Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora music streaming service, has announced a couple of “open town hall events” leading up to the local release of Pandora to Australia. Unlike current services like MOG, Spotify and even iTunes, Pandora uses your musical library to work out what kind of music you like. This involves an algorithm that compares songs to a huge database  of music “genome”, patterns that help identify style, influences and related artists and songs. It has been almost available in [...]

The Optus network is rolling out 4G in a game of catchup with Telstra and its wildly deployed Next G 4g network. Optus is selling 2 modems, a USB and a Wifi varient. This is a look at the Wifi modem. Hardware I have been a fan of Huawei for years and this new model does not disappoint  The E589 is larger than the 3g modems that Huawei sells via Optus and Vodafone. It still uses [...]

First of all, an apology for the lack of posts from me. Work, health and family issues have prevented me from writing, however things are improving on all fronts so expect more posts from yours truly! EVE Online has a strong presence in Australia, and many of the players trekked to Sydney’s Rydges World Square for the first of (hopefully) many Australian Eve events. One of the issues with Eve is that Iceland (where CCP, the company that [...]

I was at the AIMIA Mobile Experience in Darling Harbour (disclaimer #1, the fees and the lunch afterwards was provided by Alcatel Lucent ) and lets say, the sessions I saw got me thinking. Thought #1 Advertising has issues. I heard advertisers promote different app or interfaces that was either pure poison (but the users like it) or are god’s gifts to advertisers. Included in the mix are QR codes, and Apps like Shazam and Chirp (disclaimer #2, both [...]

Sometimes you come across a startup that is not a new idea, but still represents inovation. A good example of this is the website travelmob. travelmob is a local version of Airbnb, however the properties on offer are in the Asia Pacific area. It today anounced it has secured US$1 million seed investment. Turochas Fuad, CEO and co-founder of travelmob said, “In raising this seed round of funding, we sought investors who would not only be a good fit [...]

It is everywhere. The news about Apple’s new iPhone 5 and the upgrade to the operating system iOS6. However, for the first time, I find myself totally underwhelmed by the news. Firstly, it seems to be a catchup move by Apple. Many of the Android phones have been larger and with a better aspect ratio than the iPhone, with Samsung leading the way with the screens for the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Nexus S and the Note range. Moving [...]

As I had lost a sister to melanoma last year, the press release about a new camera developed to photograph and map moles is something to celebrate. And the fact that Molemap was developed in part by a local design team makes it doubly so. Molemap has developed a unique camera (the DemLiTe DL Cam) specifically designed to more accurately photograph and map moles for early melanoma detection. General Manager of MoleMap Australia Mary Boldiston, says [...]

Pioneer Computers has been one of those companies I have been impressed with for a while. While not a household name, the products I have looked at from them have been simple but effective, and it was obvious that the owner Jeff Li has great contents with the Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers.

Mark Maples, from Angle Investing firm FLOODGATE  has joined existing investor General Catalyst Partners  in investing in Bigcommerce the Aussie founded e-commerce platform. This is the Series B (or second round of venture funding) and has secured $20 Million to help fund development, global sales and a brand overhaul.

The ABC has done something unprecedented in Australian TV. They released a popular show (Season 7 premier of Doctor Who) online 10 minutes after it was shown in the UK. In fact, here is the link, vis the ABC iView page http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/25979 Why is this important? Firstly, The ABC realises that people will download this show even of it was to be on Freeview a week later than the original broadcast. Given it is a season opener of a cult series, with [...]