Author: Brett Venter

This is a place I didn’t ever think I’d get to be — playing Command and Conquer: Red Alert in 2020 and loving it. The game has a special place for me because it was the first game I ever played on a PC that was all my own. Literally the first thing I did on booting up the PC, which ran Windows 98 and contained a mighty AMD K6 processor, S3 Virge ‘graphics card’, 32MB of RAM and a 4GB HDD, was install and run Command and Conquer Red Alert. It was absolutely glorious playing at a detailed 640×480…

You might think you’ve got the perfect camera, and you might even be right. But if you’re a video fan, specifically in the vlogging sphere, there’s a decent chance you’re a little bit wrong. Sony’s ZV-1 is an alternative to the company’s excellent RX100 but with a very video focus. It’ll make DSLR cameras nervous on the quality front (just a little), sports an f/1.8 lens and Sony’s crammed it with eye-tracking and continuous autofocus as well. There are a couple of other features that make this compact the ideal camera for YouTube, Twitch, Insta or even TikTok fame. The…

We know that DStv isn’t in everyone’s good books right now but they’re taking steps in the direction of more… well, sports — which is the thing that South African viewers like most about the service. Multichoice is adding two new sports channels from 29 July (that’s later this week) from ESPN, thanks to a new partnership with the Walt Disney Company Africa. Sporting chance The two new channels are both set to be 24-hours and will feature “…National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB)” taken from ESPN 1 and…

Have you ever swapped from one phone to another, sticking your SIM card in before realising that you’ve just authenticated WhatsApp on the new phone before backing up properly from the last? That’s a common issue here at Stuff but the frustrating ‘swap back and reauthenticate’ dance might be a thing of the past soon. Yup, WhatsApp’s testing the ability to use the app across several devices while retaining a single phone number. Long time coming The feature has been requested by users for some time now and, as of WhatsApp Beta 2.20.196.8, it’s now a distinct possibility. WABetaInfo was…

Ransomware used to target individual users. Malicious files would creep into your PC, lock them up and demand money for their release. Turns out it’s hard to make money that way, which is why whole companies, hospitals and even cities are now being targeted. Garmin has now joined the ranks of those nailed by ransomware attacks — but if you’re an avid Garmin user you might know that already. Unit down The problem kicked in over the weekend, with everything from the company’s website, Garmin Connect (which is used to sync Garmin devices), the company’s aviation flyGarmin databases, its call…

If you’ve used a smartphone, you’ve encountered Gorilla Glass at some point. Made by Corning (who you might remember advertising kitchenware on TV if you’re of a certain age), the glass is of varying grades and toughness. But, just because it’s glass, don’t go thinking there’s no room for movement in the innovation department. To victory! There’s a new type of glass in town and rather than taking on a numerical value, Corning has given this glass a name. Meet Gorilla Glass Victus, a title that Corning would prefer us to stick a ™ or an ® to — but…

Okay, somebody at Samsung has been watching too many Christopher Nolan movies. The company will let buyers in the States pre-order their pre-order for a smartphone that hasn’t been officially announced yet. But, to be fair, they’re also making doing so rather attractive. Pre-orderCeption Samsung’s not calling this a pre-order for a pre-order but that’s what it boils down to. Fans can reserve a to-be-announced smartphone, and then complete the cycle with a pre-order after the 5 August Unpacked event when they actually see the thing they’ve expressed interest in. You can call it ‘reserving’ a phone if you wanna,…

Yes, yes, we know that the last dessert-themed Android OS was Android 9 Pie. Perhaps because Android 10 Q is really hard to find a sweet treat for (but actually because Android is a global thing and desserts are… not as universal as numbers). But upcoming launch Android 11 has a cake-themed codename, based on the letter ‘R’. According to Android’s vice president of engineering Dave Burke, the internal codename for the OS is RVC or Red Velvet Cake. Everything is cake If you were on social media at all in the past few weeks, you’d have seen folks going…

Hey kids, do you want to get paid to post things to TikTok? Well, you can’t, yet, but that’s because you’re not an American. The short video service has launched a US-based fund called the TikTik Creator Fund, which will see (some) TikTok users getting a cut of $200 million (or about R3.35 billion). Money for nothing The point of the funding initiative, according to TikTok, is to “…help support ambitious creators who are seeking opportunities to foster a livelihood through their innovative content.” Basically, it wants talented content creators to stick around and make a living on the service…

Work, right? Nobody seems to have enough of it and making a change to your situation right now seems like a silly thing to do. After all, who could possibly be hiring? Actually, according to Microsoft, that’s not strictly true. Going Global Microsoft has identified several in-demand jobs and has put together the resources needed to train people to perform those jobs. Called the Global Skills Initiative, the program aims to advance up to 25 million people in various digital skills by the end of the year. And, of course, we’re only talking about it because the program is now…