Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve known that AT&T has been test-marketing free 3G MicroCells to subscribers with particularly awful reception in certain parts of the country since the product launched last year, but as of January 23rd, they’re codifying the offer and taking it nationwide. Bottom line: the “top 7.5 percent of 3G wireless customers identified as likely to experience poor in-building coverage at home or in small offices” will be receiving some snail mail with a discount code; bring it into an AT&T store and you’ll be offered a gratis MicroCell. There’s a catch, though — you need to agree to a one-year contract on the unit (separate from your normal account contract), so if you cancel service within that year, you need to either return the MicroCell or get charged $199.99 minus $16.67 per month that you’ve had it. Of course, that lines up with the newly-increased MicroCell price that the carrier is instituting starting this Sunday. Considering that AT&T needs to acknowledge that you’re in a terrible reception area to get it, we can’t say we’d hope to be one of the “lucky” 7.5 percent — but it’s a nice benefit nonetheless.

AT&T offering free MicroCells to top 7.5 percent of customers ‘likely to experience poor in-building coverage’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s here, what looks to be the world’s first attempt at overclocking a Samsung Galaxy Tab. User Bauxite at the always happening xda-developers forums has posted the way to boosting Samsung’s hunk of burning Android up to 1.2GHz — along with some seriously stern warnings:

THIS KERNEL MAY NOT WORK ON YOUR DEVICE, MIGHT DESTROY YOUR DEVICE, MIGHT PUNCH YOUR CHILDREN, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS KERNEL, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

Initial user reports are generally positive but, given the risk and the complexity here we think we’ll be staying at the stock 1GHz speed. For now, anyway.

[Thanks, Alain]

Galaxy Tab gets 1.2GHz overclock, very scary warning originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It certainly feels like the iPad 2 is coming in the next few weeks? In the wake of CES’s massive tablet lovefest, we’ve seen a parade of iPad rumors, all seemingly pointing to the fact that Apple would be unveiling something soon. And besides, Apple’s fairly regular release schedule pointed to a late January event (the first iPad was announced on January 27th of last year).

Here’s another interesting little potential hint. In the second beta of iOS 4.2, a thumbnail seems to actually give away the release date of the new tablet. In the past version, the iOS, the old calendar icon had a big “27” on it–the day in January that the last iPad was released. The new icon, meanwhile, spots a big “9.”

Could Apple be releasing the new iPad on the 9th of February? Seems like a long shot, sure, but in the world of Apple rumors, everything is fair game.

We can do math, simple addition and multiplication anyway, but we have our doubts about T-Mobile. It seemed like a fairly straightforward thing to multiply $82.50 by four and take the result to determine the cost of the Dell Streak 7, but good ‘ol T-Mo says that was the result of a “technical error” and actually has no relevance to the MSRP of this here tablet. What is the actual price? Sadly we’re still just as much in the dark as you.

Update: This is of course a T-Mobile story, not Verizon, despite what the title original stated.

Estimated Dell Streak 7 price incorrect according to T-Mobile, honest to gosh MSRP coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the human world, a home full of plastic bags is generally considered a put off. In fact, A&E has largely built its primetime lineup around such people. Black kites, on the other hand, covet the stuff.

In fact, according to a new study, the big Eurasian raptors use plastic and other manmade materials as status symbols of sorts. The birds prefer white plastic, used as a warning against other birds that might attempt to take over their next. According to the Science journal, the birds who most used plastic were also the best fighters and produced the most offspring.

Before plastic came along, the birds used paper and cloth. Before that, it was most likely brightly colored feathers from other birds.