How good is Leopard?
Were you one of the keen early adopters who picked up a copy of Apple's latest update to Mac OS X, dubbed Leopard, since its release on Friday?
Already, a significant number of users are reporting installation errors, but there are many more singing the operating system's praises.
more- Posted by Asher Moses at 12:01 PM
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Could you give up your 'crackberry'?
Some mobile phone addicts and BlackBerry junkies have reported feeling vibrations when there are none, or feeling as if they're wearing a mobile phone when they're not.
As embarrassed as I am to admit it, i'm one of those users. But phantom vibrations are far less common for me than phantom ringtones.
more- Posted by Asher Moses at 1:10 PM
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Do you have a landline?
Super-cheap mobile phone plans, voice over IP and, now, the emergence of naked DSL, have made landline phone connections increasingly passe.
Cable users have always had the ability to bypass the landline, but soon ADSL customers of Internode, iiNet, TPG and Engin will be able to do so too.
more- Posted by Asher Moses at 10:45 AM
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Facebook: guilty until proven innocent?
I recently had my facebook account disabled without warning because the names I used were not my legal first and last names. It got me thinking immediately - how many people have been suddenly disabled from facebook like me, and why?
A quick Google search picked up the posts of quite a few bloggers who were disabled from the social networking site. Quite a number were banned for adding too many friends at one time, or commenting on people's pages who weren't their friends.
What seemed to frustrate them the most was not so much that they had violated facebook's terms of use, but that they were banned from using facebook for reasons they didn't even know exist, and with no grace period or warning.
- Posted by Glenda Kwek in Your Say at 4:02 PM
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Fined $247,000 for sharing 24 songs
In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the internet, a single mother from Minnesota was ordered to pay $US220,000 ($247,549) for sharing 24 songs online.
See the full story here.
more- Posted by Asher Moses at 11:36 AM
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Designer phones: now or naff?
We've just published our review of the new LG Prada KE850 touchscreen phone.
It's expensive and sending SMS messages is both slow and clunky, but it looks great and has a fairly impressive set of features. Some say it's just as good as the iPhone, which won't be released in Australia until next year.
more- Posted by Asher Moses at 5:22 PM
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Your cyber-scalper horror stories
Australian Rage Against The Machine fans are now raging against cyber-scalpers and Ticketmaster after tickets to the rock band's local shows sold out within seconds yesterday.
The tickets to the Sydney and Melbourne gigs went on sale at 9am and within minutes scalpers were listing them on eBay at a significant premium.
- Posted by Asher Moses at 1:39 PM
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Your tales from the crypt
YouDeparted.com promises to revolutionise estate planning by letting users communicate with their loved ones from beyond the grave.
The spooky personal organiser lets users store even the most granular day-to-day mechanics of their life in an online safety deposit box, to be delivered to designated friends and family in the event of their death.
- Posted by Asher Moses at 12:28 PM
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Westpac's website woes
Thousands of Westpac customers went without their internet banking and online broking services for most of yesterday following a website glitch which, as of this morning, has still not been completely fixed.
If you're a Westpac customer, what sort of issues have you been experiencing? Are they more serious than Westpac has been letting on?
- Posted by Asher Moses at 11:37 AM
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It ain't working, it's my Brother
Our colleagues in New Zealand are running an interesting yarn about the Error 41 problem being experienced by some Brother inkjet printers and multi-function centres (MFC).
Apparently the problem is a worldwide one and has been around for a few years. Brother says it only affects older model printers and MFCs. Problem is, it costs more to fix the printer head than to buy a replacement machine - which is great news for landfills.
I've been trying for over 24 hours to get a statement from Brother in Australia about this, but no dice.
Brother Australia has issued this statement:
"A small percentage of Brother printers in Australia have been affected with the "Error 41" message, relating to a series launched some five years ago," said Gabriel Hamid, GM for Customer Service and Marketing, Brother Australia.
"These models include Fax1820C, MFC3100C, MFC3220C, MFC3420C, MFC3820CN and MFC5100C.
"Brother made improvements in the design and manufacturing process to address the issues behind the cause of "Error 41" and took steps to extend the printer-head warranty for these particular models from one to two years.
"Brother Australia invite customers with a product affected by "Error 41" to contact its customer service number on (02) 8875-6000."
Have you experienced Error 41 - which looks like the printer equivalent of the blue screen of death? Let us know if this is a widespread problem here as well.
- Posted by SJ Hutcheon at 2:36 PM
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Wiki while you work
The Wikiscanner tool can reveal a lot of things about the people in your organisation. See what we discovered the some people in the Department of Defence and the Prime Ministers and Cabinet were up to.
How does it work?
1. First, you need to find out your company/department/organisation's IP address. If you don't know it, try this cool tool.
2. Then go the Wikiscanner and input that IP number (something like: 204.136.112.10) in the appropriate slot and - if someone in your organisation has been editing Wikipedia, you should get something that looks like this page.
(This example suggests that someone inside the Pepsi organisation has been fiddling with the Pepsi Wikipedia entry. Some edits are legit (correcting spelling etc), some are a bit more dubious (like editing out parts of an entry on the long trm health effects of drinking Pepsi.)
3. Then you post your anonymous comment on this blog using a name like MrFluffyDuck - unless your real name is Mr FluffyDuck, in which case you choose something more obscure - and share your discovery.
Note: this won't work for smaller organisations which access the internet through ISPs. Your company/department/organisation needs to be big enough to have its own servers.
- Posted by SJ Hutcheon at 8:02 AM
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How good is NetAlert?
The Federal Government's NetAlert website and telephone hotline, where families can download free internet filters and obtain net safety advice, has finally been launched.
The website can be found here, while the telephone hotline can be reached on 1800 880 176.
more- Posted by Asher Moses at 11:36 AM
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Have you found love online?
Apparently, hardcore players of games like World of Warcraft aren't the social outcasts many picture them to be.
In fact, one in 10, according to a new study, has started a physical relationship with someone they met in the game, and most have created life-long friendships.
more- Posted by Asher Moses at 1:42 PM
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Social networking privacy scares
An unavoidable fact of life when you're a technology reporter is the constant barrage of email and phone calls from computer security companies looking to warn you about the latest online threats.
More often than not the "threats" are simply new strains of viruses or other nasties you'd expect your anti-virus program to pick up anyway, and the security firms are just after a free plug for their products.
more- Posted by Asher Moses at 3:23 PM
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