Our ability to consume media is dependent on our ability to see and hear. If we can’t see, then Steve Braunias’ words in the Herald evade us; if we can’t hear, then the ramblings of Paul Henry float by silently; and if we can’t do one or the other, then the messages relayed via the television lose most of their impact. For over two thousand years, humans have developed various means to bridge the gap that separates the visually or hearing impaired from media. One of the more recent innovations in this space was the addition of captioning to television shows in the 1970s. The first application of this process was used in 1972 during an episode of the French Chef, with the words appearing uniformly across all TV sets tuned into the show. And by 1976, the Federal Communications Commission of the United States introduced closed captioning, which gave viewers a choice of whether or not to watch a show.

Those who enjoy the seamless and simplified branding of Huffer might just enjoy a current solo exhibition of the work of Ken Griffen, the former artistic director of the brand who is exhibiting at Auckland’s Allpress gallery with his first solo show Face Value until 6 June.

Standing for input/output and “Innovation in the Open”, the annual Google I/O developer conference explores the latest in technology, web, and mobile. Held at San Francisco, this year’s event sees some major upgrades to Google’s Android platform, new projects from the ATAP team, and some nifty VR.

Following on from last launch of its digital app hub for small- to medium-sized businesses, Spark has now confirmed that it will begin offering smarthome security services later this year—adding yet another digital trinket to its growing portfolio of tools for both consumers and business people. The telco—a descriptor that’s becoming increasingly inaccurate—will beta launch the product called Morepork before the end of the week, enabling users to control and monitor their homes remotely via their smartphones.

Technology has a history of subversion. Apple’s classic 1984 ad showed its beliefs very literally. Streaming and internet-enabled piracy are changing the media and entertainment business. Google changed the way we advertise. And now businesses like Airbnb, Uber and many others are fighting against powerful incumbents and antiquated regulation to give consumers better services. While the confiscation of a few cowbells from a rugby game at Westpac Stadium in Wellington certainly isn’t in the same category, MEA Mobile and app partner (and Chiefs sponsor) Deosan have showed their subversive side by developing a digital substitute for Chiefs fans.

The entertainment and media industries have seen a huge shift in recent years. Content viewing has gradually shifted to the online world and therefore advertising follows closely in tow while traditional media’s growth rate is slumping. PwC provides some insights and predictions of the movements of these industries closer to home and further afield between 2015 and 2019.

It wasn’t too long ago that Spark was a company to be railed against; a monopolistic monolith using confusion as a marketing tactic to suck money out of consumers. One Spark staffer tells of a focus group attendee from South Auckland before the rebrand saying that if an 027 number came up on their phone they knew it was either telemarketers or debt collectors so they’d just ignore it, which is a good indication of the level of disdain for the brand in that part of the country. But since then, there’s been a lot more openness from those inside the company and a lot more love shown by consumers, and this change in approach manifested itself in the Be Counted campaign, which was created by Touchcast and managed to get over 50,000 New Zealanders interested in regulatory process.

The human psyche is seemingly embedded with an unrelenting draw toward buttons—something illustrated in the exasperation of a parent begging a toddler to leave random switches alone. And this base impulse is something that brands are looking to capitalise on by putting ‘buy now’ buttons just about everywhere (those with koumpounophobia are advised to look away now).

The world of LinkedIn is a networker’s paradise (as the satirical slogan summarises ‘connect with people for no reason at all’). And it turns out it also a musical punster’s paradise, with YouTube user Jim Mortleman and a few others replicating the words of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody with screenshots from the social network. Anne Ayoade the Wayne Bloss indeed.

There’s no shortage of local brand ads featuring the chiselled faces of the nation’s sports stars. And tagging a famous visage onto a brand might not be the most original approach to promoting a product or a service, YouTube’s recent rundown of the top ads of the decade again illustrated the pulling power of athletes.

A rather lonely-seeming chap picks up a wee pup to be his ultimate companion in this Purina Puppy Chow ad created with BuzzFeed which has already had millions of views after being released less than a week ago.

After one accelerator programme, a spell in a start-up incubator and a tonne of two minute noodles, digital venture Mish Guru, which has developed software designed to help businesses get bang for their marketing buck on Snapchat, has a springboard of nearly half a million dollars to break into the US market.

We already know you just can’t beat the Mad Butcher’s meat. Now he’s teamed up with Dick Smith to show you just can’t beat their “mad” consumer electronics deals.

Some estimates suggest that as much as 43 percent of all jobs currently existing will be automated by 2033, leading to millions of people in the workforce having to find new jobs. This obviously puts many of us in an awkward position in that our responsibilities might one day decline into polishing the robot that can do our job much faster and more accurately than what we ever could. So to give workers an indication of how much risk automation poses to them, the National Public Radio (NPR) website has released an interactive web tool that gives visitors an indication of how likely it is that a robot will one day do their jobs.