Hasta La Gadget!

The FCC has unveiled its plan to open an unlicensed spectrum that it says will relieve a wireless internet traffic jam. The announcement came via the Federal Communications Commission’s Chairman Julius Genachowski at CES earlier today. Reportedly, this move will not only make things faster at your local Starbucks, library, and anywhere else you’ll find public wifi, but also in your home.

Talk has been focused primarily on mobile broadband, with demand for both bandwidth and speed increasing rapidly. Wireless Internet needs some attention too, however, according to the FCC. By making this move, wireless networks in general, and particularly public wifi networks, will be relieved by sharing this new spectrum.

Genachowski offered this statement. “[The FCC is] announcing today that we’re moving to free up a substantial amount of spectrum for wifi to relieve wifi congestion and improve wifi speeds at conferences and airports and, ultimately, in people’s homes. There’s also a wifi traffic jam, and anyone who has been to conferences and airports knows that it is true.”

The spectrum in question is the 5GHz band, which is currently in use by the Department of Defense and other government agencies. For now, a proceeding is set for February to move forward with opening the spectrum. Genachowski is estimating that 35-percent of the spectrum will be opened, but says the number may change.

[via The Register]

FCC will crack open unlicensed spectrum to speed up wireless Internet is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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[CES 2013] For years now, gamers have been playing on screens that have advanced greatly in the last 30 to 40 years. We’ve gone from black & white displays, to CRT monitors, all the way up to what we play our games on now. What we didn’t think of was to try to expand our gaming view from our TVs and monitors to the entire room, which is exactly what Microsoft is proposing with its proof-of-concept that’s being demoed at this year’s CES.

Microsoft’s IllumiRoom uses a combination of Microsoft’s Kinect and a projector in order to project images around the TV onto your walls and even furniture while you’re playing a game. IllumiRoom can be used to expand what you’re seeing within your TV as well as to add ambiance to certain games such as snowflakes falling around the player as they’re in a level filled with snow.

The video above showcases what the IllumiRoom is capable of, all in real-time and captured for the concept video live as it happens. Microsoft assures us no special effects were added to the video after it was recorded, which means if this is the kind of technology we can expect from our next Xbox, then we plan on pre-ordering it immediately.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Razer Artemis concept controller makes me feel like playing Mechwarrior all over again, An artist’s imaging of a Nintendo-made Angry Birds game,

The current leader in subscription video streaming is Netflix, and today at its Las Vegas hotel suite we saw some of the technology it’s planning to stay a step ahead of the competition this year. First up was one of the most widely requested features — the ability to set up individual profiles for different family members, complete with their own queues and recommendations. The profiles can be set up on device or on the Netflix site, with toggles for a preference to its Just for Kids menu UI, as well as asking a bit about your preferred movies to seed initial recommendations.

We also got an eyeful of the new “Super HD” 1080p streaming, and although network issues kept us from getting a true gauge of the quality, we did confirm that the new max bitrates are well above the old “X-High” standards. Another thing we confirmed? That Cablevision and Google Fiber aren’t the only US ISPs on its Open Connect list — check the site to see if yours is.There was also a screen in the Samsung booth showing “early results” of their combined work on 4K video, but since it wasn’t actually streaming there’s not much to see.

Netflix was even showing off 3D streaming, and although we weren’t able to confirm the type of compression being used (top/bottom, side by side or something else) we did watch it and it was mostly clear with only a few hints of ghosting. There are apparently several dozen 3D titles available to start, although customer reaction may dictate when/if more are added. The second screen experience we’ve seen on the PS3 was also shown working with Samsung TVs, in much the same manner. One thing that could make it better however, is the DIAL multiscreen initiative it’s pushing with YouTube. If picked up as a standard, it would let you automatically launch these streaming services on a mobile device, and make them start playing on compatible TVs without having to launch the app on the TV first.

Not enough good news? Netflix also announced a launch date for another original series, Hemlock Grove, which hits April 19th (trailer after the break), and dropped the news that we’ll be getting 14 new eps of Arrested Development in May. We expect to hear a bit more about all of that later in 2013, but if you want a preview of the features we saw then just check out the gallery.

Continue reading Netflix previews family profiles, shows off Super HD and 3D streaming at CES 2013

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Netflix (Twitter)

Gigabyte came to CES with a pair of Windows 8 tablets, the S1082 and S1185, in hopes of making a splash in a US market that still tends to associate the company name with PC motherboards. We had the opportunity to try both, and came away intrigued — there’s a handful of touches on each that separate them from the pack. Read after the break for our impressions and video tours.

Continue reading Hands-on with Gigabyte’s S1082 and S1185 Windows 8 tablets (video)

Filed under: Tablets

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Source: Gigabyte (1), (2)

Pre-CES rumors suggested Intel would announce a “virtual cable” service (before being stamped out) but the partnership with Comcast it actually revealed turned out to be far more conventional. Very similar to the tru2way multiroom box Intel demonstrated back at IDF in 2009, the Multi-Screen Video Gateway by Arris capitalizes on DLNA standards — touted by the alliance earlier today — to bring video to virtually any device in your home. It’s “headless”, because it’s not built to connect directly to any TV, just shoved somewhere out of sight while you tune in on your various screens. Of course, these demos have been here before and the DTCP-IP technology behind it isn’t particularly new either, so why could 2013 finally be the year we see these features roll out from major providers?

As cited in the earlier press release, DirecTV has released Genie DVRs loaded with RVU that pushes video directly to TVs and even the PS3 in the past year, providing one example of the tech in action. The updated FCC IP interface requirements and continued work on the DLNA Premium Content guidelines are also forcing progress forward, albeit slowly. Finally, there’s some hope that the CE and cable industry can actually work together, as seen in Comcast’s RDK program that’s pushing the development of this box and others (like that Humax box we spotted floating through the FCC) with similar capabilities. The box was running Comcast’s new X1 cloud-based guide which has seen a limited rollout so far, but because of how it works is more easily accessed and updated on connected devices. Of course even with all that, we’ve been down this road before (again and again and again and again) so despite a slick demo we’ll withhold excitement until hardware is actually released.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Intel

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