Innovation

Airbnb in South Africa: the numbers

Airbnb has hosted two-million guests in South Africa since 2008, the company today announced. This, and slew of other numbers, were presented by the…

Cape Town Taxi Strike: get realtime traffic data with this nifty map

Today’s taxi strike is currently affecting Cape Town’s already stressed transportation network, and is set to continue throughout the week. With the likes of…

Cape Town’s Koeberg nuclear power station to get mini-desalination plant

Cape Town’s nuclear power plant Koeberg is turning to desalination as the drought deepens, Eskom reveals. A column written this week by Koeberg’s power station…

Xbox Ones and tiny tablets: this is South Africa’s ‘classroom of the future’

When I was at school, the most advanced technology we had were space cases, chair bags and desks that didn’t creak, but Microsoft and…

Stockholm ambulances to alert motorists via radio

Researchers at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed an early warning system for motorists in the path of oncoming emergency vehicles. Ambulances…

This 5D imaging technology can digitally scan living tissue

Researchers from USC Dornsife and USC Viterbi School of Engineering have developed new technology that allows for 5D imaging of animals and human beings….

Paper-based battery to power small electronics?

Researchers at Binghamton University have created a working bacteria-powered battery which can be used to power small or disposable electronic devices. What makes this creation…

Alternative electrolytes could stop exploding smartphones

Researchers have identified dozens of electrolytes that could be alternative solutions to volatile liquids used in smartphones. Researchers at Stanford University used machine learning…

Robotic hands are getting more touchy-feely

A group of scientists at Cornell University have created a way for soft robotic hands to feel their surroundings internally, much like we do. The group…

Forget Trump: your cat can now own an eco-friendly White House

Although we do love technology here at Memeburn, we can’t turn our heads when a clever piece of simple design walks by. Especially if…

Cockroach-like ‘biobots’, UAVs may help future disaster relief efforts

Researchers at the North Carolina State University have developed a way to map areas using a combination of both smart hardware and software, which…

Make black and white photos blush again with this AI-powered tool

Do you have a black and white photograph you just wished was in full colour? Well, this clever neural network tool from Waseda University…

This Airbnb experience reveals Cape Town’s hidden arts scene

Capetonians do enjoy bragging about their city. And why shouldn’t we? Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities on earth. But while…

Airbnb Trips: is it the future of travel and tourism?

Travel and accommodation company Airbnb has announced a new program that sees the company take a massive leap into the tourism market. Dubbed Trips,…

Drone racing could be South Africa’s next big sport

Drone racing might be South Africa’s latest national sport, that’s at least if Drone Racing Africa has anything to say about it. DRA is…

Researchers use drones to find worrying news in ocean

A research vessel tasked with studying the ocean’s surface, has successfully used drones and other autonomous vehicles to discover new dangers to human and…

New tech makes wind turbines cheaper, lighter and sturdier

The WALiD (Wind blade using cost-effective Advanced Lightweight Design) project in conjunction with the Fraunhofer Institute, have developed lighter but sturdier wind turbine blades…

Rwanda’s now using drones to deliver medical supplies

Drones are all the rage these days, but they’re being put to life-saving use in Rwanda, in the form of so-called Zip drones. Zipline teamed…

Neotel, CDF to drive social-economic change in SA using tech

Using technology to drive education, social-economic development and ultimately the country’s future growth isn’t just a governmental issue. This according to the Cape Digital…

Curro Grantleigh, Meridian Cosmo City win local leg of World Robot Olympiad

Independent educational provider Curro saw two of its South African schools — Grantleigh and Meridian Cosmo City — walk away with gold and silver medals…

Observing supercooled atoms could improve semiconductor technology

Atoms — the building blocks of all matter — remain as complex and mysterious as ever. Science, in general, remains this way due to…

5 amazing technologies that are yet to find their killer apps

The history of innovation is essentially a love story. For any new technology to be embraced and find mainstream success, it first must find…

Solar Impulse 2: a momentous creation for human aeronautics

Back in the early 1900s when Wilbur and Orville Wright took off in the world’s first powered and sustained airplane, man knew that they could…

VR entertainment could be coming to a British Airways flight near you

Google updates Chrome OS with better navigation and audio control

YouTube to stop monetisation of ‘unfair’ manual copyright claims

Top startup events in South Africa, Africa you should know about this week [18/8/2019]

Five SA fintechs that service the growing market of SME lending

AlphaCode awards R16m in grants, support services to eight black-owned SA fintechs

Some older Nokia smartphones to receive an extra year of updates

The foldable Huawei Mate X is now delayed until November

Open-world Need for Speed Heat is launching in November

Audi’s new cars in Germany will count you down, pace you to green lights

Two Ford Focus trim levels also found to have lock issues

South Africa’s govt ministers really love German cars and big Toyotas report reveals