Did you miss one?
Below you'll find all of our previous shows.
Please be aware that shows will be available for download the day after live transmission.
| Episode 29/2008 - TX: July 21 2008 (Ep 189) |
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Tech Talk Radio Ep 29-2008 | iPhones, Business 2 consumer, Papal SMS, Apple and Psystar, NBM Delayed, ACMA monitors website
The iPhone is only a week old and already it’s making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Logging on the morning after last weeks show, I was greeted with the headline “Aussie 3G iPhone is a bad joke” then later that day, another headline “Hold off on iPhone, says analysts”
The media reported Rob Enderle, founder and principle analyst for the Enderle Group, saying Apple is one of those companies that could sell refrigerators to Eskimos, but that doesn’t suggest that Eskimos should actually buy them.
He said the problem is that Apple tends to lead on hype and does such a good job controlling initial product reviews that problems associated with the iPhone 3G probably won’t be known until the week after it launches when the raft of independent reviews become available.
This maybe so, but the real problem is as plain as the nose on your face, that is, mobile broadband costs in this country are a joke and it's quite possible that the not so “in the know” iPhone users will unknowingly rack up bills in the thousands of dollar category if they’re not extremely careful.
Mobile Phone operators are mainly focused on voice communications. There’s plans and caps for all types of voice users, but as we turn to data as our daily means of communication, the telco’s seem somewhat reluctant to bundle voice and data into one product that meets the needs of today’s on the move tech savvy individuals.
At the end of the day in this digital world, our voice is turned into data anyway then sent over the mobile phone network, so it seems the phone companies just want to charge us based on the flavor of data we send. You could equate it back to the old analogue days if they charged you 30 sents per 30 seconds if you spoke English and $3.50 per 30 seconds if you spoke any other language. Really.
If I had anything to do with the Telecommunications Ombudsman’s organisation, I’d be recruiting as fast as I could.
Also on This Weeks Show
 Jason Stirling from Genesis joins the panel to talk Business to Business Technology- ACMA approves online content code of practice
- Yahoo! accuses Microsoft of sabotage
- Government extends NBN deadline
- Firefox gets security tune-up and
- Apple wants to take Psystar and its clone customers to the cleaners
The following links were of interest to us this week!
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| Episode 28/2008 - TX: July 14 2008 (Ep 188) |
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Tech Talk Radio Ep 28-2008
At last the iPhone has arrived as apple lovers globally revel in the birth of a 4.7 ounce bouncing baby telecommunications device which is nothing like the world has seen before... well Australia at least. Adam Turner joins us live in the studio to discuss the iPhone, TiVo, and Foxtels IQ.
According to Australian PC World, New Zealander Jonny Gladwell was the first customer anywhere in the world to purchase the iPhone 3G, gaining the nickname iPhone Jonny from tech bloggers.
Brett Howell became Australia's own iPhone 'hero' when he managed to be first in line at Optus' George Street store in Sydney. The store threw open its doors at midnight AEST with an inventory of 500 iPhones.
Telstra opened at its Sydney T[life] store at 6am. Vodafone's 7am George Street opening was decidedly smaller than the Optus event, despite appearances by celebrity Lara Bingle.
More than 6 million people bought the first generation iPhone after it was released in June 2007. Since then, the number of countries selling the iPhone has expanded to 24, with a further 49 countries expected to begin selling the iPhone 3G in coming months. Apple has stated it expects sell more than 10 million iPhones this year.
But wait, there’s something wrong in Australia! There’s no iPhone for 3! If one brand encapsulates the young, trendy, hippy, plenty of disposable income generation y’er, it has to be Hutchisons 3. Were they really overlooked when it came to a product that fits their market like an apple in a blender? Rumor has it it's NOT far away.
In another leap forward in technology, Tech Talk Radio is now trialing its own chat page. In an effort to bring true interaction to live broadcasting, you can now interact with the panel and listeners in real time via our new Tech Talk chat server. Simply join us live on the stream on Monday nights, open your web browser and type chat.techtalkradio.com.au into the address bar and say hello. All going well, it will become a permanent part of the show.
Also on This Weeks Show
- Just in case you’ve just crawled out from under a rock, the iPhone is here.
- We’ll take a look at what’s on offer in Australia.
- Adam Turner joins us live in the studio to talk iPhone, TiVo and Foxtel IQ
- Seagate launch a 1.5Tb Hard Drive
- A women is jailed for hiring an internet hit man
- Telstra trials a speedier next g and
- Nasa to put it’s current fleet of shuttles out to pasture.
The following links were of interest to us this week!
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| Episode 27/2008 - TX: July 7 2008 (Ep 187) |
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This week, it seems consumers have the upper hand over ebay thanks to a bit of friendly persuasion from Australia’s consumer watch dog, the ACCC. The world’s largest online auction website Ebay tried to remove nearly all forms of alternate payment recently, and force Australian users to use Ebay’s own payment facility, Paypal, but the ACCC had other ideas.
Also, the Arrival of the iPhone is now less than a week away, and the dust looks like it’s settled. Optus, Vodafone and Telstra are all set to sell what will soon be the ubiquitous apple telephone, but poor old Hutchison, who runs the city centric 3 network seems to still be out in the cold.
Also this week, it’s heartening to see a new government initiative designed to get seniors online. Only one in five Australians over the age of 65 years currently uses the internet. According to the Rudd government, the needs of older Australians wishing to be trained in the use of the internet will be met by the creation of approximately 2,000 seniors internet kiosks, provided by community organisations that support seniors which will be funded by government.
And finally if you’re an armchair sports enthusiast, the new TiVo and Topfield PVRs are just about to hit the market just in time for next months Olympic Games. Adam tells us about the good the bad and the ugly when it comes to the minefield of buying consumer electronics for you home TV requirements.
Andrew and Dr Ron also take a look at how the living room has changed since the good old days of the VHS machine and a simple 4x3 analogue TV!
The following links were of interest to us this week!
Also on This Weeks Show
- Will the iPhone become the new security threat of 2008
- Plasma and LCD tvs blamed for accelerating global warming
- Beware, Olympic fever could impact your network
Telstra throws mud at other bidders for the National Broadband Network, and
- We hear how Microsoft’s new Server 2008 makes for a great workstation.
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| Episode 26/2008 - TX: June 30 2008 (Ep 186) |
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 This week, we’re about to witness the next internet revolution, as domain names as we know them are about to become simpler, but probably more confusing.
Paul Twomey (pictured right) announced a plan to allow users to register generic domain names has been approved by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers otherwise known as (ICANN)
The plan will allow users to register whatever domain suffix they want for their site, rather than being limited to the traditional .com or .net labels. So instead of Microsoft.com or apple.com, the internet name can now be .apple or .microsoft
Users will also be allowed to register domains with non-latin characters, thus paving the way for international sites which use Chinese, Russian, or other unique characters.
The group has not yet decided on what registration of the new domains will cost, though the prices are expected to be significantly higher than existing suffixes.
The approval came at the conclusion of ICANN's International Public Meeting in France. Other measures passed in the meeting included new measures designed to eliminate large-scale 'domain tasting' in which multiple domains are registered and unprofitable addresses are quickly dumped.
The following links were of interest to us this week!
Also on This Weeks Show
Firefox downloads hit 19m
Bill quits Microsoft... again
3 Mobile enlists online help to secure iPhone
Self confessed luddite and Gen Y'er
Lucy Buttler joins the panel and
we hear from a rural listener about the state of broadband in the bush and the current broadband woes |
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| Episode 25/2008 - TX: June 23 2008 (Ep 185) |
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This week, it’s Telstra’s now you see it, now you don’t, now you see it again iPhone. There’s still a few weeks to July 11, the day Apple’s penultimate portable gadget hits the streets here in oz, so who knows what’s left in store?
Also today, what do you think would happen to you if you grabbed a megaphone and walked in to a National Australia Bank and bellowed to the world that you had some free tickets to a footy game that you wanted to give away?
Chances are you’d be escorted from the build in a matter of moments and told not to do it again and maybe even charged with many possible offences including trespass right?
Well this week the shoe is on the other foot – some bright spark in the National Australia Bank’s PR department decided to gate crash social networking sites, uninvited of course, and spruiked their free football tickets to those chat’s they could muscle their way in on. Well, there has been plenty of fall out over this, and the NAB’s popularity and reputation was the first casualty as.
Not only was the NAB's actions felt here, but the tsunami waves rolled across the planet to the US and beyond as Lidija Davis, our US correspondent will report on later in the show.
Also on This Weeks Show
- Firefox 3 may break records and the first vulnerability surfaces
- Microsoft re releases security fixes
- Apple’s open for business in Sydney
- Safari gets a tune up too and
- Developers shun Microsoft Vista
- NAB spams social networking site
- Foxtel and HD explained
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| Episode 24/2008 - TX: June 16 2008 (Ep 184) |
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This week, Apples iPhone supporting third generation mobile communications is heading for our shores. After months of speculation, finally the rumors will be laid to rest. To start with, it’s not called the 3G iPhone. It’s called the iPhone 3G.
So, jet’s take a look at what’s in, and what’s out?
To start with GPS is in. GPS receivers in mobile devices isn’t new, as Sony Ericsson include it now in their current range of phone, as well as other manufacturers. A 3G chipset enabling much faster browsing of the web and downloading was obviously maditory. The device also has a new sleek appearance with thinner edges, and a flush headphone jack. There’s more battery life despite the demands of power hungry 3G chipsets, it’s half the price of the previous model, it’s available in 2 colors, black and white, it has a 2 megapixel camera, It has 8GB or 16GB of storage, and a 3.5-inch screen.
One feature that is missing is the lack of video calling, a feature telcos love to charge for. The lack of a removeable battery is also still very disappointing, and there’s no MMS, a feature used to send pictures and movies from one phone to another. That’s not to say someone won’t write an application to do this, it’s just no out of the box unlike a conventional 3G device.
There’s no rumored 32GB of storage, you can’t use the device as a wireless modem like you can with other 3rd generation devices. There was no mention of connecting the iPhone 3G to bluetooth devices such as keyboard, and no rumored front camera.
So, there’s still plenty of room for improvement – from a 3G functionality point of view, but for those with their hearts set on buying the device just because of the brand name, they won’t be disappointed. Just watch this space this time next year.
Also on This Weeks Show
- Telstra gets into legal talks with Optus over the iPhone
- ACCC slams eBay PayPal policy
- Melbourne club's broadband bid
- Prisons in plan to jam mobiles
- And MySpace to get facelift
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| Episode 23/2008 - TX: June 9 2008 (Ep 183) |
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In these days of phishing, credit card fraud and email nasties, the Australian Government has a new initiative call e-security week. In an effort to protect individuals and small businesses of the perils of today’s online world, the government has launched a new website to try and educate users in four main areas, titled: Securing your computer, Small businesses safe on line, Smart transacting online, and Kids safe online.
There’s no software to download, no hard earned cash to part with - it doesn’t even ask for personal information. The staysmartonline.gov.au website is a reference for parents, teachers, and business owners, to help make the best of what the Internet has to offer.
The online world is fraught with danger, not unlike today’s real world when you step out the front door. There really isn’t any difference except that when we go outside we know how to behave and what to look out for. For example, we don’t walk across a busy road without looking left then right, then left again – why – because that’s what we were taught when we were young. We know not to go into certain parts of our town by ourselves or unaccompanied. The same can be said when we wander into the online world. If we know what to do, and what not to do, there is no reason why our online experience can’t be enjoyable.
Stay smart online, is the new teacher for the technological era.
Online transactions are here to stay, and, like the demise of old banking practices, we’ll see more and more old fashion methods of transaction become extinct, with banks and businesses turning to the online world for almost all financial dealings. If you know what to do, and how to do it, it’s perfectly safe.
The e-security initiative by the federal government is a commendable approach in helping all Australians, young and old, get online, and stay safe when doing so. No longer can anyone at any age ignore the Internet. They would do so at there own peril.
Also on This Weeks Show
- Telstra slams 'bogus' broadband report
- Government launches alert service to kick off E-security Week
- Apple's WWDC: New iPhone, new OS X, new .Mac?
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| Episode 22/2008 - TX: June 2 2008 (Ep 182) |
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As consumers of technology, or any commodity for that matter, we place a certain amount of trust in the hands of the manufacturer or service provider. Technical specifications aside, we, as consumers, place a great deal of weight on the brand name behind whatever it is we’re buying – but at what price?
Brand names are everything. Recently on Tech Talk Radio we spoke of the great brands of 2008, of which Google, Microsoft and Apple were amongst the top ten global brands. So, do we assume that just because these guys are top of the ladder that they won’t sell us a dodgy product?
In today’s cut throat world of retailing, companies need to maintain a good margin on products. When that margin is threatened by competitors and cheap imitation copies of products from say China and Asia, don’t you think that the marketing departments of said companies would do anything to improve sales and hence the companies bottom line?
Or what about just unscrupulous companies that put sales before customers? We’re not immune from this sort of corporate mischief in Australia either
Recently, what was once a trusted and respected Australian IT company betrayed local consumers by saying that their service was “everywhere you needed it” when according to the ACCC it wasn’t. The federal court agreed with the ACCC and found that the company’s claims were misleading.
This week, the mail order computer company Dell was found guilty in an American court of false advertising and fraud.
According to the court, the company engaged in abusive debt collection practices, misled consumers about the financing terms for which they had qualified and failed to provide consumers with promised rebates.
The case arose after hundreds of complaints about Dell and its finance arm Dell Financial Services. As a result, Dell now faces the prospect of a huge damages claim.
So what motivates the large corporate players to deceive and lie to consumers, the people that keep them in business? Is it the nature of just a few rotten apples in the marketing bunch, are they just innocent mistakes by ill informed individuals, or are the company executives fully aware of their actions, knowing full well that they’re stretching the truth?
Take that into consideration when upgrading or buying your next gadget. After all, once a company blots its copy book, what’s to say that they won’t do it again?
A few weeks ago, I had the privileged of talking to Rico Malvar, the managing director of Research for Microsoft based in Redmond. Today you’ll hear part two of our discussion
 Also on This Weeks Show
- We continue our chat with Rico Malvar, from Microsoft research
in the US
- Telstra's hologram?
- Adam turns his attention to the slow take up of bluray
- Gates promises 'multi-touch' Windows 7
- Dell found guilty of fraud and false advertising
- And it’s the end of an era for paper airline tickets
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| Episode 21/2008 - TX: May 26th 2008 (Ep 181) |
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The world of technology is an ever changing feast of gadgets and software. When it comes to the world’s most influential technological companies, Microsoft, Apple and Google would have to be those at the top of the list.
Telecommunications companies globally provide the conduit for connectivity, but if it weren’t for the hardware and software vendors then life would not be as it is today.
Some people embrace technology and some treat it with contempt. Such is human nature, but the one thing that is here to stay is the rapid emergence of new and interesting gadgets designed to make our lives easier.
A few weeks ago, I had the privileged of talking to Rico Malvar, the managing director of Research for Microsoft based in Redmond. Today you’ll get an insight into what and how we’ll be doing things around the turn of the next decade.
Rico was a founding member of the Signal Processing research group at Microsoft Research, which evolved into the Communication and Collaboration Systems group and the Knowledge Tools group. His technical contributions at Microsoft include co-development of the Windows Media Audio digital audio format, image compression technologies for Microsoft Office, Tablet PC, Xbox 360 and Flight Simulator X, digital elevation map compression technologies for Flight Simulator X, rights management technologies for Windows Media, new video transform and quantization techniques that were adopted into H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC), ink compression formats for Microsoft Office and Tablet PC, acoustic signal processing technologies for Windows Messenger, Microsoft Office RoundTable, and Windows Vista, and co-development of the HD Photo format for digital pictures, which is the basis for the upcoming JPEG XR standard. His technical interests include audio and video signal enhancement and compression, multirate signal processing, signal decompositions, fast algorithms, coding theory, and electronics hardware.
Also on This Weeks Show
- The G9 change their name and put $5m on the Governments table
- Adam Turner talks to ZoHo about giving Google a run for their money
- Lidija Davis teaches us how to Digg properly
- and Downloads on the Up as CD sales slump
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| Episode 20/2008 - TX: May 19th 2008 (Ep 180) |
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If you've ever wondered how to set up you home cinema system, or why the commercials on TV seem louder than the program, be sure to tune in tonight when Michael Cremean joins us live in the Tech Talk Studios to answer all your audio questions. Michael runs a successful audio post production house which has hundreds of TV commercials and programs pass through its doorway each year.
Also:
Generation Y are making their mark on society in many ways. What with the armament of technology at their disposal in the form of MP3 Players, personal communications devices, the internet and social networking, and not to forget the ubiquitous mobile phone, it’s no wonder that their legacy will be remembered for generations to come.
Throughout the course of history, no other generation has altered the English language to the extent that the youth of today have. Whether it’s good or bad, the fact of the matter is there are more new words creeping into today’s vocabulary than at any other time in the evolution of the English language.
Social Networking sites such as Twitter, My Space and Facebook are as much responsible for the language evolution of today as are the users of the said technology. The internet has certainly made these arenas possible, but the ease of access online through personal, wireless, take it anywhere gadgets, has also attracted the Gen Y’s into cyberspace.
Never in the history of the human race have we been so connected. In fact, if you value your personal well being, you should never try and separate a young person from their mobile phone, as this device is the portal to their social life.
The Short Messaging Service, or SMS as we know it, was a technology built for the sole purpose of allowing the telephone company to tell the customer that someone had left them a message on their phone. Little did they know that this technology would become as popular as it has today, and for a purpose in which it was not intended.
SMS would also be one of the most inefficient and expensive ways of communicating, yet it’s simplicity and facelessness is most appealing to its users. To this end, when challenged with a numerical keypad and 160 characters, abbreviations of commonly used words are bound to occur. This has linguists around the world in a flap. So is Instant Messaging bad for us?
Australian children's language expert and author of Kidspeak, June Factor urged the less text-savvy to stop looking at the lingo of messaging in a simple and pejorative manner.
Dr Factor said "It is always counter-productive to pour scorn, abuse and contempt on a language particular to a subgroup," Rather, she said, it would be beneficial for teachers to examine IM communications in the classroom and compare and contrast it to other language forms.
She went on to say the dilemma arises when kids see it as a whole language system and are using it to replace the more complex and nuanced forms of writing. When used in context, the increasingly fashionable lingo was a legitimate form of abbreviated language.
Also on This Weeks Show
- Michael Cremean joins us live in the studio to answer your questions about anything audio
- Adam Turner takes a look at the HTC Shift.
- Apple dismiss Safari vulnerability and
- Tassie a step closer to broadband
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| Episode 19/2008 - TX: May 12th 2008 (Ep 179) |
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Last week, months of speculation came to an end as Vodafone announced that it had won the support of Apple to distribute the iPhone in Australia as well as the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey later this year.
 For those keen to snap up the what some say is an overrated device, it looks like you may have to wait until Christmas to get your chance. Surprisingly, there was no mention of a 3G iPhone in any of the press releases, but logic would say only a 3G version of the iPhone would be released on this country… wouldn’t it?
Respected tech reviewer Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal has predicted the 3G iPhone will go on sale in June. It could be rolled out by Apple chief Steve Jobs at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 in San Francisco or possibly on June 29, the phone's first sales anniversary.
The iPhone has certainly put Apple on the map. Last week on Tech Talk Radio, we spoke of the top 100 brands for 2008, in which Apple sat comfortably at number 7 and worth $55.206b. Of all the top 10 companies on the list, Apple’s brand value change was 123%, more than double anyone else, including the number 1 brand – Google. So it’s fair to say the iPhone has something to do with it.
So does this mean Apple has made the best phone ever to date? Many skeptics and pundits say companies that diverge in their product range tend to become jack of all trades and masters on none – but is this the case with Apple?
Some Apple purists, or as Adam calls them – slobbering Mac fanatics - were heard to say that this was the phone for them as soon as the device was released last year, and without even seeing it. Others were not so sure. And what of the Nokia’s, Motorolla’s, and Sony Ericsson’s of the world – as manufacturer’s of only mobile communications devices, would they stand a chance with Apple’s iPhone? After all that’s what they do. They don’t make computers, they don’t write Operating Systems, they just make phones.
Consequently the question needs to be asked – what’s in a brand? Are people so blind to the product that they’re buying because of the manufacturer behind it? Do some people just trust a brand that much, OR, have we all just become so blasé about technology that we just assume it works, it’s too complicated, or we just can’t be bothered researching another gadget? Only time will tell.
There's some new ways of doing things on the Microsoft horizon. Everyone can have 5Gb of cloud! What I hear you say? We'll talk to Harvey Sanchez - Online Services Strategy Manager for Microsoft about Microsoft’s Live mesh!
Also on This Weeks Show
- Adam Turner talks looks at the long awaited iPhone
- Adam takes a call from Steve Jobs
- Harvey Sanchez - Online Services Strategy Manager for Microsoft talks to us about Microsoft’s Live mesh and
- Tasmanian’s seem to be the victims of poor internet access
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| Episode 18/2008 - TX: May 5th 2008 (Ep 178) |
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Tech Talk Radio Ep 18-2008 | Conroy talks Digital TV, Data Recovery, more eBay dilemmas, Safari takes off for PC, Spam turns 30, XP SP3 and Vista SP1 delayed, TIVO in Australia, 2008 biggest IT Brand Names
In the not to distant future, web surfers globally will have new versions of their favorite web browser foisted upon them from all the major players.
Apple's Safari, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Mozilla's Firefox are battling to become your browser of choice. So which one should you use - Safari 3.1, Firefox 3, or Internet Explorer 8?
Apple's latest offering, Safari 3.1, preserves the company's signature focus on clean design and smooth usability, but it lacks any phishing or malware filters.
For its part, Mozilla should have applied the finishing touches to Firefox 3 by now. From under-the-hood memory improvements to a major reworking for bookmarks, version 3 represents a big step forward.
Whereas the new Firefox and Safari browsers are ready to roll, Microsoft's early beta of Internet Explorer 8 remains a work in progress. Bugs and rough edges are to be expected in a first beta intended for developers and testers. But IE 8 beta 1 provides a glimpse of new features such as WebSlices (which let sites create widgety snippets of information that you can view by clicking a bookmark button) and Activities (which add right-click menu options for looking up selected text and pages on map, translation and other sites) that will distinguish the browser Microsoft eventually releases.
From an end user’s point of view changing upgrading web browsers should be, as the great author Douglas Adams said as he described the inhabitants of planet earth, “Mostly Harmless”, but spare a thought for web developers. With hundreds of changes to style sheet implementation, what are the chances websites built for current browsers will look the same in the new browsers?
Safari and Firefox are the most reliable browsers when it comes to displaying websites on your screen. Microsoft’s Internet explorer is riddled with bugs and strange, unexplainable anomalies, which most of us turn a blind eye to. Let’s hope Microsoft’s IE8 conforms to internet standards a little better than its previous incarnations.
 The future of Digital TV in Australia!
Be sure to tune in this week to hear Adam Turner's exlusive interview with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
With the goal post continually on the move, Adam asks the minister when and how analogue TV will close in Australia.
 Data Recovery -
You may need to know about it one day - so why not today!
Graham Henley is one of the world’s experts in data recovery from the PC environment and from iPods, digital still and video cameras and MP3 players.
He is a director and co-developer of the world’s leading data recovery software applications - GetData Software’s Recover My Files, Recover My Email, Recover My Photos and Recover My iPod.
He also has eleven years law enforcement experience in the Australian Federal Police, five of those in the Computer Crime Unit.
After leaving law enforcement Graham spent five years as Director of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Asia Pacific computer forensics practice.
He headed the computer forensics team which recovered thousands of missing files involved in the collapse of corporate giants FAI, One-Tel and HIH.
Also on This Weeks Show
- We take a look at the worlds most powerful brands for 2008 – technologically,
- Tivo’s introduction in Australia is not sailing as smoothly as first thought
- Optus takes a leaf from Telstra’s book and sinks the boots into Canberra and
- Bay Sellers may be restricted to cheaper items.
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| Episode 17/2008 - TX: April 28st 2008 (Ep 177) |
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Tech Talk Radio Ep 17-2008 | Windows XP SP3, Vista a 'work in progress', ABS release Aus internet statistics, Maxtor data protection, Website credibility, Email credibility, Fast Flux, Microsoft's cloud - www.mesh.com
In a new Internet Activity Survey which was released last Thursday, the 24th of April, results collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal Australian’s took up broadband and wireless Internet connections in record numbers during 2007. In fact, at the end of the December quarter, there were 7.10 million subscribers to the Internet in Australia, of which comprised 964,000 business and government subscribers, and 6.14 million household subscribers. With Australia’s population around 21.2m, that’s not too shabby when it comes to household use, but business and government subscribers seem to be on the low side.
This release contains results from all ISPs operating in Australia as at 31 December 2007. For December quarter 2007 there were 421 operating ISPs contributing to the estimates.
The number of non dial-up subscribers recorded at the end of December 2007 was 5.21 million, compared with dial-up subscribers of 1.89 million - an increase of 33% since September 2006.
Most of those were converts from dial-up rather than new Internet users, but the total number of Internet connections did increase over that period; 6.65 million to 7.1 million.
The biggest change to our connectivity in 2007 was the arrival of wireless broadband. Over 481,000 people were connected to wireless broadband at the end of the December 2007, compared with 186,000 connected in September 2006, once again a substantial increase.
Connections with download speeds of 1.5Mbps or greater increased to 2.51 million or 35% of subscribers in December 2007, compared to 1.13 million or 17% of subscribers at the end of September 2006. For December 2007 a breakdown of higher download speeds has been released for the first time.
The makers of Maxtor and Seagate release a new portable hard drive with built in security.
Lidija Davis continues her reports from RSA 2008, and this week she talks to the makers of Maxtor and Seagate hard drives, as they launch the first portable hard drive with build in security encryption!
Also on This Weeks Show
- Microsoft’s top boss Ballmer says Microsoft could keep XP if customers want it.
- Adam Turner looks at the the Australian Nokia Music Store
- We continue Lidija’s report from the RSA conference in San Francisco – this week portable hard drives with built in data protection and
- Microsoft admits Vista is a “Work in progress”
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| Episode 16/2008 - TX: April 21st 2008 (Ep 176) |
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Tech Talk Radio Ep 16-2008 | CDMA closure, Christopher Boyd, RSA2008, Voice Biometrics, Apple clones, ACCC and Paypal
 Two things in this world are for sure, life and death, and this week in Australia, we’re about to see the passing of CDMA. CDMA was the phoenix that rose from the ashes of the old AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) network in 1999. AMPS was the first generation of mobile communications. At the time of CDMA’s launch second generation mobile devices, or as we knew it, digital cellular mobile phones, were in their prime, and CDMA promised a solution to a problem that the then GSM network faced; a distance limitation where the handset could be no further than a maximum distance of about 40 km from the bases station.
2G users found it frustrating that even if their phone had signal, if they were beyond the maximum distance from a base station, they couldn’t use their phone. So in September 1999, in rode CDMA – a knight in shining armour - aimed at rural customers, who up until then had felt 'left out’ of the digital mobile phone revolution because of the distance limitation.
I’m sure you remember the television commercial where massive white sheets were dragged across hills and valleys, signifying the fantastic coverage of CDMA? Anyway, in just a few days time, those white sheets have to be to be folded up to make way for the continuing roll out of Telstra’s next generation mobile technology.
Eight and a half years was CDMA’s life – not bad in this day and age, but nonetheless, she’ll be sadly missed by some. Her epitaph will read “So long old friend, cut down in your prime, but such is the price of progress” 1999 – 2008.
 New Generation Hackers and their Social Media tactics!
Social media has brought along a new generation of malware creators, and Lid catches up with Christopher Boyd, Director of Malware Research for FaceTime at RSA. Listen as Chris gives examples of security breaches to MySpace, FaceBook, and Google’s Orkut.
Subscribe to Chris’ blog, Vital Security to stay up to date with what the bad guys are doing.
Also on This Weeks Show
We take a look at mobile phone history in Australia.
Adam Turner looks at the problems of kids and computer games.
More from RSA and Lid; talking malware with Chris Boyd of FaceTime,
Telstra becomes the teacher for older Australian’s
Rent videos - on your iPod and
A New spam outbreak says it's seen you naked
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| Episode 15/2008 - TX: April 14th 2008 (Ep 175) |
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Since the dawn of time, marketers have been looking for ways to communicate with consumers. Now, more than ever, the tools in the arsenal of the marketing company have become quite refined, and exceptionally sharp.
 Never before have we seen the ability to send targeted communications to clients, customers, or potential customers like we do right now. Everyone is online; everyone has an email account, and consumers are certainly more comfortable buying goods, and paying for them, online.
If you’re not convinced, free-to-air television in this country is losing market share at the rate of 7% per year; iTunes is now globally the largest distributor of music, mobile devices are now more prolific than ever before, and the youth of today now spend more time texting and instant messaging each other than at any other point in time.
Add to this the rapid roll out, and take up, of mobile (wireless) broadband in this country, and you can now reach almost anyone, anywhere, in a matter of seconds cost effectively.
The sharpest tool in the marketing kit is email marketing – and I don’t mean spam. The Australian government is serious about minimizing spam, but email marketing, when done properly, and legally, results in not only instant reactions, but instant polling of recipients - and in most cases – in real time.
For example, every week, Tech Talk Radio sends out an email informing our listeners what’s on the show for that week. We have a section in our email called “The following links were of interest to us this week” primarily to inform listeners of newsworthy technological happenings, but to us, it’s a straw poll to give us an insight into what our listeners are interested in, so we can include the topic on the show, based on the number of clicks on any given topic.
So now, you’ve probably got a good idea about the power of email marketing. Melbourne Radio personality, Mayor of Hootville, and self professed luddite Brett de Hoedt runs a leading PR company whose main role is to help Australia’s NGOs (Non Government Organisations) and NFPs (Not For Profit organisations) communicate. Brett will join us live in the studio to discuss the roles of email marketing, social networking, and blogging in the modern day world of the Internet and mobile communications.
So how secure are we online?
This week Lidija Davis files her first report from the RSA conference in San Francisco where she met up with Patrik Runald, Senior Security Specialist, F-Secure Security Labs.
Patrik details the current and common threats to all manner of devices from PC to Mac, mobiles and iPhones.
F-Secure Internet Security provides a complete and easy-to-use protection against all Internet threats, whether they are known or previously unidentified.
Also on This Weeks Show
Adam Turner talks about the 3G iPhone or lack of it
Lidija visits the RSA conference in San Francisco
Microsoft says it made a fair offer to Yahoo
Telstra expects broadband win
PayPal mandatory, says eBay Australia
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