Hasta La Gadget!

New York City promised subway cell phone coverage five years ago, and Transit Wireless took up the $46 million banner in 2007 — now, three years and a friendly British jab later, at least two major carriers are convinced it’s actually going to happen. Bloomberg reports that T-Mobile and AT&T have both signed ten-year agreements to let their customers access Transit’s subterranean wireless network, which should cover 277 NYC stations in the years to come. Critically, we’re still talking about coverage at just the stations, not actually on board — there’s till no word on when we can expect the tubes themselves to boost our sorry reception bars.

AT&T and T-Mobile will have cell coverage in NYC subway stations originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Oct 2010 17:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A few months earlier in the year, we covered the arduous process of staying connected while traveling abroad. One of the ways we mentioned for jetsetters, backpackers and common tourists to stay jacked in while situated far from their homeland was a MiFi rental service from Xcom Global. The company has only been operating for a matter of months, but we recently took their services for a spin in order to give you a more detailed look at what to expect. The long and short of it? These guys are the guys to contact when you’re about to grab your next passport stamp. Read on to find out why.

Continue reading Xcom Global international MiFi / data rental service review

Xcom Global international MiFi / data rental service review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Digital Inspiration’s Amit Agarwal has a clever Dropbox-based solution for printing documents from a smartphone or tablet, whether your printer’s down the hall or thousands of miles away. The idea is so simple, you’ll be amazed you haven’t thought to try it yourself.

Dropbox is a popular utility that allows users to sync and share files on different computers. Native Dropbox applications are available for most smartphone platforms, giving you mobile access to all your files, and many mobile applications are now integrating Dropbox for remote syncing and storage. You can also add files to your Dropbox account via e-mail or the web.

In this solution, use any of those means to get the file you want printed into a shared Dropbox folder — call it “PrintQueue” — that you’ve set up for this purpose. Your print-capable computer uses a script to monitor “PrintQueue,” automatically print its documents and then move them to a different folder. (Agarwal calls this second folder “logs”; I’d call it “Completed Jobs”). If you’re a clever hacker, you could even add scripts to send a remote notification that the print job has been completed.

For Windows, Agarwal has a downloadable VBS script that will set this up for you; as he notes, there are different scripting solutions for Mac OS X or Linux too.

Once you’ve got this rigged, the immediate use case is to send a document wirelessly from a smartphone or tablet to a local printer. And it is kind of magical to stand there and watch the whole process unfold, as in the video above.

But think beyond that. Suddenly, your printer is capable of networking with any computer, anywhere — with any phone, anywhere — that you approve and authorize. This is potentially so much better than hooking up a computer to a wireless router or navigating the virtual bureaucracy of an office printer network. It’s way better than a fax machine.

This could be one future of social networking and file sharing: Instead of big, ad-cluttered feeds that push photos, status updates and Farmville notifications or anonymous networks that chop files into bits and reassemble them, imagine friends and acquaintances broadcasting to each other, wheels within wheels, each with different levels and fields of access. Designating someone a “friend” might not be worth very much in this cockeyed world, but automatic remote access to someone’s printer still means something.

Print Files from any Mobile Phone using Dropbox [Digital Inspiration] via Gizmodo

This article was written on September 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft just introduced a new mouse "with a mind of its own" -the Mobile Memory Mouse 8000. What’s unique about it is that the transceiver which you’d normally have to plug in via USB anyways to use the mouse includes 1GB of Flash Memory. It’s not going to be on the shelves until about October, and the price is set at $99. While it’s a great idea, especially for college students, the price seems a little high for only including 1GB of flash memory – especially when you take into consideration that you can buy a 4 GB Flash Drive for $35 and a 16 GB Flash Drive for $100.

Despite the fact that it may be a little pricey for the amount of memory you get, it’ll definitely be convenient for those who usually carry a mouse with them as well as a flash drive. Giga Om reviewed this mouse yesterday and said the mouse "doesn’t make much sense. I mean, who carries their mouse without a laptop?" I’m not sure the point of this mouse is for those who only want to carry a flash drive with them. When I was a college student, I always had my laptop, a mouse, and a flash drive with me. While a flash drive certainly doesn’t take up much room, using the Mobile Memory Mouse would just mean one less thing I had to carry, and one less USB port I’d have to use.

Other features that this mouse has besides the transceiver with 1GB of Flash memory include:

• 2.4 GHz wireless technology
• USB rechargeable with magnetic connectors
• High definition laser technology
• Battery life indicator

While the idea of a mobile mouse that includes storage is new, I think there will definitely be a group of consumers willing to snatch up the Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 for $99 bucks. If by chance you’d like to pre-order this mouse, you can do so at Amazon.

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Phew. For a moment few years there, we thought any device set up to operate on these so-called white spaces — which have been vacated following the analog-to-digital TV transition — would be forced to use spectrum sensing modules in order to ensure that no TV station was operating in areas in which it wanted to. Based on the FCC’s Second Memorandum Opinion and Order, which was just published a few days back, it looks as if forthcoming white space devices will not be required to ping databases in order to make absolutely sure that it won’t interfere with TV stations.

That’s the long and short of it, which is fantastic (if not expected) news for device makers and anyone who despises red tape, but Ars Technica has taken an in-depth look at why the Commission made such a call. Indeed, the FCC’s 2008 Order mandated that white space gadgets check in beforehand in order to “protect TV signals from interference.” Essentially, the call that nixed this addition was the fact that this security ring would inadvertently provide “many wireless microphones systems that go to unlicensed use” — things like wireless systems at churches, football games, concerts, etc. As with anything FCC-related, it’s a long and wordy explanation, but those interested in the finer details are just one click away from the nitty-gritty.

FCC: white space devices won’t require spectrum sensing modules originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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