Author: Brett Venter

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…

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…