Author: Brett Venter

If you take a look at the terms and conditions for services like Facebook and Instagram, you’ll see that technically you’re not supposed to have an account if you’re under the age of thirteen. Not that that’s stopped kids from signing up in droves anyway, but apparently Facebook doesn’t have enough child-like eyeballs under its control. To that end, the service is considering creating an Instagram service for youngsters under the age of thirteen — the demographic the company doesn’t market to just yet. Just imagine how much user data Facebook can harvest if it starts around the time you…

Samsung’s best-selling phones typically don’t come from the S-range. It’s the more affordable A-series that sells more because they’re… well, more affordable. And there are three new additions to that lineup: the Galaxy A52, Galaxy A52 5G and the Galaxy A72. And, as usual, we’ve got all of the details concerning these devices — besides pricing. That’ll take us just a little extra time to iron out. The Galaxy A52, A52 5G Samsung’s Galaxy A52 pair are alike in a lot of ways. They share most of the base specs, like camera tech, display size and battery capacity, but there…

Meeting people from the internet has become so commonplace that we’ve more or less forgotten why it used to be considered a bad idea. Tinder, and many of its users, probably haven’t let it slip from front- to hind-brain, however. The dating app, owned by Match Group, will soon be rolling out a new feature to users: background checks. It’s a reality that you might not be speaking to the person you think you’re talking to. Or that the person you’re talking to might be a psycho with a criminal record. Tinder’s new partnership with a company called Garbo hopes…

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the shopping mall, something unusual happens. Mr Price (yes, the clothing company) has gone and done something very out of character for them — the company has decided to acquire (in its entirety) online kitchen tech retailer Yuppiechef. The move was announced today, in a statement on the Mr Price Group website, though the exact terms of the acquisition were not detailed.  All that’s know is that the group will purchase “…100% of the issued share capital of the group of companies comprising the Yuppiechef business”. Paging Mr Price…

Auto-maker VW might not be on South Africa’s radar all that much when it comes to electric vehicles but they’re going to be. But, before they become a household name for EVs, they’ve already got extensive plans for recycling and reusing some of those massive batteries that power their cars. The world of tech, if you haven’t been paying attention, is in a bit of trouble. There’s a semiconductor shortage about, which makes it harder to create and provide new tech, so recycling isn’t really optional any more. VW is aware of this, which is why the company’s new EV battery…

It’s not an understatement to say that Resident Evil (the game series) is hugely popular in the Stuff offices. We were already keen on the upcoming Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness series (about which we know fairly little) but now we’re even more excited. And that’s because the soon-to-be-released animated series, which sees longtime protagonists Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield investigating zombie outbreaks (which eventually lead to the White House — which is where Leon is working at the start of Resi 4), is bringing the excellent Resident Evil 2 Remake’s voice talent back for the series. Sounds like Resident Evil…

Mobile World Congress (MWC) will be taking place in person this year, but it seems that more folks than just the Stuff team consider this a bad idea. Smartphone maker Sony Mobile, as well as Nokia, Ericsson, and Oracle have all confirmed that they won’t be in attendance at this year’s in-person event. Making the best of MWC Which might be the way to go, even if it doesn’t bode well for MWC itself. Last year saw several companies pulling out of the event before it was eventually cancelled, about six weeks before South Africa shut down completely. If there…

Just when you thought it was safe to go back onto the internet, Samsung just announced a brand new Unpacked event — called Galaxy Awesome Unpacked, because it’s supposed to revolve around a whole set of the company’s Galaxy A series handsets. Which, if you saw the launch video for the Galaxy A51 and A71 in 2020  compared to the short invitation clip, makes a little sense. But there’s also been a few rumours around the event itself. A is for Awesome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0654Hm8Z6I Samsung’s second Unpacked for 2021 will probably entail the Galaxy A series — an odd move, because…

We’ve known about the Tile for some time, and Apple’s supposed to be joining Samsung’s SmartTags with its own AirTags soon (perhaps sooner than you think). Vodacom has its own entry into the not-especially-crowded GPS tracker market coming in the form of the Curve, which is due to land in South Africa… soon. Ish. Ahead of the Curve The Curve looks exactly the way it sounds — it’s a little circular GPS-tracker doodad that you attach to items you misplace often — bags, pants, wallets, smartphones, children — you know, stuff that wanders off on its own. The tracker uses…

We often get asked about OnePlus smartphones, because they’re a) difficult to obtain and b) awesome enough to make the effort for. The OnePlus 9, due to be announced later this month, shouldn’t prove to be significantly different. The Chinese brand is bringing in a new high-end camera maker to upskill its lens tech and the partnership will (hopefully) be a rewarding one. Picture this https://twitter.com/PeteLau/status/1366357664213528576 Swedish camera brand Hasselblad are teaming up with OnePlus to put a better-than-average smartphone camera into user’s hands, and if reports are to be believed, it should be something special. OnePlus has been teasing…