Author: Brett Venter

LG’s Velvet 5G smartphone was supposed to turn up in SA a fair while ago but… well, you know how things are. Countries shut down, tech launches get pushed back, life happens. But things are resuming, slowly, which means we’re about to get a decent look at the likes of LG’s newest smartphone. Like, officially official. Just not live and in person, because that’s cancelled for 2020. Deja vu Only, since you’re reading Stuff, you already know a whole lot about what that phone entails. We’ve known since the mid-April that the LG Velvet 5G would feature an all-new design…

It’s a good time to stay indoors.  It feels good to be back. That’s right, Stuff Magazine is back after being knocked off course (along with the rest of the planet) by the global pandemic. It’s taken a lot of getting used to, making a magazine without being in the same room as the rest of the team. Putting together these pages tends to be more personal than you’d expect. Still, if remote working is good enough for much of the rest of the planet, who are we to argue? And it’s the pandemic that’s foremost on our minds with…

There was a time, and it wasn’t that long ago when it seemed like the next big thing in tech would be Google’s Glass. If you’re a little young for that, Glass was a set of smart glasses that would have granted augmented reality features to users’ lives. Alas, the tech was intrusive — giving rise to the term ‘Glassholes’ — and ultimately unfeasible. The project wound down in 2015. But it could well be on its way back. Google announced last week that it was acquiring a company called North, “…a pioneer in human-computer interfaces and smart glasses.” By…

It’s a universal truth that if you didn’t enter a competition or a lottery, and you win, then someone’s trying to scam you. And, obviously, the scam works otherwise it would have gone away. So if you didn’t enter this giveaway, which sees two Cubot smartphones — the Cubot P30 and the Cubot King Kong Mini — being given to new homes this Friday, you are right to be suspicious. But you won’t have to be, because we’ve got all the receipts. In a manner of speaking. We know when you entered, right down to the second, and we also…

You should be aware by now that one of the dirtiest pieces of tech you own is your smartphone. That shouldn’t be surprising — you take it pretty much everywhere with you, including the bathroom (don’t lie) so it’s bound to pick up germs. And everyone’s very concerned about very small things that can cause large amounts of human harm right now. The COVID pandemic is probably not the main reason Samsung built its ITFIT UV Sterilizer With Wireless Charging peripheral but that’s what it’s going to be used for. Clean getaway Samsung’s device isn’t much to look at. While…

BMW frequently has good ideas about the future of cars. This… this is not one of them. The automaker hopes to introduce what are basically micro-transactions for motor vehicles, saying that it “…sees the car as a digital platform.” Which, if you’re familiar with the tactics of game developers like Activision and Electric Arts, means they’re about to use that platform to try and make more money. By charging you to turn on features that are already installed in the vehicle. Really? Really really? And that’s not us guessing. BMW’s rather upfront about it, calling it “personalisation” and saying that…

The new Lego items have Art in the name and, we guess, are art in that you can hang them on a wall. But if you thought that art might work out being cheaper than traditional Lego, you’re… probably mistaken

It’s lockdown, almost everyone you know is battling for cash and all you want to do is stream some games online. The trouble is, you don’t have enough cash for a microphone, or an extra camera, or a video capture device so you can capture yourself playing games on a console. Well, if you’ve got a gaming-capable PC, a smartphone, an internet connection and perhaps a little Lego lying around (to make a basic phone stand), you already have everything you need to set yourself up to stream games online. It’s not quick (unless you follow this guide) and it’s…

Yes, we know, MTN’s 5G service hasn’t exactly been kept a secret. We’ve all known it was coming, even if the first proper look at it was also our first look at the rollout being postponed. It’s here now, that’s the important thing. The new service was made official today during a live stream (because that’s normal, now) from MTN, which saw MTN CEO Godfrey Motsa, chief consumer officer Mapula Bodibe and chief technology officer Giovanni Chiarelli outline what subscribers can expect from the service. Here’s what we’ve learned. It’s active now, and quick MTN opted to do a live…

Now is not a great time to be involved in advertising for social media companies as, spurring on by events in the States, large-scale advertisers have pulled their advertising budgets from the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among other platforms. The most recent entities to pause their ad spend are Coca-Cola and Starbucks, with Coca-Cola’s global boycott kicking off from 1 July and continuing for the entire month. Starbuck, citing the effects of hate speech on social media, has also paused its campaigns “…while we continue discussions internally, with our media partners and with civil rights organizations in the…