Episode 310 – Aussie Tech Heads Shownotes

posted in: Show Notes

GLENN’S SHOWNOTES

Con man pleads guilty to selling fake Facebook shares

In selling these shares that he didn’t own and wasn’t allowed to sell, Mattera raked in $11 million from naive would-be investors.

The Feds originally nabbed Mattera in South Florida in November 2011 and scheduled his hearing for this week in U.S. District Court in New York City. Once in court today, Mattera pled guilty to all three criminal counts and tried to plead guilty to a fourth count of money laundering

Mattera is scheduled to be sentenced for his most recent con in February and it’s expected he will get 10 to 12 years in prison. Judge Sullivan said he would decide later whether he’d accept Mattera’s guilty plea to money laundering.


Computer cold call virus scam – scammers outsmarted!

Joint action between three international regulators has thwarted a massive global phone scam, with US authorities winning court orders to close down and freeze funds of imposters posing as Microsoft employees offering to fix PC viruses.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA), the US Federal Trade Commission and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission collaborated to share key intelligence about the operations of the Microsoft imposters.

This scam was one of the most commonly reported scams in 2011, with computer hacking scams contributing more than 23 per cent to the total scam reports to the ACCC.

Follow-up scam

Scammers have also been known to make follow-up calls to people who initially fell victim to the scam. In these calls the scammer falsely claims to be from a foreign government, foreign law enforcement body, or from your bank, and offers to recover the money that you initially lost— in return for a fee.

Report

You can report scams to the ACCC via the SCAMwatch report a scam page or by calling 1300 795 995.


Kodak to stop selling inkjet printers

Eastman Kodak said it plans to stop selling inkjet printers from 2013 as it winds down most of its consumer businesses and focuses on commercial printing.

The company will, however, continue to sell ink to existing customers of inkjet printers.

Kodak, which once employed more than 60,000 people, expects to emerge from bankruptcy in 2013 as a much leaner company. The latest jobcuts will reduce its workforce to 13,100.

Lexmark said last month that it will stop making inkjet printers and focus on its more profitable imaging and software businesses.


RIM offers Aussies cash to replace BlackBerries

Research In Motion (RIM) has announced a BlackBerry trade-in program for business customers planning to upgrade to BlackBerry 7 handsets.

The smartphone manufacturer has launched a website offering up to $100 cash, per device, for customers retiring six or more older BlackBerry handsets.

Research In Motion (RIM) has announced a BlackBerry trade-in program for business customers planning to upgrade to BlackBerry 7 handsets.

The smartphone manufacturer has launched a website offering up to $100 cash, per device, for customers retiring six or more older BlackBerry handsets.

For a full list of terms and conditions, pay a visit to RIM’s trade-up website


Apple’s Cook says sorry for Maps flaws

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has apologised to customers frustrated with glaring errors in its new Maps service and, in an unusual move for the consumer giant, directed them to rival services such as Google’s Maps instead.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app,” he said in the letter.

Cook said that more than 100 million iOS devices are using the new Apple Maps and that the more people use Maps, the better it will get. He also offered some hints on why the company decided to remove Google Maps.

Apple launched the Google-powered Maps “initially with the first version of iOS” and created a home-grown version of the service as it wanted to provide more features, Cook said.

“As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps,” he said in the letter.

Google provides turn-by-turn navigation on Android-based devices but the popular feature was not available for Apple devices. Apple Maps replaced Google Maps in iOS 6 and the Google service is now only available through a browser.


 

Amazon offers loans to its online sellers

The new program is called Amazon Lending, and sellers on the company’s marketplace have been sent emails offering loans from Amazon Capital Services Inc,

Some online merchants lack upfront cash to buy all the inventory they would like to sell on Amazon.com, especially heading into the crucial holiday season. Banks and other sources of loans for merchants pulled back in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving an opening for alternative sources of financing

Amazon is lending up to $US800,000 to some merchants

The company is charging some sellers interest rates of up to 13 percent, but some other merchants are being offered rates as low as 1 percent.


ANZ rolls out new customer-facing tech

ANZ has kicked off a $1.5 billion transformation program that will see the bank roll out intelligent ATM machines, video conferencing to regional branches and run another trial of contactless mobile payments.

The new ATMs were designed to replace face-to-face interaction for basic teller functions, including cash and cheque deposits, with digital imaging technology used to determine note type and quantity.

They were also capable of using biometric and near-field communications technology, although the 800 initial machines would require add-ons to make the functionality available.

ANZ has rolled out Cisco video conferencing units to 43 regional branches in a bid to replace roaming financial specialists with a ‘hub-and-spoke’ approach.

ANZ also unveiled a new, limited test of near-field communications (NFC) technology using Samsung Galaxy S III smartphones with 25 ANZ staff,


iview for Android still in development

ABC TV is still working on a version of its iview streaming service for Android, with no release date set for the app yet, a member from iview said.

over 1 million downloads of iview in June

Android. However, the operating system has proven challenging for the broadcaster with iview.

“The fragmentation of the Android platform and the number of devices makes it challenging for us to develop, test and support these devices at present,” O’Donoghue has previously said.

ABC TV also stated it was working towards a redevelopment of iview in HTML5 to more easily target a greater number of Android devices and screen sizes and other mobile platforms.

We have limited resources and we’re a small team.


 

AMD deal brings Android apps to Windows 8

Gadgets built around chips made by AMD will come optimised to run the Android apps.
A collaboration between AMD and software firm Bluestacks lets the devices run the 500,000 apps more usually found on Android phones.

By contrast, Microsoft reportedly only has a few thousand apps written specifically for Windows 8 at launch.

The Android apps will be available on Windows 8 devices via AMD’s AppZone player. Inside this is code from Bluestacks that acts as a wrapper around the mobile phone programs so they can run on desktops, laptops and tablets.

AMD has made changes to the core code that runs its processors and graphics cards to ensure apps built for the small screens on mobile phones look good and run well on larger displays.

Bluestacks’ Android-running software also works on Intel-powered devices, including Macs, but typically has to be installed after a gadget has been bought and booted up.

Bluestacks is also talking to other PC makers to get its software installed as PCs are put together in a factory.

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