Author: Brett Venter

Sony’s Xperia phones have definitely got South African fans. Fans that, sadly, can no longer officially get their hands on the handsets thanks to the company largely pulling its phone lineup out of the country. So every time Sony announces a new handset in the range, it’s a little bittersweet. That’s the case here as well, with the new Sony Xperia 5 II. Place of power And that’s because the 6.1in smartphone is one of Sony’s most powerful and feature-packed devices yet. That OLED screen runs at 120Hz, giving Samsung’s biggest phones a run for their money, and there’s a…

There are two ways to drive a 4×4. There’s the right way, which means to take it off-road to some far-flung destination, and then there’s the wrong way, which is to make sure you never ever leave tarmac and city streets. Land Rover’s new Defender 110 looks like it was designed explicitly for the latter, while being exceedingly capable at the former. Which, really, is how you want to go off-road in 2020. ‘Roughing it’ is fine and well but there’s no reason to be uncomfortable on the way to your destination. And taking the 110 anywhere ensures you’ll be…

A German ransomware attack may have resulted in the death of a woman, perhaps the first officially documented death as a result of a cyberattack that locked down hospital services. The attack, which took place last week in Dusseldorf, indirectly killed an emergency patient who had to be rerouted to an alternative hospital some 32km away in Wuppertal. The woman, who wasn’t identified, was unable to begin emergency treatment for an hour longer than expected as a result of the detour. She died soon afterwards. The perpetrators of the attack are currently being investigated for negligent manslaughter, which was probably…

Retail spaces were going through some tough times, even before the spectre of COVID reached our shores and left shopping centres as empty as… well, as a disaster movie. But Massmart-owned retailer Game has a few new ideas about how shopping in person should work and they’re currently showing them off in its Mall of Africa store. The results are… surprisingly technological. Getting in and out, quick There’s an all-new store design at Game, conceived to get buyers in and out as quickly as possible. This might seem coldly capitalist but it’s also extremely practical. You don’t want to spend…

So you want to drive a high-end Jaguar but you’re not sure if you’ll ever get together the more-than-a-million-rands price tag to ever own one? You could always try taking part in the upcoming Jaguar F-TYPE Drive Challenge, which kicks off in early October at the Jaguar Land Rover Experience in Lonehill, Johannesburg. That… costs significantly less money, plus you’ll get to do things with the car you might not if you had to make the insurance payments. There is a catch, though. There are only eighteen slots available. Sliding into position The Jaguar F-TYPE Drive Challenge is, we’re told,…

We’ve been keen on Tesla’s Powerwall technology, based off the batteries the car company uses for its vehicles, since it was first announced. Unfortunately so was the rest of the planet, which led to a bit of a wait. Then there were specialty companies bringing the Powerwall into SA but now… now Tesla’s Powerwall is being launched in SA by Tesla itself. The cost of living Tesla has sent out emails to several South Africans (who seemed more interested than most in a little Tesla magic) detailing the brand’s pending launch. Said emails have directed users to this website, which…

In lieu of any iPhone news, we got a whole lot of detail about Apple’s new Watch Series 6 and then these: a couple of updated iPads from Cupertino. There’s nothing especially groundbreaking, if you want to get technical… and, then again, Apple’s also got some genuinely interesting tech news. But it boils down to “iPad go faster now” if you like to keep things simple. I’ll take an 8th, please Apple’s most basic iPad just got a little more complicated. The 8th-generation iPad will land with a new A12 Bionic processor, bringing its Neural Engine to the range for…

Apple was serious about that whole Time Flies thing — it seems we’re going to have to wait till October to hear what it’s doing in the iPhone space. Which means there’s a serious focus on the Apple Watch Series 6, which Apple is calling the most advanced Apple Watch to date. But that’s exactly what they would say. It just so happens they’re right. But before we get into that, it’s also the most colourful Watch to issue forth from Apple. Expect it to drop in Blue, Classic Gold, Graphite and then a Product RED edition which should make…

Every so often something happens that reminds us just how awesome this job is. We’re always aware that Stuff is an awesome place to make a living but every now and again it’s driven home. Hard. We’re talking about our hands-on (and feet-on, we guess?) time with a couple of Jaguar’s new F-Types at an event at the Jaguar Land Rover Experience in Johannesburg. Long story short, you want to spend at least a little time behind the wheel of one of these. Safety first The event was an in-person thing, which is rare of late. But the folks at…

We’ve been keeping an eye on LG’s true dual-screen smartphone, called Wing, for some time now. A few brief looks are all we had before LG presented the device to the world, officially, and we’re happy to say that the handset doesn’t look anything like what we were expecting. For starters, this incredibly oddball phone… might just work. Let’s Wing it Wing is a well-engineered (on video, at least — we are dying to test that swivelling hinge for ourselves) dual-screen smartphone that combines a 6.8in P-OLED panel with a secondary 3.9in P-OLED screen. The secondary is designed to let…