Author: Brett Venter

It’s a common meme that any time a science fiction writer creates some terrible object of doom, a venture capitalist will see it, miss the cautionary tale entirely, and attempt to build it. NASA, despite having seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, seems bent on making a human-machine interface that sounds eerily similar to the movie’s main ‘villain’, HAL 9000. But the buzzwords this time don’t have much to do with a film from the 1960s. Instead, America’s space agency is taking its cues from the modern day, artificial intelligence, and ChatGPT. But with its own spin on the tech, of…

Changes are afoot at Netflix. Against conventional logic, the streamer’s password crackdown is working as a means to make extra money for the platform. So now it’s time for another experiment. Happily, the experiment is confined to Canada for the moment. But if it catches on… The Winnipeg Free Press, a Canadian publication, reports that Netflix is phasing out its Basic Tier in the country, replacing it with that lovely little Basic with Ads option. Basic with Ads recently underwent a slight upgrade, perhaps for just such an occasion. A taste of things to come Netflix Canada has removed the…

If you’re after an attractive-yet-familiar-looking smartphone and you’re working on a very specific budget, then the Vivo V27 5G would appreciate it if you looked in its direction. This handset retails for R17,000, about R6,000 below your typical Samsung flagship. If you’re planning on venturing into Ultra territory, you probably have the R30,000 budget required to grab the Korean company’s headliner. In that case, you probably stopped reading this two sentences ago. If you’re still here, you’re probably hoping to spend less than R20,000 on your handset. In that case, the Vivo V27 5G fits the bill. The Chinese brand…

The PDF (which stands for Portable Document Format) is an undeniably powerful file format. But as anyone who has tried to work with one will tell you, they can be a massive pain in the rectum. Chrome, according to a recent announcement from Google, may take at least some of the sting out of your tail with an upcoming update. The fact remains that most folks with vision impairment struggle to use technology in general and the internet in particular. That means web browsers, desktops, and documents are often a struggle to access. Chrome, using the magic of artificial intelligence…

Eskom announced over the weekend the suspension of the Minimum Emission Standards rules for its Kusile power plant, potentially bringing 2,100MW back into play. The move isn’t new. It’s been in the works since March this year, but the Department of Fisheries, Forests, and the Environment granted the postponement three weeks ago on 5 June 2023. Additionally, an updated Atmospheric Emission Licence was granted by the Nkangala District Municipality that further allows the agency to pump out additional sulphur dioxide (SO²) in order to keep its Kusile units operating. This licence was granted on 13 June. Eskom does us dirty…

Diablo IV, if you’ve been paying attention, follows on from the other games in the series. In practise it’s got more in common with Diablo II from 2000 than with 2012’s Diablo III but it manages to pull together aspects of both titles — and other Blizzard properties — to create something almost wholly fresh. That does mean that old hands expecting to dive in and start mowing down mobs and clearing dungeons with venomous alacrity are in for a slight shock. Diablo IV starts at a slower pace than its predecessors. The first-time players clear the game;  it’s all…

Boston Dynamics’ Spot is, for many, the original robot dog. While it’s a relatively benign design (mostly), its spawned several more lethal evolutions. There was the Spur, a rifle-toting creation from Ghost Robotics, and now there’s the Thermonator. You’ll never guess what that does. If you guessed ‘walks around with a bloody great big flame thrower on its back’, congratulations on reading the headline. We’re not exactly sure why it exists but since you can pre-order it from a company called ThrowFlame — which specialises in flamethrowers of all types — we’re guessing it’s just a product for flame-throwing enthusiasts.…

OtterPilot is an AI-powered chatbot with a very particular set of skills. Skills that make it a nightmare for people who think you’re still paying attention to online meetings. Otter.ai is a popular (and handy) transcription service that turns recorded conversations into written text. Its newest offering ramps that function up a little. Just a little. OtterPilot, the name that the new Otter AI Chat service has given its chatbot, won’t completely absolve you of listening responsibility during an online meeting but it will make most of the recall-based aspects of that meeting somewhat meaningless. When artificial intelligence is listening…

It’s entirely possible that, with our review of the Fujifilm Instax Square Link, we’ve officially completed the set. Previously, we’ve encountered the Instax Mini Link 2 and the Link Wide. The Square brings us full circle (yes, we see how that could be confusing), rounding out the different instant film categories available from the Instax brand. Just, you know, without the camera. What nobody tells you where you look at one of these in a store is how hard it is to design a portable photo printer that stands out from other portable photo printers. Fuji has tried here and…

The tyranny of small chips of plastic that slip into your smartphone is at an end. Vodacom has launched eSIM support for smartphones in this country, building on its previous launch of the tech for wearable devices. This isn’t wholly new but the introduction of the option for prepaid, hybrid, and regular contract users is. If you remember, Apple’s latest iPhones launched a version that only supports an eSIM (embedded Subscriber Identity Module) identifier. That model was confined to specific countries at launch but since Vodacom intends to support “selected…smartphones” using the tech, perhaps we’ll be on the list next…