HackerOne launches PartnerOne alliance, enabling tighter AI-powered security integration with technology partners to enhance vulnerability response workflows. Read...

Auckland, NZ – [18 June 2025] – Scott Technology (NZX: SCT) has secured NZ$27 million in new automation contracts across Europe and North America, strengthening its position as a trusted automation partner to leading food and beverage producer Read...

Genetec has partnered with Sektor to distribute its physical security solutions across New Zealand, including opening a new technology centre in Auckland. Read...

A splash of color? Think bigger. With its latest light, Signify-owned Philips Hue is looking to wash your walls with a multicolored glow. Also: The promised Hue AI chatbot is making its debut in a handful of countries.  Available now, the $220 Philips Hue Play wall washer is a squat cylindrical module with a “transparent projection window” in back that reveals a trio of rectangular lighting elements.  Positioned near a wall, the Play wall washer–leaked earlier this month–does just that, washing any nearby surface with up to 1,035 lumens of multicolored light.   Philips Hue Measuring 6.2 x 3.6 inches (HxD) and arriving with an aluminum finish, the Play wall washer boasts Hue’s ColorCast technology, a lighting feature we originally saw in the brand’s Twilight bedside lamp. With ColorCast, the Play wall washer can deliver “an even wider spread of rich, deeply saturated gradients of color,” Hue says.  As with Hue’s other Play-style lights, the Play wall washer’s lighting effects can be customized in the Hue app, which allows for precise arrangement with other Hue Play products within a drag-and-drop 3D interface.  Used in conjunction with the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box or the Hue sync app, the Hue Play wall washer can sync up with the images on a TV, or it can pulse in time to your Spotify tunes with assistance from the Hue app; it can also be grouped with more traditional Hue light bulbs and lamps.  Available in black and white finishes, the Philips Hue Play wall washer is on sale now at Amazon and the Philips Hue online store, although it’s listed as “temporarily out of stock” on the former.  Meanwhile, Philips Hue is starting to roll out the AI chatbot that it first announced at CES back in January.  Now live in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, the Hue AI assistant is designed to deliver “personalized lighting scenes based on mood, occasion, or style.”  For example, you’ll be able to submit prompts like, “Give me a scene for a garden party,” and the chatbot might say, “Give me a sec… Here are some scene suggestions for you.”   This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lights. Besides merely suggesting existing lighting scenes, the Hue AI chatbot will also be able to generate new scenes, a Hue rep previously told me.  The Hue AI assistant is slated to arrive in the United Kingdom next month, with a global rollout set for August. Read...

The technology store took to social media to make light of the complaint. Read...

Will your laptop recognize you in the dark? Maybe. Maybe not. An April patch update for Windows now “requires color cameras” to see a visible face when signing in, according to Microsoft via Windows Central. Technically, that means that Windows Hello is now using your webcam as well as the infrared depth camera to log you in. Windows Central notes that the change has been made to solve a spoofing vulnerability. The question is, will it really matter? My quick tests say that from a practical sense: no, it won’t. I took three laptops — a Surface Laptop 7th Edition, an Asus ZenBook S 14, and an MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo — and made sure that my Windows Hello facial logins were up to date. All three laptops had had the April update cited by Microsoft, KB5055523, which made the change. I then took the laptops into the stairs leading into my “basement” office, where I work at home. (That office has two windows; the stairwell is lit by an open door at the top, if it’s open.) While in the dark, I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I then opened up all three laptops and attempted to log in using just my face. All worked successfully. I even turned on Windows’ anti-spoofing technology — a technology that promises to make it even harder for someone to impersonate you. I’m not familiar with what, if anything this changes in the process. Again, however, I logged in using Windows Hello’s facial login without issue. In both cases, I found that my laptop’s screen was enough to illuminate my face without any problems, and provided enough light that the camera was able to recognize me. I used my laptop’s webcam to snap a spooky photo of me to illustrate how dark this area was. Mark Hachman / Foundry Weirdly, both my colleague Michael Crider as well as Windows Central reported that their laptop cameras couldn’t see them well enough to recognize them. In any event, the problem basically resolves itself by simply turning on a light. Microsoft has always asked me for a numeric PIN as a backup, which you can use as well. My laptops recognized me when these two settings were enabled. You might argue that this change enhances the security of your PC, as it now requires the webcam to “see” you using visible light instead of just recognizing you via your infrared signature. Practically, though, very little has changed. The tech world often throws a fit when certain trivial changes are made. Here, I don’t think you need to worry. Further reading: Best Windows Hello webcams 2025: Add biometric login to your PC Read...

With a brain that’s swimming in a cocktail of neurodivergence, one of my most persistent enemies has always been procrastination. I was once told that my attention span is, on a scale of 1 to 10, either 15 or random. But as hard as it is to overcome—a condition that feels more nature than nurture—it’s something I’m learning to manage. Weeks ago, I decided I couldn’t get arbitrary brain chemistry get in the way of productivity, and so I took matters into my own hands. I needed to stop being so distracted and to change some habits, but I wasn’t going to do it alone. I was going to use technology to help me. Now, a couple of weeks on from implementing these tweaks, I feel like it’s been moderately successful. Here’s what I did. Stop procrastination dead in its tracks The first and most impactful change I knew I could make was to cut out a bunch of social media usage. I’m no voracious user, but I’m a sucker for scrolling through subreddits and diving into deep discussions on the minutiae of my various hobbies and interests. As much as I’ve learned doing that over the years, I’ve also developed unhealthy habits of following politics far too closely—and the news cycle is nothing but a doomscroll hole waiting to happen in 2025. So, I took drastic measures. I installed the BlockSite extension on every web browser (except one, in case I need to check Reddit or Twitter for work) and completely blocked the most distracting sites. I did the same on my phone too, as it’s that little black mirror that’s probably to blame for most of my procrastination. I also installed NoScroll on my phone to block shorts and reels. That stuff is crack to an ADHD brain. I use the BlockSite extension to block distracting sites. The block screen is mildly mocking, but I don’t mind it. I probably deserve it.Jon Martindale / Foundry If you’d rather take a less puritanical approach to managing the sites and services that tempt you to procrastinate, extensions like StayFocusd can make it easier to limit your time rather than block entire sites permanently. If you’re like me, though, excising the whole habit cold turkey is an easier change to make than having a lesser drip feed of it. Whatever the case, cutting out distractions leaves me with little to do but focus on the task at hand—and it works to encourage greater focus. The carrot alongside the stick The first time I sat on the toilet after blocking everything, I had a bizarre moment where I was staring at my phone with my mind telling me there’s something interesting there to do. But I’d blocked everything I usually do. What was I even looking at this thing for? That was a prime opportunity to not just hinder my bad habits but to reward the good ones. How am I going to improve my attention span? By doing things that require greater attention. Mozilla So I stocked my bathroom with a cheap e-reader with a few novels I’ve been neglecting. I also installed Pocket on my phone. While Firefox recently announced that it’s discontinuing Pocket, there are similar alternatives and the premise is all the same: save articles and web content to read or watch later when you have time. Now when I have time to kill, it’s with something more mentally nourishing than Reddit or TikTok. At the very least, I come out of it with less brain rot; at best, I’m developing better attention. Boring and silent are friends of focus Modern electronics and software are designed to grab and hold our attention with colors, lights, quick hits of compelling content, snazzy animations, etc. For me, it wasn’t enough to avoid social media and other distracting sites. A part of me was still drawn to the pretty icons and animations on my phone—so I decided to make it boring, too. Enter Minimalist Phone, a paid app (with a free trial) that turns your phone into a boring brick of black, overhauling the entire OS to look as dull and uninteresting as possible. That means no more icons, only text for everything, and it’s all black and white, yet you can still manage apps and services with ease thanks to its intuitive navigation. Check out my minimalist phone. It isn’t pretty, but that’s the point.Jon Martindale / Foundry But Minimalist Phone goes further than that. It also has an app blocker that lets you restrict certain apps to a schedule, or set mindfulness pauses before running certain apps, or even create an entirely separate work profile with different behavior when you’re “in focus mode.” It can also filter unimportant notifications so you aren’t distracted by alerts. I personally made a point of disabling all unnecessary notifications on Teams, Slack, and other work communication tools. For the ones I kept, I made the notifications monochrome and silent. That means I only know if someone sent me a message when I choose to check in—not when the app wants me to know—and that makes it easier for me to stay on task. Speaking of staying on task, I also have ChatGPT send me occasional reminders using its scheduled tasks feature. It’s just little things like a notice in the morning to start my day or a prompt to make sure I get done a certain task by a deadline. Could I use a traditional reminder app? Sure, but ChatGPT’s organic variations make me less likely to skip them. Plus, I’m already paying $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus. Might as well use it! A better way to procrastinate Breaking old habits isn’t easy. Even with blocks in place, I still feel the urge to procrastinate—and even when I’m reminded not to, I still want to find workarounds. For me, it isn’t plausible to never procrastinate. That’s why I allow myself to procrastinate in better ways. Maybe when I complete a task, I fire up my Chess.com account for a quick game. In between writing projects, I might give myself a few minutes with my preferred idle game: Ropuka’s Idle Island. Yes, it’s still a game, but at least it’s designed for drip entertainment. It doesn’t hook me for hours and hours, and the chill lo-fi soundtrack keeps it mellow. Jon Martindale / Foundry On dog walks, I’m making myself listen to audiobooks rather than shorter-form brain-rot content. And don’t underestimate the power of analog activities! I took up a new hobby in knitting. I won’t pretend it doesn’t feel like a whim for now, but I’m giving it a go as a way to detox from tech and procrastinate in a more productive way. Every second away from my phone helps to train away my urges to procrastinate. Jon Martindale / Foundry Overcoming procrastination is a long-term project, one that will probably remain a struggle for the rest of my life. But I already feel some of the positive benefits of these mitigating techniques. I’m less hooked on scrolling and more content overall. I’m a little more focused and a little more effective. We’ll see how long it lasts. Read...

Outdoor cameras play a critical role in your home security system, but continuous recording eats up storage and network bandwidth. Adding motion detection sounds sensible–until you later need to call up a recording and discover it’s missed crucial frames. Imagine being able to go back in time and start the recording sooner. Reolink’s Altas security camera solves exactly this problem with its 10-second pre-recording feature. There’s more to get excited about here, too: this new security camera from Reolink is innovative and reliable, offers home owners peace of mind, and it comes at a great price point. Shop Reolink`s 16th Anniversary Sale Never miss the action At its core, the Reolink Altas is a 4MP Wi-Fi battery camera designed for seamless home security. A motion sensor triggers video recording, while a 10-second pre-recording feature means all critical moments before motion is detected. How did that suspected burglar arrive at your property? Did your delivery person drop the parcel before reaching your porch? Well, now you’ll know. The Altas camera can easily distinguish between people, cars, and animals, and sends notifications accordingly. Crystal clear recordings–even in the dark Reolink’s Altas security camera captures video in 2560×1440 resolution, which means you’ll get to see all the detail you need, right down to being able to read license plates. During the night, the Altas camera uses ColorX Night Vision technology and six physical spotlights to ensure crystal-clear color video is captured. Two-way communication Another great feature you’ll enjoy with the new Reolink Altas camera is the fact it comes with a built-in mic and speaker, which lets you chat with whoever is outside your home at any time. You can use it as you might a video doorbell, or simply chastise your pups for digging up the garden. #id684fe0a3a1843 .jw-wrapper::before { content: `Reolink Atlas` !important; } Set-and-forget security solution With support for Wi-Fi 6 over 2.4- and 5GHz networks, and options for portable power and storage, the Reolink Altas is quick and easy to set up, and it will just carry on doing its thing for up to 18 months. You need to worry about it only when you need to check a recording. That runtime is based on the assumption the Altas will record around 5 minutes a day, and is powered by its high-capacity 20,000mAh battery. You can alternatively add a 6-watt solar panel (available separately), then never worry about recharging the camera again. As long as you get an hour’s direct sunlight every day, the Altas will draw enough power from the panel. This is an outdoor security camera, so it’s good to know it’s protected from the elements. The Reolink Altas has an IP66 rating, which means it will adjust to all weather conditions, be that rain or snow, or extreme temperatures ranging from -4°F to 131°F. You can use a microSD card up to 512GB in capacity for storage, or buy the Reolink Home Hub to unlock support for up to two 512GB microSD cards. Additional options include the Reolink Home Hub Pro, and Reolink WiFi NVR. Buy now and save The Reolink Altas retails for $149.99 at Amazon, but during the company’s 16th Anniversary sale you can enjoy an extra discount at Reolink.com when you use the code ALTASB5M. Act fast: this offer ends June 22. In celebration of its 16th anniversary, Reolink is offering up to 47% off a selection of its most popular smart cameras throughout June. Among the top deals: Altas PT Ultra – A 4K battery-powered camera with pan & tilt functionality and the same smart pre-recording tech as Altas, now available at a significant discount. Go PT Ultra – A 4G-enabled 8MP camera designed for remote monitoring, ideal for properties without Wi-Fi, also on sale. Save on Altas in Reolink`s 16th Anniversary Sale Use code ALTASB5M Read...

Large retailers such as Briscoes, Bunnings and Mitre 10 support the use of facial recognition technology to combat repeat offenders but concerns continue over potential privacy breaches. Read...

One NZ launches nationwide Satellite Internet of Things (IoT) service, powered by Starlink Direct to Cell technology. Read...