Allan Asher will move on after just a year as inaugural CEO of the recently formed Australian Consumer and Communications Action Network (ACCAN) to take up the role of the  Commonwealth Ombudsman.

The Australian Computer Society, which will host the 21st World Computer Congress in Brisbane in September, has unveiled a stellar line up of speakers for the event including author and opinion-shaper Nicholas Carr, the UK Government’s CIO John Suffolk and Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Movement.

Skype has finally released Skype 2.0.1 for iPhone with full multitasking support, including the decision to drop charges for calls made over the 3G network, but in what is a massive disappointment, there is still no support for Bluetooth headsets.

Google’s superphone online selling “direct to the public” experiment is finally over, with Google shutting down its Nexus One online store, with continuing sales only available to developers and from carriers in a handful of countries.

The Internet Systems Consortium has called for more people to download and test version 10 of the venerable BIND software that is used to run domain name servers.

Microsoft has released pricing for the Xbox 360 Kinect motion and voice sensing controller.  Arriving before Christmas and packaged with a game, Microsoft is going aggressive with its controllerless push.  News also of a new 4GB Xbox 360 Arcade model hitting the market.

A day after the announcement that Google will soon be launching its Election 2010 initiatives with Federal politicians, its own engineers and amongst others, YouTube videos from the public, comes the announcement that VibeWire Youth Inc has joined forces with YouTube so “citizen reporters” can “report the election their way”. Will it get your vote?

Call Centre operator, Excelior Australia, says it has secured 50 new jobs for its Bendigo contact centre and will start recruitment immediately.