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Hello 4G: Telstra Hits OZ @ High-Speed

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Telstra revs up 4G coverage as rivals hit town.


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Capital cities Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth will now have next gen, 4G LTE web coverage all over, almost.

The 4G expansion, announced earlier today, will the reach two-thirds of the population over the next 10 months.

The first new 4G sites were launched today in Sydney’s Bondi and in the North Shore rail tunnel for passengers travelling on the North Shore line between Central and North Sydney.

The network expansion will see more than 1,000 new 4G/LTE base stations installed by mid 2013, covering 66% of the population, up from 40% at present.

Telstra’s typical 4G download speeds are 2Mbps – 40Mbps, uploads 1Mbps – 10Mbps.

And Aussies are crying out for 4G services, if Telstra’s figures are anything to go by.

Over half a million of its customers have switched to 4G services – either via smartphone or mobile broadband devices, since it launched the first service in Oz last September (340,000 broadband + 160,000 4G smartphones).

Rival Optus unleashed its 4G service, which it claims is fastest in Oz, earlier this month.

“Since launching the nation’s first 4G LTE service last September, our customers have embraced 4G technology and today they’re using more than half a million 4G devices to browse the web faster, stream music and video and enjoy rich internet content traditionally reserved for PCs,” said Brendon Riley, Telstra’s Chief Operations Officer.

Telstra currently offers limited 4G coverage in capital CBDs and 100 other metro and regional locations.

It also appears men are more enamoured with faster Internet than women – accounting for 56% of Telstra’s 4G customer base, Queenslanders are also the fastest to takeup teh 4G LTE services, followed by Victorians (22%) and NSW (21%).

Is your area set to be 4G-ed?

 

Check out Telstra 4G Coverage expansion state-by-state:

· Brisbane: Brisbane Airport in the East to Indooroopilly in the West and from Coopers Plains in the South to Chermside in the North.

· Gold Coast:Surfers Paradise in the East to Nerang in the West and from Tugun in the South to Hope Island in the North.

· Sydney: Manly in the East to Greystanes in the West and from Kogarah in the South to Hornsby in the North.

· Canberra: Queanbeyan in the East to Duffy in the West and from Farrer in the South to Moncrieff in the North.

· Melbourne: Ringwood in the East to Werribee in the West and from Bentleigh in the South to Epping in the North.

· Adelaide: Magill in the East to Henley Beach in the West and from Torrens Park in the South to Broadview in the North.

· Perth: Maida Vale in the East to Fremantle in the West and from Willetton in the South to Dianella in the North.*

Cooked: Conroy Blasts Turnbull’s NBN Rumble

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Minister for Broadband blasts political foe as “lazy, financially illiterate, or both”


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The Hon Malcolm Turnbull and Minister Conroy, in happier times.

Senator Stephen Conroy has come out fighting today, declaring Shadow Communications minister, MP Malcolm Turnbull, has ‘once again’ misled the public, with claims the National Broadband Network (NBN) has witnessed a $400m “blowout” after the recent budget.

“Mr Turnbull has manufactured claims of a ‘blowout’ and a ‘fiddle’ in the budget treatment of the National Broadband Network,” Senator Conroy said today.

And in a startling attack on the Liberal MP for East Sydney, Conroy added: “Mr Turnbull is either lazy, financially illiterate, or both.”

Turnbull claimed figures for NBN revealed in the latest Budget, announced Tuesday, show the cost of NBN has risen over $400m compared to last year.

“As a former merchant banker, Mr Turnbull presumably knows that you pay your bills when they fall due,” Conroy continued.

“The $450 million additional Departmental expenditure in 2011-12 is the payments made to Telstra under the terms of the Definitive Agreements.These agreements came into force on 7 March last.”

There is “nothing new” about the payments (set to total $11 bn across several years) to Telstra nor can they be described as having been ‘brought forward,’ he added.

Turnbull, a vehement opposer to the $36bn high speed NBN and Labor’s pet project, latest claims are totally “false,” according to Conroy.

“Mr Turnbull’s assertion that there has been an increase in equity of $400M simply reflects that equity funding of $350M was deferred from 2011-12 to 2012-13. This was detailed in the 2011-12 Departmental Portfolio Additional Estimate Statement on page 39.”

“Mr Turnbull also continues to claim that the treatment of the equity injection into NBN Co by the Government should be expensed in the budget. This is completely wrong.”

 

The broadband fibre network currently being rolled out, is an investment in an asset from which the Government will receive a return, says the Broadband Minister and is classified as an ‘equity investment’ rather than a ‘budget expense.’

This practice is consistent with long-standing budget treatment applied by this and previous Governments, says Conroy.

Turnbull also attacked the numbers using NBN currently  in a statement Tuesday, criticising the” “5000 or so customers currently using its fibre network, compared to the 137,000 projected by June 2012 in NBN Co’s corporate plan.”

LinkedIn Hack: 6.5 Million Passwords Spill Russia

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LeakedIn: Social network for pros suffers attack, 6.5 million passwords leaked to a Russian website.


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A leaked password database has been published on a Russian hacking forum belonging to LinkedIn members, company Director, Vicente Silveira confirmed on a blog post, yesterday.

The passwords appear in the form of a cryptographic “hash” which converts text into a sequence of numbers and letters using a mathematical formula, say security experts.

The LinkedIn passwords did not contain a “salt” which usually protects against dictionary and other attacks.

“We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts,” wrote Silveira. 

The social network for professionals has around 160 million members globally, all of who have been advised by security experts to change their password.

Security experts SophosLabs who examined the password “dump” says there are 5.8 million unique password hashes in the leak, or which 3.5 m have already been ‘brute forced.’

“That means over 60% of the stolen hashes are now publicly known,” warned Chester Wisniewski, SophosLabs.

Other passwords the security experts found in the dump include ‘linkedin’, ‘linkedinpassword’, ‘p455w0rd’ and ‘redsox’.

“We even found passwords that suggest people should know better like ‘sophos’, ‘mcafee’, ‘symantec’, ‘kaspersky’, ‘microsoft’ and ‘f-secure’,” Wisniewski added.

The social network said it is “continuing to investigate this situation” and says members whose passwords have been compromised are no longer valid.

Members affected will also receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords.

 

There won’t be any links in this email but you follow this step and request password assistance, users will receive an email from LinkedIn with a password reset link.

“Affected members who update their passwords and members whose passwords have not been compromised benefit from the enhanced security we just recently put in place, which includes hashing and salting of our current password databases,” Silveira confirmed.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our members. We take the security of our members very seriously,” he added.

Bye Bye TV: Sony, Sharp & Samsung Flee Big Displays – Tabs Takeover

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Traditional TV giants are fleeing the industry en masse as tight margins, poor demand and falling prices blight the sector.


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LCD TVs once hailed as the consumer ‘must have’ now appears to be hitting a wall, as the tablet category, kicked off by the iPad and followed closely by a stream of Android clones, now reigns supreme. 

So much so that three major TV makers, Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi, today announced a merger of its display businesses to create a bulwark against the likes of Samsung and Sharp, lower costs and get a grasp of the small display industry. 
 Read Team LCD: Sony, Toshiba & Hitachi Shock Merger As Tabs Boom Here 
 The Japanese display giant aims to “establish a leading global company by integrating three companies’ businesses” to make displays for tablets and smartphones as well as invest in OLED technology, it said today. 
“The global market of small- and medium-sized displays is expected to grow rapidly due to anticipated strong demand for high resolution, high value-added products” the trio said. 
 The tech powerhouse will be ran in partnership with government innovation body, backed by 200 billion yen in public investment, a welcome funding boost for all three makers, who have recorded dramatic falls in their display operations, with Sony noting dropping global demand for its flagship Bravia LCDs in its most recent financial report. 
And Samsung and LG, two of the top Australian TV brands, are also to follow suit, with reports this week suggesting both Korean smart 3D TV makers are planning to slash panel production and convert lines into tab and small display factories.
Samsung, the current No.1 display maker globally, are said to be to be planing to cut LCD TV production by a massive 80% and concentrate on notebook and tablet screens, with LG also set to cut production as its panel business struggles with major losses, and chop capital investment by 25%. 
“We plan around 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) of capital spending next year and have no plans to build a new factory,” a LG Display spokesman confirmed. 
 In July, the 3D Cinema TV maker reported an 87.3% plunge in net profits for Q2 and its display division posting a 96 per cent dip in net profits to 21.3 billion won. 
This comes as a sales of Android handsets grew over 350% during Q2 alone and tablet sales reach record heights, and estimated to be worth $35 billion as an industry next year, with global shipments of around 80 million, according to JP Morgan Securities forecasts. 
 

In June, Sharp said it would cut large display production from October and focus on small screens in its TV-panel plant in the Japan’s Kameyama city. 

Read Tab Threat: LG Slash LCDs As iPad 2 & Androids Call The Shots Here
Sony net profit also slumped into negative territory in its most recent quarter, to -$191m, compared to a profit of 25.7bn yen the same period in 2010, blamed partly on losses in its consumer business, including TVs, forcing it to downgrade LCD sales forecasts even further. 
The Bravia maker, who has never made a profit selling flat panel TVs, has seen global sales fall to 22 million during the past 12 months, had previously said it would reconfigure its TV production operations. 
In the past, Sony has partnered with Samsung and Sharp in the production of flat panel TVs. It also banked on 3D to give them an edge in the TV market, although boss Howard Stringer is confident the new venture will help resurrect its troubled display business. 
“By integrating each partner company’s wealth of display expertise and know-how, I am confident the new company will become a driving force for technological innovation and new growth in the rapidly expanding small- and medium- sized display market, said Stringer, Sony CEO and President. 
“It’s been one of the losers,” Keith Wirtz, the chief investment officer at Fifth Third Asset Management, which owns 40,000 Sony shares, previously observed about its TV business.

Telstra: Don’t Buy, BYO As It Goes Retro

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Happy with your old phone? That’s cool, says Telstra who are looking to rival Virgin’s BYO offer with its own deal.


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The BYO offer on Freedom Connect plan out today are “specifically for customers who don’t want a new handset” and are looking for more bang for their buck.

Bring a “compatible mobile to Telstra, and enjoy one plan that’s better value” than the equivalent Freedom Connect plan, it is urging consumers.

This is also a bid to capture some mobile customers lured in by Virgin’s much publicised BYO offers. Optus also have similar deals ranging from $10 to $49 for 12 month contract. 

Those who sign up to Telstra’s $59 BYO will enjoy the value of the $79 deal which includes $800 monthly calls, unlimited standard national SMS, unlimited messagebank retrieval and 2GB of data to use in Australia.

The other plans are:

·    $49 Plan with $550 monthly call allowance, unlimited standard national SMS and 1.5GB of data to use in Australia.

·    $59 Plan with $800 monthly call allowance, 2GB of data use in Australia, unlimited standard national SMS and unlimited MessageBank retrieval.

·    $79 Plan with $1,200 monthly call allowance, 2.5GB of data to use in Australia, unlimited standard national SMS and unlimited MessageBank retrieval.

·    $99 Plan with an unlimited monthly call allowance for standard national voice and video calls, SMS and MessageBank retrieval, 3GB of data to use in Australia, $50 of international calling value.

These plans include unmetered Green Dot BigPond browsing and free browsing on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 “Our Freedom Connect plans launched last month are doing even better than we’d forecast, with great call and data inclusions and an impressive line-up of mobile phones,” Telstra Consumer Exec Director, Rebekah O’Flaherty, said.

“The new BYO plans acknowledge not everyone wants a new mobile phone.”

Fisher & Paykel “Serious” Cooking In SA

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Appliance giant Aussie invasion continues as unveiled showroom in South Australia, last night.
The new showroom focusing on kitchen and cooking appliances is just for the retail community initially, but will open up to the general public at a later date, where consumers can purchase F&P goods.

Among the appliances in working order are a compact oven, coffee maker, steam oven and microwave oven – all completely new appliances from the Fisher & Paykel brand in Australia, as well as outdoor cooking gear.

The yet to-be-released DCS Grill will also be on show.


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Fisher & Paykel, who may be subject to a takeover from Chinese brand Haier, is revamping its Australian showrooms to reflect the brand’s “globally aligned aesthetic and values” and is the second to be re-branded, after Subiaco, Western Australia.

Fisher & Paykel says it is looking to strengthen its position as a “human-centred and social brand.”

Around 80 guests – including members of the design, architectural and retail community- were at the opening, unveiled by F&P Chief Operating Officer Mike Church.


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“The new showroom definitely has a strong focus on kitchen appliances, which shows we are serious about cooking,” says Fisher & Paykel SA and NT State Manager, Terry Williams.

 

The market has been challenging in Adelaide for a while now, but Williams believes the new showroom opening comes at the perfect time.

“I’m proud that Fisher & Paykel has such a stunning new showroom andour spectacular new products will stand us in good stead for the future,.”

The new Fisher & Paykel SA showroom is located at 297 South Road, Mile End,Adelaide. Call 08 8344 0400 to make anappointment to visit the newshowroom.

Hello Stiletto: Westpac Backs World’s Biggest Brothel

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Westpac is financing the world’s biggest ever brothel, set for Sydney’s Paramatta Road.

Parramatta Rd, synonymous with heavy traffic will now be know for something else – a ‘three-storey 42-room mega-sex-plex’ to be built opposite Sydney University, reports SMH.

No. 84 and 86 will be joined with the existing establishment at No. 82 Parramatta Road, and those pesky pile ups will also be a thing of the past – the enlarged premises will also boast a large underground car park.

The super brothel plan, devised by porn king, Malcolm Day, will also include seven swanky suites kitted out with pool tables and dual beds set up for parties and group booking on the top floor. 

Stiletto, the current brothel occupying No.82, owned by racing industry figure, Eddie Hayson, is to be bought out. 

Day, who is currently raising investment backing is already said to have a major backer – one of Australia’s biggest banks, Westpac, who are set to be key to the go ahead of the mega brothel, investing $12.1 million in the sex scheme. 

If Day’s plan come to light, Stiletto will be the largest known brothel in the globe.

And it also looks as if it will a good money spinner: “The new complex will create the largest short-stay bordello globally. On completion, earnings are projected to double to $40 million of revenue and $12 million of EBITDA,” according to a stockbroker presentation.

 

The presentation also claims the plan is approved by state and regulatory bodies and already a “fully incensed and legal premises, with all regulatory approvals obtained – 10 year operating history.”

Apple TV By Foe Samsung?

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Apple look set to launch iOS TV using hardware from an arch rival.Rumor is rife within the industry that Apple are looking to relaunch its TV offering, first unveiled in 2007, but this time its actual branded Apple sets, as opposed to set top boxes of previous. 

 The latest project inside Apple is a devious plot to “blow Netflix and all those other guys away” with an internet ready TV kitted out with iTunes, one unnamed former Apple exec told Dailytech. 
 Last year it launched low cost $99 Apple TV device that gives users access to IPTV content and this is the latest move by Steve Jobs’ operation to give Google TV and other internet streamers a run for its money. 
 And the Cupertino firm is said to be teaming up with OEM manufacturer in the guise of rival Samsung – the arch enemies who cant seem to help not getting into bed together despite a highly publicised legal dispute, to make this happen. 
 That aside, Apple are one of Korean maker Samsung’s biggest customers behind Sony, making parts for its products including A4 and A5 processors found in the iPhone and iPad 2, so this rumoured partnership, if true, would certainly make business sense.
Samsung, one of the high kings of the TV industry are certainly no stranger to smart TV’s and could do nicely out of the deal. “You’ll go into an Apple retail store and be able to walk out with a TV. It’s perfect” the source chirped. 
 

 However, when this is to launch is yet unknown although the source indicated a timeline between the fall (ie September) and next year was on the cards. 

iCloud iPhone: ‘Transition’ 4 To Steal iPhone 5 Thunder, Say Sources

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iPhone 4 is to get a makeover…from the cloud. How? iOS 5 + iCloud.


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Image: Beam me up Scottie, iCloud iPhone.

It has come to our attention that Apple is planning to combine iOS 5 and iCloud of hardware internally referred to as the iCloud iPhone,” according to Applenapps, citing sources ‘familar with the matter.’ 

 So, is this iPhone 5? Well, apparently not. 
 There are two models in the making – which we knew already – iPhone 5 and a rumoured iPhone 4 cheapie, which now appears to be the smartphone getting the iCloud treatment. 
 iCloud, Apple’s free cloud storage service, launched in June, carries “the centre of our digital lives into the cloud,” said Steve Jobs at the launch.
 “iCloud iPhone will rely heavily on Apple’s new cloud based offering, and less on internal storage,” say Applenapps sources. 
Previously, Apple did say there was ‘transition’ in store for its new phones, so this could well be the change described. 
 This move would allow Apple cut its production costs by farming out internal storage to its fledgling iCloud and having less Flash memory on board. Bingo. 
 This news comes as iPhone has come under increasing pressure from cheaper Androids hitting the market a dime a dozen. Apple could have well woken up to the fact that its elitist device needs to get some mainstream pricing to fend off rivals. 
 Other changes to our beloved iPhone 4 will include mostly external redesigns – which will be different to the current version – and will wear an an aluminum back panel the same as the iPad 2, shying away from the glass encasing. (And run iOS 5, bien sur.)
 And the differences will be quiet noticeable, say sources, and is said to look like an iPad at first glance (can’t wait). 
 Like the iPad 2, ‘5’ will indeed be thinner, faster, and lighter sporting the same A5 chip for fast processing, as well as design changes to address previous antennae issues with ‘4’, but “the real star of the show will be the iCloud iPhone,” the sources indicate. 
 And another thing, iPhone 5 is said to be lacking 4G LTE technology, giving its understudy, the iCloud iPhone, another reason to steal its thunder. 
Prices of the iPhone 4 are already being slashed stateside as retailers prepare for the new inventory. 
So, how much will the cheapie version be? Apple are said to be ‘aiming’ for US$400 outright and free on a two year contract, while the new 5 will be $199 on contract. 
 

This report appears to have legs, coming from three reliable sources from various levels of Cupertino. 

iOS 5 and iCloud are due to launch in the “fall” (i.e. spring Down Under) – an ideal time to roll out the spanking new iPhones also, we do think. 

Oh, and one additional footnote: iPhone 5 is said to feature Qualcomm’s wireless chip meaning GSM and CDMA version will be mashed into the one model.