AI leaders emphasise the urgent need for ethics, governance and sustainability as the technology increasingly transforms industries and raises complex risks. Read...

The Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki - known as WITT - is one of four polytechs that have been given a year to shape-up financially, or face a shake-up. Read...

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan has set a groundbreaking record: a data transmission rate of 1.02 petabits per second (around 127,500 GB/s) over 1,802 kilometers (about 1,120 miles), reports CNET. That’s around 350,000 times faster than the average US fixed broadband internet connection, which was around 289 Mbps according to Speedtest as of May 2025. At this new record-breaking speed, you could download the entire Netflix library in under a second. Fiber optics with 19 cores The key to the record is a new optical fiber with 19 cores, which are installed in a cable with a diameter of just 0.125 millimeters (the standard size for existing networks). Compared to conventional cables with one core, this fiber transmits 19 times more data with minimal data loss due to uniform light conduction. For transmission over the 1,120-mile distance—comparable to New York to Chicago—the signal was amplified 21 times. The new record more than doubles the previous year’s figure of 50,250 GB/s. In 2023, the NICT team achieved similar speeds but only over a third of the distance. Advances in signal amplification and reduction of data loss are what made this new range possible. Compatible with existing fiber optic cables The technology could meet the growing demand for data worldwide, as data volumes have been increasing by about 50 percent annually according to Nielsen’s Law. In general, the new technology is exciting and also interesting for countries where fiber optic expansion is stagnating, primarily because these new cables fit into existing infrastructures. The record has not yet been independently verified, but it shows how fiber optics could further shape the future of the internet. Read...

In another testament to how risky lifetime VPN subscriptions are, BulletVPN has announced that it is shutting down. The service unexpectedly ceased operations last week, canceling lifetime subscriptions for all users who had previously purchased the plans. The service was based in Estonia and had been in operation since 2015. Up until last month, it had been offering lifetime VPN subscriptions to users for only $39. However, in a message on its homepage titled, “BulletVPN End of Life,” the company announced that the VPN service would no longer be available. This adds to a growing number of controversies surrounding lifetime subscriptions in the ever-changing VPN market. Just in May of this year, VPNSecure suddenly cut all lifetime subscriptions after being sold to new owners. To stand out in a crowded market, many smaller VPN providers, such as BulletVPN, offer lifetime subscriptions with cheap prices in order to attract new customers. Unfortunately, these deals can often turn sour if the VPN service goes out of business—which is often the case for smaller VPN providers in the cut-throat industry. In a statement on its website the company wrote, “This decision was made after careful consideration of various factors, including shifts in market demand, evolving technology requirements, and sustainability of operations.” Windscribe Pro Read our review Needless to say, affected users aren’t happy. Thankfully, rival VPN Windscribe has stepped in to help. Users who previously had lifetime subscriptions to BulletVPN, are now eligible for a complimentary 6-month subscription to Windscribe, along with a discounted long-term plan. As stated in the End of Life notice, BulletVPN users who qualify can contact support@bulletvpn.com to claim the offer. Read...

Te Tukohu Ngawha - a science fair based in Rotorua - is hoping to attract more young women into the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Read...

Wavelink partners with Penguin Solutions to supply fault-tolerant edge computing and boost operational technology resilience in Australia and New Zealand. Read...

At some point, you’ve felt the twinge of anxiety as your laptop’s battery slowly winds down, out of range of a power outlet. Microsoft is testing a new technology to give you a bit more juice — both when you need it and when you think you don’t. Last week, Microsoft debuted a new “self-healing” PC technology as part of its Windows 11 Release Preview Channel. That technology also is available to test within the far more experimental Canary Channel, which includes another new piece of tech: an adaptive energy saver, noticed by The Verge. Think of the adaptive energy saver this way: Normally, when your laptop is almost out of power, you’ll notice the screen dim. That’s the emergency warning, so to speak, to find a power outlet pronto. But there are other power-saving methods that Windows is also implementing, such as halting synchronized files, and so on. The adaptive energy saver can turn on these features whenever Windows thinks that your laptop is sitting idle, or working in a mode that doesn’t require a lot of CPU power. AndroidInfoTech found a small summary of what’s going on, including turning off transparency effects, pausing non-critical updates, and limiting some background applications. What it doesn’t do is dim your screen, so you’ll be able to work longer without the need to squint. Adaptive energy saver is still far away from debuting in your PC. But even then, you might not be aware of it: It’s opt-in by default, which means that you’ll have to be aware of it and manually toggle it on. One of the features that adaptive energy saver turns off is background syncing to OneDrive, so Microsoft probably believes that saving data in the cloud takes priority over saving a few minutes of laptop power. Somewhat ironically, today’s latest laptop CPUs from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors to Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 chips (Lunar Lake) all provide power for the better part of a day, so this technology might not be as critical as it once was. But who’s going to turn down extra battery life? Read...

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 series has been shining with cutting-edge technology since January 2025, but Nvidia is now following suit for the RTX 40 series with some upgrades. The GeForce 590.26 preview driver, which is available on Nvidia’s developer website, allows owners of Ada Lovelace graphics cards (such as the RTX 4080 and RTX 4060) to utilize Smooth Motion frame generation technology. This feature, previously reserved for RTX 50 cards, promises almost twice the frame rate in many games, reports VideoCardz. Doubled frame rates for older games Smooth Motion is Nvidia’s answer to AMD’s Fluid Motion Frames. The technology AI-generates intermediate images at the driver level, which are then inserted between two rendered frames. This makes games appear smoother without requiring developers to specifically incorporate the feature in their games. Smooth Motion is especially attractive for older games with frame rate limits and/or without DLSS support. Users on the Guru3D forums report double the frame rate in World of Warcraft, from 82 to 164 FPS. Similar leaps were achieved in Company of Heroes 3, as demonstrated by VideoCardz. In competitive and CPU-limited games, Smooth Motion unlocks noticeably smoother gameplay, even if the quality doesn’t quite match DLSS 3 Frame Generation. Only for developer accounts so far There are some restrictions on this new feature: the driver is only a preview, and it requires the Nvidia Profile Inspector from GitHub and a developer account with Nvidia to activate Smooth Motion. Without developer access, users will have to wait for the final version, which is expected to make the feature easier to access. Nevertheless, the free performance boost is a strong argument for RTX 40 owners who want more FPS without new hardware. Smooth Motion technology shows how Nvidia is extending the life of the RTX 40 series. For gamers who want to get maximum performance out of their graphics card, the preview driver is an exciting foretaste—and the final version shouldn’t be too long in coming. Read...

10 polytechnics to replace the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology on 1 January 2026. Read...

10 polytechnics to replace the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology on 1 January 2026. Read...