Tech News April 10, 2012
Foxtel gets foxed by ACCC Green light for Austar merger, red light for IPTV
Foxtel’s ambitious IPTV plans have been significantly thwarted following the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s conditions which will allow Foxtel’s AUS$1.9 billion takeover of pay- TV operative Austar to go ahead.…
CSIRO patent-trolls ALL OF AMERICA! Evil Aussie tax on Wi-Fi
With a skillful combination of nationalistic dog-whistling and misinformation, Ars Technica has created a storm of outrage against Australia with the claim that the country’s CSIRO has patent-trolled its way into American WiFi users’ pockets.…
‘Unibody’ iPhone 5 said to debut in October Today’s arrivals from the long and winding rumor road
Apple’s next iPhone will be released in October, not June, and it will have a unibody construction …
Tech News April 7, 2012
AT&T to allow unlocking of out-of-contract iPhones Paid up? Then you’re good to go on Easter Sunday
Beginning this Sunday, AT&T will let some customers to unlock their iPhones, thus allowing them to use another carrier’s service – provided, of course, that the carrier’s network is compatible with the newly unlocked iPhone.…
Apple flooded with iPad 3 wireless connection complaints Fractious fanbois fume at fondleslab FAIL
A tsunami of complaints about Apple’s “The new iPad” – aka the iPad 3 – are filling Cupertino’s discussion forums, claiming that the 3G and 4G connectivity of Apple’s überpopular fondleslab is bollixed.…
Tech News April 6, 2012
A month to go on Cookie Law: Will Google Analytics get a free pass? Slippery ICO can’t be pinned in privacy mud-wrestle
Analysis Website operators in Blighty have been continuously perplexed by the upcoming enforcement of the EU’s cookie law on 26 May.…
Ofcom calls for end to 0800 charges on mobiles Freephone should be free, not 21p a minute
Brits calling freephone numbers for government helplines should be able to make those calls for free from their mobiles as well, Ofcom has said.…
Tech News April 5, 2012
RIM begs app devs to fish it out of BlackBerry jam Coders set ‘unconference’ agenda in May
RIM’s app-makers will be treated to an “unconference” at their yearly “BlackBerry Jam” held in Orlando, Florida, between 1 and 3 May.…
Brit pockets £100k in Samsung Bada dev compo Flying-game-for-mobes bags prize
Samsung has announced the winner of its Bada Developer Day UK Challenge, a “futuristic” flying game for mobile phones.…
RIM should focus on BBM, find a human CEO Social’s where the money is… bitch
Analysis RIM ended last week in more self-inflicted disarray. It announced a huge write-down of unsold fondleslabs, a sizeable operating loss, waved goodbye to its co-founder and its CTO, and then had to spend the next two days clarifying that …
Tech News April 4, 2012
China puts the boot up ISPs to close digital divide Faster speeds and lower prices please … or else!
China has pledged to increase broadband speeds and reduce the price of internet services in the country, which can be up to four times more expensive than those in rival countries including the UK and US.…
Shock jocks take NBNCo cash, then trash its ads UPDATED WITH MP3s:Live reads pulled after DJs criticise NBN
NBNCo’s plans to win over the hearts and minds of middle Australia have taken a hit, after two prominent radio announcers editorialised before reading paid ads which explained the company’s role as a wholesaler.…
Why new iPad renders your pile of slab mags as garbage PNGs scuppered by high-res …
Tech News April 3, 2012
Fujitsu says sayonara to Toshiba in bid to take on Apple Japanese electronics giant still struggling internationally
Japanese computing giant Fujitsu has bought out Toshiba’s share of the firms’ joint mobile venture, to give it a clear crack at unseating Apple, which only recently jumped into top spot in the land of the rising sun.…
Ice Cream Sandwich gives Android mobes brainfreeze – Sony Phones choke on big, slow and crashing upgrade
Sony says its customers should avoid upgrading their Android devices to Ice Cream Sandwich, adding that many of them won’t get the option anyway.…
Check Point in domain expiry snafu How to firewall off your website – the wrong way
Security giant Check Point failed to renew its dot-com domain name on …
Tech News April 2, 2012
Australians love mobile devices, but not mobile downloads Fixed net throughput sprints ahead
The next time you queue up to buy an iPad, 3G wireless broadband dongle, or an Android phone or tablet, ask yourself: why are the data plans so expensive, when they deliver so little?…
Champagne at CSIRO after WiFi patent settlement US carriers cough up
Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has won another round of its long-running patent battle with US carriers AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile offering a settlement worth more than $AU220 million.…
RIM retracts denial on consumer devices: Pulls out, spins in circle ‘We want to target white-collar criminals’
In an unprecedented retraction of a retraction, a RIM press officer has stated that their company …
Tech News April 1, 2012
Apple drops ‘thermonuclear’ patent bombshell What Steve Jobs threatened, Tim Cook delivers
Apple has launched a new patent assault on its competitors, one that appears to unleash the nukes that Steve Jobs reportedly told his biographer Walter Isaacson he was going to drop on Google’s Android.…
IPv6 networking: Bad news for small biz You may not get fired for buying Cisco, but you can go bust
Sysadmin blog IPv6 is traditionally a networking topic. Yet IPv6 is as much a business consideration as it is a technical one. As world IPv6 day rolls around again, we’re going to see an ever-increasing amount of technical IPv6 coverage. Before we do, I think a business interjection is warranted.…
Who should small businesses choose to run their IT?
Taking charge: Deciding who should look after the IT needs of small and medium-sized businesses can be tricky
“I have just been through a week of utter tech hell,” says Hamish Thompson, managing director of Twelve Thirty Eight, a small public relations firm that he founded in 2007.
“At one point I experienced something akin to Stockholm Syndrome, having finally got through to someone at a call centre for one of our ‘service providers’,” he says.
“I’m actively searching for an affordable external support option, having naively assumed that I could do it all myself and with some support from colleagues.”
Thompson’s experience is typical of that of many small firms who know what they need in terms of technology, but are struggling to work out where to turn …