AST SpaceMobile<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe telco promises \u201cfull-blooded\u201d voice and data from the get-go. <\/p>\n
![\"Teacher's]()
Teacher’s Buddy founders Ben Sze (left) and Matt Abraham say their AI-based app can help educators get their weekend back.<\/p>\n
Teacher\u2019s Buddy raises $2.3m<\/p>\n
An AI startup that helps teachers build lesson plans, write reports and blitz through student assessments has raised $2.3m in a \u201cpre-seed\u201d round backed by Auckland\u2019s Soul Capital and Melbourne\u2019s Giant Leap \u2013 which bill themselves as social-impact investors.<\/p>\n
The start-up was founded by Matt Abraham, an Auckland-based ad industry veteran and Melbournite Goldman Sachs Private Wealth alum Ben Sze who in 2011 co-founded Edrolo, a seller of textbooks and online courses for high school students that grew to 150 staff. He left day-to-day running in 2023 following a A$40m Series B raise.<\/p>\n
The pair say they want to address \u201cteacher burnout\u201d.<\/p>\n
Abraham wouldn\u2019t give financials, other than to say Teacher\u2019s Buddy is still in a very early commercial phase, but did tell Tech Insider the raise was at a $12.7m valuation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are incredibly excited about what we\u2019ve built and had live for the past couple of years, which has gained a good amount of traction globally and brought us to this point,\u201d Abraham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the more exciting stuff is yet to come. We\u2019re currently putting the finishing touches on our new upgraded platform, which will be an amplifier on what we\u2019ve already built and going to be so helpful for teachers, schools and students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The start-up now employs 10 staff in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Abraham says Teacher\u2019s Buddy, which has a free basic version, has been adopted by 12,000 teachers in 130 countries in its first 18 months.<\/p>\n
A pro version costs $155 per year, with custom pricing available for school-wide deals.<\/p>\n
In an age of so-called \u201cChatGPT wrappers\u201d (apps that basically provide a dressed-up front door to the popular AI), Teacher\u2019s Buddy includes in its FAQ: \u201cWhat makes Teacher\u2019s Buddy different from ChatGPT?\u201d<\/p>\n
The start-up\u2019s answer: \u201cPrompt writing can be difficult and intimidating \u2013 How do you get Chat GPT to give you exactly what you need, in the way you need it? How do you know it\u2019s telling the truth?<\/p>\n
\u201cTeacher\u2019s Buddy is full of customised, curated content generation tools that take the legwork out of having to come up with your own prompts. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve taken crafted and tested our prompts thoroughly to make sure they\u2019re completely fit for purpose and offer solid, templated results that are easy to customise to your needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Neutron's]()
Neutron’s “Hungry Hippo” nose cone arrives at Launch Complex 3 in Virginia. Photo \/ Rocket Lab<\/p>\n
Hungry Hippo completes its journey from Warkworth to Virginia<\/p>\n
In early December, locals were wowed as the giant fairing, or nose cone, for Rocket Lab\u2019s Neutron was barged down a river from Warkworth, then to Whang\u0101rei for shipping to the US.<\/p>\n
On January 28, Rocket Lab \u2013 which has been a little secret squirrel about the whole operation \u2013 posted a pic of the nose cone arriving at its Launch Complex 3 in Virginia. <\/p>\n
A spokeswoman confirmed it was the same bit of fairing that was constructed in Warkworth, at the carbon composite plant Sir Peter Beck\u2019s company bought from SailGP.<\/p>\n
The nose cone \u2013 which will open like a hungry hippo to release a satellite \u2013 will sit atop the crew-capable Neutron, due on the launchpad for its maiden test flight this quarter, following a series of delays.<\/p>\n
![\"Earlier:]()
Earlier: The Neutron nose cone passes kayaker Rob Henson in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. Photo \/ Rob Henson, Facebook<\/p>\n
The latest setback occurred on January 21, when the first Neutron\u2019s main stage tank ruptured during a test in Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cTesting failures are not uncommon during qualification testing. We intentionally test structures to their limits to validate structural integrity and safety margins to ensure the robust requirements for a successful launch can be comfortably met,\u201d Rocket Lab said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no significant damage to the test structure or facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some investors took fright regardless, and the firm\u2019s Nasdaq-listed stock dipped 8%.<\/p>\n
Rocket Lab says it will update on Neutron\u2019s schedule with its fourth-quarter result on February 26.<\/p>\n
Big cat tracked<\/p>\n
My family recently adopted an adult cat, a tail-less Manx called Wilson who had spent most of the first three years of his life outdoors. <\/p>\n
He duly jumped off our balcony and spent several weeks on the lam until a member of our local community Facebook group caught him on a security cam.<\/p>\n
![\"AirTagged:]()
AirTagged: Wilson – A “Rumpy” Manx, or Manx with no tail, giving him the appearance of an AI cat that hasn’t been fully rendered.<\/p>\n
You can see that rebel attitude in his eyes. He\u2019s probably going to make another break for it. But this time he\u2019s got an Apple AirTag attached to his collar.<\/p>\n
Apple has just released its second-generation AirTag, which has 1.5x the Precision Finding range – that is, using Bluetooth to guide you to the exact location of a cat (or car key or suitcase or wallet) and a speaker that\u2019s twice as loud, so you should be able to hear it from the other end of your home.<\/p>\n
![\"Wilson]()
Wilson wearing a first-generation AirTag. The second-generation model has the same dimensions.<\/p>\n
Apple doesn\u2019t give a Bluetooth range for the splash and dust-resistant AirTag, because it depends on factors like walls and what they\u2019re made of. But I\u2019ve found it\u2019s in the region of 10m to 15m.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, any passing iPhone or iPad can detect the location of an AirTag, then share its location to the cloud – allowing you to see a lost object kilometres or even countries away. The whole crowdsourced process is anonymised. Only friends or family you\u2019ve chosen to share the location of an AirTag with will see it. <\/p>\n
The new AirTag has a new Ultra Wideband chip but the same dimensions and the same battery life (about a year).<\/p>\n
I stopped by my local Animates to grab an AirTag holder for a cat collar. They didn\u2019t stock them but a shop assistant directed me to their rival, Petstock, which did. You can also use one of the AirTag holders sold via Apple\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald\u2019s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amazon\u2019s local operation \u2013 which centres on its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud operation \u2013 given its lack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[34309,11597,1443,34284,365,414,3228,28823,363,364,144745,13019,3105,29804,6276,111475,64573,23500,2936,27160,3331,4858,1132,111,139,69,11596,13650,4029,151118,2552,9643,8207,118638,1037,151119,7574,18843,370,145],"class_list":["post-264596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-34309","tag-23m","tag-about","tag-adds","tag-ai","tag-amazon","tag-amazons","tag-arrives","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-buddy","tag-burnout","tag-data","tag-date","tag-gets","tag-hippo","tag-hungry","tag-impact","tag-insider","tag-labs","tag-launch","tag-layoffs","tag-million","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-raises","tag-rocket","tag-satellite","tag-satellitetomobile","tag-service","tag-spark","tag-sparks","tag-specific","tag-startup","tag-tagged","tag-teacher","tag-teachers","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}