Author: Trent Meikle

Yay! Even more AI! If you thought 2024 would bring the downfall of this year’s favourite keyword, think again. Nearly every company out there is only just dipping its toes into the AI pool, while the bigger names out there are diving in, head first. Samsung falls into the latter category, with the South Korean conglomerate reportedly packing its next big thing — the S24 Ultra — to the brim with AI features. Apparently, that’ll be the case for plenty of its devices, with on-device AI reportedly also AI wending its way to the company’s line-up of Galaxy Buds. Artificially intelligent earbuds…

When you’re in South Africa and can’t always afford the latest and greatest from the likes of Samsung, Apple, or Huawei, you’ve probably turned your head in Oppo’s direction before. And for good reason. It’s established itself as one of the more consistent brands pumping out wallet-friendly devices. Stuff has grown rather fond of the Chinese manufacturer, having recently spent a couple of days with the Reno 10 and its ambitious camera (plus a bunch of other stuff). Oppo’s got us noticing its latest addition to its popular A-series line-up: the Oppo A58. The pull factor here is easily the…

December is quite famously known for being a time of giving and spreading joy. MTN, it seems, didn’t get the memo this time ’round, having just announced a price hike for its post-paid customers right before the festivities kick off. MTN South Africa didn’t waste a second before sticking the blame on the country’s biggest foe: load shedding. Fortunately, MTN’s price hikes won’t be plaguing your bank accounts before you’ve had a chance to do some Christmas shopping. Customers on a post-paid price plan will only feel the sting come 1 February 2024 – two months earlier than the company’s…

Google TV is faster now We’re big fans of Google TV OS at the Stuff office; having taken it for a test drive when Xiaomi’s TV Box S (2nd-gen) was in the building. It makes the search giant’s announcement that it would be “enhancing [the] Google TV experience with performance improvements, new updates, and more,” all the more sweet. Unfortunately, those “new updates” don’t apply to South Africa. Google is introducing some changes to the ‘Live’ tab — a feature that’s currently only available in the US, with no official word on a global rollout. We haven’t been skipped where the performance…

Newcomers to the petrol party over on Stuff won’t understand why we’re so giddy about the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) latest petrol and diesel price predictions for the first month of 2024. It might seem obvious, considering the CEF is forecasting another drop in the country’s fuel prices — for the third month in a row. Our old hands, though, know just how rare it is to come off better in a fight with the Department of Mineral Resources two months in a row, let alone three. Petrol saw R1.78 and R0.65 drops in November and December respectively, with diesel seeing similar-enough…

E3 is dead. Forever ‘End of an era’ is one way to describe E3’s official exit from this world. “I cri evrytiem,” is… another way to put it. Oh, right. We haven’t told you the bad news yet. E3 is dead. Forever. We’ve become so accustomed to banging out those annual ‘E3 is cancelled’ articles (no, really, look), it was a bit of a shock to see the official E3 account on X.com confirming its demise. “After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye. Thanks for the memories.”…

Being a gamer isn’t easy. Especially during the Holiday season. Not only are we expected to conquer family meet-ups — which tend to be more difficult than Malenia if they’re a ‘conventional’ gamer — but when the annual “So what do you want for Christmas?” question rolls around, we don’t have much to say. Oh, we have an answer, but how can you explain to your grandmother that all you’re after is an original GameCube with copies of Double Dash and Wind Waker? We usually end up spouting more simple (and generally more attainable) items like those in this Gift Guide. If…

It’s not just you, ChatGPT is slacking for everyone we’ve heard all your feedback about GPT4 getting lazier! we haven’t updated the model since Nov 11th, and this certainly isn’t intentional. model behavior can be unpredictable, and we’re looking into fixing it 🫡 — ChatGPT (@ChatGPTapp) December 8, 2023 November hasn’t been a stellar month for OpenAI’s claim to fame; ChatGPT. Not only did the company suffer through the firing and subsequent rehiring of its CEO, Sam Altman, but its moneymaker has been on a downward spiral of late. Throughout the last few weeks, users have begun reporting that ChatGPT…

Vivica Group — the holding company behind companies such as Vox — is launching Stage Zero, “a power utility provider which is poised to radically overhaul how South African households are forced to deal with Eskom and local municipality unreliability.” If the company’s introductory statement didn’t make it clear enough, Stage Zero is an independent solar power provider, and it’ll be taking on the likes of MetwroWatt, Hohm Energy, and the rest with some out-of-the-box thinking. Back to Stage Zero Stage Zero isn’t like other power utility providers. That’s according to Stage Zero CEO, Abraham van der Merwe, who claims the…

Enter Imagine, yet another AI-powered image generator We’re honestly getting a little tired of introducing every new piece of artificially intelligent (AI) software that hits the streets. There’s a good chance that whatever’s hot right now is hailing from one of the same four or five big companies and shills some mightily similar tech to what OpenAI probably cooked up six months ago. Meet Imagine, Meta’s latest piece of AI wizardry, taking on the form of a standalone web-based image generator. Surprised? We doubt it. Imagine is just the latest AI-powered image generator on the market, joining the likes of…