The editorial team for Australian gaming website PALGN will leave the site on February 10 – or tomorrow – with the executive editor citing problems with the new management and its owner Roland Kulen.

“The reason for this decision stems from an inability for the editorial team and the PALGN ownership to come to agreement on how the site would function. Whether or not PALGN will continue to produce any video game content will be solely at the discretion of the current ownership, and what they wish to do with the site,” Jeremy Jastrzab said in a statement.

Can’t believe I missed this, but then again, when you don’t check into your gaming news for a while, then you tend to miss this.

Kulen is currently leading the campaign for an R18+ classification, and is also a lobbyist for GAME in Australia. He also owns PALGN since 2008.

Leaked emails have been posted by a “guest” on pastebin, revealing the team’s discontent about the management. They cite several problems including server problems – turns out, it does not have enough RAM to handle the load; the lack of transparency and what appears to be constant infighting between Kulen and the team.

I believe this single email explains it:

Given the dire situation of the site, there is no point holding back any frustrations now:

Server

The biggest issue of all is simple: PALGN IS TOO SLOW. Embarrassingly and unpredictably slow. I don’t know how much more specific we can get. It is a complete shambles when compared to just about every single other internet site currently accessible. I doubt that anyone would argue that this issue has almost single handedly been responsible for eroding our user base, to the point where it will now be extremely difficult, if nigh on impossible, to repair.

The issues that have been listed as causing the site issues reek of being menial. However, while I’m no expert on these matters, it has to be quite clear that they stem from neglect and failure to update. And as mentioned, this isn’t something that can sit around and wait. Too much damage has been done. I don’t know why you’re not discussing a server upgrade. Everything points to that being the most pragmatic immediate fix.

Quote:

Also, I’m pissed off that someone has put instructions on how to check the temperature of a car – BIG joke

Why do we have to keep hearing about this? Four separate administrators have been told about this, at least three months ago but it seems that nothing has been done about it. As I explained before, this is either a remnant from the past administration that tried to tinker with video hosting (pre-2007), or a casualty of a hacker war that we got caught in the middle of in 2007. This has to be the least important issue currently affecting the site, but it still seems to be brought up. Get over it.

The content of the server should not be focus at the moment. The sole immediate focus should be making sure that PALGN runs properly and promptly. Flushing a database table every now and then just doesn’t work. Bringing cars back into it, there is no point of sprucing up the interior and have the car brimming with features if it doesn’t run properly. Once the site is running properly, then clean up the server.

Action

The second biggest issue is timeliness of action. The inability to get any of this done has been an abysmal failure.

I can understand the length of time required by the R18 campaign but the above mentioned site issues are purely mechanical. A Boeing 747 mechanical fault can be fixed in a number of hours ñ a website doesn’t require weeks to fix, let alone more than a year of neglect. Everyone agrees ñ this should not have ever reached the point that it has, nor should it require any longer to fix. October 9th should be the absolute latest for fixing this, not the time to finish taking ësubmissions’.

From an administrator perspective, these three plans have been talked about since before I went to Los Angeles in June, yet nothing has been done about them. Quite frankly, I have no motivation to work on them when:

1) There is clearly no proper leadership or deadlines for completing them.

2) That I only have a ceremonial leadership role, where even if I did try to implement some of these ñ particularly technical items ñ I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Furthermore, I’ve thought all along that these plans sound like a load of bullshit, and totally redundant. Our editorial standards are constantly evolving, while Adam, Anthony and I have put in a huge amount of work to fix our relationship with our publisher partners. And since James V can no longer access the server, we can’t actually implement a lot of the things that we want. So the lack of action has made a lot of this null and void.

If you are serious about saying you’re here to fix it all, then action needs to be taken NOW. If not, you might as well not bother at all because there won’t be anything of a site left soon.

Communication

While I’m heartened to see that this post was made in the forums, communication between yourself, Roland, and PALGN has been completely unprofessional and unacceptable. Myself and the other administrators are regularly in contact with one another, and I speak to each of the staff whenever I can. Part of the reason that there has been such a vehement reaction is that every single one of us has been that none of us actually know what you’re supposed to be doing? Seriously, what do you do? That’s something that I’m sure EVERYONE would really want to know.

Regular openness and communication, is absolutely essential to a place like PALGN, where we don’t have much face-to-face contact. And that’s what the PALGN forum is for. And this is the first time in THREE years that you’ve actually approached the staff and talked about site related issues on the forum. It wouldn’t have been difficult to, every now and then, pop in and give staff an update on what has been happening. But no, there has been absolutely nothing. And I know that you don’t read much in the forum either, as you tried contacting me while I was away in Nepal, when I clearly had told everyone on the forum that I was away.

Maybe that’s simply because nothing has been happening? And if this is the case, it’s completely unacceptable as well, particularly for the person that is meant to be in control of ownership of the site.

Luke Van Leuvren was asked to leave the site because his communication with the site and its partners had completely broken down and he was using site materials for personal financial gain. Luke Mitchell was also dismissed for complete and utter failure to fulfil his duties in a senior position on the site, and complete failure of communication. In both cases, the reputation of the site took a lot of damage and the core issue was a failure of communication, which is what is occurring here. This is an area that needs significant improvement.

Trust

Quite frankly, my trust that anything will be done has been completely broken. I’m a very loyal and trusting person, but once this has been broken, it’s impossible to recover it. Here are a number of issues that have caused my trust to be lost for good:

*Firstly, why did the administrators have to beg, kick and scream to find out that there had been a change in ownership? James Peter didn’t tell us until March 30 this year: http://palgn.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=60337 but it is very clear that the change of ownership had happened long before that. It’s unacceptable that we had to wait possibly up to 6 months to find this out, for something that would have taken very little effort to relay to us. It only makes us suspicious that there is something to hide.

*Secondly, as extremely disappointed I am that you cut access to the server for James Varoutsos, the manner in which you did it was completely underhanded and unprofessional. The passwords were changed and you refused to tell ANY of us that it happened and even danced around the issue when asked.

I couldn’t care less what happened between you two, but in either case, it’s damaging the site now because James was the one who was taking care of the minor fixes for the site, and there are a fair few lined up now.

Quote:

As you’ll recall, James V I called you on a number occasions – no response.

Still, who am I more likely to trust? Someone who I’m in regular contact with and has implemented the things I’ve asked even if it took a little bit of time, or someone who only contacts me when they feel the need to feed me some intangible and vague musings?

While there are always two sides to every story, I have no reason to believe this one. I don’t care that you, Roland, wound yourself into some deal with Hasbro that required immediate action and got upset that someone couldn’t answer their phone while working. The fact that you went behind James’ back to lock him out of the server and not tell a single one of us, or even have the professionalism explain your actions was pretty much the straw that broke the camel’s back. There is no way I can fully trust a single thing that you say to me after that.

James needs access to the server. Put that on your list for items that require immediate access.

*Thirdly, who is Jason and why is he away now? As far as I understand, he’s had access to the servers for nearly four months now and has done nothing. Ok, maybe he has been flushing a database table here and there, and he helped clean out the portal when it got flooded but he shouldn’t be waiting on us to fix such a major problem. James at least understands the site and the exact functional issue at hand. And again, you told us nothing about this for several months, which makes me scratch my head and wonder, why? What did you have to hide?

I respect that our input is needed before we can redesign, but as I said before, there is no point changing the contents until the engine is fixed.

*Fourthly, why don’t you tell us more about what you’re supposed to be doing and the different partnerships and sponsorships that PALGN has been blessed with? And why are you so clandestine about it, refusing to tell us if something happens ñ where we often don’t know or find out one day when we log onto the site.

For example, why didn’t you tell us anything about PALGN sponsoring Supernova? I only found out from a publisher that we were involved. Couldn’t the staff have been told at least, let alone at least offering the staff in the respective cities a chance to go in without paying?

*Fifthly, why can’t we be told more about the efforts to get PALGN out into the further media? Most of us have seen the video that you filmed with GameTV, but none of us were told that you had something like this lined up. Yes, it was a great opportunity for the site, and as someone who has been working extensively on the R18 campaign, you were the right person to be doing this. However, my biggest worry is that we are representing PALGN on one front, while you are doing so on another. And while we know what we’re doing, we don’t know whether what you’re doing is for the betterment of PALGN or to raise your own profile. Everyone here is happy to follow a common goal, but not only do we have no idea what your goal is, none of us actually have any confidence that it is what we feel is best for the site.

*Finally, I can’t see any tangible gain that you’ve given to the site during your tenure. As we see now, nothing has been done with the site’s future in mind and we’re paying for it dearly now. Everyoneplays was a great cause and the end result fantastic, but you fucked me up the ass with the amount of work I eventually did for this, in the process burning me out and driving me to the brink of leaving the site. I’m staying on now to try and prevent leaving everyone the mess that was left for me. You’ve USED other staff members as well and paid off some good kids with token gestures.

Aspects such as the Hasbro connections, Supernova connections are all good and well, the Sony Ericsson phone was worth a shot, but at the end of the day, PALGN is heading towards oblivion. And fast. The site is barely accessible, load times are unacceptable, advertising is a failure and we can’t even make minor fixes at the moment. And that’s despite the efforts that myself, Adam and Anthony have put in to keeping aspects such as publisher relations, and the effort from EVERY SINGLE STAFF MEMBER to make sure that we’ve covered EVERY SINGLE IMPORTANT TITLE during your tenure.

And none of this mentions the trail of broken promises, unfulfilled potentials and wasted opportunities.

Seriously, I have no faith that anything will be done about this. It’s all completely gone.

Quit dodging questions, start being open with us and get things done. Everything that needs to be done is quite simple, it’s just a matter of doing it. No stuffing around with vague plans and vapid discussions. The initial problems are clear, and once they’re fixed, I’m sure every single person on board will happily give their suggestions for improving the functionality of the site.

And I won’t be answering the phone on these issues. A phone call is too ëoff the record’, and everything should be written here and discussed in the open. I’m sick of keeping the staff in the dark, whom I have a great deal of respect for, and they deserve to know what’s going on.

It’s now or never. Show me and everyone else that you’re going to fix this.

The email also appears to show that the email was conducted for weeks before the editorial site decided to leave. Talking to MCV, managing editor Adam Ghiggino said that the email leak was “unfortunate.”

“It’s unfortunate that the circumstances of our departure have come to light like this, as we would have preferred if those private conversations had remained as such.”

“However, I can confirm that the remaining members of PALGN’s editorial staff intend to leave in the near future, after tying up some loose ends. Most of us will be leaving to pursue other projects, both in video games journalism and other fields.”

The site’s future is up in the air, so it may or may not shut down. But those former contributors, if you still want to contribute to video gaming journalism, could you help us with ours?

If you were like me, you were pretty upset when ABC had to pull The Daily Show and the Colbert Report from air after Foxtel acquired exclusivity of the two. And in Australia, the only way to watch them was via Foxtel or acquire it via different means. But, their geoblock is not like the ones you see on Hulu. It has a weak spot, which we have found.

The message, even if you were watching a clip from 2007, if you were in Australia without the technique.

And it works. I’ve been enjoying it for most of the year – and was pondering whether or not to post this (because I wasn’t sure of its legality). But hey, you watch it with ads provided by Viacom, so it’s like a win-win situation (except for Foxtel).

Plus, it’s the US Election season. So, why not get a fix of some ‘alternative’ commentary about the frontrunners.

How to do it?

First, what you need is to get Firefox and install a plugin called Modify Headers – yes, and the name suggests what we are doing. We are going to slightly alter the headers whenever we connect to a page – like The Daily Show or the Colbert Report.

After installing it, you should see a new menu on the Navigation Toolbar with the logo similar to where you see above “Start” in the image on top. Click the button and find the option “Open Modify Headers”. If you don’t have the button, then you have to right click the toolbar, select “Customize” and drag and drop the “Modify Headers” button.

The idea is that we want to add something to our headers to tell the servers that we’re coming from America via a HTTP proxy (which many workplaces use). So, under “Select Action”, choose “Add”. Now, under “Header name”, type in X-Forwarded-For. Now, for a value, we want something that looks like an American IP address. I personally chose 12.13.14.15 – but feel free to be a bit creative (just make sure it works). You can also put in a comment – though it’s not necessary; and when finished, press Add. It should be added to the list.

Afterwards, we want to make sure it’s enabled – you’ll see in the last column that there should be a green or red indicator. Click the “Enable/Disable” button the right hand side of the dialog box, and the light should be green if it’s not enabled. If it’s already green, don’t worry.

And you are done. Now all you have to do is simply go back to the Modify Headers button and click on “Start”. The logo should now be red. To test it out, go to The Daily Show’s website and watch a clip from the show. It should now play.

As well from playing clips, you can now play full episodes of the show. Though, for both watching clips and full episodes, you’ll see ads in between. However, for some unknown reason, many of the ads I’ve encountered are for Australian companies. But hey, all we care about is you and I, watching The Daily Show and not buying Foxtel just to see it.

Are there any more sites that I could do this to?

Well, there is one more notable site that falls victim from this little trickery. And that’s VEVO. Remember that site? For those not in the know, VEVO is a music video site launched by YouTube and Universal Music. While many of us were stuck using YouTube as a way to watch videos, the US had access to VEVO and more artists because of rights restrictions. So using this technique, you can now see what VEVO is all about.

I can personally tell you, it’s not much you’re missing.

Also, for some unknown reason, I found ABC’s own iView having problems loading with this on. What does that say? Maybe nothing, or maybe a way for those in the United States and anyone else in the world to watch stuff from the ABC outside of Australia?

I’ve seen my fair share of horrible PowerPoint presentations, and I’ve noticed that they tend to follow common trends. So, I’ve decided to compile what I see from these very bad (and often nightmarish) presentations with my very own knowledge of how I design presentations to give you a guide on the 5 Things To Do when you make are making presentation in PowerPoint.

Also, while it is not included, don’t use WordArt. I’ll tear your presentation to shreds if you do use WordArt.

Above image: Ryan Vaarsi/Flickr (Creative Commons)

1. Make it readable

The biggest thing in PowerPoint faux pas is that you have made it hard to read. Either by making the size of the text too small that no one can see, or making the text and background colours clash that make it impossible to read.

If you are typography nerd, then you would know something about the “Classic Scale”. This makes the readability of your PowerPoint smoother and not awkward. Headings should be the biggest of whatever point from the scale you start at, then the next one down for your dot points.You should stop at 24, because that will most likely be the smallest size when looking far away. Remember, if you can see it close up, and its below 24, then it will most likely not be seen by people far away.

Also, keep your titles and text consistent on each slide. Don’t make one slide’s heading appear big in one slide and smaller in others. They should be all the same. Though, you can slightly deviate from it. Also, key thing – maintain one or two fonts on your presentation. Don’t switch from the Calibri to Arial to Georgia to Wingdings in the same presentation.

For backgrounds, remember yin and yang. If you use a light background, use dark or black colour for text. If you have a dark background, use white or light colour for text. The text needs to stand out from the background.

Also, when in doubt. Keep it simple!

2. Don’t put your ENTIRE speech

Another common faux pas I have seen from people’s PowerPoint presentations is the simple copy and paste job from their speech. Your speech should be on palm cards or in Presenter View (see below), not up on your presentation. The key for a successful presentation is that you are interacting with the audience, not interacting with the screen.

Your PowerPoint is to summarise what you are going to say. However, don’t make the presentation too wordy – because they’ll focus on the screen and not on you; and don’t simply read dot points. The main idea is that these points are the main points that you are talking about. The finer details are in your speech – so they’ll stay focus on you to hear those.

Look at what you see above. It’s simple, and summarise the main points – especially in comparing the two formats of Web Video. It is also not what you see below (and yes, I have seen people do this before).

3. If it’s too long for words, summarise with images

The old saying goes “A picture tells a thousand words” – and in PowerPoint presentations, it holds true. If you can’t summarise something in text, use a picture. They quickly sum up your point to your audience without a wordy explanation. Graphics also are helpful when you are trying to convey something complex.

They can also be used to inject a bit of humour into your speech to keep it a bit interesting (and awake). Take, for instance, these two Ignite speeches. Both use images to highlight their points and keep their audience interested, despite being boring and/or geeky topics to talk about in public.

However, don’t expect to use funny images on the internet if you have to present it to your boss. I don’t think he’ll like seeing Wikipedia’s unofficial mascot, or the Megaflicks logo.

4. Don’t make it too distracting

While it’s great to use images and custom animations – there are several ways they could be distracting. One is simply splurge a bunch of images at the same time, and placing them on top of each other with no clear focus on where your eye should look at. DON’T DO THAT!

Also, don’t make everything a custom animation, where text or images move up, down or in a random part of the screen. From personal experience, I cringe when I see people do that. It’s essentially prolonging the torture of me sitting there waiting for you to move on.

Below is simply the very definition of distracting.

A simple fade on an object – which should be set to “on click”, which we will get to in a moment – will suffice. It means that they will appear at the same time and appear relevant to whatever you are talking about.

5. Use Presenter Tools

One of the best presentations I’ve seen from people are when they have this handy tool (and, of course, combining the tips). This is like a fancier version of simply pressing the left and right keys on the keyboard; but there is one good reason why you should get this. It makes you sound a bit more professional and puts you in control on how the slides move.

Having another person to move the slides, especially one who doesn’t know what to do, is annoying as the person can move to a slide prematurely. Also, again, you have more control on how each slide shows up, making it flow with your speech. And if you are the one in control of the slides, you have more freedom to move around and not simply moving to and from the computer to transition to the new slide or new animation.

Speaking of which, another tool you should use is PowerPoint’s Presenter View – you can find it under the “Slide Show” Tab under the “Monitors” section. This will let you see your current slide, notes and what’s coming up easily. You just need to make sure that you have it set up where the projector shows the PowerPoint slides and your laptop screen shows Presenter View. It’s a great way to keep track of your presentation.

Extra 1: Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

In order to make a good presentation, your speech should be timed with your presentation. So, you should do a dry run to see what works and what does not – and this will let you know what to add, remove or alter before your live performance. As well, timing is important. Keep it short – maybe around 5 minutes if you are doing a short presentation.

We all get nervous, but just keep practicing over and over again in front of your friends – if they allow you to. You don’t have to be the best public speaker in the world to present well, you just need some confidence in what you are saying. And as many say, practice makes perfect.

Extra 2: Don’t copy Wikipedia

Also, don’t copy from Wikipedia. I know this is one of the most obvious things, but DON’T COPY FROM WIKIPEDIA. Do some research once in your own life (via Google or, if you’re weird, Bing), rather than relying on a bunch of editors who managed to make this as their own unofficial mascot (but, I bet 4chan and/or Reddit are proud of them).

Though, if you must – just remove the links. It does make it look obvious. Also, don’t copy big chunks and paste that into your presentation – that is why we have introduced Presenter Mode. You can simply read off that and make yourself sound smart.

Do you have your own tips on how to make a good presentation? We want to hear them. Send them in the comments below.

The Samsung GALAXY Nexus (Image: Samsung/supplied)

The flagship phone for Ice Cream Sandwich – Android 4.0 – is on our review desk. However, does it live up to the hype what Google and Samsung have produced, or will it fall flat like many Android phones? Plus, is ICS an improvement to the Android ecosystem?

Terence Huynh reviews.

Design & Features

As we may have noticed, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a slim touchscreen phone – not as slim as the Motorola RAZR, but is pocketable. The phone also features a unique curve, mainly because of the 4.65-inch curved Super AMOLED display. Speaking of the display, the colour reproduction is good and are vibrant (and it should, especially since it is considered the flagship phone for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich). The phone also features a dual core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM; and 16GB storage that is not expandable via a microSD card.

As well, you have the standard headphone jack and a microUSB port at the bottom; a volume rocker at the left side; and power button on the right. You also have a camera – 5 megapixel that can record 1080p video – with a LED light at the back; in addition to a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera.

The body, typical of Samsung’s high-end smartphones, is perfection. It is beautifully designed. However, playing with the phone longer than anticipated, I started comparing it to the other phones I had to review, and the phones I previously reviewed – and it has a problem.

The body feels bland. It’s perfectly designed, but just doesn’t excite me as much – and it’s because of the colour, or lack thereof.

After playing around with the Nokia N9, you do sort of miss the bright and screaming colours of magenta and blue (I did have the Black version to review, but I did also play around with the two colours).The shade of black and/or grey and a mesh pattern at the back of the phone just gets boring when you see it on every single phone.To be fair, it’s not Samsung’s fault. Every single phone manufacturer is guilty of simply sticking to a monochromatic colour scheme.

Being the flagship phone of Android by Google, it does have to add hardware features that developers will be (hopefully) using for their apps. This phone includes Near Field Communication (NFC) and is one of the few phones that supports Mobile High-Defintion Link (MHL) – where you can connect the phone (via microUSB) to your HDTV. It is also sort of a way to reproduce 1080p content since the phone lacks a microHDMI port.

The Camera

The camera touts “zero shutter lag”, and the claim does stand up. The photo is taken and saved instantly when you press the on-screen button to shoot. However, while it does have continuous auto focus – meaning, it will constantly readjust to make sure the image is mostly clear -  you can get a bit of blurriness in the photo. It also comes with a panorama mode, so you can take 360 degree shots at ease.

In all honesty, the photos could have come out better. The camera’s weak spots are in low-light conditions. The flash when doing close-ups over-saturates, and does kind of make a person look like he or she has jaundice. Not a great look.

But the big improvement has to be the interface. It’s clean, simple and the settings are not hidden through menu, after menu. It has been a bit simplified, and stripped down to the basic features of zoom, changing the white balance, turning off or on the flash and changing the quality of the photos. It doesn’t have the weird oddities such as effects – like HTC has done; but who cares about the effects. All of us want simple snapshots.

Ice Cream Sandwich also lets you have quick access to the camera in the lock screen. So now, you’ll never miss a moment.

Ice Cream Sandwich

Now, let’s get straight to the main business – it is currently (at the time of writing) the only smartphone running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that is available in Australia. Combined with the dual-core processor, it runs smoothly in comparison to the heavily customised versions from manufacturers – I still have bad nightmares from Motorola’s MOTOBLUR.

It pretty much takes Honeycomb and slaps it onto a smartphone. However, ICS ditches all physical buttons on the front of the phone, instead relying on the static buttons on the bottom of the screen – representing back, home and a way to see currently running applications. Also new to ICS is the ability to now close apps in the background, a new data usage manager, screenshot capture and the ability to create folders. Widgets now are in its own tab with the Apps menu, and like Honeycomb, you can now resize them.

But those are considered minor to Google. It is touting two things – Android Beam and Face Unlock. Unfortunately, we couldn’t test Android Beam since we don’t have another phone with us on our review desk that has NFC, but its a new way to share contacts, web pages, YouTube videos, apps, etc without using the cumbersome pairing process of Bluetooth.

Face Unlock, however, isn’t all that great either. The ads somewhat blemish the uselessness of this feature. In fact, Google admits that it is “less secure than a pattern, PIN or password”. So why put it in there? Because simply, iOS and Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have it. To its credit, it managed to unlock my face instantly – after tying to get it to angle correctly in the circle so many times; but it didn’t work in different lighting conditions (it could be because parts of the face were obscured). So, if I was you, I’ll stick with the traditional pattern or PIN.

However, back to ICS – in its purest form, it is brilliant. Perfectly designed (and as a typography nerd, the font Roboto looks really good for the display) and its complexities mostly simplified, it is the best version of Android yet – despite the gimmick known as Face Unlock.

Conclusions

Calling this phone the best Android phone might be a bit over-the-top, but definitely is one of the better smartphones in the market – if you ignore the gimmicks. The camera does let it down a bit, but most of the hardware doesn’t. The processor makes ICS run smoothly; and ICS itself makes me want to convert to an Android fanboy simply because of its design.

But of course, Samsung will create a better version for its Galaxy line, like every other manufacturer – so I’ll be eagerly awaiting what manufacturers will release with ICS at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

Right now, Australian school kids are going back to school after their summer holidays. However, we all know that the level and amount of study increases – especially when they enter their final years of school to complete their VCE, HSC or equivalent. Since I finished high school last year, I decided to write down how I managed to study – while, of course, balancing my time on the site.

I know studying is hard and will be painful. But, with these tips, these will hopefully help you study efficiently.

Get a Calendar – Google Calendar

Google Calendar is your friend. Use it to keep track of any scheduled exams or when major assignments are due. What’s a big plus for Google Calendar compared to using Outlook is that it is available on every platform – mobile, desktop or tablet – via the web or through several methods, with native integration with iOS and Android phones. What’s also neat is that every computer or phone will be in sync, so you know you will not miss a date.

The great thing is that it is free, and if you already have a Gmail account, then you’ll be able to access Google Calendar as it falls under your “Google Account”. This also means that you have access to Google Docs – which is a great tool for collaborating on projects and on storing documents as a backup.

Limit Your Facebook Time

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter can be huge distractions – so it’s time to limit your usage. The key word is LIMIT. I’m not going to call on you to block these sites, because we don’t want to kill your social life (or what’s left of it). There are two extensions that can do this – LeechBlock for Firefox and StayFocusd for Chrome. Unfortunately/fortunately, there isn’t one for Safari, Opera or IE.

If you are desperate, then you should really consider blocking them. There are a few ways of doing this – find an extension or application to do this, or simply modify your HOSTS file with a long bunch of URLs relating to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all the alternative URLs that you usually go to in order to bypass a filter. Though, if you choose to modify your HOSTS file, back it up before you do any changes. It is a systems file, and if you screw this up without a backup, then you may potentially harm your computer.

Don’t get distracted when writing typing

You’ll often notice when writing your essay or assignment is that you lose your attention when you see a little notification or even possibly the time on the taskbar simply because you just don’t want to do this. I know, I’m doing it right now. If you find yourself experiencing this problem, then maybe you should consider getting a distraction-free writer. Many of which are free.

However, you will not be getting the same features as Microsoft Word, like styling and adding images – the crux of any document editor. And while it will be annoying, just do a simple copy and paste when you are finished with it, or just open the .txt file to your document editor – all document editors will read .txt files.

While there are plenty of distraction-free writing software, some of the better ones include OmmWriter (Mac/PC/iOS – free/donation), WriteMonkey (Windows – Free) and Q10 (Windows – Free).

(Cloud) Bookmarking is your friend

Finding evidence or sources for an essay or project will most likely be easy – do a Google search. However, recalling this is a pain since Google’s results change every day. You can always look through your history – but everything will be a mess. So, make sure you bookmark those pages – and it is a simple click in many browsers. Firefox, for example, is a simple click on the star.

But what about if you are on another computer – especially at school – you can’t access your bookmarks. That is why you should bookmark your pages on a service like Delicious. All you need to do is to install a plugin or add a bookmarklet – which is a piece of Javascript that you add to your bookmark bar, so when you press it, it will let you save it to your account. And you can keep track of links and tag them for organising them.

And did we mention it’s free? So, if you need to collate sources for a project or essay, then this should be a must-use tool.

Create Flashcards – and take them everywhere

One of the brilliant ways to study and revise for a test is creating flash cards. Summarise what you have learnt, add questions and definitions, and finally motivate yourselves to revise again, and again, and again before your final exam. However, now there are services that bring flash cards to your smartphone – so you can take it, and study, at any time and in any location without carrying lots of paper.

For the iOS (except iPad) and Android platforms, there is a service called StudyBlue, which lets you create flash cards on the fly. You can also track whether or not you got the answer right or wrong (meaning that it is heavily based on trust), so you’ll know whether or not if you are retaining that knowledge or you have to go back and study before the final exam.

Another app, which supports the iOS platform (including the iPad) is called Flashcards Deluxe by OrangeOrApple.com. The app lets you create your own flashcards via a text editor or spreadsheet, via online services or within the app. And if you do create your own outside of the app, you can upload it to their own servers or retrieve it via Google Docs or Dropbox. It comes in two versions – a free version that has a limit of 4 decks with 6 cards per deck; or a paid version with no limits for $3.99. I suggest you take the latter version, because it’s worth it.

Extra 1: Back Your Files Up!

One of the most important things is to back up all your files. I have lost my USB drive so many times, and I am thankful that I at least have a copy somewhere. The basic principle you should follow is to store it on your computer, store on a USB flash drive or an external hard drive and store on the cloud. And make sure you keep each version updated – or at least one version away so you don’t lose all your work. It may be a huge effort, but you do not want to spend all night rewriting a piece of work you finished but were stupid enough to lose it.

For cloud storage, you should either use Windows Live SkyDrive or Dropbox. SkyDrive gives you 25GB of storage for free – and that will take you ages to fill up. Dropbox gives you 2GB of storage for free, but you can subscribe to a 50GB and 100GB plan. Dropbox also has an added bonus of having a dedicated app to syncs your files from a specific folder to its servers – so any change will not be lost.

Extra 2: Go Outside

You should always strive to find a balance of school work and your social life. Don’t focus on one or the other, because you’ll either feel too exhausted to be motivated to do work, or will keep pushing studying for something back further and further away. But do go out once in a while, as it will keep you grounded. My friends and I always have a day during the school holidays just to catch up – and for many, breathe fresh air after days locked in our rooms trying to finish the massive school load of homework.

Even if it is like two or three hours in a friend’s house, just have a period where you don’t do any homework and be with friends. You’ll be relaxed and hopefully less stressed out about how to do homework.

(This does assume that you managed to find time to allocate it somewhere else, however. So maybe it’s a good thing you have a calendar to help you – see tip 1)

Image: Bart Everson/Flickr (Creative Commons)

The Nokia Lumia 800 - its first new smartphone running WP7

Despite reporting an operating loss of over 1 billion dollars, Nokia managed to pull off a feat to mollify the investors – 1 million Lumia Windows Phone device sales. That’s actually quite a respectable result considering the device has yet to make a showing in markets such as North America and Australia.

But aside from that, Nokia’s future doesn’t appear to be looking any brighter than it was a year ago, in fact maybe it’s even a little bleaker. What Nokia use to have in the market was exclusivity and scale. The tandem of those two factors ultimately led to Nokia’s commanding success.

Nokia has neither of these two factors today, aside from the exclusivity of being a 100% committed Windows Phone partner, but really that’s only working for Microsoft. The N9 running Meego Harmattan was certainly an exclusive, but with the promised commitment to run full steam with Windows Phone, Meego Harmattan’s potential may never be realised, or at most, a peripheral pursuit.

Of course, it’s not like Meego Harmattan had a big chance anyway.

And scale, is something Nokia simply can’t obtain given the R&D required to build any good smartphone, especially if you’re Nokia and really trying to deliver with a bang. Nokia’s now signature polycarbonate shell in the N9 and Lumia 800, 900 models is a feat of engineering that simply couldn’t have been achieved if the company had floored it and delivered a tsunami of Windows Phones in generic form factors and hardware variations.

The only segment where any economy of scale is possible, is in feature phones, once Nokia’s money-reeling gem but now declining precipitously in developed markets. Of course, there’s still money to be made there, and with most cellphone vendors relaying their focus to encompass smartphones 100%, Nokia is really in a position to take full control of the feature phone market. But there’s a reason why the world and the industry is stepping with both feet into the smartphone pool, it’s because not doing so would be committing to a world that will cease to exist in a very short time.

For Nokia, it’s even more crucial than this. As a company undergoing a brand image overhaul, investing excessively into feature phones would do nothing but hamper Nokia’s planned course to become viewed as a forward thinking company. Consumers can’t think of Nokia and see number keypads anymore.

Aside from the fact that Nokia no longer has significant leverage in the development chain to pump their business anymore, there’s also the issue of getting consumers to sign a contract to their phones which run on a platform that hasn’t gained the amount of traction that the company probably thought it would. Aside from getting the nod from reviewers, consumers are yet to see the great value proposition in Windows Phone.

Sure, 1 million sales exhibits promise, but it’s early days. The company has most likely skimmed the piece of market that gravitated towards Nokia in the first place, but from now on, it’s war and Nokia needs to pose some real fight – not only to lure consumers away from the eminent iOS and Android, but also to funnel them away from the other Windows Phone vendors in HTC, LG and Samsung among others.

The latter, an easy task that the company should win, but the former being a spectacularly tall order.

It stands to beg the question of why Nokia didn’t pursue the Android paved path in the first place. I can imagine it being an appealing option, Nokia’s acclaimed hardware quality and design paired with an OS that has solidified its position in the marketplace. It’s always nice to be on a winning team. But Nokia took a risk with Windows Phone, as a consumer I applaud the path they’ve taken, and from Nokia’s vantage, I would’ve done the exact same thing.

Success in Windows Phone will yield a significantly greater reward that would be irksome to supplant, whereas success with Android would simply be providing another option, as opposed to a different option.

It’s an uphill climb from here, and by sucking dry their loyal customer base in the first million sales, Nokia is essentially running on fumes. But since when is business not an uphill battle?  Build beautiful things, make sure people know about it and you can’t really go wrong.

Image: Dimitar Nikolov/Flickr (Creative Commons)

The European Commission has announced sweeping reforms in privacy and data protection laws within the union – including a single legal framework, and stronger penalties to make sure companies abide by these new rules.

The EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding announced the new reforms, claiming that businesses will also save €2.3 billion a year because of the reduction of unnecessary administrative procedures and paperwork. EU rules will apply to all companies that are active within the EU market – so this includes companies like US-based companies Facebook, Google and Twitter.

New rules include the right of data portability – meaning users will be able to transfer their personal data from one site to another; the ‘right to be forgotten’ where users will be able to delete their data if the company has no legal reason of retaining it; and rules on how data can be transferred internationally.

“Personal data can be collected in Berlin and processed in Bangalore. I therefore want to improve the current system of binding corporate rules to make these exchanges less burdensome and more secure,” Reding said in a speech.

In addition, the reforms also state that consent must be explicitly given, rather than assumed, for data to be processed; and all companies must inform all users how users’ data will be processed “in simple and clear language”. Companies, however, will still need to report any personal data being stolen, loss or hacked within a 24 hour period.

The reform also comes with stronger penalties. First offences will get a warning; while serious offences could see penalties of up to as high as 2 percent of a company’s annual turnover. For less serious offences, companies could be fined up to €250,000 or up to 0.5% of the annual turnover; and companies not rectifying the problems or notifying users of data loss could face fines of up to €500,000 or 1% of turnover.

The reforms will be given to the European Council of Ministers and European Parliament; and once passed, will be enforced within the Union two years after passing so member states can put it in national law.

I remember first seeing when Windows Phone Series 7 was announced. I also remember eventually using it in store. It was smooth, fast and I really liked the look of metro. I was excited. Finally, an alternative to iOS and Android which….looks good!

Eventually I ended up with a developer device (HTC Surround) and, while at first I was excited, that feeling eventually turned into annoyance and then also into just plain hatred of the platform.

Firstly, it’s stale. When was the last time you heard about a cool new app on Windows Phone? Yeah, I haven’t heard of one either. That’s because there aren’t any new apps that are exclusive to Windows Phone. There aren’t even any multiplatform apps that do something unique with Windows Phone. And whenever you hear about a company that’s announcing an application, Windows Phone is almost always excused from support.

Why? Because Microsoft isn’t working hard enough. And because there aren’t many new devices. Because it’s stale. And Microsoft is a pro at leaving things to grow stale. Look at Bing. Same look (ugly) and same actual tool. While Google adds cool things, like searching for the time somewhere and getting it, Bing remains crap. And Windows Live does the same thing.

The OS also looks and feels exactly the same as when it was announced in…woah. Feb 2010. February 2010! And nothing has changed. It has had one “big” update (with nothing much in it) and it has barely any apps. No devices (excluding Nokia, which is still on the distance for Australia), no updates, no apps. It’s stale.

But why fix what isn’t broken, huh? Well, it is broken.

So far, Windows Phone supports ONE resolution. Now, Metro might actually look good on a high-res screen, but I wouldn’t know. Because on every Windows Phone I’ve seen, it’s looked either too big for the screen or has been a crappy screen. You know the HTC Titan? It has the same resolution, software-wise, as my HTC Surround. And while we can’t entirely blame bad hardware on Microsoft, this can 100% be blamed on Microsoft.

Now, back to the apps. Sure, there aren’t many, but quality over quantity right? Wrong.

Trying to make Windows Phone your main device is impossible. The official Facebook application, made by Microsoft, wastes space, is laggy and doesn’t work. It doesn’t work! While scrolling down my feed the whole thing jumps as it loads. My iPod touch doesn’t do this, the Galaxy Nexus I’m borrowing doesn’t do this, but Windows Phone does. And the app wastes so much space too. There is a dedicated Status bar, which might sound good on another phone, but is terrible on this phone.

The Twitter app is a little better, but not by much. There are a number of problems, I can’t go over them all, but it’s not a good user-experience. And what do people do with phones? Facebook, Twitter, SMS, Calls, Web and Gaming, and that’s a bit of a generalisation, but it’s still what people do.

And every app uses Windows Phone’s terrible multitasking. For example, an application called RunKeeper, which tracks your excercise via GPS, pauses when the screen locks.

So just put yourself in my shoes. I’ve just ridden 10KM and the screen has gone to sleep. The app has now stopped tracking your progress and the whole thing is pointless. Sure, I don’t ride because of that, so it’s not bad, but it is annoying.

So Facebook and Twitter suck. How about the browser?

It’s actually not too bad. Streaming videos on it, for me, is terrible as the videos cannot play without lagging, literally stuttering and making the video unwatchable, but the browser is fine. Sure, websites still treat it like Windows Phone 6 with Mobile websites worthy of your old Nokia in the draw, but it’s a fine browser.

And lots of these problems can be linked back to Metro. It’s terrible. Swyping, while fun on an in-store display, is terrible on a real device. Instead of tapping to what you want to do, you have to go through every other menu, watch it stutter and freeze, and then go to the next menu until you get to the one you want. Ugh.

And the thing you should remember is that I’m just pulling these experiences out of the top of my head. There are plenty of other problems. And Metro is really a lazy UI when you get deeper into it. And don’t get me started on the search key which, instead of searching in the app, is actually dedicated to Bing. You can’t change it to Google either (I hate Bing, not because Microsoft hasn’t marketed it or shoved it in my face, but because it’s ugly and terrible).

Image: Apple

Last week, Apple pulled the wraps off its latest offerings, iBooks 2 and iBooks author in a publicised event in New York City. Whilst the announcement has proved exciting and potentially world changing, digging a little deeper, there’s probably just as much to be concerned about as there is to be contented about.

I’m just going to start by stating the shallowest of my sentiments – this announcement is darn exciting and will no doubt change the state of education and of course, reading as a whole. But, whether it will change education and reading for the better or for worse is something we can’t be entirely sure of.

Ebooks are certainly the next big thing in reading, but I doubt they’ll ever fully replace paper, not in our lifetime. We will always want books, I will always want the option of an actual book, libraries will never just be online catalogues. It’s not about nostalgia at all, well maybe a little, but certainly not all of it. The reason why books have lasted so many centuries as a technological medium for knowledge distribution is because they simply provide so many practical benefits which are irreplaceable through technological innovation.

Dieter Bohn of The Verge recently published a lengthy feature titled ‘Sorry iBooks, paper books still win on specs‘, which outlines all the books practical benefits which can’t be ported digitally due to the very limitations of technology itself. Here’s a few crucial ones: books don’t crash, books don’t run out of power, books have a consistent user interface, books are compatible with every nook and cranny of our daily lives.

Sure eBooks exhibit traits that are impossible for paper to ever adopt, but that’s how it is, books and ebooks are just compromises of an impossible optimum which is why we still need both.

Image: » Zitona «/Flickr (Creative Commons)

To play the nostalgia card by saying that there is a nothing quite like curling up with a good book, turning paper pages and the smell of an old book isn’t really worthy of awarding a point to the good old traditional book. For the most part, these claims are distorted by a desire to cling onto the past.

People are always afraid of adopting unproven things and letting go of the past, especially when it’s something like the binded book which has served us so well for countless years. In the hypothetical situation that the world regressed from iPads to paper books, we’d look nostalgically back at the swift beauty of swiping to turn a page and puke at the thought of touching paper.

But then again, I feel that eBooks do have the capacity to devalue intellect. Despite being a grace to the spread of knowledge, the fact that it is now so easy to publish books with iBooks author and distribute them freely, it eliminates much of what is special to have a book published under your name. Additionally, it potentially makes it harder to find genuinely good books, and easier to stumble across one that someone may have simply published for a school project.

In many ways, it’s comparable to what email has done to letters, making it easier to receive and dispatch letters, yet also a lot easier for spammers to get to you. And perhaps also what blogging has done to traditional paper journalism.

On the education side of things, I can’t be one hundred percent certain that interactive iBook textbooks is truly what education has been looking for. IBook textbooks are indisputably a preferable alternative to the fat textbooks of today – interesting, useful, engaging, it’s all there for the iBook textbook. What’s concerning is having the iPad in class at all.

There’s a reason why cellphones are generally not permitted for use in class despite their potential utility as a learning tool, it’s because electronics are distracting; pair that with the fact that learning subjects that a student dislikes is boring and you have a fairly tasty recipe for procrastination, in class texting, and Facebook-ing. Interactive books will never make a student interested in a subject that inherently bores them in the same way that playing Halo won’t make me a fan of guns.

Apple’s interactive textbook is a double edged sword, empowering engaged students to learn in new and better ways, but for the kids who aren’t really engaged in the first place, it’s just a brand new way to get away from class. By trying to emulate the quick access and fast paced immediacy of current technology in the new interactive textbooks, we’re also emulating the negatives – the constant contingency to lose focus.

If we want to fix education, we can’t simply implement books that move and talk, we need to change the curriculum so that students don’t have to do science or math if they simply don’t give a sh*t.

Interactive textbooks aren’t a step forward for education, but more like a step to the side. IBooks and eBooks are a step to the side for reading too, just another alternative that is appropriate for certain use cases but can’t replace paper books which are appropriate for other use cases. I can’t really sum this up any better than Dieter Bohn did in his article on The Verge, but if we ever want digital to become the dominant medium for books, we need to make sure we can try recreate at least some of the better things about paper into electronics.

Will.I.Am in a recent MegaUpload YouTube video.

If you’ve been trying to get onto MegaUpload or any of their subsidiaries, you might want to look elsewhere. Kim Dotcom (yes, that’s his real name) has been arrested in Auckland, New Zealand after the United States Justice Department filed charges against the company, calling it an “international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy.” Along with Dotcom, three other MegaUpload executives have been arrested at the request of the US Government. DOJ also described the other three executives as “at large.”

The reason behind the arrests is allegations that MegaUpload are responsible for $175 million in “criminal proceeds” as well as a massive ”half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners.”

The charges against the company in the complaint are:

• engaging in a racketeering conspiracy
• conspiring to commit copyright infringement
• conspiring to commit money laundering
• two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement

Being just weeks after the infamous YouTube video, pulled from YouTube, which featured many artists, such as Will.I.Am (pictured) and Kanye West, this is massive news. This post will update as more details come to hand.

Have you heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act, or the PROTECT IP Act? The tech industry is talking about it. And that could be because it hasn’t gotten any mainstream media attention until the White House publicly said it would not let it through if Congress passed it in its current form. But what is it? Why are Google and Facebook against it?

Let’s get the background on what it is, and what are the rationale of both sides of the argument.

What does SOPA/PIPA do?

Both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) aim to stop copyright infringement – especially on digital content and pharmaceuticals that are outside the US borders. The only main difference between the two acts is that SOPA is the House of Representatives’ version, while PIPA is the Senate equivalent.

However, while everyone would support stopping copyright infringement – the main issue is how SOPA and PIPA ‘prevent’ copyright infringement.

But what does SOPA do? Well, it forces service providers to “take feasible and reasonable measures” to prevent US citizens getting access to the infringing site once they get an order by a court. These measures include “prevent[ing] the domain name… from resolving to that domain name’s Internet Protocol address”. It also includes provisions for forcing search engines to not list the infringing site.

Then we get to some of the more interesting stuff in this act. There is also a part of the legislation that will make it a federal offense to get around the ban. Anyone that “fails to comply” or “willfully provides or offers to provide a product… designed or marketed for the circumvention or bypassing” of the ban will find themselves in court.

I should also point out that the author of the SOPA Bill – Lamar Smith – has now decided to remove the part where ISPs will have to block sites. However, making ISPs and search engines responsible will most likely still be in the amended copy.

In addition, Section 103 gives powers to corporations to cut the supply of advertising and payment services to websites that are deemed (by them, I should add) to be infringing on copyright. This means that News Corporation could in effect cut off this very site’s supply of ad revenue from Google because they can claim, without any due process, that I have stole their content. And they have to do this within 5 days – unless the person accused “onsents to the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, and will accept service of process from the person who provided notification” of theft. In other words, you ignore your own domestic law (e.g. Australian law) for US law.

As The Verge’s Nilay Patel – also a legal expert on technology issues – points out: while the law is designed to attack foreign sites, realistically domestic sites are also implicated. “Because US copyright holders generally can’t drag a foreign web site into US courts to get them to stop stealing and distributing their work, SOPA allows them to go after the ISPs, ad networks, and payment processors that are in the United States,” he writes.

Who supports what?

Obviously, those supporting the bill are Hollywood and media companies – including News Corporation and NBCUniversal. In addition, there are pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, and the US Chamber of Commerce. GoDaddy was a former supporter, before the company retracted their support after some heavy criticism from its users.

Opposing, however, are Google, Facebook, Yahoo, the Consumer Electronics Association (the guys who run CES) and many other websites. In addition, Reddit and Wikipedia will block out their websites in protest; and there has been a movement to stop buying those who support the legislation.

But why each side is against it, or for it?

Well, the US Chamber of Commerce noted in a letter to the New York Times that these “rouge websites” steal jobs from the industry. “Rogue sites are often located outside the United States, beyond the reach of our enforcement agencies. Proposed legislation authorizes a federal court to direct the suspension of services (payment processing, advertisements and linking) to rogue sites,” Mark Elliot, Executive Vice President, wrote.

The Entertainment Software Association – which represents the gaming industry – also said, “Rogue websites – those singularly devoted to profiting from their blatant illegal piracy – restrict demand for legitimate video game products and services, thereby costing jobs. Our industry needs effective remedies to address this specific problem, and we support the House and Senate proposals to achieve this objective.”

Those opposing, however, note that the law will have an impact to economic growth and job creation as the Internet has made a significant contribution to the country’s GDP; undermine their ‘safe habour’ protection that lets them avoid prosecution by removing content when asked under the DMCA; and that the laws “would expose [them]… to new and uncertain liabilities, private rights of action and technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites.”

They, however, agree that action needs to be done on rouge sites, but how SOPA and PIPA is written, it is not the right course.

“While we work together to find additional ways to target foreign ‘rouge’ sites, we should not jeopadize a foundational structure that has worked for content owners and Internet companies alike and provides certainty to innovators with new ideas for how people create, find, discuss and share information lawfully online,” the consortium comprised of Facebook, Google and Yahoo said.

Then we have internet engineers who say that SOPA and PIPA could become a security risk. “Both bills will risk fragmenting the Internet’s global domain name system (DNS) and have other capricious technical consequences,” the engineers wrote.

Again, reiterating, the writer of SOPA has decided to remove the ISP blocking provisions of the bill.

In addition, conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation – and if you have no idea of American politics, this bit is huge – has also noted its opposition. They state that the issue “does not align neatly along party lines” and that SOPA/PIPA could have “unintended negative consequences for the operation of the Internet and free speech.”

You can find a list of supporting SOPA here, while those against here.

… and about the Congress?

Funny thing about that. Many of the supporters got paid lobbying money by the entertainment industry during the 2010 election campaign. Yes, you got that right. They were in effect bought to get them to vote on SOPA and PIPA. Lemar Smith (author of SOPA) got over $150,000 from the Entertainment industry, while Patrick Leahy (author of PIPA) got more than $350,000.

Then you have people like Harry Reid – who is the Majority Leader of the Senate, and Democrat – getting $500,000 to secure his support. In fact; out of the top 10 of sponsors being paid by the Entertainment industry, the Democrats hold eight.

On the other side, we have Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and Nancy Pelosi (Minority Leader in the House, Democrat). Then we get an interesting sort of characters listed as those opposing – we have Michelle Bachmann and Will Ryan. And if you haven’t been following American politics, then you should read Wikipedia about them – after the blackout, of course.

If we ever needed an example on buying votes, this is it.

All the data can be found here, at ProPublica.

What is happening now?

Well, after the comments by the White House, the House has dropped SOPA (for now), but it appears Lemar will be trying again to revive it. PIPA, however, isn’t dead. Harry Reid – remember him – is pushing for the vote to happen on January 24, despite six Republicans asking him to delay it so the Senate could debate it more. So, the threat of SOPA and PIPA is still around.

Corporate support, however, is slowly dropping like flies. EA, Nintendo and Sony all quietly removed their support (technically, their lobby group still supports it however); in addition to the more famous backflip from GoDaddy. And you’ve got to thank Reddit – where the GoDaddy protest started.

Is there an alternative?

Yes, there is an alternative. Opponents of SOPA have put their support for the OPEN Act, or the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act. The OPEN Act includes Safe Habour protections, and promises that any cases are resolved by experts, not by cutting off money and just making it ‘disappear’.

And you can obviously tell, the Entertainment industry doesn’t like it. The MPAA has labelled the OPEN Act as “fail[ing] to provide an effective way to target foreign rogue websites and goes easy on online piracy and counterfeiting.”

“By changing the venue from our federal courts to the U.S. International Trade Commission, it places copyright holders at a disadvantage and allows companies profiting from online piracy to advocate for foreign rogue websites against rightful American copyright holders,” spokesperson Michael O’Leary wrote.

Eric Goldman, from Santa Clara University School of Law, is also somewhat unimpressed by the law. He claims that the law still suffers from the assumption that “there is a problem with foreign rogue websites that needs to be solved.”

“I’m not saying there isn’t, but the policy discussions have been startlingly devoid of reliable and credible facts demonstrating the nature and scope of the problem,” he writes.

But there is also another non-legislative alternative – make your damn content available online. Piracy exists because people, who want information now (and if you haven’t realised that, then I’m surprised that you still exist), get access to the shows, movies and music easily. Take for instance in Sweden, where music piracy has fallen 25 percent. Why? Because, thanks to Spotify, they can find their content and play it on many devices and in different locations.

Maybe it’s time to start shifting your digital strategy to be more fitting against piracy, rather than locking them down and asking governments to legitimise your failings.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has been planning a much more drastic and mainstream protest for the controversial bill.

From around 4-5PM (approximately) AEST on Wednesday 18th of January, Wikipedia will go down for 24 hours. And we should make this clear: For 24 hours there will be no Wikipedia.

In place of regular Wikipedia will be a page explaining SOPA and PIPA and asking people to write or call US Congress and complain about the bill. The outcome from Wales is that he hopes Wikipedia “will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday.”

25 million people will see the page, according to average daily page views. It is the 6th most popular website in the world, according to Alexia. Not only will this be a massive blow for people that need Wikipedia content, but it will definately send a message and spread the message of the dangerous nature of the bill.

Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday! #sopa

January 17, 2012 4:58 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jimmy_wales

Jimmy Wales

@dmonniaux 24 hours, midnight Washington DC time until midnight.

January 17, 2012 4:28 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jimmy_wales

Jimmy Wales

@Kim_Bruning Final details under consideration but consensus seems to be for "full" rather than "soft" blackout!

January 17, 2012 5:01 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jimmy_wales

Jimmy Wales

This is going to be wow. I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!

January 17, 2012 4:15 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jimmy_wales

Jimmy Wales

The age of news for free online is over – well, for the paper mastheads at least. While they struggle with dropping subscribers and higher costs, the print media are trying to find ways in monetising their content in new ways. But how are they doing it? And have they been successful in achieving this?

Background

The main issue is that there is simply not enough revenue from advertising to support the journalism found in newspapers and the costs of printing it . That is why we have seen some newspapers shift towards digital-only, such as the Christian Science Monitor. Some have opted to keep their costs low, swinging the axe in editorial departments – but you can only cut so many jobs before your content becomes worthless.

However, it seems now that everyone is looking to find ways in monetising their content online to supplement the current way of simply placing ads on their content and (hopefully) make it relevant to the story.

But what are the other options, and have they been successful?

The Paywall

The Wall Street Journal popularised the paywall. While some scoffed at the idea, many accepted this. Why? Well, the paper has a long-standing history of good-quality journalism, and so it could get away of implementing this with little consequences. If you wanted trashy tabloid content, you can always visit the Herald Sun for free, but for more serious journalism, pay a bit more and you can read the WSJ.

Now, everyone is embracing it. News Corporation’s papers in the UK have started a paywall on its sites, as well as The Australian here. There are also plans to make this the standard for the other newspapers under Rupert Murdoch’s control next year. But it doesn’t stop with Murdoch: the New York Times is also implementing a paywall – allowing you to read 20 articles for free per month before asking for you to pay. The NYT model has been somewhat successful, with a reported 1 million paying for access (an increase of 281,000 before the paywall was erected). And there are talks that Fairfax is also considering such thing.

However, paywalls have had some negative consequences. The Times in the UK lost most of its internet readership – it, unlike NYT, made everything behind a paywall; while a local newspaper, Newsday in Long Island, attempt failed when reportedly only 35 people subscribed. The latter was due to a deal with the a local cable provider *which most people subscribed to) that made their customers’ access to the site for free.

Their main proposition is simple: if you like our content, pay for it. However, the only problem is that there are sites who offer news for free. The Guardian in the UK refuses to put a paywall online, while you also have public broadcasters such as the BBC and ABC obligated to put their news content for free.

The App

The newspaper industry has to give kudos to Steve Jobs for popularising the smartphone. The app is quickly becoming a new way in monetising their content. Previously, they were simply aggregating the news content from the website, but now they are adding exclusive content that you’ll have to pay a subscription to see.

Galleries, exclusive video interviews and content closed off from the mobile website – the app gives a certain degree of flexibility in what these newspapers did online. And with iOS’ new in-app purchases function, they can now offer subscriptions to such content.

However, there has been a debate on how to code the app. Should you code it as a native application on the OS, where a cut of the in-app purchases is given to Google, Apple or Microsoft; or code it in HTML5, where you can keep all the money received? I’ll let this (rap) debate show you the pros and cons.

However, don’t discount HTML5 just yet. The UK’s Financial Times has developed an entire app for HTML5. And yes, it works just like a normal app. One great thing about coding it in HTML5 is that it is cross-platform. You can simply run it in iOS or Android. But, the web can’t replicate every single piece of the iOS or Android’s API. There are some things that you want to do on your newspaper app that are exclusively on iOS, or on Android.

The Alternative?

The alternative is to stop printing and become digital only.

Like all media companies, they have to adapt to how people are consuming their media. Music has now gone digital, with iTunes and other music stores and streaming services. Television is no longer on a strict schedule as they now make their shows available online for two weeks to see in your own time. And despite the stubbornness of the movie industry, they are slowly making it possible to watch a movie on many screens (after cinema release) such as on your TV or on your iPhone.

They are essentially prolonging the inevitable – the newspaper is going away. Consumers are accessing news online and on their phones. We live in a world where we are so connected that we must know everything happening right now.

Digital is the future for newspapers, who stubbornly hold onto their obsolete methods of delivering the news.

Top Image: NS Newsflash/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Remember the AR.Drone? Well, its manufacturer, Parrot, has announced that it will be getting an upgrade. The new version features a brand new look and, now, can record video in 720p HD resolution.

The quadacopter design hasn’t received much change – it stil features the same 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer; and the placement of the four blades. However, there is now a pressure sensor that gives it some stability in mid-air.

There is also a new version of the app to control it, the AR.FreeFlight 2.0, which lets you update the software, quick access to an overview and tutorials on how to use it, and upload the video to YouTube for everyone to see. In addition, this will now be available for both the iOS App Store and the Android Market.

Manoeuvring the quadacopter, however, is still the same. Use the two on-screen controls and your body to move it. Lean forward to move it forward, lean back to move it back, and leaning left and right will do the same.

The United States will see this product in stores in Q2 this year for US$299. Australian availability, however, is unknown (could be sometime in November/December like the previous version)

While the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are started to lag behind PC gaming, there is still a lot of life in the consoles. And the longer we wait, the better the next generations technology will be. If the new consoles are announced now using current technology the leap will not be as big as the leap from PlayStation 1 to 2 or to 3.

The big question is whether Microsoft will beat Sony to shelves again, jeapordizing sales of the PlayStation 4 with the next Xbox. Or whether the Wii U will arrive this year. There is also a chance that the plans for a PS4 are still on track for E3 2012 but Sony just doesn’t want to slow PS3 sales yet.

Either way, it’s going to be an interesting time for the next year or so and you can find it all here on TECHGEEK.com.au.

Razer, known for their other concept we covered from last year’s CES, has unveiled another concept for gaming. Dubbed “Project Fiona”, this concept lets you play any PC game anywhere in a lightweight and small form factor – the tablet.

They worked with Intel and is using Intel’s third-generation Core i7 processor, making it more “akin to a fully functioning PC” despite the smaller form factor. In addition, any PC games running on this concept will work without any modification. The concept utilises dual game controllers with ultra-precise analog sticks; accelerometers and the multi-touch screen to let you play the game – with any future game able to take advantage of the latter two.

Razer, however, is also trying to work on an actual product, to be shipping in Q4 of this year with a price tag of under US$1,000. Developer units will be sent soon to interested parties. Press release and gallery below.

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Consumer Electronics Show – Razer™, the world leader in high performance gaming hardware, is proud to announce their newest gaming concept design – the Project Fiona PC Gaming Tablet. Unlike other tablets designed for general use and casual gaming, Project Fiona is a tablet concept designed to play the most popular PC games of today with an intuitive control setup for a phenomenal on-the-go gaming experience.

Powered by Intel® Core™ i7

Razer worked closely with Intel to harness the power of its third generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor in Project Fiona. As a result, Razer’s tablet is more akin to a fully functioning PC; and yet in a form factor and platform highly familiar to everybody.

Instead of relying on developers to work on a suite of brand new applications for Project Fiona, many PC games today run natively on the tablet concept without the need to be ported, optimized, or developed from scratch.

Moreover, Project Fiona will feature one of the most powerful processors integrated in a tablet form factor. Instead of the casual and mobile-only games that run on under-powered tablets, Project Fiona will run full-fledged PC games that have never run on a tablet form factor before until today.

“Project Fiona’s combination of high performance Intel-based gaming hardware and innovative tablet design is specifically focused for PC gamers. It will unleash the PC gamer to play their existing and future high-end games in one of the most exciting new form factors – a tablet,” said Brad Graff, Director of Partner Marketing, Netbook & Tablet Group, Intel.

PC Gaming User Interface Designed For a Tablet Form Factor

Razer’s multi-award winning user interface and ergonomics team have developed an all-new hybrid user interface scheme for Project Fiona. Featuring integrated dual game controllers with ultra-precise analog sticks, Project Fiona runs gamepad-enabled PC games right out of the box.

Along with the game controllers, Project Fiona is also designed with ultra-precise accelerometers and a highly sensitive multi-touch screen. This provides game developers with new game experiential opportunities to develop around the hybrid game control experience offered by Project Fiona. It also ensures current-generation PC games run on the tablet concept, as well as any existing games optimized for the touchscreen interface of a tablet.

Future games developed for Fiona are expected to take advantage of not just the integrated gamepad controls but also integrate core game functionality controls for the touchscreen and accelerometer-based controls.

“While multi-touch screens have become the de facto user interface for tablets, they are not the right interface for serious PC gaming,” said Min-Liang Tan, CEO, Razer. “The user interface we have designed for Project Fiona allows all existing PC games to be played right out of the box and also provides game developers new opportunities as they develop next-gen games on a highly-intuitive platform. Both developers and gamers are going to love the new user interface that combines the best of a gamepad, multi-touch screen and accelerometers for an all-new gaming experience on-the-go.”

The Most Immersive Gaming Experience on a Tablet

To further intensify the gaming experience with Project Fiona, Razer’s integrated dual controllers deliver full force feedback, so every explosion or gun recoil can be felt in the gamer’s hands.

THX® Ltd., which works with many of the world’s most innovative audio and video home entertainment manufacturers, agrees that the tablet adds tremendous flexibility to a gamer’s lifestyle. “Video games, music and entertainment that previously were mainly enjoyed within the home can now be enjoyed anywhere through tablets such as the Razer Concept PC Gaming Tablet,” said Chris Golson, Senior Director, Business Development, THX.

Developer units of the Project Fiona Concept PC Gaming Tablet will be made available soon. Interested parties should email developer@razerzone.com for more information. Project Fiona will be on display at Razer’s booth in South Hall 3, #31473.

About the Project Fiona Concept PC Gaming Tablet

Project Fiona is the only tablet in the world designed for PC gaming.

Price: Estimated below USD $1,000

Availability: Actual product shipping Q4 2012

For more information about the Project Fiona Concept PC Gaming Tablet, please visit www.razerzone.com/projectfiona

UPDATED: Acer’s CES 2012 press conference had three things of note – and this is one of them. The Aspire S5, being touted as the “world’s thinnest Ultrabook” with only 15mm thick at its maximal point, is a 13.3-inch laptop that promises to be fast.

It features its “Green Instant On” and “Always Connect” technology for it to boot and resume from sleep faster, and to manage all of its data at the same time even in sleep mode. It also comes with its MagicFlip I/O port, revealing HDMI, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt support. The latter more important as it is one in a few non-Mac computers that have this.

Wrapped in a metallic shell, the ultrabook features an Intel Core processor and an SSD drive for storage.

It will ship in Q2 this year. Full press release and gallery below.

Acer Unveils World’s Thinnest Ultrabook: Aspire S5

Ultra-Fluid Form With Hidden I/O Panel

LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwire – Jan 8, 2012) – Acer unveiled the world’s thinnest Ultrabook with the Aspire S5, an ultra-slim device that measures only 15 mm at the maximal point. It weighs less than 1.35 kg (less than 3 lbs.) and is built with a 13.3-inch (34 cm) LCD. In addition, it features the unique Acer Green Instant On technology for fast boot and resume, and Acer Always Connect, which lets users manage their multimedia and data on all their devices at anytime, anywhere — even from sleep.

“The Ultrabook is much more than just a product segment,” said Jim Wong, president of Acer Inc. “It’s a new trend that will become the mainstream for mobile PCs, and customers will see the unique features gradually extended across Acer’s notebook family.”

Instantly on and always connected
Innovative Acer Green Instant On and Acer Always Connect technologies enable data upload and retrieval anytime, anywhere, and deliver power-saving features as well.

Acer Green Instant On provides instant-resume functionality (in 1.5 seconds) and ensures battery life that lasts several weeks.

Acer Always Connect gets users online faster than conventional connections for better productivity and infotainment enjoyment. With their Facebook, Twitter and Outlook email accounts open, users can see updates instantly upon resuming. Furthermore, Acer Always Connect can wake up the Aspire S5 from a remote device like a smartphone. Access to all documents, music, pictures and video files is fast and always available.

Ultra-fluid contours
Adorned with a delicately curved chassis in Onyx Black, the Aspire S5′s cover rim wraps around the system body like a protective shell. A magnesium-aluminum alloy cover and palmrest provide a slimmer and sturdier form, while the metallic brushed detail presents subtle elegance. The clean and ultra-fluid contours seen from all angles make the S5 a vision of beauty.

Magical I/O port panel
The Aspire S5 is Acer’s first Ultrabook to feature a smartly designed MagicFlip I/O port panel concealed just below the hinge. This design feature enhances the overall slenderness and streamlined form of the S5. When needed, a press of the MagicFlip key opens the panel to reveal a selection of I/O ports: HDMI^®, USB 3.0 and 20 Gbps Thunderbolt.

Performance and eco-friendly features
The Aspire S5 features an Intel^® Core^™ processor, SSD storage for speed and increased shock resistance, professionally-tuned Dolby^® Home Theater^® v4, long battery life via the PowerSmart battery pack (with a 3X longer life cycle¹ than traditional batteries), and is equipped with a chiclet keyboard.

The Aspire S5 will start shipping in Q2 2012.

Wired Epicenter recently published an article on Windows Phone titled ‘Is Windows Phone’s Consumer Focus Killing It?‘. It’s certainly reasonable to propose that the consumer focus is a reason for Windows Phone’s less than spectacular adoption, but to say that Microsoft’s will to satisfy the end consumers to the highest degree possible will be a prominent cause in the platform’s possible demise is pushing it much too far.

That’s obviously not to plainly suggest that Microsoft taking a very Apple-like approach with smartphones isn’t holding them back even slightly. It’s a large reason for Windows Phone’s general lack of awareness amongst phone shoppers, and the obvious lack of sparkle in Microsoft’s Windows Phone lineup. Unlike Google with its Android operating system, Microsoft places strict hardware guidelines on manufacturers developing Windows Phones. OEMs are not permitted to have a screen resolution that is beyond or below 800 X 480 and processor requirements remain particularly strict and unmoving.

Microsoft remains strict on software customisation even more so than the company is on hardware requirements, permitting only extremely minor additions to the OS like HTC Hub and certain proprietary HTC apps on HTC Windows Phone handsets. Given this, the Windows Phone landscape is fairly static and stale, removed from the glory and the glamour of the nerd fulfilling spec wars in Android land breeding monsters with 3D capabilities, dangerously speedy processors, engulfing display sizes and eye bursting pixel densities.

Windows Phone sits on the hum drum side seat with an uninspiring collection of handsets built by manufacturers who simply aren’t permitted to throw their very best eggs into the Windows Phone basket. And since product design communicates the very essence of said product, manufacturers haven’t given their best shot at that either, with the most daring, slimmest and marvellous hardware designs saved for the maxed out Android handsets with differentiating specifications and OS customisations.

But this is Microsoft’s only genuine issue with Windows Phone, although a fairly large one – the manufacturers, sales channels and the carriers aren’t willing to invest heavy in developing and selling Windows Phone handsets because Microsoft’s restrictions aren’t permitting the carriers and manufacturers from any meaningful differentiation. Thus any marketing investment would reap smaller returns for both carriers and manufacturers given there’s a competitors’ Windows Phone next door that’s virtually the same.

Microsoft seems to be trying to combine both Apple and Google’s strategy, borrowing the idea of a core, uniform and optimal user experience from Apple, whilst trying to get the same reach that Google is enjoying with Android. There’s certainly the question of whether its possible to bring in the best of both worlds since the world by its very nature is full of trade offs. But I think with a little tweaking Microsoft have what it takes to make Windows Phone happen in a big way.

But, throwing aside Windows Phone’s issues (or issue), there’s a heck of a lot to be excited about, a heck of a lot for Microsoft to be excited about, and a heck of a lot of reasons to disregard sensationalist articles on Windows Phone’s seeming imminent death, and to swim against the tide of general Windows Phone negativity.

Wired’s aforementioned article noted a few really great things about Windows Phone, the fact that Windows Phone Mango has been well received by both reviewers and users alike meaning that it is objectively a really good operating system. The most crucial of Windows Phone’s accolades though is that according to Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, of the top 20 best rated cell phones on its site, 6 of them were Windows Phones and more importantly, the top 3 were all Windows Phone handsets.

Screenshot: Terence Huynh/TECHGEEK.com.au

This kind of customer satisfaction is something that Android has yet to achieve from even its greatest handsets, and although customer satisfaction for the iPhone is also presumably sky-high, it’s only one phone. Microsoft has managed to achieve satisfaction across a vast number of handsets, meaning that its ideals for reach in conjunction with a uniformly great experience devoid of fragmentation is indeed paying off.

What’s important for Microsoft now isn’t the fact that people are buying their phones in large numbers or not, but whether the ones who are buying are happy because these people are the ones who will enrich Microsoft’s Windows Phone ecosystem along with Microsoft’s greater ecosystem encompassing Xbox, Windows, Zune and others, and these are also the people who will keep coming back.

Microsoft is at an advantage here against Google because the team at Redmond have the security of knowing that their consumers enjoy Windows Phone for exactly what it is with its coloured tiles, swift transitions and minimalist outfit. On the flip side, it’s a fair point to say that consumers can’t ever really love Android because Android is only really Android in its pure form on a Nexus phone, a Google phone without the UI customisations and additions. You could say you love Android on a Samsung Galaxy S II, but then when you get a hold of an HTC handset in its Sense UI glory you could suddenly hate Android and its superfluous interface design.

Like an intelligent Wired Epicenter article stated – there’s no more Android, there’s only Android compatible. So the loyalty factor plays a role here, its much easier and more effective for Microsoft to invoke consumer loyalty with Windows Phone than it is for Google with Android.

Though both companies, with their extensive web and product reach, can play the ecosystem card as effectively as each other.

Still, having happy customers doesn’t change or cut loose the major flaw in Microsoft’s strategy which makes it really difficult for manufacturers to strike a home run and deliver Windows Phone in an incarnation capable of competing with the best of Android in an all out spec war. And not just plain processor specs, but display size, pixel density and even physical hardware design. In these respects, Windows Phone is yet to deliver. It’s a matter of marketing too, which is essentially the meeting point of all of Microsoft’s issue.

If OEMs can’t develop big and have a market-leading product, then why throw a huge party about it? Especially, especially if said OEM has an Android handset that is actually worth celebrating.

Nokia was meant to try and fix this. By being an exclusive Windows Phone partner they’d have nothing else to bother marketing, even if they did have a genuinely horrid product (which they don’t, of course). This plan has managed to see some fruits with an extensive marketing push in Europe, though sales numbers haven’t quite gone hand in hand according to most sources. But, without release in the US and Australia among other countries, its far too superficial to foretell Windows Phones’ future with sales figures from a single continent.

The whole Nokia partnership does pose problems for Microsoft’s remaining manufacturers whom don’t have an exclusive deal and many of the privileges Nokia has received from Microsoft. Since Nokia clearly have no choice but to throw all their best eggs into the Windows Phone basket, this leaves OEMs like Samsung and HTC in an even worse position knowing that there will most likely always be a Nokia Windows Phone better than theirs. Therefore, there is even less incentive to put any effort into building a half decent Windows Phone handset.

This leaves Microsoft in the likely scenario that Nokia will continue to build the high end, flagship phones whilst leaving remaining manufacturers to pick up the low end market for the budget concious consumers. This isn’t a bad scenario at all, not at all. At least not from Microsoft’s vantage.

Clearly, Microsoft has enormous hurdles with Windows Phone, but bloggers claiming that Windows Phone may very well cease to live is too far a jump to an unlikely conclusion. Despite all its problems, Windows Phone has succeeded in being a really great operating system that has immensely satisfied its user base. As a corporation, I assume there wouldn’t be too much higher on your wish list than that very sentence. Even then, it’s short sighted to call Microsoft out when all the cards haven’t yet been played.

The Microsoft-Nokia deal is really just getting started, and for the most part, hasn’t even begun. Integration with Microsoft’s popular software and services will only continue to get deeper and deeper and most importantly, what Microsoft does with their Skype acquisition could be the impetus for a fast turn around. The launch of Windows 8 will only do good things to promote Microsoft’s Metro style interface, the shining light of Windows Phone. And as still the most powerful computing company, Windows 8 will sure garner the hype, the excitement and the splash that Windows Phone never did.

I’m not saying Windows Phone will be a definite, unmitigated success, I’m just saying give it a chance. Microsoft is full of surprises and unlikely success stories, just look at the Xbox and how they slayed a monster.

Image above: by Diego Torres Silvestre/Flickr (Creative Commons)

The year 2011 was one year that we will all never forget. Even though they were all in the beginning of the year, the floods in Queensland and Brazil, the earthquakes in Christchurch and the tsunami in the north of Japan are still present in all of our minds. We also saw the death of a tech luminary, Steve Jobs; and the powerful News Corporation losing its influence over politicians in the UK after the phone hacking scandal took a drastic turn from celebrities to victims of crime.

This year, we’ve decided to recap the top 11 tech stories of the year – from security problems to business failures, and even the growing popularity of Windows Phone 7.

You can explore the choices below.

• The Revolutions Heard Around The Globe
• The Catastrophic Disaster of the PSN
• Steve Jobs: 1955 – 2011
• The Phone Hacking that killed the News
• A Global War – Apple v Samsung
• A 50 Day Hacking Campaign, for the lulz
• The Rise of Windows Phone 7
• An annus horribilis for RIM and Netflix
• Palm is dead, WebOS lives on
• Social: Google enters, LinkedIn goes IPO and Timeline
• Gone Viral: Friday – an instant success amongst the haters
• Credits

Image Credits: Al Jazeera English (Left) and David Shankbone (Right). All are licensed under Creative Commons.

UPDATED: iiNet has announced that it will acquire Internode and its associated companies for $105 million. The buyout will mean that the company, according to iiNet’s CEO Michael Malone, make iiNet “the new number 2 provider” of DSL broadband.

The company surprised investors when it announced the deal.

The buyout will allow iiNet to expand and grow its current position in South Australia, adding 260,000 active internet and phone subscribers to its own network. The deal will also mean that iiNet’s own network will expand to 36 more DSLAMs.

Internode, however, will remain a separate unit of the company and retaining its existing brand and corporate structure.

“Internode is an attractive acquisition, consistent with our strategy of building scale in anticipation of the national broadband network (NBN) market. Internode’s experienced management team and excellent customer satisfaction record will allow iiNet to efficiently grow its presence in the South Australian and Eastern State markets,” Malone said.

“Internode is a successful company with an impressive reputation.”

Simon Hackett, the CEO of Internode, will get 12 million shares of iiNet. In addition, he’s agreed to not acquire more shares for the next 12 months.

“We believe the best interests of Internode’s customers, employees and shareholders are served by joining forces with a corporately and culturally aligned business such as iiNet,” Hackett said in a statement. “There’s great synergy between iiNet and Internode.”

The deal is expected to be completed by the end of February.

iiNet has been on a recent spending spree after buying TransACT to expand its network in the ACT, and Netspace in Victoria back in 2010 – all in order to maybe shore up its network. Rival ISP TPG has also acquired a substantial stake (7.24 percent) in the company, with many asking if TPG will acquire the company in the future or is this simply a strategic maneuver.

The game will continue to be released overseas and it again shows how terrible lack of an R18+ game rating is for Australia. EA has officially responded to the ban saying that

It’s regrettable that government policy in Australia is denying adults the right to play Syndicate.  The game will be not be available in Australia despite its enthusiastic response from fans. We were encouraged by the government’s recent agreement to adopt an 18+ age rating for games. However, delays continue to force an arcane censorship on games – cuts that would never be imposed on books or movies. We urge policy makers to take swift action to implement an updated policy that reflects today’s market and gives its millions ofadult consumers the right to make their own content choices.

EA has said that they will definitely no longer be attempting to release the game in Australia because of this and will not be appealing the decision. They also say that the game is made for a mature audience and any changes would affect the quality, according to EA. New Zealand will be getting it on the 24th February 2012 and it will be rated R18 there.

Let’s hope that EA and every other publisher, gamer and developer’s wishes finally come true and we get an 18+ rating soon. Otherwise, expect more censorship that hurts the Australian gaming industry.

UPDATE – Terence Huynh: The Classification Board gave refused classification because the board did not like the “intense sequence of violence which include detailed depictions of decapitation and dismemberment” and the fact that the player has the choice of “whether to target [civilians] or not”. They can be shot but not decapitated or dismembered.

The full decision can be seen below, which we have acquired from the Classification Board.

A few weeks ago the Zune Music store finally arrived in Australia. But while we have enough online music stores, the big part of the announcement was Zune Pass. For $120 a year you get unlimited on-demand streaming music. But are there some hidden problems?

Chris Southcott reviews the Zune Pass, after the jump.

Introduction

A few weeks ago the Zune Music store finally arrived in Australia. But while we have enough online music stores, the big part of the announcement was Zune Pass. For $120 a year you get unlimited on-demand streaming music. But are there some hidden problems?

I’m going to go through the experience on all supported platforms, including the browser, Windows 7, Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7, and then the general problems I had with the service that were shared with every platform.

On Windows Vista/7

Firstly let’s start with the Zune desktop application, which is available free for Windows from Zune.net. Not only is the software beautiful, looking much better in my opinion than anything else at the moment thanks to its simplistic, colourful metro style, but it works well too. As soon as you’re subscribed you can download whatever you want from the marketplace. Any music is available under your $10 subscription fee. So you just search, press download and it’s instantly available on your computer and when you sync it onto your Windows Phone (or Zune, if you somehow have one of those). It’s seamless, addictive and really cool. Whereas with iTunes/anything else I’d be hesitant to download my desired songs, because albums can range from $16.99 to upwards of $22.99, with Zune Pass I just download and listen and know that, for that $10 a month, I am legally enjoying whatever music is available. And the whole catalog of Zune can be downloaded for that $10 a month. You can also stream it too if you’re light on storage. And it’s truly addictive to have so much music at your disposal. Hear a song on the radio, get it now for, apart from the $10, free. Having that ability is awesome and has made it hard for me to leave.

On Windows Phone 7

But who listens to music just on their computer? Like iTunes, Zune lets you sync all of your downloaded music, including music downloaded with Zune Pass, as well as your own music (downloaded or ripped legally I hope). And it works really well, much better than other music streaming/unlimited services because it’s all local.

If you’ve downloaded it on your PC then it’s local on your Windows Phone. Songl, which is the only other streaming service in Australia that I know of, forces you to listen to the music on your phone while online before it caches it for offline play, which means that if you don’t have much data then you’ll have to leave your phone playing that new album over Wi-Fi before you leave. And while that can be fixed, Zune Pass right now is superior in that regard.

The player for Windows Phone 7 looks really, really nice, with pictures of the band in the background, a nice “live-tile”. As well as looks, even though the files have a lower bitrate than most downloaded music, sounds incredible when compared to iOS. The music just sounds 10X better, at least on my device. The layout of the homepage of the Music application is great too, with recent plays and new music in a graphical interface which is really nice, as is the rest of Zune. It’s a simple idea, but a great one. As well as listening to synced music you can download anything you can download on the desktop software. Zune Pass is fully integrated and the music can be streamed or downloaded and synced back to your PC. Think iTunes, but unlimited. Again, the addiction to this rises. The main problem is the Windows Phone part. Getting a phone just for music isn’t a good idea, and I personally prefer Android and iOS compared to Windows Phone. I was actually looking for an old Zune before writing this review, just because I want Zune Pass but not Windows Phone. But if you already own a Windows Phone or want one then it’s great. Just don’t even dare try out Zune Pass if you own an iPhone, Android phone or, in my case, Palm Pre 2.

On The Web

This is where the negatives start showing themselves. The website, while allowing you to stream anything you can in the desktop and mobile apps, uses Silverlight. And there is nothing worse than Silverlight, not even Flash. It’s slow and pointless. In a world reliant on Flash and soon HTML5, the only reason to use Silverlight is Microsoft’s DRM. And never mind that everything else uses Flash, Microsoft must use Silverlight to “protect the music”. Sigh.

The website looks fine, but Silverlight means Linux users can’t use it, Mac and PC users have to suffer through laggy software and it’s just another plugin you need to install. There are social features, which feel a little undercooked, but it’s basically Last.FM with recommendations and profiles, so you can see what you’re friends are listening to and what you should be listening to. You can post status updates and follow artists too but it’s nothing to write home about. It’s good, but unless all of your friends own Windows Phones and love Zune and Zune Pass it’s basically pointless. And it doesn’t hook into anything like Last.FM.

On Xbox 360

The interface, as usual, is very nice but I would never listen to music on a console, except for in-game which this doesn’t support. And you can’t sync it. You can have a “queue”, but it’s pretty basic. I can’t just tell it to download everything on my phone or PC as far as I’m aware and if I couldn’t find it, I doubt anyone else would (let me know in the comments if it does).

Also you need Xbox Live Gold. And even if you’re paying $10 a month you’ll still have to lay down $80 a year. Yes, even though you’ve already payed for Zune elsewhere. I understand why Microsoft charges for online gaming, sort of. But paying for something I should already have access to is stupid.

Universal Problems

The Closed Ecosystem

Image: Max Klingensmith/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Now, let’s go into my setup and one of the biggest negatives of Zune Pass. I’m currently borrowing a Windows Phone (for an unrelated reason) from Microsoft, use a Windows PC almost full-time (but not for much longer) and own an Xbox 360. So I’m almost the perfect consumer, at the moment, for Zune Pass. But the problems for me started cropping up almost instantly with this part of the service.

What will I do when I give back the Windows Phone and go back to my Palm Pre (sadly) or what if I’d never had a Windows Phone? What about when if replace my PC with a Mac, which I’m doing this Christmas? It’s problems like these that are only apparent in Zune, whereas services like Spotify, Rdio and Songl work on devices out of their parent company’s ecosystem. And streaming music ecosystems are a lot different than actually buying music, mainly because most music websites are DRM-free and this isn’t. And you don’t ever own the music you’re streaming. If I wanted to switch from Bandit.fm to Bigpond Music to something else, I could simply walk away because I own the MP3′s and MP3′s are open and work with almost everything. But with Zune, if Microsoft doesn’t put an app on my phone or computer (running Linux or Mac) then you’re locked out. And all of these services require the maker to make apps and support different devices, but Microsoft looks like they’re going to stay inside their little universe instead of opening up Zune. And if I walk away I will loose all of the music I downloaded. In the end, you don’t own any of the music you download under Zune Pass, so that $10 is basically a rental fee.

Streaming Quality

Zune Pass streams at 128kbps WMA and downloads at 192kbps DRM-filled WMA’s. That’s a major downside, especially when the standard iTunes format is 256kbps DRM-free AAC and Bandit.fm and Bigpond offer 320kbps MP3.

Available Music

Let me tell you about my music habits. I don’t really like mainstream music, not because I’m some hipster but because I prefer other genre’s. So if you like that genre of Pop music, then you’ll probably be able to find it on Zune, if the artist isn’t a snob. But the problem I had was that many smaller bands are only on iTunes or other services and weren’t on Zune. And the thing is that Microsoft wants you to stay entirely in their ecosystem, but I couldn’t. About 1/4 times I wouldn’t be able to find some new music whereas it was on iTunes. Sure, it can be seen as a niche problem and as I said many people probably won’t face this problem. But if you have different music tastes then what’s playing on popular radio you might not find everything you want. And for $10 a month, or $120 a year, this is a problem.

Final Thoughts

Don’t get me wrong. I love Zune Pass as an unlimited music service for such a tempting price a month, especially for me because I spend at least $10 a month on iTunes or Bandit.fm. But it’s so locked down to the Microsoft ecosystem that it’s basically dead in the water if you don’t abide by Microsoft’s rules of only using their hardware and software.

Still, despite its flaws and low bit-rate, it is a totally addicting music service for Microsoft lovers. But it’s dead to people who don’t live entirely in the Microsoft ecosystem. And in the end, you don’t own any of the music you download under Zune Pass, so that $10 is basically a rental fee. You can try it for 14 days free on Zune.net but for me? I’ll be waiting for Spotify.

The RAZR name is back, and this time running Android and upgraded hardware to combat rivals Samsung, HTC and Apple. However, with such an iconic name, Motorola has a lot of expectations to fulfilled. Can it deliver, especially in a highly-crowded market? As well, how does its thin form factor affect the phone?

Terence Huynh reviews the Motorola RAZR, which can be found after the jump.

Design & Hardware

Like its predecessor, this Motorola RAZR continues the tradition of a thin yet beautiful design. However, it isn’t a flip phone like the older namesake device – which, incidentally, became a curse as Motorola phones were then compared to the old RAZR. This phone is a standard candybar phone; and the phone has had an upgrade in terms of hardware.

The phone is proudly declaring itself the “World’s thinnest” smartphone out there – only at 7.1mm thick (a slight bulge is present due to the camera). And its undeniably a beautiful design in a somewhat geeky fashion. It also features a KEVLAR fibre back, which is something a phone has never claimed before. However, the size may be a bit too big for people to hold in their hand and could prove to be a bit uncomfortable.

The screen is a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display that is also protected by Gorilla Glass, and does reproduce colours vibrantly.  It also features a 1.2GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory (that can be expandable via a microSD card). It also features two cameras: an 8-megapixel camera that can also support 1080p HD video recording, in addition with a second 1.3-megapxiel front-facing camera. The phone also runs the latest version of Android, version 2.3.5 – also known as Gingerbread.

The new form thinnest, however, means that there is no removable battery, and the SIM card slot is now on the side of the device. The latter is common now on phones these days, so it’s not a big hassle. However, it supports microSIM only, so you’ll have to ask your carrier for one if you want to use this device unlocked (it’s an exclusive to Optus).

Interesting thing to note is that Motorola has also made this phone waterproof. It is apparently coated with a “water repellant”, but I wouldn’t trust it. The ports are not insulated – in fact, they are exposed – so a tiny bit of water could damage it.

Camera

The phone’s camera is alright. It’s not the best compared to its Android rivals, but it is not the worst camera I have ever seen on the phone. The colours are a bit bland and are not as vibrant as what we wanted, and there is a tendency to place your finger over parts of the lens because of its placement on the top of the phone, rather than somewhere in the middle. The camera does not do well in low-light situations and you can see there is a bit of noise in the photos.

Video recording is a bit better, but don’t expect it to replace your camcorder. However, it seems to work better in some lighting conditions than still photography.

The interface for the camera, however, is pretty good. It is clear and pretty clean. As with all Android phones, you have a wide variety of options to play with, including changing the flash and have several modes. However, the phone appears to not have a dedicated camera button on the sides, so you’ll have to use the touchscreen button.

Performance

I have said this before – I hate the Motorola skin for Android. The RAZR, however, does make a huge improvement to make the UI more faster and responsive. While it doesn’t jitter as much any more and is much more responsive to my touch, I do find that it does start to have problems when there are a lot of applications running – including the crapware that comes with the phone.

As well, for some unknown reason, the phone restarted on me three times consecutively. I think it could be the constant inability to connect to the mobile network and the phone trying to update the status messages, but I can’t back that up. However, it was a one-time occurrence and could be from my review unit and maybe not on your unit.

Despite that, the phone does really well most of the time. It has a lot of animations, and the entire UI has been revamped with a brand new design. It also provides some new widgets which makes it easier to perform tasks without going through menu after menu after menu in order to find the actual option you require. One of the best features I love is that you can now access the camera from the lock screen, rather than going through it and then finding the camera app. It makes it easier to take photos at any time. And for many, that delay can ruin photos.

Battery life is pretty good, we’ve had around a day and a bit. We’ve tested with a standard Twitter account and using the browser, and set the notifications on. Again, it really does depend on how you use your phone. If you’re going to be playing games a lot such as Angry Birds and watching movies on YouTube, then you’ll drain the battery faster.

However, if you need to extend your battery life, it has also included a “Smart Actions” application, which allows you to set automated tasks for your phone. This means that, for example, you can turn off your Wi-Fi or Bluetooth when you hit 30% of battery life. While not new, especially when you can download it in the marketplace, the fact it is so easy to use and is pre-installed and ready to be used make this a bit more desirable than the ones in the marketplace.

Conclusion

The Motorola RAZR is a fine-looking phone with the hardware specs that would make you drool over. While it is in a crowded market, it does stand out as one of the highlight phones because of its unique design that rivals the iPhone’s attempts to be slim. The phone’s camera is disappointing at best and the size may be a bit too big, but for those wanting a design-conscious phone like everyone did for the predecessor, then this one should be considered.

The latest game in the Assassin’s Creed series – Revelations – is here. Featuring all three major characters from the earlier games of the series – Ezio, Altair and Desmond. However, does it better its predecessors or does it fall flat? As well, as it is the last game to play as Ezio, does this serve as a fitting farewell?

Nicholas Munro reviews Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, which is after the jump.

Warning: this review may contain spoilers.

Story and Graphics

The story in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations follows much the same structure as the previous game with Ezio Auditore and the Assassins in their war against the Templars (a mysterious group intent on world domination). This time round Ezio is striving to find five keys to the ancient library of Altair, the protagonist of the first game, before the Templers.

These keys are artefacts of an ancient civilisation known only as “the First Civilisation” so one may assume that the library holds more than just books. Much like previous titles in this all takes place in the head of Desmond Miles who through a device known as the Animus (which allows an individual to view the memories of their ancestors). This time, however, Desmond is not there by choice. After the events of the last game left him in a coma, he has hooked up to the Animus to keep his mind from shattering, and with the help an individual known as “Subject 16” Desmond must work to unravel his ancestors memories before they all begin to collapse together.

Graphically you will notice little graphical improvement from the previous game. However, that’s not to say that this is not a beautiful game. Yet again, Ubisoft have constructed a rich, vibrant world from the ground up. As with the previous game, this is set in three locations: Constantinople (or Istanbul, it really depends who you talk to), Animas Island (the land where Desmond may wander between memories) and the Assassin’s stronghold from the first game (both in the time of Altair and in Ezio’s time). All these locations have been beautifully crafted to fully immerse the player into this world.

Gameplay

To be honest, ACR has not changed a lot from the previous title in the series, Brotherhood. So let’s just look at what is new. One of the most obvious new features is bomb crafting. Bombs are used in much the same way as smocked bombs in Brotherhood; however this time, they may be customised to serve the player’s purpose. Bombs may be customised for assault or stealth by adding items like shrapnel that can make them deadly or adding sheep’s blood to make a non-deadly bomb that will cause the target to believe they have been hit.

The hook blade is also new. This changes things up a little – it is designed to compensate for Ezio’s age and to make climbing somewhat faster (much like the climbing gloves from the last game). The blade also allows Ezio to use the zip lines that connect many of the buildings throughout the city. This allows for greater ease whilst travelling along the rooftops – the only true way to travel in the Assassin’s Creed series. ACR again lets you recruit and train assassins (like Brotherhood), however their missions have been somewhat tweaked so that their goal now is to take control of the cities around the Mediterranean away from the Templars. A tower defence-styled game has also been added, now Templers will seek to regain lost area within Constantinople and Ezio must use an assorted selection of assassins to defend the base that controls the region of the city.

It is not with Ezio that the player experiences the greatest amount of innovation. This is also found within Desmond’s storyline with Animus Island. As Ezio, you collect various “Animus data fragments” throughout the city; and these can be redeemed when playing Desmond. This allows the chance to travel deep inside the Animus as raw data. Here, the game switches to first person and removes the ability to climb. Instead, you are presented with an alternative to move up levels. Though, you’ll have to find out by the playing the game.

Conclusion

This is quite possibly the best game in the franchise and is a truly great game. However, it is also the sought of game that probably would have benefited from coming out a different time of year and not come up against titles like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Uncharted 3 and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary -  all of which offer ether a high level of innovation or nostalgia. So although it is a great game, one cannot help but to feel that the changes are just too small to let it stand out from the crowd.