Hasta La Gadget!

Make of this what you will, but when the FCC recently released its report on the state of competition in the wireless industry, it left a few choice words out. Namely, it failed to describe the industry as having “effective competition” for the first time since 2002. The report — which covers the period of 2008 and part of 2009 — could signal the government is getting ready to regulate and impost policies to encourage and increase competition in the wireless industry. AT&T’s senior vice president of federal regulatory policy, Robert Quinn, said that the move toward more regulation is “unwarranted,” while Verizon’s Kathleen Grillo said that the “facts” have already shown that there is, in fact, enough competition in the industry. Regardless, the report actually fails to come to a conclusion on the whole matter, leaving the FCC’s options pretty open at this point, so we’re going to have to keep an eye on the boys.

FCC leaves out the ‘effective competition’ description for the wireless industry originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 09:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal Recharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle is, well, quite a mouthful. It’s also the first submarine that can run a sizable percentage of forever without requiring a charge. When the 183-pound buoy dives, cooler water temperature causes a liquid wax-like substance inside to solidify, squeezing out oil that drives a hydraulic generator; when it surfaces, the wax softens once again, ready for another round. Every dive produces 1.7 watt-hours of electricity, enough to power all the instruments, GPS and buoyancy-control pump on board. It’s like a drinking bird that never runs out of water. Designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Scripps researchers, the thermal engine is envisioned as an oceanography tool… but since the US Navy also has a finger in the pie, don’t be surprised if it plays a minor role in the coming robot apocalypse as well.

NASA’s robot submarine achieves perpetual motion, of a sort originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’d be pretty difficult for you to reach Engadget without having seen the EnergyStar logo on something along your way here. Whether it was as part of your motherboard‘s bootup sequence or on the box of your new TFT monitor, EnergyStar certification has become a de facto standard for most electronics being manufactured nowadays. What you might not have known — but probably could have guessed — is that the process for obtaining that sticker is far from bulletproof. The American Government Accountability Office has recently done a bit of spy work by putting forward imaginary products and false claims to the validating authority, and regrettably found its bogus items “mostly approved without a challenge.” The auditors’ conclusion was that the program is “highly vulnerable to fraud,” and the stuff they’ve had certified would seem to corroborate that verdict. Hit up the Times article for the full story of governmental incompetence while the Department of Energy — the body responsible for running the program — tries to get its act straightened out.

[Thanks, Adam]

EnergyStar program certifies ‘gasoline-powered alarm,’ other imaginary abominations originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday, the FCC submitted its National Broadband Plan to Congress, essentially requesting that six goals be met over the next decade, including sizzlers like access for “every American” to “robust broadband services,”which apparently equals a minimum of 100 million US homes with “affordable” access to at least 100MBps down / 50Mbps up speeds. Pretty heady stuff, we know. We thought we’d contact a few of your friendly ISPs for comment, and we’ve got Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon going on record here — all in all, they’re rather predictable ‘rah rahs’ for the plan, especially considering that whole “affordable” bit. We also threw in part of Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s response. The statements are after the break, and hit the source links for the fuller, long-winded versions.

Continue reading FCC National Broadband Plan: some of your favorite ISPs respond

FCC National Broadband Plan: some of your favorite ISPs respond originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even DARPA understands that its futuristic bubble shield can be penetrated given the right circumstances, and when it does, the soldier behind it is going to need some serious healing. In a hurry. In the entity’s newest budget, there’s $6.5 million tucked away “for the creation of a scaffold-free tissue engineering platform, which would allow the construction of large, complex tissues in vitro and in vivo.” As you well know, this type of mad science has been around for quite some time, and now it looks as if DARPA is ready for the next best thing: “non-contact forces.” Put simply, this alludes to replacing scaffolds with magnetic fields or dielectrophoresis, which could purportedly “control cell placement in a desired pattern for a sufficient period of time to allow the cells to synthesize their own scaffold.” It’s still too early to say how close we are to being able to instantaneously heal soldiers on the battlefield, but frankly, the public is apt to never know for sure.

DARPA longs for magnetic body healers, crazy respawn camps originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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