This week’s Light Start involves some robotics, some stuff in space, a new sci-fi series from Netflix and the cancellation of Sony’s handheld console
Author: Brett Venter
We’ve all seen streaming take off in near-real-time, with Spotify making decent inroads in South Africa even before its official launch. Deezer, Joox, a set of wholly-local options… streaming is here to stay. And, based on a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), music streaming has taken over how most folks access music.
And now, one for the technically-inclined. You might remember, if you cast your mind back, the custom Android installation known as CyanogenMod. It might not be around any longer but LineageOS is and it’s offering intrepid users Android 9 Pie on devices that are probably not going to be supported.
Ride-sharing services like Uber have made the drive home after a night out a safer experience but there is something that we could do without: surge pricing. A new ride-sharing service, called inDriver, that’s just launched in South Africa, reckons it might have the answer to that — haggling. More or less. inDriver, a service that was pioneered thanks to a reaction to surge pricing on Russian social media, offers something that it calls Real Time Deals or RTD. Basically, those looking for a ride will set their own price for a trip and drivers nearby will see that price.…
Yesterday we found that Vodacom intended to charge its users to roll over mobile data, something that was due to come into effect thanks to last year’s Icasa ruling. A lot can happen in 24 hours. Today Vodacom has issued an update stating that that data-rollover would be free-of-charge, though there still seem to be some terms and conditions attached.
We’re just marking the launch of the March 2019 issue of Stuff Magazine, our second edition for the year and one packed to the brim with all of the tech you really want to see. Already sold? Then grab your copy wherever magazines are sold, today.
In honour of this week’s Mobile World Congress event, we’ve decided to take this Light Start and make it about anything except mobile phones.
It’s the smartphone lover’s favourite time of the year. Barcelona, Spain plays host to Mobile World Congress, where much of the world (except Apple) shows off what’s new (in the near-future distant future) in mobile tech. This morning was Sony’s crack at showing off what’s coming and we were there to get all the details.
As part of Sony’s Mobile World Congress announcement, we’ve gotten a glimpse of the company’s new crop of handsets. In addition to the Xperia 1 (which we weren’t allowed to touch), we saw the Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus (which we were allowed to touch). There’s also a lower-spec Xperia L3 on the cards, and Stuff got a chance to handle all three today.
With an opening act that sounded more like the intro for an old-school Disney film, Samsung’s Unpacked 2019 event jumped right into the reveal of the Galaxy Fold. Yeah, that name’s official. And appropriate.