skin. So Fitbit has issued a recall. Yes, for all of them…

It’s amazing the sorts of things you can find on planetary surfaces humans haven’t spent very much time. Or have they? Nah, there’s no evidence of intelligent life on Mars and the Moon. Heck, there’s barely evidence of intelligent life on Earth. But, like our blue-and-green planet, there are a few strange things to be found. Thanks to space travel, the internet, and cameras, we even get to take a look at some of it. NASA and China’s own CNSA have both located some oddities — Mars plays host to a flower (of sorts), while someone’s been dropping marbles on…