Author: Brett Venter

It’s time for Stuff’s annual Gadget Awards, where we look back at the year and devices that were in 2019. That were… lots of things. Were awesome, were epic, were well worth buying. And while there’s a whole lot of debate going on at Stuff Towers, there’s a little bit that we don’t do ourselves. That’s where you come in. Just as with the Reader Smartphone of the Year, we’re asking you, the viewer, to get involved. The extent to which you do that is up to you but we’d really like you to vote on what you think the…

If you’ve been here a while then you might know how this goes. Every year, Stuff hands out awards to the very best in tech for the previous year. Here in 2020, we’re looking back at the tech that made up 2019 — one of the best (and most frustrating) years the industry has had to date. But… it’s the beginning of the year, we’re all feeling mighty lazy and… wait, no, that’s not the reason at all. Every year we give Stuff’s readers (that’s you, and you, and even you!) a chance to have their say. Your opinion matters,…

We’re eagerly awaiting the next step in human exploration — which involves putting feet on Mars instead of things with tank treads. Before that can happen, we need to place those humans on a large explosive device and (relatively) safely send them into orbit. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon hopes to do just that, and this weekend is the company’s final unmanned test before human flights begin. Round Two The Crew Dragon’s previous test was on 20 April last year, an outing that didn’t end as expected. A leaking fluid (into the incorrect chamber) just prior to takeoff caused a reaction that…

Samsung’s plans for early next month have turned up a little early, spoiling a little of the surprise for the first Unpacked 2020 taking place on 11 February. One bit of premature extrapolation is the existence of a very high-end version of the company’s flagship phone, called the Galaxy S20 Ultra. 

Man, Samsung just cannot keep a secret, can they? Even when they put stickers on their early devices specifically saying “Do not leak info”. What is the world coming to? 

Last year December, we set up a giveaway thanks to the folks at Brother. The prize(s)? A Brother Ink Tank DCP-T510W 3-in-1 multifunction printer and a P-touch PT-P710BT Cube label printer, valued at R5,000. And, now, it’s time for us to give this hamper away. We’re not sad to see it go, though, as it’s going to make our winner — and sadly, like the Highlander there can be only one — very happy indeed. Because that winner isn’t going to have to splash out on a new printer this year. Think of it as a late Christmas bonus, yeah? First,…

Stop us if you’ve heard this one. Warner Bros. will soon use an AI system to “…enhance the greenlight process for film studios”. The AI will come courtesy of a partnership with Cinelytic Inc.,  a company which “…combines AI and cloud-based technologies to enable entertainment industry professionals to make faster, and better-informed, decisions throughout the content value chain.” We’re going to hell for this At this point there are all sorts of horrible things we could say about Warner Bros. We could lambaste them for not signing up the AI system before they attempted their ill-fated DC counterpart to the…

It’s a fact that far more budget smartphones are sold around the world than flagships. Everyone wants one of the big boys but they tend to settle for whatever their bank account allows. Vivo’s Y91C, a 6.2in Android 8.1-based handset (the word ‘based’ will be important later) lives close to the bottom of the expense ladder. It’ll cost a mere R1,900 in order to own one. This puts it in contention with Xiaomi’s Redmi range here in South Africa — as well as several cheap Chinese rebrands that we tend not to encounter at Stuff (thankfully, as they tend to……

Thursday seems like an appropriate day to check out something of a throwback from Samsung. Remember how, back in the day, you could pop the battery out of your phone if it was going wonky? Or was, you know, flat and you happened to have a spare battery on hand? Well that’s a thing again with Samsung’s new Galaxy XCover Pro smartphone. There’s always a catch But, of course, there’s a catch. The rugged (yeah, it’s rugged too) smartphone is set to be available first in Finland, previously the stronghold of one Nokia. Samsung’s playing in someone else’s back yard…

Everyone and their brother (plus some aliens) wants in on that Nintendo Switch form factor. At CES this year a company called My Arcade has unveiled something at least Nintendo-adjacent. It’s called the Super Retro Champ. Guess what that is.