Courtesy of Alex on Flickr

The West Australian reported on  Thursday that WA residents will be the first in the country to be able to view public hospital details online, such as the number of patients waiting to be seen in emergency departments, ambulance diversions and ramping, and the number of beds currently available and in use. Read more

Courtesy of John Blyberg on Flickr

Rumours of Amazon’s new Kindle eBook reader have been floating around the web recently, with one rumour hinting on the new 2.0 version of the device being announced this coming Monday, and another about a possible education model targeted at students as an alternative to textbooks. The current version of the Kindle has been quite successful, with one analyst believing that about 500,000 Kindles were sold in 2008; pretty good considering it’s a niche device and only available in the United States. Read more

It’s rare for a great new web service to come along that really makes you say “wow”, but Kosmix.com made me do just that. Recently, Robert Scoble tweeted about a video interview he did with the Kosmix creators. Give the video a watch, it explains the ins and outs of Kosmix and gives some great examples of how it can be used. Read more

Speakers are a necessary component in a desktop computer setup for anyone who listens to music, plays games or watches movies on their computer. The problem is that a giant gap exists between the sound quality of “computer speakers” and that of high quality home audio. Read more

Ruslan Kogan, founder of Australian-based consumer electronics company Kogan Technologies, posted a blog entry yesterday informing the public that the Agora mobile phone will be delayed indefinitely due to “potential future interoperability issues”. In other words, it’s been cancelled.

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At CES in January of next year, Asus will be showing their new touchscreen models of the well known and loved Eee PC range. The new models will include 8.9-inch and 10.2-inch displays that are swivel mounted so they can also be used as a tablet. Asus are also working on some applications that will utilise touchscreen controls, such as drawing, photo editing and multimedia apps.

I can tell you there is a definite market for a device like this. Just check out all of the Eee PC touchscreen mods around the web. It’s almost become a cult of its own. Read more

Here we go again. Another serious security flaw has been discovered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser which allows hackers to take control of people’s computers and steal their passwords via websites that contain malicious code. The vulnerability is present in all versions of IE, Microsoft says. Read more

invisibleSHIELD, made by Zagg, is the military-grade, scratch-proof, stain-resistant protective clear film that has been protecting our beloved gadgets for a few years now, but was previously only available in the United States. That didn’t stop Aussies from buying them, of course; their solid reputation and previous free shipping options were pretty hard to resist.

With the economy the way it is right now, it’s getting a little expensive to buy gear from the U.S. and that makes us all a bit sad. Fortunately for us, invisibleSHIELD protectors are now available in Australia at www.invisibleSHIELD.com.au. Read more

SOCIAL MEDIA and networking services can be extremely useful and rewarding, but with the sheer number that exist on the web today, it can be quite overwhelming for all but the most ardent of social media enthusiasts. Whether you’re a fan of these services for personal use, such as keeping in touch with friends, or you’re using them as marketing tools for your business, it’s important to have a clear understanding of which services you’re using, how you’re using them, and your reasons for using them at all, otherwise you might be spending far more time than you need to duplicating content over multiple services, or sifting through information that really has no benefit to you anyway.

If you’re feeling a bit swamped by information overload, or just want to know how to manage all incoming and outgoing social media activity, read on ‘cause I have a five step guide to keep your sanity in check. Read more

APPLE’S MobileMe is great for syncing data between multiple computers and devices, and while I personally decided to cough up the AU$119 to save me some time and frustration, let’s face it, the service definitely isn’t cheap. It’s probably only worth it if you plan to use all the included functionality of the service.

If you own a Mac or several with OS X 10.5 Leopard, and only have a need for limited data syncing such as your Address Book contacts, calendars, tasks and Safari bookmarks, then here’s an alternative that is currently in beta, and completely free for the moment. Read more