Author: Brett Venter

When you do something a bunch, you become something of an expert in it. South Africans, in general, have developed essential skills pertaining to a few things. Making use of portable power and surviving without it entirely are just a couple of the new abilities load shedding has forced on the population. But if you’re rocking something like the Romoss Thunder RS 1000 power station, you won’t develop those mental calluses quite as fast as everyone else. Whether that’s a good thing or not (honestly, SA’s going to be right up there in terms of survivability in the event of…

Sony’s headphone selection is frequently the tech to beat if you’re after an excellent all-round performer but that’s the top of the lineup. Something new is due from that quarter shortly but if you can’t wait, or are on a budget, then the Sony WF-C700N in-ears are clamouring for your attention. Briefly, these are an affordable (for Sony) pair of in-ears that don’t sacrifice much audio quality in the quest for more money for the Japanese company. There are a few sacrifices made elsewhere, most notably the battery, but overall there’s plenty to like from these R2,500 in-ears. Light of…

China has, in recent years, greatly accelerated its space program. It has sent a rover to Mars, along with several probes. If that wasn’t enough, it’s currently constructing a very ambitious single-country space station (though some guests are allowed), and it’s also planning to send humans to the Moon. As an addendum to its short-term space plans, the country intends to send its first astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of the decade. According to SpaceNews, earlier this month China outlined its manned mission to land and collect samples from our largest orbiting satellite. Moonrise over China The…

Xiaomi’s Redmi Note series has been popular with Stuff for a long time. Seriously, a very long time. It’s had its ups and downs, with the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G representing an upswing for the sub-brand’s lineup. But, in keeping with the fact that Redmi typically doesn’t showcase the very best of smartphone tech, that upswing doesn’t make it all the way to the top. When you consider its R11,000 price point, that’s hardly surprising. You can get a substantial amount of smartphone for that amount of money but you can’t have the whole thing. Here, there are sacrifices…

Volvo is trying to drag your attention away from other big names and the way the company is doing that is through electrification. The Volvo XC60 T8 Recharge is a stepping stone between the brand’s petrol cars and its burgeoning fully-electric lineup but it’s worth checking out. Provided, that is, you can afford the price tag. And that’s because you’re going to pay for that second (electric) engine. It’ll make you pleased you spent the cash but when the so-called ‘mild hybrid’ version starts at R957,200, you’ll start questioning why the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) XC60 T8 starts at R1,284,000. The…

Fujifilm doesn’t really do snooty camera names. You’re getting a coded string of numbers and letters and you’ll like it. The new Fuji X-S20 mirrorless camera is proof of that. It’s marketed as a beginner’s big-boy camera. Given its nearly R30,000 price tag, you have to be fairly sure that the shutterbug life is for you. If you’ve made the right call, though, you’ll also find that you’ve made the right call with regard to your hardware. This is only really a beginner’s camera in the sense that it’s less intimidating than Fuji’s really high-end kit. The pricing difference between…

Stuff has waded into the waters where VolkanoX’s audio gear lurks before but we weren’t expecting to encounter the Python while we were there. This fairly large (it’s sized somewhere between a two-litre Coke bottle and a large coffee tin) speaker isn’t the best-sounding thing you’ll ever encounter. Nor is it the most expensive. And the audio, frankly, might just surprise you. As with the VolkanoX Silenzo headphones, this Bluetooth speaker combines some budget and higher-end features with a solidly budget price point to produce something that’s worth checking out. If you’re an audiophile, you can check out now. We…

Roblox, one of the most metaverse-like platforms before the term was even a thing, is joining Meta. No, Zuckerberg hasn’t opened his wallet and made its owners an offer they can’t refuse. The popular game/virtual world is adding a new platform to its ever-growing repertoire — the Meta Quest series of headsets. Roblox has been around for ages. Not as long as Second Life, one of its more similar competitors, but certainly longer than Fortnite, the gaming juggernaut with a similar appeal (but without the user customisation). Its appearance on Meta’s hardware will advance the idea that Zuckerberg’s platform is…

There are changes afoot at Netflix. That’s not new. These typically swing between updates that mostly benefit the company to those designed to keep the customer base happy. This is one of the latter and it’s about time. Engadget reports that all Netflix users now have the ability to transfer user profiles over to existing accounts. Think of a situation like a bunch of friends moving into the same house and combining all of their profiles into the same account. That wasn’t previously possible. Nice one, Netflix Combining households no longer has to mean one person must choose to lose…

The moment we took the 500W Titan Elecstor power station out of its box, we could see the problem we were going to have with it. Don’t get us wrong — the best backup battery you can own in South Africa is the most expensive one you can afford and spending R9,000 on this sort of capacity isn’t a terrible idea. But it’s also not the best idea. If you’re confined to a budget of just under R10,000, there aren’t many options for you that feature this sort of capacity but you really should know what you’re getting into. Sure,…