Category: Radio shows

ABC Nightlife February 2013

For February’s ABC Nightlife segment Tony Delroy and I are looking at software prices, the new breed of smartphones for seniors and the future of the telco industry

Paul Wallbank joins Tony Delroy on ABC Nightife across Australia to discuss how technology affects your business and life. For February 2013 we’ll be looking at the software rip-off, smartphones for seniors and Telstra’s roadmap for the mobile economy.

The show will be available on all ABC Local stations and streamed online through the Nightlife website.

Some of the topics we’ll discuss include the following;

We’d love to hear your views so join the conversation with your on-air questions, ideas or comments; phone in on the night on 1300 800 222 within Australia or +61 2 8333 1000 from outside Australia.

Tune in on your local ABC radio station or listen online at www.abc.net.au/nightlife.

You can SMS Nightlife’s talkback on 19922702, or through twitter to @paulwallbank using the #abcnightlife hashtag or visit the Nightlife Facebook page.

Similar posts:

15 years of radio and technology

Some reflections on 15 years of talking technology on ABC Radio

I used to be a cranky radio listener.

One morning in early 1998 I was listening to my local ABC station, then 2BL, when stand in breakfast host Bob Hughes was interviewing a “Y2K expert” who had the standard spiel designed to scare people into buying expensive consulting services.

Irritated by the expert’s shoddy advice, I dashed off a quick “with respect” fax to the radio station – the ABC didn’t have publicly facing email addresses at that time – and expected it would be ignored.

A few weeks later Bob Hughes invited me on his regular Sunday spot to talk about Y2K and computers in general. He didn’t mention we’d spend most of the time taking listeners’ calls.

After a few minutes of ‘umming’ and ‘aaahing’ with lots of bluffing, Bob finished with “we’ll see you next month Paul.”

So it began.

Over time the segments moved from 702 Weekend on Sunday mornings to regional spots and the national Tony Delroy nightlife segment

Looking at the sadly neglected PC Rescue website, the programs have ranged from the mundane to the mad, bad and ugly.

At the ugly side, the Windows virus epidemic of the early 2000s looms large. At one stage almost every caller had a virus problem, the only ones that were didn’t were Mac users calling in to crow about their not having this problem.

We enjoyed the various platform wars as Microsoft consolidated its strength and then saw it ebb away as first Firefox started chipping away at its browser dominance, Google at its Internet strategy and then Apple came roaring back into relevance.

The radio shows track the rise of the web as we started talking about the various online services that were changing computing.

One of the critical things, which still hasn’t changed, was billing problems.

Through the early 2000s Australian telcos had shocking charges for data and mobile services. Calls from listeners distressed at big bills was common and the TIOs contact details would be among our most frequent answer.

It was Telstra’s decision to stop stunting Australian internet growth and offer reasonably priced plans, albeit with criminally tiny data allowances, that kick started consumer adoption of broadband plans.

Today the questions revolve around social media, online security and the merits of Android versus Apple smartphones and tablets, it’s quite notable at how Microsoft has moved from dominating the program to being almost irrelevant.

How the next 15 years will pan out are anyone’s  guess, although one suspects pervasive computing, the cloud and the internet of machines will be among the trends we’ll see.

Last week Tim Berners-Lee said that innovation is only just beginning, it’s going to be an interesting, wild ride.

I’m still a cranky radio listener, but these days I have a lot more sympathy for producers and announcers.

Similar posts:

Explaining the NBN on 702 Sydney ABC Radio

The myths and challenges for the NBN in 2013 as the project to roll out fibre optics to most Australians begins to struggle

I’ve covered what the NBN is previously on the ABC for Tony Delroy’s Nightlife and on Technology Spectator last year looked at the challenges ahead for the project in 2013.

The National Broadband Network was always going to be one of the key issues in the 2013 Federal election, The Liberal Party’s policy launch on Sunday and Malcolm Turnbull’s comments on ABC Radio station 702 Sydney on Friday illustrated how critical it will be.

His assertion that wireless should be affordable is laudable, but the indications are that it is increasingly going to become less affordable.

It also puts the coalition in a bad position, losing the three to four billion dollars expected from the spectrum auction wouldn’t help their budget position.

One comment from Malcolm that particularly sticks out is on subsidies;

If I could just make one other point Linda, possibly the most important. The government as we know is spending a stupendous amount of money on building a national fibre to the premises broadband network. And the subsidies there run into the tens of billions of dollars –

The member for Wentworth is facturally wrong; there are no subsidies for the NBN, the government is providing the capital for the project which they hope will be paid back by 2018.

the value of the network once completed will be a fraction of what the government is spending on it.

On what basis? Certainly fibre has a 25 to 40 year expected life cycle, but that’s true of a roadway or an office building; does Malcolm suggest we don’t spend on that as well.

you could make a very powerful argument that the form, the channel of broadband communication which adds the most to productivity is in fact wireless broadband.

Possibly, but let’s see that argument. Currently data downloads to fixed lines still dwarfs mobile, both are growing exponentially.

Malcolm actually touches on the problem we’re facing with wireless — the shortage of bandwidth.

The government has been very slow at getting it out. As of the last report there was only about eight and a half thousand premises connected to the fibre optic network that they’re building throughout all of Australia

This is true, the rollout so far of the NBN has been disappointing. This is what observers are watching closely on this.

The Fibre to the Node setup also creates another problem – that of ownership. If Telstra retain ownership of the copper cable from the node to the premises, it means providers have to deal with two wholesalers one of whom is their competitor.

In fact it creates a whole rabbit’s nest of problems for retailers and could very quickly find us in a situation where telco access requires dealing with two monopolies — Telstra and NBNCo.

One the disappointing things about the National Broadband Network has been the poor debate around the topic, indeed the whole debate at times has been wrong headed. Any hope it’s going to improve during the election campaign isn’t likely

Similar posts:

2UE Weekend Computers, 5 January 2013

Paul Wallbank stands in for Trevor Long to talk technology, computers and the internet on Radio 2UE Weekends from 3pm this Saturday

This Saturday from 3.10 pm I’ll be discussing tech with John Cadogan on Radio 2UE as the stand in for regular guest Trevor Long who’s in the US for the Consumer Electronics Show.

We’ll be taking calls on the Open Line, 13 13 32 or tweet to @paulwallbank while we’re on air. 2UE can be heard online or on 954 AM in the Sydney region.

Some of the things we’ll be covering include the following which we’ll be covering after John speaks to Trevor Long in Las Vegas.

R18 + video games

An adult’s only rating category for computer games has come into effect across Australia. The new R18+ will make it illegal for people under 18 to hire, buy or view any games given the rating, while it will be illegal for retailers to sell R18+ games without the new markings.

The new laws bring computer games into line with the classification system for films and other material and make Australia more consistent with international standards.

Google is working on an X phone

Google is working with Motorola on a handset code-named ‘X Phone’ that’s aimed at grabbing market share from Apple and Samsung.

Google acquired Motorola in May 2012 for $US 12.5 billion to bolster its portfolio as its Android operating system competes with Apple and Samsung.

It’s believed that the handset will feature an imaging and gesture-recognition software developer. The new handset is due out next year.

The first civil lawsuit against Instagram

A Californian Instagram user has levelled breach of contract and other claims against the company.

The lawsuit, filed by Finkelstein and Krinsk, says that customers who do not agree with Instagrams terms can cancel their profile, but they then forfeit their rights to photos they had previously shared on the service.

Instagram, which allows people to add filters and effects to photos and share them easily on the Internet, was acquired by Facebook earlier this year for $US 715 million.

It announced its revised terms of service last week and also announced its mandatory arbitration clause that forces users to waive their rights to participate in a class action lawsuit except under very limited circumstances.

Easing of restriction on Internet use on flights

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved an application process for airlines to obtain broadband Internet licenses aboard their planes. Previously airlines have been granted permission on an ad-hoc basis.

Airlines need the FCC’s permission to tap into satellite airwaves while in flight so that passengers can connect to the Internet.

They also need permission from the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees the safety of inflight Internet systems.

The death of Netbooks

Netbooks have been overtaken by tablet computers and vendors are seeking to push more expensive items to their customers.

The Internet’s TCP/IP language celebrates its 30th birthday

Known as ‘flag day’ January 1, 1983 was the first time that the Us Department of Defence-commissioned ‘Arpanet network’ fully switched to use the Internet protocol suite communications system.

It began as a military project in the U.S in the late 1960’s and it paved the way for the arrival of the World Wide Web.

Summer sales of mobile phones are creating e-waste stockpiles

Over a third of Australians have bought or will consider buying a new mobile phone over Christmas and the summer sales.

This is contributing to the 22 million old mobile phones in Australia.

If these 22 million phones were recycled, they would divert nearly 120 tonnes of plastic from landfill.

Four out of 10 Australians have two or more old mobile phones lying around the home father dust.

Mobile Muster is the official recycling scheme of mobile phones.

You can drop your mobile phone off at a Mobile Muster Collection Point or pick up a reply-paid environment at any Australia Post store and post it in.

Your views, comments or questions are welcome so don’t be shy about calling in on 13 13 32 and Trevor Long will be back next week.

Similar posts:

2UE Weekend Computers, 29 December 2012

Paul Wallbank and Seamus Byrne stand in for Trevor Long to talk technology, computers and the internet on Radio 2UE Weekends.

This Saturday from 3.10 pm Seamus Byrne and myself will be standing in for regular guest Trevor Long to discuss tech with John Cadogan on Radio 2UE.

We’ll be taking calls on the Open Line, 13 13 32 or tweet to @paulwallbank while we’re on air.

Some of the things we’ll be covering include the following.

What type of smart phone?

We have the iPhone, Android and Windows phones. Which ones are better?

  • The iPhone’s been dominating for the last few years, but now  Android is overtaking it. Why’s that?
  • Microsoft are pretty late with a mobile phone, can they catch up?
  • What’s happened to the other makes like Nokia, Blackberry and Motorola?
  • So what if you don’t want a smartphone, what if you just want something to make phone calls?

Checking your phone and Internet plans

There’s was story this week about how people are spending too much on their mobile phone and Internet plans. What should people be looking at and how often should they check their plans?

Paying for stuff with your mobile

You can use your phone as a boarding pass on some airlines, now Telstra and Vodafone are looking at ways to use your mobile to pay for groceries with your mobile phone.

  • How does the system work?
  • Who takes the money?
  • Is this safe?
  • How far is this away?

Your views, comments or questions are welcome so don’t be shy about calling in.

Similar posts:

Standing in for Trevor Long – Updates for 2UE listeners

Listeners’ questions answered after standing in for Trevor Long on Radio 2UE

After standing in for Trevor Long on Radio 2UE’s afternoon weekends, there were a couple of callers with problems Seamus and I said we’d get back to.

These included issues with Hotmail, Android smartphones and a potential virus infection.

Internet Explorer home page hacked

Ron thought he might have a virus infection as Internet Explorer opens a junk page when he starts it.

The easiest way to check if a Windows computer is infected is the free Malware Bytes – just download and run it.

It’s also possible the computer hasn’t been infected but that settings have been messed with, Microsoft have details on how to change the opening pages on Internet Explorer.

Problems getting into Hotmail

Another Internet Explorer problem was from Peter who was finding Internet Explorer was freezing when he tries to get into Hotmail, or Outlook.com as it’s currently known.

The best solution for this is to clean out your Windows system using a tool like the free CCleaner and make sure both the computer has the latest security updates.

Strange message on Android smartphone

Sheena had a strange message on her smartphone saying “all sale”. This sounds like someone has changed the wallpaper settings for the phone and Google have the instructions for changing the background on Android phones.

The 2UE segment is a one-off while Trevor Long is away on holidays, if you’d like notice of upcoming programs, subscribe to this site’s newsfeed or put your questions to the IT Queries website.

Similar posts:

2UE Weekend Computers, 22 December 2012

Paul Wallbank and Seamus Byrne stand in for Trevor Long to talk technology, computers and the internet on Radio 2UE Weekends.

Seamus and I said we’d get back to listeners from the show, those answers can be found at the Standing in for Trevor Long post.

This Saturday from 3.10 pm Seamus Byrne and myself will be standing in for regular guest Trevor Long to discuss tech with John Cadogan on Radio 2UE.

We’ll be taking calls on the Open Line, 13 13 32 or tweet to @paulwallbank while we’re on air.

Some of the things we’ll be covering include;

  • Instagram and the backlash from people concerned about their lack of control over how companies like Facebook use their images.
  • A 2011 survey of American parents by Common Sense Media has found that 39 per cent of two to four-year-olds have used digital media such as smartphones and iPads. Now Fisher-Price has a line of iPad and iPod baby protectors.
  • Children are using technology almost from birth, what are the safe levels for kids using iPads and other computers?
  • Sydney bus passengers can now access mobile phone apps that let them know how far away their next bus is. We look at some of the more popular ones.
  • What are some of the gadgets that make great Christmas gifts.

Your views, comments or questions are welcome so don’t be shy about calling in.

Similar posts: