Research In Motion (RIM) will ship the BlackBerry Bold 9000 multimedia smartphone this northern summer. It features a world-first for a BlackBerry: It supports Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g), tri-band HSDPA high-speed Internet access and has an integrated GPS. The new “Push Button Setup” will make it faster to connect to protected wireless networks that require a sign on process

The BlackBerry Bold comes with 128 MB Flash memory, 1 GB on-board storage memory and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot where you can add further storage. Apart from being a phone, it also manages your email, messaging, organiser and web browser. The supplied DataViz Documents to Go suite enables you to view and edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.

The 480 x 320 colour display is fused to the lens, which promises to show videos and pictures with great clarity. The photograph on the left suggests that the viewable area is very small, but judging by from other images seen on the web, it appears that during video playback the full screen area is used. That is probably also the case while browsing the web or reading emails. Streaming videos can be watched via RTSP – real-time streaming protocol and you can download files from websites and save them on the phone’s memory storage.

At 2 Megapixels, the camera won’t attract much interest, but it has a flash and 5x digital zoom. The USB 2.0 interface enables the device to sync with and transfer files from a PC.

The media player comes with Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry and Roxio Photosuite 9 LE, which enable you to enhance pictures and create photo albums on your computer. You can also sync iTunes music collections with the smartphone. Music can be played through its stereo speakers or headphones and you get 11 pre-set equaliser settings.

The integrated GPS works even while you are on a call, so you can be talking to a rescuer while giving them your precise location!

Premium phone features include Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), Bluetooth 2.0, which supports hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including the ones that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile) and other Bluetooth peripherals. Its quad-band EDGE and tri-band HSDPA support global roaming.

Smart phone features include dedicated “send”, “end” and “mute” keys, smart dialling, speed dialling, conference calling and call forwarding. Its noise cancellation technology masks background noise. There is a powerful speakerphone and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.

The removable rechargeable 1500 mAh battery provides talk time of about 5 hours and 13 days standby time. Supplied extras include a stereo headset, travel charger, carrying case or sleeve and USB cable.

You will soon be able to pre-order the BlackBerry Bold 9000 at Amazon.

Popularity: 5% [?]

So says a press release from Transcend, announcing the new StoreJet 35 Ultra, an actively cooled eSATA external hard drive. Of course, you would say that if you were flogging an actively cooled drive. I have about six external drives and none have cooked themselves to death so far.

All the same, the StoreJet 35 Ultra has attractive specs. It measures 197.5mm by 127.5mm by 48mm and comes in an aluminium case that takes a 3.5-inch SATA hard drive. There are two connection options: A 3.0Gb/s eSATA interface and a 480Mb/s USB 2.0 interface.

What does active cooling mean? For this unit, it means an extra-quiet 80mm high-flow fan that cools the hard drive. It also comes bundled with StoreJet elite software, which offers intelligent backup scheduling, security, and file compression.

The Transcend StoreJet 35 Ultra supports all commonly used operating systems, including Windows 2000 / XP / Vista, Apple Mac and Linux . You can buy it with either a pre-installed 500 GB SATA hard drive, or you can buy just the enclosure and add your own 3.5-inch drive.

Popularity: 5% [?]

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian association websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to be the best. Best means trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. This list does not imply that one site is better than another - that exercise is left to the marketing head of each website. If your site ranks in the top 10 or top 20 for the typical search phrases used by ordinary people, then your website is a winner!

Well done to the webmasters!

According to a Google.com.au search for “www” and restricting it to .asn.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. Australian Breastfeeding Association
2. NATA
3. Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA)
4. FPA
5. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
6. Australian Industry Group
7. Bicycle SA
8. Australian Council of Trade Unions
9. AASW
10. 101FM Logan City
11. Australian Water Association
12. Carers Queensland
13. Australian Bankers Association
14. Australian Automobile Association
15. Australian Anthropological Society
16. Financial Industry Complaints Service
17. Australian Council for International Development
18. ALA
19. Mental Health Association
20. Chiropractors’ Association of Australia
21. Australian Local Government Association
22. ASFA
23. APESMA
24. Law Institute of Victoria
25. Cancer Council WA
26. Law Council of Australia
27. Local Government Association of Queensland
28. Australian Institute of Food Science Technology
29. Ai Group (incorporating AEEMA)
30. Australasian College of Dermatologists
31. APA
32. The Law Society
33. The National Folk Festival
34. NECA
35. Surf Life Saving Australia
36. Carers NSW
37. Queensland Writers Centre
38. The Australasian Evaluation Society
39. Institute of Actuaries of Australia
40. APC
41. Craft Victoria
42. Netball Australia
43. Australian Employers Network on Disability
44. Municipal Association of Victoria
45. Water Services Association of Australia
46. Australian Institute of International Affairs
47. Women’s Legal Service NSW
48. Public Interest Advocacy Centre
49. New South Wales Bar Association
50. Food Safety Information Council
51. Logistics Association of Australia
52. Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory
53. Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch)
54. Law Society of South Australia
55. RSPCA Western Australia
56. Carers WA
57. Palliative Care Victoria
58. WMAA
59. VAC/GMHCe
60. Optometrists Association Australia
61. The Australian Gas Association
62. Film and Television Institute
63. Restaurant & Catering Australia
64. WALGA
65. Bicycle Federation of Australia
66. Australian Music Association
67. The Australian Association of Gerontology
68. Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists
69. Alzheimer’s Australia NSW (redirect)
70. Native Fish Australia
71. Motor Neurone Disease Association of New South Wales
72. CRC Association
73. Pride Western Australia Inc.
74. Australian Pituitary Foundation
75. SNAICC
76. Energy Networks Association
77. Australian Law Students’ Association
78. Palliative Care Council of South Australia
79. NSW Nurses’ Association
80. West Australian Music Industry
81. GriefLink
82. Australian Marine Sciences Association
83. Immigration Advice and Rights Centre
84. Australian Institute of Radiography
85. AVBC
86. SimTecT 2008 Simulation Conference and Exhibition
87. ASSDA
88. ParaQuad Victoria
89. UNYA
90. Australian Shareholders’ Association
91. APMF Australian Paint Manufacturers Federation
92. A3P
93. AEPCA
94. Australian Practice Nurses Association
95. The Push
96. MTBA
97. Dads in Distress
98. Australian Forest Growers
99. Theatre Australia
100. Aged and Community Services Association of NSW & ACT

Popularity: 8% [?]

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian government websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to have trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. Well done to their webmasters!

According to a Google.com.au search for “www” and limiting it to .gov.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. www.gov.au
2. Department of Immigration and Citizenship
3. Medicare Australia
4. Parliament of Australia
5. Innovation.gov.au
6. Centrelink
7. Australian War Memorial
8. Australian National Maritime Museum
9. Australian Taxation Office
10. National Museum of Australia
11. National Parks and Wildlife Service
12. City of Melbourne
13. Better Health Channel
14. Department of Veterans’ Affairs
15. Australian Bureau of Statistics
16. Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
17. AIATSIS
18. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace
19. Bureau of Meteorology
20. Customs
21. Department of Health and Ageing
22. Office of the Privacy Commissioner
23. Austrade - Australian Trade Commission
24. Department of Human Services
25. Department of the Environment, Water and Heritage
26. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
27. Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
28. IP Australia
29. National Library of Australia
30. Australian Securities and Investments Commission
31. affa.gov.au
32. Biotechnology Australia
33. ACCC
34. AusAID
35. business.gov.au
36. australia.gov.au
37. Department of Climate Change
38. Community Water Grants
39. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
40. Reserve Bank of Australia
41. Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
42. Northern Territory Government
43. AusIndustry
44. Going to Uni
45. Victoria Police
46. Geoscience Australia
47. workplace.gov.au
48. Food Standards Australia New Zealand
49. dewr.gov.au
50. Victoria Online
51. ACT Government
52. Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
53. Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
54. Queensland Government
55. Workplace Authority
56. City of Sydney
57. ACMA
58. Australian Sports Commission
59. National Archives of Australia
60. Australian Antarctic Division
61. NSW RTA
62. National Health and Medical Research Council
63. Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
64. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
65. NSW Government Portal
66. Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO)
67. Internet Visa Services Australia
68. Superannuation Complaints Tribunal
69. HealthInsite
70. ascc.gov.au
71. Therapeutic Goods Administration
72. Attorney-General’s Department
73. Australian Electoral Commission
74. Wagenet
75. Prime Minister of Australia
76. NOIE (AGIMO redirection page)
77. NTIS
78. Art Gallery of New South Wales
79. Government Education Portal
80. Endeavour Awards
81. The Treasury
82. NT WorkSafe
83. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
84. National Gallery of Australia
85. Productivity Commission
86. Australian Federal Police
87. Department of Defence
88. Australia Council for the Arts
89. GreenPower
90. South Australia Central
91. Australian Institute of Criminology
92. Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation
93. SCAMwatch
94. Australian Government Emergency Management Australia
95. Brisbane City Council
96. Australian Institute of Marine Science
97. Australian Museum Online
98. ComLaw
99. Energy Rating
100. NSW Health

Since government departments tend to follow similar guidelines within their own level, e.g. a particular state or the Federal government, it was interesting to observe a variety of labelling practices. Not surprisingly, many webmasters still use the phrases “Welcome to …” or “home page” in the title tag. There is nothing wrong being neighbourly to web visitors, but SEO best practice advises against wasting this most valuable part of a web page on something non-essential.

There was no consistency with the way the titles were phrased - many used the official name, e.g. “Department of Blah”, while some used the contraction. Do you know what is AIATSIS? Now I know it is the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. My preference would be to see the official title first in the title text. Since Google does not show more than 62 characters in the results heading, the viewer is left guessing what comes after “The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development …”

The Federal government and national heritage websites have done a lot better than have the state governments when it comes to ranking. This is probably because they have a lot of quality incoming links, including from some state websites and large companies, whereas not many Federal sites would link to the various states. Local government has fared very poorly, again because of a lack of quality inbound links. At a quick glance, the first city council websites appear below #400.

This ranking is largely of academic interest, as the query looks for trust and authority. It does not attempt to show where a site would rank for a targeted search, such as “Waverley council rates enquiries” - the NSW council of that name ranks in the top two results. Each marketing manager of the representative departments should identify such important keyphrases and see if they rank in the top 20 results in Google, Live, Yahoo or Sensis. This is not something for the “IT department” to solve, even though they might nominally control access to the website.

Popularity: 8% [?]

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian organisational websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to be the best. Best in this context means trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. Well done to their webmasters!

According to a Google.com search for “www” and limiting it to .org.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. Standards Australia
2. Australian Computer Society
3. Beyond Blue
4. A C O S S
5. Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia
6. PBS FM
7. Oxfam Australia
8. Australian Copyright Council
9. Heart Foundation
10. Australian Red Cross
11. Bicycle NSW
12. FBi Radio
13. Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating
14. Lungnet
15. Sydney Festival 2008
16. Lifeline Australia
17. Ian Potter Foundation
18. WSC
19. Engineers Australia
20. Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia
21. Alzheimers Australia
22. Vision Australia
23. The Cancer Council
24. AusCERT
25. ACF
26. Australian Psychological Society
27. Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
28. Zoos Victoria
29. Bayside Health
30. Triple R FM
31. Black Dog Institute
32. C31
33. Greening Australia
34. Amnesty International Australia
35. WWF Australia
36. 3CR Community Radio
37. Royal College of Nursing, Australia
38. National Prescribing Service Limited
39. Australian Labor Party
40. The Australia Institute
41. Quit Victoria
42. MEAA
43. Australian Drug Foundation
44. St Vincent de Paul Society Australia
45. Phillip Island Nature Park
46. Greenpeace Australia Pacific
47. RSPCA Australia
48. World Federation Of Occupational Therapists
49. Salvos.org.au
50. National Institute of Accountants
51. NAPCAN
52. Mensline Australia
53. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
54. The Wilderness Society
55. National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre
56. CARE Australia
57. Starlight Foundation
58. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
59. Kidney Health Australia
60. Australian Dental Association
61. The Official Great Ocean Road website
62. Leukaemia Foundation
63. Australian Academy of Science
64. Reconciliation Australia
65. 3MBS Radio
66. Ecotourism Australia
67. The Cancer Council
68. Liberal Party of Australia
69. Refugee Council of Australia
70. Sydney Writers’ Festival
71. VECCI
72. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
73. Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman
74. Minerals Council of Australia
75. Variety, The Childrens Charity
76. Philanthropy Australia
77. The Career Development Association of Australia
78. National Asthma Council Australia
79. Green Left
80. Australian Independent Records Labels Association
81. Australian Medical Council
82. Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation
83. GetUp!
84. Arthritis Victoria
85. Lawstuff.org
86. National Breast Cancer Foundation
87. Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia
88. The Centre for Independent Studies
89. Franchise Council of Australia
90. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council
91. Save the Children Australia
92. The Salvation Army in Australia - National
93. JOY 94.9
94. Australian Film Institute
95. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
96. Friends of the Earth Australia
97. St John Ambulance Australia
98. COTA
99. auDA
100. AVN

Note that this list does not imply that one website is better than another. After all, the only ranking that matters is where your website appears in a search for your typical search terms, e.g. “first aid classes in Richmond VIC” (ranking for fewer words in the phrase is harder). As long as your site is within the top 10 or top 20 for your most valuable keyphrases, you are a winner!

Popularity: 8% [?]

It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian business websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to be the best. “Best” in this context means trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. Well done to their webmasters!

According to a Google.com search for “www” and limiting it to .org.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. Qantas
2. SEEK
3. Optus
4. Virgin Blue
5. Regional Express
6. www.standards.com.au
7. Foster’s Group
8. News.com.au
9. RACV
10. Australia Post
11. Commonwealth Bank Group
12. Crown Casino
13. SBS Online
14. Australian Grand Prix
15. Budget Rent a Car
16. Sydney Morning Herald
17. Greenfleet
18. Skybus Super Shuttle
19. Lend Lease
20. Google
21. Transport Infoline
22. Deep Purple OnLine
23. ‘Coca Cola’ 600 ml Buddy
24. Diabetes Australia
25. Australian Securities Exchange
26. Courier Mail
27. Skywest Airlines
28. RealEstate.com.au
29. Vibe Hotels
30. Stockland Trust Group
31. Ansett Australia (not kidding!)
32. Choice Hotels
33. Yellow.com.au
34. Ticketmaster
35. Adelaide Festival
36. Domain.com.au
37. Mirvac Group
38. VisitCanberra
39. Australian Venture Capital Association
40. National Australia Bank
41. Ticketek Australia
42. Builder AU
43. YHA Australia
44. Westpac
45. Melbourne IT
46. Whitepages.com.au
47. Nova100
48. The Menzies Hotel
49. CareerOne
50. Mooloolaba Underwater World
51. The Australian
52. Triple M Sydney
53. MyTalk
54. Kids Help Line
55. Australian Hearing
56. TransLink
57. Heart Foundation
58. Greyhound Australia
59. Cargo
60. Reach Out!
61. Museum of Contemporary Art
62. moshtix
63. Medibank Private
64. Metlink
65. Win Television
66. BestRestaurants
67. CPA Australia
68. Centro Properties Group
69. Airnorth
70. Conservation Volunteers
71. Mirvac Hotels and Resorts
72. Sydney Airport
73. Australian INfront
74. MacAir Airlines
75. CHOICE
76. Fox
77. Tony Attwood
78. eBay Australia
79. CeBIT Australia
80. Queensland Tourism & Travel
81. Harris Technology
82. 2DayFM
83. Australia’s Great Train Journeys
84. Graduate Careers Australia
85. Public Relations Institute of Australia
86. DA Information Services
87. Relationships Australia
88. NetComm Australia
89. The Medical Journal of Australia
90. Australian Football League
91. Macquarie Group Australia
92. Nova969
93. NAATI
94. The Good Guides
95. ourcommunity.com.au
96. rugby.com.au
97. Harvey World Travel
98. Challenger Financial Services Group
99. Sydney.com.au
100. Penfolds

Popularity: 10% [?]