After the announcement of the iPhone being provided in Italy via Vodafone, it has also been announced that Telecom Italia will sell the iPhone in Italy as well - breaking the previous exclusivity deals in the US and a few other European countries.
It has exclusive deals with AT&T in the US, O2 in Britain, Orange in France and Deutsche Telekom in Germany.
Both companies have not provided any details.
Vodafone Australia has announced that it would be selling the iPhone later this year in Australia, as part of a global deal with Apple.
The global deal would see Vodafone selling the product in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.
Vodafone has not commented on the deal being exclusive or not, especially on the case of Australia; and would not comment on whether it will carry the new 3G version of the handset.
This comes after it was widely speculated that the iPhone would be on a tied to multiple carriers, one being Optus. Optus has refused to comment.
Telstra, however, has said that it had "no news to share" about the product; and 3 could not be reached for comment.
A company that makes pole dancing equipment has announced it has plans to develop a video game for the Nintendo Wii.
The motion-sensitive console would allow the player to act like a pole dancer, and would classified it as a fitness game - in the same vein as the Wii Fit. As well, the game would see another attachment to the Wii Console, a electric pole controller.
The company, Peekaboo, is in talks to develop the game.
Peekaboo is known for selling a range of pole-dancing equipment for home use, including a pole inspired and endorsed by the former Playboy model Carmen Electra.
It has also told MTV’s Multiplayer blog that it would look into providing a mobile version of the game.
Buyers of the Sony Bravia LCD TV have been waiting for the company to actually do what it promised to due - give them a PlayStation 3 console.
The delays came after the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that customers in the Samsung’s two-for-one promotion for its LCD TV product line; where it offered a smaller LCD for free if you bought a big-screen LCD TV set. Customers have been waiting for five months.
Those who bought a Bravia LCD set between December 21 of last year and January 28 should have received a bonus PS3 if they had a receipt and cite their brand new TV’s serial number.
They also promised that the consoles would be delivered within 28 days; with some complaining of poor communication within Sony or rejecting the claim that it had run out of stock.
The NSW Office of Fair Trading has advised people to work out the issue first before launching a complaint against the company of misleading representation. It can also contact Sony on your behalf, and if a result agreed by both parties is not reached, the consumer can take it up on the Consumer Trade and Tenancy Tribunal.
Those living outside of New South Wales, contact the local Office of Fair Trading.
Chief Executive for Optus Paul O’Sullivan has said that the Federal Government offer a five-month extension for all bidders for the new national broadband contract or will face a boycott.
The $4.7 billion national broadband contract would see those bidding creating a new high-speed network that will reach 98 percent of Australia’s population. The price is expected to be twice that amount, with the government pouring in $4.7 billion into the plan.
But on ABC television, O’Sullivan wanted assurances from the government that there would be "structural separation" between owning and servicing provisions on the network.
Structural separation involves the telecommunication company building the network would not own the network, thus meaning the government has full control.
Telstra’s chairman Donald McGauchie has confirmed that if the telco would not tender for the national fibre-to-the-node contract if the structural separation was in the contract, claiming that it had fail in other countries.
All bids should be finalised on the July 25 deadline, or five months from that date if an extension is granted.
Microsoft has now dropped its three-month bidding bid to buy Yahoo because the two sides cannot agree on the price.
Steve Ballmer, the chief executive for the software giant, formally withdrew the offer to Jerry Yang, the chief executive of Yahoo, in a letter.
Microsoft is said to have raised the offer to $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, from its original offer of $44.6 billion. But Mr Ballmer has said that Yahoo was insisting that it should pay at least $53 billion, or $37 per share - more than what was Microsoft was willing to pay.
Mr Ballmer has also said that it would not pursue "plan B", which consisted launching a hostile takeover after Mr Yang would make Yahoo undesirable for Microsoft.
Cuba has now lifted a ban on personal computers, in a series of restrictions being lifted in recent weeks by the new President, Raul Castro.
Crowds formed at the Carlos III shopping centre at Havana, though many came to look at them only. The computers will cost $800, though many will have to wait months, even years, to purchase one as the average wage is under $20 a month.
But some do have access to extra income, many from relatives outside of the Communist state.
Since taking over the presidency in February, Raul Castro ended many restrictions and has allowed access to previously banned goods, including mobile phones and DVD players. However, internet access is still regulated and restricted to workplaces, schools and universities.
The government has implied that they would like to open it, but has said that it is unable to connect to the undersea cable due to a US trade embargo. All internet connections are provided via satellite, but that has limited bandwidth and is very expensive to use.
However, it is unknown whether will the internet will still be unrestricted once the connection is completed.
News in Brief: Joystiq is reporting that both Activision and Vivendi Games have decided to drop their membership for the Entertainment Software Association, after their announcement that they would not attend E3 this year yesterday.
Both Activision and Vivendi Games are set to become one company to compete with Electronic Arts.
E3 is set to continue the same structure from last year’s event, but will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Early specifications of AMD’s upcoming 55nm Radeon HD 4000 series graphics cards have been documented for the first time outlining cards from low-end HD 4450 up to big daddy 4870 X2.
AMD has managed to create seven GPU’s from the three cores RV770, RV740 (using 256-bit memory bus) and RV710 (slower 128-bit memory bus).
At the top of the range is the HD 4870 X2 which is a dual-GPU card like the HD 3870 X2 but with much higher core clock speed (1050MHz vs. 825MHz) and using newer GDDR5 memory, which is said to run at 1800MHz DDR. As usual, there will first be the HD 4870 which has a core clock of 1050MHz also but with its 1GB of GDDR5 memory running at a huge 2200MHz DDR.
Going down the list is the slightly cut down HD 4850 which uses 512MB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1800MHz with its core clock running at 850MHz. Moving onto the RV740 is the mid-range HD 4670 and 4650 using GDDR4 memory and at the bottom based on the RV710 is the HD 4470 and 4450 using a mix of GDDR3 and GDDR2 memory.
Pricing ranges from $59 USD to $499 USD bottom to top, which is again very competitive against Nvidia.
Image from TweakTown.
After months of speculation by us and by everyone; an industry insider has confirmed to CNET.com.au that Optus would be selling the iPhone, with sales and service commencing in the last week of June.
However, unlike the others in Europe and in the United States, it is not exclusive contract - meaning that there would be more than one carrier.
Optus is set to make plans to announce the service at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s conference on the 9th of June, where it is rumoured that Steve Jobs will launch the next generation of the iPhone.
While the source did not confirm if the 3G version will be coming in Australia, they did say that they were expecting the new ones.
This brings further speculation to which of the other carriers will also sell the iPhone, with the first operating on the EDGE network. In Australia, Telstra is the only carrier with that technology. But, the new 3G technology could open the doors of the other carriers, who all have a 3G service.
But the specifications may exclude Telstra as it would need to support the 850MHz frequency, and not only the 2100MHz - which is more common in Australia, Europe and parts of Asia.
