Apple unveils new iPhone features

Apple has unveiled what it calls a "major update" to the operating system that drives the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Some of the 100 new features included in the update replicate those already offered by other smart phones.

The new functions include cut, copy and paste, long demanded by iPhone users, picture messaging and an in-phone search feature, but not Flash video.

"The upgrade is a big big deal and will help persuade consumers to stay with Apple," said Gartner analyst Van Baker.

Video is supposed to be here that shows this miraculous feature called - Cut and Paste.
is this an April the 1st Joke ??? !!!

Apple's Scott Forstall demonstrates the iPhone's cut and paste feature

"While things like copy and paste and multi-media messaging (MMS) are things they have needed to do for a while, other features will in essence stop consumers buying other smartphones and raise the amount of money people spend on the iPhone, " he said.

Analyst Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray agreed that the upgrade was a major step forward.

"We believe Apple addressed key issues that were leading some consumers to competing devices for multimedia messaging and enterprise email."

Some of the other main features Apple highlighted for consumers include a voice memo and stereo Bluetooth.

A new search tool called Spotlight to allow users to search files and applications on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

"Profound and amazing"

Alongside the consumer upgrades Apple also unveiled its SDK (software developer kit) aimed at helping engineers write applications for the devices.

Apple admitted that the success of its App Store, where users can download from a choice of 25,000 paid-for and free applications, had exceeded their expectations.

More than 800 million downloads have been made so far, and the company said that with the help of developers they "had created something profound and amazing."

Developers are being given a new way to charge for services Have Your Say: What do you want from your phone?

"Our goal was to make developers successful," said Scott Forstall, head of Apple's iPhone software development.

Developers will now be able to use the iPhone's mapping capability in their own applications, as well as take advantage of "push" technology to alert users of messaging or alert software.

Users can also now take advantage of enhanced peer-to-peer capabilities for games and other programmes that communicate wirelessly.

The new software will also allow developers to sell subscription-based software products, opening up the prospect of users being asked to pay for different levels of a game, to purchase additional content or to buy virtual items.

Previously, all purchases on the iPhone or iPod Touch were ring-fenced within either the App Store or Apple's mobile version of iTunes.

Industry analysts said the new move would be an important revenue-generator for Apple and developers.

"This in-app payment capability is big news and provides a way for people to pay for content again," said Mike McGuire of Gartner.

"It will be interesting to see how the print media reacts offering subscription services for magazines, newspapers and e-books.

"Game developers will cash in and I am very excited to see how music services leverage this new function," he said.

Hardware

The operating system upgrade, the third for the iPhone, will be available from the summer and free to all iPhone users.

Users who want to download the 3.0 software onto their iPod touch will have to pay a fee of $9.95 (£6.80).

The upgrade will be free for all iPhones but not for the iPod Touch

Industry watchers are speculating that a new iPhone will also be released around the same time as the software upgrade.

"It wouldn't surprise me to see some new hardware come the summer," said Van Baker, of Gartner. He noted that Apple is facing increasing competition from other smartphones.

Gartner recently put Apple's share of the worldwide market at 10.7%, compared to Nokia at over 40% and Research in Motion, which makes the Blackberry, at under 20%.

"Apple can't continue to go with a point product and expect to get the kind of revenue it needs without some new offering. A good time to do that would be when they release 3.0," said Mr Baker.

At a separate question and answer session with journalists after the upgrade was unveiled, Apple's Phil Shiller said there was "nothing to announce on that today".

bbc.co.uk. 18 Mar 2009

Obvious question : Why was not this done in Version 1 ??? !!! ??? !!!

Another Joke at the expense of the consumer.

An AMAZING feature called CUT and PASTE available by Apple in April 2009 and on the Windows Pocket PC in 2003 and on the Palm even earlier.

Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day

The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks.

Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark's list of banned websites.

The move by the Australian Communications and Media Authority comes after it threatened the host of online broadband discussion forum Whirlpool last week with a $11,000-a-day fine over a link published in its forum to another page blacklisted by ACMA - an anti-abortion website.

ACMA's blacklist does not have a significant impact on web browsing by Australians today but sites contained on it will be blocked for everyone if the Federal Government implements its mandatory internet filtering censorship scheme.

But even without the mandatory censorship scheme, as is evident in the Whirlpool case, ACMA can force sites hosted in Australia to remove "prohibited" pages and even links to prohibited pages.

Online civil liberties campaigners have seized on the move by ACMA as evidence of how casually the regulator adds to its list of blacklisted sites. It also confirmed fears that the scope of the Government's censorship plan could easily be expanded to encompass sites that are not illegal.

"The first rule of censorship is that you cannot talk about censorship," Wikileaks said on its website in response to the ACMA ban.

The site has also published Thailand's internet censorship list and noted that, in both the Thai and Danish cases, the scope of the blacklist had been rapidly expanded from child porn to other material including political discussions.

Already, a significant portion of the 1370-site Australian blacklist - 506 sites - would be classified R18+ and X18+, which are legal to view but would be blocked for everyone under the proposal. The Government has said it was considering expanding the blacklist to 10,000 sites and beyond.

Electronic Frontiers Australia said the leak of the Danish blacklist and ACMA's subsequent attempts to block people from viewing it showed how easy it would be for ACMA's own blacklist - which is secret - to be leaked onto the web once it is handed to ISPs for filtering.

"We note that, not only do these incidents show that the ACMA censors are more than willing to interpret their broad guidelines to include a discussion forum and document repository, it is demonstrably inevitable that the Government's own list is bound to be exposed itself at some point in the future," EFA said..........

smh.com.au 17 Mar 2009 Read full story here

The Great FIREWALL of Australia is Coming.

AND THERE IS NO STOPPING IT !!!

Truly becoming a PRISON ISLAND.

Crims getting stimulus cash: Rudd

Stimulus cash payments will go to criminals just as similar payments were paid to them by the Howard government, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told parliament.

The government is under attack for planning to make payments of up to $900 to prison inmates, dead people and their pets as well as Australians living overseas, as part of its $42 billion stimulus package.

Mr Rudd accused the opposition of feigning outrage.

"I am advised that under the Howard government ... bonuses were paid to people in exactly the same situation," he said in response to a question from Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull.

Opposition MPs supported such payments when they were in government, Mr Rudd said.

"Now they have undergone a 180-degree backflip because they are governed by political opportunism," Mr Rudd said.

Stimulus package bonuses were available to anyone who was an Australian resident, for tax purposes, in the 2007-08 income tax year and who met other eligibility requirements.

There was only one tax treatment - the senior Australian tax offset - that excluded those in jail.

The Australian Taxation Office had advised the government it could not exclude from the bonus people who paid tax in the 2007-08 financial year, Mr Rudd said.

He advised Mr Turnbull to reflect on what the coalition did in government and "apply the same principles to yourself".

Pensioners and other Australians living overseas are also eligible for the stimulus cash payments, aimed at boosting the local economy.

Pets, who have been left estates by their deceased owners, could also receive the payments.

Liberal frontbencher Tony Smith said the stimulus package was "Kev's (Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's) cash for crims".

"That's what this has come down to," he told reporters.

Liberal backbencher Stuart Robert said it was "outrageous" payments were going to criminals and not self-funded retirees.

"I find it ironic that murderers, rapists and drug dealers will get $900 but many self-funded retirees will not," he said.

Liberal backbencher Jamie Briggs described the payments as a farce.

"This is ridiculous to be sending money to the very worst criminals in our society."

Colleague Bronwyn Bishop said the government had been sloppy in allocating payments.

Labor backbencher Richard Marles said the cash payments needed to be paid out quickly to boost the economy.

"Paying a cash bonus through the taxation system... is the most rapid way we can get money out there," he told reporters.

Labor senator Doug Cameron said it was understandable there might be "some problems in small areas".

"But the main effect of this is to make sure that we are not caught up in the economic cycle that is affecting the whole world," he told reporters.

Senator Cameron described as "absolutely ridiculous" a suggestion the payments would stimulate the trade of illegal drugs.

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said if prisoners were eligible for the tax bonus it should be put to better uses, adding his party would have preferred the stimulus package to have supported infrastructure, health and bikeways.

"It was done very, very quickly, on the run and it was bound to have anomalies and there'll be more turn up," he told reporters.

Liberal frontbencher George Brandis said the situation was "disgraceful".

Another Liberal frontbencher Scott Morrison said the government did not think about the unintended consequences of its stimulus package.

"Whether it's cash for crims or dosh for dogs, wherever this money is ending up, it's showing the government just doesn't think these things through," he told reporters.

Frontbench colleague Tony Abbott said the government needed to careful with taxpayers' money during the economic downturn.

"If they thought these things through better you wouldn't have the situation that we have seen," he said.

But Labor backbencher Mark Butler said there was no other way the government could have administered the payments.

"It's not something that we are going to be able to undo without putting at risk the overall objective of stimulating the economy."

ninemsn 18 Mar 2009

KFC sued after salmonella left girl crippled

The parents of a seven-year-old girl who was left crippled and brain damaged from salmonella poisoning are suing the owners of fast food giant KFC for $10 million.

The case against Yum! Restaurants Australia will be heard in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday and comes just a week after two Sydney KFC stores were given a record fine of $73,125 for breaching food hygiene laws, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Monika Samaan, now 11, collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital after eating part of a Twister from Villawood KFC in October, 2005.

Yum! Restaurants Australia spokesman Nick Bryden told the newspaper NSW Government food authorities had found there was no link between KFC Villawood and Monika's illness back in 2005.

"KFC's supplier also confirmed that routine tests showed that the chicken supplied to the store contained none of the alleged strain of salmonella," he said.

"At the time Monika fell ill no other customers at the store lodged any complaints."

Monika's mother Hanna, 11-year-old brother Abanoub, and father Amanwial, who had also shared her Twister, also fell ill and had to be treated in hospital.

But it was Monika who suffered the worst fate. Her salmonella poisoning developed into acquired spastic quadriplegia and acquired profound intellectual disability and liver dysfunction.

Before her illness, Monika has been a vibrant and chatty seven-year-old who dreamed of one day becoming a doctor, Mr Samaan told the Daily Telegraph.

"As a family we have gone through a lot of struggles," he said.

"She loved swimming, riding her bikes and was the best in her class at school now she cannot do anything."

Doctors at Westmead Hospital found Monika, her parents and older brother had a common strain of salmonella in their stools.

Kydon Segal Lawyers, who are representing the Samaan family, are looking for anyone who worked at the Villawood store in 2005 to contact them.

ninemsn 17 Mar 2009

For one, they (KFC) are not sued, but are in the process of BEING sued. BIG DIFFERENCE.

The two fines imposed on KFC are for the times they have only been caught.

How many other 'normal' families hack into their child's Twister ??? !!! ???

Pedophile kept in jail past release date

A pedophile will remain in jail past his full-time release date after a court found he is still a risk to the community.

Raymond Keith Perkins, 70, is nearing the end of a nine-year jail term for sexual offences he committed against a young boy.

Earlier this month Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine made an application to the Supreme Court in Queensland to have Perkins detained under a continuing detention order, arguing he was at risk of re-offending if released.

Lawyers for the attorney-general argued Perkins has limited insight into the effects of his conduct, and has not demonstrated any remorse.

They argued he also has no realistic relapse prevention plan, and has not undertaken a sexual offenders program.

Perkins has a history of sexual offences against children dating back to 1965 when he received a six-year sentence for carnal knowledge.

In 2000 Perkins was sentenced to nine years' jail for a string of offences against a 10-year-old boy, and was declared a serious violent offender.

In a written judgment published on Tuesday, Justice Peter Applegarth ordered that Perkins remain in jail past his release date in April so he can complete a sexual offenders program and relapse prevention plan.

Govt to slash immigration intake

(Illustration: Immigration Minister Chris Evans)

Cuts to the nation's skilled migration intake will help protect local jobs, Immigration Minister Chris Evans says.

The federal government will slash the skilled migration program by 14 per cent, or 18,500 jobs, over the next three years. (That is NOT ENOUGH. IT SHOULD BE 50%)

The cuts will be coupled with deletions to the critical skills list, which specifies which jobs are open to migrants.

All building and manufacturing trades will be removed, forcing companies to find bricklayers, plumbers, welders and carpenters domestically.

Employers can bring in foreign workers only if they cannot source the labour locally.

Mr Evans says the government wants to ensure migrant workers are not competing with Australians for jobs during the economic downturn.

"That's (building and manufacturing) where we are seeing a drop off in demand, some major redundancies, we don't want people coming in who are going to compete with Australians," Mr Evans told ABC radio.

It is unlikely further cuts will be made to the critical skills shortage list including health, engineering and information technology jobs, he said.

"I doubt they're going to be making any changes in that regard, we are down to a fairly short (critical skills shortage) list now."

The Master Builders Association says the cuts are warranted.

Chief executive Wilhelm Harnisch says unemployment in the building and construction sector is rising.

"We're projecting at least a loss of 50,000 jobs in this industry over the next 12 months," Mr Harnisch told ABC radio.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said the government should be prepared to reduce further Australia's migrant intake as the economy slows.

Mr Turnbull said the government has "finally recognised" the gravity of the threat migration poses to jobs in Australia.

"They should be prepared to reduce the immigration intake in light of the economic circumstances," he told ABC Radio, when asked whether the government should go further than the latest announcement.

"We're disappointed they have failed to do so in recent months."

But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) says there will be trade skill shortages despite the economic downturn.

"You don't want migration policy to move in high peaks and low troughs, because that does create dislocations through the economy," chief executive Peter Anderson told ABC radio.

"It is far better to allow the labour market to operate in a more natural way."

ninemsn 16 Mar 2009