NERSA, via a new discussion document, is proposing the new 7.5% tariff increase kick in from 1 July 2022. That’s the process as usual, but the agency says that it will not hold public hearings on the matter. It cites time pressure as the reason for this, meaning that all comments will have to be submitted online. The current increase will use a historic method to determine how much municipalities will charge based on existing tariffs.

NERSA, I said good day, sir!

This is a deviation from the norm and is very likely to face legal opposition. Two ongoing legal challenges are already opposing this method of setting tariffs. One was brought by electricity users in Mabideng in North West. The other comes via the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber and the Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business.

Instead of public participation, NERSA wants stakeholders (that’s you) to submit a written comment. This must be done by 22 April. The agency intends to finalise its guidelines and benchmarks by 11 May 2022. Even if it does, NERSA will face considerable opposition.

The DA’s shadow minister of mineral resources and energy, Kevin Mileham, said, “By foregoing a public participation process on the municipal tariff increase, NERSA is denying residents and municipalities an opportunity for a procedurally fair process to air their views on this increase. Consumers are already struggling to keep the lights on at current electricity prices cost levels, yet NERSA thinks it is not important to canvass their views on another tariff increase.”

“Due to the limited ability of municipalities to absorb costs and cushion consumers against electricity tariff increases, the costs will be passed on to the consumer. It is simply unacceptable for tariffs hikes to be imposed on consumers without any public hearings. A cloak-and-dagger operation, carried out without the input of those who would be most affected, is simply not right.”

Source: MoneyWeb

The post NERSA’s proposed 7.47% municipal electricity tariff increase for July 2022 to skip public hearings appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

Well… yes, and no. The game’s systems are familiar to anyone who has played anything in the series. As far as DNA goes, there’s far more Borderlands 2 than Borderlands 3 in this one. That’s one thing to be thankful for. But it’s more than just a spinoff of Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep (which is now a standalone game). The single best piece of DLC ever released in the series, the sequel Wonderlands is an excellent return to Bunkers and Badasses.

A few familiar faces

Throughout most of Wonderlands, players will find few really serious callbacks to previous Borderlands games. Tina’s there, as Bunker Master, and so is fan-favourite and all-around irritation, Claptrap, as a quest-giving NPC. Everyone else is strangely silent, with only hints of their existence in some item drops. It’s all about the fantasy, baby. But it’s also got an undercurrent of darkness running beneath its sparkly and fantastic exterior. There’s the Dragon Lord, an interfering antagonist who seems to conceal some secret of Tina’s.

There’s also a new pair of characters joining players in Wonderlands. Valentine is voiced by Andy Samberg doing his very best Nolan North impersonation, and the robot Frette is voiced by comedy legend Wanda Sykes. Both provide overworld commentary along with Tina. The plot is… variable. There’s a major arc, to do with the Dragon Lord and Queen Butt Stallion (the diamond horse pictured above). But there are several smaller arcs to play with too. Claptrap provides most of the more annoying ones, but there are constant quests featuring all manner of unusual characters asking for help. As is common with a game based in the Borderlands, results vary. Or explode.

Magic missiles

Gameplay is nearly identical to that other shooter we’ve mentioned too many times already. But the weapons and skills have been effectively turned into a magical combat system. Players can equip a single spell (which used to be a grenade). Summon fireballs, meteors, volcanic eruptions, buffs, or just birds that’ll hit targets with elemental attacks. Melee attacks have been given a weapon slot and have a much greater efficacy this time around. It’s possible to one-shot enemies with the right character build.

Gun combat has considerably more variety in Wonderlands. This is because some weapons spew arrows, others spit elemental attacks, and some even fire plain old boring bullets. New weapon skins and reload animations let the whole interface feel fresh, but developer Gearbox really mixes things up with the new class and armour system.

Players choose a class at the outset, loosely amalgamated from previous Borderlands games and actual Dungeons and Dragons classes. Suitably humourous origin bonuses (your typical meat-shield is classed as Thicc, and starts with lowered intelligence) throw a spanner or two into class builds. And then there are the armour sets. Players start with the familiar rechargeable shield, now called a Ward. But over time, they’ll unlock rings, armour, amulets, and other extras that buff or enhance gameplay. At a certain point, players can multiclass. This brings a second skill tree into the mix, using one of the original starting class options to create something wholly new. It’s… wonderfully detailed. It’s also absolutely the best character upgrade system Gearbox has ever devised.

Both hands and a map

The way the game handles exploration is also noteworthy. There are extensive and varied play areas where quests are pursued, but they’re separated by an Overworld map. This map has its own quests, has the potential for random encounters (using the Pokémon method of hiding enemies in long grass), and is utterly charming to explore. Some of the optional content in this area proves to be handy for later exploration, as they give the player access to new skills. Some of these missions must be completed to progress, others are just zany distractions.

Others still involve completing shrines, which offer players permanent gameplay bonuses. These are based on the skills that Hero Points are used to upgrade — Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and so on. But there’s also another upgrade to explore. There are D20s, twenty-sided dies, hidden everywhere. Every time players locate one, their Luck — or ability to secure rare drops — goes up. Some of these are fiendishly well-hidden, others just kind of turn up as you’re playing. And then there’s even a locked mode, similar to Borderlands‘ Badass ranks, that opens up when players hit the level 40 cap.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Verdict

If you’re planning on romping around a humourous, dangerous, and entirely entertaining setting, either alone or with a bunch of mates, then Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is the place for you. It’s fairly low-stakes, for the most part. You won’t feel overly challenged unless you’re cranking the difficulty settings or intentionally hamstringing yourself, but it’s a fun place to go to switch your brain off, watch numbers go up, and, every now and again, go “What the actual fu…”

The post Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands review – A shotgun by any other name still blows sweet holes in enemies appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

First up is the road. The April-May 2022 edition of Stuff collects some of the best EVs available in South Africa today. The price of petrol is getting a little ridiculous, even with the promise of a little government intervention on the horizon. It’s time to start thinking about electrically-powered cars in a big way. They’re fast, they’re clean, they’re frequently expensive — but that’s why we’ve spent a little time in your options. From a hybrid Toyota to a Jaguar speedster to a spot of BMW luxury, we’ve got the info you need.

But if leaving the house is still a chore, it’s always possible to make life there a little more relaxed. This is Stuff’s annual Smart Home issue, which means we’ve got all the tech you need to smarten up your life. And that’s all without needing to rip out and replace all your wiring with a proprietary system. Which is still an option, but smart homes can also be delivered by a man in a Mr D uniform, if you know where to shop.

Let’s not neglect your pockets, either. It used to be that you’d never leave home without your credit card. Now you never leave home without your smartphone. Seriously. Try it some time. You’ll learn exactly whether you’ve got anxiety or not, and it’ll only take you twenty minutes. But enough of that — the April-May 2022 issue of Stuff is jam-packed with more smartphones than any normal person could possibly afford at once. Which is fine. You only need one of the things, not forty or so. But which of the forty should you choose? Good thing we’ve answered that question for you.

More? There’s always more. Gaming notebooks, fitness gear, the latest audio tech, some futuristic cars, or even a game review or two are present and accounted for. Add that to our regular Top 10s, the hottest Hot Stuff, and a pair of soundbars designed to turn your lounge into a concert venue and the April-May 2022 issue of Stuff Magazine is one monster of a mag. Get your copy today. 

The post In This Issue – The Smart Home (April-May 2022) Issue appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

From 6 April — so next Wednesday, when the petrol price is likely to go up — South Africa’s fuel levy will be dropped by 40%. This tax break will remain in effect until the end of May. SA’s finance minister Enoch Godongwana made the announcement while addressing parliament on 31 March.

So the petrol price is dropping?

Well… ‘dropping’ is a strong word. Minister Enoch Godongwana confirmed that the general fuel level will be temporarily trimmed by 40%. That’ll drop the amount the levy scrapes off every litre of petrol and diesel by R1.50. The effect will be to cut fuel prices overall by R1.50 a litre. But…!

For most of the month of March, petrol costs in South Africa were expected to increase by R2/litre or more. Even with a revised outlook that predicts petrol ‘only’ increasing by about R1.84/litre, the government’s intervention will still lead to a minor price increase for the month of April. In the region of 35 cents (petrol) to R1.50 (diesel), if current predictions stay on target.

Godongwana also said that the government was considering several other measures that could lower fuel costs. A reduction of the Basic Fuel Price (by 3c/litre), cancellation of the  Demand Side Management Levy (10c/litre) for petrol sold inland, a cap on the price of 93 octane petrol that could lead to lower prices, and an examination of how the Regulatory Accounting System could offer further adjustments are all being considered.  These would be implemented after the general fuel levy break concludes.

Source: BusinessTech

The post South Africa gets a petrol price decrease as it increases, thanks to a tax holiday appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

As is usual with the only flagship lineups that matter, most of the specs are common throughout the range. If you’re looking for powerful, you’ve found it. There are a few concessions — the jump forward between generations isn’t as wide as we’d have liked, for one. It seems like the ongoing chip shortage may have a little to do with that. The result is an excellent device, but one that’s difficult to recommend if you grabbed a Galaxy S21 of any variety last year.

Looking a little green

Samsung might well be a victim of its own success here. When there’s a new device every year, you expect there to be some innovation when in reality it tends to be much more incremental. That’s the case with the Galaxy S22. There’s little change in terms of design compared to last year’s phones. The camera bump has been shaved a tad, and colour coded to fit in with Samsung’s new hues.

Otherwise, we’ve got the same flat-on-both-sides design. Rounded, sturdy edges hem in the glass (up front) and metal (rear), and it’s a good-looking phone. You’ll ruin those lines by putting it into a case, but it’s nice to see when it comes out of the box.

The standard physical buttons are on the upper-right edge, with all the other action taking place on the base. A USB-C charge port, SIM tray and the speaker grille all live here. We’ve seen it all before, but it all looks — and feels — very premium. You’re getting your money’s worth on the design front.

A rather sweet spot

This may well carry through to the Galaxy S22’s performance. Our review model arrived packing one of Samsung’s Exynos 2200 processors. It was a bugger to nail down exactly which chipset was inside, but the Xclipse 920 GPU was a bit of a giveaway. 8GB of RAM is standard across the two storage sizes. Technically, you can get the same power here as found in the Galaxy S22 Ultra‘s base model.

But the screen is, understandably, smaller. The S22 features a 6.1in 1,080 x 2,340 Super AMOLED panel that peaks at 1300 nits. It’s got a dynamic refresh rate of 120Hz, is layered over with Gorrila Glass Victus+ — it does all the right flagship things, in other words. And it looks the part too. In actual practice, the phone’s icons are crisp and clean and colours are bold. Staring at the screen feels like you’re gazing through a window into a magical kingdom. Thanks to the magic of the internet, that’s exactly how smartphones work. You get to choose if it’s dark or light magic, however.

Lack of vision

A little more magic would have been nice on the camera front. We’ve alluded to this already but, as Samsung phones go, the Galaxy S22 doesn’t feature the greatest camera hardware. You might not notice too much coming up from a Galaxy A or from another brand, but the S22 Ultra is streets ahead of the stock phone’s three camera sensors.

There’s a 50MP main sensor (f/1.8), a 10MP telephoto (f/2.4), and a 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.2) on the back, with a 10MP front-facer. Samsung offers 8K video recording (at 24fps), hitting all the other branches on the way down to 720p at 960fps. On paper, it’s not a bad bit of camera.

But you can certainly achieve better camera performance elsewhere. There’s noticeable vignetting when taking some shots, and low-light performance isn’t up to the standard Samsung itself has set with older phone models. Edges when shooting with even minor zoom start to break down and whipping out the 30x zoom — a pleasure on the company’s Ultra phones — sees the results being heavily over-processed. Software can only account for so much — even Samsung’s software, which is generally on the ball.

Business as usual

Everything else is what you’d expect from a Samsung phone. OneUI 4.0 and Android 12 are standard. The experience is identical across the whole Galaxy S22 range. Even the fact that you’ll find less than 12GB of RAM in this phone doesn’t result in anything like stutters or slowdown.

There’s only a 3,700mAh battery. Samsung’s taken (and then fixed) steps to optimise battery life in its phones and this one will last the day, with a little leftover. 25W fast-charging, while not up to the speeds of its Chinese counterparts, see Samsung’s phone top-up in an acceptable amount of time.

But you’re not getting much more than a charging cable in the box. Remember the days when you received headphones and a charge block with your R19,000 smartphone? We do too. Those were the days…

Samsung Galaxy S22 Verdict

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 isn’t the most powerful device on the company’s menu for 2022 but it’s also not far off either. It’s R9,000 cheaper than the S22 Ultra, too, and that makes a big difference when it comes to putting down your money. Of course, there are concessions made to skim the price down that much. Camera performance seems to be the main victim, but that’s never been a deal-breaker. If you’re more inclined to use your phone as a phone, or a portable computer that lives in your pocket, you might as well save some cash at the same time. Social butterflies and wannabe influencers, though, will want to look at the S22+ or Ultra instead.

The post Samsung Galaxy S22 5G review – The runt of the litter is still pretty big appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

It’s the most exciting launch since Netflix first launched in South Africa. But, unlike the Netflix launch, there are far more options on the market to distract you. Showmax has secured access to some of Disney’s content (for a while). Netflix has a mobile-only plan available. Disney+, believe it or not, has some competition on its hands.

Is it worth dropping an extra R120/m for yet another streaming service come 18 May? That’s the question we’re about to answer for you.

In the purple corner, it’s Disney+ 

The newcomer with everything to prove — in terms of usability and value, rather than available content. The Walt Disney Company owns… it owns a lot of properties, guys. The major Disney+ drawcard, for geeks, is unlimited access to Star Wars — cartoons, series, films both classic and future. There’s also Marvel content. ALL the Marvel content, without resorting to an eyepatch on broadcast day, in the case of series’. Then there’s Disney animation classics, The Simpsons, National Geographic content… If you use your streaming service as a babysitter for the young ‘uns, the strong family focus here means you’ll want to have your credit card details are on speed-dial.

In terms of value, you’re expected to pay R120/m for digital access to the happiest place on Earth. The annual subscription (R1,190) lets you take two months off the price tag. You save R240 a year this way, which might be handy when it comes to filling your petrol tank. For your money, you get access to seven user accounts, four concurrent streams, and downloads on up to ten different devices. Arbitrary numbers, but we’re fine with this.

In the yellow corner, it’s Prime Video

Brother Jeff’s video service, Amazon Prime Video, is available in the good old Republic of South Africa. It boasts a number of Amazon Originals. These aren’t quite as numerous or varied as Netflix offers, but they tend to be a little better curated. Plus, you get Jeremy Clarkson on a tractor as well as in fast cars.

In terms of money, this will cost you R80/m. You’re getting fewer concurrent streams (three), and you can only stream the same content to two devices at the same time. This is a strange feature to include, but sure. Downloads are temporary and the two-device limit is also in effect. You can’t download the same movie or series to more than two supported devices at once.

In the blue(ish) corner, it’s Netflix

The 400kg gorilla in the bedroom is Netflix. The streaming giant has enough money to throw at every country it is available in, meaning there’s a constant stream of original content filtering down. But this shotgun approach is a little unstable. You never really know what you’re about to get from less high-profile presentations. But every so often, you encounter a Tiger King or Inventing Anna, or Daredevil (which will continue life on Disney+, hopefully). Third-party content has taken a knock in recent years because everyone’s starting up their own competing services.

There are four price points available in South Africa. Mobile (R50/m) and Basic (R100/m) both offer users a single concurrent stream with a Standard Definition maximum resolution. Up that to Standard (R160/m) and you get two streams and HD. Pay R200/m and you get four concurrent streams and up to 4K video resolution. Downloads are extensive, with up to 100 active files across up to four devices. The latter is connected to your package.

In the green corner, it’s Showmax

If it’s on DStv, then it’s probably on Showmax. Expect to find near-exclusive access to HBO and Hulu content in South Africa, plus an eclectic collection of movies and series. If you’re after a shotgun approach to your video content, then this and Netflix used to be the de facto combination in South Africa. It’s a good spread and (mostly) hits the target dead-centre. But it’s local, and parent company Multichoice is doing unpleasant things with DStv streaming at the moment.

Showmax isn’t really affected here, though. Showmax Mobile (R40/m) offers a single concurrent stream and is capped at SD. Standard Showmax (R100/m) is the value proposition — a max resolution of Standard Definition and two concurrent streams. Showmax Mobile Pro (R225/m) and Showmax Pro (R450/m) both offer two streams at once with a maximum resolution of 720p. Downloads are possible, for some content, but this isn’t the best option for those with 4K TVs. Or people with eyes.

In the red corner, it’s Apple TV+

Apple TV+ might have just secured an Oscar for Best Picture but the service isn’t known to have a massive amount of content. The stuff that’s there is generally fantastic (See Ted Lasso) but some of it is a little less impressive. The service is heavily America-centric, which is what happens when all of your production takes place in a single country (plus Canada).

But at R85/m, it’s not terribly expensive to secure. And since Apple isn’t shy about concurrent streams (up to 6 at once), except if you secured your access via an Apple Music student subscription. If you’re a poor student, you get one stream. One. But streaming quality is up to 4K, which is nice.

And the rest of the contenders

There are more than just the big names on the market. BritBox offers users six concurrent streams for R100/m. YouTube Premium allows playing videos in the background (on mobile) and removes all ads (like AdBlock Plus doesn’t do that for free) for $12 a month. It offers up to ten concurrent streams, and there’s no denying there’s a massive amount of content available. Most of it is a little… iffy, though. Vodacom’s Video Play gets you two streams at R100/m. Crunchyroll gets you anime madness at $10 a month. TelkomOne has a variety of options with up to two streams at once. But odds are, if you’re asked to choose between Disney+ or these and the other minor services still left floating around out there, the Mouse is going to win. Unless there’s a really, really compelling reason for your specialist sub, like the next season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (which is on Netflix anyway).

 Is Disney+ worth it?

If you’re any kind of animation fan, Disney+ is a day one subscription. Ditto if you can’t get enough of superhero action and are thinking of catching up on those TV series’ you definitely haven’t found a way to watch yet. Double ditto if you’ve got kids. You probably won’t find a more child-friendly service anywhere else on the planet. Disney is famous for being appropriate for families. Even if you’re not part of this very specific subset or the one that includes Star Wars, you’ll probably still find at least something in Disney+’s wide-reaching roster that will agree with you.

Is it enough to make you discard another service on the list? That depends. It’s possible you might jettison Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, or one of the less well-padded services in order to get your Disney fix. It probably won’t become your main streaming go-to, unless you own a pair of mouse ears you wear in the house alone on the weekends.

The post How Disney+ stacks up to Showmax, Netflix, and the rest of South Africa’s streaming services appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

Which, if you’re not suckered by the Discord positivity, is quite clearly laid out in the terms and conditions. That you didn’t bother to read. Cryptocurrency proponents — the ones that make a serious living from it — are all well aware of the risks. So are the companies funding it. It’s time to take a look at just what might go wrong with your crypto or NFT investment — based purely on terms and conditions.

You are responsible for your mistakes

When you’re posting on Twitter or Facebook, anything from a spelling error to an accidental call for genocide goes away if you hit delete. It might live on in screenshots, and a televised apology from behind a podium, but it’s not on the internet anymore. It doesn’t work like that on the blockchain. Whether you’re investing in cryptocurrency or NFTs, you’re the one responsible for any mistakes.

Mistakes as petty as mistyping addresses. Sending an incorrect amount of crypto. Sending crypto to an unsupported wallet. Being stupid enough to fall for a scam. Being smart, but having someone smarter access your wallet anyway.  Services like OpenSea (NFTs) and Luno (crypto) warn that these, and instances like “server failure or data loss”, are all upon your head alone. Even Metamask, the wallet service, has a bit in its Terms of Service warning you not to be a dumbass with your password info.

Your crypto’s value could quickly drop to zero 

Cryptocurrency is volatile. ‘Volatile’ is a term given to things prone to exploding, like nitroglycerine, or a girlfriend that told you she was hungry twenty minutes ago. As such, several venues, like Luno, Kraken, or Voyager, has some sort of risk disclosure explaining clearly just how volatile your investment is. All of them contain variations on the same theme. That is, it’s very simple for the value of your online asset to devolve to zero or near zero.

The ‘how’ of how cryptocurrencies might lose their value are varied enough that we’ll address them on their own. However, it is volatile enough that “…[n]egative consumer perception of specific Cryptocurrencies or Cryptocurrencies generally may negatively affect their value.”

The value of NFTs/crypto is based on… nothing

Remember that dystopian movie with Ryan Gosling? Not Blade Runner 2049. The Big Short. That was it. That film was based on a thing that actually happened. A real market — housing — was turned into a massive speculative mess that generated more money than was actually contained in the industry. When it collapsed, it wiped out everything around it. This was immediately rebuilt, without actually fixing anything. Well, the world of NFTs and crypto is kinda like that. Except it’s not built on houses. It’s built on… well, nothing at all.

This is particularly the case with NFTs. OpenSea points out that the value of NFTs is subjective. You have to agree that this is so in order to use the platform. Momint has a similar assessment — NFTs “…exist only by virtue of the ownership record maintained on its supporting blockchain.” Without the ownership record, you own nothing. And that’s if everything stays the same as it was when you bought your digital item. There’s a phenomenon known as metadata decay, digital decay, or link rot. It affects websites as well, but NFTs rather rely on there being something on the other end of that ownership record. If the server hosting your one-of-a-kind hideous ape disappears, so does the ape’s value.

Boredom can affect your investment

Boredom usually only has a serious effect if you’re bored while writing an exam, or monitoring a nuclear power plant. It generally can’t wipe out a human being’s entire life’s savings. Except, that is, in the world of digital assets. “[A] lack of use or public interest in the creation and development of distributed ecosystems”, according to Momint, or “[t]he slowing or stopping of the development or acceptance of Cryptocurrencies” (Voyager) could end with your crypto/NFT wallet cratering in value.

Now, boredom can affect any industry. If folks get bored of going to Ocean Basket, the restaurant chain will slide slowly into obscurity. A loss of interest in digital assets, if it happens en masse, will instantaneously wipe out billions of dollars of (perceived) value. Homes will be lost. Jobs will vanish. Savings accounts will disappear. This is because digital assets are a collective hallucination, like traffic laws or religion. But, in the event of a lack of faith in either of the latter two, there are still cars, roads, and churches left over. Crypto, on the other hand…

Enough people must keep playing

Several platforms — Kraken, Voyager, Luno, even OpenSea to a certain extent — point out that there might come a time when folks start cashing out. If that happens, the entire ecosystem collapses. Similar to a run on a bank (or, you know, The Big Short), a platform or cryptocurrency does not possess enough cash for everyone to get paid. The first few people to get past the cashier will make it out with some money. The rest wind up standing in some DAO-shaped wreckage that smells like burnt GPUs.

In more complex terms, “you may find it difficult or impossible to liquidate a position”. That’s when there’s less money inside a system than people want to take out — which brings us right back to Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, and Ryan Gosling in that film we mentioned. Cryptocurrencies and NFTs, as systems, rely heavily on continual investment. This is a consequence of starting from a position of having nothing tangible (an NFT…), and assigning it a value (…worth $6 million). Eventually, people try to draw on that money. If there isn’t enough of it, the whole thing falls apart.

The post The risks of crypto and NFTs (as told by terms of service agreements) appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

What is a StreamerCon?

StreamerCon is not, as the name suggests, a parole program where former convicts get jobs on Twitch. No, it’s a “…hub for creators to expand their reach, collaborations to spark, and for aspiring content creators to be guided by industry veterans.”

It sounds like it’ll be the most live-streamed part of Comic Con Africa. Which is very likely the whole point. It’ll also be influencer-heavy, which might lead to some sort of critical mass. There could well be a rumbling noise, followed by an avalanche of sponsored content taking place.

Event director Carla Massmann said, “We’ve seen the growth and talent of South African streamers – and want to offer these very talented individuals an opportunity to be celebrated.”

“The influencer today is very different to what it was. Content creators today are the micro-influencers who drive exceptional engagement through niche communities.”

Also on the cards for StreamerCon? A host of tech and support, thanks to attendees like “…streaming software companies, tech brands, high-performance software and systems, peripherals and components, streaming equipment, streaming and recording software, video editing and design software, [and] vlogging kits”.

The post Comic Con Africa is bringing StreamerCon to South Africa this year appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

This is a bit of a blow for the newly-announced handset, which has only just turned up in South Africa. But, given the current situation overseas, it’s not exactly unexpected.

No iPhone SE for Russia

The most obvious reason for the cutback is that Apple has suspended sales in Russia. All of its sales. And since the company is the third-most-popular smartphone brand in that country, that’s a lot of smartphones not being sold. As such, it makes sense for Apple to not produce those handsets in the first place. Some two to three million iPhone SE units won’t be made over the immediate few months, according to Nikkei’s insiders.

We can also expect Apple to post less-than-thrilling figures in general, a trend that’ll probably spread to the rest of the tech world. One of the company’s Asian suppliers explained, “The war has affected spending at the European markets. … It is understandable [consumers will] save the money for food and for heating.” Because there’s no point in a smartphone if you’re struggling to feed your family, after all.

Aside from the iPhone SE, Apple’s AirPods are also in for a damper time. This doesn’t seem directly related to the Russian-Ukraine situation, however. There’s just reduced demand for the company’s in-ear buds, and the company doesn’t want loads of unsold inventory sitting on shelves.

Source: Nikkei Asia

The post iPhone SE, AirPod production being trimmed back in the short term – report appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

That’s not a punk rock reference. There’s some new footwear dropping in from low orbit, a collaboration called the Wolverine x Halo: The Master Chief. It’s not a Marvel crossover, either. Wolverine is a footwear brand from the States, and the themed footwear is based on its Hellcat lineup.

What Master Chief does for kicks

With a few tweaks, of course. Halo creators 343 Industries teamed up with the footwear maker to create something worthy of the Spartan commander. They’re available in the same green used in the Chief’s armour and feature his Spartan number — 117. Which, incidentally, is how many pairs are being made.

Also, part of the boots are the logos from the United Nations Space Command and the Materials Group. If you’re a Halo fan, these references will make sense. If you’re not a Halo fan, you’re probably looking at flipping a pair of the Master Chief’s boots online for a profit. You’re probably a horrible person, with a stack of PS5 consoles in your garage.

If you want to score yourself a pair, you’ll have to put yourself on a waiting list. There’s little more than a day for you to achieve this, via the Wolverine x Master Chief official website. In the event you’re one of the 117 Spartan candidates chosen to purchase a pair, you’d best have R3,300 ($225) on hand to pay for them. Plus shipping and handling, and South African import taxes, of course.

The post You’ll probably never own a pair of these limited edition Halo Master Chief boots appeared first on Stuff South Africa.