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Sirius and XM merger approved by FCC, extreme partying commences
In a somewhat unsurprising move, the FCC has approved the merger of Sirius and XM after protracted -- and incredibly boring -- multi-year negotiations. The Federal Communication Commission decided tonight to allow a deal that will bring the two satellite radio providers together, creating a combined subscriber base of roughly 18 million users. The deal isn't without catches, however, with the Commission stating that the companies must cap prices for three years following the merger, allow subscriber choice on content, and lower fees for channel packages. FCC head Kevin Martin seemed pleased with the final outcome, stating, "Consumers will get to enjoy the best of the programming on both services." You know who wasn't so stoked? Clear Channel.
PEAK PlasmaBlade electrosurgery scalpel gets FDA approval
We're still a bit gun shy when it comes to surfing over to PEAK Surgical's website after watching that PlasmaBlade demonstration video, but a new release from the outfit affirms that said electrosurgery scalpel has just been approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration. The "tissue dissection system," as it's so gruesomely called, has been given 501(k) clearance, meaning that PEAK can now market its tool for use in general surgery. So, anxious to camp out and be the first in the country to get sliced and diced by one of these? Bombard your local hospitals with phone calls starting next month.[Via MedGadget]
NY Public Service Commission to debate FiOS TV approval tomorrow
We've never been ones to count our chickens before they hatch, but there's a very, very interesting tidbit snuck into the New York Public Service Commission's July 16th meeting agenda. The very last bullet points on the very last page of the notice reads as shown above, which leads us to believe that the carrier may receive the approval it needs in order to string FiOS TV to the entire Empire State, New York City included. Cross your fingers -- we have all ideas that Verizon will be trumpeting its success the moment this goes down (should it go down, of course). Our biggest fear? That everyone breaks for an extended lunch just after Page 10. [Warning: PDF read link][Thanks, Vin P]
EU gives Activision-Blizzard a big thumbs up
After reviewing Activision-Blizzard's case for a few weeks, the European Commission announced its approval of the huge merger yesterday. The EU had final say approving the merger because Vivendi is a French company. Officials decided the deal wouldn't threaten the fairness of the market.The commission made a statement, saying that Activision Blizzard "would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft." There were some concerns that the company could have an unfair advantage in licensing music for games because Vivendi owns Universal Music Group, but they were set aside because "competing game publishers would continue to have access to a sufficiently large portfolio of music rights from alternative suppliers."The lesson: Activision Blizzard is officially not a monopoly, thanks to EA. We could go into extreme detail weighing the pluses and negatives of the decision, but we've analyzed this merger plenty enough already. At some point, you just have to decide to sit back and see what happens.
Europe approves of the Activizzard merger
Regardless of whatever you think of the big Activizzard merger and what it might mean for World of Warcraft (I don't believe it'll hurt a thing, but think what you will), it's going to happen. It's literally official now, as European Union officials have finally approved the merger after several weeks of deliberating on the issue.Approval by the European Commission was necessary because Vivendi (the owner of Blizzard and now the buyer of Activision, if you haven't been keeping up with all this) is a French media company, and therefore subject to EU business laws and antitrust concerns. Officials were mulling over the merger because of fears that Vivendi's ownership of Universal Music Group would give Activision Blizzard an unfair advantage in licensing music for games like Guitar Hero.They finally decided that it's not a threat to the health of the market, and approved the merger. So there it is. It's done. The government can't save you now; Activision Blizzard is your new master. I tremble in terror before the fictional (yet somehow inevitable) Bard class and its l33t Guitar Hero skillz!
OLPC radios get FCC approval
Based on recent FCC documents, it would appear that Quanta, manufacturer of Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC, has just received approval on the system's WiFi radio, which means that the 802.11b/g component of the humanitarian-laptop-project is now signed, sealed, and delivered (at least in the eyes of one semi-prominent US agency). This is an interesting development because it opens a door for the child-themed edutainment and communication machine to not just hit developing countries, but also land in places a little closer to home -- and despite recent rumblings that have been both contrary and concurrent, if the sub-$200 laptop does make its way toward America, it seems likely that the symbolic Sugar OS will be intact.
Virgin America cleared for take-off, CEO forced to resign
We'd heard rumblings that Virgin America was indeed lobbying for the US Department of Transportation's blessing to take off from American soil, and after getting a hands-on experience that was second to none, we couldn't help but hope for things to work out. Sure enough, VA has now been given the almighty thumbs-up to operate in the United States. Interestingly, the final approval was only granted after "several additional conditions" were finally agreed to, one of which will leave the current CEO sans a job. Unfortunately for Mr. Fred Reid, "US law restricts foreign ownership in airlines to 25-percent of voting stock," and apparently, the DOT didn't take too kindly to Reid's "longstanding association with foreign investors," most notably Virgin Group's Richard Branson. Nevertheless, the current head man will stay on board for another six months, and while a replacement has yet to be named, the airline hopes to get its birds in the air sometime this summer. Initially, flights will travel from its home base (SFO) to New York (JFK), and while there's no definite timetable as to when routes will be expanded to hit other US cities, feel free to click through for the full lineup of locales that VA hopes to be servicing sooner rather than later.Read - Virgin America cleared for take-offRead - Fred Reid forced to resign as VA takes flight
FCC "thinks different," grants approval to Apple iPhone
It reveals nothing of interest (unless you consider documents that read like high school physics lab reports to be "of interest"), but sure enough, Apple's iPhone has completed that rite of passage that all handsets must traverse on their way to adulthood: FCC approval. As expected, the iPhone filing reveals just about as little as it possibly (legally) can, offering up a rendering of the ID label location -- the best visual in the whole filing, by the way -- and an endless array of RF plots for GSM / EDGE on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, Bluetooth, and WiFi radiation. No incriminating photographs of a well-abused iPhone lying helpless on a test workbench in some cavernous lab, no user's manual. Soon, friends![Via Mobilewhack, thanks Sandeep]
WiMedia UWB gets thumbs-up, becomes ISO / IEC-certified
Just recently, we finally heard a bit of good news from the IEEE camp in regard to 802.11n's progress, and now wireless freaks can celebrate a little more as UWB has been officially published as an ISO / IEC international standard. We've already seen a number of related certification programs, prototypes, and even products, but just a few months after edging legality in the UK, it seems the deal is done. WiMedia-based ultra-wideband technology, which is the "approved format for Wireless USB," unsurprisingly enables "short range multimedia file transfers" at data rates up to 480Mbps that operate in the UWB spectrum of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. So while the brief rivalry was indeed entertaining, we're sorry about your luck, Freescale.[Via ExtremeTech]
802.11n creeps closer to finality as Draft 2.0 reaches milestone
It's been a long, hard road for all of us -- consumers, manufacturers, developers, and a little club called the 802.11n Working Group -- but the next-gen, MIMO-powered WiFi standard has finally reached an important milestone in its tortured journey from a wee pre-N to a full-fledged spec (hopefully!), with 83.4% of eligible voters approving the latest Draft 2.0 revision. As we all remember from the overwhelming initial rejection of Draft 1.0, a 75% supermajority is required for moving on to the next stage, so the fact that there was this much support coupled with relatively few comments (3,000-some versus the 12,000+ for that famous Draft 1.0 flameout) means that we may actually be on track for a planned April 2009 publication of the final IEEE spec. The best part is that since Draft 2.0 is guaranteed to be fully compatible with the finalized 802.11n, your current gear with the D 2.0 badge of honor will definitely play nice with future components. So we're in the home stretch now, folks -- all that's left is some nitpicking over technicalities and language -- and it looks like the naysayers will have been proven wrong after all; although when WiMax comes to town and makes WLANs irrelevant, there's a good chance that this whole ordeal will be quickly forgotten anyway. [Via Ars Technica]
802.11n going up for approval once again
Sure, they say the third time's a charm, but at this point, all "charm" in the grueling 802.11n ratification process has evaporated. Moving ever-so-slightly ahead of schedule, the IEEE's 802.11 working group has "unanimously approved Draft 1.10 of the 802.11n WiFi spec," and has now passed it along to the entire membership of the IEEE for final approval. Of course, we've certainly been down the unfortunate road before, but hopefully the folks in charge will give it the thumbs-up we all need to sanely move on with our wireless lives. Notably, there's "no set timeline" for when it expects an approval / denial decision, but if the membership does give this draft the green light, "it will be the final 802.11n specification." Now, let's all cross our collective fingers for some positive (and hasty) decision making.
Sony Ericsson W880i "Ai" gets FCC blessing
We've seen Sony Ericsson's darling go from the drawing board to cardboard and from photo shoot to quasi-realization, and now the FCC is giving us all precisely what we knew was coming. The handset formerly known as "Ai" has now been granted a pass by the Commission, setting things in motion for the W880i to grace the hands of civilians sooner rather than later. No, there's no new deets concerning price or release information, but all those out there yearning for this handset to hit your market shouldn't be in the dark for too much longer, as we're officially on the home stretch now. Be sure to hit the read link for all the specifics from the Commish itself, if you're into that kind of thing.
Delphi's SkyFi3 receives FCC blessing
Even though CNET was able to get its grubby hands on a test unit to review, the SkyFi3 was apparently not yet really, really approved by the FCC for sale en masse. Nevertheless, Delphi had a right to feel confident, as the oh-so-powerful agency has officially given its blessing to the on-the-go XM device, and assured us all that it doesn't boast excessive transmission power which could prove harmful to our health radio firms' wealth. Dodging the ever-popular bullet of broadcasting signals too intense for humanity's well being, the SkyFi3 is free and clear to hit shelves "this holiday season" for $229, while "some retailers" will reportedly bundle in the $49 Live Wearable Kit (SA10252) for free during those mad end-of-year promotions. [Thanks, Dustin]
Sirius Stiletto receives FCC approval
Sirius fans, we bring you good tidings -- after some hemming and hawing, the Stiletto has been approved by the Feds! It was only yesterday that we told you that our buds at the FCC seemed to be raining on the Stiletto parade, which sadly, did not lead to a rain of Stilettos on our parade, which would have been really freakin' sweet. So that means the Stiletto pre-orders are back up from your favorite online retailers like Crutchfield and TSS-Radio, who both still show the pre-order price of $350. Unfortunately, we remain without a word on what the exact release date will be, but if our earlier post about a September date still holds, it should be sometime within the next 10 days.[Via Orbitcast]
US house Reps approve net neutrality bill, reveal semblance of sanity
We aren't out of the woods yet, but a U.S. House of Representatives panel has approved the net neutrality bill, a controversial proposal that would prohibit broadband providers from restricting access and impairing the speed of their competitors' content. Many feel this bill is crucial for market competitiveness and preserving the democratic nature of the internet. But instead of inciting a debate here at TUAW about a bill that is already setting media outlets everywhere ablaze, I'll just point you to a few resources to learn more about the issues, such as the Network neutrality Wikipedia entry, a Wired article and Macworld's report of the recent bill approval.
Palm Treo 700p approved by FCC
As much as we'd like to blame other parties for the long wait for Palm's Treo 700p (and we will, we will), there's one source for at least some of the wait: the FCC. According to public filings, the smartphone just cleared the government agency, paving the way for its impending rollout. Of course, Palm did file a confidentiality request with the FCC, so we're not entirely clear exactly when this baby got the thumbs up, but the important thing is that it did, which means nothing (short of mobs at Sprint and Verizon's stores) should stand in your way if you're planning on picking one up very soon.
City Council unanimously approves Philly WiFi
Following unanimous approval by city council, the only remaining impediment between the City of Brotherly Love and ubiquitous wireless Internet access is a signature from Mayor John Street that, given his stance on the project, seems to be just a formality. Once Street gives the go-ahead, Earthlink will begin deploying its 15-square-mile test network in parts of North and South Philly, after which point the company will have the option of backing out should they be unhappy with the results of the trial. Assuming that all goes well, the city's entire 135-square-miles should be covered by glorious, data-rich signal sometime in the third quarter of 2007, which is when Earthlink and other ISPs will begin offering $20-a-month access with 50% discounts for low-income households. Besides creating a more attractive destination for businesses and tourists, the citywide network may also help convince U.S. Olympic Committee officials to choose Philadelphia as the country's representative to battle it out with other international cities seeking to host the 2016 Games.[Via The Wireless Report]
