We’re the first to admit we’re pretty spoilt when it comes to high-end audio products at Stuff Towers. We’re fortunate enough to get to test the very best in audio gear, which means mid-range (and mid-priced) headphones often leave us, well, whelmed at best. But, with the Hesh 2 Wireless cans from Skullcandy, we’ve found a reasonably priced pair of Bluetooth headphones we actually want. Hurrah! The jewel in the crown of Skullcandy’s headphone lineup, the Hesh 2 Wireless headphones offer comfort, uncharacteristically understated styling and — the most important thing where headphones are concerned — solid, well-balanced audio reproduction.…
Author: CraigWilson
Legendary entrepreneur, angel investor, Dragon’s Den South Africa judge and all-round nice guy Vinny Lingham is in South Africa this week and Stuff magazine’s editor Toby Shapshak got a chance to sit down with him and talk about the startup scene in South Africa, what local entrepreneurs get wrong (and right) and how good investing is more like bookmaking than gambling. Shapshak’s previous interviewed Lingham for the Mail & Guardian’s annual 200 Young South Africans list, calling him “a man as irrepressibly optimistic as he is irrepressible”. He also cornered him in Austin, Texas at 2013’s SXSW conference for an…
Korean electronics giant Samsung today unveiled the latest iteration of its phablet-with-a-stylus handset, the Galaxy Note 5 and the enlarged version of it’s S6 Edge device, the S6 Edge+, at a flashy event in New York City’s Lincoln Centre. That’s another point to the rumour mill, which was (as we’ve come to expect) spot on in its predictions. But today’s announcements, despite the fanfare, weren’t really about hardware. The real story lies in the accompanying software. The official story As expected, the Note 5 takes its design cues from the S6 and S6 Edge, with a metal unibody design that…
As you’d expect, Samsung’s launch event for the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 was a lavish and meticulously coordinated affair. Hosted at New York’s Lincoln Center (that’s how they spell it here) on a warm and slightly humid summer’s day, the event was a high-speed run-through of the the two new device’s specs and features. As always at these sorts of events, a bevy of young, enthusiastic faces were on hand to show journalists and other attendees the new devices in the, err, metal once the 45-minute presentation had wrapped up. Here’s what it looked like:
Despite the Apple Watch not yet being available via official channels in South Africa, Absa Bank has launched an Apple Watch app that allows customers to view their account balances and account limits. In doing so, it’s pipped rival Standard Bank to the post. Standard Bank announced in June that it is testing its own Apple Watch app, which will be available to customers in September. Absa parent company Barclays is currently running its own smartwatch app trial in the UK and Absa says its app is modelled on Barclays. While the Barclays app is also limited to checking balances at…
South African’s are, by and… umm… large, giving Americans a run for their money when it comes to tipping the scales in the wrong direction. Two thirds of adults in the US are overweight or obese, and in South Africa, that figure is 61% and growing. Companies like Fitbit are trying to change that, by harnessing our self-centredness, our urge to compete, our need for approval and, if all else fails, our guilt. Eric Friedman, CTO and cofounder of Fitbit, speaking at the Discovery Vitality Summit in Johannesburg on Thursday, says the inspiration for Fitbit’s devices came from an odd…
Discovery Vitality already offers its members Vitality points in exchange for sharing their fitness data from a range of fitness-tracking apps and devices. Now it’s added Samsung’s new S Health 4.0 app that’s available on the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge handsets (and no doubt on the rumoured, forthcoming Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus devices) and that can also collect data from Samsung’s Gear range of wearables. In order to earn Vitality Points, users need to download the Discovery app for Android or iOS and link it to their S Health app. Users that log between 5,000 and 7,499 steps a day…
To show off its data-processing muscle (and, presumable, because it likes cycling) Dimension Data has put trackers on the saddles of riders in this year’s Tour de France. With the race a little over the halfway mark, Dimension Data has released a summary of the statistics gleaned from processing and analysing the data coming from the riders for the first 11 stages of the race. Some of the insights plucked from the data include the following: The highest speed in the first 11 stages was 109.08km/h by Lars Boom during the third stage at the 144km mark. This was followed by…
Have you got the script for the next Lion King in your desk drawer? If so, Cape Town’s Triggerfish Animation Studios newly established Story Lab could be just the thing to take your idea from the drawing board to the screen. Triggerfish has secured the support of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Walt Disney Company and raised more than R40 million to help African storytellers and filmmakers develop their scripts and, potentially, turn them into international animated series or feature films. Story Lab will offer funding and access to an international network of mentors. Applications aren’t limited to screenwriters and…
Telkom has announced four new aggressively priced, SIM-only mobile packages called SmartPhone plans that are available from today. This follows its recently announced voice bundles and cuts to its prepaid mobile data rates. “These new plans give Telkom customers more choice as well as three times the value,” says Attila Vitai, Telkom’s MD for consumer and mobile services. The SmartPhone Basic package costs R50 and gives customers 150MB of data, 150 SMSs, and 150 voice minutes (50 minutes for Telkom mobile calls, 50 minutes for Telkom fixed-line calls and 50 minutes for calls to any network). Each of the new plans can also…