Technology giants Microsoft and Google have today announced they are opening their wallets and donating large amounts of money to the Haiti earthquake victims. Google announced plans to donate $1 million and have made a splash page promoting different organisations people from around the world can donate to, while Microsoft has one-upped that offer and will give $1.25 million in money and gifts as well as match employee donations of up to $12,000. Google’s YouTube has been flooded [...]

Apple has recently unveiled a more social approach to presenting information to users and fans of its products – a blog. Though at this stage the only “blog” they are promoting is for iTunes, it’s a far cry from last year when the Cupertino-based giant refused to use social networking tools. Since then, Apple has finally begun to show a presence on Twitter, has continuously updated its Facebook profile with offers and information, and now [...]

In today’s CES keynote, Robbie Bach, President of entertainment and devices devision at Microsoft announced ‘Project Natal’ will begin shipping in late 2010, in time for the holiday season. “Project Natal” is a technology that uses a 3D camera to watch body movements and control games – no controller is required and the system bends to suit the players needs, not the other way around. The device evaluates trillions of body configurations every frame, 30 times [...]

Just a reminder that you can catch our live blog of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer doing his keynote opening speech at CES 2010 here. The keynote is sure to be packed with some goodies, as rumours predict Ballmer will unveil a new tablet (possibly the Courier first spotted mid-last year) that has supposedly been built in partnership with HP. Starting 1.30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time or 6.30pm PST today, we’ll answer all your questions as [...]

Google has today, as expected, announced the immediate release of its very own Android-powered smartphone, the Nexus One. At a press conference in the US, Google’s Mario Queiroz, Vice President of Product Management announced the phone, dubbed the Nexus One because of the meaning of Nexus – a point of convergence or in this case ”a convergence point for mobile technology, apps and the Internet.” “Nexus One is an exemplar of what’s possible on mobile devices through [...]

All Things Digital writer John Paczkowski suggests today that Apple’s media conference expected to be held on the 26th of January may in fact be held a day later on Wednesday 27th. Like all other supposed ‘confirmations’ so far, Paczkowski says that the media event is going to be a ”big deal” and that there will be a ”major product release”. “Sources in a position to know tell me Apple (AAPL) is indeed planning a [...]

As tomorrow dawns, excitement has begun to peak around an announcement being made by search giant Google surrounding its Android mobile operating system, with the almost certain aarrival of a ‘Google Phone’. The phone, which is believed to be built by HTC on behalf of Google, is said to most likely be sold direct by Google online and unlocked, meaning users can in theory use it on all phone networks. Google gave the phones out to employees at [...]

A new patent has revealed a possible reason why Apple may have rejected Google’s native Latitude iPhone application – because a patent application reveals they may be building their own similar service. The patent, discover by Patently Apple suggests that a users location would be sent via a modified SMS message containing the  original devices geographic location to another device which could be another family member or friend. The friend or family member could then view the senders [...]

Telstra has today released its predictions for the New Year, showing they believe more than 66 million SMS messages will be sent across New Years Eve and New Years Day period. The telecommunications giant is estimating more than 31 million phone calls, 25,000 video calls and more than 850,000 MMS messages will be sent on the Telstra network over the two-day period. Five years ago only 14 millions SMS messages were sent on Telstra in [...]

CES 2010, undoubtedly one of the biggest technology conferences of the year, has launched an iPhone app for the convention but is charging participants to download it. Follow Me Logo (Credit: CES) The app, dubbed “Follow Me” is now available on the iTunes App Store and has been since early December, going for $2.49AUD or $1.99USD after originally launching for free. Since the last update on December 10, organisers have begun charging for the app, something not usually done for conference apps. Take the recent LeWeb [...]