Author: Brett Venter

The header image you see above consists of more than R1.3 billion ($85 million) in NFTs. You should know what an NFT is by now. Unless you dedicated the second half of 2021 to tequila studies in Mexico and just got back, of course. But are these images art? That’s the argument the folks over at Wikipedia are having at the moment, and it’s stressing NFT fans out. And it’s stressing them out because the value in an NFT lies, at least in part, on its desirability as a form of art. Wikipedia’s not the arbiter of what is and…

When it comes to electric vehicles, the most important thing is battery tech. EVs wouldn’t exist with batteries. What is needed now, mostly, is faster charging and increased capacity. Everyone’s working on both, but it’s just possible that capacity is about to get a shot in the arm. Researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a new type of battery. It uses a new bio-membrane derived from Kevlar to create new lithium-sulphur (Li-S) EV batteries with a vastly increased capacity. And, as we all know, capacity equals range. Building better batteries So what’s the big deal with…

2022 is just going to hit different. We can’t say we saw this coming but… Microsoft Gaming just bought Activision Blizzard. As in all of it. Announcing the surprise deal in a tweet and a post on the Xbox website, Microsoft has confirmed that all of your ActiBlizz faves are about to live in a new home. Is that even legal, Microsoft Gaming? There’s some interesting language when it comes to the announcement. Company CEO Phil Spencer said in his post, “Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete,…

What’s the point in making something fold if you’re not going to use the tech for absolutely everything? That might be Samsung’s thinking as it secures a new laptop patent. Which, yes, already folds. But it could fold a little more, surely? That’s the apparent thinking. What if you could fold a laptop along its long edge, and then, fold the resulting shape in the middle? That’s exactly what Samsung’s attempting to do with its “Multi-foldable electronic device”. We’re divided on this, Samsung Dutch website Let’s Go Digital unearthed a Samsung patent application from 2021 that shows the company’s ambitions…

It’s always nice to know that, in addition to using customer data to develop products, companies like Bolt are willing to share a little. The ride-hailing app, in a Spotify-like move, has shared data about its performance in South Africa for 2021. Unlike Spotify Wrapped, though, this data isn’t intensely personalised. Bolt can’t do that, except maybe for this one guy. He’s generated enough data to create something special, we reckon. Bolt from the blue One person in South Africa booked the second-most Bolt rides on the African continent in 2021. That means they hailed the most rides in SA…

Tech-maker Acer has some new notebooks heading in South Africa’s direction. That’s not unusual in itself — there’s almost always something heading down the pipe from Taiwan. But these machines, the Acer TravelMate B3 and TravelMate Spin B3, are designed with younger students in mind. To that end, both machines are set to run Windows 11 SE. This is a cloud-focused OS designed with education in mind. Specifically, education from kindergarten to about Grade 8. That does make these machines fairly specialised, in terms of software. The hardware seems to follow suit. For when you need to Acer your exams…

Nobody, except in a few very rare circumstances, ever reads the terms and conditions. This is a universal thing — nobody will wade through a 4,000-word legal document to post cat photos on the internet. Not unless they’re being paid, anyway. This is why American senators are pushing for something they call the TL;DR bill. South Africa (and most countries on Earth) could also do with similar clarity from companies. TL;DR, if you were lurking in the wrong place at the right time, famously stands for ‘Too long; didn’t read”. Its original usage was reserved for lengthy screeds posted online,…

Robotics as an industry is becoming increasingly advanced. But, as a German primary school has showed, they don’t need to be fully articulated in order to be useful. The school is using so-called avatar robots to let sick students attend their classes in a more functional way. The Pusteblume-Grundschule in Berlin currently has seven-year-old Joshua Martinangeli as a student. Joshua has a severe lung disease that requires a tube in his neck. This makes it impossible to go to school, but his robotic stand-in seems to do the job nicely. Avatar: The Last Homeworkbender Joshua’s robotic replacement sits on the…

We’ve been expecting Samsung to launch a tablet in the Galaxy Tab S8 lineup for almost a year now. In February 2021, Samsung dropped the dime on an upcoming Enterprise version of the slate. Then, in October last year, we saw the upcoming 14.6in Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra thanks to leaked CAD files. Now, basically every little detail concerning Samsung’s set of slates for 2022 has been uncovered, thanks to the German website WinFuture. The leak confirms that the upcoming Ultra is set to be humongous. It also spilt the beans on all the other tablets due for an announcement.…

South Africa’s MDASat cubesats, intended to watch over the country’s coastline, were safely deployed yesterday. SpaceX’s Transporter-3 mission seems to have gone off without a hitch. But, as remarkable as it is that SA’s got new eyes in the sky, SpaceX’s rocket steals the show. The Falcon 9 first stage that took 105 different satellites into space last night also completed its tenth liftoff and landing. Ars Technica reports that this booster alone is responsible for 550 satellites, as well as one Cargo Dragon and one Crew Dragon flight. That’s an awful lot of value from a single rocket. Time…