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12 Aug 2025

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Economy to pick up despite high inflation, experts predict
Economists from Westpac Bank are also predicting the Reserve Bank is close to ending interest rate cuts.

Trump says he will take control of Washington DC police, deploy National Guard to US capital
The United States President has also seized control of the capital's Metropolitan Police Department.

Clearing out the confusion over NCEA changes
A lesson in the big NCEA reset. The Detail puts an RNZ education specialist to the test on the major education system overhaul.

Joel Maxwell: Zombie politics and the lost art of actually doing things
OPINION: Politicians used to have dreams - maybe modest, maybe grand. These days some just aspire to the perfect 50-word shitpost on X.

Joel Maxwell: Nga torangapu kehua me te toi kua ngaro o te mahi tuturu
HUATAU: He moemoea to te kaitorangapu o mua - ahakoa he paku, he tino nui ranei. I enei ra e hiahia ana noa iho etahi ki te hanga i te whakairi kupu 50 tino kino rawa atu i runga i te X.

End of an era: AOL pulls the plug on dial-up internet after 34 years
AOL was once the largest provider of internet service for Americans. Today, it belongs to Yahoo! Inc. and operates as a web portal where you can read online articles aggregated from sources across the web—and it also still offers dial-up internet service! But not for much longer. Last week, AOL announced that it will be discontinuing its dial-up internet service starting September 30, 2025. Active users will need to switch to another internet provider by then, and the shutdown will also affect associated software including AOL Dialer and AOL Shield. Once bustling with 30 million customers It’s quite stunning that AOL is still offering dial-up service in 2025, and more astonishing that people are still paying for it. In 2022, one report counted about 175,000 dial-up subscribers in the US—and that number has surely dwindled in the three years since, but not to zero. The reason why people still pay for dial-up is more sad than amusing: many people in rural areas simply have no other access to the internet, forced to rely on dial-up through telephone lines to stay connected. AOL isn’t the only dial-up provider, but was the largest for a long time. AOL began offering its dial-up internet service back in 1991, then grew to be the largest internet provider in the world in 2000 with around 30 million active users. In recent years, however, AOL earned more from tech support and digital security services than from its internet services. Dial-up internet is a legacy service In recent years, the number of dial-up internet users has fallen sharply due to the proliferation of broadband infrastructure in the US. Unfortunately, broadband still hasn’t reached every nook of the country, and those who have no other option must still resort to traditional dial-up access. Dial-up isn’t only slow and impractical, but also exceedingly expensive for what you get, plus susceptible to cyberattacks and other security risks. Many now consider dial-up internet to be a legacy service and we wouldn’t be caught dead using such an outdated technology—but legacy tech continues to power our country in ways unseen. For example, Windows 95 and floppy disks are still used in air traffic control and some businesses still use Commodore 64s for customer checkouts.

Defence mulls over whether to follow in Australia's footsteps for navy contracts
Australia has picked Japan to build its next fleet of warships.

Controversial West Coast Te Kuha Mine project has fast-track application declined
The Ministry for the Environment found the controversial West Coast mining project's application did not comply with seven legal requirements.

New social media platform a 'digital marae' for Maori
Its creators say Maori must be among those putting tikanga in place and ushering in the digital side of te ao Maori.

Why hasn’t NZ worked out whether to recognise Palestine?
Prime minister Christopher Luxon says a decision is weeks away. This issue was first raised with his Government in 2023.

ESPN and Fox team up for yet another sports bundle
Both the long-awaited, standalone streaming version of ESPN and Fox’s new streaming service are launching on the same day later this month. Which one should you choose? You might not have to. There’s long been chatter that ESPN and Fox could offer their new streaming wares in a bundle, and now it’s official: On October 2, you’ll be able to sign up for both the new streaming ESPN and Fox One together for $40 a month, a savings of $10/month versus getting them individually. The individual ESPN and Fox One services will each launch individually on August 21. The bundle includes the “ultimate” tier of ESPN, which offers all of ESPN’s linear networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, and so on) along with all EPSN broadcasts on ABC, ESPN+, ESPN3, SECN+, and ACCNX. On its own, ESPN Ultimate costs $30 a month. Also in the package is Fox One, the new Fox streaming service that boasts all of Fox’s network brands, including a truckload of sports-oriented properties: Fox Sports, FS1, and FD2. Fox One is slated to cost $20 a month by itself. The new ESPN/Fox bundle brings to mind another sports package, albeit one that never got off the ground: Venu Sports, a venture that would have seen ESPN-parent Disney, Warner Bros., and Fox join forces for a $40-a-month sports streaming service. Venu Sports got ensnared by a federal injunction following a lawsuit filed by competing streamer Fubo, and the three parties behind Venu chose to scuttle the bundle back in January rather than face the legal headaches involved in getting the bundle over regulatory hurdles. As for the new ESPN/Fox bundle, the rival networks pitched it as a vehicle for “delivering premium experiences across platforms and meeting consumers where they are—anytime, anywhere.” Of course, the new bundle will offer more than just sports. Also in the package are such Fox networks as Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Weather, Fox Nation, Fox local stations, and the Fox Network. While ESPN plus Fox sports programming for $40 a month sounds a tad more enticing than $30 a month for ESPN on its lonesome, that’s still a stiff monthly tab, especially if you’re signed up for other streaming services on top of that.