Author: Brett Venter

We’ve already seen that Absa and Standard Bank have plans afoot for (some of) their customers for financial relief during the current medical crisis. Now FNB has detailed its plan to keep their customers liquid during this trying time and it seems… pretty comprehensive. Relief kicks in from 1 April this year and carries on until 30 June 2020 — the same three months other banking institutions are offering customers. What FNB offers to its clients is a little more detailed than we were expecting, however. The devil’s in the details In common with other banking institutions, FNB’s offering customers…

If you’re a typical South African then you’re concerned about several things at the moment. Whether you’ve got enough supplies to hold out till the ‘end’ of the current lockdown, whether you’ll catch the COVID-19 virus on your next essential supply run, and how you’re going to pay your rent at the end of the month. Well, a couple of banks have thoughts about that last point. Lockdown means there’s less work going around and a large percentage of South Africa’s population doesn’t get paid if they don’t work. To that end Absa, Standard Bank, and TymeBank have all launched…

It hasn’t taken long for bored individuals to work out fancy new ways of inflicting themselves on people who want nothing more than to get on with their lives without, well… asshats turning up and ruining things. The sudden boom in popularity of video conferencing app Zoom has seen the launch of Public  Zoom hangouts as a way of replacing more conventional social contact. Of course, some people have gone out of their way to spoil it. 

It’s here at last and the streets are quiet — at least where we all are. Lockdown has commenced, which means a lot of us have free time on our hands. Some are choosing to finally learn that musical instrument, while others… they might want to take a shot at some new software skills. Apple hopes tho help there. The smartphone, computer and software maker has made its Final Cut Pro X software free to try for a full 90 days — which is a long time to spend with R5,000+ post-processing software. And its Logic Pro X music production…

Thanks to some American hostility Huawei’s got to do its own thing at the moment, meaning it can’t rely on Google having its back. The company unveiled its new digital assistant — which takes the place of the Google Assistant on (some of) its flagships — during its P40 livestream today and… it sounds awfully familiar. What’s in a name? Mostly it’s the name giving us pause. In common with most tech companies, Huawei’s chosen a female name for its new digital assistant. But why this one? The AI-powered helper, which doesn’t do anything unexpected for a mobile assistant, is…

At Stuff, we’re all about advice. And technology and gadgets, but what we’re really good at is knowing how to use the things you have more effectively. The lowliest Android smartphone has an optimum use method and it’s not that hard to find. We just need a little time to find out the hows and whys. It’s what we do. We’ve taken that ability/tendency/marketable skill and turned it towards the pending lockdown, which kicks off tonight — 26 March 2020 — at midnight. There are things you should be doing during the lockdown and there are things you shouldn’t be…

Things are getting more serious as we’re getting closer to tonight’s lockdown. There are queues at shopping centres and chemists, parking lots are jammed with traffic, people are wearing masks and bandanas — but what happens after lockdown? Something that you should be aware of is that your rights as a South African have changed — specifically those rights pertaining to bodily autonomy. According to the regulations governing South Africa’s lockdown, some of your autonomy has been stripped away. If, that is, you’re carrying around COVID-19, have had contact with someone who is, or are suspected of having COVID-19. For…

We’re sure you’re prepped and ready for the big lockdown. The trick will be keeping busy while it’s on. Adults have options — there are books and movies and games. What are the kids going to do while you’re busy entertaining yourself? Something educational, hopefully. Microsoft and Minecraft have the answer to that. Learn something Minecraft: Education Edition does exactly what it says — it uses the magic of Minecraft to teach kids something new about the world. And there are an awful lot of kids at home right now. They need them some schoolin’. To that end, Microsoft has…

As we batten down the hatches and empty every grocery store in sight (but politely — we’re not panic-buying at all, promise), it’s also time to look at ways to occupy your time at home. There’s no traffic, you’re going to find yourself running out of work (assuming you’re working), or perhaps getting a little cabin-fevery. Here are a few ways to keep yourself busy.

Remember that scene in The Dark Knight where Batman really annoyed Morgan Freeman by turning on a city-wide surveillance system implanted in every phone made by Bruce Wayne’s company? Keep that scene in mind as we tell you about FluSense, an AI-powered bit of hardware capable of monitoring coughs and the spread of the coronavirus — and other diseases. The portable surveillance device is the creation of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who made it to “…detect coughing and crowd size in real time, then analyze the data to directly monitor flu-like illnesses and influenza trends”, according to…