CityBeat - Te Waha Nui Online

by Matt Samra

Auckland has its fair share of Myspace novelties, such as the Spikey Red Thing and the Inflatable Sheep.

So, when I got my hands on the infamous Nuffield Street Monster, I had to ask some hard-hitting questions.

The Nuffield Street Monster has been a highly visible member of the Myspace community for nearly a year. Read more

by Vaughan Lovell

Timeline: Mid-winter in New Zealand. Rugby is on the minds of the collective nation as the world cup looms closer. The All Blacks have had their mid-season run, the glamourous Super 14 has finished months ago, and now we are left with the Air New Zealand Cup - New Zealand’s very own competition.

So what are we to make of this then? Read more

by Angela Norton

It’s a camera, it’s a multimedia player, it can browse the internet, it can email…

Oh yeah, and it’s also a phone.

The long awaited iPhone finally hit the US market on June 29, 2007. However, it may be a wee while before the long-awaited, must-have gadget makes an appearance here in New Zealand.

And despite the phone’s slick design and technological maturity, early signs indicate that iPhone is all style, and no substance. Read more

by Charlotte Coyle

Waking up next to an unfamiliar, overweight, furry, foul-smelling man is nothing short of any girl’s absolute worst nightmare.

This is exactly why film Knocked Up makes for such an utterly horrifying, yet hugely hilarious watch.

The film follows gorgeous E! News presenter Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy) after a drastic lapse in judgement, which leads her to a fateful one-night-stand with the podgy, curly-haired, stoner, Ben Stone (Seth Rogen). Read more

by Amy Paterson

Wouldn’t you just love to be able to crank out the Sweet Child o’ Mine solo by Guns ‘n Roses on guitar?

Well, I can, and it’s awesome. With the press of a few colourful keys, I’m just as good as Slash himself.

All right, just so I don’t offend any GNR fans, I’m going to retract that statement. Read more

by Niko Kloeten

For those of you looking to emulate author J.K Rowling and rake in megabucks by writing best-selling novels, help is at hand.

After just a few hours of reading one book, your chances of getting that first novel published should go up by about 400 per cent.

The book? It’s called Teach yourself how to write a blockbuster, the latest in the hugely successful “Teach yourself” series that has been read by over 50 million people worldwide. Read more

by Grace Honney

As a student, I am all too familiar with the sinking feeling in my stomach when I see exactly how much money I have in my bank account.

Each month after my statement arrives I vow not to go and buy that coffee or those muffins, and each month I find myself making the same vows all over again.

Yes, I understand that after university I should be able to get a reasonably well-paid job and that I only need to sacrifice for one more semester, but is that really true and can I wait that long? I am part of Generation Y, after all. Read more

by Sam Mickell

Among the gems that I’ve seen on social networking website Facebook recently is a group called ‘I want to punch slow walkers in the back of the head’. Now, I’m not usually one to condone violence, but I’m not surprised that such a group exists.

That’s because being stuck behind a slow walker has to be one of the most infuriating things of all time.

Whether you’re stuck behind them in the aisle of a supermarket, on a footpath or, heaven forbid, on a large staircase, it always makes for a painful and frustrating experience. Read more

by Amy Williams

Kiwis tired of sluggish broadband speeds are speaking out against their Internet Service Providers.

And despite an outry by disgruntled internet users that their ‘broadband’ connections simply aren’t up to speed, the Government is still predicting a “telecommunications revolution” to come.

Last week the Herald online surveyed readers about broadband speeds, asking them to run a speed test on their internet connections. The results speak for themselves: a high proportion of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) simply aren’t delivering on their “high speed” promises. Read more

by Jane Sissons

Many may brag that New Zealand has it’s fair share of women in power, but reality has a rather different take on things.

In 2007, women in New Zealand are still struggling to break the “concrete-hard” glass ceiling.

Surveys by the National Business Review state that New Zealand is ranked tenth in the world with women holding 24 per cent of management positions. Read more