Author: Brett Venter

In the newest issue of Stuff Magazine, we’ve finally got what we have been waiting all year for. All of the major phones for 2018 have finally broken cover and we’ve finally been able to pit all of them against each other. The lone holdout was Apple but with the launch of the iPhone XS and XS Max, we’re finally able to have a proper matchup. We’ve taken the best from Apple, Google, Huawei, Sony, and Samsung and put them against each other. Like most battle royales, many contestants enter but only one will leave. Who will the winner be?…

Catch the live-stream of the latest Mars lander landing (we hope) tonight at 21:00 The latest Mars landing is going to be taking place tonight, and then starting a new series of experiments shortly after -- assuming all goes well. NASA's InSight lander is going to be touching down (hopefully in one piece) this evening,

Perhaps you’re responsible with your social media usage, logging on and checking what everyone is up to only at set times of the day. You’re probably also one of those people capable of reaching the mythical Inbox Zero point on the reg. Whether you’re that ferociously organised or you spend so much time in cascading feeds that your fingers reflexively twitch looking for a Like button when looking at wall art, Facebook has a tool for you. No, another one. Facebook has launched a ‘Your Time on Facebook’ tool, an option that is visible in the Facebook mobile app. It…

You can’t be a bank in South Africa these days unless you’re also administering your very own mobile network and now Standard Bank has joined in the cellular party. The bank has launched SB Mobile, its own MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) backed by Cell C and, by extension, MTN. So far, so good… so what? How is SB Mobile going to stand out in an increasingly crowded pack? One way is by tying their mobile network to Standard’s banking system, making it “…an extension of our digital offering” according to SB Mobile’s Funeka Montjane. Which also means that you…

We’ve seen a few solutions to making motion more real in virtual reality. Prime among these is the Virtuix Omni, a Kickstarted project that costs large amounts of money (if you’re from South Africa — and from other countries too). Google’s now got a patent for a slightly smaller solution to the ‘what to do with your legs’ problem in VR — a pair of virtual reality sneakers. By which we mean actual sneakers that perform a function in virtual reality, rather than a pair of kicks that only exist in VR. That would just be silly (and that day is…

Recently Stuff took a look at LG’s smart speakers (you can catch that in the upcoming issue of the magazine), a range that carries the company’s XBOOM branding. Now there’s already something slightly newer on the horizon — the LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK9. This is a smart speaker as well but the LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK9 is slightly different from plain old audio tech. The WK9 contains something that no right-minded speaker would be without these days — a screen. Which kinda makes it a tablet with very, very large speakers. Kinda. LG’s WK9 features support for Google Maps, Photos, YouTube,…

YouTube has quietly added ad-supported Hollywood movies, but we don't get access to it, it seems Man, sometimes it's not that cool being South African. Either that or YouTube noticed that it was broadcasting free movies and put a stop to it. Nah, it's definitely a geography thing. Ad Age reports that YouTube has started

Microsoft might be working on something a little unusual, even for them. A report from Brad Sams of Thurrott.com, who has been accurate with Xbox info in the past, claims that the company is launching yet another Xbox One console in 2019. The prime difference is that this new console will be lacking a disc drive. Yup. No drive for physical media, just a hard drive — which would allow Microsoft to price the console as cheaply as possible. A price point of $200 (R2,800 or so) has been suggested, which isn’t much to ask for a current-generation console. Even…

We’ve seen more and more sorts of gift cards pitching up at the cash register. First it was iTunes, then it was Google’s Play Store. Later we started seeing cards for Showmax and Uber next to the Pick’n’Pay or CNA vouchers so it was only a matter of time before the likes of Netflix got into the act. And that’s because Netflix is an international service and South Africa… isn’t as international as it could be. Not all of it. Streaming video is a lot more accessible to those without access to a credit card when you can pay your…

For most of us, the first time we heard about a neural processing unit, or NPU, in relation to smartphones was when Huawei announced that it was including one in the Mate 10 Pro. Then Apple started including on-chip neural processing so it was only a matter of time before Samsung started doing it too. First up? The Galaxy S10, of course. If, that is, you live in a region where Samsung uses its Exynos series of processors instead of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. A region like, say, South Africa (and any country that isn’t America). Samsung’s upcoming Exynos 9820 processor…