Digital Home Advisor

Have you been caught walking down the street, headphones blaring as you hum the timeless lyrics from "The System is Down"? Then Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People from Telltale Games is for you. Take control of the boxing-glove brandishing Strong Bad as he answers e-mails, hangs with the Cheat, and generally causes trouble. The game should be out for the Wii and PC mid-year.

Ever wax nostalgic about your first PC or cell phone? It's easy to forgive your Tandy desktop or your Motorola portable for their limitations -- after all, they were technological infants.

"Dollar for dollar you'll get more power and features in a PC assembled by a big company than in one you build yourself." That's the conventional wisdom. But new standards and improved component integration that packs more functions into fewer parts now allow you to build a modern system for the same cost as a similarly equipped retail PC.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has pushed ahead with the controversial [[artid:420013177|national content filtering scheme|ISP filtering]] with a $125.8 million budget allocation announced today.

The federal government will pour $270.7 million into regional broadband incentives, [[artid:58489466|two weeks|new]] after it attempted to use the funds for its National Broadband Network (NBN).

A technical dispute between BigPond and PayPal has been resolved after BigPond cable users had been unable to login to the payment site for over a week.

The ability to bundle multiple broadband services and avoid fixed line rental has seen naked DSL emerge as the next cash cow for some ISPs, who want to see the service evolve into their flagship product.

Telstra has met the requirements of the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy for the shutdown of the CDMA network, which will be switched off permanently on April 28.

Iomega has announced the availability of its new REV 120GB backup drive, the third generation of its REV technology.

The MozyHome online backup service became generally available on Thursday after a long beta test and the acquisition of its creator by EMC.

Seagate announced Tuesday that it has shipped 1 billion hard drives since pioneering an industry that shows no signs of slowing down 29 years later.

Western Digital has launched the first model of its new 2.5-in. VelociRaptor VR 150 hard-drive product line, which company executives said offers about twice the capacity of the 2.5-in. Raptor hard drive it will replace.

An IBM research breakthrough could let storage devices hold hundreds of times more information than they handle today with technology IBM calls "racetrack memory," which stores data as a magnetic pattern on a nanowire 1,000 times finer than a human hair.

Have you been caught walking down the street, headphones blaring as you hum the timeless lyrics from "The System is Down"? Then Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People from Telltale Games is for you. Take control of the boxing-glove brandishing Strong Bad as he answers e-mails, hangs with the Cheat, and generally causes trouble. The game should be out for the Wii and PC mid-year.

Hundreds of Grand Theft Auto IV fans eager to get their hands on a free copy of the game have been targeted by a Trojan virus, according to DriveSentry.

Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion to the world's most popular massively multiplayer online role playing game, following on from the successful Burning Crusade. Planned upgrades include a rise in the level cap to 80, new Hero classes, and plenty of new content for new and veteran players alike. Check out this slideshow for all the latest pictures of the new environments and battlegrounds.

I'm just back from leaping, rolling, tumbling, building battling, and bullwhipping my way through the first level of Traveller's Tales' just-released LEGO Indiana Jones demo.

Updating your graphics card can be a costly business, especially if you're into gaming. Thankfully, there is also a bevy of affordable options for those on limited budgets. But making the right choice isn't easy -- plenty of graphics cards are duds, especially at lower price points. We've compiled a shortlist of the five mid-to-low range graphics cards that have most impressed us over the past few months. (You can click on the headings to read our in-depth reviews of each card.)

Imagine a robot that hands you a beer and then cleans your kitchen and living room. That's what a start-up called Willow Garage in California is busy developing. But the company isn't going it alone: Willow Garage is an open source project that wants as much outside participation as possible.

Aaron Weaver has made a discovery the world could probably do without: He's found a way to spam your printer from the Web.

Why have a key to open your front door when you can have an RFID tag implanted in your arm to unlock the door? Ever since he was a young boy, Jonathan Oxer has been fascinated by manipulating electronic devices to his mischievous ends.

Think personal robots are still the stuff of sci-fi movies? Think again.

Trend Micro has released LeakProof 3.0, the security vendor's first data leak prevention product.

Microsoft's having a tough year with reboots. First it was a reboot ad infinitum in February, brought on by a flawed update to Windows Vista. Now the same thing's happening to some users who have updated to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3).

The vendor HyBlue says it can prevent the "cold boot" encryption hack discovered by Princeton researchers with a laptop security product announced Tuesday.

Microsoft's Windows Vista is 37 per cent more secure than its Windows XP ancestor, a security vendor claimed Friday, a rate it hinted was disappointing.

Good news for users of Windows Vista. According to figures compiled by PC Tools, the OS has experienced only slightly more vulnerabilities than Windows 2000, which appeared eight years ago when malware was far less common.

Microsoft plans to fix critical bugs in its Word, Publisher and Jet database software next week.

Apple this week confirmed what everyone has expected for months: CEO Steve Jobs will kick off the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco on June 9 with a keynote address.

Radiohead fans will no longer be able to choose how much to pay for the band's music.

Nine Inch Nails is back at it again by throwing more free music towards the masses with its latest album entitled "the slip." This time around the free download is working a bit different -- the band isn't even allowing for donations.

Buying a gift for Mother's Day can be a grueling task for clueless offspring. There are only so many fluffy slippers, gift hampers and romantic comedies you can buy before it all starts to wear a bit thin. But there's no reason why your present needs to be so predictable and boring — chances are that your mum is a lot more tech-savvy than you think. For some last-minute gift ideas, check out the following slideshow. (And if you happen to be a mum, grab a pen and some paper — it's time to compile your ultimate wish list!)

Five great accessories to take your iPhone to the next level

Hewlett-Packard is planning to deploy a new color display technology it says can display one billion colors, making them far more vibrant and real, across its product lines.

About five months ago, Macintosh lovers finally got their hands on Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," which boasts more than 300 new features spread across its interface and underpinnings. Some of those features are well-known -- the Dock's "stacks" function, Spaces, Time Machine and Screen Sharing, to name some of those most talked about by users and columnists alike.

The long-awaited, Web-based and free version of Adobe Photoshop is now available as a beta, Adobe announced this week.

Hewlett-Packard Monday offered a peek into future printing technologies, introducing a new inkjet printer that prints thousands of pages per minute and ink that retains its shine even when exposed to extreme elements.

Spam originating from Google's Gmail domain doubled last month, indicating that spammers are still defeating the CAPTCHA, the distorted text used as a security test to thwart mass registration of e-mail accounts and other Web site abuse.

Japan's Pioneer plans to end production of plasma display panels as part of a restructuring program to return its operations to profit, it announced this week.

Apple this week confirmed what everyone has expected for months: CEO Steve Jobs will kick off the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco on June 9 with a keynote address.

Apple said Tuesday it is adding episodes from HBO's original programming to its pay-to-view iTunes online store, and will charge US$1 more than the usual for some episodes.

Toshiba plans to begin mass production of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells by March next year and to have a television based on the powerful Cell microprocessor on sale before the end of the same year, it said Thursday.

Electronic program guide provider IceTV, which lets users record free-to-air TV through a media centre or Personal Video Recorder (PVR), this week announced the introduction of Australia's first intelligent TV show recommendation system for digital viewers.

The lack of certainty surrounding exactly who will bring the iPhone to Australia, and what model will be released here, has been clarified a little further today with an announcement by Optus that it too has signed an agreement to bring the iPhone to Australia.

Mobile phone services outnumbered the Australian population for the first time as of 30 June 2007, when 21.26 million mobile phone services were in operation, according to a report released this week by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

EBay-owned Skype has released into open beta testing a client for mobile phones that supports phone calls, chat and other features of the popular VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) application.

Skype has announced a flat rate for international calls, further showing how difficult it is to make money from telephony, according to analysts.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has released a three-strand approach to regulating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services which includes the introduction of a compliance program.

Even if you're paying top dollar for high-speed Internet service, you may not be getting the performance you expect. Follow our guide to boost your broadband speed.

The Bug Labs BUG is a modular, open-source gadget that allows users to create their own combinations of plug-in modules, and then customise software to take advantage of the functionality offered.

More than 600 predictions were released by analysts this week in ICT industry research reports that identify a long list of trends, forecasts and estimates ranging from the top technologies for the year 2010 to growing tensions in the telecommunications industry as a result of convergence.

Disappointed Mac users confirmed that Apple's latest Leopard update does not let them back up with Time Machine to drives plugged into an Airport Extreme router.

Got a small network, home network, medium-size network -- even an enterprise network -- and want to get the most out of it? Then I've got good news for you: 10 free pieces of software that can make your network easier to use, troubleshoot and maintain. These freebies will help everyone from networking pros to networking newbies and everyone in between.

Every now and then you come across a product that is, what's the word I'm looking for, compelling? intriguing? Way cool? Today's topic is a product that is all of those things. It is the US$99.95 Eye-Fi Secure Digital (SD) memory card for your camera that has built-in wireless networking. Once configured, the card will log on to your Wi-Fi network and automatically upload images to one of a number of popular photo management tools or storage services such as Flickr and Picasa.

Does all this talk of WiMAX, 3G and 4G make your head spin? Here's a quick primer about what each technology really delivers.

One of the challenges in mobile computing is battery life. It's hard to be productive with a dead battery, so IT personnel and users alike need to think about maximising run time between charges.

The proposed IEEE wireless LAN mesh specification is already getting some traction, though still over 18 months from final ratification, thanks to early experimentation by the One Laptop Per Child Foundation and a recently launched open source project.

PacketHop this week unveiled the first commercial implementation of the draft IEEE 802.11s wireless-LAN mesh standard.