Author: Stephen Fenech

It’s taken 36 hours, but Optus has finally issued an explanation for what caused Australia’s biggest outage that cut off more than 10 million customers across the country. Optus released a statement at 4.57pm which included an apology from Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin and news that post-paid consumer and small business customers will have access to 200GB of extra data from Monday November 13 until the end of the year. Eligible pre-paid customers will also be given unlimited data on weekends until the end of 2023. So this means there will no monetary compensation for the thousands of small…

Listen to Episode 608 of the Two Blokes Talking Tech podcast with Tech Guide editor Stephen Fenech and EFTM’s Trevor Long as they take a deep dive into the Optus outage. Stephen and Trevor go through the whole drama – Australia’s biggest outage, the effects on customers and businesses and talk about what the future holds for Optus. Also on the show, the technology behind the new Beatles song, a quick look at the new Space Black M3 MacBook Pro and much, much more. You can listen to the show right here on Tech Guide site using the audio player…

Fetch TV has added Apple TV+ to its platform to expand the content offering for customers which brings free-to-air TV and premium channels together with the most popular streaming services. Apple TV+ offers some of the most popular TV shows including Ted Lasso, Morning Wars, Silo, Foundation and Hijack along with award-winning films including Greyhound starring Tom Hanks, Palmer starring Justin Timberlake the Oscar Best Picture Coda. Customers can subscribe to Apple TV+ through the Apple TV app for $12.99 a month after a free 7-day trial. They can then log in to their Apple TV+ account on the Fetch…

More than 10 million Australians have been cut off after a nationwide outage of the Optus mobile and broadband network that brought customers and businesses across the country to a standstill. At the time of writing, the network has been offline for more 8 hours after the outage began around 3am. Optus has made limited generic statements about the fact there is an outage but has told us little else. It is likely to be the largest outage ever with customers being affected in every major capitol city – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth – across mobile and broadband.…

Take a listen to Episode 575 of the top-rating Tech Guide podcast hosted by Stephen Fenech for your chance to win a copy of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One starring Tom Cruise on stunning 4K disc Stay updated and educated with the latest tech news and products. This week: Australians are worried they’ll be scammed this Christmas, NBN improves its fixed wireless network, Apple’s new M3 MacBook Pros and iMac, we review the DJI Inspire 3 professional drone and the travel adapter to meet all your needs. In the Tech Guide Help Desk we talk about how you can…

Rode has just released the Signature Edition of its popular NT1 Studio Condenser microphone which – after sales of more than six million units worldwide since it was released 30 years ago – is the world’s most popular studio microphone. The new NT1 Signature Series offers the same high performance, durability and classic sound quality of the original NT1 and includes the original XLR-only design. This comes after the recent release of the Rode NT1 5th Generation which offered Dual Connect with both XLR and USB connectivity, 32-bit float digital input and onboard DSP. For the first time, the NT1…

Australians are deeply concerned about the security of their personal information according to the latest Norton Cyber Safety Insights report with seven out of 10 worried their details may be compromised this holiday season. As the holiday season approaches, Norton’s report is designed to help customers understand the dangers they may face during this period. More than 1000 Australians were interviewed for the report and more than half (55 per cent) are concerned about AI shopping scams while three in 10 (28 per cent) are uncertain about their ability to stay safe while shopping online. “As cybercriminals take advantage of…

If you’ve seen a movie lately which included an aerial shot or a tracking shot of a person or a vehicle – there’s a good chance that shot was captured with a professional film-making drone like the DJI Inspire 3. That shot which can capture a speeding car from behind, the side and then from the front could only be achieved with a drone. Until the recent release of DJI Inspire 3, filmmakers were using the DJI Inspire 2 which had a camera system with interchangeable lenses and the ability for one person to control the drone and its flight…

It’s a billionth our size and its beating us. This week on The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen podcast we’re watching Outbreak starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman. Outbreak tells the story of a deadly virus coming to the US and infecting a small town with the race to find the host and a cure before more drastic measures are taken to kill the virus. Stephen saw this in the cinema and it also made it back into the Netflix Top 10 during the COVID pandemic in 2020 – 25 years after its release. Trevor is, of course,…

Get informed and entertained with Episode 607 of the Two Blokes Talking Tech with Tech Guide editor Stephen Fenech and EFTM’s Trevor Long as they go through the biggest tech news and products of the week. On this week’s show: we wrap up the announcements from the Apple event which saw the launch of the new M3-powered MacBook Pro and iMac, behind the scenes of the Apple Event which was shot on iPhone, Foxtel’s Hubbl – what is it, Telstra emergency roaming and Square goes tap to pay on iPhone. You can listen to the show right here on Tech…

More than 16,000 homes and businesses are enjoying even faster speeds thanks to the delivery of the first round of upgrades to the NBN Fixed Wireless network. The first areas to benefit from the completed fixed wireless upgrades are the South Coast of NSW and the Sunshine Coast in QLD. And more areas will follow in the coming months and into next year. In fact, by the end of 2024 there will be more than 750,000 homes and businesses around the country which will see remarkable improvements in speed and performance thanks to the NBN Fixed Wireless network. More than…

OneAdaptr has released new models in the OneWorld adapter series – the OneWorld135 and the OneWorld 30 – to meet all your charging needs when you’re travelling. The OneWorld adapters have three sliding switches on the side which expose plugs for the US, UK and Europe along with universal AC outlets and four or five USB ports. ONEWORLD 135 – $174 The new international OneWorld135 is a 135W adaptor that can charge up to five devices at once including laptops, tablets, smartphones and other USB-powered devices. It has enough power to charge two MacBook Pros at full speed at the…

Security and privacy are of utmost importance to customers and their online accounts and Norton has released improved versions of its Password Manager to create and remember strong passwords and AntiTrack so your emails can remain private. Norton’s new Enhanced Password Manager is available for free – or as part of a Norton 360 subscription – and it is more user friendly and more secure than ever before. All you need to do is remember your vault password, but Norton will also inform you if your vault password appears on the dark web. There is also new vault access recovery…

Apple had its streamed event to launch its M3 MacBook Pros and upgraded iMac yesterday but the tech giant did something it doesn’t normally do – it took us behind the scenes of the slick shoot where we discovered the whole thing was shot on the iPhone. https://youtu.be/V3dbG9pAi8I?si=SCUy-OIUAOnOL6r0 Apple’s events now consist of a brief in person introduction by CEO Tim Cook before they roll a high quality video to announce its new products and features. The production value of all these videos are top shelf and yesterday’s “Scary Fast” event was no exception. But what made it even more…

Sit back and press play on Episode 574 of the top-rating Tech Guide podcast hosted by editor Stephen Fenech as he keeps you updated and educated about the latest consumer tech news and reviews. On this week’s show: Foxtel launches new Hubbl platform that combines TV and streaming services, Samsung goes back to the future with the limited-edition Galaxy Z Flip5 Retro and Double Tap has now been enabled on the latest Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra. In the Tech Guide reviews, we take a look at the new Arlo Video Doorbell, Aspera Mobile has released a rugged, yet…

Apple’s beloved 24-inch iMac has just been upgraded to the latest M3 silicon to make it the fastest all-in-one computer the company has ever produced. Announced at the Apple launch event alongside new MacBook Pro M3 models, the all-new M3 iMac retains its remarkably thin design but take a huge leap in performance. It will also be available in the same seven colours – green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. “We’re excited to give iMac a big boost in performance with the M3 chip,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “Millions of users absolutely…

Apple has launched a powerful new range of MacBook Pro laptops which feature Apple’s latest M3 line-up of processors which take performance and efficiency to an all-new level. In its first evening launch event which lasted for 30 minutes, Apple unveiled the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max family of 3-nanometer chips which offers a new level of performance and power efficiency. Apple announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros which can be configured with the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max processors. Apple also introduced a new Space Black colour for the latest MacBook Pro M3 Pro and M3…

Samsung has released a limited edition Galaxy Z Flip5 Retro which draws its inspiration from the SGH-E700 which set the tone for stylish flip phones when it was released 20 years ago. In 2003, the SGH-E700 was the ground-breaking device and was Samsung’s first flip phone to include an internal antenna. This device was hugely popular and set the ball rolling to help advance Samsung in the growing mobile phone industry at that time. Samsung also went on to design other popular mobile devices including the MP3 phone (SPH-M2500) in 1999 which was followed by the watch phone (SPH-WP10), the…

Rugged and affordable are not usually two words that appear together to describe a smartphone but Aspera Mobile’s R10 certainly fits the bill. Priced at $299 the Aspera Mobile R10 has an IP68 rating which means its built to handle water and dust. And with its rugged formulated rubberised outer body design and larger corners to absorb impact, it can also handle a drop as well. “At Aspera we launched our first rugged smartphone in 2014, and we have released many more since then, garnering a solid reputation for robust design and excellent protection against drops, knocks, water and dust…

The new Arlo Video Doorbell not only provides convenience but also peace of mind as an added security device in your home right there at your front door. The latest version of the Arlo Video Doorbell 2nd Generation is an impressive upgrade with 2K video quality and 180-degree field of view. Users can answer their door from anywhere whether they’re home or on the other side of the world and the person on your doorstep will be none the wiser. When a visitor presses the button on the doorbell this initiates a video call to your smartphone. When you answer…