Ofcom to expand 4G in the UK with new spectrum auction next year
The UK’s four main carriers may steadily be building up their 4G coverage, but regulators don’t want to leave the future of Britain’s superfast networks to chance. UK communications regulator Ofcom today announced that it intends to auction more 4G spectrum late next year (or early 2015), giving operators to opportunity to expand their LTE networks with more high data capacity spectrum. It expects to raise between £50 and £70 million from the sale, which will then line the pockets of the government.
The two bands in question are the 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz frequencies. The former is supported in handsets old and new, including the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6, Samsung’s Galaxy phones and HTC’s One devices, while the 3.4 GHz band is primarily utilised by wireless broadband provider Relish in the UK. To keep things fair, Ofcom says it will limit operators’ mobile holdings to 37 percent of each spectrum, giving carriers like Three and O2 (and even BT) the chance to achieve some parity with their bigger rivals.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Source: Ofcom
Star Wars: Episode VII will be called ‘The Force Awakens’
Lucasfilm has revealed that Star Wars: Episode VII will be released with the subtitle The Force Awakens when it premieres next December. The long-awaited name was revealed on Twitter alongside the news that principal photography has all been wrapped up. The film is still more than a year away, but the title artwork maintains the classic Star Wars aesthetic and suggests director J.J Abrams is trying to capture the original trilogy’s spirit and tone. The name itself has, almost inevitably, been polarising for fans of the force and sparked the hilarious hashtag #BetterStarWarsTitles on Twitter. Go check it out.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has completed principal photography. #StarWarsVII #TheForceAwakens pic.twitter.com/mFTP9YbKNN
– Star Wars (@starwars) November 6, 2014
Source: Twitter
BBC brings FA Cup highlights to iPlayer
Although the BBC invests a lot of time and money into football coverage, catching up on Match of the Day can be frustrating if you want to use iPlayer. The FA’s insistence on auctioning differing replay rights means that you’ll normally need to wait a few days to see your team via the Beeb’s on-demand route. That said, the BBC is trying to deliver as much online football as possible, so today it’s announced that it will soon bring FA Cup goals and highlights to the service. On the Monday morning after each round of the cup, the BBC will push live its FA Cup Catch-up programme, letting fans see how their team got on over the weekend. It’s also committed to delivering 16 live matches over the course of the competition, which normally includes a giant killing or two somewhere along the way.
[Image credit: phillipc, Flickr]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
New Project Ara rival promises a modular phone with a focus on security
Project Ara isn’t the only modular phone to look forward to anymore: it now has a fledgling rival in Vsenn, a startup co-founded by a former Nokia Android X program manager… at least according to its website. The project’s so new, all its details can fit in a splash page at this point, though it has revealed enough to give us a decent idea of what it’s about. Unlike Google’s Project Ara, which has many swappable components, Vsenn will only have three — the camera, the battery and the processor/RAM — along with a replaceable back cover similar to those old Nokia brick phones. The phone will apparently come with three layers of encryption, though, as well as free access to a VPN network and a secure cloud service. Finally, the device will run vanilla Android with four years of guaranteed updates. We’ll make sure to let you know when we hear more about the project. Or you can follow Vsenn’s Twitter account, where the startup has divulged that its first model will have a 4.7-inch full HD screen, for more updates.
Filed under: Mobile
Via: Android Central
Source: Vsenn
Tesla brings its Supercharger network one step closer to covering the UK
Tesla’s UK presence might be small, but the company is slowing starting to make inroads. To get things moving outside of London, the electric car manufacturer has opened its fourth domestic retail store in Birmingham and says it’s already hiring for new operations in Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle and Edinburgh. To sell the dream of an electric vehicle though, the company needs to increase the size of its free Supercharger network. Today the company promised that within six months, all Model S owners will be able to drive the length of the UK using Tesla’s chargers alone. To kick things off, Tesla has officially unveiled six new sites; three in London (Canary Wharf, Tower Bridge and Westfield White City) and a further three in Reading, Bristol and Edinburgh. Some of these may have been open already for testing purposes, but today anyone can pull up in their Model S and start recharging for free. It’s a small step forward, but with 83 stations now live in Europe, Musk and co. have proved they’re serious about penetrating the continent.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Tesla
Whatsapp’s read receipts finally work the way you thought they did
Chances are, you’ve been interpreting Whatsapp wrong this entire time. Most people look at their sent messages, see those double green checkmarks, and assume those missives have made their way to their targets. Not quite! Those only indicate that they’ve reached Whatsapp’s servers, but the Facebook subsidiary finally changed those checks to work the way you thought they did. According to a newly updated tidbit in Whatsapp’s FAQ, you’ll be greeted by a pair of blue checkmarks on your message when the recipient finally gets around to opening it. It’s a minor, if terribly useful addition to the mix — now that that’s out of the way, the team might want to spend a little team seeing how it can make the service a bit more secure.
Via: The Next Web
Source: Whatsapp FAQ
Google Barges’ lack of fire-safety features caused their early demise
Google’s four-story barges didn’t even get the chance to shed their safety nets before the project was scrapped. We mean that literally, as one of the four barges was dismantled and sold for scrap in August. Now, we finally know not only the reason for that, but also that the project was put on hold way before we even found out about the vessels last year, all because of fire safety issues. According to documents relevant to the project, the barges’ contractor (Foss Maritime Co.) was forced to shut down construction due to several fire-safety concerns raised by the Coast Guard. Since Google wanted to turn the vessels into floating showrooms, they would have hosted a steady stream of visitors per day, so authorities were mainly worried about overcrowding.
The company promised to limit the number of passengers on board to 150 at any one time despite expecting 1,200 people to visit every day, but authorities weren’t convinced. In an email that Coast Guard official Robert Gauvin sent Foss Maritime in March 2013, he said Google didn’t inform them of any anti-overcrowding measures. Having more people than the vessels can carry can be fatal, because the barges, Gauvin wrote, “will have over 5,000 gallons of fuel on the main deck and a substantial amount of combustible material on board.”
More importantly, the contractor failed to “incorporate certain fire safety features typically required,” the Coast Guard said in an separate email from August last year. So much so, that they couldn’t even tell if “evacuation of disabled persons has been considered” when the barges were designed. Along with private fire safety companies, the authorities put together a 20-page document detailing the fire-safety features Google will need to incorporate into the barges’ design. But, since the project was still suspended indefinitely in September 2013, we’re assuming Mountain View found it easier to scrap at least one of the vessels instead of trying to fix the issue.
[Image credit: Tom Hilton/Flickr]
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Microsoft will unveil its first Nokia-less Lumia on November 11th
Thanks to Chinese regulators, we’ve already got a pretty good idea of what Microsoft’s first Lumia will look like, but now the company is ready to start showing it off. Microsoft says it will reveal the low-budget handset on November 11th, likely confirming the 5-inch qHD display, 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage and 3G-only connectivity we’ve seen approved in Asia. While the handset retains Nokia’s familiar design, it will be the first to sport Microsoft’s logo, which’ll be located beneath the earpiece on the front and in a vertical stripe running down the back.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: Conversations Blog
Unlocked Xperia Z3 now available in the US from online Sony store
If you’ve been waiting for the Sony Xperia Z3 and you are in the US, then good news as Sony are now offering the Xperia Z3 unlocked direct from their online store.
The Z3 is available from $679.99 and is showing a shipping date of November 10th for all four colours.
Remember, if you are interested in getting the Z3, that it’ll most likely be one of the first devices to receive Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The post Unlocked Xperia Z3 now available in the US from online Sony store appeared first on AndroidGuys.
NYC MoMA adds five maker devices to its permanent collection
If you’ve ever been to a Maker Faire, you know its as much of an art show as a technology showcase. Builders debut everything from robotic bands to educational circuitry kits at these events, and the NYC Museum of Modern Art is about to immortalize five maker products into its permanent collection. Early next year, the Arduino, Ototo, Makey Makey, Colour Chaser and a DIY Gamer Kit will be on display in the MoMA’s design galleries, serving as representatives of the maker culture to the museum’s visitors. MoMA is excited about the new additions, but it’s not the first time technology has found its way into the museum’s collection: in 2011 both Botanicalls and Little Bits found its way into MoMA’s galleries. Check out the announcement at the source link below.
[Image credit: NYC MoMA]
Filed under: Misc
Source: MoMA
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