The Internet may be a global phenomenon, but there's still plenty of online stores that flat-out refuse to sell anything to people outside their own country. If you've been lusting after some apparently-impossible-to-acquire goods Stateside, Price USA might offer a solution. Send in your order and Price USA will have it shipped via a US agent to any address in Australia. Fees for the service are 5% of the order value (with a minimum of $10) plus shipping costs. Previously-mentioned WorldPurchases offer a similar service.

Windows/Mac OS X: Amazon Watcher isn't the first gadget that can monitor Amazon items for price drops and availability, but it is the rare tool that can automatically buy your rare gear for you. Once you add your account information (and assuming you have payment methods stored on that account), you're set to have Amazon Watcher buy x units of whatever you're hunting, but it can also pop up the order page or email you, if you're less jumpy. Having all your must-grab items constantly ready for purchase can probably break strong wills, however, so, luckily, this app can reduce to the system tray. Amazon Watcher is a free download for Windows or Mac OS X systems.

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It's a familiar problem: you spot an item you want in an online store, and then discover that it won't deliver to a non-US address or without a US credit card. WorldPurchases offers itself as an intermediary, allowing you to order from multiple US retailers. Pretty much every major online store is covered (though sadly no eBay). The service charge is 5% of your total order and shipping from the US, but that still might work out cheaper than buying locally for some items (especially if you take advantage of services like Amazon's Super Saver Shipping to minimise postage). If you've used WorldPurchases or a similar service, let us know how it went in the comments. (Thanks Tony!) [WorldPurchases]

An article by Andrew Ramadge at News.com.au highlights the often shocking price differences between download-only software for Australian customers and those buying elsewhere in the world. The most extreme examples come from games companies, which can charge up to five times as much, but Adobe and numerous security companies also come under the microscope.

Fortunately, asmany  Lifehacker readers are well aware, there are better ways to deal with most of these problems than trying to pretend you're downloading from Arizona. To keep your system secure, look no further than the five best antivirus solutions as selected by readers . And there's a huge range of options to handle your PDF creation, modification and reading needs for free.

Aussies paying five times more for software [News.com.au]

Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Free review-aggregating extension Pluribo adds a subtle tweak to Amazon product pages that can often have hundreds, even thousands of reviewers weighing in on a product. After scanning the reviews, Pluribo adds a small pop-up bar at the bottom of each Amazon page, stringing together the most prevalent adjectives and thoughts on each product into one or two cohesive lines. Hovering over each adjective gives you a pop-up with more detail on how it was used, so you be sure you're avoiding the same kind of editing used in summer movie posters. The extension works mostly with electronics at the moment, but the creators aim to expand soon. Pluribo is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.

One thing that's always been missing from the book-buying experience at mega-retailer Amazon is finding great books just by chance, or by clever cover design. Zoomii, a free book-finding interface for Amazon, stacks bestsellers on virtual shelves, organized by bestsellers, category, or whatever else you're filtering for, and viewed like Google Maps—zoom, click for details, and pan around with a hand cursor. It's similar in many ways to previously posted social book browser Shelfari, but it skips your friends' tastes and goes right for the mass appeal. One (possibly temporary) drawback: the site runs a bit slower on Firefox 3 than other browsers, but the creator says he's working on it. Zoomii is free to use. For more Amazon goodies, check out our top 10 Amazon power shopper tools.

Online retailer EzyDVD has announced that it will be rolling out a movie downloads service, EzyDownload, in September this year. Not much word on the details yet, other than it's based on the now-defunct Reeltime service and that the company actively wants to partner with ISPs to not have movies included in download caps -- an essential feature given that the main competition is Telstra's BigPond movies service, which offers a similar deal to users over BigPond. So far, the site's a non-event, but one to keep an eye on. UPDATE: You can now register for further updates on the site.

Apple Store #215 opens at 367 George St on June 19, with 125 employees just itching to meet all your Mac and iPod-related needs. Our nine-point guide (after the jump) will help you get the most out of a visit to the three-storey store; head over to Gizmodo for a pictorial tour.

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Sydney's Apple Store is due to open on Thursday, and the company is hosting a media preview today, so check in later for a gush-free guide on how to make the most of a visit to the most-hyped retail opening in Australia since Krispy Kreme. Nick at Gizmodo (who is, let's face it, somewhat more excited about this than I am) will also be there with live coverage and loads of pictures. In the meantime, you can check out this panorama of the recently-revealed store front. (Thanks Aaron!).