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Viewing 76 to 90 of 313 articles

• Shock and Ore
  www.3news.co.nz video, 1 April
  Mining on conservation lands - what are the mining companies planning, and how rich could they really make us? Rod Vaughan investigates who benefits from mining in New Zealand and what will happen when they start looking for more gold in them there hills.
  Discussion starters:
  • Resource management
  • Production systems
  • Environmental impact
• Behind the scenes at YouTube
  www.3news.co.nz video, 4 April
  3 News' David Farrier visited YouTube HQ in Silicon Valley, California, to get a closer look at the Google-owned company.
  Discussion starters:
  • Media technology
• Look no hands: cars that drive better than you
  www.nzherald.co.nz, 7 April
  Bob is a child-sized dummy which has helped test the first in-car system that can sense an imminent collision with pedestrians and brake automatically if the driver doesn't. It is being put through final trials before being launched in May by Swedish car maker Volvo in its new S60 model.
  Discussion starters:
  • Systems technology – sensor control
• Dolce and Gabbana silver anniversary
  www.nzherald.co.nz, 11 April
  This year marks a quarter of a century since Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana - fashion's most famous pairing - showed for the first time. Back then, the industry was far from the corporate juggernaut it is today. Never would Dolce and Gabbana have imagined they'd go on to exert such influence over the way women (and, indeed, men) dress - from the high street, where the type of exuberant and unashamedly sexualised clothing their designs exemplify are ubiquitous, to the upper echelons of Hollywood.
• Audi takes on Pikes Peak - with no driver
  www.nzherald.co.nz, 12 April
  SAN JOSE, California - It can traverse rough terrain, accelerate quickly and negotiate sharp turns like other high-performance sports cars, but there's one thing that sets this Audi coupe apart: It doesn't need a driver.
  The car, named Shelley, is the latest creation by Stanford University researchers who are developing technology that could help make driving safer and one day allow ordinary vehicles to drive on their own.
• Writers fear e–books will put them out of business
  www.3news.co.nz video, 12 April
  New Zealanders love reading - we have more bookshops per capita than any other country. But bookshops face a new challenge from electronic readers, and a visiting best-selling author is worried that writers will suffer as well.
  Discussion starters:
  • Nature of technology – Sociocultural aspects and influences
  • Intellectual property - Copyright issues
• Kin aims at social networking market
  www.nzherald.co.nz, 14 April
  Microsoft has unveiled its latest attempt to carve a bigger piece of the cut-throat market for smartphones: a new device called the Kin, which it promised would "help people publish the magazine of their life".
  The phone, which has both a touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard, plunges into the US market next month.
• Marriage of Figaro gets denim makeover
  www.3news.co.nz video, 14 April
  Some may think of opera as a night out for the rich and snooty, but costume designer Elizabeth Whiting is hoping her creative designs will appeal to everybody. Over the next few weeks she and her team will create the cast's clothing almost completely out of old jeans donated by the community.
  Discussion starters:
  • Costume design
  • Use of recycled material
  • Visual communication
• Apple to crack down on game developers
  www.nzherald.co.nz, 15 April
  Following a clampdown on many of the practices used to write apps for the iPhone and iPad, fledgling game designers are nervously waiting to see if their creations will be accepted by Apple.
  Discussion starters:
  • Gaming design
  • Quality assurance issues
• Kiwi designer's wares attract interest in Milan
  www.nzherald.co.nz, 16 April
  Every year the Satellite Salone showcases a carefully curated exhibition of works from the world's up-and-coming design talent.
  This year our very own Wellington-based designer Tim Wigmore was among those selected to exhibit. It's a big deal for any designer, with the main objective to secure manufacturing relationships with the big-name international manufacturers, and the all important press coverage that every designer needs in order to become known.
• From tantrums to app-y days
  www.stuff.co.nz, 17 April
  Few can legitimately boast that an iPhone app changed their life but for 10-year-old Grace Domican, unable to speak due to autism, the touchscreen phone has given her a voice for the first time.
  Her mother, Lisa Domican, created a picture-based iPhone application to help her communicate and the tool was so successful she is now trialling it in a school for autistic children in Ireland.
• Does my virtual bum look fat in this?
  www.stuff.co.nz, 19 April
  The clothing industry is eyeing up the potential for 3-D body scanners to help confused shoppers select garments, says a top United States researcher who visited Auckland University of Technology to speak at a digital strategies symposium.
  Kerry King, product development manager at the Textile and Clothing Technology Corporation (TC2), a United States industry-funded research institute, says scanners have come down in price to the point where the technology is within reach of individual retailers.
• Encrypt your Hotmail and Gmail
  www.stuff.co.nz, 20 April
  An Australian-developed browser plug-in promises to protect webmail content from computer hackers and block keyword-related advertising.
  It works by encrypting email messages at the user's computer via a browser toolbar. Recipients need to download a free version of the software - called Armacrypt - to decrypt messages. Emails remain encrypted while in transit and in storage on mail servers.
• Kiwi firm set to write new global chapter
  www.nzherald.co.nz, 20 April
  The Auckland-based business is believed to be the first company in the world to have created an interactive, touchsmart and voice-activated application of children's books for Apple devices.
  Discussion starters:
  • Conversion from print media to an interactive digital platform</br> • IP issues – copyright protection
• Toyota confirms it will pay monster fine, recalls Lexus SUV
  www.nzherald.co.nz, 20 April
  US Transportation Department imposes NZ$22.4 million fine on Toyota car company for putting “consumers at risk" by failing to promptly notify the government about potentially defective accelerator pedals on 2.3 million vehicles.
  Discussion starters:
  • Characteristics of Technological Outcomes – catastrophic failure
  • Technological Modeling – prototype testing