From a plan by Ukraine to use robot dogs to fend off Russian aggression to an 90-seater electric plane that could fly 800km, these are the articles, videos, podcasts and more that caught the TechCentral editorial team’s eye over the past 24 hours.
- China’s Long March 6A rocket is making a mess in low-Earth orbit: The US military is tracking more than 300 pieces of debris from a recent Chinese rocket launch. The debris originated from the booster stage of a Long March 3B rocket, which disintegrated after its mission. The event raises concerns about the growing amount of space debris and its potential impact on space operations. Read more at Ars Technica. DM
- 84% of surveyed Africans rely on social media as their primary news source: A KnowBe4 survey found that 84% of Africans rely on social media as their main news source, raising serious concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the information they’re consuming. More details from Daily Maverick. DM
- Ukraine to unleash robot dogs on its front lines: This story adds new meaning to “unleashing the dogs of war”. Ukraine is preparing to deploy robot dogs on its front lines to assist with clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance. The robot dogs will support Ukrainian forces in the ongoing conflict with Russia, improving operational efficiencies. That doesn’t make the story any less dystopian. Read more at France 24 or watch the video above. DM
- New 1 800hp Bugatti unveiled: Meet the Bugatti Toron, a “hypercar” that’s as much an art piece as it is a road warrior. Packing a naturally aspirated V16 engine – yes, you read that right – and wrapped in a beautiful design, it’s a masterpiece on four wheels. Style and speed? Yes, please, but this one is for the ultra-rich only. The rest of us will have to settle for videos like this one. More from carwow on YouTube. DM
- Google Chrome will soon disable extensions like uBlock Origin: Google Chrome is gearing up for Manifest v3 by phasing out legacy extensions. This means that some ad blockers will no longer be able to work. However, in this article there might be a way around that. Read more from It’s Foss News. TS
- Fully electric 90-passenger plane could fly 500 miles: Dutch start-up Elysian has plans for a fully electric regional aircraft, with a range of 500 miles (805km) and space for 90 passengers, capable of reducing emissions by 90%. It aims to fly commercially within a decade. Read more on CNN. TS
- ChatGPT unexpectedly began speaking in a user’s cloned voice during testing: ChatGPT’s new GPT-4o AI model Advanced Voice Mode unintentionally imitated users’ voices without permission. Unintentionally? What next? The AI will unintentionally set off World War 3? Okay, we’re joking (kind of). Read more on Ars Technica. TS
- Tiny graphene-based magnetic devices could lead to much smaller — and way more powerful — processors in the future: The smaller the components in a processor, the faster and more energy efficient it is, leading to more powerful laptops and tablets with longer battery life. TSMC’s 3nm process represents the state of the art in processor technology. However, the company is leaning closer and closer towards the physical limitations of silicon. Now scientists have discovered a way to polarise graphene, a material that can be packed more densely than silicon, which could lead to even smaller chips. Read more on LiveScience. NN
- Toyota is clear that hydrogen combustion is not the future: Japanese car maker Toyota has been at the cutting edge of hydrogen vehicle technology for years. But the company has revealed that its trials with different types of hydrogen engines had led it to conclude that hydrogen fuel is not the future for passenger vehicles. Read more in EcoNews. NN
Top stories on TechCentral in the past 24 hours
- Stage set for court battle over spectrum pooling
- Joburg mall gets Africa’s largest rooftop solar installation
- The MTN-owned company building an API marketplace for developers
- TCS | ESP app’s Herman Maritz on Eskom’s miraculous turnaround
- South Africa battling to fund vital grid upgrades
Bookmarks is a new daily feature on TechCentral and published Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.
