You are currently browsing the archives for February 2012

Telstra Announces New 4G Devices, Available Today

Tuesday February 28 2012 12:05pm
Posted under Happenings Telecommunications • Tagged as , , , , , , • 1 comment

A media release from Telstra’s media team this morning gives details of two new products in their 4G range: a pre-paid 4G modem and Australia’s first 4G-capable tablet.

As is expected for Telstra, the details and rates for the pre-paid USB modem is nothing spectacular: $129 up-front for the device (which includes an initial 3Gb of data for use within 30 days), and ongoing recharge rates of $20 for 250Mb of data with a 21-day expiry all the way up to $150 for 10Gb of data with a 365-day expiry. More information on the 4G modem can be found on Telstra’s pre-paid broadband website.

More interesting was the announcement of the first 4G-enabled tablet, the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. While the device appears to offer no new features apart from 4G capability, it seems the 6100 mAh battery is capable of providing enough juice to power the device for long periods of time while maintaining network connectivity. Telstra have made the Galaxy Tab available for outright purchase (starting at $720 for the 16Gb variant) or subsidised on 24-month plans starting from $29 per month with a $20 MRO repayment. Customers looking to use it on a pre-paid service will need to purchase the tablet and a pre-paid service separately.

Detailed pricing information for the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is available on Telstra’s website.

With the rumoured announcement of the iPad 3 in coming weeks it will be very interesting to see if Apple included LTE capability this time around. If not, I’d like to know their justification behind this.

It’s worth noting that 4G coverage and availability is still quite limited at this stage, and although the devices can fall back to 3G as necessary, those looking to purchase a 4G device for speed will need to ensure coverage is available where they need it. Telstra’s coverage checker can be found here.

25 Years Of Handheld Mobile Phones

Friday February 24 2012 1:42pm
Posted under Mobile Phones Telecommunications • Tagged as , , , • 1 comment

I missed posting this one yesterday, but it’s still worth a mention: 25 years ago (and a day) Telecom Australia introduced the first handheld mobile phones with a launch held on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

Obviously over the years there’s been a lot of changes in mobile phone technology and the way in which we use them. We’ve moved from analogue to digital networks, the size and capabilities of handsets have improved and the pricing structure has made it easy for anyone to own a mobile phone.

Telstra’s media release yesterday reads more like an advertisement for a 4G handset than anything else, but does provide some interesting comparisons between mobile phones in 1987 and today: talk time was rated at 20 minutes with 5 hours standby, handsets cost in excess of $10,000 (adjusted for inflation), were sized and weighted similar to a brick and only had the capability to send and receive calls, with little further features.

And, for great justice, here’s a Telecom Australia Mobilenet television commercial from 1991:

Google+ App May Instantly Upload Your Cat Photos

Tuesday February 21 2012 3:04pm
Posted under Social Media • Tagged as , , , • 2 comments

This post is about Google+, so if you’re not one of the six people using it, you might as well look away now.

Last July technology broadcaster/radio celebrity Dr Ron wrote a blog post detailing three things he disliked about Google+. Running the Google+ app on his Android (snicker) device, one of those things was the “auto upload” feature, which automatically uploads any new media on the phone to Google+. This was the default option, and although it could be turned off easily enough, one would have to go looking for the setting.

A recent update for the iOS Google+ client brought this feature to the iPhone, but gives the user the opportunity to opt-out on the first launch.

The idea behind the automatic upload concept is that it makes it easier to share your photos with others, but I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with Google storing a copy of every photo I take – even if they are kept private until I release them for public viewing.

At least this time Google have given users the chance to opt-out, but it should still serve as a warning to people on two fronts: firstly, be aware which apps are accessing and transmitting your data, and secondly, know of what and when information is being sent so as to keep your data usage down.

VLC 2.0 Is Here!

Sunday February 19 2012 5:23pm
Posted under Happenings • Tagged as , • No comments

VideoLAN have released VLC Media Player 2.0, the latest version of their popular app for Mac, Windows and Linux based systems.

Although the biggest change is an overhauled user interface (the Mac version sporting a single one), a number of under-the-hood additions and improvements have been made to codec handling and support (improving video and audio playback and faster decoding) and now works with a range of external devices and provides experimental Bluray support.

VideoLAN’s VLC Media Player 2.0 can be downloaded here, and is available for various platforms. Screenshots below!

[nggallery id=9]

A Network Is Only As Good As The Support Staff Behind It

Thursday February 16 2012 10:52am
Posted under Happenings • Tagged as • 7 comments

For those who have been reading my Twitter feed lately, you’ll know that I have enrolled back at TAFE to undertake a course over the next year or so.

As is then norm with such educational institutions an email account is provided to each student. However, the institution I’m at is having some issues with their external mail provider right now – and they haven’t told anyone. Or if they have, they’re not doing a great job of informing people. Normally I wouldn’t care too much about the account being active, but some important information will be sent periodically to it and there doesn’t seem to be a way to specify a different 3rd-party address.

Walking past the IT support office yesterday, I stopped in to ask why I couldn’t activate my email account.

“Oh, we’re having issues with the service right now, that’s why you can’t activate it.”

I asked if they had an ETA as to when it would be up and running.

“No, we’re not sure, it could be tomorrow or it could be next week. But we’ll send you an email to that address once it’s ready, so keep checking your account.”

Here I pointed out that I haven’t activated the email address yet, so obviously it would be incredibly difficult to check the account for an email telling me it’s ready to be used.

“Yes, but keep an eye on your account, you’ll get an email telling you when it’s ready to be activated.”

I stared at him for a moment before walking out. Might be time to consider moving to a different TAFE.

← Older Entries