Celebrity comes with its perks — free alcohol, better-looking partners, lots of holiday time — and disadvantages — constant media intrusions, being forced to appear in films with Eddie Murphy for the long-term good of your career, and having to do mindless radio interviews with angry men who've been awake since 4am.
Earlier this month, Telstra put out a press release trumpeting that it's come up with a new phone coaching service to help people who are "bamboozled" by their mobiles. Another excellent example of wrongheaded thinking from the mobile industry.
Sometimes, a well-placed and well-timed letter can make all the difference. Other times, it can make no difference at all — and even hurt your case. This week's missive by the Competitive Carriers' Coalition, I would suggest, falls into the latter category.
There's an argument against the usage of USB sticks which has been discussed many times in this column: they're a potentially massive security risk. But there's another case you could make against having your business life stored in 4GB or so of flash memory — it's a total support nightmare.
If you're heading to the Beijing Olympics to cut deals, schmooze and booze, don't leave your laptop and mobile with your hosts for a second and watch your gadgets very, very carefully. Of course, it might cost you a deal because you're acting weird, but your data will be safe.
Being able to build a data warehouse right from the beginning of a company's life can eliminate some of the pitfalls typically associated with the project, but doesn't necessarily eliminate the most obvious one: uncontrolled data from multiple sources.
During a trip to the US four years ago, I rented a car fitted with an XM satellite radio — which gave me well over 100 radio stations, each carrying a continuous stream of crystal-clear talk radio or music in a surprising array of genres.
Last week's blog on why consumers might be confused by contradictory messages on computer security from banks drew a few objections from interested parties — ones that I thought would be worth responding to this week.
New storage technology can be frankly pornographic: it's big, it's sexy and you want it slammed into your rack right now — but is a long term relationship more satisfying?
So we have answers. The iPhone is coming to Oz, it's 3G, it's cheaper, and it's available via multiple carriers.
Keen news readers would have heard about the strong earthquake that rocked south-western Greece on Sunday. Fewer may have realised that the quake was not so much an act of God, as an act of Jobs.
I can't wait for the new iPhone to come out — mainly because I'm so dog-tired of listening to the never-ending screeds of rumour mongering nonsense speculating on what functionality the device will have that come out every single day. So I've decided to join in. I'm 100 per cent convinced the new iPhone will run Vista and have WiMax connectivity. In fact I'd bet my house on it.
Hillary Clinton's nine lives are not yet depleted and, despite allegations that her stubborn refusal to concede defeat earlier has fragmented her party, she fought her battle to the very end. By placing bets several ways, that battle may just turn into gold for her down the track. Has Optus taken a leaf out of Hillary's book?
Banks obviously have an interest in making consumers feel safe. They are there to protect the customers' money. They want customers to use their online services, too, because the channel offers a lower cost per transaction than a branch. But giving away free security software to make customers feel safe is probably doing more harm than good.
I'm standing in a room with roughly a quarter of a million backup tapes. No, this isn't where the FuelWatch guys hid the evidence, it's the Perth storage area for Spectrum Data, which specialises in storing ageing backup media and helping companies retrieve data from long-forgotten archives.
Might I suggest that the government, which so far has handled the issue with kid gloves, take a chance for once and reach over and just pull the digital TV plug?
While there's not much that's more fun than stirring up Linux and Windows zealots into a frenzy of spite against each other, we thankfully finally seem to be approaching a more measured universe in which technology choices can be made based on suitability rather than preconception.
It's official: Australia is an easy target for Russian crime gangs — some are even turning Aussie lonely hearts into money mules. But are those "victims" actually guilty?
At this year's AusCERT conference, whitelists were a hot topic — but is anyone going to use them?
Mobile phone companies have seen the green bandwagon go by and are flinging themselves on it faster than you can say "lazy, greenwash-spewing me-too merchants" but in the pantheon of would-be eco-friendly mobile makers, Nokia is coming up with some of the best and worst ideas on the market.
Telstra mobile code reader
It may look like a 3-D image but it's in fact a barcode designed to direct your phone's web browser to a relev… Watch it now
HP & Intel Business Technology Power Center
I'm a celebrity, don't back me up
Lies, damned lies and telco stupidity
Dear carriers: More walking, less talking
iPhone Launch Centre
The ZDNet.com.au iPhone resource guide contains everything you need to know about Apple's highly anticipated mobile device.
Click here for more.
Who guards the guards: Storage
Making predictions about the storage market isn't difficult. Suggest that capacities will go up and costs will go down and you shouldn't go too far wrong.
Click here for more.
The best mobile processor is...
Our comprehensive review benchmarks 19 of the latest mobile processors, giving you an insight into the best chips on the market.
Click here to find out more.
