Author: Brett Venter

Long years of rumour have culminated in Apple’s first set of augmented reality goggles. Turns out, everyone got the name wrong. Vision Pro is the moniker Apple has used for the newest hardware to issue forth from the company. At first glance, the ‘goggles’ concept is pretty literal. They’re reminiscent of space-age scuba gear but, in typical Apple style, the concept should grow on you. But, also in typical Apple style, the Vision Pro goggles aren’t really doing anything new. The hardware’s abilities and features aren’t unique. Meta’s Oculus hardware has augmented reality functions. So does Microsoft’s Hololens. But Apple…

Apple’s WWDC events don’t usually go too hard on hardware but the newly announced M2 Ultra chipset is the best thing to happen to personal computing, ever. That’s not us making the claim, obviously. The fruit company blitzed through the announcement but made it very clear that the M2 Ultra is the latest, greatest invention in the history of processors. Which is why Apple has placed it inside both the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro lineup. You remember the cheese grater, don’t you? But these units are typically designed for use in industrial contexts — high-end video editing and…

Is it possible that we might see an NFT implementation that fulfils the promise the technology originally promised? A new partnership between EA Sports and Nike’s .SWOOSH digital collectibles platform might one day make that a reality. The team-up, on the face of it, sounds like a great idea — if the participants can pull it off. It will involve creating “new immersive experiences” so that players are able to “unlock brand-new levels of customization within the EA Sports ecosystem”. But we’ll believe it when we see it. EA Sports takes a swing at NFTs It’s ambitious, though. .SWOOSH was…

The annual Computex event in Taipei is where serious computer nerdery takes place. This year, Cooler Master may have won the category for Weirdest Gadget(s) We Never Realised We Needed To Own with a couple of custom PC case designs. As the header image and headline suggest, the PC designs resemble a shoe, in the case of the Sneaker X, and a shark. That would be the appropriately-named Shark X case design. And yes, at least one of them will become available at retail at some point in the future. Is there anything Cooler Master? Since we’re not sure of…

Danish brick brand Lego is no stranger to partnerships, having launched sets based on Ferrari, Manchester United, all manner of Star Wars depictions, and many others. It’s also familiar with constructing life-sized objects from its iconic bricks, including the Lego Batmobile and a Bugatti Chiron (which actually moved under its own power). What if you combined something from column A with column B? That’s how you get a life-sized Lego Ferarri Monza SP1, a single-seater V12 that looks like it’s designed to shear its driver’s head off in the event of a collision. Of course, if you can afford to…

Meta, for all the talk of the company leaving the actual metaverse behind, was never going to stop releasing VR hardware. The Meta Quest 3 is now official, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg… and this official outline from the company’s website. The timing of the announcement isn’t suspicious at all. Later this month, Apple is expected to reveal its first crack at virtual reality or augmented reality hardware at WWDC 2023. Meta really wants to run ahead of that announcement, hence the early preview of the device that’ll launch in the third quarter of 2023. Quest 3: The Quest Rides Forth…

Another cycle has been completed and it’s time for an all-new issue of Stuff. June-July 2023 promises to be a cold one and it’s all the colder because… well, you know why. We’ll get to that in a moment. First, it’s time for a brief look what Stuff is packing in this issue. As usual, there’s loads to see, much to learn, and plenty to lust over. We’ve tested some of the latest gear to issue forth from the tech industry, from the Sonos Era 300 to Huawei’s new smartwatch/earbuds hybrid. The latter is, perhaps surprisingly, rather slick.   Now it’s…

Earlier today, Stuff got a chance to slip behind the wheel of the new Volvo C40 Recharge, soon to land on South African shores for the princely sum of R1,285,000. That’s not small change but Volvo’s vehicles typically hover close to that point, even if the gas guzzlers are technically more affordable. But you’re buying a completely different thing if you’re opting for an EV and the Volvo C40 Recharge is no different. It looks like a Volvo. It smells like a Volvo. But it’s actually a surprisingly stealthy ninja car that’ll confuse anyone you happen to drive past. It…

South Korean company Samsung showed off some of its next-generation display technology at the SID Display Week held in Los Angeles this week. Among the new tech on offer was something called Rollable Flex and then a screen type called the Sensor OLED display. Rollable Flex is designed to “revolutionize the portability of tablet PCs or laptops”. You might reckon, based purely on the name, that it’s at least partially along the lines of LG’s similarly-named screen tech. You’d be… completely correct. Samsung’s feeling Sensor-tive More on that in a moment, however. Samsung’s Sensor OLED display is the really interesting…

It was just a couple of months ago that Neuralink was said to be seeking a partner to begin human trials of its brain-computer interface. There was just one little problem with the technology — a lack of approval to begin those trials. That has changed, according to the company. Elon Musk’s company has secured FDA approval for human trials, setting the stage for the company to install computers into human skulls. Small computers, obviously. Neuralink to the future We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study! This is the…