For our money, there's really nothing worse than dropping a few hundred bucks on a shiny new 3G toy, taking it home to the Outback, and realizing that we're getting more wallaby meat than we are reception. Happily, Telstra has a pretty unique program in the carrier world -- dubbed "Blue Tick" -- that awards certain devices in its lineup for their killer signal strength, which theoretically makes them more appropriate choices for use in rural and fringe areas where lesser phones might struggle. Interestingly, the Treo Pro is now the first smartphone in Telstra's Blue Tick range -- which they're offering for as little as zilch on a two year contract, by the by -- making it a solid choice for anyone around the world who's looking for a modern WinMo set with enough signal-pulling power to make a Motorola V365 green with envy. Only question is, can we still completely encase it in gold and hold a call?

Oh sure, Telstra's Next G HSDPA network is pretty swank, but what's the use in having a potent high-speed infrastructure if it's too expensive for anyone to use? Thankfully, said carrier is finally loosening up a bit on its data pricing by giving Aussies more megabytes for the same price that they're currently paying. Starting now, $10 mobile data packages include 150MB per month (up from 20MB), while the $29 pack includes 300MB per month (up from 80MB). Additionally, excess data rates have been "reduced" on both packs, though dollars and cents weren't mentioned on that. Best of all, customers already subscribed to one of the aforesaid plans won't have to do a thing in order to see their capacities bumped.

Hey Australians, how are your thumbs feeling? You have just a precious few weeks here to get 'em in shape, because Telstra has announced that it'll be bringing RIM's latest slice of mobile glory, the Bold, to its network in late September. In the meantime, CEO of Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service was hooked up this week all John Mayer-style and presented with a Bold well ahead of its official launch date, so RIM and Telstra must be feeling pretty good about the latest firmware if they're going to actually unleash it on a real-world exec (assuming he's actually going to be clipping it to his belt day in and day out). Late September's just a little late for the global summer release RIM had originally envisioned, but there's a silver lining: Telstra says the Bold will go for a whopping goose-egg -- zero dollars, that is -- to its business customers when it goes on sale.

Don't act like you didn't know that Pope Benedict XVI was down with modern technology. As part of World Youth Day, the man himself will begin sending out texts of encouragement to pilgrims who have signed up through Telstra to receive them. A total of four gigantic "prayer walls" have been erected at the Sydney Opera House, the Domain, Darling Harbour and Randwick Racecourse in Australia, where folks will actually be able to send their own messages for all to presumably see. The first message sent out? "Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI." Hllujh, amn brtha.

[Thanks, zedster]

Recognizing that the power and complexity of its handsets have long since exceeded the average user's patience to master them, Australian carrier Telstra has rounded up a team of "Telstra Mentors," dedicated experts who will be making house calls to help folks learn the ins and outs of mobile browsing, video calling, and other advanced features. Although the service is primarily aimed at businessfolk who simply don't have the time to devote to a novel-esque user's manual, Telstra says that it'll initially be available to those in and around Sydney who "use sophisticated devices for their personal, work or business needs" with the intention of eventually expanding it to other cities. Surprisingly, a visit from your friendly local Mentor will be free -- and no, we don't think it's alright to call one over just because you're bored out of your mind.

Get this. Australian site ChannelNews claims that a "senior executive of Telstra" is the latest 3G iPhone bean spiller. They quote the exec as saying the following:

"We know what is coming we have seen the new device and it will be available on our network as soon as it is launched in the USA. By Christmas this phone will be capable of 42Mbps which will make it faster than a lot of broadband offerings and the fastest iPhone on any network in the world."

Interesting. We know that Telstra's Next G HSDPA network has been capable of 14.4Mbps since 2007. At GSMA Mobile World Congress, they even committed to 21Mbps before the end of the year and 42Mbps using HSPA+ (aka, Evolved HSPA, HSPA Evolution) technology in 2009... not Christmas of 2008. Hard to say if this is just industry blow-harding or actual insider info. June 9th: T-minus 17 days and counting.

[Thanks, Paul S.]

Read -- Telstra 42Mbps HSPA+ in 2009
Read -- Telstra 3G iPhone rumor

Smartphones are a disappointingly rare occurrence in prepaid stables in some corners of the world, but at least Telstra's doing its part. The Australian carrier has launched Palm's Centro obligation-free for $299 AUD (about $286), giving Aussies a solid option for taking a trip down Garnet lane without shelling out any more monthly cash than they need to. Interestingly, the Telstra model sports a white shell but eschews AT&T's funky green buttons for a more conservative gray set -- and honestly, now that we've had some time to get used to 'em, we sort of miss the green. Are we crazy?

[Via Palm Infocenter]

Oh, come on, Qualcomm, show a little emotion; shed a tear or something! After some two years of planning and urging legacy customers to migrate, Australia's Telstra has flipped a big, red, scary-looking switch somewhere, sending its CDMA network into darkness, never to return. The move effectively obsoletes roughly 3,500 CDMA sites around the country along with what the carrier bills as "redundant equipment" -- a nice little cost savings, no doubt, not to mention the freeing of significant chunks of spectrum for more advanced services. As you might have guessed, Telstra is jumping through these hoops to get customers onto its Next G-branded UMTS network, mirroring a widespread trend away from CDMA-based technologies and toward the GSM roadmap. Globally, it seems like CDMA2000 has years of life left -- but without a shred of major carrier support for the 4G path, its glory days may be numbered.

[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]

Telstra boss Sol Trujillo's total non-denial late last year that the iPhone would eventually be hitting his network left little doubt in our minds that Aussies' iPhone-less days were numbered, but in case we needed any more evidence to close the case, we think we have it here. Turns out that Telstra has put out feelers to hire a business analyst for an "iPhone search application" on a 2 to 3 month contract, and since we figure there aren't going to be a whole heck of a lot of non-Telstra users (or non-Australians, for that matter) that give two flips about such an app, it can only mean that the carrier will be bringing some iPhone love to its domestic airwaves in the not-too-distant future. The only real question here is whether the "application" in question is a web app or a native one -- you know, the kind that the SDK and firmware 2.0 would be required to support. Guess we'll know soon enough.

[Via 9 to 5 Mac, thanks Chris]

We think it came as a surprise to pretty much everyone that Nokia's long-rumored E71 was a no-show at Mobile World Congress this year; it looked real enough and totally ready to go the last time we spied it, and really, our only guess is that Espoo didn't want to steal any thunder from its lovely new Nseries goodies. Turns out that the company covertly showed off a shot of the businessman's dream at its Nokia Showcase event in Sydney, though, and CNET reports that it's "considerably smaller" -- 10mm thick and 57mm wide, as the rumor goes. Making the phone too narrow could ultimately be detrimental to the usability of the all-important keypad, so we'll need to keep a close eye on the "feel" part of "look and feel" when this one finally debuts. CTIA in April, perhaps?

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Not only has Telstra secured exclusive rights to i-mate's freshly minted 8502 and 9502 Windows Mobile superphones in Australia -- it turns out they'll also be the very first carrier to launch 'em anywhere in the world when they hit shelves early next month. The carrier has historically been an excellent customer of i-mate's, bringing a grand total of ten devices to its airwaves so far in a five-year deal. Lucky Aussies will see the 8502 landing for $999 AUD (about $898) while the Sidekick 9502 drops for a whopping $1099 AUD (about $988).

Looks like those that call Down Under home have been blessed with yet another option in the smartphone department, as HTC has apparently launched the P3600i in your neck of the woods. Deemed an "HTC P3600 with a faster CPU and more ROM," this Windows Mobile 6 device looks to be an Asia-Pacific exclusive for now, and touts quad-band GSM, 802.11g, a two-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, 160MB of internal memory, a miniSD expansion slot, and UMTS / HSDPA to boot. Best of all, it's available right now on 3.

[Via UnwiredView]

A 21-year-old Aussie is looking at up to five years behind bars after being charged with "uploading a pirated copy of The Simpsons Movie on the internet." Interestingly enough, his weapon of choice was not an uber-small camcorder, rather, he chose to record the entire film with his mobile phone on its first day in cinemas. Merely hours after returning home, the footage was already making the rounds on the 'net, but he has since been arrested after having his home raided by Federal Police. Adrianne Pecotic, executive director of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, was quoted as saying that mobile phones had "advanced to the point where users could do a lot of damage" with its built-in video recording abilities, and also noted that pirates were "increasingly ditching handycams for smaller mobile phones."

[Thanks, Geoff]

The good news is that the official Windows Mobile 6 Professional update for the Treo 750 is just around the corner; the bad news, though, is that you probably can't have it yet unless you're lucky enough to live in one particular corner of the world. Following countless incognito shots of WM6-sporting 750s in the wild, an imminent official announcement was pretty much a foregone conclusion -- though we admittedly never suspected Australia would be the first to get the hookup. Specifically, customers of the Australian branch of Hutchison 3 will be able to download the update free of charge starting mid-month, with "other customers" following on in September. Whether "other customers" includes AT&T is unclear, but we're keeping our fingers tightly crossed.

[Via istartedsomething]