Author: Stuff writer

If you’re seeing this page, you either caught it in passing as it went live or you came here via a link in the printed version of Stuff Magazine. If it’s the former, we suggest you grab a copy of the magazine (it’s right here) for just R40. Or you can buy a copy of the dead-tree version in your local store. Either way, you’ll need it to answer the questions below. Not all of them, obviously. Just the tricky one right at the bottom. You know, the one that guarantees your entry into the Stuff/Monster audio giveaway for the…

Ah, the PS One – I loved that thing. The moment when gaming finally became cool! We’re not talking about the original PlayStation, which wasn’t even called the PS1 back then (well, that would have been wildly presumptuous). This is the PS One – and it was no mere name change. Sony’s sleeker, curvier console – half the footprint, a third of the weight – was aimed at a younger, wider audience less obsessed with mean, angular hardware. And you could buy a screw-on 5in screen that arguably made it Sony’s first portable console. A portable PS? Were they expecting…

It’s already that time of the month again, folks. Time for the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) to adjust the country’s fuel prices at the pumps from the morning of Wednesday, 6 August. This time, it will be the country’s diesel drivers who will be forced to contend with yet another massive price hike, while petrol drivers will find themselves enjoying a price decrease, if somewhat minor. Diesel drivers will probably be walking this August That leaves diesel drivers less than 24 hours to get themselves to the nearest garage to take advantage of the ‘cheaper’ prices before…

The recent departure of its head of AI, the upcoming retirement of the long-time chief operating officer, and a fight with the EU over its app store are just the latest developments in what’s been a truly rough period for Apple. COO Jeff Williams (62), who is Apple’s second-highest executive after CEO Tim Cook (64), will retire at the end of this month, Bloomberg reports. He will be replaced by Sabih Khan, who has been at Apple for 30 years and has been a senior vice president since 2019. “When Khan steps into the new role, he’ll contend with challenges…

Yes, says a theory that originated in San Francisco and was the subject of a Bloomberg opinion piece this week. Ever since OpenAI first acquired former Apple design chief and superstar Jony Ive’s startup ‘io’ (ssshhh) for a whopping $6.4 billion, it’s been a total mystery as to what Ive will create for the company as design chief. “The former Apple designer loves the age-old tool, perhaps enough to make it a landmark AI device,” writes Parmy Olson, who says Jony Ive has a “personal affinity with pens, having built up a personal collection”. She says the theory comes from…

Brace yourselves. The cold front hitting the country this weekend will be brass monkeys — as in ‘cold enough to freeze the ‘nads off a’. Much of the country will enter the low single- and double-digits, and if you’re not lucky enough to live in Durban, you’ll have to do some compensating. We’re just as concerned at Stuff Towers about whether we have the right gear, so we rounded up some items to keep you warm. Who doesn’t need a gas heater, microwave beanbag, electric blanket, or wood-fired stove? As with most preventative measures, everything should stand you in good…

The Wits Climate Risk Modelling project has been awarded a significant grant from the Bezos Earth Fund’s AI Grand Challenge for Climate and Nature to “lead a ground-breaking project aimed at transforming weather forecasting across the African continent”. The project is led by Professor Rendani Mbuvha from the Wits School of Statistics and Actuarial Science, and will use advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver accurate, high-speed weather and climate predictions in regions where current systems are “insufficient”. “We’re thrilled to democratise skilful AI-driven weather forecasts that will generate multisectoral impact across the Global South,” says Mbuvha. “This grant award is a…

Hisense has launched two TVs in South Africa aimed specifically at gamers.  The QLED Q7Q and Mini-LED U7Q specifically offer “the ultra-responsive performance that competitive gamers demand”.   Both sport 4K resolutions and use Hisense’s latest Hi-View Engine. The Q7Q uses Quantum Dot Colour to “achieve over a billion shades of colour” and the U7Q “takes it a step further with Mini-LED backlighting, producing deeper blacks, brighter highlights, and unparalleled contrast control, even in fast-paced scenes”. Hisenses, roll out We love a little hyperbole in a press release, as you can see, and this is this week’s winner: “two new powerhouse…

OpenAI has given us all another chance to look at the cutesy picture of Jony Ive and its CEO, Sam Altman. In a social post, which included that adorable wedding-pose image announcing that the company had bought Ive’s ‘io’ startup, the AI firm says it has removed all mention of io from its websites due to a trademark complaint. The not-so-happy couple This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name “io.” We don’t agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options.https://t.co/suwMRPTHqB — OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom)…

Only Facebook, now of course known as Meta, would make it mightily easy to mistakenly publicly share private queries in its Meta AI app. This is the upshot of the exposé that very private queries were being shared by mistake by many users. Meta’s solution? To warn you to “avoid sharing personal or sensitive information” right before users hit the “post to feed” button. Most rational companies would turn off the publicising of personal information from the word go, but not Facebook, which has put both capitalism and surveillance in surveillance capitalism. Chucking privacy out the window This lapse in…