Briefly: Xeperia Z1; Christchurch dev jobs; 20TB hard drives

Friday, 4 October 2013, 8:04 am
Article: Digitl

• Telecom NZ is now selling the Sony Xperia Z1 smartphone. It's a waterproof device with a 21 megapixel camera that puts it contention with Nokia's Lumia 1020, also sold by Telecom. Telecom's retail price for the phone is $1000, you can get it for nothing up-front with a $139 plan over 24 months.


• Christchurch is likely to see more development jobs after a capital raising at  US-based Telogis. The company was co-founded by Ralph Mason who lives in the city and employs around 150 at the Christchurch development centre. It build cloud tools helping companies optimise mobile assets. The company says the money will be used to expand its teams.


• Chorus will pay a 15.5 cents per share final dividend for 2013 on October 11. The final dividend price at which shares will be allotted under Chorus' dividend reinvestment plan is $2.66.


• 20TB hard drives could be possible by the end of the decade if Seagate's latest technology gets traction. The company is demonstrating heat-assisted magnetic recording  at the Ceatec 2013 show in Tokyo this week. Existing hard drive technology can't get past roughly one terabit per square inch. The new technique could manage as much as 5 TB per square inch.


• Meaningless numbers or a wake up call? IDC Research says 212 billion things will be connected to the internet by 2020. More to the point, the industries swirling around the so-called internet of things will be a US$8.9 trillion market growing at 7.9 percent annually. One has to wonder how IDC arrived at these numbers - they seem remarkably precise. On the other hand, the message is clear, this is going to be big. 
  

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Bill Bennett

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Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.

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