Digital Grog — Australia’s Tech, Gadgets & Digital Life Unfiltered

Digital Grog is Australia’s go‑to tech blog for sharp reviews, digital trends, AI tools, gadgets, cybersecurity updates, and practical how‑tos covering the latest in Aussie technology

Internet

Amnet Internet is fair Dinkum

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I switched from IInet to amnet or amcom telecom about 4 years ago and  definetly a happy camper.Despite of tempting things like Naked DSL and  other nice offers, i have stuck with amnet. I was with TPG  telecom before ..good plans.. but bad service

amcom telecom Ipo Perth australia Fibre NBN

Prompt and reliable internet broadband -Amnet

Its just because they are a smaller company and they provide good service . Over the period i had their internet connection they have had problems only twice, and eve when they did  , both times i was quite surprised that they called immediately saying  that their Bulwer exchange had a problem and they were currently fixing it , NOW that’s personal service.

Good Internet download limits, Local human customer service personnel

Their broadband is fast enough and their speeds and limits are awesome, infact tehy were giving me 150 GB download limits long before the top internet providers started doing the same. One thing thats very important for me is getting a local human on the customer line who cares, and amcom certainly does have that and  on the 2 occasions that i needed some support i got real nice friendly an prompt service from a customer rep.

Url address --- Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

If you looking for a reliable , good internet provider , you surely cant go  past amcom , there might be other providers a bit cheaper or with more download limits.. but it certainly makes up for that with good and reliable customer service  and broadband.

Special offer – Amnet Australian ISP

They recently had a special offer of a  FREE month and FREE connection on the 12 and 24 month  and also being fair to older customers “12 oldest residential customers  were given a free month each to share in the 12 th birthday celebrations

Get a free ipad 2 for refferals

Currently there is also a offer where you can refer 3 friends to Amnet by using our Refer-A-Friend promotion, and you will get  an iPad 2 for your efforts. You need to be a member for this , so let me know before you sign up (contact me ) as i will give you a referral  ( which will include a $20 credit to your account) and then you can do the same and share the love and prizes by referring friends.

Here are the prices

http://www.amnet.com.au/broadband-internet

Do contact me for a referral and credit before you sign up to be eligible for the credits and free ipad offers

Tablets popular for christmas Gifts

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Despite the gloomy economy, shoppers all over the world  are expected to shell out for tablet computers this December making them one of the hot gadgets gifts  this Christmas and holiday season

amazon-kindle-fire review prices

Amazon Kindle Fire pictures above

This new Techo gadget are the most-desired electronic devices this holiday season. Of all the gifts people are craving, tablets with clothing taking the no 1 spot according to a consumer Association.

Bob 56, plans to purchase an iPad for his son and his sister  who lives in  Washington. His parents live in Florida. So he’s excited to be able to video chat with his parents – them on the new iPad, him on his iPhone.

Tablets were on many peoples wish lists last year, but they were too pricey and they technology was still new so was still getting adapted too, now with smartphones  everybody is getting more exposed to the new touchscreen technology.

Barnes & Noble Nook Color-w600 reviews

Barnes and noble tablet pictures above

Two of the most promising competitors come from online retailer Amazon.com Inc. and book seller Barnes & Noble Inc.

Some price released recently for the

  1. iPad’s $499 base price
  2.  Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which costs $199
  3. Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet, which costs $249.

Tablets are popping up in unexpected places, too. with  the ipad being used to control customised helicopters that can fly indoors , buggys made to be controlled by the iphone and ipad and many more gizmos.For some people, the device has become indispensable for playing and working.

But while many think of the iPad as synonymous with the word “tablet,” plenty of shoppers will be looking for a more affordable tablet to give this year with heaps of new customised software versions coming out with new android software.

“When tablets start to get  below $200, sales go up dramatically,” says technology analyst Rob Enderle and is going to be evident in the good cheaper prices for these gadgets these years. Check out some reviews and pics on the latest tablets here. “PC TABLETS REVIEWS”

Converting Your Videos for Smartphone and Tablets – ZAMZAR to the rescue

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This tool is the God of Video conversion !!

You just email the content  be it a document that  needs to be made into pdf ,  or a 3gp file into another video format  ( AVI , Mpeg ) or vice versa  and its done   and ready to download , and yes it converts into heaps of formats.

pdf to doc avi to mpeg ebook free onlien conversion convert

Converts Audio ,Video and document formats online

I came across this “zamsar online conversion  tool” long ago and then lost the link in my email and did not bookmark it , did a few video conversions  for my 3gp files . worked beautifully. They email you back the converted link when its done for download . I dont need it anymore most new phones now have  the AVI of 4 mpeg format , but its still handy for converting other stuff

zamsar free onlien conversion tool 3gp tp video doc to pdf

ZAMZAR is a Magic Free online converter

Zamzar, a popular tool for converting files online, has added a new option that lets you convert files by email itself. You can forward your email attachments directly to Zamzar, without downloading them to the desktop, and they’ll be converted in no time.

Here is a full list of what it converts online . Im sure you will add this to your book marks , and do add my blog and give it a like or  tweet or whateva Smile

Go  to zamzar here

Three great Free anti virus software for you as good as the paid ones

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These antivirus programs are free and made by legitimate software producers  and  if you are thinking why they  are giving it free, there is a reason.  Like  all strugglers you have to provide top class service  to get the top position and its no different for these Antivirus software makers. They are not strugglers  but already established  antivirus  vendors but they want more people to try their software  before they can buy the full versions  and so they are giving their software away for free. If you like it  and want a buy a premium version ( with some extra features ) you will have to pay for it otherwise it remains free.

3 Free antivirus  Software providers

These links below will take you to these free antivirus download website pages

1. AVG Antivirus

Avg antivirus free version download

2. Avira Antivirus

Avira Free antivirus download prices free version

3. Avast antivirus

Avast antivirus download free version

Some of these Antivirus  are as good as the established players in this market like Mcafee antivirus , Kapersky Anti virus and Norton antivirus  and infact offer some innovative features that they don’t as well. These free software also scans your computer for rootkits  which is awesome  and is  also considered a premium feature in some software’s.

Infact i was so impressed with  one of these free programs ( AVG antivirus ) that  i went ahead and bought  a full version AVG antivirus  for $39.99  from the internet from amazon  and is it going great. Full version of these other free software are also available on Amazon

There is also a  tool from Trend micro to do a online scan  on your computer by downloading thier software you can check out more about it here.

Wd Live firmware update

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what i really like bout the WD live box is  that the box is not broken it plays beautifully .Yet the  guys at the company are continuously evolving  patching the box with regular;ar  updates keeping up with all the current formats for video and music.Keep up the good work

If you dont know about WD live player and want a small little  box that can play pretty much any movie from a usb stick or then a  portable hard drive attached to it, you should be getting the WD LIVE PLAYER RIGHTAWAY 

New firmware update released for WD live player . Heres what it does.

Western Digital WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD Media Player

Version 1.06.15_V:  
Resolved Issues:
• Supports Czech language in the user interface.
• Resolved Media Library issue where playing an ISO and DVD (.VOB) is not added in recent list.
• Resolved video quick menu not showing selection correctly. 
• Resolved black screen when playing dat or ts video file.(mpeg format)
• Resolved PlayTo issue where menu icon in video option do not move when navigating during playback
• Resolved poor menu performance due to background task running.
• Resolved audio Track display always shows as file name.
• Resolved music info missing when opening photo info from option in slideshow.
• Resolved thumbnail blurring while browsing music.
• Resolved scrolling issue where artifacts would show if scrolling too fast.
• Resolved issue where the FF/RW icon would display in preview mode for folder.
• Resolved issue unable to connect to Wi-Fi when SSID is not broadcast.
• Resolved Tunein issue where removing a preset doesn’t take effect until preset section is reopened.
• Resolved issue where some PGS subtitles would not display in MKV container.
• Resolved issue where screen display “Unsupported subtitle” message on option bar.
• Resolved issue where default subtitle stream flags are ignored.
• Resolved issue where 4:3 aspect ratio setting resets to widescreen after power cycle.
• Resolved issue where all audio above 48KHz is being downsampled to 48KHz.
• Resolved Flingo issue where FF and Play will black out screen for 10 or more sections.
• Resolved Facebook security encryption issue when selecting shortcut key www. in password page.
• Resolved Facebook issue of not being able to upload to Facebook if photo is in full screen view.
• Resolved Facebook issue where no error message shows up when network cable is disconnected.
• Resolved .ISO and .VOB issue where the info bar stays on the screen during playback.
• Resolved file management issue where certain files are corrupted on a GUID or APM HFS+J format drives.
• Resolved issue where firmware upgrade did not work for certain USB

Resolved Deezer issue where the options icon disappears on the radio playlist.
• Resolved issue where Deezer will not play any music tracks or songs from any radio stations
• Resolved DVD (ISO or VOB) issue where playback will not resume after unit power cycle. 
• Resolved issue where certain MKVs videos do not play sound.
• Resolved AVI issue where pressing skip twice causes video to jump back to start.
• Resolved several general user interface alignment issues.
• Resolved issue where MPEG2 video lags or freezes.
• Resolved issue with 2TB hard drive not mounting.
• Resolved issue with system becoming unresponsive after hot unplugging the hard drive.
• Resolved video playback issue with certain .MOV, MPEG4, PCM 2ch videos resulting in incoherent audio.

you can get it from Amazon here

Make your website faster with CDN

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One of the best way to speed up the loading  time of your blog or website  is by using a Content Delivery Network or CDN. What a CDN does is distribute your blog content to hundreds of servers around the world instead of just one making it load in seconds. It works a bit like the bit torrent principle.

With most normal web hosting, your blog or website is housed in a single shared or dedicated server. Most web hosts try to locate their data centers tospeedy mirror CDN Fast loading website blog logo be as central to as much of the population as possible with most mainly being in the US.

For example, Bluehost has their headquarters in the US but their servers could be in INDIA. This provides good load time for the majority of readers from INDIA but not necessarily the  readers further away in the US or Australia on the other side of the world. A Content Delivery Network fixes this problem.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a system of computers containing copies of data, placed at various points in a network so as to maximize bandwidth for access to the data from clients throughout the network. A client accesses a copy of the data near to the client, as opposed to all clients accessing the same central server, so as to avoid bottlenecks near that server.

Make slow loading websites faster with CDN

By bringing all  your Blog content closer to your readers’ nearest connection point, your blog will have much quicker load  times and less wait time for your readers. A faster loading site not only makes your visitors happy, it will also help you rank better with Google.

A large part of good seo Now takes into consideration load time as well, specially noticed by search engines like google which can also affect your ranking if the load time is slow for your blog. A  fast loading blog will definitely help rank your blog higher than a slow loading blog.

How To Get a Speedy CDN Service for FREE

Until recently, only big sites used Content Delivery Networks because they were quite expensive. However, with advances in technology, it is now possible for even the smallest blog take advantage of the increased speed potential offered by a CDN. Thank to a service call Speedy Mirror, you can now get it for FREE!

Speedy Mirror is just that. The service takes the content of your blog and mirrors it across a network of servers around the world making it easy for a person in India  or Australia or Canada  to get quick acesss to your blog like it was just next door. This ensures that no matter where you readers are, they will be getting the quickest load time possible. The best thing about the service is you can try it for free.

With Speedy Mirror’s current offer  you can set up a CDN for your blog for free and use the service for up to 50GB of data transfer. Depending on how much data your blog consumes, this can last you from ten days  to over a year. Once the 50GB is used up, you can stop using it or you can purchase more data at only 3.5 cents per gig. This is the lowest CDN price I’ve found on the Net (MaxCDN starts at 9.9 cents per gig).

How To Set Up a Speedy Mirror CDN service

speedy mirror-setup

Sign up for a free account at Speedy Mirror. You will get sent a confirmation Email, Once you confirm your email address, you’ll be able to log into the control panel and set up a new mirror. You can set up as many mirrors as you like for as many blogs as you like. Just click the Mirrors link and then click the Add New Mirror button.

Give a name for your new mirror and enter the URL of your blog then hit the Detect and Save button. Within a few seconds, your mirror will be ready to use. Further instructions are available at the website

Install W3 Total Cache for easy CDN USE

After setting up your mirror, the next thing you have to do is install a wordpress  free plugin called  W3 Total Cache. W3 Total Cache offers transparent Content Delivery Network integration.

Even if you don’t plan to use a CDN service, I recommend you install W3 Total Cache on your blog.It’s the best caching software for WordPress that I’ve ever used.

w3 cache setup for CDN

From the General Settings of the W3 Total Cache control panel, enable CDN and choose Mirror as the CDN Type. Save the changes then go to the CDN Settings page and scroll down until you get to Configuration. Enter the URL to your Speedy Mirror blog and click Add CNAME. Click the Test Mirror button to make sure it’s working then save the changes.

Your blog is now mirrored around the world!

Before and After Test Results

Using the Website Speed Test tool at iWeb Tool, you can measure  the before  and after speed tests on your blog which will show the huge difference in loading times.

Because Speed Mirror is free to start, there is absolutely no reason why you should not use it. Setting up an account is free, the first 50GB of data is free and W3 Total Cache is free. This is by far the best free way  to test it to see the benefit before you opt for a full paid account.

Speedy Mirror Affiliate Program – Earn 10% for Life

Anyone who signs up for a Speedy Mirror is automatically eligible to be part of their affiliate program.

Click Here Set Up Your Free Speedy Mirror CDN