Apple begins production of new iPad
Apple has begun to make a new version of its iPad tablet computer with a front-facing camera and faster processor, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model and sport a more powerful graphics processor, the Journal said.
It will have at least one camera on its front for features such as video conferencing, and will also have more memory, according to the paper, adding Apple plans to unveil the new iPad through telcos Verizon Wireless and AT&T in the US.
Early in February, a Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the debut of News Corp’s Daily online paper in New York.
Apple was not available for comment.
Information Source smh.com.au
Unreleased Apple iPad spotted at News Corp event
Spotted at Rupert Murdoch’s splashy digital newspaper launch overnight: a prototype of Apple’s newest iPad.
A Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the debut of News Corp’s Daily online paper in New York.
A source with knowledge of the device confirmed its existence, adding that the final release model could have other features. News Corp and Apple declined to comment.
The next version of Apple’s popular tablet computer is expected to be announced in the next few months.
Manufacturing sources have said it will sport two cameras – one in the front and one in the back – enabling users to make video calls.
News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch along with Apple executive Eddy Cue unveiled the Daily, a digital newspaper created from scratch for the iPad at a press conference in New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim museum.
The Daily is Apple’s first foray into subscription sales through its iTunes store after having spent a year in talks with publishers with little progress.
The iPad was released in April 2010 and became one the hottest gadgets of the year.
The company sold 14.8 million iPads in 2010, and could double that this year, analysts estimated.
The 10-inch touchscreen device proved to be hugely popular as a media consumption device, good for games, video and Web browsing.
The iPad, which starts at $629 in Australia, added more than $US8 billion in sales for Apple last year and helped touch off a tablet-mania that is sweeping the technology business.
Nearly all of Apple’s rivals are working on tablets, with dozens of models expected to hit the market this year, providing the iPad with its first real competition.
Companies such as Samsung Electronics, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer are attacking the tablet market, with global sales expected to surge to more than 50 million units in 2011.
Information Source smh.com.au
NBN to announce huge increase in speed
The national broadband network will enable speeds of one gigabit per second on its fibre optic network, 100 times faster than originally planned, the company building the network will announce today.
The speed is significantly faster than the maximum speeds promised by the opposition in its broadband policy, and highlights the growing gap between what a fibre-based broadband network can offer compared with existing technology.
It has also emerged that NBN Co told staff to ignore political attacks on the company by the opposition, after its finance spokesman, Andrew Robb, called it a ”stodgy” bureaucracy, labelled its staff ”talentless” and promised to close it down if elected to government.
One gigabit per second is 17,500 times faster than a dial-up connection and 167 times faster than the average ADSL broadband connection. ”I am trying to make sure people understand what it is that NBN Co is going to deliver,” its chief executive, Mike Quigley, said.
Increasing the speed would not add to the $43 billion construction price tag and the fibre could be upgraded to provide even faster speeds in coming years, Mr Quigley said.
The faster capability was already built into the equipment which the company was installing in homes and Mr Quigley said he decided to enable it after discussions with internet providers and the competition watchdog.
Telecommunications industry figures have given support to parts of the Coalition’s policy even as others decry the lack of investment and ”vision” in Tuesday’s $6 billion announcement.
The opposition communications spokesman, Tony Smith, announced the Coalition would spend $750 million on a fixed broadband optimisation grants program to overcome technical restrictions that stop 1 million households from using ADSL, the most common technology for broadband services.
The decision received praise from industry figures, who said it was a cost effective way to offer timely broadband to significant numbers of people using existing infrastructure.
”If you’re looking at an incremental approach to getting towards high-speed broadband, that’s the way to do it,” said an industry consultant, Kevin Morgan.
An Ovum broadband consultant and former Liberal policy adviser, David Kennedy, said mobile phone carriers, in particular Vodafone Hutchison Australia, had spare spectrum capacity in regional areas and could offer wireless broadband.
Ian Birks, the chief executive of the Australian Information Industry Association, said the Coalition’s plan showed a lack of commitment to broadband, but was ”reasonable” within the fiscal restraints imposed.
”I don’t think the Coalition policy recognises the vision for a digital future in Australia, that’s what makes it disappointing,” he said.
NBN Co has been instructed to replace Australia’s copper telephone network with fibre optic cable to 93 per cent of the population and high-speed wireless and satellite to remote areas.
NBN Co would offer unlimited download capacity at one gigabit per second wholesale rates to retail internet providers, but service provider Internode said it was not reasonable to give consumers unlimited downloads.
Information Source smh.com.au
Fears for telephone number system!
AUSTRALIA’S telephone numbering system could be thrown into chaos as more calls are made on mobile networks and more people use internet-based telephone services that do not require geographic information to connect a call.
The technology changes place more stress on emergency services, which receive geographic information from fixed-line calls to triple-O, and businesses that send fixed calls to 13-numbers to the nearest shopfront.
The regulator responsible for the numbering plan, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, is expected to start consultations in coming weeks to avoid problems and amend the plan.
Area codes and local identifiers such as 03 for Victoria and 9836 for Camberwell are used by the copper telephone network as a map to send calls to certain states and exchanges, with the last four digits sending the call to a particular port within the exchange.
But telephone calls made over a fibre broadband connection, known within the industry as voice over internet protocol (VOIP), are sent to an internet address and not a physical location. This means it is technically possible for telephone numbers to be taken from any location in Australia to another. It is a similar concept to email, which is sent to an internet address, not a geographic location.
All telephone calls will be sent over the internet when the national broadband network is built to replace the copper telephone network.
While it may be convenient for consumers to keep the same fixed-line number permanently, it could create chaos if households with area codes are allowed to take their number when moving interstate.
Currently about 2 per cent of fixed-line telephone calls are made using VOIP services.
Information Source smh.com.au
We’re all hanging up the landline
THE number of people ditching fixed-line telephone services in favour of mobiles is larger than previously thought; just two-thirds of young Australians connect landlines when they move out of home.
About 14 per cent of mobile-phone users no longer have a fixed-line telephone at home, says a survey of 18,000 people by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
This is bad news for Telstra, which owns and operates the copper wire telephone network and has experienced declining revenue from this high margin product line. Its revenue from fixed-line rental and call tariffs has declined from about $7 billion in 2006 to $5.8 billion last financial year.
Of those choosing to keep their fixed telephone line, a third said it was convenient or cheaper than mobile, and just 13 per cent said it was because fixed lines offer better quality or more reliable service.
About 7 per cent of respondents said they kept a fixed line for an internet connection.
The number of fixed telephone lines has remained at 10.7 million since June 2000, but the number of mobile telephone connections has increased from 8 million to 24.2 million in the same period.
Information Source smh.com.au
