Archive for the ‘E-mail & the internet’ Category
Thursday, August 1st, 2013
With so few New Zealand businesses having a true online presence, or extremely limited online presence, the opportunity is there for savvy online entrepreneurs to make a big impact.
Aaron Schiff, an economist and blogger, says internet usage by businesses in New Zealand “sucks” and anyone who has a good idea for an internet business has an almost wide open field in the nation.
Schiff cites numbers from the Statistics New Zealand Business Operations Survey that say nearly a third of businesses don’t have a website of any kind; less than one in five businesses supports ordering on its website, and only around one in ten allow customers to make payments online. These numbers haven’t changed much in two years.
While the current numbers are dire, Schiff says, that does mean that huge opportunities await people willing to take the plunge to create an online business or get their bricks and mortar business online.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, New Zealand, online, statistics
Posted in blogs, E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, Online Sales | No Comments »
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
So Google did not commit any security breaches when it collected users’ data in New Zealand, however Luke Appleby writes on Stuff today that he is unclear why Google admits that information breaches are committed in countries such as Ireland and Denmark, but not so in Australia.
Its a valuable question – why is the data collection from some countries considered a ‘mistake’ worth apologising for, but not from New Zealand? It seems that when a country does not specifically request that the data be deleted, Google does not consider it to be a mistake.
Mr Appleby states that “…it was the lack of transparency, and the global attitude of Google which led many to question their “don’t be evil” motto”.
The debate continues….
Tags: Google, NZ Police, security
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Google, New Zealand | No Comments »
Friday, August 13th, 2010
13 years old, apparently, is the youngest age at which Facebook allows a user to sign on. However, users younger than 13 do have Facebook accounts, according to an article on www.seek.com.au today.
Parents on the whole are positive about the effects of social networking, and use of technology to keep in touch with their kids. However, the flipside is cyber bullying or cyberstalking.
Researchers at University of Waikato, caution against over- reacting. Parents are advised that “Strict, inflexible rules tend to be counter-productive and can increase the allure of ‘forbidden’ technology“.
Similarly, Netsafe, a non-profit organisation which promotes cyber-responsibility, advises that “parents should play a supervisory role while their kids are young, preparing them to make good decisions when they’re old enough to be independent”.
Tags: consumers, new technology
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Facebook, OPMC | No Comments »
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Tiger Woods was stood down by his sponsors, Gillette, Accenture, TAG Heur, General Motors and AT&T after the news of his several affairs became public knowledge.
Gamers appear to be the next in line to desert the golfing star, even though the publisher of this gaming franchise, Electronic Arts, has stood by him so far. An anonymous games retailer states that sales of Tiger’s latest game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 have gone down by 60 – 70%.  Electronics Arts admits that this could be due to his not-so-brilliant golfing performance of late.
US sales figures are similar, showing that first-month sales of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 were down 68 per cent on all platforms from the previous version a year ago.
The full text of the article is available here.
Tags: gaming sales, sponsors, Tiger Woods
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, gamers, Tiger Woods | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
The Copyright (Infringement File Sharing) Amendment Bill introduces a three-notice process so that illegal file sharers are given adequate warning of their activity, as well as providing additional assurances to owners of copyright.
Digital sales in Australia and NZ has increased by 41.4 percent, and performance rights returns are up 8.6 percent (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) figures), and this rise in the industry figures mean intellectual property needs to be adequately protected.
Commerce Minister Simon Power says “Online copyright infringement has been especially damaging for the creative industry, which has experienced significant declines in revenue as file sharing has become more prevalent”.
To read the full article, click here.
Tags: Copyright Bill, infringement, intellectual property
Posted in copyright, E-mail & the internet, Online Sales | No Comments »
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Most readers would agree that e-books cause less strain with their carbon emissions on the environment than traditional paper books. Whitcoulls has launched e-books this week and believes that the two million online books will be something readers would like to use.
However, a study from an American group of researchers has shown that e-readers need to run on electricity, and also require unique disposal methods in order to be friendly to the environment. Overall, e-books are more environmentally friendly than their paper counterparts.
For those old fashioned readers who prefer paper, the best way of keeping up your reading while being good to the environment? Join a library, share books with friends or buy second-hand books!
Read the full article here.
Tags: E-books, environment, Whitcoulls
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, electronic spending, New Zealand | No Comments »
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Google came under attack today for using its 3D ‘street view’ cars to collect potentially compromising data about New Zealand homeowners.
Concerns have been raised about the amount of information Google has acquired through these means, with the company’s assurance that it is not misusing the data it has gathered.
See the full article here.
Tags: data gathering, Google, privacy, wi-fi
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Google, wi-fi | No Comments »
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Finding it frustrating when wanting to quickly add a small group of new customers, one by one? Problem solved! With the latest upgrades we’ve made, now you simply click “Add new customer”, fill in the client details instantly without having to go back and forth between pages, and click “ADD”, and the new customer is in the database.
More developments to come with this one, but this will be a huge time saver for your day to day adding to customer groups!
Don’t forget, once a customer has unsubscribed, they have opted out of receiving your newsletter and cannot be re-added unless they choose to subscribe again. For this reason, the Informant service does not allow you to re-subscribe customers who have opted out.
Tags: add new customer, developments, Informant
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Informant.me | No Comments »
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Informant: keep your customers
Some exciting developments to the Informant.me service this month!
These are:
- Want to see your newsletter before you send it out to customers? New optional feature allows you to send yourself a test email of your newsletter to see what it really looks like before everyone sees it.
- Success rate ‘Did they or didn’t they?’ – see who has been viewing your campaign so you can better tailor your newsletters to your customer needs
- Better organise your customer groups under the ‘Customer’ page. Its an easier way of seeing your customers at a glance.
Tags: customers, e-mail newsletter, Informant, Newsletter, success rate
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Informant.me | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
A long time after the iPhone was released in Australasia, we now get visual voicemail.
I’ve been advised via SMS this morning this has finally happened – in Australia.
Visual voicemail allows you to “see” your voicemail on your iPhone, so rather than having to trawl through messages on the Vodafone voicemail system one by one – you can listen to the most important ones first, you can see who called, when they called and just listen to that message. You can listen to messages in any order, any time you like.
Tags: iphone, visual voicemail
Posted in Apple Mac, consumers, E-mail & the internet, Expansion to Australia | No Comments »
