Author: Brett Venter

Would you pay a subscription fee for Twitter? Of course not, it’s Twitter. Complaining about things on the internet should be free. But, according to a Bloomberg report, you might consider paying a subscription fee for access to Tweetdeck, or for so-called “unique content” on the microblogging service. All a-Twitter You see, you may consider a subscription fee the lesser of two evils. If, that is, you’d rather see the social media service reducing its reliance on advertising. But, in that case, you probably work for them. The report claims Twitter is exploring alternative revenue options, including ‘tipping’ users for…

Rumours are funny things. Some are very hard to believe, even if you really want them to be true. Others are extremely easy to find plausible, even if (sometimes especially if) everyone concerned is denying the rumours left and right. Which brings us to the latest info involving Apple, Hyundai, (probably) Kia, and the case of the autonomous electric vehicle. Hyundai the gun To recap: last month a Hyundai rep confirmed that the company was in talks with Apple concerning an autonomous electric vehicle. Money was made, then the statements were walked back (twice) until the company was in ‘talks’…

Chip-maker Intel took it in the neck a little in 2020 when Apple announced that it was dropping Intel chips for that fancy new Apple Silicon M1 processor. And, at the time, Apple had it all its own way, what with all those facts and figures to back up their claims of increased power, improved battery life, and overall Intel-spanking performance. Apple’s been enjoying its success for a bit but Intel has fired back, releasing a series of benchmarks for its new Core i7-1185G7 processor. The chip-maker claims to give Apple’s M1 processor quite a walloping, across most metrics. The…

Japanese automotive brand Toyota is no stranger to experimental vehicular tech. The company fields hydrogen-powered cars, it’s backing flying taxis and now it’s jumped right past that whole ‘self-driving’ trend to make a car that drifts by itself. The prototype GR Supra, the brainchild of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), seems to have a very practical purpose in mind. By making a car that can drift with minimal human intervention, the auto-maker hopes to… avoid… accidents…? Looking at Toyota, sideways https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2hIQEGWKhQ&feature=emb_logo That really does seem to be the aim: gifting drivers with “…the instinctive reflexes of a professional race car…

Apple’s almost certainly got a VR headset heading to market, even if they’re not willing to confirm anything. And now, a new report from The Information claims to offer a whole lot more detail about the virtual reality kit. The highlights? Apple’s planning on fielding 8K displays for each eye, and it’ll cost you. A princely $3,000, or about R45,000. Redefining the VR headset? Apple’s VR headset, (apparently) codenamed N301, will feature a per-eye resolution of 8K and will be powered by a successor to one of the company’s new M1 processor. The resolution will also be helped along by…

The team here at Stuff are a little obsessive about headphones — some more than others, but everyone’s got a taste for a good set of head-mounted audio enhancers. Whether it’s in, on or over-ears, we’re there. Aftershokz’ OpenMove headphones are a little unusual — wireless bone conduction headphones. Believe it or not, we don’t often see these passing through Stuff’s doors. It’s not through lack of trying. They just don’t turn up all that often. The companies that make them aren’t quite as prolific as the likes of Jabra, Sennheiser, Sony, Samsung or even Apple. Aftershokz’ OpenMove wireless headphones…

Huawei’s smartphone woes are far from over but the company is putting on a brave face. Case in point: The announcement of the new Mate X2, Huawei’s next folding smartphone. Announced on Chinese social media platform Weibo, we’ve got a weirdly ambiguous look at what the Mate X2 will look like. More on that in a second, though. We also know when it’ll be revealed — 22 February this year. What’s better than a Mate? A Mate X2, of course But, beyond the official date, there’s little the company is giving away. The launch takes place in China, with the…

We’ve seen all sorts of fake meat in recent years. Now, the McPlant is set to join the likes of the Impossible and Beyond burgers, as well as whatever fake chicken KFC was fielding and then Pizza Hut’s Incogmeato. Yeah, that’s a real thing. The McPlant, if the name and the headline haven’t given it away, is a plant-based burger from the global purveyor of *-based foods, McDonald’s. But don’t expect to see it at your local drive-thru any time soon — the burger is being tested in Sweden and Denmark for the moment. McPlant your flag somewhere The new…

It wasn’t all that long ago that Chinese tech-maker Huawei was sitting on top of the smartphone world, but Donald Trump’s actions are finally starting to tell against the company. From being the world’s top smartphone vendor midway through 2020 (yes, we know there were extenuating circumstances), Huawei has fallen out of the top five smartphone vendors list for the first time in six years. Huawei gonna fix this? That’s according to market research firm Canalys, published a report showing just how well Apple’s lovely iPhone 12 range is doing. But that’s not all the report showed. Huawei’s shipments declined…

Well, that’s just inspirational. Private space company SpaceX will be sending several “civilians” to space at the end of 2021, as part of a mission called Inspiration4. It will be “…the world’s first all-civilian mission” to space, helmed by one Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of a company called Shift4 Payments. There’s… sort of a point to this –and that’s to raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and it’s doing that by making the two available seats accessible to folks who engage in fundraising. Specifically, giving folks the opportunity to become one of the “…crew members…