Author: Toby Shapshak

The most interesting thing about Billions is not necessarily how it delves into this new genre of television known as “wealth porn” but how well it combines two strong acting leads. There was a time – like last year – when a TV show was carried by one big-name actor and a number of secondary figures. Billions isn’t the first to break this mould – think of how the movie Heat finally juxtaposed action heavyweights Robert de Niro and Al Pacino on screen – but it’s arguably the best of this new style of television. Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis…

It’s auspicious that season two of Stuff Rugby kicks off on the 30th anniversary of the Springboks’ glorious first Rugby World Cup win in 1995. Andy Capostagno was in the Ellis Park cauldron for the Boks’ victorious first appearance in the rugby showpiece. Now, the first game of the year will be against the famous Barbarian Invitational side. Along with the two Italy Tests, this is a low-key series of matches with lots of permutations from Rassie Erasmus, Cappy tells Toby Shapshak. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read More: How AI can predict rugby injuries before they happen

One of the reasons we’re such big fans of Fujifilm at Stuff Towers is just how darn good the actual cameras themselves look. We’re camera heads, and just thrilled that Fujifilm has embraced the glorious retro past of photography. The beautiful new X-E5 from Fuji is proof of that. X marks the E5 It carries with it a wonderful design aesthetic that harkens back to the heyday of single-lens reflex cameras and the photojournalists who used them. There’s also a “newly designed Film Simulation dial which features a precision-cut indicator window.” That means photographers can quickly swap between various simulations…

Elon Musk’s Starlink will connect 5,000 rural schools if it is allowed to operate in South Africa, it says. Starlink Market Access senior director Ryan Goodnight made the offer in a letter to Trade, Industry & Competition Minister Parks Tau on Saturday, which emerged on Wednesday. Instead of having to give a 30% shareholding to previously disadvantaged people, Starlink will be able to invest in so-called equity equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs). “Today, millions of children are being denied access to education resources because SA broadband networks do not extend to the most rural parts of the country. This is a…

The fact that Apple hardly made any artificial intelligence (AI) announcements at last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has had the internet in uproar. The world’s most valuable tech firm has been the de facto smartphone leader – alongside Samsung – for most of the last twenty years. In the beginning, Apple tended to set the tone for the industry, before losing out to superior work being done by Android (on the software front) and hardware manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, and plenty of others. Apple’s fundamental problem is that it overpromised and underdelivered at its big iPhone launch…

“Go ahead, leave your wallet at home,” Bank Zero told me one morning a few weeks back, announcing that customers could use its cards with Apple Pay. I really wish I could leave my wallet behind. I have tried a variety of ways to not carry a small card holder because all I have in it is my driver’s licence. Everything else I use in my day-to-day life is digital. I’m the most anticipatory of Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber’s announced plans to make our IDs go digital. It’s not just that I want a minimalistic approach to what I…

To say Frank Gallagher has no shame is an understatement. He’s the hard-drinking, irresponsible, drug-taking, lying thief and a reprobate father that we should all despise.  But who doesn’t (secretly) love Frank Gallagher? He’s the title character in Shameless, an unlikely hit of a black comedy drama that is head-shakingly shameless about Frank’s utter lack of shame.  He’s a selfish, self-serving ingrate with no loyalty to his own kids, who live like a ragtag bunch of urban survivalists in his house, scraping by while trying to do right by each other. Having abandoned his six kids, they are raising themselves,…

It was meant to be Google’s big week with its long-awaited artificial intelligence announcements at its annual developers’ conference. But all the glory was hogged by OpenAI’s $6.4bn acquisition of io, the startup founded by Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive. Ive will take on the same role as head of design for OpenAI as it looks to convert its lead on artificial intelligence into consumer electronics devices. With a surname that has confounded spellcheckers since his halcyon days designing Apple’s greatest product, including the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Watch, Ive’s new venture is suddenly seen as a major threat…

“Get off your ass and go knock on doors” reads a sign on the wall of Bosch’s office cubicle. Bosch – as he’s known in the title of the hit TV show and by all his on-screen colleagues – is the ultimate badass cop, a no-nonsense detective who had a thriving career as the hero of the crime novels written by Michael Connelly. Then TV came calling – in both the literature and in reality – and the books have produced a highly watchable detective show. I’ve been hooked since the first season, even though I never read any of…

For the first time, Apple’s status as the most innovative company in consumer technology might be challenged by the man who created its most iconic products. Jony Ive worked closely with Steve Jobs on all of Apple’s signature products: the iPhone, iPod, MacBook, iPad, and Watch. He left in 2019 to start his own design firm, LoveFrom, and started io last year with many other high-profile Apple staffers, Scott Cannon, Evans Hanke, and Tang Tan, as Bloomberg highlighted when the deal was announced. Hankey took over as Apple’s head of design from Ive and left in 2023. Tan was in…