Author: Brett Venter

We know what you’re thinking. An iPhone 14 review in February 2023 when the smartphone lineup launched at the end of 2022? Well, yes. And, in the words of Russel Peters, “No more questions.” We’re here, the phone is here, and so is the review. It won’t happen this late again. But as it turns out, we really haven’t missed much. If you splashed out on an iPhone 13 in 2021, then nor have you. Apple’s most recent vanilla phone isn’t substantially different from its last one. Sure, there are one or two aspects that have altered, but the big…

The best Harry Potter video game made to date doesn’t include mention of the Boy Who Lived himself. That’s a dramatic change from the last few decades, which saw releases featuring Potter, Weasley, and Granger of varying quality. Some of those were worthy of your time. Others were of decidedly more dubious quality. Most of the latter entries are lost in the mists of time. Others are still around. They may even be fondly remembered, in the case of Quidditch World Cup. But those players are remembering the time they spent navigating a broomstick in other Harry Potter games. It…

If you’re a mobile gamer, your Netflix subscription just became a little more valuable. The streaming company has reached an agreement to launch two upcoming games – which are also heading over to consoles – on its catalogue of mobile games, for its subscribers. The games in question are Dust & Neon, a twin-stick shooter, and Highwater, an adventure title with strategy elements. Both are made by Rogue Games, the company that made the announcement on Netflix’s behalf. All right Netflix, we’re listening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pkhMtW54to Dust & Neon is also set to launch on the PC and the Nintendo Switch if…

In August last year, speaker specialist Sonos was revealed to be working on a new omnidirectional speaker setup. At the time it was known under the Optimo designation, a codename meant to conceal what the company was up to. That’s changed. The Verge, the same folks who outed Optimo, has detailed more about the upcoming and still unannounced speaker system. The pair of speakers will launch under Era branding, with the models being the Era 100 and Era 300 respectively. A new Era for Sonos It was already known that Sonos’ upcoming speakers would feature a unique design. Up till…

Rolls-Royce, as a brand, conjures images of very expensive British motor vehicles. Sure, you could drive it yourself, but the point of having all that money is to purchase a marvel of motoring engineering that you pay someone else to drive. But the company’s about more than that and it’s about to become even more: Rolls-Royce wants to go to space. Specifically, the company hopes to take to space with a very small nuclear reactor. A Micro-Reactor, to be precise. The company recently shared its hopes to power spacecraft on longer journeys using nuclear technology. The tech could also be…

Marvel, even before it was swallowed by Disney, has always been keen on telling extended, interconnected stories. The company does it well. That’s how something like Marvel’s Wastelanders, a series of narrative podcasts, came about. Wastelanders has a little something in common with a comic book series of the same name but its roots lie in the iconic Marvel comic series Old Man Logan. It’s dark. Like… DC dark. An aging Wolverine sets out on one last heroic quest as a way to atone for… well, you’ll see. The comic series involves one of Peter Parker’s descendants, some truly disturbing…

Every year Stuff faces the same challenge. Choosing the best technology from an entire annual cycle can really take it out of you. But the effort is always worth it when we see the results in print. At least, it’s worth it for us. We’re hoping that it’s worth it for you too. Whether it’s the best smartphone or laptop or tablet or motor vehicle, Stuff has crunched the numbers and come up with several winners. Oh, and we also found time to do our usual gadgets, gear, and other awesome bits too. Check it out in the February-March 2023 issue of Stuff.…

Swedish (technically) auto brand Volvo has plans to launch six new EV models before 2026, according to a new report. Five of these vehicles, three sedans and two SUVs, are destined for international markets. The sixth, a luxury electric van, is slated for launch in the Asian market. The move is unsurprising in at least one way. Volvo may be nominally Swedish but it’s mostly owned by Chinese automaker Geely. Vans are generally popular in the region and the company is looking to drive EV adoption in that particular market. Electrifying Volvo The first of these vehicles, the company’s EX90…

Load shedding has been around for far too long but there’s some relief in sight. South Africans are in for a lessening of the mental, physical, and financial burden of not having power, according to Eskom. If, that is, everything goes according to plan and nothing else breaks. Load shedding is a load of… https://twitter.com/Eskom_SA/status/1621180625892917255 Eskom said yesterday night that today, 3 February, would see rolling blackouts stepping down their intensity to Stage 4. Saturday is supposed to offer further improvement at Stage 3, followed by a brief, blissful period on Sunday when there are no outages planned at all.…

Where there’s money to be made on the internet you can bet that Meta’s not far behind. Instagram, possibly inspired by recent events over at Twitter, may be considering paid verification for its users. That speculation is the result of some code mining within the app. Developer Alessandro Paluzzi has been poking around in Insta’s app and has discovered a couple of very suggestive references. Authenticity on Instagram? Surely not? Paluzzi, speaking to TechCrunch, shared screenshots of the references. They suggest that Insta is acting true to form for Meta in ‘borrowing’ features it thinks might be beneficial. The references…