Technology set to boost NZ ranking

New Zealand's "exceptionally strong" performance in technology is set to propel it up the globalisation rankings, a new report from Ernst & Young says.

The international accountancy firm has released its 2012 globalisation survey, measuring the world's 60 largest economies according to their openness to trade, capital flows, exchange of technology and ideas, labour movements, and cultural integration.

New Zealand is ranked 21st, ahead of Australia at 24th and the United States at 25th. Hong Kong is ranked first, and the United Kingdom comes in at No 10. The lowest-ranked country is Iran.

New Zealand's position remains the same as the previous year despite achieving a slightly higher score this time around.

But New Zealand is already outperforming in the technology category, with its broadband penetration key to an improved ranking in the index, the report said. "We expect New Zealand to climb up into 12th position by 2016, helped by an exceptionally strong performance in technology, where it will top the ranking on broadband penetration."

The percentage of the population with access to broadband has improved from 25.7 per cent to 30 per cent, it said.

New Zealand Ernst & Young technology specialist Paul Mahan said he agreed with the report's findings "to a point".

While the Government was pushing the rollout of broadband across the country, links out of the country had not progressed. "We've got one link, basically."

This posed challenges in terms of potential failures and the competitive pricing of data, he said.

However, IDC research analyst Glen Saunders said this had been the case for some time, and the Southern Cross Cable had served New Zealand's needs so far. With New Zealanders using more and more data and much of it coming from abroad, it was getting to the point where a second connection would become cost-effective.

New Zealand's broadband penetration was up to about 64 per cent of households - a measure IDC preferred because average numbers of people in households varied from country to country.

"We can say our broadband penetration, for our country's size and real GDP, we're doing quite well."

The E&Y globalisation report also said investment opportunities in New Zealand should improve in coming years with the Government's plan to partly privatise some state-owned enterprises. Household debt would act as a drag on consumer spending, it said.

iPhone 6 Fingerprint Technology

Apple stock is currently in free fall (albeit from record-setting highs) amid speculation that the company is losing a little bit of its innovative edge. 

An iPhone 6 with fingerprint technology could change that.

According to AppleInsider, the rumored innovation for this year or early next could come in the form of a sensor beneath the iPhone's home button.

The iPhone 6 fingerprint sensor would be "an intuitive design that could be difficult for competing Android and Windows Phone devices to copy."

The (unconfirmed) fingerprint technology would come from one of Apple's recent acquisitions, AuthenTec. The report about the development continues:

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities says it would "allow iPhone users to replace usernames and passwords, allowing users to authenticate in a more efficient manner."

The fingerprint scanner "could integrate with applications such as Passbook to enhance their functionality" as well, giving Apple another key edge.

Kuo's track record has been pretty solid, as he predicted Apple's entire Fall product line last year, but for now this rumor is exactly that - a rumor.

A pretty cool one, but just a rumor just the same.

BMW and Toyota advance battery technology agreement

Automakers working on development of lithium-air batteries, a more powerful, energy-dense improvement on today’s lithium-ion batteries.

Today Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corporation president, and Dr. Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the board of management at BMW AG, signed a binding agreement that will push their advanced battery technology collaborative research agreement into its second phase. The first phase of the research collaboration began in March 2012.

 

The two automakers are working on the joint development of lithium-air batteries, which will replace today’s lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-air batteries will have an energy density that is greater than lithium-ion batteries and a more powerful battery means more driving range for an all-electric vehicle.  

 

With recent research showing that a 150-mile range is ideal for electric vehicle adoption rates, any advanced battery technology that expands today’s typical range could drastically enhance the electric vehicle market.

 

Today’s agreement also includes three more goals:

 

Fuel cell system – The two automakers will work on a jointly developed fuel-cell vehicle system that will be ready for market by 2020.

 

Sports car – BMW and Toyota are also working together to develop a mid-sized sports car concept by the end of 2013.  

 

Lightweight technology – The auto body of future BMW and Toyota vehicles may be made from reinforced composites and other lightweight technologies based on the research that comes out of this binding agreement.

 

“TMC and the BMW Group share the same strategic vision of future sustainable mobility. In light of the technological changes ahead, the entire automotive industry faces tremendous challenges, which we also regard as an opportunity,” said Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “This collaboration is an important building block in keeping both companies on a successful course in the future.”  Source: BMW

HP Technology Helps Up-and-coming Fashion Designers Make It Work on “Project Runway”

PALO ALTO, Calif. — HP technology will make a return appearance on the 11th season of Lifetime Television’s Emmy® Award-nominated hit “Project Runway,” celebrating five years of incorporating technology into the compelling fashion competition and recognizing its increasing impact on the creative arts.

“Project Runway” is at the forefront of the intersection of the fashion and technology industries. The capabilities of HP and Intel allow the show’s competitors to make technology matter in their work by integrating it into fashion’s creative process.

“Whether providing superior ability to sketch on the HP ENVY TouchSmart UltrabookTM or delivering crisp and unique prints, HP and Intel’s innovative technologies will help play an essential role in the show’s creative process,” said Chris Bohrer, director, Worldwide Consumer PC Marketing, HP.

“We are again delighted that HP will join us as a sponsor of ‘Project Runway,’” said Meryl Poster, president, Television, The Weinstein Company. “HP technology, combined with Intel’s, provides the designers with a rich canvas on which to develop and visualize their ideas, from silhouettes to textiles. I continue to be impressed and inspired by the garments they bring to life.”

Premiering tonight on Lifetime Television, season 11 of the hit series will showcase the HP TouchSmart, HP ENVY x2, HP ENVY TouchSmart Ultrabook, HP Elitebook and HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook, all of which will be integral to the contestants’ design process. Also this season, the HP ENVY All-in-one PC will be used to make textile pattern ideas.

About “Project Runway”

Hosted by supermodel and fashion maven Heidi Klum, the hit series “Project Runway” provides budding designers with an opportunity to launch their careers in fashion, under the watchful eye of mentor and Liz Claiborne Chief Creative Officer Tim Gunn. “Project Runway” was 2010’s No. 1 rated and most watched competitive reality program on ad-supported cable among Women 18-49, Women 25-54, Women 18+, Adults 18-49, Adults 18+ and Households. The show recently was awarded with a 2011 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program and also was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Television Award in the Reality-Competition Program category.

“Project Runway” is produced by The Weinstein Company, Bunim-Murray Productions and Full Picture. Executive producers include Bob and Harvey Weinstein (co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company), Meryl Poster of The Weinstein Company, Jon Murray and Sara Rea of Bunim-Murray Productions, Heidi Klum, and Jane Cha and Desiree Gruber of Full Picture Entertainment. Barbara Schneeweiss oversees the production on behalf of The Weinstein Company. Rob Sharenow, Gena McCarthy and David Hillman of Lifetime Television also executive produce.

About The Weinstein Company

The Weinstein Company (TWC) is a multimedia production and distribution company launched in October 2005 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films in 1979. TWC also encompasses Dimension Films, the genre label founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, which has released such popular franchises as Scream, Spy Kids and Scary Movie. Together TWC and Dimension Films have released a broad range of mainstream, genre and specialty films that have been commercial and critical successes. TWC releases took home eight 2012 Academy Awards®, the most wins in the studio’s history. The tally included Best Picture for Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist and Best Documentary Feature for TJ Martin and Dan Lindsay’s Undefeated. The Artist brought TWC its second consecutive Best Picture statuette following the 2011 win for Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech.

Since 2005, TWC and Dimension Films have released such films as Grindhouse; I’m Not There; The Great Debaters; Vicky Cristina Barcelona; The Reader; The Road; Halloween; The Pat Tillman Story; Piranha 3D; Inglourious Basterds; A Single Man; Blue Valentine; The Company Men; Miral; Submarine; Apollo 18; Our Idiot Brother; I Don’t Know How She Does It; The Untouchables, Killing Them Softly; The Master; Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained.

TWC is also active in television production, led by former Miramax Films President of Production and current President of Television Meryl Poster, with credits including the Emmy® nominated and Peabody Award winning reality series Project Runway, spin-off series Project Runway All Stars and Project Accessory, the VH1 reality series Mob Wives, spin-off series Big Ang and Mob Wives: Chicago, and the critically acclaimed HBO comedy/crime series The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency which also received a Peabody Award. The company is currently in pre-production on the martial-arts epic Marco Polo for Starz as well as production on the second season. TWC additionally has 17 series in different stages of development, including The Nanny Diaries, being adapted for ABC by Amy Sherman Palladino (Gilmore Girls).

About Lifetime

Lifetime is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families.  In 2012, as a result of its aggressive triple threat programming strategy doubling its amount of original programming spanning scripted dramas, reality series and movies, Lifetime posted its strongest year-on-year growth among the key demographics in 10+ years, while also reaching its youngest median age in 16 years.  Lifetime Television®, LMN®, Lifetime Real Women® and Lifetime Digital™ are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A+E Networks.  A+E Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group and Hearst Corporation.

Ultrabook is a trademark of Intel Corporation.

Audi Using Solar Power to Make Fuel

The automaker is using technology from SolarFuel to make renewable methane for natural-gas vehicles.

Audi is building a plant that will use solar and wind power to make methane from water and carbon dioxide. The plant, which will use technology developed by Stuttgart, Germany-based SolarFuel, is scheduled to start operation later this year. It will produce enough methane to power 1,500 of Audi’s new natural-gas vehicles, which also go on sale this year.

SolarFuel’s process uses excess renewable energy generated as a result of Germany’s push to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. There’s now so much renewable energy in Germany that supply sometimes exceeds demand—such as when the wind is blowing late at night. That power could be cheap enough to make methane from water and carbon dioxide, even though the process for doing so is inefficient.

SolarFuel says its approach may be a solution to one of the biggest challenges with renewable energy—its variability. Methane, which can be stored in existing natural-gas storage facilities, provides a convenient, long-term option for storing the energy.

To make the methane, SolarFuel combines two existing technologies. One is electrolysis, which splits water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. The other is methanation, which combines hydrogen with carbon from carbon dioxide to make methane. The company says its innovation lies in the way it’s combined the two processes.

SolarFuel’s chief customer officer, Stephan Rieke, says that the amount of excess renewable energy in Germany grew, in two years, from 150 gigawatt-hours per year to 1,000 gigawatt-hours per year. “That’s electricity that we could use for nothing,” he says. The amount is expected to continue to grow as Germany pursues ambitious goals to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 80 percent by 2050 using largely renewable energy (see “The Great German Energy Experiment”).

SolarFuel can’t compete directly with the wholesale price of natural gas. But it hopes to compete with biogas—methane produced from organic sources—a relatively large industry in Germany. It may also compete with retail natural-gas prices by building its plants close to consumers.

The uses of the technology outside of Germany—with its excess supply of cheap renewable energy—will be limited. The company is in talks with mining companies in Chile that currently get power from expensive diesel generation—its system could help such operations cut costs. The technology might also be attractive for rural communities without grid power (see “How Solar-Based Microgrids Could Bring Power to Millions”).

One major drawback of the process is its inefficiency. Its small-scale demonstration systems are only 40 percent efficient at converting electricity to methane. It hopes to improve that to 60 percent efficient in its commercial plants. Even then, when factoring in the losses from burning methane to generate electricity again, the overall process is at best 30 percent efficient. SolarFuel hopes to recoup much of that lost energy by using it for steam, but doing that is limited by the demand for steam and the infrastructure for distributing it.

Microsoft's New Secret Phone Project

Windows Phone 8 just came out in November, but it's not a huge shock to learn that Microsoft is already working on the next major version of its mobile OS. On Wednesday, a job recruiter for the company, Ashley Zenner, posted up a note on her Twitter account.

Want to work on very new technology on a new team within Windows Phone? Confidential project -ow.ly/gPVYg #UEFI #windowphone #jobs

— Ashley Zenner (@AshleyZenner) January 16, 2013

The Microsoft Careers link that was placed inside Zenner's Twitter post is for a Senior Software Engineer Post, but oddly the job description says nothing about working with the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface mentioned in her post. Here's what it does say: "The role will expose you to multiple subsystems across Windows Phone and requires an ability to ramp to new hardware and software technologies quickly."

So the big question is, "How does this new job involve UEFI?" It's possible that this position at Microsoft could be for improving security for the next version of Windows Phone, or perhaps a way to boost performance or maybe something that is totally new and unexpected. In any case, it's likely that we won't learn about this new mystery tech for months, or even years.

Source: Microsoft Careers via WPCentral.com

One-to-One Mobile Targeting With New technology

The mobile device is the single device that follows a person around at all times. It lies on the dresser next to them while they sleep; it’s in their pocket on the commute to work and is utilized for communication, education and entertainment throughout the day.

Targeting capabilities in the mobile space are still limited but a recent development by a company called 4Info and their AdHaven platform has opened up tremendous possibilities for advertisers.

What Can It Do?

The Adhaven platform from 4Info allows you to target individuals on their mobile device by just knowing their physical address. This essentially allows one-to-one marketing capabilities through a mobile device.

One-to-one marketing allows you to target down to the individual. If you happen to have target lists for email or direct mail, one-to-one marketing allows you to deliver messaging to the individual.

When asked how this unique targeting option works, Tim Jenkins, CEO of 4info, explained:

"In mobile it is tremendously difficult to know what audience you’re reaching. The AdHaven platform uses household address (or more specifically, the household segmentation information associated with the household associated with the device), as a sort of “cookie” for mobile devices. This allows 4INFO to deliver extremely precise, durable, yet anonymous targeting. For the advertiser, it means reaching the buyers you want to reach, with less waste, and therefore much greater ROI."

How Can This Be Used?

This type of targeting presents great opportunities to advertisers. There are millions of records available through list management companies and many companies have a robust CRM database. All of these individuals are potential targets for the 4Info program.

If you don't have you own data, 4Info works with a wide array of data partners such as Acxiom, Nielsen, and datalogix. They can help you find your target market and deliver messaging to the right individuals.

Examples of Potential Programs

• Upselling to Current Customers: By targeting your current set of customers, you can deliver targeted mobile ads about add-ons to their current program. Companies such as Comcast and Verizon Fios can advertise premium channels or pay-per-view fights.
• Life Events: Many products and services are purchased due to major life events. The birth of a child, turning 65, and other life events such as marriage all come with the need to purchase certain products or services. Lists are available for many different life events and programs can be developed to finely target individuals who are going through these events.
• Retargeting: When users fall off during the purchase cycle we often hope they will click on a desktop-based display ad. Why not broaden the devices you retarget on and utilize mobile as an additional channel? With additional options like click to call on mobile devices, getting someone back into the purchase cycle is easier than ever.
• Segmentation/Personas: When combing through your customer database or a recent purchased list there is an opportunity to segment users or even develop personas based on demographic data. Individual campaigns can be set up to target these segments with specific messaging and landing pages.

How it Works

The proprietary technology analyzes millions of ad requests that contain a location. Algorithms identify a device matched a physical location.

The device is then assigned to a unique identifier. As time passes and the device registers at the physical location multiple times, it becomes assigned to the address.

Multiple phones can be tied to a single address, so you happen to be targeting an office, you can pitch your products and services to everyone in the company. If you happen to be targeting a household, you can make sure Mom, Dad and the children receive your message.

Why This Option Beats Out the Rest

No other mobile ad network has the ability to target at this level currently. Many networks offer the option to target down to the ZIP+4 level, but that can be as large as a city block and many impressions will be wasted.

Carriers like AT&T are working on advertising options to target mobile devices by phone number but the technology is still months away and there are privacy issues that linger over this tactic.