Digitally Enhanced

Any review of a year is tough. What were the important aspects? What items were revolutionary rather than just evolutionary? What should be left out? Looking back over technology for the last year was tough. There are so many technological advancemen…

I am sure all of the readers of this column have a family member who is lucky enough to be technically obsessed – and this time of year is always difficult. What to buy the person who thinks a piece of sporting equipment would be a great device…

OK. So we are hurtling towards the end of another year like a freight train and I have been talking about different aspects of technology each and every week. I thought it might be a good time to pause for a moment, sit up and be a little philosophic…

Penny: “How are flower berets gunna appeal to men?“ Howard: “We add Bluetooth” Sheldon: “Brilliant. Men love Bluetooth.” Penny: “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You wanna make a hair beret with Bluetooth?&rdquo…

My official start in technology businesses goes back to 4 December 1989 but I well remember my interest in the technological world being stirred up when our school, St. Johns College, purchased two Apple II computers in the early eighties and I start…

With the NBN rolling out throughout our region and people enjoying faster connections from their home to the Internet, I am commonly asked about the best way to connect devices within the home to take advantage of the increased speed. Many people are…

When I was growing up I used to enjoy spending time with my Dad attending race meetings at the Dubbo Greyhound Racing Club. Dad spent many years as President of the Club and so I often tagged along to help out. While at the meetings, I would grab a r…

I am a bit worried about my elderly Mum. She told me she was going to Mass but I happened to drive past and I couldn’t see her car there. My kids like going for a walk with the dog along the Tracker-Riley cycleway. How do I know that they haven…

“The Babel Fish is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this bra…

Picture the scene. I am sitting in a café in Prague enjoying a coffee with my wife. I receive a call from a tradesperson who is at the gates of my manor wanting to enter to rectify an issue at the house. No-one is home. Normally the response w…

We pick up and use electronic devices every day and we probably don’t think too much about the process that occurs before we end up with the shiny new device sitting in our lounge room or in our hand. As electronics companies grow in size and c…

It is a question I have often pondered. A person in a high-level position makes a comment and people stop and listen. The comments are used in newspaper articles and on news broadcasts and as we read or listen to the words we nod and acknowledge that…

In terms of sales and critical acclaim, any list of the Top 100 novels of all time will feature one particular book published on 8 June 1949. As a piece of fiction, it displayed an incredible imagination by an author in his prime and I am sure he cou…

If I asked you to name the largest camera lens manufacturer in the world what would your answer be? Canon? Not a bad choice. The Japanese company has been making cameras since 1933 and specialises in cameras; photocopiers and printers. Nikon? Now par…

What is the next ‘big thing’ in the world of technology? Well, to quote Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you! The reality is that I don’t really know. I don’t believe that anyone truly kn…

I know that you probably did the same thing as me on Thursday morning. I set the alarm for 2.58am. Jumped out of bed. Shook my son for thirty seconds to wake him from his deep sleep so he could share the experience with me and then sat down in the lo…

It is September and Apple is in the news. There is nothing unusual about that. The Apple iPhone 4s was released on 14 October 2011 and every year after that, Apple has chosen September as the month to announce their latest iPhone. Consumers and mobil…

For a tech column it might seem a little out of place but I want to have a philosophical discussion today. Discussion is probably not the correct word as a discussion would normally involve multiple people putting forward different ideas and exchange…

Watching James Bond or Mission Impossible films we have come to expect baddies in high-security campuses with the good guys trying to sneak past the security with fake fingerprints or replica eyeball signatures. It all seems a bit fanciful and while …