I should have posted this on Monday, but this will have to do - since it will be the final day of it. All of our editors are focusing on their exams, well except Stewart since we don’t know his exam days. Anyway, all of us have been slowly putting up news.

We will resume to normal soon, like Saturday. But, I think you are wondering - If I was exams, how can I still be typing this. And, No - there is no ghost writer. The only time I can update is early in the morning. I can still update in the afternoon - If I don’t fall asleep.

So - remember, we are back to normal transmission on Saturday!

- Terence

In case just having an iPhone isn’t good enough of a statement for you, soon you’ll be able to have an iPhone plated in 24k GOLD. I’m not going to say it looks bad, because it doesn’t (it is an iPhone, after all!), but I will say the concept is a little over the top and a bit ridiculous, especially once people realize it is in fact real gold.

Retailing for £699.95 (approx. US$1450), the gold iPhone is plated with struck 24ct gold. The parts are adorned in gold including front full surround and 3/4 of the rear revealing a total mirror finish. The creator of the gold iPhone is a family run business, specializing in precious metal plating. They offer a range of MP3 devices and phones laden with yellow, rose or white gold. For those wanting a phone that makes an even more serious statement, why not purchase the Motorola KZR Leopard Diamond Edition for a lazy £14,995 (more than US$3000).

A group in New Mexico wants the state authorities to remove all Wi-Fi hotspots from all public buildings, according to VNUNet. They claim that the technology causes allergic reactions.

The want the Wi-Fi to be removed from libraries and then from all other buildings.

The group claims to be "electro-sensitive" and deserve to be able to live without Wi-Fi and they believe that they are being discriminated against the Americans with Disabilities Act. He also claims that the telecommunications industry has "suppressed damaging evidence about the technology since 1927".

One of the Group’s members is Arthur Firstenberg, who wrote a book titled Microwaving Our Planet: The Environmental Impact of the Wireless Revolution.

To Me, this sounds stupid. No offense at all, but everyone is wired and this would cause a floodgates of lawsuits by the group to many other buildings who have Wi-Fi. Why should we take down the Wi-Fi for a small minority.

Government officials have dismissed the fears as groundless, but they are checking the legal situation.

aaNet, which is known for its cut-price broadband service, has launched a new set of plans using its parent company EFTel’s new ADSL2+ network.

The plans excel from $24.90/month for 2GB, and $34.90 for 10GB - but that is bundled with other products offered by aaNet. Higher end plans include a 100GB plan (the highest) for $124.90. Whirlpool’s Phi Sweeney also says that it will continue with its unusual system of counting the downloads during its offpeak hours (2AM to 10AM) at 50%.

As well, it will offer a “launch special” plan with 200GB with 50GB onpeak and 150GB offpeak, with bundling, for $69.90. Offpeak times have been reduced to 3AM to 9AM.

It coincides with iPrimus’ announcement of its new 200GB plan, but Whirlpool has revealed that it will only have 40GB onpeak and 160GB used during its offpeak times - which are the same as aaNet. The plan will cost $79.95/month, and you will need to have an iPrimus phone service to be able to get it.

It’s parent company still continues to say that its network is VDSL2 capable, but the standard has not been approved for use in Australia yet. It has 47 exchanged, with another 32 planned - dubbed “phase 1″.

OpenSocial has said that AOL is officially joining the initiative to standardize how social-networking applications work, according to TechCrunch.

Not much is mentioned, but it is Bebo - which AOL bought for $850 million - is already part of OpenSocial, and it is integrated with the Facebook platform as well.

It is unknown if AOL will also support the recently announced fbOpen (Facebook Open), its platform to compete with the Google-backed OpenSocial. But with Bebo supporting the Facebook platform, it could move to fbOpen soon.

Trading Post, owned by the Telstra’s Sensis division, rolled out some new capabilities that is seen to compete with eBay, with the CEO Bruce Akhusrt telling APC that it is “an Australian alternative to eBay.”

He wants to grab a large amount of users that have been angry with the planned switch to only have PayPal or Cash on Delivery as the only options as payment.

As well, to quickly populate the site, they have actively courting the “power sellers” of eBay and is expected to make up 80% of the online inventory of the site.

The Trading Post will offer Cash on Delivery, cheques, postal orders, bank deposits, PayPal and PayMate as some of the payment options. It would also launch a “verified trader” initiative with Australia Post, which it has a standing relationship with them, and it would see a standard 100 point check for all Australian-based buyers.

The site is being promoted as a simpler alternative than eBay, with the Trading Post having 524 categories versus eBay’s 11,000+ categories. The site will use technologies from Intershop and FAST.

TelisSonera has announced that it will bring the iPhone to all the Nordic and Baltic countries, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

The iPhone was not available in those areas. TeliaSonera, however, does not have a contract to release it in Spain and the emerging markets of Eurasia (including Russia and Turkey) - where it offers its services.

It comes after Orange announcement that it had secured another deal to release it into another dozen countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

As well, Vodafone announced that it would distribute the iPhone in ten countries, including Australia - where it shares the contract with Optus, where its owner SingTel has a contract to release it in several countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

IN BRIEF: Macquarie Telecom has extended its ADSL2+ network to over 250 exchanges.

Out of the exchanges, 100 will be based in Western Australia and Queensland - which Macquarie Telecom has said that they have been neglected by other telcos.

Macquarie operates exclusively in business and government markets, and the new service will have a theoretical download speed of 24Mbps and upload speeds of 1Mbps.

News.com.au is reporting that Telstra will attempt an Australian first by beaming a live hologram from Melbourne to Adelaide tomorrow morning.

The telco giant has claimed that the hologram will reproduce a real-time image of its CTO Dr. Hugh Bradlow as he gives a talk in Melbourne. It is hoping to wow its business audience in Adelaide to show its broadband network’s data capacity.

The media release, issued today, did not detail the technology.

Despite holograms have been developed over 50 years ago, they were static (non-moving) and dynamic, or motion, holograms are still relatively new. Holograms use three lasers and a photosensitive screen to capture light waves and interference.

It then creates a three-dimensional image of the person in mid-air.

It will present a real-time media conference with the hologram following the event.

The Victorian Government has today announced an extension to its contract with the operator of the existing Metcard system, OneLink, until 2012 as the already overdue myki service may not see the light.

The Transport Minister has said that the miki system, which costs $m500 million and was due to be released last year, was to be ready in 2010.

The setback may cost taxpayers another $216 million to get it running. As well, the system has been plagued with computer faults, but has launched trials in Geelong. A spokesman has confirmed that the results have gone well.

"The minister is awaiting a full brief on the test results and myki status but has been told good progress has been made," he told Australian IT.