GLENN’S NOTEBOOK

Amazon unveils $200 Kindle Fire tablet

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/amazon-unveils-200-kindle-fire-tablet/story-e6frgakx-1226150923812

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The Kindle Fire will go on sale from November 15. 

US$199 

Sadly, it’s US-only for now 

 It’s about half the size of the iPad

The Fire runs a version of Google’s Android software

and will have access to applications through Amazon’s Android store. Unlike the iPad, the Fire doesn’t need to be backed up on a PC. Instead, it backs up its contents wirelessly on Amazon’s servers.

Amazon’s cheapest new Kindle will cost $US79, and dispenses with the keyboard the Kindles have carried since the first model launched in 2007. Previously, the cheapest Kindle cost $US114.

Amazon is also bringing out the first black-and-white Kindle with a touch screen. It will cost $US99 

The Kindle Fire includes 8 gigabytes of internal storage, and free web-based storage for any digital content you get from Amazon, such as Kindle e-books, movies or music. The iPad includes between 16 gigabytes and 64 GB of storage space, depending on price. 

the Kindle Fire does not include a camera. 

Apple sold 28.7 million of them from April 2010 to June 2011. Analysts at research firm Gartner expect the iPad to account for three out of four tablet sales this year

Tablets’ ‘comfort factor’ the retailer’s new friend

  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/tablets-comfort-factor-the-retailers-new-friend/story-e6frg6nf-1226150300059

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CONSUMERS who browse retail websites using tablet devices are more likely to press the buy button than other online shoppers.

Marketing experts report the combination of a retail website and the iPad or other tablet is proving a potent combination when convincing online shoppers to make their purchase

Australians have a big appetite for tablet computers with market watcher Telsyte predicting sales here will hit 1.2 million units – or more – by the end of the year.

Most of these, about 70 per cent, will be Apple iPads, with the remainder split between Google Android-based machines from a range of makers and the BlackBerry Playbook tablet.

ACMA cracks anti-spam whip

 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/acma-cracks-anti-spam-whip/story-fn4htb9o-1226149157054

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The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has told the business community to ensure customers can unsubscribe from their email lists or face spamming penalties.

ACMA today issued a Sydney-based computer supplier Apus Corporation with a formal warning after it found that its unsubscribe facility failed on 24 occasions.

In October 2009, Queensland’s Federal Court fined two mobile SMS providers Mobilegate Ltd and Winning Bid Pty Ltd, and senior executives associated with them $15.8 million.

Mobilegate was fined $5m and Winning Bid slugged a $3.5m penalty. Mr Owen and Mr Salcedo each received personal fines of $3m. Mr Maughan was fined $1.25m.

It’s understood to be the largest fine for spamming ever levied in Australia.

Microsoft rolls out Windows Phone 7.5 ‘Mango’

  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/exec-tech/microsoft-rolls-out-windows-phone-75-mango/story-e6frgazf-1226148697019


With Windows 7.5, users can create home-screen tiles shortcuts that activate a section of an app, for example a tile that displays a group of contacts, rather than all contacts, or a tile relating to upcoming travel, rather than all travel. 

Windows 7.5 also introduces the idea of smart agents – apps that are fed information as they run in the background. One yet-to-be-released app by Qantas will automatically remind a user that they are starting to run late for an upcoming flight, and its tile will turn red. The app seeks a user’s GPS location as the time of the flight approaches.

Microsoft said it was bundling a full version of Office Mobile with WP 7.5, as well as a mobile version of Internet Explorer that supports HTML5 and hardware acceleration.

Samsung to make 10 changes to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 before it launches here
Apple and Samsung went back to court this week, we are a little closer to getting this device officially released in Australia. Samsung dropped a number of patents from their claim however the following patents that are left included:
(2005246219) The manufacture of a capacitive touch screen;
(2008258177) Selective rejection of inadvertent finger movements on a touch screen;
(2007286532) Correcting a person’s finger movements when scrolling vertically on a screen.
Samsung have agreed to make some changes to distance it’s tablet from it’s apple counterpart, things such as placing it’s logo on the front of the device, and a stack of ui changes,
Kogan news:
In reference to the story a few weeks back about Kogan selling this device in Australia,Kogan has agreed to stop selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet after Apple threatened to sue.  He is however still selling apple products and android phones.  For example, Samsung galaxy s2 unlocked for 519.00 with 12 month Australian warranty.

Apple locks in iPhone 5 debut for October 4 following months of speculation

  http://apcmag.com/apple-locks-in-iphone-5-debut-for-october-4-following-months-of-speculation.htm

In addition to the comprehensive voice control functions, thought to be dubbed “Assistant” and likened to a “system-wide voice navigation system”, the iPhone 5 is expected to include a speedier A5 CPU (like the one used in the iPad 2), an 8MP camera, 1GB of RAM and, of course, iOS 5. 

Android event: Samsung and google are together sending out invitations for an event on October 11 at the CTIA trade show in San Diego. There’s a lot of chatter that we will see ice cream sandwich unveiled, as well as the new Nexus device which will more than likely be a Samsung design.

Facebook vows privacy fix ‘in 24 hours’

  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/facebook-vows-privacy-fix-in-24-hours/story-e6frgakx-1226147941509

Australian Security consultant and blogger Nik Cubrilovic sparked a major privacy debate after posting a blog late on Sunday which demonstrated that Facebook was still collecting identifiable information about users after they had logged out from the social network.

The information includes a Facebook user ID, which makes it possible for the social network to personally label computer usage information that it collects from PCs.

“They’re sending the information to their servers, even when they (users)are logged out.

Mr Cubrilovic confirmed that, instead of deleting or deactivating browser cookies at logout, Facebook instead extended the life of cookies stored on a computer for several years into the future.

He said Facebook also had promised to address three other cookie-related issues during the call.

“They aim to fix it (the logout issue) by tomorrow,” Mr Cubrilovic said.

“There will still be cookies, but they won’t be identifiable. That’s within 24 hours.

“We can only take them at their word.”

With ‘real-time’ apps, Facebook is always watching

  http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/23/tech/social-media/facebook-real-time/index.html?eref=edition_technology&;utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fedition_technology+%28RSS%3A+Technology%29

If I am listening to a song via some service and logged into that service via facebook, which seems to becomming alot more common these days, this info is auto shared with facebook on the timeline.  I cannot see my own entries to the time line, thus leaving me unaware of what is going into my timeline.

Same would go for looged into Yahoo via facebook

online tv streaming siginged in with facebook? shared 

Maybe have to think about what we are signing in for with Facebook if we do not want it shared .  I hope Red Tube doesn’t have a facebook login!

Music Piracy Continues to Decline Thanks to Spotify

 
A new report looking into online music consumption habits shows that since 2009 the number of people who pirate music has dropped by 25 percent in Sweden. The sharp decrease coincides with a massive interest for the music streaming service Spotify.
Having the option to stream millions of tracks supported by an occasional ad, or free of ads for a small monthly fee, Spotify appears to be serious competitor to music piracy.
This story fits in with my thoughts on piracy: Bring the content to me over the internet for a fair price and I’ll happily pay for it or put up with ads instead of downloading it illegally. Look at how the tv stations do their catch up service. You can watch past episodes of select shows online for free, but it is ad supported. If you make this the norm, rather than the exception it will be less effort to watch things legally than to pirate. You could even be smart and target adds to relate to the viewers interests. Also, the delay in a lot of shows getting to our shores is a big reason people pirate. Example – Sons of anarchy is up to season two here, yet season for is underway in America and you can watch it online.

Google helps put Dead Sea Scrolls online