Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Does this mean Telstra got the iPhone?
7:19PM Sarah Stokely | UPDATED 10.30am, 6 March
With Apple Australia still silent on when we’ll get the iPhone, the rumour mill has been working overtime about which carrier (or carriers) will get the coveted contract when it launches in Australia. I’ve just spotted a job ad which should help kick the rumour mill along.Sensis has placed a job ad seeking a Design BA for an iPhone search application on an industry website – does this mean Telstra got the iPhone contract?The Sensis ad, listed on 3 March on the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association website, offers a 2-3 month, Melbourne-based contract.The job spec reads:
“Are you a business analyst with experience gathering and documenting
requirements for interactive web or mobile products? We’re looking for
a BA with a technical front-end UI background to help us design
cutting-edge search applications for the iPhone. This isn’t boring old
specification-heavy BA work. This is exciting and agile BA work to help
us envision mobile search applications that work great and look
beautiful. Let us know if you think you’ve got the right combination of
creative flair, geekiness, and detail orientation to get the job done.“
I’ve emailed Sensis for further information – it’s possible that Sensis will be developing its own search app similar to Google’s iPhone optimised search app for use by multiple carriers. Either that, or Telstra’s Edge network (the only one in Australia compatible with the current iPhone) has won the contract to bring the iPhone to Australia. Hopefully we’ll know more tomorrow.
UPDATE: Just heard back from Sensis, who say “We intend to develop iPhone applications which can be used across carriers.” Ok, we’ll go back to hoping that iPhone in Australia will be a multi-carrier affair. :)
More » 
Tickets
4:09PM Sarah Stokely | Our gaming pals over at Kotaku are running a competition to give away tickets to the Game On exhibition which opens tomorrow at ACMI in Melbourne. The exhibit, on loan from the Barbican in London is a hands-on celebration of the history of video games – if you’re in Melbin, head over to Kotaku to find out how to win tickets. More »Wii Fit
3:40PM Sarah Stokely | For the geek fitness freaks out there (I hope I’m not the only one) – here’s an early look at Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii Fit game. Wired’s Game/Life blogger Chris Kohler used Wii Fit (which gets you to use a Balance Board) and kept a diary for a week to track his progress. He says it’s the best “exer-game” to come out so far – even though it told him he was fat! More » Insert shortcuts to your favourite locations in Windows XP common dialogs
3:06PM Sarah Stokely | CNET’s Worker’s Edge blog offers up a way to customise the default locations for saving or opening files in Windows XP by putting shortcuts to your favourite folders in common dialogs via XP’s Places Bar.
You can use Microsoft’s own Tweak UI utility in PowerToys for XP to do this. Or to do it manually, hit Start > Run and type:
gpedit.msc, and press Enter to open the Group
Policy applet. Navigate in the left pane to User Configuration >
Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer
> Common Open File Dialog. Double-click Items displayed in Places
Bar in the right pane, check Enabled in the resulting dialog box, and
enter the folder paths in the five text fields below it.
You must enter five locations to avoid having empty default locations created, and you’ll need to follow his directions for specifying the path.
He also explains how to do a similar thing in Vista using Favorite Links.
There’s certainly a few ways to shortcut to your favourite locations in Windows – I use FileBox eXtender to give me one click access to my frequently used folders. Got a favourite shortcut? Please share in comments.
Place shortcuts to your favorite folders in Windows’ common dialogs [CNET Worker's Edge] More » 
Track Tonights Primary Results with Google Maps
3:00PM Adam Pash | Keep a watchful eye on the results of tonight’s primary results with a Google Map mashup directly from the folks at Google. The map displays the results of already held primaries and will help you stay up-to-date with tonight’s primaries (which, given the close race, are very important). Google Maps Primaries [via Mashable] More »Minimise the time you spend on meetings
2:48PM Sarah Stokely | Work meetings can easily descent into directionless, timewasting chaos – but you can minimise the time you spend on them by declining unnecessary invitations, keeping it to phone or email to save time on travel, and ensuring you have an agreed-up agenda to keep things on track.
The Lifehack.org blog offers several tips for minimising the time you spend on meetings – including this simple but all too often neglected rule – when you request a meeting, nominate 2 or 3 days/time that work for you. Since you’ve identified when you’re available, the other party or parties can simply choose one, thus decreasing the wasted time and email of going back and forth to work out a suitable time.
Got any tips for how to maximise the effectiveness of your meetings while keeping your time investment to a minimum? Please share in comments.
10 Tips for Improving Your Appointment Setting Skills [Lifehack.org] More » 
Protect your garden with beer
2:06PM Sarah Stokely | Ah, beer. Fans of the amber stuff may not wish to share their tipple, but according to the Wise Bread blog you can put beer to several uses in your garden – as a slug killer, and to help protect your garden visitors from bees.
Salt is a traditional slug-killer, but as the post says “that means you have to find them first”:
“Instead, entice them with a little beer, which slugs love.
Simply pour a little into some empty jars and place them in the soil,
with the rims of the jars at ground level. The slugs will drop in for a
drink, but they can’t get back out. And what a way to go; Certainly
better than the salt-shriveling death.”
Bees and wasps are also beer fans, apparently. So if you’re entertaining outdoors, you can place some small containers of beer around the perimeter of your yard or garden, and the bees will flock to the sugary treat and leave your guests alone.
Photo by thesaint.
21 Great Uses for Beer [Wise Bread] More » 
Get Notified of New Gmail in Multiple Accounts with GmailAssistant
2:00PM Adam Pash | Windows/Linux: Free, open source application GmailAssistant monitors multiple Gmail accounts and alerts you of new mail. The application can monitor anything from your inbox to specific labels, so you can get very granular about what you want to be notified of. The biggest drawback is that GmailAssistant does not support Google Apps on your domain, but if you’ve only got Gmail.com accounts, that won’t matter. Aside from that, GmailAssistant is highly customisable for individual accounts and works like a charm. GmailAssistant is free, Windows and Linux only, requires Java. If you prefer to keep you alerts in the browser or you want support for Google Apps addresses, check out the Gmail Manager Firefox extension. GmailAssistant [SourceForge via Download Squad] More »Australian leisure time moving online
1:48PM Sarah Stokely | An ABS snapshot of how Australians spent their leisure time in the decade 1997-2006 shows that our internet usage has grown, while traditional pursuits are stagnating or declining.The ‘How Australians Use Their Time’ study found our internet use has grown by six minutes a day, to an average of 19 minute a day.While our time spent reading newspapers has declined from an average 13 minutes a day to 11 minutes a day, our TV/DVD viewing has remained at a whopping 165 minutes a day. Books also remained steady at 8 minutes a day.The ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) study covers a very interesting period of time – widespread use of the internet as a leisure tool wasn’t really around back in 1997. And even if you wanted to watch internet TV, the lack of available bandwidth meant it wasn’t really an option – but these days YouTube represents a vast slab of internet traffic all on its own.One thing the ABS didn’t seem to account for was the ‘bleed’ between mediums which has occurred over that time. Many people read newspapers online these days, and ditto watching news, sport, TV and radio. Games and hobbies were also hived off in a separate category – which is laughable considering how many hours many gamers spend online gaming. More » 
