Tech Stream
Archive for the ‘ Mobile’ Category
Tech Stream 025
7 August 2009
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Hacking in China, the internet in the Pacific, Microsoft and Yahoo cut a deal and updates to the Wii controller. Its all in the Tech Stream this week. You can hear the latest program with the MP3 link at the top of this story or to the right and keep reading for the full lowdown…
What now for Friendster?
31 July 2009
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I had a chance this week to speak with Richard Kimber, the Australian-based CEO of one of the longest running social networking site on the web Friendster.com. We spoke about social networking trends in Asia; why Friendster made the physical move into the region and he also confirmed that the recent rumours on Tech Crunch were true: Friendster was looking for a buyer interested in purchasing the company or some of its assets. You can hear the full interview with the MP3 link at the top of this post, or read on for more.
Tech Stream 023
24 July 2009
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Mobile money, Google vs Microsoft and gaming in the Wild West. Its a mixed bag in the Tech Stream this week. You can listen to the full program with the MP3 link above or read more after the jump…
Tech Stream 021
10 July 2009
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With more smartphones featuring GPS, maps and navigation applications what does the future hold for dedicated sat-nav devices? Photo from Flickr by tripu.
We hit the wide open road in the Tech Stream this week with some of the latest GPS satellite navigation applications for mobile phones.
Technology journalist Adam Turner has had a chance to try an Australian sat-nav mobile maps application for the iPhone called Sygic (you can read a full review on his blog). But it seems we shouldn’t be throwing out our dedicated sat-nav devices just yet.
Plus we ask, what exactly is GPS and where did it come from? We have an expert in the field with us to answer our questions: Professor Chris Rizos, Head of the School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems at the University of New South Wales. You can also read more about GPS – the Global Positioning System – on ABC Science Online.
We also briefly mention the news about Google launching its own PC operating system called Chrome OS. Details are still sketchy but the company has posted this FAQ and blog-post about it.
And finally to gaming and EA’s Sims 3 – the latest in the world’s most successful computer games series. Bajo from Good Game on ABC TV in Australia reviews it for us and says its strongest selling point is the way if fosters an active online community who can use the game to create their own content, including videos.
You can listen to the full Tech Stream program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest something we can follow up in future programs. You can also subscribe to the podcast too!
Tech Stream 020
3 July 2009
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Micro-USB connectors, already in use for charging some mobile phones, are set to become a standard for all.
We heard back in February that the worldwide mobile industry had at last decided on the connection format for a universal charger compatible with all mobile phones. Its good news for you and me because we don’t have to keep an assortment of chargers on hand, or get a new type when we upgrade our phone. But its even better news for the environment, with less of this kind of electronic waste finding its way into landfill.
That’s coming up in the Tech Stream today, plus the future of e-books and publishing in the digital age… and the intersection between virtual and real economies. Full details after the jump.
Tech Stream 019
26 June 2009
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QR coded jewelry – photo from Flickr by Fluid Forms.
We’re blurring the lines between the virtual and the physical this week in the Tech Stream. We’ll be speaking about augmented reality with Christy Dena, a cross-media researcher and Professor Bruce Thomas from the Wearable Computer Lab at the University of South Australia.
This leads us into a discussion on Quick Response or “QR” Codes which are being used in advertising as well as augmented reality games. Antony McGregor Dey from QMCodes and Mobile Mondays Melbourne will get us up to speed with this new way to link a physical-world object with something in an online or virtual environment.
We’ll also have a report from Connect Asia‘s David Wang on how the Chinese Government is cracking down on pornography online and accusing search engines like Google of disseminating pornographic content within China.
And finally Bajo joins us from Good Game to review the latest Ghostbusters video game.
You can listen to the full Tech Stream program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest something we can follow up in future programs. You can also subscribe to the podcast too!
Augmented Reality
26 June 2009
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We caught a glimpse this week of some mobile applications that allow you to look at the world around you and see an overlay of virtual information. Point the phone’s camera at a building and a dialog box pops up on the screen with what it is, when it was built, how far away it is from you etc. You can still see the physical world but now virtual content has been added on top. This is an example of augmented reality. More after the jump…
Tech Stream 018
19 June 2009
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PNG school children in Gaire, outside Port Moresby, trying out their new OLPC laptops in June last year. Photo from Flickr.
In the Tech Stream this week: Twitter connects the world to the post-election protests in Iran; the latest mobiles on display at CommunicAsia in Singapore; online vigilantes shutdown racism on Facebook; ICANN’s Dr Paul Twomey on the future of internet domain names; the One-Laptop-Per-Child scheme expands in the Pacific; and Bajo from Good Game joins us to chat about Infamous, the latest ‘open-world’ video game. Listen with the MP3 link above, full details after the jump…
Broadband growth driven by Asia
18 June 2009
The ICT expo CommunicAsia is taking place in Singapore this week and their daily newsbrief (pdf link) has some interesting stats on the growth of broadband take up in the region. Their figures indicate that broadband lines topped 429.2 million globally as of the end of the first quarter of 2009 with most of that growth being driven by Asia.
Tech Stream 017
12 June 2009
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A WiMAX USB dongle. Photo from Flickr by Hirotomo Oi
In the Tech Stream this week we get serious about our games. The Good Game team return from the E3 games expo with news of motion sensor technology which could allow us to throw away our controllers; and we’re joined by “Serious Games” experts Noah Falstein and Dr Ian Bogost who are in Australia for a conference on Serious Games in Sydney. You can listen to their full interview on a previous post.
We also look at the rollout of WiMAX wireless broadband in Fiji and Papua new Guinea… and tech-journo Danny Gorog join us with the lowdown on the new iPhone 3Gs and OS3.0 mobile operating system which was announced at Apple’s WWDC on Monday.
You can listen to the full Tech Stream program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest something we can follow up in future programs. You can also subscribe to the podcast too!
