Author: Brett Venter

The folks at Stuff have long appreciated Nanoleaf’s collection of modular lighting from afar. Because that’s what you do when products aren’t available in South Africa and importing is a bother. But now, Nanoleaf’s range of kit is in SA, and we finally got a chance to play with some of it. Specifically, we got our hands on Nanoleaf’s Shapes Hexagon and Elements Hexagon kits. Since the two are functionally the same, and the Shapes set is a little more advanced, we’ll stick to the first one for this review. Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, here’s…

Chances are you’ve got at least one over-the-hill notebook stashed away at your house somewhere. You know how it is. It just gets too slow to keep up. Instead of putting it out of its misery, you just… keep it. You never know when you’ll need an emergency word processor. Well, Google’s new ChromeOS Flex hopes to give your older notebook hardware a new lease on life. It’ll do this by turning your plain old archaic computer into a Chromebook. Google’s Chromebooks aren’t known for being resource-heavy, so conversion should work in many (but not all cases). It’s as simple…

There’s cheeky and then there’s cheeky. Eskom, South Africa’s ailing state power generator, is asking the country’s energy regulator for another increase. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) is being hit up for a 33.66% price increase, according to reports. Additionally, if Nersa gives Eskom what it wants, the utility will then ask for a further 10% increase. Because, as we all know, the major obstacle to keeping the country’s power on is money. Funding Eskom The last time our country’s wonderful electricity provider asked for more cash, it was an increase of 20.5%. NERSA gave it 9.61%.…

Automaker Ford is leaning more heavily into the electric vehicle space. The brand’s F150 has gone full-EV, now it might be time for something a little more South African to get a shot. Ford appears to have plans to launch EV versions of its Maverick and Ranger trucks, according to a new trademark filing. Folks on the internet have spotted new trademark filings with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Ford is trademarking the names Ranger Lightning and Maverick Lightning, presumably to go along with the F150 Lightning. Ranger danger ‘Lighting’, so far, is the suffix Ford has used…

Sony’s got a new rewards program heading to market, called PlayStation Stars. The service, announced yesterday, will see players earning rewards for a few things, including buying and playing games. Based on what we can see, it looks like an amalgamation of some of Steam’s and Nintendo’s rewards initiatives, and Microsoft’s Rewards program for Xbox. There are a few items that subscribers can get from the program, but one of these rewards involve “digital collectibles”. The name is a little scary, as is Sony’s follow-up description. PlayStation Stars in its own show Sony’s PlayStation Stars digital collectibles are “…digital representations…

2018 saw the release of Sega’s Genesis Mini console (also known as a Mega Drive Mini). 2022 will see the release of the Genesis Mini 2, a second retro console from the Japanese publisher. And we have Amazon to thank for spoiling Sega’s announcement. The launch isn’t all that unexpected. Japan has a Mega Drive Mini 2 launching this year, which will have a Sega CD add-on. The Genesis version hasn’t got the addition confirmed, yet, but its 27 October launch date is pretty official. I want a Genesis Mini 2 Amazon dropped the ball on this one, accidentally revealing…

Netflix may have promised, once upon a time, that it would never show its users ads. But that was before money became an issue. Now, Microsoft is also involved in the whole process, making what was once speculation a complete certainty. Netflix and Microsoft have joined forces. They will provide subscribers (and potential subscribers) with “a new lower priced ad-supported subscription plan”. That’s… a good thing, right? Microsoft goes hard It wasn’t that long ago that we heard that Netflix was looking for new marketing partners. Microsoft is officially the new favoured entity, beating out America’s Comcast (thankfully) and Google. As…

Remember at the beginning of 2021, when LG was still a smartphone maker? The company was due to follow its Wing smartphone with the LG Rollable, a very unusual take on a phone. But then LG got out of the smartphone game, just before it was supposed to turn up. But it seemed like an almost complete project at the time. So what happened to the LG Rollable? As it happens, there’s at least one lurking around the internet. It was caught on camera, proving that LG’s experimental extending smartphone actually worked. Rollable phones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAmEO53yEY There’s really not much to…

Once upon a time, the iPhone was a smartphone upstart in the world of feature phones. Once upon a time, Nokia was the undisputed king of cellular. During the transition period, when the two swapped places, Nokia released its Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset. That phone is being reborn for 2022, in the shape of the Nokia 5710 XpressAudio. Which is a completely different thing. Right? Yes, but actually, no. Both are devices focused on playing music. Both are, technically, feature phones.  Both are basic candybar designs. And the fact that we’re talking about candybar phones in 2022 is proof that…

We always knew that the James Webb Space Telescope would go on to do wonderful things. It cost in the region of $10 billion and was several years late. There’s no way NASA would sink that much time and money in a project that would produce sub-standard results. Speaking of results, the first proper image from the James Webb telescope dropped last night. It was unveiled by the American president. It’s even got an official title. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, we reckon the full image probably justifies the capital letters. James Webb would be proud There’s an iconic…