Author: Brett Venter

This is it, we made it to the very end of 2015. This year has seemed both extremely long and very, very short, and we’re not sure why that is. Time paradox, perhaps? It might also have something to do with printing deadlines. We’ve all been living in 2016 for some time so it’s disorienting to find out that tonight’s the night that we’re going to be ushering in the New Year. Now’s a good time to take a look back at the year that was, at least in part, before looking ahead. The whole Stuff team has a set…

Stuff’s not equipped with any crystal balls (stop sniggering) but we’ve all spent enough time in the presence of technology that some sense of where it’s going in the near future has passed from the tech itself into the brains of Stuff’s staffers. This is the first part of our collective crack at it. What we’re expecting from 2016, what will be big and what will be less-so, and yes, a few more speculative looks at the immediate future of technology in South Africa… and the world. Wearables Who would have thought, a few years ago, that wearable technology would have…

For much of South Africa it’s Christmas Eve, or the day before Christmas (this will depend on what time you’re reading this today). It’s also Yule, Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, Hanukkah, Pancha Ganapati, Festivus, Hogswatch, or just the Solstice, depending on who you are and where you came from. We’ve probably missed a few out but it’s the Festive Season, with a capital F. Whoever you are and whatever you’ve chosen to celebrate, Stuff Magazine wishes you and your loved ones all the best for this festive occasion. We hope that wherever you are and whoever you’re with, you’re doing what…

Wearables got everywhere in 2015, as was expected from the wrist-based computing tech. We’ve come a long way from those massively-overpriced wrist calculator watches. Now you can get yourself a massively-overpriced wrist computer watch. And we’re okay with that. We had a lot of wearables show up this year but South Africa is not quite as fertile ground for them as other places in the world. Still, we saw enough to pick a Top 5 wearables for 2015. Here they are. Apple Watch Oddly, a review for the Apple Watch didn’t get onto Stuff’s website this year but that’s because…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS-ErOKpO4E You’ve watched Parks and Recreation, right? You’re aware of who Ron Swanson, the manliest man to come out of television in a very long time, is, right? Now you need to ask yourself: Do you have the single-minded focus to watch Swanson sit and drink Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch Whisky for about 45 minutes? The video is called Nick Offerman’s Yule Log, named for the actor who portrays Swanson, and involves nothing more or less than Offerman sitting in a chair, next to a fire, and enjoying his whisky. That’s it. Just Ron Swanson, drinking very good whisky quietly. As far…

Gaming saw a bumper year in 2015, with some of the best titles we’ve ever seen arriving on the market. And there were a few real stinkers but we’re going to be a bit more positive with this little compilation. You’ll notice that there’s a common theme through our picks – they all involve an open world in one way or another and we have it on good authority that there’s more of the same slated for 2016. But we’re not supposed to be talking about that yet. So, in no particular order, here are Stuff’s top five games for…

Why can’t every phone be a high-end powerhouse? Er… because? Because it’d be too expensive to sustain and there’d be no point in owning the newest, fastest smartphone because everything would be the same. That’s why we love the top handsets so much. But that doesn’t mean that stepping down from the front-runners to see what is coming up behind is a waste of time. We saw a number of phones in 2015 that won’t make you sorry you put down money for them. Sadly, the Firefox handset is not one of them. Xiaomi Mi 4 Our best mid-range smartphone…

It’s been a good year for smartphones, which some major changes popping out of the woodwork and surprising all of us. Looking at the top row of smartphones to land on the market in 2015, there’s a definite trend taking place. Join us for a look back at the best of the best in 2015 and see if you can spot what it is. Hint: It rhymes with Ham-Bung. I’m not sure what a ham-bung is but it probably has something to do with bacon-flavoured beer. On with the show. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ This was our best-reviewed phone for the…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvNKQCcnEvE You know that you want one of these Star Wars AT-AT models. We all do. But more than that, you want to control it using an Xbox 360 controller because the only thing better than a model is a working model. If you’re not too busy standing in line for the opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens then take the 30 seconds or so the video above needs to completely tear a gaping hole in your life that can only be filled by your very own Aduino Uno-powered AT-AT walker. The creation of Dave Stein, this project turns an old…

Today is Star Wars: The Force Awakens day, the culmination of an extensive marketing and hype campaign by Disney, who are the new owners of everything Star Wars. It seems like only yesterday that we were wondering what the Mouse was going to do with the franchise and here it is staring us in our faces. Will it suck? Will it be awesome? Will we want to watch the other movies planned for later release? Those are all questions which are being answered all over the world right now. We don’t have much Force so we couldn’t tell one way…