Let’s set the scene: you’ve put in the hard yards at work and are looking forward to crashing on the couch watching your favourite show.

No worries! Before you left the office, you kicked the heating into gear so the lounge room is toasty for your arrival. As you walk in the door the lights come on, and you grab your iPad and with the touch of a button, your TV show is on the screen, ready to go. In a matter of minutes, you’re rugged up on the couch with a cup of tea and in comfort heaven. You think you’re dreaming right? Well it can all become a reality with the right technology!

Last month, we took a look at being energy smart around the home, but this time we thought we’d show you the basics behind how you can build your very own smart home.

Home automation means that you can control just about anything (yes, anything) from anywhere by using your smartphone or tablet as a long-distance remote control. From your lighting, home entertainment, security systems, home heating and cooling, you can be in control whether you’re at home, at work, or even overseas!

(more…)

Since the launch of the very first iPhone in 2007, mobile phone technology seems to be making leaps and bounds with each new generation. From the introduction of the gyroscope in the iPhone 4 to the innovation utilising Near Field Communication technology for mobile payments, smartphones are becoming more and more intelligent.

With these surges in technology, it didn’t take long for augmented reality to appear – and it appeared in a big, big way with the release of Pokémon Go last year. Almost as soon as it was launched, it seemed everyone with a smartphone was instantly obsessed with catching these virtual creatures, even so far as taking over local sites in the real world.

(more…)

Imagine you’re trying to learn about cats using a computer. You do a keyword search, only… nothing comes up. Perhaps you’re not using the right keywords? Are you sure the information is even on this computer? Finally, someone gives you a floppy disk, but it turns out your computer can’t read it, so you go to a different computer. Now you have a new problem: you have no idea how to use the software. You give up on all this computer stuff and ask someone to teach you about cats over a cup of coffee.

Welcome to sharing information in 1989. Thankfully it’s not that hard these days, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee and the invention of the World Wide Web, an application that is crucial to viewing content shared over the internet.

Let’s take a look at just how much the WWW changed the internet that we use today. (more…)