Verizon gets slapped by New York City’s mayor
Way back when, Verizon pledged to build fiber optic services to every home in NYC, but for some reason, it never got around to finishing it. Unfortunately, New Yorkers are used to getting what they want, and so Mayor Bill de Blasio has slammed the company saying that it needs to sort out the problem, or else. The city has delivered Big Red a very public ultimatum: either it brings its FiOS network to “every household” in the five boroughs, or it’ll face some heavy penalties.
The saga began back in 2008, when the city agreed that Verizon could operate a local cable TV franchise in exchange for a fiber optic network. The deal was that every person in NYC that wanted super-fast broadband would be able to get it by June 30th, 2014. Naturally, the overwhelming number of consumer complaints prompted the mayor’s office to conduct a full investigation into what the hell was happening.
City official Maya Wiley sums it up thus, saying that the audit found “an alarming failure on the part of Verizon to deliver on its franchise agreement.” Other charges leveled against the telco include marking blocks as being fiber-ready, when in fact it “had not installed the necessary equipment to deliver service.” Then there’s the accusation that Verizon didn’t track purchase requests from new users before the fall of 2014, again in “direct violation of the franchise agreement.” Apparently upwards of 30,000 requests for new installations were not dealt with within the agreed six or 12-month period.
Oh, and Verizon also got a public slap on the wrist for not cooperating with the City’s audit of the FiOS rollout. It stands accused of significantly delaying or failing to provide access to “various other records, reports and contracts requested by the City to conduct a full assessment of FiOS implementation.” If you’re a New Yorker who has been affected by any of these events, the city is asking you to either call 311 or add your complaint to the pile here.
Verizon has issued a robust response, and the company told Ars Technica that it disputes all of the findings from the Mayor’s report. As far as it’s concerned, it has met its obligations, but cannot wire up buildings it does not have access to, which is the only challenge it faces. Instead, it believes that the timing of the release is part of a co-ordinated attempt to exert pressure on the company by its labor union, which it goes into negotiations with on Monday. That’s not even a hinted barb, either, since the published quote reads “it’s well known the union has ties to the city administration, and things like this are a familiar union tactic we have seen before.”
[Image Credit: Bloomberg/Getty]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Mobile, Verizon
Via: Ars Technica
Source: NYC, Agreement (.PDF), Audit (.PDF)
Apple Removes Original iPad Mini From Apple Online Store
Apple has quietly pulled the original iPad mini from the Apple Online Store this week and removed other references of the tablet from its website, as noted by 9to5Mac. The nearly three-year-old iPad mini was announced in October 2012 as a smaller 7.9-inch version of the iPad, but the tablet has since been succeeded by the iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3, the latter featuring a Retina display, Touch ID and 64-bit A7 processor.
Apple dropped the price of the first-gen A5-based iPad mini to $299 in October 2013 and further discounted the tablet to $249 in October 2014, but the device was a hard sell given the iPad mini 2 starts at $299 with newer features. The original iPad mini remains available in the refurbished section of the Apple Online Store for between $209 and $409 depending on the specific model and storage capacity.
The original iPad mini remains available in limited quantities through authorized third-party resellers such as Amazon, although likely only until leftover stock is depleted. Apple’s remaining tablet lineup for sale includes the iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 3 and iPad mini 2, and the company is widely rumored to introduce a larger 12.9-inch “iPad Pro” targeted at professional users later this year.
OnePlus One heading to India’s Flipkart
Flipkart has been teasing that a new handset is on its way to the popular Indian e-commerce retailer and it’s pretty hard to mistake the silhouette for anything other than the OnePlus One. We don’t have a sale date yet, but it could be right around the corner.
Currently, the OnePlus One is only officially available in India through an exclusive deal with Amazon. The 16GB handset arrived in the country back in February, following the launch of the 64GB model back in December 2014. A separate report citing industry sources suggests that the 64GB Sandstone Black model will be available through Flipkart first, which could go on sale as early as June 22nd.
The #One Wish Flipkart hasn’t fulfilled yet… is about to come true soon. pic.twitter.com/OYAkGfa3uC
— Flipkart (@Flipkart) June 18, 2015
Given the teaser, see above, we can probably expect the handset to arrive at Flipkart in the coming days. Expanding to include Flipkart in OnePlus’ distribution network has probably come about due to increased pressure from competing low-cost smartphone manufacturers in India, which are continuing to drive prices down in the country. Many of these competing handsets are already on sale through Flipkart, so it seems sensible that OnePlus wants to maximize its exposure across a number of retailers.
The news comes just one day after OnePlus confirmed that its upcoming OnePlus Two handset would be more expensive than the previous model. This means that we’re looking at more than $322 for the second generation handset, but the smartphone will be packing a high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, which is apparently fine-tuned to avoid any overheating problems.
We’ll keep our eyes open for more details from Flipkart in the coming days.
Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 now official
After witnessing a lot of leaks in the past few weeks, the Samsung Galaxy J5 and Samsung Galaxy J7 have been officially announced for China. Samsung aims to market these handsets to younger users.
The main factor about Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 is that it’s the first phone from Samsung to include a front-facing camera with an LED flash. Dubbed as the selfie phones, both of them possess a 5MP front-facing wide angle cameras. The common features include 1.5GB RAM, 16GB on-board storage with microSD support, 13 MP rear camera with f/1.9 aperture and dual SIM capabilities with LTE.
The Galaxy J5 is powered by a Snapdragon 410 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, offering a 5-inch 720p HD display and fueled by a 2600 mAh battery. The Galaxy J7 being more powerful, sports a Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor and a bigger 5.5-inch 720p HD display. It also features a larger 3000 mAh battery.
The Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 both run on Android 5.1 Lollipop and will be available in three colors (white, gold and black) when it goes on sale in China this week. The Galaxy J5 will retail for 1,398 CNY (around $225) while the J7 will be sold for 1,798 CNY (around $289).
Currently, there is no news about the release of these handsets in other markets. Let us know if the Galaxy J5 and the Galaxy J7 appeal to you, down in the comments section.
The post Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 now official appeared first on AndroidGuys.
GameFly Streaming App review
GameFly recently released their new video game streaming app for the Amazon Fire TV. They have support coming to the Fire TV Stick as well. This is great news for budget gamer’s, who don’t mind paying a subscription fee and at this point, it’s the only way to get console quality games on your Fire TV. Oh, and did I mention you can play any game in their library for 10 minutes free?
To get started, you’ll need an Amazon Fire TV and a video game controller. You can purchase one from Amazon for $39.99, but the app also officially supports the Xbox 360 wired and wireless controllers, Logitech F710 wireless controller, and the Logitech F-310 wired controller. I used the Xbox 360 wireless controller myself in reviewing this app.
The app starts out by testing your internet connection. In order to use the app, you need to have a wired connection or a 5GHz wireless connection. Gamefly recommends that you have a 5.0 Mbps connection at the very minimum, but for HD resolution they recommend at least an 8.5 Mbps connection. The maximum resolution at this point is 720p and the system can automatically adjust the resolution and bit rate to keep your game playing smoothly. In short, it looks great.
The interface is top notch as it was very easy to use and find games to play. In order to play a game, you select the category on the right and then use the cover-flow style interface to select a game.
You can play any game for 10 minutes free of charge and you don’t need to set up a different account because your Amazon account is your GameFly streaming account. If you would like to play beyond the 10-minute demo, you’ll need to subscribe to a game pack. Game packs range between $6.99/month and $9.99/month. Unfortunately at this point there is no all inclusive game pack, but you can subscribe to more that one game pack at a time.
| Pack | Price | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| Action Pack | (7 titles) – $6.99/month | F.E.A.R. 3, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Red Faction: Armageddon, Red Faction: Guerilla, Mafia II, Sleeping Dogs and Hitman |
| Adventure Pack | (7 titles) – $6.99/month | Dark Void, Overlord II, Darksiders, Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins |
| Gamer Pack | (16 titles) – $9.99/month | F.E.A.R. 3, Red Faction: Armageddon, Red Faction: Guerilla, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman, Darksiders, Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, Shank, Shank 2, Dark Void, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Mafia II, Overlord II |
| Speed Pack | (7 titles) – $6.99/month | Ace Combat, Dirt 3, GRID, GRID 2, MotoGP13, Ridge Racer Unbounded, WRC 4 |
| Fun Pack | (7 titles) – $6.99/month | Flock!, PAC-MAN Championship Edition, PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Rise of the Owlverlord, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger |
| LEGO Pack | (7 titles) – $6.99/month | LEGO Batman, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, LEGO Lord of the Rings, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, LEGO Marvel: Super Heroes, LEGO The Hobbit |
The game graphics are console quality. I did not have any screen artifacting or latency issues while playing. Especially since I was using the Xbox 360 controller, it was easy to forget what device I was playing on. The only time it seemed to have a small stutter, was during a few cut scenes. Overall I was very impressed at the graphics and image quality during streaming.
The only real negative that I could come up with, is the limited selection of games in their catalog. Although there are some pretty great games in that catalog, many of the games are at least a few years old. They do, however; have more titles coming in the near future. One major limitation is that the games do not have online multiplayer support. If the game supports a local multiplayer option, then you are more than welcome to play with friends using that option. You will, of course, need additional controllers to play together.
Overall this is a great service, and if I hadn’t already purchased and finished 90% of the games in the adventure pack, I would subscribe. The lack of more recent games and games in general, really kills it for me. However, if you haven’t played many of these games, the Gamefly Streaming service provides a great way to play the games in their library with a minimal financial commitment. Also if you unsubscribe from one of their play packs, all your save data remains in the cloud to access at any time when you may wish to resubscribe.
GameFly Streaming – Amazon App Store
The post GameFly Streaming App review appeared first on AndroidGuys.
FCC: Telcos can block robocalls and spam texts for you
The Federal Communications Commission has just made it clear that customers can ask carriers to block illegal robocalls and spam messages for them — and that telcos can legally do so. In a 3-2 vote, the commission has passed a proposal that makes it perfectly legal to stop automated calls before they reach consumers. Some phone companies apparently tell subscribers and industry watchdogs that they can’t do anything about the problem, because they’re required to connect every call. With the new rules in place, they can’t use that as a reason anymore, but it’s still up to them whether or not to fulfill a customer’s request. They’re not actually obligated to put a stop to automated calls whenever someone asks them, (and we’ll bet a lot of people will, because nobody likes getting them) even if the technology already exists for wireless carriers.
Back in 2013, the Federal Trade Commission, fed up with being buried in complaints, launched the $50,000 Robocall Challenge. That gave rise to Nomorobo, which you can download and set up right now, as well as a Google technology that can detect caller ID spoofing used by notorious scammers and spam callers like “Rachel from card services.” According to the FCC, automated calls remain a huge issue to this day: it recorded 215,000 complaints in 2014 alone, not including those sent to the FTC. In fact, when FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler voted in favor of the rule changes, he begged phone companies to “please start letting [their] consumers request to have robocalls blocked.”
[Image credit: lamont_cranston/Flickr]
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Mobile
Via: The Washington Post
Source: FCC
ICYMI: Bendy batteries, spray-painting drones and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: The flexible battery that takes its style notes from kirigami (origami’s hipper cousin); a VR musical visualizer that will have you tripping like it’s 1998; and a tutorial for a DIY spray-painting drone that may not fly so well now – but try and diss it when it’s painting your 11-foot ceilings. One of the collaborators on that last project is the graffiti artist who defaced Kendall Jenner’s billboard using a drone-so you know, I’m a fan.
And from the cutting room floor: This BBC experiment using a brainwave reading headset to change the channels on a TV. So necessary for those coping with disabilities yet so useful for the rest of us lazy a-holes.
Let the team at Engadget know about any cool stories or videos that you stumble across by using the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd.
Filed under: Displays, Misc, Household, Wearables, Science, Mobile
‘Mega Man’ creator says Japanese publishers need to ‘wake up’
If you grew up playing any installment of the storied Mega Man franchise, the name Keiji Inafune should carry some weight. Inafune’s one of the masterminds behind the beloved metallic man in blue we first met in the NES era. And with his new game, Mighty No. 9, a spiritual successor to his Capcom legacy, he famously kicked off a new wave of Japanese developers who’ve struck out on their own with the help of crowdfunding.
But Inafune didn’t get to this point solely because of a desire to try more modern things; he was essentially forced to turn to Kickstarter when Capcom refused to innovate the beloved Mega Man IP he helped create. “As a creator, as myself, the best thing that happened to this project [Mighty No. 9] is that I have the IP,” he says of the experience with Kickstarter. “The IP is mine. The IP is the company’s IP, so we can do whatever we want. And that will actually speed things up really nicely because once the backers ask for something, we don’t have to go over to the publisher or the first-party [studio] … or whoever we’re working with. We can just make the decision.”
Though the bulk of support for Mighty No. 9 comes from the nostalgia of the legions of backers seeking a fresh Mega Man, Inafune stresses that the game is more an evolution of the series than a direct sequel. “We didn’t really think about [making] another copy of Mega Man,” he says. “In a way, I wanna kind of evolve this genre and this action platformer kind of genre with this game. So, yes, we had Mega Man in mind at some point, but we didn’t just want to copy that.”
Mighty No. 9 isn’t due out on consoles until September 15th, but even still Inafune’s already thinking about a possible next installment. Just don’t expect him to retread the crowdfunding route. Instead, he says that he’s looking to Mighty No. 9 publisher Deep Silver for the next adventures of protagonist Beck, which should center on the bosses from the game. “I’m more thinking of making this game by myself and, since we have such a good relationship with Deep Silver right now, maybe working with them. Sort of starting a partnership with them and making this game from the start for them.”
If Inafune has any gripes with crowdfunding, he’s certainly keeping them close to his chest. In fact, he refers to the roughly 70,000 backers as “staff members,” and confesses that the only negative aspect of the process, which raised over $4 million (including pledges through PayPal), was the stress his team felt in emailing out three development updates per month.
But perhaps the greatest boon of this whole community-supported endeavor — what Inafune refers to as “the best-case scenario” — is that he was able to fully realize his concept. “I pretty much achieved every kind of stretch goal that was out there. At this point I can’t think of too many things I left off. In a sense, this game is kind of complete,” he says.
Inafune’s aware that the success of Mighty No. 9‘s campaign has inspired other Japanese developers, like Koji Igarashi with Bloodstained and Yu Suzuki with Shenmue III, to strike out on their own and embrace crowdfunding. It’s a domino effect he blames on the blindness of Japanese game publishers. He also attributes those recent Kickstarter successes to an unaddressed appetite for Japanese-developed games in the North American market.
“We haven’t seen too many Japanese games or too many new Japanese IPs coming out in the recent years,” Inafune says. “For example, at this year’s E3, there’s not too many… almost nothing. So I think this is what the gamers want. And I think a lot of the Japanese creators, not necessarily the publishers, are realizing this and some of them realized they [can] just do the Kickstarter and they [can] become a really huge success. And of course this is a really good thing, but we shouldn’t just stop here with just creators. We should get those Japanese publishers to get involved as well. Wake them up and let them see how demanding the market is for Japanese games. So hopefully the publishers will see this soon enough and I guess [start] challenging themselves a little bit more.”
[Images credit: Comcept]
This interview was conducted via translator. It has been condensed and edited.
Check here for everything happening at E3 2015!
Our Oculus Rift VR reactions from E3 2015
It’s the last day at E3 2015 and we got to check out one of the attractions of the show, at least when it comes to the expanding field of virtual reality, and that is the Oculus Rift.
Oculus announced the consumer version of the Rift VR headset earlier this month, and today we were finally able to put it through its paces. This comes after our stint from yesterday with Sony’s Project Morpheus headset, which is designed to work with the PlayStation 4.
So, how did the Oculus Rift feel? Our reactions were mixed. Personally, I got to try out the space shooter Eve Valkyrie and I really liked the graphics and the performance, even if I noticed some pixelation here and there. The resolution was in fact much better than on Project Morpheus. With that said, I had some difficulties with the controls (probably because it was my first time with the game) and I didn’t feel that immersed in the virtual reality of the game; the whole experience felt more like a traditional game strapped very close to my face, to be honest.
Grushie, on the other hand, really loved his Edge of Nowhere (a third-person action game) session and said playing on Oculus Rift is a very different experience compared to playing on a console, even if the immersion isn’t actually complete. Grushie also noted that resolution could be better and, like me, had a problem with light sifting through the space between the Rift and his face, though that could be just a fit issue.
Finally, Josh played a platformer called Chronos, and that felt very cinematic, like something you would experience in an IMAX movie theater.
Overall, it’s clear that VR platforms are, at least for now, an upgrade over traditional gaming, though not the fully immersive experience that some of the VR companies have been touting. There’s still a lot of work to do, particularly with the resolution, but the VR concept is still in its infancy and holds a lot of promise for the future.
Vodafone launches powerful Smart Ultra 6 for £125
The UK is no stranger to own-brand mobile devices, even supermarkets seem to sell them these days, but the market just became a whole lot more interesting thanks to Vodafone’s new Smart Ultra 6 smartphone. The handset features powerful specifications and a ridiculously low price tag of just £125.
As the name suggests, the Smart Ultra 6 is a rather large smartphone, sporting a 5.5-inch 1080p display and 154mm x 77mm x 8.35mm body size. The phone is powered by a 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 SoC, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot companion. The handset also comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, a 5 megapixel front facing sensor for your selfies, 4G LTE connectivity and a 3,000mAh battery for plenty of life.
In terms of software, the smartphone offers a stock Android 5.1 Lollipop experience right out of the box, but it does come pre-loaded with a number of Vodafone bloat-ware apps.
Of course you’re not going to get flagship hardware and features for this money, but the Smart Ultra 6 is a sporting some pretty high-end specs considering its price. I immediately thought of the Xiaomi Mi4i, as the hardware is pretty much identical. Although a better reference would be the ZTE Blade S6 Plus, as the Prime 6 is actually just a re-brand of this phone, right down to the blue glowing soft keys. With that in mind, it might be worth checking out our review for a closer look.
If you recognise the design it’s because the Smart Ultra 6 is a rebranded ZTE Blade S6 Plus.
This isn’t Vodafone’s first foray into the smartphone hardware market this year, the company also launched a smaller 5-inch Smart Prime 6 smartphone earlier in the year, along with a 9.6-inch Smart Tab Prime 6 tablet. Although these are definitely lower end products compared with the Smart Ultra 6.
The Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is available for just £125 with a pay-as-you-go SIM card. Alternatively, you can grab the handset for free with a £17 per month contract.
AIVAnet 