Beyond Infinity

At last, the iPhone 12 Mini is here. For those who loved the form factor of 2012's iPhone 5 or lament smart phones' unrelenting increase in size and yearn for single-handed texting, this device is exactly what you've been waiting for. Piers tells all about the smallest fully-specced phone Apple has released in years and reckons there's a lot to like. Excited by this story? Keep us talking by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondInfinityRPP?fan_landing=true

John Young's long-term report on Oppo's high-spec smart phone. He discusses its useability, controls and big beautiful OLED screen. He loves the great battery life and super fast charging capability, but has reservations about over-heating under heavy use and noisy night shots.

Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer. 2-9/11/20: Australian state border closures continue, but there are signs of hope. International travel bubbles under consideration. Politics of covid. Vaccine developments. Victoria's travel restrictions finally lifted. Flu numbers down massively from last year. The need for asymptomatic testing in sensitive industries. Like what you hear? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources at beyondinfinity.com.au

A look at Apple's 2020 laptop line up - impressions of ownership, pros, cons and which one to choose. They all have the same premium feel and share many features, but it's the new M1 processor that looks like being well worth the wait, that is if you haven't already committed... Love your gadgets? Keep us talking and support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondInfinityRPP?fan_landing=true

In a major boost for Bitcoin and other leading cryptos, digital payment company PayPal is introducing the ability to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies and plans to significantly increase their utility by making them available as a funding source for purchases at its 26 million merchants worldwide from early 2021. The move is likely to increase the mainstream acceptance of digital currencies around the world. Fired up by this story? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources, at beyondinfinity.com.au

Tom Cruise is slated to make a movie in space. The action adventure star is renowned for doing his own stunts, so this should make for exciting entertainment. Though details are scarce, the project has the support of NASA and Elon Musk. NASA wants to commercialise activities on the space station and drum up public enthusiasm for its Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon. Excited by this story? Keep us talking by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondInfinityRPP?fan_landing=true

Research at the University of Bath's Center for Accountable, Transparent and Responsible Artificial Intelligence is developing a new technique that allows more fluent communication by either supporting or, even better, replacing the need to type out what you want to communicate, by using brain signals to do the ‘typing’ instead. Intrigued by this story? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources, at beyondinfinity.com.au

How sophisticated disinformation campaigns muddy the waters and make it harder to understand the truth about Covid-19 vaccines. Research at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the EUvsDisinfo Project sheds light on false narratives seeded through news channels and social media. Like this story? Keep us talking by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondInfinityRPP?fan_landing=true

A look at the very ambitious plan for NASA and its international partners to land people at Shackleton Crater at the moon's South Pole in 2024. Project Artemis includes the deep space Gateway space station in lunar orbit and a lunar surface base with in-situ resource utilisation. Eventually the technology and skills learned at the moon will enable a manned mission to Mars. Like this story? Keep us talking - Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondInfinityRPP?fan_landing=true

Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer. 16/10/20: Tough questions for the Premier from Peta Credlin. COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry. Unrealistic elimination policy. Analog Vs digital contact tracing. 26/10/20: Endless lockdown. Northern metro outbreak. Government messaging. Asymptomatic spreading. Acceptable risk management. Comparison with NSW covid approach. Mounting pressure on Victorian government. Mornington Peninsula lockdown. Paralysis in decision making. Like this story? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources at beyondinfinity.com.au

In September 2020, the internet exploded with news of life existing at the Earth's twin planet. The James Clerk Maxwell telescope in Hawaii and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile found the biomarker phosphine - a phosphorus and hydrogen molecule - high in the Venusian atmosphere. But there are deep doubts about how life could exist at Venus, given its hellish surface temperature and crushing noxious atmosphere. Scientists admit there will need to be corroborative measurements and that phosphine can exist without any connection to life. Spaced Out by this story? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources at beyondinfinity.com.au

John explains why he didn't buy a new Pixel 5 (he bought an Oppo Find X2 Pro instead). But he's still a fan of this mid-range smart phone from Google. He likes the OLED screen, great battery life (with shared charging capability), advanced camera system and 5G connectivity. He reckons for many people it's a perfectly good alternative to some of the high-end, uber-exxy phones out there. Like this story? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources at beyondinfinity.com.au

Live-to-air radio interview on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer and Shivani Pillai. 9/10/20: Melbourne GPs dealing with much higher incidence of mental illness, especially among young patients and new mums. Anti-depressants prescribed to 12 year olds. Dr. Stacey Harris's open letter to Premier Andrews. Doctors meeting with new health minister Martin Foley. Great Barrington Declaration signed by leading epidemiologists.

Piers talks with busy Melbourne GP Dr. Stacey Harris about the disturbing incidence of mental health issues among her young patients and new mothers. Dr. Harris says lockdowns do more harm than good and have caused a mental health crisis in Melbourne. She insists we can open up safely, with an emphasis on more robust contact tracing and that the huge cost of striving for corona virus elimination is too high and may not even be achievable. Like this story? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources at beyondinfinity.com.au

Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer and Shivani Pillai. 25/9/20: How good is the covid modelling? Alternative views on lockdown from Irish Youtuber Ivor Cummins who says masks are useless and lockdowns are a "medieval" solution. Lessons from Sweden. 2/10/20: Growing frustration from senior Melbourne doctors. Why won't the Victorian government listen to their serious concerns over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic? They say outdoor exercise and sport is safe and should be allowed; that we need to open up.

Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer and Shivani Pillai. 11/9/20: The Covid Doctors Network open letter to Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. Bureaucracy not medical experts driving government response to pandemic. Devastation of business from prolonged lockdown. Government in crisis. 18/9/20: Vaccine espionage - all countries are spying on each other. Hacking and biotech companies targeted by hackers. Race for a vaccine. Fast testing options. Early vaccines in Russia and China.

Box Hill Hospital urologist Geoff Wells says Melbourne's prolonged hard lockdown is causing depression and elevated anxiety, especially among adolescents. Citing unjust discrimination against young people, he says schools should open and people should be allowed to play sport and exercise outdoors. Geoff is critical of the Victorian government's disproportionate approach to the pandemic; the virus does discriminate between young and the elderly with pre-existing illness. He calls for more open dialogue between the government, medical experts and the community and reckons Premier Daniel Andrews "is not prepared to learn from us (doctors), which is extremely worrying and extremely disappointing". Like this story? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources at beyondinfinity.com.au

Resident techie John Young recently took possession of a pair of Jabra Elite 75T in-ear buds and he's pretty impressed. He says they're comfy to wear all day, work well for phone calls, "hey google" commands and have particularly good sound reproduction of streaming music. Jabra Elite 75t https://amzn.to/3juI1PQ #ad #CommissionsEarned Like this story? Check out our searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, complete with show notes and other resources, at beyondinfinity.com.au

Piers talks hacking with Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at RMIT. Ian continues the discussion of a range of different hacking methods, including backdoors and trapdoors, logic bombs, man-in-the-middle attacks, trojans, malware and viruses. Part 2 of a 2 part interview. Like this podcast? Donate and become a Beyond Infinity Patron. https://www.patreon.com/BeyondInfinityRPP/creators

Piers is joined by Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Ian shares his in-depth knowledge from years of teaching data security and anti-hacking courses. Topics covered include information security for businesses, public key encryption, cryptography and various kinds of hack attack. Part 1 of a 2 part interview. **For our complete searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, plus show notes and other resources, check out our program website beyondinfinity.com.au