1. The fake Mac antivirus
2. Dell's MacBook Pro rival costs $700 less
Dell has thrown down the gauntlet to Apple's MacBook Pro with a new ultra-portable laptop that has just as much grunt but with a price tag that's $700 lower than Apple's offering.
The 15.6-inch XPS 15z, which starts at $1399, will be available through Dell's website today. The laptop is 24.68mm thin, has an anodised aluminium chassis and weighs 2.5kg.
By comparison, the 15-inch MacBook Pro models sell for $2099 or $2499, depending on the configuration.
The MacBook Pro weighs about the same as the XPS 15z and is almost exactly the same thickness. It also uses the same Intel Core i5 and i7 chips, boasts a similar latch-less design and offers a large trackpad.
Rainer Noack, head of Dell Australia's consumer division, went as far as saying that compared side-by-side with any competing laptop, including the MacBook Pro, the XPS 15z would "win hands down".
3. Telstra throttles excess mobile data to avoid 'bill shock'
TELSTRA will start throttling broadband speeds on mobile phones when customers reach their data allowance, in a bid to reduce both bill shock and bad debts.
It will also text customers travelling overseas updates on the volume and cost of their data usage, which is charged at much higher rates on overseas networks than in Australia.
The communications watchdog has welcomed the initiative, which comes just weeks before it releases a draft report on customer service in the sector on June 1.
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Telstra's chief financial officer, John Stanhope, said the idea was first proposed last August as one of several customer service initiatives, but technical complexities had slowed down implementation. Since then Telstra has also spent about $1 billion on marketing and restructuring. It has turned around a long-term decline in mobile customer numbers, adding 1.5 million new customers since June.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/telstra-throttles-excess-mobile-data-to-avoid-bill-shock-20110525-1f325.html#ixzz1NK6XMcG2
4. Is Android Really the 'Open' Platform?
Much has been claimed by Google ever since the infant days of its Android mobile operating system. The claim it has seemed to champion the most is that its platform is open by nature. One of the biggest complaints about iOS has been Apple's lockdown policy, so naturally, Google would want to make its platform's openness a main selling point. Lately, though, it is starting to become apparent that Android isn't as "open" as we were led to believe.
5. Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold
When we say a game has "gone gold," it means that the work on the game has finished, and a master copy has been sent out to the duplication plants to be pressed, packaged, and shipped out to consumers. This used to mean that the development team could take a break, but now going gold is likely to simply start a countdown to the inevitable day-one patch. Let's not be cynical, however, because today is a grand day: Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold.
"Duke Nukem Forever is the game that was once thought to be unshipppable, and yet here we are, on the precipice of history," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Today marks an amazing day in the annals of gaming lore, the day where the legend of Duke Nukem Forever is finally complete and it takes that final step towards becoming a reality." Sure, it took us 15 years or so to get here, but the important thing is that the game is coming out. It's happening.
The game will be released on June 14, with a demo coming on June 3 for preorder customers and those who bought the Game of the Year Edition of Borderlands. Until then, why not read our April Fools Day "review" of the game? Check out our history of the game's engine updates, trailers, cancellation, and resurrection. Read ourhands-on with the nearly final game to see what we think of Duke's modern incarnation.
When the game is finally out in stores, it's almost going to be sad. We're going to have to work for our jokes.
6. Should Microsoft Be Losing Sleep Over Chrome OS?
So Google's Chromebooks finally made their long-awaited debut last week, complete with interesting leasing options for the business, government and educational markets. As Samsung and Acer put the finishing touches on their devices, the question on many tongues now is how these new machines will fit into the already-competitive mobile computing market. Over at ZDNet, in fact, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols went so far as to suggest that Google's new devices are "a Windows killer," and his sentiment has been widely echoed throughout the blogosphere.
7. Sony's Spanking New PSN Security Marred by Password Exploit
Hackers have reportedly hit the PlayStation Network again, sneaking in another attack just days after Sony brought its video game network back online following its weeks-long outage -- which itself resulted from an attack last month. This time, hackers can apparently change users' passwords on the network using only their victims' account email address and their date of birth. Sony asked users to reset passwords after the PSN network was first infiltrated. Personal information on up to 100 million customers had apparently been compromised.
2. Dell's MacBook Pro rival costs $700 less
The 15.6-inch XPS 15z, which starts at $1399, will be available through Dell's website today. The laptop is 24.68mm thin, has an anodised aluminium chassis and weighs 2.5kg.
By comparison, the 15-inch MacBook Pro models sell for $2099 or $2499, depending on the configuration.
The MacBook Pro weighs about the same as the XPS 15z and is almost exactly the same thickness. It also uses the same Intel Core i5 and i7 chips, boasts a similar latch-less design and offers a large trackpad.
Rainer Noack, head of Dell Australia's consumer division, went as far as saying that compared side-by-side with any competing laptop, including the MacBook Pro, the XPS 15z would "win hands down".
TELSTRA will start throttling broadband speeds on mobile phones when customers reach their data allowance, in a bid to reduce both bill shock and bad debts.
It will also text customers travelling overseas updates on the volume and cost of their data usage, which is charged at much higher rates on overseas networks than in Australia.
The communications watchdog has welcomed the initiative, which comes just weeks before it releases a draft report on customer service in the sector on June 1.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Telstra's chief financial officer, John Stanhope, said the idea was first proposed last August as one of several customer service initiatives, but technical complexities had slowed down implementation. Since then Telstra has also spent about $1 billion on marketing and restructuring. It has turned around a long-term decline in mobile customer numbers, adding 1.5 million new customers since June.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/telstra-throttles-excess-mobile-data-to-avoid-bill-shock-20110525-1f325.html#ixzz1NK6XMcG2
4. Is Android Really the 'Open' Platform?
Much has been claimed by Google ever since the infant days of its Android mobile operating system. The claim it has seemed to champion the most is that its platform is open by nature. One of the biggest complaints about iOS has been Apple's lockdown policy, so naturally, Google would want to make its platform's openness a main selling point. Lately, though, it is starting to become apparent that Android isn't as "open" as we were led to believe.
5. Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold
When we say a game has "gone gold," it means that the work on the game has finished, and a master copy has been sent out to the duplication plants to be pressed, packaged, and shipped out to consumers. This used to mean that the development team could take a break, but now going gold is likely to simply start a countdown to the inevitable day-one patch. Let's not be cynical, however, because today is a grand day: Duke Nukem Forever has gone gold.
"Duke Nukem Forever is the game that was once thought to be unshipppable, and yet here we are, on the precipice of history," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Today marks an amazing day in the annals of gaming lore, the day where the legend of Duke Nukem Forever is finally complete and it takes that final step towards becoming a reality." Sure, it took us 15 years or so to get here, but the important thing is that the game is coming out. It's happening.
The game will be released on June 14, with a demo coming on June 3 for preorder customers and those who bought the Game of the Year Edition of Borderlands. Until then, why not read our April Fools Day "review" of the game? Check out our history of the game's engine updates, trailers, cancellation, and resurrection. Read ourhands-on with the nearly final game to see what we think of Duke's modern incarnation.
When the game is finally out in stores, it's almost going to be sad. We're going to have to work for our jokes.
6. Should Microsoft Be Losing Sleep Over Chrome OS?
So Google's Chromebooks finally made their long-awaited debut last week, complete with interesting leasing options for the business, government and educational markets. As Samsung and Acer put the finishing touches on their devices, the question on many tongues now is how these new machines will fit into the already-competitive mobile computing market. Over at ZDNet, in fact, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols went so far as to suggest that Google's new devices are "a Windows killer," and his sentiment has been widely echoed throughout the blogosphere.
7. Sony's Spanking New PSN Security Marred by Password Exploit
Hackers have reportedly hit the PlayStation Network again, sneaking in another attack just days after Sony brought its video game network back online following its weeks-long outage -- which itself resulted from an attack last month. This time, hackers can apparently change users' passwords on the network using only their victims' account email address and their date of birth. Sony asked users to reset passwords after the PSN network was first infiltrated. Personal information on up to 100 million customers had apparently been compromised.
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