Way Of Life Archive

  • The FCC’s National Broadband Plan is now live!

    The FCC’s National Broadband Plan is now live!

    Posted on March 16, 2010 | No Comments
    Might as well get this over with now. The FCC has announced its National Broadband Plan, which describes where the agency would like to see the U.S. in a few years' time vis-à-vis broadband and connectedness. It's sorta like the UK's Digital Britain report, published last year. The big thing is this: it's in America's best interest to turn itself into a first-world nation again, and the best way to do that is to develop its Internet infrastructure a wee bit more. That's the gist of it: better, faster Internet access for many more people.

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  • CrunchGear in China

    CrunchGear in China

    Posted on December 7, 2009 | No Comments
    Greetings from sunny Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong. I've spent some time in Asia - at least the tech centers - and have never found a place like this. It's like Blade Runner meets 1990s Prague meets the end of the world. I'm here to report on what's going on here in terms of electronics and how it's changing the way we think about price, cost, and value. It's pretty crazy. Thirty years ago Shenzhen was a rice paddy, a town of about 50,000 souls. Today it is a hive, and a dirty one at that. Smog is a way of life. As the sun goes down over the city, the streets take on an amber cast and the darkness falls quickly. There are no picturesque sunsets here. This is the first in a series called CrunchGear In China about manufacturing in Shenzhen. Look for more posts this week and next.

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  • CrunchGear in China: Seeing Where the Tech Sausage Is Made

    CrunchGear in China: Seeing Where the Tech Sausage Is Made

    Posted on December 2, 2009 | No Comments
    Greetings from sunny Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong. I’ve spent some time in Asia – at least the tech centers – and have never found a place like this. It’s like Blade Runner meets 1990s Prague meets the end of the world. I’m here to report on what’s going on here in terms of [...]

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  • Dolphin browser for Android adds multitouch support on Droid

    Dolphin browser for Android adds multitouch support on Droid

    Posted on November 29, 2009 | No Comments
    We've already seen that the Droid is perfectly capable of implementing multitouch gestures in third-party apps, and the most high-profile (if not the most important, period) implementation of that is in a good web browser where non-stop zooming is a way of life -- especially when browsing sites designed for desktops. Dolphin -- which has been kicking around for a couple months in the Market -- has just added multitouch support on the Droid, which automatically makes it an interesting alternative to Android's mediocre (well, mediocre by WebKit standards, anyhow) built-in fare. Follow the break for a video overview -- or better yet, if you're running Android and you've got a couple fingers to spare, just check it out yourself.

    Continue reading Dolphin browser for Android adds multitouch support on Droid

    Dolphin browser for Android adds multitouch support on Droid originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Toyota’s anti-drunk driving gadget elicits comparison to, yes, Nazi Germany

    Toyota’s anti-drunk driving gadget elicits comparison to, yes, Nazi Germany

    Posted on August 31, 2009 | No Comments
    Help me understand this. Toyota today announced some sort of anti-drunk driving “gadget” (more like a complete system, including a digital camera and a breathalyzer) that prevents a car from being turned on if it detects a certain amount of alcohol in your system. You know, to help reduce the number of drunk driving-related accidents, which in the U.S. caused nearly 12,000 deaths last year. That's one death every 45 minutes.

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  • Always being ‘connected’ is ruining our way of life

    Always being ‘connected’ is ruining our way of life

    Posted on August 10, 2009 | No Comments
    It sure is great to live in the developed world. No having to worry about having enough to eat or finding clean drinking water or anything like that. Nope: we freak out when Twitter momentarily goes down, or when we can't use certain software on our phones. Or, conversely, we complain about the undue influence certain technologies have over our lives. We're all over the place.

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  • Should Bikes Be Taxed? Vancouver Commissioner Thinks So

    Should Bikes Be Taxed? Vancouver Commissioner Thinks So

    Posted on July 20, 2009 | No Comments
    Commissioner Steve Stuart of Clark County, Vancouver, wants to tax bikes in order to pay for new bikes lanes and trails. Speaking on Wednesday he said “We license our dogs. You license your car. Why wouldn’t you license your bikes?” Stuart is just trying to find money to improve cycling infrastructure, and proposes neither a mandatory [...]

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