Author: Stuff writer

Rain’s (not) the One Rain, a latecomer to South Africa’s mobile network operator game, is hiking its prices. That’s not déjà vu, either. Despite already bumping up its prices in June, the operator is putting its customer’s patience to the test, this time only targeting its RainOne packages, which initially launched in May 2023 with a starting price of R560/m. That was the case until 1 June 2024, when Rain sprung a R36 increase on customers, leaving them with a R595/m bill for the base RainOne package, offering 30Mbps speed. A further R200/m investment unlocks 60Mbps speeds, while the highest…

App developers all over the world are after one thing. Money. Recognition that you’re better than everyone else, though? That’s also a decent thing to have. If you’re a South African app developer, you’ll know that Stuff’s App Awards winners for 2024 were recently announced. That can only mean one thing — yes, it’s time to start gearing up for 2025. What’s app’n’ing? We’re not saying that it’s time to ready your URLs and dump a bunch of information on us. Not yet, anyway. But the time isn’t far off. We’ll be looking for locally developed apps, no matter where…

November holds the key to M4 MacBooks… allegedly If you were hoping for news of new MacBooks at Apple’s upcoming ‘It’s Glowtime’ event next week, you’re bound to be sorely disappointed. If history is any indication, Apple will hold off on any announcements that don’t include the words “iPhone 16”, “AirPods”, “Apple Watch” or “Pro Max”. Wait until November, however, and you may just get your wish in the form of M4-touting MacBooks. That’s according to MacRumours who reckons it’s dealing with a source “familiar with the matter.” That’s not entirely out of the question for Apple, whose “Scary Fast” event was…

For the first time, Stuff has thrown open its doors in search of entries for its app awards. Previously, all of the work was internal, but participation is the name of the game from now on. We asked and many of you answered, either in the form of outright entries or in the shape of nominations of your local faves. The bar has been set and you can expect future app awards to feature similarly high-quality offerings. FINTECH FASSERNATE If you’re not selling your products online, you’re behind the curve in 2024. Not everyone can get their products onto Vodacom…

Boeing Starliner will return to Earther without astronauts on board The issues for the astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) have come about primarily because Boeing and NASA engineers can’t be sure that it’s safe to let humans travel in Starliner. Following weeks of delay, NASA has decided that Starliner will return to Earth sans any human passengers. The reason for this is that it “allows NASA and Boeing to continue gathering testing data on Starliner during its upcoming flight home, while also not accepting more risk than necessary for its crew”. This… seems like the best course…

Cameras are an expensive hobby. Believe us, we’d know. If it isn’t the costly centrepiece itself, it’s the massive array of lenses – most of which might end up setting you back further financially than the initial purchase. There is an answer, however. It’s simple, really: buy ‘old’ hardware. Seriously, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with picking up a camera that doesn’t have 2024 printed on it. That’s especially true in the case of Canon’s DSLR cameras, or more specifically, the Canon EOS R6, currently fetching a still staggering price of R48,000. Don’t worry, it comes with a 24-105MM F/4-7.1 LENS.…

Ah, the original Walkman! Ancient music tech with all the charm of a brick – and the heft of one. Listen, when you can suck all of music history from the cloud into a svelte phone, there’s a chance you’ve been spoilt. But Sony’s chunky delight was a genuine slice of wonder 45 years ago. Finally, you could take your own music anywhere, without the inconvenience of trailing a massive extension cord behind you and trying to balance a record player on your head while carrying an amp and speakers. Not that Stuff ever tried that, obviously. Well, certainly not…

Seriously, has there ever been a smartwatch as expensive as the Apple Watch Ultra? Technically yes, if you’re counting its follow-up – the unimaginative Watch Ultra 2 – but it was Apple that initially set the precedent to sell a smartphone that costs as much as a whole flagship smartphone, that Samsung copied as soon as it could. Why did we ever let them get away with this again? To be fair to Apple, even all these years later, the OG Watch Ultra is still just as capable as ever. Whether it’s the coating of “aerospace-grade titanium”, 36 hours of…

Want to get more out of that little black box and power up your television? Stuff shows you how to make the most of your Apple TV and its latest operating system, tvOS 17… THE BASICS Take control On the new Siri Remote, the TV button opens the TV app. A long press of ‘<’ loads the home screen. Hate that app? Use Settings > Remote and Devices > TV Button to have it load the home screen instead. Double-click the TV button for an iOS-like app switcher where you can swipe up to force-quit an unruly app… or avoid…

Foldables aren’t easy to come by in South Africa without a big stack of cash on hand. Seriously. Look it up. Even those devices that don’t have Samsung’s branding plastered all over, aren’t exactly what we’d call ‘cheap’. Of course, this is assuming you’re after the latest and greatest foldable on the market. If you can settle for last year’s model – in this case, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 – you’ll be paying half the price at the tills. That’s a win in our books. People tend to focus heavily on the newcomers to the field, entirely disregarding the…