Author: Brett Venter

Video games are big business. Not quite as big as Apple in a bad quarter but still pretty big for what’s still a fairly narrow form of entertainment. American market research firm the NPD Group has crunched the numbers and video games sales managed to rack up $43.4 billion in 2018. That’s about R600 billion here at home. That’s a whole lot of video games. Those sales numbers aren’t exclusively software, though. Hardware, which includes consoles and peripherals, accounted for $7.5 billion in sales (R104 billion), while software accounted for the remaining $35.8 billion (R500 billion or so). These totals…

When you want some competitive esports action, nothing beats watching a John Deere tractor ploughing a furrow in a field… right? That’s correct, apparently, as Giants Software, the company behind very popular farming title Farming Simulator, has announced the formation of a new esports league. Called the Farming Simulator League, this evolution of the older Farming Simulator Championship will see ten European tournaments playing out with a considerable amount of prize money on the line. It’s not quite Call of Duty or Fortnite money but it still works out to about R3.9 million in earnings at the end of the…

We’ve seen guitar-maker Fender eneavour into the tech space in the past but their new Acoustasonic Telecaster has bypassed the likes of a Strat that can plug into tablets by miles. Fender’s new guitar hardware is an acoustic-electric guitar with a difference — the power of mimicry. You see, the Acoustasonic Telecaster is more than just an unwieldy name and an unconventional frame. Fender’s outfitted this acoustic-electic guitar with a feature it calls an Acoustic Engine. The short explanation is that users can use their stringed instrument to mimic “… ten different body style and tone wood combinations”. Which could potentially replace…

Do you have Android Pie? We don’t have Android Pie yet (few in SA do) but we’ve already got some idea of what the as-yet unnamed successor Android Q will entail. Like smartphone leaks, keeping secrets about Google’s next mobile operating system instalment is tough to do. In this case, those intrepid folks from the XDA Developer’s Forum have managed to get their hands on an early version of the OS. This is what they’ve found out so far. Going dark For 2019, if you don’t have a dark mode, you don’t have anything. Apple’s doing it, WhatsApp’s doing it……

Folding phones are a little like Pringles. Nobody’s thinking about them, then someone shows up with a tube and suddenly everyone wants one. That’s why everyone seems to be trying to catch up with Samsung. Motorola is thought to have something in the works with an updated RAZR, LG and Huawei are working on versions of their own and even Apple might have a folding device up its crisp, white, rounded-corners sleeves. So it’s no surprise that Xiaomi also has one on the boil. And here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3-aDOMI6Mk Catchy background tune aside, what you’re looking at is Xiaomi head Lin…

That image of your littlest nephew sitting on the couch all chocolate-covered, with a half-eaten banana and a manic grin on his face? WhatsApp will only let you forward that image a maximum of five times, thanks to silly people who believe everything that they read. The messaging app has announced that it will be limiting available forwards from 20 groups or people down to just five. The reasoning for the move is that it’s looking to combat “misinformation and rumours” on the platform, according to a report from Reuters. Limiting forwards to just five instances was tested last year…

Google Maps is adding speed limit data to its Android and iOS apps It's about time we got a feature like this. Okay, we don't technically have it yet but, like Winter, it's coming. Google has added speed limit data to its Android and iOS for some locations in the States, though just how extensive

We’re a few weeks out from the official Galaxy S10 event, which means that it’s time to pay attention to the leaky swimming pool that is Samsung to take centre stage. Over the weekend noted leaker Evan Blass published a new image showing off all three of Samsung’s expected Galaxy S10 variants. Say hi to the Galaxy S10E, the vanilla S10, and the oversized S10+. https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/1086499524456132608 As per previous reports, Samsung’s been expected to release a third phone this year with the budget device — the S10E, in this case — sporting a flat display rather than Samsung’s curved efforts…

Much of the stuff that we examine here at Stuff is very, very expensive. But there’s usually a reason for the price. An R80,000 computer? Apple’s newest hardware? Those’ll cost you but you’re generally getting what you’re paying for. But if you’re in the market for some brand-name headphones, you might want to think twice about paying R13,750 for these Louis Vuitton Horizon earbuds. Why? Because they’re R13,750. At this point you might be asking: So what? Isn’t that what luxury brands do? Make seemingly normal things that cost large amount of money. Well… yeah, we guess so. It’s what wiped…

Are you a massive fan of Motorola’s stylishly compact 2004 handset, the Motorola RAZR? If so, you’re not alone (130 million were sold) and you’re also probably the target for Lenovo’s modern take on the handset. The Wall Street Journal reports that Motorola plans to resurrect the iconic brand and design, but with a far more current spin. Moto’s entry into the (still young) foldable phone market is set to be a revamped RAZR. The report doesn’t go into detail about what sort of tech the updated Moto RAZR will feature. There’s no information regarding the screen, processor, RAM, cameras……