Next week Sydney plays host to the CeBit Technology Expo. This week however a slightly quiet week in Technology.

As always I bring you the latest technology news from the week that was, explained in plain English. This is the News That Matters.

Optus Official

Less aliens phoning home

Grand Theft Auto up for sale

XP SP3 reboots AMD

Budget 2008 filtering

GTA pushes again for R Rating

CNet gets a new owner

Vista is faulty because of users

Budget 2008 cost cutting

Wii tell the wrong person they're fat

Darwin Doctors have evolved

Monday 12th May 2008 - 16th May 2008

Optus Official

2 weeks ago telecom industry insiders said Optus was going to have the ability to sell and support the Apple iPhone later this year. Last week Vodafone announced they will sell and support the new mobile phone later this year. This week Optus officially announced they will have the iPhone later this year.

While no date or features have been announced yet speculation is the phone retailing close to $700.

Source The Australian

Comment

When ever something new or interesting comes out, Australians are known for jumping on the band wagon earlier. The delay with the release of the iPhone in Australia could end up hurting sales with a lot of other mobile phone makers producing similar phones now, and selling them for less than the iPhone from Apple. 

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Less aliens phoning home

2 highly anticipated games for Windows based computers have had a copy protection feature disabled after public outcry.

Mass Effect and Spore, both due for release later this year were both due to use the SecuROM Digital Rights Management software that would see the games check with the publishes database every few days during play. Bioware, makers of Mass Effect, and EA, makers of Spore, have both said they will not activate that feature in the copy protection software.

Source Gamespot

Comment

While it is understandable for businesses to try and reduce the amount of programmes that are pirated, making the people have to register their copies of games, and then have the games constantly checking an online database is not the right way to do it.

This could lead to further decline in the number of games that are produced for the computer due to the difficulty in pirating games for consoles.

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Grand Theft Auto up for sale

Before the release of the highly popular and record breaking Grand Theft Auto 4, Electronic Arts revealed plans to try and buy GTA4 maker Rockstar Games.

This week EA announced they have taken a $US1 billion loan to try and buy the game maker. This will pump their previous $2.3 billion offer up to $3.3 billion.

Source Gamespot

Comment

In a continuing trend, game publishers are starting to merge and form larger and larger companies to try and keep development costs down and increase profits. While this will lead to hopefully more high quality games it will also possibly lead to stagnation in the game industry, similar to the movie industry.

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XP SP3 reboots AMD

With the now mainstream release of Service pack 3 for Windows XP new problems are starting to appear.

If the computer maker installed a copy of Windows XP on the computer from a copy that didn't have all the default Windows components on a computer with an AMD processor it could cause a computer to constantly reboot after Service Pack 3 is installed.

In 2004 Microsoft released this problem and informed all computer makers of the problems possible if not installing Windows XP properly.

Source ZDNet

Comment

Just one more problem that only exists because people and businesses try and install Windows and other programmes on computers the quickest and easiest way.

Every computer is different and as such they all need individual care and supervision when installing anything in them.

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Budget 2008 filtering

The first budget of the new Australian government was released this week and in it was plans for the government to give ISP's (Internet Service Providers), the AFP (Australian Federal Police), ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) and the DPP (Department of Public Prosecution) $125.8 million to assist with the future filtering systems for the internet to cut down on illegal activities.

With the large number of ISP's in Australia and the splitting of funds with the 3 government bodies as well, ISP's will not be getting a lot of money to help implement the planned system.

Source ZDNet

Comment

As long as there are no plans to turn Australia into China-lite with dramatic censorship of the internet, the cash injection into all parties involved should help speed up the protection of people on the internet.

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GTA pushes again for R Rating 

In March this year, Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus ordered the Victorian Attorney General to look into the rating system used for games.

It would appear due to the average age of video game players in Australian and the slight editing of Grand Theft Auto 4 to get released in Australia, could lead to an R rating for games as soon as the end of the year.

The only state that has blocked the move at every stage has been South Australia.

Source The Australian

Comment

While an R rating would allow games that have been in the past refused classification to be released in Australia, the fact that an R rating means the game is only for people over 18 to be able to purchase and play might be seen to some retailers as not main stream enough and not worth stocking.

While I do support the introduction of an R rating for games, the retail channels will have to be looked at as well to see if they will sell R rated games in the future.

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CNet gets a new owner 

This week CNet, owners of ZDNet, CNet, Gamespot and many others announced they have been bought by American TV network CBS.

The $US 1.8 billion deal will see CNet properties and partnerships remain, but add to the CBS online stable.

Source ZDNet

Comment

While this will have no effect on any one who reads or frequents the sites involved in the purchase, it does show there is still some strong investment possibilities in popular online businesses.

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Vista is faulty because of users

A study by computer security software maker PC Tools has found 70% of all computers with Windows Vista installed are infected with some form of malicious software. This has occurred even with the admittedly annoying User Access Control.

Microsoft is blaming users for the high infection rates, saying it is because they are complacent and allow anything access to their computer.

While Microsoft has said in that past that the majority of computers that have Vista installed on them have the UAC active, PC Tools has said the majority of computers they have seen have the feature deactivated.

Source ZDNet

Comment

As always it is hard to see who is right and who is wrong. I have personally only seen a few computers with Vista installed on them, due to people heeding my advice and not touching the new version of Windows.

Out of those that have Windows Vista installed on their computer close to half have some form of infection of their computer.

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Budget 2008 cost cutting

In an effort to reduce government spending, decrease taxes and increase revenue from taxes the budget from the new Australian government included changes to the laptop purchasing tax offsets.

As part of the changes, no longer can you purchase a new laptop through your work place and then pay it off using tax free salary sacrifice. Now any laptop purchases that can be paid off through a tax incentive salary sacrifice will have to be tested to make sure it is going to be used primarily for work purposes.

Source ZDnet

Comment

This is something I have never bothered to look into. While I do use my laptops for work purposes, I have ever seen the need to ever claim them as a tax write off, or pay them off over time

As someone who in th past has not had a lot of financial planning success, these days I run by the simple policy of if I can't pay for it right now without going into debt, for all but life changing purchases, I won't buy it.

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Wii tell the wrong person they're fat

A 10 year in southern Britain has been told by her copy of WiiFit, for the Nintendo Wii, that she is fat. 

The game that uses your details such as weight, age and height to help work out what your ideal weight is, told the 10 year old that due to her BMI she was over weight. This has caused some outrage in the UK with a spokesperson for the National Obesity Forum calling for the game to be slapped with an 18+ rating.

Source Gamespot

Comment 

As someone who admittedly could do with losing some weight I don't see what the concern is.

No matter what a game says the parents should be able to explain that it is just that a game. Next time I fire up my DS and play one of the Brain Training games and get told my brain is close to 60, I might go and sue Nintendo.

Oh no I won't, I know it's a game. 

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Darwin Doctors have evolved 

A 12 month train in Darwin could lead to the end of the doctor chicken scratching that passes as perscriptions.

The trail will see 2 pharmacies get downloaded prescription slips with bar coded signatures making it easier to dispatch the correct medications. Other pharmacies in the Northern Territory can use the prescriptions that are printed out. 

Dr Jeanine Richardson said "Security is a really big issue for prescriptions, as a GP I'm concerned that people will take my signature, which is copyable, and steal some prescription paper and make out a prescription and have a fraud that way."

Source The Australian

Comment

Luckily my personal doctors have been printing out prescriptions for a few years. It makes it easier, not only for the chemist to know what to dispatch, but also for me to read what it is I'm being prescribed.

A fully electronic prescriptions will allow for faster medicine dispatches and reducing hold ups in aged care facilities and hospitals. 

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