Author: Stuff writer

No one wants to be that family member. Y’know, the one that routinely forgets birthdays, public holidays, or to prep their presents before the holidays start. We’re not judging. On the contrary, we’d like to offer some assistance in this case because we’ve all been there. If you have an avid techy, gamer, or generalist geek in your family/circle of friends, and you’re after an easy-to-execute last-minute gift for them this festive period, you’ve come to the right place. While the gift may end up being a voucher or digital subscription, that doesn’t make it any less valuable. The folks…

The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has intensified hand luggage regulations for all flights this holiday season and beyond. It’s trying to ‘enhance aviation safety and compliance’. While not new, the agency has vowed to be much stricter on regulations, which will see normal travellers scrambling for smaller laptop bags. According to the regulations, economy class passengers are allowed one bag and one slimline laptop bag or handbag, while first-class passengers can carry two bags and a slimline laptop bag. The total dimensions for each bag must not exceed 56cm x 36cm x 23cm, with a weight limit of 7kg…

The people who haven’t yet got around to gift shopping will probably be interested to know that the Steam Deck – one of the best handheld gaming machines available in South Africa – is in the midst of a holiday special that knocks nearly R9,000 off the normal price. Now to find Steam Deck-sized stockings As the overly descriptive headline says, Incredible Connection has the 512GB Steam Deck currently listed for R16,000. That’s R8,700 less than the R24,700 it usually sells for. That’s not a lot of money for a rather capable handheld PC. With a custom AMD APU powering…

Honor was a strange beneficiary of the ongoing trade wars between China and the US. Hampered by an inability to source chips on a mass scale, Chinese tech giant Huawei was forced to sell off one of its fastest-growing brands in 2020. Since then, Honor has accelerated its expansion into the global market, and in 2023 the company has put more focus on South Africa. The Honor Watch series is the company’s foray into smartwatches intended to compete with other Chinese giants. The Honor Watch GS 3 is another such release in the series. Let’s take a look into what…

So you’ve gone full retro this time, to the point that this console has actual woodgrain. It does scream 1970s – but that was the point. This was home gaming, so it was decided the VCS (renamed the Atari 2600 in 1982) should work with your home decor. It was pioneering in other ways too, with external cartridges killing off the standalone TV games that had until then been popular. And, despite a lacklustre start, Atari stuck with its console – unlike rival Fairchild, which quickly dumped its Channel F system thinking gaming would be a fad. Whoops. And that…

That there is a camera. Why’s it special? It looks far too normal for this page. To borrow a phrase, the Samsung Galaxy NX was ‘business in front, party in the back’. To the untrained eye, it looked like any other mid-range camera. You could mount lenses, prod a button to take a snap, and revel in the large (for the time) 20MP sensor. But spin the thing around and you were bathed in the glow of a 4.8in touchscreen. And that existed because this was the world’s first mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera to run Android. You know, the phone OS.…

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is the latest foldable flagship from the South Korean tech giant. As the number in the name suggests, it’s the fifth from the company using the book-fold form factor. With all that experience, it shouldn’t be surprising that Samsung dominates this market segment in South Africa. This is probably a large part of the reason other brands don’t bring their foldables here. A familiar 7.6in AMOLED display resides at the centre of the Galaxy Z Fold 5, with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,750 nits. When you don’t need to…

Beta Yourself is all about improving your skills in one sphere or another. No matter how good you are at one, there’s always something new to learn. That tracks over to something as seemingly innocuous as working from home. The pandemic shutdown showed most of the world just how hard it actually is to spend time away from other human beings. It’s not all waking up late and doing meetings while still wearing your fuzzy slippers. That’s why Stuff has the tips you need to make the most out of not having to drive into the office every day. A…

If you’re using a smartphone with ‘Ultra’ appended to the end of it, it better be incredible. That’s the case with Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra, which has edged out last year’s Samsung headliner as the best Android we’ve ever laid hands on. But a few months is a long time in tech and the S23 Ultra is getting a bit long in the tooth and slower in the processor. Okay, not really, but it’s still worth doing what you can to spruce up an already excellent device if you’ve got the ability. Given the original price for entry, it’s not…

There are apps for everything now. Even the (currently) most advanced software tech is available in smartphone app form. Better still, it won’t cost you a cent unless you want it to — so if you’re hoping to use artificial intelligence professionally you’ve got yet another subscription fee in your near future. But if you’re just a dabbler or curious about what life under our future AI overlords look like, there are a bunch of free apps to interact with. These are no slouches either. In this edition of Mini Meme, we’ve got a bunch of the best (free) smartphone…