Tech & Innovation

Compare Broadband, a broadband comparison website, recently conducted a poll where it asked its visitors if they were willing to pay extra for their broadband provider to include unmetered Australian TV shows. Two thirds said no.

Who says print is dead? Commonwealth Bank tapped the talents of Sydney computer graphics company Explore Engage and put out a newspaper ad that jumps off the page. All you need is a smartphone camera loaded with a reader app.

Australia needs more innovators and champions of innovation. As a nation, we rely heavily on natural resources and primary industries -- perhaps too heavily? This is your chance to get some recognition for your innovation or promote another Australian innovation.

We’re big fans of the new video project by 9x9 Web Thinkers. Not only does is look the business, it’s also got the smarts to back it up. If there is one fault we have with the concept, it is that the HTML5, while eye-popping and cool, is inherently unsharable. We would have liked to have shared a snippet with you here -- a teaser to whet your appetite -- but nay.

Professional creative community, The Loop, triumphed over industry heavyweights to win ‘Best Enterprise’ at the recent Australian Interactive Media Industry Awards (AIMIA). The 17th annual ceremony, attended by over 600 industry leaders, took place on Cockatoo Island in the Sydney Harbour.

Leon and Garry speak with Frank Farrall, director of online business at Deloitte Consulting. Farrall discusses the use of the iPad and smartphones by business executives, as well as the need to focus on customers by connecting with them through their mobile and tablet devices.

What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? The automobile? The assembly line? The leaf blower? Wrong on all counts, says visionary Hans Rosling, who makes a compelling and personal argument for... wait for it... the washing machine. In this peppy presentation for TED, Rosling concludes that freeing his mother from the drudgery of hand-washing gave her time for things that improved, exponentially, the quality of life for her and her family. It's the holy grail of innovation.

There may be a conspicuous 'Me' in the word Melbourne, but a new global movement has taken root in the city's business district to encourage teamwork in dynamic spaces. Collaborative consumption is the name of the movement. You may have heard of it: The Financial Times has deemed it a “social revolution gaining momentum.” Hub Melbourne is its latest achievement.

The young man in this video tickles our antennae here at Anthill Central. He has rigged up a transmitter to an iPhone4 that, in concert with a tiny repeater, will commandeer any video screen in the vicinity of the latter. But what really puts his hack over the top is the look of the gadgets. The bare circuit boards and paper-clip-like antennas are soooo MacGyver.

The first step to making big bucks from your IP is to obtain the appropriate protection. Once that’s done, it’s time to reap the rewards from your hard work and sheer brilliance. Should you licence your IP, start a franchise or assign it?

With the release of the iPad 2 earlier this month, all signs indicate the tablet is here to stay. Yet some disenchanted users (and their sore fingers) are ditching tablets for the no-nonsense notebook. Stephan Lange assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each and predicts which models will fare the best with consumers.

You know the feeling. Yes, the fear is real. Would they still take you seriously if they knew the real size of your organisation? You might be a solopreneur or a 15 person upstart. You could be a medium enterprise well-practiced in the skill of looking bigger than you really are. If this sounds familiar, don't fret. You are not alone!

A bunch of people attach 300 colourful weather balloons to an oversized dollhouse and, no surprise, it floats away. There's so much cross-promotion, glad-handing and pseudo-science going on in this video that we don't know where to begin.

No matter how much we understand and agree that great web design and development does not come cheap (nor should it), most start-ups and small businesses simply do not have thousands of dollars to spend on marketing -- no matter how much they might want to. Here are five tips that business owners can use to save money when building their business website.

‘Patents’ and ‘patent pending’ are much more than words bandied about on late-night infomercials. Like other tools in the intellectual property stable, patents are intended to protect an inventor’s product or method. As with copyright and trademark, patents can initially seem daunting. However, the following seven tips will set you on the path to understanding how patents apply to your business.

Why is it that some organisations have the ability to re-invent entire industries? Some even do it time and time again! Where does this source of continuous innovation and foresight come from? It is widely acknowledged that customer focus is a major driver for today’s innovations. But it is the transformational opportunities (those that transcend adjacent opportunities) that drive industry renewal.

If you have ever asked yourself, ‘Why didn’t I see that?', you were experiencing an example of ‘Weak Signal Theory’. We are constantly bombarded with ‘weak signals’. Some of them are genuinely weak, while others are weak because our brain has suppressed them. This automatic filtering of information is quite natural and designed to prevent sensory overload. But it also means that we often overlook opportunities.

Even as multitouch screens have become de rigueur for our phone and tablet experience, researchers are pushing hard on dependable, hands-free ways to make our toys work. Swedish company Tobii Technology teamed up recently with Lenovo to demonstrate Windows 7 laptops with eye-control sensors built in.

The Festival of Media Global, organised by C Squared, has issued a call for media innovators to participate in its Media Accelerator Program (MAP). Participating companies will compete for one of ten speaking slots and the title of Festival of Media Global ‘Hot Company of the Year’.

Nearly seven out of 10 Australians see access to the Internet as a basic human right, according to an online -- and not particularly scientific -- survey by Compare Broadband. But a basic human right? Really?