Gizmodo Australia

What Happened With The NBN This Week?

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:45:55 +1100

NBN Co announced new satellite contracts, and Malcolm Turnbull wasn’t happy one single bit about it. • NBN Co announced that it had awarded a $620 million contract to Space Systems/Loral to build two satellites for provisioning 12/1Mbps broadband to remote communities, although the tenders for launch and maintenance are still up for consideration [Gizmodo] • Malcolm Turnbull wasn� ...

Week In Review: Star Wars, 4G, Windows + Bacon

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:45:51 +1100

Star Wars in 3D! Bacon in Milkshakes! What do these two things have in common? They’re both amongst the top stories of the week. This is week in review, the best of the week from February 6th to 10th. Culturemodo: The Phantom Menace 3D Review George Lucas may say that it’s “just a movie”, but to many folks, Star Wars is much, much more. We went to the Australian prem ...

It’s A Shark-Eat-Shark World

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:00:18 +1100

In the ocean, you’d figure that you’re either a shark, or something that’s fodder for a shark to eat, right? It turns out that not even sharks are safe from sharks. While diving on the Great Barrier Reef, researchers from the ARC Centre Of Excellence For Coral Reef Studies snapped this shot of a tasselled wobbegong shark. So far, so good. Except for what it’s having for l ...

This Was The Xbox Problem. Here Is The Solution.

Tracey Lien — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:30:50 +1100

No one ever thinks they will be the victim of a phishing scam or account hacking until it finally happens to them. A hacked Xbox LIVE account is an inconvenience at the very least, but how bad can it get and what should you do if you’re a victim? Read more to find out. Andy Bates is a QA engineer from San Jose, California. On July 22, 2011, he made his first phone call to Xbox support after disc ...

Chinese Scientists Sneaking Up On Invisibility Cloak

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:00:52 +1100

We’re hanging out for a genuine invisibility cloak here at Gizmodo, and it looks like Chinese research into the problem may have hit on a working approach, although whether it’s a “cloak” is debatable. The research, online at Scientific Reports comes from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, where they’ve developed a process that uses hexagonal calcite trapezoids glued together; ...

Aussie Pilot Suing Virgin For Want Of An iPad

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:30:12 +1100

An ex-pilot for Virgin Australia is suing the airline for one million dollars relating to back injuries he alleges he suffered due to lugging around 18kg of flight manuals, something he states could not have occurred if the information was stored on an iPad. The Daily Telegraph reports on the case. David Linton Kloster was a pilot for Virgin back in December 2009, when he suffered a back ...

Lucas On Star Wars Updates: It’s “Just A Movie”

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:00:08 +1100

George Lucas has made an awful lot of money out of Star Wars, and while he’s still quite fanatical about his vision for the films, he’s nowhere near as fanatical as his fans are, according to the man himself. Also, Han totally always shot first. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lucas explains his theory behind the recent 3D conversion of Star Wars Episode I: The P ...

Lunchtime Deal: 40% Off Photo Poster Prints

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:00:17 +1100

Harvey Norman’s doing a deal on its Photo prints (and photo books), chopping 40% off the asking price. It’s not really sensible for most folks to keep a photo-quality A3 (or larger) printer handy for those few times that you want a large photo shot, so this could be a good money saving deal. [Harvey Norman] ...

App Deals Of The Day: iPhone, iPad, Android, WP7

Elly Hart — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:00:37 +1100

EA is having a massive Valentine’s Day sale, with up to 85 per cent off popular games like Battleship, The Sims and more. Plus, Newspapers for half price on iPad, Delayed Lock for just 99c on Android, CleverToDo discounted on Windows Phone 7, plus lots more in today’s app deals roundup. iOS • KidCalc 7-in-1 Math Fun for free (normally $0.99) • Rock Prodigy: Guitar for free ( ...

Why Kodak’s Passing Makes Me Sad

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:00:12 +1100

The news that Kodak is pulling out of the hardware market — excepting printers — for good means that, effectively, Kodak is dead. Is this the death knell for the compact digital? OK, so Kodak’s not technically dead. It’ll still make inexpensive printers, and naturally enough as every technology firm since the dawn of time, it’ll also look to leverage its vast digital ...

Aussie Cops Bust Hundreds Of Drivers In Mobile Phone Sting

Danny Allen — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:00:13 +1100

Do you text while driving? Despite the warnings, embarrassment and potential to rear-end someone (or worse) — about 23 per cent of NSW motorists admit to checking a text or taking a call while driving, according to 2011 research from Newspoll and insurance firm Bingle. Little wonder that NSW cops caught 796 motorists talking or texting on their phones during ‘Operation Compliance’ ...

Breakfast Wrap: Best Of Thursday Night

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:00:04 +1100

Download The Entire Pirate Bay In Just 90MB Arr! Bits of eight! Glimpse Your Future As An Elderly Curmudgeon Glimpse? Future? Bah! Broke Kodak Will Halt Camera Production Sad days. My first compact digital was a Kodak. Do Apple Users Care Enough To Protest Chinese Working Conditions? Would you give up your iGadgets? Fear The Deer — Nature’s Unstoppable Killing Machines I’d like to say th ...

Whitenoise: Gizmodo Community Talkback

Logan Booker — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:45:15 +1100

Welcome to Whitenoise, where you can come to talk about anything you want with other Gizmodo readers. How did January treat you? Heck, can you believe it’s February already? Come share with your fellow readers. A new week, a new thread. Feel free to take the conversation anywhere you like. Create some whitenoise by commenting below… ...

Rumourmodo: iPad 3 Event Early March?

Alex Kidman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:45:45 +1100

You know how it goes… rumour sites get an idea, somebody cryptically “confirms” it, and suddenly it’s set in stone. Today’s rumour du jour? Apple will launch the iPad 3 in early March. Today’s rumour comes from AllThingsD, which states that “sources” (quote marks my own) say that Apple will hold an event in the first week of March to announce t ...

Qantas A380 Grounding Reflects “Teething Problems”

Angus Kidman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:15:01 +1100

Qantas’ grounding of one A380 aircraft and Airbus’ subsequent plans to check all flying A380s might have made some flyers nervous, but one Australian expert says the move reflects “teething problems” and shouldn’t stress travellers. Picture by Jimmy Harris University of New South Wales senior lecturer Peter Marosszeky told the Australian Science Media Centre ...

NASA’s Concept Planes Of The Future: Gallery

Alex Kidman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:45 +1100

Fuel efficiency, noise reduction and looking like they could hide Batman are obviously high on NASA’s priority list. Qantas is having its woes today with its fleet of A380s, but perhaps it should be looking far forward in the way that NASA is. NASA’s seeking to find cleaner and greener ways to fly, and is working with the giants of the airplane industry to come up with new concepts; w ...

Billy Connolly Is The Newest Hobbit Cast Member

Alex Kidman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:15:38 +1100

Billy Connolly is many things. A great Scottish comedian. A man not afraid to get his kit off, even when asked not to. Now, he can add “mighty dwarven warrior” to that list, as he’s just been confirmed in the role of Dain Ironfoot in The Hobbit. The confirmation comes from Weta’s site, with the following comment attributed to Peter Jackson: “We could not think of a m ...

Lumia Concept Tablet Looks Great, Doesn’t Exist

Alex Kidman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:45:05 +1100

There’s a lot of excitement online today about a Nokia Lumia Windows 8 tablet. The only problem? It doesn’t exist. This is not to say that Nokia’s not working on a Tablet per se — it would certainly be fair to suggest that it’s probably been kicked around Nokia’s labs once or twice. However, the concept image — and the accompanying specifications, which ...

Nokia’s Belle Not Coming To The Aussie Ball [Updated]

Alex Kidman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:15:00 +1100

Got a Nokia Symbian phone and waiting expectantly for the Belle update? You’ll have to keep polishing those crystal slippers and crying into your broom a little longer; while Nokia’s rolled out the Belle update to other customers worldwide, Aussies have to wait. CNET reports on the issue, which appears to hang — as is so often the case with Android phones — on car ...

Lunchtime Deal: Cheap O’Reilly eBooks

Alex Kidman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:00:19 +1100

This one’s a bit of a workaround, but O’Reilly offers eBook versions of many of its titles considerably cheaper than their print counterparts. All you really need is the ISBN number of the title you want. A thread over at OzBargain details what you need to do; given the steps I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that O’Reilly knows all about this and does nothing to disc ...