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Oonagh Reidy

Telstra Has Another Crack At Stimulating Landline Use With Pretty Smart Phone

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Its 100 years since the first connected telephone call in OZ.
But despite the ascension of personal smartphones, Aussies still have an appetite for the good ol’ home phones, say Telstra who claim its latest fixed line evolution ‘T Hub 2’ will have you highly entertained.

The T-Hub 2 available from tomorrow is a “smartphone for your home” in the guise of a cordless handset and a 7″ tablet which runs off Android 2.3.

The 7-inch touchscreen Wi-Fi tablet sits in a charging cradle with stereo speakers, and is really a multimedia tablet exclusively for home use that doubles into a wireless speaker phone.

The ultra  mobile tab can be used easily in any room in the house, and comes with a slew of preloaded Google apps (Gmail, Play,YouTube) as well as Yellow and Whhite Pages search, Tune In Internet radio, games and entertainment including Big Pond News, Sport (both unmetered).


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It also has Google Search Voice meaning you can summon any info – from a recipe to what’s on TV tonight by just speaking to it.

Oh and it has high quality voice calling, which Telstra say home phone users desire more than anything, along with the ability to manage contacts, and access to applications.

When the T Hub 2 rings you can answer via speakerphone, giving it that Skype feel we are all familiar with, meaning you can talk to the whole family when ringing home.

Telstra customers still make 30 million phone calls a month from their home phone, despite the invasion of smartphones.

And handily, you can also sync T Hub with your iPhone or Android phone contacts, meaning you instantly have email addresses and other info on the device.

The combined home phone and tablet T Hub 2 is a global bench mark, say Telstra, as there is nothing else in the world like it.

T Hub launched pre iPad in 2010 and has sold 300,000 so far. Its “the next step” in Telstra ‘connected home strategy’ aiming to connect up the matrix of devices in a typical Aussie home.

T Hub 2 connects to and controls T Box and all DLNA ready devices ( PC, TV, DVD player) meaning you can share content across all devices.

So if you’ve just downloaded a cool video from T Hub via YouTube app, you can watch it your big TV screen.

Looks wide, T Hub part deux sports a curved design and is similar to any Android tab but is a big step up from the original Hub.

“As the next step in our connected home strategy, T-Hub 2 caters to what modern households need in a home phone, offering a smarter way to make calls, manage contacts and access handy internet services like live weather updates and social networking sites.

 

T-Hub 2 was trialled by more than 300 customers during development, and feedback was positive, says Telstra.

You can also have numerous handsets (up to 5) Price wise, T Hub 2 can be bought for for $360 outright for BigPond customers or purchased as part of a Telstra T-Bundle for $15 a month over 24 months.

T-Hub 2 will be compatible with the NBN.

T-Bundle customers also get unlimited voice calls (national) from their home phone to up to four Telstra mobiles on a single bill, as well as unlimited local calls on most T-Bundle plans.

 www.telstra.com/thub 

Dr Dotcom Raid “Illegal”: NZ Judge

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He may be suspected of doing some illegal stuff himself, but now a NZ judge has ruled the raid on Dotcom’s mansion as unlawful.


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The raid on the home of Megaupload boss, Kim Dotcom, known as ‘Dr Dotcom’  was “illegal”, a Kiwi Judge ruled yesterday.

The High Court Justice Helen Winkelmann ruled the warrants used to raid Kim Dotcom’s New Zealand mansion in January last were invalid as they failed to correspond to any particular offense and were “lacking adequate specificity as to the offence”.

“The search and seizure was therefore illegal,” the Judge declared.

Justice Winkelmann also rebuked the New Zealand police force in the execution of the warrants used to raid the Dotcom Mansion and seize items “clear that the police, in executing the warrants, have exceeded what they could lawfully be authorised to do”.

NZ police were working on instructions from the FBI, who are after Dotcom on charges of Internet piracy, copyright infringements and money laundering, in what US authorities terms as a ‘”mega -conspiracy.”

The FBI believes the Internet millionaire used his file sharing site Megaupload to pirate copyright material, thus damaging the multi billion dollar movie and music industries.

This ruling by the NZ High Court relating to their adopted son (German born Dotcom is a NZ resident) could also put a spanner in the works for the FBI case against Dr Dotcom and could protect him from extradition to the US.

 

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Dr Dotcom said he was “very happy” with yesterday’s outcome and is studying the 56 page judgement. He also was noticeably quiet on his rather colourful Twitter account, however.

Dotcom’s alleged partners also facing extradition to the US include Megaupload co-founder Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato, chief technical officer and Bram van der Kolk.

And Dr Dotcom has also been defended by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak this week, who branded the raid on his home as “ridiculous” adding the “US government is on thin ground.”

Google To Appeal “Misleading” Ruling

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Search giant to appeal ruling it mislead on Google.com.au.


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The High Court granted Google special leave on Friday to appeal a Federal Court decision that it engaged in ‘misleading and deceptive conduct’ on its search results between March 2006 – July 2007 last.

The allaeged offence was related to the publishing of sponsored links on Google’s search engine for Harvey World Travel, Honda, Just 4X4 Magazine and Alpha Dog, which appeared to make it difficult for consumers to differentiate between sponsored links and search results.

On 3 April, the Federal Court ruled Google had engaged in conduct that was “misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive by publishing, or causing to be published” the four ads in question.

In many cases the offending ads also redirected consumers to other websites, it is alleged.

Read: You’re Guilty, Google! Ads “Deceptive” Says Judge

A three Judge panel also ruled Google contravened section 52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

However,  Google is now set to appeal these findings in the High Court.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took Google to task over the ads in a court battle that has been ongoing  for several years.

Google originally won the case, but the ACCC later appealed the ruling.

 

The Australian consumer watchdog, ACCC, says it “looks forward to the High Court considering the issue of the role and responsibility of search engine providers in online search advertising.”

But this is not the only tech giant the consumer watchdog has been coming down hard on of late.

Last week, it won a case against Apple over false iPad + 4G advertising, forcing the giant to cough up over $2.2 million in fines.

Bada Bing! Samsung To Topple iPhone AND Nokia In Phones Race: Analyst

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Galaxy II creator about to give rivals the run around, analysts suggest.


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Sales of its smartphones, which includes the much adored 1.2Ghz Galaxy S II smartphone, could hit 18-21 million during the most recent quarter, analyst Neil Mawston, from Strategy Analytics believes. 

 The figures, if realised, means Samsung will pip arch smartphone rivals including iPhone, BlackBerry and previous number one Nokia to the post, as top phone maker in the world. 
And, it would confirm its status as the top Google Android carrier, toppling Sensation rival HTC and LG. 
Another important point also to note is the new Galaxy S II has yet to be released in the United States (it was released in Oz in May), which is sure to catapult the handset further towards stratospheric sales. 
Last week, Samsung said it would be released there in August, although were coy about the precise date. 
 However, “Samsung stands a reasonable chance of capturing the top spot on a quarterly basis if it can continue expanding its Android portfolio across high-growth markets like China and Brazil, ” says Mawston. 
 Last week, Apple released figures for Q2, revealing record breaking 20.34 million sales of of its cult iPhone – 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. 
“Samsung and Apple will be at similar levels in smartphones by the end of the year,” he believes. 
However, the release of iPhone 5, expected to hit in September could slow Samsung’s success. 
 Finnish brand Nokia, predicted to record 16.7 million handsets sales for the same period, has been playing catch up to its high end rivals, and is now hoping its recent $1 billion deal with Microsoft will give it the edge in future. 
 Korean maker Samsung is also looking to oar in on Nokia’s low end phone market, and plans to release a new Bada model later this year, its head of Samsung’s mobiles, J.K. Shin said last week. 
 The giant could hold 20 per cent of this market by the end of the year, compared to Nokia’s 26% share, the analyst suggests.   
And he could be right. On a recent trip to Europe, I noticed Samsung had the cheapest low end phone on the market in at least one country, out-pricing the much loved Euro brand Nokia. 
 Samsung are due to release earnings results for its most recent quarter later this week July 29. 
 
 

Samsung previously said that sales target for mobiles this year is 300 million handsets, 60m of which is said to to be smartphones and is believed to have sold 3 million Galaxy S II to date – which was also the fastest selling device in history in its native S Korea.

Read Is The Galaxy SII The Best Ever Android Phone? Review Here

REALLY Google? 170M “Users” On Goo+

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170 million people have updated Google+, it has been claimed.
Millions of Google users are enjoying new ways to share content in Search, Gmail, YouTube and  – it is claiming 100 million have engaged on Google+ its social networking answer to Facebook,  in the last 30 days, reports The Guardian.

But it’s fair to say this number may have been arrived at by a slight trick of blackmail magic, since anyone wishing to create a new Google account must sign up to Google + (the Google gurus must be wishing they thought of it years ago).

This 170 million figure marks a massive jump from the 90m Google+ members it had in January.

And note Google’s language on its blog – users have “updated” to Google + but maybe that should that be rephrased to ‘forced.’


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However considering Google is one of the most visited websites in Oz – with 14.4 m visitors each month and accounts for 66.4% of all web searches in the US currently according to Comscore – the figures may be disappointing for the Internet giant, almost a year after Google+ launch.

But the catch up to Facebook’s 850 million users is no mean feat, and Googler’s have upped the ante announcing a makeover of the ‘+’ social network.

“Today we’re introducing a more functional and flexible version of Google+. We think you’ll find it easier to use and nicer to look at, but most importantly, it accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google,” writes Vic Gundotra, Google Senior Vice President on official blog.

Instead of static icons at the top, there’s a dynamic ribbon of applications on the left which comes with lots of “perks,” including the ability to drag apps up or down to create your own personal order and show or hide apps by moving them in and out of “More.”

“Once you’ve upgraded to Google+, it’s easy to share with your circles from just about anywhere. We’re dreaming bigger, though,” says Gundotra.

And Plus-ers can also full bleed photos, videos and a stream of conversation “cards” that make it easier to scan and join discussions.


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Google+ Hangouts

Google+ Hangouts where Plus folk communicate via live video has also been updated – and now boasts an always-updated list of invitations from the people in your circles, quick access to every public and on air hangout, or watch a live broadcast.

 

There will also be a rotating billboard of popular hangouts and expect hangout apps to be released soon which the Google team are already working on, Gundotra revealed.

 “It’s still early days, and there’s plenty left to do, but we’re more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google.

“We’ve also built the ribbon with the future in mind, giving us an obvious (and clutter-free) space for The Next Big Feature, and The Feature After That. So stay tuned,”according to the blog.

Facebook Nabs 1M Advertisers

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Facebook has hit a landmark one million “active” advertisers, one year after going public.

The vast majority of these one million businesses running ads on the world’s biggest social network are small enterprises, Dan Levy Director, Global Marketing Solutions (SMB) said at Facebook HQ yesterday, announcing the landmark. 

Levy paid tribute to the “many amazing business owners who use Facebook”, big and small. 
“On behalf of everyone at Facebook, I want to say thankyou to them and to the over one million businesses like them who are active advertisers,” he said. 

These include the Ministry of Retail in Singapore, Springwools in Ireland, Scene75 Entertainment Center in Ohio and “many more around the world.”  

“Over the past year I’ve had the privilege of meeting and learning from many amazing business owners who use Facebook,” he said. “Some have just set up their Facebook pages, while others are experts who share their tips with others.”
The heat is now on the social network to deliver ads on mobile devices. It recently unveiled was Facebook Home, which effectively takes over the existing smartphone OS, but its success has been less than spectacular, to date.
Earlier this month, Facebook announced it would halve the number of ads it offers advertisers from 27 and get rid of its ‘sponsored story’ offering. 
About 30% of Facebook’s ad revenue in the first quarter was from mobile devices, or $1.25bn, according to its latest financials.  

Steve Reincarnate? Kutcher To Play Jobs

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Will Ashton Kutcher butcher the role as revered Jobs?


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Image: Fusedfilm

Two and a Half men star is to take on the role of Apple CEO in a new film.

Ashton Kutcher will play the deceased Steve Jobs in a new film biopic about his life set to begin filiming in May according to reports, which looks set to rival the movie Sony is making about the Apple legend, announced after his death last year.

According to Variety, the film will be an indie style flick directed by Joshua Michael Stern (behind 2005 movie Swing Vote with Kevin Costner) with Matt Whiteley penning the script for the film simply titled “Jobs.”

The goofy actor best known for his role in That 70’s show as Michael, will have his work cut out to play the notorious tough operator Jobs, although may well be able to pull off the younger Steve, who sampled LSD among others narcotics as a hippy-ish Californian youth.

And he has the floppy hair to boot.

But to portray the often temperamental and messianic Jobs in later life as the boss booted out of his own company, Apple, only to resurrect to the top may well be Kutcher’s most serious role yet, whose recent films include light comedies “What Happened in Vegas” and “No Strings Atttached.”

And he may well surprise us. Or not.

Huawei: We’re Gung-Ho On NBN, DESPITE Ban

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Chinese giant Huawei are fighting against NBN ban insisting they’re not going anywhere.
Last week it emerged the Federal Government banned the Chinese network giant from pursuing lucrative NBN contracts on the back of fears of espionage and cyber attacks sponsored by Chinese authorities, which has strong links to Huawei.

This snub by the Attorney General’s office was despite lengthy discussions over two years, Huawei Australia’s chairman John Lord told ABC Inside Business yesterday.

“We were told then that – at this time that the Government could not see a role for us in NBN”- referring to Huawei’s “ongoing discussions” with the government.

Read: Huawei Begs NBN Mercy On Cyber War Fears

The discussions came to sudden halt towards the end of last year, Lord, a retired rear admiral in the Royal Australian Navy, added.

Incidentally, President Obama paid a visit to Oz in November last, which reports have suggested may have been responsible for tipping Julia Gillard off about US reservations regarding the Chinese company, which has also been prevented from working on wireless network rollout there.

And despite the ban by the government, Huawei refuses to admit defeat and insists there is still a role for them to play on the $36 billion National Broadband Network, whose three year plan, revealed last week, aims to connect 3.5 million premises by June 2015.

“We would still argue that there’s parts of the NBN that are perhaps suitable,” Lord said yesterday. “Having said that, NBN’s not the only game in town.

“Our future in Australia is long term. We’re here to stay and we believe there’s bigger markets.”

The company also even offered source codes to the Federal government in a bid to quench suspicion around the existance of a spying network, whcih would pose a threat to national security.

 

Lord also said the company recognises the government’s argument and “there is core parts of the national infrastructure that companies like us would not expect to be in, [but] what hangs off a national telecommunications infrastructure is where the real market is in the future,” he added.

“Cyber security is a global threat and it’s a threat to us as manufacturers of telecommunications infrastructure, it’s a threat to governments, it’s a threat to private corporations.”

There are several other political appointees on Huawei Australia’s Board of Directors including former Victoria Premier John Brumby.

Forget 3G: Telstra 4G WiFi $59 Unleashed

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Its here: high speed 4G WiFi is now for the taking.
Telstra WiFi users in 4G areas can get typical download speeds from 2Mbps – 40Mbps and upload speeds of 1Mbps – 10Mbps with up to five devices attached to the network on Wi-Fi enabled laptops, tablets and smartphones.

The device will give improved web responsiveness, making real-time applications like video conferencing, internet gaming and cloud streaming services work better with less buffering and fewer interruptions.

4G Long Term Evolution technology means five times faster web speeds than 3G, with Optus and Vodafone set to unleash LTE later this year.

This is Australia’s first 4G LTE mobile Wi-Fi hotspot and can be used in capital city CBDs, associated airports and more than 80 regional and metro locations.

However, for those outside the 4G zones you ll have to make do with “super fast 3G speeds” similar to Apple iPad owners hopeful 4G would work on the new tablet in Oz, last week.


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Telstra’s Wi-Fi 4G hotspot for business is out now and BigPond Wi-Fi 4G (for personal use) is unleashed next Tuesday 27 March, which will come in plans including $59.95 per month (plus $49 upfront) with 8GB data on 2 year plan.

Other plans will also be available next week, Telstra said today.

The business plans include $0 upfront on $49.95 plan (over 24 months) with 8GB of data Australia as well as $29, $39, $89 plans or bought outright for $299. 

“Personal users are going to love using the BigPond Mobile Wi-Fi 4G to access high bandwidth content such as video and music on multiple devices simultaneously,” said Anthea Roberts, Director, Telstra Mobile.

“It’s the perfect way to get people and devices connected on family trips or when commuting to work,” she added.

 

The mobile Wi-Fi 4G sports a large LED display which shows signal strength, number of devices connected and power level (battery level is up to four hours, 100 hours standby).

It also has a handy audio alert that lets owners know when devices connect/ disconnect from the Wi-Fi network, a web-based control portal to adjust network security and Wi-Fi range settings from an internet browser.

Google Come Out To ‘Play’ Oct 29

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Google: “The playground is open.”
Internet giant to open up its Android ‘playground’ October 29 in New York, it declared in an invitation sent to media today in the US.

What exactly might be in this “playground” is another story.

But it is going to be a gung-ho “Android event” as the invitation states.

Our friends at Android Central reckon it could be “some sort of new Nexus device” (32GB Nexus 7 tablet perhaps), or a LG Nexus 4, or it could be a surprise product from any of the brands that carry the Google OS including Samsung, Sony et al.

But maybe not.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

‘Droid fans can check out the event, which is being streamed live on YouTube.