Hasta La Gadget!

Amazingly, the FCC still hasn’t released the full text of the net neutrality rules it passed by a contentious 3-2 vote yesterday, so we can’t really say much about what’s in them — and while this sort of delay is typical of the Genachowski FCC, it hasn’t stopped the carriers from issuing statements on the new rules. We’ve got to say, responses to the new rules range all over the map: Sprint commended the FCC, T-Mobile needs some time to look things over, AT&T called it a “fair middle ground” but railed about “radical voices” and “heavy-handed government regulation” (seriously) and Verizon — well, Verizon issued what appears to be a veiled threat to sue everyone. That’s pretty interesting, since it sure looks to us like the FCC all but rubber-stamped last summer’s Google / Verizon neutrality proposal, but you never know what’s happening behind closed doors — and remember, Verizon’s last major policy statement was a call to revamp the entire Telecommunications Act, so Big Red might have bigger plans in store. We’ve rounded up all the reactions below — check ’em out.

Continue reading Net neutrality: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile react

Net neutrality: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile react originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At Cisco’s CTIA press conference this week we got a chance to “experience” the Umi consumer video conferencing system, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect: FaceTime for your living room. Just bigger, wider, and with, well… more living room. The hardware consists of 3 parts: a camera unit, a set-top box, and an infrared remote. The camera is able to pan and zoom, and connects to the set-top box via two cables. The set-top box features connections for power, Ethernet, and both HDMI in and out (for passthrough) as well as optical audio out We also got a video demo of Umi Connect by Steve Sullivan, product manager at Cisco — it’s the online portal which handles your messages, videos, call history, and contacts. There’s also a “share” feature, for posting videos to Facebook and YouTube. Take a look at some video of Umi in action after the break, and please: remember to keep your pants on.

Continue reading Cisco Umi hands-on

Cisco Umi hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 08:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The low-end Android game just got real, folks, with Sprint’s introduction of the LG Optimus S, a $50 (on-contract, post-rebate) Android slatephone running Froyo on a 3.2-inch HVGA screen, with mobile hotspot functionality for up to five devices, 802.11 b/g WiFi and a 600MHz processor to run the whole shebang. As you’d expect in a world of 1GHz smartphones at the $200 price point, it’s not quite up to spec, but that doesn’t keep it from having a super-solid build, durable and weighty, that belies its low price. It honestly feels much like a Nexus One in the hand, though with nice big physical buttons instead of capacitive function keys, and of course a lower-quality LCD screen. There’s an auto-focusing 3.2 megapixel camera on the back and a fairly responsive capacitive touchscreen up front, and though browsing was a little painful on the low-res screen, the Android 2.2 device sped through the UI without skipping a beat. If this device impresses as much after we throw it through a barrage of tests, I’ll be hard to imagine ever spending a cent on a regular ol’ featurephone again.

Update: We’ve just been informed that the Optimus S has 256MB 512 MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, an MSM7627 chipset and Bluetooth 2.1, but there’s more — it pulls a respectable 430 in the Quadrant benchmark thanks to Qualcomm Adreno 200 graphics, and we’ve got visual proof. See some direct-from-device screenshots and a couple sample pics from the Optimus S’s camera in our second gallery below!

Update 2: Video after the break!

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Continue reading LG Optimus S, first hands-on! (update: video)

LG Optimus S, first hands-on! (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nah, this trio isn’t nearly as flashy as Motorola’s spate of new smartphones, but those still rockin’ the earpiece (or trying to avoid a ‘talking-while-driving’ ticket) may be interested in the outfit’s newest line of peripherals. Here at Fall CTIA 2010, Moto unveiled the Roadster in-car speakerphone alongside the Finiti and CommandOne Bluetooth headsets. From top to bottom, the Roadster is a clip-on device that goes on your visor, boasting dual-microphone noise cancellation technology and MotoSpeak — a technology that reads your texts allows and accepts voice replies. There’s an integrated battery that can withstand up to 20 hours of yapping (or three weeks of nothingness), and there’s even an FM transmitter thrown in for good measure. The Finiti BT headset was engineered with “extreme conditions” in mind, adding to the Elite series with a trifecta of microphones and the aforesaid MotoSpeak read-back technology. It can supposedly let you carry on a conversion with 40 mile per hour winds whirling around you, but we’re hoping you’d never actually be able to put it to the test. Finally, the CommandOne — for all intents and purposes — is simply a less rugged, differently styled version. The whole lot lands in Q4, but mum’s the word on pricing.

Motorola sneaks out Roadster in-car speakerphone, Finiti and CommandOne BT headsets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 13:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s something that’ll surely send Birthers and Roswellians into a tizzy. The FCC quietly changed its long-standing recommendation that consumers concerned with cellphone radiation should purchase phones with lower SAR levels — SAR meaning Specific Absorption Rate or the rate at which at which energy is absorbed by the body. The revision to the FCC website was made last week without any formal announcement. Odd, given the brouhaha created when the city of San Francisco passed a law requiring retailers to display SAR values next to cellphones as part of “right to know” safety campaign. A move that caused the CTIA to pull its fall event out of The City only to replace it with a big fat lawsuit. Here’s a snippet from the FCC Consumer Fact sheet about SAR for Cellphones:

Many people mistakenly assume that using a cell phone with a lower reported SAR value necessarily decreases a user’s exposure to RF emissions, or is somehow “safer” than using a cell phone with a high SAR value. While SAR values are an important tool in judging the maximum possible exposure to RF energy from a particular model of cell phone, a single SAR value does not provide sufficient information about the amount of RF exposure under typical usage conditions to reliably compare individual cell phone models. Rather, the SAR values collected by the FCC are intended only to ensure that the cell phone does not exceed the FCC’s maximum permissible exposure levels even when operating in conditions which result in the device’s highest possible – but not its typical – RF energy absorption for a user.

So why the sudden, unannounced change? Collusion between the cellphone industry’s lobbying machine and big gov? Doubtful, the claification certainly makes sense to us. Besides, The Washington Post says no, citing a source familiar with the FCC’s decision. Great, case closed then.

FCC quietly changes guidance on cellphone radiation risks, further isolates San Francisco law originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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