The drone isn’t small, folding up in a neat enough package to fit in the back of a bakkie. That’s a far cry from something that’ll lift off and land in the palm of your hand. It’s still intended to be used by a single user, who acts as both flight tech and pilot. Not at the same time, obviously.

Agricultural Agras T55

While the Agras T55 will do work away from farmland, it’s engineered specifically for the fields. A range of spraying and planting accessories are available, as is a 50-litre spraying tank. If you are dispersing liquids, DJI’s worker features adjustable droplet size and a 40- or 50-litre-per-minute spray rate. The company isn’t exactly 100% clear on this.

It’ll also dispense fertiliser or feed over a specified area. It’ll handle up to 55 kilos of this material at a time, with several feeder attachments available for the setup. Two of these, the extra-large and medium, are included from the outset. The other accessories are optional extras.

DJI’s usual features — obstacle avoidance, automated flight, and so on — are joined by terrain mapping. The included controller uses a 7in touchscreen display between a set of joysticks. The company has positioning and connectivity add-ons, too. There’s no guarantee of a cellular signal across an entire agricultural area, after all.

Then there’s battery life. DJI’s Agras T55 includes a new heat sink system that’s supposed to keep the drone in operation in summer heat. As for the batteries themselves, the smallest is a 20Ah unit that weighs 8.3kg. The larger version is a 30Ah unit weighing 11.7 kilos.

As for the price? DJI won’t tell us upfront, but farm equipment in general isn’t cheap. Some estimates peg the DJI Argas T55 at more than R162,000.

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After reviewing the Px7 S3 earlier this year, we weren’t sure B&W could carve out a place for the more expensive Px8 S2. At R14,000, the Px8 S2 is nearly double the price of the Px7 S3. So are they nearly double as comfortable? Sound nearly double as good? If only it were that easy.

Wearing its Sunday best

While the Px7 S3 and Px8 S2 look similar, it’s easy to tell which is the more premium headphone. The Px8 S2 trades the textured fabric covering of the Px7 S3 for a more luxurious-feeling Nappa leather. The latter’s plastic bits have been upgraded with solid die-cast aluminium with a brushed finish that exposes a braided cable. And, like the Px7 S3, the Px8 S2 features a slimmer earcup design, meaning they won’t bulge out on either side of your head.

That also means the included travel case is slimmer. While they can’t fold into a smaller footprint, the reduced girth was appreciated on our last international flight. That flight also demonstrated that these are beholden to the same soft wear-limit as we found with the Px7 S3.

We found we could wear them for a whole workday without issues, but that’s with numerous breaks. After eight to ten hours non-stop, we found our ears hurt a little and were noticeably hot after being crammed into the relatively small earcups. This sort of issue isn’t exclusive to the Px8 S2, but it’s still important to note.

The usual headphone stuff

As with the Px7 S3, controlling the Px8 S2 is done via physical buttons on the earcups. They might take some getting used to while you try to remember which button does what. But that shouldn’t take you long. It beats repeating swipes and taps that don’t register the first time.

The Bowers & Wilkins companion app is necessary if you want to fiddle with EQ settings. We spent most of our time with them in Bowers & Wilkins’ True Sound preset, but there is also a five-band EQ on offer if you feel like fine-tuning your sound.

Like any good flagship wireless headphones, these support multiple connections at once and can switch between them as needed. Their execution of that wasn’t as polished as we had hoped, but that might be more the fault of the source devices than the headphones. Seamless operation of that sort only really comes from devices within a single ecosystem.

Battery life is a claimed 30 hours with ANC enabled. We weren’t watching the clock while wearing these, but like the previous B&W cans we reviewed, we weren’t disappointed by their longevity. Strangely, they didn’t manage to charge as quickly as the Px7 S3. A five-minute charge was enough to get seven hours of playback through those, while these needed 15 minutes. But the ten-minute difference is hardly a dealbreaker.

As we just hinted at, these feature active noise cancelling. If ANC performance is at the top of your priorities list, these might not be for you. While their ANC performance is pretty good in isolation, it falls short compared to class leaders from Sony and Bose.

If you’ve hung onto your first Px8 headphones, however, these could offer a meaningful upgrade in that department. B&W has stuffed four microphones into each earcup — one keeping tabs on what’s happening inside the earcup, while the other three handle calls and cancelling external noise.

It’s all about the music

The clear focus with the Px8 S2 was its audio performance (and fashion sense, but we’re already covered that). The Px7 S3 are still a great buy for what they represent, but the Px8 S2’s pair of 40mm full-range angled carbon drivers do make a meaningful difference to their sonic performance. That’s where all the extra money has gone, and it means the Px8 S2 outperform the Px7 S3 in just about every way that matters for audio quality.

Both headphones use the same amplifier and DSP engine, but B&W has tweaked the tuning for the Px8 S2 to account for the different drivers. Like the Px7 S3, these support the aptX suite of wireless codecs, which includes the aptX Lossless codec. That means 24-bit 96kHz wireless audio is supported, and they can also handle 24-bit 192kHz audio over a wired USB-C connection (and they’ll charge at the same time).

For casual music listeners who just want a good-looking headphone that they can tell everyone else “sounds great”, these are a good choice. Even if you’re stuck listening to a Spotify stream on your iPhone over AAC, they’ll sound good. Increase the bandwidth, like with aptX Lossless, and they’ll sound even better. Feed them a proper hi-res source over USB-C, and that’s when they really shine.

To be clear, it’s not that you’re getting ‘more’ of anything. There isn’t more low-end or extra treble that you don’t get in the Px7 S3; it’s just presented better in the Px8 S2. The bass thumps thump with more detail, the warm mid-range glows with texture, and the treble is conveyed with clarity. What that means, regardless of how you’re listening, is that these make for fun listening across just about any genre. They provide something we’ve yet to see available elsewhere.

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 verdict

If you’ve got a pair of finely trained ears, or you’re specifically after something that chases harmon curve conformity, these might not be the best pick for you (although we still think you’ll have a good time in spite of what your ears will tell you). You’ll probably be happier paying roughly the same for the Sennheiser HDB 630. Those will also offer you much better EQ customisation options.

But if you don’t want to faff with EQ to get a sound you like regardless of the quality of your source, and you want a good-looking headphone made from premium materials that won’t fall apart if you’re slightly too rough, the Px8 S2 should be high on your shortlist. If you’ve read all you need to, they’re on special at Digital Experience at the time of writing. At R12,000, these are almost a steal.

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The company calls the U1 series the “world’s first full-size mass-produced ultra-bionic humanoid robots.” As you can tell from the header image here, the focus seems to be on semi-human attractiveness. If that doesn’t manage to attract buyers, Square Enix could buy a bunch and dress them up like Final Fantasy characters, perhaps?

Hello, UWorld

UBTech showed off its UWorld U1 range at its own Shenzhen event earlier this week. There are three in the range, with the least imaginative titles possible. The U1 Lite is described as a “semi-torso edition.” The U1 Pro is a full-body humanoid robot. The U1 Ultra? That’s a “high-dynamic full-body” model. Playing with one won’t be cheap, however. The base model starts at around R286,000.

Robots from China are ready to become your soul companion. 🤖

Today (June 30), Chinese robotics company UBTech officially launched the U1 Series — a full-size ultra-bionic humanoid robot.

Equipped with a nurturing emotional AI model, it features soft synthetic skin, incredibly… pic.twitter.com/EJ2d8mDol5

— TechHorn Lab (@ZyvoraXia) June 30, 2026

For your money, you’re supposed to get a decent approximation of human movement. And, in the case of the female model robots, a couple of other… prominent features. It’s exceedingly doubtful that UBTech’s Uworld U1 models are fully anatomically correct, though. That day is coming. Just not today. When it does, it won’t debut at a serious company showcase.

Instead, buyers can expect more technology than companionship. The first is expected to lead to the other eventually. For now, U1 buyers will receive “a fully proprietary end-to-end technology stack, including biomimetic skin, embodied intelligence hardware, operating systems, emotion-driven large language models (LLMs), and system-level manufacturing” for their substantial payment.

Get moving

The UWorld robot sports “88 degrees of freedom and a proprietary dual-pivot biomimetic cervical spine, enabling it to replicate up to 90% of fundamental human movements,” according to UBTech. The robot can recognise up to twenty emotional states, it’s claimed. It’ll respond to those in 500 milliseconds, with a claimed 90% accuracy. We’ll believe that when we see it.

The UWorld U1 uses an AI operating system called Agent Memory OS. It’s “a cross-temporal memory system… designed to establish a persistent digital life framework,” apparently. This, plus the U1’s facial motors facilitating mouth movement during responses, is supposed to make it all feel more… real.

Whether the U1 lineup actually manages this is something we’d have to experience in person. That’s unlikely, especially at this price. But we certainly can’t fault UBTech for its ambition.

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It’s vibe coding but without ever seeing any of the code. It’s not like most of the app’s users would understand it (or want to) anyway. Exactly how useful it’ll be as an experience remains to be seen. Exactly what Meta will eventually charge users for broader access, even more so.

Gizmo in your Pocket

Pocket users aren’t really creating games, as such. They’ll be building what Meta calls gizmos. This is “a small interactive thing you can tap and play with… and you can make a gizmo just by describing it.” It should be possible to create game-like experiences, with enough time and effort, but the point seems to be sharing these creations.

Meta has built a social feed into the new app. Users share what they’ve made on their profiles. Others can like and comment on what was made, adding them to playlists for easy reference and return. You don’t need to share your first attempt, either. There’s an editor that’ll allow for refinements before you ‘deploy’, meaning users can put their best human-computer communication efforts on display.

It’s worth asking what data Pocket is collecting on Meta’s behalf. Gizmos can use a person’s smartphone camera, photographs, and music for their functions. There’s bound to be a way to misuse all of this access. But the app hasn’t secured enough downloads yet for anyone to figure out exactly how.

Pocket is currently completely free. By the lack of noise Meta has made, this could well be a soft launch. Supported devices also seem to be rather restricted right now, so don’t expect to jump in and start playing if you have an older smartphone.

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It’s about time

That’s going to change, and soon. For some of you, it already has. WhatsApp has pushed out an update to iPad users (version 26.25.74) that’ll bring it up to scratch with mobile devices, rather than simply being an extension of your smartphone. This will allow users to set up WhatsApp right on their iPad, with no smartphone in sight.

When the update reaches your device, it can be pulled out of companion mode and set as your primary device. You’ll still need a phone number (meaning either a SIM or an eSIM) to set up the app outside of the companion workflow. Doing so will also unlock some of the missing features we’ve already mentioned — as well as stop the iPad from logging out of WhatsApp every fourteen days as a security measure.

Read More: You can now reserve your WhatsApp username

The change will likely not affect many users. Much of WhatsApp’s user base is happy to continue plugging away at the app on their smartphone, and use their iPad as a back-up. As WABetaInfo points out, companion mode isn’t being nixed. Users can still use it as a secondary device, though they will still have to contend with the obstructions that come with it.

There’s no telling when the update will reach your iPad. Some users can already set up their iPad as a primary device, while others are still waiting for their turn. WhatsApp is rolling out the update gradually, likely positioning itself to step in and resolve any potential security risks the update may introduce.

Source

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These are bacterial infections that resist traditional antibiotics like penicillin. They can develop when you eat contaminated food, have an open wound or undergo surgery. E. coli is a good example, as several strains have become highly resistant to conventional antibiotics. They can also arrive as secondary infections, like pneumonia after a virus.

We need new antibiotics and designing them is difficult.

It can take 10 years and more than one billion dollars to bring just one new drug to market. And 10 out of 13 new antibiotics developed since 2017 are already ineffective against at least one type of bacteria.

A potential solution is to use generative AI models, guided by trained scientists, to come up with designs for never-before-seen molecules.

Physics-based simulations, where a computer mimics the laws of reality, can then help us figure out whether they would make good drugs in a fast and cost-efficient way.

The peptide haystack

All methods need a starting point. “Develop a new drug” isn’t a specific enough prompt. If we were looking for a needle in a haystack, we would at least need to know which haystack to look in. One good haystack for drugs, especially antibiotics, is peptides.

Peptides are short proteins that can perform many different functions in our bodies. For example, insulin, which is widely used to treat diabetes, is a naturally occurring peptide in the body. Vancomyin is another peptide and an important antibiotic that is created in nature as a defence mechanism by bacteria that live in the soil. Both occupy a place of honour on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines.

We can use AI and physics-based simulations together to design new peptides that will kill bacteria. A good AI model has two parts: one that can quickly dream up millions of new designs (the generator) and one that can recommend which design to simulate next (the recommender).

Training the generator

The recommender is a bit like the YouTube algorithm that suggests videos you might want to watch next. It’s useful, important and tricky to set up just right. In fact, our lab has recently published a research paper that examines a few different strategies for generators and recommenders.

In our research, we tested what kinds of information are most useful to include when training the generator. While it’s possible to provide a generator with almost any available information about peptides, we showed it was better to give it just a tiny bit of very relevant information than a lot of semi-relevant information.

Why might this be important? Because in many cases we only have a little bit of relevant information: only a few peptides out of the hundreds of thousands we know of have been experimentally tested, for example, for antimicrobial properties. We also tested different strategies for the recommender and found a way to more accurately visualise the path that it takes through peptide search space.

Why not just use the generator by itself? Well, like any AI-generated content, we have to validate it before trusting it.

A deadly dance

That’s where physics comes in! Peptides perform their functions by changing their shapes. For example, the unusual drug Ziconotide is a painkiller that works by physically “jamming” the proteins that send pain signals in the spine.

Many peptide antibiotics, or “antimicrobial peptides,” have fluctuating shapes that depend on their proximity to the outside of a cell.

Each copy of an antimicrobial peptide is a dancer in a choreography. One dance is performed near the cell of a mammal, while a different, deadlier dance is performed near the cell of a bacterium. This second dance can kill a microbe like E. coli by attacking and breaking apart the membrane.

We can validate the molecules the AI recommends by peeking at the performance our peptide dancers put on near different kinds of membranes.

Video game physics engine

In physics-based simulations, we put many peptides near a simplified membrane, surround the whole system with a box of water and treat every atom as a soft sphere. Then, using something like a video game physics engine, we can watch how the atoms of the peptides and membrane dance as time goes on.

Some people call this an “in silico” microscope, which allows us to zoom in and watch what happens at the molecular scale.

With this molecular microscope in hand, we can validate generated peptides. If we see modelled peptides disturbing a simplified bacterial membrane, then we can say it is likely antimicrobial. If we see it disturbing a simplified red blood cell membrane, then we can say it is likely toxic.

By doing this, we can pre-screen novel, never-before-seen peptides for non-toxic antimicrobial activity before wasting experimental effort. And we can also use the information we get from these simulations to improve our generators and our recommenders.

That way, scientists can avoid the time-consuming process of identifying promising peptides, and devote their laboratory experiments to validating their clinical use and safety. This could mean more, cheaper drugs, exactly when we need them most.

• Rachael (Ré) A Mansbach is an Assistant Professor, Physics, Concordia University
• Jyler Menard is a PhD Student, Department of Physics, Concordia University
• This article first appeared in The Conversation

The post How generative AI and physics can help design new antibiotics appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

The company reckons its new gaming over-ears will last up to 305 hours on a single charge. Since you’d have to play non-stop for a week to hit 168 hours, that’s impressive. It’s even more impressive from the 2,000mAh battery the G5 Max uses to keep going.

G5 Max uptime

Edifier’s overs sport THX Spatial Audio+ features for gamers, which should let players “detect critical directional cues with greater clarity and precision, including footsteps, environmental effects, and sounds from above in supported Windows 11 titles.” The marketing hype isn’t true until we’ve given it a shot ourselves, but 53mm titanium-coated drivers and a frequency range of 20 Hz – 40 kHz could help make the G5 Max’s claim a reality.

Dual ENC mics work alongside a detachable 9.75mm unidirectional microphone for in-game comms. AI-assisted noise-cancelling tech will apparently “maintain clear and consistent voice transmission” no matter which gaming environment is encountered.

Bluetooth 6.0 and SBC and LHDC 5.0 codec support are included in the package, but the G5 Max also ships with a 2.4GHz dongle for more direct low-latency wireless connections. Using the dongle allows for 48kHz wireless audio.

They do sound a little too good to be true, something that only amplifies when you check the price. The Edifier G5 Max starts at R2,550 ($150) but, as we said, it’s not available here. Even the company’s Amazon listing won’t ship them over. Waiting for a local launch (Edifier does operate in SA) requires patience. Finding an alternate purchase method could be worth it for those who really don’t like waiting.

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Widow’s Bay is a small-town mystery done right. Series creator Katie Dippold certainly knows how to keep viewers coming back for more of the horror-comedy drama, and we can’t imagine how excruciating the week-long wait for episodes must’ve been. Heck, the series only recently just wrapped up its tenth and final episode in June.

Not quite Severance, but good in its own right

We can’t quite figure out how to sell Widow’s Bay. Except for the fact that it replicates Dark’s mystery trappings exceedingly well, particularly in the early episodes. We even caught a whiff of Flanagan’s brilliant The Haunting of Hill House, even though Widow’s Bay never really had us sold on its ensemble cast, bar a character or two.

That’s not to say Apple TV’s newest horror does bad by its characters. Easily the best of the lot is Matthew Rhys, who stars as Widow’s Bay‘s sceptical but good-natured mayor as he attempts to turn the tiny New England town into the next Martha’s Vineyard. Stephen Root steps into the role of a cynical fisherman looking to put an end to the threat that is Widow’s Bay. Chaos, obviously, ensues as more and more horrific things begin happening.

The series kicks off how many good horror mysteries do. An uncanny fog and the disappearance of one of Widow’s Bay’s fishermen, with no real leads on where they might’ve gone. Tom, the mayor, brushes it off against his better judgment so that he can go and meet a reporter from the New York Times, hoping for a good review.

Widow’s Bay slowly fills us in on the town’s checkered past. Whisperings of a curse, clown killers from the 50s, and plenty else besides. None of this ever feels like the series is dumping exposition for the sake of it, but rather allowing the series to unfold naturally. That’s a mark of good writing, even if it tends to feel a bit rigid at points.

What2Watch: Fallout

It’s not ’til Tom gets a taste of what Widow’s Bay has in store for him that he starts to take things seriously. We’ll leave it at that, for now. As great as the mystery narrative is, helped along by a sometimes genuinely scary something that we couldn’t put our finger on, Widow’s Bay is surprisingly funny. It’s certainly got some funny words, but Widow’s Bay definitely got the biggest chuckles from us when it lets the cameramen breathe.

Still, the laughs never overstay their welcome. Much of that is down to the cast, who can switch between comedy and horror at the flip of a switch. Matthew Rhys is perhaps the best at this. Good thing, then, that he’s the star of the show. Others, like Kevin Carroll, still manage to find it inside them, despite the lack of screentime.

Everything from the pacing to the eerie soundtrack all play a part in making Widow’s Bay worth a watch. Every round of credits will have you wondering whether you can squeeze in another episode before bedtime (you can). It’s not the greatest series of all time, as some hyperbolic Twitter users put it, but it’s good. Real good.

As if you needed any more excuses to start binging Widow’s Bay, episodes rarely ever cross the forty-minute mark, usually hovering around a solid half-hour. It never feels like Apple is trying to eke out a few more minutes out of your sub. We have our issues with the news of a Widow’s Bay season 2, but that’s a topic for another day…

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If nothing else, it’s more convenient than performing the build yourself (though the Typeframe PS-85 is an option if you’d prefer something more DIY). The base price for a RootBoard via the ongoing crowdfunding campaign is just R1,900. Plus, it’ll ship anywhere, so it should make it here.

RootBoard access

There is a slight catch, though. The whole ‘sticking a Raspberry Pi board in’ thing? You’ll have to do that yourself, using one of several compatible boards (that you’ll also have to buy). Since you’re likely to have one sitting around, having never gotten around to building that… whatever that thing was, it shouldn’t be too much trouble. Right?

Buyers need to supply their own RaspBerry Pi Zero, Zero W, or Zero 2 W, plus the memory card needed for the operating system. The battery also has to be supplied by prospective RootBoard owners. The other bits are whole and assembled.

That means that casing, QWERTY keyboard (a compact one, naturally), and 3.5in display are present. Various ports are also layered down the admittedly good-looking case’s sides. Getting it up and running only calls for the main board’s primary operating system. After that, what you use it for is up to you.

Whether that’s Edward Furlong cosplay or running some actually useful software is entirely on the user. The RootBoard’s creators reckon it’ll connect to “ESP32, Raspberry Pi Pico, Arduino, STM32 sensors, or IoT devices”. Of course, you needn’t wait for this if you already have the RaspBerry Pi board. The other components exist, even if they’re not quite as slick. If you’re lazy, though, the fully funded Kickstarter has another 23 days to run.

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We’ve also got a rough idea of how the iPhone Ultra will look. Back in June, dummy units of the Fruit Company’s rather stumpy-looking foldable surfaced online — courtesy of Sonny Dickson on X. The caveat being the choice of colours. Apparently, the phone will only launch in the white colourway, with no others planned at this time.

That’s a lot of iPhone

First look at the iPhone Fold dummy unit. It doesn’t look like Apple will offer multiple colors, with white currently appearing to be the only option. What do you think? pic.twitter.com/olMzm6t6Ts

— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) June 7, 2026

Apple, at least, seems to be dumping more faith into the iPhone Ultra’s lap. It had initially planned to produce 7 or 8 million units, before upping the figure to make it a round 10 million. Whether it’ll pan out for the company at the expected price of $2,500 (∼R41,000) is still a mystery. And that’s before you’ve tacked on any extra storage.

That, according to the IDC (via 9to5Mac), could run buyers as high as R49,000 ($3,000). Some buyers may not be willing to take such a risk on a first-generation device. Samsung’s first swing at foldables didn’t exactly go so well, did it? Apple will likely have more than a few kinks to iron out for next time.

Read More: Apple’s AI plans could kill off the M6 Pro and M6 Max chips

It’s a prospect made even more unattractive when placed next to the — we can’t believe we’re saying this — relatively affordable iPhone 18 lineup. Apple’s smartphones have long been criticised for their pricing (and they’re only getting worse thanks to AI), but they’re also a known quantity. It’s a big gamble, for sure.

Still, this is Apple. It may still have a winner on its hands with the iPhone Ultra. Failing that, it’s got enough loose change to weather the storm for some time. There’s still the 80 million or so other iPhones the company plans to produce, ready in time for a September unveiling, alongside Apple’s first foldable.

Source

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