Author: Brett Venter

If you’ve ever wandered a construction site, you might have seen arcane markings on the floor. Those can become walls and doors, depending on what the architect had in mind. And now, HP’s new SitePrint autonomous robot can scribble them on the ground so humans don’t have to. The HP SitePrint is a small robot about the size of a vacuum cleaner. It’s designed to mark out sections of a building’s floor plan, based on an actual plan and with the assistance of an app. Obviously. SitePrint it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyc9vn7YwLE Normally, this is work that human beings would do. But…

Usually, when Stuff does something with a flippant headline like the one above, it means the subject actually is a big deal. This review of the Galaxy Fold 4 from Samsung is a rare exception. Samsung’s newest phone really is its best foldable phone so far. It just so happens that the gap between this and the Galaxy Fold 3 isn’t nearly as wide as we’d like it to be. Oh, there’s a gap. The problem is that it’s not where it’s supposed to be. The folding-in-half part of the phone, the major reason you’re paying the price of entry,…

It must be really fun working in Apple’s marketing department. Take an inconvenience like, say, a hole in the display, call it something like a Digital Island, and people will love you for it. Or, at the very least, start using your terminology instead of calling it a ‘bloody big hole in the screen’. The totally-intentional ‘feature’ seen in Apple’s newly announced iPhone 14 Pro lineup might have proved more popular than anyone expected. It’ll reportedly show up in every one of Apple’s iPhone 15 handset in 2023. This also means that yes, iPhone 15 rumours have started. Digital Island…

So you’ve decided that a folding smartphone is a device that you need in your life. Finally, there’s a choice. You can have Huawei’s Mate Xs 2 folding handset or you can drop some cash on Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 4. The latter’s review will be along shortly. Today’s all about Huawei. The Huawei Mate Xs 2 will set you back R40,000, unless you give the company a R1,000 deposit. If you do, you can score a R5,000 discount on the final price. This is a weird bit of marketing intended to spark the sort of uptake Netflix demands from new…

Eskom has taken a break from keeping the lights on (more or less) to apply to the country’s energy regulator for another tariff hike. This is nothing new, the utility does this every year. It’s the amount of the increase that’s the problem. Eskom is looking for an additional 32% for 2023. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has yet to say if it’ll grant the state power utility an increase. Odds are good that the country’s power generator will see an increase. If the last few years are any indication, it probably won’t be this increase. Eskom…

Comic Con Africa is just a week away. Thousands of people are going to be there, but some don’t have their tickets yet. Some are about to, though. It’s time to announce the lucky winners of ten general access/photo voucher combos. It’s also time to announce the winners of the four weekend passes Stuff and VS Gaming have to give away. We can fully appreciate just how hard it was to choose between a Weekend Pass (which gets you in for the whole event) or a General Access pass, plus a chance to meet a celebrity. In fact, it was…

Flexible notebooks still have some way to go. That’s the lesson that Asus’ new Zenbook 17 Fold taught us in the time we had it in our possession. Don’t get us wrong. There’s nothing wrong with the technology that you won’t also see in the folding smartphone field. But the Zenbook Fold reminds us of the blockchain. It exists but there doesn’t seem to be a use for it beyond existing. Other solutions perform the same function with less chance of something going seriously awry. Legitimately cool There’s no denying that the Zenbook 17 Fold is a serious conversation piece.…

NASA’s return to the moon starts with a single launch. We hope. Artemis 1 was scheduled to lift off at the end of August and then again at the beginning of September. Neither of those took place because this actually is rocket science. A new date for Artemis 1’s liftoff has solidified. NASA is booking 27 September for liftoff, now that several repairs to the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket have been completed. A second date has also been set, in the event that September’s launch doesn’t go ahead. 2 October will be the backup day for launch. Cold logic…

It’s been a while since Amazon announced a new Kindle reader. Last night, the company fixed that by revealing its newest, lightest, and smallest device to date. Since it’s 2022, the budget reader now features most of the same features seen in the last Paperwhite. Kindle your love for reading For your money — and yes, it’s a little more expensive — you get a 6in 300ppi display. That’s up from 167ppi, so images and text (mostly text, we hope) should look crisper. Default storage climbs from 8GB to 16GB, Amazon’s punting better battery life, and (finally) the 11th-gen Kindle…

There was talk a few months ago about that Sonos was bringing a new Sub Mini speaker to market. It’s been a minute since May 2022 but that’s just how far ahead of the times we were. Sonos today confirmed that its new compact sub is set for a global launch. The date? 6 October, in a range of countries around the world — including South Africa. The price? That would be R11,000 for the subwoofer. Sub Mini discipline  The biggest question is: Is the Sonos Sub Mini worth spending all that money on? If you’re asking the question, you’ve…