Author: Trent Meikle

Long live Samsung After a short absence, all thanks to Apple’s doings in December 2023, Samsung is officially the top dog in the global smartphone market. Again. That’s according to a fresh crop of data from the IDC (International Data Corporation) covering the first quarter of 2024, noting less a leap in Samsung’s sales, and more a drop in Apple’s. All’s fair in love and war, right? As it stands, Samsung currently holds strong in the #1 spot by controlling 20.8% of the global market share. Apple, which still has enough cred in the bank for a close second, managed…

Look, we’re basic. Like everyone else, we’d much rather get our hands on Apple’s mainline phones, like the iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. Unfortunately, Apple’s pricing convention makes owning one of those an unobtainable fantasy for many. But if the leaks coming out surrounding the company’s upcoming iPhone SE (Special Edition) 4 are true, it might be more our speed price-wise. Special Editions are back, baby iPhone SE 4 rumored specifications: – Size and weight: 148.5 x 71.2 x 7.8mm, 166g – Appearance: 7000 series aluminium alloy, right-angled frame, front and rear glass (no Ceramic…

Meta’s WhatsApp, like everything else in 2024, has slowly heaped more and more artificial intelligence (AI) onto its plate. If it isn’t the incoming AI-powered image editor or smarter-than-most customer support, then it’s Meta’s AI chatbot. Thus far, however, that feature has been limited to a small number of users in the US. That’s no longer the case. WhatsApp is finally extending what was an already-limited trial to more countries, and South Africa is included. While reports seem to indicate that Indian users are receiving the lion’s share of the trial, Stuff can confirm the feature has reached a limited number…

If you haven’t been paying attention, HMD Global (Human Mobile Devices) owns Nokia now. This isn’t news — it’s been that way for the better part of seven years — but with the company’s recent upswing in activity, we thought a reminder was in order. In fact, it’s gearing up to launch its own smartphone brand, but before it gets there, it’s got three new Nokia ‘dumbphones’ to share. Meet the Nokia 6310, Nokia 5310, and Nokia 230. You might have thought the ‘dumbphone’ was dead and buried, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Just the other day we spent…

When Electronic Arts (EA) gave the world EA Play roughly ten or so years ago, it already felt like customers were being ripped off. EA Play is the company’s subscription-based service, which charges users a monthly or yearly fee in exchange for access to a library of washed-up FIFA titles and the odd half-decent title (see Mass Effect and It Takes Two). Now, the service is seeing a massive price hike effective immediately. Emphasis on massive. By the time EA Play reached South Africa’s shores, it rocked up with a fee almost worthy of consideration: R50/m or R200/year. Aside from the aforementioned library of…

Xiaomi is a big hit in the Stuff offices, especially where the Redmi Note series is concerned. Xiaomi isn’t just a hit machine, though. Like that dodgy season of Community (you know the one we mean), there have been some duds in the past. But now it’s back and firing on all cylinders. At least, that’s the impression we got after spending some time with the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G. Let’s first address the elephant in the room. The pinnacle of the Note series, the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ has had a massive price jump. What once used to cost R11,000…

Realme is the king of special edition phones. This is undebatable. Just check out the Naruto-themed Realme GT Neo 3. But if you’re not all that into anime, Xiaomi’s newly announced Redmi Turbo 3 and Pad Pro — arriving in a smattering of Harry Potter regalia — might convince you that it is in fact, The King™. There’s just one problem. Like the shinobi-clad Neo GT 3, Redmi is reserving the right to purchase one of these glorious devices for residents in the company’s homeland; China. Unless you’ve got an in with someone in China, we’ll have to make do with gaping…

Following the disheartening news that was April’s official petrol and diesel prices (disheartening for some, anyway), we had high hopes that fortune might favour the country’s petrol drivers this May. According to fresh data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) captured yesterday, 8 April, that won’t be the case, though SA’s diesel drivers are set to secure yet another win. Should the CEF’s predictions come true, it’ll be the country’s petrol drivers forced to bear the increased prices by the time the first Wednesday of the month (1 May) rolls around. That’s when the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy,…

Dominating the short-form media domain apparently isn’t enough for TikTok. The Chinese company, under ByteDance’s watchful eyes, is reportedly looking to broaden those horizons with a new photo-sharing application called TikTok Notes. If that’s the moniker they’re going with, we’d hate to see what made it to second place. While Twitter/X is still considered the king of text — an area TikTok will likely try and invade with an app called ‘TikTok Snap’ or something similar — Meta’s Instagram still rules the photo-sharing realm. It’s here that Notes will have to make its stand if it has any hopes of…

Canal+: no white flags here Canal+, unlike its forebears, isn’t backing down. It’s desperately looking for an ‘in’ to Africa’s content scheme, and it’s hoping to do that through a total buyout of MultiChoice, owners of DStv and SuperSport. Despite turning down the French firm’s initial offer in February, Canal+ returned with a vastly improved offer that, by the look of it, MultiChoice is deeply considering. According to MyBroadband, MultiChoice has informed shareholders that an independent board has been established to seriously consider Groupe Canal+’s offer to purchase the remainder of shares it does not already own, valuing the broadcaster at roughly…