Tech beat: smart technology makes tradies lives easier

The range of useful tech products emerging from NZ’s free trade deal with China continues to grow in leaps and bounds, with the latest being a very useful tool for professionals, tradies or anyone who’s ever needed to retrieve something from a sink or drain.

Launched only four weeks ago is a new HD endoscope camera that can reach on a cable down drains, inside walls, hard to reach spots etc. The camera cable either plugs into your smartphone screen or broadcasts images on WiFi for the whole team to watch.

I can see builders, plumbers, sparkies, farmers, building inspectors, engineers, mechanics and DIY enthusiasts would find the endoscope useful, not just because of its high-def 8-LED camera, but also the tool attachments – a mirror, a magnet and a hook – that allow users not just to see the problem but possibly fix it.

We had a new shipment in last week and have already sold half of them. If you want to see it in action, check this out:

The other item in the toolkit is a rugged smartphone. My teenage daughter paid $350 for a Samsung J5 last year, her third phone in 18 months because of fractured screens. This time I thought I’d buy a Spark mobile insurance policy for $10 a month. Fat lot of good that did. Daughter dropped phone again last week and killed it. Been paying out for nearly a year (do the maths) months only to be told there’s a $150 excess on top of the $120 in premiums for a phone now retailing at $299. That’s an insurance “payout” of $29 and my “contribution” of $270.

So instead of filling Spark’s coffers yet again for a pretty but weak phone, I told said daughter she was getting our latest phone. You’ll find it difficult to break this, I told her:

To see more on either of these items, read more here