News In Brief

Welcome to our ‘News In Brief’ column in which we digest all the news releases for you in no more than five paragraphs.
Below are snippets of all the media releases we received from Feb 2 till the end of the week.
This article updates throughout the week.

Books Offer Sanctuary

Perth, Feb 3: Australians increasingly turned to reading for escape, comfort and curiosity in 2025, with new data from the 2025 Rakuten Kobo Book Report showing a sharp rise in immersive fiction alongside sustained interest in wellness and biography-led nonfiction.
The report found fiction was the most popular genre, with Sundays the nation’s favourite reading day, January the most popular reading month, and 15 September the single biggest reading day. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros was the most-read eBook and audiobook, and Yarros was the highest-selling author, with Fourth Wing and Iron Flame also ranking among the most-read eBooks.
Science fiction and fantasy grew 34 per cent year-on-year — the fastest-growing genre categories — while paranormal and gothic themes, including vampire fiction, rose 19 per cent. Fantasy romance (romantasy) emerged as the second most-read romance subgenre in Australia, with readers showing a preference for series-led storytelling and long-form narratives.
The report also flagged pop culture as a driver of reading trends, while predicting a renewed interest in classic titles in 2026 due to upcoming screen adaptations, alongside growth in romance subgenres including mafia and cottagecore, and rising interest in hockey romance.

APAC Partner Awards

Perth, Feb 3: 11:11 Systems has announced the recipients of its inaugural 2025 Partner Awards for the Asia-Pacific region, recognising partners supporting cloud, security and digital transformation outcomes for customers.
The awards highlight organisations delivering value through the 11:11 resilient cloud platform, including deployments across cloud, networking, backup, cyber resilience, disaster recovery and security, with winners selected for innovation, performance and customer impact.
Marc Beder, General Manager of APAC at 11:11 Systems, said: “Organisations across the Asia-Pacific region are facing cyberattacks that are increasing in both pace and impact. When downtime and remediation are factored in, the cost to businesses can run into the millions,” said Marc Beder, General Manager of APAC at 11:11 Systems. “In this environment, our partners play a critical role in helping customers build robust cyber resilience, networking, and cloud strategies. This award recognises Data#3, Perfekt and Secureware for simplifying that complexity and safeguarding mission-critical data, enabling customers to stay focused on innovation and growth. We congratulate them on their achievements and the outstanding outcomes they continue to deliver for our shared customers across APAC.”
The 2025 winners were Data#3 (Partner of the Year), Perfekt (Accelerator of the Year) and Secureware (Rising Star of the Year).

Firefly Goes Unlimited

Perth, Feb 3: Adobe has expanded Adobe Firefly subscriptions to include unlimited image and video generations, giving creators ongoing access to Adobe’s Firefly models as well as third-party image models such as Google Nano Banana Pro, GPT Image Generation and Runway Gen-4 Image.
Adobe said unlimited generations are available across firefly.adobe.com, Firefly Boards, and the Firefly mobile app on iOS and Android, alongside tools including Firefly Boards for collaborative ideation and a browser-based Firefly video editor for assembling sequences.
The company pointed to growing adoption of creative AI, saying 86 per cent of creators use creative AI daily and that the average Firefly prompt length doubled in 2025, reflecting more iterative, conversational use of generative tools.
The unlimited generations offer applies to new and existing subscribers on select plans through 16 March 2026, with generations available up to 2K resolution.

IoT Links Door Entry

Perth, Feb 3: Telefónica Tech has partnered with Fermax to add managed IoT connectivity to Fermax video door entry systems in Spain and other European markets, including France and Portugal.
Telefónica Tech will provide its managed IoT connectivity via the Kite platform, enabling centralised, real-time and remote visibility and control of Fermax video door entry panels connected through SIM cards. Telefónica Tech said it has already connected more than 27,000 Fermax panels using 4G technology and a non-removable SIM-IoT card.
Ángel Sánchez, Director of Business Development at Fermax, said: “This agreement is part of Fermax’s strategy to promote connected access solutions, supported by reliable and managed IoT connectivity. Having a technology partner like Telefónica Tech allows us to operate our fleet of connected panels centrally, scale with confidence and lay a solid foundation for the development of new digital services, both for end users and other players in the ecosystem.”
Juan José González Menaya, Head of IoT Connectivity at Telefónica Tech, said: “Thanks to our IoT connectivity, Fermax video door entry systems become connected devices that offer a much more convenient and secure experience for the user, allowing them to interact with their home or building from anywhere, for example, by opening the door remotely from their mobile phone. At the same time, our Kite platform allows Fermax to centrally manage and monitor all connected installations, ensuring optimal operation and anticipating potential incidents before they impact the service.”
Fermax said it aims to exceed 100,000 connected video door entry systems by 2030, targeting 15,000 to 20,000 installations per year from 2026. The companies said the connected systems support remote monitoring and maintenance, encrypted communications, and app-based features including answering calls and opening doors remotely via Fermax’s DuoxMe app.