Tech Talk Column

In 1964 Arthur C. Clarke gave his predictions for the world today. He correctly surmised that we would have wireless global communications such that cities as business hubs would no longer be necessary. He predicted that people would no longer commut…

The technology world is typically known for changing at a fast pace and constantly innovating. When anyone learns that I am involved in the tech industry, they must assume that I am somehow related to Nostradamus – they all want to know what is…

I know you have been counting down the days to this Sunday. Quite easily the most important day of the year – Father’s Day. I realise you only have a couple of days left to make those all-important purchases but what Dad wouldn’t wa…

Chester Gould was a true visionary. On 4 October 1931, the comic strip, Dick Tracy, made its debut. Tracy’s most recognisable icon, his wrist radio (and later his wrist TV) was introduced on 13 January 1946. Keep in mind that the transistor, so…

I am sure readers of my column are well aware of a range of recent electricity price increases with average increases as of 1 July around the 20 per cent mark. Average household users are currently paying around $400 more for their electricity this y…

Devoted readers of my column (Hi Mum!) will remember that last week I wrote the first of two-parts where I spoke in detail about the current conflict we are seeing between NBN Co. and the telcos in relation to the perceived sub-standard performance o…

We have seen a huge amount of discussion and some commentary back and forth between NBN and various telcos with accusations of corner cutting and over-charging. As with many debates, there is probably a little bit of truth in all of it but I think th…

This whole connected world thing seems to be working out quite well – with apologies to the people who can’t yet take full advantage of the connected world. One of the points I made many years ago when I was fervently arguing for all thin…

When is the last time you read the Terms of Conditions of an app or a Web site or even your Internet or mobile phone contract? For most people the answer is so long ago it may as well be never. And there is a good reason for that. Time. As one extrem…

At a personal level I don’t really have an issue in buying and using technology for the sake of technology. I love the innovation and the thought processes and creativity that is involved in creating a product from an idea. I am the first to ad…

Now it is serious. I sat down with my family during the week, turned on our streaming device and prepared to binge-watch a few episodes of the latest series that we have become addicted to. Accompanying this addiction was the other addiction in my li…

I am sure she wasn’t the first but she was the one that sticks in my mind. Over the years I am sure there have been other examples of the phenomenon but Paris Hilton epitomises the concept. Famous for being famous. Most ‘famous’ peo…

I know that many of you have had a restless week trying to keep up to date with all of the major announcements from E3 2017. This was the 23rd hosting of the Electronic Entertainment Expo and, as expected, hardware manufacturers and software develope…

Regardless of what you think of Apple as a company, it is hard to argue one point. They know how to market. For the exposure and product recognition they have, they spend significantly less on advertising than their competitors or other major organis…

I remember being a naïve eighteen-year-old and walking into a Sydney pub with some of my newly minted University friends. We had ended up in Redfern before Redfern was a trendy place to live and I couldn’t work out why there was a guy…

On 27 June 1973 the eighth movie was released in a franchise that was becoming increasingly popular with a total of 24 movies in the series now. This movie was the first to feature the actor that played the lead role for seven movies – more tha…

Earlier this year we saw the announcement that Amazon will launch in Australia with local warehousing. In the Internet connected world we live in, you can, of course, already buy a huge number of products from Amazon but there is then a delay from th…

Once upon a time the owners of media outlets would sweat on the latest survey results for TV viewing habits or radio ratings or official circulation numbers for newspapers. These numbers were interesting for the general population – how many pe…