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Mike Wheeler

USB Drive Worth Weight In Gold

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UCC Australia has imported Super Talent Technology’s PICO-C Gold, a 24-carat gold-plated, water-resistant USB drive that weighs less than 5gms. It is smaller than an SD card, and can store over 2,000 MP3 songs.


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The unit uses chip-on-board (COB) technology to squeeze 8GB of Flash into an impressively small 31.3mm x 12.4mm x 3.4mm gold-plated steel case. It is shock-resistant, and has up to 200X (30MB/sec) transfer speeds. The Pico-C Gold includes a sturdy gold chain, and looks more like a fashion accessory than a high performance Flash drive.
“Is it the speed, the ruggedness, the water resistance, the incredibly tiny size or the pure elegance that people like most in our Pico-C drive? Who knows?” says Super Talent’s marketing director Joe James. “But, this combination of features and style is not offered in any other terrestrial storage device, which makes it a real craze.”

RRP
$84.95

New Vodofone Rates While Travelling Overseas

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Vodofone Traveller is a new voice roaming pricing platform offered to Vodafone customers that are travel overseas, which covers most destinations that Australians travel to, including New Zealand, the UK, Singapore and China.

This new service can be added to existing plans either before or during their overseas adventures and allows switching between the two tariffs as they move in and out of Australia.

The service covers customers calling home or back to the office, making international calls from another country and when using their mobile for local calls while overseas – particularly important for business customers when meeting new contacts and building relationships in a new market. Vodafone’s business customers also receive the added benefit of free 24/7 customer care while overseas.

Vodafone Traveller’s tariffs are based on four new, geographically-orientated country zones, making it easier and simpler to understand. Zones are; New Zealand and Singapore ($1 to make and receive call; $0.75 for SMS); Europe ($1.50 to make and $1 to receive call; $0.75 for SMS); Asia Pacific and North America ($2 to make and $1 to receive call; $0.75 for SMS); and the rest of the world ($4 to make and $1 to receive call; $0.75 for SMS).

In addition to Vodafone Traveller, Vodafone has launched its new monthly roaming data bundles for mobile broadband customers travelling overseas. Vodafone’s Roaming Data Bundle packages are particularly useful to those customers needing to upload or download documents while on the go. Roaming Data Bundles are available in two sizes; 25MB for $49 per month (Light) and 120MB for $199 per month (Heavy).

JB Hi-Fi Sells Used Phone As New

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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is alleging that JB Hi-Fi sold a used phone as new to the same customer on two separate occasions in June last year.According to the ACCC’s website a customer bought a phone that was thought to be a new Nokia mobile phone from a JB Hi-Fi store at Westfield Kotara, NSW, when in fact on each occasion the phone was a returned used product.

A complaint was made to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after the consumer found contacts and video clips created by the phones’ previous owners.

“When buying a mobile phone consumers are entitled to expect it is new and hasn’t previously been used or returned as faulty. Supplying a used product by mistake or otherwise is deceptive,” ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel said.

To address its concerns, the ACCC has accepted court enforceable undertakings from JB Hi-Fi Group Pty Ltd that it engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct in breach of sections 52 and 53(b) of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

The undertakings relate to the sale of returned mobile phones at its Kotara Westfield store in NSW from 1 January 2008 to 28 August 2008. JB Hi-Fi has undertaken that it will:  not make any representation to the effect that the mobile phones it supplies are new when this is not the case  publish corrective notices in the Newcastle Post newspaper and in the Kotara Westfield store for eight weeks, and  extend its existing trade practices compliance to cover mobile phones. 

As part of the undertakings, JB Hi-Fi has also agreed to provide either a refund or a replacement to those customers who purchased a new mobile phone at the Kotara Westfield store during the period from 1 January 2008 to 28 August 2008, and later found it was not new.

The ACCC said JB Hi-Fi had been very cooperative in resolving this matter. In this incident, JB Hi Fi claims a procedural error meant returned mobile phones were accidentally mixed with existing stock when they should have been returned to the supplier.

Blackberry Bold For Optus 3G Network

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Blackberry Bold will be the first Blackberry smartphoone to support tri-brand HSDPA high-speed networks when it becomes available on the Optus 3G network from August 20.


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Features of the BlackBerry Bold are similar to other smartphones including an LCD colour display, a precision keyboard surrounded by a lustrous black exterior with satin chrome finished frame, and stylish leatherette backplate.

It comes with an integrated Wi-Fi and built-in GPS, and it will be supported by a wide range of business and lifestyle applications that can enhance corporate productivity and personal entertainment.

Together with its next-generation mobile processor and fast network access, the unit offers users a high-speed web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction.

The BlackBerry Bold can be purchased from Optus for $10 per month over 24 months in conjunction with the BlackBerry $79 Cap plan. 

Remembering Communication During Disasters

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The Adtec linked emergency response telephone system (ALERTS) is designed for large companies, so they can connect a connect a crisis team automatically if there is a disaster – whether man-made or natural.


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The system has been specially designed to provide fast, easy and reliable team communications and is tailored to suit the specific needs of any rescue operation. All first responders have to remember is a simple two digit PIN.

With just one phone call, ALERTS automatically contacts all the members of an interagency emergency team and puts it immediately into a conference call.

Within minutes, all the relevant players are online, making the decisions required to get the situation under control.

Once initiated, ALERTS dials the team phone numbers stored in the system. When answered correctly, it automatically puts individual team members into a conference call or sends them a voice message.

If no PIN is entered or the call is not answered, ALERTS will automatically dial the next number for that member of the team and extra participants can be brought into the conference as needed.

 


Once the initial rescue decisions have been made, a secondary voice message is relayed to all the members of a secondary team to inform them of the likely chain of events and to prepare appropriately.

During disasters, communication obstacles are all but inevitable. A successful disaster response plan should anticipate communication failures and account for inaccessible communication channels, such as downed phone lines. Obtaining multiple modes of contact from stakeholders, including home numbers, mobile numbers and e-mail addresses, in advance of disasters increases the odds that businesses will be able to reach everyone necessary.

RRP
TBC

Primitive Infrastructure Stifles Internet Speed

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Australia’s lack of fiberoptic infrastructure could be seen as a stumbling block to taking on a new innovation developed by Australian researchers out of the University of Sydney.

The new technology, which is said to increase the speed of the internet by up to 6,000 percent, is a superfast optical switch on a chip that replaces electrical switches that are used to convert optical signals to a spread of electrical signals that in turn are rerouted to other places on the net.

“This is a switch that’s 64 times faster than anything that’s happening in Telstra’s networks,” said Professor Benjamin Eggleton, who is director of the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems, when talking to the ABC. “We can create switches that are instantaneous, essentially. You can’t switch that fast with electronics.”

Eggleton claims that researchers have demonstrated the switch can split a 640 gigabit per second signal into 64 separate 10 gigabit per second signals.

The switch takes only one picosecond to “change tracks”, meaning that it can switch on and off at an incredible rate of one million million times per second.

 


For the Australian home user to benefit fully from such a switch though, Professor Eggleton says they will have to wait until fibre optics go directly to the home.

“We are so constrained at the moment because our backbone and infrastructure is primitive compared to what has been deployed in Japan,” says Professor Eggleton.

South Korea and Japan are said to have the fastest internet in the world with speeds in the order of hundreds of megabits per second being delivered to some home users.

Canon Targets Small Business

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Canon imageCLASS range of multifunction laser printers has been updated with four new models hitting the shelves that are able to print and copy black-and-white A4 documents at speeds of 22 ppm/cpm.


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With compact low-profile designs and double-sided printing as standard, the new range presents a solution for small businesses that want more than just a basic printer.

The MF4340d and MF4350d models offer 4-in-1 functionality (print, copy, scan and fax) – the latter features an additional 35-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF).

At the upper end of the range are the MF4370dn and MF4380dn, which are network-ready 4-in-1 machines. Featuring a 50-sheet duplex ADF, the MF4380dn is capable of double-sided copying, scanning and faxing as well as printing.

In many offices, a printer is left idle for periods of time during a working day. Each printer in the MF4300 series is energy-efficient in sleep mode, consuming only 3 Watts of energy. As well as minimising the impact on the environment, this reduced power consumption contributes to the bottom line through smaller electricity bills.

 


On-Demand Fixing technology eliminates warm-up times – the thin fixing film is heated directly by a ceramic heater.

Improvements made to the Canon Advance Printing Technology (CAPT) controller allow it to leverage the processing power of the host computer – either PC or Mac – to deliver rapid print processing and enhanced usability. EF (Energy-saving Fine) toner ensures clear black-and-white text reproduction with superior developing and melting performance. Taken together, these three technologies help deliver Quick First-Print performance for greater business efficiency.

Both MF4370dn and MF4380dn offer Ethernet networking capabilities, allowing busy small workgroups to share printing, scanning (on Windows) and faxing (sending only) resources.

The All-In-One cartridge system provides maintenance-free operation. Users can easily replace the compact cartridge – containing toner, drum and cleaning units – without mess or hassle. Authentic Canon Laser Cartridges maintain continuous high-quality output and are fully recyclable via the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark recycling program.


RRP
MF4350d $499
MF4380dn $649
MF4340d $379
MF4370dn $599

Apple To Open Second Sydney Store

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Apple is about to open a second retail store on Sydney’s North Shore, just seven weeks after opening their first Australian store in Sydney’s CBD. It will open this Saturday at 9am.


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Like its sister store in Sydney’s CDB, the new Apple store will have an abundance of products from Apple including the new iPhone 3G, iPods, iMacs and the new Macbook Pro. Customers can test-drive Apple’s entire product line including iPod touch, the best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world, and the MacBook Air, the world’s thinnest notebook.

Every Apple Retail Store offers personal training through Apple’s One-to-One program with in-depth sessions on a wide range of topics, from getting started with a Mac or iPod to advancing your moviemaking or digital photography skills. Visitors to Apple Retail Stores can also take advantage of free services from the most knowledgeable people around, including face-to-face support and creative help at the Genius Bar, plus workshops and special programs for kids.

Surge Protector For Home Theatre

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A new surge protector provides sockets for up to eight appliances that can be used simultaneously, as well as dedicated sockets for cable TV, telephone and TV aerials.


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Most consumers don’t realise that power spikes and surges can destroy or seriously damage home theatre equipment plus computers, refrigerators, dishwashers – in fact any electrical appliance.

Called the Home Theatre 8 it comes in a silver housing, has a high-speed response time of less than two nanoseconds, will protect against a surge of up to a massive 1550 joules and has protection against EMI (Electromagnetic ‘noise’ Interference) and RFI (Radio Frequency Interference).

This unit also features a warning system whereby a series of three lights will show at a glance whether the system is working accurately, if it should be checked, and if the internal home wiring is properly earthed.

As with other metal oxide varistor (MOV) power surge protectors, the Home Theatre 8 will need replacing once it has been subjected to a major power surge or has been in service for some time and experienced numerous minor power fluctuations.  MOV surge protectors are known to provide the best protection against the biggest surges but do require replacing once ‘hit’.
Avico Home Theatre 8 power surge protector is available nationally from most electrical retailers, audio/visual outlets and department stores.

RRP
$99