Facebook files an IPO, we learn Zynga makes 12 percent of its revenue, and Anonymous manages to swipe a recording about them from the FBI? Wow, and we thought Sony’s security was lax. All this and more on TECHGEEK Weekly.

Stewart is away this week, so Terence, Chris and Tom are joined by the wonderful (and often replacing Stewart whenever he isn’t on the podcast) Harley McEvoy.

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe!

You may be wondering why this was late on schedule. Well, we had some technical issues with CDN. It’s all fixed now. Sorry for the problems. – Terence

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

Facebook files IPO, wants to raise $5 billion

Facebook Goes Public: Surprising Facts Learned From IPO Paperwork

Zynga made up 12% of Facebook’s revenue in 2011

Zuckerberg will take a $1 annual salary starting next year

Facebook Javascript API Goes Down, Taking Down Likes, Comments And Apps With It

Howard Stringer to leave Sony CEO role, promotes Kazuo Hirai

Remember that rumoured February iPad 3 event? Make it March

Anonymous gain access to FBI and Scotland Yard hacking call

Pwnage Playtime

GAME looks to offload Australian stores after Christmas disaster in UK

Minecraft Will Never Be Finished

Nintendo Announces Online Gaming Network

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Exetel founder John Linton has passed away, after having a stroke. Linton was known for his opinions on technology and the ISP industry. His family has asked those to donate to his favourite charity – the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Micron CEO Dead At 51

Microsoft’s head of Windows Phone developer experience, Brandon Watson, leaves for Amazon

In Other News

Microsoft’s terrible ‘Gmail Man’ video becomes official, attacks Gmail’s ‘lack of privacy’

Windows Phone 8 ‘Apollo’ video details Skype plans, Windows 8 integration, and hardware support

Apple: Piper’s Munster Finds More Evidence TV Coming Soon

Feds: Megaupload user files may be deleted starting Thursday

Megaupload data to get two-week extension

Google must pay $660,000 for offering Google Maps for free

Is This the First BlackBerry 10 Phone? [PIC]

WiFi Kindle Touch gets its passport, now available internationally

Tom’s Stockings (2)

The latest update of Skype (version 5.8) for Windows is now available. The update, while fixing some bugs, also brings several key new features – including full HD video calling, Facebook video calling and group desktop sharing. Some, however, require you to have Skype Premium. You can download the latest version on its website.

Tweets by Scott Browning, marketing director for JB Hi Fi, has noted that the company has plans to release the app for its JB Hi Fi NOW streaming service “by the end of March” and has confirmed that it will allow users to download songs on their mobile devices for offline use.

Panasonic has announced that it will post a $10 billion annual loss – a record – for the year, blaming restructure changes and writedowns. As well, Sony and Sharp are expected to post heavy losses as all three are trying to fix their TV business.

Anonymous retaliates over the MegaUpload shutdown, RIM ditches their co-CEOs and Twitter starts censoring the tweets? And Stewart responds to Chris’ piece on Windows Phone 7 – all that and more on TECHGEEK Weekly.

Sadly, Chris wasn’t on, so that gave Stewart a chance to rebut without any interruptions.

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe.

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

MegaUpload Founder Again Denied Bail, High Court Appeal Launched

Filesonic Kills File-Sharing Service After MegaUpload Arrests

Hackers retaliate over Megaupload website shutdown

MegaUpload Trial: NZ politicians question Kim Dotcom’s resident status

MegaUpload, Pirate Party to sue FBI for users’ lost files

Kim Dotcom ‘scared hell out’ of neighbours with bizarre email

RIM co-CEOs step down, new leader vows to overturn fortunes

Exclusive: What BlackBerry Lovers Are Looking For

Tweets still must flow

Twitter’s new censorship plan stirs global furor

Tom’s Stockings (1)

HP has announced a timeline for when webOS will be open sourced. By September, HP expects that the full open webOS will be released to developers. However, for those wanting to create apps, it has released the framework today. You can find a link at our site.

Nokia is reported to have announce that the Lumia 800 and 710 will be out in Australia in March. The Lumia 800′s price has not been revealed, but Nokia’s Chris Carr also stated that all three major carriers will be on board.

Get ready for more uproar from Facebook users. The company plans to roll out Timeline “over the next few weeks” to all of its users. You will also have seven days to preview what is in your timeline before it goes live. So, start editing – and delete those embarrassing messages.

In Other News

OPINION: Windows Phone: Sweet on the outside, sour on the inside

Google+ changes naming policy – now allows pseudonyms and “abstract” names

Google+ finally opens its doors to teenagers after adding new safety features

“Streamlined” Google privacy policy and terms of service coming March 1st

Updating our privacy policies and terms of service

One policy, one Google experience

Pirate Bay to allow real-object downloads

Tom’s Stockings (2)

Anonymous – or whoever is trying to claim to be from them – has announced Jan 28 to be the day they will try and take down Facebook. AnonOps’ Twitter account is claiming it is not and is a “mass media lie”. But Facebook reassures everyone that it is ready.

Motorola is suing Apple, saying that the iPhone 4S and iCloud are infringing on its patents. It seeks to have an injunction on these two products, meaning they could be banned. Apple has not responded to the claims.

Nokia has been fined by ACMA for sending SMS messages with ‘tips’ but failing to provide details on how to stop receiving them – which is a violation of the Spam Act. Nokia will pay $55,000 in fines and agree to be audited.

The internet goes through a blackout, MegaVideo’s CEO arrested in New Zealand, and Apple becomes greedy again with your words. Yes, TECHGEEK Weekly is back and in full swing.

This week Terence Huynh, Tom Solari and Chris Southcott talk about the day’s news. And sadly, no Stewart today, meaning that you have the magical free MP3 Skype Recorder.

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe!

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

What is SOPA & PIPA

Wikipedia to blackout for 24 hours in protest of SOPA and PIPA this Wednesday

Who else is participating in the Jan 18 Blackout?

RIAA posts (not) funny tweet about Wikipedia

MPAA CEO Chris Dodd: Blackouts Turn Users Into “Corporate Pawns”

PIPA – the race is still on, who still supports the bill?

Reid shelves PROTECT IP Act in response to “recent events”

MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom arrested in New Zealand. US Justice Department: ‘organized criminal enterprise’

MegaUpload goes back up (sort of); CEO denied bail and could be extradited

Copyrights: Feds push a few novel theories in MegaUpload case

Apple launches iBooks 2 digital textbooks

Apple’s new iBooks Author targets e-book creators

This Is Apple At Its Absolute Worst: It Thinks It Owns Any Book You Make Through iBooks Author

Microsoft Mocks Apple’s iBooks Author policies on Twitter

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Telstra announces first 4G phone – HTC Velocity – to land on Jan 24

Live blogging platform CoverItLive hacked, all passwords reset

Microsoft introduces new robust “Resilient File System” for Windows Server 8

In Other News

Kodak files for bankruptcy – now who will buy its patents?

Jerry Yang resigns from Yahoo, cuts all ties – is someone buying Yahoo?

Research In Motion pushing for sale to Samsung [updated]

Updated: RIM Said To Court Samsung’s Bid After Pushing Others Away

Facebook adds over 60 new apps with auto-share

The Koobface malware gang – exposed!

Facebook Koobface worm ‘hacker gang named’

RUMOUR MILL: iPad 3 to have LTE, HD screen?

Tom’s Stockings (2)

Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft have been sued for being responsible for obscene content in India.

Venture capital firm Y Combinator, known for investing in high-profile tech startups, is taking on Hollywood

Google+ now has 90 million users, according to Google’s Larry Page.

And we’re back for another year. This week, we recap that CES event with the latest craze of ultrabooks, look at the Galaxy Nexus and talk about Rdio.

Terence Huynh, Stewart Wilson, Tom Solari and Chris Southcott come back for another series of TECHGEEK Weekly and we’ve also produced a video version – which we are editing at the moment.

We also like to thank Sony, Rode Microphones, AVerMedia and Telestream for their support with our ambitious CES coverage.

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe.

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

CES PRESS DAY
CES 2012 LIVE BLOG
Kinect for Windows – Coming February 1

ULTRABOOK CRAZE
Acer announces Aspire S5 – 13.3-inch “thinnest ultrabook”
Acer reveals Aspire Timeline Ultra – ultrabook with dedicated graphics
Lenovo unveils business-orientated ultrabook – ThinkPad T430u
Samsung’s Ultrabook Debut: the Series 9 and the Series 5 Ultra
LG to launch series of “Super Ultrabooks” at CES

GOOGLE TV
Sony tries Google TV again with motion controls, voice search, and gaming
Google TV to be integrated within LG’s own televisions
ANALYSIS: Google TV ditches Intel, moves to ARM, to make it an appealing product

OTHERS
JVC joins 4K craze – launches first 4K handheld camcorder
Polaroid announces new “Smart Camera” SC1630; powered by Android
First 4G smartphone coming to Australia this month: sources

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Man suing Facebook fined $5k by court
Hard drive demand will exceed supply this year
The HP TouchPad is alive, receives OTA software update
Google+ Hangouts get a facelift, now includes screensharing

In Other News

If SOPA’s Main Target Is The Pirate Bay, It’s Worth Pointing Out That ThePirateBay.org Is Immune From SOPA

Reddit to go silent in SOPA protest

The Pirate Bay Will Stop Serving Torrents

EMI Sues Irish State For Not Implementing Piracy Blocking Provisions

Rdio quietly opens its doors to Australia

Sponsored Stories begin to appear in News Feed

TPG may buy iiNet, Telstra tells staff

Hackett hammers iiNode critics

Tom’s Stockings (2)

A UK woman has won a court order to prevent explicit photos being shared via BitTorrent

Foursquare is down. What now?

Apple to stop selling the iPhone 4S in Beijing and Shanghai due to safety concerns

So, if you did miss our Holiday Gift Guide Live podcast this year, Stewart actually found a way of recording it. So this is the entire two-hour live show, unedited and uncensored for your own listening pleasure.

Featuring Stewart Wilson, Terence Huynh and Tom Solari to answer the 120-ish questions, we gave away many prizes. We couldn’t get through of all of the questions, but we will be using it to write some stuff for TECHGEEK.com.au in the upcoming year.

So listen, like, tweet and subscribe! See you next year.

If you’re looking for the news portion of the podcast – it’s episode 72. Also, it is a 71MB-ish file, so it will take a while to download. So you’re much better off streaming it from the handy player below.

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There isn’t an intro because this our final episode. So, instead we’re giving away products – and this is the obligatory news part of TECHGEEK Weekly. So, stay tuned for the Holiday Gift Guide recording tomorrow to hear your questions answered and the humour from our three panellists.

This episode, you’re joined with Terence Huynh and Stewart Wilson. And we wish all of you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will be compiling our best of series of the year – and yes, one year of TECHGEEK Weekly is good.

So, listen, tweet, like and subscribe.

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

Samsung Galaxy Nexus coming to Telstra tomorrow

Optus CONFIRMS Galaxy Nexus is heading to its network

Judge gives Universal Music 24 hours to explain takedown spree

Universal has ‘Tech News Today’ episode yanked from YouTube for reporting on MegaUpload promo video

Alienware announces Aurora – promises extreme gaming performance

Facebook Timeline now available for all – and get ready for the users to scream hate

Wikipedia ponders total blackout ahead of SOPA

Microsoft to introduce automatic background IE upgrades in Australia, Brazil

Bill Gates speaks out in Sydney … on Microsoft, Steve Jobs, and the weather

Don’t forget! We have our live podcast on this Friday, 16th December 2011 starting at 7:00PM. The show will be filled with Gift Ideas, best products to buy and of course, giveaways! However, you have to be an Australian citizen to win. But how do you win? Simple. Ask us a question.

The live show will start at 7:00PM Sydney/Melbourne Time (6:00PM Brisbane Time, 3:00PM Perth Time) with our Pre-Show (we will be recording the last episode of the year of TECHGEEK Weekly), then at 7:30PM we will get straight into the Holiday Gift Guide special. We will have different sections of the podcast to announce winners and also

Any answer from November 21 up until Friday December 16 7:00PM, will be in the running to win one of these great products:

• NETGEAR N600 Dual Band Gigabit Router – Premium Edition
• 5 x BitDefender Total Security 2012
• Buffalo Home Networking Pack w/ LinkStation Pro
• Kingston Wi-Drive
• 10 x TegaTech Screen Cleaner – Double Pack
• 3 x 50GB Binverse Download Accounts
• AlfaHosts Web Hosting Account (US-Web-Standard)

So what do you need to go in the running to win one of these prizes? Simply submit a question to our team via http://holiday.techgeek.com.au or by filling in the form below by the 16th of December 2011. It’s that easy! After the 16th of December 2011, we will pick someone at random. Please remember to take a look at our giveaway rules.

So, it was a pretty quiet week – Apple losing its cases against Samsung and Motorola; Telstra’s customer database exposed and we have more giveaways. Yes, we’re giving away products! Listen to this week’s edition to find out how!

Featuring Terence Huynh, Stewart Wilson, Tom Solari and Chris Southcott; the team discusses the top and the irrelevant tech stories of the week.

Listen, subscribe, tweet and like! See you next week with our live podcast!

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

GIVEWAY: Netgear N600 Dual Band Gigabit Router – Premium Edition

GIVEAWAY: Win FIVE copies of BitDefender Total Security 2012

REVIEW: Zune Pass

REVIEW: Motorola RAZR

Apple loses appeal, Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet to go on sale in time for Christmas

Motorola wins Apple wireless patent fight in Germany

Telstra customer database exposed

Public Announcement

Pwnage Playtime

Xbox Dashboard Update now rolling out to all following short delay

Xbox 360 update: new media features, no right to sue Microsoft

Grand Theft Auto III explodes onto some iOS and Android devices December 16

Video game glitch shows soccer stars kissing

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Adobe warns of “critical vulnerability”, could give access to system to attacker

Zuckerberg exposed in privacy flap

webOS is officially in the process of being open sourced by HP

In Other News

Windows 8 Public Beta officially coming in February

Windows Store coming to the Windows 8 Public Beta late February

Twitter gets major design overhaul for web, iOS, and Android

Schmidt Reckons Most TVs Will Have Google TV By Mid-2012

Browser Study Sheds Light On Firefox’s Insecurity (And Google Approves This Message)

World’s first 128Gb 20nm NAND flash could pack 2TB into a 2.5″ SSD

Tom’s Stockings (2)

ChromiumOS Lime can turn your netbook into an almost real Chromebook

Optus to give PlayBook for free with Torch phone deal

Internode streams music festival Australia-wide

As Stewart decided during the podcast, the next Gadgetlyst Byte will be coming to you in video format from our CES studio sometime in Jan! Also Chris joins us this month and that about all I can think of at 5.30 am on a Monday morning!

See you next month!

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Show Notes

The Stories

Netgear announces N900 – promises 900Mbps Wi-Fi speeds and greater range

RUMOUR MILL: Kinect 2 can lip read, to be built in future Xbox consoles

JB Hi-Fi announces pricing for “NOW” digital streaming service

Chrome OVERTAKES Firefox for second place, IE still falling

iPhone 4 self-combusts during Rex flight

Motorola DEFY+ out now, heads to Telstra

Samsung: No plan to release the SERIES 5 Chromebook in Australia at this stage

RUMOUR MILL: Acer, Lenovo to launch Android 4.0 quad-core tablets in Q1 2012

Darknet Mesh Network Not Feasible…

GIVEWAY: Netgear N600 Dual Band Gigabit Router – Premium Edition

What is inside your phone, why a darknet mesh network will not work and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is free from its ban – maybe. That’s what we explore in this week’s (slightly delayed) edition of TECHGEEK Weekly.

Host Terence Huynh and Stewart Wilson are joined by Chris Southcott and Tom Solari in discussing the week in news – mixed in with a bit of some internal goings inside TECHGEEK.com.au.

Don’t forget: We have a competition running! It’s simple, you just need to give us a question. It ends on December 16, so get your entries in now.

Also, listen and subscribe!

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

GIVEWAY: Netgear N600 Dual Band Gigabit Router – Premium Edition

Galaxy Tab ban overturned, Apple to appeal decision in High Court

Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction extended next Friday

Apple gives Samsung some work-around options for its iPhone and iPad design patents

Carrier IQ references discovered in Apple’s iOS

Carrier IQ apologizes, drops threat to security researcher

Phone ‘Rootkit’ Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases

Carrier IQ: How To Find It, And How To Deal With It

Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years

Facebook Settles With the FTC for 20 Years of Privacy Audits

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Chrome OVERTAKES Firefox for second place, IE still falling

Facebook makes pointless announcement – 60,000 character status messages

RUMOUR MILL: Acer, Lenovo to launch Android 4.0 quad-core tablets in Q1 2012

In Other News

REPORT: Gowalla acquired by Facebook

Apple TV sets will be mighty pricey, analyst says

RUMOUR MILL: Kinect 2 can lip read, to be built in future Xbox consoles

Darknet Mesh Network Not Feasible…

HP printers can be remotely controlled and set on fire, researchers claim (updated)

Check if you have the flu… by spitting on your iPhone?

Tom’s Stockings (2)

iPhone 4 self-combusts during Rex flight

Assange and WikiLeaks wins Walkley for contribution to journalism

Microsoft reportedly launching Office for iPad in 2012

After three weeks, we’re back. Facebook infected with porn, the land of the free is trying to restrict your internet freedoms, and is Microsoft looking to buy Yahoo? All this and more on this week’s edition of TECHGEEK Weekly.

With Stewart Wilson in New Zealand, host Terence Huynh is joined with Chris Southcott and James Wilson to discuss, commentate and argue over the tech news of these past two weeks – yes, we had to do a recap.

Happy Thanksgiving! (and happy NZ Election Day!)

So, discuss, commentate, listen and subscribe!

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

Facebook Porn and Gore Exploit Spiraling Out Of Control

Facebook identifies those behind coordinated spam attack

Facebook ‘eliminates most of porn image spam attack’

Is Microsoft looking to make another attempt to buy Yahoo?

SOPA, a U.S. bill that could “break the Internet”

SOPA’s latest threat: IP blocking, privacy-busting packet inspection

ISPs propose new anti-piracy warning scheme

The other subscription music service, Songl launch a disaster

Zune Music and Zune Pass finally come to Australia

On-demand music service Rdio to expand to Australia in “early 2012″, joins Spotify

Pwnage Playtime

Skyrim patch coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 shortly after November 24

Grand Theft Auto V announced, trailer coming November 3 AEDT

PlayStation Vita launch line-up announced

Minecraft 1.0 Officially Released at MineCon

EA giving Battlefield 1943 vouchers to PS3 Battlefield 3 owners

In Other News

Google announces shutdown dates for Wave, Gears and more

The Facebook Phone: It’s Finally Real and Its Name Is Buffy

Xbox 720 to Be Announced at CES 2012?

Schools grab .xxx sites to protect names from porn

Microsoft TellMe is NOT the same as Siri [video]

Stewart and Tom just talk. Of course they have some stories that help the conversions (listed below) so listen in and see what you think. Also this was recorded a week early due to Stewarts inability to read a calendar!

See you next month!

In this edition of TECHGEEK Weekly, host, Stewart Wilson is joined by Tom Solari to deliver you the best (and worst) in news. We talk about the happenings at Nokia World, Some things you didn’t know about Steve Jobs and the sexy thermostat.

We also talk about interesting commands Siri can do, iPhone 4S battery issues and the new Kaching App from the Commonwealth Bank. Tune in and don’t forget to subscribe!

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SHOW NOTES (PDF)

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Motorola resurrects the RAZR, Samsung wants to ban the iPhone, and BlackBerry is continuing to dig their grave. Meanwhile, Sesame Street becomes a bit more explicit, though not on purpose. All this and more on this week’s edition of TECHGEEK Weekly.

Hosted by Terence Huynh and Stewart Wilson (welcome back!), they are joined by Chris Southcott and Tom Solari to recap the news that was while adding a bit of behind the scenes stuff from TECHGEEK.com.au, among other things.

Get it while they’re hot! Subscribe and listen!

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

Samsung makes GALAXY Nexus official – Android 4.0, 4.65-inch display, 1.2GHz dual core processor

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: everything you need to know

Android 4.0 Platform Highlights

Motorola relaunches the RAZR – Android, 4.3-inch display, coming in Nov on Optus

Google Music Store — With a “Twist” — Coming Soon, Says Android Boss

TIT FOR TAT – Samsung files injunction seeking to ban iPhone 4S in Australia

RUMOUR MILL: iPhone 5 to be released in winter 2012? (TL;DR edition)

Bad Siri! She’ll let anyone use a locked iPhone 4S

Pwnage Playtime

PlayStation Vita finally gets Australian release date and price

Portal 2 Level Editor In the Works

Mass Effect 3 Demo Coming in January

360 Battlefield 3 is ‘Standard-Def’ without Texture Pack

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Sad news in the tablet world, with the axing of the Telstra T-Touch Tab. Launched one year ago and made by Chinese company Huawei, the tablet has faced disappointing sales. The company plans to replace it with the…

iPad 2! Telstra are allowing you to purchase the iPhone WiFi + 3G version either for full price on pre-paid or spread the cost out over 24 months on a post-paid plan. As per any Telstra mobile product, you’ll experience NextG’s vast and supiror network. Too bad the iPad 2 doesn’t support LTE/4G. You can register your at their site.

Being passed this week by shareholders, the Telstra-NBN deal could face another problem – the date.The ACCC has said that it may not be able to finalise its approval or opposition to the deal by December 20, which is the date when the deal, if it does not get approval, becomes null. That’s going to hurt a lot for the NBN.

In Other News

RIM unveils new BlackBerry operating system

RIM’s BBX runs into trademark trouble

RIM blew it: No BlackBerry PlayBook, phones today

BlackBerry freebie: RIM apps to placate for outage

Microsoft’s Andy Lees: Nokia will announce ‘its Windows Phones’ at Nokia World

Nokia Sabre Windows Phone looks sharp in leaked snap

Meet Lytro, the Light-Field Camera that Snaps 4D Pics

Upcoming changes to Reader: a new look, new Google+ features, and some clean-up

A New Look for Gmail

Hackers add porn to Sesame Street YouTube channel

Tom’s Stockings (2)

Quickflix, the Australian clone of Netflix, has announced that they will start streaming movies to the PS3. However, we don’t know what kind of content it will present to users. But you can bet this will be expensive.

Spotify could be heading to Australia. The company is said to be hiring staff. One confirmed posting, in Sydney, is to “liaise” with local record labels and music distributors. However, don’t expect it to be soon, since it will have to negotiate deals with the record labels.

Canon has announced a brand new DSLR – the EOS-1D X. It features an 18.1 megapixel CMOS sensor with 12fps of auto-focus continuous shooting. It also features some slight changes in the chassis and will come to Australia in 2012. Pricing has not been announced, but it could be around $6,000.

RIM suffers a major server outage, Google+ and Samsung face some difficulties and the iPhone 4S launches and we discuss why you should or should not get it. All this and more on this week’s TECHGEEK Weekly.

Since none of the people couldn’t think of a humorous or witty title this week, we’ve decided to ask you to name it. Yes. Just like the webOS app, it is the height of all laziness.

Joining host Terence Huynh are Tom Solari, Chris Southcott and Mark Caetano.

Subscribe and listen!

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

Apple announces iPhone 4S – 8MP camera, A5 processor, no 4G

Optus announces iPhone 4S 24-month contract plans

What’s the best Australian iPhone 4S deal?

Hallelujah! BlackBerry service is finally restored

Mike Lazaridis apologizes for BlackBerry outage: ‘We’ve let many of you down’ (video)

RIM details why BlackBerry users haven’t had email for two days

Apple wins Samsung Galaxy Tab injunction

U.S. judge says Samsung tablets infringe Apple patents

Pwnage Playtime

Xbox Live users suffering hacked accounts, FIFA 11 and 12 purchases (Updated with Microsoft’s response)

Grand Theft Auto 3 coming to iOS, Android for 10th anniversary, oh and $150 GTA3 action figure

New Wii Available in Australia Later This Month

Update: Xbox LIVE Fall Update Beta Sign Ups Underway

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Sony has announced it will recall 1.6 million Bravia HDTVs due to a faulty component in the backlight system that could spontaneously combust, with 11 incidents already in Japan since 2008 with the most recent of them reported last month. Sony will fix the problem and may offer a rental TV, but it isn’t going to refund or replace it.

A new startup, BlueStacks, has said that it’s ready to start a public test of its new software that could allow Android apps running on a Windows machine. It plans to have a free and paid version in the long run, and yes, you’ll not be able to play Angry Birds unless you pay for it.

LibreOffice, the new OpenOffice “without” the bloat, is now planning to port the project to mobile devices including Android and iOS. So yes, if you don’t want to pay for iWorks, you have an alternative. Though, there is no date yet.

In Other News

Google Engineer: “Google+ is a Prime Example of Our Complete Failure to Understand Platforms”

Google kills Buzz and Jaiku, to focus on Google+

Samsung, Google Delay Nexus Prime, Video Sneaks Out Anyway

Nexus Prime (GT-i9250T) pops up at Wi-Fi Alliance — Does this mean it’s coming to Telstra as well as Vodafone?

Chrome For Android Next Week, Pipelining Support Arrives

Apple Could Put Movies in the Cloud by the End of 2011

Facebook is now on the iPad!

Victoria to replace hacked Myki cards — or not

Ubuntu 11.10 ‘Oneiric Ocelot’ now available to download

Creepy’ Path Intelligence retail technology tracks shoppers

Philippines designer turn into ‘surgical Superman’

Tom’s Stockings (2)

AOL is apparently looking to sell itself to Yahoo. Despite recent shakeups, the company believes a merger could end up saving them $1.5 billion between them by axing jobs in data centres and news sites. However, it could have some competition

Twitter has secured the trademark “tweet”

And Skype and Microsoft have sealed the deal. This week, it’s officially now part of the company and under its own division. So, get ready to see more integration with every single Microsoft product in the world.

A special episode of TECHGEEK Weekly this week with a special tribute to Steve Jobs. Instead of the usual programming, we gather a few people, including some tech luminaries, to discuss their first or most memorable Apple memory that has greatly impacted their lives.

Feel free to share your most memorable Apple memory in the comments below. You can listen to it below.

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Thank you to (in order of appearance):

• Tom Solari
• Chris Southcott
• Tom Wood
• Daniel Elias
• Mark Pesce
• Stilgherrian
• Trevor Long
• Dan Ilic
• Anthony Agius
• Jason Cartwright
• Aaron Holesgrove

We’re up for the Let’s Talk iPhone event at Cupertino and this Special Edition of TECHGEEK Weekly just recaps what happened in the very lacklustre event in a small 20 minute podcast.

I’m joined with Chris Southcott to help recap the event while Terence wrote up articles and tried to freshen himself up before an examination.

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Show Notes

LIVEBLOG! Join us for the Apple October Event 10am PDT, 4am AEDT

Apple updates iPod nano and touch; brings new pricing scheme

Apple announces iPhone 4S – 8MP camera, A5 processor, no 4G 

Apple announces release date for iCloud – Get your umbrella ready for October 13

This month we cover the all new developer preview of Windows 8, while playing Minecraft, and also talk about Windows Phone Mango 7.5 and the Kindle Fire!

Stewart and Tom are on a winning record for attending and don’t forget to subscribe and download and RSS and whatever else you can do.

See you next month!

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Show Notes

The Stories

BUILD 2011: Windows 8 keynote highlights

VIDEO: First Look on Windows 8

HP axes 500 jobs with webOS division shutdown

HTC to buy WebOS?

HTC announces the Rhyme – smartphone that combines features with design

Amazon press conference is happening September 28th AEST, probably for rumoured Kindle tablet

Amazon brings out the Kindle Touch – touch interface and only US$99

Amazon updates the Kindle, ditches the keyboard and drops price to US$79/$109

Amazon announces Kindle Fire tablet – 7 inch display, dual core processor, US$199

WP7.5 Mango update rolled out to Telstra, Optus, Vodafone customers

Both Koreas are developing EMP bombs that can kill everything tech

Reader’s Survey: We want your opinion on us! Yes, really.

Gadgets

Tom: Kindle Fire

http://techgeek.com.au/2011/09/29/amazon-announces-us199-kindle-fire-tablet/

Stewart: Galaxy Tab 7.0

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/30/samsung-unveils-galaxy-tab-7-0-plus-packing-1-2ghz-dual-core-cp/

Amazon has some fire, Telstra goes 4G crazy and Samsung pays Microsoft royalties just to use Android on their phones? Yes, that weird. All this and more are on this week’s edition of TECHGEEK Weekly – now brand spanking new.

TECHGEEK Weekly is a podcast of irrelevance, mixing in tech news, opinion and personal details about the staff here in TECHGEEK.com.au. This edition features Terence Huynh, Stewart Wilson and Tom Solari; with extra guest Mark Caetano.

Chris Southcott, however, is sleeping with the cows. Don’t forget to subscribe and listen!

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

Amazon updates the Kindle, ditches the keyboard and drops price to US$79/$109

Amazon brings out the Kindle Touch – touch interface and only US$99

Amazon announces Kindle Fire tablet – 7 inch display, dual core processor, US$199

Amazon Silk spies by proxy

Telstra launches Australia’s first 4G network using LTE

Telstra to launch first 4G smartphone from HTC in 2012

Apple iPhone 5 event happening October 5th (AEST)

The new iPhone…

Next iPhone to likely come in 64GB, 32GB, and 16GB capacities

iPhone 4S / 5 appears in Apple’s inventory system, iPod touch may see price drops

Pwnage Playtime

Minecraft Pocket Edition coming to Android this week, iOS “eventually”

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light coming to Android on the Xperia Play

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Facebook is not going to charge you for access to their site. It’s not true. It’s a hoax. Again, Facebook is not going to charge you for access. So stop spamming the feed!!!

Microsoft have accidentally leaked a second Nokia phone. The new phone, known as the Sabre, will have a 3.7-inch display and support microSD cards. In addition, the same penis leak confirmed two new Samsung phones – the Yukon and Wembley. We have no details on these phones. However, Nokia World is coming in October, so expect an announcement soon.

Samsung have offered a deal to settle its ongoing lawsuit with Apple in Australia so it can sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. If Apple agrees, then Samsung says it could have it within a week in stores. In related news, the judge for the case could have a decision by next week as well.

In Other News

WP7.5 Mango update rolled out to Telstra, Optus, Vodafone customers

Samsung signs Microsoft patent licensing deal to cover Android devices

Google On Microsoft’s Android Patent Tactics: It’s Extortion

This Is Facebook’s Project Spartan [Screenshots]

Facebook to Launch iPad App at Apple’s iPhone 5 Event [EXCLUSIVE]

The Planets Are Aligned: Facebook’s Spartan And iPad Projects Set To Launch Early Next Week

Facebook: We do track logged-out users, but trust us

Facebook Keeps A History Of Everyone Who Has Ever Poked You, Along With A Lot Of Other Data

Owning the mid-range: Internode chops NBN prices

Primus confirms commercial NBN pricing

Report: Amazon forefront to buy Palm from HP

Chrome Set To Take No. 2 Spot From Firefox

In The Loop

Apple negotiating international iCloud music rights?

RUMOUR MILL: Is Apple discontinuing the iPod Classic and Shuffle?

BBC launches global iPlayer in Australia, but there’s no global Licence Fee

Tom’s Stockings (2)

Nokia has announced that it will be axing 3,500 jobs, and says that more are to come. Most of the job cuts will be in Europe and in the US, and will close its factory in Romania and offices in Germany and in the US. Most likely the job cuts are due to the Windows Phone 7 transition.

For the first time since 1996 IBM’s market value has exceeded Microsoft’s, with IBM closing at $700bn and Microsoft at $10000bn. Apple is still the top, however.

Firefox 7 is out! While it looks the same, there’s some major improvement in the backend. Memory usage has been reduced by 20 to 50 percent and performance has been tweaked so it performs better when you have lots of tabs opened. Developers will also be pleased to find that HTML5 animations are now hardware accelerated among other small additions.

Facebook wants to collect more data from you, Google wants to collect more data from you, and Samsung wants to ban the iPhone in Europe. Yes, it’s an interesting week of news, and all that and more are discussed in this week’s TECHGEEK Weekly.

Hosted by Terence Huynh, with Tom Solari and Chris Southcott; and some appearances by James Wilson and Stewart Wilson, it’s an all time random podcast with some tech news inside of it.

Yes, and there’s a lot of plums. A lot of plums.

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe.

DOWNLOAD MP3

SUBSCRIBE via iTunes
SUBSCRIBE via RSS

Show Notes

The Top Stories

James Wilson’s review on iStorytime – Transformers and Smurfs

Review: Motorola XOOM

Facebook announces “Timeline” – new profile design even if you don’t like it

Facebook makes some cosmetic changes, get ready for some uproar

Google+ Opens To Everyone, Adds Search, Expands Hangouts

Google Wallet review: photos, videos, and availability

Launching Google Wallet on Sprint and working with Visa, American Express and Discover

Samsung plots its revenge – plans to ban iPhone 5 sales

Samsung strikes back – asks Dutch court to ban iPhone, iPad over patent infringement

Pwnage Playtime

Thought Duke Nukem Forever was crap? The developers want to hear from you

Update: PlayStation Network is back online

Dead Space 3 Confirmed?

Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release Available

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Amazon is having a press conference next Wednesday. While the invite is very vague, the rumours are saying that there could be an Amazon Kindle tablet, or just another Kindle. The conference is happening at midnight our time.

Jerry Yang in a memo to employees that Yahoo is for sale, despite just a few weeks ago denying the same rumour. They have hired an investment bank to discuss deals with “multiple parties”. What would have happened if they actually been bought by Microsoft?

HP has a brand new CEO, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. She replaces Leo Apotheker after his disastrous 11 month tenure as CEO that saw the stock dropped 47 percent and the ingenious move to spin off the very successful Consumer PC unit. Hope Whitman has a way to turn around the troubled giant.

In Other News

HTC announces the Rhyme – smartphone that combines features with design

HTC and Dropbox to offer cloud storage on Sense 3.5 phones

Windows 8 secure boot could complicate Linux installs

Windows 8 secure boot would ‘exclude’ Linux

Microsoft: Desktop apps will run on Windows 8 on ARM

OS X Lion passwords can be changed by any local user

PETA turns to porn for animal rights – yes, graphic footage included

In the Loop

Apple’s iPhone has 89% retention rate, next nearest hardware is HTC at 39%

Survey: 31 percent of Android users eyeing switch to iPhone

Tom’s Stockings (2)

Foursquare now puts your home addresses private. Finally. So now you can safely check into your own house without people realising where you live, or even nearby thanks to geotagging. Only you and your friends will see if you are at home, so people won’t mysteriously find out that you have left and possibly break into your own house.

Japan’s largest defence contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has been hacked by a cyber attack with some 80 systems infected with malware in Tokyo and several shipyards and R&D plants. The attackers are said to have gain access to sensitive information such as components for submarines and nuclear power plants. China, anyone?

Internet Explorer 9 and 10 have now passed the Acid3 test, but not because of Microsoft. The authors of the test have decided to change it a bit so there could be some more browsers passing the standard test of various web standards. IE 8 currently has a 20/100 score on the Acid3 test.