Hasta La Gadget!

If you thought Verizon Wireless and Alltel’s marriage underwent a good bit of scrutiny, you’ll soon be swearing that Vimpelcom and Wind Mobile are on some sort of global watch list. The Amsterdam-based Vimpelcom has taken a giant leap towards the completion of a $6 billion merger with Wind Telecom, the latter of which has around 117 million subscribers spread across Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, North Korea and Canada. If and when the two link hands, the combined effort will be home to a staggering 173 million customers, creating the fifth largest mobile operator by subscriber count. Wind Mobile’s head honcho seems more than enthused about the news, and he’s hoping that the tie-up will allow prices to sink for just about everyone involved. Claiming feats such as “more access to international cooperation for roaming and long distance services” and the ability to utilize “more leverage and increased scale” to drive down prices, Anthony Lacavera isn’t showing any public signs of worry when it comes to regulatory hurdles. In months past, the CRTC took issue with Globalive Wireless — operator of Wind Mobile — starting up in Canada, primarily due to the company’s largest lender (Orascom) residing outside of the Great White North. As of now, things seem to be sailing right along, but you can bet this marriage won’t be formally recognized before a borderline-obnoxious amount of investigating goes down behind the scenes.

[Thanks, Kelvin]

Vimpelcom moves forward with $6 billion Wind Mobile merger, intends to hurdle regulatory snags originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Xperia Play goes back to the FCC, this time with GSM (update)

Xperia Play goes back to the FCC, this time with GSM (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Driving RC cars never gets old, but driving them over the internet is truly something magical. Welcome to the RixRover, the creation of Quebecer Pierric Gimmig. It’s a cheap RC truck fitted with big knobby tires that’s had its ABS body removed, replaced by an Arduino board and a netbook. The car itself cost about $45, the Arduino about $30, and Eee PC 1005-series netbook about $200. But the result, being able to drive the car over remotely via streaming video, why that’s quite simply priceless. Video after the break and, if you want to try your hand at this, there’s some source code on the other end of the source link.

Continue reading RixRover is the cheap RC car controlled by a rather more expensive Arduino and netbook combo (video)

RixRover is the cheap RC car controlled by a rather more expensive Arduino and netbook combo (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Starbucks has given the caffeinated crowd a new reason, other than the free WiFi, to stop by a couple of locations in Toronto and Vancouver — interactive window displays! Taking sidewalk passers-by on a journey to assemble their favorite Tazo teas, the interactivity comes via a vinyl screen, projector, and gesture controls. We’ve already seen an interactive storefront in the US, so its about time our friends up north got some geekified advertising of their own. Vid’s after the break.

Continue reading Interactive storefront displays show up at Canadian Starbucks, window licking discouraged

Interactive storefront displays show up at Canadian Starbucks, window licking discouraged originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This shelf tag was apparently spotted this weekend at a Best Buy in Houston, and it speaks for itself: white iPhone 4, AT&T, $599.99 off contract (the same price as the black). Of course, we all know this thing is coming within the next few weeks at this point — there’s just too much evidence pointing in that direction — but the fact that we’ve got big box retailers printing and placing tags for it now suggests that it’s coming sooner rather than later. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, that QR code link is dead at the moment — we’ve linked it below in case you want to give it a shot.

Update: Looks like The Source (Canada’s version of Radio Shack) is also making room. See for yourself after the break. Thanks, Anonymous!

[Thanks, Joel P.]

Continue reading White iPhone 4 starts to get Best Buy, The Source shelf space

White iPhone 4 starts to get Best Buy, The Source shelf space originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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