Australia’s airline Qantas said back in November it would enable Passbook integration for boarding passes for domestic flights. In the meantime, Qantas partner American Airlines rolled out support for Passbook boarding passes, as did a bunch of major airlines around the world. Making good on its promise, Qantas yesterday finally released its own iOS app with Passbook integration for digital boarding passes, mobile check-ins, real-time flight changes and frequent flyers… Read More
Why does digital content in Australia cost more than elsewhere? It’s not our fault, one Apple executive told a government panel investigating the pricing disparity.
The company (rightfully) blamed “old-fashioned notions” held by content owners for markups as high as 61 percent on music and other digital media sold in the region.
Apple’s Australian Vice President Tony King told the panel the company would prefer to offer music, movies, TV shows, along with hardware at lower prices, hinting that movie studios, record labels and other content owners are forcing the company’s hand… Read More
Last December, Police in Victoria, Australia issued a warning regarding Apple’s new Maps app in iOS 6, after several travelers became lost and stranded in a National Park due to poor directions. The advisory added insult to injury after Apple had taken months of criticism over the service.
Well, they’re back at it today. Officials in Victoria, Australia are again warning users of Maps’ inaccuracies, claiming that problems with the software are making it difficult to determine where fires are located in the city’s Country Fire Authority bushfire information app ‘FireReady…’ Read More
Over the past year or so, members of the Australian Parliament have been investigating whether or not its country’s residents pay higher-than-average premiums on electronic products and services. And it looks like it’s now prepared to speak directly to the makers.
The Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications in Australia’s House of Representatives released a memo yesterday, stating that it has called upon Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe to speak at a public hearing regarding its probe at the end of next month… Read More
RIM may have a new name, operating system and a pair of devices on the way, but Australia’s chief information officer Peter Alexander says that it’s almost too little too late. The comments follow a recent announcement that the country’s Treasury Department would be trading in their BlackBerry devices for iPhones—a seemingly popular trend lately… Read More
Apple has launched its Back to School promotion in Australia and New Zealand ahead of the new school year. The promotion is open to students, parents and staff members of K-12 or higher education schools and requires an eligible purchase be made between January 15 and April 1. Akin to the company’s Back to School promotion in the US and Europe last June, students in Australia and New Zealand who purchase a 9.7-inch iPad with Retina display will get a free AU$50 (NZ$65) Student Gift Card. Some notable Macs are also eligible… Read More
Look, digital maps are imperfect – some more than the others. Australian police earlier in the week issued a public safety warning over a major flaw in Apple Maps which incorrectly put the town of Mildura in the middle of Australia’s Murray Sunset National Park.
It wasn’t Apple’s fault entirely as the company was working on data from The Australian Gazetteer, a company run by the Geosciences Australia agency which supplies Gazetteer with mapping data sourced from the state of Victoria itself.
And now, we learn that the police in Colac, west of Melbourne, warn of safety concerns from Google Maps. Ouch! Read More
When the town of Mildura was showing up inside iOS Maps in the middle of Australia’s Murray Sunset National Park, users were quick to point out that Apple’s data was 43 miles off the town’s actual location. It was already too late: the police issued a public warning as some iPhone-totting travelers had gotten lost in the Park’s maze-like roadways. That the area has poor cell reception and lacks water supply didn’t help either.
Apple has corrected the problem since and now we’ve learned that particular snafu wasn’t Apple’s fault in the first place: the company simply re-used the data supplied by the state of Victoria… Read More
Apple’s Maps app took another hit earlier today, when word got out that police in Victoria, Australia had issued a public warning regarding the software. Apparently, they had been receiving a number of calls from travelers who were getting lost in a nearby National Park due to the app’s inaccurate data.
The problem was that the town of Mildura was showing up in the middle of Murray Sunset National Park, about 43 miles south of its actual location. And since the Park has maze-like roadways, poor cell reception and no water supply, this was a potentially dangerous situation. But don’t worry Apple is on it… Read More
Apple’s Maps application has had nothing but problems since it was released to the public back in September. Users have complained that the company’s in-house replacement for Google Maps has inaccurate location data and other bugs.
But if you thought Maps was bad before, wait until you hear this. Police in Victoria, Australia issued a warning this weekend regarding the mapping software after several travelers became lost and stranded due to receiving poor directions… Read More
Rock and roll fans rejoice! As noted by several other publications, AC/DC has finally made its music available in the iTunes Store. Up until now, the Australian rock band, who has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, had been avoiding selling its music through iTunes in an effort to help preserve the album format… Read More
Not even Apple can avoid taxes – although it tries. According to a Friday report, the Cupertino, California company owes the Australian Tax Office a nice 28.5 million Australian dollars in back taxes, or approximately $29 million in US currency. Apple’s tax bill for the entire fiscal year 2012, which ended September 24, sits at $94.7 million on $4.9 billion in revenue in local currency. Earlier this week, the French government demanded Amazon pay $252 million in back taxes. The government charged the online retail giant operated a network of smaller units, including a Luxembourgh-based tax haven… Read More
Apple has bent the truth by advertising its iPad in Australia as having “4G” capability, thus misleading would-be buyers. For that, Cupertino has now been fined a whopping $2.29 million, Associated Press reports.
The case was brought by regulators shortly following the iPad’s release in Australia, when the company began advertising the tablet as “iPad with WiFi + 4G” though it cannot connect to Australia’s fourth-generation LTE network. Apple will also have to pay 300,000 Australian dollars in litigation costs… Read More
Apple has taken a lot of heat over the use of the ’4G’ term in the name of its latest iPad. While the tablet is indeed LTE-capable here in the States, it isn’t in most other places. And some folks found that misleading.
Perhaps its most public battle has been in Australia, where Apple has been getting sued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over the moniker. But the headache appears to be almost over… Read More
Well it looks like after months of fighting with the Australian government, and several other organizations, Apple has finally broken down and removed the ’4G’ branding from its tablet.
9to5Mac made the discovery just a few moments ago, pointing out that the one time named ‘iPad Wi-FI + 4G’ tablet model has been renamed to ‘iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular’ in Apple’s online store… Read More
Last week’s childish Wake Up protest outside Apple’s retail outlet in Sydney has really infuriated fans of Apple as well as a bunch of observers – yours truly included – who pointed the finger of blame at Samsung on shady clues.
While the South Korean conglomerate denied organizing the flashmob-style stunt, coincidental evidence and the ambiguous official wording have left room for some speculation.
New strong pieces of evidence that surfaced last week link the campaign to the embattled BlackBerry maker, Canada-based Research In Motion, as part of their upcoming BlackBerry OS 10 launch on Wednesday. Who knew, right? Read More
