A PLOY to attract attention with women dressed as nurses has backfired on an exhibitor at Australia’s largest technology trade show.

Late last month Optus announced it would be the first telecommunications company in Australia to carry the HTC Dream with Android Operating System. Since its launch Tech Wired has had the chance to trial the mobile and produce a short video review.

The mobile was compared heavily to the iPhone as a benchmark for what mobile technology should be capable of doing in the year 2009.

Some highlighted features it includes that the iPhone doesn’t:

• Digital compass
• Full QWERTY keyboard and Trackball
• 3.2 megapixel colour camera with auto focus
• A really cool way of unlocking
• microSD capability
• Removable battery

The mobile is available exclusive to Optus starting from $59 + handset costs @ http://optus.com.au/dream.

Rating: 4/5

Watch the video review below:

Steve Dalby, iiNet's Chief Regulatory Officer

After talks with iiNet’s Chief Regulatory Officer, Steve Dalby, iiNet has agreed to cover the costs for Tech Wired Australia to continue to pursue the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) under the Freedom of Information Act for documents it wont release before tendering, relating to the Nation’s National 4.7 billion dollar Broadband Network.

Tech Wired Australia is currently in the process of applying for documents the Australian Government won’t release because it believes releasing the documents…

“has the potential to prejudice the outcome of the process.”

Funny though, since the government said at the beginning of the process…

“The competitive assessment process will be open and transparent, with opportunities for industry and community input.”

Has the government done a back flip on it’s original promise, surely not! By not releasing this report (or the ACCC report) before Conroy’s ambition to…“…sign by March” It is not allowing for anyone to scrutinise it.

Just yesterday the Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Nick Minchin, let Tech Wired know of Conroy’s “hypocrisy” spending on consultancy fees.

“Labor’s increasing reliance on external consultants in the Communications portfolio has all the look of a Government desperately trying to cobble together policy-on-the-run,”

“In Opposition Labor liked to point the figure at Government consultancy costs as signs of waste. The reality is there is a requirement for external advice in complex areas such as communications, but the figures to date suggest the Rudd Government is going to take spending in this area to a stunning new level,” Senator Minchin said.

In January the Opposition revealed that Labor had already forked out more than $4 million on five key consultants in relation to its troubled National Broadband Network tender process.

Across 2007-08 and 2008-09 a total of $7.73 million was budgeted for these five alone! Surely the government would stick by its budget, no?

This came after Labor allocated a further $10 million in additional estimates…

“to meet the projected additional costs associated with the National Broadband Network project.”

Tech Wired wants to know what you think!

Leave a comment below.

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.

Fortunately, Audioengine saw this problem and set out to remedy it by creating the Audioengine 2 (A2) active speakers. They’re the little brother of their larger and more powerful flagship A5 model, but don’t be fooled; these little puppies sure pack a punch. The Audioengine 2′s aren’t exclusively for computer use, but they were designed to pair well with a computer because of their small form factor and price point.

Design & Build Quality

The A2′s may be small but they’re very solid and weighty and built using all custom parts by Audioengine. The drivers in each speaker include a 2.75-inch Kevlar woofer and a 20mm silk dome tweeter. The left speaker contains a dual class AB monolithic amplifier. Their power output is 60W peak total (15W RMS).

The connections are gold-plated, and the speaker wire that comes with the A2′s feels very strong and durable. Other bundled cables and accessories include the power supply and cable, a 2-metre audio cable with 1/8th stereo jack, a 20cm audio cable with stereo jack, drawstring bags for the speakers and cables and the instruction manual.

The cabinets are made of 18mm thick MDF and have tuned front-firing bass ports which are actually just small aesthetically pleasing slots along the bottom. There’s foam padding on the underside of the speakers to help absorb vibrations when placed on a desk or table.  The A2′s are available with a glossy black or white finish. Full specs can be found on the Audioengine website.

The look of the A2′s is very simple and elegant with absolutely no connectors or controls anywhere except at the rear of the speakers. Their neutral design means they’ll match almost any other equipment and can be placed in any room without looking out of place. The only major downside to such simplicity is that the volume control is on the rear of the left speaker, making it a little awkward to reach with some setups. On the plus side, it does feel very solid to turn and gives a satisfying ‘click’ when turned all the way clockwise which powers the speakers off.

Sound Quality

My initial reaction to the sound of the Audioengine 2′s was utter disbelief at the sheer amount of bass these little speakers were outputting. However, it soon became apparent that there was actually a little too much bass of the uncontrolled kind. It was overpowering and quite boomy. Raising the speakers from the desk to cut back the resonance alleviated the problem a little. Using speaker spikes and dedicated stands will likely help even more, otherwise the A2′s will probably need a bit of EQ when sitting on top of a desk, just to cut back on the boom from about 125Hz to 250Hz.

When the bass is under control though, the A2′s sound is something to behold. The lows are much more punchy and tight, with the highs bright and clear without being fatiguing or creating too much sibilance. One thing that bothers me more than anything else when it comes to audio is muddiness in the midrange. I’m happy to say the A2′s don’t suffer significantly from this blight. Tonal separation is quite good.

I’ve played a variety of different music through the A2′s and every track is presented accurately and quite neutral, with a well produced soundstage for such small speakers, particularly active ones. They definitely come alive at higher volumes and they do go quite loud; sitting at my desk with the A2′s a metre away from my ears, their volume is only turned up a fraction of the way and rarely exceeds halfway. At higher volumes, you can really see the speaker drivers in action and feel the air pushing out of the front bass ports.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that the A2′s, as with many speakers, are very sensitive to the audio source feeding them. They sound exceedingly different when using my iMac’s internal DAC than they do when using an external interface, in my case, the Lexicon Omega. The A2′s connected to the iMac’s DAC sounded lifeless and flat in comparison. Needless to say, the Audioengine 2′s will benefit greatly from a high quality source, which is definitely a good thing.

Price vs Performance

In the audio world where everything is very relative to price, the Audioengine 2′s stand out as great value speakers. In the USA they retail for US$199. At that price, I would consider buying the A2′s a no-brainer. The amount of value for money is almost unheard of. In Australia however, they retail from about AU$349 to AU$375 making the decision making process a little lengthier for those interested in these speakers.

That said, at AU$350 I would still consider the A2′s to be a bargain for those seeking quality active bookshelf speakers. The majority of active speakers in the same price range, particularly “computer speakers” are generally less neutral sounding and more bass-heavy, better suited to games and movies . The Audioengine 2′s strength is in their accuracy and neutrality in music reproduction for their price, making them great value for money if you care about your music.

Final Thoughts

The Audioengine A2′s are very full sounding speakers of incredible quality for their size and price, and definitely fill a frustrating gap for those wanting good sounding speakers that look nice and don’t break the bank.

I can easily recommend them to those who simply want to move up from generic speakers, or want something that doesn’t take up too much space in a small room or a bedroom but still sounds great. Coupled with a high quality external DAC, their price also makes them a great solution for those on a budget looking to build a decent audio setup, computer-based or otherwise.

If you fall into any of these categories then the A2′s are definitely worth checking out and I sincerely recommend them.

Tech Wired Australia has been supplied with a specific set of routers that we’ve requested. We wanted to show some noteworthy routers that are out in the marketplace. Some are notable for their features, others for their price. And one for being horrendously terrible.

Billion 7404VNOX This router was reviewed in full here. Design 3/5 Price 2/5 Performance 5/5 Ease of use 4/5 Features 5/5 Overall 4/5 Pros: Easy to setup, reliable, amazing feature set – almost expected it to cook and clean for me Cons: Steepish price tag, unit is quite large, runs a little hot

Dynalink RTA1025W (Award: Best on a Budget) This router looks like something I’d find in my grandmother’s garage stowed away from the 1950′s. But, it performs the pants out of other routers in this price range. Using a quick Google search, this router can be picked up for $96, and includes four 100mbit ethernet ports and 802.11g Wireless capabilities. And that’s about it. But for $96, I wouldn’t complain. This suits 99% of home users, and manages to sync up at just over my 6.5mbit average, coming in just under 7mbit most of the time. This router never dropped out. Actually, other than its appearance, I don’t have a negative word to say about this piece of hardware. That being said, that’s about all I can good about it too. There’s no wizz-flash features that connect your mobile phone to a toaster, no built in VPN, or anything of that kind. Design 2/5 Price 5/5 Performance 5/5 Ease of use 5/5 Features 3/5 Overall 4.5/5 Pros: Did I mention it’s cheap? Cons: It’s uh, Beige.

D-Link G804V The D-Link G804V looks exactly like every other D-Link, which isn’t a bad thing, and actually runs very cool. The router obtained line sync at a rate 4mbit per second which is well under my standard sync rate of 6.5mbit, and an upstream of 600kbps. I usually obtain 800kbps. Feature wise, it displays proudly on the front it can do ADSL2+, VPN, and is a Router. LAN Networking wise, the D-Link has four 100mbit ethernet ports, and 802.11g wireless which has an effective range less than any other router tested in my house. At the office, which is smaller, it worked just fine. The web interface is brilliant for users who aren’t 100% tech savvy and I managed to configure it in around 45 seconds, but it then took four and a half minutes to obtain line sync. All routers we tested stayed connected up to the line for 3 days and the D-Link dropped out four times in that period, the highest of any piece of hardware in my test. At a recommended retail price of $299, this is the best waste of $299 we’ve ever seen. Design 3/5 Price 1/5 Performance 1/5 Ease of use 5/5 Features 2/5 Overall 2/5 Pros: It includes a console cable, and a great web interface Cons: Everything else. Seriously.

]]> http://techwiredau.com/2009/01/feature-notable-routers-reviewed/feed/ 3 http://techwiredau.com/2009/01/review-the-hp-mini-1001tu-not-bad-at-all/ http://techwiredau.com/2009/01/review-the-hp-mini-1001tu-not-bad-at-all/#comments Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:00:19 +0000 Scott Mumford http://techwiredau.com/?p=3297

This is either going to work fabulously or fail fantastically.

This review of the HP Mini 1001TU netbook will be written on an HP Mini netbook. Not a groundbreaking method, there, I’ll admit. But what is going to be different about this article, however, is that the entire piece is going to be a test of an element I consider paramount in choosing a netbook; typability.

Starting from the beginning of the next paragraph any typos that are caused solely by the keyboard (as opposed to my own sausage-fingered incompetence) will not be corrected. You’ll be able to see, from my mistakes, what you can expect from the keyboard on the HP Mini 1001TU.

And the test begins…here.

The first thing you’ll notice about the HP Mini is that, all things considered, it’s a nice looking machine. True, for a guy, the pretty swirling on the top iof the lid would look more at home on an evening gown than a dinner jacket, but at least it’s black and sleek.

HP boast that the keyboard is 92% of the standard size and I’ll go along with that. Having played with a nuber of netbooks since they first hit Australian shores, the ‘board on the HP does feel much, much bigger than most (seemingly twice the sizr of the oned on the Toshiba NB100, which is a shame as I’m a long-time Toshiba man). Typing on this machine is, with a little concentration, quite easy.

Reading is actually quite pleasant too, with the 10.1 inch screen coming in at the larger end of the netbook scale. And it’s BRIGHT! I’ve had to turn the monitor down a few trimes simply to avoid having my retinas permanently scarred. The image could be a little crisper, but I don’t imagine anyone is going to be looking at this screen for extended periods, that’s just not what a netbook is designed for.

Hardware-wise, the 1001TU is nothing new. It has a 1.6Ghz Atom processor, 1Gb of RAM and Windows XP SP3 pre-installed. One hardware short falling with yhe 1001TU is the missing USB port. Three USB sockets are the standard on most netbooks and the 1001TU feels a little under-equipped with only two, especially considering that, as a netbook, the potential need for external hardware is higher.

Finding the built-in webcam was a bonus, as I ddn’t realise there was one until after I’d bought the machine. Using it for the first time was a bit disappointing, however. In all but the most brightly-lit spaces, the image comes across as very dim and, in some casual use cases, even becomes unusably dark (I’m wondering now if that’s a hidden benefit of the ultra-bright screen; built-in lighting).

An interesting side note to this issue is that, according to some HP user forums, installing a Linux distribution (Ubuntu was mentioned by name) can actually increase the brightness of the camera image, leadinf some users to question the quality of the Windows driver. Considering I didn’t even know the thing had a cam to begin with, the quality of the image isn’t a deal-breaker for me. But it might be to you.

The side-button mouse layout is surprisingly easy to get used to and is actually a very effective use of the deck’s limited space. Also, having a convenient ‘Track-pad Off’ button at your fingertips is a clever little touch (no pun intended).

The output of the on-board speakers leaves a little to be desired – the sound is tinny and hollow – but I figure most users will be using headphones anyway, so again, not a big issue. They do, however, look awesome; encased in a long stretch of perforated silver sitting just beneath the screen that looks like it could conceivably julienne your fingertips if you’re not careful.

The software shipped on this machne is adequate, if not exuberant. XP rather than Vista is a good choice (I’ll never understand handicapping a lightweight netbook processor with Vista’s bloat) and the inclusion of a complete office suite is nice, even if it is MS Works and not Office (but thenm, considering the insanity that is Word 07, I‘m thinking I dodged a bullet here!).

All in all the HP Mini 1001TU is a perfectly serviceable mobile computer. It does what you need oit to, when you need it to, and it comes with just about everything you’ll need, ready to go, out of the box. The one noticeable exception to this is the lack of any pre-installed firewall and/or antivirus software. Netbooks are designed to go online – they’re NETbooks. With this in mind I find it a little disappointing that HP haven’t stepped up for users and, like a well-meaning uncle, arranged a little prophylactic protection.

Still, as I was saying, it’s a great little machne in all the right ways and understandably not so great in all the expected areas. But if you’re like me – an avid writer – this is probably one of the best netbook keyboards you’re likely to find. That was my deciding factoe and it appears to have paid off . Only fourteen typos in a nearly 900 word review. Not bad, not bad at all.

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.

There’s an entire range of clear films for over 2000 devices; anything from mobile phones and mp3 players to gaming consoles, laptops, and even watches. Plus, each invisibleSHIELD also has a lifetime warranty and will be replaced for free if it is ever scratched or damaged. It sure makes me feel confident about a product when its creators are just oozing with confidence about it as well.

I have tried the invisibleSHIELD, having purchased one a while ago for my iPod Touch. It’s super thin, crystal clear, and pretty darn tough. However, installing it isn’t the easiest task in the world; it comes with a bottle of ‘SHIELD spray’ that you spray on the adhesive side of the film before placing it on the device. You then smooth out the film with the included squeegee whilst trying to remove all the air bubbles. Then you have to get the corners to stick by holding them down with the palm of your hand for 30 to 60 seconds, after which you must set the device aside for 24 hours to dry out. That last part is probably the hardest of all, particularly with new gadgets that seem to be magnetically attracted to hands.

All the effort and a few frustrations definitely pay off, though, because the end results are pretty amazing. My iPod Touch is fully protected, yet still looks as sleek as if it was completely naked. The visibility of the screen isn’t affected in any way other than a slight rippled texture when viewed in direct light, and it even helps to reduce fingerprints on the screen. The only reason it would need to be enclosed in a case is to protect it from drops. It hasn’t scratched yet and I’m fairly confident it never will with normal use, and possibly even with abnormal abuse.

Like many others, I’m pretty thrilled with the invisibleSHIELD, and definitely recommend it for top quality protection for your gadgets. You can order yours for your favourite devices from the new Australian invisibleSHIELD website.

For those of you who already own the invisibleSHIELD, what are you thoughts on it, and how has it protected your devices?

Billion 7404VNOX Router

BILLION recently unveiled its new range of routers due for release in the coming days and I managed to get my hands on the top-end model from the new range – the 7404VNOX – which includes ADSL2+, 3G, 802.11n Wireless, 4 Port Gigabit Ethernet, VPN, Firewall, and Voice over IP support. What a mouthful!

I breathed a sigh of relief when I opened up the box, Billion appears to be shifting away from its somewhat ugly designs. The primary router in my household has been for quite some time a Billion 7401VGP-M, and I’m tempted to hide the thing from view whenever someone visits the house. This time however, it’s a lot more aesthetically pleasing, though a little large, about the same size as an old Telstra Touchfone. The box contains the main unit, power pack, three antennas for the wireless access point, an ethernet cable, serial cable and ADSL line filter.

Setting up the router was far easier than I recall with my old Billion, I plugged it in, punched in the IP address and ran through the Quick Start wizard. My ADSL and Voice over IP services connected immediately, though I had trouble making outbound calls. After about 15 minutes of frustration I learned that I’m not above stupid mistakes, and promptly made a call successfully after plugging the phone into the correct voice port; there’s two of them!

The web interface has also had a work-over since I last used it – it looks a lot fresher – and they’ve separated the basic and advanced settings a little more. Personally, I found this annoying and finicky but I can see the benefits in terms of basic users not complicating things by playing with advanced settings and potentially running into issues.

Sadly, I don’t own any Wireless N equipment to test with the router which I think is going to be the largest hurdle if any with this router’s uptake – it’s ahead of its time almost. The shear amount of features on this router is overwhelming, yet you don’t need a university degree to operate it. That being said, using Wireless G equipment I received slightly better signal strength than my usual router which is handy for me considering the distances apart some of the PC’s here are.

ADSL connection wise, there was no great change in the downstream or upstream rates on my ADSL2+ connection – I still sync up at around 6.5mbit down and 820kbps up. I’ve had no problems at all with dropouts or loss of sync, and the connection overall seems very stable. The Quality of Service built into the router seems to work very well; even if I saturate the connection my call quality on Voice over IP calls remains excellent.

The 7404VNOX has a USB port at the back of the router for a 3G mobile broadband modem, as well as four gigabit ethernet ports which is something rarely found on routers at the moment. One very cool feature on this router is its ability to maintain an always on connection by switching to a 3G connection if your ADSL suddenly becomes unavailable due to an outage someone puts a backhoe through your telephone line.

I’ll be covering the mobile broadband aspects of this router in great detail in an article coming out shortly where I’ll be using this router for evaluation of various mobile broadband offerings. The router is also stocked up with VPN support, and can handle 16 simultaneous IPSec VPN tunnels.

The major downside to this particular model at the moment is its price tag which runs at an RRP of $529, far more than I would have ever previously considered shelling out for a router but considering the sheer feature set and flexibility of the product, seems almost reasonable. If you’re a business or SOHO user, on the road a lot, and have a use for a lot of the features home users don’t, like VPN support, the price tag is probably on the cheap side when compared to other units.

Overall, it’s not a router I’d be buying for my home, but it’s an amazing unit with very real application in a wide range of environments. Luckily, Billion has some other offerings in the same class that have a lighter price tag and remove some of the features you might never use.

Cons: Steepish price tag, unit is quite large, runs a little hot

Seen something cool you want us to review? Got a product you think we’d want to review? Email this address.

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.

It’s called Fruux and it’s a client/server solution that installs as a system preference pane on each Mac that you would like to keep in sync. It’s developed natively for the Mac with Cocoa/Objective-C and uses Apple’s Sync Services framework that is already integrated into the OS, as well as the Keychain for storing account details. It uses SSL encryption when transferring data during syncing, so you can put your mind at ease where security is concerned.

Whilst I’m very happy with the way MobileMe works for my particular needs, I decided to disable it for a little while and use Fruux as my sole contacts and calendar syncing service to see just how well it works. For the record, I installed it on my iMac and MacBook Air to sync data between the two.

Setup was a breeze, involving nothing more than downloading the preference pane, installing it, and creating a new account from within the preference pane itself. The first sync didn’t take long to complete, quickly moving all of my data into the cloud.

With the ‘Always keep synchronized’ box checked, a change or addition made to my local contacts and calendars was synchronised straight away. Strangely, automatic syncing didn’t happen when adding a bookmark to Safari. Unchecking the box will allow for manual syncing only, if you’d prefer to limit the amount of connections that take place, or just don’t have the need for automatic syncing.

Unfortunately, data changes are not reflected straight away on other computers as they are with MobileMe using its push service. With Fruux, other than local changes to data which sync straight away, automatic syncing to and from the cloud only happens on a timer every hour, so keeping multiple Macs in sync in real-time isn’t possible. There is also no way (at least for the moment) to increase the frequency of automatic syncing. You’ll need to click ‘Synchronize Now’ on the second Mac in order to update the data before the hour. This isn’t a problem if you’re only using one Mac at a time.

That said, I’m comparing a free service that still has beta status to one that costs AU$119 per annum, which perhaps goes to show how highly I think of Fruux for the simple fact that it can even compete with MobileMe at all. Fruux works exactly as advertised. Syncing is fast and efficient, without any fuss. Their motto “Just Sync, No-frills!” really does apply. I couldn’t think of an easier way to sync data between several Macs. Fruux definitely nails it.

In addition to its simple automatic and manual syncing, there’s also a log of all previous syncing activity, and the ability to replace all data on the server with that on your computer, or vice versa.

While MobileMe has support for file syncing via iDisk, Fruux doesn’t have this functionality, but the developers recommend using Box.net or Dropbox alongside Fruux to create a full syncing solution for your data.

As it’s still in beta, there are plenty of new features that the Fruux team plans to release in future updates such as a web application to access your data from any computer, preferences syncing, and social syncing. There’s also an iPhone and iPod Touch client in the works, making Fruux’s future look very bright indeed. You can check out the future plans for Fruux on the roadmap.

If you’re in need of a simple, no-frills contact/calendar syncing service for your Macs, definitely give Fruux a try. Just remember to keep a backup of your data for the moment, which is good practice to do for anything with beta status.

Update 02/12/2008: Dominik from Fruux has stated that since Fruux currently doesn’t support push syncing, they “plan to circumvent this by adding more ‘sync moments’, like syncing on login, syncing on screensaver disable, syncing on system wake, and so on.”  This sounds like one of the best implementations to keep a user in sync rather invisibly and at the most relevant points during computer use.

I want to preface this article by saying that I still love Twitter. After some initial scepticism and a rocky start, I’m now a fully fledged Tweeter (Twitterer? Twit?), managing two separate accounts and loving every letter of it.

So when I say I’ve come across something that I think is better than Twitter.com, I don’t want you to think that I’ve given up on everyone’s favourite little blue bird. I’ve just found another site that I prefer to the original.
iTweet.net is a slick new web interface for Twitter that provides all the functionality of the original site (like your ‘home’ page and separate pages for your @replies and direct messages) while adding quite a few more  tricks and tools.

iTweet for example, integrates Twitter search with a handy box right under your personal stats making it always and easily accessible without you having to navigate to a separate URL.

Itweet, (unlike Twitter) boasts clickable hashtags. The site picks up any post containing the tell-tale hash character, highlights the attached tag and turns it into a link to other posts containing the same tag. This is a great little feature for following topics of interest, such as the No Clean Feed campaign (#nocleanfeed) or the recent, violent storms in Brisbane (#bnestorm).

Clicking on profile pictures embedded in your friend’s Tweets reveals a short bio that includes that person’s location, website and number of followers – a handy refresher if you follow more people than you can remember by face alone. Retweeting is also just a click away when using iTweet as every update you see (except direct messages) has a clever little ‘RT’ icon bundled beside the fav-star and reply button.

You can personalise the how the site operates (whether the page auto-refreshes and whether your Enter key acts as a ‘post’ command) using settings found in the control pane located on the right of the page (just like the original site). And, even though iTweet brings all of these new features to you in a slick and sexy interface, it also lets you import your personalised wallpaper from your original Twitter page, just to make you feel even more at home.

I’ve started using iTweet as my default Twitter interface predominantly because I like its look, feel and features, but also because doing allows me to conveniently save login details for both of my accounts. I simply go to iTweet.net to post to my primary Twitter account (@rooksuicide) or to Twitter.com to post to my secondary account (@rookmarks).

Oh, and a neat side-effect benefit of iTweet (and one that is benefiting Tweeters in stricter offices) is that it easily circumvents any domain filter your workplace may have set for Twitter.com! So even if you don’t adopt iTweet.net right now, it might be a handy site to bookmark for future use should your boss ever decide Twitter.com is bad for business…