Life & Technology

Spoke to Chris Allen on A Current Affair last night about 3D television and how this technology will have an ever-increasing presence on the retail landscape over the next 12 months when vendors roll out their latest stock in about June.

There is no doubt in my mind that this technology will be the norm within the next 3-5 years, so it was interesting to get the perspective of retail outlets.

What Chris also talked about was the great deals you can now get on LCD, plasma and LED televisions. Whether the prices are coming down due to too many players in the market, too much stock, or the looming debut of 3D television is open to debate. What I do know, is that the deals out there at the moment and you can now get a reasonably sized television for a good price.

It still pays to shop around though, and the ball is definitely in the consumer’s hands when it comes to getting your new home theatre kit set up.

Travelling around the various tech shows across the planet, I’ve often stopped by the Microsoft stand to see their touch technologies on display. The best by far has been ‘surface’, the interactive table top that means you navigate the internet and other digital worlds from your seat. A finger, two fingers, a glass or a business card, can all interact with the surface table top.

Microsoft is finally launching the technology in Australia. If you have used iPhone, then you can use Surface. It’s natural, it’s interesting and it works. It’s been a feature on my Today Show segments for some time and finally it’s here.

Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division for Microsoft, is here in Australia to launch the product and he says he first saw surface seven years ago. This gives some indication of how long it can take to develop this technology. It’s not just the technology, it’s the organisation of the community to take advantage of the technology and make it work for more people.

For you, it means a table – you sit down at your interactive seat, and the world of exploration begins. Microsoft has decided that sharing a table is just fine, because it is possible to have more than one person at the table at once.

The first app on show at the launch was a wine app, which would be of interest to wine bar owners. If you are at such a bar, the surface will give you information about the wine to help you with your order. What foods go with the wine? What wine will you like? The surface will interactively work with you to make your choice.

Surface, above everything else is addictive. Sit people in front of it and watch them touch, play and explore. I think that once the technology becomes more wide spread, and cheaper you will see Aussies everywhere enjoying the experience. You’d hope so with Surface – at $21,000 a pop…

There is so much going on in the wireless and naked broadband space that we decided to try and get some of the best deals out in the open for consumers to access.

We attacked the wireless broadband prices first and with some results that might make people sit up and take notice.

Virgin Mobile is offeing 6GB a month (even though the graphic on the Today Show said 4GB, it is 6GB – they changed their prices on Thursday) for $39, while Telstra is offering the same for a whopping $79.95. However, Telstra charges this amount because their coverage is the best throughout Australia. Does that mean they should be twice as expensive? I think they could do better. Fianlly, there we looked at a prepay plan – 3 Mobile’s 4GB foir $49. This is not as good as the Virgin deal either, but at least you know what you are getting and how much you are paying.

We then looked at Naked ADSL. Naked means you unplug your landline and plug in your internet connection, which you also use for phone calls.

We talked about my current play, which is from iiNet and is $49.95 for 10GB. Not too bad, but I am thinking of changing plans because they also charge for uploads as well as downloads. And when you compare it to TPG’s huge 120GB for $10 more ($59.95) it puts things in perspective. Finally, there was the Internode price of $69.95 for 50GB a month. Bear in mind these plans mean that the data is split 50-50. This means with the iiNet plan, 5GB is for use during peak traffic and 5GB off-peak.

Also threw in a couple of tips you should take into consideration when setting up an account:

• Talk to other broadband customers via the largest broadband community Whirlpool’s Broadband News and Information thread (http://whirlpool.net.au/). It will give you the low down on all the latest trends within broadband, and a general overview of some of the vendors in the space.
• Check out the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman annual report that lists companies and the number of complaints they have had here (http://www.tio.com.au/publications/annual_reports/ar2009/PDFs/AR_09_PartSix.pdf)
• All plans give you an overall fee including set up cost. The best way to know your overall outgoings is to check out the set up costs with your plan and then divide by 24 months or however long your plan is.