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DOMK Receives Confirmation That 1st “SolaPad” Units Are Being Prepared for Shipment
25 May 2012 12:30 PM | No Commentsvar AdBrite_Title_Color = '0000FF'; var AdBrite_Text_Color = '000000'; var AdBrite_Background_Color = 'FFFFFF'; var AdBrite_Border_Color = 'CCCCCC'; var AdBrite_URL_Color = '008000'; try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==''?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe='';var AdBrite_Referrer='';} document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(' src="http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=2053203&zs=3436385f3630&ifr='+AdBrite_Iframe+'&ref='+AdBrite_Referrer+'" type="text/javascript">');document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62)); LONGWOOD, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–DoMark International Inc. (OTCBB: DOMK) announced today that management of its wholly-owned subsidiary, SolaWerks, has...
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New Autodesk SketchBook Ink App Delivers Stunning Creative Tools for iPad
24 May 2012 12:59 PM | No CommentsSAN RAFAEL, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) launched Autodesk SketchBook Ink for iPad paint and drawing app, the latest release from the company’s popular SketchBook...
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Vegas Tech Start Up Questionable LLC Launches Questionable Friends iPhone App
23 May 2012 4:53 PM | No CommentsLAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Questionable™ today introduced Questionable Friends™ for iPhone®. Questionable Friends lets you send questions to your contacts and provides instant feedback as questions are answered. Answers can be ...
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Sidecar Revolutionizes Phone Calls by Bringing “Smart Calling” to Smartphones
22 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsSAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Launching today, Sidecar (www.sidecar.me) is a new mobile app that brings Smart Calling to smartphones. Smart Calling allows people to share live See What I See video, brilliant ...
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TransCore Launches Mobile iPad App for TransSuite Traffic Management System
21 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsWASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intelligent Transportation Society of America Annual Meeting – TransCore brings the ease of mobile computing to its TransSuite® advanced traffic management system (ATMS), launching its iPad® ...
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Spectrum Archive
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FCC boss keeps driving home the ’spectrum, spectrum, spectrum’ message for wireless broadband
Posted on December 1, 2009 | No Comments
Love him or hate him, it seems destined that the FCC's Julius Genachowski will leave as big of a mark on the agency he's leading -- if not bigger -- than his predecessor Kevin Martin did, because he's hell-bent on shaking up the wireless airwaves and landlines he oversees in some pretty huge ways. Pushback from broadcasters is apparently quite strong, but he's reiterated at a conference today that he intends to investigate freeing up TV spectrum for to make room additional wide-area wireless services, a move that certainly seems to make sense on the surface considering that universal broadband to the home -- which could carry all the TV you'd ever need -- is also high on Genachowski's to-do list. The Universal Service Fund, which every American phone subscriber pays into and partly finances rural landline telephone operations where profits are harder to come by, is looking like a ripe target for renovation to bring broadband into the fold, theoretically making high-speed data more accessible to folks of all demographics and geographical affinities. Like the TV spectrum move, the USF realignment is meeting its fair share of detractors -- mainly among rural landline operators who rely on the funds for operation, of course -- but we're definitely gaining confidence that this dude isn't taking "no" for an answer in the long term.FCC boss keeps driving home the 'spectrum, spectrum, spectrum' message for wireless broadband originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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SoftBank prepping bid for Willcom?
Posted on November 27, 2009 | No CommentsPHS is in a bit of a pickle right now -- the niche wireless standard has no path for technological growth, has just a handful of supporting carriers around the world, and frankly, was never intended for wide-area deployment to boot. That leaves Japan's PHS-powered network, Willcom, in the lurch, which explains why they've recently hooked up with HSPA giant NTT DoCoMo to launch modern data devices. Mooching off someone else's network isn't a long-term strategy for survival, though, so what's next? Reports are flying in Japan today that rival SoftBank may look at scooping up Willcom's assets in exchange for its debtors waiving some percentage of its $1 billion in IOUs; what SoftBank would ultimately do with that extra spectrum is unclear, but presumably they'd continue to run PHS for some predetermined period of time before transitioning it to HSPA or LTE. Of course, Willcom has a rep for releasing wild devices that avoid the beaten path set by its larger rivals, so here's a preliminary word to the wise, SoftBank: if you make this happen, keep the product people on board.
SoftBank prepping bid for Willcom? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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BlackBerry Curve 8530 now putting Verizon through the rounds
Posted on November 21, 2009 | No CommentsRight on schedule, the latest BlackBerry to grace the Verizon's CDMA spectrum, the Curve 8530, is now on sale. A 2.5-inch display, OS 5.0, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and yes, WiFi -- take that, Tour. Price is $199.99 on two-year contract, with an added $100 discount if you buy it online. Let's be honest, what else were you gonna spend that money on tonight, hm?
Filed under: Cellphones
BlackBerry Curve 8530 now putting Verizon through the rounds originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Google Phone May Be Data Only, VoIP Driven Device
Posted on November 18, 2009 | No CommentsYesterday we wrote about the soon to launch Google Phone, a Google branded Android phone that we believe will hit the market in early 2010. Lots of people are saying there's no way Google will enter the phone market directly and compete with all these handset manufacturers who have bet on Android. Daring Fireball, PC World and InfoMobile are among the doubters. And a lot of people are pointing to a Tom Krazit/CNET article last month that quoted Google's Andy Rubin: "We're not making hardware...We're enabling other people to build hardware," and "Rubin, vice president of engineering for Android at Google, scoffed at the notion that the company would "compete with its customers" by releasing its own phone."
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CRTC blocks Canada’s WIND from launching over ownership concerns
Posted on October 30, 2009 | No CommentsFiled under: Misc
Globalive, which has recently been ramping up to launch a national Canadian phone service under the WIND brand using spectrum won in last year's auction, has been dealt a hell of a blow by the CRTC this week. The organization -- essentially the northern equivalent of the FCC -- has strict rules demanding that Canadian wireless networks be Canadian-owned, and an investigation of WIND's structure has apparently raised enough concern to cause it to call off the service's launch. Egypt's Orascom Telecom (which, strangely, also runs North Korea's Koryolink) owns some 65.1 percent of the operation and apparently "holds the overwhelming majority of the outstanding debt" for which Globalive is responsible, so yeah, we can see how that might not qualify as "Canadian-owned." For its part, Globalive says that it's "extremely disappointed" in the decision and "will be evaluating [its] options on how to proceed," but in all likelihood, that's going to have to mean cashing out a good chunk of Orascom if it's serious about making this happen.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - CRTC decision
Read - WIND responseCRTC blocks Canada's WIND from launching over ownership concerns originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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FCC considering taking some TV spectrum, auctioning it off for wireless broadband
Posted on October 28, 2009 | No CommentsMore FCC news for you, this Wednesday morning (and before Droid news consumes us all). The agency is considering taking some of the bandwidth that is currently allocated to digital television, and auctioning it off so that broadband companies can bid on it. The point, of course, is to increase the availability of wireless broadband.
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Bell drops Pre by $50, now down to $149.95
Posted on October 23, 2009 | No CommentsFiled under: Handsets, Palm, Bell Mobility, EV-DO, CDMA, webOS
Anyone in Canada who took a wait-and-see approach with the Pre can do a little dance of joy now that Bell's finally dropped the phone by CAD $50, which means you're now looking at CAD $149.95 (about $143) on a three-year deal. That's still a far cry from the $99.99 you pay these days on Sprint, especially considering that you're talking about a two-year contract there, but who knows -- maybe Bell's not bothering to compete too hard on the CDMA arena as it starts putting some serious marketing force behind its HSPA spectrum in the next few months. At least this gives the Pixi some breathing room on pricing if Bell decides to launch it, we suppose.
[Via Palm Infocenter]Bell drops Pre by $50, now down to $149.95 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In-App Purchase In Free Apps: A Shot Across The Bow of iPhone Piracy?
Posted on October 15, 2009 | No CommentsJust hours ago, Apple made an announcement that has developers everywhere dancing down their collective, metaphorical street: In-App Purchase is now good to go in free applications. This, of course, comes just months after Apple essentially told a room full of journalists that such ideas were nonsense – that free apps should always remain absolutely [...] -
Graphene makes a gra-fine photodetector
Posted on October 13, 2009 | No Comments
Graphene, as everyone knows, "is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice." (Seriously, I didn't just check Wikipedia for that.) Scientists have been using the material for lots of different applications for some time now. Recent work at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center has focused on using graphene as a photodetector, and it turns out that it does a pretty good job in that role.
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FCC says there’s a ‘looming spectrum crisis’
Posted on October 7, 2009 | No Comments"What happens when every wireless user has an iPhone, a Palm Pre, or a BlackBerry Tour?" Speaking at CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment in San Diego today, FCC head Julius Genachowski has said that he wants to "close the spectrum gap" -- the difference between the spectrum it's making available for wireless data versus enormous usage projections (400 petabytes a month by 2013, he says) that'll be brought about by smarter, easier-to-use devices and ubiquitous high-speed data through a handful of initiatives including the promotion of the smart use of existing spectrum through the use of femotcells, WiFi, and smart antennas, and -- more importantly -- reallocation of existing spectrum. Genachowski says there are "no easy pickings" for reallocation, but the Commission is aggressively pursuing additional airspace that can help keep 4G rollouts on track. He's gone on to say that they'll be adopting the widely-discussed "shot clock" policy for placement of new towers, giving locales a limited window to protest placement of cell sites that'll help spread 4G services over wider footprints. The guy seems genuinely concerned about keeping 4G rollouts rolling, so let's see just how far the guys in Washington are willing to go to do that.
FCC says there's a 'looming spectrum crisis' originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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AT&T desucks the 3G in Colorado Springs
Posted on September 30, 2009 | No CommentsColorado Springs: Home to 415,000 people, scary-ass gravity-defying boulders, and, as of this morning, AT&T’s 850 Mhz 3G Network. As we saw in San Francisco and New York last month, Colorado Spring’s towers have now been tweaked to dedicate the 850 Mhz spectrum to 3G data rather than TDMA, which theoretically ups the number of simultaneous [...] -
White-Fi brings WiFi to unlicensed TV spectrum
Posted on August 28, 2009 | No Comments
The terribly named "White-Fi" is a research effort to bring WiFi transmission to the unlicensed TV spectrum -- the so-called "whitespace" (get it? White-Fi!) of TV channels in the UHF band . Big whoop, right? Well, with transmission ranges up to 1 kilometer, that actually is a pretty big deal. Mesh networking is also in the works. But most interesting of all are the requirements that the FCC has imposed on White-Fi devices to make sure they don't interfere with any television broadcasts or wireless microphones. Basically, any White-Fi device needs to immediately switch frequencies the instant it detects a signal from a television or microphone.
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World ranking: New Yorkers pay lowest cell phone charges
Posted on August 12, 2009 | No Comments
I'm aware studies comparing cell phone charges generally have to be taken with a grain of salt (especially cross-country studies like the following one), but this one coming from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is pretty interesting.
It's not really a "world" ranking, but the ministry compared [JP, PDF] cell phone charges in seven major cities in Europe, Asia and the US. The result in a nutshell: New Yorkers are pretty lucky, Parisians aren't.
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AT&T doubles up the 3G in Atlanta
Posted on August 11, 2009 | No CommentsThroughout much of the country, AT&T’s 3G can be wonderful. Step into a major city, however, and it tends to grind to a halt. Here in my hometown of San Luis Obispo, for example, it soars; anytime I head to San Francisco or New York, however, it’s practically useless. Speeds are all over the place, [...] -
Motorola Clutch now in “Graphite” on Boost Mobile
Posted on August 3, 2009 | No CommentsLets face it: one look at the Motorola Clutch i465 is all it takes to know if it’s your thing or not. It’s not the prettiest handset on the block by anyone’s take, but it is the only one packing both iDEN (Push-to-talk) and a QWERTY keyboard. Its target audience was already fairly small; take [...]