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.
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.
Australian multimedia college 
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.
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.
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.
