Author: Max Milella

Bang & Olufsen is famous for its… unique take on speaker designs. They’re distinctive, often striking. Yes, surreptitious is not the word we’d generally use to describe a Bang and Olufsen product, but the Emerge is exactly that. Thin and discreet, this new speaker fits in perfectly when shouldered up with books on a bookshelf. And that’s the point. The Emerge, one for the books In  a press release, Bang & Olufsen describes how the idea for the Emerge, “create the slimmest speaker possible that could still deliver full range, ultra-wide sound despite its size through its revolutionary driver configuration.”…

Mattel, owner of the premier toy and die-cast car brand Matchbox, is going green, and is committed to having every Matchbox car and its packaging made of 100% recyclable plastics by 2030. And the first toy car to kick off this new green initiative is, suitably, a die-cast Tesla Roadster. The first environmentally friendly toy car has to be an EV, right? Matchbox cars made clean This miniature Roadster is made up of 36.9% recycled plastic, 62.1% recycled zinc, and 1% non-recycled stainless steel. So while it’s not 100% clean, we’d say it’s a damned good effort. Tesla’s actual Roadster…

Let’s cut right to the chase. Spotify has launched its first physical product, a little piece of tech called Car Thing. And, get this: It’s a thing… for your car. Cue brain explosion. Car Thing, it’s self explanatory Car Thing is what Spotify calls a “smart player”, a small touchscreen display with a dial and some buttons that you plug into your car to play music through its speakers. It sounds simple enough, and while it’s not rocket science to get working, it isn’t exactly plug and play either. You’ve got to plug it into your car’s USB port or…

“Walk with purpose” is a phrase you may have heard at some point in your life, challenging you to pull your shoulders back and inspire a little more confidence with your gait. Well, these walkways at the Leighton Buzzard train station (in Bedfordshire, UK) take that saying and run, or rather, walk with it. See, these two walkways are made up of kinetic floor tiles that turn your footsteps into clean, green electricity. Power Walking The tiles were installed as part of a partnership between tech company Pavegen and the Central Bedfordshire Council. As ordinary folks step onto the tiles the…

The work-from-home world is still going strong, but we’re getting better at dealing with it, particularly thanks to technology. Online workspaces like Microsoft Teams are more than just popular now, they’re essential, and meetings have gone virtual. If you’re in the market to upgrade your virtual meetings, Microsoft has unveiled two new products to help you out: A self-proclaimed “Modern” USB-C speaker and a similarly titled webcam. Microsoft gone modern The Modern USB-C Speaker is slightly more deserving of its name than the webcam, sporting an omnidirectional mic paired with background noise cancellation to make your online conferences as slick…

The world as a whole has been re-examining the way it looks at cannabis growth, trade, and consumption. There’s still scepticism and healthy debate about it, but more and more places (South Africa included) have decriminalised the drug. Uber sees an opportunity here, and may start delivering cannabis somewhere down the line. “When the road is clear,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told CNBC, “when federal laws come into play, we’re absolutely going to take a look at it.” Uber Cannabis? Someday, maybe It’s an interesting (possibly concerning for some) prospect. Uber Eats currently delivers take out food, groceries, and even…

Oculus, longstanding titan of the VR medium, has announced its first ever event exclusively showcasing virtual reality games on its platform. The Facebook-owned company put out an official announcement over on it’s blog, prompting plans to “Save the date”: The 21st of April. Oculus unobscured The event will be streamed over on YouTube, Twitch, and (naturally) Facebook at 3PM Pacific Time, which translates to midnight if you’re in SA. Better have a pot of coffee going, or else catch the highlights when the sun is up again. An event purely for showcasing games, the same we’ve come to expect from…

A lot of big-brained thinkers like to tout that the role of technology is often to do what humans cannot do, or at least cannot do alone. This, apparently, includes remembering to look up from your phone while you walk around, so Android is coming out with a new “Heads Up” feature so that we don’t even have to think about it. Thanks, Android. Heads Up, brains down XDA Developers reports that “Heads Up” will join Andorid’s Digital Wellbeing service. XDA Developers caught wind of the feature via some code in a beta version of the Digital Wellbeing app, and even managed…

If the Google Shopping app is your preferred domain for online purchasing, binge or otherwise, you may want to use it while you still can. Support for the app on iOS and Android devices is being dropped, and the clients will stop working all together after June. The app wasn’t all that different to others of its kind, but was unique enough to stand on its own. Thousands of online stores could be accessed through the app, all conveniently categorised and presented to you to purchase from using your Google account. The same experience is offered on the browser version…

Comedy comes in many forms, but some forms that rely on a level of subtlety are often the most effective sorts of humour. Satire happens to fall into that category, but a fair few folk have a hard time recognising it when they see it… particularly when it resembles news. That’s why Facebook has started to add “Satire Page” labels to… you guessed it… satire pages. Explaining the joke https://twitter.com/fbnewsroom/status/1379887135998763014?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1379887135998763014%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthenextweb.com%2Fplugged%2F2021%2F04%2F09%2Ffacebook-adds-labels-to-satire-pages-because-people-cant-tell-whats-real%2F The social media platform will now label fan pages and public official pages as such, presumably to separate what’s real from what’s not in the realm of news. Which you’d…