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More than 51 million phone calls will be made on mobile phones on the night while 44 million calls will be made from home phones.

“Our research showed more than one in three Aussies anticipated sending Christmas wishes via social media this year,” Optus spokeswoman Clare Gill said.

“Yet we also texted and talked with friends and family in record numbers.

“We are expecting to see this trend continue over New Year’s Eve as people call and SMS their friends and family to welcome 2012.”

India, Vietnam and Britain are predicted to be the three most popular overseas destinations to call this year.

Source:  theaustralian.com.au

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Aside from names and emails, the document contained ticket numbers and job descriptions of troubleshooting items lodged by Telstra customers. Reasons for customer callbacks and information about faulty equipment were also in the online file.

Telstra has confirmed the spreadsheet contained about 1500 email addresses, some postal addresses and telephone numbers.

“We have no reason to believe it contained passwords or credit or financial information,” a Telstra spokeswoman said.

Telstra hastily took down the site after it became aware of the breach yesterday morning.”Our customers’ privacy is paramount and the site was disabled within an hour of Telstra being made aware of it,” the spokeswoman said.

Access to the tool for staff has also been disabled. Telstra has begun an investigation to determine how the spreadsheet became available for public viewing on the internet. Initial inquiries have found the spreadsheet was made available by a consultant to use in training and coaching.

Telstra said it would inform the Privacy Commissioner, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and the Australian Communications and Media Authority of the breach, and would contact all customers whose details appeared.

The privacy gaffe is the second major security breach to hit Telstra this month. Earlier in December, details of 800,000 Telstra customers were exposed on the web for anyone to access.

That information — including account details, passwords, user names and email addresses — was displayed on a search page used by Telstra customer service agents that was left unprotected.

Telstra then had to reset the passwords of about 60,000 affected customers.

Such was the extent of that security breach that Telstra’s chief customer officer Gordon Ballantyne issued a public apology to customers whose personal information was exposed.

That breach prompted a formal investigation by the Privacy Commissioner, which is expected to conclude next month.It is expected this latest breach could also be examined by the commissioner.It has been a busy year for Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim, who has overseen several major investigations of consumer privacy breaches.

In April, Sony’s PlayStation network was hacked into and cyber thieves got the credit numbers of 77 million users. About 715,000 Australian customers were affected by the hacking, but Mr Pilgrim cleared Sony of any breach of the Privacy Act.

In January, the commissioner investigated Vodafone’s handling of customer data following security lapses, and found the company did not have “appropriate measures” in place at the time.

Source: Theaustralian.com.au

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The technology uses electric “tixels” – instead of pixels – which “pull” the skin of the finger towards the surface of a computer screen. Creator Senseg says the effect means something like a rough-looking wall can actually feel like stone.

The textures are created via an ultra-thin, ultra-durable coating that can be applied to almost any surface regardless of whether it’s flat or curved, soft or hard. It’s currently in the prototype stage, but Senseg says it can be added to devices like smartphones and tablets at little cost. “We may even see it in the next generation of smart-phones,” their website says.

Source news.com.au

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The California Internet titan worked with more than 150 publishing partners for the US launch of “Google Currents,” which is also integrated with the Google+ online social network challenging Facebook. “Content is optimized for smartphones and tablets, allowing you to intuitively navigate between words, pictures and video on large and small screens alike, even if you’re offline,” product manager Mussie Shore and technical lead Sami Shalabi said in a blog post.

People were invited to download the application and subscribe for free to publications which include Forbes, The Atlantic, ABC News, The Guardian, and Al-Jazeera English. “Great content needs a great audience, which is why Google Currents is integrated with Google+ so users can share articles or videos they’ve enjoyed with their circles,” Shore and Shalabi wrote.

The Flipboard-style magazine application was released the same day that Google meshed its popular free Gmail service with its nascent social network. “We want to bring you a great experience across all Google products which, for Gmail and Contacts, means understanding what you care about and delivering it instantly,” engineering director Mark Striebeck said in a blog post. “If you use Google+, you can now grow your circles, filter emails and contacts by circles, keep all your contact information up-to-date automatically and share photos to Google+, all right from Gmail and Contacts,” he said.

Source: news.com.au

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Apple had sought special leave from the High Court to have an injunction against the sale of the device here reinstated after the full bench of the Federal Court overturned it last week.

However, the High Court today refused its application to appeal that decision in a special expedited application.

The High Court acknowledged that its decision would effectively amount to a final determination of the outcome of the patent case as the Tab device would likely be superseded before the matter could be settled at a trial mid-next year.

Samsung Australia immediately issued a statement saying it would put the Tab on sale as soon as possible.

During its appeal to the full court Samsung argued that primary judge’s Justice Annabelle Bennett did not test the prospect that Apple’s case would succeed at trial sufficiently.

The full bench of the Federal Court accepted its arguments in a ruling handed down November 30. That ruling was reinforced today in the High Court.

“We see insufficient prospects of success on the part of Apple to demonstrate on appeal to this court error by the full court,” High Court chief justice Robert French said shortly before refusing Apple’s application with costs.

In a statement released today Samsung said its view that the injunction should never have been granted was vindicated.

“The Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia decision on November 30 clearly affirmed our view that Apple’s claims lack merit and that an injunction should not have been imposed on the GALAXY Tab 10.1,” the company wrote.

Apple’s court action may have had the unintended effect of raising the Galaxy Tab 10.1′s profile.

Samsung said the Tab 10.1 would be available from retailers including Harvey Norman, JB Hifi, Good Guys, Myer, Bing Lee and Office Works.

It is understood Harvey Norman and JB Hifi expect to have stock available for Christmas sales.

The 16GB WiFi version would sell for a recommended retail price of $579, while the 16GB 3G version was priced at $729.

Ruslan Kogan founder of the Australian online electronics retailer, Kogan, said the device was already back on sale from the store and selling well.

“We’ve seen a surge in demand already today since the court ruling,” a spokesman for Kogan said.

A spokesman for Kogan said that the retailer resumed selling the device after the full court handed down its decision even though the temporary injunction against Samsung Australia remained in place until the special leave hearing today.

“Kogan has been selling them since the original court ruling overturning Apple’s block nearly a fortnight ago,” Kogan’s spokesman said.

While the injunction stood, a number of online retailers who defied the injunction to import the device directly from overseas suppliers, including Dmavo and mobicity.com.au, enjoyed a holiday from competition with major retailers and sharp jumps in trade.

The situation drew the ire of Harvey Norman chief Gerry Harvey who said the online retailers were being allowed to perpetuate “a rort”.

Source:theaustralian.com.au

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