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4G shocker! The good people of Boston enjoy Verizon's trial LTE network
You know what makes us happy? Pizza. But a close second has to be 4G technology, which makes us truly envy the Bostonians who were treated to a sample of Verizon's trial LTE deployment in the friendly confines of a downtown pizza joint last month. Big Red filmed the event -- and while the whole thing comes off a little bit like a carefully-orchestrated PR stunt, it's hard to argue with nearly 10Mbps down and over 2Mbps on the upstream. That's good stuff that should have Sprint, Clearwire, and the rest of the players on notice -- assuming Verizon's network holds up under the crushing pressure of commercial availability once thousands of rowdy Harvard students start hammering it, of course. Follow the break for the full video.
Shocker: CEA's spending report finds Americans buying more technology
Guess what kiddos? That recession that harshed your mellow all last year is officially over and done with... according to the Consumer Electronics Association, anyway. Based on a new report put out today by the CEA (you know, that organization that sets up CES each year?), the average US household spent $1,380 on consumer electronics over the past dozen months, which represents an increase of $151 from last year. The report also found that the average household spent 12 percent more on CE devices over the past year, and individual consumer spending shot up 10 percent year-over-year. Other tidbits included: ladies spent more on CE wares than the did last year (but still trail the guys overall), and the average home reported owning 25 consumer electronic products, up from 23 in 2009. We're also told that 86 percent of all US households own at least one computer, making it the third most owned CE product behind TVs and DVD players. Oh, and as for those pesky netbooks? 12 percent of US households own one of those, while 58 percent own "laptops" of some sort. Head on past the break for the full skinny -- we hope you're in the mood for good news, 'cause that's all you're getting. [Image courtesy of TooMuchNick / WireImage]
Eclair shocker! Android 2.1 leaked for Samsung Moment
Feeling impatient? Can't wait until Moment gets its Android 2.1 upgrade? The kids at SDX-Developers feel you, with one forum member providing a simple, straightforward download link to a 7z archive containing not one but two leaked builds: ECLAIR.DC23 and ECLAIR.DD03. According to the hub-bub, the latter seems to be giving people the most luck, although some are reporting a "faulty" Marketplace. That said, both builds do seem to work with voice and data. And yes, it will wipe your phone completely -- but if you're looking to get into this sort of action you're probably a risk-taker and a heart-breaker anyways. Good luck, and if you brick your phone don't blame us. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Apple patent application shocker: games need buttons
It's pretty rare that Apple patent applications reveal much more than vague plans and ideas about future devices, but a newly-public filing out of Cupertino just comes right out and states the truth about gaming on touchscreen devices like the iPhone: it can be "somewhat awkward, particularly on a portable electronic device having a touchscreen" because the "user's fingers block the action." So what's the solution? Buttons, dude-man. The patent describes a handheld gaming dock that fits around a "substantial portion" of an iPhone or iPod that has both physical input controls and secondary storage for game information like scores and save data. That's certainly a nice idea, and one we'd love to see supported by Apple, but we're also pretty certain this patent doesn't have much of a chance as written, since we've been hearing about this concept since games first hit the App Store and similar products -- including a keyboard -- are on the market now. We'll see -- like so many of Apple's patent applications, this one might well just linger on the vine forever.
Wireless-N shocker! Cisco announces E-Series line of home routers
If we know you, you're about ready to bathe your place of residence in some of those 802.11n waves you've been hearing so much about. Well, you're in luck -- the cats at Cisco have announces the Linksys E-Series line of routers for your home, flat, or small business. All of these bad boys feature the all new Cisco Connect software (with exhaustive parental control and a separate password-protected guest network). Priced between $80 and $180, select models include Gigabit Ethernet, UPnP AV Media Server, external storage via USB, Linux, and more. Available now at Amazon, Staples, and Linksys. For the whole sordid tale, peep the PR after the break.
Shocker: HTC plans Windows Phone 7 Series device by year's end
In news apt to surprise absolutely no one, HTC CEO Peter Chou told Forbes this week that his company would make a Windows Phone 7 Series handset by the end of the year. For the sake of argument, we suppose there are a couple reasons he wouldn't want to. Historically, HTC has pledged loyalty to Microsoft time and again, even making the premium HD2 a Windows Mobile exclusive, but conspiracy theorists might suggest Microsoft returned the favor by denying the HD2 entry to Windows Phone 7 Series. Also, HTC has been rocking the bejeezus out of Android as of late -- the news that the company's planning a WP7S phone comes alongside HTC's claim that the Nexus One was a success. Regardless, we never questioned if HTC would build a WP7S handset, only when; there's no way they're going to let a lucrative new smartphone market get mopped up by the likes of Samsung and LG.
Microprocessor mega-shocker: self-assembling silicon chips could lead to ever smaller circuitry
Researchers have been hard at work for the past few years trying to build computer chips using self-assembling circuitry built of molecules -- meaning that they're incredibly teensy. Some researchers at MIT seem to have gotten the hang of this nano-business, according to a paper just published in Nature Nanotechnology (which also happens to be our favorite magazine after Offset Print Enthusiast). They've made a pretty good leap forward recently, by using electron-beam lithography to make patterns of nano-posts on a silicon chip, which are deposited with special polymers, resulting in a hookup between the polymer and the posts which arrange themselves into useful patterns all on their own. The MIT researchers have found the polymers they're testing capable of producing a wide variety of patterns that are useful in designing circuitry. In the short term, uses could include magnetic nanoscale patterns being stamped onto the surfaces of hard disks using the tech, but there's a lot more researching to be done before the self-assemblers get busy in consumer goods.
