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Continue reading Audyssey’s Lower East Side Audio Dock Air: square to be cool

Audyssey’s Lower East Side Audio Dock Air: square to be cool originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The inability to win US government approval isn’t exactly an unfamiliar issue for Huawei, which by now must be conditioned not to expect a nod from major US telecom companies. But now, The Daily Beast reports that the U.S. Commerce Department has made it very clear that the Chinese company won’t have a role in building the country’s new dedicated first responder wireless network. A spokesman wasn’t shy about the reason, either, explaining that Huawei “will not be taking part in the building of America’s interoperable wireless emergency network for first responders due to U.S. government national security concerns.” And what about those national security concerns? Well, Huawei president Ren Zhengfei’s former role as a People’s Liberation Army technologist may have something to do with it, considering it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suspect that he still has some fairly close ties to Chinese government officials. We haven’t heard a peep from the feds regarding Huawei’s invitation for US officials to investigate the company earlier this year, but it’s safe to assume that the investigation either didn’t go very well, or more likely that it hasn’t happened at all. We imagine that whole corporate espionage debacle probably didn’t help the company, either.

Huawei blocked from first responder network contract, US cites ‘national security concerns’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holger Hermanns crouches proudly beside his proof-of-concept wireless-braking bike

Computer scientists at Germany’s Saarland University have worked long and hard to rid your bike of that pesky one foot of brake cable which used to curve, short and graceful, down to the front wheel. Instead of a simple system of super-reliable levers and cables, the Saarland team uses a wireless transmitter to brake the bike.

The wireless brake consists of a transmitting hand grip and a motorized disk-brake caliper. Squeeze the grip and the brakes are actuated according to a radio signal. Squeeze harder and you brake harder — as long as your batteries are charged. Just watch out for pranksters with RF transmitters who trigger your brakes from afar.

The Saarland team’s work isn’t intended to actually be used on bikes. Instead it is an experiment to see if wireless brakes can ever be made safe enough for use in trains, planes and automobiles. If you’re testing things out, obviously a slow-moving bike is a safer environment than a landing airliner.

The boffins have managed to get reliability up to a rather decent 99.999999999997 percent, which is a lot better than the reliability of an urban hipster on a brakeless fixed gear bike with a loose-fitting (and skip-happy) chain. This is in part achieved by redundancy: several transmitters send duplicate signals, but even this was found to fail if configured incorrectly.

The system is still far from perfect, but the use of brake-by-wire tech could incorporate anti-lock tech, which could prevent disastrous front-wheel skids in the wet, for example.

I’ll be sticking with cables for the foreseeable future. The last thing I want is to be forced to walk home because I forgot to charge my brakes.

Reaching 99.999999999997 percent safety: Saarland computer scientists present their concept for a wireless bicycle brake [Alpha Galileo via Gizmag]

See Also:

• Bluetooth Inter-Bike Communicator for Cyclists
• Shimano Shuns Cables for Full Electronic Shifting

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus WiFi approved by FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Doug, who seems pretty fed up with those troubling WiFi dead zones in his abode. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I have a Wireless-N router, but it had to go in the basement. As a result, there are a few areas that get little or no signal in my home. What can I do to fill those deadspots?”

So, networking gurus of the world — what’s your repeater setup like? We’re aiming for something simplistic, something that a consumer could toss together without having to hire the equivalent of a Geek Squad. Any swell repeater / router recommendations for a brother in need?

Ask Engadget: best WiFi repeater setup for killing wireless dead zones? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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