The automated aircraft are planned to work alongside Domino's current delivery fleet and will be integrated into its online ordering and GPS systems, according to the firm. Domino's Group CEO and Managing Director, Don Meij, said the company's growth in recent years had led to a "significant increase" in the number of deliveries it needs to make. "With the increased number of deliveries we make each year, we were faced with the challenge of ensuring our delivery times continue to decrease and that we strive to offer our customers new and progressive ways of ordering from us," he said. Research into different delivery methods led Domino's to Flirtey, whose success within the airborne delivery space has been "impressive", the CEO added. The two companies demonstrated their drone pizza delivery service in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday – an event attended by the country's Civil Aviation Authority and its Minister of Transport Simon Bridges.

Back in 1999, I read a great book by Bruce Sterling called "Distraction"; billed as a fictional view into the status of U.S. public service in the year 2044, the technology and cultural ideas packed into that book still resonate more than 15 years later. The book in part motivated me to strive to make a difference in public service, if only to avoid some of the more dystonia views in the book. Apparently I'm not the only one who found the book packed with ideas, Cory Doctorow also wrote a great review in 2008. The book's central premise: that all of us could suffer from "Distraction" from what really matters, especially in a world with 300 cable channels, 24/7 news, and always-on social media in the United States, is an idea that I'd like to explore more fully given our rapidly changing world of today. Technology is amoral, it is how we humans choose to use it that determines good vs. bad outcomes.

Sydney legal startup LegalVision announced today that it has secured 4.2 million in a Series B round to continue its growth in the Australian online legal market. The funding round was led by commercial law firm Gilbert Tobin, who previously made a strategic investment into LegalVision last November. LegalVision delivers legal services through a tech-driven business model, helping businesses around Australia access quality resources by providing startups and SMBs with access to more than 3,000 legal articles and 40 free legal documents. In just over three years the startup reports that it has assisted more than 15,000 business around the country. CEO of LegalVision, Lachlan McKnight said the backing of Gilbert Tobin and the latest round of funding is validation of the startup's goal and progress to date.

NASA video shows a robotic arm releasing the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station over Australia. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. NASA video shows a robotic arm releasing the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station over Australia.

Today on In Case You Missed It: Global pizza company Domino's is teaming up with drone delivery company Flirtey to launch an actual pie delivery service, via UAV, in New Zealand. The company has passed checks by the country's Civil Aviation Authority and aims to begin tests later this year. Meanwhile virtual reality gamers are (understandably) losing it over the latest thing to make VR look incredible: Dexmo exoskeleton gloves that are worn, then react as though objects within games are actually being manipulated. And in case you're wondering, the story detailing Uber's financial losses of over 1 billion so far this year is based on a story from Bloomberg that cites finance director Gautam Gupta, who reportedly said most of the losses come from compensation of its drivers. Considering Uber drivers have fought the company in union organizing efforts, this story is likely to keep developing. You can watch the adorable incoming fourth grader from Austin here, and the domino tower collapsing from 19 feet here.

CANBERRA, Australia--A weekend spent mothering a robot baby to mirror the "real experience" of parenting is meant to discourage teenage girls from getting pregnant. But so-called Baby Think it Over dolls don't cut teen pregnancy rates and in fact increase the risk, Australian research has found. In a study published in The Lancet medical journal Friday, researchers found teenage girls who used the lifelike computerized dolls as part of a pregnancy-prevention program were more likely to become pregnant compared with girls receiving a less high-tech sex education. "The program was supposed to put students off and then they would take extra steps not to get pregnant," said study author Sally Brinkman, of the Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia. "Unfortunately, and surprisingly for us, the intervention we can say definitely didn't work and it actually seemed to increase the pregnancy rates.

Technology around us will provide an "augmented intelligence" that will help humans to make smarter decisions, improve business models and solve problems that were previously intractable. "The ways in which we are able to interact with computers is going to make people a lot more efficient and more effective, and build digital models." This, says Richard Paris, senior data scientist at KPMG New Zealand, is the future of digital. We are increasingly seeing the digital world interact in our everyday lives, says Paris, who spoke at the inaugural KPMG Technology Series in Auckland. People interact with smartphones and these devices are becoming our intelligent assistants.

LifeJourney International has launched its Day of STEM initiative, aiming to show students what it actually means to have a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), with the backing of some of the country's tech heavyweights. The program, Australia 2020, aims to push students towards a STEM-based career, but operates under the assumption that telling students to study STEM is not enough to incite interest. The online platform allows kids to explore what it is like to have a career in fields such as wireless technology, cybersecurity, drone delivery, financial services, and autonomous vehicles, with students mentored by Ian Hill, chief innovation officer at Westpac; Simone Bachmann, digital trust specialist, responsible for cyber innovation and culture at Australia Post; Gerard Tracey, wireless telecommunications expert at Telstra; Anastasia Cammaroto, CIO at BT Financial Group; Celeste Lowe, cyber risk director at Deloitte; Ita Farhat, chief of staff at AMP; Cara Walsh, digital experience expert from Queensland's RACQ; Martin Levins, consultant at Australian Council for Computers in Education; and others. The program is also backed by the likes of Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, and the Australian Computer Society, as well as an education advisory board to ensure the content stays relevant to the Australian market. A Day in STEM is pushed out to teachers and run in the classroom, with 95,000 students already signed up to the program ahead of its September 5 launch.

It has spent a huge A 300,000 on Chip, a humanoid robot that will be used to carry out research into artificial intelligence for the bank. One of only three REEM robots from Spanish firm PAL Robotics, Chip aims to identify the opportunities and limitations of human-robot interaction, in the hope that the technology will one day become an integral part of improving banking services. Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, group executive, institutional banking and markets, CommBank, commented: "The development of robotics and artificial intelligence will affect all of us in the future. This research will help us better understand the impact social robotics will have on the lives of people, customers and industries across Australia." The bank's innovation lab in Sydney will be used as a testing environment for the research, allowing both students and academics from the country's technology universities to experiment with robotics.

Domino's and Flirtey have launched the first commercial drone delivery service, aiming to soon deliver pizza via remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) straight to a customer's front door. Although headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, Domino's has chosen to kick off the DRU Drone initiative in Auckland, New Zealand, as the country's current regulations allow businesses to utilise unmanned aircraft. The demonstration was conducted under Civil Aviation Rules Part 101 and marks a final step in Flirtey's approval process. Domino's said it then expects to be able to trial store-to-door drone deliveries from a selected Domino's New Zealand stores with flights to customer homes tabled for later this year. "We are planning a phased trial approach which is based on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granting approval, as both Domino's and Flirtey are learning what is possible with the drone delivery for our products, but this isn't a pie in the sky idea. It's about working with the regulators and Flirtey to make this a reality for our customers," Domino's Group CEO and managing director Don Meij, said.