Hasta La Gadget!

Who woulda thunk it? Giving WiFi to fidgety students on a bus actually makes them more productive. Nearly three years after an Arkansas school launched a trial that delivered laptops, iPods and wireless internet to a bus, an Arizona school district is discovering the merits of such a system — though with this one, there stands a good chance for it to go well beyond the “pilot” phase. Students in Vail, Arizona have been able to handle school assignments, engage in research and even update their Facebook status on the lengthy rides to and from school, and the suits responsible for hooking Bus No. 92 up have stated that mischief has all but subsided and the bus has magically morphed into something of a “rolling study hall.” As you’d expect, Autonet Mobile is responsible for the technology (the same company equipping select GM vehicles with in-car WiFi), and it has already sold similar tech to schools or districts in Florida, Missouri and Washington, DC. We always dreamed of being whisked off to another lousy school day on the GamerBUS, but this ain’t a half bad alternative.

[Thanks, Nate]

Arizona school bus gains WiFi, students suddenly chill out and get productive originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since Google wants to control all forms of communication, the logical next step is being not just what you do on the internet, but how you access the internet as well. To do that, they’ll deploy 1Gbps fiber to you.

The company is going to test this super high speed internet to “a small number of trial locations across the United States,” and give somewhere between 50k to 500k people an amazingly fast pipe. What’s the point of this?

* Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it’s creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses we can’t yet imagine.
* New deployment techniques: We’ll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we’ll share key lessons learned with the world.
* Openness and choice: We’ll operate an “open access” network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we’ll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

We basically read that as bridging the gap between webapps and desktop apps by making the connection so fast that most people won’t be able to tell the difference. And, forcing other ISPs to upgrade their pipes to compete with Google, since they say it’s going to be released at “a competitive price”. Think of it as the Nexus One of service providers. Google is going to make an offering that’s better than other comparable devices/services in order to make everyone else play catch-up.

So, if you want my address, Google, to know where you need to deploy the test, you’ve probably got it already. Seriously man, I need this. [Google]

It’s about time, ain’t it? Southwest — which is easily one of the most enjoyable airlines to fly on here in the States — has finally cemented its in-flight WiFi plans after more than two full years of hemming, hawing and testing. A fresh blog posting on the airline’s website clues us in on exactly how difficult to road to this day has been, but a finalized partnership with Row 44 will allow wireless equipment to be installed into 15 aircraft per month starting in Q2 of this year. In time, the company will ramp that up to 25 per month, which should mean that its entire fleet of 540 planes will be outfitted for mile-high web access by “early 2012.” We’re still being kept in the dark when it comes to pricing, but Southwest assures us that it’s still “testing a variety of price points on the four aircraft that currently have WiFi” and that a decision will be made in a few more months.

Update: Tipster MJK just hit us up with this tidbit, and if Southwest keeps this kind of pricing in tact, it could very well start a price war with the legacy carriers who charge upwards of $13 per flight for access.“I took a trip from Los Angeles to Albuqueruqe recently and they charged $4 for the entire trip. It’s just around two hours but it was indeed fast WiFi.”

Southwest nails down in-flight WiFi partnership, whole fleet to be lit by 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still on track to launch its LTE network this year, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has today announced that its first prototype handset designed specifically to handle all that bandwidth will be unveiled at MWC 2010. We already knew a cool $10.4 billion or thereabouts were to be spent on Japanese LTE deployment, and now we can break that figure down a little by noting that NTT will be spending between $3.3b and $4.4b on its infrastructure alone. All we know of the new phone so far is that it’ll be the product of the overall partnership with NEC, Fujitsu and Panasonic, but judging from NTT DoCoMo’s last prototype to grace these pages, we’re unlikely to be left wanting.

NTT DoCoMo will demo LTE prototype at MWC, launch service this year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clearwire (along with Sprint and Comcast, just to name a couple) has been fiercely expanding its WiMAX network across America for months on end now, and while select citizens in select cities have had access to the 4G superhighway for just over a year, we haven’t actually had the opportunity to find ourselves in one of those locations for any amount of time. Until recently, that is. The Clear 4G service was lit up in Las Vegas late last year, which gave the Engadget squad just enough time to scrounge up a gaggle of Motorola 4G USB sticks and really test out the network while at CES. Meanwhile, the North Carolinians among us were also able to test the boundaries of the 4G patches that have been setup here, and we’re finally ready to dish out a few opinions on the fourth generation of cellular data. Eager to know if it’s the best thing since sliced bread the invention of the MP3? Read on to find out.

Continue reading Clear WiMAX USB modem impressions

Clear WiMAX USB modem impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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