Hasta La Gadget!

KPN set off some alarms in Holland last month when it announced a plan to start charging customers separate fees for using VoIP, streaming video, and sending instant messages. But, the question remained: how exactly would it keep mobile data users honest? The answer turns out to be deep packet inspection, which examines network traffic to identify what you’re sending and where it’s going. It’s been suspected that the secret ingredient in KNP’s service-throttling sauce was DPI, but it was finally confirmed in a presentation to investors recently. In fact, Mark Fisher, the director of KPN Mobile, bragged that it was the “very first” provider to be “able to identify by deep packet inspection what is actually the destination as data packages go along.” Predictably, privacy and net neutrality advocates are up in arms, with some claiming it is a violation of the Dutch Data Protection Act. We just hope someone nips this in the bud soon — we don’t need American carriers knowing about our Scottish Fold obsession. Check out the source link for an audio clip of Fisher’s confession.

[Thanks, Daan]

Dutch telco KPN using deep packet inspection to monitor mobile customers, throttle services originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's super-sized Galaxy Tab 10.1 sports a display a full 3.1 inches larger than the previous generation. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Due in stores soon, Samsung’s newest Android-powered tablet is bigger, faster and cheaper than its predecessor, and Wired.com had some time to test one.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been something of a tease since we first heard about it. After announcing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 earlier this year, Samsung decided to go back to the drawing board when the company saw how thin Apple made the iPad 2.

Finally, the newer, cheaper Tab is redesigned and ready to launch in about a month. And lucky attendees of Google’s I/O developer conference in San Francisco were given an early limited-edition version of the tablet. My first impressions: It seems cool enough, and in certain aspects the tablet feels like an Android-powered iPad.

When first picking it up, I immediately noticed how light the tablet was. Measuring 10.1 inches diagonally, Samsung’s tablet is bigger than the 9.7-inch iPad, and it’s actually one-tenth of a pound lighter. It’s also 0.34 inches thick, just like the iPad 2.

The new Galaxy Tab has another thing in common with the iPad 2: Both their cameras suck. Many photos taken with the Galaxy Tab were either washed out, grainy or not at all crisp. In reviewing Apple’s tablet, Wired’s Brian Chen said “Apple took some shortcuts [with the camera], presumably to keep the costs down and to make the device thinner.” Could that be the same case for Samsung?

And have we mentioned how weird it is to take pictures with a tablet? Because it is. Maybe we’re used to one-handed Instagram shots on our phones, but using both hands to point a slab of glass and plastic at something to take its photo just feels inorganic.

Just like all the other recent Android tablet releases, Samsung’s offering is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor. Swiping my way through Honeycomb’s five home screens is a breeze with the mighty chip.

But there are at least three tablets on the market right now running on the Tegra 2: It’s become an Android-tablet industry standard. Still, the Tegra 2 is a powerful processor, and in smoothly running a 3-D game like the bundled Need for Speed HD app, Nvidia’s muscle certainly shows.

I also tested how the Galaxy Tab handles Adobe Flash, the plug-in famously missing from the iPad. Alas, Adobe has only released a beta version of Flash for Android version 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, and it certainly shows. YouTube videos stuttered often enough to be noticeable. Moving into 1080p only made things worse, as playback choppiness was a fairly common occurrence.

Flash is supposed to get better when the Honeycomb version 3.1 update is pushed out widely over the air in the next couple of weeks. We’ll have to wait and see about that.

We’re glad Samsung went with side-facing speakers instead of some of the back-facing ones we’ve seen on other Android tablets. The sound wasn’t anything spectacular — nothing like the excellent front-facing speakers on BlackBerry’s PlayBook tablet — but it wasn’t terrible either. Side-facing speakers seem to be a compromise between keeping the tablet’s face clean and uncluttered, while trying to keep listening quality high by avoiding back-facing placement.

For the most part, we’re OK with that. But honestly, if you’re using a tablet in public and don’t want to be obnoxious while listening to media, you’ll probably be wearing headphones anyway.

Some glaring omissions: no HDMI output, no USB ports and no SD card reader. Aside from the headphone jack, there’s just one other external port (for charging and file transfers). If you care about things like HDMI mirroring or hooking up peripherals to your Android device, you might miss these important ports. And with Honeycomb version 3.1 supporting Android’s new Open Accessory interface, you’ll be missing out on a whole new wave of connectible devices.

All in all, you’ll be sacrificing a lot of external-interfacing options for a slimmer, sleeker Android tablet if you go with the Galaxy Tab 10.1. If you don’t care about hooking it up to a big screen to watch your video, or increasing storage capacity with a larger SD card, this may not bother you. But knowing how open-minded (so to speak) Android enthusiasts tend to be , we think Samsung’s relatively closed-off direction on this tablet may turn a number of people off.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 hits U.S. shelves in early June, with a $500 price tag for the 16-GB version, and $600 for the 32-GB version (Wi-Fi only).

Tablets, small laptops, and now Google’s Chromebook: it’s never been more confusing to shop for a budget portable.

In an interview with Consumer Reports, Jeff Bezos wouldn’t confirm that Amazon was gearing up to release an Android tablet but he did say to “stay tuned.”

It’s no secret that negotiations between Google and the recording industry haven’t been going very well. Perhaps even less surprising are the reasons behind the stalemate. According to the Hollywood Reporter, discussions between the two parties have sputtered thanks to three usual suspects: money, file-sharing and concerns over competition. During licensing talks, Google agreed to pay upfront advances to all participating labels, but the major players wanted bigger guarantees. That prompted the indie contingent to ask for similar money, unleashing a snowball of stakes-raising. The two sides also failed to agree on how to handle pirated music, with the industry demanding that Google not only ban illegally downloaded files from users’ lockers, but that it erase P2P sites from its search results, as well.

Hovering above all this bargaining was a thick cloud of destabilizing uncertainty. Some execs welcomed the idea of a new iTunes competitor, while others were less enthusiastic, amid concerns that Google Music wouldn’t deliver new revenue streams. The ultimate question, of course, is how negotiations will proceed now that Google’s already launched the service. The labels were warned that Tuesday’s I/O announcement was coming, but the search giant didn’t do much to mend fences when it effectively blamed the record execs for holding up negotiations. It’s hard to say whether Google’s bravado will help or hurt matters, but according to a source from a major label, “People are pissed.”

What stalled negotiations between Google and the music industry? (Hint: money) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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