The newest project from MiCCAS.net has today been launched, and it’s purpose is to serve the latest beta products to your web browser!

Check it out today, and we’re still working on the features! www.URBeta.com

“Our goal is simple — bringing the best deals and bargains in Australia to consumers.”

If you haven’t heard already, OzBargain is a wonderful collaborative website in which consumers and customers come together to upload and download offers, from all around Australia.

I’m a member, and in attempting to assist both the community that accesses the website and Scott, the developer of the website, I’ve decided that I would create and release a free Vista gadget for the website.

This is one of my very first gadgets, so if there’s any bugs I’ll need you to let me know. I’ll be adding more features as you, the end users, suggest them to me. On the right hand side of this page, you’ll see a quick screenshot of the main gadget panel, that will display on your desktop.

To run this gadget, you need both an internet connection and a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista with the Windows Sidebar enabled. The gadget will utilise the RSS capabilities of the website to bring you the latest offers from the website.

Latest Version: 1.1

DOWNLOAD NOW | Read more about the OzBargain Website

Users Australia-wide are reporting issues in their Internet connection this evening, appearing to be an international issue.

In a post made on the Whirlpool forums titled “No0o0 the internets are dead”, users began to report issues with their BigPond internet connections, however soon after users from other companies began to report such issues. “..i’ve got all sorts of issues happening here…” said one user, “my net is well, almost dead :-(” said another.

Whilst we haven’t received a proper statement from BigPond, rumor has it that Telstra suffered a major national network outage which occurred between 8:25pm and 9:10pm in which their routes were withdrawn from the routing tables of several major carriers, including Optus and AAPT, causing the issues users are reporting.

If you here any more or have any comments, please use the comments box!

UPDATE #1: According to the whirlpool article, the issue was caused by “a faulty server at Telstra Internet Direct”

I am sure that a lot of people will take advantage of the new iTunes DRM-Free music downloads, where you have the ability to copy the music to any device without restriction. However, reports have been made that iTunes have a way to catch distributors out!

According to Ken Fisher from ars technica, both your full name and email address is encoded into all DRM-free music downloads.

With great power comes great responsibility, and apparently with DRM-free music comes files embedded with identifying information. Such is the situation with Apple’s new DRM-free music: songs sold without DRM still have a user’s full name and account e-mail embedded in them, which means that dropping that new DRM-free song on your favorite P2P network could come back to bite you.

The main reason for this move from iTunes appears to be piracy, affecting unsuspecting users who upload their latest downloads to P2P networks or share them around with friends. However, with this data easily being spoofed, how accurate is this information?

If you have any comments to make on this post, please use the comment box below.