Browsing: tech

News
Lightbox CEO Kym Niblock on giving customers choice
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The competition for content is heating up. Customers don’t want one service, they want choices that fit the type of household they are and the individual tastes in their household. Kym Niblock talks about making sure people choose Lightbox from a suite of video-on-demand services.

News
Marketing tech company Squiz expands into Auckland, looks to bring marketing and IT closer together
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Australian-owned marketing technology company Squiz has recently expanded in New Zealand, adding an Auckland office to its pre-existing Wellington base. Upon the move, we talked to New Zealand managing director Patrick Fitzgerald about the changing landscape of marketing technology, how the lines are blurring between marketing and IT departments and what the technology developers are doing to help.

News
FernMark pits tech against counterfeiters with scannable logo
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As counterfeiters step up their game around the world, the need to verify products and their accreditation logos is increasing. So, in a bid to counteract the counterfeiters, and to promote New Zealand and its premium products to the world in a unique way, FernMark has incorporated augmented reality into its logo.

News
Some very particular phones for your very particular needs
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In some ways, smartphones are a strange product. We all use them differently, and have different expectations as to their performance, yet most of us buy one of just a handful of models that all do pretty much exactly the same thing. But what if you want something different? What if you want something distinctly you? Well, here are some phones for particular people that fulfill a particular need.

News
If the shoe fits, watch it: ShiftWear’s animated, customisable kicks
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Customisable shoes have been around for a while now and they don’t come cheap. But a US company called ShiftWear has taken it to the next level by creating kicks that can be instantly updated in their design, with an e-ink display that can show detailed artwork or animations of the wearer’s choice beamed straight from the wearer’s smartphone.

News
Putting the face in Facebook
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Depending on your viewpoint, Facebook is set to get either creepier or more effective because the social media giant has announced the introduction of photo recognition to its popular Messenger app.

News
Illuminated pedestrians
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To draw attention to the tech underpinning the headlights of its new A4 model, Audi has launched an innovative piece of outdoor advertising that picks up on pedestrians and illuminates them while they are crossing the road. In addition to illustrating the mobility of the lights in the system, the activation also serves make those crossing the road more visible when the streets are dark.

Features
Deus ex machina?
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There’s automation for almost every aspect of marketing these days. So is there still room for human creativity? Damien Venuto ventures into the ad tech factory.

News
Making Kashin cashless: ASB gives its moneybox a digital makeover
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Since 1964, Kashin, the ASB moneybox, has been an inhabitant of countless Kiwi homes, serving as a tool used by parents to teach their kids about the value of money. However, at a time when coins have become something of a rarity, Kashin was becoming a largely unused anachronism—a white elephant, if you will. So, in response, ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi have given Kashin a digital makeover and introduced a new moneybox called Clever Kash.

News
Will work for food
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Humans regularly pay for having their photo taken (when it’s horrible and it gets posted on social media, or when looking back and wondering why you ever thought that hairstyle was a good choice). But, following on from a tease at its I/0 event, Google decided to let people pay with a photo to promote the enhanced search functionality of its upgraded Photos app.

News
Larry Page hasn’t lost his sense of humour
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Since Google was first launched, Larry Page has shown his inner prankster through quirky doodles, elaborate April Fools’ jokes and a slew of Easter Eggs. And, despite the seriousness of his latest message on the launch of Alphabet, it still came with a sneaky touch of Google’s humour.

News
A bird in the house is worth two in the bush: Spark’s Morepork smart home technology hits the market
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To own a smartphone is one thing, but as technology becomes more advanced, it also becomes more pervasive, edging itself further into the household. Soon it seems we’ll have a smart everything: smart beds (yes that’s a thing), smart watches, smart thermostats, smart bikes. The list goes on. Yesterday Spark released its Morepork smart home technology, but it’s not using the native owl of which it’s named after to market the product, but rather a family of emojis. We spoke to Spark’s Gemma Croombs to find out more on how the telco is pushing the product and her insights on smart technology. PLUS: a few examples of the latest in home smart tech.

News
Hold, beep, ride: Semble adds public transport to its contactless payment portfolio
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The days of wallets being crammed with loyalty, bank and business card might soon be coming to an end. In fact, wallets themselves could well be headed for obsolecence if Semble has anything to do with it. The company has already been facilitating contactless mobile phone payments across the country, and it has now announced that it’s expanding into public transport. The expansion is part of Semble’s plan to become a one-stop mobile shop for every card in a person’s physical wallet, chief executive Rob Ellis says.

News
Blunt’s trackable umbrellas and the utility/creepiness of geo-location
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Blunt – the Kiwi makers of “The World’s Best umbrellas” – have paired up with Tile, the location-tracking device from Silicon Valley, to produce the first “unlosable umbrella”. Does this mean it’s less cursing and frustration on a rainy day, or just another thing that’s wirelessly tethering you? PLUS: a look at how geo-location technology straddles the line between being useful and a little creepy.

News
Snakk looks to capitalise on dual-screening by synching mobile and TV ads
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Accenture recently showed that 87 percent of individuals watch TV with their devices within arm’s reach, meaning that a smartphone can quickly become a medium by which to escape the advertising that punctuates a television show. Add to this the fact that Google’s recent Consumer Barometer report showed that 72 percent of Kiwis own a smartphone and that almost a quarter of the population now access the internet more often via a smartphone than any other device and it becomes clear that smartphones are a place where brands should be. This is not to say that television, which continues to reach 92 percent of the population, should be abandoned as an advertising channel, but that it should rather be used in conjunction with other available channels. Snakk Media has just launched a way for Kiwi advertisers to do this.

News
Uber’s Oscar Peppitt on taxi wars, collecting customer data and disruptive technology
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Uber’s entrance into markets throughout the world has generally been typified by controversy, and the New Zealand is no different. Drivers have been arrested, the taxi lobby has come out swinging and there are some serious concerns about the company’s approach to collecting customer data. The company’s general manager Oscar peppit recently chatted to StopPress’ sister publication Idealog about these and other issues.

News
Don’t invite the Jetsons over for dinner just yet
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At a time when Spark’s Digital Ventures unit is currently trialling a SmartHome system with a view to launch it in the market in early 2015, we are stepping ever closer to a time when our homes become automated entities that respond to what we are doing and where we are. So, in an effort to see what all the hype is about, Vanilla Brief director Ben Slater recently underwent a smarthome trial.