El Al teams up with ViaSat for speedy in-flight WiFi on flights to Europe

ViaSat’s not yet a household name here in the US, but the company’s super-fast WiFi is well on its way, due in no small part to successful launches on JetBlue and United. Now, the satellite provider is set to bring its Exede in-flight internet to El Al passengers, operating on several 737s between Tel Aviv and cities in Europe. Unlike the North American service, which connects to ViaSat-1, this European counterpart will hook up with Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat, with ViaSat’s terminals and antennas handling the connection on each plane. El Al plans to launch the Ka-band service within the next year.

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless

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This Arduino-powered business card looks like a GameBoy and runs Tetris (video)

Off-white business cards with Silian Grail lettering are so passé — these days, it’s all about creativity. This GameBoy look-alike, for instance, demonstrates its creator’s skills in one fell swoop: it doesn’t just display résumé, it’s also a simple gaming handheld that can play Tetris. The device was made by Oregon programmer Kevin Bates who calls it the Arduboy, because it uses a barebones Arduino board (the tiny computer also found inside Kegbot and Fish on Wheels) connected to an OLED screen. To make the handheld gaming experience as authentic as possible, he also equipped the card with capacitive touch buttons, a speaker and a replaceable battery that lasts up to nine hours.

Thanks to all the feedback he’s received since demonstrating the card on YouTube, Bates is now planning to launch a Kickstarter project in the coming weeks, specifically for DIY enthusiasts. He aims to sell Arduboy kits for at least $30 per card and promises to make assembly as beginner-friendly as possible through video instructions. Not exactly fond of Tetris? Don’t worry, Bates is also developing another version that runs Pokemon.

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Via: 9to5mac

Source: Bateske

Comcast’s internet access program for low-income families will continue indefinitely

Comcast’s Internet Essentials program was originally supposed to wind down this June, roughly three years after its launch in the wake of the NBC merger. However, the company has had a lot of success with the initiative — enough so that it’s extending the program indefinitely. Low-income American families can continue to sign up for basic, $10 per month internet access as long as they have children who qualify for free lunches. Comcast is also providing an extra level of coverage by funding 15 Internet Essentials Learning Zones, or partner networks that will help kids stay online at school, libraries and after-school activities. These latest moves won’t completely bridge the gap between internet haves and have-nots, but they should be valuable complements to expanded school broadband efforts.

Filed under: Networking, Internet

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Via: CNET

Source: Comcast

Join the Engadget HD Podcast live on Ustream at 8:45PM ET

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for the Engadget HD Podcast and we hope you’ll join us for the live recording at 8:45PM. Tonight there is new hardware to discuss from Harmony, some HDMI-CEC enabled action from Dish and Roku’s new inexpensive streaming stick. There’s always plenty of streaming news too and of course a few other pieces of home theater related information. If you’ll be joining us, take a peek at the topics after the break and then get ready to participate in the live chat.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Department of Justice comes out against Aereo’s TV streaming in Supreme Court case

It’s never a good idea to make an enemy of the federal government, and it appears that Aereo now finds itself in just that predicament. On Monday, the US Department of Justice came out in favor of the broadcasters that oppose Aereo in a case currently before the US Supreme Court. The feds filed an amicus brief — a legal memo aimed at educating swaying the justices to a certain point of view written by someone not a party in a lawsuit — that refutes Aereo’s position that it doesn’t need to license the content viewed by its users. The case is, of course, all about copyright law, and specifically, it raises the question whether or not Aereo’s technology enables public or private performances of the video being watched (public performances constitute infringement, private ones do not).

Ultimately, the issue before the SCOTUS is a semantic one about how to characterize Aereo’s business: does the company stream content over the internet to customers or does it provide customers access to equipment that lets them stream content to themselves. While such a distinction may seem trivial, it’s the difference between breaking copyright law and abiding by it.

Aereo argues that it’s a rental service of sorts, giving folks access to the equipment needed to pull down over-the-air TV broadcasts and either stream them live or record them for later consumption over the internet. Such equipment can be bought and used to the same effect by any one of us for our own, ‘private performances’ without running afoul of copyright law. Accordingly, argues Aereo, because its tech merely enables each user to access his own antenna and own cloud DVR remotely, using that tech should be considered a ‘private performance’ under the law.

We now know that the DoJ believes that Aereo is re-transmitting broadcaster’s content to the public — not unlike a cable company — and is therefore in violation of Federal copyright law. The government says that, while Aereo uses individual antennas to receive the signal, it pipes all those signals through centralized servers and other equipment to service its customers collectively. So it’s not an individualized end-to-end system like the type individuals can legally set up and use. Furthermore, Uncle Sam says that when Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1976 (the primary law governing copyright), it did not equate individuals and commercial content providers. So, According to the DoJ, that means Aereo should, legally speaking, be treated like Netflix and Comcast: companies that re-transmit copyrighted works, and therefore have to pay to license them.

Oh, and the government also informed the Court that its position doesn’t mean it’s against streaming video, cloud storage or new broadcasting technology — as long as the content being stored and streamed has been bought and paid for.

What’s all this really mean? Well, nothing… yet. The brief is what amounts to a piece of advice; the Supremes are free to ignore it. But the DoJ’s opinion carries governmental weight, and could certainly influence the Court’s ultimate decision. We’ll just have to wait until April 22nd, when oral arguments are held, to find out just how much juice the DoJ has in the highest court in all the land.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Via: Recode

Source: DoJ Amicus brief (DocStoc)