Unsurprisingly, major telecom providers like AT&T and Verizon aren’t big on having to compete with the government for customers who don’t actually need the overpriced services being offered by their companies. Some GOP members have suggested that it would be more fiscally responsible for the FCC to sell the broadcast spectrum, allowing the government to raise billions in new revenue. What say you, dear reader? source
This will make a big, big difference in my next ticket purchasing decision.
Wonderful. Now when head office sends us overseas on investigative assignments, we won’t even be able to relax during the plane ride. Just kidding, we don’t have a head office. Or any kind of office. Or enough money to buy plane tickets.
Google Fiber is now live in Kansas City. Here’s how fast it is, according to one user, Mike Demarais. Guess we know where we’re going for our next vacation.
A New York-based tech start-up hopes to bridge the technological divide by giving roughly 5 billion people an opportunity to join the online community. “Think of all the spare WiFi not being used all around you and the people who might want to use it. The digital divide is within 100 yards of where you live. That’s a problem,” said CEO Adam Black during a start-up presentation in March. The company hopes to begin offering its peer-to-peer network rental platform in April. source
So, I have an issue: If a coffee shop doesn’t have wifi, I’m totally screwed and can’t post. As a contingency plan, I’ve used an iPhone 3G with an old version of the iOS software that supports free tethering. However, at some point that felt wrong/was going to bite me in the rear-end, so I switched to a Virgin Mobile mifi device. However, while the price is OK, the device itself overheats and the network is flaky. Now, my hope was to switch my phone service over to Verizon and pay $20/month for the iPhone mobile hotspot thing, but as you’ll see at the link above, they’ve totally made the overage prices unreasonably high. $20 for every extra gigabyte seems really high — especially with a 2 gig starting point, right? Another option is Clear, which has decent prices, but 4G isn’t supported outside urban areas (and their 3G devices don’t support wi-fi, so no iPad), making it lame for long-distance travel. Any ideas? I’m all ears. — Ernie @ SFB
*EDIT*: To clarify, this is for purposes of tethering the device to my laptop and iPad.
Our wifi champion? Chuck Schumer’s anti-Firesheep crusade: New York’s top Senator wants sites like Amazon and Twitter to switch everything over to HTTPS because of that whole Firesheep thing. Glad he’s focusing on this. source
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
