Episode 300 – Aussie Tech Heads Shownotes

posted in: Show Notes

 

 

GLENN’S SHOWNOTES

Optus to buy Eatability for $6 million

Optus will pay $6 million to acquire Australian restaurant directory Eatability. The website has 235,000 reviews and 37,000 restaurant listings.

The acquisition is pending and subject to review by the Foreign Investment Review Board, but Optus expects to complete the deal “in the coming weeks”, an Optus spokesperson said. The acquisition would make Eatability a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus, which in turn is a subsidiary of SingTel.

Eatability was already an Optus partner, providing content for the Go Places mobile app. Optus vice president, Austin Bryan, said the carrier planned to work with Eatability to add new features to the service.

Optus also plans to optimise the Eatability website for smartphones, an Optus spokesperson said.

“Our objective is to make it easy for users ‘on the go’ to discover what’s happening around them,” said SingTel principal, Loo Cheng Chuan.

The SingTel Group has lately seemed hungry for food websites. The company also just acquired one of Singapore’s leading food websites, HungryGoWhere.


Apple ships OS X Mountain Lion

Mac OS X 10.8, aka Mountain Lion, was released to the Mac App Store early Wednesday. Mountain Lion will be available only as a download from Apple’s online market.

The installer tips the bit scales at just over 4GB, according to the Mac App Store.

According to Internet analytics company Net Applications, 84% of the in-use Macs run either Lion or Snow Leopard.

Also, Apple began taking requests for a free copy of Mountain Lion from customers who have purchased a new Mac on or after June 11. To obtain the code necessary to download the free upgrade, users must fill out the form on the Up-to-Date Program’s website.

 

benefits  http://www.crn.com.au/News/309858,apples-mountain-lion-os-need-to-know.aspx?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=CRN+News+feed


Mountain Lion upgrades take from 13 to 57 minutes, says Apple reseller

Times are average from a number of machines that are new with no or little use

Apple launched OS X Mountain Lion from its e-mart, the Mac App Store. Mountain Lion costs $19.99, and can be installed on most recent Macs running either OS X Lion or Snow Leopard.

the new [Retina] MacBook Pro was far and away the fastest to update, with the new MacBook Air models close behind

The Retina MacBook Pro, the 15-in. notebook with a higher resolution screen that Apple unveiled last month, completed the Mountain Lion upgrade in just 13 minutes, while the 11-in. and 13-in. MacBook Airs needed 17 minutes.


Google Maps adds NSW public transportation directions

Google Maps will calculate the best non-driving route to get from point A to point B, whether by train, bus, ferry, light rail or monorail. Directions include the best walking route to each stop. Public transportation directions can also be accessed on the go through the Google Maps mobile app. The app’s Navigation feature will alert users when it’s time to get off a bus or when to transfer trains.

South Australia and Western Australia are currently the only other states where residents can access the public transportation directions.

The addition arrives two weeks after Google added cycling directions to Maps.

“Locals and tourists alike use New South Wales’ hundreds of train, ferry, and bus lines — to the tune of over 500 million times per year,” Google wrote in its on its Australian blog.


Australian government websites taken offline by Anonymous

Anonymous have claimed credit for taking down 10 Queensland government websites earlier this week in response to proposed changes to data retention laws currently under discussion by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS)

One of the proposals includes “tailored data retention periods for up to two years for parts of a data set”, with every internet users’ entire Web history logged and stored for up to two years.

The websites, which have now been restored, included:

  • sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au
  • regions.qld.gov.au
  • sd.qld.gov.au
  • dtrdi.qld.gov.au
  • science.qld.gov.au
  • createitmakeitliveit.qld.gov.au
  • smartawards.qld.gov
  • tourism.industry.qld.gov.au
  • workliveplay.qld.gov.au
  • lib.qld.gov.au

AAPT hacked by Anonymous

AAPT has confirmed a security breach of business customer data stolen from servers stored at Melbourne IT, by hackers associated with Anonymous.

The hackers yesterday announced they had stolen 40GB of data from “one of Australia’s largest ISPs” in protest against local proposed data retention laws.

The ISP said the servers storing the files had not been connected to AAPT for more than a year. It said it had immediately instructed Melbourne IT to shut down the affected servers.

Annonymous said it would not make the data public but was protesting against the Federal Government’s draft data retention policies, by highlighting “a lack of security at ISPs and telcos to properly protect the information” that would be stored under the policies.


 

Australia cuts down on spam: Report

Australia accounted for 0.26 per cent of global spam in the second quarter, making it 52nd in the world, the report revealed. This is an improvement over September 2010 when Australia accounted for 1 per cent of all spam

India produced the most spam of any country with 11.4 per cent of all spam, despite only 5.3 per cent of the world’s Internet users living there, Sophos said. The USA, once the top spam producer and was second place in Q1, dropped to fourth place with 6.2 per cent of the world’s spam.


Qantas to install iPads on B767s

Qantas customers will be able to access in-flight entertainment on iPads on B767 flights.
Qantas will partner with Panasonic to use its eXW solution for QStreaming, which will provide on-demand in-flight entertainment content in business class and economy.

The service will be free.

The first B767 aircraft will be fitted with the iPads in the fourth quarter of this year and will primarily operate on the east coast and Perth routes


iOS 6 ditches passwords for free app downloads

Apple will modify the security rules for app downloads in iOS 6, ditching the requirement to enter passwords for free app downloads and updates.

Paid applications will still require passwords.

The new feature was revealed as part of Apple’s iOS 6 beta 3, released to Apple developers last week.
iOS 6 is expected to launch later this year, around the same time as the next-generation iPhone.


Hundreds of Aussies receive SMS death threats

Hundreds of Australians have received death threats by SMS from a scammer who threatened to kill the recipients unless they paid a $5000 ransom.

The SMS read:
“Sum1 paid me to kill you. get spared, 48hrs to pay $5000. If you inform the police or anybody, death is promised…E-mail me now: killerking247@yahoo.com


Vodafone to kill off 3 in August

Vodafone Hutchison Australia is on track to migrate its remaining 3 Mobile customers across to its primary 3G network by the end of August


Windows Phone 8 release date revealed:

Windows Phone 8 smartphones could be in our hands in November – dashing hopes of a simultaneous Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 launch on October 26th.
According to ZDNet, handsets toting the new operating system will be released in November


Microsoft posts first ever loss

A massive write-down in the value of its aQuantive advertising network and slowing sales of PCs running Windows has contributed to Microsoftreporting its first-ever loss in its 26-year history on the stock exchange.

Microsoft lost $US492 million during the June quarter, as opposed to a profit of $5.87 billion a year ago.

Microsoft shares rose 2.14 percent to $US31.32 in after hours trading.


Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 advert gets daytime ban UK

scenes of violence and destruction were “inappropriate” for young children.
They include buildings exploding and catching fire, armed men firing at a lorry until it crashes and a helicopter firing rockets.

Two viewers complained that the advert should not be on during the day when children would be watching.

One of them said that their children, aged between two and four, were frightened.

The action in the advert, set in New York, London and Paris, is accompanied by a voice-over saying: “The world as you knew it is gone. How far will you go to bring it back?”

‘Violence and destruction’

The game broke records on its launch in November with more than 6.5 million copies sold in the UK and the US in its first 24 hours after release.


Satellite TV turns 50

It is 50 years since the first public satellite television images were beamed across the Atlantic from the United States to Britain and mainland Europe

audio snippet from the web page as Ian Logie Baird grandson of John Logie Barid and curator of braodcast culture at National Media Museum in UK


 

 

 

Leave a Reply