The squishy beanbad gadget Chumby is slated to arrive in Australia after quite some time being US-centric. If you remember, Chumby is that soft-bodied widget-driven device with a touch screen panel that could be used to check the weather and listen to Internet radio among many other functions.

continue reading "Chumby Makes Its Way to Australia"

Gizmodo, has just been tipped off by a Verizon employee that the Blackberry Storm will be available on November 14! Expect things to start warming up in the iPhone 3G / T-Mobile G1 dominated arena.

As to when the Blackberry Storm will be available in Australia, we’ll have to wait to hear from Vodafone Australia. If you’re keen about this phone, sign up at Vodafone’s Blackberry Storm web page.

Via Gizmodo

Telstra subsidiary Sensis just got hitched with Google. First, Sensis kills off its search engine completely and would, from now on, integrate Google’s search engine for the web site. Thankfully, there will be no layoffs as a result from the integration, but it would slash costs on Sensis’ part.

continue reading "Sensis Yellow Pages to Integrate with Google Maps Australia"

Optus has had to deal with a lot of beef from customers and the media over alleged outages not only for its 3G network, but also for its phone and internet services. August apparently saw numerous complaints about 3G network interruption in a few of the country’s locations.

continue reading "Experiencing 3G Outages on Optus? Telco Says It’s “Normal”"

Local electronics manufacturer Kogan, announced plans to make a Google Android-based phone to be distributed in the country. The small online-based company orders its products straight from manufacturers in China, which are made to its specifications and cater to its needs.

Kogan’s Google Android phone “would look similar to the iPhone” with a touch screen panel, Bluetooth, GPS, trackball, WiFi, and NO built-in keyboard. It will be available in the country on December 15 and will be sold for $199 per. Since none of the major manufacturers have mentioned plans to release Google Android phones in Australia, Kogan’s MIGHT be the first Android-based phone to hit the country.

“We’ve got a few designs that we can easily choose from. We know the components that’s going to go into the phone…It’s a matter of loading the Android system on to the phone, configuring it, making sure it works very well and then the manufacturing of the few thousands phones that we need to launch it is just a matter of a day or two,” says Ruslan Kogan, company owner.

Kogan via SMH via GIZ AU

By the end of 2008, the new theoretical max speed of Telstra NextG would be 21Mbps, that’s more than just a few notches up from the current 14.4Mbps. I say theoretical due to the lack of compatible devices, of course, with the best phones able to only download with a speed of 7.2Mbps.

continue reading "Telstra NextG Raises the Bar with 21Mbps Max Speeds"

Australian multimedia college Qantm is slated to launch an iPhone Game Development course soon as part of its list of game development and design courses. I guess it was only a matter of time before a course like this comes up, but I can think of a couple of people who’d think this is crazy.

continue reading "Australian School to Offer iPhone Game Development Course"

A music subscription service will be launched in Australia by Vodafone and will be available to all the company’s 3G subscribers. Called the MusicStation, it lets users download as much music as they want for a weekly fee of AU$2.75.

continue reading "Vodafone Australia to Launch MusicStation Subscription Service"

Sony recalled laptops in other parts of the globe recently due to overheating incidents, but it looks like the company is concerned about its laptops’ well-being in Australia as well. Sony has issued a recall for 4,000 Vaio TZ Series laptops in the country.

continue reading "Sony Issues Recall for 4,000 Vaio TZ Series Laptops in Australia"

It seems there’s trouble in iPhoneland, Australia. No, I’m not talking about faulty or spotty 3G connections (although yes, that is a problem) and similar typical iPhone 3G stuff. I’m talking about iPhone customers getting billed ten times more than what they’re supposed to pay.

continue reading "When Bill Hits the Fan; Optus and Vodafone Shock iPhone Customers"