SPECIAL GUEST:

Award winning author and Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Jeff Goodell talks about his new book The Water Will Come and how climate change is reshaping our world.

Jeff Goodell will be a guest of the Auckland Writers Festival which takes place 15-20 May. His main event, The Water Will Come, is on Sunday 20 May, 1.30pm at the Aotea Centre.

http://www.writersfestival.co.nz/programmes/event/the-water-will-come-jeff-goodell/597854/

FRANCESCA RUDKIN: Movies

Avengers Infinity War  starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans etc, etc, etc ...

Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet -- the evil Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never been more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment.

Francesca’s verdict: 3/5

Last Flag Flying starring Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Laurence Fishburne

Thirty years after serving together in the Vietnam War, Larry "Doc" Shepherd, Sal Nealon and the Rev. Richard Mueller reunite for a different type of mission: to bury Doc's son, a young Marine killed in Iraq. Forgoing burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Doc and his old buddies take the casket on a bittersweet trip up the coast to New Hampshire. Along the way, the three men find themselves reminiscing and coming to terms with the shared memories of a war that continues to shape their lives.

Francesca’s verdict: 3.5/5

NICI WICKES: Food

Walnuts are in season and Nici has a Coffee, Sour Cream and Walnut cake. The recipe and audio are on our page or for or more inspiration visit  http://www.niciwickes.oom/  or her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/niciwickes

TARA WARD: Screen Time

Australian comedy ‘The Letdown’ covers the trials and tribulations of new parenthood (Netflix)

Inspired by a true story, ‘The Terror’ is a tense thriller about a Royal Navy crew stranded in the treacherous conditions of the Arctic (Amazon Prime)

It’s an oldie but a goodie: all 7 seasons of superb 90s crime drama ‘Prime Suspect’ starring Helen Mirren is now available on Lightbox

PAUL STENHOUSE: Technology

Amazon wants you to be nice to your smart assistant

Especially the kids! They need to learn to say please and thank you. Now when a kid asks “what will the weather be today, please?”, Alexa will add “Thanks for asking so nicely”. If the child says thank you, then she’ll say “no worries” or “you’re welcome”. They’re trying to positively reinforce the good behavior.

They’ve also released other kid friendly features allowing you to block access to features and will give more appropriate child friendly answers to complicated questions – such as where do babies come from?

Amazon’s smart assistant is virtual.. but that might be changing?

There are reports that Amazon is looking at building a robot for your house. It’s in the VERY early phases and they’re still wondering what it could help with. Prototypes have got advanced cameras which can navigate around a house like a self-driving car. If it could fetch me a drink from the fridge, that could be quite handy!

 You mentioned this a few weeks back.. now it’s here.. Gmail’s new design

Surprisingly I’ve seen a lot of praise for the redesign – which is rare! It makes it easier to create to-do’s and makes the calendar more prominent. There’ll be handy new features such as “nudges” which understand which emails you typically reply to, and will alert you to emails you might have missed replying to.

Self destruct feature for emails too preventing the recipient from forwarding, printing or saving the email – however, it can’t stop you from taking a screenshot of the message.. so maybe it’s more of a deterrent?

You can opt in via the settings.. or it’ll get forced on you in a few months.

RUUD KLEINPASTE: Gardening

Here’s a list of some of the more spectacular autumn-coloured trees and shrubs

Go and look in nurseries now!

Maples  a huge range of Japanese maples – stunning small trees!

Dogwoods

Amelanchier

Crab apples in various colours – also with coloured fruits

Kaki (Persimmon) – stunning stuff in japan

Golden ash      under-estimated that Genus Fraxinus!

Claret ash

Poplars

Smoke bush (chad tree)  Brilliant in Central Otago

Liquidamber  Have a look at Bev McConnell’s garden, Ayrlies in Whitford

MIKE YARDLEY: Travel

Savouring Seattle - For more tips on grazing from Seattle's goodies, Mike's articles on our website [www.newstalkzb.co.nz/lifestyle/]www.newstalkzb.co.nz/lifestyle/

CATHERINE RAYNES: Books

Varina by Charles Frazier, Hachette $35

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows,  Allen & Unwin $25

ANDREW DICKENS: Music

Kimbra 'Primal Heart' - Andrew's verdict: 8/10

So her  first album was a doozy full of soulful and straight forward hits.  Her second album The Golden Echo was wild and extravagant in experimentation. So Primal Heart sees Kimbra finding a sweet spot between the styles of the first 2 albums. Soulful, RnB electronica with colour, character and tasteful complexity.  A very good album. Light of foot and personal.