Author: Toby Shapshak

There’s nothing particularly wrong with my Sonos Move. In fact, there’s nothing wrong at all with it. I often walk down to my pool – which was built in the 1970s and therefore far away from the house – with the Move, which continues to play with ease. That in and of itself isn’t that remarkable, you may say, but when my sophisticated smartphone loses Wi-Fi signal and the Move doesn’t, that’s impressive. So, I’m keen to see what improvements are crammed into the Move 2, which Sonos announced this month. It has double the battery life, now up to…

No sooner had the SABC and MultiChoice agreed on a broadcast deal for the Rugby World Cup (RWC) than the topic was back in the news – for all the wrong reasons. Again. eMedia – which broadcasts free-to-air channel eTV and the eNCA news channel on MultiChoice’s DStv – has published an open letter warning that 3.2 million South African households will not be able to view the sporting spectacle. These households rely on OpenView, a satellite broadcasting platform run by eMedia, which carries SABC1, 2, 3 and SABC Sport. “It is important to note that Openview does not generate…

Under a picture of Manie Libbok’s amazing no-look kick pass to Kurt-Lee Arendse, my friend asked: “Can you explain what the big deal was with this moment? Everyone seems to be losing their shit on Twitter about this”. You can forgive my non-rugby-loving friend for not knowing why that moment is so significant, given that he clearly didn’t watch last night’s Rugby World Cup opening game. (Whether I can remain friends with him is another story.) It may not have been the Springbok flyhalf’s best outing with the boot – he missed two penalties and a conversion – but it…

We’re big rugby fans at Stuff and Scrolla.Africa – and we’re not happy that everyone can’t watch the Springboks defend the World Cup. So, forget the SABC’s inability to strike a deal with Supersport, which was subsequently concluded the day before the event started. Forget the inevitable load shredding. We have found a number of ways to overcome these hurdles to our patriotic duty – but you will need to buy your own drinks. How to watch rugby for free Luckily, World Rugby has launched its own streaming platform – RugbyPass TV. It will live-stream every game of the Rugby…

Just before a trip to Seattle in 2018, Amazon launched its concept store that had no cashiers. The headlines raved about this potentially new future of shopping. I had to check it out. Instead of a cashier scanning items you’ve put in your shopping basket at the exit, the store itself would do that for you – as you shop. I visited the first such Amazon Go store opposite its iconic domes at its downtown Seattle headquarters – both the architecture and the American e-commerce giant selling a new brick-and-mortar way of shopping that opposed the brand’s usual approach to…

“Let’s Bing it,” I often used to joke a few years ago with a good friend who worked at Google. I don’t recall him ever laughing. Google may have become a verb for search, but in the process has become a bloated, inefficient money-making machine. Google’s search quality is now so poor, it’s functionally useless. Paid-for adverts are intermingled with real search results – which are themselves heavily manipulated by search engine optimisation which allows other people to literally influence what appears higher in searches. Google gives “prominence to paid results, which means that the largest platforms with the biggest…

Discovery is going green. Well… greener. The innovative health company has announced its new Discovery Green initiative to provide companies with an easy way to switch to renewable energy. As part of its own attempts to reduce its carbon footprint, Discovery Group CEO Adrian Gore said the insurer thinks it can help other companies achieve the same. Discovery wants to be carbon neutral by 2025, he says, and reduce the 29,000 tons of carbon it consumes. Although this is “relatively low,” he says, “it became clear that consumption of electricity is the core of that”. So, Discovery set about working…

On the day the diesel price jumped nearly R3, the government finally announced that it would help South Africa’s motor industry transition to building electric vehicles. The diesel increase isn’t hard to view as a cynical move by a government that makes a sweet profit margin on selling this fuel. Diesel, too, is the main source of juice for generators when load shedding happens. This… ‘alternative’ power has become the only way major retailers can keep their fridges cold.  Each litre of diesel carries with it a surcharge for the Road Accident Fund (RAF) – which would only be required if…

Since its launch late last year, ChatGPT has enthralled the world and made generative AI the hottest technology. The excitement is turning into an unexpected revenue boon for its maker OpenAI, which expects to hit $1 billion in annual revenue in the next year. This unicorn number translates into about $80 million a month, reports The Information. Before that 30 November 2022 release, OpenAI pulled in a not-embarrassing $28 million. Now, with users paying $20 (R380) a month for it, ChatGPT is flourishing at bringing home the bacon. There were between 1 million and 2 million paying customers by March,…

When The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow asked a Pentagon official for an interview, his spokesperson replied: “We’ll talk to you if Elon wants us to”. The New Yorker’s blockbuster feature has set tongues wagging around the world as it exposes just how dependent the United States has become on just one man. Call it state capture, Elon Musk style. Iron Man’s Shadow rule Musk has “become inescapable” in the works of NASA, the Department of Defense and Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Current and former officials say they “now treat him like a…