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Viewing 166 to 180 of 192 articles

• First Te Reo smartphone introduced
  Idealog Daily Bacon article, 3 November
  Mobile operator 2degrees has just unveiled the world's first Te Reo Māori smartphone, an IDEOS X3 that will go on sale before Christmas.
  Discussion starter:
  • Information and Communication Technology: cultural connection
• Inter-island ferry back in service
  TV3News video, 3 November
  Maritime New Zealand says it is not yet clear why the system failures on the Aratere are happening, but the ferry will not be operating until its been tested, and inspectors are confident that it is safe.
  Discussion starter:
  • Technological Systems: Mitigation of risk; reliability and redundancy
• Report questions long-term safety of composite planes
  NewScientist online article, 3 November
  On 1 November the first aircraft with a pressurised fuselage and wings made from carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) flew its first passengers from Tokyo to Hiroshima. The All Nippon Airways Boeing 787's composite structure makes it around 15 per cent lighter than a typical aluminium-based plane of that size, increasing fuel efficiency and making aviation greener. But the media hoopla over the flight disguised some worrying questions about the long-term safety of composite aircraft.
  Discussion starters:
  • Technological Products: material properties and performance characteristics.
  • Nature of Technology: competing priorities; testing and trilling; mitigation of risk
• Kiwi's iPhone app snaps precious images
  NZ Herald online article, 3 November
  A New Zealand tech entrepreneur with Silicon Valley finance has helped turn iPhones into pocket photo scanners that can rival commercial archivists.
  Discussion starters:
  • Digital Technologies: computer science and programming; 'algorithmic spotting'
  • Characteristics of Technology: convergence of technologies
• Welcome to the Hotel Grand Chancellor
  TV3News video, 4 November
  For the first time ever, media has been allowed to film inside Christchurch's severely damaged Hotel Grand Chancellor. Now that intensive stabilising work has been completed the infamous 27 level leaning hotel is to be deconstructed floor by floor.
  Discussion starter:
  • Construction and mechanical technologies: Deconstruction planning
• Simulated Mars mission 'lands' back on Earth
  BBC online news article, 4 November
  Six men locked away in steel tubes for a year-and-a-half to simulate a mission to Mars have emerged from isolation. The Mars500 project, undertaken at a Moscow institute, was intended to find out how the human mind and body would cope on a long-duration spaceflight.
  Discussion starters:
  • Nature of Technology: socio-technological environments
  • Space Technology: simulation techniques
• Global test for young entrepreneur
  Stuff.co.nz article, 14 November
  It's been a good year for 21-year-old Jonathan Wrait who has made the finals of the Unlimited Investment Challenge and is now off to New York for the final of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA). Wrait's business is Virtuoso Tutoring, which tutors students in partnership with high schools, often using recently graduated students from the same school so they are familiar with the school and its culture.
  Discussion starter:
  • Enterprise: entrepreneurship; business models
• Geek-meets-cook with gadget protectors
  Stuff.co.nz article, 14 November
  Cooking with iPads and other tablet computers is on the rise. But what if a slip of the saute pan leaves that $1000 gadget Wi-Fried? Enter the growing market of wraps, stands and shields designed to make sure that floury hands and splattering pans don't turn into a recipe for techno disaster.
  Discussion starter:
  • Product development: spin-off protection devices
• 'Black box' spies on young drivers
  Stuff.co.nz article, 16 November
  An Australian company has released a device that monitors how a car is being driven and send alerts to its owner via text message. The device, called the In-Vehicle Monitoring System (IVMS), was originally developed for the mining industry by Australian company Digicore but is now available to the general public.
  Discussion starter:
  • Digital Technologies: data monitoring and reporting
• Pentagon tests long-range hypersonic weapon
  BBC News online article, 18 November
  The US has test-fired a new weapon which can travel at five times the speed of sound, the Pentagon says. The missile was launched from Hawaii and reached its target on a Pacific atoll 2,300 miles (3,700km) away in less than half an hour.
  Discussion starter:
  • Characteristics of Technological Outcomes: fitness for purpose in its broadest sense
• Should engineering prize compete with Nobels?
  BBC News online article, 18 November
  The million pound Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, announced on Thursday at the Science Museum in London, is a global award which aims to, "to identify and celebrate an outstanding advance in engineering that has created significant benefit to humanity". It's part of a long tradition of using prizes to reward and encourage innovation.
  Discussion starter:
  • Nature of Technology: socio-cultural influences: international awards and prizes
• World's 'lightest material' unveiled by US engineers
  BBC News online article, 18 November
  Made of tiny metallic tubes arranged into a micro-lattice, the material is100 times lighter than Styrofoam and has "extraordinarily high energy absorption".
  Discussion starters:
  • Technological Products: material structure and performance properties
  • Nano-technology: micro-lattice architecture
• Solar car ready for its road trip
  NZ Herald online news article, 20 November
  The country's first road-legal, solar-powered car will be rolled out next week. The one-seater commuter vehicle which can hit speeds of up to 100km/h begins a 1700km trip to Bluff, Southland, from Auckland Domain on Thursday morning.
  Discussion starter:
  • Technological Modelling: prototype development and testing
• Kiwi library in trademark fight with US corporation
  TVNZ news video, 23 November
  The Horowhenua Library trust is fighting to keep its trademark free software from the clutches of a United States corporation.
  Discussion starter:
  • Intellectual Property issues: provisional trademarking rights.
• Once more with feeling: New touchscreen tech adds 'tixels' - screen textures you feel
  Dailymail.co.uk online article, 7 December
  Many mobile phones boast of their 'haptics' - the advanced vibration effects that let you 'feel' when you've typed a letter on screen. But a new technology from Senseg uses electrical current to 'pull' the skin of your finger towards the surface, creating textures you can feel. It's also totally silent, with no 'buzzing' noise. The results can be used to create control dials that you can feel on screen - or even to create pictures with textures, such as a rough wall that actually feels like stone
  Discussion starters:
  • Digital Technology: terminology - 'tixels'; 'haptic'
  • Technological systems : transformation, storage, transportation or control of materials, energy and/or information.