Stories by Harley Ogier

Xbox One NZ publicity stunt has teeth

New Zealand will be the first country to get the Xbox One, at midnight on November 21. Microsoft has placed one console in a waterproof enclosure at the Kelly Tarlton’s SEA LIFE Aquarium in Auckland, surrounded by live sharks. That console will be retrieved and given on launch day to "one lucky fan".

Hands on: BlackBerry announces new Z30 smartphone

Announced last night, the BlackBerry Z30 is the latest smartphone from the once market-leading company, formerly known as Research In Motion (RIM). We had a brief hands-on with a preproduction version of the device in Auckland this morning.

Kickstarter open to AU/NZ projects in "very near future"

Crowdfunding website Kickstarter.com has announced it "will open up to Australia- and New Zealand-based projects in the very near future", and that it will run "Kickstarter School" events for interested contributors in Sydney and Melbourne next week.

Netgear R6300

Netgear is the latest early-adopter of the in-development 802.11ac standard, which is intended to provide throughput of at least one gigabit per second. That’s almost double the maximum throughput of 802.11n, the highest-speed Wi-Fi standard that’s been widely adopted.

HP PhotoSmart 7520

The HP PhotoSmart 7520 is on the border between ‘home’ and ‘home office’ multifunction printers.

QNAP TurboNAS TS-212

The TS-212 is a dual-bay network-attached storage (NAS) unit from network-hardware vendor QNAP. We tested the barebones unit, sold without drives, using a pair of 2TB Western Digital Red NAS-optimised hard drives.

Synology DS213air

Synology’s network attached storage (NAS) units tend to push the upper limits of ‘home storage’. The DS213air is no exception, with a feature set and price more befitting small businesses. However, it may suit enthusiasts seeking a top-notch NAS.

TP-Link TL-WDN4800

This PCI Express card adds 802.11a/b/g/n wi-fi connectivity to any modern desktop PC running Windows. It’s a dual-band adapter, meaning it supports connections on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies.

HP Officejet 150 Mobile All-in-One

HP’s OfficeJet 150 is an ultracompact colour inkjet printer, with integrated sheet-fed scanner. With paper tray closed, it measures just 350 x 171 x 90mm, and weighs in at just 3.1kg. What really makes it special, though, its the included Lithium-ion rechargeable battery. Fully charged, the OJ150 will print up to 500 pages without the need for mains power.