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United Airlines offers easier biometric clearance for frequent flyers
United Airlines is joining the likes of Delta and British Airways in using biometric security to speed up your airport visits. The airline has forged a deal with Clear that will bring speedy facial recognition and fingerprint scanning to its frequent flyers, helping them skip the usual document checks. Clear will be available in United's hubs at Newark Liberty International and Houston George Bush Intercontinental this summer, and there are "efforts" underway to make Clear lanes available at Chicago O'Hare in the moths ahead. Many passengers will get discounts on Clear as well, although the amount depends on just how devoted you are.
Hertz is using biometrics to speed up car rentals
The next time you rent a car, you might need to show your face instead of your ID. Hertz announced today that it is teaming with security startup Clear to introduce Fast Lane, a biometric check for car rentals. The system -- which is the first of its kind for car rentals, according to the companies -- is currently operating at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and will be expanding to more than 40 Hertz locations over the course of 2019.
Seahawks and Mariners fans can buy concessions with their fingerprints
Sports fans in Seattle now have the option of using the biometric services offered by Clear to enter stadiums, buy concessions and verify their age for alcohol purchases. Seahawks and Sounders FC fans will be able to use their fingerprints to get through security lines and to make purchases at certain concession stands at CenturyLink Field. Additionally, while Clear already allowed Mariners fans to use their fingerprints at Safeco Field's security checkpoints, game attendees can now also use Clear at select concession spots. The Seahawks are the first NFL team to partner with Clear. This also marks the first time in the US that biometric data has been approved to replace both IDs for age verification and credit cards for purchases.
MLB is bringing biometric ticketing to select ballparks
Clear announced a new partnership today with Major League Baseball and Tickets.com that will let fans opt for biometric ticketing at certain MLB ballparks. Those who link their Clear accounts to their MLB.com accounts will be able to use their fingerprint instead of a paper or mobile ticket at participating ballparks. Clear plans to pilot this system at a small number of parks later this season and a wider rollout to Tickets.com-enabled ballparks is scheduled for the beginning of 2019. "Our collaboration with Clear is an important new technology initiative, delivering safe, simple and seamless experiences for fans," Noah Garden, MLB's executive vice president of business, said in a statement. "Developing a partnership that will unify emerging identity technology and ticketing is reflective of our commitments to always improving ballpark accessibility and maintaining critical security standards."
Delta aims to replace boarding passes with fingerprints
Delta is expanding its biometric check-in feature that allows some customers to use their fingerprints instead of a boarding pass. The service was first launched at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in May and let Delta SkyMiles members enter the Delta Sky Club with their fingerprints rather than a physical ID. Now, those members can use their fingerprints to board their plane.
Yankee Stadium to fans: Scan your thumb and skip the line
Welcome to the future, sports fans – you can use your smartphone to track trades, Twitter can tell you who's on the DL, and now your fingerprints can get you into the ballpark faster. Beginning August 7th, Yankee Stadium will roll out the Clear biometric security service to visitors, which allows fans to use a "Fast Access" line by registering their fingerprints and driver's licenses.
Realmac's Clear task manager now free for 24-hours
Realmac announced earlier this month that it was removing Clear+ from the iOS App Store and keeping the original Clear app as the only version of its popular task manager. To compensate customers who bought Clear+, Realmac decided to make its Clear app free for two 24-hour periods, allowing existing users to upgrade for free. The first of these two "free" windows opened today. Clear+ was built for iOS 7 and was offered as a universal app for Clear customers who wanted an iPad version of the app. Realmac discontinued its original Clear for the iPhone, with the expectation that customers would pay for the upgrade and switch to Clear+. Instead, the company was deluged with angry customers who were upset at the removal of Clear from the App Store. In response, Realmac reversed its decision to discard Clear for the iPhone and put the app back into the App Store. After updating and maintaining two versions of Clear, RealMac changed its mind again and settled on one version -- Clear for the iPhone. Clear was updated in early February with support for the iPad and will be the only version maintained by Realmac going forward. Clear+ owners should switch to Clear and take advantage of the free offer that is in effect today.
Apple discounts OS X task managers in new Get Stuff Done promotion
Apple launched a new three-week promotion on OS X productivity apps. The Get Stuff Done offer starts this week and features a handful of task managers. We've already told you about Things 2, which is available at 50% off its regular price of $49.99. Also included in the sale are Todo ($6.99), Due ($4.99), The Hit List ($24.99), BreakTime ($2.99), TaskPaper ($11.99), 2Do ($14.99) and Clear ($6.99). The sale starts today, January 24, and ends January 31.
Lifehack: Use a to-do app for cooking inspiration
I'm a pretty keen amateur cook; perhaps unusually so (I have a sparsely updated food blog, Objection: Salad!, if you want to see the gory details). However one aspect of my cookery that is probably utterly typical is running low on inspiration for the daily grind of weekday dinners. I've been tried a few things to solve this to this, including recipe apps with "why not make this?" suggestions and food blogs with stunning photography of intricate creations. But to be honest, after a long day at work, I don't want to think too hard about what I'm making. I usually just want to crank out one of my standby dishes. You probably know what I mean -- the two dozen or so quick meals you've made lots of times before and you know you can always turn to to find something you fancy eating on any given day. The problem is, I'm forgetful. I do my grocery shopping during my lunch breaks and I often find myself heading out to the supermarket with no idea what I should be picking up. I forget entirely what I've eaten lately or what I haven't had for ages. I've even tried proper week-ahead full-on meal planning, but that is, frankly, not a lot of fun. I don't particularly enjoy being that organised. It feels too much like work. I needed something less formal. So that's my problem, which perhaps you share. And here's my solution, for your consideration: I created a list in my favorite to-do app, Realmac Software's Clear (you can use any to-do app for this, I just happen to like Clear). That list stores my rotation of standby meals: the ones I know I can cook in a reasonable amount of time, and the ones I know my wife and I will always enjoy eating. That's a screenshot of my current list up at the top of the article. The trick is, I never mark any of those meals as "complete." I'm not using the app to track what I've done. Instead, after cooking any particular meal, I merely drag it down the priority order to the very bottom (you can do this with a simple tap-and-drag in Clear, which is one of the reasons I really like the app). Then, when I find myself pondering "what am I making for dinner tonight?", I look at the top of the list for my inspiration. That way, I get a natural reminder of the things I haven't cooked in a while. When I cook something new that fits in, I add it to the bottom of the list, so I'm naturally expanding my repertoire as time goes on. Occasionally, I go a little further, and where I have some specific ingredients to use up before they go off I add extra annotations to the top of the list. That's as close as I get to formal meal planning. I've also added specific one-off reminders of recipes I see that I want to cook soon but know I'll forget about, and sometimes I delete those rather than move them to the bottom if they didn't turn out great or if they were too much work to be reasonably tackled in a weeknight after work. I'm all about the practical compromises. Since adopting this technique, I've rarely run dry for inspiration, and I've found that there were a surprising number of recipes I cooked once and promptly forgot about that were actually things I wanted to be cooking every few weeks. It's only a small thing -- I'm not claiming this is going to change anyone's life -- but I thought I'd share it with you in in the hope that you might find it useful too.
FreedomPop brings free wireless internet to the home with Hub Burst modem and router
If you happen to live in an area that's served by Clearwire's WiMAX network, then you may be interested to learn of a new home internet service that's very aggressive on the pricing front. FreedomPop has announced a free broadband service that'll offer 1GB of data consumption per month. Not to stop there, heavier users can sign up for a $9.99 monthly subscription that provides 10GB of data usage, or take advantage of a pay-as-you-go option that costs $0.005 per megabyte ($5/GB). Also of note, free users will be able to earn additional data by engaging friends and participating in promotions. FreedomPop's service will launch in conjunction with the Hub Burst, a 4G modem and router that costs $89, which is available for pre-order now and is set to ship next month. The Hub Burst offers two Ethernet jacks -- useful for your desktop or home entertainment setup -- along with support for 802.11b/g/n (WiFi). While WiMAX is a bit pokey by modern standards, if you're looking to lighten your monthly bills, this alternative to Clear and NetZero may be the ticket, indeed.
Popular ToDo app Clear lands on the Mac
Realmac software announced today that its popular to-do manager Clear has made its way from the iPhone to Mac OS X. The Mac version shares the same simple interface as the iPhone version, with a UI that's optimized for a trackpad instead of touch. The OS X version was released alongside a major update to the iPhone app that brings iCloud syncing. With iCloud now linking the iPhone app with the Mac App, your to-do lists can follow you wherever you go. To celebrate the launch, RealMac Software is listing the Mac version for US$6.99, which is 50 percent off its regular price. This price is in effect from now until November 12. You can grab the iPhone version for $1.99 from the iOS App Store.
Daily Update for October 31, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Hands on with FreedomPop's free data for your iPad and iPod touch
FreedomPop's free data pitch is aimed at the thrifty consumer: put down a refundable deposit on a USB dongle or MiFi-style router (iPod touch cases are also an option) and receive a monthly 500 MB bandwidth stipend for life. For free. If it sounds too good to be true, well, it might be. But before I get to that, let me give you a general idea of where FreedomPop is coming from. Plans FreedomPop is currently a Clearwire 4G WiMAX rebundler (they will be moving to Sprint in 2013). You can use FreedomPop's equipment in any area that Clear currently services. You choose from three plans: Free 500 MB - US$0/month for the first 500 MB and then $0.02/MB after. That's $20.00/GB. This is the bottom feeder plan that many consumers will choose. Casual 2 GB - $18/month ("for a limited time") for the first 2 GB, and then $0.01/MB after, or $10/GB. Premiere 4 GB - $29/month ("for a limited time") for the first 4 GB, and then $0.01/MB after, the same $10/GB as Casual. Leaving family plan sharing aside, the Casual and Premiere data compare well to major carriers. AT&T's 250 MB/month plan costs $15 and $30 for 3 GB. Sprint offers 300 MB/month for $15 and 3 GB for $35. Verizon's offerings include 1 GB for $20 and 2 GB for $30. As you can see, FreedomPop's paid plans are competitive. What's more you can share this data among multiple devices if you select the Freedom Spot hotspot. It supports up to 8 devices at once, and offers up to 6 hours of use according to FreedomPop's marketing text. Penny Pinching Data Usage My concerns surround the Free 500MB plan. I suspect most users will choose this plan. I don't see how this loss-leader approach readily extends towards a revenue stream to ensure the company's health and longevity. That's because frugal users will likely disable FreedomPop's automatic top-off feature. In its default configuration, user accounts for the free plan auto-renew to paid $20 top-offs after 400 MB of bandwidth is used. Users can easily switch this feature off. (Set Billing > Billing Settings > Automatic Top Up > Enabled to No.) So where else can FreedomPop earn from its free users? It provides a low-rent data-for-completed-offers program. Sign up for clubs, mailing lists, surveys, etc. and FreedomPop extends your free data with one-time boosts. I honestly think users would probably prefer to pay $5 or $10 a month for the same 500 MB data plan and ensure the company's long-term health than see it try to make a go of it with this kind of low-end "sell your consumer information" approach. That's because unbundled data is a precious commodity, and one that's hard to find frugal solutions for. Ever since AT&T killed their data feature plans back in April, it's been something that many users have done without. As a point of comparison, Clear's unlimited data plans cost $35 and $50 for basic home and mobile use. These provide excellent alternatives for the high-end data consumer. It's the low-use, on-the-go consumer, who lives in areas with plentiful Wi-Fi who struggles to find an affordable solution for filling coverage gaps. Tony Miller, FreedomPop's marketing VP, has given hints that the company will try to build additional revenue streams by adding services like VoIP. I'm not convinced that this will work. Performance It's not hard to beat AT&T's 3G (aka "4G") data service if you live in Denver. As you can see from the SpeedTest.net screencap that follows, AT&T's service is just awful. And yes, I live in a supported area. Interestingly enough, I live outside the supported Clear zone. I'm in one of their "partially covered" rather than fully covered locations. (This translates to light green vs dark green on their service map.) FreedomPop's Clear-powered WiMAX data absolutely smokes AT&T, both at home and around town. Here's a typical test from my iPad, when connected through the Freedom Spot. Be aware that each test consumes a fair portion of your monthly allowance, so you don't want to be running many of these tests unless you're doing a write-up for a blog. Steve Sande, who lives about 10 miles south of me, uses Verizon on his 3G iPad. He regularly sees data numbers equal to or better than these while around Denver. Steve is in the middle of changing his iPhone AT&T service to Verizon for exactly these reasons. I may follow next year, when my current AT&T contract is up. FreedomPop will be switching from Clear's WiMAX network to Sprint's LTE next year. Conclusions As much as I love the budget data FreedomPop is offering, I do have concerns about the company's long-term health. Their low-end Free plan doesn't seem fully thought out to me. If you sign up, keep that in mind. At the same time, I've developed respect for Clear -- a service I never had an opportunity to test before. A quick Google search revealed mixed experiences with Clear customer support, but after this test, it's a service I'd consider using. I think it might work particularly as an alternative to my current iPhone-as-primary-data-consumer lifestyle, especially now that Apple offers the iPad mini. I'm holding onto the FreedomPop for a while, to continue testing. Here's hoping the company can make it work. I'm just not convinced it can.
Clearwire sees wholesale revenues dip, LTE delays as it posts a $41.3 million net loss in Q3
Clearwire's figures show that the network it isn't cool to love will be making placating faces at its bank manager for yet another quarter. It pulled in revenues of $313.9 million for the three month period, but with business costs (and depreciation) clocking in at $646.7 million, the company posted an operating loss of $332 million and a net loss of $41.3 million. If that wasn't bad enough, it's also hacked back a target to add TD-LTE to 5,000 sites before mid-2013 to just 2,000. A similar problem has occurred over at newly-minted majority owner Sprint, which has found itself a quarter behind its own LTE timetable thanks to parts shortages -- so let's hope the folks over at Softbank can help both companies improve their estimating skills.
Sprint stops being Clearwire's majority owner
Sprint has declared that it's no longer Clearwire's majority owner in a move designed to shield the carrier should the worst happen to its troubled bedfellow. While Big Yellow is planning to supplement its own LTE network with Clearwire's TD-LTE backbone, it's looked to distance itself on the business side from a company that finds it very hard to make money -- requiring handouts from Sprint just to stay afloat.
Daily Update for April 23, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Clear app updated, new themes and helpful tweaks
Clear made a big splash when it was first introduced because the interface was a bold experiment in user interaction. Instead of icons and buttons for functions, most of Clear's interface relies on gestures, or sliding and pinching items to make things happen. It wasn't for everyone, although it was a delight to tinker with. Clear 1.1 maintains that approach, while adding some new features. Clear won't fit the bill for avid "to do" users, as there is still no sync, iPad version, etc. But I use Clear for simple "punch lists," and for that it works great. Here's what's new in Clear 1.1 • Shake to Undo now allows you to quickly retrieve list items you may have accidentally removed. • No more character limit! Type as much as you want. • New themes to discover and further customize your lists with. • All-new UI for alerts that match Clear's unique design. • Even more inspirational quotes to show when you've cleared everything from your lists. • Minor tweaks and bugfixes TouchArcade has info on unlocking some other stuff, and a note about a few gamification aspects in the app you might not know about.
Sprint will activate LTE on the 800MHz band in 2014
Sprint's Steve Elfman has said that the company's intending to activate an LTE service over its 800MHz spectrum by 2014. Big Yellow's already received 3GPP certification to turn Band 26 into super-fast mobile internet, the only remaining regulatory hurdle left to overcome is a thumbs-up from the FCC. The due date isn't set in stone, as it'll depend entirely on how quickly the company can force current iDEN users to migrate to its CDMA Direct Connect service. Meanwhile, LTE service in Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City and San Antonio will activate across next year, with the company confident that it'll be able to keep pace with AT&T and Verizon's services by offloading traffic onto Clearwire's TD-LTE Network which should go live by June 2013. We can only guess that after that the announcement was done, Mr. Elfman looked at a picture of Philip Falcone and had to step outside for a little cry.
NetZero launches '4G' wireless service, we go hands-on
Remember NetZero? Today the company announced that it's launching NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband, a wireless service rolling out in 80 US cities and offering value-priced monthly data plans without activation fees, contracts, commitments or overage charges. Customers can chose between two levels of service -- Lightspeed (up to 1Mbps down / 384Kbps up) to conserve data and Warpspeed (up to 10Mbps down / 1.5Mbps up) for maximum performance -- and can switch back and forth by simply logging into NetZero's website (this can take up to 15 minutes). Five monthly data plans are available: Free, $0, 200MB (limited to Lightspeed and limited to one year) Basic, $9.95, 500MB (limited to Lightspeed) Plus, $19.95, 1GB Pro, $34.95, 2GB Platinum, $49.95, 4GBTwo devices are offered -- the NetZero 4G Stick ($49.95 + shipping) is a Windows and OS X-compatible USB modem and the NetZero 4G Hotspot ($99.95 + shipping) is an eight device-capable WiFi hotspot with an LCD and a 2,200mAh battery.So far, so good -- NetZero is becoming an MVNO. Yet strangely, there's no mention in any of the PR as to which network the company is using. We test drove NetZero's new wireless service over the weekend using the WiFi hotspot and figured out that it's using Clearwire's WiMAX network. In fact NetZero's 4G Stick is identical to the Clear 4G Mobile USB modem (manufactured by Ubee), and its 4G Hotspot is the same as the Clear Spot Apollo (a rather bulky unit made by Gemtek)-- see the FCC links below and read on for our impressions after the break.
FCC to Verizon Wireless: You need more spectrum? Prove it by March 22nd.
By now, we hope you're plenty familiar with the ongoing saga between Verizon Wireless and the FCC -- no, not that little kerfuffle about data roaming complaints, but the biggie -- the proposed transfer of 122 AWS spectrum licenses from three cable providers to Big Red. While the FCC's latest move is merely a sign of due diligence, it's now pressing Verizon to supply additional information regarding its business, spectrum holdings and the proposed transfer -- all with a deadline on or before March 22nd. While many of the information requests are boilerplate material, the regulator specifically presses Verizon to substantiate its claims that it'll require additional spectrum in some markets as early as 2013. Further, Verizon must also provide an analysis of the proposed spectrum transfer between itself and Leap Wireless and its impact upon the deal with the cable operators. Regardless of Big Red's response, it seems safe to assume that Sprint and T-Mobile will each have some additional thoughts on the matter.[Tower photo via Shutterstock]