iTWire Latest Headlines

Live NASA coverage of undocking, splashdown of SpaceX Dragon

William Atkins — Wed, 30 May 2012 05:52:03 +0000

NASA is providing live television coverage of the docking, re-entry, and splashdown of the first private spacecraft to hook up with the International Space Station: the SpaceX Dragon space capsule. NASA TV begins coverage early on Thursday, May 31, 2012.

Study shows some painkillers provide lower skin cancer risk

William Atkins — Wed, 30 May 2012 02:51:40 +0000

A Danish/American research team has concluded from their medical study that the use of common over-the-counter painkillers, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, may provide a lower risk from certain types of skin cancer.

Assange: Sweden, here I come

David Heath — Wed, 30 May 2012 02:33:53 +0000

As was widely expected the UK Supreme Court dismissed Julian Assange's appeal against the extradition order to attend question in Sweden in regard to sexual assault complaints.

Telstra 4Gets not, 4Gives Australians 1000th LTE base station

Alex Zaharov-Reutt — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:05:55 +0000

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s a super-speedy 4G LTE modem jumping metaphorically over one thousand 4G LTE base stations down under, servicing 300,000 4G smartphones, tablets and mobile broadband devices on Australia’s ‘highest quality mobile network’.

JD Power customer survey gives Telstra the nod

Stephen Withers — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:47:17 +0000

Telstra came out on top in a mobile phone customer survey conducted by the well-regarded JD Power and Associates organisation.

Bank tech proves sharemarket yardstick

Beverley Head — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:40:58 +0000

Westpac has now completed almost 70 per cent of its $2 billion five year Strategic Investment Priorities (SIPs) programme according to chief information officer Clive Whincup.

Westpac wants IT skills boost

Beverley Head — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:19:22 +0000

Westpac’s chief information officer, Clive Whincup, has called on the Australian technology industry to hire more young computing graduates so that they can develop the high quality skills that end user organisations will need in the future.

iPrimus connects first NBN customer in small Tassie town

Peter Dinham — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:12:28 +0000

iPrimus has successfully connected its first NBN customer in the small seaside town of Triabunna on Tasmania’s east coast, with the newly connected family of four apparently eager to use the faster broadband service to research their ancestry and facilitate Skype calls to friends.

Schools should let kids BYOD

Beverley Head — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:02:08 +0000

Schools should abandon attempts to ban students from using their own technology – including phones – in classrooms, and instead encourage children to use their own devices if they really want to transform education.

Suncorp invests $275m to kill legacy

Beverley Head — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:44:48 +0000

Queensland based financial services business Suncorp is to spend $275 million on the next phase of its core systems modernisation programme intended to reduce its operating costs, kill off 14 more legacy systems and deliver savings of $200 million a year scheduled to kick in by 2016.

Smith to take charge of Symantec Australia as Scroggie departs

Stephen Withers — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:43:06 +0000

Symantec has announced that Brenton Smith will be the new managing director of Symantec Australia, and vice president of the company's Pacific region, after incumbent boss Craig Scroggie announced his resignation.

Samsung revamps Chromebook, offers mini desktop Chromebox

Stephen Withers — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:18:16 +0000

A new generation Chromebook has been launched by Samsung, along with a desktop Chromebox.

Quick Hits: Mad Riders

Mike Bantick — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:42:21 +0000

Yes it is four wheel racing, but in the case of Mad Riders we are talking about quad bike racing in crazy jungle locations at speeds that will make your helmeted head to spin. Mad Riders forces players to either rely on exceptional reaction speeds or rote learning of tracks in order to progress.

Redback connects with Microsoft CRM

Peter Dinham — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:34:52 +0000

Australian and New Zealand conferencing service provider, Redback, has implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to help support business growth, improve resource utilisation and drive revenue following strong growth over the past three years.

More support for iPhone 5 Dock rumour

Stephen Withers — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:23:22 +0000

Fresh photos appear to add credibility to suggestions that the iPhone's Dock connector is on the way out.

Sophos signs first OZ distribution agreement

Peter Dinham — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:04:18 +0000

IT security and data protection company, Sophos, has secured its first direct distribution agreement in Australia, signing up Firewall Systems, the specialist security business unit of Distribution Central, to deliver its solutions to the market.

Canberra school deploys Brocade in network upgrade

Peter Dinham — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:38:39 +0000

Canberra’s largest single-campus independent secondary school, Daramalan College, has replaced its ageing local area network infrastructure with a unified campus networking solution based around switches from global network solutions provider, Brocade.

Trivia - putting Astronomy under the microscope

David Heath — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:21:45 +0000

Ever since Galileo turned his simple telescope toward Jupiter and saw its four principal moons, we have been in awe of such devices. But they do come with limitations.

New Zealand proposes to permit yourname.nz domain names

Stuart Corner — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:01:22 +0000

New Zealand's domain name authority is proposing to permit domains to be registered at the 'second level' (.nz) instead of only at the 'third level' (co.nz, .govt.nz etc)

NEC to buy solutions business of CSG

Stephen Withers — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:53 +0000

NEC has agreed to acquire the entire technology solutions business currently operated by listed ICT services and consulting company CSG.