Hawaii Blog Blog

Open Data Day is Next Saturday

The seventh annual international “Open Data Day” is coming on Saturday, March 3, 2018, and Hawaii Open Data is working with the Civil Beat Law Center and other open-minded organizations to celebrate. “Open Data Day”...

Microsoft Announces ‘Project Honolulu’

Microsoft has again invoked the Aloha State for a product name, this week announcing “Project Honolulu.” Project Honolulu is described as a “flexible, locally-deployed, browser-based management platform and tools” recommended as a “graphical management...

VR Junkies Comes to Hawaii

There’s a newly opened virtual reality gaming shop at Ala Moana Center called VR Junkies Hawaii. It’s actually part of a national chain, which Opapo Fonoimoana discovered in Utah and brought back to Honolulu....

Coinbase Pulls Out of Hawaii

One of the world’s largest bitcoin exchanges announced today that it would be closing accounts of customers in Hawaii due to state regulatory policies that “will render continued Coinbase operations in Hawaii impractical.” The announcement...

Geek Beat: Snap, Amazon & Uber

The tech and investing world is picking apart Snap’s filing for its Initial Public Offering in March, the Amazon Echo continues to learn new skills, and Uber dreams of a fleet of flying cars. These are the stories we cover in this week’s “Geek Beat” on Hawaii News Now’s “Sunrise” morning show.

Geek Beat: Honda, Polaroid & LEGO

This week, we followed the Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” morning crew out to the Waialae Country Club for the Sony Open. After some shenanigans with a hot dog, we served another mixed plate of tech news, featuring Honda’s new self-balancing motorcycle, Polaroid’s 3-D pen, and the LEGO Boost system.

Geek Beat: Amazon Go, Live Video & Emoji

This week’s “Geek Beat” segment was a mixed plate of tech news, including Amazon’s new brick-and-mortar “Go” concept store, Twitter’s live video offering, and the latest batch of new emoji… and I don’t care what the Unicode standard says, it’s a “shaka.”

Geek Beat: Hour of Code

It’s Computer Science Education Week! This international celebration of computers and technology and STEM education brings a lot of great events to schools around the world, and in Hawaii. The “Hour of Code” brought me and my coworkers out to an elementary school in Kaneohe.

Geek Beat: Black Friday Tech Shopping

Once again, we were able to join the bleary-eyed Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” morning crew on their annual pilgrimage to Honolulu’s retail hotspots for “Black Friday.” Our shopping picks included the best Android smartphone on the market, the newest portable drone, and battery packs… if you can get them shipped.

Geek Beat: Fake News and Filter Bubbles

With many still reeling from the results of the U.S. presidential election, our friends at Hawaii News Now called an audible, setting aside the gadgets to tackle the intersection of tech and politics. After a quick mannequin challenge. There’s “fake news” on Facebook, real harassment on Twitter, and big question marks under a Trump administration.

Geek Beat: High-End Hardware

Microsoft staked its claim to the high-end hardware market with the announcement of its new Surface Book and its giant Surface Studio, both big upgrades (including in price). The company is clearly positioning itself against Apple, which announced a new MacBook Pro that I crave, but that has left some Apple fans wanting.

Geek Beat: Drone Showdown

With the World Drone Racing Championships taking place this weekend on the North Shore, it seemed like a good time to revisit drones. Kualoa Ranch will host pilots from 18 countries for a FPV UAV competition, while the rest of us shop for more stable airships to take great aerial photos and videos.

Geek Beat: Google Hardware Announcements

Google announced a number of new hardware releases, which we covered in the latest Geek Beat. There’s the new Pixel smartphone, a flagship device aimed at (and priced like) the iPhone, the Daydream View virtual reality headset, and the Google Home, Google’s entry into the smart home market in the wake of the surprise success of the Amazon Echo.