Life & Technology

Latest news out of Stephen Conroy’s office offered up an array of information on a study put out by his office completed by the Edith Cowan University, called the Review of Existing Australian and International Cyber-safety Research.

What caught my eye in the report was an interesting stat with regard to pornography. Apparently 84 percent of 16-17 year old boys have been “accidentally” exposed to pornography, while 60 percent of girls. Also mentioned in the stats was that 38 percent of 16-17 percent of boys and 2 percent of girls deliberately looked for pornography. I kinda feel that only one group of boys is being honest here, but that aside, I’d like to bring up another point.

The government spent just under $126 million on the project, which seems a little bit of an overkill. I haven’t seen the whole report, but I could have told them for free that the vast majority of boys in that age group would have come across porn on the Internet, accidentally or otherwise. Sure, this type of info is important, but what I would have really liked to have seen was this study target children in the 5-17 age bracket – especially those under 14 who are not only more at risk, but more naïve in the ways of the world.

Another stat that would be worth a look see is that 10 percent of these kids say they’ve been bullied at one stage or another, while the world rate is 50 percent. Either there is some under reporting going on there, or us Aussies are a lot nicer than other folk!

Released today were new versions of the iPod Nano, Shuffle and Touch. What caught my eye with the Nano is its new video function. Say what you like about Apple – whether you like them or not – they no how to spot a trend. With YouTube uploads taking off, expect a whole lot more from Apple lovers.

 

 

It also has a built-in pedometer, which will probably not be of great news to CE companies in that market. Realising that a lot of people use their iPod while exercising, Apple has added this feature so people can also know how many calories they are burning and helps keep up with their training regime. 2UE
Spoke about the iPods, but also talked about the latest PS3 from Sony Computer Entertainment. It’s smaller, cheaper and has a bigger hard drive than other versions of the console. However, to make it cheaper they have had to sacrifice some aspects, one being the backward compatibility with the PS2. So if you still have your PS2 and a stack of games, make sure you keep it because you won’t be able to play them on the new PS3.

 

Steve also talked about Rock Band: The Beatles, being distributed by EA. For Beatles fans it puts you right in the picture as a member of the Fab Four. It comes with 45 songs, but apparently there will be more being added from time to time.

 

Had a few calls. Trevor wanted to know how to convert MMS files from his daughter’s phone to his phone so he could see pics of his grandkids. Turns out that the MMS format is not supported. Will try and look into a solution for this, but if anybody has one, leave a message and we’ll pass it on.

 

Matt wanted to know what is best – plasma or LCD. Have been asked this question a few times lately, and I’m a fan of the LCD. Two years ago, there were some issues with the bigger units, but I’m all for the technology at the moment.

 

Rob emailed the show and wanted to know about the Blackberry Storm. Avoid like the plague I say! You can find plenty of other good phones like the Samsung Icon, iPhone or HTC Dream.

Karl, Lisa and Richard got into character as EA geared up to release The Beatles: Rock Band game. Almost 47 years since their formation, the quintessential rock and roll band – and arguably the greatest of all time – still has a huge influence of the world of music.

EA announced the game at E3 at the beginning of June where Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Dhani Harrison and Yoko One turned up to push the game. And, as you will see from the clip, it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Gamers basically become the Fab Four and follow their career from the early days in the Cavern Club in Liverpool, through to the super-stardom that soon followed.

There are 45 songs available at the moment (and I’m sure they will be more added, although EA hasn’t made any announcement), where you can sing along and play at the same time.

For diehard fans, there is also a Hofner Bass guitar and Ludwig branded drums, which will set you back $369.99. The game itself will be available for the Xbox 360 and PS3 for $89.99, and for the Wii at $79.99.