In case you didn't know, iiNet is being sued for not doing anything to stop its users from downloading stuff off the Internet. It's a case that could change the landscape of the Internet industry in this country if iiNet loses, as Roadshow, Universal, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. and Columbia, as well as Channel Seven, seek unspecified damages.
Australian ISP Internode last week announced that they will be the first Australian supplier of the chumby. I can already hear it already: "What the hell is a chumby!?"
The launch of smartphones seems to bring both joy and fear for many these days. Joy, of course, that you can wrap your hands around the shiny plastic of a new toy. Fear of the looming data costs and the mountainous phone bills.
Last week 3 Mobile announced the launch of its 3G Wi-Fi Router for mobile broadband customers in Australia. Designed to be used in tandem with one of 3's USB modems, the Wi-Fi Router simply piggybacks off the USB Modem when it's plugged in, allowing users to share a single mobile broadband account.
If product placement for film and TV is as effective as companies hope, Cisco must be rolling in it. If you've seen any scene in the last few years involving some form of office -- no matter whether it's in a high-rise commercial building, a hospital or a morgue -- there's a significant chance you'll see a Cisco-branded, IP-based phone sitting on a desk. If fiction mirrored reality, Voice over IP (VoIP) is ubiquitous already.
Mobile broadband has many benefits. From the convenience of checking e-mail on the road, to streaming videos at your mate's place, the possibilities are endless.
James Bond: Quantum of Solace comes out here in Australia next week, but audiences in the UK have been the first to see it. And there are many pirates among them! Torrent sites already have the movie listed in various forms and file sizes, and the most popular torrent sites are showing tens of thousands of people trying to download it.
Last week I discussed some issues regarding the decline in quality of mobile broadband in Australia, despite the lower prices and increased competition.
One of the disadvantages of living so far from the rest of the world is that the data we want has to travel huge distances across very expensive undersea data cables before it gets to us.
At the recent Broadband World Australia 2008 summit, iiNet's chief regulatory officer Steve Dalby claimed that the proposed National Broadband Network is shaping up as little more than a $5 billion dollar hole in the taxpayer's pocket.
Ross Catanzariti is a GoodGearGuide technical journalist, as well as GGG's product coordinator. He's worked at the GoodGearGuide for over three years, reviewing everything from mobile phones to mobile broadband. He is also owner of a formidable FIFA collection and suffers a mild soccer obsession.
Elias Plastiras is the manager of PC World's Test Centre. He's worked at PC World for over a decade, usually at a desk surrounded by a formidable pile of PC components, networking gear and computer peripherals.
Jobs for: Cisco | Linux | Oracle | HelpDesk | LAMP | PHP | Ruby | Web Developer Resources: Legal Work Rights | Pay Rise Calculator | Salary Survey
