Author: Stuff writer

Having your phone stolen in Mzansi is more of a ‘when’ scenario than an ‘if’. The country’s crime problems were on full display in the White House earlier this year. Unfortunately. An average of 189 mobiles are stolen every day in South Africa, according to the South African Police Service (SAPS). “Police data suggests that only 29% of these were blacklisted with service providers,” wrote the Institute for Security Studies, of the 412,998 mobiles were reported stolen between April 2017 and March 2023. Taking on Samsung Smartphone makers clearly know this, and Samsung has released a range of new anti-theft…

In a truly unprecedented move, Donald Trump wants to sell you a smartphone. He is the first US President to offer a branded smartphone. Or any branded product. For $500 (R9,000), you can own a Trump-branded gold device that will charge you $47.45 (about R855/m) a month to sing the praises of the 45th and 47th US president, geddit? Turns out patriotism is a gold mine. Who knew? The phone service will be called Trump Mobile, and its T1 smartphone is gold, or should we say gold-coloured. Very gold coloured. It’s a colour that Trump clearly loves, as he has…

Mxm. Sequels are never as good as the originals, are they? Oh, this one was. The original PlayStation redefined home gaming, but five years later, Sony unleashed another revolution. The new console’s guts packed serious clout, enabling game makers to sculpt breathtaking efforts: the soulful Ico and awe-inspiring Shadow of the Colossus, the sprawling open world of GTA3, grin-inducing racers like Burnout Revenge – and many more. This wasn’t merely shifting more polygons; it was a quantum leap in gaming. Hurrah! Progress! Year zero! Just like gaming is supposed to be. Except no. Sony recognised the investment millions of gamers…

1980s arcade gaming meets 1930s cinema. Double retro overload! It does feel like that when you first set eyes on Shigeru Miyamoto’s legendary design. This was one of the earliest ‘climbing’ games, laying the foundations for the platform genre. And it’s packed with film tropes, from the damsel in distress to the giant ape – too packed, according to Universal City Studios, which filed a lawsuit against Nintendo alleging trademark infringement of King Kong. Universal lost; Nintendo won; gamers and everyman carpenters everywhere erupted in celebration. Probably. Carpenters? Duh, Mario’s a plumber! Not at first. He wasn’t even called Mario…

Whether you want to explore gaming history or just have some retro fun, these mobile emulator apps will transform your phone into a classic console. Delta | iOS (Free – IAPs) This is the one that changed everything for iPhone. It took 10 years for Delta to reach the App Store, and it only happened then because Apple performed a screeching U-turn on allowing emulators. We’re glad it did, because Delta is a slick, usable way to play games from old Nintendo consoles. Note that, for reasons too complicated to go into here, some folks need to grab it from…

There’s a fresh issue of Stuff on shelves, but you may have trouble accessing a copy. Perhaps your favourite store that stocks slices of dead tree doesn’t have stock (please let us know if this happens to you). Perhaps you’re in the mood for something that is delivered directly to you. That’s how the modern world works, after all. Convenience shopping By far the simplest and quickest way to grab the newest issue is to buy the digital version. Directly from Stuff, for preference, since each PDF download is lovingly hand-crafted by the very best interns (kidding – we don’t…

Whether you’re running low on system storage or just want to hoard more stuff, picking the right portable SSD can be tricky. Should you prioritise capacity, transfer speeds, or drive protection? That all depends on what you need it for. Here’s a rundown on what to look out for and our picks for the best SSDs to house your stash of pet pics. How to decide 1. Data restriction Gone are the days of tiny SSD capacities, but naturally, you’ll still pay more for extra storage. Most start at 500GB, rising up to 4TB. The biggest cap out at 8TB,…

Apple is finally going to release a pair of smart glasses – but only at the end of next year. “Company engineers are ramping up work on the glasses – a rival to Meta Platforms’ popular Ray-Bans – in a bid to meet the year-end 2026 target,” writes Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the best Apple watcher in the business. “Apple will start producing large quantities of prototypes at the end of this year with overseas suppliers,” he quoted people in the know. Seeing through Apple’s lenses “Apple’s glasses would have cameras, microphones and speakers, allowing them to analyse the external world…

You know, that Mac doesn’t look particularly ‘mini’ to me… To be fair, it was 2005. A typical cheapo desktop PC back then was a nondescript tower hewn from plastic. But the Mac Mini was affordable without abandoning Apple’s eye for design. For years, potential switchers had griped that Apple should offer a cheaper, stripped-down Mac; Apple wanted to leave them with no excuses. So it gave them this sleek, small computer with an aluminium case and loads of industry-standard ports… but also one excuse, in that the Mac Mini was ‘BYODKM’. I can do random letters too! Was the…

Charge up those power banks, download a few podcasts, and settle in; Eskom has officially announced the return of Stage 2 load shedding. Fortunately, Eskom hopes to kick load shedding to the curb by Thursday, meaning Saffas will only have to put up with power cuts for three days – assuming all goes to plan. Eskom has at least provided residents with some warning of the impending power cuts, with Stage 2 load shedding set to go into effect this afternoon at 16h00, lasting until 22h00. This schedule will remain in place until 22h00 on Thursday, 15 May, after which…