Author: Brett Venter

It doesn’t feel like all that long ago when we were getting all excited over the existence of HD content, attempting to learn the difference between 1080p and 1080i video, and figuring out what ‘HD-ready’ actually meant so buying a TV became less of a lost-at-sea experience. The nature of technology means we’re doomed to keep repeating this process (Curses! Constant education is required!) if we’re to keep up, and HD has to take a backseat now that everyone knows what it is. These days it’s all about 4K and UHD, something that hasn’t taken all that long to hit…

Sharks like to eat things, this is something that we’ve known since early childhood when the cartilage-bearing predators were the most feared thing in the ocean. But we’ve all grown up since then but sharks are still to be feared – only now it’s because they may interrupt our daily stream of Twitter posts. Several reports have cited sharks as being a motivator for Google rolling out either Kevlar-protected or steel wire reinforced undersea fibre optics cabling, though some reports state that Kevlar matting is being used which neatly merges the two conflicting tales. The end result of such a…

Everybody who is anybody these days has got a smaller version of their flagship Android handsets on the market or on the way, something that Samsung started but probably isn’t all that happy about seeing the competition get into. LG has taken a page out of Samsung’s playbook by introducing us to the LG G3 Beat, HTC’s One mini has gotten a sequel and everybody was expecting Samsung’s Galaxy S 5 Mini way before the flagship device was even announced. But there’s another phone on this list, one that has yet to be revealed. Sony’s Xperia Z3 Compact, which is expected…

There is a long-standing rivalry between football fans who also happen to be video game fans – the age-old (relatively speaking) battle between FIFA proponents and the PES supporters. It’s not quite as rough as supporter rivalries being played out on pitches around the world but it’s… about as vocal. And we’re about to see the whole thing play out again, with the launch of Konami’s PES 2015 demo on 17 September ahead of the game’s main release on 13 November this year. The playable demo, which will feature “new control and content elements” and is also the series’ first…

Uber, the app-based transportation finder that has been enjoying huge success (and upsetting taxi associations) around the world, has just launched a new, cheaper version of their service in Johannesburg. uberBlack has already been available in Jozi for about a year but Uber have now also dropped uberX, a far less costly app-sourced ride finder that will see passengers taking their trips in Toyota models as opposed to luxury German rolling iron. The base price has been lowered, as has all of the other metrics involved in taking a ride to your destination – everything from the minimum fare to…

It has gotten to the point where the Stuff team is completely unable to exercise unless there is some sort of musical backing, though song choice has a lot to commend it. It’s a lot harder to hit the weights when the Singin’ in the Rain soundtrack is playing, while hitting the streets with Eminiem’s Till I Collapse blasting in your ears (on repeat) is a good way to run until an appendage drops off. Of course, to achieve any of this you really do need a pair of headphones suited to the task. Of late we’ve been playing with…

Before we start on this, don’t make the mistake of thinking that this has anything to do with animal cruelty. It doesn’t. It does have a fair amount to do with sticking live fish into a tube and launching them into the air, though. The world doesn’t have enough of that. A company called Whooshh Innovations is looking at a way to make transporting live fish a much simpler affair and they’ve created a live fish launcher in order to do so. The idea behind it is the use the system to help salmon and trout to bypass man-made obstacles…

We were saying just this morning that today might be the day that Samsung would make their metal-bodied smartphone official at last and it looks as though the sources from the earlier report were on the ball. Samsung has announced the Galaxy Alpha, confirming its specs as well as a more-or-less availability date. Samsung fans can expect a 4.7-inch 720p smartphone, one that will feature that metal body backed by a spot of plastic at the rear. A 12MP camera, 6.7mm thick body and either a quad-core or octa-core processor will be arriving inside Galaxy Alpha next month, though Samsung…

Finally, something to go with that Yamaha R1 we’ve always been so scared will catapult us into the nearest wall. Visually, at least. There’s no way we’re ever replacing a brain-bucket with Yamaha’s over-ear Pro 500 headphones, no matter how well the Racing Blue finish matches the Japanese company’s motorcycles. But if they ever manage to put the sound quality delivered by the Pro 500s into a motorcycle helmet, we’d be all over that like a starving man at a buffet. In short, and if you read nothing else in this review, Yamaha’s Pro 500 cans are one of the…

And we were all sad that Nokia’s feature phones, like the Asha range, would be going away. Nokia and Microsoft have revealed that there’s a new low-cost device on the way called the Nokia 130. Just how lost-cost is low-cost, in this case? About R270. For that admittedly small amount of cash, users will be getting their hands on a Series 30 feature phone from Nokia. The Nokia 130 will feature an FM radio, music and video player which will be using the handset’s 1.8-inch colour display. Users will be able to insert an SD with media content and the…