Let me prefix this article with the fact I have no allegiance to any brand. I have a Samsung phone, I own a MacBook Pro, I have an iPad, I own a PC and I own a PS4. I use whatever works for me and what I like: I like.
I am a pretty big watch nerd. While I do not currently own a watch, I have my eyes set on a few watch beauties (non digital). I like reading about watches, I like looking at them and occasionally trying them on. When Apple first announced the Apple Watch I was immediately skeptical, but also intrigued.
Unless you’re reading this far into the future or a jail cell because you downloaded Dallas Buyers Club, then you would know that metadata retention laws have just been passed in the Australian senate.
Australian Parliament (with cooperation from the Coalition and ALP) passed amendments to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 requiring telecommunication service providers to retain for two years certain telecommunications metadata prescribed by regulations.
What is metadata? The analogy being thrown around is metadata is not the contents of the envelope, but rather what is on the outside of the envelope. It is pieces of descriptive information that describe or give one or more pieces of data additional context and meaning.
For far too long Australia has been reliant on mining. We have seen it rejuvenate and decimate towns. When things are good they are great and when they are bad they are dire.
The thing is, the future of Australia’s economy is not mining. Sure, it will continue to be the backbone of this country for a long while yet, but we need to realise that the good old days of mining money are over.
You have probably heard of Jay Z backed high-quality music streaming platform and Spotify rival called Tidal. The sales pitch is that Tidal will stream lossless audio to consumers for $20 a month or Spotify standard 320kbps for $10 per month.
The thing is, high bitrate audio for the general consumer is pointless. I am not an extreme audiophile nor an audio expert, but I do like listening to music through nice headphones and speakers. And to be quite honest, even through expensive headphones I cannot tell the difference between a 320kbps MP3 or a lossless FLAC file.
As if we needed anymore reasons to hate Foxtel, Australians now have yet another reason to add the list.
If you are like me and you are a fan of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, you would have realised up until recently you could watch the show on Youtube without any issue for free. Not anymore thanks in part to The Comedy Channel (solely owned by Foxtel) purchasing the rights to show the series here in Australia. Maybe not a decision that affects you if you are fortunate enough to have pockets deep enough to pay for Foxtel.
Sony are holding a big event in Las Vegas on Saturday the 6th of December, 2014, dubbed Playstation Experience. While Street Fight V has already leaked, very little else is known about what to expect.
What I think is going to be the showcase piece is Project Morpheus. We might get a release date, it is already known that attendees will get to experience the headset at the event. Sony wouldn’t allow the general public and judgemental game blogging media to get their hands on it if it were not close to completion.
After a recent petition on Change.org filed by some single-minded feminists requesting that Target Australia stop selling GTA V because it encourage violence against women, Target Australia have caved and removed the game from their shelves.
The petition hit just over 41k signatures (relatively small compared to other petitions and the population itself).
As an Australian adult it sickens me that a small minority of feminists even started this petition, but even more-so that Target Australia caved into the pressure and removed the game.