GLENN’S SHOWNOTES

Telstra revamps 365-day prepaid mobile broadband

Telstra accidentally leaked details of the change in a summary pdf document on its website, which was noticed by a Whirlpool user jhend.
The document revealed that the current $150 recharge that offered up to 10GB of data with a 365-day expiry had been replaced by a $180 recharge option offering up to 12GB of data allowance instead.

“We’ve found many of our customers on the 10GB plan are using their allowance within the 12 month period.”
The new 365-day prepaid plan is proportionally no more expensive than the plan it replaces.
“The cost per MB is marginally better than the outgoing 365-day option – 1.46c per MB v 1.47 per MB,” the spokesman said.
The plan change comes into effect on June 12.

HTC barred from Windows 8

Inside sources told Business Week that Microsoft had barred HTC from its new operating system because it was concerned HTC was not a big enough player in the mobile market.
According to analyst firm IDC, HTC ranks fifth in the smartphone market with five percent of market share. It sits behind market leaders Samsung and Apple

Business Week’s sources said that HTC was also too inexperienced at making tablets.

News of HTC’s Windows 8 exclusion signals further difficulties for the company, which today downgraded its second-quarter revenue target by 13 percent.

It is forecasting global revenue of about NT$91 billion ($A3.07bn), down from its original prediction of NT$105 billion.

Google Australia goes down

Google’s Australian services were slow or offline Wednesday (last night), most likely due to a power outage at one of the Sydney data centres where the internet giant has peering points.

Several produced trace routes that initially showed Google timing out, before traffic was rerouted via locations in Asia and the United States.

LinkedIn hit by 6.5m password breach

LinkedIn has confirmed user accounts have been breached after a file containing almost 6.5 million passwords was leaked to a Russian internet forum.

Some users reported finding their password as hashes on the leaked list, a 118 MB ZIP file posted online sometime overnight.
BBC News reported that the alleged hackers were seeking help to decrypt the password file.

Silveira said affected users would be prompted to change their passwords when they next logged into the social network and would receive further information on the issue in near future.

IPv6 world starts this week

Yesterday, Wednesday was World IPv6 Launch Day, the deadline for major service providers to cut-over to the new IP protocol, which could potentially help to lure the rest of the world to move in that same direction.
In some respects, the deadline is seen as a non-event since many of the organisations required to cut over to v6 have done so long ago.

pros
Michael Wheeler, vice president of global IP networks at NTT America in Redmond, WA

if every networked device in the world had its own unique identifier, it provides a much higher level of security than what V4 does today.

DDOS attacks have gotten more sophisticated and the volume has grown over time,” he said. “If v6 were the default protocol, we’d be in a better condition to deal with those threats.”

Punters gobble up Aldi tablet

The $249 Android tablet was advertised as a “special limited buy” by Aldi last week.
The tablet sold out in five minutes on its first day on sale after the supermarket chain’s North Sydney and here at mudgeeraba and Varisty Lakes.

specs

Compaq sign pops up on eBay

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Giant-Neon-letter-Q-Unique-Collectors-Signage-Compaq-Building-/270990536313?pt=AU_AdvertisingCollectables&;hash=item3f184b6e79

Mysterious eBay seller “chairmanmeow2009” has posted for auction the ‘Q’ from the Compaq neon sign, which they claim once adorned the Compaq building in North Ryde, Sydney.

The item, currently sitting at $100 and with five days to go, appears to be a rare piece of memorabilia for companies once found and now lost to the ages.

The seller — a former Compaq staff member — said the ‘Q’ of the logo has “adorned many a xmas [sic] party and event” since coming off the building, when HP bought the manufacturer in 2003.

Unfortunately, the letter is a once-off event; the other letters are nowhere to be found, at least by this seller.

retrieved from http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/06/anybody-want-to-buy-a-q/

Apple goes public with iOS security features

iOS security features, releasing a detailed guide

The 18-page document, considered the computing giant’s first public address of its security engineering, covers system architecture, encryption, data protection and network security for devices running on iOS, which includes the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Although a majority of the features discussed in the report have been uncovered by researchers through reverse engineering, one notable topic covered by the document is the multiple security layers implemented into each iOS device.

“The combination of required code signing, sandboxing and entitlements in apps provides solid protection against viruses, malware and other exploits that compromise the security of other platforms,” states the manual.

Additionally, the report includes insight into the mobile operating system’s use of address space layout randomization (ASLR), a feature designed to mitigate exploits and stifle saboteurs from corrupting a device’s memory with malware.

Telstra cleared in NASA Venus stream collapse

The planned live broadcast of the rare astronomical event from an Alice Springs high school was delayed by an hour by what was later identified as an “IT problem”.

Earlier, the problem had beenreported was caused when a backhoe being used by a Telstra roadwork crew cut a fibre-optic cable, knocking out many internet connections in parts of the Northern Territory.

He says the Alice Springs coverage was vital because another NASA site in Mongolia had clouded over and the sun had set in the United States.

The next time Venus will be visible passing between Earth and the sun will be in 2117.

Internet and mobile services, including ATMs, across parts of the Northern Territory have been affected by the cutting of the fibre-optic cable.
Telstra says the cable was damaged late yesterday, about 17 kilometres south of Mataranka.

An Elvis Hologram Is Coming

The “virtual Elvis likeness” will be created by Digital Domain Media Group, the creators behind the Tupac hologram. The company, also responsible for visual effects in films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,Tron: Legacy and X-Men: First Class, will team up with Core Media Group to bring The King’s holographic image to television, film and other venues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtMnwZKOtwA

Flying robot set to spur on flying feet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x4d8IX_0kI

RMIT is a global university of technology and design and Australia’s largest tertiary institution. The University enjoys an international reputation for excellence in practical education and outcome-oriented research.

A group of games developers decided they wanted to meld robotics with physical activity to improve the experience of jogging.

They bought a simple drone and programmed it to respond to an orange and blue marker on a T-shirt worn by the jogger. A built-in camera attached to the drone lets it track the jogger and move accordingly. ”The original product was controlled by a phone. We turned that into an autonomous robot that controls itself.”

Microsoft releases final Windows 8 test version

MICROSOFT has released a final test version of Windows 8 overnight, signalling its readiness to roll out its new operating system.

Microsoft signaled the makeover is nearly complete by releasing overnight a final test version of Windows 8.

Vinyl gets its groove back

SOME time this year, Australian music buyers will spend more to listen to music by downloading or streaming than by buying physical recordings.

The number of vinyl albums sold in Australia topped 65,000 last year, up from 18,000 only four years before.

Vinyl is having its second coming.
Chris Moss, the owner of Australia’s last operating vinyl record pressing plant, Zenith Records, is so convinced of vinyl’s future, he runs four factories here and overseas.

He reckons the worldwide vinyl market last year was about 45 million records, about 7.5 per cent of the size of the estimated 600 million CD market, which is falling steeply. Most vinyl sales last year were in the US, the world’s second-largest music market after Japan. Japan itself is a curious music market, because vinyl recordings are not as popular as music cassette recordings, which represent about 1 per cent of the physical recordings sold.
The Zenith Records factory in Sunshine handles mostly small-run pressings for independent bands and musicians, who want something special on their merchandise table at their gigs. The seven-inch press is the busiest, because of how Zenith structures its pricing.

ERIK’S SHOWNOTES

Google Ups Ante as Map Battle Looms

By AMIR EFRATI

Google Inc. unveiled an expansion of its Google Maps and Google Earth services, upping the ante ahead of an anticipated new mapping service from rival Apple Inc.

The search giant said Wednesday it would start showing three-dimensional images for entire metropolitan areas in Google Earth. Up to this point, the service had shown 3-D images only of some buildings. Google said it would eventually also make the more-robust 3-D imagery available on Google Maps and to software developers.

In addition, Google said it would soon make Google Maps available on devices that run on its Android mobile operating system, even during times when the device doesn’t have an Internet connection because the user has poor wireless reception. Currently, the service works only if the device is connected to a wireless network.

Google’s announcements, made at an event in San Francisco Wednesday, come as the Internet search giant and Apple are locked in a battle for smartphone and tablet users and the hundreds of thousands of software developers who make apps for the devices. Maps are considered to be a future battleground, with Apple becoming the newest major entrant.

Wednesday’s event, which included no major news, appeared aimed at showing how much Google had invested in improving the service over the past seven years and implying that it would be difficult to replicate.

Google is currently nearly unchallenged in digital mapping for consumers, and thousands of developers pay the company to incorporate Google Maps into their websites. Google doesn’t charge developers for incorporating Google Maps on Android and Apple mobile devices. Many developers use Google Maps to show app users their location on a map and how close they are to their friends and restaurants, for instance.

Apple currently preloads Google Maps on its iPhones and iPads. But Apple has been putting the pieces in place to offer a mapping service of its own and to replace Google Maps as the default mapping service on its devices, people familiar with the matter have said.

Apple could preview the new software, which is expected to be part of its next mobile-operating system, as soon as next week at its annual developer conference, one person familiar with the plan has said. Apple plans to encourage app developers to embed its maps inside their applications.

“There’s a race between Google and Apple to develop the next killer features on their mobile platforms,” said Robin Thurston, chief product officer of MapMyFitness Inc., which develops mobile apps that let people track their fitness activities on Google-powered maps and share them with friends.

Mr. Thurston said he expects his company will develop a version of its service using Apple’s future maps software.

On Wednesday, Google vice president of engineering Brian McClendon declined to directly address Apple’s mapping efforts, other than to say Google would continue to work on providing comprehensive mapping service to Apple device users.

Android smartphones have one key advantage over the iPhone when it comes to mapping: They have a built-in Google turn-by-turn navigation service that acts like an in-car GPS, while the iPhone doesn’t—the result of disagreements between the companies over how such a service would be displayed.

Google product manager Peter Birch said that by the end of the year Google’s 3-D coverage, aided by imagery from cameras mounted on Google’s own fleet of planes, would extend to areas with a combined population of 300 million people.

Google didn’t disclose the names of cities for which 3-D imagery would be available but added that the new feature would be made available on Apple mobile devices as well as those powered by Android.

Apple’s new iOS 6 Maps app with 3D mapping is coming this summer, and we have photos

Apple has been working on an in-house mapping solution for a few years, and it appears as if the company is finally ready to release a new Maps app for iOS, sidestepping Google’s mapping data for its own.

BGR has obtained exclusive information and photos of parts of Apple’s new Maps app from a trusted source, and the app features a refreshed user interface including a brand new navigation bar. This bar, we’re told, is silver instead of blue. Since the current Maps app follows the standard blue iOS color scheme, we think it’s possible Apple might shift toward a silver color theme in iOS 6 like on the iPad.

The iPhone version of Maps has a floating locate me button (it sounds very similar to Android’s Google Maps app) in the bottom left corner. To access 3D mode, which will make use of Apple’s C3 Technologies acquisition, you have to peel back the lower right corner of Maps just like the current version and enable 3D mode.

Once enabled, you can switch in and out of 3D mode by tapping a 3D icon in the lower left corner. A photo of this feature can be seen in our gallery.

Apple is now putting the finishing touches on its 3D mapping functionality, and it is currently being tested in build 10A3XX of iOS 6.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/29/apple-maps-ios-6-3d-summer/

Apple extravaganza: major refresh coming next week

A plethora of new iPhone features, Siri for iPad, new MacBooks and 3D maps are just some of the predictions swirling around the rumour mill ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next week.

Apple’s sassy virtual personal assistant, Siri, will reportedly make the move from iPhone to iPad, where she will be able to execute all commands except those relating to making calls.

Siri for iPad is expected to take up a small portion of the screen, overlapping whatever app is open at the time rather than the full screen version on the iPhone, reports 9 to 5 Mac.

A video of an alleged iPhone part shows Apple’s next smartphone screen could be longer. Photo: Macotakara

Apple’s sassy virtual personal assistant, Siri, will reportedly make the move from iPhone to iPad, where she will be able to execute all commands except those relating to making calls.

Siri for iPad is expected to take up a small portion of the screen, overlapping whatever app is open at the time rather than the full screen version on the iPhone, reports 9 to 5 Mac.

Apple’s popular virtual assistant Siri. Photo: Reuters

It is not yet known if Siri will be available on all iPad models or just the most recent model, released to lacklustre reception earlier this year.

While the iPhone 5 – with a larger screen and thinner body – is not expected to launch until October, Apple will reportedly announce a new operating system for iPhone and iPad at the San Francisco event next week.

The software, iOS 6, is expected to include Facebook integration, in a similar way that Twitter is currently integrated into the iOS 5 operating system.

MacBook Air and MacBook Pro expected to be updated with higher resolution screens and faster Intel chips.

9 to 5 Mac reports that Apple will redesign the apps for iTunes, iBooks and the App store itself. Following on from Facebook integration, the redesigned apps will be more “social”, building on iTunes’ ‘Ping’ feature, where users can view and interact with friends’ purchases.

It has also been speculated that the Google Maps app will be replaced with Apple’s own maps app that will include 3D graphics.

Features that have already been announced for Apple’s new computer-based operating system, Mountain Lion, are also expected to appear in iOS 6, further signalling the convergence of the two platforms.

Mail VIPs will allow users to highlight important contacts from within the Apple Mail interface, a feature similar to Gmail’s ‘important’ label.

Also from Mountain Lion, the ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature will allow iPhone and iPad users to switch off all notifications temporarily to focus on one task without distraction.

iOS users will also be able to take advantage of iCloud Tabs, which syncs tabs open in the Safari browser across different devices. Basically, any of the tabs you leave open in Safari on your computer will be available when you open Safari on your iPhone or iPad.

But the Cupertino company has not completely forgotten its roots in favour of the mobile platform, with major updates expected across its computer lines.

It has been rumoured that a renovated MacBook Pro will be revealed, which will include a faster processor, a thinner body and Apple’s Retina display screen currently sported by the most recent iPhone and iPad models.

A photo of what is allegedly a specifications sheet for the revamped 13-inch MacBook pro was leaked yesterday on Chinese forum Weiphone, revealing a 2.5Ghz i5 Ivy Bridge processor upgrade, Intel 4000 Graphics and two USB 3.0 ports.

Both the 11- and 13-inch models of the MacBook Air are also expected to get a visual makeover with Retina displays and performance upgrades.

9-to-5 Mac also reports that Apple’s desktop computing options, the iMac and Mac Pro will be updated. This was all but confirmed today after pulled stock of the Mac Pro from most of its retail stores ahead of the expected update.

Since the passing of co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, Apple’s product launches have drawn criticism for not living up to the hype they once demanded. If even a fraction of these rumours turn out to be true, the WWDC Keynote on June 11 is set to be Apple’s biggest event in some time.

Apple to Update Nearly Entire Mac Lineup at WWDC?

Monday June 4, 2012 8:45 pm PDT by Eric Slivka

9to5Mac reports that Apple will update nearly all of its Mac products at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, with “at least four” out the company’s five Mac families seeing upgrades.

The most solid candidate for an upgrade is the MacBook Pro, which has been reported by numerous sources to be gaining a slimmer form factor with the update. Apple’s iMac and MacBook Air lines are also considered solid bets for upgrades next week.

The report claims that both the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air will receive ultra-high resolution Retina displays, but while the iMac has also been rumored to be gaining the feature in the future, it is unclear whether it will make it into the next update of Apple’s flagship desktop line.

If Apple is planning to only update four of its lines, the final spot would come down to the Mac mini and the Mac Pro, with 9to5Mac arguing that the Mac mini is the most likely to see an update given that just-released Ivy Bridge chips that could also be appearing in a 13-inch MacBook Pro would be suitable for a Mac mini refresh.

Xeon E5 chips suitable for a significant Mac Pro update have been available for several months now, but Apple has so far elected not to refresh its professional-level workstation product and there continue to be questions about its fate given that it has been nearly two years since it was last updated.

Finally, today’s report indicates that Apple may also be taking the opportunity of a massive Mac update to also introduce new and updated accessories, although details on Apple’s plans for those products remain unknown.

Facebook under fire for setting sights on pre-teens

June 6, 2012

WASHINGTON: Facebook is facing criticism from US politicians after reports the company is exploring ways to let children under 13 onto its social network.

The co-chairmen of the Bi-Partisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, Joe Barton and Edward Markey, have sent a letter to the chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, asking him to provide details on the company’s plans for allowing access to children younger than 13, who fall under stricter regulations regarding online privacy.

It is understood the company has not made a final decision on whether or how to give them access.

While the move would expand Facebook’s user base, it would also invite further scrutiny over privacy and security on the world’s largest social network.

‘

‘We strongly believe that children and their personal information should not be viewed as a source of revenue,” the representatives wrote in the letter. ”We are deeply concerned that the changes discussed by Facebook could potentially have a harmful impact on our children.”

Children under 13 are protected by the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires websites to notify parents and obtain their consent before collecting personal data from minors.

Complying with this law while opening Facebook’s service to younger users could create technical challenges, said Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Centre for Digital Democracy, a Washington privacy group.

‘

‘Facebook can’t simply get a parent to say OK and have children face a slew of viral marketing and ad campaigns,” Mr Chester said. ”If Facebook is to serve children, they have to create a state-of-the-art system to protect their privacy.”

Many children are already using the site, and Facebook said it was looking for ways to help keep them safe. In May last year, Consumer Reports said a survey showed Facebook had 7.5 million users who were younger than 13 in 2010, in violation of the website’s policies. More than 5 million of the users were under 11, the watchdog group said.

‘We are in continuous dialogue with … policymakers about how best to help parents keep their kids safe in an evolving online environment,” Facebook said in an emailed statement.

Facebook will ‘disappear by 2020’: analyst

This post was originally published on Mashable.

Facebook’s sliding stock price has at least one hedge fund manager predicting a dismal decade ahead for the social network.

“In five to eight years they are going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared,” Ironfire Capital founder Eric Jackson told the CNBC show Squawk on the Street.

“Yahoo is still making money, it’s still profitable, still has 13,000 employees working for it, but it’s 10 per cent of the value that it was at the height of 2000,” Jackson added. “For all intents and purposes, it’s disappeared.”

So how exactly does Jackson see Facebook’s power eroding by decade’s end? He says it will be the continued emergence of the mobile web — and Facebook’s struggle to adapt to that paradigm shift.

“The world is moving faster, it’s getting more competitive, not less,” he said. “I think those who are dominant in their prior generation are really going to have a hard time moving into this newer generation.

“Facebook can buy a bunch of mobile companies, but they are still a big, fat website and that’s different from a mobile app.”

Facebook bought the wildly popular mobile photo-sharing app Instagram — which some saw as a potential rival — for $1 billion in April. Still, the company has acknowledged mobile as a potential stumbling block for sustained growth.

In its required initial pre-IPO disclosure of 35 “risk factors” released in February, the company admitted that as mobile use of Facebook and the web in general continues to expand, its ad-free mobile platform will become more problematic. In an amended filing in May, the company underscored that challenge again.

Facebook stock officially went on sale on May 18 at $38 per share. It closed on Monday at $26.90.

Jackson sees Facebook as a member of the second of three generations of modern internet companies. The first generation, highlighted by businesses such as Google and Yahoo, served as portals that organized and aggregated the web’s wealth of information. The second generation, most notably Facebook, capitalised on an emerging social web.

The third generation is made up of companies whose sole goal is leveraging and monetising mobile users.

“When you look over these three generations, no matter how successful you are in one generation, you don’t seem to be able to translate that into success in the second generation, no matter how much money you have in the bank, no matter how many smart PhDs you have working for you,” Jackson says.

“Look at how Google has struggled moving into social, and I think Facebook is going to have the same kind of challenges moving into mobile.”

IPv6: Trillions of new net addresses now possible

A new standard which will enable the creation of trillions of new web addresses has been enabled.

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) – a replacement to the existing IPv4 system – launched at 00:01 GMT on Wednesday.

The new system is necessary to prevent the internet running out of available addresses for new devices.

Experts said users should not notice any difference in their web use, and new devices should be using the new system as standard.

IPv4, which was conceived during the early days of the internet, only allows just over four billion unique IP addresses, the sequences of numbers used to identify a device.

Each internet-enabled device – such as a computer, tablet or smartphone – needs its own IP address in order to connect to the internet.

However, due to the shortage of IP addresses, many devices – such as multiple computers in the one home – have to share addresses, which can often slow down connection speeds.

Networking giant Cisco predicts that by 2016, 18.9 billion internet-enabled devices will be online. Switching to IPv6 means trillions of possible addresses can now be made.

Vint Cerf, early pioneer of the internet and current “chief internet evangelist” for Google, explained in a blog post: “The new, larger IPv6 expands the limit to 2^128 addresses—more than 340 trillion, trillion, trillion! Enough for essentially unlimited growth for the foreseeable future.”

‘Imperial to metric’

To ensure a smooth transition, and to make sure devices do not stop working, both systems will work side-by-side for the next few years.

“Most users shouldn’t notice anything,” said Leo Vegoda from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the Internet address system.

“If ordinary Internet users need to know stuff, then the technology isn’t right.”

Some users on IPv4-only devices may experience speed issues, he added.

Once the full switch to IPv6 has been made, older devices and networks may encounter problems.

“The introduction of IPv6 is the IT equivalent of the move from imperial to metric for measurement; the two can run side by side but aren’t compatible with each other,” explained Mark Lewis, vice president for development for telecommunications firm Interoute.

Mr Lewis warned that the proliferation of internet-enabled devices presents a pressing security risk for companies.

“The introduction of IPv6 will effectively mean that every device, from the mobile phone to the vending machine could become a mole in the office,” he said.

“This puts the onus on organisations to secure and understand these new internet enabled devices that operate within the office walls.”

Rumour: Apple conference to ‘blow your head off’

APPLE will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference with a Monday keynote address from CEO Tim Cook, and there’s no shortage of prognostications about the products he’s likely to show off.

AllThingsDigital reported in May that WWDC would see the debut of a brand new “blow your head off” Apple-developed mapping application. The Wall Street Journal confirmed this. A new MacBook Pro with significantly thinner chassis and high-resolution display may also be on the docket.

The conference may also launch further integration between Apple and Facebook.

Last week, Cook, at the D10 conference, strongly suggested that the announcement of some manner of iOS integration with Facebook could be on tap.

Another likely possibility is new Macs. There has been chatter about a refresh of most of Apple’s Mac lines for some time now. On

Tuesday, tech blog 9to5Mac reported that Apple has new versions of the MacBook Air, the iMac and perhaps the Mac mini and Mac Pro.

http://paper.li/erikfranco/1314873758#!technology

Dell Exec: The iPad Is Too ‘Shiny’ For Business

Ryan Faas (7:11 am PDT, Jun 6)

Dell hasn’t had anything resembling success in the tablet market with either businesses or consumers, but that isn’t stopping the company from deriding the iPad and its success.

According to Dell Australia’s managing director Joe Kreme, users only buy iPads because they’re “shiny” and troubleshooting any issue with an iPad or iOS could take up to four days. As a result of these so-called facts, Kreme said that the tablet race hasn’t even started yet.

Kreme isn’t the first Dell executive to trash the iPad. The company’s Chief Commercial Officer Steve Felice used the new iPad launch in March as an platform to claim that Apple’s tablets shouldn’t be considered business-worthy.

His statements were somewhat closer to reality than Kreme’s. It’s almost hard to take Kreme’s statements seriously because they go so far beyond hyperbole that they sound delusional. Hisremarks about the iPad were made at a media and analyst briefing in Sydney.

People might be attracted to some of these shiny devices but technology departments can’t afford to support them.

If you are giving a presentation and something fails on the software side it might take four days to get it up and running again. I don’t think this race has been run yet.

The remarks show that Kreme hasn’t actually done research on the demographics of iPads in business or the tools and processes needed to support them. The idea that IT can’t afford to support them is ludicrous. The devices often work so well when brought into the office that some IT departments don’t even know that they’re being used. Even management costs can be minimized when choosing a mobile management solution.

As we explored in our Mobile Management Month series, there are a range of options that offer varying feature sets and price points including management solutions that are completely free, like Centrify Express for Mobile and Apple’s own management tools.

Ironically, several mobile management suites can also manage desktop systems as well (both Macs and PCs running Windows or Linux), which directly positions them as competitors to Dell’s KACE enterprise management appliance.

As far as support in business environments, the process can pretty streamlined. Barring hardware failures, configuration and app issues can often be resolved with relative ease and many iOS users are capable of self-supporting when it comes to such issues.

It’s worth mentioning here that troubleshooting a problem on a Dell notebook isn’t exactly a walk in the park and that often requires help desk support and/or a visit from an IT department’s desktop support team.

Kreme doesn’t mention the failure of Dell’s Android-based 5’ and 7’ Streak tablets to gain marketshare or that Dell felt forced to discontinue its netbook offerings after the iPad eroded demand for them. Now Dell, like other companies, is talking up Windows 8 tablets as the next great iPad-killers in business.

While it isn’t clear what impact Windows 8 and Windows RT will have on te business tablet space, the iPad’s sheer inertia and market penetration will make it difficult to compete against – particularly for Windows RT devices that can’t run legacy Windows apps or be managed by traditional PC management tools.

One thing seems certain though – Kreme is sadly mistaken if he thinks that the race for success in the business tablet market hasn’t even started.

Vodafone dumps cricket, motorsport sponsorship

June 7, 2012 – 4:52PM

Vodafone is to end its sponsorship of cricket and V8 Supercars and plough the money instead into its mobile phone network and improving customer service.

The mobile phone company which has struggled with its reception in recent years has said that it will not renew its sponsorship of the Australian cricket team from next March.

Its involvement in V8 Supercars through its Team Vodafone finishes at the end of this year, the company said today.

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Vodafone has been a sponsor of the Australian cricket team for 11 years and clocked up six years with motorsport.

The decision to pull out of sponsorship and focus on network investment was made earlier this year before the company’s new chief executive, Bill Morrow, took over from Nigel Dews in late March. But the director of Vodafone’s consumer business unit Noel Hamill said Mr Morrow “absolutely endorsed” the decision.

The carrier was besieged by complaints in late 2010 because its network was unprepared for the amount of mobile data used by smartphones. Its customer base fell by 554,000 to 7 million by the end of 2011 as consumers abandoned it in search of more reliable service.

The complaints reached their height in the midst of the company’s sponsorship of the cricket season and the resulting bad publicity – dubbed Vodafail on social media sites – cancelled out any feelgood factor from the cricket sponsorship.

“It’s been an absolute privilege and honour to be the major sponsor of Australia’s summer of cricket over so many years,” Mr Hamill said.

“We’ve been fortunate to be the major sponsor of the Australian Test Cricket Team during an era that has featured some of the true greats of the game, including the Waugh brothers, Warne, McGrath, Gilly, Ponting, and Michael Clarke. We wish the team every success in the future,” he said.

Exploring options

TeamVodafone will finish its run in its current livery at the end of the 2012 V8 Supercar Championship. Vodafone said that it will continue to explore ongoing sponsorship opportunities with Triple Eight Race Engineering, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

Vodafone spent $141.7 million on “advertising and promotion expenses” in 2010-11 according to financial reports filed with the corporate regulator, down from $149.2 million the previous year.

Mr Hamill said the financial benefits of exiting the sponsorship deals would not flow to Vodafone’s bottom line until the 2013-14 financial year.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia emerged from a 2009 merger between the Australian subsidiary of the UK-based Vodafone and Hutchison Whampoa’s ‘3’ brand.

The joint venture made just $10 million in 2009-10, but recorded a $444.7 million loss in 2010-11. However both parents have publicly said they will keep supporting the Australian business.

By September this year Vodafone expects to finish installing 1,500 new base stations on a new frequency and upgrading all of its existing 3G base stations with new equipment. It has installed 1,400 new base stations in capital cities and 500 new base stations in regional areas.

Episode 293 – Aussie Tech Heads Shownotes