KINGJAMES 41222

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FROM THE EDITOR
TAILOR YOUR TAXI
YOU’VE SPENT MOST OF THE DAY on your feet,
traipsing the malls, and it’s time to head off home. So
you fire up your ride-sharing app, ticking the “Deluxe
back and thigh” massage option for yourself and “Live
TV” option for your companion. Moments later, at your
nearest exit, your autonomous ride whispers to a halt.
You step closer and the front seats swivel to face each
other. Your seat slides down to a semi-reclining position.
The door opens and a cheery voice announces, “Hi, Jack”
(clearly, the app is still in Beta form) and in the back-
ground is the throbbing beat of Metallica, your favourite.
Could this be your 2020 taxi?
What got me thinking along these lines is a discussion
I had shortly before the picture above was taken. The
picture shows me after a day-and-a-half at the Frankfurt
Show, getting a feel for what the interior of future mobility
could look like and, by the way, resting my toasted feet.
As much as we think that self-driving vehicles are
all about GPS, radar, cameras, connectivity and the
computers that will run everything, we’re missing a
big chunk of the story. The fact is, if we to a large
extent will become passengers, society might have to
rethink how and what it does on the road.
For one thing, there’s a distinction to be made between
cars meant to be bought and cars meant for sharing, says
Andreas Maashoff, Adient’s industrial design and research
director responsible for Europe and Asia Pacific. You may
COMPETITION WINNERS Details online at www.popularmechanics.co.za
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 1
not know Adient, but you quite possibly have used its
products: seats. One of its brands is Recaro. And if you
think a seat is just a dumb thing you slump into, consider
that already they are talking about a seat with biometric
features, health and safety systems including massage
options, able to monitor your wellbeing and communicate
it to those who need to know.
The concept shown by Adient has a normal mode in
which the two main (front) seats face forward and the
rears are not deployed. This gives you good storage space
in the back. Then there’s a mode in which both seats are in
a deep recline, like a pair of loungers. Communication
mode swivels one seat through 180 degrees so you sit face
to face. Finally, in family mode, the front seats face
forward, the rear cushions deploy and you can seat four
people in short to medium-term comfort. You can set up
all of this through a smartphone app, even in advance.
In future, we will be our own urban mobility interior
designers, choosing features and product content from
a bouquet. Viva freedom of choice, viva! Although…
you can bet there will be some interesting tussles ahead
about who exactly gets to choose the music.
anthony@ramsaymedia.co.za
CONTENTS NOVEMBER 2017 I VOL 16, NO 4 I
I BE THE FIRST TO KNOW

HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS FEATURES

14 War reporter for a day 24 Taming dust
Filming Delta Force The data that powers the Cape Epic
The new citizen journalists 26 Wooden dreams
The app that turns everyone into a reporter Handmade surfboards, ready to catch a wave
Me and my tech
Roxy Burger’s must-haves DRIVING
To boldly go 82 Frankfurt favourites
UCT trains up space scientists 10 favourites from the show
Turbulence ahead Drives: Mercedes-AMG GT 32
Flying into drone law The making of a fast SUV
The confident traveller Under the hood of the 2018 Porsche Cayenne
There’s an app for it Launches: New Ford Kuga

THE VIDEO ISSUE MONTHLY

40 How to do it all 1 From the editor
Edit, shoot and post like a pro 7 Letters
50 Make a music video 10 Time machine
Ok Go and Kyle Lewis teach us their techniques 12 Calendar
54 Tech Quiz: Augmented vs virtual reality 32 Great New stuff
56 The storyteller: 104 Do it your way
How DanTDM got 10,6 billion views
60 3:15 on Periscope
Would-be stars of everyday life
62 The never-ending instruction manual
‘How to’ videos for everything
67 Will your video go viral?
Take our quiz
68 Casey Neistat’s empire
The most trusted name in news
74 Meet South Africa’s next big
YouTube star
Turning clicks into cash
76 Drones: Video’s indispensable tool

Cover: Our special section this month covers practically

everything you ever wanted to know about video. This
page: Casey Neistat is a YouTube rock star who sold his 18 14
video news-sharing app to CNN for over R300 million.

26 82

2 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

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 The worker. The works.
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Whilst the more utilitarian single-cab will prove itself
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Please note: The images shown may differ slightly from actual product available.
For full specifications please refer to our website or visit your dealer.

L ETTER S WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
WINNING LETTER
CONCRETE SUGGESTIONS
I have been a subscriber to PM for
many a year and your magazine not only
astounds me every month, but also
feeds my childishly enquiring mind.
My wife even blames my “wiseassness”
on reading PM from cover to cover in
the first few days after receiving it. You
have changed the conversations around
the braai on many an occasion.
“How to make anything” (October
2017) included a feature on building a
concrete canoe. The article was written
by Jim Wilde of Minnesota State Univer-
sity. The article by Prof. Wilde states
facts (sparsely, I might add) that are
somewhat outdated. The first issue here
is that this magazine is a South African
one and, although I realise that you draw
on international contacts and informa-
tion, if something similar happens in
SA, it should be reported as such. Did
you know then, that we run an annual
concrete boat race in Gauteng? This year
I challenged students to build a truly
African mokoro. The families in the
Okavango Delta that rely on the mokoro
for their livelihood are not allowed to
build theirs from the traditional wood
and are now forced to work with expen-
sive, volatile and foreign chemicals. The
challenge was to find a way of using
concrete, which is cheaper and can be
used and repaired with relative ease and
low skill. The building of the boat forms
part of students’ Project Management
studies. Students compete for substan-
tial prizes awarded for construction and
racing. This takes place in full view of
more than a thousand people from the
concrete industry on a fun, family day.
Visit concretesociety.co.za/boatrace-2017
to find out more.
Secondly, a while back, you featured
an article and photo about a concrete
cylinder being broken, as part of the
testing of concrete for a road project.
You state that this was done by the
NRMCA, which is American. Did you
know, then, that we have a Southern
Africa Readymix Association (sarma.
co.za)? We do plant accreditation, con-
crete testing (in SA we use cube testing,
rather than cylinder testing), concrete
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 7
WRITE TO US, ENGAGE IN DEBATE
technology training, seminars and an
annual conference. The most important
thing for us is to make sure that the
right South African information reaches
the industry and the public.
Thirdly, on a personal note, you previ-
ously described the Skilsaw as the tool
that built America. I agree totally that
this is one of the best tools ever man-
ufactured. I bought one in 1995 second-
hand at a pawn shop for R290. This tool
has given me incredible service for 21
years and only recently began giving
trouble. Coincidentally it is the 5150
model, built in the USA, and not the
British-built model (as verified by
several hardware shops).
The problem lately has been brushes.
I have never been able to get brushes for
the machine. Instead I have been buying
substitute brushes, filing them down to
size and fitting them into the plastic
holder before installing them into the
machine. Unfortunately, the plastic
holders are now showing signs of wear
(due to arcing of the brushes on the
armature). I have found out that the
replacement brushes come in a set,
including these plastic holders. The
problem: it seems that nobody stocks
this part in SA. The importers are Bosch,
but not even they can get the part.
The upshot is, I can’t find a replace-
ment part for a tool that was built to
last millennia. Notwithstanding the
fact that you featured the tool in a
South African magazine as the tool
of the century! So, I need your help
in determining where I can find the
brushes and plastic holders. Bosch has
given up, or maybe it is just their people
who are not willing to help me.
JOHAN VAN WYK
MIDRAND
l popularmechanics@ramsaymedia.co.za
Write to us, engage us in debate and you
could win a cool prize. In fact, this month
we take that literally: our winning letter
earns a Little Luxury Vitality water cooler
+ 3 stage tap water filter valued at R1 550.
Water is on, well, everyone’s lips, with
drought and water quality among the big-
gest threats facing our society. For many,
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The Little Luxury Vitality water cooler
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The 3 Stage tap filter is easy to use,
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mechanics@ramsaymedia.co.za
Please keep it short and to the point.
Regrettably, prizes can be awarded
only to South African residents.
LETTERS
DIAGONALLY FLAWED
I must congratulate you on a consistently
fine journal. The transition from the Ameri-
can version to the present has given just
that extra bit of South African flavour and
you and your “National Treasury” of col-
leagues really make it work.
I very seldom find room for criticism, and
your DIY and “Tips” columns are great, but
I must, and I am sure I am not the only one
to, make comment regarding the Garden
Fence project in the September issue.
A diagonal strut on a gate, running
downwards from the top hinge, can
NEVER provide support to the frame!
Keep up the good work, and maybe you
could sneak in some stuff from Jay Leno
again sometimes.
DENIS BAKER
BY EMAIL
MAKING THE CONNECTION
Further to your recent article on new farm-
ing apps, I thought you might like to hear
about another app that is finding favour
with farmers, albeit very different to the
two you featured.
Farming groups are often connected by
radio network, when they can afford this,
and more recently WhatsApp groups for
general communication. In an emergency,
though, there’s normally not any time for
either of these, which is why they’re so keen
on the speed and simplicity of the Shake-
2Alert app. As the name says, you just shake
your phone and an alert is instantly sent
to all of your chosen emergency contacts.
Along with your exact GPS location, which
is really useful in out-of-the way places, the
contacts also receive video and audio from
your phone.
Other features include Man Down, a
Journey function and a Bluetooth panic
button though, so that they can trigger
an alert while the phone is in a Camelbak
or pocket.
GORDON KNIGHT
BY EMAIL
8 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
Nissan Leaf
THE WEAK LINK: BATTERIES
Cars rule our lives. From the dust of
donkey-carts, cars made us kings of the
road. But now the world faces a back-
ward step.
Volvo, Mercedes, Volkswagen and all the
others are planning to get rid of engines.
Climate change! They are going for electric
motors. No more will there be the things
we understand so well. No more timing
belts, no spark plugs, no oil changes –
everything replaced by the utter simplicity
of motors.
But the motorist faces a new problem.
A big, big problem. Batteries! Battery
power will usher in a totally new world,
like our first day at school.
Many of us will cry. Journalists must
prepare us for the worst. So what if the
battery cars speak English? So what if you
can stop at the entrance to the shopping-
mall and say to your car, “Go find parking
and lock yourself”? This should not be
reported in your magazine. It’s a smoke-
screen designed to obscure awareness of
expensive and short-lived batteries.
The new Nissan Leaf has a 40 kWh
battery. That gives me a number to
describe my fears. What does 40 kWh
mean? It means: if power is drawn at a
steady, constant rate of one kilowatt, the
“bucket” of electricity will take 40 hours
to empty. But one kilowatt cannot drive
a car, so we need to empty the battery at
a greater rate than one kilowatt. A two-
hour draw will supply 20 kilowats, which
is perhaps the power of a 300 cm3 motor-
cycle. Enough power to move a car. Allow-
ing for occasional demands up to 100
kilowatts for 15 seconds or so and for
some free-wheeling, and for some re-
generative braking, you might have a
useful range of 300 kilometres.
Please, these are only my thoughts
and by no means factual for the Nissan
Leaf. Now of concern to me is, what do
replacement batteries cost and what life
can the buyer expect from them?
My rough calculations indicate a prac-
tical life of only four years. Of course,
charge and discharge times will hardly
ever be equal. No matter, as long as we
have some idea of battery life.
Future generations will find it incom-
prehensible that 2017 motoring magazines
could describe the Volkswagen Up with
its 55 kilowatt engine as being a “city car”.
It will beat a 26-wheeler from Cape Town
to Johannesburg and back while collecting
speeding tickets all the way. No battery
car will ever do this. Battery cars are the
true city cars. Going Cape Town to
Johannesburg when engines are history?
Load your “true city car” on a train.
May I suggest that reports involving
expensive batteries should answer the
questions above and warn your readers
not to be impressed by the ability of these
cars to drive themselves, on their own,
to fetch guests at the airport. That’s a
smokescreen.
Charging car batteries electromagnet-
ically from under the freeway, or from
under parking lots, might never happen.
And as for fuel cells, invented in 1839 by
William Grove, and used by astronauts
and nobody else: hydrogen as a motoring
fuel is dead in its boots. Expensive to
produce, transport and store. And being
under high pressure, the smallest leaks
are a constant danger. Static, as in your
comb, caused the Hindenburg disaster.
HARRY VORSTER
BY EMAIL PM
 IT MADE PERFECT SENSE AT THE TIME

TIME MACHINE

1939
Man’s best friend needs to be fed on
time. The obvious solution: a feeding
pan with a built-in alarm clock. When
owners were not around to feed their canine
friends, the clock would go off and the feeding
pan would open just in time for the dog to get
his or her fill.

2002
Would you like to live underwater? In the Tribolis 65, part yacht

1970
Our current issue shows how far we’ve
come with video in just under half a
century. In 1970, the video revolution
was at its early stages with RCA, Sony and
Panasonic all releasing their first videocassette-
recording device, known to us today as the VCR.
and part submarine underwater home, you can… eventually.
The sleek, environmentally friendly yacht designed by Italian
architect, Giancarlo Zema made headlines in 2002 and is still in develop-
ment today. The sub is designed to sleep six, with a fully submerged
observation deck and a completely eco-friendly engine system.

1946 Babies can

be a handful,
but never fear – the
Cuddleseat is here.
Taking its cue from
Nature, the Cuddleseat
was a canvas pouch
slung over one shoul-
der to secure the
baby. The design
was inspired by the
way kangaroos carry
their young and sold
more than 100 000
units in Australia. PM

10 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

Calendar November Get the most out of your month

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

1 3 4
Happy World Polo with a purpose
Vegan Day. at The Cintron Pink
Polo in Paarl.

The Endless Daze

Music Festival kicks
off in Cape Town.

5 6 7 9 10
Happy birthday, In 1885, the
Chris Barnard. world’s first
The South motorcycle,
African surgeon designed by
performed the Gottlieb Daimler,
world’s first human made its first
heart transplant test-run.
operation.

15 16 17 18
SA’s largest wind Ficksburg Cherry The eagerly awaited The two-day Sanlam
conference, Windaba, Festival starts today. movie Justice League is MTB invitational race
starts today in Cape finally here. begins in Paarl.
Town.
12 In 1956, the largest iceberg on record was sighted by
the USS Glacier, about 250 km west of Scott Island in
the Southern Ocean.

19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Calling all couch The FNB Eastern Cape River Republic, a
potatoes: celebrate Wine Show starts. riverside music
The December World Television Day. festival, kicks off in
issue of Swellendam.
Popular Mechanics
is out today.

26 27 28 29 30
Happy Birthday More wine
Bill Nye, tasting at the
the Science Guy. the Nelspruit 
Wine Show.

WEDNESDAY

15/11
William Sanford Nye (born
MONDAY
27 November 1955), popularly

27/11 known as Bill Nye the Science

Guy, is an American science
communicator, television
A flagship SA Wind presenter, and mechanical
Energy Association engineer. He is best known
event, Windaba has as the host of the children’s
established itself as science show Bill Nye, the
Africa’s leading wind Science Guy and his new
energy conference, show Bill Nye Saves the World
bringing together some as well as for his many subse-
600 international and quent appearances in popular
domestic decision media as a science educator.
makers and stakeholders He most recently made head-
active in the contempo- lines for speaking out against
rary wind industry. This climate change deniers.
year’s theme is Wind
Power: Building Futures.

12 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
Delta Force taught me how to drive a Tahoe. I brought a drone to film it.
FILMING DELTA FORCE operatives
presents two problems. First,
we can’t show their faces, lest
any of their nefarious counter-
parts ID someone with whom they might
have a mortal grudge. Second, and it’s an
obvious one: night-time sneak attacks,
a Delta Force speciality, happen in
the dark. But we’ll make it work.
My cameraman, Ed Ricker, and
I are in a blacked-out Chevy Tahoe
blazing through North Carolina
cornfields towards the Range
Complex, a 770-hectare training
facility outside the gigantic Fort
Bragg military complex. Our driver,
name redacted, is an active Delta operative,
one of the US Army elite specialising in
counter-terrorism operations. Such as,
say, hostage extraction. At night. Usually
in countries that the US might not actually
be at war with, and thus bereft of available
military vehicles. Those criteria make said
Chevrolet particularly useful to Delta
Force, a relationship Ed and I are here to
document. And when it’s time for me to
learn to drive like these guys, I’ll be glad
the camera is here. It will serve as a sort of
bionic external memory so I can concentrate
14 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
VIDEO JOURNALISM
on hustling these mall-crawler SUVs
through the corners.
A few days earlier, at a Little League
baseball game, I asked a Special Forces
friend where the Tahoe and Suburban fit
in the military toolbox. “We use them in
permissive environments,” he said. “Places
like Colombia or Saudi Arabia,
where you don’t need an up-
armoured Humvee.” But you
might need to pay someone a
surprise visit.
To demonstrate: I grab the pas-
senger seat next to a Delta guy,
name redacted, in a Tahoe equipped
with an infrared light bar on the
roof. It’s night-time and, from the outside,
the light bar doesn’t look like it’s doing
anything. But when I flip down the IR
monocle on my helmet, the road ahead of
us bursts into view as if our headlights
were on. And I guess they are, but only for
us. Invisible headlights? That’s so awesome.
As the driver blitzes the farm roads, my
perspective is like peering through the key-
BY E Z R A DY E R
hole on the front door to Dorothy’s house
as it flies up into the tornado. Road! Corn!
Tractor! It all rushes forward without con-
text. I can feel our driver left-foot-braking
into turns, smoothly pitching the Tahoe’s
weight on to the front axle and coaxing
some rear-end rotation on the dirt.
We pull back into the parking lot. My
turn to drive. I swap my monocle for a set
of binoculars, adding all-important depth
perception to my night-vision experience.
Through the goggles, the terrain is an eerie
green, the periphery blurred, but the centre
sharp. I’m not trying to replicate a Delta
Force pace, but I quickly acclimatise to this
view of the world. Who needs the visible
spectrum?
But, from the back seat, the dark is
an issue for our video. Ed’s Panasonic
AG-DVX200 can shoot in infrared, but the
result doesn’t replicate my green-tinged
PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICKI RHODES
North Carolina stands in for enemy territory.
 Our DJI Phantom 4 Pro’s perspective
of a hostage exercise (above) and a
menacing convoy.
perspective. Still, we get the shot, his ghostly
view documenting that, yes, you can in fact
drive at night with no headlights.
But even the unusable footage helps me.
When I sit down later to write this story, I
won’t remember whether it was a tractor
or an excavator on the side of the road, or
which rally school Name Redacted said he
went to. The video will know. It’s different
than if I were shooting myself. Whenever I
see someone shooting a first-person video
of, say, a roller-coaster ride, I feel bad for
them because they’re not really immersing
themselves in the experience. But if some-
one else is holding the camera, you can
immerse yourself even deeper. Instead of
mentally cataloguing every moment I want
to write about, I focus on the exhilaration
of the green night flying at the windshield.
And because we have video, I don’t have
WHAT The upcoming 2018 Expedition SSV (Special Service Vehicle)
ABOUT is gunning for the Tahoe’s US government contracts with an
aluminium body, turbo V6 and, of course, vinyl seats.
FORD?
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 15
Night-vision binoculars
provide the depth
perception you need
to drive in complete
darkness.
to carefully describe everything I saw from
that Tahoe. It’s all out there if you want to
see it. I’ll write it the best I can – and here
it is! – but with Ed here, I don’t need to be
a camera.
It all works because our subject has a
special place in video. We’ve all seen enough
TV, both of the reality and scripted kind,
to know that a fleet of big SUVs signifies
something’s going down. Sure, maybe it’s
just the lieutenant governor en route to a
meeting with the Cheese Enzyme Council.
But maybe it’s not. Maybe somebody’s
about to get a ride in one of those big
SUVs, but they just don’t know it yet.
Our video, particularly the Bourne-
movie drone footage of SUVs kicking up
dust, will show that. For me, though, writ-
ing this story means looking into someone
else’s job. I live near here and a lot of
these guys are my neighbours, yet I don’t
really know what they do. And what they
do is secretive and dangerous, honourable
and exciting. Driving on dirt at 100 km/h
with no headlights is just a fraction of it.
If you don’t believe me, there’s video.
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS

1
A traffic accident
occurs in New
York City. A
bystander
calls 911.

2
Citizen monitors 911 dispatches, records
relevant information in the app, and
pushes out alerts to any Citizen app user
within 400 metres of the event.

THE NEW An app user gets the

alert nearby, then runs
to the scene to record.

CITIZEN
JOURNALISTS
A new app alerts you of police
activity nearby – so that you can
run out and catch it on video for
all to see.

THE APP IS CALLED CITIZEN, and for
now it’s available only in New York
City. Ruddy Roye, a photojournalist and
former AP stringer, followed Citizen’s
alerts for a week this summer and recorded
the results for Popular Mechanics.
Here is his report.
Ninety per cent of the reported crimes
button, nothing changes to let you know
you’re recording. So I kept pressing the
button. Eventually someone from the
app emailed and asked if I was having
problems, because they could see that
the videos were short. You have to just
press the button and know it’s recording.
The app works best when something hap-
pens close to you; if you’re in your house
and a crime is reported outside your win-
dow. In that way, citizen journalists have
the potential to become important new
outlets if the professionals can’t get
there in time.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RUDDY ROYE; ILLUSTRATIONS BY LEIF PARSONS

were robberies. I saw bicycle thefts, a deli
being robbed. There were a lot of gun- 4
shot reports, although some turned out Any video he records
to be fireworks. It was sad to see how in the app is pushed
many domestic violence cases popped up out live to other
Citizen users.
– at least 15 each day. Sometimes the
crimes were over too quickly. Once I got
an alert that there was a robbery with a
weapon reported 400 metres from me. I
got there right away, but an officer told
me that the guy was long gone. Another
time, an accident happened a few blocks
from me. I raced over and it had already
been cordoned off with yellow caution
tape. I was able to capture a four-minute
video of an accident victim being loaded
into the ambulance (right). At a previous
scene I had some trouble with the
WAT C H R OY E ’ S C R I M E - S C E N E V I D E O S POPULARMECHANICS.COM/thevideoissue
recordings. When you hit the record

16 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 Popular Mechanics has hunted down some of South Africa’s busiest and
ME AND MY TECH most successful people to find out what tech makes their lives better.
– LUMK A NOFEMELE

ROXY BURGER is a presenter, blogger and businesswoman

who has been on our screens since she was a teen. OSMO MOBILE SPECS
Burger shoots some of her best online content using • Osmo Mobile turns your smartphone into a smart motion
her Osmo Mobile. camera, making every moment you shoot look smooth,
professional and ready to share.
Q Why do you love your Osmo Mobile? • The Osmo shoots cinematic videos anytime, intelligently
It turns me into a professional filmmaker instantly. tracks subjects and captures stunning motion timelapses.
A
I don’t have to deal with the hassle of using loads of COLOURS: black and silver
equipment. It’s an all-in-one. DIMENSIONS: 60 x 50 x 160 mm
How does it help you in your career?  WEIGHT (including battery): 201 g
We’ve used it as part of our gear for our production com-
pany, Good Hustle, on client shoots and I’ve also used it
myself to shoot my own content for my blog and for per-
sonal brand campaigns. 
How long have you had your Osmo Mobile?
About a year. 
Would you say that this is a must-have gadget for
someone in your line of work? 
Yes, or something like it. Especially if you’re an aspiring
vlogger or interested in creating quality video content,
then you need a gadget like this.
Is there anything you don’t enjoy about your Osmo
Mobile? 
Maybe exporting videos off the app to my the phone
could be easier.  
What type of smartphone do you use with your
Osmo? 
Both a Samsung Galaxy S7 and iPhone 7 Plus. 
 

Osmo Mobile

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 17

HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
South Africa’s stillborn space programme has been
rebooted and our next generation of space scientists
is lifting off
A DEADLY 300 KM/H DUST STORM and an eight-minute lag
in communications were just two of the hazards faced by
University of Cape Town students piloting a NASA Mars Rover
last August. Fortunately, it was all part of a virtual mission, the
first of its kind undertaken in Africa.
The students are all space science master’s students associated
with UCT’s Spacelab. The Mars rover mission was facilitated by
Ewan Reid, lead designer on three rover prototypes for the
Canadian Space Agency and mission controller for nine of
18 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
NASA’s shuttle missions, and was held in collaboration with
Mission Control Space Services, a technology development com-
pany and consultancy in the space sector.
According UCT News, Mission Control has been touring select
universities around the world, giving students the chance to pilot
the rovers and acting as a dry run for Mission Control’s actual
outer space explorations. On the recent UCT event, the scenario
involved a spacecraft orbiting Mars while the rover traversed a
Mars-like terrain at the Canadian Space Agency outside Montreal.
Their mission was to find a safe spot to land. All the while, Reid
was in constant contact with the student “astronauts” and a
scientific team at the testing site in Montreal. By the way, the
actual “driving” of the rover was done by Xbox controller.
With the rover engulfed in the simulated 300 km/h dust storm,
the team apparently acquitted themselves well despite being
forced to feel their way around the last minutes of the mission
purely by LIDAR when the rover cameras suffered an unplanned
failure. “In the end”, says UCT News, “the astronauts found two
possible landing spots, and their mission
was accomplished.”
Professor Peter Martinez established
Spacelab at UCT and the postgrad pro-
gramme has been running since 2014. The
intention, says Martinez, was to provide a
broad introduction into space and space
technology. “In the first year, given that
most of our students don’t have a back-
ground in space, they do common courses
and then the second year they do a disser-
tation and they go into various aspects.”
The UCT programme is growing in pop-
ularity and has students from a number
of African countries, Europe and the USA.
“It’s a unique programme on the African
continent,” Martinez says. “Many post-
graduate space programmes will focus on
Left: Mission Control Academy
rover sitting atop a lander at the
start of simulated Mars mission.
Page background: Mars as seen
by NASA’s Curiosity rover.
BACKGROUND IMAGE: NASA. INSET: PAUL ROCCO

the satellite engineering or the space appli- UCT student
cations aspects. By design, this one has “astronauts”
remotely pilot a
been set up to be multi-disciplinary. We are
Mars rover during
still in a phase of our development where a simulation.
we need to have people who have a broad
general background they can then take
with them into government or industry
and then develop a certain niche area. We
have students working on a variety of things. Some are working
on legal aspects, some on things like ‘what would it take to devel-
op a microlauncher industry in South Africa’, we have got one
working on the potential of chemical processes for converting
lunar regolith (sand) into photovoltaic material, because if you
are going to sustain a human presence on the Moon you will need
power. And anything you can do to reduce the amount of mass
you need to take to the Moon, the better. So if you can produce
PV material on the Moon, that will help you a lot.”
Before joining the university, Martinez was quite involved with
setting up the classified South African space programme that
originated in the 1980s. That programme was driven by two main
priorities: a need for reconnaissance satellites during the border
war and a desire for nuclear capability. With the breakup of the
Soviet Union in the 1990s, the military need for the programme
went away.
“There was an2017-08-31T10:55:21+02:00
Pico_2206_Comp_Pop incredible amount of industrial capability and
knowledge built up, all of which languished for about 15 years or
so. Those people have all been entering into retirement. We needed
to get another cohort of people trained up,” says Martinez.
“The interesting thing is, that programme created infrastructure
that, today, would be impossible for a country like South Africa
to invest in. So today it is there and it is being slowly resuscitated
for our space programme. It has a capacity that would be more
than adequate for the foreseeable future and hopefully we can
also offer it for other African countries.”
The attractive thing about the South African programme is
cost. Just the course fee for an equivalent programme offered in
Europe would cost 40 000 euros a year. “Our programme costs
about the same in rand.”
His initial idea was to start a fund in South Africa to send stu-
dents to Europe and to the States. “But when you start looking
at the costs, and the numbers of people we need to train to replace
all those old folks who are retiring, it’s just not viable. We need
to train people here and essentially grow our own timber.”
According to UCT’s course information, the university’s
MPhil in space studies (it can be upgraded to a PhD) provides a
broad, multi-disciplinary  introduction to the space sector,
together with in-depth research in a topic of interest to each
individual participant.
The university says space studies encompasses the study of
outer space and all aspects of space activities, whether of a purely
scientific and exploratory nature, or of a utilitarian nature to
improve the daily lives of people on Earth. Space applications are
also a key contributor to sustainable development in areas such
as food and water security, weather prediction, climate change
monitoring, environmental resource management, disaster man-
agement, search-and-rescue, defence and peace-keeping, financial
transactions, telemedicine and tele-education. 
 The programme is aimed at anyone who wishes to enter the
space sector, or to deepen his or her knowledge of this sector. No
prior knowledge of space technology is required or assumed.
Potential participants include new graduates and young profession-
als seeking to enter the space sector and established professionals
in military, government or private sector positions who encounter
space science and technology issues in their day-to-day work and
are seeking to acquire a broad knowledge of the space sector.
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS

TURBULENCE AHEAD
not an industry best practice, departmental
notice, personal opinion or pub-talk; it’s
South African law and it applies to you.
However, it’s not that simple. To under-
Drone owners, we need to talk. There’s an elephant in the room and stand, you will need to deal with several
it’s called the law. To help navigate us through what’s likely to be a questions.
bumpy ride legal is Phillip Kent, lead adviser at Kent & Co, who What is an aircraft?
recently published Drone Law. An aircraft is any machine that can derive
support in the atmosphere from the reac-
YOU’RE BOMBING ALONG A packed Even if this hypothetical flight was not for tions of the air1. Notice the definition does
Camps Bay beach in December, over- remuneration, every other law pertaining not mention what it’s made of, or for, or
head the bathers and sunseekers, without a to drone operations (Rules of the Air) was from whom it is sold. It’s a blanket defini-
care in the world. The loss of a rotor creates broken. Now you have yourself a big fat tion that includes drones.
enough of an imbalance to send your drone civil claim, with a strong possibility of a What is a drone?
plummeting to Earth. Directly in the criminal case if the police got involved. Drone is a colloquial term for an RPAS – a
doomed machine’s path: an unsuspecting Your toy drone/model aeroplane/radio- Remotely Piloted Aircraft System – and,
sunbather dozing in a deckchair. Kaboom. controlled plane/quadcopter is an aircraft. for now, let’s just call it that. A drone is a
And then things start to get really ugly. Aircraft are regulated. End of story. The set of configurable elements: the aircraft
ISTOCK PHOTO/CRAFTVISION

As it turns out, you regularly put your
film footage on a blog from which you
derive an income through advertising
revenue. The injured party suffers damages
from having to go to hospital, pay to receive
treatment for the head injury and miss an
entire day of their holiday they paid for.
matter of whether drones should be regu-
lated is not a discussion; it’s fact.
From July 2016, Part 101 of the Civil
Aviation Regulation, 2011 (CAR) began
the regulation of drones and drone opera-
tions. CAR is delegated legislation of the
Civil Aviation Act 13 of 2009, meaning it’s
itself, the station that controls it, and the
link between the two.
So is every remote piloted aircraft a
drone?
No, not in the context of the applicability
of the drone laws. Basically, if an aircraft
that is remotely piloted is either a toy or a

20 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017


model aircraft, the regulations do not
apply. But…
Legally, what is a toy aircraft?
The definition is quite clear on this:
“toy aircraft” means a product falling
under the definition of aircraft (that) is
designed or intended for use in play by
children.
In South Africa, a child (or legal minor)
is a person who has not attained the age
of 18. So although my ex-wife may refer to
me as a child, I have reached the age of
majority and can therefore not claim the
operation of a drone as being a toy, and
neither can most of you.
Right, then what is a model aircraft?
First, to be a model aircraft, it must comply
with very clear, specific statutory require-
ments2. Secondly, and most likely the most
limiting, is the aircraft’s use. To be consid-
ered a model, the aircraft must be used for
only competition, sport or recreation. If an
FLASHLIGHTS
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021 851 3284 CENTENARY RD & REESE RD, SOMERSET MALL, SOMERSET WEST
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 21
Drones allow you go get those
“impossible” shots… but beware
the legal pitfalls.
ounce of remuneration comes your way,
you’ll have a tough time affiliating it solely
with sports and recreation.
Okay. So in summary, how do I know
if Part 101 regulates my remotely
piloted aircraft?
Simply put, work on the assumption that
your machine/product/object is a drone.
Then work backwards:
• Are you a legal child (and we talking
status, not capacity), or
• Are you not receiving any form of remu-
neration* whatsoever for the tasks to be
performed and will be operating the prod-
uct as a model at a model airfield?
If any of the above applies to you, con-
gratulations, your machine is not regulated
under Part 101. This does not mean it is
unregulated: model aircraft are stringently
regulated, and have been an exceptionally
well-behaved community in the aviation
sector. Speak to your local hobby shop or
GAMO AIR RIFLES
– Starting from R 1,689.00
REPLAY
ACTION
CAMS
– Starting from R 2,665.00
the South African
Model Aircraft
Association for further
information.
*What counts as remuneration
in this context?
“remuneration” when used in relation to
aircraft operations, means defraying all or
part of the costs of the operation whether in
cash or in kind and whether or not it is com-
mensurate with the value of the service.
My drone does fall under Part 101;
what now?
Well it’s not all doom and gloom. Part 101
does make provision for private operation
of a drone, and it is very lenient. In a nut-
shell, private operators need only comply
with the “Rules of the Air” and a few trivial
administrative requirements. The South
African Drone Law Handbook separates
the topics for ease of reference if you are a
private operator and need a quick refer-
ence handbook. The Rules of the Air are a
series of rules that define how an aircraft
should be operated during flight, such as
not flying over people or roads, not crash-
ing, not crashing into people and other
rules that could be replaced by the very
allusive and uncommon concept of com-
mon sense.
I receive remuneration for operation
of my drone. What do I need to do to
comply?
You’ll need an RPAS Operator’s Certificate
(ROC). That is by far the most costly and
complex part. Your drone itself will need
some paperwork and markings, and you’ll
need an RPAS Pilot Licence (RPL) to fly it.
Some misleading has occurred that has
resulted in drone owners paying (hefty
amounts in some parts of the country) for
www.futurama.co.za
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS

RPL, only to discover that this does not

entitle them to operate a drone for remu-
neration and they still require an ROC.
Personally, I would direct my efforts at
acquiring an ROC since, like any operator
of capital equipment, you can simply
employ a freelance RPL to operate your
drone when the need arises. An ROC is far
more significant than an RPL. Speak to
the Flight Operations Department at the
South African Civil Aviation Authority
(011 545 1000) for further information.
Let’s get real: who is actually going
to catch me?
In all likeliness, no one is going to catch
you. There are no secret police or network
of aviation spies that snoop around look-
ing for illegal drone operators. This is
great news, right? Wrong. The reality is,
since legislation is in place, any injury to
persons or damage to property that results
from you operating a drone will leave you Drones are for people, too: the Volocopter, an autonomous air taxi (seen here at the
liable. To really drive this point home, the Frankfurt Motor Show outside the stand of Daimler, one of its backers) recently had a flight
test at Dubai, the city that hopes to pioneer such transport.
Civil Aviation Act creates what is known
as statutory liability. In short, the Act
states that any damages can be recovered
from an aircraft owner without needing to
prove negligence or otherwise. This has ment. Manned aviation has tirelessly (and respecting the sanctity of human life and
been so since the early 1900s. largely successfully) refined aviation conduct acknowledging the risks associated with
Friendly reminder: most drones operate to the extent that it is one of the safest flight, and mitigating these risks accord-
on LiPo batteries. These batteries excel at forms of transport available today. The ingly through rules and regulations.
aggressive combustion at outrageous tem- Cape Town-Johannesburg air route is the Is this how it will be forever?
peratures. I’ll leave you to put two and two twelfth-busiest passenger air route in the Probably not. We have to try to write laws
together. world. Fatalities: zero. that are broad enough to encompass every
Additionally, operating in contravention In comes remotely piloted flight. From situation (even those beyond our best
of the Civil Aviation Act is an offence, my perspective, there are two fundamental imagination), yet are clear enough to
meaning you can be prosecuted by the matters that make remotely piloted flight achieve their goal. And these laws must be
State with fines of up to R160 000 and unique: operating an aircraft, for the first written for the future, since laws can’t be
imprisonment of 10 years. time in aviation history, is open to every- applied retrospectively. Honestly, we have
one. The barriers to entry are now so low; no clue what tomorrow will look like, yet
This is so unfair! Why are these over-
people who can afford a smartphone could these laws have to be written to last dec-
the-top regulations in place?
afford a drone. Secondly, remotely piloting ades. It’s an astoundingly difficult task, so
Let’s start with the basics: above you right
an aircraft has removed the first law of to expect the first versions of the laws to
now, invisible to the naked eye, is more
aviation safety: the law of self-preserva- be perfect is completely unreasonable. Yes,
than 100 years of aeronautical rule refine-
tion. There’s a saying: “Pilot messes up, there are shortcomings here and there,
pilot dies. Everyone else messes up, pilot but that doesn’t mean it must be ignored.
dies.” Since the first flight, if a pilot Point is, the Regulations are in their
behaved appropriately, the pilot survives. infancy, so there is always hope for

WIN! This (in most cases) induces a foundation

of caution that is built on from there
through Safety Management Systems and
You could win
yourself one of proficiency-based training. Drones don’t
have that. Other than legislation, there
five copies of
are no immediate repercussions to operat-
Drone Law, a
ing a drone irresponsibly.
comprehensive
It is a combination of this open access
guide to the to drones and the loss of the law of self-
regulations preservation that makes the integration of
governing where, how, when and remotely piloted and manned aircraft into
why to fly. Visit our facebook page the same airspace an extremely tedious
or go to www.popularmechanics.
task.
co.za to find out more. So stop taking it so personally: it’s not a
matter of restricting drones so much, but
improvement, which can only realistically
come from stakeholders who are involved.
Footnotes
1 Hovercraft, or machines that derive support from
the reaction of air with the ground, as excluded
under the Civil Aviation Act, but beware: other Acts,
such as the National Environmental Management:
Protected Areas Act 57 of 2003, extend this defini-
tion. The Protected Areas Act is specifically men-
tioned because it holds further restrictions on flight
activities beyond the limits of this article. Fellow
Capetonians should look into this before flying a
drone, even privately. Imagine the law suits for
hurting our beloved mountain.
2 See Civil Aviation Technical Standard 24.01.2 or
your aviation legal adviser.

22 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

THE CONFIDENT TRAVELLER

TRAVELLING BLIND
How to harness the power
of Internet opinions to plan
your next holiday, hotel
stay or restaurant visit.
THE LAST THING ANY BRAND
wants is to go viral because
of poor customer service. Yes, we
need transparency to sort bet-
ween good and bad public places,
but many of those negative
reviews on social platforms don’t
tell the full story. Ashleigh and
Quinton McHaffie started Social
Places in 2013 with a mission to
right Internet wrongs. With Go
Review, they are doing just that.
“Go Review is a buffer between
a company and social media that
gives patrons direct access to the
brand,” explains Ashleigh McHaffie.
“We’re not trying to be a social
media site, but rather allowing
brands to manage their online
presence. We facilitate the inter-
action and stores can then link
to the reviews section.”
The idea is simple. You visit a
restaurant and scan the provided
QR code with your smartphone.
Then you complete the short
survey. After that, you can opt
in to share your review across
your various social networks and
connected reviews sites. The res-
taurant can then choose to share
that to its relevant platforms and
build its review base from there.
In the case of a negative review, are populated reviews from real people.
the manager is notified and can To keep you from getting duped by unscrupulous methods
then engage the disgruntled cus- of getting good reviews, McHaffie has some advice for your
tomer at that moment before it online review research before visiting a place you’re not
escalates to something beyond familiar with. “Look for listings on regular on relevant sites
anyone’s control. This approach (think Yelp, Zomato and SafariNow). If there’s a spike in
allows for improved customer ser- good reviews in a short period, be suspicious; it may be a
vice and conflict resolution. canvassing campaign. Look out for authentic experiences
You’ll never see Go Review in that are described in detail. If there’s a negative review,
action, though. What the average check to see if the brand resolved the problem. Don’t just
end user sees is the results, which look for 5-star reviews.” PM

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 TAMING DUST
The Absa Cape Epic is eight unforgiving days in the saddle – and is the original
stage race to stream live footage from out in the field, thanks to Dimension Data.
Lindsey Schutters visited the Oak Valley race village to find out more.

FROM AN AIRCRAFT, everything looks peaceful. Meanwhile, the
airspace below the Bell 206L is turbulent with data. Dimension
Data specialises in dealing with information coming from a cycle
race. The company’s management of Tour de France 2016 saw
127,8 million data records processed in the cloud. Tracking 198
riders in 22 teams that generate 42 000 geospacial points and
75 million GPS readings is no easy task.
That data then had to be interpreted to the 17,8 million viewers
on the website at a rate of 2 000 page requests per second. Live
tracking one of the most watched sporting events on the planet
is one thing, but relaying the raw data in an entertaining way is a
completely different thing. And that’s what Dimension Data is
trying to do: tell stories with data.
We’re not in Europe, though. Here at Oak Valley Estate in the
Western Cape Overberg, you can barely get a 3G signal. It’s the finish
line for stages 4 and 5 of the 2017 Absa Cape Epic and the area
around the race village is an oak and pine forest. The Elgin Valley
is a great place for growing fruit, but terrible for broadcasting live
from a mountain-bike stage race.
The man expected to achieve the impossible task of getting the
information from the race out into the world is Wolf Stinnes and
he has an interesting track record. He heads up Didata’s so-called
Black Ops team in Cape Town and it is safe to say he has a thing
for sport. That interest led the company’s involvement in build-
ing five of the seven stadiums for the 2010 football World Cup.
Well before the Internet of Things was coined as a buzzword, he
helped fit smart building solutions to sports stadiums.
“We only got here this morning and it’s a move day so there’s
always chaos,” says Stinnes from a well-constructed stage. “This is our
third year with the Absa Cape Epic and those race fans who can re-
member back in 2014 will know that there was no news coming out
of the race, just delayed footage on a SuperSport packaged show.”
The story about how Didata came in to revolutionise race coverage is
that the founder of the Cape Epic and the regional head of Didata
met on a mountain-bike trail. One of them had a mechanical.
“If we were an enterprise setting up operations to connect every-
thing that we have here, it would be a 10-day normal working hour
exercise. We had about 48 hours. At Elandskloof we had about
36 hours because someone was still getting married. On a build
site we have about 20 people all told and they rig up all the infra-

24 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

structure that you see here,” he explains. That infrastracture is built
on an enterprise-class fibre ring around the camp, coming from the
media centre that is the heart of the operation. Reconnaissance
happens about a year prior, with decisions on how to bring in the
infrastructure that doesn’t yet exist coming soon after. But this
is Cape Town and conditions can change at any time.
Data is transferred via a 200 Mbps uncontended international
link up and down (provided by Didata subsidiary Internet Solutions)
to service the media and to keep critical services running. “In
addition to that link to service the higher volume times like all the
TV broadcasts that go over our network, we establish a 70-megabyte
satellite. Having done this for a several years we’ve established a
number of things. Firstly, Cisco switches can withstand 85 degrees
in the Sun. But generally we get tripped up by one of two things:
power failures and power spikes.”
About 36 hours before the media visit, estate management called
to say that the organisation had broken one of the tractors. What
happened was that the lawnmower went over one of the fibre streams,
which then wrapped around the machine. In 2015, the event organis-
ers insisted on 200 wired points, but most of the village is now con-
nected wirelessly. Around 1 pm there had already been 322 visitors
on the network. Stinnes explains that weekends and public holidays
bring many people who do software updates on the event Wi-Fi.
In 2015, the event live broadcast was from a static GoPro mounted
on the finish line. Then 2016 allowed video teams to move through
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 25
The Dimension Data trailer positioned at Waterford wine estate is a
monument to the company’s excellent exploits at Tour de France. It’s a
far cry from what the Cape Epic riders have to endure on the trails, but
not too distant from the on-the-ground operations at the race village.
About 70 per cent of the riders stay in the dedicated tented camp, with
the pros bringing their own motor homes and others finding their own
accomodation. Didata supplied a Skype station where riders could
connect with family, Hansgrohe supply luxury showers and there’s an
X-ray-capable Mediclinic tent that also runs on the data network.
the race village and 2017 sees high-quality livestream over the
Internet from around eight in the morning until lunchtime.
The 2016 prologue was also the world’s first mountain-bike live
footage streamed to TV. That footage was shot from an e-bike
following the action. Now there are two helicopters alongside the
four e-bikes doing the entire race.
The biggest breakthrough in the IoT space, however, is the GSM-
based units that the riders are issued with. Those units allow for
live tracking of riders and facilitate quicker response times from
emergency personnel. It also has a by-product of raw data that can
be analysed and added to race information to tell a better story.
All of that is now accessible through the app and allows loved
ones to track specific athletes.
The air is truly thick with data at the Absa Cape Epic and constant
innovation means that it can be converted into better stories of
courage and endurance of the human spirit, bringing spectators
that much closer to breathing the dust. PM
 What began as a
one-off DIY project
ten years ago is now
a full-time job for
Patrick Burnett. His
handmade hollow
wooden surfboards
aren’t just beautiful
For a long as he can remember, Patrick
to look at, they’re Burnett had this feeling that he wanted
also incredible to to do something with his hands, but
ride. Nick Dall caught didn’t know what or how or when. “At
school we were taught that creativity
up with him at his with your hands was drawing a picture
ramshackle workshop- or being an artist, but I can’t even draw
cum-classroom near a stick figure.”
Burnett studied journalism at
Cape Point. Rhodes and, by his mid-thirties, was
the co-owner of a successful news
agency focused on environmental
issues. He had a growing, happy family
and he loved some parts of his job. But
something was missing. He started
thinking a lot about how he could con-
nect the passionate surfer he really was
with what he did Monday to Friday. “I
didn’t want to be one of those okes
who crams his entire life into week-
ends.”
At the same time, he had a gnawing
feeling that surfboards could be made
in a more environmentally friendly
way. Without thinking, ordered a book
on building wooden surfboards and got
cracking. He’d never even seen a wood-
en surfboard, he had no woodworking
experience and he owned no power
tools apart from the obligatory Ryobi
drill. But as soon as he started working
on that first board he was hooked.
Which isn’t to say it was easy.
’N BOER MAAK ’N PLAN
“When I was gluing down the rails I
immediately realised that the three
clamps I’d picked up at my local Mica
weren’t going to be enough,” he chuck-
les. “I rushed inside and pulled the
laces from my wife’s running shoes.”
She might not have been too charmed,
but he managed to stick those rails
down.
26 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
That was by no means the only chal-
lenge. When it was finally time to
“glass” the board, Burnett couldn’t find
the right type of epoxy in South Africa
and had to make do with the stuff used
to glue carpets down. He’d read how
important it is to epoxy in a warm
environment, so he pitched the family
tent in the garage and filled it with
heaters.
That first board was no oil painting,
but he promised himself he would try
to surf it at least once. “I found myself
caught in the rip and this wave came
and it was a good wave so I just pad-
dled for it. I caught it and I got to my
feet and I made the drop and I cruised
all the way down the line. I can’t
describe the satisfaction.” He went
home from that surf and started plan-
ning his next board.
“Very early on I remember saying to
my wife, ‘Imagine if I could do this for
a living.’ And she encouraged me to go
for it. Looking back, it was crazy… I
was clearly a very, very long way from
achieving that dream, but she backed
me.”
IN THE BEGINNING
Wooden surfboards date back nearly
1 500 years to sixth-century Polynesia
– but those olo were five metres long,
ten centimetres thick and weighed 50
No two boards are the same

Nicola Verreyne puts her magnum opus

through its paces

Patrick at his no-frills

workshop (note raw
timber at the top of
the frame)

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 27


kilograms. American pioneer Tom Blake
started working on the first hollow
wooden board in 1926 and five years
later he filed a patent for a “water sled”.
Almost eighty years ago to the day he
wrote an article detailing how to make
and ride one of his boards for none other
than Popular Mechanics.
Blake’s lightning-fast boards revolu-
28 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
tionised surfing until, in the 1950s, light-
er synthetic materials put an end to the
glory days of wooden surfboards. Or so
we thought. In recent years, craftsmen
in places as diverse as Maine, Ireland,
Australia and Morocco have resuscitated a
dying art. “There are loads of reasons to
make surfboards out of wood,” explains
A pile of rails just waiting
to be glued down
Burnett, “It’s exceptionally beautiful, it’s a
sustainable resource and it’s also very
buoyant and flexible. The boards I’m
making now don’t just look amazing,
they’re also a pleasure to surf.”
ONE STEP AT A TIME
A hell of a lot of work goes into trans-
forming a pile of planks into a wooden
surfboard. Burnett handpicks the raw
timber, based on the weight of the wood
and the beauty of the grain, before milling
it into wafer-thin planks. These planks
are usually only about 30 centimetres
wide, so both the top and the bottom of
the board are made up of several pieces
glued together.
The board gets its strength from a ply-
wood frame that looks a lot like the
skeleton of a fish. In the early days
Burnett used to hand-cut every piece of
the frame, but nowadays he gets them
CNC cut using one of the 20-odd templates
(for different board shapes) he has saved
on his computer.
This frame is sandwiched between the
top and bottom of the board, but the
sides of the board – the rails – have to be
built up from anywhere between five and
ten individual strips of wood. The board is

Clamping down the rails
then shaped, using simple tools and a lot
of painstaking attention to detail. The final
step in the process is glassing the board:
coating it with three of four layers of envi-
ronmentally friendly, plant-based epoxy.
GETTING PHILOSOPHICAL
“In the beginning, I doubted whether I’d
ever be able to make boards that were as
good as the ones I had in my mind, but I
got there in the end,” Burnett says. “When
you’re making something with your
hands you have to be entirely present,
making decisions for yourself. And if you
get it wrong it’s hard and you have to
learn.” Apart from teaching humility,
mistakes force you to slow down and
work in the moment – something which
“brings a kind of peace” that we’re seldom
able to access in our humdrum lives. “It’s
similar to catching a wave,” he says with
a faraway look in his eyes. “That rare
moment when time stands still.”
Working with your hands teaches you
that everything is part of a greater whole,
says Burnett. “If you look at that finished
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 29
Hours of scraping go into every board
Laminating the planks together
surfboard you see the grain and you see
the polish and it looks beautiful, but
what’s also involved there is several hours
of scraping off dried glue and another
few hours of sanding… What most peo-
ple would consider really menial tasks.
And it’s like that for any craft – changing
your engine oil, or turning a wooden
bowl – even baking your own bread. If
you’re not patient and you constantly
want to get to the next step then you’re
gonna blow.”
At the time he didn’t realise it, but
Burnett was actually part of a global
return to craftsmanship that has been
described eloquently by Matthew
Crawford, an American motorbike
mechanic who also happens to have a
PhD in political philosophy. Or is it the
other way round? “Today, in our schools,
the manual trades are given little hon-
our. Because the work is dirty, many
people assume it is also stupid. This is
not my experience,” writes Crawford,
before explaining how a good mechanic
can be just as intellectual as a university
CNC-cut frame
professor. “And yet my decision to go
into this line of work seems to perplex
many people,” he observes.
The important thing, he continues, “is
whether a job entails using your own
judgment or not. Many of us do work that
feels more surreal than real. Working in
an office, you often find it difficult to see
any tangible result from your efforts,” but
when you’re done fixing a motorbike it
either goes or it doesn’t. Crawford argues
that most modern jobs – no matter how
high-powered – protect employees from
“unambiguous failure”, and he doesn’t
think this a good thing.
Matt Kramer, one of the very first
students to complete Burnett’s board-
building course, couldn’t agree more:
“Riding my handmade wooden board
makes me feel like I’ve earned my place
in the sea. I feel initiated. I know what’s
inside this thing, just how much effort,
love and attention to detail is engrained
in its makeup, and I’m going to take a
great deal of care to ensure that it stays
with me as long as possible.”
 LEARN FROM THE BEST
I n addition to making custom boards to
order, Burnett also runs regular courses
where Average Joes like you and me can
build our own boards from scratch. His
three- and six-day courses cover all the
theoretical and practical aspects of build-
ing a wooden surfboard including types
of timber, environmental considerations
and the design dynamics underpinning
wood surfboards.
Students choose a board shape ahead
of time and the components of the ply-
wood frame are CNC-cut in advance. The
first morning starts with students select-
ing the timber for the exterior of their
boards (“Every single piece of wood is
unique and perfect in its own right,” says
Burnett, “So it’s a very personal thing.”)
before they move Patrick showing the author how it’s done
on to laminating,
building and finally
shaping their
boards. “I limit my
classes to a maximum
of six students, so
I’m able to give lots
of hands-on atten-
tion,” says Burnett.
“But I won’t make
the board for you.”
There simply isn’t
enough time to
teach students how
to glass their
boards, so this is
done by Burnett
after the course. But
to complete the
woodworking com-
ponent of the process in less than a week
is “nothing less than heroic”, says
Burnett. “I want students to experience
the joy that comes from working and
solving problems with your hands. Of
course, it’s important that they take away
a beautiful, one-of-a-kind surfboard at
Students in action at Patrick’s
the end of it all, but the process can’t be Woodstock course
separated from the product.”
The course isn’t designed for people
who want to become professional wooden
surfboard builders (the market simply
isn’t big enough for this). It’s designed, though the wood changes colour as the
rather, for people searching for a back- sunbeams and salty water reflect off it.”
to-basics crafting experience that is inex- Most of Burnett’s courses take
tricably linked to Nature. Students come place at his Scarborough workshop,
from diverse backgrounds and places, but he also offers at least one course in
but they all share a love of the ocean and Woodstock, Cape St Francis and Durban
of surfing. while patiently guiding us through each each year.
One such student is Nicola Verreyne, an step of the process. At the end of it all, Prices vary depending on your board’s
industrial designer who’s originally from I got to surf on a board that is utterly shape and length, but you’re looking at
the Garden Route. “Patrick taught us about unique in every sense of the word. I love somewhere between R9 000 and R12 000
all the tools, materials and possible pitfalls it that when I surf my board, it seems as (see burnettwoodsurfboards.co.za) PM

30 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 TBWA\HUNT\LASCARIS 912355
“His education
is taken care of,
no matter what
happens to me.”
Alvin
Liberty EduCator Policyholder

Alvin didn’t plan on having another child in his late forties. But, that’s the thing
about life; it has a habit of changing course and proving us wrong. As a Liberty
EduCator policyholder, his little guy’s education will be covered, from primary to
tertiary, if Alvin is unable to earn an income or has passed on.

Speak to your Liberty Financial Adviser or Broker today. Visit www.liberty.co.za

LIFE INVESTMENTS H E A LT H C O R P O R AT E PROPERTIES ADVICE

Liberty Group Ltd is an Authorised Financial Services Provider in terms of the FAIS Act (no. 2409). T&C apply.
 FOR THE LOVE OF GADGETS l Edited by LINDSEY SCHUTTERS (lindsey.schutters@ramsaymedia.co.za)

GREAT N E W STUFF

THIS IS YOUR NEXT...

Android phone
LG V30
No-one saw this coming. Actually that’s a lie, because
the V20 was easily one of the best phones of 2016. It just
wasn’t pretty and the battery life wasn’t great. LG fixed
both those problems with an ample 3 300m Ah battery
paired with the proven efficiency of Qualcomm’s current
range-topper Snapdragon 835. But this phone is all about
capturing memories and creating quality content to display
on that amazing OLED screen. The dual camera system
combines a 16 MP standard view lens with a 13 MP wide
angle shooter, a partnership that has proved to be the
most useful of such arrangements. And that 16 MP unit
is one of the best low-light performers on the planet.
Manual video controls make a comeback, but are now
joined by a real focus on cinematic video recording. LG
has finally blessed the world with a true champion device.
It’s a crying shame that its market release will be over-
shadowed by the Huawei Mate 10 and the iPhone X,
which are both hitting shelves before Christmas.

32 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017


iPhone:
iPHONE 8 PLUS
It’s the sensible choice if you’re up-
grading from anything older than an
iPhone 7. You get all of the benefits
(wireless charging, Portrait Lighting
photo effects and that excellent A11
Bionic processor) of the upcoming X
with none of the teething problems
associated with the fundamental shift
in user interface mechanics. Yes, you
lose out on the edge-to-edge display
trendiness, but you can always make
that jump when Apple has ironed out
all the wrinkles in next year’s model.
The phone you want:
iPHONE X
When we first spoke of the LG G6,
we described it as a seismic event in
smartphone design. Samsung drove
that point home with the success of
the S8 and Note 8 and now Apple is
putting the cherry on the top. The
X is a complete reimagining of the
iPhone and will reshape the way
we perceive smartphones for the
foreseeable future.
Smart speaker:
SONY LF-S50G
Continuing with its glorious madness, the Japanese company cooked up a
home speaker that harnesses the power of the Google Assistant while also
doing duty as a 360˚ audio bluetooth speaker. When Apple reinvents this
market segment with a similar-looking HomePod, Google users can smugly
listen to the sweet tunes coming from this product.

The phone you should actually get:

NOKIA 8
Combining the superpowers of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835
with a bare-bones version of Android Nougat’s final evolution
(7.1.2) makes for the fastest and most fluid phone we’ve ever
tested. If you’re not too fussy about camera quality – the 13 MP
monochrome + colour sensor combination isn’t bad, but not
great – you’ll get a proper 2017 flagship with one of the best
LCD displays on the market (albeit still stuck in regular 16:9
format with large bezels).

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 33

GREAT NEW STUFF

Fitness watch:
FITBIT IONIC
Ionic lands squarely between the geek chic of the Pebble
and Fitbit’s own angular minimalism. Which makes sense,
because this is the first product after Fitbit acquired Pebble.
But it’s so much more than that. It runs a new Linux-based
operating system called Fitbit OS, it has built-in GPS (with
GLONASS for rapid satellite link) and Ionic is swimproof,
the first full-featured Fitbit to do so. There are also third-
party apps in tow and a Javascript developer kit to make
for easy app integration.
The looks are a bit polarising; the design borrows heavily
from the company’s Blaze watch from 2016. But there’s a
brand partner version done in collaboration with Adidas
coming in the near future to cater to the fashion-conscious.
Under the metal is all Fitbit’s usual suite of wellness tools,
such as guided breathing and cardio score.
This is Fitbit’s first foray into the smartwatch space and one
that will definitely attract a few loyal fans. On-board memory
to the tune of 2,5 GB and Bluetooth streaming directly from
the watch mean that you can leave your phone behind, but
the buttons on the sides of the casing and lack of raised bezels
will prove problematic in the gym. In all, it’s a fantastic first
attempt that should give Apple’s Watch a run for its money.
R5 500, FITBIT.COM

34 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 Wireless workout earbuds:
FITBIT FLYER
Fitness tracker: Not stopping at the smartwatch, Fitbit
went and made its own Bluetooth ear-
GARMIN VIVOSPORT buds, offering 10 hours of playback.
Remember the Vivosmart 3? Well, this is largely that device with added The main selling point is that these
built-in GPS and an always-on colour screen. Stress monitoring and the buds can connect to your phone and
weightlifting exercise mode are all retained and it is compatible with the Ionic simultaneously, seamlessly
Garmin’s Livetrack which allows your loved ones to track you on your switching between calls and music.
GPS activity. There’s also three separate sets of cus-
tomisable tips and wings in the box to
get that perfect fit.
R2 000, FITBIT.COM

Wireless headphones:
BEATS STUDIO 3
Under Apple’s management, Beats has
already put out some of our favourite
Bluetooth earphones of the year. And
now comes the third iteration of the
line-up’s crown prince, the Beats Studio.
Active noise cancelling, 22 hours of full-
True wireless earbuds: featured listening from a full battery and
10 minutes of charge yield three hours of
BEOPLAY E8 listening. Then there’s Apple’s W1 chip
Although late to the parade, it seems like B&O was crafting something for easy pairing and stronger connection.
spectacular. The exquisite charging case holds two full charges over and Add in softer earcups and an optional
above the 4 hours of playtime from the buds. Touch and voice controls wired connection and you have our next
via your connected phone’s assistant are your interface and there’s a dream long-haul flight headphones.
quick audio transparency gesture to let your surroundings filter through.

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 35

GREAT NEW STUFF

Action camera:
GOPRO HERO 6 BLACK
If there’s one company that needs a win, it’s GoPro. The brand is synonymous with
the personal video revolution we celebrate in this issue, yet hemorrhages money. This
camera is a step in the right direction. Front and centre is the company’s homebrewed
image processor called the GP1. With this chip GoPro is taking the future of its bread
and butter product into its own hands. The results are impressive. Not a quantum leap
from the Hero 5, but a good enough bump in the dynamic range on a similar 12 MP
sensor to make a difference. Importantly the Hero 6 records 4K at up to 60 frames per
second and 1080p at an iPhone 8-equalling 240 frames per second. There’s a big emphasis
on slow motion in the new camera and it works very well. South Africa also gets the new
Hero at a relatively cheaper price than the company’s home market. The US see launch
prices rise by a full $100 from Hero 5 to Hero 6, while we only pay R500 on the new
camera’s debut. The Hero 5 and equivalent Session cameras both see full R1 000 drops
in pricing to keep the line-up sensible.
Alongside the new camera comes a redesign of the Capture app, now simply called
GoPro. Data transfer between camera and smartphone is now much faster and there’s a
new feature called Quik Stories built in. It’s essentially a paired down Quik app that
tries to do even more rapid automatic edits.
R8 500, SHOP.GOPRO.COM

36 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

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GREAT NEW STUFF

Sound bar:
JBL BAR 5.1
This pick is not because of the 510 W peak power output, but
purely on the back of the clip-off wireless satelite speakers.
No-one wants more wires in their living room and fewer peo-
ple want the added stress of keeping sometimes useful sur-
round sound speakers charged. Leave them clipped to the
main bar when not needed, and unclip them for movie night
for up to 10 hours of playback.

TV:
PHILIPS 9000 SERIES
OLED
Here’s another product that
solves more of the traditional
problems in its product category.
This UHD panel is supported
by Philips’ P5 graphics engine
and Android Marshmallow. It
also comes with Philips’ Hue-
inspired Ambilight, which
expands the reach of your 360 Camera:
TV’s glow. More importantly, ACER HOLO360
the remote has a full Qwerty We’re still not fully convinced of the 360 camera as a content
keyboard on the back. creation tool, but having one with an independent Wi-Fi or
LTE connection is a bonus. Images can be saved in up to 6,9K
resolution and videos in full 4K and it runs on Android 7.1 so
you can download all the editing apps you want directly on
the device. Yay for independent cameras. PM

Laptop:
LENOVO YOGA 920
News flash: Intel updated its Kaby Lake processor family and
all the leading PC manufacturers have refreshed product lines.
So far the leading pick is this flexible beast and its 4K screen.
Close integration with Microsoft results in a laptop with
always-listening Cortana, so the virtual assistant will work
even when the lid is closed.

38 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

  READERS COMPETITION

C H H A M P E R S
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lightweight and suitable The Bosch PLR 50 C allows for precise meas-
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COMPETITION RULES: 1. Entry is open to anyone except employees (and their immediate families) of RamsayMedia and associated agencies. 2. You may enter via
SMS as many times as you like (R1,50 per SMS; this service does not allow for 8ta numbers) 3. Competition runs until 30 November 2017. 4. We will draw the winner(s)
by 6 December 2017. 5. The prize is not redeemable for cash. 6. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. 7. Regrettably, only South
African residents are eligible for prizes. 8. By entering this competition, you agree to receive future correspondence from POPULAR MECHANICS. You can opt out at any stage
by: (a) Sending an e-mail containing the relevant details with the subject line “opt out” to pmmailers@ramsaymedia.co.za; or (b) Sending an SMS including the word
“STOP” to 31699. Standard SMS rates apply.
 In association with

P H OTO G R A P H BY
NICHOLAS CALCOTT

40 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 HOW
The gear, techniques,

TO DO
and insight you
<< Marques ­Brownlee started
posting to YouTube in high
school. At 23, he’s turned

E VERY
his gadget-review channel,
MKBHD, into a career.

need to consume and

THING
create the best videos

WITH
on the internet.

VIDEO
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 41
HOW
TO DO
EVERY
THING
WITH
VIDEO

WHAT YOU’RE FILMING

Stunts
EXPERT: Devin
Supertramp, adventurer,
4,6 million subscribers.
STRATEGY: Avoid fish-eye
WHAT YOU’RE FILMING
lenses. When you have
Anything that focuses
access to amazing loca-
on you
tions, you want to show
EXPERT: Natalie Alzate,
off the place, and fish-eye
beauty vlogger, 4 million
distorts the image. Use a
YouTube subscribers
wide-angle instead.
STRATEGY: Setting the
Have an intro in mind. I
camera above you does
ask myself: how is this
make you look thinner.
video gonna grab people’s
But for YouTube, you’re
attention? In our rope-
more connected with your
swing video, we had an
audience when the camera
archer fake-shoot a rope
is at eye level.
across the canyon, hook
Natural lighting is best,
it to the rock, then jump
but that requires you to
off. That starts the story.
rely on the weather. I have
The idea is to make it
two circle Diva Ring Light
feel like you’re right there,
Nebulas on my left and my
but a lot of action sports
right, and an umbrella light
and wildlife need to be shot
right above me. It makes a
from afar. Use a super-
huge difference.
zoom lens to get up close.
You have three seconds
Get the insurance.
to convince someone to
We’re cautious and want
click on a video. Pick the
our equipment to last, but
right still. Also, shrink your
if we’re not putting it right
thumbnail down to the size
in the action, we’re not
it would be on a phone and
getting the shots that
ask: will people be able to
people love.
read that? A font called
Bebas is best.
WHAT YOU’RE FILMING
DIY
EXPERT: Steve Ramsey,
Woodworking for
WHAT YOU’RE FILMING
Mere Mortals,
Sport
800 000 subscribers
EXPERT: Craig Woloshin,
STRATEGY: Keep the
cameraman, NBC’s
focus very specific: how
Sunday Night Football
to make a box-joint jig,
STRATEGY: For sport with
for example. You could
action moving left to right
certainly show every detail
or right to left, set up as
of how you made a big
close to the halfway line
project, but keeping it short
as possible. With only one
enough to get people to
camera, you want to be
watch is another story.
able to cover the whole
For a big project, put the
field, and from there, you
dimensions of the boards
can see everything.
in the detailed plans and
For sport without a
put those plans in the
dividing line, such as base-
video’s description. This
ball, create one. Position
allows you to show only
yourself behind home plate,
the key moments that are
in line with the pitcher’s
unique to that particular
mound and second base.
project and keep those
You can get good footage
shots down to just a
regardless of where things
couple of seconds.
happen.
Script any video that
During action, focus on
needs to be accurate. That’s
where things are happening.
important for me when I’m
talking about something Use the breaks between
like table-saw safety. plays to zoom in on your

Shoot
Don’t add too much
production. I try to colour-
correct as best as I can,
but if it’s off, that’s okay.
I just use the camera mic
and leave the room sound,
child. That way, you don’t
miss anything and still get
shots of the people you
want to see.
If you can, climb up the
grandstand. Height helps

like the
so it’s more like you’re in you get as unobstructed a
the garage with me. view of the entire field as
You can vary the camera possible.
angles, but it’s more im-
portant to be sure you
show the steps clearly.

experts
YOUTUBERS WITH
8 MILLION RocketJump A production studio that cranks out movies, TV series, and video shorts, like the entertaining Dog Wick, about
SUBSCRIBERS

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WHAT YOU’RE FILMING
Driving
EXPERT: Ben Joiner,
director of photography, Top
Gear and The Grand Tour
STRATEGY: If you’ve got
only one camera, don’t
just mount it in one place.
Be strategic. Think, Lap
one, a forward-facing shot.
Lap two, facing the driver.
Lap three, looking down
the side of the car. Lap
four, get a friend to jump
in and do handheld shots.
You come away with a
selection that can create a
narrative arc.
With larger cameras,
use multiple anchor points.
Buy a hotshoe mount for
the top of the camera,
along with the bottom
mount. That will make
your shots much more
stable, so you get less
jelly-like effects.
Dedicate a bit of your
day to recording sound.
When you’re shooting
from the inside of a hairpin
bend, study the first pass.
If the wheels lift or the tyres
smoke, jump up to 120
frames per second to get
slow-mo of that detail. Next
take, use a wide-angle
lens and get the camera
down low, close to the
car. This will accentuate
the turn.
In your edit, you can start
with a wide shot that shows
the whole scene, punch in
tight to the tyre tearing itself
to pieces, smoke pouring
off. Then, as it exits the
corner, cut back to further
up the road. Those shots
tell the story of that corner,
and what it’s like to be near
those cars.
John Wick’s vengeful dog. REACT Recordings of people (occasionally celebrities) reacting to weird foods, cult movies, and old video games.
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 2
WHAT YOU’RE FILMING
Snapchat Stories
EXPERT: Sallia Goldstein,
Snapchatter with 30 000
views per story
STRATEGY: Plan what
you’re going to shoot. When
I’m showing something
like a science experiment,
I usually run through it once
to make sure it works.
Get a tripod.
You can use a dry-erase
marker on your phone, lit-
erally on the phone screen.
I do a lot of stop-motion,
and it’s really hard to make
sure your face is in the same
position or the object is in
the same position as it was
last time. So I’ll draw an
outline of my face or the
object with a dry-erase
marker so I’ll be able to
take the same picture
again.
Good lighting is so
important. Dark, blurry
snaps are so awful. Grab
yourself a torch.
UNLOCK YOUR
CREATIVE POTENTIAL
WITH THE CANON EOS 80D
WHAT YOU’RE FILMING
Product reviews
EXPERT: That guy from
the first page, Marques
Brownlee, who has 4,8 mil-
lion YouTube subscribers
WHAT YOU’RE FILMING
STRATEGY: A lot of devic-
Anything live
es, like smartphones, have
EXPERT: Rob Perez, host
reflective screens. To block
of the Periscope TV show
reflections, find the window
Buckets
or light behind you that’s
STRATEGY: Bring as many
causing it. Take literally
backup batteries as you
anything and block it.
can, scout the Wi-Fi con-
If you’re reviewing tech
nections before you start
with a display, don’t set its
and make sure your phone
screen brightness too high,
doesn’t overheat. (Take off
because that will be over-
the case or turn down the
exposed relative to the
brightness.)
environment, or too low,
Interact with your viewers
which can cause a shutter-
and commenters. I started
ing effect when filming.
with 30 to 50 total people
Look at the camera lens
and comments once every
like you’re talking to a per-
two to three seconds. Now
son. And look away some-
I’m getting 15 comments
times. It seems robotic when
every half a second. If a
a person’s eyes never leave
viewer writes something,
the camera.
I’m going to see it and I’m
A review video is a pur-
going to react to it. It’s the
chase-decision tool. You
hardest part of what we do,
have to go over all the nitty-
but it’s also what people
gritty details of owning the
appreciate most.
thing, of the pros and cons.
It’s not a review if it’s just
a showcase of something’s
specs and price, or beauty
shots. WHAT YOU’RE FILMING
Be decisive about where Babies
you want light. That’s ulti- STRATEGY: Point your camera
mately what video is, cap- at the kid and record. Resist
turing moving light. Think, the urge to show to anyone
I want to light this behind who’s not related.
me, but not have it spill
over to this other thing, so
I’ll block that light from this
camera over here. It helps
a lot. When I was reviewing
a TV, I had to change the
lights every time I moved the
camera, but that attention
to detail makes your videos
different.
Live for the story_
 HOW
TO DO
EVERY
THING 6
WITH
VIDEO 1
4

Gear 3

Be ready: you’re Your phone is a great camera. For most things.

The iPhone 7 Plus [1], Google Pixel XL [2], and

gonna need a
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 [3] can all shoot in 4K
resolution and have image stabilisation and their
new models will just get better. So it comes down

lot of stuff
to whether you like Android or iOS. Our only
advice: if you’re shopping for one, get the most
storage you can. Video takes up a ton of space.

Try a lens
Wide-angle lenses take in
more light and widen the
field of what the viewer sees,
which is especially useful in
tight spaces like cars. It’s a
small difference that’ll set your
phone video apart from every-
one else’s. Moment lenses [4]
come in macro, telephoto,
wide, and fish-eye varieties.
You’ll need to buy the case,
but that ensures that the lens
Get a Joby
The Joby Gorillapod [5] has
bendable arms that let you
mount your phone on tree
branches, wrap it around a
skateboard for tracking shots,
or just hold it as a small-scale
selfie stick. It’s great. There’s
a reason that every vlogger
uses one and the inventor is
a millionaire investing in
flying cars.
You’ll want a micro-
phone, too
Built-in microphones are just
okay. They usually give you
static. YouTuber Natalie Alzate
says people won’t even watch
a video if there’s static. She
uses a Røde -VideoMic Pro [6]
or a Sennheiser G3 when she’s
outside her studio. “It makes
sure you capture just the voice,
no static or background,” she
says.
Move up from your
phone. Eventually.
The Canon EOS 80D [7] has a
huge sensor, a flip-out monitor
and quiet and fast autofocus.
The only downsides are its bulk
and the fact that it doesn’t shoot
in 4K. The Sony RX100 IV [8]
is cheaper and exceptional,
especially considering its small
size. It has video autofocus
and a big sensor for low-light
shooting. It’ll do buttery-smooth
PHOTOGRAPH BY NICHOLAS CALCOTT

is always perfectly mounted. slow-motion at 240, 480 or

even 960 frames per second.
It can’t match the vividness
you get from Canon’s lenses,
but the small size means
having it everywhere, and
it shoots in 4K.

MIRANDA SINGS A comedian transforms into a terribly made up, incredibly annoying singer to perform off-key, hard-to-watch songs.

CREATIVITY AND CONTROL

1
AT YOUR FINGERTIPS www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

WITH THE CANON EOS 77D Live for the story_


Don’t be scared to
invest (a lot)
Marques Brownlee uses the
RED Weapon 8K S35 [9]
(R975 000). “RED cameras
have super-high resolution,
amazing colour science and
range. They make it feel as
realistic as possible,” he says.
The 8K resolution “means my
footage will look good as
YouTube evolves”.
One other camera to know
about is from Hasselblad. Till
now, Hasselblad cameras have
not been best for video. They
shoot only 30 frames per sec-
ond, and max out at 1080p.
But that will all change later this
year, when the renowned Swe-
dish company plans to release
some worthy competition.
MyLifeAsEva A 23-year-old woman performs comedy sketches, music, and stunts such as trying on children’s clothes. SSundee A
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 2
8 coffee. For your phone – especially larger
DON’T FORGET
LIGHTING
Natural light is always best.
But it’s not always an option.
The Neewer 160 light attach-
es to the top of a camera or
a stand. It uses LEDs so you
get better colour accuracy
than you would with tungsten
or fluorescent light.
TELL THE STORY
AS YOU SEE IT
WITH THE CANON EOS 200D
9
FIELD TESTED
THE
GIMBAL
MOUNT
Whether you’re shooting with your
phone or an expensive SLR rig, a gimbal
will help stabilise your shots and prevent
your videos from looking like they were
shot by Jason Bourne after 16 cups of
ones like the 7 Plus and the Pixel XL –
the Zhiyun-Tech Smooth Q about R3 000;
pictured) takes only five minutes to set
up. It works basically like a car mount:
your phone sits in the cradle. After getting
everything balanced on all three axes using
the gimbal’s two sliders, you can power on
MY the motors that will ultimately control
FAVOURITE the movements. It was much easier than
ACCESSORY I expected. I used the Zhiyun to annoy
film my wife making dinner. I got way
better shots than I expected and although
it was just to practice, I was thrilled with
my ultra-slow-motion pan of tomatoes
cascading on to a fresh bed of salad greens.
For my SLR, a Canon 5D Mark IV with
HISY Bluetooth a 24–70mm lens and an attached Røde
Camera Remote
shotgun mic, I tried the Ikan EC1 three-
“The only piece of
axis gimbal (R11 000). Balancing a big
hardware I’ve spent
money on was a
SLR with a long lens was much harder
shutter button. It’s
than balancing a phone. The centre of
a button that you gravity is harder to figure out and I was
can Bluetooth- worried the whole thing would tip over
remote on your and break before I got to shoot anything.
phone so you don’t All this was made worse when I tried to
have to tap and assemble and balance the rig at a dusty
hold the photo racetrack. Worst of all, it was heavy. After
button, even in 14 hours of shooting a motorcycle race in
Snapchat. I can Kentucky in the hot sun, my hands, back
put my phone on and shoulders ached. That’s when I appre-
a tripod and record ciated the joystick. I could set the whole
without having to rig on a flat surface and pan by moving
have my hand on the stick. The video came out great. My
the phone.” – back, however, still feels terrible. –
Sallia Goldstein, @ Michael Wilson
salliasnap
Live for the story_
HOW
TO DO
EVERY
THING
WITH
VIDEO

“I’m guessing where an

audience might want to look.
Maybe that’s a reaction, or it
could be the action itself.”

Be bold. If footage My style, if I have one, is to try to

hasn’t grabbed you in 30 do the maximum with the least
seconds, you don’t stand amount of actions. It’s kind of slow,
How to a chance. You have to to be honest. Not boring. To me it’s a
arrest people right away. balance between tension and speed.

Edit
By Joe Walker, Academy Award-
nominated film editor of 12 Years
a Slave, Arrival, Shame, and the
upcoming Blade Runner 2049.
From there, think eco-
nomically. Give yourself the freedom
to use only what’s most effective and
ignore the rest. Don’t be frightened
to cut big chunks out. When the audi-
ence knows where it’s going, they don’t
mind skipping over something. Sim-
plicity and elegance: that’s what
you’re aiming for.
If it’s tense, then it’s never going to
feel slow. If I’m cutting a dramatic
scene, I try to find the most economi-
cal way around the scene that shows
you everything you need to know. I’m
guessing where an audience might
want to look. Maybe that’s a reaction,
or it could be the action itself. If scenes
are too busy, it has the effect of making

TH E EXPERIM ENT New apps use image analysis to auto-
matically edit your footage down to
Should I let
the exciting bits. Popular Mechanics
software edit video producer Ryan Mazer tested
for me? three of them to see if they’d render
him obsolete.
MAGISTO
(web only)
The final video is long, but
still feels edited. There are
no embarrassing cuts, and
it didn’t omit anything
important. The best of the
three.
SHRED
(iOS)
It picked out a cool scene
and made it slow-mo, which
I like. But it does so much of
the work for you that it’s not
customisable. And it did a
fade-to-black, which is tacky.

man who somehow never stops smiling, does voices and tells jokes as he plays Minecraft. Unbox Therapy Highly energetic and

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WITH THE CANON EOS 6D MARK II Live for the story_

the thing feel too long. If it’s very cutty THE BEST
– endlessly bouncing around – that’s a SOFTWARE
turnoff. FOR REGULAR
Sometimes showing where everyone PEOPLE
is in the scene is not as effective emo-
tionally as showing something very iMovie
specific and unique. Remember: just FIELD TESTED
(Mac)

THE
because they shot it doesn’t mean you YouTube
have to use it. When I see someone Video
P O R TA B L E
holding my hand too tight, I kind of Editor
reject it like a skin graft. It feels like (Web)

STUDIO
I’m being pushed. I like to find my own HitFilm 4
way around a story, to invest. I want Express
to be drawn into a screen rather than (PC)
just sit back passively. These apps are free I pushed a lot of carts filled with switchers
Concentrate on an edit that works and use the basic and camera cables down the halls of my
without music. Even if you know it needs method of all movie high school. Like the dark clothes and
music, it should still stand on its own editors: drag, copy fashionably unwise choices in eyewear, it
two feet as a visual and verbal piece. and trim video and was part of being in the AV Club. It was a
Sometimes Denis [Villeneuve, the audio segments tangly hassle, and nothing like the new
director of Blade Runner 2049 ] and I into a narrative. SlingStudio. This R13 000 multi-camera
will turn the sound off completely. If They don’t let you production platform lets you record from,
it works visually, then you have a clue get deep with sound switch between, and edit, four high-defi-
that it will work with everything. Once effects and transi- nition-video inputs in real time from as
you’re satisfied that you’ve given the tions, but you can many as ten connected smartphones and
film the greatest scrutiny in its barest, make a name on cameras. The best part: you don’t have to
most unpolished form, that’s when you YouTube with any string any cables or hook up all those
allow music and sound effects in. of these. switchers. If you have two linked cameras
100 metres from each other, you won’t
also have to run 100 metres of crowd-
WHERE TO SAVE ALL trampled cable between them. Just plug
OF THIS STUFF the somewhat chunky wireless sending
THE BEST
External hard drives are fast, unit into any HDMI-enabled camera, and
mostly reliable, and cheaper than SOFTWARE FOR it automatically syncs with the SlingStudio
buying the same amount of space PEOPLE WHO hub. Connect your phone or tablet (assum-
from Dropbox. Western Digital’s WANT TO BE ing it’s an iPhone 6 or later, or from a
hard drives are consistently among BETTER THAN limited list of Android devices) to the
the fastest, and the brand has an REGULAR PEOPLE hub with the app, and you can stream
unmatched reputation for reliability. the outputs of any connected camera to
Get an 8-terabyte (350 hours of 4K Adobe Facebook Live or YouTube, or record it
video files) My Book for R4 700. Premiere Pro all to an onboard SD card or USB drive
If transferring files just sounds ($20 a month) to edit later.
like too much work, you can
Premiere has The SlingStudio hub provides its own
always use Google Photos. It
superseded Final Wi-Fi access point, so you don’t need to
compresses anything you shoot
Cut as the unani- worry about your location having connec-
down to 1080p HD, but it’s the
only truly unlimited, free option.
mous choice of pro- tivity. Or power: the battery-operated hub
fessionals. You’re lasts up to three hours on a charge. My
paying for custom- only complaint is with set-up and config-
isable tools such as uration. It’s not fun. You need patience
stabilisation, colour and, ideally, experience with streaming
FLO
correction, and video to set up all of the different Wi-Fi
(iOS)
titles. If you’re links and devices. It’s far from plug-and-
The final movie was shorter
than the others, but some-
going to commit play, but the wireless set-up will change
how not as tightly edited. It to learning video the way you record studio-quality video
has a lot of dead air with editing on one and the number of people you trip while
nothing happening. application, this you do it. – Dan Dubno
is it.

purposefully awkward gadget reviews Ryan Toys Review A very cute kid plays with toys as his always-impressed parents encourage and

BE STORY READY
WITH A CANON MIRRORLESS
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 2

Live for the story_

HOW
TO DO
EVERY
THING
WITH
VIDEO

The PM Are you

music Goodbye
video
trying
to make
everyone cry?
NO

YES!

selector Adorable
ENERGETIC
‘Don’t Worry,
Be Happy’
A flow chart that leads you to
animals SLEEPY Bobby
what music, if any, you should
McFerrin
include in your video, and
where you can get it.
‘I’ve Been
Travel Have you been NOT YET
Everywhere’
video everywhere? YES Johnny Cash
What kind
of video is it?
‘You Can
WHAT A weekend HECK YEAH Call Me
Are you
with friends feeling funky? Al’ Paul
MUSIC SHOULD
NOT SO MUCH
Simon
I ADD TO MY
VIDEO? Fail video
Is it a JUST ONE Sad trombone
compilation sound effect
or one fail? A COMPILATION

You have one

Highlight Is it track and YES choice:
reel field? ‘Chariots
NO
of Fire’
Does it already
have music ‘Suite: Judy
in it? YES Blue Eyes’
Family video Do you love
your family? YEP Crosby, Stills
& Nash

Best man/ YES! ‘Love’

YES NO maid of hon- Are the boys
Delicate
our speech back in town? NO Steve

Can’t go CELEBRATORY Chopin’s

Eulogy wrong with ­Prelude Op.
SAD 28, No. 4
NO classical.
Is dialogue
What kind of
important? YES
dialogue?
Let coach
Pump-up I mean, how do the
WE LOST
speech good was it? talking.
No music.

I JUST RAN Theme from

Pay attention! THROUGH A
No music. Lecture Requiem for a
No music. BRICK WALL
Sorry, you’re Dream
not allowed
to drown out
that middle- YES!
Product Was it any Sad trombone
school
review good? NO sound effect
chorus.

record him. The Game Theorists An overly curious, highly literal engineering mindset is applied to video games. In one video,

CREATE INCREDIBLE STORIES

1
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WITH THE CANON LEGRIA GX10 Live for the story_

 ‘I Try’
Macy Gray
SEVEN ­
PLACES
‘Angel’
OTHER THAN
­
Sarah
McLachlan YOUTUBE TO
POST OR
‘Happy’
Pharrell WATCH ­
VIDEOS
Williams
And what you’ll find on each.

‘Up Up Up’ VIMEO VEVO

Givers YouTube’s less famous,
THEY’RE more polished cousin. It has
NOT MY
FAVOURITE no advertisements and is
generally a venue for pro-
How do fessionals. (The series High
you feel about Too bad. Maintenance came out on
the Spice Girls? Vimeo before getting picked
up by HBO.) Basic member-
ship is free, or you can pay
‘Yakety Sax’ ‘Wannabe’ R3 000 a year for a Pro
Boots The Spice membership, which allows
Randolph Girls 4K video, lets you restrict
access to your videos, and
gives you 20 GB of uploads
What type of CONTACT each week.
sport?
FINESSE
TWITCH.TV
Credit (or blame) Twitch
for making watching other
‘One More people play video games a
Time’ successful video genre.
Daft Punk The site is entirely game
footage, what you’d see
on the screen of Minecraft
or Mario, with the player’s
head in the corner, narrating
and likely shouting. We’d
laugh more if it weren’t
‘The Boys Are ‘X Gon’ Give actually kind of addictive.
Back in Town’ It to Ya’ And if 100 million people
Thin Lizzy DMX didn’t use the site every
month.
Beethoven’s DAILYMOTION
Symphony A video-sharing site similar
No. 6, the to YouTube, but with 10 mil-
Pastoral
lion daily viewers instead of
30 million. And more relaxed
restrictions on nudity. It’s a
mix of professional (Larry
King interviews, movie
trailers) and amateur (civilian
footage of Julia Roberts
‘Feels So
Good’
shopping). The site recently
Chuck added a Netflix-style rec-
Mangione ommendation engine.
The resource for official
music videos in crisp
resolution. Vevo also plays
on YouTube, which is why
you’ll sometimes see chan-
nels listed as the artist’s
name plus “Vevo”.
SCORP
An app-only social media
network, like Vine, with
15-second videos. The app
posts a topic (the Kardash-
ians, public breast-feeding,
the president’s latest
speech), and users reply
with short video responses,
which other users rank.
LIVELEAK
Want to bum yourself out
for a few hours? This site is
a repository of user-gener-
ated videos posted in the
name of public awareness,
some of which are violent
assaults, explosions and
shootings.
LIVE.LY
A live-video app primarily
populated by teenage girls,
who rate the platform’s most
famous personalities with
“Likes”. Its other metric:
“Gifts”, tokens of apprecia-
tion for which viewers pay
up to the equivalent of
R1 300 and send to the
performer. Users also
earn gift credits by
watching ads. PM

they calculate the relative speed of the carts in Mario Kart 8 to extrapolate how truly dangerous the game would be if it were real.

SHARE THE VIEW WITH A

CANON CONNECTED CAMERA
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 2

Live for the story_

 OK Go floats in
zero gravity in
their 2016 video
‘Upside Down &
Inside Out’.

DAMIAN KULASH JR, lead

2 for the 41-year-old singer: The
The band OK Go uses technology, ingenuity and
mildly dangerous stunts to reinvent a dying genre.
After 350 million views, they tell their secrets.
singer of OK Go, likes to joke
that his tombstone will read:
“One of those treadmill guys.”
He’s referring to the band’s
2006 breakout music video,
in which the four members
performed a synchronised
dance on some gym equip-
ment. If this were all Kulash
is remembered for, it wouldn’t
be a terrible thing: ‘Here It
Goes Again’ has been viewed
more than 37 million times.
But we’ve got a better epitaph
King of Viral Videos.
The band now puts out
single-take stunt videos yearly,
each with tens of millions of
views. The members toss out
ideas – “We should do some-
thing with dogs” – and what
emerges are wild feats of engi-
neering and imagination that
often take months of planning
to execute.
“To be honest, it’s a bad
business model,” Kulash says.
“The way to make money on
YouTube is to make something
extremely fast and sh*tty, and
do it often. But this is a decent
business model for a bunch of
nerds who like making stuff.”
We wanted to get the
story behind the band’s viral
videos: what inspires them,
how they’re planned, and what
actually happens on set during
filming. So we rented a studio
in Los Angeles, queued up our
favourite clips and watched
live with Kulash. These are
the stories he told us. –
Mickey Rapkin

The zero-gravity
video was filmed
in one take and
took 21 flights to
perform perfectly.

YOUR NEXT STEP

1
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1
THIS TOO
SHALL PASS
(2010)
With 12 engineers and
Kulash’s father, OK Go
built a two-storey Rube
Goldberg machine.
After six months of working
on this thing, we’re down to
the night before shooting
starts. We’re in an abandoned
warehouse and the lights go
out. A drunk driver hit the
transformer. So we started
testing the machine in the
parking lot. People need saws
and drills, so we hooked
up to car batteries.
The video was shot over
two floors; the second half
was the bottom floor, and
the camera goes down a lift
shaft. The bottom floor was
very predictable: a bowling
ball rolling across the floor
will go the same way every
time. Random fluctuations
of dust are not going to screw
with it. Whereas dominoes
fall differently every time.
We wanted a world of colour
when the chorus hit, so we
attached big coloured flags
to rat traps. Each trap set
off the one in front of it.
We went through the
machine 89 times, but many
takes were only the first
20 seconds. We got to the
end three times over three
days of filming.
3 – all of that has to happen in
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1
2 heavy anti-nausea drugs.
UPSIDE DOWN &
INSIDE OUT
(2016)
Band members performed
choreographed move-
ments in zero gravity.
We spent two weeks in Russia
doing parabolic flights – six
flights as total free-form
play. We brought up every
liquid and prop we could
think of. The crew thought
we were insane. They were
like, “Are these really rich
kids who are just wasting
their time?”
We came up with basic
choreography, then rehearsed.
We’d budgeted for 20 flights:
six as test, six as practice, and
eight shooting. The first time
you’re floating, you want to
swim. But the amount of fric-
tion in the air is so minimal,
it feels like you’re going to
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puke. I didn’t, but I was on
After a few times, the basic
physics kick in. “If I push off
that, I go that way… ”
When you’re brainstorming
for this, people say, “Do con-
fetti!” But confetti already
looks like that. To make it
exciting you want confetti
made of bricks. Or disco balls.
We tried piñatas filled with
candy a few times, but bits of
sugary chunk got everywhere.
The inside of the plane was
a sticky mess.
Basically, the reason for
doing this entire thing was to
burst paint balloons. We had
done 20 flights, we felt like we
got it in the last take. Everyone
was like, “Party!” Then we get
to the ground and the camera
guy’s face is green. In the last
shot, one of the paint balloons
hit the camera lens. You can’t
see anything. Nobody wanted
to go back up, but we had to
go for a 21st flight.
3
THE ONE MOMENT
(2016)
The band filmed a series
of actions in exactly
4,2 seconds, then
slowed the video down
to reveal that each action
(like exploding water-
melons and paint cans)
synced to the music.
Every time you see some-
thing in slow motion, there
is this question: is that how
the world works? Watching
this four-and-a-half-second
tape still makes me stressed
out because there was so much
anxiety around getting it to
work.
I like this scene where Dan
[Konopka] is cutting through
the spray-paint cans; it’s this
rocket of paint set to the beat.
We did tests, and we quickly
realised that to get eight cans
to go off – to be at a frame rate
around 2 000 frames a second
about a tenth of a second.
Which means that the thing
he’s slicing the cans with has
to be moving unbelievably fast,
and with so much force. After
hitting the first can, it doesn’t
slow down significantly before
the second and the third. It
looks like Dan’s taking a base-
ball bat through there. In
truth, it’s a hydraulic arm
that’s yanking the bejesus
out of him. He can barely hold
on to that thing. He’s athletic,
but most of the rehearsal
takes of this, the thing goes
sailing out of his hands.
/ Live for the story_

Kyle Lewis is South Africa’s
favourite music video director.
The 29-year-old from Cape
Town has worked with everyone
from The Parlotones to Riky
Rick. Lewis has been hailed
for his unique aesthetic and
international quality videos. He
shared his video secrets with us.
1 Afro-futurism. There is
DON’T LET A
BUDGET HINDER
YOU
“I had a R2 000 budget for
my first video,” says Lewis.
Locnville’s breakout hit ‘Sun
In My Pocket’ was Lewis’ big
break. He chose the song
from their debut album and
it became an overnight
success and a huge step-
ping-stone for the careers
of both Lewis and Locnville.
“The video was simple.
We used friends as extras.
I didn’t think anything
would come of it, but it
ended up being a breakout
hit for Locnville.”
After doing a few more
Locnville videos, Lewis
shot Goodluck’s hit ‘Taking
It Easy’ and went on to
direct eight music videos
for them.
52 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
Riky Rick,
Casper
Nyovest
2 and Anatii
video.
STEP OUT OF
THE BOX
Lewis is well known for hip-
hop music videos. He wasn’t
afraid to make the jump
from pop/rock to rap. “I
worked with The Parlotones Standard Bank
on their collaboration with Campaign.
rapper Khuli Chana and
that’s how I got introduced
to hip-hop. That video went
on to win me a South
African Music Award. I
like the creative freedom
that hip-hop gives me. The
artists pretty much let me
do anything that I want.”
3
BE PROUDLY Casper Nyovest
SOUTH AFRICAN video.
Often South African art is
castigated for looking “too
American”. Lewis makes sure
not to fall into that trap.
“I can’t really describe my
video aesthetic, but I would
associate my visuals with Nasty C video.
the terms Afro-centric and
always a distinct African
touch to my work. In South
Africa, we have a strong
creative tone and we need
to harness that.”
4
HAVE A
SIGNATURE
Over the years it has become 5 films, and post your films
easier to tell Lewis’s work online to gain exposure.
apart from the rest. “I am USE THE Use free tools to edit your
consistently me; I don’t try RESOURCES YOU work. It doesn’t have to
to be like anybody else. In
HAVE look perfect at first. Just
every music video there is an The Alexa mini and Phan- keep working at it.” Lewis
element that I create myself; tom Flex 4K are Lewis’ recommends any phone
usually a headpiece, a cameras of choice, but he with a 4K camera, or a
mask, shoulder piece or understands that an up- GoPro, for beginners.
glasses. Hip-hop artists are and-coming director may “Success will not happen
always willing to push the not be able to afford a high in a day. You have to be
boundaries when it comes quality camera just yet. patient and stick it out. Use
to their appearance, so I “Shoot as much as you what you have until you can
get to create elaborate can on whatever you can. afford the type of equip-
pieces for them. Use a phone to create short ment you really want.” PM
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NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 2

To experience AUGMENTED REALITY, you look through a device screen
or put on a headset and a virtual image is laid over the room you’re in. You
can see what’s around you, but part of it is blocked out by whatever
video projection is playing on your headset.
A
THE BASIC SET-UP
▶ A camera and screen
equipped with computer
U
vision, a technology that
identifies objects and surfaces.
Adding depth and motion
G
sensors lets a device map the
room around you and track
your motion through it. Your
app can then overlay anything
M from a first-person-shooter
zombie attack to the steps to
replace a fanbelt.
E
N thing it sees.”
T MOTION SICKNESS
▶ Motion sickness sets in
E
when your perceived motion
– what you see – doesn’t match
what your inner ear feels.
That’s not the case with aug-
D mented reality, says Robert
Scoble, co-author of The
Fourth Transformation: how
augmented reality and artificial
intelligence will change every-
thing. You’re still looking out
on the real world and the
same horizon.
UNLOCK YOUR
54
CREATIVE POTENTIAL
WITH THE CANON EOS 80D
TECH Q UIZ
PRIMARY USES
▶ For now it’s pretty simple:
catching Pokémon (Pokémon
GO), mapping constellations
(Sky Map), inking a tattoo
(InkHunter), turning you into
a half-dog (Snapchat).
AR can’t scan a room and
identify every object. But you
can teach its computer vision
to identify individual objects,
such as a motorcycle, when
prompted, says Mike Camp-
bell, executive vice president
of the ThingWorx AR platform.
“There’s not enough comput-
ing power to analyse every-
MOBILITY
▶ AR on mobile devices really
is mobile. Unlike high-end
VR, which can’t leave a room,
AR can enhance a city tour
or museum. Last winter, the
Detroit Institute of Arts lent
visitors Android phones to
view the skeleton inside a
2 000-year-old sarcophagus
and to see the original colours
on a now-beige Assyrian
sculpture.
However, AR is difficult to
wear on your face. Everybody
thinks we’ll be walking around
with the next Google Glass.
but social constraints prevent
that, says Case, adding, “Sun-
shine makes headset AR dif-
ficult to see, voice and hand
controls are still unreliable.”
EMERGING USES
▶ Hands-on skill training,
interior design, wearable
computing.
AR can lead a factory worker
on a tutorial, but right now the
technology won’t change your
life unless you own a factory,
says Amber Case, a fellow at
Harvard’s Berkman Klein
Centre for Internet and
Society. A Microsoft HoloLens
can overlay hidden parts such
as a tucked-away air filter and
demonstrate its removal. Simi-
lar programs are in develop-
ment for phones and tablets
and could soon offer life-
changing relief for tasks such
as Ikea furniture assembly.
HOW APPLE WILL OWN IT
▶ AR will explode in the next
year. Today, relatively few
devices offer a rich AR expe-
rience, leading to a lack of
demand for new AR apps –
phones with Google’s Tango
AR number less than a million.
Expect that to change after
Apple’s June release of iOS
11 ARKit for developers, says
Scoble. ARKit is a bundled
suite of AR tools that can
reach a quarter billion Apple
devices. Additionally, the
upcoming new iPhone adds
3D sensors and room map-
ping that can play hologram-
like counter-op games or
virtually measure and then
furnish a room without
draining battery.
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
Live for the story_
 Augmented reality enhances the real world. Virtual
reality offers an escape from it. Both technologies may
eventually change our lives, but for now they’re mostly
fun. Here’s what they can, can’t, and may soon do.

To experience VIRTUAL REALITY, you put on a headset and your entire environment
is replaced by whatever the headset is projecting. You can’t see the room you’re in.
Suddenly, whether you look up or down or side to side, you’re on a roller coaster,
or at the beach, or at a Paul McCartney concert.

V
THE BASIC SET-UP PRIMARY USES EMERGING USES

▶ A headset with screens ▶ Relatively simple games and ▶ Medical treatment, auto-
that, for each eye display, programs: crashing cubicles motive prototyping, astronaut

I
offsets right and left images (Job Simulator), painting in training. At the University of
that trick your brain into 3D (Tilt Brush), dodging bul- Washington Harbourview
seeing depth, same as a 3D lets (Superhot VR). Burn Centre, burn victims

movie. Motion sensors allow
your view to change as you
look around. Additional hand
controls with motion sensors
let you grab, hold or throw
objects in the VR world. And
tethered sets (attached to a
PC and power source) can
use wall-mounted sensors
to map and track your move-
ments around a room.
MOTION SICKNESS
Interactive VR is not like
our reality. It’s safely on the
Minecraft side of the uncanny
valley, with video games on
the most powerful devices
often looking like a crisp ver-
sion of N64 graphics because
of the graphic processing
power required for your
tracking and movements.
R
use VR headsets during pro-
cedures so painful, morphine
isn’t effective. Researchers
there believe VR reduces
pain to manageable levels
by immersing the brain in
another world and leaving
T
U
fewer mental resources to
process pain. Newer studies
have found positive results
in wound care, chronic pain
and the dentist’s chair.
A

▶ VR can make you feel

MOBILITY

▶ VR on a phone-based
HOW APPLE WILL OWN IT

▶ VR, like AR, is waiting for an

sick. But the faster a headset
refreshes its images, the less
likely you are to feel motion
sickness. More powerful
tethered units, such as the
HTC Vive and the Oculus
Rift, run at least 90 frames
per second. Mobile VR, with
less processing power, tops
out at 60 fps and usually
operates at 30.
headset is largely immobile.
Tethered VR, which can
move around a small room,
has the power of graphics
cards that alone cost as
much as a phone. Lacking
that power, mobile VR is
limited to processing the
turning of your head.
L
affordable device that offers
an immersive experience.
There’s no hero device on the
horizon, says Scoble, but it’ll
probably be a phone – albeit
significantly more powerful
than today’s options. “Tether-
ed devices require (expensive)
gaming PCs. Not everyone
needs those, but they do need
phones.” Again like AR, he
adds, our best bet is the next
iPhone release.

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When he was a boy, Dan Middleton
used to dread this kind of thing –
having to talk to people, getting
attention. Even as he got older and
started making his videos and quit
his job at the supermarket – and even
when he had 1 million, then 5, then
18 million subscribers to the YouTube
channels on which he plays Minecraft
and chronicles his life – Dan was much
more comfortable when it was just
him and a camera in his room over
the garage. What has he got himself
into with these live shows, in front
of all those people?
But kids will be here today, and kids
give him strength. He knows these kids.
He was one of these kids.
They’re already here, standing out-
side in a raggedy line that begins at
the locked glass doors and ends some-
where near the parking lot. The kids
– it’s almost all boys – run circles
around each other to pass the time,
or they twirl their fidget spinners,
or they plead with their parents for
a phone to play with. Some of them
carry pictures or posters of Dan.
The glass doors lead in to a 5 000-
seat theatre in Wallingford, Connecti-
cut, a half hour from the closest city.
Tickets for today’s show cost between
$63,50 and $150 (R825 – R1 950),
TELL THE STORY
56
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Around the world, 18,9 million
subscribers watch DanTDM’s
YouTube channels, and his videos Diamond Minecart”. You have to play
have been viewed 10,6 billion times. part, but it’s a clever name.
What does he do in these videos?
He plays video games. What does the room. When each child gets to
he do in his new live show that
is selling out theatres on three
continents? We went to find out.
Photographs by
Stephanie
Diani
and it’s sold out. Almost every show
on the 18-month tour has sold out,
including two at the Beacon Theatre
in New York, four at the Sydney Opera
House, and 32 straight shows across
the UK, where Dan lives. The North
American leg is being promoted by
Live Nation, the massive company
that put on 26 000 events in 40
countries last year. The parents of
the kids who are already here have
been standing in line since 11:15 am
on a rainy Sunday for a show that
begins at 3, because they’ve paid an
additional R1 200 for the chance to
meet Dan, so that their children can
see that the guy who they spend their
Saturday mornings watching on
YouTube is a real, live human.
Inside, Dan sits in a plastic chair
at one end of a large reception room
– industrial carpeting, fluorescents.
He wears a gray hoodie. Behind him
is a black curtain hung from a metal
frame, emblazoned with a picture of
a Minecraft tunnel. In front of him is
a cardboard cutout of a Minecraft
cart loaded with Minecraft diamonds,
with the words TDM ON TOUR. That’s
his YouTube name: DanTDM. “The
Minecraft to understand the TDM
At the meet-and-greet, 150 kids
and their parents hug the walls of
Dan, he asks the kid’s name, answers
nervous questions, autographs what-
ever the kid puts in his face and poses
for a photograph. At the end, he high-
fives each kid, and it’s an enthusiastic
By
Ryan
D’Agostino
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
Live for the story_
 Dan Middleton,
known online as
DanTDM, before
his show in
Jacksonville,
Florida, on 30 June.

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 57

 TO WATCH WHAT DANTOM DOES, GO TO
high-five: if they miss, Dan repeats
it until they get a good one. He
doesn’t rush. He lets each kid talk to
him, and he responds thoughtfully,
and he smiles. He smiles at the ticket-
buying parents, too, who can’t resist
popping over to shake Dan’s hand and
thank him for entertaining their kids.
DanTDM looks the parents in the
eye and thanks them back.
YouTube, Minecraft TOON TOWN!
Mod Showcase, 10,220,786 views:
Hey everyone! Dan here, from The Dia-
mond Minecart. Welcome to another
Minecraft Mod showcase, where today
we’re going to be looking at the Toon
Town Mod, which adds characters and
items from your favourite cartoons into
your Minecraft world – from SpongeBob
to Snoopy and even the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles. This mod is said to be a lot
of fun, so let’s get straight to it. Now our
toons for today have taken over Bikini
Bottom… So let’s spawn SpongeBob here
– here he is, you see he looks a-maz-ing.
Look at this – aww, he’s so happy…
If you’re a parent, it might seem pre-
posterous. It might seem mind-numb-
ingly stupid. Not just that your child
wants to sit inside on a sunny Saturday
morning playing a video game. No.
58
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POPULARMECHANICS.COM/thevideoissue
Your child wants to sit inside on a
sunny Saturday morning and watch
a video of someone else playing a video
game. The first time you witness your
child doing this, you feel despair. Like
the apes really are going to rise up and
take over. Why, you ask your child,
do you spend your time doing this,
turning your brain to mush?
He looks up from the screen for less
than a second and says, “He’s funny.”
Funny is good. So you sit on the arm
of the couch for a minute to watch – to
make sure it’s okay. No bad language,
no inciting of illicit behaviour. And
there’s not. You sit there for a minute,
and then four minutes, and before you
know it you’ve slid down onto the
couch and watched the whole 12-min-
ute thing, you and your boy, on a
Saturday morning, post-pancakes.
This guy – this guy is quite amazing,
actually. He first appeared on You-
Tube as DanTDM in 2012, when he
posted a recording of himself playing
Minecraft, over which he spoke a
fairly humdrum narration. Today,
his videos show him playing other
games as well, but mostly Minecraft,
his 25-year-old boyish face almost
always appearing in the corner of the
screen, his running commentary now
lively and funny. He added a second
channel, MoreTDM, a regular vlog
of his life. He has a rubbery smile,
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
punky hair usually flopped over to one
side, and hole-in-the-lobe earrings.
Minecraft is all about constructing
things, buildings and landscapes, which
makes it better than your average
video game. But to DanTDM, all that
is a backdrop for his imagination, and
he uses it to design entire worlds in
which his imagination can live. He
invents characters and talks to them.
There’s a plot. People – parents, kids,
people who post videos of themselves
on YouTube – wonder how one guy
making Minecraft videos gets rich
and famous and goes on tour while
the thousands of other people who
make Minecraft videos don’t. It’s not
luck, really, or marketing or anything
like that. DanTDM tells stories.
“That’s when I initially got my
popularity boost, I guess,” Dan says
over the phone from his home in the
UK, a few weeks after the Connecticut
show. “I added that story element.”
And DanTDM is good at telling stories.
He’s Mister Rogers and Barney and
the Wild Kratts and the kid from
Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He’s a play-
wright and a cinematographer, a
director and an actor. And he is good
at all of these things. More than good.
He gets 19 million subscribers to sign
on to his YouTube channels and to
watch him do it every day. Twice a day,
when he’s not on tour. Dan records
Live for the story_
 WHAT
DanTDM
USES
and edits every video himself, a process
that can take between four and six
hours per video, including the ren-
dering. He has sponsors such as
Telltale Games and Disney, and he
has a new series on Red, YouTube’s
paid streaming service. Based on
YouTube views, his net worth has
been estimated as high as R230 mil-
lion, though that is unconfirmed.
At the end of the 12-minute video,
your kid pushes stop and looks up at
you like he’s got away with something
and he smiles and says, “Told you.”
YouTube, I GET ROBBED IN VR!!
Job Simulator, 15 012 009 views:
HEY EVERYOOONE! Dan here.
Welcome BACK into another video!
And today, as you can see, we will be
playing some more virtual-reality gaming
on the HTC Vive and you guys seemed
to absolutely love the previous Job
Simulator video so TODAY we’re going
to be playing a different job inside that
game. So without a further ado…
LET’S DO THIS!... Right then, so last
time we did… Gourmet Chef so I GUESS
we don’t need that one anymore. Ha
HA! Get out of here! Aaaand we’ve got
Office Worker an – oh geez, it’s back.
No! Stay away. Stay away. Uh, Store
Clerk or Auto Mechanic. Ooooo, I don’t
know which one to choose! I think Store
Clerk could be pretty fun… yep. Slushies,
check! Hot dogs, check! That sounds
Dan takes
the stage in
Jacksonville.
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good to me. Crank it! Crank it, if I can
grab the lever. Here we go. Oh my
goodness. OH. MY. Goodness. There’s
fireworks…
There is about an hour between the
meet-and-greet and show time. The
families who have been here since
11:15 – it’s 2 pm now – wander the
lobby. There’s a merchandise booth
selling T-shirts and posters and stuffed
pugs that resemble Dan’s. There’s a
full bar. Dads drink IPA. Kids eat
chicken tenders. There’s a new Toyota
Prius on display, and a man from
Toyota to tell you about it. Inside
the theatre, a mom says to another
mom, “What’s he gonna do?” The
other mom answers, “This is so… I
don’t know.” Lights in the shape of
diamonds are projected on the ceiling.
Seats are filling up.
“Without YouTube, would it have
happened in the same way? No, I
guess,” Dan says. “Because the cool
thing about media and the online world
nowadays is that anyone can do it.
Whereas I think through traditional
media, if you have something that you
want to create, you have to know the
right people and get a little bit lucky
as well. Not that you don’t have to get
lucky on YouTube, too, but everyone
has the same starting point.”
Driver Stream- Editing
capturing
software
software
Adobe
XSplit Premiere
It also means, of course, that because
anyone can do it, many people do it.
But whereas other Minecraft You-
Tubers review products or game fea-
tures, or do tutorials, Dan tells stories.
His videos don’t aspire to be useful.
They aspire to entertain. “I just like
to make fun videos, I guess,” he says.
On stage, he doesn’t play Minecraft.
He doesn’t play any video games. He
and two other players perform a
150-page scripted story about Dan
and his evil twin, Evil Dan, who has
trapped Dan in a virtual world and
imprisoned his pugs, so Dan must
escape back into the real world, also
enlisting his friend Eve and a dozen
or so kids from the audience at various
moments in the show. The joys of
living in the real world instead of a
digital world is the leitmotif – it
pleases the parents. (And it’s smart:
“We’re all trapped in the digital world,”
Dan says at one point. “It’s filled with
cat videos, and you have to dodge
comments about how much you
stink.”) The kids? They just love Dan.
They scream and cheer as he wrestles
with Evil Dan and eventually wins.
“We sold this idea of the live show
on pretty much nothing, really,” Dan
says. “They know that I’m going to be
there, but they don’t know what I’m
going to do. But then hopefully we do
blow them away with this really cool
show that does have gaming within it.
It captures kind of the magic of my
videos, too, but involves everyone in
a much more personal experience.
Which was my main goal: I wanted
to take that one limitation about my
videos, which is there’s always a screen
between me and my audience. I
wanted to take that out. And I
think we achieved that.”
On the way out, people wait in long
queues to buy merchandise. The rain
is gone for good and sun brightens the
lobby through the glass doors. Kids
hold their parents’ hands in the crowd.
Near the restrooms, a boy and his
dad stand against the wall, probably
waiting for the mom. The boy holds
an autographed picture of Dan. The
dad says, “So what’d you think?”
The boy smiles and nods his head
and says, “Yeah. Cool.”
A minute passes. Then the boy
looks up at his father and says, “This
is the best day of my life.” PM
Live for the story_
 TO SEE 3:15 IN THE PM OFFICE, GO TO POPULARMECHANICS.COM/thevideoissue

Dallas Paris
When Periscope debuted in 2015,
the livestreaming app marked the next
step forward for video – now it
wasn’t just easy to shoot, but easy to
share. Instantly. Two years later,
it’s mostly a spotlight for the would-be
stars of everyday life.

Periscope may be best known for disruptive Limerick, Ireland

guerrilla broadcasts of major events – the
2015 bout between Floyd Mayweather and
Manny Pacquiao, the 2016 US Congress
sit-in by House Democrats – but most of
the time, it’s trained on the utterly mundane.
On us, in other words. You launch the app. You browse
the list of live streams. You choose one, it loads, and you
are presented, more than likely, with the face of a stranger
going about their daily life. They might be playing the
drums, driving to work, or having a smoke. Utterly Tokyo
mundane and yet people still tap approval, sending
hearts bubbling up the side of the screen.
When you get your first glimpse into this stranger’s Tel Aviv, Israel
life, there is, without fail, a familiar exchange. On their
end, the app alerts them to your presence. Their eyes break
from what they’re doing and flit briefly over the screen
of their phone. They know nothing about you except that
you are watching; and for a fraction of a second, both
looking at your screens, you’re no further apart than
patients sharing a glance in a waiting room, or fellow
travellers stopped side by side at a red light. Technology
changes, but you’ve tapped into something as old as
humankind: we all want to be seen.
On Periscope, this is happening all the time, all
over the world. At 3:15 pm Eastern Standard Time on
Thursday, 15 June – a random time on a rather ordinary Istanbul Amsterdam
day – these are some of the lives you could see.

60 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 Houston

Seattle Reykjavik, Iceland

Greenville, North Carolina

Los Angeles

Avenches, Switzerland

Curitiba, Brazil

Toulouse, France
Oakland, California
The oven
HOW WE GOT THESE IMAGES At 3:15 pm Eastern Standard Time on 15 June,
the entire staff of Popular Mechanics logged on to Periscope to watch,
listen and talk to people around the world. When we took screenshots, the
app alerted the broadcasters. Most welcomed it. PM

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 61

 THE NEVER-ENDING
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Video has changed the way we learn how to build, repair and put things together. Vague
directions in 12 languages and not-to-scale drawings have been replaced by hundreds of video
guides for any job. The problem is, many of them are terrible. We searched for the best.

62 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

FIRST,
ALL-PURPOSE

QUICK HOME-REPAIR

SOME
ADVICE
FINE HOMEBUILDING

RULES
• Fine Homebuilding’s video library
Until very recently the joke was always about the foolhardy man who includes plenty of long, intimidating project
didn’t bother to read the instructions. Now, it’s about the plodding sap videos. But they’ve also got a supply of
video courage: The ‘Mastered in a Minute’
who does. When you can go on YouTube and find amateurs and profes- videos explain things like how to join PVC
sionals to walk you through just about anything, it’s hard not to wonder, pipe in just a minute or two; and, for stuff
why the bother? Well, there’s a catch with YouTube: it’s a howling wilder- you already know how to do, the ‘There’s a
Better Way’ series points out places you
ness of subject matter, where the competent, the incompetent, and the could be working more efficiently. BEST
outright dangerous vie for your attention. VIDEO How to frame a door opening
Allow us to blaze you a trail of useful videos. We’ve written, read and
THE USER’S MANUAL FOR
watched our share of technical information; and what we can say with THE HOME DEPOT
certainty is that technical instruction is tricky and video is no different.
HOME DEPOT
A good video is a gift. A bad video is less useful than a well-written expla-
nation accompanied by neatly drawn illustrations and proper photogra-
phy. So before throwing out your instruction manuals (if your tools still
come with them), consider these four rules for high-quality DIY video.

1 It’s not about the narrator; it’s

about the information he’s trying
to convey. Beware the Kardashianite
quiet, they probably don’t measure
twice. • All the subject matter expertise you’d
expect from The Home Depot is present in
their video library, which is well-organised
instructor, who is more interested in
you being interested in him than in
his subject matter.
4 It shouldn’t be 10 minutes of
rambling and guffaws before you
remember why you queued up the
in an online video hub. One nice feature:
for complicated jobs, there’s a separate
video. The objective should be stated ‘overview’ video that acquaints you with
the project before you dive in. BEST
2 Sometimes action is best viewed
from directly above. Other times
you want a front view, or an oblique
and addressed quickly.

ONE FINAL POINT: Just

VIDEO How to build a split rail fence

view. So multiple angles are best – so
long as they don’t include classics like
“your butt is in my way” or “I could
see it before you put your head in my
light”.
because a video is well produced SIMPLE SOLUTIONS TO
doesn’t mean its information is relia- CONFOUNDING PROBLEMS
ble. How do you know? Watch more LIFE HACKER
videos from the same source. Does
the host generally seem to know what
he’s talking about? Be suspicious of

3 Wind, traffic and barking dogs

drowning out instructions or tell-
tale auditory cues can destroy an
otherwise well-shot video’s usefulness.
And if someone can’t be bothered to
re-record their sound somewhere
anyone whose advice seems unsafe,
who contradicts the instructions of
a manufacturer, or who violates a
warranty or a building regulation.
Or, save yourself the trouble and
simply consult our list.

• The quest for hacks on this site, which

TO SEE A SUPERCUT OF THE BEST DIY VIDEO TIPS, GO TO POPULARMECHANICS.COM/thevideoissue covers everything in life, presents a

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 63

trade-off. On the one hand, you’ve got to
sift through a lot of stuff to find the videos
that you, specifically, need. On the other
hand, the videos are all short, simple and
useful. BEST VIDEO How to fix every
zipper issue
3 000+ MAJOR
APPLIANCE REPAIRS
REPAIR CLINIC
• On their YouTube channel – which is
easier to use than their clunky website
library – Repair Clinic’s videos are
organised first by type of appliance, then
by brand. So you can find a playlist of
possible repairs for, say, LG gas stoves.
That’s pretty helpful, given how differ-
ent configurations can be across brands.
As a bonus, several videos offer quick-
and-dirty explanations of how different
appliances work, which helps you figure
out what needs fixing in the first place.
BEST VIDEO Top reasons lawn mower
not self-propelling – Lawn mower trouble-
shooting
GET THE MOST OUT
OF YOUR CHAINSAW
STIHL
• The ‘Chainsaw Safety, Operation, and
Maintenance’ series is 11 videos long.
It’s a hefty investment to watch them
all, but if you’re about to embark on a
chainsaw-heavy task – clearing the
woods on a new parcel of land, say – it’s
a small price to pay for getting the most
out of one of the most useful – but also
most potentially dangerous – tools in
your arsenal. BEST VIDEO Chapter 9:
Limbing and bucking
64 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
THE JOBS THAT KEEP
YOUR HOUSE LOOKING
YOUNG
THIS OLD HOUSE
• The first show most of us ever watched
about how to make stuff around the
house is still an excellent resource, with
a vast YouTube library of videos, all of
them hosted by the guys you know and
trust, and produced with the easygoing
clarity of the show. BEST VIDEO How to
use a speed square
HOME RENOVATIONS
AND UPGRADES
TODAY’S HOMEOWNERS
• Contributing editor Joe Truini and the
team at Today’s Homeowner host a massive
library of videos covering jobs inside and
outside the house. There’s a transcript for
each video – handy when you’ve watched a
video, got to work and need to jog your
memory but can’t hear your smartphone
over your neighbour’s leaf blower. BEST
VIDEO How to screen in an existing porch
AUTOMOTIVE
HOW TO HAVE THE SEXIEST
CAR ON THE BLOCK (AND
KEEP IT RUNNING)
CHRISFIX
• There are two kinds of mechanics. To
one, you’re an illness that’s slowly killing
your car, and what they fix is just a symp-
tom. To the other, you’re a co-parent,
helping the car age with grace. ChrisFix is
the second kind. His videos go step by
step, and he explains his thinking
throughout, so you know why he loos-
ened a bolt now even though he doesn’t
remove it until later, or what’s at risk if
you don’t prop up a calliper while dealing
with the pads. And he’s got an enthusi-
ast’s sense of the less urgent jobs that
still matter: keeping the paint nice, mak-
ing the tyres shine. BEST VIDEO How to
remove paint scuffs on your car (paint
transfer)
PRACTICAL TIPS FROM AN
OLD-SCHOOL MECHANIC
SCOTTY KILMER
• DIY car repair with an emphasis on
finding the quickest, cheapest ways to
make repairs that will actually last.
(Kilmer’s distaste for expensive products
that aren’t worth the money is palpable.)
The camera work won’t win any awards,
but Kilmer is exuberant enough to hold
your attention from the burnout that
starts every video until the job is com-
plete. BEST VIDEO Getting a car running
that’s been sitting for years
COOKING
THE MOST PRECISE
COOKING TIPS EVER
AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN
• America’s Test Kitchen’s dogged
studies of kitchen quandaries reach peak
video form in their ‘Super Quick Video
Tips’ and ‘Learn to Cook’ series, both of
which offer crisply produced, characteris-
tically precise, heavily visual guides – the
former short and sweet, the latter more
expansive. Also worth a look are the ‘Ask
the Test Kitchen’ videos – they are essen-
tially Ask Roy, but for chefs. BEST VIDEO
The best way to sear a steak (hint: we use
a secret ingredient)
COMFORT FOOD:
THE VIRAL APPROACH
DELISH
• By now everyone is familiar with the
contagious 60-second recipe videos that
Delish traffics in (and perfectly executes).
They’ve also applied the same approach
to re-creating favourite store-bought
dishes and to trying alternative cooking
techniques, like making cinnamon rolls
over a campfire or microwaving omelettes
in mason jars. BEST VIDEO Skillet beer
cheese
COMFORT FOOD: THE
SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
SERIOUS EATS
• There are a ton of recipes and tips on
the Serious Eats YouTube channel, but
the main draw is The Food Lab, J Kenji
López-Alt’s science-driven consideration
of everything in the kitchen. If you
Google “How to <any common kitchen
conundrum>,” The Food Lab is usually
the top result. There’s a reason, and it’s
not just that their advice tastes good.
(That, too, though.) BEST VIDEO Why
you should add ping-pong balls to your
sous vide bath
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 65
BRIEF ANSWERS TO
ELECTRONICS COMMON TECH QUESTIONS
AND TECH TECHQUICKIE
HOW TO POP THE HOOD
OF YOUR SMARTPHONE
IFIXIT
• Fixing a slow computer is a lot more
complicated than fixing a slow drain –
there are infinite combinations of com-
puter makers, software installations,
memory configurations, etc. Which is why
Techquickie’s infinite scroll of explainers
• Fixing smartphones – the focus of of tech products, technologies and concepts
many of iFixit’s videos – requires a pretty is so useful. BEST VIDEO Routers vs
unconventional tool kit, including prying switches vs access points – and more
tools, suction cups and warming tubes
that soften adhesives. Luckily, iFixit sells
tool kits, and if you buy one it has a posi- MASONRY
tive side effect on your experience watch-
ing their videos: if you’ve bought from
them, you have exactly the same tools
EVERYTHING CONCRETE
they do. Your repair with your tools will QUIKRETE
look exactly like their repair with their
tools – which goes a long way towards
preventing mistakes. Pretty nice when
you’re working on the most indispensable
thing you own. BEST VIDEO How to:
Replace the front-facing camera and
sensor cable on your iPhone 7
LEARN TO USE SENSORS
AND MICROCONTROLLERS
SPARKFUN
• What Quikrete has assembled is an
exhaustive look at all the things you’d
conceivably be interested in doing with
concrete and masonry. BEST VIDEO
How to resurface concrete
PAINTING
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
PAINTING A HOUSE
HOW TO PAINT A HOUSE
RIGHT
• More how than how-to, SparkFun’s
‘Adventures in Science’ video series
explains concepts such as voltage, current
and batteries – things you need to under-
stand to find your way through any elec-
tronics project. Then there are videos
covering the basic tools you’ll need to
master, including classics such as the mul-
timeter and a standard of modern DIY
electronics: Arduino microcontrollers. • Professional house painter and memoir-
BEST VIDEO How to use a power supply ist (of house painting) John Burbidge’s
videos are split between tips and exhaus-
tive series on interior and exterior work.
Before you repaint your living room, settle
in for the interior painting series, which is
full of useful procedural tips, including the
best explanation of how to get a neatly
painted seam between contrasting walls
and ceilings we’ve ever seen. Also, two
words: spackle ghost. BEST VIDEO
Making a spackle ghost
PROJECTS
EVERYTHING,
MADE FROM WOOD
MAKE SOMETHING
• An aptly named woodworking channel:
projects include the expected (table legs),
the unexpected (classic wooden record
boxes), and the whimsical (a wood TV
remote). BEST VIDEO Let’s make some
classic-style wood record crates
FURNISH YOUR HOUSE
WITH PLYWOOD AND
CONCRETE
HOMEMADE MODERN
• Ben Uyeda started his primarily ply-
wood-and-concrete projects after a friend
complained about how difficult it is to
make affordable furniture. Uyeda’s pro-
jects have a distinctive aesthetic and can
be quite involved, but if you’re into the
simple, clean look of modern furniture,
it’s hard to beat achieving it with two of
the most affordable building materials
available. BEST VIDEO Wine bar with
concrete countertop
66 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
MODERN ELECTRONICS
MEET CLASSIC SHOP
SKILLS
I LIKE TO MAKE STUFF
• In addition to woodworking, ILTMS is
a repository of stuff to make with new
standards such as 3D printers, CNC
machines and Arduinos. There’s
also a strong strain of nerd: sections on
props and costumes and arcade projects.
BEST VIDEO How to automate your dust
collection with an Arduino
PLUMBING
PLUMBING BASICS
HOWCAST PLUMBING
• Howcast’s small library of plumbing
videos, hosted by master plumber John
Wood, are beautifully simple. On a plain
set, Wood uses whiteboard diagrams and
representative parts, rather than demon-
strating on a random sink that may be
nothing like yours. BEST VIDEO How to
fix a kitchen sink
WELDING
WELDING INSTRUCTION
FOR EVERY SKILL LEVEL
WELD.COM
• Though some of the videos can be a bit
dry, the sheer volume and depth of the
content available on Weld.com’s YouTube
channel makes it worthwhile – and they
put up a new video every Monday and
Friday (at a minimum). BEST VIDEO
Aluminium welding for beginners
WOODWORKING
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR
GARAGE WOODSHOP
THE WOOD WHISPERER
• Aside from excellent technique and
project videos, Marc Spagnuolo – who
during his time hosting The Wood
Whisperer moved from one home work-
shop to another – has a handful of videos
on offbeat but useful topics, like what
should be in a woodworker’s first-aid kit
and what he learnt from the location
swap. BEST VIDEO A moving experience
WOODSHOP FOR
BEGINNERS
WOODWORKING FOR MERE
MORTALS
• For a one-man show, Steve Ramsey’s
videos are among the best produced we’ve
seen. He uses clear narration over the
right footage: close-ups, process shots, the
occasional joke. His ‘Woodworking Basics’
and ‘The ABC’s of Woodworking’ videos
help you get started, and more advanced
tips – not to mention a huge library of
projects – get you the practice needed to
advance your skills. No matter where you
start, you’ll never feel out of your depth.
BEST VIDEO How to cut bevels and
angles | B is for bevel PM
 THE
QUI
Z
Will your video go viral?
Add up the points after each answer and use the key below to find your score.

1. Do you have a Daredevils with no 11. Do you have 17. Take a second to
YouTube channel? fear of heights (75) children? watch your video.
Yes (1) Hundreds of prison- Yes (2) Did you laugh?
No (0) ers willing to dance No (2) Yes (3)
in unison (100) No (–2)
2. One with more James Corden (150) 12. Are you opposed to
than 10 million exploiting them? 18. Has anyone in-
subscribers? 6. Is there a surprise Yes (–5) volved in the making
Yes (100) ending? No (5) of your video proudly
No (0) Yes (10) said, “This is gonna
No (0) 13. Have they just come go viral”?
3. What about a out of a medical Yes (−5)
Reddit ID? 7. A celebrity procedure? No (0)
Yes (1) appearance? Yes (5) Um, of course they
No (0) Yes (15) No (5) did. We all did. It
No (0) can’t miss. (−500)
4. Are you Casey 14. Are they still a little
Neistat? 8. Is it Bieber? Please sedated?
Yes (100) say it’s Bieber. Yes (5) KEY
No (0) Yes (50) No (0)
No, but I do have the No (0) 5 or fewer points:
same Ray-Bans (1) No, but it’s Adele (75) 15. Have you lost or Your video will not go
viral.
gained a great deal
5. Which of the follow- 9. Are you a of weight and taken
ing does your video newscaster? a picture of yourself 6 to 50:
include? Yes (5) every day as you
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY GLUEKIT

You could always get

Sneezing babies (1) No (0) did so? lucky and strike a chord
Sneezing animals (2) Yes (10) with people on Reddit.
Earnest speeches (−5) 10. One who has a hard No (0)
Slow-mo shots (15) time determining
More than 51:
A wedding (−5) when the camera 16. Can you beatbox? Make sure you
Casey Neistat (25) is off? Yes (2) negotiate with Google
Heartfelt admissions of Yes (15) No (0) before signing anything.
love or wrongdoing (−10) No (0)

SHARE THE VIEW WITH A

CANON CONNECTED CAMERA Live for the story_
68 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
 Casey Neistat sold his video news-sharing
app to CNN for R325 million. He’s not a
journalist, he just wants to show billions of
­viewers what’s going on in the world.

Cool?

Interview by Matthew Belloni

Photographs by Danny Clinch

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 69

 A few kilometres downtown
from the shiny headquarters of
CNN Worldwide in Manhattan
sits a grimy warehouse space
housing a start-up company
called Beme. PLEASE DO NOT
RING THE BELL UNLESS YOU
HAVE OFFICIAL BUSINESS
HERE, reads a handwritten
note taped above the buzzer,
because all kinds of adorers
show up here with cameras
looking for Casey Neistat, the
square-jawed YouTube star
turned media entrepreneur
who cofounded Beme and
whose 7,5 million subscribers
and 1,5 billion video views
convinced CNN to pay a
reported R325 million last
year for his company. Neistat
is a 36-year-old high-school
dropout who had a child at
17, bounced around the art
and advertising worlds, landed
a quickly cancelled HBO diary
show in 2008, and, finally,
gained a rabid following (“high
engagement”, in digital-media-
speak) for his cheeky and
well-produced YouTube videos
explaining such topics as when
to use the emergency brake
on the New York City subway
and how to take a shower in
the first-class cabin of a trans-
atlantic flight.
Before selling to CNN, Beme
had created a Snapchat-like able to figure out what young photography, and video. The not interesting for us. So we
social media app that was people want to watch and how app is another way you can built a digital product, an app,
becoming popular. After the they want to watch it than consume that. They’re not that people can download, that
purchase, CNN shut it down. anyone in the glass tower at how we’re approaching the we populate with subject lines
It didn’t want the app. It want- CNN. He may represent one marriage between technology all the time – an individual
ed Neistat and his team to of the last hopes to save tele- and media. And the best exam- subject line that we might be
figure out the future of news. vision news from itself. ple I can give to you right now talking about on our news
Even as cable executives feast is an app we’ve made called show. And then everybody
on the ratings and profits of Thursday, 2 pm. Neistat offers Panels. Where Fox News or who owns that app sees that.
the Trump phenomenon, they a compressed green juice and CNN or MSNBC would want [Yells] Hey, Jack? You have
see the terrifying trends: the pulls up a chair at a schoolyard to take a topic with a diverse the latest build of Panels on
average CNN viewer is 60 (Fox table in the centre of a sparse number of opinions and per- your phone?
News’ is older); people are communal work space. spectives around it, they would A T-shirted 20-something
watching their phones, not Popular Mechanics: So why throw it to a group of older, appears with an iPhone that
their TVs; and when they do did CNN spend so much typically men, wearing suits, shows people sharing video
watch, they increasingly don’t money on your company? who sort of pontificate around opinions on news of the day.
trust what they see. Casey Neistat [chuckling]: that point. Jack: These are the, like,
Neistat, who rides a skate- CNN’s a media company and PM: Right. The panels. topic questions.
board to work and wears back- they have tremendous tech- CN: It’s always the same peo- Jack clicks on a subject titled
wards caps, is seen as better nology. But all that technology ple. There’s a reason why that’s “McGregor-Floyd Mayweather
does is further disseminate become institutionalised: be- Fight” and a video of a young
their media. Written, print, cause it’s effective. But that’s man appears.

70 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017


Video: I’ve been trying to
make a bet in the office for the
Conor McGregor-Floyd May-
weather fight…  I have $200
on McGregor…  nobody’s taken
the bet yet…  so my question
is… who would you have your
money on, for this fight?
CN: So, it’s right to the next one.
A shadowed military-looking
dude with a high-and-tight
haircut appears.
Video: Probably Mayweather,
because he’s the master of not
getting hit. But if he gets hit…  who those people are on
CN: And then we have – there’s
a poll you can take. So all of
a sudden, this isn’t about con-
sumption. Once we send this
out publicly, if we’re getting
tens of thousands or hundreds
of thousands of downloads –
which I think we can do – we’re
able to crowdsource subject
matter around news that not
just informs the way that we
report on it, but informs how
and what we’re sharing to peo-
ple who otherwise feel largely
ignored. Because those middle-
aged people you see wearing
suits on TV – I have no rela-
tionship with them! They look
like my uncle, who I don’t un-
derstand, who has bad breath.
PM: So you consider that
a news product?
CN: I mean, I don’t really know
what a news product is. I’m a
high-school dropout, not a
journalist. But to me, the prob-
lem we’re trying to solve here
is, you have an entire demo-
graphic that’s consuming
media at a higher rate than
any time in history, and you
have an entire demographic
that’s further disenfranchised
with the news and media and
politics and the things that
actually affect the world around
them – arguably greater than
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 71
they’ve ever been disenfran-
chised in history. How do we
address those two issues?
Whether you call it a news
product or not, it’s exciting.
PM: But for better or worse,
CNN is professionally pro-
duced journalism. When you
see Anderson Cooper on
TV, there’s a team of pro-
fessionals behind him, and
there’s 20 years of his ex-
perience presenting you
with the facts. I don’t know
your app.
CN: Sure, but no one’s present-
ing those people as journalists
– the same way one wouldn’t
present the eight panellists
behind Anderson Cooper.
PM: But they’ve been vet-
ted, at least. The question
is: do young people care
about whether they’re get-
ting news from Cooper or
the people on your app?
CN: Well, they’re not getting it
from Anderson Cooper, so that
should answer your question.
PM: Right.
CN: What’s the average age
of the CNN viewer? You
know the answer.
PM: I see your point: they’re
already not, so why not
give them something that
they are interested in?
CN: We don’t consider those
contributors journalists any
more than someone would
consider Kellyanne Conway a
journalist. She’s a contributor
WHAT • Panasonic Lumix
DC-GH5 4K mirrorless
CASEY camera
• Sony Cyber-shot
USES
DSC-RX100 V 20.1
MP digital still camera
offering her perspective on a
matter. Now, the news that we
present from our team is news
that’s backed and researched
by experienced, extremely well-
versed journalists who are
sitting downstairs right now
researching our next story.
PM: So, what is the plan
for your journalism?
CN: I still haven’t answered
your larger question of why me.
PM: Right. Keep that going.
CN: Yeah, no problem. So, I
think what my daily [YouTube]
show – which is 800 episodes
in – has demonstrated is an
ability to connect with an
audience around a range of
topics, from very personal
issues to a tongue-in-cheek
technology review to some-
thing more serious. And the
reason people are engaged
with the content I make is
’cause they’re invested in me
as an individual.
PM: You’re compelling.
When you’re in that airplane
shower, it’s fun to watch.
CN [pauses]: Thank you.
PM: That sounded weird.
CN: Yeah, superw –
PM: When you hear that
you’re the future of news,
how do you feel?
CN: Well I’ve never said that.
PM: But others say it
about you.
CN: I push back against that.
Aggressively. We’re certainly
not trying to be the future of
news. I think that’s a horrible
North Star to go after. We’re
trying to build a YouTube
with 75 mm OLED
• Sony a7S II
ILCE7SM2/B 12.2 MP
E-mount camera with
full-frame sensor
• Canon EOS 70D
channel that people might
like. So if you want my cover
story tagline, it’s “Beme News:
Trying to build a YouTube
channel that people might
like.” Because that’s how we’re
building this.
PM: Who is your audience?
CN: It’s the YouTube genera-
tion, which I think is every-
thing from 13- to 34-year-olds
who don’t watch television. My
son doesn’t watch television.
I didn’t know I had cable till
my wife told me.
PM: But you’re not 25,
you’re 36.
CN: That’s exactly right, so
that spectrum –
PM: I’m 40, are we the
same generation or are
we not?
CN: We’re definitely not.
PM: Only because I’m
wearing a jacket?
CN: That’s right, and I have on
two T-shirts. No, but I think
the spectrum of consumers
and viewers is growing – it’s
getting wider, faster. And it’s
not just kids. But like, my 19-
year-old son, who’s come home
from his second year in college.
I’m like, “Who watches – ?”
And he’s like, “Dad, nobody
watches TV.” “Okay, but at
college, you guys have – ” “No-
body has TVs.” “So how do
you – ” “We use our laptops.”
“What do you watch?” He’s
like, “YouTube.” “What about
– ” He says, “Sometimes we
use whoever’s roommate’s
parents’ Netflix account.” And
I say, “What about news?” And
he’s like, “I dunno.” “Where do
you get news?” “I dunno.”
“Where do you personally get
your news?” And he’s like,
“Twitter and Facebook and
Google News.” And I’m like,
digital SLR camera with
18–135 mm STM lens
• Canon PowerShot
G7 X 9546B001 digital
camera
• Samsung Gear 360
 “Okay, CNN?” He’s like, “I
dunno.” “What do they think
about CNN?” He’s like, “That’s
fake news.” “Okay, why do they
think that?” And he’s like [exas-
perated voice], “I dunno, Dad.”
It’s this disengagement with
what you and I would define
as both media and news and
all that – it’s not even on their
radar. And I don’t mean to
generalise and I don’t mean to
stereotype, but the only thing
I have to look at as an example
is my own experience. I put
one show on HBO. Nobody
watches it. Critically acclaimed!
Nobody watches it. I put that
same exact show on YouTube,
and it gets 4 million views in
a day. A day, not a week, a day.
Seven days a week, 31 days a
month. That was the numbers
my daily show did before I
ended season one.
PM: What makes some-
thing viral?
CN: Well, if you know the an-
swer to that question, I’ll write
you a cheque for the recipe.
PM: But you know better
than I do.
CN: I do. I do. But I’ve still had
more misses than hits when
it comes to virality. I think
that there’s a great mythology
around virality. But I prefer to
talk about engagement instead
of virality, ’cause I think it’s
impossible to predict what
“viral” actually means. Or how
to accomplish viral. But I think
when it comes to like, how do
you build something that’s of
tremendous engagement, that
does get shared – is by sharing
something with people they
didn’t otherwise already know.
And I think when it comes to
news, the opportunity to share
with people things that they
don’t already know is great.
But then you have to combine
that with a medium of distri-
bution that is palatable.
PM: What does that mean?
CN: It’s like, if you really care
about a first-class seat on Em-
irates, you go to Emirates.com
and see what that seat looks
72 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
like, but you don’t give a
sh*t, you’re not going to look
at that. But you see a video
of a guy who doesn’t really
like caviar with his hat on
backwards who’s just as
excited as you might be in
that position and all of a
sudden it’s palatable, it’s fun.
Take me along on that ride!
PM: That’s just production
value. That’s quality.
CN: Sure. I keep reminding
our team downstairs – we’re
not making documentaries,
this isn’t talking-head jour-
nalism. We’re making YouTube
videos; they need to be dyna-
mic. They need to be fast-mov-
ing, they need to be engaging.
They need to be honest and
they need to be straightfor-
ward. We cannot bullsh*t this
audience. They will find that
bullsh*t from a mile away and
they will destroy you for it.
And I think you can apply that
formula to what we’re doing
in the news. I do think we’re
gonna hit on stories that are
going to be such wild moments
of “I wish I’d known that,”
presented in such a way that
is engaging and palatable that
they will have the potential to
go way beyond our core audi-
ence. And that’s what virality is.
PM: What do you make of
the fake news debate?
CN: I think it’s frustrating. I
remember the first time I
heard the term “fake news”, I
put my hands over my face and
I was like, “There is no end.”
PM: Anyone can weaponise
that term.
CN: That’s right. You can paint
anything with that stroke. I
mean obviously, I think any-
one who’s really spent any
time thinking about it objec-
tively defines “fake news” as
non-factual information that
is intentionally presented as
fact. You have discerning
audiences, like you and I sit-
ting here both know that false
information presented as fact,
that’s fake and that’s fake news.
But maybe [for other people]
it’s news you don’t like. Maybe
it’s news you disagree with.
Maybe it’s an opinion. And I
think that that knows no end,
and I think it’s very, very
dangerous.
PM: So does what you’re
doing help or hurt that
problem? Is it more honest,
or is it more susceptible?
CN: If labelling “fake” is a way
of dismissing news, the way
we want to avoid that alto-
gether is to always have it be
personality-driven content. I
look at Anderson Cooper, I
have a relationship with this
guy, I trust him. Jake [Tapper]
– I don’t always agree with
what he’s saying, but I have a
relationship with him through
the screen and I trust him. And
that’s why 48 per cent of my
audience hated it when I said
I was going to be voting for
Hillary Clinton instead of
Donald Trump. But they knew
me, and they trusted me and
they liked me and they were
like, “Okay, that’s his opinion.
Doesn’t make him wrong, even
though I completely disagree
with this guy and he’s a jerk
for not doing what I’m doing.”
– nobody called that fake. So
what we’re trying to do is really
make it about the people
delivering the information.
PM: How would you
describe the politics of
what you’re doing?
CN: We have no political agen-
da. To the point where, like,
honestly, of all the news taking
place in the world, politics is
not at the top of our list. It’s
just not. When I think about
what this audience is really
curious about, it’s not those
topline things that every single
[cable news network] is always
talking about, one of the same
four things. There’s a fatigue
on that. And I think that the
audience that might turn to
us is gonna turn to us ’cause
they’re sick of that. And if
they’re not sick of that, they
just want some clarity. “Can
you just explain to me what
the hell they’re talking about?”
Yes, we can. We’re gonna be
like, “There’s something else
happening that you should
also know about. Did you know
there’s a state of emergency
in Nevada right now ’cause
they’re out of weed?”
PM: Some say that we’ve
gone from having different
kinds of media in a big
shared ecosystem – some
liberal, some conservative,
some respected, some not
– to, because of social
media, you select your own
media, your own message
that you want to get. All
that does is reinforce your
existing worldview. Do
you agree?
CN: Yeah. And I think it’s
extremely dangerous. Nothing
underscores the danger of a

bubble more than the Facebook
news feed. A lot of really smart
people that I know get the
majority of their understand-
ing of what’s taking place in
the world from their Facebook
news feed. And there’ve been
myriad studies – BuzzFeed did
a fantastic one – where all they
did was like conservative pages
and dislike liberal pages. And
what that manifested to over
the course of 12 days was truly
terrifying. It went so far to
the extreme right.
PM: But how do you coun-
ter that? People have a
natural tendency –
CN: I’m part of that problem!
When somebody posts some-
thing that supports an issue
that I don’t agree with, I dislike
it, or I X it out and it disappears.
I don’t have to deal with it
again. I change the channel. I
think the fact that technology
has turned that into some-
thing that is scalable is scary.
PM: So, media in ten years.
Will cable news exist as it
does now? The panels
every night?
CN: The change in the world
of media is going to happen
at an exponential rate. If you
look at what’s taken place in
retail in the last five years, I
think we are about to hit that
inflection point. When I see my
dad watching news on his cell-
phone at 65, I know change is
about to happen. I expect a ho-
mogenisation in consumption.
What that means is, there’s no
longer going to be loyalty to
Fox News or MSNBC, there’s
no longer going to be a loyalty
to Netflix or YouTube or Hulu
or Amazon. “This is the device!
On this device I watch media,
and I don’t really care where it
comes from!” If I were the CEO
of a big media company that
would scare the sh*t out of me.
PM: Do you consider your-
self a journalist now?
CN: Absolutely not. I will never
wear that hat because I know
my role in this world. I hope to
present news in an objective,
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 73
factual, highly engaging way
but –
PM: That’s actually the
definition of a journalist.
CN: Right, but the only reason
why I’ll be able to do that is
because of the people I’ve
surrounded myself with. Not
because of my own intelligence
or capability.
PM: Printing press, radio,
TV, internet, podcasts,
social media, apps.
What’s next?
CN: The ubiquity of high-def-
inition video cameras is going
to change the way news is
covered to a degree that
neither you nor I could sit
here and guess.
PM: Right. If cameras are
everywhere, what is media?
CN: That’s exactly right. The
answer to that is how you are
able to compartmentalise and
then communicate what those
cameras everywhere are cap-
turing and seeing.
PM: All right, I think that’s
all I need.
CN: I feel like I didn’t give
you anything!
PM: What else do you want
to give me?
CN: Something we could talk
about a little bit more is the
understanding of my audience
that I was sort of forced to
learn and understand because
of 800 videos and a billion and
a half views on YouTube. When
I think of the fact that people
travel from around the world
to sit outside my office in the
hopes of getting a selfie with
me and people crying when
they meet me because of my
vlog and me just scratching
my head, like, what does this
mean? And why? And then
you look at the relationship
that people have with a Brad
Pitt and you understand the
difference between those two.
Brad Pitt is a god-like figure,
who’s not like me. But this You-
Tuber, who’s huge, is exactly
like me. And why does that
happen? I’m not sure I know
the answer, but I think there’s
T he
Ca s ey
N eist at
an accessibility with Internet P rim e r
fame and Internet presence
and that accessibility does not
exist on cable news. That acces-
sibility does not exist in Holly-
wood. And it’s that accessibility
‘Make it count’
that I hope to bring to news, 1
Nike hired him to
that will further the audience’s
make a commercial
– it’s very important – this very
called ‘Make It
disenfranchised audience – I
Count’. Instead he
hope that they will find a rela-
and a friend flew
tionship there that is as pro-
around the world.
found as the relationship that
Which is kind of
they might have with a vlogger.
the same thing.
Or another YouTuber. Because
if that divide can be bridged, I
think that there’s a huge oppor-
tunity there to create a dialogue
with an audience that right
now feels like they don’t have 2
‘Her water broke’
The world’s best
a relationship with news at all. vlogger vlogs his
PM: It reminds me of the
daughter’s birth.
relationship people had
(Not the actual
with Jon Stewart. He was
birth.)
not a journalist, but what
he told his audience, they
believed.
CN: Right. And even when
people would disagree with ‘Do what you
him, they still loved him. I 3 can’t’
think John Oliver’s doing a Neistat’s entire
kick-ass job with that right worldview in three
now. I think that they’re very minutes and 52
smart to release the block [of seconds. Classify
the show] that they show on- under: inspiration-
line. I know that’s why my al autobiography.
peers have respect for what
he’s doing, ’cause Monday
morning, they’re sitting on media. Because there used to
their cellphones watching be only three channels. So,
what he said and then shar- what do you want to consume?
ing that out. Screw you, it doesn’t matter,
PM: They’re also not pay- you got three choices. And then
ing $14 a month though when I was a kid, we had 28
to get it. channels. More specifically, we
CN: Sure. But it’s not my had Nickelodeon and MTV –
problem. that was it. You gotta watch
PM: There’s just so much their sh*tty commercials, be-
out there now. Cutting cause the only thing on is Real
through the clutter is World season 4. That’s it. I’ll
the win. watch your stupid commercials.
CN: We are inundated with Now that’s not the case any-
content. We’re staring at more. I don’t wanna watch it?
screens 70 per cent of our I don’t watch it. And that’s
waking lives. And it’s left us certainly the case with news.
with this opportunity to really So how do we make content
dial in on what do we want to that people actually want to
consume and what do we not watch? Well, let’s give them
want to consume. That’s a very people that they care about.
scary place for traditional You can start with me.
 SOME OF SA’S biggest
YouTubers – think Caspar
Lee, gaming geek Grant
Hinds and action man Chris
Rogers – have gone abroad to
really make their bucks. We
sat down with local YouTube
star Moyin Oloruntuba to
find out how she is trying to
change the way that money
is made in South Africa’s
YouTube space.
NIGERIAN-BORN Oloruntuba,
26, is based in Cape Town
and hosts the A1 channel,
an entertainment and pop
culture news portal with more
than 7 000 subscribers.
The A1 channel went up in
October 2015 and since then
Oloruntuba has been working
hard to create quality content,
and make money from it.
“I was blogging at first,
primarily about African fash-
ion, but I didn’t really enjoy
writing,” says Oloruntuba.
“Through my blogging I got
in contact with quite a few
entertainment industry people
and found myself getting

74 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 to make myself a better pre-
senter and build a portfolio,
so if opportunities in the
entertainment industry came
up I could show people what
I have done.”
From day one, the A1
channel did not compromise
on quality. Regardless of a lack
of resources, A1 has always
looked like a professional TV
production. “I’ve always been
really great at creating visuals.
I can’t watch a bad production
so I can never create one. I
spend countless hours editing
my work,” she says.
When she isn’t working on
her channel, Oloruntuba uses
these skills to create visuals
for websites and brands. In
the South African economic
landscape, a YouTube channel
alone cannot pay the bills.
“People, including some of
our big brands, think that
having many subscribers is
the marker for a YouTube
channel’s success. This isn’t
necessarily true. Reaching ten
thousand subscribers means
that you get your own URL;
it doesn’t always mean more
money,” Oloruntuba explains.
“Money is made through
views. A view is 13 seconds
long. The amount you can
make from a view is dependent
Globally, YouTubers are coining it. on ads, the type of audience
your channel attracts and if
Big money can be made from people are watching the ads
all the way to the end.”
YouTube ads and the more hits The average amount of
money YouTube pays for
and subscribers, the better. 1 000 views is 10 cents, so
with a million views a month
she could earn R10 000. “If I
By Lumka Nofemele worked entirely on my own
and kept my expenses low,
Photographs by Retha Ferguson while managing to achieve
that monthly amount of views,
I could somewhat live off
YouTube.”
A million views a month is
invited to industry events. I sense for her to try this space. nothing to some international
decided to start filming these Oloruntuba doesn’t only use YouTubers, but in South Africa
experiences and interviewing YouTube to post her videos, it is an exception, not the
people that I knew at these but has also used the platform norm. A channel’s monthly
events.” She has always loved to perfect her craft. “I learnt view count is unpredictable,
watching TV and YouTube how to properly shoot and which leads to an unpredict-
videos – Zoella and Caspar Lee edit by watching YouTube able salary. This is why You-
are favourites – so it made videos. I started the channel Tubers collaborate with brands
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 75
to make profits off their
channels.
“The US has far more adver-
tisers than we do and YouTube
fame is easier. That fame often
leads to book deals, TV shows
or working with major publi-
cations. Here, doing campaigns
with brands is our bread and
butter, but brands don’t always
want to pay content creators
or they don’t understand how
a campaign can work for
both parties.”
Oloruntuba found great
success in her recent collabo-
ration with Burger King. She
wants to do more though,
to teach brands the value
of YouTubers and teach her
fellow content creators how
to approach brands.
“Hosting events where
brands and content producers
meet and discuss the way
forward is one of the projects
I am working on. Brands think
working with a YouTuber is
a risk. I want to show them
that this is not the case; I want
to show them the opportuni-
ties that can come from work-
ing with me or other You-
Tubers,” Oloruntuba says. “I
need to teach them that pay-
ing people in product instead
of money is counterproductive
and make them see the hard
work and time that goes into
creating YouTube videos.”
Even though Oloruntuba
has faced her challenges, she
is having fun. “At the mall
the other day, I was in the
bathroom and a young lady
walked up to and asked if I
have a YouTube channel. I’d
never been recognised like
that before.”
Now that she’s developing
a loyal fanbase, does that
mean it’s time to leave the
Internet and get a hosting
job on TV?
“I would never leave the
A1 for a TV opportunity. I
would have to do both. We’re
thinking of branching out to
doing A1 sports and a vlog
called A1 life. I could not
possibly leave the movement
that I have started.” PM
YO U R G U I D E
TO V I DEO’S
NEW EST
I N DISPENSA BLE
TOOL

D R O N E S

76 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

OPENING THOUGHT
WHY YOU NEED A DRONE
(AND WHEN YOU DON’T)
BY D E V I N S U P E R T R A M P
Occupation: Daredevil YouTuber
Number of subscribers: 4,6 million
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 77
IN 2009, I DROPPED OUT OF MY LAST YEAR OF FILM SCHOOL to pursue the whole
YouTube thing. Back then, drones weren’t a thing. It just wasn’t an option.
But around 2012, a friend I met through social media was hooking up his
Canon cameras and even his RED cameras to drones, shooting high-quality
video. Building your own gigantic rig like that came at a price, but for me,
the result was worth it. We were creating shots that no one had seen
before. Now, that thing is accessible. So accessible. I don’t travel anywhere
without one.
But I’ve found that drones can be a crutch. Even a couple of years ago, I
was still so excited by the technology that I was falling away from the
actual narrative. I was relying too much on that type of footage and it
wasn’t connecting with the audience. That started hurting our videos. I was
jumping in too fast and forgetting to capture the story we were trying to
tell. So I took time to learn how to use the footage, how to balance it with
our other footage. Because, in all our videos, I want to show as many per-
spectives as possible. Drones give us that. They’re part of our storytelling.
 W H ICH DRON E DO I
B U
YOU: Have at least 1 000
subscribers to your
YouTube channel. Or want
to get there.
A DJI MAVIC PRO
Six-kilometre range, 27 min-
utes of flight time, three-axis
stabilisation, and, most impor-
tant for anyone serious about
video, a 4K camera. All in a
drone that folds down to 20
centimetres long by 7,5 wide,
so you’ll actually take it with
you. From R20 000, wefix.co.za
78 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
U
U
U Y
YOU: Have your union card,
or otherwise shoot movies
involving actors, directors
and craft services.
B DJI INSPIRE 2
When you hear about a Bond
movie being filmed on a drone,
it’s probably with one of these.
The Inspire 2 shoots in cine-
ma-grade 5.2K resolution, and
can go from zero to 80 km/h in
five seconds. Plan on having
at least two operators – one to
fly it, one to aim the camera at
the talent. From R60 100,
ormsdirect.co.za
A
YOU: Live the #vanlife and
want to show off some
outdoor majesty.
C
C GOPRO KARMA
Simple to fly and doesn’t
require a smartphone to oper-
ate. Bonus for adventure
types: The included GoPro
HERO5 camera and handheld
gimbal are detachable.
R22 000, ormsdirect.co.za

EVERETT
STARTING FROM
ZERO?
Parrot Mambo
The Mambo handles like a
full-size drone, so you can
learn flight controls, but it’s
tough and cheap enough that
you won’t care if you crash
it. Which you will. R2 000,
outdoorwarehouse.co.za
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 79
TH E DRON E
Q
Q
F A Q
Q
Everything else you need to know.
Should I get Yes. If your drone doesn’t have them, start with propeller
accessories? guards. They can be the difference between gently
Which ones? bumping into a tree or a catastrophic (and expensive)
crash. If you’re going to remote locations, extra batteries
mean more flight time and footage per outing. You prob-
ably don’t need extra micro SD cards for storage. A
16-gigabyte card will hold about 45 minutes of 4K
footage, which will outlast two full batteries on most
drones.
Do pro movie- Yes, usually high-end models like the DJI Inspire 2. The
makers really Wolf of Wall Street, Jurassic World and Captain America:
use drones? Civil War all have scenes shot on drones. It’s much
cheaper than renting a helicopter.
Can my neighbour No. We generally don’t encourage vigilante justice,
shoot down my especially in this case. It’s explicitly illegal to shoot or
drone if I fly onto sabotage any aircraft, which includes the drone you
his property? bought at iStore.
How bad is water As with most consumer electronics, a bit of water won’t
for a drone? kill a drone, but if it starts raining, bring it back. Drones
have exposed circuitry and will die if they get too wet.
How fast do The Teal Sport Racer will go 135 km/h, but most
drones go? recreational models top out at around 65.
What do I do if I For chipped propellers or landing gear,
crash it? buy and replace them yourself. If the camera
gimbal or body is damaged, get quotes from
independent, manufacturer-certified repair shops. They
don’t all honour warranties, but shipping to relatively
accessible repair places may be faster than sending a
drone back to the manufacturer. PM
 THE NEW

C
C
T E C
C H
What makes a 2017 drone better than a 2016 drone,
starring the impossibly tiny DJI Spark.

COMPACTNESS AUTOPILOT
Folding propellers mean You’re watching your
that instead of carrying a drone’s feed on your
backpack the size of an phone. See that rock ridge
oil drum, you stash your across the valley in front of
drone in a jacket pocket you? Tap on it. The drone
or camera bag. flies there, no joystick use
required. Wave your hands
to tell it to focus on you as
you climb.

HIGH
RESOLUTION
New TVs, monitors and
laptops start at 4K resolu- AUTOMATIC BRAKING
tion. If you want to shoot New drones use a combination
future-proof video, modern of GPS data, proximity sensors,
drones are up to the same and software to prevent crashes.
standards. Look for non- Those systems have gotten
4K drones like the Spark much better. Yes, they’re still
to get upgraded soon. fallible, and crashes happen,
but now, you can be sure that
when you tell your drone to
return, it’ll go around the patch
of Douglas firs instead of
DRONE VOCABULARY: THE GIMBAL Without that rig attaching the camera to the hull, through them.
drone footage would be unwatchable shaking. The gimbal’s small motor senses aberrations from
the horizon in three axes – pitch, roll and yaw, as on an aeroplane – and shifts equally in the opposite
direction, keeping the camera steady so you get beautiful, turbulence-free video. You can find bigger,
more expensive versions of the same basic mechanism guiding the thrust on SpaceX rockets.

80 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

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DRIVING

FRANKFURT FAVOURITES
SOME BIG NAMES WERE MISSING FROM IAA 2017, BUT STILL THE CROWDS
PACKED THE 11 HALLS AT FRANKFURT’S BIENNIAL CARFEST.

The Garmin Connect app on my iPhone shows that I walked 21 990 ASPARK OWL
steps on September 13th. That’s the date of the opening Press Day of the
Claimed to be the world’s fastest
Frankfurt Motor Show. Free advice: don’t wear new shoes on Day 1.
EV, the Aspark Owl (don’t ask) is a
(My luggage arrived a day late, so I had no alternative but to cobble
Japanese carbon-fibre hypercar with an
together a substitute wardrobe at the local equivalent of Edgars).
electric drivetrain that produces around
Frankfurt is generally regarded as the biggest show of its kind. Even
1 000 horsepower (750 kilowatts).
though some big names were absent – Peugeot Citroën, Nissan, Fiat
According to the designer, it will be capable
Chrysler – those present provided enough eye candy to keep the punt-
of 0 to 100 km/h in under two seconds.
ers coming through the turnstiles. What was particularly fascinating
The car was making its first showing at
for me this year was that I finally had the opportunity to experience
Frankfurt, though it has been in the
the public viewing days. Usually we stay for only the first two
making for three years.
media days. I’d been warned to expect crowds.
The warning was accurate.
This show report is less about trying to cover
all the hot new releases and concepts; rather,
it’s about 10 of the exhibits that made me stop
and stare and wonder for a while.

82 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 BMW I VISION DYNAMICS
Besides the eyeball-rolling use of lower-case nomenclature, and besides being yet
another example of the fashionable four-door coupé format, this concept is said to
herald a future just a few years off. With a range of 600 km, a top speed over 200 km/h
and 0-100 acceleration in four seconds, this BMW is said to combine electric mobility
with the company’s core values of dynamism and elegance. Take that, Tesla.

MERCEDES-BENZ PROJECT ONE

Formula 1 tech draped in road-car
clothing as a street legal two-seater
is the principle behind the Mercedes-AMG
Project One two-seater hybrid drivetrain
“hypercar”. Its turbo V6 engine derived
from the Mercedes-AMG W06 Formula 1
racer slots into a sleek two-seater chassis.
In addition to this, electric motors drive both
front wheels, another provides rear traction,
and a fourth powers the turbocharger. Total
output is 1 086 horsepower (810 kW). The
price is expected to be around R35 million
for this limited-edition model, which will
reach buyers in 2019.

AUDI A8
It actually got its first outing in the new Spider-Man
movie, but the Frankfurt public got its first sight of
the A8 in the metal. As befits the world’s first level 3
autonomous driving car, it has a futuristic cabin that does
away with most controls and switches.

BORGWARD ISABELLA
Having generated a loyal following for its classic
sedans and coupés of the 1950s and 1960s, the
resurgent Stuttgart-based company acquired Chinese
input. Headlining the impressive-looking vehicles on
its stand were the four-door four-seater Isabella coupé
concept. The classic name is borrowed from a striking
1950s car, but looks to the future with electric drive-
train and dramatic styling. Also on the stand were the
BX7 and BX5 SUVs. Having sold 70 000 vehicles in
China, Borgward is poised to start sales in Germany.
It’s planning to start up a factory in Bremen, where it
all started for Borgward, and by 2020 aims to deliver
800 000 cars a year. Going forward, its focus will be
on electric vehicles.

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 83

DRIVING

HYUNDAI KONA
Named after a Hawaiian region, Kona
– sister car to the Kia Stonic – is
based on the company’s all-new B-SUV
compact platform. Its raised seating and
ride height are part of an innovative
design, which includes a split floor that
boosts cabin space by avoiding that intru-
sive central tunnel (even with the optional
four-wheel drive), while the compact inde-
pendent rear suspension similarly means
more space inside. The running gear is said
to have been designed to suit European
conditions. Says Hyundai vice chairman
Euisun Chung, “With the Kona, we have
created a stylish and highly functional
compact SUV, perfectly suited to the needs
of customers who pursue challenging,
action-filled lifestyles.”

RENAULT SYMBIOZ
Future Mobility got plenty of atten-
tion from the Frankfurt organisers,
with a special section dedicated to the
theme – but compared with the wall-to-
wall humanity gawking over the more
current-day offerings in the main halls,
the mobility of tomorrow seemingly holds
less interest. For now, anyway.
Still, Renault’s vision of the future of
mobility is the Symbioz concept. Apart
RENAULT DUSTER from its sleek lines it also is meant to show
Mainly because our kids in Gauteng love their Duster, but aren’t oblivious to its how we needn’t separate cars from our eve-
faults, I lingered a bit over its replacement at Renault Group’s Dacia stand. Designer ryday. The lounge-like interior features big
Laurens van den Acker talks of a more driver-oriented approach. Outwardly, the 2018 screens and four armchair-style swivelling
model looks much the same as current ones, but on the inside there have been whole- seats; it’s autonomously driven, of course,
sale changes in response to complaints about the interior design. The awkwardly posi- with electric drivetrain. In fact, when
tioned touchscreen has been updated parked it will actually be part of your home,
and given to a more ergonomic location, connected to your smart home devices.
the dashboard looks better finished, Although focused on 2030, it features
there are more storage cubbies, an design cues already in use on current cars.
additional air vent and the powered Elsewhere at the show there was plenty
window switches are moved to the of evidence of creative approaches to inte-
doors (which have a more upmarket rior design to take into account the move
trim). Seats have been redesigned to towards self-driving cars. Particularly
make them more comfortable. The interesting was the Recaro exhibit, where
details don’t sound like much, but we got to speak to their top industrial
taken together they add up to a greater designer about what we can expect – we’ll
perceived quality. bring you that story next month.

84 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 THERE'S WONDERFUL.
and then there's weird.
Away from the showcase halls, where the
big motor manufacturers put on all the
razzmatazz that showgoers have come to
expect, you’ll find speciality exhibits. Smaller
niche manufacturers. Customisers. Tuners.
And often, just plain weirdness.

JAGUAR E-PACE 1
Some manufacturers are all about all-wheel drive (think Audi quattro, unless
you are talking about the R8 RWS) or rear-wheel drive (BMW M5, unless
you are talking about the new AWD model). Rear-drive – and lately, AWD – is
part of Jaguar’s sporting pedigree, so it’s a little disconcerting that the entry
level version of the E-Pace is FWD. Still, in terms of hot hatch meets SUV you
don’t get much better than this mini F-Pace. It’s big enough for five plus luggage.

VW T-ROC
The all-new VW T-ROC crossover is based on the Polo and takes aim at the
likes of the Renault Captur and Toyota C-HR. The car fills a yawning gap 4
below the Tiguan, which is priced out of reach of many who are looking to enter
the compact SUV market. Drivetrains and features are what you’d expect from 1: Totally restored
VW, but there is one thing that sets the T-Roc apart from its competitors, name- Brabus Classic 280 SL
ly that it’s the company’s first vehicle of this type with contrasting roof section. Pagoda costs R4,8
Although significantly smaller than the Tiguan, like its bigger sibling it is based million.
on the VW's MQB platform. That said, despite its compact exterior it is surpris- 2: E-taxi with swap-
ingly spacious. pable battery pack.
Powertrains are likely to be the familiar ones from the Golf range, including 3: PAL-V Liberty
petrols and diesels, with 6-speed manual gearbox and the option of DSG double “helicar”.
4: Russia’s Avrora
clutch automatic transmission. Drive to the front wheels will be standard across
Mars robot tank.
the range, though high-end models will benefit from 4MOTION all-wheel drive.
5: Cockpit of PAL-V’s
5
Popular Mechanics was hosted at IAA by Mercedes-Benz. “helicar”.

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 85

 DRIVING
RIP. SNORTING. FUN.
We get to drive the Mercedes-AMG GT
family in Germany
After two days of
trudging the halls
at the Frankfurt Motor
Show, it seemed like a good
idea to actually get behind the
wheel of a car, hit the back
roads and blow out a few cob-
webs. Let’s do this the sensible
way, I suggested: start with an
entry level model. That way, we
acclimatise to driving on the
other side of the road.
Now, it’s one thing (and
quite correct) to refer to the
Mercedes-AMG GT as an entry
level model. It’s another thing
entirely when you sit down and
think about the sheer num-
bers: 4,0-litre V8 biturbo
engine, 350 kW peak power
and 630 N.m peak torque.
Having choked on that, try
these other numbers: top
speed 304 km/h and 0-100
km/h in 4,0 seconds.
Not that you’d have any suc-
cess getting much beyond 200,
never mind 300, on the clut-
tered autobahn that we briefly
jumped on to a few minutes
later. Ditto the easy-on-the-eye
AMG GT
86 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
countryside, criss-crossed by
uncomfortably narrow B-roads,
on the drive from Paderborn –
where Nixdorf computers once
reigned – to where the GT’s big
brother R waited at the Bilster
Berg track an hour’s drive
away.
But there are several more
strings to the GT bow. The suc-
cessor to the gullwing-door
SLS that was the first in-house
production from Merc’s AMG
performance arm now encom-
passes a total of eight models.
That range includes four coupés
and two roadsters plus two
customer sport racing cars, the
GT3 and GT4.
My co-pilot and I got hands-
on with the coupé, the roadster
and the golden anniversary
GTC Edition 50, as well (of
course) as the R, current fast-
est production road sports car
around the Nurburgring at 7
minutes 11 seconds. Apart
from the engine outputs, rang-
The Mercedes-AMG GT family
Road cars: 4-litre V8 biturbo with AMG Speedshift DCT 7-speed
transmission. GT (350 kW, 630 N.m); GT S (384 kW, 670 N.m);
GT C 410 kW, 680 N.m); GT R 430 kW, 700 N.m)
GT3: 6,3-litre normally aspirated V8 with electrohydraulic
sequential six-speed racing transmission,
GT4: 4,0-litre direct injection V8 with twin turbochargers.
Sequential six-speed racing transmission. Depending on balance
of performance classification, up to 375 kW and more than 600 N.m
ing from 350 to 430 kW, there are pretty much guaranteed a
are also various versions of memorable drive. Common to
engine mapping, suspension all of them is a ride that’s firm
and aerodynamics available. without being harsh and a
But there is a technical soundtrack that just screams
strength that all have in com- out for the Loud button. (I’ll
mon, says AMG product man- apologise publicly here for hav-
ager Axel Wollesen: ing flipped the switch that
• Front mid-engine concept turns the exhaust note from a
with dual clutch transaxle at menacing rumble to a thunder-
the rear ing drumbeat that made the
• Racing suspension with alu- residents of Lichtenau’s eyes
minium double wishbone pop and got us the thumbs-up
• Active optimisation of aero- from at least one little boy.)
dynamics The thing is, the sights and
• Intelligent lightweight design sounds and feel of the GT
• Highly dynamic driving expe- make you always aware that
rience this is very much a sports car,
• 231 kg aluminium space- without making it hell on
frame body. wheels after a few minutes.
It’s safe to say that no mat- That’s even true of the road-
ter what version of the front- ster, top down or up. It took a
mid-engined GT you pick, you while, in fact, before I realised
that the open-topped model
felt every bit as stiff over
bumps and in cornering as its
coupé sibling. There wasn’t
even the typical extravagant
shimmy through the steering
wheel to indicate the inherent
compromise you’d expect in
body rigidity. Score one for
the rigidity inherent to Merc’s
oft-touted aluminium-rich
Intelligent Lightweight Design.
The old-school front-engine
rear-drive layout means that
the view out the front involves
a lot of bonnet. Some drivers
prefer to be perched more over
the front wheels, as with mid-
or rear-mounted engines. I’m a
little torn: there’s something
deeply satisfying about a car
that makes no concessions
about being a big, powerful
grand tourer, finish and klaar.
Yet, as it danced nimbly from
switchback to switchback out
on the roads, or flicked
through some testing left-
rights on the track, there’s no
question of this car’s agility.
On the track, a first outing
on a surface still damp after
rain meant taking things even
more cautiously than I would
normally have on a completely
unknown circuit. Even so, get-
ting too enthusiastically on the
accelerator to exit the sharp
right-hander on top of the pit
NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 87
straight resulted in a heart-
stopping tail-out slide that
called on the best efforts of
traction control, the GT R’s
rear-wheel-steering and my
reflexes.
By afternoon, though, things
had dried out. That’s when the
R’s fantastic balance of power,
agility and grip came into its
own. It’s a blend that rewards
skilled drivers by rising to the
occasion, responding to well-
Pre-GT R briefing at Bilster Berg.
schooled inputs and, when nec-
essary, dipping into clearly
deep reserves to provide on-
demand massive thrust and
neck-straining braking, time
and again. It just never felt like
you needed to back off, to let
things calm down. As if it was
meant for this scenario.
I could see that this was
exactly how things were play-
ing out up ahead, as the two
cars leading our three-car train
dived into corners, sizzled
through them and rocketed
away from me into a lead, only Blasting through the countryside.
to have to trundle a few hill-
crests away to allow me to
catch up. No excuses, but just
for the record, my skill levels
are not quite up to those of our
lead driver, multiple DTM
champion Bernd Schneider…
Capion
AMG GT line-up now eight strong.
Even top-down, roadster feels solid.
DRIVING
THE MAKING OF A FAST SUV
Porsche’s new Cayenne has some innovative technology under-
pinning its spicier new driving dynamics. Lindsey Schutters takes
a look under the skin.
The new Cayenne is the fastest
phone you can drive in. Seriously.
Porsche went to the trouble of
developing a voice assistant with help
from Nuance and the car can stream
Amazon Prime Music. The company devel-
oped its own navigation and maps service
with market-dependent partners such as
Navi and TomTom and you can specify
your Cayenne with an embedded SIM. Of
course, there’s also online radio streaming
on board and compatibility with podcast
apps like Stitcher.
But unlike a regular mobile phone, any
planned future features won’t arrive via
over-the-air software updates. You need
to choose your features carefully, for that
decision dictates which configuration of
the modular quad-core processor your
vehicle comes with. Oh, and those mid-
2018 upgrades are hardware-based, so
wait until those features are released
before buying a new Cayenne. You just
won’t get them if you don’t.
This flies in the face of current industry
trends, spearheaded by the likes of Tesla
and Volvo, whereby you can gain new fea-
88 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
tures overnight, assuming of course that
your car is connected to your home Wi-Fi
network. Volvo XC90 owners with all the
Pilot Assist hardware installed, for instance,
gained semi-autonomous drive up to
135 km/h – up from the original 35 km/h
– in one such OTA update. Even Ford cus-
tomers with SYNC 3 installed gained basic
Apple Carplay and Android Auto powers
without needing to visit a dealer.
But this is about the new Cayenne. At
the heart of the Porsche system is the
modular electronic control unit. There
are four separate processors: one for
each family of electronic services. When
you specify your car – in particular, the
driver assistance systems and features –
it determines which processors get added
to the ECU. This model works well for
the economics of car assembly and gives
Porsche a lot of wiggle room to evolve the
product as technology gets better, but
leaves the customer exposed to obsoles-
cence. It’s a problem that Porsche shares On a damp day and on "summer" tyres,
with Tesla, where later models of the same the Cayenne made short work of clam-
car will gain extra features as the under- bering up an intimidating rock face.
pinning hardware gets more advanced,
 ONE APP TO
RULE IT ALL
Porsche’s proprietary
OneConnect app does all
the things you’d expect
from a connected smart-
phone application. You
can set routes that will
sync with the car’s navi-
gation system either
automagically by con-
necting your Outlook
calendar or in the maps
section of the app.
There’s also self park,
which allows you to line
up the car with a tight
parking space, hop out
and execute the final
manoeuvre remotely. In
the cabin, you’re greeted
by a 12,3-inch display in
the centre of the dash
and two 7-inch screens
behind the steering
wheel.

WINGS OF CHANGE the related iOS software solutions. These

Adding to better braking and general stability
is an active rear spoiler. When you take the
Cayenne above 160 km/h, the spoiler lifts by
20 mm to increase downforce. If you’ve selected
the Sport+ driving mode or drive above 180 km/h,
it raises to 40 mm (60 mm if the sunroof is open
to compensate for the windscreen). Above
250 km/h, the spoiler drops to just below 40 mm
again as the benefits of added downforce are
outweighed by the added drag. When stopping
from these incredibly high speeds, the spoiler
tilts up to create an air brake that can shorten
stopping distances by up to two metres.
even within the same model year. keyless entry in the future.
Don’t worry, though. Porsche didn’t go Porsche’s user interface is elegant and
full crazy with the building a drivable seems easy enough to master, but the
smartphone idea. Stuttgart reached out to larger question is whether it is in the best
Cupertino when it wanted to cosy up to a interests of the manufacturer to spend all
smartphone maker and the iPhone inte- that time and effort of setting up servers
gration runs quite deep. The OneConnect and developing software when most cus-
application, for example, uses TouchID tomers will simply plug in their iPhone
for authentication and makes use of 3D and use Apple’s solution. Google’s
Touch shortcuts. There’s also an Apple Assistant and related services are already
Watch complication and the engineers did an essential part of the modern techno-
let slip that TouchID could be used for logical experience, the same with Siri and
are mature ecosystems built on a founda-
tion of at least a decade of research and
development. So let’s rather focus on the
things the new Cayenne really excels at.
SOMETHING OLD
Gone is the double wishbone front sus-
pension and, in its place, a new multilink
system built with an aluminium sub-frame.
Porsche’s engineers have simultaneously
shed 65 kg of weight and dramatically
improved the driving dynamics while
also removing vibration from wheel
imbalances. Around back is the vintage
multilink set-up, but now forged alumin-
ium links alongside lighter steel links.
Rear-wheel steering was the key factor
behind the shift to this new configuration.
Well that and the off-the-shelf design
Porsche received through its involvement
in the larger Volkswagen group. The new
chassis design is almost identical to that
of Audi’s reimagined Q7. Granted, that
was an evolution of Porsche’s own 918
rear axle. Rear axle steering in this
instance, however, is used to help make
the SUV more drivable in lower speed

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 89

DRIVING

Above: a closer look at the electromechanical roll stabiliser

reveals the pivot motor powered by the orange cabling of the 48 V
system. Right: the PSCB's tungsten-carbide coating has a mirror
finish that supposedly won't corrode over time.

situations. The system works only up to
about 80 km/h and reduces the turning
circle to 11,5 m from the original 12,1 m.
The craziest thing, though, is that this
wheel movement is achieved through the
flex of the rubber bushings on input from
electromechanical actuators, as there is
no actual steering rack.
SOMETHING NEW
To complement the rear-wheel bias in
power delivery (front wheels are powered
on-demand), the new Cayenne now comes
with mixed tyres. The rubber on the larger
new wheels comes in 255/55 and 275/50
for the 19-inch and 285/40 and 315/35 for
the 21-inch option. This shift is inspired by
Porsche’s experience with sports cars and
is said to increase comfort as well.
On stopping duty, however, is a world-
first Porsche Surface Coated Brake (PSCB).
At its core the new brake disc is still cast
iron, but now with a heat-applied tung-
sten-carbide coating. The new coating is
significantly harder than cast iron and
offers 30 per cent longer service life. It’s
mated to specifically developed pads and
the combination is said to also significantly
reduce brake dust. You can still specify
Porsche’s acclaimed ceramic composite
brakes, but this new development offers
comparable improvements to stopping at
a cheaper price point.
splits the anti-roll bar in two, joined
by a pivot motor which will spin the
two in opposite directions depend-
ing on roll angle. Decoupling the
anti-roll bar is then just a matter
of allowing the mechanism to
freewheel.
SOMETHING BLUE
Weight savings in the body construc-
tion were achieved through using more
aluminium than ever before alongside
boron-alloyed steel. Aluminium use is
actually up to 47 per cent, with even quite special with its new Cayenne, a true
greater use forecast should safer cars bring SUV that is as capable on the road as it is
about changes to legislation around body off it. Whether it’s enough to compete
structure. Up to 135 kg was shed in total with Range Rover’s new Velar and similar
over the previous generation. Increased SUV offerings reaching our market in
use of aluminium also means new produc- 2018 remains to be seen. The only cer-
tion methods, one of which is the six- tainty is the Stuttgart-based company’s
stage press method to produce the side commitment to engineering some of the
panel from a single sheet of metal. There finest motorcars on the planet.
is only one manufacturer in the world that
could accommodate this request. Below: This suspension is almost
In all, Porsche has achieved something identical to that found on the Audi Q7.

SOMETHING BORROWED
Dipping into the Q7 parts bin also gains
the Cayenne the benefit of excellent elec-
tromechanical roll stabilisation. The three-
stage planetary gearbox at the heart of
the system is driven by an electric motor
powered by the 48 V system, allowing for
anti-roll bar torsional rigidity adjustments
within milliseconds. This design effectively

90 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 The modular quad-core
processing unit uses one
processor per suspension
or body control system.
Below left: Porsche's new
gearbox design runs the
front axle half shaft through
the housing. Below right:
strategic use of hot and
cold formed steel make for
a very rigid body. Note that
the side panel is one piece.

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 91

DRIVING
SHOW AND TELL
NEW FORD KUGA 2017
As if trying to repair the reputational
damage done by the Kuga fiasco wasn’t
tough enough, now Ford has to convince
a sceptical public to buy a new model. In
an effort to combine the two, the cars
involved in the new model’s launch last
month – around 250 of them – are being
made available to customers to use as
courtesy cars while their own Kugas
undergo Phase 2 of the recall implemented
as a result of a fire hazard identified in
the 1,6-litre EcoBoost model. And other
complimentary awards are in the pipeline,
new Ford SA managing director Casper
Kruger told us at the Eastern Cape
launch. This is all a conscious decision
following “some good, old-fashioned soul-
searching and service commitment”,
Kruger says.
It’s a brave decision to retain
the Kuga name for the third-
generation version, though the
guilty model is omitted from
the 2017 line-up. Restyled
inside and out for 2017 to fall
in line with the new corporate
face found in the latest Ranger/
Everest and EcoSport models,
the Kuga comes in seven
derivatives.
“Some of our customers have
definitely lost faith in the brand,”
Kruger agreed. “But what I can
tell you is the Ford team has
been working tirelessly to
regain the trust of our custom-
ers. As you may know, the Kuga
92 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017
1,6-litre EcoBoost recall was announced
in two phases in January, 2017. Phase
one managed a 93 per cent success rate in
finding all the owners of the Kuga model
concerned and implementing the neces-
sary repairs. The balance could be put down
to factors such as cross-border movement
and write-offs, he says. “Every finance
institution, local authority and other third
parties were commissioned to obtain
contact details of every one of those out-
standing owners.”
He emphasised the importance of find-
ing all the errant vehicles and getting
them to a Ford dealer as soon as possible.
“Phase 2 was introduced in July 2017 and
we are at 62 per cent completion. This
process is quite different from Phase 1:
REPORT
JUST THE FACTS
ENGINE 1,5-litre petrol, 2,0-litre petrol,
2,0-litre diesel turbo
OUTPUTS IN KW 177 (2,0 petrol)
DRIVE FWD (1,5) AWD (2,0)
PRICE R368 800 to R506 900
we have asked our customers to make an
appointment with our dealers and have
seen a much better reaction this way. (It)
allows our dealers to be more organised
this time around.”
Part of this Phase 2 strategy was to
fundamentally change the way the com-
pany does business, he says. The result
is an initiative called White Glove.
“Customers can expect high-level direc-
tion changes from Ford SA in the way
we will conduct business in the future
by formulating a fresh new
approach – and mindset –
towards sales and marketing
strategies,” he says.
So how do they move on
from here? “Well, real commit-
ment, for starters, to the White
Glove process,” Kruger explains.
“A real change in direction is par-
amount – to become more cus-
tomer-centric in the way we’ll
be doing business in the future.
In other words, this is a global
brand promise to create the
correct mindset from the Ford
team and remember the cus-
tomer must be looked after at
all costs. We as a company need
to do better.” – DAV E FA L L PM
BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

94 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 95

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

96 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

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NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 97

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

98 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

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NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 99

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

100 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 101

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

102 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: popbuyersguide@ramsaymedia.co.za

NOVEMBER 2017 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 103

DO IT YOUR WAY / USEFUL, CLEVER TIPS FOR YOUR HOME WIN
WINNING TIP SEND US YOUR HINT
– AND SCORE!
TEAM EFFORT
After recently purchasing our home, which is quite old, my wife and I have started to do Send us your tip and you could win a
renovations. During this time we have discovered two handy tricks. Masterlock hamper worth R2 000,
Firstly, I decided to clean out the debris in the outside drains. After lifting the first grating consisting of:
I was confronted by a medium-depth hole and a few delightful spiders and insects. Not Masterlock Select Access key lock box
wanting to get a possible bite on the hand I scouted around for something of suitable length with weather-resistant shutter door, extra-
to clear out the mess, as the garden spade was too big. Scratching in the garage produced large storage compartment and set-your-
own combination. Wallmountable; mounting
our previous dog’s pooper scooper, the kind that has a jaw that opens and closes by
kit included.
means of pulling on the handle. The drains were cleared out in good time with no dirty
Indoor or outdoor mini bungees 80 cm x
hands, bites or tetanus. 80 cm, in a four-pack.
The second trick was figured out by my wife. After each day of painting, she would Excel Weatherproof Padlock featuring
spend a lot of time cleaning all the brushes and rollers in preparation for the following tough cut octagonal boron carbide shackle
day’s painting. To avoid the clean-ups, she merely ensured that the brushes and rollers 50 % harder than hardened steel, dual armour
were still saturated in paint, placed them into ziplock bags and squeezed the air out. The construction with laminated steel core and
next day they were still wet and ready to go again immediately, without clumps or weather-resistant cover, plus covered keyway
excess water to make the paint runny, as we are using water-based paint. and shackle seals. Dual ball bearing locking
ROB AND JOLINE NEWCOMB and 4-pin cylinder for maximum pry and
PIETERMARITZBURG pick resistance respectively.
Spin dial combination lock with durable
48 mm wide metal body and hardened steel
shackle.
20 mm brass combination lock 3 mm
SAWBENCH LORE brass-plated steel shackle fits most
Keeping my sawbench clean has been much luggage zips.
easier thanks to a short length of half-round Fusion coloured padlock features tough
PVC guttering. I mounted gutter brackets 44 mm wide zinc-plated lock body with handy
at one end of the table to hold the gutter front access keyway.
loosely. Sawdust and other mess can be
easily swept into the gutter, which tips –
without spilling – into the bin.
Secondly, I always use a sacrificial board
on top of the saw bed. I move it sideways
slightly to prevent burring on the underside
if I want a clean cut. The Perspex pointer
(pictured) is used to level the bed. It fits on
in place of the blade.
MICHAEL HAMILTON
OUT, DAMNED SPOT NEW GERMANY
The saying about old English cars and motor- PM
bikes, “If there is no oil underneath, there
is no oil inside,” is very true. As the owner
of a 1950 MG TD, I can attest to oil stains
being an issue.
I have used various cleaning agents over
the years. Then, this morning, I tried some
good South African-made Flight hand-cleaner
on my open-face brick driveway. As I applied
it, the stain immediately released and could
be easily hosed off. I used an old toothbrush, Send your tips to:
PM Do It Your Way, Box 180, Howard
but it will probably work fine applying it with
Place 7450, or e-mail popularmechanics
a small cloth or your finger.
@ramsaymedia.co.za. Please include
I thought about sharing this only after your name, address and contact number.
seeing how well it worked. The bricks shown Regrettably, only South African residents
were by far the worst affected and now the are eligible for the prize. Prizes not
stains are virtually invisible. claimed within 60 days will be forfeited.
IAN BESWICK
ALBERTON

RESERVATION OF COPYRIGHT
The publishers of Popular Mechanics reserve all rights of reproduction or broadcasting of feature articles and factual data appearing in this journal under Section 12 (7) of the Copyright Act,
1978. Such reproduction or broadcasting may be authorised only by the publishers of Popular Mechanics. Published by RamsayMedia for the Proprietors, Popular Mechanics, 36 Old Mill Rd,
Ndabeni, Western Cape. Distributed by RNA, 12 Nobel St, Industria West, Johannesburg, and printed by CTP Web, 12-14 Boompies Street, Parow, Cape Town. Apple Mac support: Digicape
tel 021 674-5000.

104 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ NOVEMBER 2017

 .. . .
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