Motorola’s revived Razr flip phone was already pushed back from a January launch in Australia to February 24 (today), but now, customers are being told to expect to wait until “Mid to end of March” before orders start shipping.

Although not explicitly named, Motorola’s official statement (below) refers to the impact that the coronavirus is having on the company’s factories in China, with quarantines and disruption to regular operation inevitably slowing the process.

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“This situation in China is inevitably impacting the launch and highly anticipated availability of the motorola razr. By far most of our factories in China have reopened and are operational, albeit on a limited basis due to health quarantine restrictions, and public transportation and travel limitations. 

The remaining ones, located in the Hubei region, will open in line with the policies of the respective regional government where they are located. We are leveraging the full strength of our global manufacturing and distribution networks and anticipate the razr which be on shelf in Australia by mid to end of March.”

This is certainly not the only impact the virus outbreak has had on the industry, with Apple anticipating a shortage in iPhone supply, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip factory shutting down for the weekend, and the entire Mobile World Congress (MWC) getting cancelled due to fear of its spread.

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Razr revival

The Motorola Razr is the company’s attempt at simultaneously producing a futuristic flip phone with a folding display and reviving the nostalgia associated with the earlier Razr series that first launched in 2004.

In Australia, the handset costs AU$2,699 and features a 6.2-inch folding display (2,142 x 876 pixels), a Snapdragon 710 chipset, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Typically, these specs are more in line with mid-range handsets rather than premium flagship phones, but Motorola has had to cut them back in order to achieve a slimmer profile and to accommodate its folding form factor.

While no concrete date has been given to Australian customers as to when they can expect the handsets to ship, we wouldn’t be too surprised if the March timeframe was pushed further at this stage.

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Google is perpetually on a mission to clean up its Play Store, taking down dodgy apps as best it can, and the latest sting by the tech giant has seen nearly 600 apps removed from its storefront.

According to Google, the reasoning for banning these specific apps was that they breached two of the companies policies regarding how they advertise – the disruptive ads policy and disallowed interstitial policy.

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In short, Google defines a 'disruptive ad' as one that is “displayed to users in unexpected ways” and “results in inadvertent clicks”. Commonly, the tech giant was seeing pop-ups that took up the entire screen of the device, showed no clear means of dismissal, and would show up even when users weren't actively using the app in question.

In the blog post related to these new app removals, Google claims they were able to be discovered thanks to “an innovative machine-learning based approach” that the company has recently developed.

The apps in question have been removed from the Google Play Store and have been banned from the AdMob and Ad Manager monetization platforms.

The blog post ends, as always, with a promise that Google will continue its prevention of threats on its platform by investing in new technologies to detect them and adapting its policies to better prevent bad behaviour.

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Over the last five years, Google has consistently released early Developer Preview versions of its upcoming Android mobile operating system in order to iron out bugs and get feedback. While the majority have landed around mid-March, this year we’re seemingly getting treated to Android 11’s preview early, with a first release now available for download.

It’s worth noting that this early version of Android 11 can only be installed on Google Pixel handsets (excluding the first generation of devices), and that it’s officially “for developers only”, according to a blog post from the tech giant. The Developer Preview releases are “not suitable for daily use by early adopters or consumers, so [Google is] making them available by manual download and flash only”.

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Features

While many Android users won’t be able to test out the next version just yet (and the current information is targeted entirely at developers), we can still learn plenty about what to expect when it does land in full some time in Q3 2020.

With the increasing amount of 5G-ready smartphones, it makes sense that apps will be able to accommodate this connection – in Android 11, apps will be able to tell if you’re using 5G, the same way they currently can with Wi-Fi, in order to adapt and enhance their performance.

The notification drop-down will be getting its own dedicated ‘conversations’ section that will show any kind of ‘real-time’ messaging notification and provide enhanced functionality, such as the ability to silence, snooze, mark as important, and more from the notification itself.

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Security and privacy

One of the most immediate improvements to the security and privacy of your Android device will be the ability to give one-off permissions to an app, letting it access sensitive functions like camera, location, and microphone “only this time” rather than “while using the app”.

The option to allow location access to an app at all times – even when operating in the background – will no longer be selectable from within the app. This will prevent dodgy apps from tricking users into granting such permission while they're in the app.

Naturally, there are plenty of other smaller changes that beef up security, as well as tweaks that aim to increase the quality of life for Android users, including further polish on existing elements and support for new display types, codecs and formats.

According to Google’s roadmap, the final release of Android 11 should be arriving in Q3 of 2020, with three Developer Previews and Beta releases landing monthly between February and July.

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While Apple was fully anticipating its iPhone production to be impeded by factory closures brought about by the coronavirus, the company’s latest investor report warns that the impact is greater than initially expected.

After announcing that Apple is “more than doubling” its donations to help aid relief efforts, the report continues to mention that there is a “slower return to normal conditions than [Apple] had anticipated” and that the company no longer expects to meet the revenue projection it laid out for the quarter.

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There are two major reasons for this. The first factor, and the one most pertinent to the Western market, is that Apple expects that its “worldwide iPhone supply will be temporarily constrained” due to the relevant facilities ramping up more slowly than expected.

The other issue cited is that the demand for the company’s products in general has been diminished across China, and the ability to keep Apple Stores open in the country has been affected.

This is far from an isolated case in the tech industry, with the 2020 Mobile World Congress (MWC) getting cancelled entirely due to a succession of major brands pulling out as a result of the virus.

The Cupertino firm takes great pains to emphasize in the report that any disruption to the business is only temporary, and that the company is “fundamentally strong”, so it remains to be seen how severe any supply shortages may be.

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If you subscribe to anything via the App Store, Apple automatically takes 30% of the first year’s worth of fees, dropping down to 15% for every payment after that. Naturally, this displeases the companies that lose that substantial cut.

An email discovered by MacRumors has found that Google is the latest company to be kicking back against the Cupertino firm’s system, with the announcement that it will cease any YouTube TV subscriptions made through the App Store from March 13.

This means that new customers won’t be able to pay via their Apple device’s storefront from that date onwards, and any existing customers will have their subscription automatically cancelled on the first billing date after March 13.

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Although the reason for the cancellation isn’t specifically mentioned in the email, the aforementioned fee that Google would be paying to Apple is very likely the motivator.

YouTube TV is not alone in this rebellion: Netflix no longer allows you to pay for your subscription via the App Store, and Spotify has famously complained that Apple’s practices are anti-competitive, with its competing Apple Music platform getting a substantial leg-up for iOS and macOS device users.

Naturally, not being able to subscribe to a service via Apple’s storefront will lose that service some exposure (the trade-off that Apple claims justifies its high fees), and as a condition of being available on the App Store, the YouTube TV app must now remove any reference of subscribing via a separate platform.

Users will still be able to use the YouTube TV app on any Apple device as they previously did, but going forward, subscriptions and payments will have to be made elsewhere – specifically, from YouTube’s website.

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In the latest twist on the rollercoaster that is the AU$15 billion TPG-Vodafone merger, the Australian Federal Court has today allowed the two telecom companies to merge.

Rumours of the merger were first confirmed back in August 2018, with both companies announcing their intention to more effectively compete with Telstra and Optus – the two telcos that have dominated the telecommunications market thus far and continue to do so.

Almost a year later, the ACCC blocked the merger, positing that the market was already too concentrated for both mobile and broadband services and that it would prefer TPG to enter the mobile market as its own entity to provide further competition.

TPG and Vodafone then took the ACCC to court, claiming that their merger would not substantially lessen competition, and now the companies have had the hearing ruled in their favour.

Anti-competitive?

The ACCC stands by its initial assessment of the merger, with Chair Rod Sims saying that “Australian consumers have lost a once-in-a-generation opportunity for stronger competition and cheaper mobile telecommunications services with this merger now allowed to proceed”.

As it stands, almost 90% of the mobile market is taken by Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone, and similarly in the broadband sphere with Telstra, Optus and TPG.

Sims continued: “We will continue to oppose mergers that we believe will substantially lessen competition, because it’s our job to protect competition and, in doing so, ensure that Australian consumers enjoy the benefits of competition.”

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Consumer effects

At this stage it’s unclear what direct impact this merger will have on consumers, but if the ACCC is to be believed, a more concentrated market would lead to higher costs for consumers for both mobile and broadband plans.

Naturally, Vodafone and TPG claim much the opposite is true, with the former company stating that the merger will allow for a greater investment in new technology such as 5G.

“For the first time, Australia will have a third, fully-integrated telecommunications company”, Chief Executive Officer Iñaki Berroeta said. “This will give us the scale to compete head-to-head across the whole telecoms market which will drive more competition, investment and innovation, delivering more choice and value for Australian consumers and businesses.”

The merger is on track to be completed by mid-2020, unless further appeals are made by the ACCC.

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While the Blue Yeti USB microphone and its more compact Nano successor have been the go-to for many podcasters, Rode is hoping its latest NT-USB Mini will steal their thunder.

Priced at $99 (about £79, AU$149), the NT-USB Mini costs the same as the Yeti Nano and offers much the same proposition – take a successful USB microphone and shrink it down, condensing controls and maintaining audio quality in the process.

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The interface on this little Rode mic is incredibly minimal, with a single dial that adjusts headphone level found on the front, and a USB-C and 3.5mm headphone port found on the rear.

The desktop stand is weighted and is designed to absorb any shocks from a bumped desk. It’s attached magnetically to a 360-degree swivelling mount for the microphone, so you can quickly detach it and mount it on a mic stand or studio arm.

Outside of the company’s reputation for professional, studio-grade audio quality, one of Rode’s standout features is the simplicity in which its microphones interface with other gear. The NT-USB Mini is class-compliant, meaning it will work immediately with any computer or tablet when hooked up via USB, with no drivers, firmware or apps required.

The NT-USB Mini features an integrated pop filter and is constructed from “hard-wearing steel and reinforced nylon resin”, so it should be compact and rugged enough for grab-and-go situations.

The Rode NT-USB Mini is available now in the US for $99 with other region’s availability and pricing to follow.

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The number of everyday items that a smartphone is able to replace continues to grow, with cameras, media players, computers, and wallets amongst them, and soon we could be adding ‘car key’ to that list.

As discovered by 9to5Mac, the recently-released beta version of iOS 13.4 for developers contains mention of a “CarKey” API. It’ll work similarly to some modern keys that only need to operate on proximity to unlock, lock, and even start the car, and will be compatible with both iPhone and Apple Watch.

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Some text found in the API reveals that the function will be contained within the existing Wallet app, and similarly to how Express Transit Cards currently operate, won’t need to use Face ID to verify the CarKey’s interaction after the initial pairing.

“To use CarKey, hold iPhone or Apple Watch to reader. It will work automatically, without requiring Face ID. You can change express mode settings in Wallet.”

This means you’ll be able to use either your iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock and start your car even if they’ve run out of battery.

More uncovered information in the API appears to hint at the ability to share the key to others that have an Apple device with the Wallet app installed, providing access to your car to anyone you desire (ideally, family members).

Caveats

The process requires you to first install the car manufacturer’s app and then place your phone on the car’s NFC reader and find the relevant item in your Wallet app. From there, you can add it to your Apple Watch.

Obviously there’s going to be some catches, and the most glaring of them is that it will only work with NFC-compatible cars, which rules out a vast swathe of older models. 

There’s also been no official announcement from Apple regarding the feature, so we can’t be entirely certain it will launch at all at this stage, although given the amount of information contained in the API, it’s looking quite likely.

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With the latest report from NSW Fair Trading released, we’ve now got a good idea of what customers in the state were most unhappy about, and consumer tech dominates the charts.

Online retailer Kogan had a very shaky start to the year with 70 and 72 complaints in January and February respectively, and while that number steadily decreased over the course of 2019, it still topped the list with the most complaints overall.

An overwhelming majority of these complaints were due to the quality of the purchased goods, and the categories they fell in were dominated by electronics, smartphones, laptops and other similar products.

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Second and third place were taken by tech giants Apple and Samsung, respectively, with most months seeing 20-30 complaints, a majority of which were directed at the brand’s smartphones, laptops and other electrical appliances, in the latter’s case.

While JB Hi Fi was the fourth-most complained-about company in December, it did considerably well over the course of the year and averaged less than 10 complaints a month.

Outside of airlines such as Jetstar and Qantas, most of the main offenders were either consumer tech brands or retail stores such as Harvey Norman that predominantly sold tech items.

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It’s worth noting that the register only lists companies that have received at least 10 complaints in any one month, so a retailer or brand that consistently scores below that won’t get counted.

This means that a company registering 9 complaints each and every month could end up with a considerably larger total over the year than another that only has one month of 10 or more complaints, and yet it won’t show up on Fair Trading’s report.

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Optus has been handed the second-largest fine ever dealt by the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) for contacting customers that had explicitly unsubscribed from communications.

The ACMA fined the telco giant AU$504,000 following an investigation into breaches of Australia’s anti-spam laws, a sum second only to a AU$510,000 fine Telstra copped in 2014 for delays in connecting landline customers. 

Specifically, Optus was found to have sent marketing emails and SMS messages in 2018 to around 750,000 customers that had already opted out of these communications. Other emails were also sent that lacked any kind of unsubscribe facility.

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ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said it was the largest infringement paid for spamming and that it “reflects the seriousness of breaches made by Optus and its failure to honour its customers’ wishes to unsubscribe, in some cases on multiple occasions”.

In order to ensure Optus doesn’t break the law again in the future, the telco will appoint an independent consultant to act as a watchdog, reviewing its procedures, systems, and policies for compliance with these laws.

On top of this, “the ACMA will be actively monitoring Optus’ compliance with its commitments,” O’Loughlin said. “If they are not met, the ACMA will consider court action”.

O’Loughlin told the Sydney Morning Herald that Optus blamed the spam messaging on an “IT systems failure” and that the telco had checked its marketing lists for compliance, although the ACMA believes otherwise.

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Four years ago, Tesla installed its first ever Powerwall battery pack in an Australian household, and now the residing Pfitzner family has revealed just how much of an impact the energy-saving measure has made.

When combined with a solar panel system, Powerwall allows users to store any excess energy generated by the panels in order to use it at times when the sun alone can’t provide the necessary power. 

While this effectively allows a home to operate self-sufficiently, there is a still a need to rely on the main power grid when the battery depletes due to extended periods of inclement weather or similar.

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Over the course of four years, this resulted in the Pfitzner family saving a total of about $5,700 (AU$8,463) on their electricity bills, paying an average of just 30 cents (AU$0.46) per day.

As for the environmental impact – the ability to store reserve energy in a battery pack has the potential to reduce household carbon emissions by up to 6 tonnes per year, which would be a significant figure if the technology was installed in masses of homes. 

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The Pfitzner’s house is described as having “four bedrooms, internal laundry, air-conditioning, state of the art appliances, a pool, and outdoor entertaining area”, so it’s likely more resource-intensive than the average household.

It’s worth noting that the family spent AU$16,000 (about $10,800) installing the battery, solar system, and any related hardware to the home, so it hasn’t quite paid itself off yet. 

While the initial estimates for the return on investment were around the 20-year mark, it’s now set for just seven years, which is much more promising for the development of household battery technology in the future.

[via Natural Solar]

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In October last year, Microsoft launched the public testing ‘preview’ of its Xbox Console Streaming service in the US and UK. Now, the company has announced that all Xbox One supported countries have access to the trial.

This includes locations such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore and the UAE and more – for a full list of supported countries, you can check out this Xbox disclaimer page.

Project xCloud?

Not to be confused with Project xCloud, which also started public testing in the US and UK in October, Xbox Console Streaming allows users to stream any Xbox One console title they own – including Game Pass titles – to their Android smartphone or tablet.

While xCloud will eventually allow users to stream thousands of games to their devices from Microsoft’s own servers, Xbox Console Streaming requires gamers to have the title currently installed and running on their console as the streaming will occur locally in the user’s home.

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In order to get this working for you, there are a few more requirements: you’ll need a device running Android 6.0 or higher with the Xbox Game Streaming app installed, a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One controller and a Microsoft account with an Xbox profile.

As this is still in the preview phase, you’ll also need to be an Xbox Insider, and your console has to be enrolled in the Xbox One Update Preview ring, both of which are free for any Xbox owner to sign up for.

As the preview progresses and more user feedback is gained, Microsoft says that further improvements to the performance and overall operation of Xbox Console Streaming will be trialled and rolled out. 

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After the lackluster web browsers that Microsoft has recently been responsible for (Internet Explorer and Edge), the company has been hard at work reinventing the latter of the two from the ground up.

Sticking to its release schedule, Microsoft has today officially launched the new Edge browser, complete with updated logo and built entirely on the same Chromium foundation that Google’s popular Chrome browser was constructed on.

Edge is available from Microsoft’s official page and is compatible with macOS, iOS and Android, as well as Windows 10, 8.1, 8, and even Windows 7, which has now officially entered the ‘unsupported’ phase of its life. 

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The cutting edge

Included among the promised features are thorough privacy tools, 4K streaming support, optimization for Windows 10, enterprise-grade security, and support for Chrome extensions that can be accessed from either the Microsoft Store or Chrome Web Store.

Microsoft is also claiming that this new version of Edge is twice as fast as the one it replaces, no doubt thanks to the Chromium platform it runs on, although we’re yet to see how that stacks up against competitors such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. 

Technically this is the 79th stable version of Edge, with Edge 80 set to land in February and regular updates arriving every six weeks from then on. 

Windows 10 users will see the new browser pushed to them automatically in the coming weeks, but everyone else can download it manually. Users that have the old version of Edge installed will find the new one will replace it, with most personalized information carrying across.

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As the NBN rollout continues, changes to the existing infrastructure are inevitable, and the latest of such alterations sees NBN Co begin the disconnection of 63,190 landline services – both phone and internet – in Sydney.

As reported by The Daily Telegraph, the removal of existing legacy connections will be commencing Friday 17th as they're progressively replaced with NBN connections as part of the rollout.

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NBN Co is warning residential and business customers to contact their provider immediately if they are yet to switch to NBN and live in the affected areas (listed below).

• Bayside: Eastlakes, Mascot, Roseberry, Wolli Creek
• Burwood: Burwood
• Camden: Camden, Elderslie, Ellis Lane, Grasmere, Harrington Park, Mount Hunter, Narellan, Narellan Valley
• Canterbury: Campsie, Canterbury, Earlwood, Marrickville
• Parramatta/Ryde: Constitution Hill, Epping, Epping North, Wentworthville
• City of Sydney: Beaconsfield, Elizabeth Bay, Haymarket, Potts Point, Pyrmont, Rosebery, Sydney, The Rocks, Woolloomooloo
• Inner West: Ashfield, Croydon, Earlwood, Marrickville, Tempe
• Liverpool: Bardia, Glenfield, Mount Pritchard, Warwick Farm
• Mosman: Mosman
• North Sydney: Kurraba Point, Neutral Bay
• Northern Beaches: Balgowlah, Brookvale, Mona Vale, North Curl Curl, North Manly, Seaforth
• Randwick: Kensington, Kingsford
• Sutherland Shire: Caringbah, Engadine, Miranda
• Hornsby: Cheltenham, Normanhurst, Waitara
• Hills Shire: Castle Hill
• Waverley: Bondi, Bondi Junction, Bronte, Tamarama, Waverley
• Willoughby: Artarmon, Greenwich, Naremburn, St Leonards
• Woollahra: Bellevue Hill, Edgecliff, Darling Point, Paddington, Woollahra

Customers who rely on these landline connections for medical emergency call buttons or alarm systems are also urged to register these services with the NBN to avoid them being disconnected.

For some residents, it’s very possible that their existing connection will be cut off before their new NBN service can be activated, leaving residents and businesses without an internet or phone connection. Again, please call your current network provider to determine the best outcome for your current circumstance.

NBN Co is also warning all residents to watch for potential scams that demand money on behalf of the company. NBN Co will never directly ask for any payments from individuals as they are a wholesale company and deal directly with service providers such as Telstra, Optus, etc.

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While Apple products have long enjoyed the ability to share files, images, and more with nearby devices via AirDrop, Google’s Android equivalent hasn’t enjoyed the same level of ubiquity, and for good reason.

Android Beam – the NFC-based file-sharing service – was discontinued as of Android 10, likely due to its lack of use, reliability issues, and generally sluggish transfer rates when compared with AirDrop.

While a replacement feature called Fast Share has been in the pipeline since at least July, the service has now been rebranded to 'Nearby Sharing', as spotted by XDA Developers, with a few more details revealed as it nears closer to release.

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According to the information dug up (which is subject to change), Nearby Sharing will work by establishing and authenticating a connection between two devices via Bluetooth, and then using Wi-Fi to actually transfer the files.

This is much the same method that AirDrop currently employs and, thanks to the added bandwidth and reliability of Wi-Fi connections, allows for much faster transfers of larger files.

One significant change noted by XDA Developers to the format is that Nearby Sharing will apparently only operate if the devices are within one foot of each other, as indicated by the following message:

“Make sure both devices are unlocked, close together (within 1 ft), and have Bluetooth and location turned on”.

At this stage, Google hasn’t officially announced the existence – let alone release date – of the Nearby Sharing feature, and we can’t be certain which, if any, of the aforementioned features will make it to the final version of the update, but it still offers the best indication we currently have of what to expect.

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