Author: Brett Venter

It’s almost the time when you’re supposed to put down the festive cheer, avoid looking at the scale, and start shopping around for a basic notebook for the kids to take to school. Acer’s Aspire Lite 14 would like to have a word, especially if you’re all about sticking to the schoolwork. Okay, and maybe a few episodes of whatever is currently trending among the younger set. Plastic rectangle Picture a laptop emoji in your head. No, not on an iPhone. Android. A mid-range phone with a 720p screen. Got it? That’s exactly what the Acer Aspire Lite 14 looks…

Some folks have all the money. Correspondingly, they have no need for gifts. That’s why the luxury gift category was created. If they’ve already got everything, then it’s time to think outside the box and hand over something that makes no sense in a household that occasionally rules out certain meals because they’re “too expensive”. If you’re one of the luxury types, we’re not mad at you. We are, however, somewhat envious, if only because you can seriously consider handing over one (or more) of the items on this list to your loved ones. And if this handful of premium…

It’s often difficult to determine what constitutes ‘budget’ technology. Tech is, by its very nature, pricey to purchase unless you’re buying older stuff. Even then, go too far back and suddenly it’s “vintage” and “expensive”. That’s the explanation for why vinyl LPs cost as much as they do. Bloody hipsters, always mucking things up for the rest of us. Ahem. We’ve chosen to define budget, in this case, as ‘under R2,000’. More specifically, budget means ‘under or as close to R1,000 as possible while remaining awesome. You’ll find the options in Stuff’s print Gift Guide a little pricier than this…

Can you smell that? The tang of salt in the air, the scent of freedom over the horizon, the glorious odour of fresh ink directly from the printers? That smells like Stuff’s annual Wish List issue, now in stores everywhere. For many of you, that’ll be at or close to your holiday destinations this year. For us… it’s pretty much the same thing. We’re not physically writing this from a beach getaway but mentally we’re there already.  Why? Because we took the tips we offered everyone else in our Wish List spectacular seriously and finished all of our Festive Season…

NASA’s Artemis missions will mark the space agency’s first manned return to the lunar surface since 1972 but that return will have to wait. The American space agency’s most recent update provided new dates for both the Artemis II and III missions that were supposed to put boots on lunar regolith. It shouldn’t be surprising that the news included a delay. There has never been an update that moved a space launch forward because things were going too well. Issues arising from the first mission in the series have pushed the whole timeline back. Artemissed the launch The Orion spacecraft,…

It’s relatively rare that Stuff gets to talk about the pope. Generally, we avoid religion unless artificial intelligence and Balenciaga are involved (apparently), but this also applies when the leader of the Catholic faith upgrades his vehicle to an EV. Mercedes Benz has revamped Pope Francis’ popemobile (its unofficial title) to be a little more eco-friendly. The German automaker has supplied vehicles to the papacy for almost 100 years. For 45 of those, the car chosen to ferry the pontiff was a modified G-Class. Well, His Holiness is about to experience instant torque. To the Popemobile! The Mercedes G-Class Popemobile…

It’s the time of year when we start thinking ahead. For many, that means planning the improvements to come. For Stuff, it means gathering candidates for its Stuff App Awards 2025. As was the case last year, we’re looking for apps made by local (that is, South African) developers. We’re expanding the qualifications a little for 2025. If you’ve previously launched an app, it’s eligible for consideration as long as it’s still in use and hasn’t previously won an award. If you’re a previous winner, the same app may be submitted provided an extensive update has occurred. In those cases,…

Chinese brand Honor makes some excellent products but there’s one we have yet to lay hands on — its MagicBook laptop lineup. The company announced new 300-series smartphones this week but it also unveiled two new contenders in its laptop lineup. These are only confirmed for China right now but we’re hopeful (perhaps in vain) that we’ll eventually see them on this side of the planet. Why? Huawei, formerly Honor’s parent company, has also launched laptops in South Africa and the MagicBook Art 14 saw a global release earlier this year. This is a MagicBook There are two new MagicBook…

Provided the current geopolitical situation in South Korea behaves itself, we could see something brand new from the country’s most famous company. Samsung is reported to be working on yet another unusual wearable product that we probably won’t get here. In addition to its smart ring, the South Korean company is shortly expected to unveil a set of smart glasses. When? According to a report out of Korea (Yonhap News), the company may unveil its new tech in January 2025. Before that happens, though, it will supposedly share details about the software that will drive the device sometime this month.…

It’s the time of year when Stuff publishes its annual gift guide. You’ll find the main thing in the December 2024-January 2025 issue of Stuff, which is due on shelves from 6 December, but we couldn’t stuff everything into the print version of the gift guide. That’s why you’ll find a few of these popping up as the country closes in on the big December shutdown. There’s still time to buy gifts and we’re here to guide you in how to do that. Today’s instalment is for that person who can’t get enough of yesteryear. But there’s no reason they…