Author: Brett Venter

Vodacom, in addition to raising prices this week, is also heading back to court. The ‘Please Call Me’ matter involving Kenneth Nkosana Makate, which saw the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) hand down a weighty judgment earlier this month, isn’t over. The mobile service provider and technology giant has applied for leave to appeal the Makate judgment in South Africa’s Constitutional Court, saying it believes “…the judgment and order are fundamentally flawed.” Vodacom’s reasoning Vodacom said, “It is apparent from the dissenting judgment of the SCA that the majority judgment overlooked or ignored many of the issues between the parties…

Google has teamed up with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an American NGO dedicated to… well, the environment. It’s right there in the name. The pair have come up with MethaneSAT, a system of satellites and artificial intelligence that can detect farts from space. Okay, fine, it can technically detect burps as well, but it’s not the product’s aim. You can still have Taco Bell, onions, pork sausages, or whatever else it is that makes you pass gas. Yes, your poo-powered tractor is probably also safe (for now). Google and the EDF have their eyes on large game. Google’s gas…

There’s a reason why Samsung charges more for its Ultra handsets than any other phone (besides the folding ones) in its stable and the Galaxy S24 Ultra is no different. This is the very pinnacle of Samsung’s hardware for 2024 and, therefore, it’s also the best Android phone to launch this year. And it’s only February. We’re guessing on that whole ‘best Android phone this year’ thing, obviously, but history has shown that Samsung usually wins the race early in the year. Smartphone releases have produced some diminishing returns for the South Korean tech maker of late, however. Sure, it’s…

The Mouse Company is attempting to make online advertising whimsical by launching Disney’s Magic Words. Instead of a karaoke feature for kids, it’s a method for making advertising served alongside streaming video content better suit the mood of what’s on-screen. If you guessed that this is powered by artificial intelligence, you were probably paying attention to the headline. Well done. It’s not much of a blind guess, either, as every second new feature launched since 1 January 2023 has been backed by the technology. Here’s how Disney’s version of it will work. Disney worry me In brief, Disney’s Magic Words…

GoPro, purveyors of excellent action cameras, intends to release the perfect companion to its extreme sports hardware — a helmet. But not just any helmet, though if you’re strapping a Hero 12 Black to your chest you probably should wear one of those too. The company will, according to GoPro’s Christopher Clark, be launching a “tech-enable[d]” helmet as soon as 2025. It won’t stop there, either. It intends to give other companies similar technological skills when the time is right. GoPro showing Forcite The action cam company is in the middle of acquiring Forcite, an Australian motorcycle helmet company. The…

Hang around the Stuff offices for any length of time and you’ll learn that we’ve got loads of time for Fuji’s X-T series. The Fujifilm X-T5 is no different. It’s the camera used to perform most of Stuff’s photography (except in the case of this review, because we’ve yet to figure out how to make a camera take its own photo without involving a mirror). There’s a reason for that and it’s not just “because we have one in the office”. Honestly, it’s in action so often that it barely has time to cool down. It’s a good thing that…

Skateboarding legend Rodney Mullen, the man credited with inventing the most basic of skateboarding tricks (like the ollie, the kickflip, the heelflip, the impossible, and more) is lending his name to a new augmented reality skating game. Rodney Mullen’s Skatrix is in development at Niantic, the company responsible for Pokémon Go and other AR titles. Skatrix is also being made by developer Reality Crisis and will launch on Android and iOS devices. If that was all it wouldn’t be such a massive deal but the game is also headed to “supported mixed reality and spatial computing headsets”. That means the…

Samsung is once again asking for your pre-order money for a new smartphone. The digit has gone up and the prime beef on display is the Galaxy S24 Ultra. But if you paid attention to our comparison last year (or the subsequent review) then you might already have a Galaxy S23 Ultra in your pocket. Should you swap it out for something a single digit higher? That’s a surprisingly granular question to answer. Last year’s headliner from Samsung was awfully close in terms of spec to the S22 Ultra. The same is true this year. The S24 Ultra and the…

Today at an event at the Multichoice HQ in Johannesburg, Showmax showed off what is coming next from the streaming service. It promises a revamped experience, starting with a new Comcast-NBC Universal partnership. Showmax CEO Marc Jury explained that the new partnership is the key to the updated platform. That’s right, the tech behind the service is set to change. 4K Showmax when? Maybe sooner than you think. Showmax revolutionaries From 23 January, all subscribers will migrate over to the Peacock platform. This’ll continue until 12 February for customers all over Africa. In case you don’t know, Peacock is NBC’s…

December 2023 was a rather nice time. It’s not just being off work that did it, either. Eskom managed, probably at massive expense, to keep the lights on for the festive season. That’s over for now and load shedding has returned. If you don’t already have a battery in your home, it’s time to snag something like the Gizzu Hero Core 512Wh power station. You don’t absolutely have to get this one but at R8,000, you’re getting a fairly good deal. The Hero Core 512Wh is compact, features enough capacity for most basic uses, and also has all the ports…