Author: Marcé

Lenovo has revealed its batch of CES feature devices, including the Yoga AIO 7 desktop PC that can easily shift between horizontal and vertical format.  As the digital world shifts to more vertical-format content, it’s clear that monitor and TV developers are looking to mobile phones for inspiration. Vertical monitors have mainly been reserved for programmers and content creators, and it’s coming into the mainstream in 2021. But this incoming device feels like the direct opposite of LG’s Wing 5G swivelling smartphone.  Look me in the AIO The 27in Yoga AIO 7 is a fully functional desktop PC with the…

Facebook knows all. Or at least, more than you probably think it does. Perhaps Facebook’s power can be used for the good of humankind for once, and we’re here for it.  According to recent studies, authorities and health officials can use anonymised data from the social media platform to track the spread of COVID-19 and monitor where people have travelled. Researchers based in Australia at the University of Melbourne found that Facebook data could help predict the spread of coronavirus outbreaks.  Facebook’s the… good guy? This could be especially effective when authorities don’t know about the rapid spread of the…

There’s no question that tech corps around the world’s new currency is data. Personal data, in fact. It’s obvious that’s what Facebook as a company has increasingly pursued for years with the help of its three social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Today, Facebook is forcing WhatsApp users to share data with Facebook or face consequences… It may sound like a badly written Taken 5 script, but WhatsApp’s ultimatum will push its 2 billion users off its platform completely if they do not agree to share some personal data with the service. An in-app alert greeted most users today…

Software, no matter how secure, is always at risk of being misused, hacked or used as a tool to hack others. Most of the time, hackers exploit features that are readily available in the software, which is what happened in a recent incident with popular messaging app Telegram.  Now, the Stuff office has been quite vocal about Telegram’s security features and end-to-end encryption. None of that really matters much, after developers pushed out a new feature called People Nearby, which shows your approximate location to Telegram users nearby.  Luckily, people actually have to enable the feature, as it’s automatically turned…

After what feels like years (well, technically it was a few), South Africa has been allocated some PlayStation 5 consoles. Today around 13:30, the official Sony PlayStation supplier in SA, Koodoo, posted product listings for both the digital-only and disk drive versions of the console. It took South Africans about 12 minutes to clear out the warehouse. Even though we don’t know what minuscule amount of consoles have been allocated to SA, we know that it wasn’t much. Globally, Sony is struggling to keep up with demand, and for the first time since Sony started producing gaming consoles, many people…

As the next mobile network standard roles out across South Africa and the world, 5G-capable devices have begun dominating retail outlets. There’s just been one small obstacle: most of them are priced for those with fuller pockets. Normally at the forefront of eye-watering processing speeds, Qualcomm has developed a lower-budget 5G mobile processor to make the network standard more accessible.  Qualcomm has officially announced the Snapdragon 480 5G. This is the company’s first 5G-capable chipset in its 4-series chips, which are generally allocated to smartphones and devices that fall into the much-appreciated budget category.  5G in a Snap(dragon) Qualcomm’s Snapdragon…

The much-anticipated launch of two of the most powerful consoles of history of gaming has been delayed, not just by a worldwide pandemic, but because they are sold out across all retailers. Non-gamers might be asking, why are the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X so sought after? As we know, this has been a good year for working in your pyjamas, if nothing else. While businesses across the globe scrambled to transition to work-from-home, faced dire economic challenges and stared down retrenchments of vital staff, one industry experienced a great year. That industry is gaming, which is already bigger…

Sometimes, all you want to do is sit back, relax and watch a Netflix show without the video enabled. Or that’s what Netflix seems to think. In a recent update, it’s become clear that the video streaming platform is testing a feature that’ll allow you to only listen to the audio of a show. We’re not convinced of the use-cases here, but we’re keen to give ‘em a chance.  According to a recent report by the Android Police, an update on the server features the audio-only mode option. Is this the streaming service’s foray into podcasting? Not really. This won’t…

Following even more lockdown restrictions, Zoom, the video conferencing platform, has decided you may need more than 40 minutes to have digital family time. Now that South Africans can’t go to beaches or exceed 100 people in a restaurant, maybe it’s time to explore a digital holiday? Internationally dispersed families have been doing it for years, and it may be the perfect excuse not to deal with your aunt that got drunk and fell over the braai again.  Just do a video-call Christmas. Zoom is lifting its 40-minute meeting limit for free accounts across the globe for this reason. Not…

The era of the weird display phone has officially begun. We’ve mostly seen retail devices of the new form factor from Samsung in the shape of the Galaxy Z Fold uno and the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Other than that, many have attempted strange formats that never made it to retail, like the Huawei Mate Xs. Now, LG’s ready to show us its weirdness with the swivel-display LG Wing 5G.  We can appreciate the massive cajones LG’s carrying by putting out a T-shaped smartphone. It’s a form factor we haven’t really seen before, and we were hella keen to test…