Author: Trent Meikle

YouTube’s striking yet another blow in its ongoing war against ads, though it hasn’t left us frothing at the mouth quite like the rest of the platform’s more recent changes. It’s looking to expand its range of YouTube Premium tiers, up from the individual, student or family plans it currently serves, the company announced yesterday through a community blog post. Oh, and lest we forget (no matter how hard we try) about the platform’s newly announced features landing on the service for Premium members — supposedly built with community feedback in mind. Having tried one of the new features for…

Are you still waiting for the fully-electric addition to the local Toyota family? You’ll need to keep waiting. But if you don’t mind compromising with a ‘mild’ hybrid, Toyota’s refreshed Hilux 48V should do. If you’ve got the necessary bucks to support the green revolution, that is. See, electric cars, even hybrids, as mild as they might be, aren’t cheap. And the Hilux 48V is no exception. Theeeenks! But we’ll get to that in a bit. It’s first worth seeing if Toyota’s claims about its 48-volt mild-hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) technology are all they’re cracked up to be. While not…

Rain, one of the largest purveyors of South Africa’s 5G (and 4G, we guess) spectrum, has officially entered the workforce with the launch of RainOne Work — a business-facing package which offers unlimited 5G data as well as five “free” 4G SIM cards. It’ll even make use of the provider’s stylish ‘the101’ router to, er, match your workplace’s aesthetic. Getting all worked up If you’re the owner of a small business that wouldn’t mind access to Rain’s 5G network, a router and five SIM cards to keep your employees happy, you’ll need to fork over at least R795/m for the…

https://youtu.be/fUxeovO423I 2024 has been an interesting year for Packard Bell. We’ve since played with and reviewed two of the company’s laptops, and there’s still more to come. That ‘more to come’ bit involves Packard Bell’s range of tablets, of which we’ve been messing about with the Silverstone T18 – a R4,300 bundle of dynamite. For legal reasons, that’s just a metaphor. Or is it? We’re not trying to instil some sort of Galaxy Note 7 fear in you, but instead remarking that, like a bundle of dynamite, the T18 isn’t exactly the belle of the ball, looks-wise. But it packs…

Samsung has finally gotten around to confirming the news we (and many others) have been spouting for weeks. The South Korean outfit’s next Unpacked event is officially taking place on 10 July in Paris, France, continuing Samsung’s tradition of scheduling one of these for roughly the same time each year. It’s gone for a 09h00 EDT starting time this year, translating to a 15h00 kick-off time in South Africa. A lot to Unpack here https://youtu.be/vrQIqgPDw00 The theme this time around? Galaxy AI. If that at all sounds familiar, it’s because it was at the forefront of the first Unpacked event…

UPDATE (27/06/2024): Netflix SA’s PR agency has reached out to Stuff to confirm that the streamer “has no plans to offer a free plan in SA.” ORIGINAL STORY: Netflix, those kings of streaming, are constantly on the lookout for new methods to grow the business. First, it tried ads, which has seemingly worked in most of the streamer’s markets where it’s available. South Africa is still waiting for that particular hammer to drop. According to a new report from Bloomberg and “people familiar with its plans,” the service has a bold new strategy: free Netflix. Keep those fingers crossed We’re not trying…

Starliner delayed… again Ever since Boeing successfully launched Starliner (following numerous delays) and attached it to the ISS, things have been quiet for the company. That may have something to do with the number of bodies turning up in Boeing’s wake – but it can’t keep the news of Starliner’s (another) delayed return to Earth quiet. NASA, in an update sent out on Friday, said that it was indefinitely delaying, or, “adjusting” the date of Starliner’s return from the original 26 June date to sometime in July. This isn’t the first such delay — but it is the most recent…

We’re still a whole six months away from 2025, but that hasn’t stopped rumours from swirling around Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S25 series. The South Korean outfit is currently busying itself with the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip 6, scheduled for July, but that hasn’t stopped it from cooking up fresh deals on the side that’ll see Samsung’s chip team out of work. At least for a while. That’s according to prominent leaker and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said that Samsung was eyeing an all-Snapdragon lineup where the Galaxy S25 series is concerned. That’s a change from…

Now that we’re in the back end of June, it’s time to turn our attention to how the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy will be fiddling with the country’s fuel pumps shortly. After a rare win for petrol drivers at the beginning of June that saw a whole R1 knocked off the price, the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) latest predictions (captured 20 June) promise a repeat this July. Diesel drivers on the other hand… Look. It’s not quite matching the price cuts you guys have become used to in recent months, but it’ll be better than nothing. Should the…

If you live in South Africa and can’t be bothered to pay those kings of the streaming world every month, you’re left with very little choice to keep your TV’s pixels moving at night. Unless you’re playing a real-life version of Sea of Thieves, you’ll have to make do with the basics like SABC+, RugbyPass TV, or Freevision Play — a brand-new (and free) streaming service catering for South Africans unveiled yesterday. Coming from Sentech, a state-owned broadcasting company, Freevision Play is described as a “ground-breaking over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platform,” that offers a “wide array of local and community…