Author: Stuff writer

Now you’re talking. This one had a proper keyboard, unlike your newfangled phones. Yes – and that was a big deal at the time. The BlackBerry 850 was tiny, yet had all the keys you needed to rapidly smash out messages – even if you did sometimes wish you could file your fingers down to points. Still, that was better than mashing numbers on a Nokia until it revealed the right letter, or braving its terrifying autocorrect system. In fact, the 850 even excelled there: you could quickly craft custom entries, for example, to expand ‘mon’ to ‘Monday’. Just as…

Halfway through the year, the office can seem a little low-vibrational… But there’s a revival coming, an upscaling that’ll change a low-quality office into a Wow one! Catch Samsung’s Unbox & Discover 2024 event, live-streamed on Stuff’s YouTube channel, Facebook page, and X.com profile, at 17h00 on 12 June. Samsung Unbox & Discover 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW-CrDF9wTg

After weeks of anticipation, the Huawei Pura 70 series is finally in South Africa. This bold new flagship series packs a punch in design, photography, and performance, showcasing that Huawei is aiming high with its new range of smartphones. Huawei sent Stuff the Pura 70 Pro to unbox, so that’s just what we did. If you like what you see, the Pura 70 series is already available online and in stores, starting at R19,999 with the Pura 70 Pro going for R26,999. Unboxing the Huawei Pura 70 Pro

If you’re a South African app developer, the June-July 2024 issue of Stuff should be on your radar. That’s doubly true if you answered Stuff’s recent call for entries into its 2024 App Awards, which is one of the highlight features of this issue of the mag. But it’s far from the only reason to purchase this newly-dropped copy of Stuff. As ever, there’s always more to see.  Smartphones. Everyone has one. Or they really want one. Either way, it’s an excuse for us to immerse ourselves in the very best smartphones to come out in 2024. Oh, sure, there…

It’s the first brick of Apple’s walled garden! A beige brick! With a tiny screen! It was also revolutionary: the first successful all-in-one computer with a built-in display, controlled with a mouse, and with a graphical user interface rather than a command line. As Apple saw it, the company was defying conformity. Nowhere was this more evident than in its launch commercial, directed by Ridley Scott, which featured an athlete sprinting past drone-like workers before hurling a sledgehammer into a TV screen depicting Orwell’s Big Brother. Ironic, given Apple’s famous penchant for control and locking things down… Indeed. And the…

Wow, IBM. Has Stuff been taken over by suits? What next: “Why spreadsheets are fantastic”? Sure, ‘IBM PC’ might evoke people doing dull things in dull offices, rather than the cool things people do with computers today. But this was 1981. IBM’s debut PC, the 5150, revolutionised the market … despite the fact that it failed to outperform its rivals and was light on features unless you became light of wallet buying a load of upgrades prior to plugging the thing in. But to borrow a later Apple phrase, IBM quickly won out because it could ‘think different’. Hang on,…

Some do it for the recognition. Others out of a sense of social responsibility. Still more were going to do it anyway. It doesn’t matter why you design and develop apps; Stuff wants to hear from you. You could be a South African app developer who has made and launched – or is about to launch – an app on the South African or international market, either way, the important thing is that Stuff and its panel of judges get a chance to use, test and review your app. You will then qualify and be in the running for Stuff’s…

THE BASICS Keep discovering Don’t be that person who insists music died after an arbitrary year that’s in your head. Your phone provides access to countless songs. Use digital radio and streaming service recommendations to seek out music that’s new to you, and ensure your listening habits don’t become as stale as an Osmonds tribute act. Test your ears Are you an audiophile? Are you sure? Do yourself a favour and blind-test whether your ears can actually tell the difference between good-quality streaming and hi-res audio downloads. If you can’t, that might make you glum, but it’ll make things a…

There’s something about the number three that just feels right, you know? Trilogies are a frequent occurrence in literature and Hollywood cinema, especially for this very reason. But what about fours? Quadrilogies are a much less common occurrence, presumably because the addition of a fourth instalment initially breaks the perception, we have that a trilogy is somehow satisfying. Whether this is true or not (probably not), most Hollywood studios’ solution to this problem is to use the fourth instalment as a hard reboot à la Mad Max: Fury Road. Others choose to go for a soft reboot, by pairing the…

When you need to keep track of a to-do list, important moments in your life, or fleeting ideas before they vanish, most folks reckon writing it down is a good way to do it. You could grab the closest piece of paper and pencil but who uses those anymore? Your smartphone is probably closer anyway — if you aren’t holding it already. Most phones come with a notes app baked in but those are generally pretty bland and don’t offer much in the way of features. These apps, on the other hand, are purpose-built for chronicling your life or jotting…