Digital Technology for Digital Living.
January 31, 2005
DumbStruck.
We are not sure which is sadder, the show itself, or the fact that Channel 9 firmly believe they are being innovative with the digital content for their new show StarStruck.
The Starstruck Enhancement will be available to all Digital Free to View on Channel 90 in metropolitan areas, while regional viewers will have access via Channel 80.
The digital enhancement will provide viewers with extra facts or trivia about the song being performed or the original artist. Three text bites of information will be displayed on the lower part of the screen during each performance in the program.
The Nine Network’s Director of Digital and Premium Services, Veronica Chalom, said: “Nine continues to provide innovative services for digital consumers. This enhancement provides additional entertainment value for our digital viewers, while enjoying the show.”
More at Digital Broadcasting Australia.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Digital TV
foofpod.
Aussie Podware manufacturer, foof, that’s right, foof, got a plug in The New York Times a couple of days ago. What do foof do. They “make handmade: foofpods (iPod cover) & foofbags (powerbook or ibook sleeves)”.
The product - foof is a palindromic duplication of Ms. Bury’s nickname, Fo - was a result of the pair’s move to Sydney from Dublin last summer (Ms. Bury is Irish; Mr. Wynter is Australian). They had been making larger bags to hold Apple laptops since June, selling them at foofbag.com.
The initial product was Mr. Wynter’s idea. He, the author of a Mac trouble-shooting book, and she, an unemployed real estate investment worker, hoped it would earn them some much-needed money.
$AU12 plus $AU7.50 postage will get you your own foofpod.
That article was worth it, just to say foof a few times.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Music
Expanding DSL with expandsl.
AustralianIT ran the story today about ADSL boosters that they are to trial.
The three-month trial will see Expandsl units from NEC installed in four areas in Victoria and one in Queensland. Located near the end of the line, the equipment can extend the range of an ADSL equipped exchange up to 20km, Telstra said.
The units are manufactured by Australian company Extel.
Trial areas include Woodend, Merbein and Robinvale in Victoria, which will be equipped as part of the federal Government’s Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund.
Mt Eliza in Victoria and Mudgeeraba in Queensland will also take part in the trial, which will make assessments of both voice and ADSL data services.
For a few more details about the technology, you can check Extel’s expandsl web page.
Check out Telstra’s press release.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Broadband
Why We Own A Mac.
The version in PDF floating around the net.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General
Clear the workbench. Here comes Make.
Geek publisher O’Reilly, famous for books with strange animals on the cover, have just created a new magazine called Make.
Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.
We can’t wait to get hold of this one. The first issue is 181 pages of great DIY hackery, including how to take arial photographs using a kite and a camera, how to read the magnetic stripe from you credit cards, and how to recover photos from zapped flash cards.
Are we going to see this magazine on the newsstands here in Australia? Don’t know. We’ve asked the question and we’ll let you know what we find out.
In the meantime, subscription info and some sample articles are available from the Make website.
Graeme | Comments (0) | General
January 30, 2005
RSS For Australian TV.
eBroadcast Australia has a TV Guide syndication in Australia link on its new look site. It doesn’t link directly to the XML/RSS feed, but does have an interesting announcement.
Some of the entertainment content you see throughout the eBroadcast consumer network is available for licensing. Online portals, print publications, mobile networks, consumer devices, phone services, personal homepages and education organisations around the nation are just some of the mediums that have found our content useful, relevant and extremely cost effective (and in some cases, free).
All content available for syndication is produced in-house right here in Australia by our own expert team using technology developed over the past decade.
For more information regarding eBroadcast’s entertainment content, please make an enquiry.
It’s a shame that it’s not just available, but it’s a neat move in the right direction, and we’d be keen to know what uses would be free.
Gadgetman | Comments (3) | General, Digital TV
January 29, 2005
Endangered Gizmos.
A must read for all gadget lovers.
Electronic Freedom Foundation’s Endangered Gizmo List.
Endangered :
Total Recorder D/A and A/D converters iPod + Linksys AP + Sony CD/RW pcHDTV card Morpheus Extinct :
DVD X-Copy Replay TV 4000 Streambox VCR Advanced eBook Processor Napster 1.0
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General
January 28, 2005
Spacebox, and DUH.
Ben writes in with a “sorta gadget”.
The residential units are ready for use and can be fitted with the help of a light crane. Larger buildings can be assembled using multiple units up to a maximum of 3 layers on a foundation of ‘Stelcon’ concrete plates.
A Spacebox building can be quickly assembled and disassembled, and is easy to transport. These qualities make the Spacebox very suitable for projects involving temporary living space.
These Spacebox units remind us of Dilbert’s Ultimate House, or DUH for short. We just reckon you need to mix the Spacebox with some of the funniest suggestions for something really special.
• Solar panels to power electric fans. These fans will power wind powered generators on non-windy days. The wind turbines will power kleig lights to recharge batteries attached to the solar panels on windy nights.
• No reason to have a toilet AND a shower (redundant)
• Walls and ceilings covered in Velcro, so you can stick the kids to it
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General
Technotranscendence Hybrid Entertainment Matrix, Or iPod.
We love our iPods as much as the next geek, but this guy’s definitely been smoking something.
According to Giesler’s preliminary research, the iPod isn’t simply an updated Walkman. It’s an entirely new beast: a revolutionary device that transforms listeners into “cyborgs” through a process he calls “technotranscendence.”
Unlike the Walkman, the iPod taps into a “hybrid entertainment matrix,” in which functions like random shuffle are a key construct, not just a cute marketing device.
“IPod and user form a cybernetic unit,” said Giesler. “We’re always talking about cyborgs in the context of cultural theory and sci-fi literature, but this is an excellent example that they’re out there in the marketplace…. I have seen the future, and it is called the cyborg consumer.”
The cyborg consumer, Giesler said, is one that uses several different technologies — from cell phones to Viagra — and is highly connected, technically and socially.
The iPod, for example, isn’t just an MP3 player. It’s an extension of the memory: storing the soundtrack of a lifetime, as well as names, addresses, calendars and notes.
Giesler notes that users give their iPods names, and carry them close to their bodies — the vibrations of the hard drive makes the device feel alive.
We’re guessing that Giesler figures that the more ridiculous buzz words he makes up, the better his chance of making some press. Oooh. Look it worked, you can read the article at Wired.
Gadgetman | Comments (1) | General, Music
Video On Demand For Canberra.
TransACT, Canberrian broadband network provider, announced today what the Sydney Morning Herald mentioned a couple of days ago. Video on demand (VoD) for Canberra. Interestingly this dovetails nicely into Telstra’s pre-announcment of their VoD plans last week, because according to the SMH article and today’s article from AustralianIT, Anytime is “negotiating with other Australian carriers” and “if we can conclude a deal with a major telco there we can enable the service within 12-16 weeks”.
TransACT’s media release has a few more details about Canberra’s service.
TransTV customers will be able to access a range of entertainment options broadcast in DVDquality picture and sound, when they want it.
Unlike current near movies-on-demand offerings in Australia, which allow single viewings at limited times, TransACT offers a true movies-on-demand service that provides the user with complete control over each viewing session, including fast forward, reverse, pause and replay.
Mr Slavich said, “On top of our existing movie selection through VoD, TransTV Digital customers can now take advantage of the extensive ANYTIME movie library, which includes current release titles often available before other pay TV movie channels.
Today’s AustralianIT also has a few other interesting statements by VideoEzy.
Video Ezy chief executive Stephen Johnston said his company too was planning to offer video on-demand, but believed it would be some time before it becomes a commercial reality in Australia.
Gadgetman | Comments (2) | Broadband, Video
Seagate’s External Consumer Hard Drives.
Seagate has announced the Australian release of a few of its external USB drives.
Of the three products launched, the Seagate Pocket Hard Drive (RRP$349) is the most visually distinctive, with its shell-like design winning it the Innovation Award at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Pocket Hard Drive has a 5GB storage capacity and a retractable USB 2.0 cord.
The 100GB Portable External Hard Drive (RRP$599) is another stylish model with a small footprint. Aimed at business travelers, the drive connects via USB 2.0 is hot swappable and requires no power cords or adaptors.
The beefiest model released by Seagate is the 400GB External Hard Drive (RRP$619), which can connect via USB or FireWire. It features one push button back-up, a 7200RPM high performance drive, and has an interlocking design so it can be stacked horizontally with other External Hard Drives.
More details at Smarthouse or Seagate’s international site.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Portable, Peripherals
m:robe Due In Australia This Autumn.
PC World reports on a range of new portable music players from Olympus, the crew that bring us digital cameras, called m:robe. Both have been released in parts of the world, but the pricing has now been announced for Australia. Firstly, the MR-100 HDD music player that comes with 5GB of storage and retails for $AU399. The second, the MR-500i Motion Music player, comes with 20GB of storage and a 1280×960 or 640×480 pixel resolution camera (1.22 mega-pixel), that’ll go for $AU799. We’re not sure about the camera/music combo. The iPod photo doesn’t seem that useful, and with every mobile phone and his dog including a low resolution camera, we’ve got doubts that people will pay a premium on their music player to get a crappy res camera. Both have touch screens which might set it apart from the iPod, but the MR-100 is an incredibly ugly little sucker.
Gadgetman | Comments (3) | Music, Digital Camera
Australian Music Download Chart On Its Way.
The Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) is soon to release a music download chart for Australia. Only one problem, one of our brilliant online music stores isn’t, or can’t, releasing the details for their sales. We wonder whether this is through their inability to provide the details, or some market savvy executive thinks it’s going to hinder their sales.
ARIA chief executive officer Stephen Peach said the organisation, which already produces the official Australian charts for single, album and DVD sales, has been working for some months to develop a listing of the most popular downloads.
“The stumbling block is that we’re not currently able to get sales information from some of the key online retailers,” said Peach.
Peach did not identify which retailers had not agreed to participate, but said he was confident that the problem would be ironed out eventually. “There’s no point having a chart if it’s not representative,” he said.
Key players in the local market include Telstra’s BigPond Music, NineMSN Music and Destra, which supplies downloads for many existing music retailers. Apple’s iTunes, which dominates the global market for downloads, has yet to launch in Australia despite repeated rumours.
Once enough sources of data are available, ARIA will run a trial chart for a couple of months to ensure that the rankings are reliable. Maintaining chart accuracy is a constant challenge.
The article at ZDNet also details some interesting numbers on the impact of sales online, including the bold predication, by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), that legal downloads will account for a quarter of all sales within five years.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Music
iiNet In Talks To Purchase OzEmail.
AUSTRALIA’S fourth largest internet service provider, iiNet, confirmed it was in talks to acquire rival OzEmail.
…
If iiNet does acquire OzEmail it would put the company third in Australia’s internet service provider rankings behind Telstra and Optus.
From AustralianIT.
It’ll be an interesting year in terms of broadband if iiNet do make the purchase. With plans to role our more of their own DSLAMs and residential VOIP it’ll put more pressure on Telstra and number two, Optus.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Broadband
January 26, 2005
RSS Comics.
Keep forgetting to visit your favourate online comic. We do. How many strips of PvP have we missed over the years. Well Tapestry is the answer. Get RSS feeds for some of the popular comics, like PvP, Penny Arcade or Dilbert.
Sweet sweet humour, delivered straight to our sweaty News Readers.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General
January 25, 2005
Aussie Bank Proves They Don’t Understand Technology and Security.
Christopher writes in with what must be one of the most moronic security strategies in Australian online banking history.
In an attempt to reduce phishing losses, aussie bank Suncorp-Metway mandates from Jan 22 that only users of MS Internet Exploder or Netscape Navigator on MS-windows OS with “approved” (but otherwise unspecified) anti-virus software may use their internet banking site.
A phone call to Suncorp for clarification confirms that a deliberate “Business Decision” has been made to shaft Mac and Unix customers.
Obviously the bank isn’t across what a real secure operating system (OS) looks like, or that phishing is OS agnostic. It appears that the business decision was not to protect customers, but to protect themselves.
You can find the clause in their Terms and Conditions. It reads :
“suitable software” means Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2 or above, or Netscape Navigator 6.1 or above running on Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP with anti-virus software or other software approved by us.
In other words, if you use a Mac or Unix OS, and you lose money. You’re on your own.
Gadgetman | Comments (1) | General
Gadget Blackhole Found To Surround Sydney Taxis.
Want to start a second hand Gadget Shop. Best thing to do is start a taxi service.
According to a survey conducted by mobile device security provider Pointsec, in the last six months in Sydney alone, taxi drivers have found an average of 2.31 mobile phones, 0.3 pocket personal computers/personal digital assistants and 0.17 notebooks per vehicle. If the experience of the 100 taxis surveyed is replicated across Sydney’s fleet of 5,749 taxis, passengers have left a total of 13,280 mobiles, 977 laptops and 1725 pocket personal computers/personal digital assistants behind over the six month period.
More at ZDNet.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General
Gmail Tips.
Chris at Digital Musings points to a long list of Gmail Tips.
Gmail Beta: First Impressions
How I ‘Imported’ archived email into Gmail
Gmail Tip #1: All About Labels
Gmail Tip #2: ‘Check’ Your Messages
Gmail Tip #3: How to Maintain ‘Notes’
Gmail Tip #4: Formatting Your Name
Gmail Tip #5: The ‘Plus’ Side of Gmail
Gmail Tip #6: Define a Signature!
Gmail Tip #7: Quickly Addressing a Message
Gmail Tip #8: Working With Lots of Emails
Gmail Tip #9: New Mail Notification!
Gmail Tip #10: Some Tips About Conversations
Gmail Tip #11: Connecting Securely
Gmail Tip #12: ‘Archiving’ Explained
Gmail Tip #13: Some More About Conversations
Gmail Tip #14: What Happens To Sent Messages?
Gmail Tip #15: New feature - Highlighting on/off!
Gmail Tip #16: New feature - View or Download for attached images
Gmail Tip #17: Advanced Search - View Multiple Labels
Gmail Tip #18: Some Forwarding Idiosyncracies
Gmail Tip #19: Advanced Search - ‘Query Words’
Gmail Tip #20: Why some attachments bounce
Gmail Tip #21: ‘Official’ Features and Bugs Status Page
Gmail Tip #22: Advanced Search - Multi-Labeled and Un-Labeled Messages
Gmail Tip #23: Cleaning Your Contacts
Gmail Tip #24: New feature! Import Contacts
Gmail Tip #25: Find Your Unread Messages
Gmail Tip #26: Creating a Pseudo Address Group!
Gmail Tip #27: Adding Hotmail Contacts to Gmail
Gmail Tip #28: ‘Gmail Notifier’ released to beta!
Gmail Tip #29: A Small Quirk With Gmail Notify’s ‘mailto:’ Handler
Don’t have Gmail? Let us know.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Software
January 24, 2005
How Would You Use Your Mac mini.
We mentioned the other day our thoughts on Making the Mac mini Into A Real Home Hub. Wired has an article on the different uses that people are already talking about putting their Mac mini to.
Enthusiast sites like BYODKM.net, which stands for “bring your own display, keyboard and mouse, are popping up. Lots of sites, like (PVRblog or MacMerc, are detailing how to turn a mini into a living-room digital video recorder.
ITX hobbyists are planning to gut it and stuff it into toasters, and tech pundit Robert Cringely wants one for his kitchen.
…..
“When I saw the mini — the dimensions and the specs — I thought, this is perfect for the car,” said Benzaquen. “I’d be surprised if Apple didn’t think of installing it in a car, it’s so perfect…. You don’t have to do anything except mount it and plug it in. It even has voice-recognition built in. It’s almost too easy.”
Benzaquen said the mini is the ideal size for a standard car stereo compartment, and it’s 18-volt power supply is easily fed with standard 12-volt auto power. And because Mac OS X has voice recognition built in, the mini can be controlled hands free.
Anyone else got some good uses for the mini?
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | General
January 23, 2005
ACA Discusses Broadband Over Powerlines.
The Australian Communication Authority is preparing to release a discussion paper on Broadband over Powerline (BPL). For those not across the new technology, the aim is to provide broadband connectivity via the current powerlines that utilities provide power to the home with. Thus offering Aussies another choice of internet provider.
Whirlpool describes the news nicely.
The site lists trials currently underway as well as guidelines for providers looking to roll out BPL in the future. Four power companies are currently conducting trials including Aurora Energy in Tasmania, Energy Australia in Newcastle and two regional providers in NSW.
The ACA is looking into the regulatory issues associated with the new technology and is opening discussions with interested parties. Regulation will ensure that frequencies used by BPL do not interfere with other radio services.
Gadget Lounge has previously mentioned Aurora Energy’s seemingly successful trial.
Gadgetman | Comments (1) | Broadband
