Remember dial-up internet? That incredibly slow and awkward way that you used to use to access the internet back in the 90s and early naughties? Well, it’s still around, although it is dying a slow and painful death.
the good news is that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has announced that for the very first time, Broadband has overtaken dial-up as the method of choice for Australian consumers to access porn the Internet.
If the concept of people still using dial-up offends your geeky sensibilities (like it does ours), then you can take solace in the fact that these results – published today – are actually from 2006-2007, and are in comparison to results from 2004-2005.
From the ABS Report Australian Social Trends 2008:
After having seen The Dark Knight three times over the last weekend I can’t help but think this would be a great scene for the next film (which had better not be called Caped Crusader): A city municipal worker in the IT department changes some very important passwords and refused to give them up, even after jailed. From his cell, he divulges the codes to just one man, the city mayor, in a secret meeting that even the DA and police don’t know about. This actually happened this week in San Francisco. The IT tech, Terry Childs, wasn’t up to any nefarious deeds, or so he says, he just didn’t want his co-workers to mess up his huge system, and can anyone who’s ever worked in IT blame him? [SFGate]
Apologies for the god-awful photoshop above (if you want better, send it through to me!) but ZDnet are reporting that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is lusting after his very own iPhone 3G.
Talking with the audience at Communications Consumer Dialogue 2008 yesterday morning, he apparently announced: “The sexy gadget at the moment is the iPhone. I’m looking forward to getting one.”
Although there’s no mention of which carrier he plans on giving his iPhone allegiance to, the fact that the Senator considers anything sexy places him in higher regard in Gizmodo’s book than the previous Comms minister.
In other news, ZDnet says he’s also stoked that the ACCC has already stepped up to the plate with its announcement that you should be careful when it comes to mobile data, as it means he has less work to do. Good man!
Next to my bed sits an iPod speaker. An expensive iPod speaker I might add. It has pretty good sound quality, looks funky and has an RF remote control, which means I can control my tunes from the other side of the house, which is surprisingly useful.
So imagine my disappointment to find that it doesn’t work with the iPhone. It will charge the iPhone, but if I want to listen to music, I have to pull out my old iPod Photo. Disappointing is an understatement.
It goes to show that more expensive isn’t always better – the new iF330 from Edifier is not only lightweight enough to carry with you, runs on AC or battery power and works with both iPods and iPhones, it comes in for just $99.95. It may not have the RF remote, but would you really expect it to for that price?
Of course, there’s no mention of any shielding from GSM interference either, and for the price I probably wouldn’t expect it. But I have to admit I am intrigued. Maybe I’ll get one in for review to see how it fares as a bedside iPod dock…
[Audion]
DirectX 11 is coming, and it looks pretty awesome. Sure, you get advancements in shading and better support for multi-core machines, but what’s really got our heads turning is the concept of letting programmers use the GPU in your video card to do some of the heavy lifting, meaning your graphics chip becomes a second, parallel processor. While the idea itself isn’t new, this is the first we’ve heard of DirectX using such technology and we’re sure it’ll have PC gaming fanboys drooling when it rolls out, whenever that happens to be. [Joystique]
Here it is, fellow space-geeks, the first official image of the new joint Russian-European manned spacecraft, and we’ll be damned if it doesn’t look like something out of the Ikea Kitchen Collection. It’s made to ferry up to four people (cosmonauts or astronauts?) to the moon and back, with a two-stage orbiter-and-lander design much like the original American lunar missions. What’s interesting is that the craft uses thrusters to slow its descent to the moon’s surface as well as to launch itself off the surface. The Russians state that they expect a launch in 2018, though a launch could happen sooner if stock rockets currently available are modified, which sounds perfectly and totally safe to us. [BBC]
Not content to just offer a new version of Windows Live Messenger for a competing platform, Microsoft today released an updated official version of the full Windows Live app for Windows Mobile that features contacts syncing, support for Live Spaces, Live Maps, and push email from Hotmail, MSN, or Live accounts. It’s a free mobile download, though you’ll have to make sure you nuke the old version first lest you mess up your device. [Download, via JK On The Run]
Despite the disappointment that radiated from E3 last week like a Japanese lanyard, Nintendo Australia must be doing something right, seeing as how they just became the fastest selling console to reach the 500,000 mark.
The Wii, which went on sale back in December 2006, took just 84 weeks to reach the milestone, eclipsing the previous record holder by 23 weeks.
It’s an impressive feat, although they still have a way to go before they eclipse the PS2′s total unit sales of 2.3 million or so.
[Nintendo]
Many companies use Windows Live Messenger for corporate IM because it’s free and comes with pretty much any Windows computer they purchase. Windows Mobile users have had mobile IM love for awhile, but BlackBerry users have been left out, at least as far as official messengers go. They had already been promised an official client, and today Microsoft published it. Also included is live Hotmail support, for those who still use it. Go and download it, BlackBerry addicts, if you haven’t already. [Download, via Ars]
The Atmos 561 Clock, made by Jaeger LeCoultre and designed by Mark Newson, is powered entirely by changes in temperature and sits inside a block of crystal for good measure. According to The Watchismo Times, a change in temperature of one degree celsius can power the clock for two days.
