Sep 13

Google planning opt-out option for WiFi data gathering

Posted in: Google, minipost, network, Today's Chili, wifi, Wireless

Privacy concerns have caused Google to back down a bit on its information collection amongst residential wireless networks. Beginning in the fall, the company will allow owners of the WiFi networks to opt-out of the data gathering. Google has assured concerned parties that it doesn’t collect personal details when nabbing the information for its databases, but such comments haven’t done much to calm the nerves of privacy advocates.

Google planning opt-out option for WiFi data gathering originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 12

Broadcom buys NetLogic Microsystems for $3.7b in cash, hopes to add more processors to lineup

Posted in: industry, merger, network, networking, processor, Today's Chili

You’ve probably never heard of NetLogic Microsystems, but you can bet that its technologies may very well end up in your next smartphone, tablet or vehicle. Broadcom has just announced its intentions to pick up the aforesaid company for a cool $3.7 billion in cash, with the “definitive merger agreement” already approved by the boards of both. According to Broadcom, the deal will extend its portfolio with “a number of critical new product lines and technologies, including knowledge-based processors, multi-core embedded processors, and digital front-end processors,” and according to a televised CNBC interview with president and CEO Scott McGregor, he’s hoping to extend Broadcom’s reach in the automotive industry. His view? We’re getting dangerously close to streaming television (and more) to a serious quantity of motorcars, but beyond wild aspirations, there doesn’t seem to be too many hard plans being made public. The full release is hosted up after the break.

Continue reading Broadcom buys NetLogic Microsystems for $3.7b in cash, hopes to add more processors to lineup

Broadcom buys NetLogic Microsystems for $3.7b in cash, hopes to add more processors to lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 10

Scientists build WiFi hunter-killer drone and call it SkyNET… Viene Tormenta!

Posted in: hack, hacking, network, networking, security, Today's Chili, wifi, Wireless
You’d think scientists would proscribe certain names for their inventions — you wouldn’t be taken seriously if your supercomputer was called HAL 9000, WOPR or Proteus IV would you? Well, a team from the Stevens Institute of Technology isn’t listening, because it’s developing an aerial drone and calling it SkyNET. A Linux box, strapped to a Parrot A.R. Drone, can fly within range of your home wireless network and electronically attack it from the air. Whilst internet-only attacks are traceable to some extent, drone attacks are difficult to detect until it’s too late — you’d have to catch it in the act and chase it off with a long-handled pitchfork, or something. The team is working on refining the technology to make it cheaper than the $600 it currently costs and advise that people toughen up their domestic wireless security. We advise they stop pushing us ever closer towards the Robopocalypse.

Scientists build WiFi hunter-killer drone and call it SkyNET… Viene Tormenta! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 05:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 08

Auckland amps up free WiFi for Rugby World Cup

Posted in: 4G, network, Today's Chili, wifi

Just in time for play-by-play tweets about the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Auckand has instituted a fully-integrated WiFi network across its Link public transit system. According to officials, buses and some trains will get the free internet treatment, giving passengers up to three 30 minute sessions a day between September 1 and October 31st. Powered by Tomizone and sponsored by Localist, the network promises 2 – 6Mbps downloads and is based on point-to-point links around town using fiber assets for backhaul. If that wasn’t enough connectivity, CallPlus and Slingshot are dishing out some gratis WiFi of their own with an additional thousand hotspots sprinkled throughout the city. Hopefully, the added infrastructure will mean WiFi access par excellence year round for maximum non-Rugby related tweetage. Check out the full PR after the break.

[Thanks, Scott]

Continue reading Auckland amps up free WiFi for Rugby World Cup

Auckland amps up free WiFi for Rugby World Cup originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 06

Researchers demo full-duplex wireless: double the throughput with no new towers

Posted in: mobilepostcross, network, networking, research, science, Today's Chili, Wireless
Melissa Duarte, Rice UniversityBack in February researchers at Stanford first taunted us with the possibility of simultaneous, two-way data transmission on the same frequency. Now some folks at Rice University are edging full-duplex communication closer to reality. By the time carriers get around to rolling out 4.5G networks, engineers could potentially double throughput without adding more cell towers and using only existing mobile hardware. With an extra antenna and some fancy software tricks, which allow the device to ignore locally produced signals, the Rice team was able to produce a connection ten-times stronger than previously published studies. Since the technology is based on existing MIMO setups, it may also prove the shortest route to asynchronous full-duplex transmissions. That means you’ll be able to upload ill advised videos of your drunken antics (and suffer the consequences) that much faster, without having to pause the latest Maru clip. Check out the PR after the break.

[Image credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University]

Continue reading Researchers demo full-duplex wireless: double the throughput with no new towers

Researchers demo full-duplex wireless: double the throughput with no new towers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 06

Sony nabs former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official

Posted in: hack, network, security, sony, Today's Chili

Sony spent a fair bit of time at last week’s IFA press conference assuring the press and consumers that it’s doing its darnedest to stay on top of the security issues that have plagued it over the past year. It’s hard to imagine a move more representative of such a stance than the hiring of a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official. The company announced today that it has done just that, scooping of former U.S. National Cyber Security Center director Philip Reitinger for a senior vice president position. And in case there was any question as to the reasoning behind the decision, a Sony spokesperson addressed the issue, stating, “certainly the network issue was a catalyst for the appointment.” Fair enough, Sony.

Sony nabs former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 05

Vestel shows off a prototype BitTorrent Certified TV at IFA

Posted in: europe, hdpostmini, hdtv, Ifa2011, network, prototype, streaming, Today's Chili, TV

Far from sneaking in to the living room, Vestel had a BitTorrent Certified television on display at IFA 2011 this past week. That official stamp means it packs the usual suite of connected TV features including playing local media across the network, and it’s guaranteed to work with BitTorrent approved files from the internet. There’s no word on any official release for this prototype — and we haven’t been able to locate anyone who got a hands-on demo, let us know if you saw it — but it definitely shows how BitTorrent is trying to expand its platform in a manner similar to DivX and XBMC / Boxee. Check out the press release after the break, we’ll be sitting back and watching some totally legal content we just torrented.

Continue reading Vestel shows off a prototype BitTorrent Certified TV at IFA

Vestel shows off a prototype BitTorrent Certified TV at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 01

Pogoplug Mobile hands-on

Posted in: Features, hands-on, network, remote, review, storage, Today's Chili


The cloud is huge (well, infinite, really), and everybody wants their piece. Pogoplug has been a player since the beginning, albeit with a somewhat convoluted setup process, so it’s no surprise that the drive-to-web plug appliance company is ready to push out a smartphone-friendly version. Pogoplug Mobile, as it’s to be known, brings much of its big brother’s functionality (you won’t be able to “mount” remote drives) to smartphones, tablets, and dedicated desktop apps. Want to load some photos from your 4 terabyte hard drive in San Fran while you’re on the subway in Tokyo? Simply launch an app, sign in with the username and password you registered during the seconds-long setup process, and you’re on your way. You can even email photos (links to images on your remote drive — you won’t be using data), post them to social networking sites, or transfer new ones that you shot with the phone. The concept is certainly familiar, but we got to take a look at Pogoplug’s interpretation at IFA in Berlin. Jump past the break to see what we thought.

Gallery: Pogoplug Mobile (hands-on)

Continue reading Pogoplug Mobile hands-on

Pogoplug Mobile hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 19

Sprint in alleged talks to acquire Clearwire, cablers huddle ’round for some LTE pie

Posted in: 4G, att, carrier, cdma, industry, lte, network, rumor, Sprint, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, WiMAX

‘Tis the season for patent disputes and wireless industry takeovers, or so a recent glut of moves would indicate. Shedding a little light on Clearwire’s recently announced allegiance to LTE, Bloomberg is reporting that the company’s currently in talks to sell its business to Sprint, and perhaps secure the funding it so desperately needs for a network build out. According to several insider sources, the third place wireless carrier’s considering a joint investment (amongst other options) with Comcast, Cablevision and Cox, that would give the cablers a bundled high-speed, wireless broadband competitive advantage, and Sprint an LTE boost in its battle against AT&T and Verizon’s rival 4G networks. None of the players in this rumored takeover have yet to comment on the purported transaction, although the business gossip has had quite an uplifting effect on Clearwire’s shares. While we can’t speculate as to the veracity of the claim, we know one thing for sure — that LTE network’s not gonna build itself.

Sprint in alleged talks to acquire Clearwire, cablers huddle ’round for some LTE pie originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 16

Leaked FCC document details AT&T’s 4G LTE rollout plans, talks up T-Mobile merger

Posted in: 4G, att, business, deal, Law, leak, legal, lte, merger, money, network, t-mobile, Today's Chili
On Friday, a law firm accidentally posted a letter to the FCC website, detailing AT&T’s confidential 4G LTE rollout plans and explaining how they would be bolstered by a merger with T-Mobile. Arnold & Porter LLP, which is helping design the deal on AT&T’s behalf, quickly removed its partially redacted document, but the folks over at Gizmodo have gotten their hands on it once again and recently posted it for our viewing pleasure. According to the document, AT&T plans to extend its US coverage to 70 million consumers by the end of this year, before ramping that figure up to 170 million by the end of 2012 and a full 250 million by the end of the following year. The carrier plans to achieve this by upgrading a full 44,000 of its nodes to LTE over the course of the next three years and, once its merger goes through, hopes to cover 97 percent of all Americans within the six years following approval. The letter goes on to explain how the economics behind the TIA-approved deal would help facilitate these aspirations, while confirming that the merger is indeed as expensive as earlier reported — a whopping $3.8 billion, to be exact. To read the document in full, hit up the links, below.

Leaked FCC document details AT&T’s 4G LTE rollout plans, talks up T-Mobile merger originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGizmodo, Broadband DSL Reports  | Email this | Comments

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