Praised for its ability to deal with “human anxiety in times of great distress”, the winners of the Most Innovative Hi-Tech Service award for 2018 is using technology and engineering to help businesses make informed decisions after an earthquake hits (and it only takes two minutes). From Kaikoura to Canterbury, New Zealand has had its … Read more
Every week on The Primer we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves in eight simple takes. This week we talk to Craig MacGregor, one of the founding developers of NavCoin, an alternative cryptocurrency that’s gaining steam around the world. ONE: How did NavCoin start and what was the inspiration behind it? NavCoin first … Read more
The winners of this year’s Hi-Tech Awards showcased how New Zealand isn’t just good in tech, but good for tech as well, with gender diversity and cultural inclusion taking centre stage more than ever before. Whether it’s tall poppy syndrome or just genuine humility, New Zealanders are pretty terrible when it comes to shouting about … Read more
At Techweek‘18 the people leading New Zealand’s innovation and technological revolution share their secrets. We asked the experts for their festival recommendations. The description of Techweek‘18 as a festival of the future is perfect. The pace that science and technology is reshaping our society and economy is often alarming and overwhelming. Techweek’18 is a diverse … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. Rate of inflation higher for those with less, Winston Peters is going to China, and the government backtracks on much–needed Official Information Act reforms. The rate of inflation, typically assumed to be low recently in New Zealand, has been found to be higher for those who can least … Read more
From transport, medicine, retail and travel, this year’s crop of nominees for Kiwibank’s Most Innovative Hi-Tech Service Award are being recognised for shaking up some of New Zealand’s most vital industries. With the winner to be announced on May 25 as part of this year’s Hi-Tech Awards, Jihee Junn takes a look at the talented … Read more
The honesty box our cashless society has been waiting for has arrived in the form of an online app. Jihee Junn talks to the Taranaki-based developer behind My Honesty Box to find out how it works, why it doesn’t take commission, and how it already has interest from vendors in the United States. Honesty boxes … Read more
New Zealand’s burgeoning tech industry may be dodging some of the systemic issues plaguing traditional corporate culture, but Victoria Crockford discovers it’s also developing within the same structures that resulted in the #MeToo movement. As a kid, I often imagined what would happen if the world was turned upside down and shaken. Animals from the … Read more
Avatars, chatbots and virtual assistants are getting smarter by the day, and the AI that powers them is helping customers get more of the right content at the right time. But humans will remain as important as ever. Nigel Piper looks at how (wo)man and machine can work successfully in tandem. The artificial intelligence (AI) … Read more
An app that gives parents important information and rewards them for attending appointments is being tested on the East Coast. Rural New Zealand gets the sharp end of a lot of our worst stats – suicide, poverty, unemployment, health and wellbeing. Nowhere more so than the East Coast of the North Island, which includes the … Read more
As the world’s population continues to rise, energy and food needs are both projected to grow beyond the capacity of existing technologies. Harvard chemist Dan Nocera anticipates that only a major shift will get us through, and he thinks NZ could play a pivotal role, writes Vernoika Meduna Take sunshine and water and power the … Read more
The Buller District is known for its isolation, rugged weather and the minerals taken from the land since gold was discovered there in 1860. Now, after a long economic decline, green shoots of growth are appearing, driven by a technology hub with a husband and wife team at the top. There is an innovation hub … Read more
Driverless cars are all the rage right now, but you don’t have to be a Google or Tesla to have your head in the game. Jihee Junn talks to Auckland-based company HMI Technologies about Ohmio, its self-driving subsidiary set to deploy its first shuttles at Christchurch Airport later this year. On most days along the … Read more
Good news – troops on deployment all around the world are keeping up their physical fitness and now we have proof! Bad news – troops on deployment all around the world are jogging with their fitness trackers turned on, drawing a helpful map of where they are. But former TUANZ boss Paul Brislen says we … Read more
The new government is aiming to build 100,000 new affordable homes – likely to be off-plan apartments and townhouses – in the next decade. But today’s designers and builders are already working flat tack. So what’s the fix? The answer lies with technology, writes two Auckland architects. Even after squinting carefully at the floor plan, … Read more
Every week we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves in eight simple takes. This week we talk to Zoe Timbrell and Vaughan Rowsell of OMGTech!, the not-for-profit getting kids into coding and technology through a series of high-tech workshops. ONE: How did OMGTech! start and what was your inspiration for the project? Vaughan Rowsell … Read more
While AI has gotten very good at things like talking and listening, it’s yet to come close to human levels of intelligence. But as the hype around AI continues to grow, Jamie Peterson argues that it’s giving the public unrealistic expectations about the progress of the industry, cultivating an environment of suspicion and constant disappointment. … Read more
When you need to go, you need to go – unless you’re the type of person who has a hard time telling. Jihee Junn talks to the team behind wearable bladder sensor Uri-Go, winner of Callaghan Innovation’s C-Prize for 2017. Five and a half years ago, Mike Brown broke his back, leaving him paralysed from … Read more
Google sister company and darling of the smart home industry Nest has finally arrived in New Zealand. Jihee Junn tries out its range of safety and security products, concluding that while Nest might not be for everyone, stalking people on camera sure is a hell of a lot of fun. Before companies like Google and … Read more
Wanna run with the fast crew? Rebecca Stevenson takes a look at Deloitte’s Fast50 index to see how quickly Kiwi companies’ revenue is growing. To take a spot among the fastest growing companies in the country in 2017 businesses had to book revenue growth of 180% over three years. But are Kiwi companies growing faster than … Read more
Incubators, accelerators, grants, tax credits – there are a dizzying array of taxpayer-funded subsidies available for business. But we could make it all simpler and more effective both for government and the businesses we want to target, says technology investor Rowan Simpson. Here in New Zealand, our local market is small so exports are critical … Read more
Jihee Junn visits Microsoft’s sprawling headquarters in Seattle to find out how the tech giant is clawing its way back to relevance. In Cupertino, California, Apple is on the verge of completing its mothership – a glistening monolith of immaculate Norman Foster design. Its seamless curves and wall-to-wall glass ruthlessly dominate the city’s landscape: a description … Read more
Combining the power of US capital and Kiwi engineering, O2O2 Facewear is on the forefront of anti-pollution technology. Jihee Junn talks to CEO Dan Bowden about how the future of filtration is transparent. In densely populated megacities like Beijing, surgical face masks have become a regular sight. But despite their near ubiquity, woven cloth masks … Read more
The battle for New Zealand mobile network supremacy got a whole lot more interesting today, as Spark launched some cutting edge technology – in Queenstown. Peter Newport reports. With a flick of a switch, Queenstown today became home to the fastest mobile data speeds in the country. The new 4.5 G mobile data technology, available … Read more
The robots are coming to take our jobs – so what should we be doing for work (and our workers) when they arrive? Rod Snodgrass, director of The Exponential Agency, says it’s time for New Zealand business to start preparing for the digital future. I read a brilliant Guardian article recently that pondered life after … Read more
Since opening in October last year, the AR/VR Garage in Uptown has become home to more than 20 companies working across virtual and augmented reality. Don Rowe visits ahead of their ten day programme at Techweek’17. There are few things in pop culture more futuristic than the idea of virtual reality. Slipping on a headset … Read more
Techweek’17 is almost here. Don Rowe previews the event and curates a few selections for the discerning event-goer. After a hugely successful debut in 2016, Techweek is back – and now it’s gone national! Last year’s event, TechweekAKL, saw more than 10,000 people – including investors, business leaders, entrepreneurs and even Joe Public – gawking at … Read more
Uber seems like a terrible company. But beyond binning an app, the challenge for the tech industry is to delete an entrenched, monolithic culture that sees women and minorities leaving in droves, writes Sacha Judd This week, Susan Fowler published a blog post about her time working as an engineer for Uber, and why she … Read more
By embracing the thermoelectric potential of polymers, Rachel Segalman is pursuing a new frontier in the use of power to heat or cool. A speaker at the AMN8 conference in Queenstown, she talks to Charles Anderson Across the world, a huge amount of energy is expended heating and cooling spaces which people do not use. … Read more