Author: Brett Venter

It’s pretty common knowledge that Ubisoft’s headline games tend to be a little… similar. Which can be an issue at times and then there are times when the company’s incremental game development approach spits out something like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Though it’s not functionally all that different from Assassin’s Creed Origins or Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, it’s also just a little better than both of those titles. And it’s not because of any massive gameplay changes between the earlier titles set in epic locations and riddled with mythology — it’s mostly a matter of how everything is put together. Ye saga…

Intel’s launching a notebook next year. They… don’t normally do that. Called the NUC M15 (NUC stands for Next Unit of Computing), the machine is what’s known as a whitebox laptop. Basically, Intel is going to let smaller companies brand and sell these machines, driving competition with the bigger manufacturers without needing the R&D budget that Dell and HP have. This is the NUC M15 The project — formerly known as ‘Bishop County’ — isn’t exactly outlandish, even if Intel’s not exactly known for creating its own (complete) hardware. But, based on the specs that the M15 features, maybe they…

The SABC has made a few half-hearted attempts at launching itself as a streaming service in the past, but the broadcaster is taking matters a little more seriously in its partnership with Telkom’s newly-launched TelkomONE service. We attempted to learn a little more about the SABC’s ambitions, with the public broadcaster being oddly tight-lipped about its plans for the future. Except when it comes to ads, as it happens. Those, they were quite happy to tell us about. A break from the SABC One of the best things about streaming services — paid ones, that it — is the almost…

Okay, so the headline’s a little misleading. Fortnite is still around and it’s still one of the most popular video games in existence But it’s also been around long enough that people just don’t give it the attention they used to. It’s become an institution. Something new is needed to catapult it back into the limelight. And something new is just what we might get, as Fortnite developer (and publisher) Epic Games has just spent a chunk of cash on a company called Hyprsense. And Hyprsense does something very special, which could make its way to Fortnite — particularly those…

Last week we saw reports that Huawei was on the verge of selling off Honor, its more budget-focused sub-brand. There were no serious terms of the possible deal but reports claimed that Huawei stood to raise up to $15 billion in funds from the sale. Best of all, the Honor brand would remain intact — at least, according to last week’s reports. Well, this week the sale is official. Huawei is being forced to part with Honor, reluctantly. The official statement doesn’t leave that in any doubt. Honor the terms of the deal Huawei said in a statement that its…

Even though Apple was pushing its luck by having three consecutive year-end events, the company really did save the best for last. The announcement of Apple Silicon, its ARM-based M1 SoC (system-on-chip), took place alongside a whole laundry-list of claims that — if true — position Apple’s hardware as some of the best in the entire industry. And while we’re feeling the serious urge to get down to testing those claims, someone else has managed to get there first. The first results for Apple Silicon have turned up on benchmarking app Geekbench and, while it’s not indicative of real-world performance,…

Mercedes-Benz already makes expensive cars that can go just about anywhere but Brabus is a company that specialises in something altogether different. Armoured vehicles, for people with enough money that they really, really want to remain safe while driving. And their Brabus Invicto, which is built using the Mercedes-Benz G-Class as a base, is now available in South Africa. Taking the Brabus If you want one of these, it’s not as simple as popping down to the Merc dealership. Sure, it’s a G-Wagon but it’s got more than a few aftermarket parts. If you want one locally you’ll have to…

BMW’s cars — it’s concept cars in particular — tend to live in the future. The Motorrad Definition CE 04, BMW’s newest electric bike concept, is headed in that direction as well. But way, way out in a dystopia future, where corporations run everything, pollution is rampant and … hang on a minute. That’s this one. Judge BMW The German auto-maker’s electric scooter looks like it comes from one of any number of dystopian futures. It might have spawned on Total Recall’s Mars, it looks like the sort of thing Judge interns ride to work in 2000AD’s Judge Dredd comics……

Yes, the Xor Titanium is a real phone. No, you can’t afford it. And, frankly, unless you’ve got a stupid amount of money lying around, you probably don’t want one. Unless, that is, you’re a fan of the departed Vertu luxury smartphone lineup. And that’s because Xor (which is pronounced ‘Eggsor’) is a new company very much in the vein of Vertu. That is, it’s all about high-end phones for people who can afford them — without worrying too much about specs. Which is unsurprising, really. Xor was co-founded by former Vertu design head Hutch Hutchison, and several of that…

If you’re a long-time reader of Stuff, odds are you’ve seen something that Boston Dynamics has done. The robotics company is responsible for several interesting robots, include Spot and Atlas –two of the creepiest bots to walk the Earth. Because, well… they’re likely to make it to retail at some point. And they’re faster than us. Boston Dynamics started life as a standalone company before being bought up by Google in 2013. It was then sold to Softbank in 2017. And, now, it may be headed to a new home, as Huawei is supposedly in talks with the robot maker’s…