Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook planning facial recognition for picture uploads? (update: yes!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Technical complexity and financial naiveté have meant that London’s ambitious plans to cover its underground train network with cellular signal by the 2012 Olympics are hitting the scrapheap. In spite of Huawei’s most generous offer to provide £50 million ($81m) of equipment for the project for free, the London Mayor’s wish that UK mobile operators be the ones to foot the installation bill — without a penny coming out of public coffers — has unsurprisingly found little favor. Compounded with the logistical hellride of trying to get everything up and running by next summer, that’s now led to a mutual agreement among all parties concerned to abandon the project. Mind you, the plans to get WiFi up at 120 stations in time for the Olympics are still on track, so at least we’ll be able to pull down some data before diving into those dark, damp tunnels.

London scraps plans for cellular coverage on the tube, bums Huawei out originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, the end result looks like a highly styled Tumblr, but let’s repeat this: it’s created on your phone. For those who are flat terrified of coding (or simply don’t have the time to stay on top of a so-called “blog”), PressPlane has created Zapd — a free iOS app that allows the creation of picture-led sites in seconds flat. The app truly is as streamlined as the company advertises it to be; load up a few images (or take a few), select a website style, find a decent web connection, and watch as things are published and shared with your pals on Facebook and Twitter. Enough chatter — peek the video below to see where we’re coming from, and give that iTunes link a look if you’re hoping to join what’s next. You know, now that your honeymoon with Color is thoroughly over.

Continue reading Zapd iOS app creates your next website in seconds flat, seriously (video)

Zapd iOS app creates your next website in seconds flat, seriously (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Time Warner Cable is made up of some insanely shady folks. And frankly, it’s not just TWC to blame here — CenturyLink, Embarq and a smattering of other big telecom companies are banding together in order to push the ironically-named H129 “Level Playing Field” bill straight into law. Unfortunately, said bill sailed through the clearly oblivious (or “persuaded”) North Carolina House this week, with just 37 sane individuals voting against 81 delusional proponents. For those outside of the loop, the bill effectively suggests that commercial entities — municipal ISPs like Wilson’s own Greenlight that provide greater levels of service with lower costs — are unfairly competing against for-profit monoliths. In short, that’s an absolute joke. Rep. Bill Faison nailed it with this quote:

“This bill will make it practically impossible for cities to provide a fundamental service. Where’s the bill to govern Time Warner? Let’s be clear about whose bill this is. This is Time Warner’s bill. You need to know who you’re doing this for.”

Yours truly just so happens to reside in the wonderful state of North Carolina, and knows first-hand what it’s like to live in a major metropolitan area with a single high-speed broadband carrier. TWC has only recently announced impending DOCSIS 3.0 coverage, but early installations in the heart of Raleigh have been fraught with latency issues and router difficulties. Oh, and it’s charging $99 per month for a service with 5Mbps up; for comparison’s sake, Greenlight gives customers 10Mbps internet (in both directions), home phone and expanded basic cable for the exact same fare. So, NC lawmakers — how exactly do your constituents gain access to that “level playing field?”

[Image courtesy of IndyWeek]

Big cable-backed broadband bill soars through NC House, one step closer to stifling ISP competition originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is weird. UK carrier O2 has decided to do exactly what we’ve been asking mobile operators to do for donkeys’ years — it’s going to allow users to chew through their data allowance in whatever fashion they like, without imposing artificial surcharges for tethering secondary devices to your phone. Up till now, you’d have had to swallow a salty £7.65 ($12.24) charge each month to get your tether on with O2, but for whatever reason, that has now been scrapped for subscribers on pay-monthly deals. Hit up the source link for a detailed list of O2’s new contract options — they don’t include any unlimited 3G data plans, unfortunately, but we’ll take what we can get for now.

[Thanks, Neerav]

O2 scraps mobile tethering surcharges, cheers up a whole United Kingdom originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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