The Federal Communications Commission has nixed a company’s plan to offer 4G broadband through a new network of cellphone towers and satellites. It ruled that LightSquared’s plans would cause too much interference for GPS devices. The idea was to create a network using the LTE system for mobile data transmission, then wholesale it to wireless […]
A start-up called Chamtech Enteprises has an answer to the problems of poor cellphone reception and other shortcomings of traditional antennas. The company has developed a spray-on antenna that it says is more lightweight, energy-efficient and effective than the old-school version. (Where was this stuff when the iPhone 4 came out?) [Via WSJ/a>]
Android users in North America are more likely than other handset owners to put out on a first date. But if you do find yourself benefiting from that statistic, another finding means you might want to be wary of touching your new buddy’s handset. The first stats come from dating site Match.com. It conducted a […]
Residents of a British street have been baffled by their electronic car key fobs suddenly stopping working. It’s led to a host of theories, some more outlandish than others. The BBC reports that the key fobs in Dimond Road, Southampton stopped working last Saturday. It appears to be some sort of problem with interference with […]
SouthWest Airlines looked on the verge of becoming the United States’ geekiest airline this week — but it lasted for just a couple of days before Virgin America snatched the crown. The initial claim to the title came thanks to a company named Row 44 that hooks up to a satellite system initially designed to […]
Check out Mashable’s roundup of what they consider to be the best Wi-Fi names of all time. [Source]
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a significant development in keyboard design; the advent of ergonomic keyset–breaking the board down the middle to allow a more natural hand position–may have improved the lives of a few carpal tunnel syndrome sufferers, but it really didn’t alter the keyboard manufacturing landscape. It appears Apple may […]
Back in 1977, geek heroes Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan headed up the team that created the golden record — gold-plated copper disc that serves as a sort of time capsule for Earth, in the event that some alien species finds and explores the Voyager probe as it wanders out past Pluto’s orbit and into […]
Thanks to a recent development in optigenetics research, mice are teaching us about our own brains… by letting us control theirs. Christian Wentz from MIT has designed a mind-controlling hat for mice; the contraption is built of a pair of circuit boards, an antenna, and some advancements in remote battery tech, which allows a set […]
For thirty years, people have been writing Star Wars books. That’s a long time (and a jumbled canon) but yesterday, finally, Star Wars entered the future. Lucasfilm and Random House announced that the entire library of Star Wars fiction titles (Del Rey/Bantam Spectra) will be available in eBook format, as will any future releases under the imprints. […]