Internet access blocked across much of Libya

It’s sort of becoming the “thing to do” when people are revolting: find a way to cut people’s access to the internet. This happened across most of Libya yesterday, according to various traffic monitors. Traffic from the country to sites like YouTube and Google nearly disappeared, even though it seems that technically, the servers are still up and running. Unlike the previous actions of the Egyptian government, which took down entire servers, it appears that in this case, some wicked throttling is occurring. While it’s not completely clear who is choking the bandwidth, the assumption that it’s the Libyan government is probably not an insane one. Hit up the source links for more.

Internet access blocked across much of Libya originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 13:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kayak to provide travel and flight search results within Microsoft’s Bing

Bing Travel just so happened to be the one major aspect of Bing that kept us coming back, and now it’s about to get even more irresistible. The famed Kayak flight search engine will soon be powering Microsoft’s Bing Travel, with the two locking down a partnership that’ll bring better results to consumers while enabling Bing admins to focus their attention on more pressing matters. According to Kayak, Bing will have access to “all” of Kayak’s travel search services globally, and it looks as if the integration will be complete “in the coming weeks.” Call it a hunch, but something tells us the folks are Redmond are just stacking up ammunition to face a new wave of inevitable competition — if that Google / ITA deal ever clears regulatory hurdles, it’ll be On Like Donkey Kong.

Kayak to provide travel and flight search results within Microsoft’s Bing originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Mobile Hotspot for iPhone 4 limited to just three WiFi devices (update: it’s an iOS 4.3 thing)

Say it ain’t so! According to this here slide, which details a bit of insidery AT&T information about the impending release of iOS 4.3, Ma Bell’s iPhone 4 will have its Personal Hotspot restricted to use with just three devices. Just about every MiFi / mobile hotspot device we’ve ever seen — including Verizon’s iPhone 4 — has supported five WiFi devices, but unless AT&T pulls a 180 here, it’ll be limiting its iPhone to just three connections. What’s wild is that we’ve found AT&T to actually have superior 3G speeds when you can actually get a signal (and thus, be more conducive to tethering five devices at once), and since you’d be on a data cap anyway, it’s not like AT&T risks losing millions from five P2P servers being ran over one’s iPhone. Granted, it’s possible that some unicorn crafted this piece of paperwork to throw us all off, but we’ve reached out to AT&T and are awaiting comment. You know, just in case.

Update: Based on Apple’s iOS 4.3 page, only three WiFi devices are supported through the Personal Hotspot connection. If you’d like to tether five total devices, the other two will need to be over Bluetooth / USB. Don’t go blaming AT&T here — we’re guessing Verizon’s model will be set up the same way. Thanks, Christian!

[Thanks, Anonymous]

AT&T Mobile Hotspot for iPhone 4 limited to just three WiFi devices (update: it’s an iOS 4.3 thing) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opera browser gets an over-17 rating in Mac App Store, reacts in good humor

You might not yet be aware of this, but Apple’s policy towards web browsers is to treat the entire internet as their content. As a result, all browsers on the iOS App Store come with a minimum age requirement of 17 and the same rule will apply to them on the Mac App Store. Opera, the first non-native web explorer to make it in Apple’s new desktop app repository, is taking a humorous approach to things, with VP Jan Standal saying he’s “not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It’s very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features.” All that said, Opera’s willing to be reckless if you are, and will totally let you download its Mac software through its homepage — no age or credit card checks required, though you might want to ask for your parents’ permission first.

[Thanks, Ian]

Opera browser gets an over-17 rating in Mac App Store, reacts in good humor originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 06:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Internet Is Watching Charlie Sheen Implode [Video]

If you haven’t been in a deep coma for the past 48 hours, you’re probably aware of this Charlie Sheen fellow. He’s been saying the darndest things! He’s (coked?) out of his mind! And we’re all watching it live online. More »

Bing advances past Yahoo! to become world’s second most used search engine — with 4.4 percent

How far we’ve come from the heady days when Microsoft was willing to splash $44 billion to acquire Yahoo! Since then, the online portal has done whatever the opposite of going from strength to strength is, and today it’s suffered the somewhat predictable ignominy of losing its second spot in search to Microsoft’s upstart Bing. Statcounter places the February global share of search at 4.4 percent for Microsoft and 3.9 percent for Yahoo! (the Redmond giant can actually lay claim to a bigger slice since Bing “powers” Yahoo! search results in some countries), neither of which should give Google much reason for concern while it’s sitting pretty with a share of just under 90 percent. It’s the first time Google has dipped below the 90 percent mark for a long time, but Statcounter says “it shows little sign of losing its global dominance any time soon.” So that settles that.

Continue reading Bing advances past Yahoo! to become world’s second most used search engine — with 4.4 percent

Bing advances past Yahoo! to become world’s second most used search engine — with 4.4 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Genesi reduces price of Efika MX Smartbook, Smarttop, says it’s for greater good

Back in September, we reported on the absurdly overpriced Efika MX Smartbook — a little computer sporting a 10-inch display and a $349 price tag — and it looks like somebody took note. The folks over at Genesi have reduced the price of their entire line of Efika MX products, dropping the aforementioned Smartbook to $199 and its desktop companion, the Smarttop, to $129. Of course, they did so with a bit of marketing flair, claiming the deal would open “the door even more for billions of people and businesses in emerging markets to affordable state-of-the-art computing and Internet access.” Now, we’re not calling anyone out here, but we’re guessing we weren’t the only ones who thought the Smartbook was just a tad too pricey. Full PR after the jump.

Continue reading Genesi reduces price of Efika MX Smartbook, Smarttop, says it’s for greater good

Genesi reduces price of Efika MX Smartbook, Smarttop, says it’s for greater good originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shocker! UK regulator finds average broadband speeds are ‘less than half’ those advertised

You don’t have to go to the lengths of compiling a statistical project to know that advertised and actual broadband speeds are two pretty disparate entities, but it does help. Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, recently took a thorough look at 11 broadband packages, which collectively account for over 90 percent of all British broadband subscriptions, and found that actual download throughput was less than half (only 45 percent) of the advertised “up to” speed. The worst offenders were resellers of BT’s ADSL lines, with Orange dipping below 3Mbit on its 8Mbit lines and TalkTalk occasionally offering only 7.5Mbit to users paying for a 24Mbit connection, while Virgin’s cable connectivity won out by sticking most loyally to its listed rating. What Ofcom proposes for the future is that all these service providers start offering Typical Speed Ranges that more accurately reflect the bandwidth a potential subscriber would be buying into — a proposal that might actually have some teeth as the British Advertising Standards Authority is currently in the midst of a review specifically concerned with broadband advertising practices. Transparency in the way we’re sold broadband? That’d make a welcome change!

Shocker! UK regulator finds average broadband speeds are ‘less than half’ those advertised originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Chronicles of Rick Roll: Coming to a Theater Near You

The Chronicles of Rick Roll

In a world where Internet memes come in and go within days, a few brave souls have gathered together to keep their memes – and their 15 minutes of fame – alive. Antoine Dodson, the Double Rainbow Man (Bear Vasquez,) Ben Schulz (Leeroy Jenkins,) Gary Brolsma (The Numa Numa Kid,) and more have joined forces to star in an upcoming film – if the indie filmmakers can drum up enough support – loosely based on the life and rise of one of the Internet’s first true heroes: Rick Astley. 
The film is called The Chronicles of Rick Roll, and the producers promise it’s not a big hoax, and it won’t be effectively a 2-hour rickroll: it’ll actually be a film jam packed with viral video actors and they’re aiming for a theatrical release if they can afford it. If you think this is all too good to be true, then the Internet has trained you well. Even so, the first trailer for the film is behind the jump, and it’s full of familiar faces. 

Comcast CEO talks about the merger, ‘cool new devices’ like the iPad and why he doesn’t fear Netflix

Now that the world has had a few weeks to get used to the new Comcast/NBC collabo (but not that ugly purple logo), CEO Brian Roberts talked to the Wall Street Journal about plans for the future, including his claim that Netflix is actually a good thing for his company. Roberts referred to Netflix as the new version of reruns, and explained his view that it raises the value of NBCUniversal’s content while reiterating statements made earlier about lower-than-expected subscriber losses being tied more to the economy than anything else. Beyond the soft jabs, he discounted the possibility that Comcast might launch its own internet video service for non-cable subscribers, pushing the vision of adding internet video streaming options for existing customers and explaining how they’d “be able to use the devices that are cool and new, that they typically purchased themselves, to now control and interact with the device they also love, which is a brand new high def 3-D TV.” Of course, it doesn’t look like we’re closer to choosing our own UI for browsing content, but with nicely designed apps for tablets, phones and connected TVs maybe the platform for future innovation he references has something for us to look forward to after all — we’d consider new cable boxes that don’t suck to be a good start.

Comcast CEO talks about the merger, ‘cool new devices’ like the iPad and why he doesn’t fear Netflix originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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