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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 39]
Review: LibreOffice 5.2 — solid, unpolished alternative
Saturday, 6 August 2016, 3:38 pm | Digitl
The free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office gets the job done. Yet there are compromises. At a glance For: Free. Open source. Feature rich. Runs on old hardware. Can open most document formats. Against: Not as polished as paid-for alternatives. ... More >>
Samsung leads in phone sales but Apple, Huawei still winners
Tuesday, 2 August 2016, 5:43 pm | Digitl
Phone sales are flat. The industry shipped a total of 343.3 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter of 2016. That figure is up just 0.3 percent on the 342.4 million units in the same quarter last year. More >>
Oracle takes cloud shortcut, overpays for Netsuite
Tuesday, 2 August 2016, 5:40 pm | Digitl
Oracle paid US$9.3 billion in cash to buy Netsuite a cloud ERP company . The move will help bring the database giant up-to-speed in the market for cloud business apps. More >>
Review: HP Elite Thunderbolt 3 Dock
Tuesday, 2 August 2016, 5:31 pm | Digitl
Laptop docks or docking stations were all the rage a decade or so ago. While they come in different shapes and sizes, most add standard desktop PC features to laptops. More >>
Tablet sales continue to fall, Windows is coming
Tuesday, 2 August 2016, 5:27 pm | Digitl
There's no clear end in sight to falling tablet sales. I DC's latest tablet quarterly report shows shipments fell over 12 percent year-on-year. This is the seventh quarter in a row shipments have declined. More >>
CheckIT finds the data rat in your ranks
Sunday, 31 July 2016, 5:00 pm | Digitl
Computer Forensics managing director Brian Eardley-Wilmot says his business has seen a rise in computer crime over the last year. More >>
PC brands plan survival tactics
Sunday, 31 July 2016, 4:56 pm | Digitl
Personal computer sales are in free-fall. Tablet sales are in worse shape. The two do not exist in isolation. Computer makers have different strategies to squeeze the most out of a difficult market. More >>
Review: HP Elitebook Folio G1 business class laptop
Sunday, 31 July 2016, 4:45 pm | Digitl
If your heart says MacBook, but your head says Windows, HP’s Elitebook Folio G1 fits the bill. At a glance For: Thin, light, attractive. Great keyboard for such a small laptop. 4K touch screen display in the review model. Against: Battery can ... More >>
Hanging on to the landline
Sunday, 31 July 2016, 4:38 pm | Digitl
Many people reading this will already stopped using and paying for a telephone landline. Few people under 40 have a landline at home. More >>
Chorus says 100GB is the new normal
Monday, 25 July 2016, 2:13 pm | Digitl
A post at the Chorus blog says the average amount of data consumed by a household continue's to rise and now sits at 100GB a month . "Since the beginning of 2016 we’ve reported new highs of data consumption, and now it seems that 100GB is the ... More >>
New Zealand number six nation for mobile connectivity
Monday, 25 July 2016, 2:10 pm | Digitl
GSMA, the global mobile industry trade association, ranks New Zealand number six in a league table measuring mobile connectivity in 130 countries. More >>
Best cloud storage plans — 2016
Monday, 25 July 2016, 2:08 pm | Digitl
Storing files in the cloud and syncing them across devices has changed the way we use computers and data. More >>
Smartwatches a geek ghetto
Monday, 25 July 2016, 2:04 pm | Digitl
New Zealand auction site TradeMe lists dozens, maybe hundreds, of Apple Watches. Many are new or nearly new. More >>
MyScript Stylus takes iPad Pro back to Newton MessagePad
Thursday, 14 July 2016, 6:01 pm | Digitl
The app is a keyboard extension. It replaces the normal on-screen qwerty keyboard with a space where you can write. More >>
Apple sales down, but no Macpocalypse
Thursday, 14 July 2016, 5:58 pm | Digitl
New figures from IDC and Gartner show Apple’s immunity to falling PC sales has ended . More >>
Where Open Source fits in New Zealand
Thursday, 14 July 2016, 5:55 pm | Digitl
NZ Open Source Society president Dave Lane is a frequent and articulate promoter of his cause. He can also be a scathing critic of proprietary software. More >>
Tuanz calls for better consumer protections
Thursday, 14 July 2016, 5:51 pm | Digitl
Tuanz — Telecommunications Users Association New Zealand — wants better consumer protection when the government revisits the Telecommunications Act. More >>
Apple iPad Pro 9.7-inch Smart Keyboard Cover
Thursday, 14 July 2016, 5:47 pm | Digitl
Apple’s Smart Keyboard Cover feels like an essential partner for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. That’s not the case with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. More >>
Goodbye BlackBerry qwerty keyboard phone
Monday, 11 July 2016, 1:40 pm | Digitl
...struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry made a sharp detour from its history on Tuesday when it announced it was discontinuing the last phone to have the traditional version of the company’s iconic physical keyboard and trackpad. More >>
Putting Chorus shoddy work complaints in perspective
Monday, 11 July 2016, 1:32 pm | Digitl
New Zealand’s media was quick to report stories about poor Ultrafast Broadband installation work this week. More >>
