With the continual decline in the number of physical letters being posted, it’s perhaps no big surprise that Australia’s national postal service is always on the lookout for new ways to make a buck — and the service’s CEO, Christine Holgate, has suggested one particularly new and innovative way for the flagging company to join the cutting edge… almost literally.
Speaking to a Senate committee on May 23, Holgate revealed that she’s been discussing the concept of drone deliveries with some of her international postal counterparts, specifically the Swiss.
While many countries don’t allow the use of drones for deliveries, Holgate said that “in some countries, including Switzerland, they are using drones [to be able] to carry blood to points of accidents and Swiss Post are doing that”.
This mailman really flies
Holgate is quite confident that automation will change Australia Post’s future for the better. “I am a great believer in automation,” she said, “but it shouldn’t be at the cost of jobs, though.”
She explains that to keep up with large international-delivery companies like TNT and Toll, Australia Post will need to embrace automation “to compete more effectively against them”.
According to Holgate, the Australian postal service is currently working with Swiss Post “to see what we can learn from what they have done, and to see how we too can offer those services for accident and emergency”.
The Swiss model
Swiss Post’s drone delivery system
A press release on Swiss Post’s website describes the drones being used in Switzerland for laboratory and emergency deliveries.
Not including blades, the quadcopters measure around 80cm and can carry up to 2kg of weight to a maximum distance of 20km (12.4 miles) at an average speed of 36km/h (22.36mph), so they’re quite flexible. And, as they can fly in a direct line and don’t need to deal with vehicle traffic, could be much quicker than deliveries sent by road.
Matternet, the company behind Swiss Post’s delivery drones, has also proved they can be quite gentle and stable by successfully delivering a cup of coffee via quadcopter to a waiting van in Zurich last year.
That’s not all. Google’s Project Wing took to the air in Mexico and Australia to deliver food and medication to remote communities after tests were carried out in the US, and 2016 saw Domino’s first unmanned pizza delivery in Auckland, New Zealand.
It seems like the days of mail delivery on foot could be quickly drawing to a close, with even Canada Post reacting to the threat from Amazon’s Prime Air service in July 2016, saying it will also opt to use unmanned quadcopters for certain deliveries.
Acer has expanded its range of Nitro gaming desktops with the Acer Nitro 50 series, which are designed to offer “outstanding casual gameplay at affordable prices”, according to the company.
So, while they won’t offer crazily-powerful hardware at ridiculous prices, they will give you very good 1080p gaming performance that’s well above what most gaming laptops, and games consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One, can manage.
These desktops come with up to 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processors and up to Nvidia GTX 1070 GPUs. If you go for the higher-tier hardware you should get some good 4K performance as well.
Other specs
The other specifications we’ve been given include up to a 3TB hard drive and a 512GB SSD for storage, a wireless charging dock for Qi-enabled devices, and a Realtek Dragon LAN network card.
The desktops come clad in a striking armor-inspired case with red LED lighting.
The Acer Nitro 50 gaming desktops will be available in the UK in July, with prices starting from £599 (around $800, AU$1,000). We’ll update as soon as we hear from Acer about US and Australian prices and availability.
Apple’s iPhone is widely regarded as a stable and secure smartphone, but that isn’t to say that iOS doesn’t have its own issues regarding security and privacy – particularly in today’s climate of hacking and security breaches. Using one of the best VPN services ensures you retain your digital privacy, while also allowing for other neat features like accessing geo-restricted content and circumventing censorship.
How to choose the best VPN service for iPhone or iOS
There’s no shortage of VPNs with decent iOS support, with many providers offering dedicated iOS apps, which is obviously a main consideration here – and preferably the software will be easy-to-use, and yet provide enough options for more advanced users to be able to tweak things.
Other important considerations include tight security (obviously) and a favourable privacy policy, along with terms of service which make it quite clear what logs and details are stored by the provider. The number of simultaneous connections allowed and the ensuing speeds you get from the VPN provider are also well worth considering, as ever.
Below are the five best VPN services for iPhone/iOS that we’ve picked out for you.
Number of servers: 1500+ | Server locations: 148 | IP addresses: 30,000 | Maximum devices supported: 3
Easy-to-use iOS app w/ fast setup
Terrific overall performance
Not the cheapest provider
Just 3 simultaneous devices
ExpressVPN is our top pick for best all-round VPN, and specifically for iOS devices. This British Virgin Islands-based provider has a large server network (with 148 server locations in 94 countries) that managed to provide very good speeds throughout our testing. ExpressVPN also has no trouble helping you access services like Netflix and Hulu, making it ideal for streaming. Its custom traffic obfuscation will allow you to achieve better connectivity in censorship-heavy regions like China and the Middle East.
The iOS client is very easy to set up and boasts a user-friendly interface that focuses on smart server selection via different filters. Users can connect with a single tap and use the VPN seamlessly, with an option to reconnect automatically should your mobile data or Wi-Fi connection unexpectedly drop. The app itself supports iOS 8 and higher, a somewhat better level of support for the iPhone than found elsewhere.
ExpressVPN offers 24/7 customer support through live chat or email, to help users with any questions or issues they may encounter. The provider has an excellent privacy policy and doesn’t collect or log traffic data, connection IPs, or browsing activity.
The prices aren’t the cheapest, but may be worth the added cost for those who want the best VPN experience for iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads. The most affordable option is the yearly subscription, for which ExpressVPN throws in 3 additional months for free. The packages available are:
Number of servers: 1000+ | Server locations: 60+ | IP addresses: 40000+ | Maximum devices supported: 5
Excellent performance
Great iOS app
A tad more expensive than others
No free trial
IPVanish delivers consistently great performance, and indeed actually improved our download speeds by around 15% over long distances, with even faster results when it came to some short hops. The native client supports iOS 8 or better, works equally well on iPads and connects automatically anytime internet traffic is detected. It also suggests the fastest server based on your location and ping time.
When it comes to security, the service offers a broad range of protocols, and on the privacy front, IPVanish doesn’t record any online activity or connection data while using the iOS app.
In short, the only niggle with IPVanish is its pricing. There is no free trial available and the service is slightly more expensive than others. That said, the three plans include a 7-day money-back guarantee. The 1-year subscription is the most affordable option. The packages available are:
Number of servers: 700+ | Server locations: 70+ | IP addresses: 200,000+ | Maximum devices supported: 3-5
Superfast speeds
No ‘single IP address’ limit for connections
Some logging (connection times, IPs)
No refunds
[Save 40%] Until July 31, 2018, get 40% off VyprVPN’s annual plans, just in time to boost up your coverage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. VyprVPN is a fast, highly secure VPN without third-parties, all for as little as $36.00 for the first year.Get VyprVPN here.
This Switzerland-based provider owns and operates all of its servers, and boasts exceptional performance levels as a result. Our tests revealed an outstanding boost in download speeds, with performance being over twice as fast as our regular rates.
The native app supports iOS 9 and higher, plus it comes with useful features like automatic fastest server selection, iPad compatibility and automatic encryption of untrusted Wi-Fi connections. It’s also worth noting that VyprVPN doesn’t restrict your connections by IP address (i.e. you can access the network via your router, mobile phone network via 3G/4G and so forth).
VyprVPN’s privacy policy is clear and straightforward, and this VPN doesn’t log or inspect your traffic, although some session logging takes place.
There are only two pricing plans to choose from, and you can be billed either monthly or annually. Going the yearly route offers a big saving. Make sure you use the three-day free trial to properly test the service as VyprVPN doesn’t allow refunds. The packages available are:
Number of servers: 4326 | Server locations: 62 | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 6
Lots of servers
Strong security
Monthly billing is expensive
Unclear session logging policy
NordVPN’s iOS app is user-friendly with an eye-pleasing interface. Everything is well organized, with at-a-glance information displayed by the ‘quick connect’ widget which details the closest server, availability, load percentage and so on. This provider’s network boasts a plentiful amount of servers, and offers perfectly acceptable performance.
On the security front, NordVPN supports 256-bit encryption, and offers an automatic kill switch, along with double data encryption (which passes your data through two separate VPN servers). This provider also has a ‘no logs’ policy, which is good to see.
Potential customers can sign up for a free trial, tucked away on the website, which is useful as the monthly billing is certainly on the expensive side. The rest of the paid subscriptions are much more reasonably priced, and indeed if you want to commit longer-term, the two-year plan actually offers fantastic value. The packages available are:
Number of servers: 700+ | Server locations: 34+ | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 2-5
Above-average speeds
Free 24-hour trial
One-month plan is a bit expensive
Detailed session (not traffic) logging
SaferVPN offers lots of quality software clients, and the iOS app is no exception. You can connect with a simple tap without any prior configuration as the app automatically determines the best server locations for optimal performance. The client also automatically protects data over any unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot.
SaferVPN manages its own network. In our performance tests, we found speeds were pretty good compared to rivals, and we obtained solid download rates even over longer distances.
On the downside, this VPN records a great deal of session data, although none of this is related to your actual activities online – but it’s still far more information than competitors collect, generally speaking.
The service boasts a free access-all-areas 24-hour trial to check it out. Among the three price plans, the 2-year plan offers the best value. The packages available are:
