As the Commerce Commission investigates a complaint into Telecom's "Faster, Cheaper Broadband" campaign, it's time to take another self-flagellating look at where we stand on the OECD's latest league table:

These figures show the number of broadband connections for every 100 people in each country, as of December 2005.

* Data are premiliminary estimates.
** 3G broadband connections are not included, bar the Czech Republic where the connections make use of "fixed" equipment in a home and offer speeds greater than 256 kbit/s to individual users.

Click here for more OECD broadband stats.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

In an interview in the latest Fortune (registration required), Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laments Xbox 360 delays, admits Windows Mobile is a 'negligible player' (so far), and slams giant US provider and portal AOL for choosing Google over Microsoft in a fiercely contested media partnership deal. Such are the real-world challenges for the leader of the modern day Microsoft.

Yet there is one domain where Ballmer is undisputed master: "I've got my kids brainwashed. They don't use Google, and they don't use an iPod".

And not only are the Ballmer children towing the company line, they're getting Vista-ready too. Latest reports are that the new Windows will come with a made-over, iPod-hostile version of Media Player (Microsoft itself has neither confirmed or denied ... but it would put Vista at odds with the iPod-friendly Xbox 360).

Apple should be wary, too, that Ballmer still has envious eyes on its iPod. He tells Fortune: "In five years, are people really going to carry one device that is their communication device, one device that is music? There's going to be a lot of opportunities .... We want to be in that game .... Expect announcements from us in that area in the next 12 months."

Posted by Chris Keall at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Some Kiwis are now, rightly, worried about Eftpos skimming. But in the US, customers have got the willies about a whole new level of fraud: wireless hacks. The answer, says one geek, is to fry your ATM card in a microwave

It goes like this: a number of new US debit and credit cards, such as MasterCard's PayPass ATM and Visa's Contactless, now come with an embedded chip and miniature antenna. The idea is that you wave your card in front of an LCD at checkout, and funds are automatically withdrawn from your account.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) says some customers worry that radio transmissions are relatively easy to hack (though the MasterCard's ariel, which like other RFID components draws power from a scanner, must be within two inches to transmit). And some people just hate RFIDs anyway because they also serve as real-time locator devices. Thus a mini-industry has sprung up for deactivating RFIDs. But experts say that some touted RFID-busting devices, such as RFIDWasher and TagZapper, could also fry your iPod or any other gadget in the area. A better answer: give your smart card a quick twirl in your microwave. The electro-magnetic radiation will make short work of its circuits.

(Footnote: Incidentally, while trawling our publisher's photobank for a stock picture to go with this story, I found the above microwave with an SD Card reader. National, the maker of the oven, is a sister company of SD Card pusher Panasonic. Synergy!)

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

US TV network ABC says it's going to make most of its programmes free over the internet. Shows like Alias, Desperate Housewives and Lost will stream from ABC.com on a one-day delay, with commercials. As with any digital clip, they'll be ffwd, rwd and pause options, but you won't be able to skip the ads.

ABC's previous net TV effort - selling episodes of Housewives over iTunes - was not of course available here, because we aint got iTunes (though the Recording Industry Association, or RIANZ, has just hired another piracy cop. Cheers). Presumably the new free-for-all ABC regime will be more readily available to all-comers, if prohibitively expense and unpractical the way our broadband accounts are billed (Yanks are typically on all-you-can-eat plans).

ABC-affiliated, locally-owned TV stations in the US aren't thrilled that the broadcaster is now making its content available direct to the punters. The likes of TVNZ, TV3 and Sky could, one day soon, find themselves in the same boat. Can't wait for TV2 to buy the next series of Lost, or can't wait a week for the next episode? Hit the net.

The other great thing about internet TV is the rebirth of retro. Everybody from the BBC to content makers like Time Warner to providers like Google are making selected old TV shows available for free, and others for a fee (and it's usually location-restricted ... for now).

There's also been a sudden, explosive growth in DIY video sites, like YouTube, which claims 25 million downloads since February. Yes, there are a couple of hundred thousand too many people who think it's hilarious to upload a clip of them badly miming a pop song in their underwear, but there are also some quirky travel, video blog and short movie clips if you're willing to wade through the dross. It's the Triangle TV of broadband. Just make sure you don't surf on your own account.

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

As we mull whether our creaky copper network could stand a rush of users from local loop unbundling, or Telecom selling Xtra to focus on wholesale, here's another option - wireless broadband that's paid for not by users, but advertisers. Brokered, naturally, by Google. In San Fransisco it's already happening.

Google, along with US ISP Earthlink, has just been chosen to provide a free wireless broadband network for the city of San Fransisco. This is no act of altruism on Google's part. It'll reap dosh from location-based search ads, and had to beat eight other companies who were vying for the city's free wi-fi contract. Google and Earthlink will foot the cost of building and running the network, and there will be a choice of two plans: an ad-supported Google service, or a faster, ad-free Earthlink option.

It was forward-thinking of San Fransisco city officials to get the ball rolling with a request for proposals, starting the process that ended in Google and Earthlink's selection. New Zealand local councils, check out this deal immediately.

Posted by Chris Keall at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

It hasn't been a classic year for Microsoft between Vista delays, EU Competition Commissioners, IE megabugs and Google's relentless march (latest Stateside figures, for February, show Google's search traffic share climbing 6% to 42.3%; Microsoft fell 3% to 13.5%).

Stressful stuff. Personally, during stressful moments I tend to day-dream, which often involves bad sci-fi fantasies. But when you're a Microsoft billionaire, you don't just dream it, you do it. Thus founding Microsoftie Charles Simonyi is set to leave Earthly cares behind altogether and join the select band of space tourists.

Simonyi has ponied up US$20 million to Space Adventures for a seat on a Russian Soyuz craft that will take him to the International Space Station some time during September. The software entrepreneur, who joined Microsoft in 1981 and left in 2002 (whereupon Bill Gates took over his role as chief technology officer) will become only the fifth private citizen to holiday in space, following previous jaunts by Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen, and an the upcoming lift-off of Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto.

Posted by Chris Keall at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )