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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 72]
Briefly: Intel’s Bay Trail, Gen-i scores Corys, Microsoft PR
Wednesday, 4 September 2013, 10:16 am | Bill Bennett
Intel is due to take the wraps of its Bay Trail Atom processor next week. The chip aims to bridge the ever-narrowing gap between PCs and tablets, but the headline news is that it supports both Windows and Android. More >>
Nokia submits to the inevitable Microsoft juggernaut
Wednesday, 4 September 2013, 10:07 am | Bill Bennett
Microsoft’s Nokia acquisition has been on the cards for a long time. Can the deal revive both brands or is it too late? Speculation started about Microsoft’s take-over of Nokia the day former executive Stephen Elop took the CEO job at struggling phone ... More >>
Auckland’s TranscribeMe inks smartpen deal
Monday, 2 September 2013, 5:14 pm | Bill Bennett
TranscribeMe’s deal with Livescribe put the Auckland-based transcription company in the spotlight. In August Alexei Dunayev’s TranscribeMe cut a partnership deal with Livescribe giving the smartpen company’s customers a simple way of turning ... More >>
Briefly: IDC lowers tablet forecast, new Dell kit
Monday, 2 September 2013, 11:02 am | Bill Bennett
Tablets may be eating the PC market, but not as much as analysts previously expected. Research company IDC lowered its tablet shipments forecast saying the slim, light computing devices are under pressure from large screen smartphones and wearable devices ... More >>
Kordia profit climbs post-Orcon
Monday, 2 September 2013, 10:21 am | Bill Bennett
State-owned network business telecommunications specialist Kordia posted a $10.7 million profit on revenues of $309 million for the year to June 2013. The result reflects the company’s ‘continuing operations’, that is, not taking the Orcon ... More >>
Fast growing Xero passes 200,000 milestone
Monday, 2 September 2013, 10:18 am | Bill Bennett
New Zealand accounting software champion Xero says it now has 200,000 paying customers. The number has doubled in the past 13 months and the company has grown 400 percent in a little under two years. More >>
Residential 100/50Mbps fibre plans updated
Monday, 2 September 2013, 9:49 am | Bill Bennett
A handful of service providers stepped forward since we published the guide to fast UFB services for residential users last week. As we said at the time, the market is fast-moving with new providers coming on stream all the time. More >>
Briefly: Will Labour get behind submarine cable?
Monday, 2 September 2013, 9:34 am | Bill Bennett
Would-be Labour leader Grant Robinson suggests he would support a new submarine cable linking New Zealand to the rest of the world. The comment came on TVNZ’s Q and A programme on Sunday morning where he mentioned the idea as an example of government ... More >>
What’s happening in server sales?
Thursday, 29 August 2013, 5:18 pm | Bill Bennett
Customers are buying slightly more servers, but paying a little less for them according to the latest research from Gartner. The company says while the global server market is weak, our region, Asia-Pacific, is the bright spot. More >>
Briefly: Greens on price gouging, SLI Systems loss
Thursday, 29 August 2013, 5:05 pm | Bill Bennett
Price gouging raises its ugly head again after a Green Party survey showing New Zealanders pay on average 40 percent more than Americans for software and hardware products. More >>
Goodbye Xero Personal
Thursday, 29 August 2013, 4:53 pm | Bill Bennett
Xero is winding-up its personal accounting product. The service will close on November 30, 2014. In a statement to the NZX chief executive Rod Drury said the move will cost the company $700,000. More >>
Residential 100/50Mbps fibre plans compared August 2013
Thursday, 29 August 2013, 4:43 pm | Bill Bennett
Chorus plans to offer a 200Mbps residential fibre service in the near future and a 1Gbps service later. Until then data speed fans will have to make do with the 100/50Mbps plans being offered to homes on the ultrafast broadband network. More >>
Windows 8.1 ready, 2degrees new boss, 7 inch Toughpad
Thursday, 29 August 2013, 4:09 pm | Bill Bennett
Microsoft has confirmed Windows 8.1 is finished or as the company puts it: ‘has been released to manufacturing’. While this means the company’s hardware partners can start tinkering with the software, it won’t be officially available to the ... More >>
Curran slams copper tax, Samsung W8 PCs, Wynyard on track
Tuesday, 27 August 2013, 5:32 pm | Bill Bennett
Labour communications spokesperson Clare Curran criticised Chorus asking government for a $100 million bailout to rollout the UFB network while posting a healthy $171 million net profit for 2013. More >>
HP, SAP join for big data clouds
Tuesday, 27 August 2013, 5:28 pm | Bill Bennett
Two of enterprise computing’s heavyweights, HP and SAP have entered the big data ring as a tag team. The deal will see both companies sell SAP’s in-memory Hana engine as a cloud service to customers who want to get big data projects off the ... More >>
Chorus posts profit, flags flat 2014
Monday, 26 August 2013, 1:01 pm | Bill Bennett
Regulatory pressure and higher than expected ultrafast broadband (UFB) build costs didn’t stop telecommunications network operator Chorus from turning in a small gain in its first year as a standalone business. However, the company warned next ... More >>
Ballmer quits Microsoft, telcos support Tics, GCSB warnings
Monday, 26 August 2013, 12:57 pm | Bill Bennett
Steven Ballmer's resignation from Microsoft broke over the weekend. Officially the man says he will step down within the next twelve months. Some reports say Microsoft’s board pushed Ballmer to resign because of the failed move into hardware devices like ... More >>
Wiggs parlays Pacific Fibre experience into Punakaiki Fund
Monday, 26 August 2013, 12:45 pm | Bill Bennett
Lance Wiggs and Chris Humphreys have launched the Punakaiki fund to invest in New Zealand internet, technology and design companies. Speaking at the Punakaiki Fund launch in Auckland earlier today, Lance Wiggs says the frustration he felt when raising ... More >>
Christchurch’s Interpret rides geospatial wave
Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 5:42 pm | Bill Bennett
Steve Abley says GIS (geographic information systems) has taken off in New Zealand to the point where he has set up a new Christchurch-based business to meet growing demand for GIS analysis. The new company was launched at this week’s New Zealand ... More >>
Hawaiki edges closer with Australian deal
Tuesday, 20 August 2013, 3:59 pm | Bill Bennett
Hawaiki’s plan to build a 14,000km trans-Pacific submarine cable linking New Zealand to the USA edges closer, thanks to a multi-million dollar deal signed in Australia. More >>
