The scandal at Toshiba has deepened with independent investigators revealing that subsidiaries of the giant Japanese Company were asked to overstate operating profits.
David Richards
Netgear Gets Into Phone Business
Netgear and Skype, the Web-based calling company which is a unit of eBay has launched a wireless mobile telephone for Skype. No pricing is available but the device will be launched in Australia by mid 2006.
The Netgear Wi-Fi phone is designed to work wherever a consumer is connected to a wireless Internet access point — at home, in an office, cafe, public hotspot, or in cities where wireless access may be available citywide, the companies said. By contrast, existing Skype phones, including cordless models, must be connected to a computer.
Patrick Lo the CEO of Netgear told SHN that the device will be sold by traditional IT resellers as well as telecommunication resellers. Griek Spierkel the CEO of Ingram Micro said” In Australia Ingram Micro are well positioned to take a product like this on as we have both a telco and IT reseller distribution operation”.
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A variety of telephone makers including Cisco’s Linksys, are seeking to cash in on the Web-based calling craze popularized by Skype, first in Europe and Asia and now Australia.
Users can make free domestic and international calls and hold conference calls with other Skype users. Calls to regular phones incur a small fee. “Customers can now call anyone on Skype, anywhere in the world for free without using a PC anytime they are connected to Wi-Fi,” said Patrick Lo, Netgear’s chairman and chief executive in a statement issued ahead of a press conference at the Consumers Electronics Show underway in Las Vegas this week.
An October report from Jupiter Research predicted that 20.4 million US households will subscribe to some form of Internet-based broadband phone service by 2010.
The Netgear phone is pre-loaded with Skype’s software. The user simply needs to turn on the phone and enter a username and password. The software pulls up the user’s full contact list of Skype contacts to whom free calls can be made.
More information on Netgear’s Skype Wi-Fi phone, including pricing and availability, is planned for the first quarter of 2006, the companies said.
In addition to the Skype Wi-Fi phone, Netgear and Skype said Netgear’s RangeMax wireless network router will be optimized to work with Skype.
RangeMax is designed to avoid interference from neighboring wireless networks and to eliminate “dead spots” that can prevent consistent connections around a house.
Click Frenzy Fails Again CE Retailers Not Happy
Click Frenzy who has a diehard reputation for stuffing up online shoppers with their so called 24-hour sale is at it again, this time customer actually got into their site only to discover that they were unable to pay for their goods online.
ACCC May Have Control Over Who Has Access To Telstra
The Federal Government has released a Regulatory Reform discussion paper that includes the ACCC having veto over companies wanting access to Telstra and other networks.
The Federal Government has released a Regulatory Reform discussion paper that includes the ACCC having veto over companies wanting access to Telstra and other networks.The Government is seeking public comment on ways to improve telecommunications regulations to make it work more effectively in the interest of consumers and businesses.
The existing regime needs to be reformed to improve competition and strengthen consumer safeguards, as well as remove redundant and inefficient red tape. A vibrant, competitive telecommunications sector is important for delivering lower prices, better quality and more innovative services for consumers and businesses.
“The Regulatory Reform paper I am releasing today seeks views on the options the Government will consider for reform of the existing regime to make it work more effectively, particularly during the rollout of the NBN”, said the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy.
A wide range of stakeholders, including telecommunications carriers and consumer groups, have expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the current regime.
The Regulatory Reform paper canvasses a range of options for reform, including:
streamlining current regulatory processes, by allowing the ACCC to set up-front access terms for companies wanting access to Telstra and other networks;
strengthening the powers of the ACCC to tackle anti-competitive conduct by allowing it to impose binding rule of conduct when issuing competition notices;
promoting greater competition across the industry, including through measures to better address Telstra’s vertical and horizontal integration, such as functional separation;
addressing competition and investment issues arising from cross-ownership of fixed-line and cable networks, and telecommunications and media assets;
improving universal access arrangements for telephony and payphones; and
introducing more effective rules, requiring telephone companies to make connections and repairs within set time-frames.
The Government is seeking submissions by 3 June 2009, before making final decisions and introducing legislation into the Parliament.
The Government does not favour any specific reform option. It is, however committed to ensuring that the regulatory framework in this sector is effective in promoting the long term interests of end-users, without imposing any unnecessary burdens on business.
Copies of the Regulatory Reform discussion paper and further information on the enhanced National Broadband Network are available at www.dbcde.gov.au/nationalbroadbandnetwork
Balmoral Burn Becomes Balmoral Churn Mosman Residents Angry
The Balmoral Burn appears to have become the Balmoral churn, after thousands of dollars worth of damage was done to the Balmoral beach foreshore in preparation for Sunday’s race up and a “silvertail” dinner which is being held in a massive tent erected on the sand.
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HP Cuts Deal Over Kickbacks For Government Contracts Claim
Hewlett-Packard who was accused of paying kickbacks to secure Government contracts has cut a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice in an effort to stop the investigation.
EXCLUSIVE: Kogan Tipped To Be Interested In Dick Smith Name + Online Operation
Kogan the online retailer is believed to be a bidder for the Dick Smith name and web site.
Discounting Hurting Claims Harvey Norman Director
One of the most senior executives in the consumer electronics industry has called for manufacturers to stop discounting. He claims that factories making TV’s to notebooks are slashing costs in an effort to support their faltering manufacturing operations and that the move is set to impact CE retailing in Australia in a bad way.One of the most senior executives in the consumer electronics industry has called for manufacturers to stop discounting. He claims that factories making TV’s to notebooks are slashing costs in an effort to support their faltering manufacturing operations and that the move will have a big effect on CE retailing in Australia.
David Ackery the General Manager of Electrical at Harvey Norman said “discounting is rampant and in many cases manufacturers subsidiaries in Australia are being forced by factories to discount. This is not good because if we going to sell less we need to have some profit left in a product to survive”.
“Margin is good not bad because without margin all we are doing is product churning. During the past 12 months we have seen increased sales of notebooks and flat panel TV’s but at the same time margins have been eroded because of rampant discounting”.
Recently Channel News revealed that the margin in flat panel displays have dropped in price by as much as 30% monitors by 45% and that notebooks have fallen by up to 40% yet despite this Companies like Sony and Panasonic are introducing big price rises due to the fall in the Australian dollar and the rise of the Japanese Yen.
Len Wallis of Len Wallis Audio in Sydney supported Ackery in his call for more margin in products “Discounting is having a big knock on effect. We cannot buy a TV product that is under the price that the mass retailers are selling it for example a Sharp large screen LCD TV at Bing Lee is $160 cheaper than I can buy it for. Plus you get a free Chinese dinner set and the chance to win a trip to Hong Kong”.
He added “The mass retailers must be suffering as they are not making much money selling TV’s even worse is that they will be dependent on rebates and these don’t come through for several weeks so many will be cash flow negative straight after they have made a sale”.
Several manufacturers contacted by ChannelNews were not available to comment.
Networking Over Power Lines Coming Soon
Networking company Netgear is promising to turn your home’s electrical system into a high speed network capable of carrying high-definition video around the home.
At the recent KickStart Media Conference Netgear boss Ian McLean alluded to Netgear being in the market for networking over power lines.
Now we can reveal that Netgear has teamed up with chipset company Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2) and developed homeplug style device that will pump content around the home at 200Mbits/sec without having to lay any cables. Using DS2’s Powerline HD chipset the new products will turn your plug socket into a high-speed broadband connection.
Additional devices plugged in around the home will create a flexible network to stream content to and from PCs, set-top boxes, hifis, games consoles and TVs. This is not the first technology to use the electrical wiring system to create a communications network, but it is the first to promise high-speed delivery of high-definition content.
The first products will be on preview at the upcoming Cebit show and will be available to buy in Q2.
CHOICE:Journalist Seriously Screws Up Over Samsung Fire Claim
Choice the consumer watchdog who loves telling consumer electronics vendors how they should run their business have been left with egg on their face after one of their journalists falsely claimed that a Samsung washing machine caused a NSW fire recently.
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| Choice Investigative Journalist Jemma Castle Failed To Check Facts. |




