Sport
The little gadget behind Big Sport
Hannah Francis It's called the OptimEye S5 and it's designed and (partly) made in Australia.
AI
Professor reveals to students that his assistant was an AI all along
Matt McFarland To help with his class this year, a Georgia Tech professor hired Jill Watson, a teaching assistant unlike any other in the world.
Driverless cars taught to avoid kangaroos
Tony Moore Detecting Aussie wildlife a challenge Volvo engineers 'jumped at', conference told.
Gadgets
Mobile phone inventor picks the next big thing
Hannah Francis Marty Cooper sits on the board of a company that he thinks will revolutionise how we use our gadgets.
Home tech
Inside Bang & Olufsen's new Melbourne 'sensory store'
Tim Biggs This week at Melbourne's heritage-listed Cavendish House, Bang & Olufsen launched its flagship 'sensory store', hoping to give locals a chance to acquaint themselves with the company's innovative and unusual gear.
'I'm sorry': Australian claiming to be Bitcoin's creator refuses to prove it
After saying he would provide 'extraordinary proof' he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the businessman now says he no longer has the 'courage'.
Chatbots
Siri's creators say they've made something even better
Elizabeth Dwoskin In an ordinary conference room in San Jose, a group of engineers sat down to order pizza in an entirely new way.
The world doesn't need another app store
Peter Wells The TCL C1 comes with a smallish price tag and biggish expectations. Prepare for disappointment.
Bitcoin
Doubts surface over Australian man's claim to be bitcoin founder
Paul Mozuer, Nathaniel Popper The Bitcoin community is split, with some prominent figures claiming Craig Steven Wright's evidence does not stack up.
What we know about the Australian claiming he invented Bitcoin
Travis Andrews For years, journalists and hackers have been hunting for the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. Now a 45-year-old Australian computer scientist has revealed he 'Satoshi is dead'.
Aussie outs himself as Bitcoin mastermind
Tech entrepreneur Craig Wright ends years of speculation about the origins of the controversial digital currency Bitcoin.
Apple co-founder tells Brisbane revolution is coming
Jorge Branco The man who helped bring Apple to the world says we're on the verge of an artificial intelligence revolution.
Home tech
Dyson's Supersonic is a new approach to hair dryers
Elizabeth Paton Company says new device could change the monotony of bathroom routines forever.
Imaging
Open wide: panoramas made easy
Terry Lane How to go wide, and wider still, when taking photos.
Very nice, dear, but what do you use it for?
Peter Wells The Bamboo Spark is a strange little product, a combination of old and new technology. It's a graphics tablet that eschews the traditional stylus-on-glass design for something a little more familiar, pen and paper. The pen communicates with the case, converting and syncing your scribbles to your smartphone or computer.
Seeing the light requires wisdom and WiT
Rod Easdown At last, the technological revolution has caught up with the desk lamp, overhauling a 115-year-old design.
NBN
'Abandon FTTN for FTTdp': Internet Australia calls for NBN rethink
Rae Johnston Lobby group urging the government and the opposition to "put politics aside and agree on a bipartisan NBN strategy".
Drones
Australia Post tests drones for parcel delivery
Hannah Francis Within months, some Australians may get the option to have items they purchase online delivered straight to their doors by drones.
Comment
Could our new subs be robots?
Sean Welsh Now that the Collins class is up for replacement, we have an opportunity to re-evaluate our requirements and see what technology might meet them.
Connectivity
New York wants everyone to have free, fast Wi-Fi
Brian Fung It could be an ideal model for innovative cities of the future - or a privacy nightmare.
Facebook 'likes' Australian banks
Ruth Liew Social media behemoth Facebook is looking to partner with Australian banks to explore opportunities in mobile banking.
Start-ups
This $913 internet-connected box makes a single glass of juice
David Gelles Is this the most complicated, expensive way to get a single glass of juice at home?
AI
What we learned from Microsoft AI Tay's meltdown
Spandas Lui Microsoft designed Tay to learn from her surroundings, but it didn't tell her that some people are not worth listening to.
Social media start-up Vamp plots Australian IPO
Perry Williams The social media tech start-up backed by Qantas and Fairfax Media director Todd Sampson has revealed plans to list on the Australian Stock Exchange by mid-May.
AI
Microsoft's Tay AI bot returns to Twitter, immediately goes off the rails again
Malfunctioning artificial intelligence returns to Twitter, claims to be "smoking kush" in front of police and then gets trapped in an infinite loop.
Innovation
Shippit deal ensures Australia Post delivers the goods
Adam Turner Australians will spend less time waiting for the postie and chasing missed deliveries thanks to a deal which lets online shoppers opt for Australia Post while still taking advantage of advanced parcel tracking features.
Devices are getting harder to operate. Get used to it
Hayley Tsukayama As smartphones are being packed with ever more software, their trademark simple user interfaces are being replaced with ever more complex choices that are plunging many owners into despair.
Comment
The 'iPod of smartwatches' is not coming
Darren Orf The lifecycle of a new gadget is relatively predictable: When it's brand new, only early adopters are interested. Once the technology matures, everybody buys one. But smartwatches still haven't caught on with most people — and that's because no one has made a smartwatch that's worth its cost.
AI
Microsoft apologises for AI's 'offensive and hurtful' tweets
Hannah Francis It took less than a day for Tay, the teenage chatbot, to learn how to be a racist, abusive internet troll.
Virtual Reality
Cancer surgery to be live streamed in virtual reality
Hannah Francis World first event could kick off a revolution in medical education.
AI
Microsoft's teenage chatbot, Tay, turns into a racist, abusive troll
Hannah Francis What happens when you create a sprightly, millennial robot designed to learn from the people it interacts with on the internet?
Lifehacker
A non-sensationalist look at Australian internet speeds
Spandas Lui Australia has fallen to 48th place in global average broadband connection speed rankings.
AI
Meet Tay, the creepy-realistic chatbot who talks like a teenager
Caitlin Dewey ​Tay.ai, the coolest chatbot since SmarterChild, is 'so fricken excited' to talk to you.
UK
Airlander 10, world's longest aircraft, ready for flight
The world's longest aircraft, an airship, will make its maiden flight in the northern hemisphere spring, British manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles says.
Tablets
Apple just made its original iPad Pro redundant
Hannah Francis Tech giants admits 9.7 inches is its most popular tablet size and unveils smaller iPad Pro in response to declining sales.
Apps
Taxi booking app ihail waved through by ACCC
Rae Johnston After twice knocking it back, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has finally authorised a collaboration between taxi networks and Cabcharge to launch and operate a new smartphone taxi booking app, called ihail.
Software
This creepy software lets you control Donald Trump's face
Hannah Francis Some politicians are referred to as puppets. Now you can put your words right into their mouths.
Car tech
Uber in the market for a fleet of self-driving cars, source says
Edward Taylor, Harro Ten Wolde Uber would make drastic savings on its biggest cost — drivers — if it were able to incorporate self-driving cars into its fleet.
Tan Le: Using her brain to make a difference
Andrew Purcell Former Young Australian of the Year Tan Le has made it her life's work to help understand the brain, and is working on technology that one day will be able to read your mind.
CBA piles into bespoke quantum computer
James Eyers The head of the research team working on commercialising quantum computers says CBA's support is having a big impact.
Streaming
How Foxtel killed Yournet, the ISP that promised inbuilt US Netflix
Hannah Francis Yournet was supposed to be the answer for Aussies fed up with getting a raw deal on streaming content.
Tech
Nike unveils shoes with self-tightening laces
Tim Biggs Nike will finally release a futuristic shoe with self-tightening laces, fulfilling a dream for athletes and Back to the Future II fans alike.
NBN
Conroy slams Turnbull's NBN hybrid-fibre rollout
Hannah Francis In heated exchange, NBN boss Bill Morrow admits HFC rollout may change, but insists overall network targets are on schedule.
Payments
Say cheese: Amazon files patent for pay by selfie
Elizabeth Weise The ubiquitous selfie could soon have a functional purpose in the online payments sector.
Social
Instagram to trial algorithm-based personalised feed
Mike Isaac Facebook-style feed would sort posts by most important rather than by most recent.
Mobiles
'iPhone SE' supposedly found in the wild
Two fresh leaks appear to give credence to rumours about Apple's next iPhones.
Cars
The most impressive thing about Google's self-driving car
Brian Fung I went for a ride in one of Google's autonomous cars. One thing impressed me more than anything else.
Android
Android N is the beginning of something great: a guide in GIFs
Darren Orf Although the software is still six months from going public, an early version of N indicates Android 7.0 could be the best Android yet.
Fast forward: Formula One techs appeal
Cynthia Karena The Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix kicks off in Melbourne today. Cynthia Karena reveals the extraordinary technology used by the race teams.
Behind Sydney Uni's 'Star Trek' doors
Marcus Strom The coming scientific revolution will make today's supercomputers seem sluggish.
AI
Donald Trump Twitter-bot is hilarious and terrifyingly real
Tim Biggs Donald Trump's unpredictability is what makes him so entertaining. But for a neural network, nailing down the science of a Trumpism isn't that hard.
Contractor ranks swell as public service departments spend big on IT
Henry Belot IT contractors: so hot right now.
Raymond Tomlinson, who put the @ sign in email, is dead at 74
William Grimes Internet pioneer saw email develop exactly the way he envisioned it back in 1971.
Payments
Square launches mobile credit card reader in Australia
Adam Turner Square's palm-sized reader lets Australian businesses accept credit cards using smartphones and tablets.
Energy
Digital Solar opens up solar power to Australian renters
Adam Turner A new scheme which divides solar power savings between landlords and tenants allows renters to access clean energy on the cheap.
Robotics
Robot dad: I built a smartphone bot to spend time with my kids
Hannah Francis Matt Walker made the best out of a bad situation - divorce - by building a telepresence robot to hang out with his kids from halfway across the globe.
Start-ups
Changing the world one support ticket at a time
Mahesh Sharma Start-up delivers round-the-clock, round-the-globe customer support for its clients, but this is no script-reading call center.
Start-ups
I'm a 17-year-old entrepreneur. Why can't I start a company?
Hannah Francis Despite lip service from the Turnbull government and its 'innovation agenda', an untapped cohort in the tech economy is being stifled by regulation.
MIND OVER MONEY
The fin-tech dilemma
Caitlin Fitzsimmons Using fin-tech services might break the terms and conditions of your online banking service, but that's not the end of the story.
Innovation
Unmanned shop opens with a swipe of your phone
Jan M Olsen Sweden's first unstaffed convenience store lets shoppers scan products with an app, and bills them at the end of the month.
IoT
Smart home foundations to be built by Aussie company
Adam Turner An Australian team is building the foundations of the smart home of the future, with an alliance of the world's most powerful technology companies picking local software developer Two Bulls for the job.
Robots
Google's new robot revealed, and it's unnervingly human
Tim Biggs Upgraded version of Atlas humanoid robot opens doors, lifts boxes, navigates snow and puts up with some bullying in new video.
MoneyMe taps $30m loan from family fund
Shaun Drummond Start-up short-term lender MoneyMe has secured $30 million in debt funding from a wealthy family in another sign the sector can survive without bank funding.
At last, empty cupboards join the sharing economy
Cynthia Karena  Want to stash your boxes somewhere, while viewing the works in the National Portrait Gallery? Just pick up your phone.
Uni turns dismal science into great game
Peter Wells  Economics students at the University of New South Wales now have to master a video game in order to get a degree.
Internet
Breakthrough enables downloads 50,000 times faster than 'superfast' broadband
Hannah Francis Download the entire Game of Thrones series in high-definition in less than a second? Yes please.
Energy
Tesla Powerwall could bring higher energy costs
Claire Connelly As Australia readies itself for the energy storage revolution, at least one expert says those dependent on the electricity grid could face rising costs.
Web
Wired debuts ad-free website to appease ad blockers
Joshua Brustein Web publishing pioneer, which' invented the banner ad', decides on a new paradigm to fight threat to ad revenue.
No smash hits for Band on the run
Peter Wells Microsoft's latest fitness tracker is hard to read and uncomfortable to wear. Pity, that.
Robots
Swarms of cockroach-inspired robots the future of search and rescue
People use a lot of words to describe the reviled cockroach: disgusting, ugly, sneaky and repulsive, to name a few. But it may be time to add a surprising new one: inspirational.
Human trials for Australian-made bionic spine to start next year
Bridie Smith Patients left paralysed by injury or illness could be back on their feet again, thanks to a breakthrough by Melbourne researchers who have designed a revolutionary bionic spine.
VR
Seven stories of injury and other VR hazards
HTC and Valve’s Vive VR headset lets you physically move around in virtual reality. You can walk, run, jump, flail your arms and all that good stuff. You can also be a shambling disaster zone.
The hottest trend in 3D printing: shoes on demand
Meredith Bauer Customised shoe insoles and orthotics are among the newest products to be created using 3D printing machines, and companies such as Nike and New Balance have partnered with technology companies to create 3D-printed performance athletic shoes, some of which could be released later this year.
Zika virus hits Brazilian government website
Raymond Colitt and Anna Edgerton Open the Brazilian government's main website and you'll see mosquitoes swarming across the top banner.
Tech
Twitter bot pesters man's ISP for him
Brian Fung Many of us have grappled with slow internet speeds at one time or another. Maybe you've even called your internet provider about it. But you probably haven't gone to the lengths that this beleaguered American user has.
Tech
SwiftKey makers to become millionaires
Nate Lanxon Microsoft has agreed to buy UK start-up SwiftKey, the application company best known for its free software that replaces the default keyboard on Apple and Android phones and tablets.
3D Printing
The 3D printer carving out a new curriculum
Claire Connelly With Australia's technical expertise slowly whittling away, the team behind this gadget wants to take schools back to the basics of manufacturing and design.
Tech
Messaging apps may be the next computing platform
James Titcomb Facebook is looking to convert WhatsApp and Messenger into profit-generating computing platforms, but will users buy it?
Artificial Intelligence
A computer program is writing new Friends episodes
Matt McFarland The 'robots are coming for our jobs' trope just hit the screenwriting industry.
Automation
The robots are coming: 5 million jobs lost to new tech by 2020
Jena McGregor Guess who's first on the chopping block.
Rise of the killer robots
Iain Gillespie Giving your soldiers superior technology has always been a significant factor in winning wars, but now it's the technology itself threatening to do the killing.
Virtual reality: the 'billion-dollar niche'
Hayley Tsukayama All kinds of consumer applications for virtual reality will start to appear because so many more people will be exposed to it, expert says.
Australian filmmaker takes Indigenous story to Sundance with VR
Andrew Taylor When Indigenous elder Nyarri Nyarri Morgan first caught sight of Lynette Wallworth's virtual reality camera, he quickly recognised its storytelling potential.
CES 2016
Ten cool gadgets coming in 2016
Hannah Francis It's that time of year again, when gadget makers from all over the world vie for the position as the coolest new thing in tech for the year.
An app a day: Slidebox sorts out your photo mountain
Now is the time to sort through that mountain of photos which need sorting.
Innovation
Shark repellents offer hope of jaws-free swimming
Hannah Francis Shark repellents range from liquid sprays made from dead sharks to a simple magnetic wrist band, but are they effective?
Innovation
Tesla autopilot the nearest thing to a self-driving car
Robert Duffer Using autopilot is all about trust, like letting your kid drive. You've got to be ready for the reality that you're partially letting go of control.
Sydney sleuth uncovers location of Kelly Slater's secret wave pool
Kieran Gair Frenzied surfing pundits are continuing to plumb the depths of the internet in a bid to reveal the secret location of Kelly Slater's artificial wave pool.
Google in talks with Ford to build self-driving cars: report
Sneha Teresa Johny Tech giant is said to be in talks with car maker in deal which could be announced within weeks.
Mobiles
Apple opens secret Taiwanese lab to develop new screens
Tim Culpan Tech giant appears to have taken over a facility formerly owned by Qualcomm.
Next-gen water condom 'like human skin'
Bridie Smith Researchers are using brain scanning technology to test the "pleasure" attributes of the next generation of condoms.
Biotech researchers near alternative to palm oil
Engineers and scientists are working to produce the first yeast-based alternative to palm oil on an industrial scale.
Industry reacts to Malcolm Turnbull's innovation statement
Hannah Francis First impressions in the tech and start-up industries are largely positive.
Innovation
The future of work: Facebook's open plan offices
Todd C. Frankel Deep inside Facebook's massive new headquarters, the largest open-office workspace in the world.
Looser bankruptcy laws to encourage entrepreneurs
James Eyers The innovation statement may suggest changes to bankruptcy laws to encourage more risk taking and new tax incentives to encourage more investors in start-ups, the Assistant Minister for Innovation said.
How to secure $50m of venture capital funding
Tess Ingram Find people that share your vision and sense of humour, build a strong relationship with them and know exactly what you want to achieve. Invoice2go founder Chris Strode's approach may sound simple but it has secured the Sydney-based mobile invoicing business $50 million of funding from US venture capital funds.
Tech trends 2016: what to crave and what to fear in the new year
Cynthia Karena Next year will be a big one for personal tech, but experts warn not all the coming trends will be beneficial.
Will devices destroy the world?
Drew Turney The electronics boom causes massive environmental and social damage. Drew Turney looks at the dark side of the device -- and how slime might yet save the day.
Data Republic builds secure platform to share big data
James Eyers A Sydney-based start-up, Data Republic, has built a technology platform that allows company and government data to be exchanged in a secure environment.
