iPhone what? New T-Mobile ad rips AT&T’s lack of 4G
T-Mobile USA has taken their “America’s Largest 4G Network” ad campaign to the next level tonight, taking a direct shot at AT&T and the iPhone 4.
In the new ad, dubbed “Piggyback,” T-Mobile plays up the fast speeds of its HSPA+ network, which boasts speeds faster than Sprint’s 4G.
Playing off Apple’s famous “Get a Mac” campaign, T-Mobile starts the commercial with two people standing next to each other, one being a MyTouch 4G and the other being an iPhone 4, piggybacking another person.
The iPhone is being “weighed down” by AT&T 3G network and lack of 4G, with the ad taking time to explain that T-Mobile users can video chat while connected to HSPA+, while iPhone 4 users can only use the FaceTime video chatting app when connected to Wi-Fi.
Target Mobile to begin selling iPhone next week
Target has announced today that it will begin carrying the Apple iPhone in all 846 stores that include a Target Mobile center.
The phone will go on sale on November 7th.
Target will offer both the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4, as well as free in-store activation if you are a first-time iPhone buyer.
“At Target we continue to offer our guests the best in electronics so we’re happy to add iPhone to our Target Mobile offerings,” added Mark Schindele, senior VP of merchandising at Target. “With expert support from Target Mobile specialists and in-store activation, our guests will be able to leave the store with a new, working iPhone3GS or iPhone4 in-hand.”
The retailer also noted that it was rolling out Target Mobile centers to most Target stores by the end of the Q2 2011.
Google sues U.S. government over software contract
Google has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government this weekend, claiming that the government unfairly gave preference to Microsoft when selecting a new software suite.
In 2009, the Department of the Interior began searching for a “collaboration and messaging suite” for its almost 90,000 employees.
Google says it tried to join the evaluation process but was turned away.
The DOI then selected Microsoft BPOS-Federal Suite, thanks to Microsoft’s multi-decade long history of providing software for government departments.
Microsoft’s BPOS-Federal Suite includes hosting services, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Communications Online.
Google wanted to challenge the BPOS-FS with its Google Apps for Government suite, claiming it could be implemented more cheaply and more effectively than Microsoft’s rival service.
The search giant wants the requisition process halted until Google Apps is given a fair chance.
Logitech unveils first wireless solar keyboard
Logitech has unveiled their first wireless solar keyboard, dubbed the K750.
The K750 can power itself from all light, include indoor light, eliminating the need for batteries, ever.
“A keyboard is still the best input device for typing emails and IMs, updating your Facebook™ page or posting responses to your favorite blogs – and the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 is the next big innovation in keyboard technology,” added Denis Pavillard, VP of product marketing for Logitech’s keyboards and desktops. “The Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard is powered by light but can work in total darkness for up to three months. Plus, with its PVC-free construction and fully recyclable packaging, it’s designed to minimize its footprint.”
The solar panel is integrated right into the keyboard meaning there is no external charger or brick necessary.
Logitech includes a solar power app that “features a lux meter to help you get the necessary light, makes it easy to get at-a-glance information about battery levels, and even alerts you when you need more power.”
The gadget will be available starting November 15th with a price tag of $80 USD.
Will VLC be pulled from iOS App Store?
At the end of October, Applidium released an updated VLC for iOS, finally giving iPhone and iPod Touch owners a chance to use the popular media player on their devices.
The move followed Applidium’s 1.0 version of the software which runs on the iPad.
Today, it has become clear that a possible licensing conflict may force the app offline.
PCWorld explains:
In addition to being free in the sense that it costs nothing, VLC is also open-source software developed collaboratively under the GNU Public License (GPL), which is designed to promote the creation of software that can be freely modified and redistributed by anyone, as long as they do so in compliance with the license.
In order to maintain the freedom of the software it protects, the GPL imposes several conditions under which redistribution may take place; in particular, the redistribution of the software must be unrestricted under any circumstance, allowing any user to give another user a functional copy under the same original terms.
Regular VLC contributor Rémi Denis-Courmont has said, however, that the iOS App Store violates the aforementioned terms because it uses proprietary DRM to make sure users do not redistribute apps obtained through the store. Denis-Courmont says he has now filed a copyright complaint with Apple, asking the software be removed from the store.
Apple has yet to respond but the software is still available and if you want it, chances are you should download it now.
LimeWire lays off 29 percent of staff
Last week we reported that LimeWire, once the world’s most popular P2P client, had been officially shut down, following a four-year legal battle against the record industry.
A New York federal court issued a permanent injunction against the site, ruling that LimeWire caused a “massive scale of infringement” by intentionally giving users a platform to share millions of unauthorized music tracks.
At its peak, LimeWire was seeing 50 million monthly users.
Following the ruling, LimeWire has had to lay off 29 of its 100 staff members.
Curiously, the company will keep the other 71 working on an unknown new music service.
Says CEO George Searle, via AllThingsD: “Following the court-ordered injunction, we reduced our work force to extend our runway for bringing our new music service to market. Letting go of colleagues is never easy. If we could have brought about another solution, we would have.”
The upcoming service is dubbed “Grapevine.”
NCSA director says GPUs are future of high performance computing
Thom Dunning, director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, has said that GPUs are the future of supercomputing.
Dunning said high-performance computing solutions will continue to move toward graphics processing units for more power. China has just recently claimed to have the fastest supercomputer on the planet, the Tianhe-1A, which uses 7,168 Nvidia Tesla M2050 GPUs and 14,336 Intel Xeon CPUs.
This GPU-CPU hybrid system is what Dunning expects to be the future in the area.
“What we’re really seeing in the efforts in China as well as the ones we have in the U.S. is that GPUs are what the future will look like,” Dunning said. “What we’re seeing is the beginning of something that’s going to be happening all over the world.”
He said that the migration to such systems will accelerate when chipmakers can provide combined high-performance CPU and GPU functions on the same chip. “If they start to solve some of these other problems like putting [the GPU and CPU] together on a chip, that’s when you’ll start to see a lot software rewritten,” according to Dunning.
“That combination will address a number of the more significant shortcomings that we currently see in these CPU-GPU combinations. Basically, the way they’re implemented presently is a very small pipe between [the CPU and GPU] and that really restricts the effectiveness with which you can use the GPU,” Dunning added, reports CNET.
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Facebook hosting mobile event next week
Facebook has sent out invites to members of the press to attend an event that will focus on Facebook’s mobile offerings.
The event is sure to re-spark the immediately-denied rumors that there is a Facebook-branded handset (or handsets) on the horizon. The media event will be held at Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters next Wednesday.
The social networking giant recently revealed that of its 500 million members, approximately 150 million use the website from their mobile phones. It offers native software applications for handsets as well as hosting a mobile-friendly version of its site.
That is likely to be the main focus of the event. A Facebook spokesperson denied rumors back in December that the company was working with device manufacturers on Facebook-branded handsets, saying that building phones is just not what Facebook does.
U.S. Senator: Cyber security bill unlikely to pass this year
United States Senators have said it is unlikely that Cyber security legislation will pass this year as the 111th Congress comes to an end.
Recognizing that critical infrastructure of the United States depends on computer and network systems, legislators are debating what powers should be given to the U.S. President to respond to, and handle situations such as cyber attacks.
Countries like the United Kingdom and the United States have expressed concerns that some critical systems (health, transport, defense etc.) could be affected by cyber attacks launched by cyber criminals or rogue states. Lawmakers in the U.S. are looking to pass new legislation that would give the President powers to handle attacks from the Internet or threats of attacks, but say that any legislation is unlikely to pass this year.
“I’m not optimistic of major cyber security legislation passing at this late time.” Republican staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee Louis Tucker said. “Considering the objections to some of the cyber bills out there, comprehensive legislation will probably have to wait until next year.”
A piece of legislation backed by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Tom Carper, D-Del has some privacy activists concerned. ACLU legislative counsel Michelle Richardson said the problem is the legislation fails to specify the powers it wants to grant to the President.
Defense News reports that the bill states: “The president would be granted emergency measures to protect the nation’s most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited.” Aides to the sponsoring Senators have said the bill does not authorize the government to take over critical infrastructure.
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Cablevision subscribers get their Fox network signals back
News Corp. returned their Fox signal to Cablevision subscribers last night, just in time to watch Game 3 of the World Series.
Both companies have agreed “in principle” on a new deal over retransmission fees, and Cablevision subscribers now have their Fox, Fox Deportes, NatGeo Wild and My 9 channels back.
The signals had been blacked out since October 16th, when negotiations between the companies hit a wall.
News Corp. was asking for $150 million in retransmission fees, more than Cablevision pays for ABC, NBC and CBS combined.
Terms of the new deal were not disclosed.
