Drones are often associated with remote-controlled killing and maiming in war zones, but they’re starting to find a more peaceful, playful place in the real world, whether it’s taking a selfie with a difference, delivering a pizza or, potentially, dropping off your online purchases. And to announce its arrival in the Auckland market, Energy Online has put one to good use to get punters chatting about a mysterious UFO.

To some degree, the quarterly results of Nielsen’s readership and ABC’s circulation surveys have become predictable in showing the newspaper industry in decline. And while this was largely the case with the latest figures, there were also a few surprises in the mix. Updated: statistics for provincial papers removed.

Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.

In the past few years, the innovative marking teams behind Coca-Cola’s campaigns throughout the world have put our names on cans, created bottle-powered arcade games and taken a cheer-collecting bus across Argentina. And this inventive trend now continues with Bogota-based Leo Burnett’s introduction of the friendly twist bottle, which features a unique lid that can only be opened when paired with another.

Numbers can be spun to prove almost anything, something this industry often seems to be guilty of (thanks, percentage change!). And, in an effort to show that correlation is not causation, ‘statistical provocateur’ Tyler Vigen has created a brilliant data-rich, graph-heavy website.

Did you know that since 2011, traffic accidents have increased by 300% in China? A big reason for this is that pedestrians listening to music are drowning out ambient noise and getting run over. Thankfully Saatchi & Saatchi and VICE have come up with a clever little solution.

Since Marissa Mayer took over as chief executive at Yahoo, it’s acquired a whole heap of businesses (largely in the social and mobile space), started creating more of its own content and launched a new, less cluttered homepage in early 2013. And, after a bit of wait, New Zealand consumers and advertisers will get the benefit of that development with the rollout of the ‘new’ homepage in June.

Having dominated the digital scene and helped to organise a big chunk of the world’s information, Google is now attempting to connect the dots with the tangible (and then possibly sell relevant ads around that, as evidenced by its recent filing with the SEC that shows its desire to show ads in cars or in the home). Its self-driving car project is among the most impressive uses of Google’s innovative collective brain (and massive warchest) and it’s launched a clip showing volunteers in a prototype vehicle.

A recent article in Fast Company documented the transition of Domino’s from a struggling pizza chain to a technology company. And transparency, data and utility played a major role in that evolution. As such, online ordering has become increasingly important for the company, as evidenced by the likes of the pizza tracker and various mobile apps (its iPad app even features a 3-D pizza builder). And the same focus on digital customer service obviously exists in New Zealand, because it’s walking its ‘people powered pizza’ talk and investing in 24/7 resource to monitor customers across all social media platforms. Plus: Domino’s domain name stoush.

The online realm offers some innovative ways to raise money and Boosted.org.nz, which claims to be only tailor-made philanthropic crowd-funding platform for arts projects in the world, is among them. And the site recently took home the Innovative Technology for Good Citizenship gong at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Awards.

In a move that could cause a slight tinge of Orwellian panic in some, Telecom Digital Ventures (TDV) has confirmed that it is trialling a SmartHome prototype called DigiLife to determine if it has a place in the Kiwi market. Headed by Will Farrell-Green, the DigiLife team will over the next month monitor 20 to 30 Kiwi homes using the technology.

Since first launching 4G connectivity last year, Vodafone’s network has stretched to over 47 regions throughout the nation. And now, in an effort to take this a step further, the red telco is adding a little international flavour to its offering by extending this service to several international destinations. Speaking at a conference held this morning at the Air New Zealand Customer Innovation and Collaboration Centre, Vodafone’s chief executive Russell Stanners and consumer director Matt Williams announced that the telecommunications company was launching two new initiatives: daily roaming packages in 17 countries throughout the world; and 4G connectivity in five countries. PLUS: see the new TVC.

Apple has aimed to position its products as essential creative companions through its ‘Your Verse’ campaign, with the last major ad featuring a voiceover from The Dead Poet’s Society. But for the next instalment, it’s ditched the words and focused on the actions of famed conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and deaf travel writer Cherie King to show just how useful the iPad is.

There have been plenty of social experiments/hidden camera stunts recently, some that just scare the bejesus out of innocent bystanders, others that show the inherent goodness in humanity. And UK domestic violence charity ManKind is also using that technique to draw attention to what it feels is a double standard when it comes to domestic violence suffered by men.

Y&R New Zealand’s Friday night drinks trolley will be well-stocked from now on because it’s picked up another new piece of business in the form of nationwide liquor retail chain The Mill. Plus: more account move news.