House lawmakers have scheduled a Friday hearing on the FCC’s management of LightSquared’s botched attempt to build an LTE network. The Commission has been criticized for granting LightSquared a waiver for the service, only to block the company from moving forward with its plan a year later because of problems with GPS interference. The FCC’s […]
Applications
Federal judge hands Samsung setback against Apple
In a preliminary move, a federal judge has denied Samsung’s request for a ban on imports of the iPhone, iPad and iPod. It’s another setback for Samsung in a globe-spanning legal battle, where each company is accusing the other of violating its patents. A judge at the International Trade Commission in Washington ruled Friday that […]
Arthur Horwich receives the Shaw Prize for Life Science and Medicine
Arthur Horwich of the Yale School of Medicine received the Shaw Prize for Life Science and Medicine at a ceremony in Hong Kong held Monday evening. Horwich, Sterling Professor of Genetics, professor of pediatrics, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, shared the $1 million prize with Franz-Ulrich Hartl of the Max Planck Institute of […]
SignalGuru app helps drivers avoid red lights
(Reuters) – Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a system that uses dashboard-mounted smartphones to help drivers avoid red lights and reduce fuel consumption. The app called SignalGuru predicts when a traffic signal is about to change, and the speed that should be driven when approaching an intersection in order to cruise […]
Power MOSFETs address emerging eco-design standards
A new family of rugged, high-efficiency power products from STMicroelectronics is positioned to enable technology companies to satisfy stricter power and efficiency targets set by eco-design standards and to target green-energy applications such as solar micro-inverters, photovoltaic string inverters and electric vehicles. The new devices include what is said to be the industry’s first super-junction […]
U.S.-Russian space crew lands safely in Kazakhstan
(Reuters) – A Russian Soyuz capsule landed on the Kazakh steppe on Monday, delivering a trio of astronauts from a four-month stint on the International Space Station. The capsule, carrying U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, parachuted through a blue sky and touched down in a cloud of dust […]
Mexico’s Megacable, TWC in exploratory talks over phone service
Mexico’s Megacable has had exploratory conversations with Time Warner Cable in regard to a phone offering that would serve Time Warner Cable’s Hispanic customers in the United States. Reuters reported yesterday that the talks have taken place, and Megacable chief executive Enrique Yamuni said the conversations to date have centered around a strategic alliance that […]
Comcast TV Everywhere scorecard: 1.5B and counting
With the fall TV season underway, Comcast issued a press release today touting its TV Everywhere capabilities, which now includes a Web portal just for the fall shows, but what was notable in the release was that so far this year, Comcast said its Xfinity TV customers have already watched and streamed approximately 1.5 billion […]
Comcast lights up 2,500 Wi-Fi hotspots in Mass., N.H.
Comcast has turned on nearly 2,500 Wi-Fi hotspots in parts of eastern Massachusetts, including the Boston area, and southern New Hampshire. Comcast’s Xfinity WiFi is free to the company’s data subscribers and is now available in Boston, Brookline and Cambridge, as well as in communities from Cape Cod to Portsmouth, N.H. The 2,500 hotspots represent […]
Isis scraps summer mobile payments launch
Isis has scrapped plans to launch its NFC-based mobile wallet before summer ends next week, delaying the debut of a product designed to provide AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA with an on-ramp into the potentially lucrative mobile payments space. “We’re working through a final punch list of things to ensure a great consumer experience […]