A software engineer named Harishankar Narayanan uncovered a disturbing backdoor in his iLife A11 robot vacuum, revealing serious privacy and security concerns. After blocking the vacuum’s telemetry IP to prevent excessive data transmission to China, the device mysteriously stopped working. It would briefly revive after service centre repairs, only to fail again once reconnected to […]

Police use of automated number plate recognition (ANPR) technology in New Zealand has increased significantly, with nearly 600,000 queries made in the past year—up 16 percent from the previous year and 70 percent over two years. The systems, operated by private companies Auror and SaferCities, connect thousands of cameras at supermarkets and on roads to […]

Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched legal action against Microsoft, alleging the company misled users of its Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans about subscription options involving Copilot integration. The ACCC claims Microsoft presented users with only two choices—accept a higher-priced plan with Copilot or cancel their subscription—while failing to disclose a third, […]

This week sees Intel’s i386 processor turn 40. Launched in October 1985 the processor opened the way to Windows 3.0 & Linux. Originally labeled 80836, With a clock speed of 12MHz, 16, 20 & 25 MHz versions came later. A 33MHz version was released on April 10th, 1989 with the chip eventually being renamed i386 […]

Air New Zealand has marked a major milestone in sustainable aviation with the first test flight of the BETA ALIA CX300 electric aircraft from Tauranga Airport. Manufactured in the United States by BETA Technologies, the aircraft arrived in New Zealand last week and was welcomed with a sunrise blessing ceremony. This flight is part of […]

A £2 billion legal claim has been launched against Microsoft in the UK, alleging that its cloud licensing practices unfairly inflate costs for businesses running Windows Server on rival platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, and Alibaba. The case, led by digital markets regulation expert Dr Maria Luisa Stasi, argues that Microsoft’s licensing terms make it […]

Technology educators across New Zealand are raising serious concerns about the government’s proposed curriculum reforms, warning they could dismantle what’s widely regarded as a world-leading approach to teaching. At the heart of the issue is a shift toward categorising subjects as either “vocational” or “academic”—a move teachers say oversimplifies the diverse pathways students take through […]

In a move that’s sparked both curiosity and concern, the director of the FBI recently gifted 3D-printed firearm to senior officials in New Zealand’s police and intelligence community. The gesture, made during a high-level visit, was described as symbolic—but it’s left many wondering what message it was meant to send. While the firearms were non-functional […]

A new report from Concentric AI reveals that Microsoft Copilot accessed nearly three million sensitive data records per organisation in the first half of 2025. This includes confidential business information, with 57% of shared data containing privileged content—rising to 70% in financial and healthcare sectors. The findings highlight risks from duplicate, stale, and orphaned records, […]

The T4 Group announced plans for a $50 million, carbon-neutral, Tier 4 data centre in Southland in March 2022, which would be New Zealand’s first of its kind. The project is reportedly a collaboration with the Invercargill Licensing Trust, with a key feature being the use of waste heat from the data center to heat […]