Author: Brett Venter

2021 was a rough year. We get it. Heck, we all lived it. But Samsung had a very specific problem last year — its Galaxy S21 FE handset was delayed. And then it wasn’t. And then it was again. The upshot was that this handset was only announced in January 2022, and only launched internationally on 11 January. That was… a bit late. And not ‘a bit late’ like missing a meeting by a few minutes. It’s more like ‘Why did you even bother turning up’ late. Which is a pity. The Galaxy S21 FE is a great smartphone. Make…

Keep on some Spotify hardware in your car? No, not your cellphone. Spotify doesn’t make that. It does make the Car Thing (or pays someone else to), a device we first saw in April last year. But, like, in mid-April, so there was no chance it was a joke. Initially, the $80 (R1,200) in-car audio device was available by invitation only. That’s changed, but it hasn’t changed enough. Anyone can now buy one, for $90 (R1,350), provided you live in the United States. So it’s less a case of ‘anyone’ and more one of ‘Americans’. But many Americans will tell…

It’s been almost a decade since Elon Musk came up with the idea for the Hyperloop and then threw it out into the world. In that time, several entities have attempted to exploit the idea. There have been test runs, and some, like Virgin Hyperloop, have even conducted passenger tests. But although the company under Richard Branson’s banner has taken the step of sending its former head on a trip in one of its pods, sadly, that’s as far as it goes. Plans for passenger transportation are being abandoned, with the result that 111 staff are being made redundant. Overhyped…

As these words are being written, we’ve had one of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphones in our possession for about… two hours. That’s not a lot of time, but you can get a fair amount done in that period. You can have at least five terrible dates. You can go for lunch (twice). Or you can attend roughly one standard meeting where you’re not actually needed but are roped into anyway. Two hours isn’t enough to decide whether a smartphone, even a smartphone as slick as Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, is worth buying. But it is long enough to get…

Predictions have flown for absolute ages around possible Apple-made augmented reality (AR) hardware. So far, the only thing it has consistently done is not show up. That might change, as soon as the end of this year. You know, instead of 2023, when everyone’s actually expecting it. A report from Digitimes (via MacRumours) claims that Apple’s AR headset prototypes have recently passed second-phase engineering validation tests (EVT 2). These tests ensure that the hardware meets the company’s standards, in terms of design and spec. Apple pirates say ‘AR!’ Apple View – Seeing is believing. See more 8K images on my…

We’re quite used to seeing things blast off from Earth en route to the International Space Station (ISS). We’re a little less accustomed to seeing what happens when cargo arrives. That changes today. Check out this brief video showing the careful connection of the ISS’ Canadarm2 robotic arm and Cygnus cargo spacecraft late last night. The operation, shown in the tweet below, looks like a slow, sedate one. But that’s deceptive, mostly because of the size of the object in the back (Earth). The fact that everything concerned is moving at the same speed (a little over 27,000km/h) also makes…

It’s hard to work out, unless you’ve been conditioned from a young age to think that exercise is fun. The rest of us need motivation. That motivation often comes in the form of music. We’ve also been conditioned to believe that every montage should be a musical number. But exercise equals sweat and sweat melts headphones. Most headphones. The Jabra Elite 7 Active in-ear buds should survive anything you can throw their way. Except for maybe a 16kg kettlebell. They’re tough, but not that tough. But, at R3,300 a pair, they really have to be quite decent to justify the…

Meta, the former Facebook, changed its name for several reasons. The one that has nothing to do with Facebook taking loads of flack was the whole metaverse idea. The social network hopes to position itself at the front of a future it is intent on creating. And, according to the social network, that future is nigh. As opposed to Nye, which is something completely different. Speaking to advertising agencies about the platform, Meta claimed that mixed reality — which combines the real and digital worlds — will become a serious thing for consumers in the next few years. In Meta’s…

So you want to be Batman, do you? Yeah, so do millions of other people who’d like to punch a mentally-ill clown for a living. But you have to walk the walk. Or, at least, drive the Batmobile. That’s a definite option, if you’ve got Bruce Wayne-level cash. Best of all, you won’t be wrecking the environment much. An intrepid designer based in Vietnam, Nguyen Dac Chung, built an EV version of the Tumbler, the vehicle that scares the pants off of Morgan Freeman in Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Using blueprints for the movie original, the Tumber was recreated…

Meta has revealed a little information about its metaverse aims. Besides the name-change and significant investment in a technology years from existing in any tangible format, the former Facebook has launched a rebadged virtual reality experience called Horizon. This metaverse stand-in has seen a substantial amount of growth since Horizon Worlds launched last year. Starting from a pool of about 30,000 users, it has jumped to more than 300,000 in rather short order. But it’s still not enough to begin a critical mass for the metaverse. Event: Horizon Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox, speaking to company staff, gave out…