Author: Toby Shapshak

When my phone unexpectedly crashed last year, one of the only problems I had was that my entire WhatsApp backup was lost. And… I couldn’t be happier. Despite losing every message I’ve ever sent or received on Meta’s now-indispensable messaging service, my life has not ended. And now, my phone is about 10% less cluttered with a digital archive I clearly never needed. Before the crash, I had noticed just how large the WhatsApp data was becoming on my iPhone. I never back up videos, only photographs. I have changed WhatsApp’s default setting to not save received images to the…

Where credit cards replaced cheques, virtual cards have replaced plastic ones. But the evolution of payments isn’t over yet, as its contactless future shows, as Ashley Saffy, head of spend and customer value management at FNB Card, tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts Now Hear: How to nav-igate your life, with FNB’s nav chief Jolandé Duvenage

After I wrote a short travel piece on what essential things to do and see in Cape Town, a lot of people asked me: what about the penguins? What about Table Mountain? And, what else can you do, especially with a kid? Let’s start in town. Table Mountain | You can’t miss it Cape Town’s standout natural highlight is shaped, you guessed it, like a table. When it is drenched in a low-forming cloud, which drips over the edges, that is called the tablecloth. It is beautiful. Use your phone’s wide-angle setting for a picture. The mountain creates a natural…

Barcelona is a glorious European city to visit – massively enhanced by its most famous son’s extraordinary architectural marvels. And I do mean extraordinary. And many, many marvels. Antoni Gaudí is synonymous with Barcelona – as he rightfully deserves to be. His eccentric, iconic architecture typifies why this is such a wonderful city with a rich history of creativity and artistry. The food is also fantastic. Sagrada Familia | Carrer de Mallorca, 401, 08013 Barcelona Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia cathedral is a wonder to behold, not least because it’s still incomplete over a hundred years later. It took building technology that…

When is the cheapest time to fly to Cape Town? Joburgers will be pleased to know (or perhaps not so much) that it is at 5PM on Sunday evening. The most expensive time to fly is, unsurprisingly, Friday at 4PM. These are some of the findings from Discovery Bank’s annual survey of its customers’ spending habits for the past year, done with Visa. Conversely, for Cape Town to Joburg flights, the cheapest time is Wednesday at 9PM (the same goes for Durban to Joburg) and the priciest time is at midday on Sundays. From Durban to Joburg the most expensive…

Jolandé Duvenage is the chief imaginer for First National Bank’s nav» offering. The bank wants to make it easier to buy or sell a car or a house, value them and insure them, while hopefully increasing your financial literacy, Jolandé Duvenage tells Stuff’s editor-in-chief, Toby Shapshak.  Helping nav-igate your FNB life Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts

One of the most important new technologies in our renewable energy future is one you’ve probably never heard of before. Called wheeling, it is the way that electricity is accounted for when you move it across the grid — and you’re probably already using it, Open Access founder Gerjo Hoffman tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Taking the wheel Also available on Spotify | Google Podcasts | Apple Podcasts Now Hear: Streaming over mobile is the new entertainment, with MTN’s Jason Probert

While social media was outraged about a clumsy Twitter response by Old Mutual, what irked me the most was an obvious lack of awareness about how we live in a mobile world. In case you missed it, someone complained that their mother’s policy had not been paid out, despite allegedly having a court order. Old Mutual scores an own goal Dear @OldMutualSA please advise why you are refusing to release my mother’s money even though a court order has been provided. You are in contempt of court and I am about to lose my cool right now — Seba (@Seba_S_M)…

Johannesburg is a great city, the economic heartland of South Africa. But it’s New York to Cape Town’s San Francisco. Cape Town is a cross of a Mediterranean coastal resort and a European cultural capital. It has the seas, the mountains, the wine lands, the gourmet restaurants, the quirky hipster bars, the best sushi and seafood, and great nightlife. With Table Mountain like a flicked-up collar, Cape Town has the confidence and smoothness that George Clooney-esque greying European men have. It has everything. Glorious coastlines, beautiful beaches (and 1-inch freezing cold water in the Atlantic, unless you go to the…

I love podcasts. Not just because they are handy ways to listen to interviews or consume interesting information, but because of how much easier they make my life as a journalist. Rather than typing up notes on my laptop during an interview, I can have a conversation with someone and record it. In the past, I seldom used the recordings I routinely made during interviews because it took so long to transcribe them. For a few years, I used a transcription service (which wasn’t cheap) but then came AI transcription websites. Take your recorded .mp3 and upload it. Within 15…