One of AT&T’s big announcements at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has open Internet advocates crying foul. Last week, the telecom giant for its wireless network, a program that will allow businesses to foot the bill for the bandwidth of their videos, applications or other content, rather than counting it against subscribers’ monthly data caps. For digital rights groups like Public Knowledge and Free Press, the plan of the nation’s second-largest wireless provider appears another step toward a pay-for-play Internet where carriers and well-heeled companies can reach agreements that amount to giving preferential treatment to certain types of content over others. Businesses that could not afford to pay—garage startups are a favorite example—might find themselves at an even steeper competitive disadvantage against their larger and more established rivals. AT&T bills the plan as a boon for consumers, promising no-cost delivery of popular content from companies that choose to participate. The company says sponsored and non-sponsored data will be delivered at the same speed, but that content from a participating company will be marked as such so consumers will know that it won’t count against their data plan.
Wireless users in the U.S. could gain new blocks of unlicensed wireless spectrum as several high-profile auctions are completed over the next 18 months, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said last week. Major wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth currently operate in such spaces—blocks of the radio spectrum that are open to use by any technology and do not require formal FCC licensing—but some of those spaces are now crowded with signals. If more space became available, it could allow the tech industry to develop and popularize new and as-yet-unrealized communications services. At least, that’s the hope of companies in the industry that are pushing for an expansion of the current spectrum. ”I’m a big proponent of unlicensed spectrum,” in Silicon Valley.
Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its second-generation all-in-one workstation, the Z1 G2, which offers designers, photographers, illustrators, and other creative pros a graphics and processor boost, Thunderbolt 2.0, a 27-inch display with optional touch capabilities and an audio upgrade. The Z1 is unique among HP’s Z-series of workstations, as it ditches the tower in favor of an iMac-like all-in-one design that squeezes the entire computer into one compact unit, described by the company as “power without the tower.” HP expects to ship its Z1 G2 Workstation in February, with pricing starting at $1999.
Microsoft is patching Windows XP on this month’s Patch Tuesday, shoring up a vulnerability that can lead to computers being taken over entirely by attackers. While the bulleting about the patch is ranked important second in severity behind critical known exploits of the vulnerability can result in attackers executing arbitrary code with kernel privileges, according to a . “Successful exploits will result in the complete compromise of affected computers,” the post says. According to Microsoft the same problem affects Windows Server 2003 and will be patched this month. ”It’s only rated important for a variety of reasons, including the fact that for XP in April,” says Russ Ernst, director of product management at Lumension. “If you’re still using XP, this will be an important patch to deploy. And, hopefully you are working on your migration plan.”
About 2.5 million Chromebooks were sold globally in 2013, or about 1 percent of the entire PC market, according to market research firm IDC. Most of those sales were driven by consumers, not by enterprise users. introduced in 2011, is still an outlier for most businesses, even as it becomes an alternative for consumers and schools. By 2017, IDC expects the Chromebook to reach about 6 million shipments, or more than 2 percent of the PC market. But how much progress has the made into the enterprise? “Beyond education, it’s probably virtually zero,” said IDC analyst Loren Loverde. There were 314.6 million PCs shipped in 2013.
Apple hasn’t infringed on a disputed Motorola patent in its iPhone, an appeals court said Friday. The ruling is a blow to Motorola, which had petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., after an earlier ruling by the International Trade Commission. as part of its battle against Apple because the trade court has the ability to block the import of products it considers to be infringing on U.S. patents. Because Apple manufactures the iPhone overseas, Motorola had been hoping to get the phone blocked from the U.S. market. Its original complaint to the ITC had covered a number of patents, but its appeal only concerned the ITC’s finding on U.S. Patent 6,272,666, “Method and apparatus in a wireless communication system for controlling a delivery of data.”
Optical cables that connect peripherals to Thunderbolt 2 ports in Apple Macs are getting longer, but also more expensive. Other World Computing on Friday started selling a 30-meter Thunderbolt 2 optical cable for $899. It will be able to stretch 4K video streams from a Mac to a 4K monitor for the full length. Corning this week at International CES demonstrated optical cables stretching 200 feet, or 61 meters, that are also Thunderbolt 2 compatible. The technology transfers data at speeds of up to 20Gbps (bits per second). Corning has already shown optical cables that extend to 100 meters on the original Thunderbolt technology, in which data transfers happen at 10Gbps. Prices and availability on the new Corning cables were not provided.
Dropbox service returned Friday night, after an outage of several hours that the file-sharing service blamed on an issue that came up during regular maintenance. A social network post allegedly from a hacker group had claimed responsibility for the outage, but Dropbox dismissed claims that user info had been leaked as hoax. Users trying access the Dropbox website from around 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT were redirected to a acknowledging the outage. “We are aware of an issue currently affecting the Dropbox site,” a message posted on the site said. “We have identified the cause, which was the result of an issue that arose during routine internal maintenance, and are working to fix this as soon as possible.” The main page of the Dropbox site returned by 8 p.m. PT, but attempts to log in produced an error message. Just after 8:30 p.m. PT, Dropbox posted via Twitter that service had been restored.
Criticism hurts—especially when you’re not sure where it’s coming from, or why, and have no way to respond to it. That’s the feeling among some business owners, who say a new rating system that Facebook introduced to better is actually doing more harm than good. The system, which is currently in a testing phase for the desktop version of Facebook, lets people leave ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, in addition to text reviews, on businesses’ Facebook pages. So, if a simple “like” will not suffice, there’s this. But some small business owners say the system contains numerous flaws that have caused headaches for them and made it difficult to manage their companies’ pages on Facebook. Among their complaints: The ratings can be left anonymously, sometimes with no real feedback attached to them, and without any way to respond to the reviews or correct mistakes in them. Claims confusion Part of the issue is that the system allows for discrepancies between a business’s overall rating and the reviews that are viewable on its page. The way the system works now, someone can write a positive review but leave a low star rating for the business, which is factored into its overall grade. That makes it hard, some business owners say, to understand what’s really going on.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a battle between TV broadcasters and Aereo, a startup that streams television over the Internet, as the final step in a case that could have broad implications for the future of online TV services. The TV networks and broadcasters asked the Supreme Court to take the case after a federal court in New York last year that Aereo’s service wasn’t breaking copyright law. Aereo allows subscribers access to over-the-air TV signals via the Internet. It installs arrays of tiny, coin-sized antennas in major cities and offers its service to viewers who live within the already established transmission area. Broadcasters say it infringes on their copyright because it’s redistributing their programming without permission, but Aereo disagrees.
Mimo's infant tracker keeps tabs on your baby's vitals, and takes the traditional baby monitor to the next level.
This game is a demonstration of autonomous-driving technology right on your living room floor. Oh, and it's a blast to play.
Car apps represent a sea change in how people use their cars—not just for simple mobility, but for getting things done while mobile—and they were the biggest car-tech news out of CES 2014.
Think 3D printing is just for plastic knick-knacks? Think again. This one lets you print delicious sweets. Want.
Robots to assist the differently abled are not a brand-new idea. But I’ve never seen a robot as cute and cuddly and downright huggable as Paro, a theraputic robot in the form of a furry, huge-eyed baby seal. And from the moment I encountered it in a corner of the South Hall at CES 2014 in Las Vegas, I was in love. Paro is from Japan, and was created as a robotic version of a —one that doesn’t need any care besides charging up its battery every six to eight hours or so. The reason it’s a baby seal instead of, say, a cat or dog, is that people tend to prefer a cat over a dog or vice versa, but who can resist a baby seal? (Not me, that’s for sure.) Plus, everyone has an idea of how a cat or dog should behave, which a robot could have a tricky time living up to. Covered with 200 high-tech sensors under its thick, plush, kissable fur, Paro responds to your petting and caressing it. It turns its head toward you when you talk to it. Artificial intelligence lets it remember how you like it to behave (for instance, what it does that you respond to the most). It makes cooing sounds and wriggles when you hug it. You can even change Paro’s name—it’ll learn the new one after enough repetition.
Spend $400 on a phone, get a $35 dongle for your TV.
Let the spoiling begin! The MyLincoln Mobile app lets you schedule engine starts and climate control. Also, the car can detect when you're approaching and shine a 'welcome mat' in a tasteful color at the door.
