Author: Brett Venter

We’re reliably informed that you’re not a fan of cameras unless you own a Leica. Or, at the very least, wish you had the sort of money that would permit that. The new Leica M11, recently announced by the company, is due to land in South Africa soon. You can own one, but you’ll first have to meet a nigh-on R200,000 price tag. The good news is that you’ll still be able to use your M-mount lenses. The bad news is that you’ll have to buy some if you don’t have any in storage. Either way, here’s why you should…

We can’t say we didn’t see this coming: Ever since Microsoft announced the Xbox Series X, the Xbox One lineup has been on borrowed time. The Xbox One X and Xbox One S Digital Edition were discontinued back in 2020. There were still Xbox One S units being made, but apparently, even that’s changed. Actually, it changed some time ago. Microsoft also canned production of the standard Xbox One S at the end of 2020. They just hadn’t thought to mention it to anyone until early 2022. Microsoft goes hard Cindy Walker, Xbox’s senior director of console product marketing, speaking…

South African telecommunications provider Telkom has announced the launch of Easy Connect Fibre, a new internet fibre offering. The remarkable thing about it is that it’s month-to-month, meaning there’s no contract lock-in, and it doesn’t utilise a router. Instead, Telkom installs a WiFi ONT (optical network terminal), which replaces the router you’d normally have to set up. This device provides a connection to several devices at once, so you’ll connect to the web via just about anything. Taking a chance on Telkom There are two packages heading to market, for those in supported regions. There’s a 10Mbps download/5Mbps upload option…

It’s a good time to be the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The ongoing chip shortage means that the company, one of the world’s largest chip-makers, has all the business it can handle. Literally. The company’s order books are full. This was borne out by the company’s most recent financial results. The company posted a 16.4% rise in quarterly profits at the end of 2021, setting a record for the company. This isn’t surprising, given that companies around the world are slurping up semiconductors as fast as they can be made. Everyone, to TSMC: ‘Another one’ TSMC posted quarterly revenues…

We cover a lot of space news here on Stuff but it’s very rare that there’s a South African connection. Obviously, that’s not the case this time around. The South African government, in the shape of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande, has announced the launch of several satellites today. Specifically, SA is launching the first three of a nine-constellation array known as the Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat) constellation. And that launch, weather permitting takes place later today. South African outsourcing We’re not launching the three cubesats ourselves though. Oh, good grief no. If SA had…

You might remember, towards the end of the hellscape that was 2021, the Balmuda Phone. This smartphone is made by a Japanese company that traditionally focuses on more conventional gadgetry. It had an interesting set of features, but there was one that wasn’t mentioned when it was first revealed. That’d be the ability to absolutely wreck Balmuda’s stock price. To be fair, the phone’s creators probably didn’t know that function was included either. Balmuda blows… up? Reuters has a report on the company’s stock prices, which initially suggest when the Balmuda Phone was first announced in May 2021. But subsequent…

Bugatti makes some of the most insanely desirable vehicles on the planet. After all, if you’re going to die on contact with a concrete pillar, you might as well spend masses of money on it. But the company’s also got an eye for the weird and wonderful. Otherwise, why would the company make cars for kids or pools tables you can use on your megayacht in a storm? It’s with that in mind that we introduce you to Bugatti’s latest creation: A fully electronic… scooter. Created in partnership with a company called Bytech, it’s probably the only way most of…

Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive has announced that it’s set to acquire game developer Zynga. You might be familiar with the name. Zynga is behind those Farmville Facebook requests from the time before the social network was an obvious data-predator. But it’s what Take-Two intends to pay for the developer that’s remarkable. The company that handles Grand Theft Auto-maker Rockstar Games, among others, reckons Zynga is worth $12.7 billion. In local terms, that’s about R205 billion. That’s enough to build a second Kusile power station, with some R40 billion left over for “performance bonuses”. But why? That’s the question, isn’t…

The global semiconductor shortage is having all sorts of interesting effects. Companies like Sony have stopped taking some orders. Auto-makers are releasing vehicles that are lacking certain features. And now Canon’s printer arm is telling its users how to circumvent its toner cartridge DRM. You know how some printers work, right? They just don’t seem to function correctly unless you plop in a branded plastic box filled with a very expensive substance. That’s because there’s a little chip built into the cartridge that tells the printer that this is the genuine article. Well, Canon can’t find enough of those chips,…

It was only a matter of time before another company got into the folding smartphone game. Honor has revealed the Honor Magic V, its brand-new folding flagship. It’s destined for China only at the moment, which may be a good thing. For Honor, that is. The design looks… a little familiar. And not just because most phones — even brand-new folding ones — tend to look like what came before. The few images that exist show a spine and camera bump that Samsung might have designed. It uses what Honor calls an “advanced waterdrop hinge”, but they don’t go into…