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Apple's iPhone 14 Emergency SOS feature arrives in New Zealand and Australia
Apple's iPhone 14 Emergency SOS satellite feature is coming to New Zealand and Australia — two countries with large wilderness areas lacking any cellular service.
New Zealand is the latest country to ban TikTok from government devices
New Zealand is banning TikTok from devices that have access to its parliamentary network.
Twitter finally starts rolling out the edit button, but US users will have to wait
Twitter Blue subscribers in Canada, Australia and New Zealand will get the feature first.
Android earthquake alerts are now live in Greece and New Zealand
Google is rolling out its Android earthquake detection feature in New Zealand and Greece after launching the system in parts of the US.
Wisk will start testing its 'air taxi' implementation later this year
This electric VTOL-capable drone is taking another step toward tests with passengers in New Zealand.
Google expands Play Pass to nine countries beyond the US
It's also introducing a $30 annual subscription.
Watch a Boston Dynamics robot herd sheep in New Zealand
New Zealand-based robotics company Rocos shared a video of Boston Dynamics' Spot herding sheep across grassy pastures.
Rocket Lab proves it can recover a rocket in mid-air
Last year, Rocket Lab announced that it would attempt to reuse the first stage of its Electron rocket. Rocket Lab pulled off this stunt in early March. One helicopter dropped the Electron test stage over open ocean in New Zealand.
Facebook, Google and others adopt guidelines intended to fight child abuse
Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security -- along with government counterparts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom -- published guidelines to help the tech industry fight online child exploitation. The principles were developed "in consultation" with Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Roblox, Snap and Twitter, after all six companies agreed to tackling the online child sexual abuse epidemic.
Autonomous flying taxi Cora set for passenger trials in New Zealand
Companies have been saying for years that flying taxis are on the agenda. Now it looks like they're finally set to take flight. Wisk -- a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk -- has signed a memorandum of understanding with the New Zealand government to begin passenger trials of its electric, autonomous aircraft Cora. The trials are set to take place in the Canterbury region of the country, although it's not clear exactly when they'll start.
Google Duplex begins international rollout with a New Zealand pilot
Google Duplex, the futuristic service that uses AI to place phone calls and make reservations, can already book movie tickets and will soon be able to rent a car. The service has rolled out across the US, and now international rollout is beginning with a test in New Zealand.
Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will shoot in New Zealand
Amazon Studios' Lord of the Ring series will be filmed in the lush green forests of none other than New Zealand. The streaming platform announced today that production on the series will begin in Auckland in the coming months. Few details have been revealed about the high-budget project, other than the events it depicts will likely take place during the Second Age, long before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings novels. "As we searched for the location in which we could bring to life the primordial beauty of the Second Age of Middle-earth, we knew we needed to find somewhere majestic, with pristine coasts, forests, and mountains, that also is a home to world-class sets, studios, and highly skilled and experienced craftspeople and other staff. And we're happy that we are now able to officially confirm New Zealand as our home for our series based on stories from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings," said showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay in a statement.
Google suspends trend alerts in New Zealand after naming murder suspect
Google has suspended Trends alerts in New Zealand following criticism from the government that it published the name of a murder suspect, in violation of a court order.
Facebook, Google and others join Christchurch Call to curb extremism
In the two months since the Christchurch attack in New Zealand, social media companies have struggled to remove videos of the violence from their platforms. And they've grappled with the role they may unintentionally play in the spread of terrorism. Today, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Google, YouTube and Amazon signed their support to the Christchurch Call, which aims to address terrorist and violent content online. The companies join several countries -- though the US has not pledged support -- and are committed to a nine-point plan that outlines next steps.
Facebook's AI missed Christchurch shooting videos filmed in first-person
In the 24 hours after the Christchurch shooting, Facebook removed 1.5 million videos worldwide, but more than a month later, footage was still circulating on the platform. Now, the company says its AI had a hard time detecting the footage because of the way in which it was filmed.
Christchurch shooting videos are still on Facebook over a month later
Current methods for filtering out terrorist content are still quite limited, and a recent discovery makes that all too clear. Motherboard and the Global Intellectual Property Enforcement Center's Eric Feinberg have discovered that variants of the Christchurch mass shooter's video were available on Facebook 36 days after the incident despite Facebook's efforts to wipe them from the social network. Some of them were trimmed to roughly a minute, but they were all open to the public -- you just had to click a "violent or graphic content" confirmation to see them. Others appeared to dodge filtering attempts by using screen captures instead of the raw video.
Facebook vows to improve AI detection of terrorist videos
Facebook rushed to pull down footage of the New Zealand mass shooter's video from its platform, but it didn't start doing so until after the live broadcast was done. In a new post, Facebook VP of Integrity Guy Rosen discussed the company's successes and shortcomings in addressing the situation, as well as its plans to prevent videos like that from spreading on the social network in the future.
House chair asks tech CEOs to speak about New Zealand shooting response (updated)
Internet companies say they've been scrambling to remove video of the mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, but US politicians are concerned they haven't been doing enough. The Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Bennie Thompson, has sent letters to the CEOs of Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube asking them to brief the committee on their responses to the video on March 27th. Thompson was concerned the footage was still "widely available" on the internet giants' platforms, and that they "must do better."
YouTube bans secondary Alex Jones channel hosting NZ conspiracy videos
YouTube has terminated a channel Alex Jones was reportedly using to skirt his ban from the platform. On a video posted on Resistance News, which was a secondary Infowars channel according to Media Matters, Jones described last week's New Zealand mosque shootings as a "false flag" operation and attacked Muslims.
Facebook says only 4,000 users viewed original NZ shooter livestream
Facebook says a total of 4,000 people viewed the New Zealand mosque shooter's livestream before it was taken down. Less than 200 people were watching during the assailant's live broadcast, according to the social network, none of who reported it. Facebook says the first user report came in 29 minutes after the 17-minute live video started, which was 12 minutes after the livestream ended. The stats form part of Facebook's latest update detailing its ongoing response to the sharing of NZ shooting posts. They reveal the small scale reach of the original broadcast but, as we know, that ultimately didn't stop it from being widely circulated around the web.
