Author: Toby Shapshak

It arrived via WhatsApp. I ignored it at first. Another forwarded video meme from a serial forwarder, I suspected. But when I watched it, despite my initial misgivings, I grew increasingly fond of it. There he was, the indomitable Derek Watts, the fearsome interviewer from Carte Blanche. When he gets out of his car, the car guards run away… He strikes fear into the hearts of the dastardly, he is retribution incarnate, with a TV camera in tow…. Perhaps because I knew Derek Watts and had spoken enough to him when being interviewed by him, or at industry functions, I…

The work from home phenomenon is officially over. Zoom, the video app we all used throughout Covid, has told its workers that they have to work from the office for at least two days a week. The rest of the world has been doing that for at least a year now. Long forgotten are our masks and social distancing, although the habits (and fears) of the pandemic linger on. “We believe that a structured hybrid approach – meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams – is most…

The European Union’s wide-ranging Digital Services Act came into effect on 25 August to provide much-needed oversight for “very large online platforms” which the EU defines as having over 45 million users. They now “must apply the new law,” tweeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “We’re bringing our European values into the digital world. With strict rules on transparency and accountability, our Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to protect our children, societies and democracies.” The new DSA laws have far-reaching consequences for the 40 Big Tech firms if they fail to stop abuse, misinformation, propaganda, child porn, vaccine…

The iPad Pro is getting a much-needed update – but only next year. This will coincide with the 10th anniversary of Apple’s market-dominating tablet, writes Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, one of the best commenters on the fruit company. As he points out the iPad Pro is getting its “first major overhaul in half a decade, and it can’t come soon enough”. Not only is the whole tablet in the doldrums, but the iPad lineup is a confusing mess. I spent a few hours earlier this year trying to make sense of the convoluted options. I always buy Apple gear from Incredible,…

Anticompetitive oversight has been ramping up around the world. Lawmakers in the US and the EU have tried to counter the dominance of big tech firms, and in South Africa, too, the matter has received attention — the Competition Commission released its “Online Intermediation Platforms Market Inquiry” report on 31 July after two years of investigation of the companies’ competition behaviour on the internet. Tech giant Google “distorts platform competition”, while e-commerce site Takealot’s marketplace for other sellers is a “conflict of interest”, the report finds. Other findings include: Booking.com “creates a dependency that is used to extract higher commission…

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 have folding glass screens, an engineering innovation that still delights Stuff’s editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Mobile executives Justin Hume and Zahir Cajee join in the geek-out. Samsung’s folding glass still astounds Also available on Apple Podcasts | Spotify

In a sea of bad news for Elon Musk, there was one piece of good news: Tesla has started making its electric bakkie. The Cybertruck, as it’s called, is a futuristic-looking pickup that was first announced in November 2019. The Tesla CEO’s unveiling of it featured what is now a meme when he was trying to demonstrate how tough the car’s glass was. A steel cannonball was thrown against the window, which was promptly smashed, and Musk blurted out “Oh my f****** god” to riotous laughter. Electric bakkies and big promises Last month, Tesla announced, on X, obviously, “First Cybertruck…

Instead of buying expensive textbooks, which learners are stuck with, what if you could “rent” them? Calling it “Spotify for textbooks,” this is the idea behind MTN’s new educational offering, MTN South Africa’s general manager of digital services Jason Probert tells says Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Joining them is Thabiet Allie, the head of new business development and who is driving the operator’s online learning. Don’t break the bank, rent your textbooks Also available on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

One of my son’s favourite books is James and Giant Peach. I was just as enthralled when it was read to me as a child. I recall my mental images of a peach so big it had tunnels inside it, and you could just bite into it to taste that cool, refreshing peach flesh. As unrealistic and fantastical as it seemed, who doesn’t want to fly in a giant peach borne by seagulls? Apple is that giant, well, peach. Preserving the Peach Apple It was merely a coincidence that we were reading this Roald Dahl classic when Apple hit that…

Whether TikTokker Mikayla Nogueira was wearing false eyelashes or not is probably not a question that has crossed the minds of the average techie reader. But the furore over “mascara gate” as it was dubbed, is whether so-called influencers can be trusted. Finding sanity in the deinfluencing trend Nogueira, a so-called beauty influencer with 14 million followers on TikTok, did a paid-for post for L’Oréal in February to promote its mascara. But by the end, she appeared to be wearing false eyelashes. Angry social media users have done a frame-by-frame analysis and a wave of indignation has erupted online. “When…