Hasta La Gadget!

In a way, in-flight WiFi still seems like the future. It’s the internet, in the air, while traveling at 30,000+ feet. Clearly, just having access isn’t good enough, as a smattering of opponents have stepped into a segment long dominated by Gogo with snazzier, satellite-based alternatives. Over the past few years, ViaSat has stepped up in an effort to offer flyers something that Gogo’s existing services won’t: streaming video. While Gogo’s air-to-ground network is great for latency, it struggles with bandwidth, as anyone on a crowded flight from JFK to SFO will likely attest. Today, Gogo has taken the wraps off of GTO (Ground to Orbit), described as a hybrid technology that will be “capable of delivering more than 60Mbps to the aircraft.” For those keeping score, that’s a 20-fold increase from where Gogo started just a few years ago.

We spoke to a company representative leading up to the reveal, who confirmed that GTO is a proprietary offering, and will lean on satellites for the downlink while using existing ground-based transceivers for the uplink. For users, that means that latency will remain low, uploads will remain sluggish, and downloads will improve dramatically. Gogo points out that precious little will need to change for airlines to take advantage; there’s a new antenna, which is actually half as large as the existing one, but most everything else will remain the same. Virgin America will be the launch partner of the new service, which is expected to be available in the second half of 2014; we asked if any other airlines were onboard beyond that, but were left to make assumptions for ourselves.

Filed under: Transportation, Internet

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Source: Gogo

By now, it’s no secret that the NSA has courted privacy violations, but new documents divulge just how long such incidents have occurred. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper released approximately 1,800 pages of declassified files, which reveal that the NSA’s phone record program violations happened between 2006 (when it first came under court supervision) and 2009, when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered changes to the operation. During that period, a total of 17,835 phone numbers were listed for checking against Uncle Sam’s database, and only about 1,800 were based on the standard of reasonable suspicion. According to Clapper, congress received the papers we’re seeing now at the time of the incidents, and corrective measures have been put in place. Among the preventative actions are a complete “end-to-end” review of telephony metadata handling, the creation of the Director of Compliance position and a fourfold increase of the compliance department’s personnel.

As it turns out, the missteps are (again) said to have been accidents. “There was nobody at the NSA who had a full understanding of how the program worked,” an intelligence official claims. Sure, the increased transparency is certainly welcome, but a recently-leaked NSA audit from May of 2012 suggests that collection of protected data is still occurring from a combination of human error and technical limits. To pore through the National Security Agency’s fresh load of documents, hit the second source link below.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: Wall Street Journal

Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence

We heard rumblings a few weeks ago that Apple’s streaming service was due to launch this month and now it seems those reports were true. The folks in Cupertino just announced that iTunes Radio will launch on September 18th in tandem with a redesigned iOS 7. The ability to create custom stations based on individual music tastes and personal iTunes libraries will hit Apple devices in a week’s time. Of course, you’ll need a $25-per-year iTunes Match subscription to keep listening to sessions ad-free, otherwise you’ll be prone to regular interruptions of that Yacht Rock station every few minutes.

Check out all the coverage at our iPhone ‘Special Event‘ 2013 event hub!

Filed under: Internet, Software, Apple

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Google may focus much of its attention on smartphones, but it knows that featurephone owners deserve a good online experience as well. Accordingly, it just launched a revamped Gmail web app for devices where modern browsers and touchscreens aren’t guaranteed. The new client requires fewer button presses to read and write messages; users can reply to email directly from the thread view, for example. While the need for basic webmail is disappearing as smartphones get ever cheaper, those who need (or prefer) a simple cellphone can try the new Gmail page today.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google

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Source: Official Gmail Blog

Video producers that sell through Vimeo On Demand now have much more flexibility in marketing their wares. Starting today, Vimeo Pro members can offer both purchases and rentals at separate prices. They can also supply pre-orders and promo codes, while stat hounds will see more advanced viewership data, such as trailer play counts. It’s up to content creators to use the new features, but we’ve already spotted at least a few titles that take advantage of the upgrades; head over to Vimeo if you’d like to give them a try.

Filed under: Internet, HD

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Vimeo On Demand