Tech Stream
Posts Tagged ‘ Australia’
Tech Stream 038
5 February 2010
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A classic old 14.4k modem from the early ’90s. Image from Flickr by Richard Masoner.
Very few people know how the internet developed in Australia and that the research-focused network that gave birth to it is still going strong today. We’ll find out more in the Tech Stream this week. Plus the fallout from the film industry losing their case against a major internet service provider whose customers downloaded pirated movies and television programs. For more details on the program read on or listen now via the MP3 link above.
Tech Stream 037
29 January 2010
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2010. The Future: so close you can almost smell it. Image from plan59.com.
This week in the Tech Stream: Apple unveil their latest, “must-have” device – the iPad. Technology journalist Danny Gorog joins us with all the details. The full interview with Danny and links to some of the other media coverage is in our blog post from yesterday.
We also crack open our crystal balls, with another look at the top technology trends and ideas for this year and into the next decade and beyond. We’ll hear from Stephen Prentice, VP and fellow at Gartner, the technology research and advisory company.
And finally Bajo from Good Game on ABC TV returns to forecast the video games trends and releases we’ll be talking about and playing in the year ahead.
Follow the MP3 link above to hear the full program, or subscribe to the podcast or our twitter feed by following the links to the right.
Tech Stream 035 – Year in Review
18 December 2009
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What an incredible year to start covering technology news. I’ve heard 2009 described as being the “year of the internet”. And I’d have to agree. I spent a couple of weeks in the Solomon Islands and Japan where I lost access to the internet on my mobile and it really hit home just how important and valuable this connectivity was to me. So it’s no surprise that I’ve often been drawn to stories this year that related to how we connect with each other via the web. Sometimes this related to new mobile or PC technology. At other times it related to the underlying backbone of the network.
So in the Pacific we had more solid news about new undersea cables that could see the cost of internet access drop as speeds increase. The infrastructure isn’t yet in place though, and its still a struggle to access the kind of internet experience that most people in Australia, for example, now take for granted.
Domestically, here in Australia, we had two major announcements from the federal government – the splitting up of the country’s largest telecommunications provider, Telstra, as part of their National Broadband Network (NBN). And the government’s decision, the details of which became clearer this week, to filter banned content on the internet at an ISP level. Both of these stories are covered in the beginning of our special Year In Review program which you can listen to via the MP3 link above. Or continue reading on for more information.
Tech Stream 034
10 December 2009
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Video game designer David Jaffe provided the keynote speech via video link at GCAP 2009
The Tech Stream program this week is focused entirely on gaming. It was recorded at the Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2009 (GCAP) conference and expo which took place in Melbourne, Australia from the 6th to the 8th of December. Follow the MP3 link above to listen or continue reading for details.
Game Connect: Jay Wilbur from Epic Games
10 December 2009
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I had a chance, as part of the Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2009 conference, to speak with Jay Wilbur from Epic Games. Jay has been working in the industry for many years and his credits include classics like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake and Commander Keen. Jay Wilbur is now Vice President – Business Development at Epic Games. The company’s recent releases include smashes like Gears of War (pictured above) and they also provide the technology under the hood of many other companies’ games – the Unreal Engine. Follow the MP3 link above to hear Jay Wilbur talking about “middleware” and Epic’s newly release UDK (Unreal Developers Kit).
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2009
8 December 2009
The puzzle game Blakely Van De Buckle’s Brass Cabaret being played in the Independent Gamers Exhibition at GCAP 2009. The game was produced by Powderkeg Entertainment.
I’m spending the beginning of this week at a gaming conference and expo in Melbourne. Game Connect: Asia Pacific (GCAP) is organised by the Game Developers’ Association of Australia (GDAA) and is an opportunity for people working in the gaming and interactive entertainment industry to network, share some new ideas and discuss some of the issues they’re facing. There has also been a focus on serious games, with education and health featuring heavily as themes on day one.
The GDAA Industry Awards took place at the end of day two and not surprisingly the runway smash Flight Control picked up a string of awards including “Best Game”. Firemint’s popular game for the iPhone and iPod Touch mobile platform has been downloaded from the iTunes App Store more than 1.5 million times. The President of the GDAA, Tom Crago, noted that “Flight Control has been a phenomenal success and has really been responsible for the creation of an entire new genre on iPhone. We’re very proud that this title was developed in Australia”. Heroes Over Europe from Transmission Games (which is no longer operating having closed down in October) also picked up three awards, including “Best Console Title”.
The Tech Stream program on Friday will be devoted to gaming and coverage of Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2009. Make sure you tune in, or subscribe to the podcast to hear it. In the meantime Mike Bantick has some good coverage over at iTWire, including an overview of the event and a story on the student produced games on show at GCAP.
I’ve also been asking people at the conference what their favourite game of 2009 was. What’s yours?
Tech Stream 033
2 October 2009
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Triple J’s Unearthed.com, a community music site for Australian independent artists and their fans.
In the Tech Stream this week we look at some of the new tools available to music fans and artists to help them discover or share their music online. Soundcloud, RCRD LBL, We Are Hunted and Triple J Unearthed (pictured) are all featured. We also dig deeper into some of the issues around music file-sharing, free content, online promotion and streaming services. The MP3 link at the top of this post has the audio, or take the jump for more information.
Australian government proposes Telstra split
16 September 2009
The Australian Government announced yesterday that they were seeking to overhaul telecommunications regulation in the country, and that it was their “clear desire for Telstra to structurally separate, on a voluntary and cooperative basis.” The company faces restrictions on it’s business, like access to advanced wireless spectrum, if it does not split its retail and wholesale arms.
The media release from Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is available here and coverage of the announcement is on ABC Online at Conroy Moves to Split Telstra and on ABC TV’s Lateline last night at Telstra Forced to Split. Stephen Conroy also spoke with Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National Breakfast this morning about how the decision fits within the government’s vision for the National Broadband Network.
Shares in the company took a dive on the news and Telstra shareholders weren’t over the moon at the announcement, with chief executive of the Australian Shareholders’ Association Stuart Wilson telling ABC News that “It’s a situation where Telstra shareholders have purchased shares in good faith off the Government and then only a few years later the Government changes the rules and sets all sorts of limitations on Telstra to the point where profitability will be affected.”
Analysts like Paul Budde (speaking here to The World Today) are enthusiastic about the news and Telstra’s competitors have also reacted positively to Stephen Conroy’s announcement. Optus welcomed the idea of a split in Telstra’s business, with their director of government and corporate affairs, Maha Krishnapillai, telling ABC Radio’s PM:
“This is a great piece of microeconomic reform by the Federal Government. Very clearly they are getting a competitive advantage today. They have 60 per cent margins on their fixed communications networks. They make sure that it is as difficult and litigious as possible to access those networks. They make sure that the quality of those services, let alone access to the IT systems from everything from billing to provisioning to turning on services, is as difficult as possible. So it isn’t just price. It is in fact equivalence of access to those services.” MP3 Audio link
ZDNet have more of the industry’s response and AM this morning reports that Australia’s consumer competition watchdog, the ACCC, is welcoming the breakup of Telstra with their chairman Graeme Samuel saying that consumers will be the winners if the companies splits:
“…there’s 21 million Australian consumers, about 16 million of them are using some form of telecommunications service and they are the big winners because at long last we’re seeing competition quite clearly infused into the telecommunication sector.” MP3 Audio link
But what does Telstra themselves make of it all? Well their CEO David Thodey said in a statement that they were disappointed with the direction the government wants to go in but would play ball. ZDNet also have more on this, and we’ll have more in the Tech Stream on Friday.
Just for the RCRD
11 September 2009
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One of the region’s biggest music industry events wraps up in Brisbane, Australia today. The Big Sound 2009 conference featured three days of panels, workshops and artist showcases for local, national and international music industry representatives. There were opportunities for networking, learning and debate, with much of the latter focusing on the future of the music industry.
One of the international guests at Big Sound was Elliot Aronow, the creative director and co-founder of RCRD LBL which descibes itself as “a network of online record labels and blogs serving up fresh new music downloads and exclusive content curated by our team of editors and partner labels every day”.
I had a chance to meet Elliot while he was in Melbourne this week and we got talking about the philosophies underpinning the way RCRD LBL operates and a range of other topics around music, mobile, streaming, free content, copyright, twitter, social media and the value of curators.
You can hear the discussion via the MP3 link above, or start discovering some new music at rcrdlbl.com
Tech Stream 029
4 September 2009
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Photo from Flickr by John Johnston.
In the Tech Stream this week we ask whether internet addiction is a clinical disorder; the lowdown on Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 from Blizzard’s annual conference; how new undersea cable networks in the Pacific could deliver high-speed, affordable broadband internet to the region; and look at how the goings on in Australian parliament are being documented and shared in a way that enhances our experience of democracy. Jump straight into the program with the MP3 link above or read on for more details.