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Google OZ Appoint Content Manager As Google TV Emerges Google Australia, whose YouTube operation is 5 years old this month, has confirmed that they are currently talking to several local content partners including free to air TV stations with a view to delivering TV content in Australia via YouTube.

Blockbuster Oz Experiences Rental Growth The Franchise Entertainment Group announced that its 320 Blockbuster stores achieved 3.5 per cent rental business growth in the 2009 calendar year.

Sony Movie Boss Calls For Popcorn Ban In Cinemas Sony movie boss Michael Lynton believes that cinema goers should be eating granola bars, fruit salad, yogurt and vegetable crudites with dips instead of butter dipped popcorn, Coke and chocolate bars.

Free DivX Video Software Download For Windows Announced DivX has released the latest version of its flagship video software package, as a free download for Windows 7, Vista and XP on the company's Web site.

New Internet Explorer 9 To Be Revealed Today According to sources in Seattle Microsoft is set to reveal a brand new Internet Explorer 9 later today. The version is suppose to be faster and will support new emerging web standards. It will also take advantage of new graphic processor technology to deliver Full HD content in the browser.

ACCC Hits Another Online Retailer An Australian online retailer of computers, software and electronic goods has had its knuckles rapped by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over breaches of the Trade Practices Act relating to warranties.

Apple Taking Preorders for iPad Big Demand Apple has opened up their online store to take pre orders for their new iPad, with analysts estimating thatApple hasalready recieved 120,000 orders for iPads in the first24 hours.

OZ ISP To Deliver Fibre Content Network Claims Mystery US Company In what appears to be a major fishing expedition to attract ISP’s or content providers to their technology, a US manufacturer of a content set to box, is claiming that an Australian Video Company is set to deliver a” high speed fibre network” in Australia using cloud computing to deliver content .

Steve Jobs All Dolled Up Not often you spy Apple chairman/CEO Steve Jobs in a black tie and dinner suit ­ more usually, even on the most formal occasions, it's jeans and black turtleneck.

ABC Goes In Opposite Direction To The BBC Online As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, cranks up their online offering into rural and metropolitan Australia, the organisation that they like to mimic, the BBC has announced that they are set to scrap 200 web sites.

Government Seeks Regional Radio Comments Senator Stephen Conroy is asking for public comment on the requirements for regional commercial radio broadcasters to provide local content and maintain a local presence.

Gang Jailed For Fake Qantas ID & Dodgy Ebay Golf Clubs A gang that ran a multimillion dollar racket selling fake golf clubs via Ebay to unsuspecting Australians has been jailed. The gang fake Qantas club card identification to dupe Australians into buying their goods.

Mandatory 3D Formats For Broadcast Announced HDMI Licensing announced the release of HDMI specification version 1.4a that features key enhancements for 3D applications including the addition of mandatory 3D formats for broadcast content as well as the addition of the 3D format referred to as Top-and-Bottom.

Microsoft Cuddles Up To Google Android With New App Microsoft has started cuddling up to the Google Android platform with the release of a bar code application called TAG that will be available via the Android application store.

Consumers Ready To Pay For Online Content Say Nielsen Australia consumers are ready to pay for online content with thousands already buying books, music and other content from overseas based online sites.

IPTV Big Factories In The Future Claims Former Telstra Boss David Moffatt, the former CEO of Telstra's Retail Division, has said that the introduction of IPTV is set to be a big "revenue earner" in the future, but getting the model right is set to be difficult.

Telstra Jack Up Foxtel Costs No Opt Out Letter Weeks after announcing declining revenues from fixed phone lines, Telstra is moving to jack up revenue after advising its Foxtel customers that the cost of a premium package is automatically set to increase by $4 a month.

Senator Conroy Censors Own Website COMMENT: As an eagle-eyed Whirlpool forum member discovered, Internet censorship advocate Senator Stephen Conroy is censoring his own website.

Blockbuster Close To Going Bust But Not In OZ The giant rental group Blockbuster is facing insolvency in the US; however, it will not affect the Australian operations, according to executives of the Franchise Entertainment Group, which owns the name in Australia.

Conroy Tightens Grip On Internet Filtering While Labor backbenchers push for more flexibility in the Federal Government's proposed ISP filter, Senator Stephen Conroy is gearing up to fight for the tough restrictions.

AFACT To Appeal iiNet Piracy Verdict AFACT is about to drag iiNet through the courts again after appealing the Federal Court's ruling in the ISP's favour over its customers' copyright infringements.

Privacy Code Violated By Google Executives Says Judge A judge in Milan has today convicted three Google officials: David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes, for failing to comply with the Italian privacy code. The charges came from a video that was uploaded to Google Video in 2006, showing students at a school in Turin, Italy bullying a student with a mental disability.

Foxtel Flex Their Lobbying Muscles Over TV License Saga Behind-the-scenes lobbying of the Federal Opposition by the likes of Foxtel in an effort to have the 250 million reduction in licence fees for free-to-air TV stations blocked could result in a toughening of the legislation to include a set level of local content.

Microsoft And Yahoo To Take On Google Microsoft and Yahoo's search agreement has received clearance from the US and European regulators, with the two companies announcing that it will now begin the process of implementing the deal.

Insulation Installers In Breach Of Do Not Call The ACMA has received nearly 400 complaints so far in February about installation installers calling numbers listed on the Do Not Call register. This accounts for 43 per cent of February complaints.

Blockbuster To Lauch OZ IP Movie Service After TiVo Split EXCLUSIVE: The Blockbuster movie service that senior executives of TiVo were bragging about 18 months ago is set to be switched off on 5 March according to an email that has been syndicated to TiVo customers.

Cash-Strapped EMI Puts Abbey Road Studios Up For Sale After its loss in the Australian Federal Court to Larrikin Music over 'Kookaburra', EMI music has put its famous Abbey Road recording studio up for sale, according to a report by The Financial Times.

Censorship Minister In $250M TV Deal Scandal The Liberal Party is demanding an explanation from Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy after discovering the Senator went on a skiing trip with Seven Network owner Kerry Stokes just weeks before announcing a massive $250 million cut to television licence fees.

Sony To Release Spider-Man IV In 3D Keen to establish their its credentials, Sony is set to release Spider-Man IV in 3D. However, the event will not take place untill July 3rd 2012.

Foxtel Earnings Rise 21 Per Cent Foxtel has announced a 21 per cent uplift in earnings for the six months to 31 December 2009, supported by continued strong subscriber uptake of the FOXTEL iQ, High Definition and Multiroom services.

Anonymous Attacks Australian Government Over Censorship The attacks, dubbed ‘Operation Titstorm’, began this morning, targeting the websites of Senator Stephen Conroy and the Australian Parliament House, taking them both down with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) for a period of time.

Sharp & Samsung Cut Deal Over Patents After two and a half years of bickering over LCD and module patents, Sharp and Samsung have finally made a deal to put an end to all their patent infringement disputes.

Apple Kicks Off Consultants Network Apple has announced the Australia and New Zealand launch of the Apple Consultants Network—a group of independent third-party technical consultants for consumers.

Telstra Urges Users To Stay Safe Online In line with Safer Internet Day, Telstra and the Australian Communications and Media Authority have urged users to think about the information they post online.

Federal Government Offers TV License Fee Rebates The Federal Government has today announced that it will provide licence fee rebates to protect Australian content on commercial television. The move has prompted the free-to-air TV stations to call for a review of licence fees in Australia.

EMI Face Cash Problems After Federal Court Copyright Decision Music Company EMI, which lost a major copyright case in the Federal Court today, may not be able to pay out any damages to Larrikin Music, which sued the UK music Company last year claiming that Men at Work's No.1 hit 'Down Under' reproduced a "substantial part" of the children's folk tune 'Kookaburra Sits In the Old Gum Tree'.

iiNet Shares Jump 10% Shares in iiNet have jumped nearly 10 per cent after a landmark ruling in the ISP's favour today in the Federal Court. Now trading at $2.70, the shares were $1.92 on 1 February.

Hollywood Responds To iiNet Copyright Ruling The losers in today's landmark copyright case agaist Australian ISP iiNet claim that the 34 film companies representing the Australian and US film industries are disappointed that the Federal Court found that iiNet was not liable for the copyright infringements by its customers on its network.

Foxtel Battle Looms New Pay TV Network Discussed A battle is looming over the ownership of Foxtel following revelations that CEO Kim Williams tried to orchestrate the dumping of Telstra cable in favour of all content being delivered via an Optus-owned Satellite service.

Opposition Set To Attack NBN Costs The Federal Opposition is planning to bombard Comms and Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy with questions following yesterday's release of Auditor-General Ian McPhee's report on the Government's original $4.7 billion plan for a fibre-to-the node national broadband network eventually abandoned in favour of the current $43 billion fibre-to-the-premises NBN proposal.

OZ Consumers To Get Hollywood Movies Days After Release EXCLUSIVE: Several Australian organisations, including Telstra and IceTV, have signed up to a new consortium of Hollywood content providers that are set to launch a brand-new digital standard that will let consumers buy content online, including first-run movies, within days of them coming out of cinemas.

CommSec Fined For Spam Commonwealth Securities Limited (CommSec) has agreed to pay the Commonwealth a $55,000 and review its email campaigns after an ACMA investigation found CommSec in violation of the Spam Act.

Toshiba Appoints New PR Company Toshiba announced today the appointment of Fuel Communications as public relations for its notebook business in Australia and New Zealand and its audio visual business in Australia.

Sony Mum On New eBook Reader Sony Australia has refused to explain why it has not launched its eBook reader in Australia. In the US, the company is on its third eBook reader and is now facing stiff competition from the new Apple iPad when it launches in March 2010.

Skype Call Usage Soars A survey has found that the Skype is being used by more and more Australians to call family, friends, and colleagues in order to cut back on the high costs associated with long distance and international phone calls.

Google Declares War On Apple With iPhone App Google has defied Apple by making the App Store-rejected Voice app available for the iPhone.

3D Movie Avatar Smashes All Records The Murdoch-owned News Corporation is today celebrating after the 3D movie Avatar became the highest grossing movie of all time, replacing Titanic.

DVD Vending Machines & Digital Read Content Set To Take Off In OZ DVDs purchased from vending machines in Australia is set to grow according to a new report by consulting company Deloitte. The company also tips that magazine and newspaper readership is set to come under threat as digital devices get used more than ever to read content.

Google Street View Goes Off-Road Google is set to capture images inside Australian national parks, zoos, and other famous landmarks with the launch of its new service called Street View Trike.

Microsoft Issues Emergency Internet Explorer Patch Microsoft has released an emergency patch to fix the Internet Explorer vulnerability that allowed the recent attack on Google and other major companies. The patch is being released outside Microsoft’s regular update schedule in an attempt to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.