Hasta La Gadget!

And here we go: Verizon just announced its 4G LTE pricing and full list of coverage areas. Some 38 markets will go live when the switch is flipped on December 5, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and LA, and pricing starts at $50/month for 5GB of data, with an $80/month plan for 10GB. Overages run $10 per GB, which isn’t insane, and there’s also supplemental coverage in around 60 airports. Check the full PR after the break.

Update: Some highlights from today’s press conference:

• More modems will be coming out within “weeks” and are all backwards compatible with its EV-DO network.
• Verizon will talk about “consumer-oriented devices” (translation: phones) at CES.
• The modems are capable of 4G-to-3G handoff, but not 3G-to-4G — they’ll stay on 3G until you’re done transmitting data.
• The LTE and 3G plans might integrate, according to CTO Tony Melone, but probably not until 2012 or 2013.
• It sounds like the modems will only be available in stores on December 5th — no third-party retailers at first.

Continue reading Verizon LTE plans start at $50/month for 5GB of data (update)

Verizon LTE plans start at $50/month for 5GB of data (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So as you probably know, today’s the day that Verizon comes clean with all the details on the commercial launch of its LTE network, having scheduled a press conference for noon Eastern Time. We already know many of the details, but we’re crossing our fingers for some juicy extras in the event, namely any hints of information on when we’ll see LTE-enabled handsets in the marketplace like the rumored HTC Mecha and that unnamed LG. Oh… and some solid plan pricing details would be nice, too. Follow the break for our liveblog!

Continue reading Verizon’s LTE network announcement event live at 12:00 ET!

Verizon’s LTE network announcement event live at 12:00 ET! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon has a press conference lined up in a few minutes to officially drop all these details, but they’ve thrown their official LTE site live already where you can see almost everything you want to know: chiefly, that the initial 38 markets (and 60 airports) will go live this Sunday, December 5th with two USB modems in tow — one from LG and another from Pantech. We’ve already heard all of that in one form or another, but it’s nice to see it spelled out officially on Verizon’s site. The one crucial detail we’re still missing, of course, is plan pricing — so we anxiously await that here in the next few minutes, but in the meantime, feel free to play with Big Red’s LTE coverage locator.

Verizon’s LTE details go live: December 5th, 38 markets, 60 airports, and 2 USB modems originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Think touch screens are one of the biggest innovations of the past decade? As it turns out, that concept has been available to consumers longer than a lot of you reading this have been alive.

The MS DOS-powered HP-150 allowed users to maneuver around a very basic monotone interface. The screen was surrounded by a series of infrared emitters and detectors which would be able to roughly place any non-transparent object near the screen. The divots were often known to get clogged with dust, making the “touchscreen” unworkable. The touchscreen was later dropped as a standard feature in later incarnations before being dropped as a feature all together.

After the jump, check out some footage from the gripping television program: Computer Chronicles. The clip wasn’t of note just because of the forward-looking (if ultimately flopping) attempt on the part of HP, but check out how wound-up these guys are. They’re techies, but they’re all at least in their mid-30s and wearing suits. That sort of behavior just wouldn’t be acceptable in today’s tech world.

Times Square is known for plenty of things–Broadway theaters, the giant, illuminated ads, the New Year’s Eve ball drop. Until fairly recently, it was known for being the epicenter of adult entertainment, as well, until then-Mayor Giuliani “Disneyfied” the space, pushing smut shops to the outskirts of the area.

Dutch Student Justus Bruns wants to make the area famous for another reason: he has gathered a group of art enthusiasts together to help him convert Times Square into a temporary art space. The group is trying to get together enough money to buyout all of the billboards and video displays in Times Square for a day, a feat that will cost them an estimated $24 million.

Bruns launched the Times Square to Art Square effort 11 months ago and is attempting to pull together funds via the Web. He told AOL, “This is about dreaming to make the impossible possible,” adding, “We really want to be a bottom-up movement to show the world what is possible using the Internet.”

Bruns insists that the project isn’t anti-advertising–it’s just pro-art,

It’s a sad fact that you can only see art in museum–that you really have to pay $15 to go see art. To use billboard space for art doesn’t mean we are against advertising. We just think it would be a great way to show art to people.