In the last six months a staggering 19,584 motorists in New South Wales have been caught talking on their phone without using a handsfree kit. This alarming figure is almost 1300 more then the same period last year.

When it comes to serious crash investigations, mobile phones are now the number one suspect. The process of checking call records and text transcripts of anyone involved in a serious or fatal crash is now standard procedure.

Police are now cracking down on motorists using phones more then ever, with the belief that the legislation has been around for so long that everybody understands the use of a phone whilst driving is illegal. Some officers even believe the use of a phone is just as bad as drink driving. Drivers who chose to disobey the rules will face a fine and the loss of three demerit points.

Text messaging is even worse then calling, but unfortunately around 90 per cent of mobiles are totally destroyed in serious and fatal crashes, making it near impossible to see if the driver was texting at the time.

Everybody secretly likes to have a bit of a snoop, especially if there is not a chance in hell of being caught. Snooping gives us that little rush of excitement that you simply can’t get anywhere else and with the proliferation of mobiles all over the globe, snooping is now easier then ever!

A recent Australian survey of around 500 mobile users, aged 18-29, recently uncovered that 1 in 3 mobile phone users are officially ‘SMS Snoops’, the consequences of which can be devastating if the other person actually finds out. The survey was conducted by Virgin Mobile Australia and also shows that women are more likely then men to take a peek at their partner’s messages without their knowledge.

Surprisingly, 73 per cent of the ‘Snoopers’ admitted that they had found out things they wish they hadn’t. Further more, 10 per cent of these people actually had to end their relationship, all because of a little SMS.

“In a society when we very rarely let our mobile phones out of our sight, it’s quite amazing to think that for a lot of us the minute we jump in the shower, someone might be checking up on us,” Virgin Mobile’s Amber Morris said in a statement.

Over things discovered by the survey include:

• 60 per cent rush to grab their partner’s phone as soon as they hit the showers
• 41 per cent do it openly, while their partner is in the same room
• 45 per cent admitted to finding flirtatious and sexual texts, ranging from innocent to XXX

Quick, I better find my phone…

Telstra have listened to the cries of their customers and have upped their data plans dramatically. The $10 mobile data package now includes an impressive 150MB per month (up from 20MB), while the $29 mobile data package includes a whopping 300MB (up from 80MB). Excess data charges have also been massively reduced, so customers don’t end up with shock-inducing bills. Subscribed customers will automatically be rolled over to the plans, without even lifting a finger. Finally, Telstra take a leap in the right direction, after fumbling about with ridiculous iPhone plans.

Today marks the day Virgin Mobile entered the Australian iPhone 3G race! The proposed Virgin iPhone plans have apparently got Telstra executives shaking in their boots. Before we go any further, it’s important we remind all Mobgizmo readers that Virgin Mobile has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus since 2006.

Check out the pricing models pictured below. Click to enlarge!

16GB Pricing Model:

8GB Pricing Model:

These plans look as good, if not better, then the plans proposed by Virgin’s parents, Optus.

The Virgin iPhone 3G 16GB is out of stock until further notice, either that or they are just aggressively pushing the 8GB model.

MobileActive has just released a new mobile magic product called the “Mobile Shaver”. It’s very cool so I simply had to share it with all the Mobgizmo readers, check it out:

Video 1

Video 2

Click here to get it now!

For the first time in the history of Australian federal law, a north Queensland pensioner has been formally convicted for sending child pornography in an SMS via his mobile phone. Kenneth Roy Lang, 70, was photographed outside the court room with a smirk on his face, just hours after hearing the verdict. It’s a sickening smirk that will chill any parent to the bone. He was immediately released because he had already served four months in custody while awaiting his court date.

Lang, from Port Douglas, was arrested by Australian Federal Police at Cairns airport back in December 2006 after detectives found he had sent seven very sexually explicit images of children to a woman in Australia, while he was on holiday in Thailand. The seven images were sent as attachments in a series of 27 explicit text messages.

The pictures featured various illegal underage sex workers in Thailand. The pictures were apparently so shocking that they could not be shown in the court room. Finding the pictures too disturbing, Commonwealth prosecutor Jane Bentley did not go into much detail but did say they included, “graphic descriptions of the defendant engaging in sexual intercourse with Thai children aged between 12 and 15 years”. Bentley even refused to read out the text messages, but instead labelled them as “revolting”.

Inside the Cairns District Court, Judge Sarah Bradley described the horrible images as “disgusting” and sentenced him to a further 12 months in jail. Lang pleaded guilty to everything and was charged with five counts of transmitting and facilitating child porn and two counts of transmitting and facilitating child abuse. Lang’s guilty plea and his prior convictions for another three sex offences were also taken into account.

An application for Lang to be added to the Australian national database of sex offenders was also added by Judge Bradley, this includes submitting his DNA to the database. A three year good behaviour bond is now in place for Lang, however this seems minor considering his terrible crimes. During the case, details also emerged that in 1992, Lang pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual penetration of a child aged 10 to 16 years. On this particular occasion, Lang only had to serve a mere six months of an 18-month sentence.

In Lang’s defence, barrister Sandra Pearson said her client only sent the text messages because he was responding to a sex-crazed woman he had met through a personal ad. The woman in question sent messages to Lang egging him on, with one message saying “tell it filthy, the filthier the better”.
Kenneth Roy Lang is the first Australian convicted for sending child pornography using a mobile phone!

Optus will be the first official Australian mobile carrier to distribute the anticipated iPhone 3G handset to drooling fans at midnight tomorrow night. Both Telstra and Vodafone customers will have to wait till early Friday morning.

The George Street Sydney Optus store will open its door at exactly midnight on Thursday. All other Optus stores will be opened early at 7am in an  effort to  keep Apple fans at bay. Unfortunately for all you non-Sydney Aussies, no other major cities will get a midnight opening.

Melissa Clare, Optus’s corporate affairs manager, recently said “Only deposit holders who were Optus customers would be able to collect their handset at the midnight launch in Sydney. On Friday, deposit holders would get priority service but anyone could come and buy an iPhone.”

Telstra has finally joined the iPhone party by confirming the release of the anticipated handset for $279 on a $30 plan. Unlike Telstra’s competitors Optus and Vodafone, Telstra will only offer the iPhone on exclusive 24-month contracts, as opposed to allowing customers to purchase the iPhone outright.

Telstra customers can choose to buy the iPhone for $279 and then pay $30 per month over two years, or they can choose to receive the phone for free, but pay $80 per month over two years. The massive 16GB model will be available for a cool $399 on the $30 per month contract or included for free with a budget-breaking $100 per month contract. All plans include free Wi-Fi access at all Telstra hot spots.

Despite all the rumours, Telstra will release the iPhone on the same day as Optus and Vodafone. All three carriers are expected to go head to head in battle to secure a piece of the market. Three is still the only carrier without the iPhone, despite the public going nuts on the online petition! Telstra is still the biggest in Australia, with up to 9 million mobile phone customers.

Telstra’s consumer group managing director David Moffatt said the company was “Delighted to bring this product to (users) on Telstra’s high-speed Next G network. With iPhone 3G on the country’s largest and fastest 3G network, providing coverage to 99 percent of the population, more Australians will enjoy the iPhone 3G experience in even more places.”

If you ever find yourself sitting by the side of the pool next to a lifeless friend, trying to remember how Bambi from Scrubs performed CPR in last week’s episode, then boy have I got a news story for you. The Red Cross has just developed the world’s first downloadable mobile CPR program. Mobile users will recieve downloadable instructions, in the form of animations, straight to their phone. The actual core technology was developed right here in Australia by a Tasmanian company.

Red Cross spokeswoman Virginia Leafe says “The service is no substitute for first aid training, but works as a potentially life-saving prompt”.

The instructions are now downloadable from the Red Cross website, just click here.

Leafe continues “It will take a couple of minutes to download, and then you will have it on your phone and you press a button and with one button it starts and it goes through visually and speaking, how to do CPR. The idea is to download it before an emergency situation kicks in.”

3 are so desperate to get the iPhone, so they can compete with Optus and Vodafone, that they have started an online petition. Check it out here! Digg fans can go dig the hell out of it by clicking here.

It seems the petition is working! Hundreds of avid Three fans have come out of the woodwork in support of the iPhone. Adam, a 3 supporter, had the following to say “3 are the best network in Australia when it comes down to value for money and knowing exactly what you are paying for. I will not buy the iPhone unless it is on the 3 network! Come on Apple, come to the party!!!”

Noel Hamill, director of sales at 3, told reporters that “we’ve engaged Apple to get the 3G iPhone but at this stage we haven’t been able to range it, so I don’t know if we’re going to be able to range it,”