News

Start Up

Tech news from Australia and abroad, with Mashable reporter/tech extraordinaire Johnny Lieu and FBi’s Lucy Smith.

Latest Episodes:

13.12.17 - The Final Episode - Taxify & Shazam's New Owner Dec 13, 2017

Show notes

It's the final episode of Start Up! Johnny Lieu is moving on after coming in every week to talk tech, and Lucy Smith is wrapping up as host of Up For It after two stellar years behind the mic. In their final chat, Johnny and Lucy discussed the launch of a brand new app called Taxify that is set to compete with Uber, as well as the acquisition of everyone's favourite music-identification app Shazam by tech giant Apple.

6.12.17 - Animal Exploitation Via Selfies & 25 Years Of The SMS Dec 06, 2017

Show notes

Johnny Lieu joined Lucy Smith to chat about how Instagram is chock full of animal pictures, but now the social network is cracking down on selfies that might be considered exploitation. 25 years ago the first text message was sent, so Johnny and Lucy also discussed how, since then, the ways we’ve chatted using our phones have changed quite a bit.

29.11.17 - 'Pay To Win' Games & Net Neutrality Nov 29, 2017

Show notes

Lucy and Johnny talked about the furore over 'pay to win' games, which have people so mad that the government is considering labelling them as gambling. They also looked at net neutrality debates in the USA, and what they could mean for Australia.

22.11.17- YouTube Kids & AllVoices Nov 22, 2017

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For exhausted parents, YouTube’s Kids app has been a easy way to entertain young children with endless video — but there’s been increasing concern on the type of so-called kids content that’s making its way onto the platform. Following #MeToo, a new startup is building an app to combat sexual harassment at workplaces. It’s a web platform called AllVoices and it will let people anonymously report their experiences of sexual harassment at work, and will in turn aggregate that data to give companies insights on the true scale of the problem.

08.11.17- Ban AI Robot Killers and How To Get Banned On Twitter Nov 08, 2017

Show notes

In the last 10 years, artificial intelligence and robot technology has made leaps and bounds. But experts in these fields have urging governments to stop these technologies from well, killing us. Twitter needs to fix its harassment problem... again. Three weeks ago, Women took a stand on Twitter by staying off the social platform in a uniform protest called #WomenBoycottTwitter. Now this was instigated by the temporary suspension of Rose McGowan, who has been very much vocal about Harvey Weinstein and other abusers. Last week they had issues with someone deactivating Trump's account on their last day at work. The other thing is that searching #bisexual' gives error message, but not #gay or #lesbian...

1.11.17- A Chat With The Gamerunner of Rumu Nov 01, 2017

Show notes

Johnny brought a guest in from the PAX convention in Melbourne over the weekend- Ally McLean, the gamerunner behind Rumu- a murder-mystery noire style game about a robot vacuum that becomes self aware.

25.10.17- Getting Keen for Melbourne's PAX Convention Oct 25, 2017

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Johnny takes us through wha he's looking forward to seeing when he visits the PAX gaming conference in Melbourne: - Rumu, where you play a vacuum cleaner - Paperbark, where you play a wombat in the bush -- this one is really inspired by Australian children's literature - Virtually Impossible - a VR party game - Maybe as a laugh, Pure Farming 2018

18.10.17- Flirting on Instagram and Facebook for Jobs Oct 18, 2017

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Forget about Tinder, Grindr, Her, Bumble, or whatever other apps you're hitting up for all your dating needs. There's another app that's rapidly becoming a hotspot for digital flirting, whether you want it to be or not: Instagram. Facebook may be testing a new Resume / CV feature. The update could indicate a larger interest in the job searching and recruiting space, putting Facebook in direct competition with LinkedIn.

04.10.17 - Elon Musk Pushes for Mars Colonisation and Bumble Introduces Interesting New Feature Oct 04, 2017

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Elon Musk wants to send you to Mars by 2022, and could Bumble be the new platform to launch your career?

27.09.17- Australia is Launching a Space Agency Sep 27, 2017

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Australia wants a slice of the booming private space industry, and it's launching an agency to capitalise on it.