Author: Toby Shapshak

Eddie Redmayne is one of the greatest actors of this generation. If his unforgettable Oscar-worthy performance while filming the utterly remarkable life story of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything wasn‘t confirmation enough, then his performance in The Day of the Jackal should seal it. A TV series remake of the equally excellent 1973 film also titled The Day of the Jackal, which I remember seeing with my father, probably when it came to VHS, provides a 10-episode screen fest of Redmayne’s superb acting and screen presence. This is truly excellent television. The script is good, the acting…

Elon Musk has a Nazi problem. Since he bought Twitter and rebranded it X, he has allowed right-wing extremists, hate speech, antisemitism, and islamophobia to run rampant on the platform. Now Musk – after deliberately doing a Hitler salute twice after President Donald Trump’s inauguration – is the Nazi. At least in the minds of a new backlash against his various companies, especially Tesla, which have become known as “Swatsticars” or “Swastikars” in memes online. Musk now runs the Department of Government Efficiency – whose acronym Doge is pronounced “doggie” by the great tech journalist Kara Swisher – and has…

I’m embarrassed that it’s taken me quite so long to discover Admyt. This clever little app that you’ve likely never heard of is the solution to your parking problems. I have to define that these parking problems are relatively small in the wider world, I admit, but they can prove to be a source of regular frustration for anyone who parks in a shopping mall. I want to reiterate that paying for parking when I go to a shopping mall, probably once a week, if that, isn’t a huge problem in the grand scheme of things. Admyt does a very simple thing,…

Global stock markets went into a tailspin this week after US President Donald Trump used the maths behind Zuma-nomics to calculate that everyone should get a tariff. Despite him triumphantly declaring it “liberation day”, the fallout was quickly dubbed “obliteration day” after the major US tech firms saw $1 trillion wiped off their market valuations.  iPhone it in The so-called “Magnificent Seven” – including Apple, Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta/Facebook, Nvidia, and Tesla – were all hit by this. The iPhone maker lost 9% of its value, which translates to a whopping $250 billion blown away. Don’t worry, it’s still the…

Who knew the cringeworthy antics of the megarich tourists who frequent exotic holiday destinations could be so interesting? And so cringeworthy. The clever crime series-cum-travel show taps into two of television’s most popular genres to produce excellent watching. The intrigue is clever, and the ensemble cast all deliver good performances. The tempo of The White Lotus starts out slow each season as the characters and their conflicts are introduced before reaching a crescendo, as all good shows should, towards the end. The seasons always start with what happens at the end – and then unfold from the beginning. It’s a…

FNB’s nav» has hit 5 million users, helping South Africans master their money, says Jolandé Duvenage, who has the delightful title of chief Imagineer for nav». She explains what this unusual title means and how she is helping people understand money better to Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak.  “Over the years, nav» has grown into a comprehensive digital ecosystem that offers several helpful tools across money, home, car, earth, energy, marketplace, care pillars, and the newly launched nav» graduate,” she says. Nav-igating your life with FNB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8I3nRvKaPo

Discovery Bank wants to offer all of its customers “private banking combined with financial analysts” powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Discovery Bank CEO, Hylton Kallner, launched a set of impressive features in Johannesburg on Thursday, promising that it was “democratising private banking to the whole Discovery Bank client base.” AI upgrades have arrived The new iteration of the banking app and its services will be rolled out today, he added. Among these are a useful new series of security features and virtual credit card controls. Customers can now create up to 50 virtual cards and organise them in clever new…

Artificial intelligence (AI) announcements are a dime a dozen at the moment so don’t panic if you didn’t notice this one. But start panicking afterwards. Google is planning to give you medical advice. Yes, medical advice, based solely on what other people have searched for. This “crowdsourced” information is now being interpreted by Google’s AI Overview service – and its results are being displayed under a new “What People Suggest” heading when you search. What could go wrong? Google doesn’t think you have to worry, obviously. “While people come to Search to find reliable medical information from experts, they also…

How do you know if your TV show is a success? Millions of watchers? Check. An automatic second season? Check. Your leading actor appearing in Calvin Klein underwear on giant billboards in Times Square? Check. The Bear is that unexpected breakout show. But is it really unexpected?  Jeremy Allen White is a brilliant young actor who shone in the US remake of Shameless, where he played the oldest of the brothers Lip Gallagher. William H. Macy gave a series of tour de force performances as dysfunctional father Frank, who steals money from his seven kids and lives in a ramshackle…

It gives you a sense of how good Shōgun is, that almost all of the dialogue happens in Japanese and you have to read subtitles. What seems like an impediment, having to read words at the bottom of the screen instead of watching the visually rich goings on, is a masterstroke. There is added authenticity to Shōgun because it is not voiced in English. For the most part, I prefer that, if you can live with the misplaced accents. Wallander talked with an English accent instead of Swedish because he was played by Kenneth Branagh, and similarly with Chernobyl. After…