Without a doubt, the next big thing in the world of HDTVs is internet capabilities. With Toshiba just shipping its own web-enabled sets this week, LG Electronics is making sure it doesn't fall too far behind by floating a few of its own NetCast models out to the open market. Originally unveiled at CES, these HDTVs are the first from the company with built-in Netflix streaming support, and if you're curious about model numbers, it's the 47-inch 47LH50 LCD HDTV and the 50-inch 50PS80 plasma that are available today. LG tells us that the 42-inch 42LH50 LCD and 60-inch 60PS80 plasma should hit later this summer, but if you're looking to buy now, you'll have to pony up $1,999 for the 47LH50 or 50PS80.

Clearwire's been slowly planting its WiMAX seeds around the country, and with nary a peep, it's rolled out the service into the Las Vegas area, designated by the image above. According to a company rep, the "official" launch -- including new store openings and a marketing blitz -- will begin this summer, but for now, it's operational and ready for those in the know. Portland and Atlanta vacationers, you can now watch your online bank account dwindle faster than you ever could before.

[Via Fierce Wireless; thanks, Zachery]

Read - Clearwire Goes Soft in Vegas
Read - Clear coverage map

You'll still need the love and support of your dear cable provider, but if you're within range of DOCSIS 3.0 service, you can bypass at least one aspect of dealing with your local monopoly ISP. Starting this week, Motorola is launching the planet's first retail DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems, which enable speeds up to four times faster than DOCSIS 2.0. The SURFboard SB6120 DOCSIS 3.0 eXtreme cable modem will soon be cluttering up shelves at Fry's Electronics, presumably just beside the incredibly deceiving Monster Cable demonstration area. There's no word on price just yet, but don't expect such a luxury item to run you cheap, okay?

When T-Mobile finally decided to join the 3G data card bandwagon earlier this year, we figured it prudent to grab a few sticks from the likes of T-Mob, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and AT&T in order to see which carrier provides the most bang for the buck in the mobile data arena. And trust us, it's about more than just uplink and downlink rates in 2G / 3G regions these days -- it's about figuring out which operator provides the coverage you need at the price you can afford, all while dodging those precarious overage charges and finding yourself out of luck when traveling overseas. Join us after the break as we delve into the deep, murky realm that is mobile broadband, and prepare to have your every preconceived notion about this stuff utterly destroyed.

Hate to say it, but we're beyond the point of hope here. We just won't ever, ever see a real-deal invisibility cloak during our relatively brief stint on Earth. That said, researchers at Purdue University are doing their best to prove us wrong, recently developing a new approach to cloaking that is supposedly "simple to manufacture." Unlike traditional invisibility cloaks, which rely on exotic metamaterials that demand complex nanofabrication, this version utilizes a far simpler design based on a tapered optical waveguide. A report from the institution asserts that the team was able to "cloak an area 100 times larger than the wavelengths of light shined by a laser into the device," but for obvious reasons, it's impossible to actually show us it happened. Regardless, for the sake of the kiddos above, we're hoping this stuff gets commercialized, and soon.

[Via Digg, Image courtesy of Thomas Ricker (yes, that Thomas Ricker)]

Looking for some LTE news that's harder than those wishy-washy vibes you've been getting thus far? Listen up. On a recent conference call, Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam (shown) stated that its LTE network would launch commercially in around 20 to 30 US markets during "the second half of 2010." He continued by noting that a "nationwide buildout would be complete in late 2013 to early 2014," but failed to elaborate on the whens, whos and whys in between. For those locked into the 4G movement, you'll notice that these dates are slightly different than ones tossed out in April by the outfit's CFO, which leads us to believe that we could hear something else in just a few month's time if things don't go perfectly to plan. At any rate, McAdam did confirm that a tiny group of VZW testers would have access to 4G this year, with one "pre-commercial" network per US coast being activated during 2009. Bring on the bytes, baby.

[Via phoneArena]

Clearwire may not be as ubiquitous as you'd like it to be, but it's taking a huge step forward in hopes of wildly expanding by linking up with Cisco. In essence, the two have joined hands in order to "enhance and expand CLEAR 4G mobile WiMAX services throughout the United States," with Cisco providing the core infrastructure and Clearwire providing the guidance. Potentially more interesting is the notion that Cisco's Linksys brand will soon be delivering "new mobile WiMAX devices," such as routers that will presumably tune to WiFi and WiMAX waves. Specific product details are sorely absent, though Clearwire does reiterate that it's hoping to have WiMAX service to more than 80 markets across the US by the end of next year.

Forget 101Mbps Internet service or even the 160Mbps available in on J:COM in Japan, Virgin Media is about to put a lucky few of its slick new modems to real work, testing 200Mbps internet, "full HD" broadband content (we take that to mean 1080p) and 3D. All delivered via DOCSIS 3.0, the downside is that at least for the next six months this pilot project will be extended only to about 100 "lead adopters" around Ashford, Kent for testing. We've heard all we need to get packed for a move, how about you?

[Via Hexus]

It's been a rough week or so for Big Cable, but it looks like the East Coast's Cablevision's decided to play things a little differently than Comcast and Time Warner: it's just announced that uncapped 101Mbps DOCSIS 3.0 service will be rolling out on May 11 across its entire service area. The best part? It'll cost $99 a month, making it faster and cheaper than any other high-speed package we can think of -- 50Mbps service from Comcast and Verizon is around $140. Not bad at all -- let's hope the competition picks up on it.

[Via Electronista]

Man, Time Warner Cable -- you are some shady players. Hot on the heels of the ISP's decision to withdraw DOCSIS 3.0 trials from areas that have rejected its tiered billing plan, we're hearing that TWC's teamed up with Embarq to persuade the North Carolina state government into banning community-owned broadband services. Why? Well, turns out the 47,000 residents of Wilson, NC got tired of paying for slow broadband, so the city government launched its own fiber ISP called Greenlight that offers some pretty solid packages ranging from $99 for 81 cable channels, unlimited phone service, and 10Mbps (down and up) internet to $170 for every single channel including premiums and 20Mbps up/down internet. (There's even a "secret" 100Mbps up/down internet plan.) Of course, these prices blow TWC and Embarq out of the water -- the comparable basic Time Warner plan has fewer channels and less bandwidth for an "introductory rate" of $137 -- and rather than compete, the two giants decided to lobby the North Carolina legislature into proposing bills that outlaw community services like Greenlight. The argument is that the big companies can't turn a profit and compete against a community-owned enterprise that essentially sells service for cost, but we're not buying it -- if anything, TWC and Embarq can invest the extra profits they've been earning in other areas into building services that would blow Greenlight out of the water. Yep, it's definitely some dirty pool -- does anyone have any positive feelings left for these behemoths?

[Thanks, William; image courtesy of IndyWeek]

Read - DailyTech article
Read - IndyWeek article
Read - Greenlight home page
Read - Save NC Broadband blog

If you're following the Time Warner Cable capping drama (and we know that you are), then you'll be interested in a short post published on GigaOm today. From the looks of things, TWC isn't just backing off of the tiered pricing plans that they'd proposed recently -- it also looks like they're fully prepared to take their ball and go home when it comes to DOCSIS 3.0 trials. Originally the broadband provider had been hatching plans to roll out the ultra-fast internet service in San Antonio and Austin, Texas, Greensboro, N.C., and Rochester, NY -- but attitudes seem to have changed now that they might not get the new cash infusion that pricey metered usage would provide. In a flurry of tweets from the company's cocky VP of PR, Alex Dudley, there seems to be an indication that with the consumption based billing (CBB to us industry types), so potentially goes the DOCSIS 3.0 trials. In his own, understanding words -- responding to Stacey Higginbotham's query about whether or not the company will pull the high-speed without tiers:

@gigastacey it was scheduled as part of cbb trial, but we all know how you feel about that.

It's already delayed its controversial broadband capping plan in a number of markets, and it looks like Time Warner Cable has now gone one big step further in Rochester, New York (one of the initial test markets), where it has reportedly scrapped the new tiered pricing plan altogether. As you no doubt recall, the plan was more or less modeled on cellphone pricing plans, and had intended to cap customers' data usage at a certain level and charge upwards of $1 per GB for any overages (eventually maxing out at $150 per month). That, naturally, didn't go over so well with folks, and even New York Senator Charles Schumer eventually got in on the act and complained directly to Time Warner Cable. Of course, this still doesn't officially mark the end of the pricing plan in other markets, but it certainly seems to be getting increasingly difficult for Time Warner Cable to move ahead with it.

[Thanks, Phil]

Update: As a few of you have helpfully pointed out in comments, Time Warner Cable has now put out a statement of its own that confirms in not-at-all Orwellian terms that it is shelving all of its consumption-based billing trials "while the customer education process continues." The company also says that it'll soon be making bandwidth measurement tools available to customers, which it hopes will "aid in the dialog going forward."

Who woulda thunk it? A global recession leads to belt tightening, and belt tightening leads to fewer mobile data card sales. According to a new report from ComScore, that's exactly what happened at the tail end of last year, where WWAN card growth slowed to just 5 percent compared to 28 percent in Q4 2007. Still, carriers can't grumble too loudly -- after all, at least it grew. In fact, PC data card adoption rose 63 percent overall in 2008, and if any of these 4G services can see rollouts of significance, we suspect 2009 will show equally positive numbers. The reality is that mobile data is still priced far too high for the average Joe or Jane to stomach; most mobile broadband plans run upwards of $50 per month and require a two-year contract to get a free or cheap card, and unless one is planning to be on the road an awful lot, buying in just doesn't make sense when times are tough. In other words, cut us a break on these mobile data rates, operators -- it's what Uncle Sam would want.

[Via mocoNews]

In a move seemingly designed to further our frustrations with broadband providers, Time Warner Cable has soft-announced an "unlimited" package once its new data caps go into place... for an affordable $150 monthly charge. Responding to criticism over the company's plans to start capping usage and charging for overages, Landel Hobbs clarified the provider's stance, letting users know that the capping would be limited to a $75 ceiling, thus (when paired with its top tier plan) would provide "virtually unlimited" usage. Virtually unlimited. Here's a rundown of what the COO proposes:

• A limited package for "light users" at 1GB/month, 768KB down / 128KB up, with overage charges of $2/GB/month.
• Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo packages at 10GB / 20GB / 40GB / and 60GB caps, respectively, and overage charges at $1/GB/month.
• A big daddy, 100GB Turbo package at $75/month with overage fees of $1/GB, which, when coupled with that magic threshold of $75 in charges, becomes the "unlimited" plan.

We only have two questions, guys. First, how will you let end users know they're hitting caps? Right now there's no centralized solution for monitoring bandwidth. Even cell phones show minutes used, so will you give us the infrastructure for broadband monitoring? Secondly -- instead of giving users a "virtually" unlimited package, why not just sell an unlimited package at $150 a month? The impression we get is that you want to leave the door open for aggressive users, and that your capping of capping charges might be a moving target in the right situation.

[Via eWeek]