For years one of the biggest obstacles to a real smart home market was the fact that nothing much worked with anything else. help make that happen. In other words companies tended to work in digital silos with different systems and gadgets often locked up behind proprietary walls. But that’s now looking like a very […]
Hospital Shows How To Fight Bugs With Copper
A U.S. hospital loves its Antimicrobial Copper surfaces so much they made a movie about them. Grinnell Regional Medical Center, Iowa’s largest hospital serving 40,000 residents, has been installing antimicrobial copper touch surfaces to actively fight germs and stop the spread of infections between patients, staff and visitors. But they’ve been so impressed with the […]
Does The Smart Home Mean Business?
I realised recently just how many of the giant tech companies have moved into our homes…..Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung all have smart home systems, phone apps to help control them and digital assistants you can talk to or wave at. And they’re just the biggest. Lots of other tech companies, telcos and an army […]
Metal Of The Moment?
Architects & designers are having a love affair with the red metal. Whether it’s outside or inside our homes & offices copper’s been getting a whole lot of love for a while now, but is looking like the next big thing in interior design. While copper’s had a resurgence as the go to metal for […]
Energy Crisis Sparks Competition
Serial entrepreneur & Tesla boss, Elon Musk, got a lot of attention last week when he said he could fix South Australia’s ‘energy crisis’ by building a massive battery storage farm. South Australia’s energy crisis quickly became Australia’s as we all learned that the country not only faces an electricity shortfall and price rises, but […]
2% Boost in GDP …..100% Boost In Opportunities
A new look at just what an NBN led surge in broadband speeds and access can do for Australia is a reminder of just how powerful technology will be. The Western Sydney University study says fast broadband is key to massive economic, urban, social and entrepreneurial change that could make Australia “the world’s most connected […]
Are Builders Ready For Smarter Homes?
Builders are key to what actually ends up in a home, but how well do they know technology? It’s a question I’ve often worried about. So its heartening to see a big home builder survey out of the states showing that companies there are not only offering more home technology options, but reporting that they’re […]
OZ Minerals Sees Rosy Future
First copper expected from Carrapateena in 2019 says Australia’s 3rd biggest copper producer. OZ Minerals has a new and larger $975m plan to expand its underground mine at Carrapateena in South Australia to produce 2.8 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes or ore per year. Under the upgraded plans the underground mine will see it […]
Apple Proves Its Metal
Apple is tapping a rich vein by mining all the metals from its used gadgets. Apple may not have needed another earnings stream but they’ve found it by harvesting metals like gold, silver and copper from iPhones, iPads and Mac laptops. Their latest Annual Environment Report shows their e-waste efforts hauled in 3 million pounds […]
Building In Zero Energy Australia just set a world efficiency record using flexible copper zinc thin-film solar cells. ‘Zero-energy’ buildings that generate as much power as they consume have become a practical option after a University NSW team demonstrated the world’s highest efficiency solar cells. The promise of ‘zero-energy’ buildings has been held back by […]
China Builds Aquaculture Weir
ICA China is working with two Chinese companies on a massive ‘copper weir’ for a commercial fishing farm. Dachendao Aquaculture Company began building a new copper weir project in Zhejiang province in March using 30 tons of copper netting they purchased from Wieland. The weir measures about 360 meters in length and 65 meters in […]
Clothes Get Brighter With Copper
Smart fabrics get closer as U.S. researchers embed microscopic ‘nano’ copper threads. Ohio State University researchers have begun putting circuits into fabric with 0.1 mm precision—the perfect size to integrate electronic components such as sensors and computer memory devices into clothing The new threads are made with only seven filaments and each one is […]
