HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift: which VR headset is better?

http://www.techradar.com/news/wearables/htc-vive-vs-oculus-rift-1301375

Augmented reality, that other revolutionary visual experience, is about to be unleashed in Australia, but it is expensive and oriented more to commercial use. Microsoft’s HoloLens headset comes to Australia late next month. Pre-orders are open: $4369 for the development edition and $7269 for the commercial suite. They can be ordered from the Microsoft Store.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/microsofts-augmented-reality-headset-hololens-here-next-month/news-story/3bcc22a93e3f1dd646bc9d143eb1d1d0

Hyper Anna has secured a $1.25 million investment from Westpac’s venture capital arm, Reinventure and AirTree Ventures, to support further development of its natural language-driven data analytics solution. The funds will be used to grow the business and help launch in the US in 2017. Led by co-founders and data scientists Natalie Nguyen, Sam Zheng and Kent Tian, Hyper Anna is working on technology that allows people to interact with any collection of data they wish from any device they choose

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/hyper-anna-secures-125m-investment-from-westpac/news-story/3a19fba0c9c7ed04f02250f2905d48d6

Unhappily, Australia’s national broadband network is a white elephant and, to mix metaphors, an albatross around the nation’s neck.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/alan-kohler/i-was-wrong-on-nbn-its-a-turkey/news-story/d127c72bbabec0c2d9ee4923d3ec8d4b

Incoming communication from work, friends and the world at large is “contaminating” family mealtime, bedtime and playtime, said study lead author Dr. Jenny Radesky. She’s an assistant professor of developmental behavioral pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/smartphones-interfere-with-family-life-parenting-children-study/

Early this year, analyst Trip Chowdhry from Global Equities Research predicted that the tech world was going to see big layoffs in 2016—some 330,000 in all at major tech companies. At the time, these numbers seemed way over the top. Then IBM started slashing jobs in March—and continued to wield the ax over and over as the year progressed. Yahoo began layoffs of some 15 percent of its employees in February. Intel announced in April that it would lay off 12,000 this year.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/analyst-ugly-year-for-tech-layoffs-and-its-going-to-get-worse