Category Archives: Telecom

Mar 14

Proposed 911 geolocation system could disrupt 900 Mhz band

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Tom

One of the downsides of people switching to wireless phones is it’s now harder to accurately locate someone when they call 911. Although your phone sends GPS information, it’s not helpful in situations like high-rise buildings where callers might be … Read More →

Posted in Government, Radio, Technology, Telecom | Tagged 9/11, FCC, geolocation, NextNav, Radio, Telecom | Leave a comment

Mar 02

Time Warner Cable thinks you’re an idiot

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Tom

Time Warner Cable chief technology officer Irene Esteves says you don’t really want the gigabit speeds offered by Google Fiber and other high speed providers. And you don’t. Fast Internet is for countries like South Korea and has absolutely no … Read More →

Posted in Fail, Funny, Telecom | Tagged clueless, Fail, GoogleFiber, hilarious, Internet, speed, TWC | Leave a comment

Feb 28

AT&T vs. the public telephone network

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Tom

In keeping with their quest to charge more and deliver less AT&T is now doing their best to destroy the public switched telephone network and replace it with IP networks. I’m sure that the fact that IP is unregulated wasn’t … Read More →

Posted in Telecom | Tagged AT&T, IP, regulation, Telecom | Leave a comment

Feb 13

When Google got flu wrong

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Tom

Google’s Flu Trends service is usually fairly accurate but this year it greatly overestimated peak flu levels. Not that this season’s flu epidemic wasn’t bad but Flu Trends made it seem worse than it was. While Google isn’t saying why, … Read More →

Posted in Health, Telecom | Tagged datamining, flu, FluTrends, Google, overestimated | Leave a comment

Feb 11

The Law Against Unlocking Cellphones Is Anti-Consumer, Anti-Business, and Anti-Common Sense

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Tom

But when you think about how corporations and their money exercise almost absolute power over our government, a law that makes unlocking your own phone a crime is hardly surprising. And that’s a shame.

Posted in Fail, Freedom, Gadgets, Government, Telecom | Tagged crime, Fail, law, phone, unlocking | Leave a comment

Dec 19

Data caps are just a “cash cow” for Internet providers

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Tom

Lots of Americans have their Internet access limited by data caps, limits on how much they transfer in a given amount of time. But as the cost of connectivity goes down, consumer costs stay the same (or even rise). Why? … Read More →

Posted in Fail, Telecom | Tagged competition, Internet, ISP, US | Leave a comment

Sep 20

NFC used to hack the Samsung Galaxy S3

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Tom

At the same Mobile Pnw2Own Conference where an iPhone 4s was hacked, security researchers hacked Android via NFC on the Samsung Galaxy S3. NFC, Near Field Communication, is the technology used to implement Google Wallet and despite the rumors did … Read More →

Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Security, Telecom | Leave a comment

Sep 19

Daring Fireball reviews the iPhone 5

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Tom

John Gruber has his review of the iPhone 5 up. As to the size: Such people surely think the iPhone 5’s display remains too small. But, trust me, there are going to be many long-time iPhone users complaining that it’s … Read More →