Author: Brett Venter

Anyone who has been paying attention to WhatsApp in recent years knows that it’s constantly updating. The latest new feature? Truecaller integration, according to a report by Reuters. This time, the update isn’t being made by Meta directly. The spam-hunting app, a favourite of smartphone users looking to dodge robocalls, intends to expand its beat to messaging apps as well. The idea, as ever, is to limit the reach of spam phone calls. Truecaller finds its true calling? According to company head Alan Mamedi, the feature that will integrate the spam-spotting app with messaging apps capable of making and receiving…

Chinese smartphone brand Tecno has dropped a new batch of smartphones on South Africa. The Spark 10 lineup of devices — the Spark 10 Pro, plus a 10C and a 5G model — are set for launch in SA, though the 5G handset will see a slight delay. The 10C and Pro are both available in the country, priced at R7,000 and R3,500 respectively. Pricing for the 10 5G will be announced closer to its launch. Bright Spark 10 So what are you getting for your money? The Spark 10 Pro is, obviously, the headliner of today’s launch. It may…

Google has officially taken the plunge into the world of folding smartphones with its Pixel Fold device. Originally only rumoured, the device has since become official but there’s still a wait before all the details are revealed. Google will take the wraps off the device at this year’s Google I/O. In the meantime, there’s a brief teaser video, titled ‘May the Fold be with you’ that offers a very short look at the device from a couple of angles. Blink and you’ll miss it, though. The video is a mere eight seconds long. Know when to Pixel Fold ’em https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4eEH2nRU1U…

When you’re being bombarded with info about the sexiest new tech of the year — that is, ChatGPT and other instances of generative AI — you should expect that someone’s going to attempt to do something scummy to take advantage of it. And that, according to web giant Meta’s latest threat update, is exactly what’s happening. Among the ten new malware strains the platform has encountered so far this year, some were “posing as ChatGPT browser extensions and productivity tools”. New variants of malware called Ducktail and a new threat known as NodeStealer were also encountered. Use caution with ChatGPT…

The ongoing situation between Russia and Ukraine has put several international projects at risk. One of these is the International Space Station, one of the most ferociously expensive collaborative projects ever initiated. The ISS is currently scheduled to conclude in 2030 but the project’s demise could have been accelerated by a Russian withdrawal. That, officially, won’t happen. Russia comes to the party Rather than spinning off its space ambitions to create its own station, ROSS, the country has reaffirmed its commitment to the station for the next five years. According to a NASA announcement, the US, Canada, Japan, and the…

Parents who said you’d never get anywhere playing video games obviously never met Gran Turismo star Jann Mardenborough. Or esports professionals. Or streamers. But mostly we’re talking about Mardenborough since he’s the subject of the upcoming Gran Turismo movie, directed by Neill Blomkamp. Usually, when Hollywood makes a movie about a video game it’s a contorted version of what was better presented in an interactive format. Blomkamp’s film, since it’s set in reality and is about actually playing the game (as opposed to existing in the game’s own universe), looks like it’ll side-step the usual pitfalls. The film is about…

Everybody seems to be super-excited about the launch of generative AI. Well, almost everybody. Samsung has reportedly instituted a company-wide ban on the use of the technology thanks to an internal leak as a result of ChatGPT. Technically, the problem isn’t really the generative AI. It’s more the fact that it can’t keep a secret. Samsung engineers in South Korea uploaded sensitive code to ChatGPT which was later leaked. This sort of poor operational security isn’t going to work for the company. Safety at Samsung The door is open for the likes of Google Bard and ChatGPT to make a…

Following the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3 (and subsequent launches), everyone seemed to have an artificial intelligence project on the boil. Everything, that is, besides Apple. Apple’s own Siri voice assistant is a sort of AI but when it comes to generative artificial intelligence, there doesn’t seem to be much going on. Part of that could be laid at the door of the notoriously secretive company’s usual policies but, a new report from The Information suggests there’s also some internal conflict happening behind closed doors. At the heart of it is the voice assistant that has appeared as a character…

Artificial intelligence may prove to be a threat to some jobs but there’s one task that AI won’t be given — that of launching nuclear weapons in the United States. That’s always been the case in theory — the US Department of Defence maintains that a human will remain “‘in the loop’ for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions by the President to initiate and terminate nuclear weapon employment”. But several US senators are looking to get something more official on the books. Called the Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act, the new legal framework would……

For ages, the conventional wisdom was that artificial intelligence wouldn’t cause too much harm to jobs around the world. IBM’s new hiring pause suggests that those views might have been slightly optimistic. According to CEO Arvind Krishna, the company intends to freeze hiring for a range of roles within the company. These roles include so-called back-office functions and amount to around 26,000 staff. Of those, approximately 30% are expected to be replaceable. IBM’s artificial intelligence “I could easily see 30 percent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period,” said Krishna. Some human resources functions and…