An Australian-developed signal processing technology has been licensed to a US company to deliver faster internet speeds with longer distance capabilities. Developed by researchers from the University of Queensland and Sydney University, the low complexity method
enhances the capacity of copper wire broadband services, and has particular applications where high-quality broadband transmission of multimedia files is required
Google has rolled out a new technology which automatically blurs any human face appearing in street-level photographs taken for use in its mapping services by its fleet of camera-mounted vehicles. The blurring technology, which will be retrospectively applied to all existing Street View images and incorporated in all future releases of the popular mapping feature, is intended to mollify concerns about the potentially intrusive nature of the service. Google will shortly previewed the face-blurring technology on the Street View images found on its Manhattan maps
Google has joined the drive to make the web more social by introducing tools to enable people to interact with their friends. Friend Connect follows plans announced last week by the world’s two biggest social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook. Data Availability and Connect let users move their personal profiles and applications to other web sites
Consumer advocates are concerned a proposed merger between Westpac and St George Bank would reduce competition in the banking sector. If successful, the merger would be the biggest in Australian banking history, making Westpac the nation’s dominant home lender with a 25 per cent market share and a 10-million strong customer base
Apparently, the folks in Bournesmouth didn’t get the Google TISP joke, as they’re laying fibre optic cable through the sewer system. The intended result: blazing fast connections that don’t require digging up anything
Speculation is mounting that Time Warner’s internet division, AOL, is set to launch its Advertising.com network in Australia. Such an entry would continue the rapid-fire shake-up of the Australian internet display industry currently under way, putting the big players under more pressure to retain their dominant market share. Advertising.com bills itself as the biggest network of its type, serving up video, mobile, display and search advertising on independent websites using technology to target and follow individual users
The Reserve Bank has joined a chorus of high-profile organisations, including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) to denounce eBay’s proposal to use PayPal as its main payment method. The RBA believes the new process will stifle competition and limit the ability for alternative payments systems to compete on an even keel
Rock Port only has a population of 1,316 but last week they threw the switch as America’s first ever community completely powered by the wind. Yes, northwest Missouri is windier than central Missouri. It takes winds of up to 9-miles per hour to get those blades spinning. Rock Port is now powered by four wind turbines. In all, 79 turbines are operational in northwest Missouri
A recently-discovered flaw in Gmail is capable of turning Google’s e-mail service into a highly effective spam machine. According to the Information Security Research Team, Gmail is susceptible to a man-in-the-middle attack that allows a spammer to send thousands of bulk e-mails through Google’s SMTP service without fear of detection. This attack bypasses both Google’s identity fraud protection mechanisms and the current 500-address limit on bulk e-mail
Computer attacks typically do not inflict physical pain on their victims. But in a rare example of an attack apparently motivated by malice rather than money, hackers recently bombarded the Epilepsy Foundation’s web site with hundreds of pictures and links to pages with rapidly flashing images. The breach triggered severe migraines and near-seizure reactions in some site visitors who viewed the images. People with photosensitive epilepsy can get seizures when they’re exposed to flickering images, a response also caused by some video games and cartoons
Mozilla is redoubling its efforts to check user created add-ons for viruses and Trojans after it discovered that a language pack on its official add-on page had been infected for months with rogue code. Starting in mid-February, Vietnamese users of Mozilla’s open source Firefox browser were at risk of infection from malicious Trojan Horse code seemingly accidentally embedded in a language pack available on its Add-ons site
Sun has released a major update to its open-source desktop virtualisation tool xVM VirtualBox, adding support for Apple’s Mac OS X and Solaris host operating systems, in addition to other improvements
The first beta-test version of the OpenOffice.org 3.0 productivity suite was released on Wednesday, adding significant features such as improved Mac OS X support and support for the OpenDocument 1.2 standard
iiNet has announced it will purchase fellow WA-based ISP Westnet in a deal worth $81 million, but will retain the staff and brand of the company. iiNet said it would cement the ISP as the third largest in Australia. With Westnet’s 215,000 active services, including 138,000 broadband users, iiNet’s total number of active services will grow to over 680,000, including over 470,000 dialup and broadband subscribers
, said the announcement
Telstra will be the third mobile provider to sell the iPhone in Australia starting from the end of June. The news that Telstra will carry the Apple handset comes in light of the recent report that Optus also intends to sell the iPhone, and Vodafone’s official announcement that it will be bringing the handset to 10 new markets
Once touted as a possible third option for home broadband that could compete with phone and cable companies, the idea of providing Internet service over power lines now looks like it has died in infancy. A Texas utility company said last week that it is taking control of the equipment that was to be used in the largest planned US deployment of broadband over power lines, or BPL — and won’t be using it to provide Internet service
Microsoft will resume two major Windows updates it had stalled due to a conflict it caused with one of its lesser-known software products. The software maker on Tuesday said it is releasing XP Service Pack 3 for Web downloads, and resuming automatic updates to Vista Service Pack 1, after developing a filter that will prevent machines running Dynamics RMS from getting either update
Optus, will extend its mobile network to reach 98 per cent of the population, as it aims to become the market leader in wireless communications. The expanded network will provide wireless, voice and broadband services and is expected to be completed by December 2009
Without more investment in high-speed fibre broadband, Australia’s competitiveness will suffer, according to academic Internet service provider Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet)
Vodafone Australia has announced that it will be selling the iPhone in Australia later this year. The agreement is part of a wider global deal in which Vodafone will be selling the device in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey
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