Three-time winning jockey Damien Oliver knows he is up against a tough field in his 26th Melbourne Cup.
Oliver is trying for a fourth Cup win, on the Gai Waterhouse-trained The Offer at Flemington today.
“It’s a tough race this year,” he said. “There’s many chances, I think, and there’s a lot of jockeys going into the race thinking they’ve got a chance to win it.
“It’s going to be a very competitive race.”
Japanese galloper Fame Game is the short-priced favourite, but heavy support has come for English trainer Ed Dunlop’s Trip To Paris, the stablemate of crowd favourite and three-time runner-up Red Cadeaux.
The three are among a record-equalling 11 contenders trained overseas.
The existing record was set in the 2011 Melbourne Cup, which was won by French stayer Dunaden. Six of the first seven placings that year were filled by horses trained abroad.
Of the 24 runners this year only one, Sertorius, was bred in Australia.
William Hill has embarked on an internal technology upgrade in time for this year’s Melbourne Cup, as it anticipates a 20 to 50 per cent increase in bets on its online platforms.
Last year’s Melbourne Cup was the first time the betting company had recorded more than 1 million transactions in 24 hours and this year it is forecasting up to 1.5 million.
A former Optus employee who is suing retailer David Jones and its former CEO for sexual harassment has been exposed as having made prior harassment claims while working for the NSW Police.
Publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk is claiming $37 million in damages against David Jones and former CEO Mark McInnes who she claims made sexual advances to her while employed at the retailer.
Now it’s been revealed that Fraser Kirk made a similar complaint against her boss SSgt Michael Magill while working as a civilian for the NSW Police.
Questions are also being raised about the judgement of her PR adviser Anthony McClellan a former A Current Affair and Sixty minutes Producer. McClellan has been accused by the Sunday Telegraph of dishing out “dreadful advice” to Fraser-Kirk who a called a press conference on the day prior to David Jones Spring fashion showing.
McClellan who has a history of poor judgement once told A Current Affair researcher to “go away” when a story was put to him. The researcher then took the story to senior management who backed the researcher. The story won a Logie.
According to the Sunday Telegraph Fraser-Kirk accused the police officer of sending her inappropriate text messages. The formal complaint was investigated by two police inspectors.
Sgt McGill is still employed by the NSW Police Force.
In her latest attempt to extract cash from David Jones and McInnes, Fraser-Kirk has had her advisers set up a hot line in an effort to get other David Jones staff to complain.
However several former police colleges of Fraser Kirk have come forward claiming that she tried to solicit them to complain when she laid a complaint against her former police boss.
The women are said to be furious at her actions claiming that she went out of her way to try and smear SSgt Michael Magill.
“She tried to make out he was a sleaze. She wanted us to complain and make a stronger case against him” one of the women said.
None of the women supported her claims.
Investigations are also being made at Optus where it is believed she also made complaints.
Both Anthony McClellan and Kristy Fraser-Kirk are refusing to comment on the latest allegations.
The Federal Government has thrown in the towel and signed an $11 billion dollar deal with Telstra that gives them access to the telecommunication carriers copper network, exchanges and other infrastructure needed to roll out the National Broadband Network’s fibre network across Australia.
The Federal Government has thrown in the towel and signed an $11 billion dollar deal with Telstra that gives them access to the telecommunication carriers copper network, exchanges and other infrastructure needed to roll out the National Broadband Network’s fibre network across Australia.
The deal announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, will see Telstra share climb tomorrow, as analysts realise that Telstra has achieved a deal that will benefit the carrier as they roll out new revenue services such as Telstra BigPond movies, TV content and new services for the connected home.
Under the deal, NBN Company will have access to Telstra’s network ducts, wires and infrastructure which will allow the NBN to roll out the fibre network quicker than without Telstra.
As part of the deal, Telstra will migrate their customers onto the fibre network. Telstra will receive $9 billion over 6 years to compensate for NBN Co using its infrastructure and the loss of future income from fixed-line customers.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a further $2 billion of government money will be used to set up a new company called USO Co, to look after Telstra’s Universal Service Obligations, retrain Telstra staff, and make NBN Co a wholesale supplier of fibre for new housing developments from January 1, next year.
As part of the deal Telstra gets a number of regulatory concessions worth approximately $2 billion. They also get to keep their 50% in Foxtel and they will be allowed to bid for 4G spectrum as it becomes available.
The deal still has to be approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissaion and if approved will deliver Telstra a post-tax net value of approximately $11 billion.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that negotiations with Telstra had been ”very difficult, tough, hard”, with some analysts claiming that Rudd did not want to go the next Federal Election fighting with Telstra over the NBN.
Harvey Norman sales have declined 3.1% sales for the 28 days ended 23rd November 2008. Revenues are down $32 million according to CEO Gerry Harvey in a report to the Australian stock exchange.
Harvey Norman sales have declined 3.1% sales for the 28 days ended 23rd November 2008. Revenues are down $32 million according to CEO Gerry Harvey in a report to the Australian stock exchange.
Unaudited preliminary accounts for the period 1 July 2008 to 30 September 2008 indicate profit before tax and minority interests for the consolidated entity of $71.0 million compared to $103.6 million for the corresponding prior period, a reduction of 31.5%.
The decline follows a report yesterday that revealed, that a large percentage of Australians intend to wait until after Xmas to shop. According to the latest Retailers Association retail survey, 63 per cent of respondents said they were going to purchase the same amount of gifts this year, but will be more careful with the type and price of the items they purchase.
62.1% of consumers said that they believed that Australia is currently in a recession. 28.4% per cent believe the economy is stable.
The survey also reported that of the consumers who were considering buying electronics which included gaming, 14.7% planned to purchase an MP3 Player or IPod.
More than a quarter 27.1% were purchases of home electronic appliances and other electronics. However, the Nintendo Wii was also a popular choice with 13.4 per cent, followed by other computer games 12.9% being popular gifts for Christmas 2008.
Only 12.3% said that they were going to spend more money on Christmas gifts this year, whereas in 2007 it was 21.5 per cent.
“Consumers are likely to be savvier this year, and will be doing research on the internet to make sure they get the best value for money,” said Deloitte director and retail expert, Katrina Doney.
JB Hi-Fi has reported half year sales grow of 7.7%, Sales for January 2016 were up 10.2%, online sales are up 28.9%.
Gross profit increased 7.6% to 95.2M on revenues of $2.2 Billion.
Gross margin down 3 bps to 21.7% (HY15: 21.7%). Cost of doing business was 14.3% (HY15: 14.2%), resulting in EBIT of $138.2 million (HY15: $130.0 million) and an EBIT margin of 6.5%
(HY15: 6.6%).
A major contributor to the margin downturn is believed to be a move by Dick Smith to heavily discount stock running into the peak buying period of Xmas and the New Year.
JB HI-FI CEO, Richard Murray, said “This was a solid result with trading in the important November and December periods particularly strong as we executed on a great promotional plan.”
The Company opened seven new stores in the period with the Melbourne based Company set to open a total of eight new stores in FY16 and maintains its stated target of 214 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
Of these 194 stores, 56 were JB HI-FI HOME stores, with four new JB HI-FI HOME stores opened and nine existing JB HI-FI stores converted to JB HI-FI HOME during HY16. The Company is targeting a total of circa 75 JB HI-FI
HOME stores across Australia and New Zealand.
JB HI-FI CEO, Richard Murray, said “Each new JB HI-FI HOME store contributes to growing our customer awareness, market share and supplier support.”
In addition to the HOME store roll-out, the Company continues to introduce small appliances to its existing store network as a natural progression of its proven home appliances strategy. Small appliances were introduced to 22
existing JB HI-FI stores during HY16, with up to an additional 15 existing JB HI-FI stores expected to range small appliances by the end of FY16.
The home appliances market in Australia is circa $4.6 billion, larger than many of the other categories JB HI-FI operates in, and presents a significant opportunity for the Company as it leverages the strength and trust in the JB
HI-FI brand.
JB HI-FI CEO, Richard Murray, said “Appliances are a natural adjacency to our successful consumer electronics categories and accessing the $4.6 billion appliance market, via both the introduction of small appliances
to existing JB HI-FI stores and the HOME store conversions, is a significant growth opportunity for the Company.”
Out of Store
Online sales continue to grow, up 28.9% in HY16, and represent approximately 3.0% of total sales (HY15: 2.5%).
Unique visitors to JB HI-FI’s websites during the 12 months to 31 December 2015 averaged 1.3 million per week.
JB HI-FI Solutions remains on track to deliver on its longer term aspirational sales target of approximately $500 million per annum, through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions. All departments achieved solid growth
for the period.
“JB HI-FI Solutions is a key driver of our future growth. We continue with our aggressive recruitment plan as we expand our product and service offer” said JB HI-FI CEO Richard Murray.
JB HI-FI CEO, Richard Murray, said “Sales in January 2016 were pleasing given the strength in the prior year, with back to school technology purchases in both our retail and Solutions businesses driving sales.”
Murray said that the market is expected to remain competitive as retailers cycle a strong second half in FY15.
Australian distributors who are supplying Aldi with consumer electronics and appliances are set to get a massive lift in sales as Aldi looks to spend $750 Million pushing into Western and South Australian.
Organisations such as Tempo and Laser Corporation are set to
benefit from the brutal battle that is currently being played between
supermarkets.
Also set to benefit distributors and CE and appliance vendors
will be the emergence of Aldi arch rival Lidl, this is the discount chain which
just beat Aldi to be named Britain’s best supermarket.
Lidl, ranked by Deloitte as the fourth-largest retailer in
the world with $128 billion in annual sales, has already met with several
distributors in Australia as well as branded CE and appliance vendors.
ChannelNews has also been told that Woolworth’s management
are looking at the implementation of dump bins in their supermarket stores similar
what Aldi does to shift products such as TV’s, small appliances and tools.
A report prepared for Woolworths acknowledges that the mix
of food and other goods such as discount cosmetics, tools and clothing has
helped Aldi build traffic especially when stores are located in locations that
generate high traffic during lunch times.
Currently Woolworths is selling mixed stock via their
Toshiba who are struggling to get their act together in the consumer notebook market has seen their premium convertible Radius L40W notebook described as expensive having an “ordinary” screen” and an awkward tablet component by Australia’s national newspaper.
Under siege from the likes of Lenovo, whose top end products are running hot off the shelves at JB Hi Fi, the new Toshiba Radius L40W is the product that Toshiba management was hoping would take it up to the highly popular Lenovo Yoga Pro 3, which is proving so popular at $2,300 that it has resulted in a 40% lift in premium notebook sales at JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman.
Writing in the Australian newspaper, seasoned technology journalist Chris Griffith described the Radius L40 W as “Nothing noteworthy except price”.
The review that was set up by Ogilvy PR who won the Toshiba account back last year, the PR Company has been selective in who has been able to do a review of the top end Toshiba notebook.
Griffith said that the notebook failed to impress in several areas.
He described the 360 degree tablet as “awkward” because the screen and keyboard can’t be separated.
This resulted in the keyboard sitting underneath the screen with the keys facing downwards.
He said this made it uncomfortable on your lap and you can accidentally trigger the keys.
He also described the overpriced notebook and tablet as heavy at 2kg, he pointed out that the weight was four times the weight of an Apple iPad Air.
Toshiba are still using a USB2.0 port in a $1799 machine a move that “perplexed” the reviewer.
Griffith wrote “There’s also a curious Windows button on the left-hand side that switches from the standard desktop to Windows tiles mode. I don’t see the need for this when you have a Windows key on the keyboard”.
He added “Given its $1799 price tag, you’d expect 2015-style innovation: maybe impressive battery life with new, energy-efficient chips, maybe a cutting-edge USB-C port for ultrafast data transfer, maybe a biometric fingerprint reader that eliminates passwords, or a cutting edge design such Dell’s XPS (2015) with its ultra-thin bezel. But nothing stands out”.
He also described the 1366 x 768 pixel, 720p display screen as “ordinary” especially as several brands such as Acer and Asus are delivering significantly better display screens.
How the Australian saw the Toshiba top end offering.
After extensive use Griffith only got six hours and 15 minutes battery life which means that on a flight to Asia the battery will run out without a top up.
Apple’s MacBook Air offers 9-12 hours battery life and Lenovo ThinkPad X250 is reported to last more than 15 hours.
As for the 14-inch, 720p display itself, it is well below full high-?definition or the 2K definition quality you’d expect in a top-line notebook and incredibly reflective.
The review unit was a top end specked machine with an Intel Core i7 5500U processor at 2.40 gigahertz, 8 gigabytes of DDR3 memory, on-board Intel HD5500 graphics, fast 802.11ac wireless and Intel WiDi.
The CPU scored 285 cb which is at the lower end of the Core i7 range.
Giving the device just 5/10 he described the Toshiba Radius L40W as a highly priced mid-range laptop. It’s a convertible, sure but as the flagship of Toshiba’s new Australian range, it is a disappointing device.
As consumers demand better battery life and faster charging of their mobile devices vendors such as Samsung with their new Galaxy Note 5 have moved to delivering fast charging capability.
Now Qualcomm who has been losing market share due to their processors overheating has moved to deliver fast charging as a standard feature in their processors.
The new Qualcomm technology is called Quick Charge 3.0, and it’s 38 per cent more efficient than its predecessor. Qualcomm claims it’ll take a mobile from zero battery to an 80 per cent charge in just 35 minutes, in comparison a current model smartphone without Quick Charge, takes about an hour and a half depending on the size of a battery.
Like Quick Charge 2.0, it’ll come built into Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, namely the Snapdragon 820.
According to Qualcomm, a new Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage (INOV) algorithm lets your mobile “determine what power level to request at any point in time for optimum power transfer, while maximising efficiency”.
Compared to Quick Charge 2.0, it will also reduce power dissipation by up to 45 per cent. Which should hopefully help our phones last longer in the first place.
“We are significantly enhancing the capabilities and benefits offered by Quick Charge 3.0 to bring robust fast charging technology to all,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
“Quick Charge 3.0 addresses a primary consumer challenge with today’s mobile devices in helping users restore battery life quickly and efficiently, and does so through leading technology and a robust ecosystem including leading device and accessory OEMs.”
Quick charging tech is all well and good, but it’s really just something to tide us over until the problem of short battery life is solved. Whoever cracks that is going to make a fortune.
Quick Charge 3.0 will be available in phones from next year. As well as the Snapdragon 820 chipset, it will be in the Snapdragon 620, 618, 617 and 430.
Sonos the market leader in wireless audio has launched a brand new Sonos Play5 speaker which when paired with a second Play 5 and coupled with their new software delivers a pretty good sound experience, they have also delivered new Trueplay tuning software for Sonos speakers.
The first thing you notice about the new Play5 is the shape, it’s a vastly improved design over the previous top end Sonos speaker. The new design can be mounted both vertically and horizontally.
And at $749 this product delivers excellent value for money.
As for pricing Sonos earlier today dropped their overall pricing of all Sonos products by 10% which pretty much puts them on parity with US pricing for Sonos gear.
With the new Sonos Play5 it not what you see that delivers the rich wireless audio experience that Sonos has become famous for.
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It’s their software that differentiates this brand from a lot of other audio brands who are trying to break into the booming wireless audio market.
Sonos Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten recently said that software is driving the next wave of audio innovation and it’s making music sound better than ever imaginable.
He said in a recent blog “When file sharing exploded onto the Internet in the 90s, more than a century of recorded music was turned on its head. Our relationship with music has changed dramatically in the twenty plus years of innovation since.
“In the blink of an eye, the mixtape was replaced by the super-curated playlist, and social media superstars ushered in a new golden age of the live performance. The only constant has been change, and only one thing is sure – we are just getting started”.
He added “Innovators like Spotify, Pandora, SoundCloud and now Apple have embraced the streaming revolution, offering everyone from the 12-year-old down the street to the deepest vinyl connoisseur access to the entire history of recorded music, powered by software. Digital music is, simply music”.
Also released by Sonos is new speaker-tuning software called Trueplay, this software which can be accessed via the Sonos app allows a Play5 owner to tune their Sonos speaker to a room or ambient environment.
Both Trueplay and the new Sonos Play5 will go on sale at Australian stores shortly.
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With Trueplay which I saw demonstrated at a Sydney Hotel recently one is able to place a speaker in any position and then tune the music stream to delivers studio-quality listening experiences in each room of the home.
The only problem at this stage is that the new Trueplay software is only available to Apple device owners which says a lot as to their commitment to the Android platform, which Sonos engineers believe delivers an inferior microphone capability.
This is despite products like the new Samsung Edge, Note 5 and the new HTC One M9 and LG G4 delivering excellent microphone recordings.
” Using the Sonos app, the microphone on an iPhone or iPad, and a special tone emitted by the Sonos speaker, the system analyses how sound reflects off walls, furnishings, glass and other surfaces in any given room. Sonos then smartly tunes that speaker so the music sounds its very best” said Niv Novak from Sonos Australia.
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“Our remit at Sonos has evolved from constantly working to improve the general sound of all of our speakers to customizing them: first by room, and in the future, by person, activity and content,” said record producer, composer, and Sonos sound experience leader Giles Martin.
The new Sonos Play 5 speaker has been redesigned with six synchronized, custom-designed drivers, the speaker’s three mid-woofers create smooth mids and deep, powerful lows, and three tweeters deliver crystal clear highs at any volume.
The sound I heard from the new speaker was significantly superior to their current Play 5 speaker which was one of the first released by Sonos 10 years ago in Australia.
When paired they delivered a true value for money experience that is up there with some serious high priced audio gear.
The new array produces a soundstage that is much wider than expected in a single speaker, creating room-filling sound with precise separation of vocals and instruments.
In addition to horizontal orientation as a standalone speaker, two speakers paired together vertically deliver stereo sound with a focused and intense sweet spot.
Paired horizontally, they create a larger stereo image for an immersive, room-filling listening experience.
A closer look at the facing grill mesh reveals 60,000 individually drilled holes in the grill.
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Sonos has also delivered a total redesign of the touch controls on the top of the speaker.
Smart sensors make these touch controls responsive to all orientations, so the volume-up is always facing up. All you have to do is stroke the controls manually or resort to your app to control the new speaker.
Breaking Sound Barriers
Whitten said “For a truly exceptional result, hardware and software must work in harmony. Our new Play5 brings together all of our learning from many years of hardware and software design and iteration. Smart to its core, its dipole array delivers an incredibly wide soundstage. An accelerometer recognizes which of its three orientations it’s in and adjusts the tuning to suit your listening style”
He added “Sonos’ ultimate goal for sound is to reproduce in your living room what the artists created in the studio, in the purest way possible. That’s why we work with artists like Rick Rubin, Giles Martin, Q-Tip, and many others.
“We believe software is the ultimate craftsman’s tool for our speaker’s sound as well. From the early days of recording, speaker makers have been trying to reproduce the exact sound of the original musical performance in your home. The last 100 years of innovation in the loud speaker were driven by design, materials and manufacturing techniques-primarily hardware innovations and improvements”
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“At Sonos we realized with our first speakers that by controlling the custom-designed drivers, we could ensure that no matter how high you turn up the volume, the music will never distort. We realized that by using software, we could improve how our speakers sounded in just minutes, not months. We learned how to control multiple drivers into an array that delivers a previously unfeasibly wide soundstage for home theatre, and how to create deep bass with just a tiny unit. But that really was just the beginning”
Trueplay
He added “We are convinced that software can drive many more years of innovation in sound, making speakers sound better in any environment – smarter, more aware, and reactive to their environment. Which is why we’re so excited to be launching the first chapter of this innovation with Trueplay. It’s a major step in making sound itself smart.
Outraged shoppers have described Harvey Norman pricing for consumer electronic goods as obscene after they were caught flogging a Microsoft mouse for $68, $20 more than what Officeworks sells it for and $8 over the Microsoft recommended retail price.
It’s also been revealed that a Kaiser Baas hoverboard is $150 more expensive at Harvey Norman than at JB Hi Fi, Harvey Norman are selling the popular, but controversial device for $698 Vs $548 at JB Hi Fi.
This is not the first time that SmartHouse has identified Harvey Norman as one of the most expensive retailers in Australia to buy CE products.
This weekend Social Media turned on Harvey Norman over their pricing of a Microsoft Sculpt Touch Mouse which was advertised for $68, $8 over the reccomended retail price.
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Harvey Norman price
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The reccomended retail price
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JB HI Fi price for same product
Reddit users have slammed Harvey Norman after one person pointed out the large price comparison Especially as JB Hi Fi is selling the same product for $49.
‘Harvey Norman just blows nuts. Their prices are obscene when you compare to JB Hi Fi, Good Guys, Appliances Online or pretty much any other electronics retailer I can think of. That’s local mobs too, not international GST exempt businesses,’ one user wrote.
‘Both myself and my wife have worked for Harvey Norman in the past. It is hilarious how much they hate JB Hi Fi and Officeworks, because anyone with half a brain will just ask HN to price match whatever is on their competitor’s website. They lose money hand over fist to those guys,’ a Reddit user wrote.
Another said: ‘This is why we need GST on all overseas purchases, right Gerry, because that’s what’s hurting your local brick and mortars, right Gerry?’.
Harvey Norman have made themselves available to comment for this story.
