After Hours Archives

Why switching your business to electric vehicles is easier than you think

Katrina Fox - November 19, 2024 4 MIN READ

With government subsidies, tax incentives and potential cost savings, plus the ability to lower business vehicles’ tailpipe emissions, small businesses are finding more reasons to transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Whether your motivator is financial, environmental or both, here’s a step-by-step guide if you’re considering making the switch for your business. 1. Evaluate your current business… Read more »

Gaming

What Sony can learn from the Apple playbook: How to make the PS5 Pro a more premium experience

Harrison Polites - November 15, 2024 8 MIN READ

My biggest mistake with the PlayStation 4: not buying its Pro model sooner to get more value out of it. My old PS4 was on its last legs; clogged with dust, overheating on newer games with its internal fan sounding like a jet engine. But I held off as long as I could, purchasing the… Read more »

Life hacks

The Booker Prize winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, is a powerful meditation on our existence and hunger for life beyond Earth

Debra Benita Shaw - November 15, 2024 4 MIN READ

Samantha Harvey’s Orbital has won the 2024 Booker prize. What it so skilfully and ambitiously exposes is the human cost of space flight set against the urgency of the climate crisis. While a typhoon of life-threatening proportions gathers across south-east Asia, six astronauts and cosmonauts hurtle around Earth on the International Space Station. Their everyday… Read more »

Motoring

There’s another simple reason as a parent why you wouldn’t buy an EV

Simon Thomsen - November 11, 2024 4 MIN READ

Just before the end of FY2024, my wife and I went for test drives in electric vehicles to replace the 10-year-old SUV we’d used to ferry two kids to schools, sports and holidays, often with friends and/or dog in the back. We planned to downsize and go electric. Three Volvos on over 20 years, we… Read more »

Gaming

What gaming job ads data tells us about when you’re getting a new game

Harrison Polites - November 8, 2024 5 MIN READ

The global video game industry is surprisingly flush with data. There are charts that measure the hype of games on Steam, monthly trackers of most-played games, and financial reports and sales — whenever they leak — from the major gaming companies. It’s not all serious stats either. Last year Larian Studios, the makers of Baldur’s… Read more »

Gaming

The price of impatience: what happened to gamers who didn’t wait for the Steam Deck’s Australian launch

Harrison Polites - November 1, 2024 6 MIN READ

Chris Hansford tempted fate buying a second-hand Steam Deck off Facebook marketplace. He wasn’t scammed, and his model arrived as advertised. It was instead an unfortunate case of terrible timing. Hansford purchased the device a few weeks before the company announced they would start selling the Steam Deck in Australia in late November. Had he known,… Read more »

friends having drinks together outdoors.

Food and drink

All about ‘hangxiety’ – the science behind feeling anxious after too much booze

Blair Aitken & Rebecca Rothman - October 29, 2024 3 MIN READ

You had a great night out, but the next morning, anxiety hits: your heart races, and you replay every conversation from the night before in your head. This feeling, known as hangover anxiety or “hangxiety”, affects around 22% of social drinkers. While for some people, it’s mild nerves, for others, it’s a wave of anxiety… Read more »

Gadgets

NSW is looking to make e-scooters legal on its roads

Simon Thomsen - October 28, 2024 3 MIN READ

The NSW government considering legalising the use of e-scooters on the state’s roads, provided riders where a helmet and are over 16. At the moment, e-scooters can be bought locally, but can’t be ridden on NSW streets. But a plan to legalise their use forms part of a new E-micromobility Action Plan released by the… Read more »

Gaming

Mario madness: 19 editions on, everything you need to know about Nintendo’s party game dynasty

Harrison Polites - October 27, 2024 9 MIN READ

This weekend I dropped spiky blocks on my mates’ heads, attempted to cherry-pick them off a conveyor belt and ultimately defeated them by stealing their stuff. It was all in the name of a good time, of course. Surely they enjoyed it as much as me? And to be clear, it was done virtually, through… Read more »

Cameron Mackenzie, Matt Jones and Stuart Gregor.

Business strategy

Four Pillars Gin cofounder Matt Jones on how to co-CEO

Matt Jones - October 25, 2024 4 MIN READ

Every business starts with a decision. In the case of Four Pillars, it was the decision to make gin. And from that first decision flowed a cascade of dozens, then hundreds, of other decisions to be made. At its simplest, all business is just decision making, and those decisions come at you thick and fast… Read more »

Business

6 key tips on how to present to investors with confidence

Terri Martin - October 23, 2024 4 MIN READ

Imagine walking into a room of investors feeling confident, calm and certain that you’ll put your best pitch forward. When the stakes are high – and one meeting could make or break what happens to your business next – it can be challenging to feel this way. The key to feeling confident is preparation, and… Read more »

Gaming

Steam Deck stole the PAX limelight as Sony and Nintendo went AWOL

Harrison Polites - October 18, 2024 6 MIN READ

Talk about a one-two punch. After years of Australians paying almost $400 above US recommended retail to attain a grey-imported Steam Deck, the company has finally decided to launch its coveted console in this market. This was all done by stealth. With no prior warning — aside from an embargoed press release to some outlets… Read more »

Diversity

The Change of mind: why digital solutions should be central to helping women deal with menopause

Georgie Drury - October 18, 2024 3 MIN READ

For those who missed it, the Senate Inquiry into the Impact of Perimenopause and Menopause came to a close last month, with the committee detailing their 25 recommendations to Parliament. Without a proper look-in for digital health across any of the recommendations, we’re probably in for a long hard slog to see any real change… Read more »

People

Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar sold the house next door to his cofounder for $130 million

Simon Thomsen - October 17, 2024 2 MIN READ

In real estate terms, Elaine, the 1863 waterfront mansion in Sydney’s Point Piper, could be described as a bit of a fixer-upper, with plenty of potential. And that’s how Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar and his wife, venture capitalist Kim Jackson, saw it when they bought the seven-bedroom Victorian mansion, which once belonged to members of… Read more »

Life hacks

Music and work: Here’s what science says about whether it makes you more productive

Anna Fiveash - October 14, 2024 3 MIN READ

Listening to music can enhance our lives in all kinds of ways – many of us use it during exercise, to regulate our mood, or in the workplace. But can listening to background music while you work really make you more productive? It’s a controversial topic. Some people swear by it, others find it painfully… Read more »