Apple's autumn (well, spring for us, but they're in the northern hemisphere) launch event is coming up early next month.
Expect new iPhones, more on the Apple Intelligence brilliant branding co-opting of artificial intelligence, although how much is not clear even though some of the tech has started to trickle down in the iOS operating system betas available to developers.
The AI would include a cleverer Siri, the personal digital assistant for iPhones, iPads, Macs and other Apple devices. It could be that we won't see the full suite of AI stuff until next year.
But wait, there's more, as nobody says in infomercials anymore: Bloomberg's resident Apple watcher Mark Gurman thinks Siri will have a... robot sibling, or something like that. Robotics with generative AI (GenAI) and a humanlike interface to go with it.
Hmm. Robotics. Dunno about you, but I'm more keen to hear about the rumoured camera upgrades to the upcoming iPhone 16 range. It doesn't look like the resolution of the sensors will go beyond 48 megapixel (with 12 Mpixel images), but an improved ultra wide camera sounds good, ditto a DSLR-like shutter button.
Let us repair the things we own
Consumer NZ has dropped off a petition to Parliament, with over 21,000 signatures, calling for repairability labels on household appliances and electronic devices. Being able to repair products you already own instead of throwing away faulty ones and buying new, does indeed seem more sustainable and cost-effective, and worth fighting for.
Particularly since, as Consumer pointed out, New Zealand's the only OECD country without e-waste regulations. The estimate is that 100,000 tonnes of e-waste is thrown away into landfills every year.
No wonder the Dome Valley has to be turned into a rubbish dump, with those numbers. Depressing.
Emergency services network trial site deployed
After some peculiar issues that saw Kordia exit, despite initial denials, the joint venture with Tait Communications set up to build a new, encrypted land mobile radio (LMR) component for Aotearoa's emergency services, the pilot site for Te Kupenga Marutau Public Safety Network (PSN) has been deployed.
We're hoping to get some further technical details and pictures of the site in Canterbury soon. The whole PSN will have 500 sites or thereabouts and includes NZ telcos setting up cellular roaming for emergency services, plus a paging service for Fire and Emergency NZ and Hato Hone St John.
The whole thing is part of a big $1.4 billion project over 10 years, and a key feature is that the radios will be digital and encrypted. As opposed to analogue and not-encrypted, which means the comms could be listened into.
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