Designed and built by NetComm, the BigPond Elite Wireless Broadband Network Gateway is essentially a 3G modem/router with the same HSPA+ technology used in its mobile broadband sticks. Telstra is touting typical download speeds of up to 8Mbps, although speed tests on servers in Canberra reached 11Mbps.

The device is well suited to people who don’t have a landline, people who don’t have access to ADSL/cable, or people who move frequently, such as travellers or renters. The ideal situation – at least for Telstra – would be to turn the whole house into a Wi-Fi hotspot, thereby feeding the addictions of power-hungry families. There are four Ethernet ports and two USB ports, so you can plug in printers, external hard drives, etc. But that’s not ideal if you want to use the BigPond Elite as a mobile broadband device.

Executive Director Telstra Consumer, Jenny Young: “The Gateway also helps keep families entertained on holidays and while on the move. All that’s required is power and Next G network coverage and parents can quickly and easily access all their online must-haves, from instant messaging and email to YouTube.”

The BigPond Elite is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. Snow Leopard users, however, have to wait for a patch which is expected to roll out on December 1.

It’s available now for $399, and if you sign a 24-month contract, you’re eligible for a $200 rebate and 50 per cent off for the first 12 months. In fact, you have no choice. There is no prepaid option.

Is it worth it to you?

Sure, you can use a network to do the same, but can you rest your feet over Wi-Fi? Can you? That’s what I thought. [Cabracega via LikeCool]

[WSJ]

570,937,778 computers are online, with the average weight of 88 pounds (40kg), with monitors, printers and any other peripherals. Ehhh… I’m still a bit sceptical of that number, given the popularity of laptops, but let’s keep coming because this is fun!

There are an additional 175,480,931 servers, and about 100 million Blackberries/iPhone/iPod touches to worry about. Plus, there’s a 2840m transatlantic cable connecting one half of the digital world to the other (it in itself weighs 191,802,168 pounds) to account for.

Anyway, the final number they come up with is 1,098,868,920,000 pounds (or just over a trillion pounds, for those too lazy to count commas).

To put that number in better perspective, it’s about the same weight as 25,000 cloned Sears/Willis Towers. [Crave UK and image]

Vanish, a combination of a manhunt and an experiment, began at 5.38pm on August 14, 2009 as a bold headline on Wired proclaimed “Author Evan Ratliff Is on the Lam. Locate Him and Win $US5000.” We would discover if someone could disappear in today’s world, or whether the electronic trails from ATM, email and mobile phone usage would give him away.

Of course, in Evan’s case it wasn’t just a few concerned family members or police officers looking. It was any person on the internet whose curiosity was aroused, either by the sheer challenge or by the bounty. Any and all traceable information would be shared over the next few weeks. Soon Evan’s phone records, credit card statements, IP dumps, interviews with friends, and anything that his hunters could dig up would be posted on Twitter, Facebook and Wired’s own site.

The end goal for the hunters was to locate Evan, photograph him after giving the codeword “fluke”, and then submitting that photo along with a codeword Evan would provide to Wired. And after 27 long days, someone did just that. Evan was caught.

You can read the entire tale here. As you do, consider whether Evan made any genuine mistakes or whether his capture was simply inevitable. Is there a way to disappear without giving up travel and technology? How would you do it? [Wired]

1. First and foremost, do you “get” what Google is trying do do here? Does it make sense? Is it a good idea?

2. Google OS will be available first on netbooks and ONLY on netbooks starting in a year. Do you think netbooks will even be relevant a year from now?

3. Google also mentions that the first generation of the Chrome OS will focus on secondary machines. Do you even have a need for a secondary machine, or is one computer with a traditional OS enough?

4. Google notes that web browsing is the most important function of a computer . Without it, many of us probably wouldn’t use a computer in the first place. So my question is, how much of your time spent on a computer is completely offline?

Oxford defines the verb as: “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.” I think they should include offline usage, too, like when you stop calling people back entirely or leave people at rest stops on road trips. What, you guys don’t do that? [CNN]

The instructions are actually pretty thorough and explain everything you need to know about running CAT 5e or CAT 6 cables through your walls without making a horrid mess, but please don’t blame me if you somehow manage to destroy something. [Instructables via Lifehacker]

The leaks suggest that countries who sign up to the US-promoted plan would have to force ISPs to proactively police copyright on user-generated content, cut off those accused (or face liability), and put “graduated response” clauses in customer contracts. An example of graduated response is France’s “three strikes and your out” law. There, you get two warnings if caught sharing music or movies, then you’re banned for up to two years.

This provision would mean that every country that signs up to ACTA must allow content owners such as record companies and Hollywood studios to sue ISPs for failing to stop their subscribers from illegally sharing copyright-protected material such as music and movies.

By the way, two major sources of counterfeiting — Russia and China — aren’t in the talks. If you want to get your head further around the issue, these sites do a great job of breaking it all down: [Electronic Frontier Foundation and PC World via BoingBoing]