We got some really good news this week, the PC is no longer dying! Intel announced better than expected second quarter earnings, driven by growth in the personal computer sector. I had a chat with Dan Anderson, the tablet marketing manager for Intel in Australian and New Zealand to find out why people are buying PCs again. Apparently, two-in-one devices have helped the segment grow, giving customers the best of both a tablet and a laptop.
I also talked to John Simon, Chief Customer officer for NBN about progress on the rollout. It turns out users who still want fibre to the home will be able to get it (for a little extra, details still to be confirmed), which is great for speed fiends like me!
Samsung look like they'll be getting the jump on the iPhone 6 with the Galaxy Alpha. The Galaxy Alpha is Samsung's latest flagship phone, and while we don't know much about it yet, it's due out toward the end of August according to rumours. Funnily enough, Chinese fakers have also beat Apple, and released a fake iPhone 6 before the real one's even been announced!
In related news, Apple announced the Australian launch of their trade in program. Customers will now be able to trade in their old iPhones and iPads for up to $250 credit on a new iDevice. The iPhone 5S and 5C aren't eligible for trade in yet, and neither is the iPad Air, but hopefully this will change when this year's models are announced.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Howard Chen, Huawei's Managing Director of Devices and had a bit of talk to him about his business. While Huawei has been making white-labelled products for telcos for quite some time in Australia, they've only really started to make their own devices recently. A nifty gadget they've got coming up is a fitness tracker that doubles as a Bluetooth headset! Sounds strange, but it's pretty cool!
We sure do spend a lot of time talking about phones, don't we! To round out this post, here's another phone fact for you – you should think twice before selling your old Android phone. Security software manufacturer Avast purchased 20 second hand Android phones on Ebay and were easily able to recover far more personal information than they should have been able to! This included over 40,000 photos, four complete identities and a loan application. If you're still hoping to sell your Android phone online, we've got a piece on CyberShack that goes into a bit more detail on how to ensure your phone is wiped before you do.
Still want more? Have a read of my weekly editorial, this week I'm looking at why the PC will still be around for a while.