Internode and iiNet have spoken out and said that they are against the new Government’s plan for an ISP-level filtering initiative, saying that it could cripple our high-speed internet access.
Mandatory filtering was one of Kevin Rudd’s election promises and is set to move to an ISP level to remove "inappropriate content" from our browser. These are currently being trialled by ACMA (Australian Communication and Media Authority).
One of the most influential technology blogs, TechCrunch, has decided to ban all news stories done by the Associated Press, after over the weekend it sent 7 DMCA takedown notices to Rogers Cadenhead’s Drudge Retort after linking to their posts.
Blitz Telecom, the owners of G-Node and Koala Telecom, is being reported to be in financial trouble and has been placed in administration earlier this month.
Director Umut Omer said in the Whirlpool forums that its primary investor recently withdrew his support and that he is working to "propose a Deed of Company Arrangement that would see creditors paid and the company come out of receivership".
Tired of that old, cluttered and really horrible coding on your MySpace page? Well, you may be in luck, as a new design is coming.
The new design is part of a global redesign, in an attempt to widen its demographics and boost user engagement -following Facebook. As well, in what is called the largest scale relaunch of its size, it will change its homepage, navigation, profile editing, search and its MySpaceTV player.
eBay Australia has delayed its plans to force its customers to use its PayPal service, after the ACCC rejected its application for immunity.
Its plan to make it mandatory for local sellers to use PayPal or Cash on Delivery (COD) saw many users complaining, and as we reported, 700 people complained to the ACCC. The new plan would see the use of direct deposits, personal cheques and money orders to settle trades on the site.
Adam Internet customers have been suffering serious technical issues with their ADSL2 connections for almost two days, according to Whirlpool.
The issues began on Wednesday afternoon, with Adam informing its customers that it was impacting many of its exchanges. These have been blamed on its backhaul provider.
The ACCC has rejected the plans for immunity from eBay Australia to reduce the payment options to either its PayPal service or Cash on Delivery, arguing that forcing users to use the eBay-owned service will reduce competition.
NBC Universal’s and News Corporation’s rival Viacom has now seen the light – sort of. Viacom is lending two popular shows on its Comedy Central television channel to the joint venture, which is gaining popularity, and I think it is a major coup, since it only has shows from NBC Universal and News Corporation among the other video content from The Onion and CNET.
Since launching in October 2007, and gone public in March; it has been getting praise, content providers, and traffic. Ars Technica is also boasting that more than 63 million videos have been stream to date.
It has also expanded to Movies, from Sony Pictures, Universal, Warner Bros. and Fox’s movie catalogue.
Competing US networks like ABC and CBS, however, have yet to jump on the bandwagon – likely due to the control and revenue NBC demands for being on Hulu. According to Silicon Ally Insider, CBS has 191 partners who are distributing its content, including on AOL and MSN – the same sites that has to give up 30 percent of its ad revenue to get Hulu content.
While Viacom is giving Hulu a try, its offering consists of 15 episodes from both The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. However, Viacom is also launching full episodes for both of them at their respective sites at thedailyshow.com and Comedy Central’s site – and I could actually view it from Australia.
TechCrunch is also saying that PBS will be adding shows to Hulu later this month, including its flagship shows – like NOVA and Wired Science (which got the axe! BOO!)
Now, can you focus on your ‘international expansion’ in Canada and Australia – because frankly, you are worst than Apple on not giving us things.
Apple has announced the worst kept secret in town – the 3G iPhone. It is much thinner, faster and is cheaper than the first-gen iPhone. The 8GB will now cost US$199 (with a two-year contract), with GPS that will work on the AT&T’s 3G cellular network. A 16GB will be $299.
Amazon.com is counting the effects, if there were any, after its site experienced problems in North America for more than two hours because of ‘system issues’.
Before 10am California time on a Saturday, the website was shut down and giving an error code to anyone visiting it, according to Keynote Systems – a company who measures the performance of websites.
Intel, the world’s largest microchip maker, had announced on Friday that it had received a civil subpoena from the Federal Trade Commission, which has been examining informally its pricing and sales rebates for more than a year.
TECHGEEK is planning a brand new design to be launched, but we also want some of your input as well. So tell us what we need to change, what we need to remove and what do we need to add to the design.
South Australia will follow New South Wales and Victoria in the cashless smartcard ticketing for its public transport with $29 million over three years to kick start the system.
The system will include its 812 buses, 99 trains and 15 trams; with the new system to be implemented in 2009/10 but to be operational until 2013. As well, it has been working on the specifications for the project for about a year, and it should be finalised in another three months, when the tender process.
However, the South Australian goverment will choose its supplier with caution, after seeing their state-wide counterparts battling their ticketing systems; with the NSW cancelling their Tcard project after giving a fourth extension to have the ITSL to implement the system.
Victoria’s myki is also suffering, with another funding increase and won’t surface until 2012.
Softbank, the third-biggest mobile operator in Japan, has announced that it will be selling the iPhone, after agreeing with Apple to sell them by the end of the year.
Spokesperson Fumihiro Ito has said that they do not have any other information, but it is also unknown if it is an exclusive contract or not.
Microsoft has finally announced a second beta version of its next version of its internet browser, Internet Explorer 8.
IE Beta 2 will target ordinary web users, and will come out will all the features that will be there when the full, completed version is out – though some may contain bugs.
It has also pledged to deliver more updates to versions of Internet Explorer, after the Firefox browser (owned by Mozilla) has been slowly chipping away Microsoft’s share. Mozilla is also testing out a new version of its Firefox browser, Firefox 3.
While Microsoft has the backing of its Windows XP/Vista to support its browser, Mozilla has gain some market share after being affiliated with Google – who provided around 85 percent of revenue to the Mozilla Foundation, according to filings published last October.
No release date has been set for Internet Explorer 8. Its predecessor, Internet Explorer 8, was released in October 2006.