Apple’s iPhone 5 is now available in stores across Australia, with Apple, Telstra and Optus opening their doors early to accommodate immense interest. The front of the crowd queuing for iPhone 5 in Sydney. (Credit: Joe Hanlon/CNET) Sydneysiders gathered on George St in the CBD, most of whom queued at the Apple flagship store. Telstra …

Pure might be better known for its range of digital radios but it’s turning its attention to the set-top box market and going after Lord Sugar’s YouView. The Avalon 300R is a set-top box that gives you access to to all the Freeview channels, as well as BBC’s iPlayer and YouTube. The 300R isn’t the first box of its kind …

Wal-Mart will no longer sell Amazon’s Kindle products, highlighting the tensions between the online and physical retail worlds. The retailing giant confirmed in an e-mail that it would no longer carry the product beyond its current inventory. Reuters earlier reported the decision. Amazon declined to comment. The decision to cease selling Amazon’s products comes as the online retailer is eating …

Now playing: Watch this: Set up Passbook in iOS 6 2:45 Passbook is Apple’s first foray into something that slightly resembles a mobile payment solution. Passbook is a new app included in iOS 6 that allows merchants to develop Passes to be stored in the user’s Passbook. With the release of iOS 6 only a few hours old, there aren’t …

Are you forever checking your destination on your desktop computer then trotting off with your phone, only to realise you don’t have the address stored to guide you there? Google’s putting an end to that by letting Android Maps on your phone sync your searches with your desktop. The update means that when you’ve typed a search query into Google …

More customers are moving to Verizon Wireless’ “Share Everything” plan than the carrier anticipated, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said today. Not only are more customers switching to the shared offering, Shammo said, but they’re also adding more devices than Verizon had expected. And a lot of those people are customers who previously had unlimited data plans. “We’re surprised …

Groupon Payments, the daily-deals provider’s answer to Square, is going nationwide. The company announced on its blog yesterday that its merchants across the U.S. will now be able to sign up for Groupon Payments. Upon doing so, they’ll be able to accept major credit cards by simply popping the Groupon card swipe accessory into an iPhone or iPod Touch and …

Mozilla, best known for its popular open-source web browser Firefox, has a new mobile operating system called Firefox OS — and it’s set to run on new ZTE phones at the start of next year. ZTE is the world’s fourth largest phone maker and is making a bid to branch out from its well-regarded range of inexpensive Android smart phones …

CNET The iPhone 5 goes on sale tomorrow, and you’re wondering if it’s worth standing in line for. Join Scott, Josh Lowensohn and me for a 30 minute Google+ Hangout discussing the iPhone 5, starting today at 2:30 pm Pacific. We had one of these a few days ago and it worked out so well, we figured we’d try another …

iOS 6 is out now, adding a fistful of features to your iPhone 5, iPad or iPod touch — and taking a few away too. Here’s what you’ve been saying about the new Apple software. CNET UK reader Kyle Cartmill is impressed: “Like the VIP in mail. Also the ‘can’t answer call’ text message idea. Siri is great now too, I asked …

We’ve been hearing a lot of stories around the Web about how the Apple Maps app in iOS 6 is proving to be a poor replacement for the former Google-powered Maps app in iOS 5. Some of the stories say the Apple app doesn’t show certain roads that are obviously there in real life, while others say they’ve followed directions …

I’ve updated this hands-on to reflect Siri’s new tricks in iOS6; it originally posted June 21, 2012 comparing S Voice on the Galaxy S3 — which is still current — to Siri on iOS 5. If you’re wondering, tomorrow I’ll be comparing the updated Siri to Google Voice Actions. Voice assistants like Siri, S Voice, Google Actions, and Microsoft’s TellMe …

Patent troll Unwired Planet has gone on the offensive against Apple and Google. The company has reportedly filed patent-infringement complaints against the companies over their alleged use of its intellectual property in mobile products. Unwired Planet charges Apple with violating 10 patents related to everything from its device designs to cloud services. Google, too, was hit with 10 claims. RRT …

Optus is now selling its first 4G smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S3 4G, with prices starting from AU$51 per month. (Credit: Samsung) The telco’s subsidiary, Virgin Mobile, is also offering the Samsung handset. Both carriers offer the new handset on a range of plans, starting from AU$30 per month, up to and including unlimited plans on both services. Both have …

MetroPCS today announced that its next smartphone, the ZTE Anthem 4G, will join the company’s roster in the coming weeks. As the first 4G LTE handset from ZTE in the United States, the device is a mixed bag of midrange Android. The Anthem 4G runs (only) Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and features a a 4.3-inch WVGA display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, …