Author: Tshepo Chauke

Lego has graced us with yet another Lord of the Rings set—because clearly, what a true fan of the series needs is a 2,017-piece diorama of The Shire to gather dust in the guest room. This set comes with nine minifigures – who wouldn’t want to own tiny plastic versions of Farmer Proudfoot and his wife? It depicts the scenes of Bilbo Baggins’s eleventy-first birthday party, featuring Bag End, Bilbo and Frodo’s Hobbit hole, and a few other vignettes from the scene. Lego all the way to The Shire Attendees to Bilbo’s party include Frodo, Samwise, the Proudfoots, Merry, Pippin,…

YouTube, continuing to add to its ever-spinning slate of experimental features for Premium subscribers, is looking for even more ways to convince customers that a R72/m subscription is worth it. Rather than hope to entice users with higher quality audio or the likes, it’s now turned its attention to video discovery. Announced in a recent blog post, the update offers viewers recommended videos right within their current watch queue, negating the need to go back to the home page to find something else to watch. Oh, the horror! As ever, it’s all about YouTube hogging viewers’ eyeballs for a couple…

Google’s new update to Gemini Live enables the assistant to analyse smartphone screens and camera feeds in real-time, company spokesperson Alex Joseph confirmed to TheVerge. The update was first teased with Project Astra (Google’s camera-based AI tech) nearly a year ago. It allows users to take the AI agent into the real world to answer questions based on what the user shows it. Gemini gains sight Users bring up the Gemini overlay on their phone and look “Share screen with Live” or “Ask about screen” to use the new feature. Users can also enter the Gemini Live interface, start a…

The Fujifilm GFX100RF, a modified rangefinder camera, is the Japanese company’s latest release in the GFX range, which emphasizes large-format sensors for increased detail and dynamic range. It features a viewfinder offset to the camera’s side and physical dials for more tactile navigation. This responsiveness is ideal for busy and unpredictable environments. It has a giant 102MP CMOS II full-frame high-speed image sensor for more resolution while weighing a portable 735g, lighter than a lens-equipped XT-5. Free-range photography with Fujifilm The GFX100RF is fixed to a Fujinon 35mm F4 lens, equivalent to 28mm in 35mm format. The lens has a…

Volvo Cars is ushering its safety development program into the AI age. The company is equipping its newer cars with advanced sensors to collect more data than ever on emergency braking, sharp steering, manual intervention, and more. The Swedish car company seeks to leverage AI to help identify where safety improvements can be made by collecting data from these sensors after accidents. This works similarly to aeroplane black boxes, which collect large amounts of data to help researchers identify what went wrong. Volvo makes AI a safe(ty) bet Volvo has long prided itself on its continuous research into vehicle safety.…

Acer Africa has unveiled its Acer Swift Lite, a mid-range laptop that balances power and portability. The new hardware packs an Intel Core chip and WUXGA screen into a 1.35kg frame that makes the device easy to handle, ideal for people who need a computer that can move around as easily as they do. Acer packs Lite In a laptop landscape dominated by a litany of low-budget bottom-feeders and inflated gaming giants, Acer looks to give the mid-range its groove back with the Swift Lite. The laptop boasts a 13th Gen Intel Core processor, coming in both i3 and i5…

Since dodging the temporary US ban and other lawsuits, Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok is issuing some changes to its Family Pairing program, in a bid to make it easier for parents and guardians to keep track of minors’ activity on the app. TikTok adds trackers and timeouts for teens The Time Away feature allows guardians to set specific times that the app is available to their kids, and can also schedule the times like an alarm. Parents can now ensure the app is unusable during class, homework time, or any custom period. Parents can also customise screen time limits across…

Woolworths is launching a new ‘after dark’ delivery service, allowing customers to purchase deliveries from Woolies Foodstops via Uber Eats, all the way up till midnight. Partnering with Engen Quickshop, Woolworths has trialled the service in certain parts of the country to “exceptional demand,” claims Uber Eats general manager for grocery & retail, Cikida Gcali. So successful that it accounted for nearly 20% of participating stores’ profits, according to a press release. Woolworths goes Dark Mode Customers can access ‘Woolies after dark’ by searching for ‘Woolies’ on the Uber Eats app. It’s available at 24 Woolworths Foodstops in Gauteng, KZN,…

The king of Asus’s ROG series, the ROG Strix SCAR, is up for preorder in South Africa. The laptop has developed a reputation as one of the best gaming laptops around, and the 2025 version only increases that gap with modular functions, allowing buyers to swap out the RAM and SSD without needing any tools. ROG Strix SCAR 18 – moddable monster The new ROG Strix SCAR 18 is physically largely unchanged in comparison to its debut in 2019. The lid features a customisable AniMe Matrix black-and-white LED screen. Gaming-wise, this behemoth leaves no crumbs on the plate with the…

It must be Christmas somewhere on another planet because Google is finally rolling out some improvements to Android’s widget system. Widgets are a neat addition to the Android experience, giving users a glimpse into an app without having to enter it. The feature has been neglected over the past few years, much to our chagrin here at Stuff. That’s changing. Google eases the widge-hunt On its Android developers blog, Google announced three new updates to the widget user experience to make finding and interacting with the mini tools slightly easier. The first is a dedicated widgets search filter on Google…