Author: Brett Venter

The world’s largest smartphone market, unsurprisingly, is China. It’s a fair chunk of global market share so the company with the largest slice of the market in that country has an advantage around the world. For January 2021 that company is Oppo, which outsold competitor Huawei for the first time ever. That’s the word according to market research firm Counterpoint Research, which detailed why Huawei’s sales declined on its home turf. Oppo, for the month of January, secured 21% of the country’s market. Vivo closely followed, with 20% of China’s market under their control, while Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi secured…

Big companies may not have the issues us poor consumers face but when they do experience problems, they’re large. Intel, maker of computer processors and other technology that we can’t quite bring to mind right now, has been slammed with a $2.18 billion judgement in a patent case in Waco, Texas. That’s billion, with a ‘b’. The case is between Intel and a seemingly resurrected-for-legal-reasons outfit called VLSI Technology LLC, which forms part of a Dutch company called NXP Semiconductors. NXP used to be part of Philips, but was spun off in 2006. Need better Intel for this The patents…

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has lost another Starship but this one was a close run thing. The oversized rocket prototype, which will eventually transport humans to another planet (hopefully soon, this one’s almost out of warrantee), underwent a test-flight yesterday. In common with previous tests, the launch and descent went perfectly. Not in common with the other test attempts, the SN10 Starship made it to the ground in one piece. Where it stayed for a few minutes before exploding. Which is progress, of a sort. Starship no longer making an impact https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzhP3Q5fku8 You see, the previous Starship tests have involved explosions…

Yusaku Maezawa had best make his mind up. The Japanese billionaire initially wanted to bring a potential romantic partner on his SpaceX Starship trip, then it was a batch of artists who might have been eligible to go around the Moon. Now, it could be you. Maezawa made the announcement in a YouTube video, where he calls for eight passengers to come along with him on a journey around the Moon. There will be ten to twelve people on the trip, in one of SpaceX’s Starship vehicles, but eight of them will be civilians from around the world. This isn’t…

Microsoft announced Microsoft Mesh, a new mixed reality platform for the company, last night, but there was something else to see as well. Hololens, the company’s AR goggles, could play host to one of the most popular mobile games of recent years — Pokémon Go. Which, if you think about it, is a perfectly logical evolution for the tech — once we get to the point where a headset isn’t costing $3,000. Augmented reality games like Pokémon Go and that new Harry Potter thing are perfectly designed for a mixed reality experience that calls for goggles or glasses. Hyped on…

It’s a long way to go until September (or October or November) but that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate on the current state of the iPhone 13. Apple’s newest handset could feature a larger battery than previous years, according to reports, and Apple’s also considering reducing the size of the phone’s notch. Among other things. Examining the iPhone 13 There are, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, still four models of iPhone expected for this generation — which suggests that the reportedly poor-selling Mini version is sticking around for another try. The design isn’t expected to feature a substantial change, with…

SpaceX gets a lot of airtime on Stuff but there’s more than one private space company out there. Blue Origin is one, but Rocket Labs is the smaller sibling you don’t really hear about all that often. But little brother is growing up, detailing plans for a new, reusable rocket called the Neutron. The first one they send into space better be called Jimmy. Levelling up at Rocket Labs Currently the company uses its Electron, an eighteen-metre reusable rocket, to send payloads of up to 300kg into orbit. This is fine for small satellites but there’s a growing demand for larger…

There are now two prominent video game properties that deal with dragon’s blood and we reckon the upcoming Dota: Dragon’s Blood is far less of an acquired taste than Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Last month we saw a teaser for the Netflix series based on the popular Valve-owned video game with a massive payday. This month, ahead of the 25 March launch, we’ve got a much longer look at what’s coming. And what’s coming looks like it doesn’t need 1600 hours in Dota 2 (that’s an actual Stuff total for a certain member of staff) to appreciate. It’s in…

Lego is frequently sold as a toy that can be anything you want it to be. That was taken literally just recently, resulting in this recreation of the Top Gun Maverick trailer, made entirely with Lego. More or less. Made by a Top Gun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n9q0TNYIl0 There are a couple of versions of the Lego trailer — the original you’ll find below, while above is a side-by-side look at the real deal versus the painstakingly made clone. The creation of one Gus Danko, known on YouTube as Onbeatman, this frame-by-frame reproduction  was created “…using only a canon t6i, 2017 iMac, and…

If you’re used to getting your Xiaomi handsets from Mobile in Africa, then we may have just seen your next handset. MiA tends to be rather fond of the Redmi range of devices and Xiaomi’s new Redmi Note 10 — due to be unveiled later this week — has turned up to the party a little early. Taking Note of the details The handset’s specifics are mostly up for grabs, thanks to several leaks (one of which has since been deleted). The Note 10’s set to land with a 6.43in Super AMOLED display with a single hole-punch camera up front.…