Gizmodo Australia

Nokia Lumia 900, Lumia 610 Hit Australia In June

Danny Allen — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:45:20 +1000

So Giz hit up the Nokia preview event in Sydney tonight, and there’s lots of news to share. Alex will have more hands-on thoughts for you in the morning, but for the moment, here’s what we’ve learnt… The Lumia 900 arrives in June from Optus for $0 upfront on the $60 plan — but you’ll also be able to pick it up off contract for $699 from retailers. The prepaid entry-level Lumia ...

Shooting Challenge: Speed… Win An Ultrabook!

Gizmodo Australia — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:00:55 +1000

Welcome to The Gizmodo Shooting Challenge, where Giz readers get to pit their photographic skills against each other for the admiration of their editors — and for the next month — the chance to win a Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook! Top image: Giz reader Greg Chow from our Blurry Photo Challenge. Flash photography! Prizes Inspired by Intel, Ultrabooks are a ne ...

This Is A Watchmen Toaster

Alex Kidman — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:30:12 +1000

An official Watchmen Toaster. I’m not sure I want to live on this planet any more. It’s part of a licensing deal that Warner Bros — the head company that owns DC comics, who in turn own the Watchmen rights — has made with Dynamic Forces; other toasters that will apparently pop up include Friday the 13th, Friends, The Goonies, Gremlin ...

Hitting The Top Of The App Charts Is 75 Times Harder If It’s A Game

Alex Kidman — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:00:48 +1000

There’s only so many ways for developers to promote their apps, and one of the best remains the effective visual advertising you get from being at or near the top of the app charts. Research into the US iTunes App Store shows how heavily slanted towards games those charts are. The obvious disclaimer here is that the figures for the Australian app store could be somewhat different; it’s ...

Lunchtime Deal: 25% Off iTunes At Target

Alex Kidman — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:51 +1000

It’s iTunes special time again, although that’s one of those things that comes around quite often indeed. Today’s venue for cheap iTunes deals is Target, although it’s a slightly odd one. You’ll get 25 per cent off the price of a second card when buying one. Not quite as snappy a deal as we’ve seen before, but wait a while and another will no doubt be a ...

App Deals: iPhone, iPad, Android, WP7

Elly Hart — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:56 +1000

Remoter VNC for half price on iOS, Bills for iPad reduced to just 99c, Kaiten Email discounted by a dollar on Android, Bullet Asylum on sale for Windows Phone 7, plus more in today’s app deals roundup. Be quick! These prices could go back up at any time. iOS • Vocabology for free (normally $0.99) • FreeAppMagic Daily – Get Paid Apps For Free Every Day for free (normally $1.99 ...

T-Rays Could Bring 100Gb/s Wi-Fi — But Not Very Far

Alex Kidman — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:11 +1000

Good news everybody! Boffins have worked out a way to greatly expand the throughput of Wi-Fi, up to a demonstrated 1.5Gb/s. There’s only one little problem — the range isn’t terribly impressive. The research, published in Electronics Letters, shows that terahertz band rays — between the microwave and far-infrared regions, and so far unregulated — could be us ...

Poll: Will You Upgrade Your OS This Year?

Alex Kidman — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:00:36 +1000

Windows 8 is due this year. Mac OS 10.8 — or “Mountain Lion” if you like growly names — is also due out this year. There are countless Linux variants being upgraded all the time, but that doesn’t mean that everybody shifts operating systems all the time. Will you be upgrading this year? It is the way of the technology journalist that I’ll be upgrading multiple ...

Has The Pirate Bay Been Sunk By DDoS?

Alex Kidman — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:00:31 +1000

It’s fair to say that The Pirate Bay isn’t the favourite destination of many in Hollywood — at least not at least as far as they’ll admit. But it’s been only available at a spotty rate over the past day, apparently due to a DDoS attack. The Pirate Bay certainly isn’t the only online haven for materials of dubious copyright provenance, but it’s ea ...

Breakfast Wrap: Best Of Wednesday Night

Elly Hart — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:00:31 +1000

When People Discuss Android Fragmentation, This Is What They Mean The developers certainly have their work cut out for them. Were Prehistoric War Dogs Key To Humanity’s Survival? And the cats would have just let us roll over and die? US Navy Had A Hoverboard Way Before Marty McFly Watch the video — it’s hilarious. Rumourmodo: Google To Partner With Multiple Partners For Multiple Nexu ...

Whitenoise: Gizmodo Community Talkback

Logan Booker — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:30:33 +1000

Welcome to Whitenoise, where you can come to talk about anything you want with other Gizmodo readers. At the moment, I’m stoked the Bombers smashed West Coast by 61 points, though I’m sure we will, in true Dons’ fashion, lose to Richmond next week. On the tech side of things, I’m trying not to buy another SSD (an M4 Crucial 128GB), despite the prices being reasonab ...

Android Is Watching You… Even In The Bathroom

Alex Kidman — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:30:59 +1000

Seraku’s Smart Washstand isn’t cheap, but this isn’t a matter of paying a lot for chrome and style; it’s a washstand with inbuilt Android that tracks your weight and appearance over time. Sure, it’s only a prototype right now, but there’s nothing potentially creepy about a mirror connected to the Internet that records you in the b ...

World’s Fastest Amphibious Land Vehicle Could Be Yours For Only $259,500

Alex Kidman — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:00:13 +1000

Sure, it looks like something a Cyberman suffering a mid-life crisis might drive. But the Sea Lion can seriously move, both on land and water. The Sea Lion can (so it’s claimed) hit 201kph on land and 96kph (~52 knots) on water, something that the designer says is only limited by horsepower; the current model uses a Mazda Rotary engine, but could be upgraded f ...

Raspberry Pi Makes A Good Windows 7 Thin Client

Alex Kidman — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:00:35 +1000

You can do all sorts of things with the Raspberry Pi — and that’s exactly the point, because it’s a tinkerer’s budget dream machine. Running Windows 7 on it, however? That’s a little trickier, given its ARM underpinnings — but there’s always a way. The way in this case is by using the Pi as a thin client and remote desktop for an existing Windows 7 machin ...

Turnbull Wants To ‘Set The NBN Free’

Alex Kidman — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:45:42 +1000

The Coalition is anti-NBN, right? If you listen to Tony Abbott, maybe so — he’s apparently more about the highway than the information highway. But if you listen to Malcolm Turnbull, not at all — although predictably he’s very against the current government’s approach to the NBN. In a speech at Broadband World Forum Asia, Turnbull repeated the more recent Coalition ...

Raspberry Pi Will Cost $41 In Australia

Angus Kidman — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:15:11 +1000

There’s still a massive shortage of stock right now, but official Australian distributor RS Components has confirmed that the Raspberry Pi “computer on a board” will sell for about $41 in Australia, including delivery. While it’s not the first example of an operational computer on a chip, the Raspberry Pi has attracted global attention, and the first run earlier in April th ...

Lunchtime Deal: Buy A Blu-Ray Player, Get 50% Off Blu-Rays

Alex Kidman — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:00:35 +1000

JB Hi-Fi’s re-running a deal it’s had previously, where if you buy a standalone Blu-Ray player, you can get any Blu-Ray title you’d like for half price. There’s a top limit of 30 Blu-Rays per player, although given they sell a cheap Soniq player for $79, if you wanted a lot of discs, you could pretty quickly make up the purchase price. [JB Hi-Fi via OzBargain] ...

Gizmodo Asks Dr Karl About His Geek Origins [Video]

Alex Kidman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:00:51 +1000

Dr Karl is many things — an Australian National Living Treasure, recipient of the Ignobel prize, writer of many books, and the nation’s leading science geek. But how did it all start? Gizmodo is traversing the interwebs to chat with geeky celebrities who we’ve always wanted to meet — for this new series sponsored by developer hub,La La Ninja. Get Dr Karl talking and ...

App Deals: iPhone, iPad, Android, WP7

Elly Hart — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:30:50 +1000

MotoHeroz for free on iOS, Demolition Master HD: Project Implode All for free on iPad, ProCapture for 75 per cent off on Android, Power Planner for just 99c on Windows Phone 7, plus more in today’s app deals roundup. Be quick! These prices could go back up at any time. iOS • LiveSketch for free (normally $1.99) • MotoHeroz for free (normally $0.99) • Photo Power for free (n ...

Foxtel On Xbox 360 Adds Kinect Voice And Gestures

Alex Kidman — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:45:39 +1000

If you’re a subscriber to the Foxtel app on Xbox 360, you might have noticed that basic Kinect voice controls don’t work so well. An update due to roll out today should fix that, making Foxtel fully Kinect compliant. You should be prompted for an update — I’ve not yet switched on my own 360 to confirm this — and sign back into Foxtel on Xbox 360 in order to get Kinec ...