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Bill Bennett
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
Bennett's The Download Weekly newsletter is published every Friday. You can sign up for it here.
If you want to support his work, you can make a donation to his PressPatron account.
Bill Bennett - Latest News [Page 20]
D-Link EXO Mesh DIR-X1560 Wi-fi 6 router
Thursday, 3 September 2020, 12:04 pm | Digitl
D-Link’s NZ$300 DIR-X1560 is an affordable, basic way to upgrade your home wireless network to Wi-Fi 6. More >>
Working from home surveillance arms race
Thursday, 3 September 2020, 12:01 pm | Digitl
The move to working from home means there's a boom in employee surveillance software . Bosses can check workers are hard at it, not leaning back for a Netflix binge. More >>
How Huawei Matebook 13 compares with MacBook Air
Thursday, 3 September 2020, 11:59 am | Digitl
Huawei pitches its 2020 Matebook 13 as an Apple MacBook Air alternative. That’s not my words, this is a quote from Huawei executive who said this at a recent industry function. More >>
IA Writer 5.6: Better than a word processor
Thursday, 3 September 2020, 11:52 am | Digitl
IA Writer is a text editor. A stripped back, race-tuned greyhound of a writing app. There’s nothing fancy or complicated. That is its attraction. More >>
Data traffic hits new peak once a Fortnite
Thursday, 3 September 2020, 11:35 am | Digitl
Chorus says traffic on its UFB network reached a record high on Thursday evening. It says data traffic peaked at 3.15Tbps. More >>
Petal Search highlights barriers facing Huawei
Saturday, 8 August 2020, 12:31 pm | Digitl
A US ban shut Huawei out of Google Play Services. It hope Petal Search will make that less of a problem. More >>
Huawei Y6P review: Budget phone but no Google
Saturday, 8 August 2020, 12:30 pm | Digitl
Huawei's NZ$300 1 Y6P comes with a three lens rear camera and a 5000mAh battery. There is a 6-inch screen and 64GB of storage. More >>
Microsoft Surface Go 2 review
Saturday, 8 August 2020, 12:25 pm | Digitl
Surface Go 2 is Microsoft’s second generation Windows 10 tablet. Like Apple’s iPad, the Surface Go 2 is a lovely device, Yet it has more in common with ultraportable Window laptops than the iPad. More >>
Tablet sales surge as pandemic bites
Saturday, 8 August 2020, 12:21 pm | Digitl
Canalys reports worldwide tablet shipments hit 37.5 million units in Q2 2020 , a 26 percent year-on-year increase . More >>
How long should you keep a phone?
Saturday, 8 August 2020, 12:11 pm | Digitl
New phone models arrive all the time. The phone product lines get an annual refresh. More >>
It’s official: Fibre overtakes copper
Sunday, 2 August 2020, 2:21 pm | Digitl
At the end of September, fibre companies had 880,000 premises connected to their networks. There were 581,000 copper connections. Fibre connections were up 31 percent on the year earlier. Copper connections were down 23 percent. More >>
Above Avalon on Apple pulling away from competitors
Friday, 31 July 2020, 2:28 pm | Digitl
For the second year in a row, Apple held a developers conference that should frighten its competitors. Relying on a nearly maniacal obsession with the user experience, Apple is removing oxygen from every market that it plays in. More >>
The PC: Reports of its death an exaggeration
Friday, 31 July 2020, 2:25 pm | Digitl
It is more than a decade since people started telling us we are in the post-PC era. I’m guilty 1 . From memory the idea took off soon after crowds first queued to buy the original Apple iPhone. More >>
When telcos don’t like regulated industry structure
Friday, 31 July 2020, 2:08 pm | Digitl
Telcos are waging a public relations war on Ultrafast Broadband. Reading between the lines of their public statements, they don’t like the regulated market model. More >>
How to choose hardware that can last for years
Friday, 31 July 2020, 2:05 pm | Digitl
It raised smiles 14 years ago when I carried a 1996 Apple Newton MessagePad 130 into the IDG Auckland office. More >>
The last days of urban copper
Friday, 31 July 2020, 2:01 pm | Digitl
Copper phone networks have served New Zealand for over 100 years. They won’t be around much longer, at least in cities and towns. More >>
Quantum 800 wireless headset: JBL targets gamers
Friday, 31 July 2020, 1:59 pm | Digitl
It is a fun product. You could, at a pinch, use it for work, but it doesn’t look businesslike and it hasn’t been optimised for serious tasks. In other words, don’t buy it for work thinking you might use it for gaming. More >>
Telcowatch steady mobile market through lockdown
Friday, 31 July 2020, 1:57 pm | Digitl
The latest Telcowatch mobile market share report shows the relative performance of New Zealand’s carriers were close to unchanged during the second quarter. This is the period that covered much of the nation’s Covid-19 lockdown. More >>
New Zealand's bias challenging algorithm charter could save
Friday, 31 July 2020, 1:53 pm | Digitl
Statistics minister James Shaw launched the Algorithm Charter for Aotearoa New Zealand . He says it is a world first. More >>
Spark’s timid Covid-era 5G mobile launch
Friday, 31 July 2020, 1:50 pm | Digitl
There could not be more contrast between Spark and Vodafone's 5G launches. The two launch events tell a tale about the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on carriers. More >>
