Australia looks to be moving ahead with its plan to censor Internet content on a country-wide level, and will test its array of filters later this month. To refresh your memory, the Australian government wants to block access to illegal material on the Internet, be it genuinely awful material like child pornography or something more controversial like terrorist Web sites. (Who’s a terrorist?, when is a site advocating terrorism?, etc.)

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Australia, land of kangaroos and terrible actors, must be beaming today, what with the news that someone there was able to overclock an Intel Atom processor to 2.38GHz. That’s the fastest we’ve ever seen an Atom run, as a matter of fact.

Of course, getting the processor, found in an MSI Wind, to run that was quite the challenge, as it should be. Not since Frankenstein pieced together his monster did someone go to such lengths to accomplish anything.

What does running an Atom at 2.38GHz gain you, aside from bragging rights? Nothing, I would guess, which is about par for the course when it comes to overclocking. It’s the old Slashdot axiom, “Because you can.”

Australia looks set to join China as a state-mandated Internet censor. The measure is primarily aimed at combating online child pornography, but an open-ended statement from the government’s communications minister sounds ominous:

…we are talking about mandatory blocking, where possible, of illegal material.

“Where possible”? That seems pretty capricious.

The government must have recognized the nature of the proposal, as early drafts included ISP-level opt-out clauses. Say you wanted unrestricted access to the Internet. You’d contact your ISP and they’d put you on a “don’t censor this connection” list.

That scenario is no longer possible; the whole country will be subject to the “virtual curtain.”

The thing about this, which is similar to the war on Usenet here in the U.S., is that it’s damn near impossible to come out against measures that, to the letter, have anything to do with eliminating child pornography. Nothing like appearing to be soft on child porn to completely ruin your reputation, right?

Kids, when your friend asks you to lower the volume of your computer while you’re playing World of Warcraft please do so as soon as possible. Because if you don’t you might end up getting stabbed. In the head. With a chef’s knife.

That’s exactly what happened in Australia. The victim is doing about as well as one could after being attacked with a knife; only one of his fingers was “nearly” severed.

As for the guy doin’ the stabbing, the Australian magistrate has refused him bail. He’ll be in custody till next month, meaning he may well miss the launch of Wrath of the Lich King.

Pending the passage of this amendment, you may be able to use that celly at 30,000ft if you’re flying Down Under. The pico cell technology has been in testing for 18 months and there have been no complaints by the airborne or landside portions of the system, so there aren’t any technical barriers. The plan is to only allow SMS and GPRS, which is awesome and neatly wraps up the problem on everybody’s minds, which is that if you’re stuck between two huge businessmen gladhanding over the phone for three hours, you’re liable to throw yourself under the drink cart.

I never talk to anybody on the phone anyway, so this is all gains for me. Sucks for you long talkers and independent phone sex operators, though.

And you see that picture on the right? That’s actually how they do it there.
[Via BGR, IntoMobile and Cellular News]

Silent Hill: Homecoming, which is only getting so-so reviews (which stinks because it’s my favorite game series; Silent Hill 2? Now there’s proper narrative in a video game), is effectively banned in Australia because of its over-the-top violence. But what, exactly, is the reason why the game won’t be coming out down under?

How about this: drilling into and severing body parts. Yikes, is that even necessary?

Says IGN:

…the OFLC [the Australian ratings board] cited several high impact scenes in the game, mostly focusing on drilling into and severing body parts. One scene in particular that was highlighted as a problem involved Alex (the main character) having a drill forced into his right eye socket, which caused a lot of blood to spray out.

Konami is being urged to tone down the violence so that the game can see a release down there.

I don’t know, I’m pretty squeamish when it comes to excessive violence, so you won’t see me crying that the ratings board is giving Konami a hard time. I also can’t be bothered to fight video game censorship because, really, it’s not a big deal to me.

So, you’ve heard the stories of developers making enough coin selling iPhone applications to swim around in it Scrooge McDuck style. “I love iPhone applications more than anyone!”, you thought to yourself, “I should make them!” So you picked up a book on Objective C and Cocoa, spent about 20 minutes with it, and then decided to dedicate your life to something that didn’t make your brain cramp.

If only you lived in Australia or near any of the European Qantm colleges, a lack of self motivation wouldn’t be a problem. For the bargain price of just $7,300 USD, you could join Qantm’s recently announced iPhone game development course.

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Movies are now available on iTunes in Australia and New Zealand. There’s all the major studios, like Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, with awesome movies like National Treasure 2 and Cloverfield on there. Prices start at A$9.99 for movie purchases in Australia, and NZ$9.99.

More than 700 movies are on iTunes down there, so there’s plenty of junk to choose from.

And how about this: you folks all the way down there have 48 hours to watch rented movies, whereas the rest of us only get 24 hours. I wonder why that’s the case.

Japan might have lost a battle in patent application filing to the US, but even a fantastic country such as Australia can’t beat them when it comes to miniaturization.

It looks like Tokyo-based Nippon Signal (and not Mint Wireless based out of Australia) managed to develop what might be the smallest projector in the world. The device was recently showcased at Exhibition Micromachine/MEMS, a yearly trade show with a focus on micro systems technology.

The micro projector is sized at just 90×55x20mm, making it about as compact as a cigarette box (Mint’s product measures 125×55x23mm). The Japanese product features a resolution of  800×600 (SVGA), which isn’t quite HD but acceptable given the size of the device (resolution of the Mint projector: 640×480 in 4:3 mode).

Nippon Signal’s invention has a major drawback though: It’s just a prototype, while Mint’s projector is scheduled for release next month. Whatever, as a Teuton, I am betting on the Germans in this race anyway.

Via Tech-On

A company from the land of Oz has will release what it claims to be the world’s smallest projector this September. The company, Mint Wireless, teamed up with a Taiwanese manufacturer to produce the Mint V10. Measuring at a mere 125 x 55 x 23mm (or, 4.9 x 2.1 x 0.9-inches), the projector is able to project (go figure) a 50-inch image from as close as six feet away.

The price seems hefty, at just over $600 USD, but maybe projector enthusiasts, which I won’t even pretend to be, can rationalize it.

via Gizmodo Australia

Reuters is reporting that an Australian man recently convicted of his 7th drunk driving charge revealed that he’d been spending around $1,000 per week on beer. That’s funny, sad, or both, depending upon how you view everyone’s place in the Universe.

What I find funny and sad is that the dude broke up with his girlfriend FIVE YEARS AGO. Get over it, man! Live in the now! Newsflash, Bub: Crying inside a public bar isn’t a turn-on for most girls.

An Australian magistrate banned the man, Michael Leary, “from buying or even holding a beer for 12 months.” The magistrate also made fun of Leary for drinking Melbourne Bitter, which is made by Fosters, saying that it’s “poor judgement on two counts there – drinking that much and drinking Melbourne Bitter.”

While we just can’t wait for the 3G iPhone launch in Australia on July 11, there have been varied stories about how much the nifty new handset will cost down under.
AppleInsider, reports that carrier Optus is offering two different kinds of plans to iPhone customers: ‘Yes’ Cap plans starting at $18.25 (U.S. dollars) per month for 100MB of data and $48 worth of national calls and text for the 8GB iPhone. Subscribers who sign one-year contracts with the $18.25 plan can pay off the handset in monthly installments of $48.93, two-year subscribers pay a $20.15 monthly handset fee. Monthly payments for the 16 GB model start at $58.53 with a one-year contract and $24.94 with a two-year agreement. Users pay 45 cents per 30 seconds call time and texts messages are 24 cents each after the monthly spending allowance. Users also pay a 34 cents “Flagfall” fee for each roaming call.
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As we gear up for the WWDC in a couple weeks — and the likely launch of iPhone 2 — we get weird news that the Australian version, which should launch around the same time as the American version, will be the fastest in the world. According to a loudmouth at Telstra, Australia’s iPhone company, the Australian version could be up to 42mbs, which is over 5 megabytes per second. That’s more than fast enough to watch live streaming video on the iPhone’s screen.

Will the carrier actually let you have those kinds of speeds? Probably not, as they’re theoretical limits. So it’s likely and empty claim. Still, it makes us drool just that much more.