GLENN’S NOTEBOOK
Scientists set new download speed record
Scientists have set a new data speed record using just a single laser to transmit the equivalent of 700 DVDs in one second
the data rate of 26 terabits per second reported by the group of German, Swiss and UK scientists in today’s Nature Photonics is the largest line rate ever recorded using a single light source.
“The amount of 26 terabits per second is the amount of data that would be generated by 400 million people making a phone call.
Professor Ben Eggleton, director of the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems at Sydney University, says
“The real breakthrough here isn’t just the capacity, because groups earlier this year have reported beyond this, it’s the fact that it’s one laser,
Hackers target Sony’s Canadian unit
Sony said it discovered unauthorised access on its systems that compromised the usernames, passwords and email addresses of 2000 accounts linked to its Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications’ operations in Canada. The breach didn’t involve any credit card details, the company said.
In addition to Canada and the US, hackers have successfully breached the company’s systems in Thailand, Indonesia and Greece.
analysts say Each successful hack fuels the perception that Sony’s systems are vulnerable, prompting more attacks.
“What Sony needs to do is step back, do an assessment of their risk and then get the right policies and equipment in place to lock down their systems,” said Paul Henry, a analyst for Lumension Security. “It’s not rocket science.”
Twitter buys TweetDeck for $40m to $50m
Founded in 2008, TweetDeck lets Twitter users organise the brands, celebrities, news feeds and people they “follow” on the short messaging platform. Users can also monitor their Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media accounts.
Analysts said the deal makes sense. TweetDeck has “some great technology” and a lot of loyal users, said Wedbush Morgan’s Lou Kerner. It’s not just the quantity, though, but the quality of those users that matters. Twitter’s most elite, most frequent contributors are on TweetDeck, said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at research firm eMarketer. These include celebrities as well as companies.
weetDeck users don’t typically see Twitter’s ads, but with the acquisition this will likely change.
Lady Gaga reaches 10 million Twitter followers
Lady Gaga is the first Twitter user with over 10 million followers, which is a first for both the singer and Twitter itself.
having been the most popular user on Twitter for quite some time now. She was also the first person to hit 10 million fans on Facebook, as well as 1 billion views on YouTube.
Lady Gaga recently partnered up with social gaming company Zynga to launch GagaVille, a Gaga-themed offshoot of Zynga’s hit game, FarmVille.
Draft guidelines move a step closer to R18+ rating for game
The government, with the approval of states and territories, would decide whether to create the new rating in July.
There will be no restrictions on language or drug use and nudity will be permitted, while sexual activity may be realistically simulated, the proposal says
Home Minister Brendan O’Connor released the draft today, which proposes that R18+ games carry similar guidelines to movies in the same category.
Apple admits to pornographic malware on Mac computers
APPLE has admitted that its operating system had been infiltrated by malicious software that throws up pornographic material on a user’s screen in order to get their credit card details.
“Mac Defender” MacProtector and MacSecurity. , malware that masquerades as anti-virus software. The malware is capable of automatically downloading itself and requesting its installation on a Macintosh device.
Mac Defender performs fake disk scans and throws up reports of fake infections to scare a user into disclosing their credit card details, and into buying the product. The malware program routinely displays pornography if a user chooses not to pay up.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4650
n the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants. The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware.
Telstra ‘throttle’ to curb 3G mobile bill shock
one of the first telcos in the world to bring throttling to mobile phone data
Customers using 3G mobiles will have their data speeds slowed to 48kbps
Customers using 2G mobiles will have their data speeds slowed to 15kbps
Telstra charges $2 per megabyte for excess data on some of its mobile plans.
Telstra turns on 4G service in four cities
it chases an ambitious deadline to have the service in full commercial operation by year’s end.
the carrier had fired up so-called long-term evolution (LTE) 1800MHz equipment at mobile sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.
it means that a Telstra customer who was able to obtain an 1800MHz LTE mobile broadband modem or handset would be able to start using the 4G service.
LTE service would be expected to deliver a range of about 2.6Mbps to 47Mbps.
there are 17 commercial LTE networks in operation around the world and an ecosystem of 98 devices, including smartphones, tablet devices, routers and broadband USB dongles.
However, only a handful of these devices are tuned to the 1800MHz frequency that Telstra has targeted.
Death toll rises at China iPad factory
Two workers were initially killed and 16 injured in the explosion on Friday evening at the plant of a Foxconn subsidiary in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan province
reportedly in a building where Apple’s iPad 2 was being made
reports however accurate saying 500 000 ipad2 lost
Apple Retail Refresh: Hands On with ‘Apple Store 2.0’
thanks to digruntled_tek on the twitter for this story
Apple has rolled out a worldwide makeover to its retail locations , replacing the familiar paper signage that usually sits next to products with interactive iPad kiosks.
iPad 2s are now featured on an acrylic stand next to just about every product in Apple Stores, including MacBooks, iPads, iPhones, iPods, and more. The iPads contain a program called Smart Sign that provides product information and specifications, support information, price details, and product comparisons. For example, if you’re playing around with an iPhone 4, you can also refer to the accompanying iPad, where you can look at a side-by-side comparison of the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 3GS. The iPad also helps you decide which carrier is right for you,
f you do, in fact, wish to speak with a human sales associate, the iPads have an option on the bottom right hand corner of the screen that lets you summon a specialist. When you select this button, a message will be sent to employees through an iPhone app installed on staff devices called iQueue. When an employee accepts the help request, iQueue will provide a floor plan of the store that shows exactly where you are so the staffer can find you quickly and easily. When the request is accepted, a message will be sent to your iPad terminal saying that a specialist is on his or her way.
Apple Stores worldwide, many of which received upwards of 100 iPads to be used as Smart Signs
Forty years on, Amway goes online
FORTY years ago Amway brought its operations to Australia, the company’s first move outside North America.
you take out your phone and punch in your app and all of a sudden you’ve got a 60-second product demo
I don’t think we’ve figured it all out yet but we certainly aren’t afraid of it and we embrace it. We try to figure out how we’re going to use it and how it’s going to help our business.” Amway’s global chairman Steve Van Andel
Erik’s Notebook
Retailers’ mark-ups under threat from online
Chris Zappone May 24, 2011
As a shopper, have you ever pondered what sort of mark-up the retailer has slapped on to the pair of Levi jeans or adidas runners that you’re about to try on?
Turns out consumers reckon a 35 per cent mark-up by the shop would be fair in order to make a profit, according to a survey by the Australia Institute out today.
ABS data shows which products really have the biggest mark-ups.
Product average mark-up by type
Product type Average mark-up
Clothes and shoes 142%
Other manufactured products 97%
Electrical and electronic goods 85%
Furniture 76%
Books newspapers and magazines 52%
Fresh food 47%
DVDs and music 40%
All goods wholesale or retail mark- up 65%
Source:Australia Bureau of Statistics data, The Australia Institute
For many goods, though, the retailer’s take is often much higher than you think.
“In reality, the average mark-up for items such as clothes and shoes is 142 per cent, and around 40 per cent for popular online items like DVDs and music,” said Richard Denniss, executive director of the Australia Institute.
The boom in online retailing is well known, with the rise of the Australian dollar over the past year often cited as the main culprit as shoppers find cheaper goods accessible on overseas websites.
Less understood, though, is how Australia’s high-cost retail sector is going to accelerate the flight to online shopping.
According the institute’s report, The Rise and Rise of Online Retail, a tin of Heinz baked beans costs 59 pence in a Sainsbury’s store in London, but $1.88 – equivalent to £1.23 – in a Woolworth’s in Perth.
Other instances include: a pair of Camper Peu leather casual shoes costs $US170 in the New York Camper store, compared with $290 – or $US305 – in Melbourne.
Those price differences aren’t necessarily price gouging on the part of the retailer, the report finds, but the result of Australia’s high rental prices and staff costs. The conclusion, though, is that those costs aren’t shared by online rivals, so the shift to internet shopping is only likely to quicken.
“The advantage of online retailing is both the ability of retailers to avoid most of these costs, combined with the highly competitive online environment driving down profit margins,” the report said. “That is, many customers are reluctant to leave one shop in search of lower prices elsewhere, but those same consumers are happy to click on a different link in the pursuit of even modest savings.”
Perceptions
Industry observers say consumers’ perceptions of the price gap and retail might be exaggerated by a misunderstanding of the difference between mark-ups and profit margins. Mark-ups, which are the difference between wholesale and retail prices, are almost always larger than the profit margin – the percentage of profit made on a particular item.
Even so, traditional retailers do have to absorb – and pass on – additional costs of display, staffing and retail rents that upstart online retailers can minimise. Even price adjustments to account for a stronger dollar making imports cheaper are more costly for “bricks and mortar” outlets to make than simply adjusting the website price.
“The fact is, traditional retail is a very expensive way of delivering products to customers and just as digital cameras have decimated photo development labs, so too will online retail transform the way Australians shop,” Dr Denniss said.
The Australia Institute inferred the whole-retail price difference, or mark-up, by using industry data, Australian Bureau of Statistics national accounts data, and firm specific data.
“This data sheds light on the widely held misunderstanding that the major cost of purchases is related to the cost of manufacturing it,” the report said.
“In fact, the major costs of most retail products are related to the costs of shipping, warehousing, displaying, advertising and sales staff and retail rents.”
While the transformation of the industry may cost jobs, concern over employment was not a big issue with the respondents. About 85 per cent of the survey of 1411 respondents said saving money was their main motivation for shopping online with only 50 per cent saying such actions hurt local jobs.
Property costs
The report also identified the issue of the high price of real estate in Australia – echoing the residential property market.
“The highly concentrated ownership structure of retail property in Australia has resulted in a significant portion of the high prices charged by Australian retailers being acquired as rent by the owners of the retail properties,” the report said.
For example, Sydney-based Leasing Information Services recently said the total occupancy cost of a small Australian fashion retailer was between 17 and 25 per cent of gross sales, while the cost for fashion retailers in the US was about 7.6 per cent, citing data from the US-based non-profit Urban Land Institute.
Whatever the reasons behind the higher prices for goods sold in Australia, the momentum of web-based sales has only accelerated over the past year, stoked by the strong Australian dollar.
Online sales search giant eBay today said it was making it simpler for Australian consumers to find US and British-based sellers of products that are difficult to find in Australia, by giving them increased prominence in searches.
“We believe that making it easier for consumers to access eBay’s global product selection will improve their shopping experience and ultimately benefit local businesses selling on eBay.com.au by retaining Australian customers who might otherwise look elsewhere,” said eBay vice-president Deborah Sharkey.
The online retail industry is also attracting big local investors. Billionaire James Packer yesterday announced his company, Consolidated Press Holdings, would join New York-based Tiger Global Management and two other groups to pump $80 million into the daily bargain shopping site CatchOfTheDay.com.au and group buying site Scoopon.com.au.
Seek co-founder Andrew Bassat and founder of Gannet Capital, Glenn Poswell are also partners in the investment, which valued CatchOfTheDay at $200 million.
czappone@fairfax.com.au
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/retailers-markups-under-threat-from-online-20110524-1f1g7.html#ixzz1NFYwhLSt
BIG BLUE BITES BACK AS IBM OVERTAKES MICROSOFT
May 24, 2011 – 9:17AM
Microsoft and Bill Gates have been outpunched in the battle of the tech titans. Photo: Reuters
International Business Machines edged past old rival Microsoft in market value for the first time since April 1996, marking the latest twist in the fluctuating fortunes of two of the world’s most storied technology companies.
The move marks another unhappy milestone for Microsoft, which has failed to persuade investors that it can dominate the future of technology as it did in the past, and has seen its share price stagnate over the past decade.
An investor putting $US100,000 into both stocks 10 years ago would now have about $US143,000 in IBM stock and about $US69,000 in Microsoft stock.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Microsoft is now the third-largest US tech company by market value, after a resurgent Apple roared past a year ago to take first place.
IBM ruled the computer industry for decades until it hired the tiny, unknown Microsoft to provide an operating system for its new range of personal computers in the early 1980s.
Bill Gates parlayed that breakthrough into industry dominance – proving his theory that software would be more valuable than hardware – so that by the end of 1999, Microsoft’s market value was three times that of IBM’s, and bigger than any other U.S. company.
Throughout Seattle-based Microsoft’s rise, IBM was pilloried as an old-fashioned, immobile Goliath that could not keep up with the computing revolution. The Armonk, New York-based company known as “Big Blue” was losing billions of dollars a year in the early 1990s and was close to a break-up before a turnaround engineered by CEO Louis Gerstner.
Since the Internet technology bubble burst in 2000, the tables have been reversed. Despite more than doubling sales and profit in the last 10 years, Microsoft’s stock has stalled, leading to criticism of CEO Steve Ballmer’s 11 years at the helm.
Although it still dominates the operating system market, Microsoft lost out to Google Inc in the new market for Internet advertising, let Apple lead the way in smartphones and tablet computing, and is struggling to make an imprint on the popular web in the way of Facebook or Twitter.
In the meantime, IBM has refashioned itself as a specialist in business software, servers and consulting, jettisoning its PC business along the way, under the leadership of Sam Palmisano since 2002.
According to Reuters data, Apple’s market value stood at $US309.2 billion ($294 billion) on Monday, IBM at $US203.8 billion and Microsoft at $US203.7 billion.
IBM is now ranked fourth in terms of market value in the United States, behind oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp at $US397.4 billion, Apple, and industrial and finance conglomerate General Electric Co at $US205.6 billion.
IBM shares ended down 1.1 per cent at $US168.26 while Microsoft fell 1.3 per cent to $US24.17.
Reuters
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/big-blue-bites-back-as-ibm-overtakes-microsoft-20110524-1f1d8.html#ixzz1NEiYCuYU
COUPLE’S $1.6M LAND KEY TO APPLE’S STREAMING MUSIC SERVICE
May 24, 2011 – 12:24PM
Apple paid Donnie and Kathy Fulbright $US1.7 million for their single-storey home. Photo: Bloomberg
Apple has reached agreements with three major record labels to let users of its new music service access their song collections from handheld devices via the internet, people with knowledge of the deals said.
Apple will accommodate the data and networking demands of its planned cloud services with a new $US1 billion data centre in North Carolina. The land Apple needed for the data centre was owned by Donnie and Kathy Fulbright. After three offers, Apple acquired their property for $US1.7 million ($1.6 million).
Apple’s chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in February that the facility would be a hub for the iTunes and MobileMe services.
Advertisement: Story continues below
The new iTunes offering will let users store content on Apple’s servers and access it using the web, rather than loading songs into a device’s memory, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public.
The plans could be previewed as early as Apple’s developers conference, set to begin on June 6, the people said.
Apple, the largest US music retailer, follows Google and Amazon.com in letting consumers stream music from the so-called cloud instead of downloading it to a hard drive. Unlike competing products, Apple’s cloud music service would not require users to upload online collections, two people said. Record labels are counting on cloud services to reignite sales of digital tracks, which have stagnated in recent years.
Apple has reached licensing accords with Sony’s music division, EMI Group and Warner Music Group, the people said. Universal Music Group, the largest recording company, is close to a deal, another person said. The company also would need to reach agreements with music publishers, which control different rights than the labels.
Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment, as did representatives of the music labels.
MobileMe
Whether Apple will charge a fee for the cloud service and when it will become widely available to the public aren’t yet known. The music plans may be part of a broader overhaul of Apple’s MobileMe platform to let users store pictures, contacts and other files on Apple’s servers and access them from the web, two of the people said.
An expanded MobileMe service may help Apple as it competes for customers with Google, whose Android operating system is used by rival handset and tablet makers such as Samsung Electronics and Motorola.
Cnet.com reported earlier that Apple had agreements with Warner Music and EMI.
Amazon.com and Google did not secure licensing deals before opening their cloud music services.
The cloud service is an extension of talks Apple had been holding earlier with music companies about rights that would let users download songs they have already purchased to multiple devices.
Labels under pressure
Record labels are seeking ways to jump-start music sales as millions of people flock to rival services, including internet radio company Pandora, where users can listen for free from anywhere with an internet connection.
Licences with the music labels may help Apple make its services more efficient by eliminating the need to store separate copies of a song for each customer. Instead, multiple users could stream tracks from the same copy housed on the company’s server.
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference will be held next month at Moscone Centre in San Francisco.
In past years, chief executive officer Steve Jobs has used the event as a showcase to unveil the newest versions of the iPhone. This year’s event isn’t expected to include a new iPhone, two people familiar with the plan said in April.
When announcing the event, Apple said it will be focused on software, including the new version of the iOS mobile software for the iPhone and iPad tablets, as well as the latest Mac operating system, called Lion.
Bloomberg and smh.com.au
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/couples-16m-land-key-to-apples-streaming-music-service-20110523-1f08i.html#ixzz1NEgUgk3A
TELSTRA TURNS ON 4G SERVICE IN FOUR CITIES
-
Andrew Colley
-
From:The Australian
-
May 24, 2011
TELSTRA has switched on 4G mobile service across four major metropolitan markets as it chases an ambitious deadline to have the service in full commercial operation by year’s end.
Mike Wright, executive director of Telstra network and access technologies, said the carrier had fired up so-called long-term evolution (LTE) 1800MHz equipment at mobile sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.
But it is likely that notebooks rather than smartphones and tablets will be the first devices to latch on to LTE.
It’s understood that Telstra has a handful of pre-release Sierra Wireless broadband modems for testing on the network. These are the only devices that Telstra has firmly committed to supplying for its commercial launch of LTE later this year.
“We are committed to launching with dongles,” Mr Wright said.
“If we can negotiate compatible handset availability at the time of launch, then we would offer these. This will be up to the device manufacturers.”
Telstra chief executive David Thodey announced in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the telco would upgrade its mobile network to LTE before the end of the year.
While it’s not yet available to consumers, switching on the base stations marks the start of day-to-day operation of 4G services within Telstra’s commercial network.
More sites would be switched on in Tasmania and Canberra over the coming months, Mr Wright said.
“This is the first test calls on an integrated network using the 1800MHz spectrum, but this really marks the beginning of the roll-out, not the end of the roll-out,” he said.
Technically, however, it means that a Telstra customer who was able to obtain an 1800MHz LTE mobile broadband modem or handset would be able to start using the 4G service.
It’s not clear whether Telstra’s LTE service will carry both voice and data at the commercial launch.
According to a March report by Chinese telco equipment giant Huawei, there are 17 commercial LTE networks in operation around the world and an ecosystem of 98 devices, including smartphones, tablet devices, routers and broadband USB dongles.
However, only a handful of these devices are tuned to the 1800MHz frequency that Telstra has targeted.
Mr Wright explained that Telstra was able to clear 2G traffic from its 1800MHz spectrum allocations earlier than expected by migrating 80 per cent of its customer base to its Next G service and pushing any excess 2G traffic on to its 900MHz bands.
Telstra director of network and commercial planning Anthony Goonan has said the carrier expects LTE to deliver a speed range in roughly the same ratio as the real-world speeds versus theoretical maximum on its present 3G network.
Telstra’s best current 3G product is rated as giving download speeds anywhere between 1.1Mbps and 20Mbps.
Given Telstra’s best 3G headline speed is 42Mbps, then a 100Mbps LTE service would be expected to deliver a range of about 2.6Mbps to 47Mbps.
Mr Wright said the upgrade was focused on delivering capacity improvements to accommodate growing numbers of smartphones and tablet devices, rather than speed.
Telstra also has ambitions to make more mobile-on-demand videos available to customers.
Mr Wright also said Telstra would continue to invest in its 850MHz HSPA+.
“We will continue to invest in the 3G network. The LTE technology is an evolution of the HSPA+ network, so investment in this is not wasted, as it can be upgraded to LTE.”
A Telstra spokeswoman said the consumer launch of the 4G network would be a “big bang” affair comparable to the launch of Next G.
It’s understood that the Next G brand will be preserved but may be adjusted for the LTE network to differentiate it as a superior service in consumer minds.
“Next G Four” is one of the names being considered by Telstra’s marketing department.
Mr Thodey took the telecommunication industry by surprise when he announced the move to LTE in February.
Rivals Optus and Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) also have ambitions to launch LTE services in the 1800MHz band
VHA told The Australian that its current program of network upgrades would make it “LTE ready”.
However, Optus believes a move to LTE now would be premature. At the carrier’s quarterly results presentation last week, chief executive Paul O’Sullivan said availability of LTE devices was still too limited to warrant a move to 4G.
BBY senior analyst Mark McDonnell said carriers were holding off investment in LTE as long as possible to maximise investment sunk in existing capacity and networks.
“They’ve made very substantial investments in 3G and they’re still getting some benefits from that,” he said. “The cost of 4G is substantial and they’re going to have to make some spectrum purchases in the next few years.”
At a telecommunications summit in Amsterdam last week, three major European carriers joined the global push to pressure manufacturers to start building 1800MHz-ready LTE devices.
Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and TeliaSonera said that 1800MHz was their preferred band for LTE rollout.
In Australia, the communications regulator is refereeing a battle between the rail industry and carriers over the 1800MHz band.
No Australian mobile carrier has contiguous 20MHz allocations in any one region needed to get the full benefit of LTE. State rail authorities hold licences for large chunks of the band, which they picked up for a song in the One.Tel fire sale.
The railways have started using it for a new national safety and signalling system in which they’ve invested $500 million.
Carriers want the Australian Communication and Media Authority to re-auction the licences when they start expiring from 2013. The Australasian Railway Association said ACMA had pressured them to hand back half their allocations but it said that would kill the new project.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy agreed to receive a special plea from the ARA to keep the spectrum after Transport Minister Anthony Albanese intervened on its behalf. The ARA is expected to lodged its report this week.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/telstra-turns-on-4g-service-in-four-cities/story-e6frgakx-1226061445037
NETFLIX CHEWS UP MORE BANDWIDTH THAN ANY OTHER WEBSITE
Cecilia Kang
May 19, 2011
PEOPLE watching videos on Netflix take up more bandwidth on the internet than users of any other website or service in North America, a report by a broadband analytics firm shows.
At peak times, as much as 30 per cent of online traffic is generated by Netflix subscribers who are watching movies or TV shows over their laptops, game consoles and smart phones.
The report, by Sandvine, highlights a rapid move by consumers towards the web for entertainment and news.
Advertisement:
Story continues below
Netflix accounted for 20 per cent of internet traffic six months ago.
Combined, Netflix, YouTube and other online video sites create about 46 per cent of all internet downloads during peak hours. Sandvine forecasts that this could rise to 60 per cent by the end of the year.
The shift has threatened cable and telco companies, which are responding by changing their billing practices to charge internet users for how much data they consume instead of offering flat-rate monthly fees.
”My sense is something will have to give,” Jeffrey Silva, an analyst at Medley Global Advisors, said. ”If they are using more bandwidth, the question is, who is going to pay for it?”
That creates fresh questions for Netflix, which has gained 23 million subscribers as a low-cost alternative to cable TV.
It has recently signed deals with the Hollywood studios Miramax Films and 20th Century Fox, and the company’s stock has more than doubled in the past year. The company declined to comment on the Sandvine report.
But it is concerned about internet providers charging customers for the amount of usage. In letters to shareholders, the Netflix chief executive, Reed Hastings, warned metered billing, or use-based pricing, could present a risk to its business.
Users could curb how much video they watch online if they are afraid of exceeding monthly caps, analysts say.
After Canadian internet service providers approved usage-based billing in March, Netflix said the quality of its streaming videos deteriorated.
About 30 hours of streaming video on Netflix consumes about 30 gigabytes of data.
The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Julius Genachowski, has introduced a proposal that forces wireless providers to text or call customers who are about to exceed their data caps.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/netflix-chews-up-more-bandwidth-than-any-other-website-20110518-1et2h.html#ixzz1N4lhi420
COMPUTER GLITCHES PLAGUE DEFENCE
Dan Oakes
May 20, 2011
A COMPUTER system designed to keep track of every item of Department of Defence equipment has been the subject of hundreds of complaints from frustrated employees since it was installed 10 months ago.
The installation of the Military Integrated Logistics Information System, which tracks the movements of 650,000 types of equipment – from soap to fighter jets – worth a total of $9 billion, had been delayed for two years due to technical problems.
The complaints range from mundane and minor – such as problems printing labels – to more serious, including some that warn of effects on the front line.
Advertisement: Story continues below
”The effective accounting for, and security of, weapons, communication, night-vision equipment and body armour is being eroded,” one warns. Another warns of a problem that has the potential to affect the capability of naval aviation squadrons.
”It is estimated system performance has deteriorated up to 80 per cent and lost production has caused significant backlogs in purchasing and demand management and this is increasing daily,” reads one of the most recent complaints.
A Defence spokeswoman said there were about 250 ”active problems” with the system.
”The number of problems we have experienced compares favourably to other information system implementations of similar size and complexity,” she said.
Documents obtained by the Herald show there have also been about 600 complaints that have been ”closed”.
However, a Defence source said that many of the closed problems were ongoing.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/computer-glitches-plague-defence-20110519-1ev1p.html#ixzz1N4l1nrNZ
APPLE’S IPHONE 5 / 4S WILL BE ‘WORLD PHONE’ – VERIZON CFO
May 20, 2011 by Ravin Mohindru
Apple’s Verizon iPhone 4 and iPad 2 features Qualcomm MDM6600 chip which is capable of supporting both GSM and CDMA technology. This has lead to speculation and discussion about Apple’s next gen smartphone (iPhone 5 / 4S) being a ‘world phone’.
Verizon Wireless’ CFO Fran Shammo during an investor conference call last month noted that the fifth gen iPhone will be a dual-mode world phone. And now, Reuters is reporting that Verizon chief has reaffirmed this:
Verizon’s [next iPhone] version will also work in as many countries as AT&T’s iPhone, which has global coverage,
Additionally, while talking the possibility of LTE iPhone this year Shammo said, “I think it’s a bigger issue for Apple than it is for us,” which clearly indicates that Apple continues to feel that the current gen chips which support LTE are not yet ready for iOS devices as it could possibly lead to compromising on the devices’ “legendary battery life” and design.
Apple invests a lot of resources in designing its products and changing the design in just one year wouldn’t be something which the company would be looking into.
It is widely believed that Apple’s next phone will be called “iPhone 4S” and not “iPhone 4G” as the next generation device with support HSPA+ which is faster than 3G but not as fast as true 4G speeds.
iPhone 4S being a ‘world phone’ makes perfect sense as the Cupertino, Calif. based company could be looking at streamlining their product line further and make every iPhone model dual-mode.
Apple is expected to introduce the new iPhone this September which will support A5 processor which will boost the graphics and overall performance of the phone.
EMI AND APPLE SIGN ITUNES CLOUD DEAL
19 May, 2011 by Tim Grey
Apple’s cloud-based iTunes service is one step closer to becoming a reality, with the company signing a licensing agreement with music publisher EMI. Two other major players, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, are days away from coming on board, according to ‘industry sources’ that spoke to CNET.
Should the companies come to an agreement within the next week, Apple will be in an excellent position to unveil its new iTunes music locker at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6.
Apple has been secretly working on the new cloud-based music service for some time, building a massive, 500,000 square foot data centre in North Carolina at an estimated cost of US$1bn.
While what the new iTunes cloud service will actually do remains unclear, it’s a technology that would allow Apple to offer streamed music by subscription, or even almost-instant access to the master recordings of music stored on users’ hard drives.
The service is likely to be known as iCloud, as Apple recently purchased the name from Norwegian company Xcerion for US$4.5m, according to AppleInsider. The service is unlikely to simply provide music storage, but will perhaps operate as a rejigged version of MobileMe, allowing users to sync calendars, contacts and other files.
Macworld Australia will be reporting live from WWDC, so stay tuned for all the latest details.
http://www.macworld.com.au/news/emi-and-apple-sign-itunes-cloud-deal-30195/
THUNDERBOLT TRADEMARKED BY APPLE, NOT INTEL
20 May, 2011 by Ben Camm-Jones
t has emerged that it is actually Apple that owns the Thunderbolt trademark and not Intel.
According to MacNN, documents filed with the US and Canadian trademark offices reveal Apple is claiming the trademark, based on a filing it made in November 2010 in Jamaica.
A search of U.S. and Canadian trademark records show that Intel has made no direct claim to the term Thunderbolt, despite being widely credited with its invention when it was first unveiled in the new line of MacBook Pros launched in February.
Intel had earlier outlined the technology, which was codenamed Light Peak at the time, which is able to transfer data between host devices and external devices at speeds of up to 10Gbps (gigabits per second) in both directions.
As yet only Apple has used Thunderbolt technology in its product line, with Sony rumoured to be considering using it but HP recently opting for USB 3.0 over Thunderbolt in a new line of desktop PCs.
It’s possible that Intel’s technology will be given a different name if and when it is used in other companies’ products, leaving Apple to use the Thunderbolt name exclusively. But it does seem odd that packaging for the early 2011 Thunderbolt MacBook Pros state that Thunderbolt is a registered trademark of Intel, as pointed out by Apple Insider.
http://www.macworld.com.au/news/thunderbolt-trademarked-by-apple-not-intel-30260/
MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES WINDOWS 8 RELEASE
Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer on Monday confirmed that Windows 8, the next iteration of the software giant’s operating system, will be available in 2012.
Speaking at a Microsoft Developer Forum in Tokyo today, Ballmer said Microsoft is “obviously hard at work on the next version of Windows.”
“As we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there’s a whole lot more coming,” he continued. “As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.”
A variety of rumors regarding Windows 8 have popped up on the Internet in recent months, but Microsoft has yet to confirm any particular features it will add to the OS. While Ballmer didn’t go into detail about what Windows 8 users will see, he did outline several areas into which Microsoft is committed to investing.
One of those areas is the natural user interface, or “the notion that we really want to speak, wave and gesture, touch and mark on our computing devices,” Ballmer said. Microsoft wants your device to recognize you and your actions, like Kinect does for gaming (and your Netflix and Hulu queues).
To that end, Microsoft is also focusing on natural language. “Today on a PC, it’s file open, blah, blah, blah, respond, reply, forward. I can’t just say to my device, get me ready for my trip to Tokyo,” Ballmer said. ” We ought to make it so that the search engines, and the user interface of the device can take actions on our behalf.”
Ballmer also talked up the company’s use of HTML and JavaScript; “we have to recognize that more and more of the world’s talent will know these techniques,” he said.
And, of course, there’s the cloud. “Skype is just another representation of what we think is the importance of enabling a broad range of scenarios in the cloud,” he said of Microsoft’s recent acquisition.
Expect to hear more about the future of Windows at the “D: All Things Digital” conference next week in California. All Things D just confirmed that Microsoft’s Windows president, Steven Sinofsky, will appear at the conference, which runs from May 31 to June 2.
Ballmer also talked up Windows Phone and the expected 500 new features that the next upgrade will bring. Microsoft is expected to unveil more details about that upgrade, codenamed Mango, at a press event in New York on Tuesday. It will be webcast live on Microsoft’s Web site at 10am Eastern time.
Ballmer also reiterated that Microsoft has “some work to do” when it comes to tablets, but stressed that “there will be a day in the future where it will be hard to distinguish a phone from a slate, from a PC.”
“You literally will have displays that become paper thin and very easy to fold out form your phone,” he concluded. “And at the same time, you’re going to get more and more PC-like capabilities in smaller form factor devices.”
If you’re so inclined, Ballmer also encouraged users to email him with questions (SteveB@Microsoft.com); perhaps he’ll turn up some Steve Jobs-esque responses?
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.
LA NOIRE SELLS OUT!
-
By Andrew Ramadge, Technology Reporter
-
From:
-
May 24, 201112:30PM
-
- Add to Digg
- Add to Facebook
Screenshot from video game LA Noire, the largest ever made in Australia. Picture: Team Bondi / Rockstar Games
THE biggest game ever developed in Australia is being snapped up around the country, with several shops today out of stock.
Staff at EB Games stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane today told news.com.au they had sold out of copies of LA Noire for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
“Sorry to say we’re completely sold out at the moment,” said staff at another Sydney game shop, GAME, at Broadway shopping centre.
In Melbourne, JB Hi-Fi on Lonsdale St was out of copies in both formats, while EB Games on Swanston St had just one PS3 version left in stock.
Most stores said they were expected to restock by tomorrow at the earliest and Friday at the latest.
LA Noire was released on Friday, developed by Sydney video game studio Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games.
News.com.au last week spoke to Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara about LA Noire and the future of video games.
WILL’S NOTEBOOK
Kingmax flaunts world’s first 64GB microSD card — Engadget
Kingmax flaunts world’s first 64GB microSD card
By Sean Buckley 
HTC’s 10-inch ‘Puccini’ Honeycomb tablet still rumored for summer release — Engadget
HTC’s 10-inch ‘Puccini’ Honeycomb tablet still rumored for summer release
By Thomas Ricker
What would a morning be without a little injection of rumorjuice courtesy of DigiTimes? Today’s tattle has HTC’s 10.1-inch LTE “Puccini” tablet hitting mass production in June with AU Optronics and Wintek pegged as the touch panel suppliers. Other specs, like the 1.5GHz MSM8660 processor and Android 3.0.1 build, seem to have been culled from that 911sniper leak which DigiTimes graciously cites as “sources in the supply chain.” Of course, the June date has been tossed around before by DigiTimes but it’s good to hear it again so close to the 10-incher’s rumored summer release.
Twitter officially buys TweetDeck – Communications – News
After months of rumours, Twitter has officially picked up the TweetDeck personal browser client for its micro-blogging site, marking further consolidation of the third-party Twitter apps.
Twitter reps confirmed the news on the company’s official blog yesterday, citing TweetDeck as “a great example of a third-party developer.”
“This acquisition is an important step forward for us,” Twitter said. “TweetDeck provides brands, publishers, marketers and others with a powerful platform to track all the real-time conversations they care about. In order to support this important constituency, we will continue to invest in the TweetDeck that users know and love.”
TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth also chimed in on his company’s official blog.
“I am extremely happy and proud to let you know that TweetDeck has been acquired by Twitter,” he said. “We completed the deal on Tuesday and are now in the process of ‘joining the flock’.”
Dodsworth boasts that Twitter bought out TweetDeck because of the client’s “unwavering focus on providing high-quality tools and services for the Twitter-centric power-user.” This seems all sweet and nice, but Dodsworth didn’t offer much else in terms of the deal’s specifics – except that the core TweetDeck team would be staying put in London. It’s unclear if the team will be moved out to Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters or retained by the company as a satellite group in the UK.
Notably, it has been reported that Twitter will be paying up to US$40 million in cash and stock for TweetDeck. Twitter has bought up quite a few other companies in the last few years, including Summize and Tweetie, the latter of which evolved into the official Twitter mobile app. Not to mention that rumours have swirled that Twitter itself might be bought out by Microsoft or Google, among others.
Google opening seawater-cooled data center, finally glad it applied for that Wave trademark (video)
Google raised a few eyebrows when it purchased a Finnish paper mill back in 2009 — what, the world, wondered, would the king of cloud services want with reams of tree guts? Space for a data center, of course — and a seawater-cooled one at that. Google’s Joe Kava told GigaOm that, when it launches in the fall, the center’s temperature will be regulated by a quarter-mile of seawater tunnels inherited from the building’s past tenants. One of the hardest parts of getting the system up and running has apparently been figuring out a way to clean corrosion from salt water without taking the system offline. Google’s also working to limit the center’s impact on the surrounding ecosystem, making sure that the water itself is cooled down before being pumped back out. Between this and those wind-powered data centers, it looks like Captain Planet’s always got a cushy IT gig at Google to fall back on, should he ever fall on hard times.
Google backs Alta Wind Energy Center, boasts $400 million clean energy milestone — Engadget
Google announced today that it’s throwing $55 million dollars to the wind… energy, that is. A post to the official Google blog said the company has invested the aforementioned amount in the Alta Wind Energy Center, which is set to generate 1,550 megawatts of energy — enough to reportedly power 450,000 homes — from a batch of turbines in the Mojave Dessert. Developed by Terra-Gen Power, the operation will carry the resulting energy via transmission lines to “major population centers.” The ever-humble internet giant pointed out that this particular injection of funds marks a total investment of $400 million in the clean energy sector. In fact, El Goog signed a deal last year to power several of its data centers with wind power, and most recently announced the opening of a seawater-cooled data center in Finland.
Google to lose out in domain name change? – Business – News
So long dotcom. The easy way to consult the internet will soon be via “dot anything”.
In a worldwide internet revolution to be announced next month, web addresses will expand beyond dotcom, with governments, businesses and entrepreneurs expected to rush to apply for signature domain names.
The move will reduce confusion and cut reliance on search engines like Google, Australian expert Adrian Kinderis said.
“Ultimately, this will be a new way we use the internet,” said Kinderis, CEO of the domain name registry services provider AusRegistry International.
“Rather than a dotcom boom, it’s now a dot anything boom.”
The so-called Top-Level Domain program will be ratified by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) in Singapore on 20 June, followed by a four-month global communication campaign.
After that will come a 60-day window to apply for a Top-Level Domain name, which will come at a cost of US$185,000 (AU$174,388) to discourage frivolous applications.
The first Top-Level Domain names will most likely come into effect by the middle of next year.
Trademark holders will be protected when applying for a domain name, while no one will be allowed to apply for a city name, such as .Melbourne, without written approval from the relevant government.
A problem will occur when there is more than one city with the same name.
The government of Melbourne, Florida, in the United States, could potentially be pitted against the Australian Federal Government for ownership of the domain name.
If this occurs, the domain name will most likely be auctioned to the highest bidder, Kinderis told AAP.
Entrepreneurs are also jumping on the bandwagon with the hope of registering generic domain names such as .music.
“You’re cutting the internet into finer and finer slithers of more targeted and relevant content, which is really what end users are screaming out for,” said Kinderis, who sits on one of ICANN’s advisory panels.
While Kinderis has not sounded the death knell for search engines like Google – “It would take a very brave man to do that” – he believes there will be serious implications.
“Search engines have come around to sort out this clutter of everything that’s in this big bucket called dotcom,” he said, adding that dotcom would still be relevant.
Under the new system, users will be brought straight to their destination without having to use a search engine.
“Imagine bypassing Google because you knew you could go to ‘restaurants.sydney’ or ‘bars.sydney’ and find every restaurant and bar listed on those sites.
“You would imagine our reliance upon Google to walk through this labyrinth is diminished.”
Google Australia declined to comment on the impact Top-Level Domain names may have on the search engine.
Hundreds of international organisations have publicly signalled their intent to apply for their own brand, including Deloitte, Canon and Motorola, but Kinderis fears Australia is lagging behind.
“My fear in Australia is some of our brands who are multinational, the bigger brands who have the financial wherewithal and interest to want to participate, don’t know about it,” Kinderis said.
The new domain names are “not a matter of if, but when, and we need to be prepared”, he added.
NBN Co: 26Tbps record proves fibre right – Communications – News
The National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) has heralded the results of a German experiment that achieved a record data transfer rate of 26 terabits per second (Tbps) over a single fibre optic cable, stating that this demonstrates the longevity of the technology.
(PC010094 image by Bill Burris, CCBY-SA 2.0)
Researchers from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology revealed on Sunday that they had successfully transmitted the equivalent of 200,000 high-resolution images, 400 million phone calls or 700 DVDs across 50km in one second.
This was achieved by using a single laser to create a number of pulses known as “frequency combs” that are each separated by a wavelength of 12.5GHz. These were then compacted into 325 colour channels using a method of Fourier transform before being sent down the fibre optic cable.
There have been concerns that fibre optic technology may be outdated by the network’s completion in 2020. However, NBN Co’s chief technology officer, Gary McLaren, said that the results of the test showed that the decision to have NBN Co roll out fibre to 93 per cent of the population was the right call.
“The amount of data people are transferring across communications networks, especially video transmissions, is increasing all the time. As fibre optic technology improves, so too will speeds and the amount of data that can be carried over the network we are building today,” he said. “This gives us confidence that we’re delivering the right communications infrastructure to sustain our nation for decades to come.”
Telstra to shape excess mobile data usage – Communications – News
Telstra mobile customers who exceed their monthly data allowance will no longer cop massive excess data usage charges, and will instead have their mobile broadband speeds throttled, the telco has announced today.
The use of shaping for excess data usage is common for fixed-line broadband plans; however, today’s announcement makes Telstra the first Australian telecommunications company to throttle mobile data usage rather than just charging additional fees.
The telco’s chief financial officer John Stanhope is set to announce the change at a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne later today, in a move that Telstra said aims to reduce the incidence of “bill shock”.
“By slowing data speeds once a customer has exceeded their data allowance, and not charging for the extra data, customers stay connected without fear of a hit to the hip pocket,” Stanhope said in a statement.
Customers are alerted by SMS when they reach 80 per cent and then 100 per cent of their data allowance. Telstra told ZDNet Australia that a 2G customer will have their speed reduced to 15 kilobits per second (kbps) while a 3G customer will have their speed reduced to 48kbps. If they want to go back up to full speed, customers will be able to pay for additional data top-ups over the internet via their mobile phone.
“The new service will make life much easier for our customers by providing them with greater certainty and control over their data usage and their bills,” Stanhope said.
The announcement was welcomed by the telecommunications regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). ACMA chair Chris Chapman said that the authority’s “Reconnecting the Customer” inquiry into customer service in the telecommunications industry has already forced telcos to re-evaluate their pricing plans.
“The ACMA is highly gratified that the [Reconnecting the Customer] strategy is already bearing fruit,” Chapman said. “Likewise, we look forward to the industry as a whole being similarly responsive.”
A draft report of the inquiry is due to be released next Wednesday.
The news comes as the telco has added over one million customers in this financial year, over half of which are iPhone or Android smartphone customers.
ZDNet Australia contacted Optus and Vodafone for a response to the announcement but had yet to receive a comment at the time of writing.
Nook’s touchscreen e-reader is so simple, grandma only has to charge it six times a year |
The new Nook holds only a third as many books as the Kindle .. but it has 37 less buttons, too / AP Source: Supplied
THE lighter, slimmer, cheaper new version of Barnes & Noble’s e-reader has a black-and-white touchscreen and aims squarely at the “grandma” demographic – or at least those craving a simpler device.
The latest Nook’s price tag – $139 in the US – is a sign that the bookseller also is aiming to compete with Amazon and Borders on e-reader prices.
The focus on simplicity means the new Nook’s battery can last two months, CEO William Lynch said at an event in New York to announce the device.
Mr Lynch told the crowd of bloggers, news media and analysts the latest Nook was inspired by feedback from customers – specifically a letter asking why no e-readers were suitable for a grandma.
“The Kindle 3 has 38 buttons. That’s 37 more than the all-new Nook,” Mr Lynch said, taking a jab at Amazon.com’s e-reader, the market’s top seller.
The new Nook, to be available June 10, is Wi-Fi only, has a 6-inch touchscreen and can hold up to 1000 digital books.
It features the latest E-Ink technology, which significantly minimises flashing that can occur as a user pages through an e-book. Pages seem to melt into each other on the new Nook.
The newest device replaces versions that came before the Nook Color, which still sells for $249.
After the all-new Nook’s release, the first-generation Nook will sell for $119, and the Nook 3G will sell for $169 – until supplies run out.
Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom said the newest version keeps Barnes & Noble’s current on technology, while reserving the company the option to release a more tablet-like device later.
“You don’t have to get into the really crowded tablet space right away,” Mr Wahlstrom said.
The simplified reader – which does not allow users access to an app store like the Nook Color does – can appeal to current Nook owners who want a technology upgrade and to “the incremental consumer who is used to touchscreens and used to a more simplified version of technology”.
Barnes & Noble executives said the new device lets readers look up words, highlight passages, search and adjust font size.
It weighs 213g, 35 per cent less than the first Nook, which launched a year and a half ago. The iPad 2 weighs more than 589g, roughly three times as much as the newest Nook.
The newest Kindle is almost as light, at 240g, but holds more than three times as many books as the new Nook.
Amazon, meanwhile, dropped the price of its Kindle last month by $25 to $114, though with a catch: the new Kindle with Special Offers includes advertisements on the bottom of its home screen and on screen savers.
Borders and its Kobo partner said Monday that they are taking preorders for a $130 touchscreen e-reader that launches in early June.
The new device from Barnes & Noble comes after cable TV mogul John Malone’s Liberty Media made a surprise $1 billion offer for the company Friday.
Executives did not take questions about the offer yesterday.
Liberty Media executives have said they are interested in both Barnes & Noble’s digital properties and retail stores.
In a special shareholder meeting Monday, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei said, “Barnes & Noble has an opportunity to have both a very strong e-reader and then an application on the software side where they can partner with more full-flavoured tablets.”
Shares of New York-based Barnes & Noble rose 42c, or 2.3 per cent, to $19.01 yesterday afternoon.
Facebook Posh school plankers sent packing for stair stunt | Information, Gadgets, Mobile Phones
Walford Anglican School For Girls students planking. Source: The Advertiser
Plankers get fired for stunt
PLANKING on a flight of stairs appears to have resulted 22 students of a prestigious Adelaide private school being disciplined.
The students from Walford Anglican School for Girls were sent home on Thursday after a “situation” regarding planking as safety concern grows over the craze.
The Advertiser reports the photo that is believed to have landed the students in hot water was posted on social networking site Facebook.
On Friday, principal Helen Trebilcock refused to detail what the students did but said they were “sent home for a day to enable us to talk to their parents”.
“We had a situation, we have dealt with it, it’s over,” she said.
“We have shared our concerns with the school community about how a seemingly innocent prank can escalate through the web and become dangerous.
“Our parents and teachers are in agreement that the girls need to be educated about the risks involved.”
The decision comes as a Gold Coast employment lawyer has backed companies who fire employees who engage in planking.
Brett Wilson, an employment lawyer expert at Aitken Wilson Lawyers told the Courier Mail that he supports companies taking a hard line on planking.
“I expect employers will take a tougher line on the stunt, because it poses a serious threat to workplace health and safety and it’s also a disruptive influence on other staff,” said Mr Wilson.
“There’s a fundamental health and safety issue behind the zero tolerance policy on planking. It’s a fad but for employers, plankers are not welcome and there’s no room for complacency.”
Eight Woolworths employees and two Santos workers have already been sacked for planking on the job and McDonalds have launched an investigation after photos surfaced of an employee planking in one of their restaurants.
Mr Wilson says companies could be hit with steep fines for violations of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) standards if employees are injured by planking, and workers would be able to claim damages.
“Employers would be mindful that if someone was injured or worse, the employer could be hit with fines and damages for negligence,” he said.
“One slip and injury and they’ll be quick to claim it’s a workplace injury and go for WorkCover compensation, which could mean higher premiums for the employers and negligence claims.”
Planking gained notoriety when Brisbane man, Acton Beale, 20, fell to his death as he tried the stunt on the seven-storey balcony of his high-rise unit more than a week ago.
The stunt involves a person having their photo taken while they lie still on their stomach, often in dangerous locations.
Net addicts may not notice the difference | The Australian
THE NBN will be a boon to internet addicts, downloaders and hopefully people in rural and regional areas who have long suffered a chronic lack of service provision.
But if you’re a regular or even moderately heavy internet user who browses, sends emails and perhaps works online from an urban area, you may not notice a great deal of difference.
The Australian trialled the NBN at the home of one of seven mainland households connected to the Gillard government’s $36 billion fibre-optic network when it was officially switched on in Armidale, NSW, yesterday.
Sites of newspapers such as The Australian, The Times and The New York Times loaded almost immediately; videos on YouTube loaded quickly and played without interruption. But there was no satisfying sense of having scratched an itch that had gone unscratched for a long time – perhaps because internet connections in most metropolitan areas, and indeed mobile broadband services, are already pretty good.
Stephen Stroud, who kindly lent The Australian his computer yesterday, reported download speeds of 2-3Mbps before being connected to the NBN – that’s sufficiently slow to make video playback annoying, but not to obstruct basic browsing or email. Yesterday, his download speed clocked 89Mbps.
There is no question that is a substantial increase. But is it necessary? The laptop I used to write this article is connected with a Telstra 3G modem, which breezes along at over 8Mbps in Armidale – that’s fast enough to browse, email, send a high-resolution photo in about 30 seconds and video conference with someone in Europe. Mr Stroud’s neighbour, Tony Ker-David, reported similar speeds on his Optus 3G connection, and pointed out the convenience of being able to take it anywhere. The Australian already has speeds of more than 90Mbps in the office.
Sony hacked yet again | The Australian
ANOTHER unit of Sony has come under attack from hackers: this time a mobile Internet service provider in Japan called So-net Entertainment.
So-net says that someone gained improper access to user accounts and successfully used so-called “So-net points” to obtain goods worth about $1,225.
It said it discovered the activity late on Wednesday after customer complaints and cut off the Internet Protocol address behind about 10,000 attempts to break into the system.
The intruder used points from 128 accounts and illicitly checked the e-mails of 90 users.
The attack occurred just after Sony began restoring service to users of its PlayStation Network in the United States and Europe last weekend.
The system was down for nearly a month after a massive security breach compromised about 100 million accounts.
Forty years on, Amway goes online | The Australian
FORTY years ago Amway brought its operations to Australia, the company’s first move outside North America.
Now the direct-selling behemoth is carving out an online presence after establishing bricks and mortar retailing in Australia’s four biggest cities.
Amway’s global chairman Steve Van Andel doesn’t visit these shores very often, but on Friday he flew into Sydney to kick off the private company’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
It’s been more than a decade and a half since Mr Van Andel took the helm of Amway, carrying on the work that his father and co-founder Jay Van Andel began in the United States in 1959.
Steve Van Andel has been charged with steering the multi-billion-dollar company into the age of social networking and online retailing.
“I’ve got to tell you the Amway business was a social network 50 years ago before the internet was even around, and so the idea of communicating and building a relationship was something that’s been important in our business from the beginning,” Mr Van Andel told AAP.
“Now it’s just moving into technology and using technology to enhance those relationships.”
Often criticised for having a pyramid selling structure, Amway, which recorded annual sales of $US9.2 billion ($A8.64 billion), is now concentrating its Australian efforts on health and beauty products.
A few decades ago Amway sales people would go door to door or hold gatherings to sell the company’s products and recruit friends, colleagues and family into the direct-selling business.
Although face-to-face contact is still essential to the business model, social media is now being used to complement personalised sales meetings.
“If you bought a product, a new thing that you’d never purchased before … you’d probably go and ask a friend what they thought of it, and you’d wait and get some ideas,” Mr Van Andel said.
“When they give you their opinion, they’re actually selling, they’re either being positive or negative.
“That part of our business is the same, it’s no different how that works.”
While the importance of relationships had not really changed, the transaction methods were different.
“Before, maybe you went out and knocked on somebody’s door, someone you didn’t know, maybe you bumped into them someplace and asked them to come into your house … but now maybe you take out your phone and punch in your app and all of a sudden you’ve got a 60-second product demo,” Mr Van Andel said.
“So all that becomes much more efficient than it has been in the past, but you’re still going to end up somehow having a connection with a person.”
He said Amway was still in the process of adapting to new technology.
“I don’t think we’ve figured it all out yet but we certainly aren’t afraid of it and we embrace it. We try to figure out how we’re going to use it and how it’s going to help our business.”
Mr Van Andel said he was confident the 52-year-old company would continue to rank among the 50 largest privately owned companies in the world.
Facebook images open to access | The Australian
Ty Miller, chief technology officer at IT security consultancy Pure Hacking. Source: Supplied
ANY Facebook image, no matter how strong the privacy settings, can be publicly accessed, security experts have warned.
The social networking giant is flexible with how images are shared — a member can send a URL containing images to others who can then view the photographs without being a Facebook user.
People don’t realise that they don’t have to be logged into Facebook to view photographs, according to Pure Hacking chief technology officer Ty Miller.
However, this was a business decision made by Facebook and not a technical issue, Mr Miller said.
The unauthorised access of privacy-protected photographs on Facebook will continue unless the social networking giant decides to close the loophole, according to Mr Miller.
“It is a (business) choice that Facebook has made that has led to this vulnerability … they have accepted the risk,” Mr Miller said.
Facebook receives hundreds of thousands of image requests per second. Third-party content delivery networks (CDNs) can save costs and speed up delivery times.
But the problem lay in a business decision made by Facebook not to have strict access controls on CDNs, Mr Miller said.
“It’s a design decision made by Facebook to go that way,” he said.
CDNs are not exclusive to Facebook and are used by most social networking sites. But Facebook by far has the largest user base.
Mr Miller said that if Facebook didn’t use CDNs, it would have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure to satisfy its 500 million members.
He said Facebook’s access control issue was well-known in the security community.
“Web access control is a common vulnerability and this is not a new issue with Facebook. It has been the case for some time,” Mr Miller said.
He said it was up to Facebook to “lock it down” and secure the CDNs to protect people’s data.
He reminded users not to post images or information online if they didn’t want people to find them.
“Users definitely have a false sense of security. This vulnerability is a security breach and an invasion of people’s privacy,” Mr Miller said.
He said programs to secure Facebook URLs can be downloaded from the internet.
The security issue resurfaced after a Fairfax journalist was detained in Queensland for publishing a story on an alleged Facebook security breach.
Ben Grubb had published a story on the SMH website on Tuesday describing how IT security expert Christian Heinrich could access privacy-protected Facebook photographs without being the member’s “friend”.
The demonstration was conducted at an IT security conference on the Gold Coast and Mr Heinrich based his test on photographs posted by the wife of Chris Gatford, a rival security consultant.
Mr Heinrich claimed that he guessed the URL of the photo by using a computer program.
Mr Grubb was released after a 90-minute inquisition where his iPad was confiscated. Mr Heinrich has yet to be contacted by police.
Facebook declined to comment on the police investigation directly.
However a Facebook spokeswoman said the company took security “very seriously and we are looking into this matter”.
“We have numerous protections to prevent attacks in which people attempt to guess the URL of a photo hosted by our content delivery network (CDN),” she said.
“For example, the URL of each photo includes a random secret key that has millions of permutations.
“We of course do not disclose all of our protections to protect their integrity,” the spokeswoman said.
She said Facebook was “always working on ways to improve the user experience and actively working on building additional protections”.
“We work with many security experts and we have a responsible disclosure policy and encourage well-intentioned security researchers to contact us when they find a vulnerability.”
She said security researchers could work with Facebook to correct a vulnerability and Facebook gave credit to people who helped find and fix real vulnerabilities.
Telstra turns on 4G service in four cities | The Australian
TELSTRA has switched on 4G mobile service across four major metropolitan markets as it chases an ambitious deadline to have the service in full commercial operation by year’s end.
Mike Wright, executive director of Telstra network and access technologies, said the carrier had fired up so-called long-term evolution (LTE) 1800MHz equipment at mobile sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.
But it is likely that notebooks rather than smartphones and tablets will be the first devices to latch on to LTE.
It’s understood that Telstra has a handful of pre-release Sierra Wireless broadband modems for testing on the network. These are the only devices that Telstra has firmly committed to supplying for its commercial launch of LTE later this year.
“We are committed to launching with dongles,” Mr Wright said.
“If we can negotiate compatible handset availability at the time of launch, then we would offer these. This will be up to the device manufacturers.”
Telstra chief executive David Thodey announced in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the telco would upgrade its mobile network to LTE before the end of the year.
While it’s not yet available to consumers, switching on the base stations marks the start of day-to-day operation of 4G services within Telstra’s commercial network.
More sites would be switched on in Tasmania and Canberra over the coming months, Mr Wright said.
“This is the first test calls on an integrated network using the 1800MHz spectrum, but this really marks the beginning of the roll-out, not the end of the roll-out,” he said.
Technically, however, it means that a Telstra customer who was able to obtain an 1800MHz LTE mobile broadband modem or handset would be able to start using the 4G service.
It’s not clear whether Telstra’s LTE service will carry both voice and data at the commercial launch.
According to a March report by Chinese telco equipment giant Huawei, there are 17 commercial LTE networks in operation around the world and an ecosystem of 98 devices, including smartphones, tablet devices, routers and broadband USB dongles.
However, only a handful of these devices are tuned to the 1800MHz frequency that Telstra has targeted.
Mr Wright explained that Telstra was able to clear 2G traffic from its 1800MHz spectrum allocations earlier than expected by migrating 80 per cent of its customer base to its Next G service and pushing any excess 2G traffic on to its 900MHz bands.
Telstra director of network and commercial planning Anthony Goonan has said the carrier expects LTE to deliver a speed range in roughly the same ratio as the real-world speeds versus theoretical maximum on its present 3G network.
Telstra’s best current 3G product is rated as giving download speeds anywhere between 1.1Mbps and 20Mbps.
Given Telstra’s best 3G headline speed is 42Mbps, then a 100Mbps LTE service would be expected to deliver a range of about 2.6Mbps to 47Mbps.
Mr Wright said the upgrade was focused on delivering capacity improvements to accommodate growing numbers of smartphones and tablet devices, rather than speed.
Telstra also has ambitions to make more mobile-on-demand videos available to customers.
Mr Wright also said Telstra would continue to invest in its 850MHz HSPA+.
“We will continue to invest in the 3G network. The LTE technology is an evolution of the HSPA+ network, so investment in this is not wasted, as it can be upgraded to LTE.”
A Telstra spokeswoman said the consumer launch of the 4G network would be a “big bang” affair comparable to the launch of Next G.
It’s understood that the Next G brand will be preserved but may be adjusted for the LTE network to differentiate it as a superior service in consumer minds.
“Next G Four” is one of the names being considered by Telstra’s marketing department.
Mr Thodey took the telecommunication industry by surprise when he announced the move to LTE in February.
Rivals Optus and Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) also have ambitions to launch LTE services in the 1800MHz band
VHA told The Australian that its current program of network upgrades would make it “LTE ready”.
However, Optus believes a move to LTE now would be premature. At the carrier’s quarterly results presentation last week, chief executive Paul O’Sullivan said availability of LTE devices was still too limited to warrant a move to 4G.
BBY senior analyst Mark McDonnell said carriers were holding off investment in LTE as long as possible to maximise investment sunk in existing capacity and networks.
“They’ve made very substantial investments in 3G and they’re still getting some benefits from that,” he said. “The cost of 4G is substantial and they’re going to have to make some spectrum purchases in the next few years.”
At a telecommunications summit in Amsterdam last week, three major European carriers joined the global push to pressure manufacturers to start building 1800MHz-ready LTE devices.
Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and TeliaSonera said that 1800MHz was their preferred band for LTE rollout.
In Australia, the communications regulator is refereeing a battle between the rail industry and carriers over the 1800MHz band.
No Australian mobile carrier has contiguous 20MHz allocations in any one region needed to get the full benefit of LTE. State rail authorities hold licences for large chunks of the band, which they picked up for a song in the One.Tel fire sale.
The railways have started using it for a new national safety and signalling system in which they’ve invested $500 million.
Carriers want the Australian Communication and Media Authority to re-auction the licences when they start expiring from 2013. The Australasian Railway Association said ACMA had pressured them to hand back half their allocations but it said that would kill the new project.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy agreed to receive a special plea from the ARA to keep the spectrum after Transport Minister Anthony Albanese intervened on its behalf. The ARA is expected to lodged its report this week.
Soccer star Ryan Giggs has been named as the man behind a super injunction to prevent a sex scandal
Soccer player Ryan Giggs has been outed as the man behind a super injunction to prevent allegations of infidelity from being aired. Source: AFP
John Bercow, Speaker of the UK Parliament, lept out of his seat to chastise MP John Hemming for naming Giggs as the footballer who took out a gagging order. Picture: Sky News Source: Supplied
A British MP has named Man Utd’s Ryan Giggs as the footballer at the centre of the Twitter injunction row.IN the case of Twitter users versus the British judicial system, it appears the tweeters have Won.
A gag order imposed by one of the country’s top judges has been flouted on the social networking platform, by members of the news media, and now by a parliamentarian who has revealed the name of a soccer player involved in a sex scandal.
Soccer star Ryan Giggs had been granted an injunction preventing media from publishing allegations that he’d had an affair with reality television contestant Imogen Thomas, but over the past few days his identity has increasingly appeared across the internet, leaving newspapers to chomp at the bit as Twitter users swapped jokes about the sportsman’s alleged indiscretion.
The journalists knew. The soccer fans knew. Even Prime Minister David Cameron knew, telling morning television it was “rather unsustainable where newspapers can’t print something everyone else is talking about”
But breaking an injunction is a serious business, and the dam didn’t completely burst until British lawmaker John Hemming identified Mr Giggs in parliament. MPs benefit from absolute immunity; they have free rein to say what they wish and shrug off the threat of contempt of court.
Until then, Britain’s media had largely held its fire, relying instead on oblique references and blacked-out profile shots. But the pressure had been building all weekend, with hundreds of tweets an hour identifying Mr Giggs as the man behind the gag order.
Soccer fans openly taunted Mr Giggs about the matter at a recent game. One journalist even blurted out part of the man’s name in a broadcast interview.
Manchester United star Mr Giggs first turned to the British courts to keep his name from being linked to Ms Thomas.
He had been seeking anonymity, but the effort backfired as the case increasingly became a touchstone for arguments over what Britons know as “super-injunctions” – sweeping legal measures that ban journalists from writing about something, or even writing about the fact that they can’t write about something.
The injunction that had been at work in the soccer star’s case was more properly known as an “anonymised injunction” – which meant media organisations could write about him, so long as they kept his name a secret.
Gag orders aren’t necessarily devoted to tawdry personal matters, but of the 30 or so such injunctions awarded in Britain since 2008, all but three have gone to males.
That has lead some legal commentators to suggest the injunctions are being used by wealthy and powerful men to keep their alleged sexual indiscretions from being aired in public.
It’s in that context that Mr Giggs’ name increasingly dripped out over the past few weeks. Every time his legal team tried to plug a leak, several more sprang.
Ms Thomas went to Britain’s High Court to try to overturn the injunction earlier this month. She was defeated, but a mysterious Twitter account revealed Mr Giggs’ name anyway, a move that swiftly drew national attention.
On Sunday, Scotland’s Sunday Herald became the first British newspaper to flout the injunction, publishing a thinly censored photograph of the soccer star on its front page. Only his eyes were blacked out, and beneath the sportsman’s clearly recognisable face, the Herald wrote “everyone knows” this was the star “accused of using the courts to keep allegations of a sexual affair secret”.
In an editorial, the Herald said it was “unsustainable” for newspapers not to be able to print information available on the internet.
The paper quickly noted it was not accusing the sportsman of carrying out an affair, but said: “Whether the allegations against him are true or not has no relevance to this debate.
“The issue is one of freedom of information and of a growing argument in favour of more restrictive privacy laws.”
Speaking on Britain’s ITV before Mr Giggs’ name was made completely public, Mr Cameron called for a “time out” to “have a proper look at this”.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt promised to lawmakers he would create a committee to examine how the rules governing gagging orders could be changed.
“We take seriously the need to ensure we have the correct balance between privacy and freedom of expression,” he said.
As for Mr Hemming, he was admonished by Speaker of Parliament John Bercow for his outburst. A lawyer for Giggs did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Coalition raises doubts over school computers | The Australian
Coalition raises doubts over school computers
ABOUT 40,000 computers will have to be installed each month if the federal government wants to equip all senior students by the end of the year.
Under a government scheme to give all Year 9-12 students across the nation a school computer by December 31, only 434,060 of the total of 787,533 computers had been installed by March 31.
The opposition is sceptical that the government can deliver on its promise, given more than 350,000 computers are still to be installed.
But Education Department secretary Lisa Paul told a Senate estimates hearing the deadline would be met.
Newly released figures from the department show NSW has the highest number of computers already installed.
Out of the total 196,837 delivered in the state, government schools received 130,055, Catholic schools got 46,946 and independent schools were given 19,836.
Victoria had 76,876 computers installed, with more than half going to public schools.
Queensland was third at 71,469 PCs, with more than 36,000 in government schools.
Western Australia had 36,140 computers installed, South Australia had 30,669, and Tasmanian senior students received 9973.
The ACT and Northern Territory had 9628 and 2468 computers installed respectively.
The department could not estimate the outstanding number of computers each state had to install to reach the goal.
Queensland Liberal senator Brett Mason said the government would have to double the rate of deployment to achieve the deadline.
“The opposition is not surprised the computer program has been characterised by poor planning, shoddy implementation and cost overruns,” he said.
The top four electorates to benefit so far comprise Labor and Liberal seats, all from NSW. They are Hughes (Lib, 5996 computers), Macarthur (Lib, 5749), Lindsay (Labor, 5668) and Chifley (Labor, 5372).
The lowest number of machines installed was in Solomon, NT, at 109 units, followed by Melbourne, Melbourne Ports, Pearce in WA and Wright in Queensland.
The electorates of NSW regional independents Rob Oakeshott (Lyne) and Tony Windsor (New England) have had 3435 and 423 computers installed, respectively.
The figures were provided by the department in response to Senator Mason’s questions on notice at a Senate hearing.
Sony predicts $3 billion in losses | The Australian
Sony Entertainment President and CEO Kazuo Hirai (c) and other officials apologise for the security breach. Source: AP
SONY is expecting an annual loss of $3.04 billion, reversing its earlier projection of a return to profit.
The projection comes as the electronics giant struggles with production disruptions from Japan’s tsunami and a hacker attack on its online gaming service.
The Japanese maker of PlayStation 3 video game machines and Bravia flat-panel TVs said on Monday that the projection of a 260 billion yen ($3.04bn) net loss for the fiscal year ended March 2011 was largely due to writing off 360 billion yen related to a tax credit booked in a previous quarter.
Sony announced the loss ahead of its official earnings announcement on Thursday under Tokyo Stock Exchange guidelines. The company had earlier projected a 70 billion yen profit.
Like many other Japanese manufacturers, Sony has been hampered by the production disruptions set off by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 25,000 people, destroyed many factories and sent the nation’s economic recovery into reverse.
The company kept its operating profit forecast unchanged at 200 billion yen. It expects to report sales of 7.18 trillion yen, slightly down from an earlier projection of 7.2 trillion yen.
Masaru Kato, Sony’s chief financial officer, said parts shortages in the aftermath of the disaster have eased but a full recovery hasn’t yet been realised.
“In the first quarter, we saw quite a major impact on our manufacturing activities,” he said. After the quake, “negative factors have grown bigger” and offset earlier improvement in the previously loss-making games division, dashing hopes for a profit.
Tokyo-based Sony also faced a new challenge to its reputation following a massive security breach affecting more than 100 million online accounts.
After temporarily closing down its online gaming services last month, Sony began restoring its PlayStation Network services in the US and Europe on May 15 mainly for online gaming, chat and music streaming services.
Sony spent 14 billion yen to cover costs that included identity theft insurance for customers, improvements to network security, free access to content, customer support and an investigation into the hacking.
Sony has seen plunging sales of flat-panel TVs and other gadgets, and was likely to remain in the red in its TV business for the seventh year straight.
Sony has also taken a beating in music players and other portable devices to Apple’s iPod, iPhone and iPad.
The company booked a 40.8 billion yen loss for the fiscal year ending March 2010 after a 98.9 billion yen loss the year before Sony’s first annual red ink year in 14 years.
Sony hacked in Greece and Asia | The Australian
Sony hacked in Greece and Asia
SONY has discovered a security breach at a music-entertainment unit in Greece affecting 8500 user accounts, and two smaller incidents involving unauthorised access in Thailand and Indonesia.
Sony said it had immediately shut down the websites in the three countries and was investigating the incidents.
The latest breaches come as the Japanese electronics company is working to improve security measures and restore customer trust after hacker attacks last month against the company’s PlayStation Network and other online entertainment services. Those intrusions have affected 100 million user accounts worldwide.
“We don’t know whether the incidents in the three countries are linked to the attacks on the PlayStation Network,” said Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari.
Sony said its Greek unit, Sony Music Entertainment Greece, found a data breach on Sunday on its artist websites, where fans sign up to subscribe to newsletters.
Usernames, passwords, email addresses and phone numbers for 8500 accounts for these websites have been compromised, Sony said.
But the breach at the Greek unit didn’t involve any credit card details because access to the sites was available free of charge, the company said.
In Thailand, Sony found traces of unauthorised access to its electronics marketing unit’s website.
The company was alerted to the problem after a Finnish information security company, F-Secure, said on Friday on its website that Sony’s Thai site may have been subject to phishing, a form of online fraud that directs users to a website set up to improperly acquire personal data.
In Indonesia, the company discovered that Sony Music Indonesia’s website had been modified by an unauthorised user.
Apple admits to pornographic malware on Mac computers | The Australian
An Apple store display advertisement for the MacBook Air in San Francisco. Source: AFP
APPLE has admitted that its operating system had been infiltrated by malicious software that throws up pornographic material on a user’s screen in order to get their credit card details.
The Silicon Valley firm prides itself on offering a computing experience relatively free from viruses, malware and trojans on its Mac OS X platform, used to power desktops and laptops.
That situation has changed with “Mac Defender”, malware that masquerades as anti-virus software. The malware is capable of automatically downloading itself and requesting its installation on a Macintosh device.
Users have complained about Mac Defender in forums for weeks and its existence was reported on May 2 on an unofficial Apple Macintosh security site, www.securemac.com. The site later reported two more versions of Mac Defender.
Mac Defender performs fake disk scans and throws up reports of fake infections to scare a user into disclosing their credit card details, and into buying the product. The malware program routinely displays pornography if a user chooses not to pay up.
Apple had been unwilling to acknowledge the vulnerability of Mac OS X to Mac Defender until last night, when it posted a bulletin about it on its support website.
“This ‘anti-virus’ software is malware,” the Apple post said. “Its ultimate goal is to get the user’s credit card information which may be used for fraudulent purposes.”
In its post, Apple said it would release an update to the Mac OS X operating system to get rid of it.
“Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants,” Apple said.
“The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware.”
Apple said the update would be released “in the coming days”.
Apple has been tight-lipped about Mac Defender. On May 19, US media reported the contents of a leaked Apple internal memo instructing that staff “do not confirm or deny that any such software has been installed”.
One of the users affected, Eugene O’Doherty, of Derby in Western Australia, said he was disappointed Apple had taken weeks to respond to the malware attack and to recommend a remedy.
He said Apple support had offered to remove the malware for $60 when he called the company in early May.
“They must have known about this. They should have warned everybody not to pay these people money while they’re sorting this out.”
Mr O’Doherty said the pornography was disgusting and included depictions of oral and anal sex, and Viagra sites were continually thrown up on his screen as well. Mac Defender had requested a payment of $30-$50 to eliminate them via a pop-up message.
He said Apple in future must be prepared to warn people immediately of infections.
“It’s customer service and it protects Apple too,” Mr O’Doherty said.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.