Author: Brett Venter

The streak just couldn’t last. Eskom has arranged a new round of load shedding for South African citizens, starting from 11:00 this morning and continuing through until 05:00 on Monday, 7 February 2022. Unless, of course, something unexpected happens. Load Shedding XXVI: The Sheddinator Returns #POWERALERT1 Following further breakdowns during the night, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented starting at 11:00 on Wednesday until 05:00 on Monday pic.twitter.com/BM6PLebuQs — Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) February 2, 2022 The reasons given for the shutdown are… extensive. A unit each at Kusile and Kandal power stations have tripped. This is in addition…

When it comes to serious space plans, there are really only two governments in this space — the US and China. American’s efforts are fairly well-chronicled, and it’s only recently that China’s been trying to get its name out there. Just lately, it was the country’s five-year plan for space exploration. Now, it’s something a little more visual. The Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter has sent back some video of its trip around the red planet. Tianwen-1 of these days Another surprise from China’s Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft, this time to celebrate Chinese New Year, with a video taken using a selfie stick.…

You’re probably familiar with the little grey, yellow and green blocks that signify another successful round of Wordle. The free online game, the creation of American Josh Wardle, has proved to be a hit in the months since its launch. Well, things are about to change. Maybe. See, Wordle, originally a one-man show, has just been purchased. By none other than The New York Times, and for “…an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”. So at least a million dollars, then. What’s the word on Wordle? What’s going to change? As far as the game itself goes, probably not much.…

UPDATE: The Meta-linked Diem Association has confirmed the sale of its assets to Silvergate, the crypto-aligned banking institute. This effective kills off Facebook’s plans to launch its own cryptocurrency, though it leaves the company’s digital wallet ambitions on the table. Silvergate said that it paid $182 million (R2.8 billion) for all of the company’s assets, including intellectual property. It’s possible the in-develop currency will see the light of day, but it won’t be under Meta’s banner. Unless Meta’s funding Silvergate’s buyout in an attempt to be sneaky and continue development at arm’s length. There’s literally no evidence for that, but…

We’re legally obligated to point out that Stuff’s all-time favourite gadget (for the majority of the office) is the Kindle any time the eReader is mentioned anywhere. The release of the 2021 edition of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite has done exactly nothing to change that opinion. In fact, it’s gone a fair way towards cementing that opinion on the kind of concrete the Romans used to use. So it’s a little bigger Amazon’s 2021 Paperwhite had its work cut out for it. The 2018 edition, which brought waterproofing to the line, was basically the perfect eReader. And the thing about…

It wasn’t just NASA going all-in on space in 2021. China’s space agency was similarly focused on getting off this rock. Nothing’s changed. According to a new white paper from the country, its ambitions are here to stay. China’s State Council Information Office, in its white paper titled “China’s Space Program: A 2021 Perspective”, offers a recap of the country’s activity over the last year. But, more importantly, it has a whole lot of information on where they’re heading. The destination? Space. The final frontier. China just needs a little space China’s plans are extensive, covering everything from satellite deployment…

It’s quite a year for new TV tech to be announced. It’s an even better year for that tech to turn up first in someone else’s gear. LG’s OLED EX TV technology is on its way. As with Samsung’s QD-OLED tech first rocking up in Sony’s TVs, LG’s newest will appear in the Philips OLED807 before anyone else gets it. What’s the big deal with OLED EX? It’s supposed to address one of the greatest issues OLED TVs have – brightness. The new panels are apparently up to 30% brighter than that now-outdated thing you have sitting in your living…

Private space company SpaceX was always going to have a large 2022 in front of it. Starship is heading to orbit this year (hopefully), and there are Boeing contracts to take over. The company has already helped South Africa get a new batch of satellites into orbit this year. But there is a larger overall target the company’s hoping to hit. SpaceX, according to a NASA safety panel meeting this week, hopes to perform 52 launches before the end of 2022. That’s a launch a week, a record for SpaceX. In fact, it would be an annual record for anyone,…

How do you make a Reddit evangelist even more obnoxious than usual? Easy, just give them the ability to post an NFT as a profile picture. There’s nothing like using a JPG you definitely paid too much for to yell out, “Look at me, I’m special!”, after all. Too harsh? Okay, maybe that’s too harsh. Reddit is testing the ability to post NFTs as profile pics, a feature Twitter has already rolled out to Blue subscribers. And this is perhaps what non-fungible tokens will look like in a few years when the hype dies down — commonplace, but a little…

Last year we got several good looks at Huawei’s Chinese smartphone launch roster. The P50 Pro and the new folding P50 Pocket were arguably the most interesting of the lot. The problem was, launch anywhere outside China was doubtful. Well, not anymore. Huawei has revealed that the P50 Pro and Pocket are getting international releases. Initial countries are limited to the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand France, Italy and Portugal, but more countries will be revealed at a later date. In Huawei’s Pocket Just when that date is, and whether South Africa is one of the new countries,…