Life & Technology – 2GB 27th September, 2014

Samsung kicked off the week by announcing Australian pricing and availability for the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge. The Note 4 will go on sale on October 29, and retail for AUD$969, and the Note Edge be available on a week later on November 5 from AUD$1,249. 

 

We've had the chance to spend a bit of time with the Note 4 and Note Edge, so we've put together a phablet face-off comparing Samsung's latest offerings to the iPhone 6 Plus. Click here to see how they stack up.

 

On the subject of iPhones, a few unfortunate users have destroyed their handsets following a hoax that stated upgrading to iOS8 would give you the ability to recharge in minutes using a microwave. I'm just going to say this once: do not microwave your iPhone!

 

One last piece of phone news: Vodafone have revamped their pre-paid offerings, increasing the data cap on all of their plans. Click here for details of Vodafone's $30, $40 and $50 offers.

 

The AFL Grand Final is just hours away! In anticipation of the big game, I got in touch with Peter Campbell, AFL Media's General Manager, to find out just how people are watching the big game.  Peter told me that he's found that supporters want to watch AFL on every screen they've got, and that they've had to provide as many options as they can. For more insights, have a read of our piece on CyberShack.

 

Looking for an ultra-budget tablet? The Pendo Pad 8 went on sale this week – a $199 tablet running the full version of Windows 8.1 that also comes with a year's subscription to Office 365. What a bargain!

 

I also sat down with Adrian Li, Head Chef at Melbourne's Saigon Sally and co-founder of Fabricor Workwear. Fabricor Workwear is one of Australia's most innovative wearable technology start-ups, but it's not the kind of wearable technology you're thinking of. Fabricor are working on stain-resistant garments that will literally repel anything from soy sauce to ketchup or red wine. While these are initially being designed for the hospitality industry, Adrian said he sees potential uses in the medical industry. For more information about Fabricor, read our piece on CyberShack.

 

To finish the week, I had a chat with Marco Wong, SanDisk's Business Development Manager for the APAC region. SanDisk surprised everyone this week with the announcement of an enormous 512 gigabyte SD card! It's pretty amazing that they’ve managed to squeeze so much space into something not much bigger than a thumb print.