Primus reveals 300GB NBN plans

31
Primus Telecom today revealed its National Broadband Network pricing for the early roll-out sites in Tasmania, with the ISP's top plan featuring 300GB of download quota at 100Mbps speeds for $139 when not bundled with an additional internet telephony line.

Consumer group has piracy conflict of interest

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A substantial conflict of interest issue has arisen regarding the participation by the sole consumer group invited to attend the Government's secret Internet piracy talks, with the group's chairman attending the meetings also currently leading the peak national organisation devoted to advocating copyright on behalf of creative professionals.

Eftel buys Engin from Seven

24
Diversified media group Seven has offloaded its ill-fated Internet telephony business Engin for just $9.1 million, in the second move by Seven this year to shift its emphasis away from failed investments in Australia’s telecommunications sector.

Lifeline calls for CIO

0
Crisis organisation Lifeline has advertised for a chief information officer, describing the position as a "newly established role" that would give the chosen executive a chance to make their mark in an organisation that itself makes a difference to the lives of many Australians.

Reform still needed despite Telstra deal, says Optus

0
Australia's number two telco Optus has “cautiously” welcomed a wide-ranging deal revealed today between Telstra and NBN Co; however the SingTel subsidiary also emphasised what it said was the continuing importance of legislation to reform the telecommunications sector as a whole.

Village Roadshow goes cloud with Interactive, NetApp

Village Roadshow, the Melbourne-based company that has been entertaining Australians since 1954 with theme parks, resorts and attractions, cinemas, music and DVD distribution, has moved its data storage to the cloud. The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) data centre model for Village Roadshow was built on NetApp hardware and provided by service provider Interactive to manage Village Roadshow’s substantial data growth.

Google Nexus S skips Australia

11
This morning Google unveiled the Nexus S, the latest in its self-branded line-up of Android phones, and the first device globally to ship with the new 2.3 'Gingerbread' version of its operating system. The caveat? The search giant has no plans so far to launch the device in Australia.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 will cost $729 outright

10
Korean technology manufacturer Samsung this morning revealed it would launch the new, 10.1" version of its Galaxy Tab tablet device through Vodafone, undercutting the price of its smaller 7" model significantly by introducing the tablet at the price of $729 outright.

4.6 million jobs “at risk” without future-ready workforce

8
According to StartupAUS, an advocacy group for startups, up to 4.6 million Australian jobs may be at risk within a decade if Australia fails to create a future-ready workforce.

VCE Coalition adds NBN Co notch to its belt

0
The cloud infrastructure consortium which counts VMware, Cisco and EMC as its members has added yet another major Australian company to its growing list of conquests, revealing yesterday that NBN Co had inked a contract with lead supplier Cisco to kit out its datacentre to the tune of $9.5 million over the next three years.

Surprised MS apologises for Meter Maids’ bikinis

21
Microsoft has apologised to any attendees at its Tech.Ed conference on the Gold Coast who were scandalised by its use of Meter Maid girls...

TPG will raise $300 million to repay iiNet debt and support initiatives

0
Australian telco giant TPG Telecom Ltd announced yesterday it plans to raise $300 million through a placement of shares to "sophisticated and institutional" investors in Australia and certain overseas jurisdictions.

SingTel, SubPartners, Telstra to build new Perth-Singapore fibre cable

6
Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra have inked a deal to build a new international submarine cable that will carry data between Perth and Singapore.

Will Finance split AGIMO in two?

0
One of the key questions which Ian Reinecke was commissioned to answer in his review of how successful the Federal Government has been in implementing the recommendations stemming from the Gershon review was what the future of the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO).

CONROY’S NEW NEMESIS: Malcolm Turnbull

3
Former Opposition Leader Malcom Turnbull has been appointed Shadow Communications Minister, taking over the portfolio from Tony Smith who has been demoted to parliamentary secretary. Turnbull will now face Communications Minister Stephen Conroy on the National Broadband Network (NBN) battleground.

DTO’s Digital Marketplace enters beta stage

3
The Digital Transformation Office's (DTO) Digital Marketplace has now reached the Beta stage of its development, according to a DTO blog post.

We’ve upgraded Samsung’s Galaxy S II, claims Telstra

19
The nation's largest telco Telstra has justified its late launch of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S II handset this month by stating it has made a number of improvements to the device which won't appear when customers buy the high-level handset from other carriers.

Changing the enterprise IT buying paradigm

0
What innovative thinkers in Australia and the US are trying to get to right now is a more flexible and responsive model of buying enterprise IT goods and services. Most of the discussion around this in Australia is currently taking place in the context of cloud computing. But there's more to it than that.

Labor demands Turnbull release NBN business plan

39
The Opposition has demanded that the Government release a full business plan for its heavily revised version of the National Broadband Network.

Never gonna give you up: ACCC takes TPG to High Court

25
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission this morning flagged plans to appeal a bruising legal loss against TPG, with the regulator continuing to push its case that TPG's 'unlimited' ADSL and telephone bundle advertisements were misleading.

Quickflix goes into administration, blames rival firm

10
Australian streamed content provider Quickflix has announced that it has gone into administration, claiming that Nine Entertainment Co and Fairfax Media Limited are to blame for its problems.

$800m gorilla: Telstra seeds its cloud

3
The nation’s largest telco Telstra today started throwing its sizable weight around in Australia’s burgeoning cloud computing market, throwing down a $800 million investment in the space and revealing a tranche of new corporate customers.

Consumer VoIP not reliable, says Telstra

27
Telstra today said it did not believe Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony could deliver sufficient reliability and quality to enable the telco to launch a VoIP service to consumers, despite revealing plans to launch a VoIP service to small businesses, including those with staff working from home.

Consumer advocacy group calls for independent assessment of TPP

3
Consumer advocacy group CHOICE has called for an independent assessment of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement after the full text was released last week – months after the Australian government already agreed to its terms.

‘Unbalanced’: Turnbull hammers ABC again on NBN

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Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has again hit out at the reporting of the National Broadband Network debate by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, accusing the broadcaster of “superficial, misleading and unbalanced reporting” of the issue and detailing a litany of complaints about the ABC’s Lateline program specifically.

NTT swoops on Frontline

0
NTT today revealed it would purchase 70 percent of Australian technology services firm Frontline Systems, in the Japanese technology consortium’s second major step into the Australian market, following the acquisition of tier two IT services player Dimension Data in mid-2010.

CommBank ditches softphone strategy for smartphones

19
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has confirmed plans to substantially modify its high-profile softphone-based unified communications strategy recently implemented at its flagship Commonwealth Bank Place facility in Sydney, turning instead to a mass smartphone deployment as its replacement.

Vodafone not selling iPhone 5 to new customers

10
National mobile carrier Vodafone has confirmed it is declining to sell the iPhone 5 handset which launched last week to new customers, with the carrier turning away those not already on Vodafone plans, in favour of prioritising getting the hyped Apple device to its existing customer base first.

Does e-tax 2010 have a security hole?

4
The denizens of global security mailing list Bugtraq have started discussing whether the Australian Taxation Office's e-tax 2010 software -- currently being used by millions of Australians to submit their tax returns -- has a security hole in it, due to the way it deals with remote Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates.

“Intense” interest but no Aussie Google datacentre yet

1
Google has refused to rule out constructing an Australian datacentre, amid what analysts and partners say is "intense" interest from large Australian organisations in the search giant's cloud computing Apps suite.

Optus offers Nokia Lumia 800 deals

Pre-orders for the Nokia Lumia 800, the first Nokia smartphone with Windows Phone 7 operating system, are now available, with exclusive online offers announced by Optus in a statement this week. The offers (valid until 29 February) come as a precursor to the much anticipated launch of the handset in Australia on 1 March.

PlayStation 3 adds Quickflix streaming for Christmas

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia has announced that it is expanding its on-demand services in Australia with the launch yesterday of the Quickflix subscription movie streaming service for PlayStation 3 (PS3). The PS3 Quickflix service will offer unlimited movie viewing with a continually updated catalogue.

Gartner Symposium 2010: Photos

0
Gartner is the international behemoth of technology analyst firms -- its every word held as gospel by the global teeming legions of chief information officers and IT managers. And every year Gartner's mecca is its Symposium conference series, which travels the globe accompanied by scores of analysts and research directors. This week the event hit Sydney. How many magic quadrants can you count?

Tasmania flags telco contract overhaul

1
The Tasmanian State Government has lifted the lid on a major overhaul of the way it buys voice and mobile telecommunications services, in an initiative which could see other providers take more of the telco spending pie it currently mainly allocates to Telstra.

Tabcorp continues Telstra love affair

0
Wagering giant Tabcorp revealed this week that it had signed a new comprehensive telecommunications services deal with Telstra, in the latest contract the pair have inked in an extensive relationship dating back at least half a decade and covering a wide range of technology services.

NSW Govt adopts Android Pay

1
The New South Wales Government has adopted Android Pay as a payment method at service centres across the state, and said it is the first Australian Government to do so.

Shocker: NBN Co govt chief talks to politicians

24
I'm appalled. And I can only get down on one knee and thank God that we had The Australian to uncover this issue. Who know what would have happened if this disaster hadn't been exposed.

New ASUS Eee PC hits Australia mid-Feb

1
The portable computer market has come a long way since ASUS kicked off the netbook revolution in 2007, and some are predicting tablets will do much to take their place over the next several years. But ASUS, for one, is still pushing the netbook form factor to the max.

ANZ CEO announces head of digital role in raft of executive changes

0
Along with a number of significant changes to the executive team at ANZ, the bank's new CEO Shayne Elliott has announced plans to create a role for a new head of digital banking.

Microsoft’s giant Aussie Office 365 migration has started

13
Software and services giant Microsoft last week revealed it had started migrating the data of its Australian customers onto datacentres based locally, in a move that will affect customers in Australia, Fiji and New Zealand.

Govt censors secret anti-piracy meeting notes

29
Citing the "public interest", the Federal Attorney-General's Department has censored from documents released under Freedom of Information laws eight pages of notes taken by one of its staff members at a secret meeting held in September last year to address the issue of Internet piracy, after initially stating that no minutes were taken of the meeting.

NBN Co seeks passive network suppliers

0
The National Broadband Network Company has commenced a request for proposals process through which it will seek suppliers of passive network equipment -- or in other words, the optical fibre and terminal connecting devices which will constitute its planned network around the nation.

End of an era: CIO Harte leaves CommBank

2
The Commonwealth Bank's long-serving and highly decorated chief information officer Michael Harte has announced he will shortly leave the bank to take up a senior role at UK-based Barclays Bank, in a move that signals the end of an era for CommBank's IT operations.

Nationals Leader factually incorrect (again) on NBN

51
The Federal Leader of the Nationals, Warren Truss, has for the second time this year made a major factually incorrect public statement with regards to Labor's National Broadband Network project, inaccurately stating that no resident in his electorate would be able to connect to the infrastructure until "at least the latter part of this decade".

ACCC raises competition concerns over NBN’s Telstra HFC deal

14
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has expressed concerns around Telstra’s involvement in the rollout of the NBN network, saying it poses a threat to competition.

Salesforce a winner as NSW’s ChildStory project announces vendors

7
The NSW Department of Family & Community Services' ChildStory project has announced the winning vendors for a $100-million IT platform that is aimed to boost child safety in the state.

Data#3 revenues up, but profits down

Australian diversified ICT services group Data#3 Limited on Monday reported a 15 per cent increase in group revenue at $435.8 million for the second half of 2011, in line with projections and well ahead of overall industry growth. However, the net profit after tax (NPAT) of $7.2 million was down 9.5 per cent from the previous year, which was a particularly good one for the company.

Qantas CIO jets off to France

0
Qantas this afternoon revealed its chief information officer Luc Hennekens would leave the company at the end of September, after three years leading the IT operation of Australia's largest airline.

Rivals NASH teeth as IBM wins e-health deal

0
IBM today revealed it had won a $23.6 million contract with the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) to deliver the Federal Government's National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) project.

Scott misleads Senate about Q&A’s NBN coverage

47
Mark Scott appears to have unintentionally misled the Federal Senate about the degree to which the broadcaster's Q&A program covers the National Broadband Network issue, with the ABC managing director yesterday erroneously claiming that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull had faced "many questions" about the issue on the show.

Vocus and Nextgen to build Australia-Singapore 100Gbit/s high-speed cable

7
Vocus Communications has confirmed that it has signed a non-binding agreement with Nextgen Networks to construct a high-speed Australia-Singapore submarine cable (ASC) and and is currently "engaged in due diligence on the opportunity".

The day of the spill: Australia’s tech sector reacts

0
The Labor leadership spill events of the past 24 hours that have led to the swearing-in of Julia Gillard as Australia's first female Prime Minister have been an emotional roller coaster for the Australian public -- it has an been an attention-grabbing blockbuster of Hollywood proportions.

‘Superceded’: Hadley joins Jones in wireless NBN attack

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Radio shockjock Ray Hadley has joined fellow 2GB commentator Alan Jones in attacking Labor's National Broadband Network project for using fibre technology to upgrade Australia's broadband infrastructure, with Hadley claiming the fibre could be superceded over the next two decades by "something we don't even know about".

Govt to extend NBN’s fibre reach to 93 percent

0
The Federal Government will extend its planned fibre rollout under the National Broadband Network from an initial 90 percent of Australian premises to 93 percent – covering an additional 1.6 million extra premises.

DHS CIO Coles takes central Vic Govt role

0
Well-regarded IT executive Grahame Coles has resigned from his role as chief information officer at Victoria's massive Department of Human Services to take up a key position in the state's newly created central Office of the Chief Technology Advocate, with the department to conduct a national search for his replacement.

NBN policy spurred Internode buyout, says Hackett

12
Internode's inability to gain sufficient scale to compete in a National Broadband Network world was a core reason why he decided to sell the company to rival Internet service provider iiNet, Internode supremo Simon Hackett said this afternoon.

ATO brings Linux users in from the cold

3
The Australian Taxation Office has taken a critical step towards long-awaited support for Linux users of its online services, revealing today it had released a new version of its AUSkey authentication software that supported the minority operating system.

Tableau beds down Telstra Super

0
US business intelligence vendor Tableau Software has claimed Telstra's superannuation fund Telstra Super as a major Australian client, with the company deploying Tableau's solution to gain additional insight into its membership and transactional data.

Alice Springs tracks students with GPS

7
The latest privacy invasive technique comes courtesy of The Australian newspaper, which reports that a school in Alice Springs is using GPS tracking to ensure kids attends school.

Aussie cloud computing market has no ‘leader’: Ovum

5
Australia's market for cloud computing services so far lacks a “dominant leader”, according to one local analyst – and the title could be anyone's as the market starts to pick up pace.

Blackbird reveals whopping $200m tech startup VC fund

0
Australian tech-focused venture capital fund Blackbird this week announced it had raised $200 million to invest in fast-growing Australian technology startups, in the largest funding round of its kind seen in Australia.

USO scope should be broadened, says ACCAN

2
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has said the Universal Service Obligation (USO) needs an "expanded scope", as well as measures to increase affordability and inclusion for people with disabilities to ensure all consumers have access to essential communications services.

iiNet taking lion’s share of NBN customers

33
National broadband provider iiNet has revealed it is taking the lion's share of customers who have connected to the National Broadband Network so far, with other large ISPs such as TPG lagging behind due to their unwillingness to engage with the new national network.

Greens finalise NBN joint committee

5
The Australian Greens today revealed it had reached an agreement with the Government to create a new parliamentary Joint Committee to oversee the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

$1.2m: Aussie startup Scriptrock gets funded

7
Australian IT startup Scriptrock has won venture capital funding of $1.2 million from a list of names which reads like a who's who of the local and international technology investment scene.

Domain dumps spreadsheets for Salesforce

0
Real-estate marketing specialist Domain Group has abandoned spreadsheets and integrated with Salesforce's cloud platform in a bid to improve its customer relationship management process.

Video: Watch Telstra’s T-Box in action

5
In this video Telstra's Julie Ceresa demonstrates the user interface of the telco's new T-Box integrated personal video recorder, TV tuner and IPTV platform, at Telstra's Sydney headquarters at 400 George St.

40%: Australian enterprise prefers the iPhone

9
40 percent of Australian enterprises now see the iPhone as their preferred staff smartphone model, new research has revealed, in a remarkable demonstration of just how dramatically Apple's flagship handset has shaken up the nation's corporate mobile fleets over the past four years.

Turnbull requests Labor’s secret NBN docs

49
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has written to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten requesting the Labor leader release cabinet documents from the previous Labor administration relating to the National Broadband Network, despite the fact that Turnbull himself is holding back similar material from the Coalition's period in power.

“Cooked books”: Abbott misleads on NBN

119
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott appears to have made a number of mistakes or factual inaccuracies in a wide-ranging speech criticising Labor's National Broadband Network project, alleging, for example, that the project's funding was based on "cooked books" and that retail prices would be three times higher than on current broadband networks.

Canon acquires Converga from New Zealand Post

0
Canon Australia announced Monday it has fully acquired New Zealand Post Group subsidiary Converga for an undisclosed sum.

Budget 2011: Filter grants cancelleddue to lack of interest

8
The Federal Government tonight announced that it would not proceed with a funding program which has seen Australian internet service providers provided with grants to offer internet filtering options to customers; citing a lack of interest in the project.

Will Microsoft ever get its ‘cloud’ ads right?

11
From Long Zheng's I Started Something blog comes news of more 'To the cloud' television advertisements from Microsoft. The good news? They're better than...

NSW kickstarts cloud email, virtual desktop trial

12
The New South Wales State Government today kicked off two trials of virtual desktop and cloud email services, in a move which could eventually signal a mass migration of some 30,000 government users into the cloud and which represents one of the first concrete steps by the state into the new cloud computing landscape.

Aussie piracy report a “farce”, says Pirate Party

9
The Australian Pirate Party has attacked a study commissioned by the Australian Content Industry Group (ACIG) and put together by research group Sphere Analysis, calling it “a farce”.

Hockey wrong on 4G, says analyst

33
A senior telecommunications analyst who has previously praised the Coalition's alternative NBN policy has heavily criticised Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey over his claims that 4G mobile broadband could be "far superior" to the NBN's fibre in some areas.

Attorney-General rings in Cyber Storm III

2
Rung in by Attorney General Robert McClelland, the four day long international cybersecurity exercise Cyber Storm III - a simulation to test response times and show up public and private sector exploits - launched in Australia today. Major Australian private sectors and government sectors joining in the furor as either participants or as passive observers.

Morrow predicts “NBN Generation” by 2020

0
By 2020, NBN Co expects Australia will be "the first country of our size" to make broadband access universal, according to Bill Morrow, the firm's CEO.

NBN Co preps IT tenders

0
The National Broadband Network Company will late on Friday afternoon call for submissions from technology vendors interested in supplying the core IT systems for...

Conroy keeps local Telstra calls at 22c

4
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today announced an extension of price control arrangements on Telstra that will see the telco be forced to continue charging 22c for untimed local calls from home phones and 50c from payphones.

Turnbull sends TPG share price into tailspin

40
A statement made yesterday by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull which appeared to have undercut the stability of Australia's telecommunications regulatory environment has had a dramatic impact on the share price of national broadband provider TPG, with the company's stock taking a steep dive yesterday.

NSW finalises colossal datacentre consolidation

10
The New South Wales State Government this week announced the Leighton subsidiary Metronode as the winner of its long-running and wide-ranging datacentre overhaul project, with the company to construct two new substantial facilities which will allow the state to consolidate its IT operations drastically.

“An absolute national imperative”: Matt Barrie’s epic rant on Australia’s IT investment

16
Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie has published an impassioned article on his LinkedIn profile strongly heavily criticising the Government for its underinvestment in the technology sector, which he said had led to a situation where Australia is devoid of good IT talent and "missing out" on the ongoing industry revolution.

AFP arrests alleged telco hacker

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have this morning confirmed a 25-year-old Australian man has been arrested after allegedly hacking into an NBN wholesale provider’s systems.

Telstra releases Galaxy Nexus pricing

3
After dropping a series of hints about the matter over the past week, Telstra finally confirmed this morning that it would launch Samsung's highly anticipated Galaxy Nexus handset in Australia this week, claiming pole position locally with sales due to start tomorrow (Wednesday morning).

Turnbull involves NBN contractor in Canning by-election

24
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull appears to have called in National Broadband Network contractor Fulton Hogan to assist with a political photo opportunity associated with the by-election campaign in the Canning electorate in South-East Perth and Mandurah.

We predicted NBN construction blow-outs: Turnbull

12
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull late last week claimed the Opposition and sections of the telecommunications industry had predicted the NBN construction costs would blow out beyond the Government's estimates, in the wake of news that NBN Co had been forced to halt its tendering process in the area, after negotiations with suppliers broke down over price.

Budget 2016: Govt finally provides funding for OAIC

5
The Government today revealed it had decided to abandon its approach of dismantling the Office of the Information Commissioner and would provide total funding of $37 million over four years to retain its Freedom of Information and privacy functions, although it will pull a sizable chunk of funding from the Australian Human Rights Commission to do so.

Dell Streak exposes itself for Optus

12
It's been a long courtship, but Dell has finally found a match made in Heaven for its Streak mini-tablet and combination smartphone, with Optus set to launch the device in Australia with a three month exclusive starting from October 1.

Vodafone grows customer numbers by 135,000, revenue by 4.5 percent

0
Vodafone has announced its Australian growth figures for 2015, saying that its customer base increased by 135,000 customer – a 2.5% year-on-year increase to 5,437 million.

HP TouchPad launch looms in Australia

3
Global technology giant HP has given a strong indication that it will shortly launch its flagship TouchPad tablet in Australia, inviting local media to a briefing next week regarding the device.

Datacom core to Lockheed’s ATO deal

0
Trans-Tasman IT services company Datacom today revealed it would play a key role in helping Lockheed Martin service a mammoth $283 million desktop services deal with the Australian Taxation Office inked this year.

NSW education board seeks Chief Digital Officer to drive innovation

0
The New South Wales Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) is seeking a Chief Digital Officer to drive innovation across schools in the state.

Labor dances around telco national security support

6
Labor’s Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland has made a series of nebulous statements expressing vague concern about the Government’s latest package of telco-related national security reform, but without actually taking a position on the controversial legislation.

Adobe’s biennial tradition: 50% Aussie price hikes

41
Global software giant Adobe has continued a long-running tradition of extensively marking up its prices for the Australian market, revealing yesterday that locals would pay up to $1,400 more for the exact same software when they buy the new version 6 of its Creative Suite platform compared to residents of the United States.

Telstra still upgrading the HFC network it is selling to NBN Co

6
The nation's largest telco Telstra has revealed it will invest a significant amount of capital upgrading the HFC cable network it has contracted to sell to the NBN company, in a move which raises questions about the long-term future of the network.

Atlassian acquires StatusPage

0
Software giant Atlassian has announced the acquisition of its long-term partner StatusPage, a provider of status and incident communication services.

Wikileaks cable outs secret iiTrial background

54
A document published by Wikileaks appearing to be a US diplomatic cable appears to have revealed much of the previously hidden background behind the iiNet/AFACT court case, including the Motion Picture Association of America's prime mover role and US Embassy fears the trial could become portrayed as "giant American bullies versus little Aussie battlers".

NBN: How core is self-interest to the debate?

16
One of the signatories to a national broadband proposal unveiled at the eleventh hour to rival Labor’s own long-running NBN project has accused vendors and telcos of stirring up hype for a fibre-optic cable future in line with a view to serving their own interests in generating massive contracts and gaining operating certainty.

Medibank nicks ANZ exec to lead IT operations

0
Health insurer Medibank Private this week revealed it had nicked a senior IT executive from ANZ Bank who had also led IT for the UK’s National Health Service to lead Medibank’s IT operations.

ABC embroiled in copyright debate over iview

22
The ABC has found itself caught up in a copyright debate after it forced the removal of an application that enabled people to download and watch programs offered on its iview service.

Victorious Samsung to launch tablet for Christmas

11
Korean electronics giant Samsung today claimed victory in its patent court battle against iPad manufacturer Apple and confirmed plans to launch its Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet before Christmas through a variety of Australian retailers.

Apple reveals Aussie pricing for new Macs

0
Apple this morning released Australian pricing on its refreshed iMac and Mac Pro lines, as well as a new multi-touch trackpad peripheral. However, it has not yet released Australian pricing for its new 27" LED display, saying only that "international" pricing would be available in September.

Call to arms: Budde says FTTdp NBN needs our support

154
Independent telecommunications consultant Paul Budde has called for Australians to do more to ensure the rollout a "future-proof" NBN that includes a full-fibre network (including FTTdp) rather than the fibre and copper mix that is currently being promoted by government.

“No public interest”: NBN obstructs release of board minutes

61
The NBN company has refused to reduce hefty Freedom of Information charges for the release of minutes of its board meetings, claiming there is “no general public interest” in the documents being released.

iiNet made CTO Lindsay redundant

40
iiNet made its outgoing Adelaide-based chief technology officer John Lindsay redundant, it has emerged, as the company appears to be increasingly centralising the technical management of its infrastructure to its head office in Perth.

Delimiter files FOI request for Data Retention agency ‘scope creep’ requests

2
Technology media outlet Delimiter today filed a Freedom of Information request for letters from public sector departments and agencies who are seeking to be added to the list of agencies authorised to access retained metadata under the Government's controversial Data Retention legislation.

Telstra again threatens to cancel NBN deal

6
Telstra has reportedly threatened to walk away from its $11 billion deal with the Federal Government and the National Broadband Network Company, with its pricing and access arrangements with other smaller telcos again becoming the sticking point with the potential to scuttle the landmark contract.

A million Australians use LinkedIn

0
Professional social networking site LinkedIn today revealed it had recently hit the one million mark of Australians on its network and was expanding its operations locally.

Hockey admits: We can’t shut down the NBN

50
Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey yesterday admitted that the Opposition would find it hard to “shut down” the National Broadband Network project completely if it wins the upcoming Federal Election in September, and would release further details “in the next few weeks” about the Coalition’s plans for the project.

SA Govt CIO to fix Victoria’s IT nightmare

7
The Victorian State Government has appointed Grantley Mailes, a former whole of government chief information officer for sister state South Australia, to lead a committee to establish a new wide-ranging IT strategy to resolve Victoria's ongoing problems with IT service and project delivery.

Telstra wins $474m DHS telco contract

3
Telstra has emerged as the victor from a prolonged tendering process for a comprehensive suite of telecommunications services at the Federal Department of Human Services, announcing today that it had won a deal with the department worth $474 million.

Samsung Pay hits Australia via AMEX and Citibank

1
Mobile wallet app Samsung Pay launched yesterday in Australia, with American Express and Citibank as its supporting card issuers.

Telstra’s 4G HTC Android on sale Tuesday

8
The nation's largest telco Telstra will next Tuesday start selling the first smartphone to be able to fully take advantage of its growing 4G/LTE network: A HTC model running Google's Android operating system and dubbed the 'HTC Velocity 4G'.

La Trobe Uni deploys TechOne cloud app

0
La Trobe University in Melbourne has extended its existing partnership with Australian software as a service (SaaS) provider TechnologyOne with the signing of a Student Management SaaS deal.

NBN: Australia can’t trust Labor, says Turnbull

Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has issued a scorching statement on Labor's track record in building the National Broadband Network, declaring that the three-year NBN rollout plan delivered last week was "a duplicitous and ham-fisted attempt" to conceal its failure to deliver.

Primus may dump voluntary ISP filter

7
National broadband provider Primus has given its first indication that it may have changed its mind about implementing a voluntary ISP-based filter to block child pornography from reaching its customers, despite making a commitment on the issue 12 months ago to the Federal Government.

Farr’s forward march: Defence wins IT funding

0
A number of high-profile technology projects which have been on the Department of Defence’s drawing board for years have been approved by the Federal Government, paving the way for hundreds of millions of dollars of technology spending to be unlocked over the next decade under the guidance of Defence chief information officer Greg Farr (pictured).

“Fibre zealots”: The Australian backs Ziggy’s Caretaker breach

32
A senior columnist at The Australian newspaper has backed what he described as Ziggy Switkoski's "well-aimed" breach of the Caretaker Conventions, supporting the idea that the NBN chair's action was necessary to deal with "rumourtrage" about the project.

Health departments shun official iPad trials

5
Consumers love it. Business professionals in a wide range of fields love it. Politicians (hello, Mr Turnbull) love it. Even babies love it. And increasingly, doctors and other medical professionals love it. But six months after the iPad launched in Australia and with the hyped Apple tablet selling like hotcakes, Australia’s health departments don’t yet appear to be that interested in the device.

NSW Govt launches Opal card on ferries

17
However, the new Coalition Government in NSW over the weekend shone a ray of light into the public transport smartcard ticketing situation, with the new Opal smartcard being launched on Sydney ferries, to start with.

NBN satellite engineer wins Australia Day honours

4
One of the key engineers who helped guide the NBN company's first satellite into orders has been awarded Australia Day Honours.

Turnbull “stuffed up” NBN costs, says Labor

27
The Labor Opposition has responded to the release of NBN Co's Corporate Plan 2016, saying that that document confirms that "every assumption [Prime MInister] Turnbull made when he was Minister responsible for the NBN was wrong".

Qld Health payroll: The lawsuit may be back on

6
The new LNP Queensland Government is reportedly attempting to source legal advice created for the previous Bligh Labor Government with respect to whether it would be feasible to sue vendors involved in the disastrous Queensland Health payroll systems implementation.

Sysadmin victory: Bulletproof to list on ASX

0
Sydney-based hosting and cloud computing company Bulletproof Networks has unexpectedly revealed its intention to list on the Australian Stock Exchange through a reverse takeover of a mining firm, in the second example in as many months of a major Australian technology firm going public.

Volvo starts testing kangaroo avoidance tech

6
Volvo is developing a unique system that uses radar and camera technology to detect kangaroos, in order to avoid collisions with the animals, one of the most common causes of traffic collisions in Australia.

Turnbull in conflict of interest investment

50
Malcolm Turnbull has disclosed a new financial investment in France Telecom that places the Shadow Communications Minister in a significant conflict of interest situation with respect to the French telco, due to its extensive business operations in Australia through its Orange Business Services brand, including some 240 local staff.

Analysis by ex-NBN CTO shows NBN activation rate is actually slowing

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Analysis by the NBN company's first chief technology officer Gary McLaren appears to have shown that the activation rate of new NBN broadband connections is actually slowing, in a move that McLaren has speculated may be due to political reasons in an election year or merely the difficulty of dealing with copper and HFC technologies.

Read in full: Mike Quigley launches devastating critique of MTM policy

214
Founding NBN chief executive Mike Quigley this evening launched a devastating attack on the Coalition's controversial Multi-Technology Mix model, using detailed analysis to show that the policy has set the NBN back years and resulted in cost blowouts to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

Telstra tests high-speed encryption on its carrier network

4
Telstra has trialled high-speed optical encryption in its production network between Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney claiming it as a "world first" in data safety.

NBN to hold HFC launch days before Election

91
The NBN company has revealed plans to hold a product launch just days before the upcoming Federal Election, in a move which has the potential to be interpreted as a breach of the Caretaker Conventions that govern the pre-election behaviour of public sector organisations.

Primus, Internode & iiNet: First Tassie NBN ISPs

0
Primus, Internode and iiNet are the first internet service providers who have signed up to sell services off the back of the Tasmanian arm of the National Broadband Network from July, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced today.

Budget 2016: NBN Co is running out of money

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The Federal Government has revealed that it has put together a special taskforce to determine how to fund its modified rollout of the National Broadband Network, with the project's costs ballooning and the public purse running dry of funds to support it.

“Large ISP” (TPG?) refuses to deploy Interpol filter

48
The Australian Federal Police has revealed that its limited mandatory ISP filtering scheme based on a list of offensive sites supplied by Interpol has not yet been taken up by most of Australia's ISPs, with only Telstra and Optus having implemented the filter so far and a further "large ISP" having flat out refused to comply with the project.

NBN Co turfs CTO, CFO, head of commercial

12
Incoming National Broadband Network Company chief executive Bill Morrow has turfed at least three key executives at the company after just one week on the job, with long-time and respected NBN Co head of corporate and commercial Kevin Brown, chief financial officer Robin Payne and chief technology officer Gary McLaren (pictured in order above) to leave NBN Co pronto.

iiNet, Internode, Primus discuss filter with AFP

59
Australian ISPs iiNet, Internode and Primus are preparing to implement the limited Internet filtering scheme promulgated in Australia by the Australian Federal Police in cooperation with international policing agency Interpol, the AFP stated in documents revealed this week.

Westpac CIO Whincup to lead Woolworths’ IT

0
Westpac chief information officer Clive Whincup is set to leave his position just weeks after it was revealed the bank had dramatically shaken up its senior IT executive team, with retail giant Woolworths having reportedly confirmed the executive as its new CIO to replace outgoing IT chief Daniel Beecham.

Labor wins: NBN TO GO AHEAD

13
The broadband policy which the Coalition has repeatedly described as a "white elephant" gained its freedom today with the long-awaited news that Labor will form government with the support of the Greens and three independent MPs.

Westpac renews Telstra, Optus contracts

0
Top-tier bank Westpac has renewed long-running contracts with both Telstra and, reportedly, Optus, as the bank continues to source services from both of Australia's two largest telcos.

CommBank unveils Android app

3
The Commonwealth Bank yesterday announced it would offer its NetBank mobile banking app to Android users starting from tomorrow. In a statement, the bank said...

Strong NBN support amongst Coalition voters

36
More Coalition voters support the Labor Federal Government's flagship National Broadband Network project than are against it, according to new research released today, as support for the initiative continues to grow to record levels.

Roxon just a front for department, says Newton

74
Prominent network engineer and commentator Mark Newton has accused the Federal Attorney-General's Department of using the Attorney-General of the day -- whether Labor or Coalition -- as a front for its long-running data retention and surveillance plans, which he said dated back to the Howard Government.

Our growth is blitzing iiNet, claims TPG

33
National broadband provider TPG today claimed it was signing up customers faster than any of its rivals, including fast-growing iiNet, as well as the nation's two major telcos Telstra and Optus, with the upstart telco on track to crack the half a million customer level by the end of September.

Four more cities get Telstra 30Mbps cable

0
Telstra has almost doubled the theoretical speeds on its HFC cable network in a clutch of cities around Australia, pushing the network from 17Mbps to 30Mbps -- despite the fact that it will stop using the network to provide broadband services as the National Broadband Network is constructed.

Privacy czar wants Google Wi-Fi deletion evidence

11
Australia's Privacy Commissioner has written to search giant Google requesting it provide several forms of evidence -- including confirmation by an independent third party -- that all of the payload data its Street View cars had collected over the past several years as they brushed past Wi-Fi networks on their journeys around Australia had actually been deleted.

HP Touchpad to hit Australia ‘later this year’

7
Global technology giant HP has given the first indication of timing about when its flagship tablet device would be launched in Australia, revealing in a statement overnight that Australians would be able to buy the device "later this year" after it launched in a range of other countries first.

“Labor mindset”: Turnbull denies cost/benefit hypocrisy

37
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has denied there is any hypocrisy in the Coalition Government not waiting for the same kind of cost/benefit analysis to be conducted into its broadband policy that it demanded from the previous Labor administration, accusing his critics of being 'stuck in a Labor mindset'.

Chromebooks to hit Australia before Christmas

10
The two foundation manufacturers which search giant Google has signed up to sell hardware running its fledgling Chrome OS platform have pledged to bring the devices to Australia in the second half of this year -- although Australians have a while to wait for availability yet.

ACT Government raises privacy concerns over facial matching initiative

2
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government has raised "fundamental concerns" about the proposed National Facial Biometric Matching Capability – a Federal Government initiative that will allow images of unidentified individuals to be matched to photographs stored across a range of government records.

Minister Fifield appears ignorant of NBN Optus HFC disaster

43
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has publicly reaffirmed his confidence in the fitness of Optus' HFC cable network for use as part of the National Broadband Network, in comments which appear to show that he has no knowledge of deep concerns by the NBN company itself that the network is unusable.

Hockey pays “tribute” to Labor’s NBN project in final speech

24
One of the Coalition’s most vocal critics of the National Broadband Network, former Treasurer Joe Hockey, has used his final speech to Federal Parliament to praise the previous Labor Government for initiating the project, which he described as “a very significant commitment”.

‘We’re making history’: Govt on NBN launch

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The Federal Government today claimed it had "made history" this morning after it officially launched live services on its flagship National Broadband Network project on the mainland, in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and a host of other parties associated with the telecommunications sector.

IBM’s NASH deal gets terminated

3
The National E-Health Transition Authority this afternoon confirmed it had “terminated” a $23.6 million contract with IBM to build a key component of the Federal Government’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record project, just 18 months after the contract was initially inked.

Mass piracy lawsuits are back in Australia: Law firm targets end users’ details

103
A Sydney-based law firm has issued a series of letters to major Australian ISPs requesting they hand over the details of users who have allegedly used peer to peer Internet file sharing platforms to pirate content owned by the firm's clients, in a move which appears set to reopen the debate about how such cases should be handled in Australia.

“Get a warrant”: Ludlam net privacy bill lands in Senate

16
Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam has introduced legislation that would see Australian law enforcement agencies blocked from obtaining access to telecommunications records without a warrant; but it is not immediately clear if either of the major parties are prepared to support the bill.

linux.conf.au finally controls domain name

3
It's taken several years, quite a lot of negotiation and the use of alternatives to get it through an uncertain period. But Australian open source conference Linux.conf.au has finally permanently secure the rights to its own domain name.

Juniper veteran Page heads to the US

0
Network infrastructure provider Juniper today revealed Mark Iles would be its new vice president for both Australia and New Zealand, following the departure of its long-serving local chief Shaun Page for a role with the company in the US.

Auditor General: WA Govt should “prioritise online delivery of services”

2
Western Australian Auditor General Colin Murphy has released a report saying there are "significant savings and benefits" to moving government services online.

Anna Bligh promises 5,000 iPads for schools

5
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has promised that her Labor State Government will commit $5.7 million to deliver some 5,000 iPads to year 7 students across the state in a high-profile educational trial of the Apple tablets, should Labor retain power in the upcoming state election.

iiNet exports BoB to New Zealand

Australian internet service provider iiNet today announced a new deal which will see products coming out of its Labs division sold in New Zealand as early as next week.

University of Canberra rolls out Windows 7

1
The University of Canberra has joined the list of Australian organisations dumping their legacy Windows XP environments and upgrading to Windows 7, completing a 900-seat rollout in August to its student PCs that also included an upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007.

Shame on you, Dodo tells Paul Fletcher

9
Cut-rate broadband provider Dodo has slammed comments made about its customer service record in parliament by Liberal MP Paul Fletcher as "grossly unfair" and noted it would have expected more from the politician, given he was a former telecommunications sector executive.

Telstra sells most of Sensis to private equity

4
The nation's biggest telco Telstra this morning revealed it would sell 70 percent of its ailing directories and advertising business Sensis to US-based private equity firm Platinum Equity, with the sale to net the telco $454 million.

Consumer commission sues LG Electronics for ‘misleading’ consumers

3
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has commenced court proceedings against LG Electronics Australia, saying that the tech giant made "false or misleading" representations to consumers over their rights regarding faulty products.

Video: Simon Hackett’s Tesla Roadster

2
Internet founder Simon Hackett yesterday posted this video of his record-breaking drive from Darwin to Adelaide as part of the Global Green Challenge in his hot red Tesla Roadster -- an all-electric vehicle. Hackett is believed to own the only Roadster in Australia.

NBN Co gets permanent North Sydney digs

0
NBN Co has taken out an eight-year lease on three levels (10,11 and 12) in the Innovation Place building on 100 Arthur St in North Sydney as its permanent Sydney office.

HTC EVO 3D to hit Telstra in September

Telstra this morning announced that from September it will be entering the multi-dimensional world; offering its first 3D smartphone, the HTC EVO 3D.

Broadband quota caps fair, says iiNet

36
National broadband provider iiNet has published an article arguing the pay as you go quota charging system used by most Australian ISPs is fairer than the 'unlimited' quota models popular in regions such as the United States and Europe.

Virtualisation and private cloud: What’s the difference?

4
What’s the difference between advanced virtualisation and the incoming wave of private cloud computing solutions? That’s the question a number of readers were asking themselves last week after top-tier bank Westpac revealed it had in the past year deployed its own private cloud.

AT&T to deploy Gigabit fibre to 100 US cities

26
US telco giant AT&T overnight revealed it would deploy Fibre to the Premises infrastructure in 100 major US cities in the United States, delivering gigabit broadband speeds in a model which directly contradicts statements by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull that the telco is focusing on the Coalition's preferred Fibre to the Node model.

Tension as NBN trial agreement ends

56
Tension is mounting between the National Broadband Network Company and its retail ISP customers about the final form of the wholesale agreement which will govern their relationship, with an impasse likely to leave the two sides unable to connect new retail NBN customers once an initial trial agreement ends on Thursday this week.

ASUS PadFone docks in Australia

5
Taiwanese electronics giant ASUS this morning announced that its combination smartphone, tablet and netbook device the PadFone, would launch in Australia through Harvey Norman from 14 August, retailing locally for $999.

Vodafone confirms Nexus S for Australia

7
Mobile telco VHA tonight confirmed it would be bringing Google's Nexus S handset to Australia, although the date of the local launch and any pricing details remain under wraps for now.

Anatomy of Qld Health IT disaster:
 IBM should never have been appointed

0
The Queensland Government's formal inquiry into the payroll systems upgrade debacle at Queensland Health has found damning allegations of procurement impropriety in the appointment of IBM as prime contractor for the initiative, and has concluded that Big Blue should never have won the contract in the first place.

ThoughtWorks slams ABS for census data retention “risk”

22
Global software consultancy ThoughtWorks has strongly criticised the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for "risk" it took in the running of the Australian Census 2016, which saw the body retain the details of millions of people.

Sarv Girn becomes Reserve Bank CIO

0
Recently departed Westpac group general manager of Enterprise Technology Services Sarv Girn has picked up a high-profile position as the new chief information officer of the Reserve Bank.

Quigley clarifies Senate NBN profit ‘misconceptions’

6
NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has attempted to clarify controversial comments he made during Senate questioning last week about the National Broadband Network's commercial return, saying they didn't tell the full story about the NBN's profitability.

Will the PlayBook’s US price cut hit Australia?

A spokesperson for Research in Motion (RIM) has Australia declined to reveal whether RIM will apply US discounts on its PlayBook tablet to its Australian stock. RIM has announced substantial price cuts for a limited time up to February 4 on the PlayBook in the US, offering the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models all for US$299 each, saving buyers between US$200 to US$700.

“Alarming” amount of end of life software in Vic Govt: Microsoft + Oracle in...

5
Victoria’s acting Auditor-General has blasted the state’s departments and agencies for continuing to use IT systems which have reached their end of life state, as well as for ignoring its ongoing recommendation that the state put together a whole of government disaster recovery framework.

Bigcommerce pulls in mega US$40M round

2
Australian e-commerce software as a service firm Bigcommerce revealed overnight that it had picked up a further US$40 million in funding, taking its total investment from the US venture capital scene to some $75 million and further illustrating the rapid growth of Australia's startup scene.

Turnbull establishes advisory panel to boost Australian FinTech

2
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has established an expert advisory group aimed at making Australia the leading FinTech market in the Asia-Pacific region.

Want an iPad? Borrow one from MicroStrategy

8
Software giants like IBM and Microsoft might shortly find themselves starting to lose staff to their much smaller business intelligence rival MicroStrategy. The reason? The company is swamped with Apple iPads, according to the chief of its Australian division -- and it's lending them to customers for demos.

Xero raises $15m, makes acquisition

Accounting software firm Xero announced last week that it had raised a further AU$15.5 million from current strategic investors to maintain its future growth in Australia and worldwide. The New Zealand-based company also announced the acquisition of Max Solutions, a leading practice management company and developer of WorkflowMax, a job, time and invoice management solution.

CeBIT: Optus wants ACCC controls on Austar buy

5
Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan has requested the nation’s competition regular intervene in the proposed $1.9 billion merger of pay TV giants Austar and Foxtel, repeating earlier warnings that the next battlefield for Australia’s telecommunications sector in a National Broadband Network world would be “open access” to content and applications.

Conroy slams Libs’ Tassie NBN “scaremongering”

4
A war of words has erupted between Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Liberal Senator Guy Barnett, with the latter claiming the National Broadband Network rollout in his home state of Tasmania was taking longer than expected.

Yarra Valley Water implements Oracle Exadata

1
Victorian utility Yarra Valley Water this week disclosed it had implemented several Oracle hardware products as it sought to boost the performance of its IT systems, including the vendor's Exadata Database Machine and its Exalogic Elastic Cloud solution.

Government role in NBN needs “re-evaluation”, says US think tank

140
The Technology Policy Institute, a US-based think tank, has published a paper on the NBN concluding that, while the network was set up to increase competition in the broadband sector, as well as boost quality and lower prices, it has evolved into a "intrusive policy subject to political pressures".

Telstra plans 5G trial with Ericsson tech

2
Telstra has announced it will soon be testing 5G with Ericsson's radio test bed to examine the potential of the technology.

R18+ game legislation hits Federal Parliament

12
Jason Clare, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice, yesterday introduced legislation to create an R18+ category for computer games.

Apple Australia insists it pays all its taxes

30
US technology juggernaut Apple has insisted that it pays all of its local taxes, despite the company having filed financial results this week that saw the company pay extra taxes of just $4.5 million last year off an extra $1.8 billion in local revenue.

Tech management bloodbath hits Internode

66
Citing "very difficult times" in the past 12 months, national broadband provider Internode has conducted an extensive restructure of its leadership team which has seen four of its most senior technical managers leave the company and managing director Simon Hackett appointed as chief technical officer.

HP CEO Whitman lands in Australia

9
HP has confirmed its global chief executive Meg Whitman has landed in Australia for a brief visit, in a move that comes as fallout from a bungle at key HP customer the Commonwealth Bank of Australia continues to make itself felt.

Former Sydney University ICT manager found to be corrupt

0
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has ascertained that a former ICT manager at the University of Sydney carried out corrupt acts during his time at the institution.

Voluntary filtering on track for mid-2011

20
Stephen Conroy's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy tonight said voluntary filtering of the internet for child abuse material by three of Australia's largest internet service providers was on track to kick off in the middle of this year.

Centrelink issues $500m+ telco tender

0
Welfare agency Centrelink has kicked off a gigantic purchasing effort which will see it consolidate a number of telecommunications contracts into a number of overarching deals expected to be worth in excess of $500 million in total.

‘Big four’ bank invests $1 million in secure coding skills

3
A "major Australian Big Four bank" has signed a $1 million, three-year deal with a startup called Secure Code Warrior to boost the secure coding skills of 4,000 of its software developers.

Labor avoids all comment on that bothersome massive metadata expansion

10
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has not responded to a request for basic information on whether Labor will support adding any of the 61 agencies who have applied to the bipartisan data retention scheme which passed Parliament in 2015.

Apple iBooks manager could be Sydney-based

0
Iconic technology giant Apple has advertised for an executive to manage its fledgling iBooks product for the Asia-Pacific and Canada regions, adding the position could be based in Sydney or Toronto.

iPhone app decrypts allergy barcodes

1
Barcode administrator GS1 Australia has teamed up with Deakin University and Nestle to develop an iPhone application that will shortly give allergy sufferers the ability to scan supermarket barcodes to determine what they can safely eat.

Pirate Party opposes anti-piracy warning scheme

The Pirate Party Australia has objected strongly to the recent proposal issued by major Australian ISPs entitled “A Scheme to Address Online Copyright Infringement”.

Announcing the winner: Delimiter’s Kindle Fire giveaway

4
As you might recall, in January we kicked off a competition to give away an Amazon Kindle Fire -- we had one sitting around spare after we reviewed it last year.

AFP arrests alleged LulzSec hacker

6
A high-profile takedown is sure to send shockwaves through the hacker community after the Australian Federal Police arrested a 24-year-old IT worker on a variety of charges that could land him up to 12 years in jail.

Facebook PR chief’s first job: Quelling Queensland

3
We were encouraged to note that Facebook has finally decided to hire some brave soul to act as an Australian spokesperson.

Optus launches customer forum

2
Giant national telco Optus has followed rivals Telstra and Vodafone and launched its own dedicated online customer support forum, supported by members of its successful social media team.

Global privacy group files formal ASD complaint

1
Global privacy organisation Privacy International has filed a formal complaint with Australia's Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security over a report that the Australian Signals Directorate had offered to hand over data on Australian citizens to foreign intelligence agencies.

Vodafone reveals 70 new base stations to fix mobile blackspots

3
Vodafone has announced the full rollout schedule for new base stations to be built under the first round of the Mobile Black Spot Programme.

TransGrid reveals mass Win8 tablet rollout

9
NSW electrity grid operator TransGrid has revealed plans to deploy a sizable fleet of Windows 8-based tablets across its operations, as part of a wider comprehensive revamp of its desktop PC infrastructure that will also see the organisation migrate the majority of its desktops to virtualised instances through thin client technology.

Parallels opens Australian office

0
Virtualisation specialist Parallels -- best known for its software which lets Mac users run Windows applications on their Apple desktop -- has opened an office in Australia, on the back of strong local interest in its products.

Telcos seek data retention extension to avoid legal action

11
Australia’s telco industry will formally write to the Government to request a formal delay in enforcing the controversial new data retention legislation, while Internet service providers around Australia struggle to meet the October 13 deadline for enacting its requirements within their operations.

eHealth NSW hiring for yet another CIO

1
New South Wales' peak electronic health agency NSW eHealth has yet again advertised for a new chief information and chief executive officer, as the latest swing in a revolving door of senior executives.

IT firms dominate stock market listings, report says

0
An OnMarket report has revealed not only that IPOs in Australia are delivering some unusually high returns to investors, but that IT firms are now dominating stock market listings over all other sectors.

Peregrine deploys Microsoft Power BI in IoT pilot

0
South Australian convenience retailer Peregrine Corporation has announced plans to pilot an Internet of Things (IoT) and Microsoft Power BI data analytics solution to reduce business risks.

Now CommBank hit by McAfee bug

4
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the latest Australian organisation to confirm it was hit today by the disastrous bug in McAfee's security software which has also taken down a number of Coles stores and knocked out 25 percent of Virgin Mobile's PCs.

“IT needs a voice,” Wadeson tells successor (video)

0
Check out the video above filmed by ZDNet.com.au, in which retiring Department of Human Services deputy secretary of ICT Infrastructure and long-time Centrelink CIO John Wadeson advises his successor — whoever that winds up being — that IT needs a voice in the department, and it’s not just “a tool, as some people like to call it”.

Australian CIOs will be focused on business intelligence, cloud in 2016

1
The annual survey of Australian chief information officers by analyst firm Gartner has found business intelligence software and cloud computing platforms will be the hottest technologies in large Australian organisations over the next year.

Basslink completes cable repairs, enters final testing stage

0
The undersea power and telecoms cable linking Victoria to Tasmania has been repaired, according to its operator, Basslink.

Panasonic accidentally misled customers with Wii promotion

0
The Federal Court has found that consumer electronics manufacturer Panasonic misled customers in a 2008 promotion in which it had offered a free Nintendo Wii console for customers who purchased one of a certain range of televisions.

Apple claims Aussie Mac sales victory

4
Iconic technology manufacturer Apple overnight claimed to have boosted its Macintosh sales in Australia by 70 percent year-on-year.

Greens demand Australia cancel ACTA participation

11
The Greens have demanded that Australia's Government cancel its participation in the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement international treaty in the wake of an expected imminent rejection of the proposal by the European Union and significant and ongoing global protests against a number of its terms expected to harm Internet freedom.

Made in Australia: Windows Phone 7 apps plugged

Developed Down Under (DDU) is a new, free, Aussie-made mobile phone app for the Windows Phone 7 platform that officially went live about a week ago.

NBN Co business case summary: Available now from your local dealer (that’s us)

6
As per Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s pledge this afternoon, the Office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has sent us a copy of NBN Co’s business case. We’re still digesting what it all means, but in the meantime, you can download it here in all it’s 1.08MB PDF glory.

Fifield gets serious about VDSL cross-talk issue

31
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has registered a new regulation which will force Australia's broadband industry to develop its own industry code dealing with the thorny issue of cross-talk interference in the new generation of Fibre to the Node and Basement technologies.

Delimiter is giving away an Apple iPad mini 4!

4
Just a quick post to let you know that Delimiter is kicking off its first reader giveaway since our relaunch! These have always been popular with readers in the past, so we thought we'd start them again as we start promoting our weekly newsletter again. This time the prize will be one of Apple's brand-spanking new iPad mini 4 models.

Telstra, NBN offshoring copper support to India

44
The NBN company and its partner Telstra appear to be offshoring support for Telstra's ageing copper network to India, with consultants in that country to be responsible for ensuring that broadband users can receive acceptable services over the copper that facilitates the Fibre to the Node model.

DTO immigration project passes first test

0
A new booking service being developed by the Digital Transformation Office (DTO) and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for people about to take their citizenship test has passed its first assessment.

Amcom wins $20m NT Govt deal

0
Perth-based telco Amcom Telecommunications has picked up a five-year, $20 million deal to provide telecommunications services to government agencies and schools in the Northern Territory.

Birks quits the AIIA

0
The peak representative group for Australia’s technology vendors has started looking for a new chief executive, following a decision by its incumbent Ian Birks to leave his position to start his own consulting company.

Ziggy deliberately breached Caretaker Conventions

54
NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski wilfully and deliberately breached the Caretaker Conventions, ignoring official advice and publishing an inflammatory article defending the NBN during the Election Campaign, according to an investigation by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Digital Rights Watch group launches to fight for “free and open Internet”

0
A new advocacy organisation called Digital Rights Watch has launched with the aim of protecting the rights of Australian Internet users.

Conroy backs NBN opt-out model

20
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy appears to have backed a so-called 'opt-out' model for the National Broadband Network where Australians would be required to choose not to have fibre internet connected to their premises -- as opposed to the current model where they must opt-in.

NEHTA, DoHA deaf to consumers, claim critics

0
A new e-health lobbying organisation has voiced its frustration at the National e-Health Transition Authority and Department of Health and Ageing for not communicating with consumers well enough.

Two more for cashed-up Carosa

0
Local web 2.0 investment house Future Capital Development Fund (FCDF) today revealed it had ploughed money into two more niche Australian websites, with chief executive Domenic Carosa billing the internet as being ready for a revolution based on real profits.

Fiona Stanley Hospital IT gets $40m more

8
The Western Australian Government has allocated a further $40 million in funding to the troubled IT systems of the state's flagship Fiona Stanley Hospital, in a state budget which comes ahead of the similar, $187 million deployment of similar new IT systems at the upcoming Perth Children's Hospital.