Author: Toby Shapshak

It is indeed a heist, as the title of the documentary rightly said. Steinheist is a fascinating account of the biggest fraud in South Africa, which wiped R200 billion off the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), a never-seen-before destruction of shareholder value that impacted almost everyone in South Africa. As such a seemingly successful business, Steinhoff was a must-have stock for all investment institutions, including the big government retirement funds and many, many private investors. When it was revealed to be a giant scam in December 2017, the house of cards that Marcus Jooste had built came crashing down. And with…

Given that I go to sleep every night listening to Audible, the Anker soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds seem made for me. There’s nothing wrong with my AirPods 4, which I am generally delighted with. But they are designed for everything but sleeping. They sit comfortably in your ear when you walk or run, they’re great for most things you do upright. But they still stick out of your ear. That’s why I generally go to sleep with only one in. Another issue is that they have about four hours of battery life, so I have to invariably charge them if…

Sonos released the Arc, its first flagship standalone soundbar, in 2020. It was well-received at the time and praised for its audio fidelity and smart feature set. Towards the end of 2024, the company unveiled the Sonos Arc Ultra, its next flagship soundbar which it says is the “most powerful soundbar [it] has ever created.” Of course it would say that, but is it any good? Sitting down to business If you can’t hear the dialogue on the TV show, you’re not alone. As action scenes have taken priority in movies in general, the filmmakers tend to increase the volume…

Christmas in Joburg isn’t what it is in the movies – especially in the northern hemisphere where it really does snow. I was thinking of this mismatch between the top half of the planet’s way of celebrating (what’s for them) a winter wonderland while watching that excellent film Arthur Christmas by the geniuses from Aardman Animation, the makers of Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. Some like it hot There we were, in 30-degree heat on a late Saturday afternoon, watching snow-capped (animated) splendour whizzing below Santa’s sleigh. Just in front of the TV – ironically – was a…

Imagine going on a holiday where you could dress up as a cowboy and live out your fantasies of being, well, a cowboy. That’s the premise of the blockbuster science fiction series Westworld. The wild, wild west is not so wild anymore, but more of a tame and futuristic theme park for rich tourists to live out their cowboy fantasies. Some of these are pretty dark and show a disdain for humanity or our closest Android cousins. In that sense, the wild is on the edge of morality. Who really fantasises about being a ruthless killer or an outlaw who…

I hated the original Sonos Roam so much that I gave it away. That the recipient loved it didn’t make me feel better about myself. I might be willing to admit that my hatred was partly caused when I tried to pair it with someone else’s phone while on an overseas holiday. Who knew it would sever all connections and then fell afoul of Sonos’s insistence that you connect its Bluetooth speaker to your home Sonos network first? The rest of the two-week trip happened without music, sadly. I was therefore a little reluctant to try the Sonos Roam 2…

I lost count of how many times the two lead actors of The Wire use the word “fuck” in one of the greatest scenes in television history. For nearly four minutes, Detectives Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) and Bunk (Wendell Pierce) walk around a murder scene, reconstructing what happened when a gunman shot a woman through a kitchen window. It’s really good television and a prime reason why The Wire is rated by most critics as the best TV show of all time. If you haven’t watched it yet, you are in for a great treat. Set across five seasons of…

With Jodie Foster in the main role as the police chief investigating a strange murder, you can expect a strong performance and a captivating TV show. Given the high standards set by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in the first season, it’s no ordinary challenge. Foster pulls it off, obviously, imbuing her surly character with the requisite surliness and smarts to solve a puzzling murder – while battling the small-town politics in Alaska and her own difficult teenage step-daughter.  Each season of the True Detective series is a self-contained crime that is presented, and later, solved. Collectively it is a…

I have stuck to the original hard-plastic AirPods from Apple for a variety of reasons. The shape worked for my ears, and I liked how they worked with Apple products. I have been a dutiful—and happy—user of Apple’s AirPods since generation one and was thrilled when the new AirPods 4 had an upgrade to active noise-cancellation (ANC). I also liked them – this will sound foolish, I know – but they are more compact than the AirPods Pro range. I fall asleep listening to Audible, so I prefer the smallest earbuds. I used Sony’s excellent (and flat) Linkbuds for years…

While researching their blockbuster movie Saving Private Ryan director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Hanks kept coming across references to Easy Company, the legendary US paratroopers who featured in every major battle of World War II. It led to one of the greatest war series about one of the greatest units in the history of war. In the pantheon of good war films, there is a special place for this 10-part miniseries about the remarkable exploits of the parachute battalion of American airborne infantry who took part in all the major battles of the Second World War, from Normandy to…