Exetel has offered a residential mobile service since February 2005. We have a range of per minute and capped plans to suit your specific requirements. Exetel offers a residential mobile service via the Optus network.

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The new iPhone 5 is here. It’s thinner and faster than ever, with a new form factor that uses a gorgeous panoramic screen with more resolution and less consumption. It also surfs the web much faster, thanks to its new LTE capabilities. And, as rumoured, it has a new smaller dock connector called Lightning.

Physical Specifications
The iPhone 5 looks exactly like what we saw in leaked photos, including a unibody aluminium body with a glass screen. “It’s thinner than ever,” says Phil Schiller. Specifically, it’s 18 per cent thinner than the previous iPhone, which puts it at 7.6mm thick. Apple is also claiming that the iPhone 5 is the world’s thinnest smartphone.

It’s also 20 per cent lighter than the current iPhone, weighing just 112 grams. You have a choice between two-tone black/slate or white/silver models.

According to Jon Ive, Apple has “never built a product with this extraordinary level of fit and finish”. He claims that the “variances from product to product is now measured in microns”.

Connectivity
As expected, the iPhone 5 uses LTE connectivity, so browsing the web and streaming media will be be a much faster experience compared to the current iPhone 4S. It supports all the standards needed for all carriers: HSPA+, DC-HSDPA and LTE. Apple says that its single-chip solution works everywhere.

The iPhone 5 also has dual-channel 5GHz Wi-Fi (802.11n), which allows for 150Mbps maximum connectivity speed.

Screen
Apple claims that the new 4-inch panoramic screen with 16:9 aspect ratio has 44 per cent more saturation than the previous iPhone, which makes the display on the new iPhone 5 full sRGB. The display has its touchscreen sensor built in, which is crucial to achieving that thinner design. Apple says that no other phone in the market has this technology.

Brains
Apple claims the iPhone 5′s new A6 chip is twice as fast as the A5 chip in the iPhone 4S, both in CPU and graphics. In real terms, Apple claims that it loads web pages 2.1 times faster.

Battery Life
Apple claims eight hours of 3G talk time, eight hours of LTE browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 30 hours of video watching and 225 hours on standby. If this turns out to be true in real terms, it will be impressive.

Camera Features
Apple has also updated the camera. It does better than the iPhone 4S, with a five-element lens, 8MP sensor, backside illumination, hybrid infrared filter for better colour, and a nice f/2.4 aperture.

It has a new dynamic low-light mode (I wonder how it compares to Nokia’s) and, best of all, a sapphire crystal construction. When you consider how scratches on the lens can make photos look less crisp, this is good news.

The new image-processing chip has spatial noise reduction technology that reduces noise in areas of an image that need it, while leaving the rest of the image alone. As a result, Apple claims that low-light photography performs much better than it did on the previous iPhone.

Image capture is 40 per cent faster, Apple says. The iPhone 4S camera was pretty fast, so it will be interesting to see how that increased speed feels. Certainly, there’s no such a thing as fast enough when it comes to taking photos.

Panorama Mode
Apple has also added a new panorama mode. It doesn’t require you to stitch photos one by one — just pan the phone and it will automatically capture and stitch together a panorama for you. Even if you can’t hold it steady, the phone is supposedly smart enough to know how to correct for it. Apple says it also gets rid of any moving objects in the frame.

Video face detection
Like the previous iPhone, the new one has 1080p HD capture. Apple claims to have improved the image stabilisation in this version, added face detection (so it will be able to tag people automatically in videos) and allow you to take full-size still photos while recording video.

Front FaceTime camera
Apple has also improved the 720p front camera on the iPhone 5. It now features face detection and — at last — the operating system will enable FaceTime over a 3G/4G connection.

Audio
Apple has also upgraded the iPhone’s audio capabilities with improvements to the microphones and the speakers. It now has three microphones — front, back and bottom — which will improve the quality of your voice calls and sound recordings. More importantly, noise cancelling in included without the need for external specialised headphones.

The speakers have much better quality now, going from three to five magnet transducers, which will result in a clearer, richer sound. Any improvement over the cricket boxes of previous versions is welcome.

The iPhone 5 also improves on voice calls. According to Phil Schiller, the new iPhone 5 can use something called wideband audio. If it’s supported by the carrier, the phone will use more of the spectrum bandwidth to send a much better, higher fidelity version of your voice over the network. Telstra utilises this technology in selected phones on its Next G network — you may know it as HD Voice.

New Connector
As predicted, the dock connector is now smaller. Apple calls it Lightning (a name play of its other connector technology: Thunderbolt). It’s all digital and has eight connectors. It also has an adaptive interface, which I guess means that the connector will send different signals according to the kind of features you need in your connection.

They best thing about the new connector is that it is reversible. This may seem strange, but being able to connect your cable without worrying about which side is up will protect humanity against the 529th Article of Murphy’s Law: “Thou will always try to connect your iPhone cable on the wrong side.”

Does that mean that you would have to trash your old dock accessory? No, Apple is giving us an adaptor that will turn the old connector into the new Lightning. Phil Schiller says that Apple is working with peripheral manufacturers to include Lightning in the next batch of products, which will arrive in time for Christmas.

Price and Availability

Apple is keeping the same prices as the previous generation iPhone. In the US, the 16GB is $US199, the 32GB is $US299 and the 64GB is $US399, all with a two-year contract. We’ll let you know what each of Australian carriers will be charging in due course, along with Apple’s own outright prices.

Update: Apple’s recommended retail prices for Australia will be $799 for the 16GB model, $899 for the 32GB model and $999 for the 64GB model.

Apple has also dropped the price of the iPhone 4S to $679, while the iPhone 4 will drop to $449. iOS 6 will be available as a free software update on Wednesday, September 19.

Pre-orders will begin on Friday in Australia, the United States, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The earlier delivery date will be the following Friday, September 21. All other countries will have the iPhone 5 on September 28.

	Woolworths has launched Woolworths Mobile Pre-Paid Caps, the latest edition to their prepaid mobile range of services. Powered by Optus the $29 and $49 Caps offer great value and data options.

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Notes:
1 – rate per 30 seconds. ^Charged in 1 min blocks
2 – expiry period in days
3 – cost of a 2 minute call. Number of 2 minute calls made with $100 credit.

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Notes:
1 – rate per 30 seconds. ^Charged in 1 min blocks
2 – expiry period in days
3 – cost of a 2 minute call. Number of 2 minute calls made with $100 credit.

	Dodo Pre-Paid Mobile is the easiest way to control the level of usage on your mobile, and with one of the lowest call rates in the country and no flagfall you can’t go wrong. Each recharge comes with call credit and minimum of 60 days to use it.

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1 – rate per 30 seconds. ^Charged in 1 min blocks
2 – expiry period in days
3 – cost of a 2 minute call. Number of 2 minute calls made using credit provided to any network (excludes calls within network). Where no minimum credit is indicated, $20 is used.

Apple launched its new iPhone 4S in San Francisco but stopped short of releasing an improved iPhone 5. Apple also confirmed the new iOS 5 software will be available from October 13 in Australia.

The iPhone 4S  is powered by the new A5 chip, the same in the iPad 2, which allows the iPhone to run twice as fast and process graphics seven times faster than the iPhone 4. It has an eight-megapixel camera, longer battery life and a new antenna that automatically changes between transmit and receive to maintain a consistent signal.

Apple brags the device now has eight hours of 3G talk time, 14 hours of 2G talk time, six hours of 3G browsing, nine hours of Wi-Fi browsing and 10 hours of video.

The device also has both CDMA and GSM, which will allow users to roam on overseas networks using the same phone. Apple calls it a “world phone”.

It is great to see that the camera has been given a significant upgrade, with better white balance, the ability to record video at 1080p HD, and new face-recognition technology. Colour sensors have also been given an upgrade, with sharpness up by 30%, while double-tapping the home button now opens the camera.

AirPlay Mirroring will now also be included which although not exactly new for tablets , it does mean that iPhone 4S customers can play games on their iPhone while streaming through an Apple TV to a television set.

The 4S will debut on October 14. Australia has now joined the elite group who access the iPhone 4S early. Other countries include the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Japan.

In terms of pricing the iPhone 4S will cost $799 for 16GB, $899 for 32GB and $999 for 64GB outright.

Club Telco Mobile Plans

Our vision is to offer our members the very best solutions at competitive prices with no hidden fees, no long term contracts and your very own dedicated customer service account manager – a first for the Australian telecommunications industry. At ClubTelco we provide an extensive range of products and services, including Broadband, Wireless Broadband, Mobile, Home Phone and VoIP.

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Get the best unlimited deal in town – with a tiny 30-day commitment instead of lock-in contract. Enjoy unlimited standard national calls, voicemail, messaging and unlimited national access to social networks like Facebook and popular shopping sites like eBay. Plus get a huge 4GB worth of data (all within Australia). If you’re a chatterbox or frequent texter, with amaysim UNLIMITED you can focus on your friends instead of worrying about the cost.

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We offer the most competitive SIM only deals in Australia and all our mobile services run on the Optus Mobile Digital Network so you can be assured of great 3G coverage. Live Connected was founded with one really clear vision. Help you live connected with the people you care about without having to worry about your mobile bills. To achieve this we looked for where we could take costs out of the business so that we could pass these savings onto you.

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TPG Mobile Plans

Sign up with TPG Mobile and you will receive the following benefits:* The ability to switch your mobile phone number for use on our new Mobile plans. We support number porting from prepaid and postpaid plan. * Online billing, which gives you a complete breakdown of your call charges to assist you in tracking your daily spend. * Ability to bring your own unlocked mobile phone (BYO) or purchase a phone from TPG at super cheap prices. * No contract.

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	At Think Mobile our philosophy is simply better value for our customers. We offer award winning plans that are simple and easy to understand backed with exceptional customer service and absolutely no compromise for value. We pride ourselves on offering the best Customer Service and we do this by providing local knowledgeable and friendly staff.

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