Alex Kidman

2013: Week Nineteen: Busy Monkey… Erm… Duck.

Alex — Sun, 12 May 2013 08:14:13 +0000

Yep; once again week eighteen was a victim of what the late, great Steve Gerber called the Dreaded Deadline Doom. Here’s what I’ve been very busy doing.

At the ABC, I delved into the world of Ultra HD TV, and the kinds of tax brackets you’d need to be in to be able to afford one:

The future of TVs: Higher resolutions, higher prices: “I recently checked into a remarkably inexpensive (which is to say that I could afford it on a freelance journalist’s salary) hotel on the New South Wales north coast, only to be told that I was “in the room with the big telly”…”

At Geekspeak, an examination of computer form factors:

Desktop, Laptop Or Tablet: Which one is right for you?

The always-necessary-but-rarely-thrilling issue of backup:

Have you backed up your photos?

And of mobile device tracking:

How closely do you track your tech?

The June issue of TechLife is out (yes, I know, it’s not June yet… it’s a magazine thing. Bear with me), and within its pages, I’ve run through GoatUp 2 (might need some methodone after testing that one), Pressure, Alien Spidy and Star Wars Pinball. The force is… yeah, you saw that one coming, right?

I then put on my small business hat, writing a bevy of stories for BIT

4 heavy-duty covers that stop your phone getting smashed and scratched
Attacks against small businesses tripled in 2012, according to Symantec
Business cards, web pages, now freelance designers will transform your Facebook page
Optus socal media “warning” to Australian business
ABC show searches for “the most expensive Wi-Fi”
Who’s nervous about cloud computing?
Buying a laptop? Here is Toshiba’s new Portégé Z10t laptop/tablet
CeBIT Australia is coming up, but is it worth going if you run a small business?

The 2012 IT Journo Awards (informally “The Lizzies) went past. I was up in three categories; Best Reviewer, Best Consumer Technology Journalist and best video program. I went in happy to be a finalist… and that’s as far as I got. I won’t lie and say that I’m not at least a little bit disappointed, especially in the best reviewer category. I’m confident that I’ve got more “finalist” certificates for Lizzies in reviewing than any working journo today. Sigh. Always the bridesmaid, and all that, although I can take solace in the fact that I was involved as a contributor to the best Audio program (Download This Show), also as a contributor to the best personal technology coverage winner (Lifehacker) and as the editor for fully half of 2012 to the best Web Site, Gizmodo.

And hey, 30 Seconds of Tech got mentioned in the same breath as, say, Good Game, Good Game SP and the eventual video winner, the SMH’s Digital Dreamers. That has to count for something… albeit not that much, given that all video entrants ended up as finalists. But I’ll take the glory where I can get it.

Then there’s 30 Seconds Of Tech. Quite a bit of 30 Seconds Of Tech, as it happens, including THE LONGEST 30s OF TECH IN HISTORY. Bolding intentional there, and if it wasn’t an evil thing to do, I’d reintroduce the blink tag, just because.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yeah, that last one is rather long.

There’s a reason behind all this video goodness, though, and it’s because I’ve formally launched Fat Duck Tech.

What is Fat Duck Tech, I hear you ask?
(I have microphones everywhere)

Well, I wrote about that first up:

Fat Duck Tech is live! (Everybody party!)

And then a bevy of articles. Ideally, I want you to go there RIGHT NOW (and while you’re at it, the Twitter account is here and Facebook page here), but here’s a sample of some of the content that Fat Duck Tech served up in just its first week.

Samsung Galaxy S4′s S-Translate: One part brilliant, one part ****house.
Social media can be decidedly anti-social, but is software the answer?
Samsung Chromebook Review
Honest Star Trek trailer is brutally funny… but not quite honest.
The dark side of retro gaming
Doctor Who pop-up store pops up in Sydney
(penned by Fat Duck Tech’s resident Wumpus. Not, as some have guessed, me.)
Why does Samsung have “no comment” on Australian Galaxy ROM problems?
Do DSLRs make sense for everyday photographers?
RIP Ray Harryhausen
Toshiba: Foldable PCs and Smart Paper soon, but for now there’s luxury notebooks
Opinion: Two and a half things that annoyed me about this morning’s NBN gab-fest
Smartphones of 2013: Blackberry Z10
Telstra, Optus and TPG splash nearly $2 billion on spectrum [Updated]
Star Command Review

Image: janetbeasley

2013: Week Seventeen: Cannot Count

Alex — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:45:47 +0000

Yeah, I know, there was no week Sixteen. Or, to be more strictly accurate, there was a week sixteen, but personal matters kept me away from it.

It was also a pretty darned quiet week on the Alex writing front in any case. At Geekspeak, a quick guide to Google Music:

Does Google’s Music Play your tune?

At Hydrapinion, my month-long experiment with the Blackberry Z10 concluded:

A month with a Blackberry: Is it berry good?

At ABC’s The Drum, I looked over Apple’s profit loss from a technology viewpoint (and predictably got a storm of anti- and pro-Apple comments for my trouble)

Profit slide won’t bite Apple

Three new 30 Seconds Of Tech videos

Click here to view the embedded video.

And a whole new website, although, technically speaking, that’s not been officially launched just yet. But if you were to head over to Fat Duck Tech, you’d find:

What’s with the ducks?

Do DVD/Blu-Ray extras actually matter?

As Microsoft hypes up its next Xbox, Sony shows off the Dualshock 4

Gaiman doesn’t want to be Who showrunner (but he’ll still keep writing episodes)

But, y’know, that’s just between you and me. For now. Unless you’d like to advertise.

2013: Week Fifteen: Snail’s Pace

Alex — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:20:39 +0000

A slower than usual week, although I rather needed it. Still, broadband was tested, blackberries were kept appy and security came up one more time. Also, strange things were afoot at the circle K.

At CNET.com.au, a pair of mobile broadband devices to kick the week off:

Telstra Pre-Paid Wi-Fi 4G
Telstra’s Pre-Paid Wi-Fi 4G hotspot looks cheap, and it is cheap, although the accompanying data isn’t. But the combination does make for excellent value.

Optus E3276 Premium 4G Modem
Optus’ 4G network doesn’t have the overall reach of Telstra’s effort, but if you’re underneath Optus’ coverage cloud, get ready for some seriously impressive speeds.

At Hydrapinion, I continued to assess Blackberry 10, by way of… the BBC Micro?

A month with a Blackberry: Keeping me appy?
Back when smartphones were just feature phones, and, for the sake of borrowing a fine writer’s joke, small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri, the number of additional things that your phone could do didn’t matter that much.

I popped up later in the week at TechRadar, explaining how to avoid mobile phishing attempts

Mobile Phishing: How to avoid getting hooked
Don’t let scammers catch a big one

At Telstra’s Smarter Business Magazine, some tablet case studies:

Upwardly Mobile in 2013
Tablets and smartphones are game-changers for all kinds of businesses, and the mobility trend just keeps growing

In the world of print, the May issue of TechLife is out now, and within its shiny pages you’ll find my reviews of the excellent Might & Magic Clash Of Heroes, Dungelot, Retrovirus and the slightly less shiny DIVO.

Meanwhile, sister site APCMag.com has published a trio of smartphone reviews of mine that had previously appeared in the print edition.

Motorola RAZR M 4G review
Good things can come in small packages.

HTC Windows Phone 8X review
Nokia’s not the only Windows Phone maker in town.

Nokia Lumia 920 review
A Windows Phone on steroids, but some unusual growth as well.

Hang on. That was a slower than usual week? I’m beginning to think that I might be slightly overworking myself…

Image: pellaea

2013: Week Fourteen: How Fragile We Are

Alex — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 05:02:43 +0000

This week was unusual in all sorts of personal ways, but on the publication front, things soldiered on… mostly. Apart from Wednesday, which was my first freelancer “sick day”… I think… ever.

My stint of guest contributions to Gizmodo came to an end with a flurry of articles covering everthing from plastic tat to facebook phones:

Aussies Still Leading The World In Game Of Thrones Piracy
If nothing else, this proved to me that the “reasonable price” argument is largely a furphy.

Hack Your Own Doctor Who Wi-Fi
Click the symbols. What could possibly happen?

Why Isn’t There More Tech In Showbags?
I went to the Royal Easter show, but instead of Ferris wheels and Chips On A Stick (yes, really), I sought out technology.

Smartphone Innovation Is Dead
Mid-range phones are making a lot of money, it seems.

Why Does Facebook Want Into Your Home?
Zuckerberg may have a friendly smile, but he’s not that altruistic.

What If Calvin And Hobbes Was… Gritty?
Then it would be AWESOME.

Thank Giz It’s Friday: Avoiding Cat-astrophe
Because CATS. And if that’s not enough of a reason for you, then that’s your problem.

At Hydrapinion, I continued my month long love/hate affair with the Z10.

A Month With A Blackberry: Blackberry Jam
Messaging is a core Blackberry strength, so they say. My Z10 wasn’t feeling hefty.

At ABC’s Technology+Games portal, another examination of the Facebook Home app and HTC First phone

Facebook wants into your Home via your handset
In which I talk Facebook, Wrestlemania and why I’m not seeking out lonely single older women.

Based on a brief radio interview this morning with Fox FM in Melbourne, I suspect soundgrabs of me talking Facebook Home may have been in play at some point, but not being based in Melbourne, I’m not entirely sure when.

It’s been a while since I’ve appeared at CNET Australia, but this week saw me pop up with a printer review:

Kyocera FS-1325MFP
Kyocera’s entry-level MFP provides good quality, rapid output, although we do wish that the print output tray had been designed a little better.

And then a whole bunch of mobile broadband devices, based off more than 100 speed tests across two states and six locations.

Vodafone Pocket WiFi Extreme
Vodafone’s offering is cheap, but inconsistent network performance issues are still a problem, making this less extreme than its name implies.

Telstra Mobile Wi-Fi 4G
The business-centric, post-paid Telstra Wi-Fi 4G hotspot offers speed across a wide range of areas in Australia, but it’s not the best value around.

Optus E589 Mini WiFi Modem
If you’re within Optus’ 4G coverage zones, it’s possible to achieve some blinding speeds at quite reasonable prices, although the coverage maps aren’t as extensive as we’d like.

Optus E5331 Mini WiFi Modem
Optus’ budget Wi-Fi modem won’t give you exceptional speeds or indeed any kind of exceptional experience, but it equally won’t burn a hole in your wallet.

Telstra Pre-Paid 3G USB + Wi-Fi
The clever Telstra Pre-Paid 3G USB+Wi-Fi offers Wi-Fi sharing from a single USB modem. We’re just left fervently wishing it was a 4G device.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2013: Week Thirteen: Somebody’s Watching Me

Alex — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 03:10:55 +0000

A week in which things took an entertainment slant, with dragons, doctors and a surprise appearance by Metal Mickey.

A rather shortened week, due to Easter that saw me continuing my fill-in duties at Gizmodo. Amongst the stories penned there were a few gems — and a few easy stories.

Should You Be Allowed To Wear Google Glass While Driving?
So many people think they’re great drivers and can do whatever they want while driving. I’m sure Google Glass will be no different.

Rantmodo: TV Is Broken. Can Anything Be Done?
My favourite article of the week, and one that got a surprisingly positive reaction; I expected the pro-piracy types to try to tear it apart.

Mining Bitcoins On A NES: Awesome Hack But Totally Pointless
In this case, it’d be 8-bitcoins. Heh.

Aussie Developer Reckons Apple’s Retina Display Testing Is Faulty [Updated]
My first official no-comment out of Apple for the year. Something tells me it won’t be the last.

Should Aussie Stores Charge You For Just Looking?
Interesting story, given the state of retail and the desire to physically hold objects before we buy them.

Inflatable Unicorn Horn. You Know. For Cats.
Walkely award, here I come. I’ve started polishing the mantle already.

Sigh. No. Wireless Networks Aren’t ‘A Threat To The NBN’
A job with The Australian probably isn’t in my future.

How Bad Was The Hobbit Anyway?
I rather liked it, but tastes vary.

At Hydrapinion, I’ve switched mobile operating systems for a month:

A Month With A Blackberry: Jumping into the prickly bits
For the next month, the Z10 will be my day by day companion. If I don’t kill it with FIRE, that is.

And finally, at 30 Seconds Of Tech, things got LOUD

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image: wwarby

2013: Week Twelve: So long, and thanks for all the fish

Alex — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 08:53:13 +0000

Many things happened this week, not all of them good, and not all of them within my usual home state. A week in which I complained about the great and mighty, got hypnotised by science and bootlegs and waterboarded in the name of chasing shipfish. The very shipfish in this exact photo.

Before I start, a huge thanks to Leigh Stark for the use of his dolphin photo. As those majestic creatures surfed through the waves, I was alternately in awe, spluttering water or trying to focus a camera. That’s because I spent a large part of the week in Adelaide; that’s not a city that I’m unfamiliar with in any real way, although it was a little unusual to be there staying in unfamiliar accommodation, without a vehicle and without my family. Quick disclaimer: I travelled to Adelaide as a guest of Panasonic. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, I’m still contributing (on a freelance basis) to Gizmodo, which led to quite a few stories over the week. Here’s my favourites:

ABC Confirms No Early iView For Doctor Who
DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT NOBODY SPOIL THIS FOR ME OR THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Also, oddly, a story that nobody else seemed to chase — but plenty linked to after the fact.

Rantmodo: Apple’s New iPhone Ads Are Technically Correct But Accurately Awful
I’m probably off the Cupertino Christmas card list again. Oh well.

Are Counterfeit Gadgets Good For A Brand?
A terrible fake can be somewhat amusing, as long as you don’t spend big on it. Gucci and friends would probably disagree, though.

Wallabies Can Swim In The Womb
AWESOME.

Blackberry: Do You Understand Consumers Any More?
Another Christmas card list I’m probably off… if I was ever on it, that is.

Soylent Shakes Contain Everything You Need To Stay Alive
I guess your relationship with food is a very personal thing…

Telstra’s 4G Works In The Ocean
Send me anywhere, and I’ll find out how fast the local net connection is. It’s like a (sea)sickness.

Panasonic: Personal TVs, NFC Compacts And 4K Blu-ray Hands-On
TVs — they have them in Adelaide, you know. Also Blu-Ray players, cameras and insanely large sound systems.

He-Man’s Power Sword Should Have Crushed Skeletor Into Dust
Was Battle Cat neutered? Has anybody asked this, and why did that thought cross my mind just then?

George R R Martin Blames Aussie TV Networks For Game Of Thrones Piracy
Ah, TV piracy, entitlement and the incoming Winter. An interesting topic.

How Bad Is The Apple Tax In Australia?
Numbers, analysis and a company that many people seem to love to hate.

Thank Giz It’s Friday: The Best (Or Is It The Worst?) Of The Asylum’s Mockbusters
Whole lotta trailer action. I’ve seen one of these films all the way through; bonus prize to anyone* who can work out which one it was. Although they’d make the basis of an INCREDIBLE bad movie day. Hmmm…

While on the subject of moving pictures, it’s also been pointed out to me that I totally forgot to point out that I was on The Project more than a week ago, talking about 3D Printing. I’m not the world’s greatest TV host (yet), but baby steps… baby steps. Then the big stompy Godzilla type ones, if everything goes to plan.

And while still on the subject of motion pictures, being in Adelaide also brought with it the opportunity to film a new 30 Seconds Of Tech… and nearly drown along the way. Totally worth it for the dolphins, though.

Click here to view the embedded video.

*My lovely wife doesn’t count, because she knows the answer. Mind you, the prize has no commercial value, or, indeed, existence beyond you feeling a warm smug sensation. Smugness and warmth not guaranteed.

2013: Week Eleven: Stomping Grounds

Alex — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 08:20:24 +0000

You know who can deliver a good stomping? Elephants. Yeah, I know, I’m meant to be all about the Hippos, but Elephants are cool too. I wouldn’t want to get on their bad side.

Quite what that has to do with the roundup of this week’s freelance work eludes me. I guess the elephants are the only ones who get to remember things.

One thing I do remember being was the editor of Gizmodo Australia, a role I semi-stepped back into this week. It’s a temporary arrangement, albeit a very nice role to have — and one, I should note, that regular editor Luke Hopewell does very well indeed. I’m just temporarily filling in. Amongst the stories written for the Giz this week, there was

My Name Is Prince, And My DRM Is Not Funky
Astonished it’s taken me this long to use that in a headline.

Here Are This Year’s Hypercars (That You Can’t Have)
I am not the Stig. Although only the true Stig denies being the Stig. Tricky, that one.

No, Sony ISN’T giving out Beta PS4s Via Facebook
Facebook scams are everywhere, although this did lead me to a very popular story later in the week.

Will The ABC Show Doctor Who On March 31?
I’d settle for a private showing. Just… leaving that out there, ABC. Just in case.

Marvel Unlimited: Sadly Limited, But Still Marvellous
13,000 Comics on my iPad. I’m still (very slowly) working my way through Civil War.

How To Take Great Smartphone Pics In Low-Light Bars And Clubs
Pro tip: It helps not being drunk.

Should The Cops Be Able To Listen In To Your Skype Calls?
In which I take on the French Police. Except they have guns and attitudes. I mean “In which I congratulate the friendly French Police (please don’t shoot me)”

This Amazing LEGO Paper Airplane Robot Can Make And Throw Its Own Planes
This thing is AMAZING.

Kick-Ass 2 Trailer: Does It Still Kick Ass?
Kicking posteriors for fun and profit.

The New Pope Is Already On Twitter
Contrary to rumours (that may or may not have been started by me) I am not the new Pope.

Anatomy Of A Scam: How You’re Getting Fleeced On Facebook
I’m happy this was widely shared, because it’s information that people need to know.

Can You Make A Battery Out Of Jelly?
Tasty, tasty batteries.

Shaq Got Blocked When He Went For An Early iPhone
Shaq-y baby. See, I can be a sports writer too. (No. I can’t.)

You Can Now Visit Bletchley Park Online
You should also visit the real thing. It’s the BEST.

Thank Giz It’s Friday: Watch Game Of Thrones In Ten Minutes Flat
Warning: Contains spoilers. (duh)

At Hydrapinion, I was advocating mass App murder in the most violent way possible:

Kill ALL the Apps. Do it now.
I’m not a bad man. I just like killing apps, is all. I’ve got my reasons, man.

Friday was Samsung Galaxy S 4 launch day, and that led to a column at ABC Technology+Games:

Samsung Galaxy S 4: Has smartphone hardware peaked?
Nice phone, but should hardware be secondary to software?

At 30 Seconds Of Tech, I looked into a saucy smartphone:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And in print, the April issue of TechGuide is out. Within its shiny pages, you’ll find my reviews of Joe Danger for iOS, Wreck-It Ralph, New Super Mario Bros U, Ravensword: Shadowlands, Primordia, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, ZombiU and Party Of Sin.

I think that’s enough for a week. Now, to figure out where I left that Elephant…

2013: Week Ten: Steaming Frozen 42″ Google Commode

Alex — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 06:12:30 +0000

I’m not sure I’ve ever written about such a broad set of themes, from massive smartphones (some of which you can’t have) to building your own emergency toilet to the inevitable steamed hams. It’s been that kind of week.

My fill-in for Chris Jager at Lifehacker concluded this week, which meant a lot of time spent writing a lot of articles. Including these ones!

Samsung Isn’t Giving Away Galaxy S4s On Facebook
Something that’s too good to be true isn’t true? Who could have picked that?

Which Mobile World Congress Phones Will We See In Australia?
Possibly quite a few, but getting anyone to admit anything is murder.

Will An Antenna Give You Faster Mobile Broadband Download Speeds?
I know, me testing mobile broadband is almost worthy of a TV Tropes listing by now.

Ask LH: Will NBN Connectivity Add Value To My House?
If anyone from NBN Co is listening, it’d certainly add value to ME.

Is A Treat-Dispensing Cat Scratching Post Really A Good Idea?
Writing about cats on the Internet. I have this feeling that might be a thing.

Hack an IKEA Chair Into A Commode
A simple hack for those that need it. I’ve never written about commodes before.

Boost Mobile Relaunches On Telstra With Unlimited Plans
A budget telco that seemingly can’t afford all the vowels it needs to spell “unlimited”.

Is The Google Play Store Birthday Sale Worth Celebrating?
Happy Birthday To Google, They Have All Our Data, Why Give Them Our Money, This Song Doesn’t Scan….

YouTube Viewing Figures Are Still Fuzzy, Not Felty
I was challenged to incorporate The Count into Lifehacker. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Ask LH: Do I Need To Warm My Engine Before Driving?
In which I learn that people love arguing about cars on the Internet almost as much as they like cat pictures.

How To Make Steamed Hamburgers
Steamed hams are a thing. This I did not previously know. Soon, I shall make one, and by request, REPORT BACK.

How To Reboot Your Frozen Smartphone
Or you could smash it against the ground and scream at the top of your lungs. Satisfying, but stupid.

Which Hurts More: AC Or DC Power?
Tasty, tasty electrons. So tasty. So tempting. MUST NOT TASTE! NO! BAD! SPARKIES HURT!

At ABC’s The Drum, a story on why I think the noise about Google Glass and Privacy is just noise.

Civil society’s latest threat is right before our eyes
Forget the privacy implications of Google’s new camera-enabled glasses; that horse bolted long ago, as the smartphone-savvy crowds at Sydney’s Mardi Gras proved. Instead, get ready for a world in which that person you’re talking to could actually be checking the footy scores, writes Alex Kidman.

At Hydrapinion, this week’s column covered the growth of smartphones… with an accent on the growth.

Does Anyone Want A 42″ Smartphone?
Perhaps I should develop a phone/tablet hybrid the size of a Plasma TV.

At 30 Seconds of Tech, two new videos. Firstly, an electric car that’s remarkably affordable, if not always entirely practical:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And then some Bluetooth/NFC headphones that are remarkably flexible

Click here to view the embedded video.

Phew. A busy week. Have I earned enough for a beer yet?

Image: Cheetah100

2013 Week Nine: Life… don’t talk to me about life…

Alex — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:51:41 +0000

In which I discuss Australia’s 4G scene, phones you can’t have and whether it’s possible to gnaw your own face off…

A phenomenally busy week, but then I’ve once more been back on the editorial duties at Allure, this time pitching in at Lifehacker while Chris Jager is away making babies… well, technically he did his bit nine months ago, but anyway…

As is always the case with Lifehacker, stories come thick and fast, but my picks of the week for my own output — especially relating to how well the audience took to them — would be:

How We Work: Alex Kidman’s Favourite Gear And Productivity Tricks
I think I know this guy… he definitely rings a bell. No, wait, that’s Quasimodo…

Telstra (And Possibly Optus) Will Sell Firefox OS Smartphones
I have a soft spot for Firefox, although it later transpired that Telstra’s merely “considering” FF phones.

Does It Really Matter If My Questions Ramble On And On And On?
Yes it most certainly does. But I didn’t write the core of this one; Neil Gaiman did.

Do ‘Amazon Beating’ Deals Save You Money?
Inspiration for this story provided by the lovely Di Kidman. Yeah, I’m biased. I’m meant to be.

How To Kill Vendor Supplied Smartphone Email Signatures
“Sent from my…” NO. BAD. WRONG. KILL IT WITH FIRE.

Turn A Data Disaster Into An Opportunity
I had more than my fair share of tech disasters this week, but this one had a small silver lining.

Does TV Piracy Harm Or Help?
Probably the most popular story I wrote all week; certainly the most contentious. I stand by the comment that the sense of entitlement is truly mind-boggling amongst certain people.

Ask LH: What Tablet Should I Buy For A Two Year-Old?
This one got people surprisingly angry, as though the message was “only feed your infant tablet pcs and ignore it in a filthy heap ha ha!” or something. Moderation, people. Moderation.

Use Humour To Combat Stress Overload
This week was quite stressful, but thankfully Gizmodo editor Luke Hopewell was there to show me how to chew off my own face.

Power or Battery: Lifehacker Tests The Asus VivoTab 810
You can have power… or battery life. Not quite both in this package.

Meanwhile, at the ABC’s Technology & Games portal, I was talking both technology and games. Games via the PS4, in a piece that was held over from last week:

Playstation 4: An introduction… or a blind date? “What Sony did instead was what its official release calls an “introduction”, although by not showing the console off, it feels more like a blind date…”

On the technology front, there’s 4G… or 4G LTE… or just LTE… or LTE-A… or a confusing mess that I tried to wrangle some sense out of:

Australia’s 4G future is fast: “The 4G landscape in Australia is accelerating at a rapid pace, with Telstra, Optus and Vodafone all making bold claims about their fast data products.”

At Hydrapinion, I was getting all excited about the shiny new tech on show at MWC, until my brain reminded me that we won’t see all of it anyway, and much that we do see will take its sweet time to appear:

Mobile World Congress Shows Us The Gadgets We Can’t Have: “As I write this, Mobile World Congress is in full swing, with announcements on new platforms, chipsets, smartphones, tablets and anything else that can reasonably be called “Mobile” coming through thick and fast.”

The March issue of APC is out now, and features my review of Zombi U; probably still the best reason to buy a Wii U (which in some ways is my plea for more Wii U games, if you don’t mind that is Mr-Games-Industry)

Finally, 30 Seconds Of Tech continues its dual mission of bringing tasty visual snippets of tech to you while at the same time completely alienating the wide (some might say massive) elephant audience:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image: MacJewell

2013 Week Eight: ELVIS!

Alex — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 02:23:11 +0000

This week’s roundup is a little later than normal, because — look! Behind you! ELVIS!

Did they buy that? No?

Damn. Life got in the way, but in the meantime, last week if you were seeking out my written work, you could have found it in the Sydney Morning Herald

Sneak peek at next-gen Xbox and PlayStation
“Sony and Microsoft are preparing their next generation of consoles, with plenty of online speculation as to what you’ll be doing with the next generation of games.”

As well as at BIT.com.au

Should you pick Telstra for your next mobile broadband plan?
“Telstra’s announced that it’s ramping up the speed of the devices that access its 4G network, but does that mean that they’re your best small business choice for data services?”

At 30 Seconds of Tech, it was all about the Smartphones:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image: Foilman