Read the Tech Talk Blogs!

If you didn’t know, the guys on Tech Talk Radio have their own blogs! Andrew’s is McBlog, Dr. Ron has The Surgery, Adam has Seeking Nerdvana, and Lid has Blogwell. And you guessed it, there all worth a read. Feel free to post comments, as chances are, they’ll make it to air!

Andrew McColm features in this week’s Green Guide

World-class high-speed broadband is the key to Australia’s future, community radio host Andrew McColm tells Adam Turner.

Read the article.

Google Developer Day – Sydney 2007

Well what an exciting week it’s been, Google came to Sydney last week, and I, Andrew McColm, jumped on the 6.45am Virgin flight out of Melbourne to find out first hand, what Google wanted developers to develop. It wasn’t long into the keynote address by Alan Noble, Google Australia’s Engineering Director, that we learnt about Google Gears, a small application which Google promises will allow us to use the web offline. Like Microsoft’s Outlook transitions seamlessly between the online and offline world, Google Gears will do the same for our web experience.

The other main point I got from developer’s day, was the importance Google places on maps. 80% of data has a geospatial reference, that is, a reference to some physical point on the planet. Google Earth and Google maps are at the forefront of this push as the search engine juggernaut breathes life into this product with a new package of tools allowing developers even more flexibility to use Google maps in ways you can only dream of on a website near you.

Our hosts put on a generous lunch and a great selection of drinks and nibbles, to keep over 700 developers keen and interested from 9 in the morning right through to 6 in the evening. The complimentary Google T-shirt was an unexpected departing gesture and a nice addition to the holographic notepad, google pen and Google stickers – bad luck to those who left early. Oh and did someone say Microsoft launched something on the same day?

For more about Google Developer Day 2007 in Sydney, tune in to Tech Talk Radio, or down load the podcast.

Adam Turner joins the Tech Talk Team!

We welcome Adam Turner to the Tech Talk Radio team with his regular contribution View from the couch.

In the first of Adam’s regular weekly installments, he talks about channel 10’s Big Brother and the impact it will have on the mobile phone. It airs on Monday April 23.

Adam Turner was formerly Melbourne deputy editor of Next, the business IT section of Fairfax’s The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers in Australia.

In March 2005, after seven years at The Age, Turner switched to a freelance career. He still writes the Upgrade product review column in Next and also contributes features and reviews to various business and consumer technology publications. His specialty area is the “digital lounge room” – a key convergence point between next-gen communications and media/entertainment technologies.

Telstra are at it again!

Telstra have let their PR bull terrier out of his cage again, and he’s certainly got his hackles up.

Telstra’s Communications Chief Phil Burgess explained why high-speed broadband is crucial to Australia’s future. But what’s more, Telstra have upped the price of high speed wireless broadband by $5 accross the range of their broadband products, and extended the length of their contracts from 2 to three years! (I wonder if the are still the only company to meter uploaded data ??) Now who in their right mind would lock themselves into a three year contract in the ever changing telecommunications industry.

Consumers beware! The price should be falling and the speed increasing – like it is everywhere else in the world!

Telstra spokesman Craig Middleton says, “This pricing reflects the fact that it’s the best product on the market for wireless broadband. If you want to travel first class – you’ll be prepared to pay more. If you want to travel on the bus with our competitors…” He denied that the price rises were related to capacity limitations on the network stating “Absolutely not, this is a premium product.”

There are several hundred service providers in the market of which very few have their own technology or hardware in exchanges – they simply resell the Telstra product – this equates to over 90% of the market.

See the webcast if you dare!