Writer & Tech Journalist
Richard MacManus Last week Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent out a tweet announcing a partnership with Publicis Groupe, a multinational advertising and PR company. Nadella said they were going to build an AI product called Marcel, as some type of collaboration platform to “empower” the 80,000 employees of Publicis Groupe. Nadella’s tweet didn’t offer much detail about … Read more
Earlier this month a New Zealand blockchain company, Centrality, announced that it raised US$80 million (NZ$110m) in cryptocurrency via a “Token Generation Event.” That’s a staggering amount and would rank among the top ten biggest ICOs (Initial Coin Offering) of all time, according to the Coinist website. Although as yet, Centrality does not even appear in Coinist’s directory. I … Read more
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held every January in Las Vegas. It’s typically an event dominated by state of the art TVs, concept cars, the latest headphones, and cute robots. This year’s CES was no exception, but we also saw developments in three other technology categories: voice assistants, virtual reality, and health tracking. The … Read more
We’re now a couple of weeks into the new year and it’s an exciting time for several key Internet technologies. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are enjoying an almost Dot Com level of hype right now, while Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality continue to impress. I covered all of this and more in my annual technology wrapup … Read more
Cryptocurrency continues to dominate headlines; and it’s no longer just focused on Bitcoin. Speculators are now flinging their money into hundreds of newer cryptocurrencies, such as Ripple, Litecoin and Doge. These so-called “altcoins” are risky enough, because their prices (at time of writing) are highly inflated. But the risks don’t stop there. Storing your newly … Read more
Apple’s App Store editors have identified four breakout trends in app culture this year: augmented reality, real-time competitive gaming, mental health and mindfulness, and apps that transform storytelling. Let’s take a look at each of these four trends and the leading apps in those categories. Augmented Reality (AR) got a big boost in September when Apple … Read more
Every December I write a blog post looking back at the leading technology trends of the year. I first started doing this in 2004, when Read/Write Web was my personal blog. That was also the year “Web 2.0” was named, denoting the trend of using the Web as a platform. There’s a connection, at least … Read more
Predicting the near future of Internet technology is a fool’s errand. After all, how many of you predicted that Bitcoin would increase in value manyfold last year? The year before that, the Pokemon Go craze seemingly came out of nowhere. So every year, something new and wholly unexpected happens in technology. However, some trends I … Read more
Often a new technology doesn’t truly break through until someone makes a game of it. Augmented Reality only took off after the release of Pokémon Go last year. Facebook’s initial growth spurt in 2009 was helped by the immense popularity of Farmville. Now, at the end of 2017, blockchain is getting its game craze moment with … Read more
With a ten-fold increase in the value of Bitcoin over the past year, the increasing stabilisation of so-called “altcoins” like Ethereum and Ripple, and the exploding Initial Coin Offering (ICO) market, it’s a boom time for cryptocurrency. However, New Zealand has been slow to catch on – particularly our government and banks. As I explained … Read more
Every week I write a technology column for Stuff, New Zealand’s largest news media website. In a recent column, I wrote about controlling your social media diet. It struck a chord with many people. The problem is that social media is addictive and – to continue the diet metaphor – full of empty calories. Here’s … Read more
Lately I’ve been getting calls to my cellphone from unknown, random UK numbers. The first several times it happened, I didn’t answer. But when the calls kept coming, from a different UK number each time, I finally picked up to see who or what was at the other end of the line. Silence. And before … Read more
The music industry is enjoying a renaissance. After fifteen years of declining revenue, Recorded Music New Zealand achieved double digit growth in 2015 and again in 2016. The renewed upward trend is largely thanks to streaming, which now makes up 50% of local music industry revenue. As consumers, we’re all grateful for the huge variety of … Read more
Recently I’ve noticed an increase in people choosing to disconnect from social media, to escape the noise and constant distraction. Who can blame them, when even the Facebook engineer who created the ‘like’ button, Justin Rosenstein, now restricts his Facebook usage. But before you hit the nuclear button and blast your social media profile out of existence, … Read more
Smartphones have dominated the last ten years of computing, but we’re on the cusp of the next big platform: voice-activated virtual assistants, powered by artificial intelligence. While the smartphone isn’t going away, you’ll soon be able to interact with many more devices thanks to assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. All the big technology companies … Read more