Author: Toby Shapshak

South Africa’s education system is crumbling and 10-year-olds can’t read for meaning. As much as we are failing at these, well, crucial country-building things, we are unfortunately excelling at tenderpreneuring. How else do you explain the latest inflated invoice scandal over a so-called app store that can’t take payments, nor let you download the apps that aren’t on sale? The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies built a website called DigiTech, which it calls “a digital products portal”. The site’s purpose “is to collect data about digital products developed in South Africa with an aim of supporting the products’ technology…

We won’t know until early next year if Apple’s long-delayed mixed reality headset, unveiled at this year’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) and christened the Vision Pro, will perform as demonstrated. Judging by past successes and the slick launch, this new device is destined to be the next big thing – a brag by a company that has an uncanny ability to create that very next big thing. The personal computer (Macintosh), iTunes and the iPod, digital music sales, the smartphone (iPhone) and its app economy, the iPad, and the Apple Watch. The list of game-changing gadgets is impressive. The…

The world is about to undergo a major shift in logging into e-mail and other accounts, using a new technology known as passkeys. Google, Microsoft and Apple are the major operating manufacturers adopting this, with Gmail the first to do so. Passwords have many weaknesses, among them susceptibility to data breaches and phishing. Despite there being a range of upgrades for logging in — using password managers and authenticator apps — passwords are reused across many websites. Once someone has your password they have access to your account— if you haven’t set up two-factor authentication, requiring either a six-digit code…

As concerned as educators are about students using ChatGPT to do their homework, it seems a more worrying use of artificial intelligence (AI) has already emerged. Clickbait websites – which make money from programmatic advertising – now using AI chatbots are “proliferating” warn internet researchers. Many experts warned of this probability during the excitement when OpenAI released its GPT-3 software on 30 November 2022. Forget the more noble uses of a large-language model (LLM) and its extraordinary ability to replicate human writing, the scammers have spotted an upgrade to their nefarious needs. It kinda feels like non-practising energy minister Gwede…

Gaming hasn’t always been on a high-end PC or console and remains a fundamental way we humans interact, MTN’s gaming geeks tell Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Veteran internet executive Jason Probert is the general manager of digital services for MTN South Africa, while Brad Kirby is a Senior Specialist in eSports & Gaming. Apart from this philosophical reminder, gaming is how we have fun, blow off steam and socialise. Some of us do it on a padel court, others on a console or smartphone. MTN has plans for gaming in SA Also available on Apple | Spotify | Google podcasts

The Atlantic has always been the great physical divide between Europe and the Americas, between the Old World and the New World — as it was described 500 years ago, when seafaring adventurers set off from Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands to find riches. During World War 2 the crossings took on a different tone, as desperately needed supplies from the US were transported in a dangerous voyage, with German U-boats lurking. In the past two decades, that vital economic flow, now in data, has been reversed. The personal information of hundreds of millions of Europeans has been ending up…

Twitter has a new CEO. The world breathes a sign of relief. Apart from tarnishing Elon Musk’s reputation for the rest of his otherwise industrious career, it has been a comedy of errors. Not very funny, unless Schadenfreude is your shtick. It has been an error-filled six-month patch that has shown Musk to be petty, impetuous, callous and cold-hearted, as well as a bully and a spoilt billionaire who, amongst others, was angry the US President’s Super Bowl tweet got more engagement than his. He has also smashed Twitter in many ways that are hopefully not irremediable. He has admitted…

When Busi Radebe goes home to visit his family on Joburg’s West Rand, he always has to stop at an ATM and draw cash so he can support the local economy. “Most local businesses only take cash,” says Radebe, who is the head of card and electronic payments at Capitec, which has over 20 million customers. “Some spaza shops will have some sort of device. But you have to spend a minimum of R50 and a surcharge of R55 is often also added. A guy selling a loaf of bread doesn’t care about industry rules,” Radebe told an industry event…

“Going solar” is the catchphrase of the year. Again. But how do you tell the shysters from the bone fide solar installers? And how do you get finance for an off-grid system? Also, without having to become an expert yourself, what exactly do you need? That’s where Hohm Energy comes in, providing a marketplace for finding providers and financiers, its head of business intelligence Matthew Cruise tells editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak in the third episode of Stuff’s going off-grid podcast series. Bring Hohm a little more Energy Also available on Apple | Spotify | Google podcasts

South Africans are good at solving problems. With extreme ‘load-shredding’, we’ve started finding alternatives in true boer maak ‘n plan style. From LED lightbulbs with built-in batteries to backup batteries for Wi-Fi routers, and a new category of small, portable power stations, there is a range of new Eskom-induced technologies. Several innovative South African companies have their own ways of tackling the blackouts. In the second of Stuff’s going off-grid podcast series, editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak meets local firm Syntech. He speaks to co-founder Ryan Martyn​ and CEO Craig Nowitz. Local power problems often require local power solutions Also available on Apple…