In July last year the Australian Communications and Media Authority announced a new framework for how 1800 and 13/1300 calls would be charged when made from mobile phones. Mobile telecommunications providers had previously come under fire for charging for 1800 calls which were free from landlines. A ‘Fair Calls for All’ campaign from the Australia …

The Federal Communications Commission’s latest wireless spectrum auction, which raised a whopping $45 billion for the federal government, may have filled the government’s coffers but it was a “disaster” for American mobile customers, said T-Mobile CEO John Legere. John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, speaks at an Un-carrier event in SF in 2014. Josh MIller/CNET The FCC’s most recent auction — …

Google’s Spiral 2 prototype currently has a 5-megapixel camera that you could swap out for a more powerful lens. Juan Garzón/CNET If you’ve ever wished you could pick from a pile of parts and make your own smartphone, Project Ara is your Android wish come true. Run out of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP), Ara proposes that phone …

Matt Elliott/CNET Suffering from tab overload? If your browsing habits have you opening too many tabs during the course of a day, you can offload some to Air Browser, a Mac app that lets you access up to seven websites from the menu bar. When you launch Air Browser, it puts an icon in your menu bar. When adding a …

The Prime Minister wants data retention laws to be passed “swiftly”. Tony Abbott on Facebook Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned that Australia’s law enforcement agencies face “unilateral disarmament” in the eyes of criminals if metadata laws are not passed “swiftly”. The comments came at a doorstop interview during which the PM discussed child protection, accompanied by Dan Tehan, chairman …

The Touch ID sensor on Apple’s iPhone and iPad allows you to unlock your device, verify your identity and buy stuff with your fingerprint. CNET The UK’s biggest bank is letting customers access their accounts with a swipe of their finger on their iPhone’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor. NatWest, the UK’s largest commercial and retail bank, is part of the …

LoopPay promises you’ll never carry a wallet again. CNET Samsung has acquired mobile payments startup LoopPay, as good a sign as any that it will soon launch a competitor to Apple Pay. The company didn’t disclose the terms of the deal Wednesday but said it stemmed from an existing partnership with LoopPay. Samsung plans to show off a new mobile …

Joan E. Solsman/CNET Netflix, the US-based video streaming service set to launch in Australia next month, has revealed a line-up of local comedy specials and children’s TV shows that will be available from launch. The shows come via a content deal with Beyond Distribution, a division of Beyond Entertainment. Beyond is an Australian TV, film and entertainment producer and distributor. …

Sarah Tew/CNET Portability and space-saving for computers are generally traits of slim laptops and lightweight tablets, or the new generation of hybrid PCs that combine aspects of both. Several years ago, an eternity in technology time, there was another popular breed of small computers, called small form factor or media center PCs. Some connected to TVs for media streaming and …

The LG G Flex 2 uses the Snapdragon 810 chip. Josh Miller/CNET When discussing new smartphones, people may highlight the speed of the processor or the sharpness of the display. But the modem chip — the thing that actually lets a smartphone make phone calls — many times gets ignored. Qualcomm, the world’s largest smartphone-chip maker, is hoping it can …