CAB launches new website

The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) plans to launch an interactive website early next year to encourage younger people to use its services.
The website is part of a digital strategy CAB will start in March 2010 aiming to make its service more accessible.
CAB’s executive director Kerry Dalton says the website will supplement the current [...]

Budget fails technology sector, say experts

The Government’s Budget does not provide for necessary investment in New Zealand’s technological future, say research and development advocates.
A total of $321 million in new money has been set aside for research, science and technology initiatives, including increased money for research support programmes such as the Marsden Fund.
But Victoria University professor of physicalsciences [...]

Vinyl records hit a strong note in digital age

With the rise in popularity of digital music devices, you would be forgiven for thinking the old-school vinyl has had its day in the sun.

But music retailers say there will always be a place for vinyl and some have even noticed an increase in sales.

Real Groovy Records in Auckland has seen an [...]

Need a lift? Just TXT-a-coffee

The team who created TXT-a-park and mobile banking has created a new mobile phone technology called i-can which has the potential to change lifestyles around the world.
With i-can simple daily tasks such as ordering and paying for a coffee can be done using a mobile phone.
I-can offers pay-by-phone-type solutions allowing consumers to pay directly from [...]

World’s best digital minds descend on Auckland

One of the world’s best digital minds was in Auckland last weekend, offering expertise and insights to New Zealand’s brightest technological brains.
The founder and chief executive of India Games, Vishal Gondal, was speaking at the X|Media|Lab, a creative workshop for digital media professionals across emerging media disciplines.
It is considered to be one of the world’s [...]

From Ohio to NZ – church leaders get digital

Religious leaders in New Zealand and overseas are making the most of new technologies to reach their increasingly diverse communities.
One Jewish congregation in the US is stepping into new territory using by Facebook and Twitter to connect with its members.
OurJewishCommunity.org was launched in September, 2008, by Rabbi Robert Bar as an extension of his [...]

Celluloid − death by a thousand pixels?

For some people, the words “digital” and “cinema” should never go together. But how many of us can actually tell the difference between film and digital cinema?
On one side of the debate, purists say celluloid film has an aesthetic quality digital cannot replicate.
The other side says the technical advantages of digital cinema outweigh the minor [...]

Embracing Twitter in the Kiwi newsroom

New Zealand’s two main news television stations are further embracing the digital revolution by adopting the latest online social craze, Twitter.
Online editors and newsroom staff are both employing the microblogging service to reach out to both a wider audience and potential sources.
TVNZ online editor for news and sport Sarah Pritchett says television is no longer [...]

Direct democracy’s web woes

The first thing to note about the Direct Democracy Party is that their website doesn’t actually work.
This may be the undoing of a party proposing “e-democracy, comprising the use of electronic communications technologies, such as the Internet, in enhancing democratic processes within a democratic republic or representative democracy”.
It also advocates online opinion polls, text voting, [...]