Author: Trent Meikle

Two years ago, Sonos took its first crack at making headphones and came out the other side only slightly scathed. It may even have learned a thing or two. We had a good time with the cans, though they were a little pricey, at least compared to the stiffest competition. Now, Sonos is back with the Ace Ultra, with a few big improvements. At the same time, Sonos unveiled the new Beam Ultra soundbar, yet another refresh of a beloved Sonos entry. The Beam line was long overdue for a refresh, with the second-gen Beam releasing all the way back…

There’s no shortage of weird Dyson wares out there, but the company’s latest product may take the cake. We’re not talking ‘weird’ by vacuum or hairdryer standards, but weird in general. Today, Dyson showed off the CameraJet — two words that probably shouldn’t align when its primary goal is cleaning one’s chompers. Yup, the CameraJet is a toothbrush. An overly-techy one at that. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen something along those lines, most notably thanks to Philips’ Sonicare Next-Generation DiamondClean 9900 Prestige. Dyson takes it a step further by embedding a camera into the device, along with some…

After much ado, PlayStation has finally confirmed when State of Play will next be beamed into our eyeballs. Mark your calendars for the afternoon of Thursday, 3 September. It’ll be immediately followed by a State of Play Japan, hosted by Yuki Kaji. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s chatter that Nintendo has something special planned, too. Perhaps chatter is an understatement. Nintendo has yet to confirm whether we’ll see a Direct showcase this month, but historically, September is a good bet. The company will likely only announce the specifics a day or two ahead of the stream, whenever that is.…

Typically, when you hear about some new-fangled JBL speaker, it’s a portable offering focused on being the life of the party. Today, the company unveiled the JBL Cove line-up, a whole-home Wi‑Fi audio system, taking aim at Sonos. There are three speakers included — the JBL Cove M1, Cove P1, and Cove X1 — all with different skill sets. Despite their differences, the whole setup is built to work seamlessly “throughout the house,” without any interruptions via Wi-Fi and the JBL One app. All of ’em promise automatic room calibration, AI Sound Boost, and ‘Constant Sound Field’. They’ll also work…

It may not be the most interesting bit of gadgetry we’ve seen, but LG’s new 38L SolarDom is certainly worth talking about. Mainly because it combines a microwave, oven, grill, air fryer, steamer, and defroster into a single appliance. It may not look like it from afar, but catch a glimpse of the price and you’ll have no trouble believing it. As long as the SolarDom doesn’t become the primary topic of conversation ’round the dinner table — mixed with anecdotes about getting up to pee in the middle of the night — we’re happy. We get it. LG’s cooked something…

Nearly every paying Spotify customer knows the value of hosting a ‘Jam’. It allows other users to join a large collaborative playlist and add songs to the queue or adjust the volume, accessible in-person and virtually. It’s long been a paywalled feature, meant to entice the non-paying users into subscribing. Not for much longer, it seems. We’re jammin’ Android Authority spotted some strings of code inside the 9.1.82.19 version of the Spotify app for Android. These hint at the streamer expanding the feature to free users sometime down the line. It’s worth noting that the change would allow non-paying users to…

There’s no need to wait for Apple to unveil the next iPad Mini It’s been a minute since Apple has had anything to show off in the iPad Mini line. The last we saw of the adorable little tablet was in 2024, packing the A17 Pro chipset. Now, the Fruit Company is just about ready to give it a good kick up the USB-C port and get it up to speed with the rest of the family. Sooner rather than later, it seems. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reckons the 8th-gen iPad Mini “should go on sale by the end of October.” That…

While many AI companies are still scrambling to get their first take on AI hardware out the door, Plaud’s already at the AI-powered earbuds stage of the cycle. While the Plaud Note (and subsequent Plaud Note Pro) was pitched as a note-taking and minute-keeping tool, the Plaud One Explorer Edition earbuds pack a full-time assistant. Another round of Plaud These may look like any other earbuds you could get from the store; they’re anything but. The buds themselves look slick enough, though the charging case looks a little too boxy for our tastes. Same goes for the off-white colour these…

Geely’s back at it again. After launching the Geely E2 at a starting price of R340,000, it earned itself the title of South Africa’s cheapest EV. Now, the company’s got what looks to be another winner on its hands in the form of the Riddara RD6, the country’s most affordable fully electric double-cab bakkie. It’s… still not cheap. Especially if you’re gunning for the most competent RD6. The range headed for South Africa offers three trim levels, the cheapest of which — the RD6 Aspire Econ 2WD — is priced at R612,000. Aim for the middle of the road, and…

One could say that Lego fans are eating real good of late. But how could they be, when the brick company keeps finding new ways to drain their bank accounts? Last month, it was a Hubble Space Telescope set, shortly followed by a functional Donkey Kong arcade machine. Then it was the Batman Returns Batmobile only last week. Now, Lego has announced yet another Star Wars set — the Executor Super Star Destroyer, its largest yet. Kinda. You know what? We’d rather have somewhere to live in October With only 6,130 pieces to its name, it’s edged out by a few other Lego sets, even…