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Oonagh Reidy

Samsung Flogs Foxtel on Smart TVs

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Samsung hooks up with Foxtel, flogging free 3 months subscriptions with Smart TVs


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Foxtel’s ‘Get Started’ and Sports Pack will be available for three months for free with select Smart TVs purchased between 17 September and 15 October 2012 – just in time for the grand final this weekend.

The eligible TVs include Samsung’s Plasma 8, Slim8/9 LED series as well as Slim 7 and 6 series.

The Get Started pack includes 11 Foxtel Channels includes Sky News, Fox Sports and National Geographic and the Sports Pack includes access to the Footy Play Channel, valued at $88.50.

There is no lock in contract with the offer, so viewers can ditch the service if they like, after the 3 months.

The Smart TV maker is also giving away a bonus Blu-ray movie including Titanic, Prometheus and Ice Age with the purchase of Samsung BD-E5900 Blu-ray player bundle.

“Samsung’s Blu-ray bundle offer and FOXTEL promotion provides consumers with great content in the lead up to the grand final season and end of the year,” said Brad Wright, Sales and Marketing Manager – AV, Samsung.

The Blu ray promotion is available while stocks last.

Pain In The Rear: Mouthy Kogan Microsoft IE 7 War

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Not just an e-tailer: Mouthy Kogan has taken to “taxing” Internet Explorer 7


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The 6.8% tax on all goods purchased from Kogan’s e-store via “the antique browser ” Microsoft IE7 explorer comes into effect today, Kogan dramatically announced on a blog.

The irked e-retailer is furious at Microsoft for not updating “the pain in the rear” software, which is forcing it to spend (too) many man hours “making our new website look normal on IE7,” compared to other browsers. 

“This is an extremely old browser, so from today, anyone buying from the site who uses IE7 will be lumped with a 6.8% surcharge – that’s 0.1% for each month IE7 has been on the market”.

Microsoft fiends take note, IE6 will not be subject to the levy tax.

The e-tailer is also calling on IE7 users to upgrade to “an up-to-date browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera or even a more recent version of Internet Explorer,” as it vents anger against the software giant.

“But don’t worry, unlike other taxes, we’re making it easy to get around this one with a simple upgrade away from IE7 :).”

“It’s not only costing us a huge amount, it’s affecting any business with an online presence, and costing the Internet economy millions.” (Steady on Kogan, Windows 8 ‘ll be here soon ).

“Hahaha, you guys have to release some statistics in the future on how many people persisted with IE7 and paid the tax,” one amused consumer wrote on Kogan’s comments page.

 

But another wasn’t so convinced:

“Laughing at the minority of posts that slam this as anti-customer. Firstly Kogan’s the PR stuntman extraordinaire, this is not designed to raise revenues people. Secondly IE7 is used by about 2-3% of all web users in Aus so the backlash risk is very minimal.”

But its not just poor old Microsoft the 28 year-old Melbournian entrepreneur Kogan is going hard on – he also hit out at rival JB Hi-Fi earlier today, declaring it the loser in the grey importing war.

eHarmony: We’ve Been Hacked Too (+Last.fm)

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Dating website and Last.FM are the latest victims of hack attack.


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This comes after professionals network LinkedIn confirmed millions of user passwords had been leaked on a Russian hacking forum database, which eHarmony now says included some of its members.

“After investigating reports of compromised passwords, we have found that a small fraction of our user base has been affected,” eHarmony’s Becky Teraoka, wrote on a blog.

And it appears British music site LastFM has also been affected by the hack and are “asking all our users to change their passwords immediately.”

Reports indicate around 6.4 million LinkedIn passwords were leaked online, and SophosLabs reckon around 1.5 million eHarmony users details were leaked.

The dating site said it is “continuing to investigate” but “as a precaution” has reset affected members passwords.

Affected members will receive an email with instructions on how to reset their passwords.

eHarmoney, which brands itself as “#1 Trusted Online Dating Site for Singles” has around 20 million registered online users.

“The hashes of 1.5 million eHarmony passwords were uploaded to websites, where hackers were encouraged to join forces to crack them,” says Graham Cluley, Sophos Labs.

The leaked passwords on the Russian hacking forum 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.

Read: LinkedIn Hack: 6.5 Million Passwords Spill Russia

However, eHarmony’s Teraoka offered passwords tips including: “create a strong password of at least 8 characters, composed of lowercase and uppercase letters and numbers and a different passwords for each of the Internet sites you use.”

However, Cluley was less impressed with the matchmakers advise:

 

“What really disappoints me is that eHarmony misses an opportunity to tell its users explicitly that if they use the same password on other websites they must change their passwords there also.”

Users shouldn’t use the same password on multiple websites such as Gmail, Facebook and “doing so is a recipe for disaster” he warns, as if one site is compromised all other online accounts with the same password could fall.

Teraoka also assured its 20m members it uses robust security measures, including password hashing and data encryption, to protect members’ personal information.

“We also protect our networks with state-of-the-art firewalls, load balancers, SSL and other sophisticated security approaches.”

Users should also change their passwords every few months, she added.

Telstra: NBN Today, (Libs) Plan B Tomorrow?

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Today Labor, tomorrow Libs? Telstra say they are ready for a change of guard in the Federal government, if say, Tony Abbott slips into Julia Gillard’s shoes any time soon.


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Telstra boss David Thodey says his telco was unfazed by a change in government and thus possible abandonment of the $36 billion National Broadband Network project, or alteration of broadband policy, he told the Queensland Media Club in Brisbane yesterday, reports AFR. 

The breakup of Telstra’s retail and wholesale arms also recently received the go ahead as part of Labor’s NBN policy framework, which will see the telco receiving $11 billion payoff from NBN Co for its pits, ducs and copper network.

“Should there be a change – be it technological or political – we think we’ve got enough safeguards there,” Thodey said. “I’m very confident we have enough protection in our contracts to realise the value we’re talking about.”

Thodey also dampened expectations surrounding the opportunities a high speed fibre network will bring, saying Labor’s epectations are “inspired” but may not materialise to the extent it hopes.

“I would say a large percentage of big business actually don’t deliver what we expect them to.So in that context, when we speak about the NBN, you know a $40-50 billion investment, that I think is quite actually inspired, in terms of what the government is trying to do,” he told the Queensland Media Club.

“It is not going to be about the roll-out of fibre to 93 per cent of homes which will be the issue. It is what the hell we do with it,” he added.

Mr Thodey is also ” not yet convinced that there is enough focus on the innovation and the different ecosystems that we need to put around that, even from educating people about how to use it.”

Telstra has previously aired their NBN alternative plan which include a mix: “some fibre to the premises in some circumstances; we would use fibre to the node in some circumstances; and we would continue broadband over copper in some circumstances,” former CFO John Stanhope said last year.

The telco would “provide high-speed broadband in a different way. We would have a least-cost, blended technology approach.”

The Liberal Party has made no secret of its disdain for the costly $36bn fibre broadband network the Labour government proposed during the Kevin ’07 campaign.

 

Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal Communications shadow minister, is one of the most vociferous opponent of the NBN project and has proposed a mix of wireless, fixed line services as a less costly NBN alternative, previously declaring Telstra was in a ”prime position” to build a considerable fibre network of its own.

Since by 2013 if Labor are booted out of power, the NBN will be partly built, Turnbull is proposing a sell off of fibre back to telcos.

Betta Bucks Retail Slump

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That’s betta: 60% hike in income for the BSR group.

The results for the BSR Group, owners of Betta Living franchise, for the year ending 31 March 2012, announced yesterday reflects the solidity of the business and the increased income returned to members,” Betta CEO Graeme Cunningham said.

Cunningham also attributed the income lift to BSR’s alliance with buying group NARTA.

“The additional benefits arising from the alliance with NARTA and the Group’s direct arrangement with supplier-partners are being promptly returned to members, resulting in the highest return of income since the Group’s inception in 2006,” he said.

The return to retailers in rebates and direct costs including advertising and marketing also rose to 79.4% of total income, up almost 10% on a year ago.

“The return to retailers also included additional retail support funds that were set aside to assist the store rebranding initiative from Betta Electrical to Betta Home Living.”

However, Betta’s CEO also recognise the current “malaise” in the retail industry, which has seen several casualties, of late.

 

“To compound the wider economic malaise, the electrical goods retailing industry has experienced continued price erosion in a number of key categories and seen a number of specialist retailers fail.”

“When laid against this backdrop, the achievements of the Group and the growth achieved in the business, is all the more satisfying,” he said.

Betta also recently added 40 Retravision stores to its network and with the recent additions “we are well positioned for the future,” Cunningham added.

Nokia Slashes 3500 Jobs, ‘Painful’ Cuts Bite

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Major cost cuts are the order of the day for the Fins as axes thousands of staff. Nokia are close factory in in Cluj, Romania by the end of 2011, which will hit an “estimated” to 2,200 employees, it said yesterday.


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Nokia N9, one of its latest releases here.

Another 1,300 employees will go at its mapping division, which includes NAVTEQ, purchased in 2007 for $8.1bn.

This come as Nokia’s high-volume Asian factories “provide greater scale and proximity benefits.” Recently, the giant’s Indian plant, one of its biggest landed in hot water, having been accusing of paying staff below average wages.

The layoffs will take effect in 2012, CEO Stephen Elop confirmed. Other support operatins jobs will also go including Sales, Marketing and Corporate Functions, as previously announced.

The cuts are part of $1 billion savings Nokia, once the darling of the phones market, are looking to make as it refocuses is efforts on high end smartphones like N9 (pictured), as it battles out against stiff competition from the likes of iPhone 4 as well as Android’s Samsung and HTC.

The cuts aim to bring “efficiences and speed” to help pull it out of the black hole that was the 368m euros net loss it delivered in the  second quarter, while net sales slid 7% to 9.3bn euros.

But even more worryingly, it is also looking to slash operations on native soil Finland as well as reviewing the long-term role of its manufacturing ops in Salo, Komarom, Hungary, and Reynosa, Mexico.

It also said it plans to  focus its “feature phone manufacturing on those locations with optimal proximity to suppliers and markets” and “gradually shift focus to customer and market-specific software and sales package customization.”

These changes will take effect in 2012.

Elop plans to consolidate ‘location and commerce’ assets including NAVTEQ, closing operations in Germany and Malvern, US.

“We are seeing solid progress against our strategy, and with these planned changes we will emerge as a more dynamic, nimble and efficient challenger,” said Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO.

“We must take painful, yet necessary, steps to align our workforce and operations with our path forward.”

 

However, Elop moved to reassure its biggest market, Europe, that it was still staying local.

“Europe is core to Nokia’s future. In addition to our headquarters, we have a strong R&D presence in Europe.”

The staff reductions are expected to take effect by the end of next year.

“Nokia remains committed to supporting its employees and the local communities through this difficult change. “

Mouthy Kogan ‘Bows’ To Apple Pressure, Vows No Galaxy Tab

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Attention seeking Ruslan Kogan has again jumped on the PR bandwagon, this time he claims the wont be selling Samsung Galaxy Tab because Apple threaten to sue.


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Samsung Tab 10.1 banned for sale here.

The only thing wrong with his story is that Kogan, under Oz federal law would not be allowed to sell a Galaxy Tab due to interlocutory agreements currently before the Australian Federal court.

“All we are trying to do is to provide the latest technology at the best prices. Pointless litigation is not our specialty,” head of  Kogan Technologies told Fairfax Media today.

The colourful retailer, who was importing the tabs from South Korea, which has not yet been released in Australia, has broken under intense pressure from Apple not to stock rival Galaxy Tab 10.1v after Cupertino threatened to sue, he claims.

The 10.1v model was a limited edition tab, sold in several select countires only including Australia. Vodafone also flogged the device prior to the barring order.

Read Samsung Vs Apple About Gesture Not White Boxes & iPad 2 Design Here

Melbourne based Kogan, who specialises in knock down electronics goods, much of it self branded, had been importing the Galaxy Tab 10.1v from South Korea as well as selling the iPad 2.

However, Apple’s legal representation, requested Kogan cease sale of the device which was similar “to the ‘get up’ and packaging of the iPad”.

However, Kogan is far from happy with the move which would have seen the company become the sole supplier of the new Tab in Australia and have taken a jibe at Apple, accusing the giant of “stifling competition.”

Coincidentally, Apple and Samsung came head to head in a Sydney court today with iPad maker looking to ban the release of the new Tab 10.1, seen as a major threat to its current reign, meaning this timely statement by Kogan could be a cheap publicity stunt although Fairfax confirmed it has seen the letter from Apple’s legal team.

“There is a fine line between legitimately enforcing your intellectual property on the one hand, and just trying to stifle competition on the other – in our view Apple is very precariously walking that line,”David Shafer, Kogan’s executive director said.

However, in a communication to Apple, he branded the move a “gesture of goodwill,” even though Australian law would have forbidden the online retailer from doing so, in any case, if it had come before a court here.

Taking another shot at Apple, Shafer also questioned Apple’s claims that the Tab 10.1 is a copycat of iPad. Bet the e-tailer is at the top of Apple’s Christmas card list now.

Push The Button: Acer Snazzy 14″ LED Gateway Unleash Social Hot Keys

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Gateway has gone social. Acer owned notebook giant Gateway has given its ID and NV models a spec and social makeover.Gateway ID47 line breaks new ground in the ultra compact department, says its makers, fitting its 14-inch HD widescreen back-lit LED display into a chassis used for 13.3″ models.  The ID’s are easily carried in a briefcase or book bag. 


The new Gateway ID and NV notebooks come with Windows Home 7 as well as a mass of extras: Nook for PC, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Reader, WildTangent Demo Games, Skype, Norton Online Backup, and Microsoft Office 2010. 

The NV series, on the other hand, boasts a larger 15.6-inch HD widescreen LED display for cinematic style viewing pleasure. 

NV57 provides excellent mobile performance with second-generation Intel Core processors with Intel HD Graphics 3000 topped with 128MB of memory. 

The series also boasts HD audio with Dolby Home Theater v4 Audio which delivers “crisp sound” through its full-length mesh speaker bar.

The upstyled PC’s also offer “in-demand” sizes and are keeping up with the social network posse with one touch hot keys unleashing instant access to much loved Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. 

Pushing the social hot key also launches an integrated widget that lets users update their status, post photos and video. This is handy, considering one out of every six minutes spent online (15%) is now spent on social networks, according to ComScore. 
 
Both notebooks also come with integrated 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi certified for a fast connection to hotspots and wireless, HD 1.3MP webcam, longer battery uptime thanks to PowerSmart and HDMI 1080p output. 

This series is designed for the “style-conscious” user and features either a subtle geometric pattern or the digital wave pattern on the matte chassis lid. 

The sculpted edges, elegant blend of finishes and sleek form factor of the ID Series “will inspire creativity” says Gateway and comes in “Infinity Blue Liquid” or “Brushed Platinum” design and have a industrial modern feel. 

The designs come in an aluminum cover with a stainless steel laser-engraved logo. Both feature USB 3.0 for fast transfers and charging, which works up to 10 times faster than the standard 2.0 will even charge devices when asleep, in hibernation mode, or off completely. 

To give an idea of speeds – a 25GB HD movie can be transferred in just over a minute. The Gateway’s also offer MyBackup functionality which allows users safe keep important files and migrate data. 

The ID gives up to 8 hours of battery life, while the NV’s provides up to 4 hours, it is claimed. 

“Notebook PCs are a constant companion in today’s mobile savvy culture, as we transition through recreation and productivity,” said Steve Smith, Gateway notebooks product marketing manager. 

 “The stylish new Gateway ID and Gateway NV Series deliver very useful extras for entertainment and social networking and a big boost in performance wrapped up in elegant designs.” 

 
 The notebooks start at US$699.99 although no word on local pricing yet.