Galaxy Zoom; more 4G coverage, GeoOp lists

Suddenly, whacking more camera features in to a phone is a trend. We’ve seen Nokia go down this path with the Lumia 1020 and Sony with its Xperia Z1.

Now Samsung has joined the party with the Galaxy S4 Zoom. The camera phone packs a 16 megapixel sensor and a 10x optical zoom. Most important of all is an optical image stabliser.

The phone is based on Samsung’s Galaxy S4 mini, not the full S4, and sells in New Zealand for $900. 

• Vodafone 4G coverage reaches Gisborne and Arrowtown. Gisborne cell towers at Riverdale, Lytton West and Gisborne Central have been upgraded to 4G covering most of the city area.
• Meanwhile Telecom NZ prepares to catch-up with its 4G network due to open officially on November 12 in parts of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Telecom says it already has 14 devices ready for 4G and will announce more on launch day.
• Trade-focused mobile software as a service outfit GeoOp got off to an impressive start on the NZAX with shares initially issued at $1 trading for $2.40 at the opening and settling at $2 by the end of the day.
• Gen-i says it will now provide debt recovery company Baycorp with SIP trunking through its Gen-i Voice Connect service. Voice Connect allows companies to use Voice-over-IP, unified communications and other internet telephone services.
• Shares in Renaissance Corp surged after it announced it has sold its design school for $14 million to the Academic Colleges Group.
• Google is selling its Nexus 5 smartphone in Australia through the Google Play store. But not in New Zealand at the time of writing. Prices on the other side of the Tasman start at A$400 plus $20 for shipping.