Hasta La Gadget!

While you’re busy saving up for the totally awesome AR.Drone’s $300 price tag as it makes its way toward a September launch, you can now bide your time sifting through its fifteen-odd documents posted to the FCC this week, including a bunch of internal and external photos that do a good job conveying the last thing you’ll see just before you meet your four-rotor hovering doom. There’s also a quick start user’s manual, which interestingly suggests that users put their iPhones into airplane mode before firing up the AR.Drone app — in other words, you should take the cellular modem offline and leave WiFi active for optimum performance. And honestly, who wants to be interrupted with calls and texts while you’re trying to maneuver this beast for the kill shot?

Parrot’s AR.Drone does a high-speed flyby of the FCC’s control tower originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Federal Communications Commission is reportedly holding closed-door meetings with phone and cable companies in the hopes of coming to some sort of arrangement on how the agency regulates broadband Internet service.

FCC staffers are meeting with lobbyists from AT&T, Verizon, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and Internet companies like Google and Skype, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The move comes several days after the FCC opened a public comment period on how it should proceed regarding broadband Internet regulation. The commission has proposed a so-called “third way,” which would narrowly reclassify the transmission of data as a telecommunications service that the agency could directly regulate, balanced by a hands-off approach to other aspects.

Broadband providers were not exactly thrilled with the idea.

As a result, Monday’s meeting included a discussion about how the FCC could avoid fundamental changes to its Internet regulation rules, but still be able to enforce “net neutrality” rules, the Journal said. They are expected to meet again on Tuesday.

Consumer group Free Press was not pleased.

“It is stunning that the FCC would convene meetings between industry giants to allow them determine how the agency should best protect the public interest,” Free Press president and CEO Josh Silver said in a statement. “The Obama administration promised a new era of transparency, and to ‘take a backseat to no one’ on net neutrality, but these meetings seem to indicate that this FCC has no problem brokering backroom deals without any public input or scrutiny.”

Oh San Francisco, you and your progressive ways. The city just passed a law — a first in the US — requiring retailers to post the Specific Absorption Rates (aka SAR, the rate at which at which energy is absorbed by the body) in no less than 11-point font right next to any cellphone being sold. Sounds good as far as consumer education goes, right? And a functioning democracy demands an educated and informed elecorate. But here’s the thing: the jury’s still out (just pick your favorite dangerous / not dangerous study to fit your belief) on the effect of radiation at levels less than the 1.6 watts per kilogram threshold set by the FCC. As such, CTIA spokesman John Walls has a point when he says that highlighting the SAR levels might confuse consumers into thinking that some cellphones are safer than others. In other words, consumer education needs to go much further than any retail-shelf placard could possibly communicate. Well, at least the law will keep us safe long enough to walk out the door and trip over a hippie.

P.S. The image above is from the “Get a Safer Phone” (note the wording) rankings provided by the Environmental Working Group.

Cellphone radiation law to help, confuse San Francisco consumers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung cameras are emanating a good bit of electromagnetic radiation as of late, as the firm’s decided to outfit its latest camcorders and quick-draw snapshot shooters with WiFi connectivity. And though we’ve never heard of the Samsung ST80, it’ll be no exception: FCC filings have just revealed the new point-and-shoot will have “11 channels of allowed operating range from 2412 MHz to 2462 MHz in [the] USA.” That’s what Sammy told the US government in a May 27th disclosure, adding the sad, hacker-inspiring news about Bluetooth that you see immediately above. We don’t have any further details about the camera — save that said WiFi will be 802.11b/g — but judging by Samsung Korea’s existing ST70 and ST60 models, the ST80 will likely be a tad slimmer than its Boingo-infused counterpart.

Samsung’s latest WiFi point-and-shoot hits the FCC, doesn’t do Bluetooth (yet) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pandigital Novel e-reader / handheld hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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