Category Archives: Moblie Broadband

New iPad hits the stores in Australia

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16th March. The New iPad is now available in store. We popped over to the Apple Store in Sydney and witnessed long queues outside the doors even as the Telstra store across the street stood empty with no takers for its stock of New iPads.

Carriers have started bundling 3G capable iPad units with data plans for the micro SIM. Telstra plans start at $48/month for 1 GB data on the $29 Cap for the 16GB model and go upto $107/month for 15 GB data on the $89 cap for the 64 GB model.

Optus plans start at $49/month for the 16 GB model with 4GB included data going to $79/moth for the top model with 16 GB included data.

Vodafone plans start at $47/month for the 16GB unit with 2 GB included data going to $96/month for the 64GB model with 18 Gb of included data.

Virgin typically get the iThings a few weeks later than the big 3 but come up with some good plans, we’ll keep you posted. You can get BYO iPad plans starting from $14 for 1 GB data.

If you are looking for the base iPad model, the Vodafone 2GB plan wins by a hair at 447/month for a 24 month contract.

 

Galaxy Note: Screen and Style

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Yesterday Samsung announced the Galaxy Note for Australia, just a week after the launch of New iPad in the US. This phone-tablet hybrid will start selling through carriers over the next few days. Optus and Vodafone go live this week while Telstra will start offering the device in April.

Note comes fully loaded with all the latest hardware specs, but there are two standout features that will make you either love it or hate it.

First is the size of it – at 5.3″ it is a full inch bigger than the biggest phones available today but still a few inches short of a tablet. The Super AMOLED screen packs quite a punch with full HD resolution of 800 X 1280 pixels. That is the same resolution as your full HD television set!

Second highlight is the S Pen which is basically a magnetic stylus for note taking and drawing. Samsung showcased some powerful applications for the device at launch and walked the talk by providing an onsite site artist who sketched willing audience members using the Note application.

The S pen may or may not make a comeback as the preferred input device, but it wouldn’t be for the lack of trying by Samsung.

Vodafone and Optus have already announced plans for the Galaxy Note. On Optus plans start from $40/month – $19 Cap + $21 handset fee, while Vodafone have it for $64/month – $59 Cap + $5 handset fee.

More news as it comes.

Galaxy Note specs:

Manufacturer Samsung
Model N7000 (Also known as the i9220)
Network Band GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, 3G 850 (NextG/Vodafone 850/US3G), 3G 900 (Optus YesG/Vodafone 900), 3G 1900, 3G 2100
Recommended Networks Optus 2G, Optus 3G 900, Telstra 2G, Vodafone 3G 2100, Optus 3G 2100, Telstra NextG, Vodafone 3G 850, Three, Vodafone 2G, Vodafone 3G 900
Sim Size Standard SIM
3G Yes
Next G Compatible Yes
Telstra 4G Compatible No
Form Factor Touchscreen, Tablet
Height 146.9 mm
Width 83 mm
Thickness 9.7 mm
Weight 178 g
Screen Size (Diagonal) 5.3 inches
Screen Resolution 1280 x 800 pixels
Screen Technology Super AMOLED
Touchscreen Type Capacitive
Input Type Touchscreen QWERTY Portrait, Touchscreen QWERTY Landscape
Ringtone Type MP3
CPU 1.4 GHz Dual-core Processor
Internal Memory 16GB storage, 1GB RAM
Expandable Memory Up to 32GB
Included Memory Card No
Camera 8MP
Camera Flash Yes
Secondary Camera Yes
Operating System Android 2.3 or above
Messaging SMS, MMS, Instant Messaging, Email
Bluetooth Yes
NFC No
Radio Yes
Speakerphone Yes
WiFi Yes
GPS Hardware Yes
Standby Time Up to 960 h (2G) / Up to 820 h (3G)
Battery Capacity (mAh) Li-Ion 2500 mAh
Talk Time Up to 26 h 10 min (2G) / Up to 13 h 30 min (3G)
Generic Charger Type microUSB

 

 

 

New iPad pricing for Australia

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‘Resolutionary’ claims the headline for the new iPad. That one word sums up the main reason why you would shell out a minimum of $529 for this newest tablet from Apple.

The new iPad was launched on March 7 by Apple CEO Tim Cook and is already available for pre-order through the Apple Australia website, a welcome change from the usual weeks and months of waiting before new models show up here.  It comes with full retina display with a resolution of 3.1 million pixels, 4G connectivity (not in Australia as Telstra’s 4G network uses the 1800MHz band which is not supported by the new iPad), faster A5X processor, 5MP camera with HD video recording and updates to a number of popular apps.

You may think that the demand for what feels like an evolutionary update wouldn’t be that strong; you would be wrong. New iPad stock set aside for pre-orders is already sold out. Orders placed in the first 60 hours will be shipped by March 16 but all orders after that wont be going out before March 22. Far easier to walk into an Apple store which will start selling the tablet on Match 16.

As you can see from the table below, the new iPad starts at $539 for the base model with 16GB storage and no 4G (3G in Australia). At the top of the line sits the 64GB model including 3G for $899.

 

Updated: its an iPad 3. its an iPad HD. its an iPad.

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Update 8/Mar: And its out! Called iPad or ‘new’ iPad if you must, the latest Apple tablet was launched today at the Moscone Center in San Francisco by CEO Tim Cook. It looks and feels very much like its predecessor but packs in some solid new features including a full retina display, 4G capability, faster processor and updates to many existing apps to take advantage of the new feature set.

You can pre-order the new iPad over at apple.com/au for delivery between March 16th and 22nd. More in our detailed review.

Update 7/Mar: As rumours fly thick and fast, here’s the rundown before the iPad 3 launches tomorrow. As always, Apple confirm or deny nothing. And with that caveat in place lets jump right into speculation-land. The device is expected to be named iPad HD, not iPad 3, a nod to the almost certain high resolution retina display. So come tomorrow, expect movies on your current iPad to feel just that little bit duller.

‘…And touch.’ teases this ad from Apple. The brains over at Mashable have concluded this refers to some form of a haptic feedback technology that will add texture to objects on the screen when touched. Apple have been filing patents for various forms of touch technologies and this would appear to be the result.

The tablet will be announced by Tim Cook, the new Apple CEO, tomorrow. But units will not begin shipping before the end of this month. iPad HD Australia release will probably be around the 27th of March, but don’t hold us to it.

Original story follows -

Its that time of the year again, when Apple rumour mills start churning out fake and real news on the next big thing. This time it is the iPad 3, an update to the iPad 2 that came out this time last year.

iPad 3 images released by a Chinese website. Possibly fake. Source: Mashable.com

iPad 3 release date is expected to be March 7 globally, though as expected Apple neither confirm nor deny. Apple releases in Australia are usually same time as rest of the world.

So what can we expect from the new tablet? We’ve distilled all rumours and come up with a quick summary.

1. Higher resolution display: Same size 9.7″ but with four times the pixel density - 2048×1536 resolution instead of 1024×768

2. Faster processor: The iPad 3 is expected to be twice as fast with a quad-core processor compared to dual core in iPad 2

3. Updated camera:  Expected to be 8MP, same as iPhone 4S

4. Siri, the virtual assistant: iPad 3 is expected to ship with Siri out of the box. Apple didn’t include Siri in the iOS5 update for iPad 2, possibly to give people a reason to buy the iPad 3

5. Larger battery

Will there be high res and low res version? Or a smaller sized device to complete with Amazon Fire? Will the iPad 3 come with a stylus? We’ll keep you posted.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. Pre-order for Christmas

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Today Samsung finally won the right to sell its controversial Android tablet in Australia. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 will hit the shelves in time for Christmas and Vodafone was the first cab off the rank to put out plans for the device. You can pre-order now for delivery before Christmas.

Says Ross Parker, Vodafone’s general manager of devices and pricing

“Some things are just worth waiting for and the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 doesn’t disappoint, at just $39 a month, on a 24 month contract, including data, it’s also the right price. We’re pleased to be bringing it to Vodafone just in time for Christmas.”

Galaxy Tab plans start from $39/month ($15 plan + $24 tablet payment) with 6 GB included data and go upto $63/month ($59 plan + $4 tablet repayment) with 18 GB data over 24 months. 12 month plans start from $65/month ($15 plan + $50 tablet payment) with 1.5GB data.

Samsung and Apple have been at loggerheads since October with Apple claiming that Samsung copied their patented designs from the iPad2 and should not be allowed to sell the device. Thankfully the bullying tactics did not hold in court and Samsung was given the all clear today. It has been rumoured that Galaxy Tab 10.1 stock has been sitting in vendor warehouses all over the country, and now we can expect to see stock hitting the shelves everywhere.

 

iPad 2 vs Galaxy Tab 10.1- the tablet wars

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Update (9 December ’11): Galaxy tab now available for pre-order on Vodafone. Plans from $39/month with 6GB data.

Today Samsung enjoyed a rare win in its legal stoush with Apple as the courts lifted a temporary ban against the sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. This is the latest in a public acrimonious battle between the two companies that are at once competitors and partners.

Apple allege that Samsung copied patented design elements that could confuse users into buying the Galaxy Tab instead of Apple iPad. But in reality both companies are fighting for  a bigger share of the $100 billion tablet market.

Hardware wise Apple iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 are similarly specc’d except that the tab has a better camera. But it is software that determines the real user experience with iPad 2 running Apple’s own iOS 5.0.1 and Samsung’s Tab 10.1 on Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

Stay tuned, this battle isn’t over yet.