Toyota's recall of its Prius Hybrid car has now extended to Australia, after Toyota Australia announced that it will start a safety recall campaign on the current models of the Prius - which have been on sale since July of last year in Australia. This effects a total of 2,378 cars in Australia - joining the already 430,000 cars affected by the recall in Japan, the United States, Europe and other territories where it has been sold - but most are said to be found in North America.

Two other hybrids - the Lexus HS250H and the Sai sedan - have been suspended from sale as they share the same glitch.

Toyota has said that the recall was because of "inconsistent break feel during slow and steady braking on certain road conditions such as a pot hole, bumpy or slippery road surfaces when the ABS is activated." Only 111 cases have been reported, with two being found in Australia; and that no accidents have been recorded in Australia. The repairs will be free of charge.

Toyota has stressed that it is not related to the recall in North America, Europe and China because of the accelerator pedal and slipping floor mats.

A new prototype from a group of German companies could have found a replacement to the touchscreen - using hand gestures? Called the Gesture Cube, the prototype will be able to translate hand movements that are close to the screen (or screens) into commands for the device.

You will, however, still need to touch a switch or button to activate the task - but using your hands to just increase the volume or scroll through your entire media collection or switch to different screens are still revolutionary.

It is still in a concept, so this might not come out any time soon. It would be interesting to see how this would work in the real world. But until we see this, have a drool on the images below.

The Zone Sega Wireless Console boasts 50 games; 20 from the Mega Drive and Genesis era, 14 arcade games, and 16 sport games controlled via a Wii remote like controller. The Sega games though do not use motion control which leaves the question, will emulator get the best of it or will Sega and 3rd party developers make the Zone a worthwhile buy.

The console will sell at £50; roughly $90 here in Australia, and due out in the 3rd quarter of 2010.

"Symantec had justified turning off the music for some of Kazaa customers by flagging files in the Kazaa music plug in application as high risk due to the files being used for serving advertisements," it said in its press release.

"As a result Kazaa customers or subscribers running Norton AV are having these files stripped from the application which prevents them from using the service" - however, I don't think there is a lot of people (dare I say, none at all) that use the service as many opted to use other legit ways that didn't have a history of providing adware that were hard to remove or forced us to actually reformat our computers.

To their defence, however, they have actually made mistakes like this in the past - one notable one was Spotify, a European-based service that allowed you to stream music, in January this year.

However, if I was you - stay away from Kazaa. It should have died a long time ago.

The court finding that iiNet's role in giving access to copyright infringers to BitTorrent does not mean that it is authorising the infringement, and is protected by a section of the Copyright Act - known as the "safe harbour" section.

"The mere provision of access to the internet is not an authorisation of infringement," Justice Cowdroy, who served as the judge in the trial, said in his judgement.

""iiNet is not responsible if an iiNet user uses that system to bring about copyright infringement."

"The law recognises no positive obligation on any person to protect the copyright of another," he added.

Justice Cowdroy also said that BitTorrent could be used for legal purposes - like Revision3 and BitTorrent itself.

Unlike the Kazza trial, iiNet was not promoting and encouraging infringement - unlike Kazza with its P2P network. Kazza was forced to shut its operations within Australia or face criminal proceedings.

He also said that the proposition of a notification system to notify users of copyright breaches by suspending or terminating their internet service was not reasonable. If that judgement was in favour of AFACT, that would let AFACT be the judge and would force ISPs to suspend or terminate service as they would fear a lawsuit against AFACT.

Justice Cowdroy however said that the Telecommunications Act would not have prevented iiNet from acting on the notices of infringement given to them by AFACT, but this wasn't relevant to the case.

The application was dismissed and AFACT has been ordered to pay the legal costs.

16GB: $799

32GB: $999

64GB: $1300

[Prices in NZD]

Please Note: This is NOT an official price but one of a Apple Reseller. So we cannot Guarantee the prices. Please take it as a guide only

The 3G Version is Expected to cost a Extra $150 on the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB Models with a later release date. And no word yet on the Carrier for the iPad [In New Zealand].

She, however, has caused a stir in New Zealand as it sounds like prostitution. Turns out, it has one of the most liberal laws on prostitution since women are legally entitled to seek money for sex.

The money has been used to pay her university tuition.

It also features a 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth with A2DP, MMS and SMS, Assisted GPS, a 3.5mm headphone jack has a 4GB microSD card included. The phone can also be used as a Bluetooth modem, has a touchscreen, and is only 117 x 60 x 12.45 mm in size. It weighs only 130 grams and has a talktime life of up to 10 hours.

It only comes in Black or Silver and will be in selected markets in the second quarter of the year. Gallery is below.

A rumoured Google competitor to the weirdly named device called the iPad from Apple might be on its way. According to Neowin, Google might partner up with HTC (again) to produce a Google tablet, which would complement its Chrome OS. However, the OS might be able to have different user interfaces on the different size of screen. According to the website, the UI would be stretched out the full screen and would feature tabs. The size would most likely be between 5-inch to 10-inch.

The Chromium Project - the open source code that is used for Chrome - also notes that the tablet would also have "docking panels" and most likely would feature big icons instead of tabs.

Images of the tablet concept are below.

"Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web," the Flash Platform Team wrote in a blog post.

The team, however, has praised that they are going to be using PDF and ePub formats for its iBooks feature, but criticised them for adding their own DRM on the ePub file format, making any other devices outside of the Apple Ecosystem unable to open the book.

Adobe has been one of the most vocal companies that have criticising Apple's closed app ecosystem where everything is tightly controlled by the Cupertino-based company as all applications must be approved by them before being sold on their App Store.

BREAKING STORY: Apple has announced the iPad, its much-rumoured Apple tablet device. It will feature a 1GHz processor dubbed the "A4", and it is an in-house processor. The screen is not a 10-inch, but it is close to it - a LED-backlit 9.7-inch IPS display; and is only 0.5-inch in thickness and weighs only 1.5 pounds.

The device will also feature Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and an accelerometer so you can turn it around in landscape mode like on the iPhone. Apple claims that it has a battery life of 10 hours.

Like predicted, it will use the iPhone OS; but it will have some modifications, including the dock being similar to Snow Leopard and a background image. Applications can use the big screen as the iPad SDK has been released alongside the iPhone SDK, and iPhone apps can be used on the iPad, either in full screen or in the same screen size as the iPhone, but you would see black borders around it.

The iPad has come out with redesigned applications as well because of the big screen, with the iTunes stores and music app looking like their desktop counterpart. Photos will include Faces and Events that is on iPhoto, while YouTube HD will now be added on their dedicated application.

Also announced was that the iPad would become an eBook reader, rivalling the Amazon Kindle. Called "iBooks", the bookstore will feature five partners at launch - including Penguin and HarperCollins. Apple has also made iPad versions of their iWorks suite, with full document creation and editing tools. They will cost $9.99 for each part of the iWork suite - meaning that you would have to pay about $20 for both Keynote and Numbers.

The iPad will include 3G, after Apple came to a new deal with AT&T. Models with 3G will have a higher pricing, plus will have to pay either $14.99 for 250MB and $29.99 for an unlimited plan. All are unlocked. International 3G plans will be announced shortly in June/July.

The new device will cost $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB and $699 for the 64GB. The 3G models will start at $629 for 16GB, while 32GB will be priced at $729 and 64GB to be priced at $829. The device will come out in 60 days - or two months approx - for the non-3G iPads, while the 3G models will ship out in 90 days.

Turns out, when you're going to keep a product a secret, its best not to let your partner's executives or CEOs ruin the surprise. In an interview with CNBC, the CEO of publishing company McGraw-Hill admitted that the company has made books that would be heading for the Apple tablet; while also revealing that it will have the iPhone OS - so now you can play Tap Tap Revolution on a 10-inch screen (that's going to be one big orb that you have to press).

McGraw: Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they'll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now -- we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you're going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.

You can watch the video below, and its somewhere around the 2 minute and 50 second mark.

Source: MacRumors

In its product lineup, Mac and iPhone sales increased, while sales of the iPod fell. Apple sold 3.36 million Macs, a 33 percent increase from last year's quarter; while the iPhone saw a 100 percent increase from the same time last year, selling 8.7 million units. It sold 21 million iPods, a decline of eight percent.

"If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it's surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company," CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. But Jobs has hinted on a "major new product that we're really excited about" that is to be launched this week on January 27/28 (Melbourne). He has also hinted that there could be more product releases in the year.

Looking ahead of the first quarter of this year, Apple's Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said that they expect Apple could have $11-$11.4 billion in revenue and an earnings per share in the range of $2.06 and $2.18.

RUMOUR MILL:

The analyst has also noted that this would put pressure on mobile carriers profit margins as the subsidy costs are higher, and increase the spending on their networks - as much as US$3 billion - to support the increase data usage through their networks.

A proposed timeline could see T-Mobile, owned by Germany-based Deutsche Telekom, having the phone first by the summer; while Verizon and Sprint Nextel could get it in the fall. Clearwire could get the phone in 2011.

EXCLUSIVE/RUMOUR MILL: According to a Telecom NZ sales representative, the iPhone is coming to Telecom. It is unclear if it is the 3G iPhone or a next-generation iPhone. While the XT Network has been out since the launch of the 3GS, it is unclear why it has taken almost a year to come.

However it may have something to do with Telecom NZ offering a "iPhone Plan" consisting of a $600 account credit while not being an offical carrier. The source was not willing to say anything else other than the iPhone is coming to Telecom NZ.

"God’s loving care for all people in Christ must be expressed in the digital world not simply as an artifact from the past, or a learned theory, but as something concrete, present and engaging," Pope Benedict XVI wrote. "Our pastoral presence in that world must thus serve to show our contemporaries."

His new message could see priests uploading images and videos on services like Flickr and YouTube, while writing blog posts and having podcasts or vodcasts. Some American ministries that focus on youth have already embraced social media.

The trend has already been embraced by Father Bob McGuire, who has a blog and two podcasts - one from the Podcast Network and another from Triple J. He also has a MySpace and Facebook profile and a Twitter account, where over 3,000 follow his tweets.

However, just don't expect your priest to write messages that may or may not contain their deepest darkest secrets, or posting drunk pictures of themselves on Facebook - which they do not do, hopefully - or playing Farmville. The decree by Pope Benedict XVI has warned that priests should be used be spread the Gospel in their parishes and/or diocese.

"Priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ," Pope Benedict XVI said on the matter.

"The online freedom of unrestricted access is, thus, only one-way traffic, contrary to the spirit of democracy and calculated to strengthen a monopoly," the newspaper wrote in its editorial.

"The online freedom of unrestricted access is, thus, only one-way traffic, contrary to the spirit of democracy and calculated to strengthen a monopoly. These facts about the difficulties of developing nations, though understood by politicians like Clinton, are not communicated to the people of Western countries. Instead, those politicians publicise and pursue their claims purely from a Western standpoint."

"This practice is morally unworthy and has been resisted by intellectuals in developing countries."

Also quoted was a poll conducted by a Chinese website that apparently showed a growing number of people not wanting a unregulated or uncensored Google China site - and the newspaper is also quoted in saying that people don't want "free flow of information", as they put it, because "they recognize the situation that their country is forced to face."

"Unlike advanced Western countries, Chinese society is still vulnerable to the effect of multifarious information flowing in, especially when it is for creating disorder," the editorial goes on to say.

Clinton's speech came after a week when it was revealed that several US companies were attacked, including Google and Adobe, known as Operation Aurora. As many security experts found out, the attack used a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer. Microsoft has since released a patch.

Google has placed the blame on China, and has threatened to pull out of China and end self-censoring its searches to allow it to compete with local rival Baidu. Google is also said to be looking internally to see if it was not an inside job.

The attack on Google seemed to centre around two Gmail accounts of known people working with human rights organisations. As well, according to Google, some of its intellectual property was also stolen in the attack.

In her speech, she said that countries that engage in cyber attacks should face international condemnation; as the United States "work against those who use communication networks as tools of disruption and fear."

"In an internet-connected world, an attack on one nation’s networks can be an attack on all. And by reinforcing that message, we can create norms of behaviour among states and encourage respect for the global networked commons," Clinton said in her speech.

Clinton used her speech to highlight the freedoms of the Internet, warning that countries like Vietnam and China are increasing their level of censorship on their Internet networks. As well, she highlighted that "should not prevent people from connecting to the internet, to websites, or to each other."

"The freedom to connect is like the freedom of assembly, only in cyberspace. It allows individuals to get online, come together, and hopefully cooperate. Once you’re on the internet, you don’t need to be a tycoon or a rock star to have a huge impact on society," Clinton said.

She cited social media examples like a 13-year-old boy organising blood drives and a massive book of condolences from many faiths and a Mexico protest by a private citizen fed up with the drug-related violence that has plagued the country.

China's Foreign Ministry has said that her speech would be "harmful to Sino-American relations," according to the New York Times.

Turns out, it would be both - according to Fox News - as Apple is rumoured to make two versions of the tablet: one for the Verizon's CDMA network and another for AT&T's GSM network.

While AT&T looks like a sure bet, especially when they do have a relationship with Apple in terms with the iPhone (and has a contract with them); Verizon has been the long rumoured potential second carrier to have the rights to sell the iPhone in the US.

Either way, we're looking at the January 27/28 (Australia) event that is rumoured to announce the device.

So, since we are heading towards a long weekend, why not post some gadget-craving blog posts, since we've been a bit slow on the gadgets news since CES (and trying to get back into the habit of blogging). We turn our attention to this All Spark from Transformers  - wait, what? Isn't that supposed to be fictional? Turns out, it's real but not what you expect it to be.

A gamer known as GivinTats has decided to make his own All Spark from the movie Transformers as a case mod for his Xbox 360. Plus, its fully functional. Granted, these are from 2007 - when the first movie came out - so don't hold your breath if he still has this with him. Still, its a wickedly cool mod. More images below.

Source: Hawtymcbloggy

The investigation was launched to see if it would be an impediment of "effective competition" within the European Economic Area (EEA), a free-trade agreement within the European Union and three other states - Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. It was mainly focused on the database market, as fears arose that Oracle's ownership of Sun and MySQL would pose a threat to competition and the open-source database leader could be in jeopardy when Oracle took ownership.

"I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned. Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalise important assets and create new and innovative products," Neelie Kroes, the Competition Commissioner said in a statement.

In the statement, its investigation found that MySQL and Oracle are not "close competitors" despite competing in the database market and that the openness of MySQL allowed forking (branching off the MySQL base code) to compete with MySQL. It also took into account Oracle's announcement that it will still release MySQL under the GPL open source license, and showed that PostgreSQL - a credible alternative to MySQL by many users in the open source world - could likely replace the competitive force that is exerted by MySQL.

During the investigation, effectively delaying it, Sun has been losing money - estimated to be around US$100 million per month - as its customers move to IBM and HP.

With the EU approval, along with the US Justice Department's approval of the deal, China and Russia are set to approve the deal, meaning that the deal could close very shortly.