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The iPhone user's Down Under travel guide
If you own an iPhone and you're traveling to Australia or New Zealand, you might be wondering how your handset will work Down Under. The good news: as long as you have a GSM-model iPhone (i.e., not the Verizon iPhone), and as long as it's unlocked, your iPhone will work just fine down here. But there are still some tips you'll need to get the most out of your iPhone on our corner of Earth. First of all, if you want to use your iPhone's voice and data features overseas without hunting for WiFi hotspots, you have two options. First, you can stick with your current SIM and pay your carrier's international roaming fees, but these are usually extortionately expensive, especially for data. For instance, with AT&T you'll pay over a dollar per megabyte for data on a DataConnect Pass-Global plan. Things are even worse with many international carriers; my carrier, Vodafone NZ, charges NZ$5 per megabyte to roam in Australia, and $10 per megabyte in most other countries. Given the high cost of international roaming, even very light overseas usage can add up to more than your monthly bill; heavy usage (and poor planning) can lead to charges in the thousands of dollars. A much cheaper alternative is to unlock your iPhone and buy a pre-pay SIM from an overseas carrier, then switch back to your normal SIM when you return to your home country. Ask your local telco nicely if they'll unlock your iPhone for international travel; if you're with AT&T, well, good luck with that. Alternatively, just jailbreak the thing and unlock it that way. You can always revert to standard firmware when you return home. It's important to note again that the Verizon iPhone is completely incompatible with all networks in Australia and New Zealand, and it will basically be nothing more than an expensive iPod touch for the duration of your stay. Click "Read More" for some country-specific tips on getting the most out of your iPhone in Oceania.
Apple's Australian Store discounts most things by around 10 percent, foreshadows Black Friday deals
Just like last year and the year before, Apple's kicking off its Black Friday sale in the land of Oz first. Australian Mac lovers can now buy the iMac, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air for A$121 less than their usual price, while the iPad and iPod touch dip down by A$51 apiece and the iPod nano is now A$25 cheaper. It's all for today only, but should also be followed by similar discounts in the US and Europe.
Windows Phone 7 viral reeks of the Old Spice Guy (video)
Never above appropriating an internet meme for its own nefarious purposes, Microsoft is shipping Isaiah Mustafa (Old Spice Guy, to you and us) over to Australia to pimp out Windows Phone 7 with his rippling muscles and dreamy eyes. Does your phone look like this phone? Come October 21, it could do. [Thanks, Ed]
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Apple's Black Friday deals hit Australia site, same as it ever was (update: US and UK too)
Apple Down Under™ has revealed its today-only holiday gift specials, and with most deals hovering between 5 and 10 percent off, it's nothing out of the ordinary for Cupertino's wares. Still, if you're shopping for a new iMac this season, seems like the perfect opportunity to fill up your virtual shopping cart. If history tells us anything, look for these deals to hit Apple's US syndicate sometime around tomorrow. Update: It's after midnight in the UK, and as logic dictates, the one-day sale is now in effect there, too. Update 2: And it's Stateside: same percentage discounts, different currency.
Ned Kelly thumb drive for the bushranger in your life
Bushrangers were Australia's answer to English highwaymen and Ned Kelly was perhaps the most celebrated of them all. Known for his homemade armor and helmet -- here represented by the USB plug -- Kelly has now been truly immortalised by the art of memory stick modding. Fair enough, woodworking isn't a terribly precise art and we could just as easily claim this to be a Hristo Botev (who?) USB drive, but we have to commend the considerable effort required to put this baby together. On the other hand, there are snazzier alternatives out there, which look great even without you explaining the mythology behind their design.[Via Boing Boing]
Universal Pictures Australasia releasing 20 HD DVD titles in 2008
In a move not totally shocking considering Ken Graffeo's sentiments shared just days ago, Universal Pictures Australasia has come forward and announced that it will continue backing HD DVD by promising some 20 titles on the format in 2008. According to the release, consumers in Australia and New Zealand can look forward to picking up Atonement, The Kingdom, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, American Gangster and Charlie Wilson's War on HD DVD later this year. Unfortunately, none of the other flicks making up the previously mentioned "20" were detailed, so it looks as if we'll be waiting in tense anticipation for release dates and titles for the majority of the bunch.[Via iTWire, thanks Anthony B.]
Australian LG plasma / LCD TV owners forced to "reboot" frozen sets
It's not exactly unheard of for DVR, PC, and PPC-6700 owners to have legitimate complaints about "freezing" issues with their gizmos, but we can't say the average television was on our list of devices we look forward to "rebooting" every day hour or so. Apparently, a horde of Aussies are facing such a quandary, as the digital TV tuner in a myriad of LG LCD HDTVs and plasmas (hit the read link for the full list) is going on the fritz whilst tuned in to broadcasts on the Nine Network. Currently, the only answers irate owners are getting revolve around "reception issues with digital transmissions in Sydney and Melbourne," but LG has also stated that it expects to rollout a "way forward" for customers quite soon. Currently, the only way to solve the seizures is to unplug the set from the wall, give it "two to three minutes to reboot," and flip the power back on, which can quickly erode any meaning found in your average half-hour drama. Regardless of how irritating we're sure this is, at least a (promised) fix is supposedly on the way, and trust us, things could be much, much worse.Update: Oh man, what a disaster this is turning out to be. LG has now admitted that the problem affects 17 different models sold nationwide and stems from certain "digital TV processors and decoders had difficulty dealing with the way that the data signal is packaged." Even worse, the company is going to have to deploy hundreds of technicians to make tens of thousands of house calls, as an in-home repair is the only way to upgrade the components. Sorry, Aussies, until you can make an appointment, it seems like you're gonna be stuck with this annoyance for awhile -- and not only on Nine, as LG claims the bug could affect other OTA channels as well.[Via Core77]
Beauty-rating software could spell trouble for Hot or Not
Facial recognition software has been used in a smorgasbord of positive applications, aiding our soldiers in detecting baddies, keeping weirdos out of clubs, barring maniacs from entering football arenas, and even helping parents know when their infant is truly in a bad way, but the latest usage of the technology could indeed hurt the feelings of the less-than-attractive. A pair of controversy-lovin' Australian scientists have devised a software program that actually rates one's face "from one to ten" in terms of most ugly to most beautiful, and uses a sophisticated database of facial proportions borrowed from some 200 stunning women across the globe in order to give you a very honest answer when questioning your attractivity. Of course, we all know that real beauty lies within (right?), and if your idea of sexy doesn't match up with the generally accepted supermodel "look," the results could indeed conflict with your own beliefs. Currently, the program is designed to work solely with women, but adopting a male iteration could definitely be in the cards, and while we doubt this stuff would be particularly beneficial for your image-obsessed teen, it's primarily intended for use in the cosmetic surgery realm to judge just how effective that ridiculously expensive nose job really was.[Via Digg]
Australia to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2010
While some US cities like Raleigh are already planning steps to cut back on energy wastes by converting to more efficient lighting systems, it looks like the entire continent of Australia could be following suit. Claiming to be the "world's first" national government to phase out incandescent light bulbs in favor of the more "fuel-efficient, compact fluorescent bulb," environment minister Malcolm Turnbull is hoping to "cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by four million metric tonnes a year by 2015." Citing the "climate changes" the world is facing as a "global challenge," Turnbell also urged other nations to follow suit in making a difference, but didn't exactly open up his personal wallet to stock our households with those uber-pricey bulbs. Interestingly, some environmentalists feel that the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions come from government and business-related activities, which should presumably take priority over swapping out a country's light bulbs. Still, we've got no complaints with hooking homes up with LED / fluorescent options to help Mother Earth, but shouldn't Australia (and America, too) ink its name on the Kyoto Protocol before getting all high and mighty about saving the planet?
Google, Microsoft set to snap aerial photographs on Australia Day
If you were forced to be photographed by airplanes soaring over your homeland in a jovial time of celebration, would you rather Gates & Co. have the negatives, or the future dominator of planet Earth? Aussies will have the option to make their choice on January 26th, as both Microsoft and Google have separately announced flyovers to occur on Australia Day in which high-resolution photographs will be snapped. Microsoft's motive is one with cultural and artsy underpinnings, as the company hopes to arrange individuals in order to form objects, scenes, and colored patterns from above, while Google seeks to cover more of the country for use in Google Maps and is encouraging individuals to distinguish themselves to get a free ride right into its mapping software. So if you're a Down Under native, or you just so happen to be hanging out in Centennial or Moore Park on Friday morning, toss up an Engadget poster, will ya?
Wii smashes launch records in Australia
Much like operatic cringe-group Il Divo, the Wii has been mercilessly destroying familiar records as of late. Aussie-Nintendo picks up the pieces of yet another one, this time in the land of Australia. Selling 32,901 units in the space of four days, Nintendo's Zelda player can now confidently claim "the biggest launch of a videogame console in history." In Australia. Previously, the Xbox 360 held the record for selling just over 30,000 units in four days.Myer (a chain of stores, not a man) expressed pleasure at experiencing "a strong spike in total business which can be largely attributed to the introduction of Wii. We couldn't be happier with the fantastic products Nintendo are releasing. Our Wii launch experience has really shown that consumers have made Myer a destination store for gaming." Indeed, the folks at Myer would likely be even happier if console launches happened more often, as they're almost always marked by rapidly vanishing stocks and hordes of early adopters. The real trick is to keep the momentum going long after the release buzz has died down. Keep an eye on those records though, just to be safe.
