Author: Trent Meikle

Snapdragon in my pocket If you aren’t punting AI at every turn, can you even call yourself a successful company in 2024? We’re being hyperbolic, but we’re also… not. Artificial intelligence is turning up everywhere and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 SoC is living proof, with plans to infect the next wave of mid-rangers with 2023’s favourite buzzword. Following the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 revealed last year, the SD 7+ Gen 3 focuses on enhanced photography abilities, improved gaming and a wider net for AI model support. With onboard AI processing, it allows for speedier and more sophisticated…

Ever wondered why WhatsApp only lets users pin a single message per chat? Us too. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter much now. The Meta-owned messenger announced yesterday that it was refreshing the feature, finally allowing for more pins in a single chat. Three is the new magic number, according to Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp’s official Channels. If you’re still new to the idea of pinning messages, a feature that dropped near the end of 2023, it’s simple. Users can pin any message — regular text, images, polls — and have it appear at the top of the chat so that it…

If you haven’t heard the news, there’s a ‘new’ PS5 in town. The “Slim” as it’s known to everyone but Sony is landing on South Africa’s shelves in April — and the country’s local distributor is looking to shift some of the old stock to make room, ironically, for the slimmer console. It hasn’t said as much, but Koodoo’s mega PS5 sale, launched at midnight, was all the confirmation we needed. It’s worth remembering that the PS5 Slim doesn’t offer any sort of technical upgrade to the original PS5’s hardware. It’s purely a cosmetic upgrade — meaning if you can stomach…

It’s rare to be on the receiving end of a South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) headline without groaning out loud. This is one of those golden moments. It’s finally booting out some of the older content (or shuffling it around, at least) to make room for a new two-hour content slot on SABC 3 and filling it with shows from BBC Studios. That isn’t some eTV after-hours showing you might remember from your youth. We’re talking about real television from the UK’s own British Broadcasting Commission — you know, the folks that got the original The Office greenlit along with the…

When Elon Musk let his five-year-old design a real-life car, he made it bulletproof. We all laughed as it barely managed to stop a steel ball from cracking a window. It would hardly be any use against Mike three-quarters of a kilometre away holding an M40A1 sniper rifle. But the idea was sound, especially in places where crime is rampant. We may not have a Cybertruck to look foolish in, but we do have Armoured Mobility. Armoured Mobility is a South African outlet “specialising in the production, retail, and leasing of bulletproof vehicles.” It’s essentially made a name for itself…

Someone at Defy had to throw away one too many steaks when their freezer defrosted, or maybe it’s just a coincidence that the company recently launched a series of ‘Solar Off-Grid’ fridges and chest freezers which it hopes will alleviate some of the pressures of load shedding – and keep those steaks in the freezer safe. The idea is a simple one, strap a couple of solar panels to a new fridge/freezer, hook up a battery and boom: it’s off the grid. As convenient as that sounds, customers looking to pick up one of the new units are only paying…

Picking up a new smartphone is easy. There are the obvious hits from Samsung or Apple, but look deeper, and you’ll find a sea of Asian brands all vying for your attention. Oppo is one of those brands, whose Reno series you might remember passing through Stuff’s offices a while back. They aren’t all R20,000 or more, though. Occasionally, it’ll dip its toes into the realm of ‘mid-range’, producing something spectacular for R12,000 (or less if you know what you’re doing) — like the Oppo A79 5G. Is this iPhone? Uh, no. The A79 might have the conventional good looks…

Playing the petrol price prediction game can be finicky. Just a week or two ago, we were reporting another rough month for South Africa’s drivers — both diesel and petrol. Now, thanks to a fresh crop of figures from the Central Energy Fund (CEF), things are beginning to look a whole lot brighter. For one set of drivers, at least. This month, lady luck appears to be favouring the country’s diesel drivers with the CEF’s predictions pointing to a minor diesel price drop at the beginning of April. Petrol drivers won’t be as fortunate when the Department of Mineral Resources…

Professionally, PlayStation Just days after South Africa’s PlayStation distributor confirmed the launch of the PS5 Slim in April, we’re hearing news of Sony’s next big thing: the PS5 ‘Pro’. This isn’t coming from Sony directly, of course. It’s coming, as everything that counts as ‘news’ these days does, from an unofficial source (it was leaked) — by YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead. And later confirmed by Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson. Oh, and it’ll be arriving sometime in the holiday shuffle — to better target those Christmas wishlists — as long as it pumps out enough first-party titles, that is. Good thing Nintendo stood…

UPDATE 15/03/2024: Stuff got in touch with PlayStation South Africa’s distributor, Gamefinity, which confirmed the official launch date of 5 April 2024 for both the PS5 Slim (Digital) and the PS5 Slim (Disc). It also noted that their prices would be R12,000 and R14,000 respectively. As for the new console’s accessories — the standalone BluRay disc drive and Slim Vertical stand will be released alongside their console counterparts on 5 April 2024. The disc drive will cost R3,000, while the vertical stand (also sold separately) will cost R700. ORIGINAL 15/03/2024: Seriously, it’s time to say goodbye to that first-gen PS4 you’re still…