Obama Says He Supports Net Neutrality

Washington (dbTechno) - The Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has come out and state dthat he is a strong supporter of net neutrality.

He spoke during an MTV-sponsored town hall event with the legislator of Illinois. He stated that he is a “strong supporter for net neutrality.”

A member of MoveOn.org posed the question to Obama which spawned this very interesting answer.

For those who do not know net neutrality means that there will be equal access to all on the internet. This means that everyone will be able to access every web site on the internet. Some ISPs have been pushing for a more rate-based plan which could restrict users from accessing certain types of content online in their plans.

Obama though is a strong supporter of net neutrality. This means that he will be pushing to keep ISP plans the way in which they are now which allow for the freedom of the user to be able to access anything gat anytime as long as they have a net connection.

There should be non restrictions is what Obama is saying. If you have the internet, everyone should have fair game at what they can access.

T-Mobile Launches “iPhone Killer” Shadow

Boston (dbTechno) - T-Mobile USA has announced that they have launched the T-Mobile Shadow, which is a Windows Mobile-based phone and is one high tech gadget which many are dubbing an “iPhone killer.”

Robert Dotson, President and CEO of T-Mobile USA stated “We’re calling the new line of devices ‘Shadow’ because they’re designed to help people stay effortlessly connected with those who are closest to them – the people you would choose to have with you all the time if possible – the people you love checking in with during a hectic day or to share special news,”

The phone slides open to reveal a keyboard which will be very important for typing e-Mails. There is also the ability with the phone to connect to WiFi wireless networks, Bluetooth, and EDGE.

The phone is going to be cheaper than many other high tech devices out there retailing for just $149.99 with a data service plan costing $19.99 per month.

Peter Chou, President and CEO of HTC, the makers of the phone, stated “We partnered exclusively with T-Mobile to help them deliver a deep communications experience that is built around the customer. In both form and function, the T-Mobile Shadow delivers an unmistakable commitment to enhancing personal relationships.”

The device is powerful with a 210Mhz processor and 72MB of program memory.
The phone has a 2.0 mega-pixel digital camera, can record video, and also has a multimedia player. It also allows for contact information to be transfered from Outlook, GMail, Yahoo! and other locations.

ISS Suffers Power System Damage

Cape Canaveral (EON) - During a spacewalk, astronauts found a significant amount of damage to an important part of the power system of the International Space Station.
This was the second of five scheduled spacewalks during the NASA shuttle Discovery mission.

The spacewalk was expected to last over six hours with the astronauts working out in space trying to remove a solar array from the top of the ISS. They wanted to unmount it so that they could move it to the side of the station.

They also needed to continue to work on the brand new “Harmony” module. This was the key aspect of the Discovery mission as it is going to allow various new laboratories from Europe to connect up to the International Space Station.

The Solar Array Rotating Joint or SARJ sits toward each end of the station’s truss. Daniel Tani who was one of the two spacewalkers stated that “It’s quite clear, there’s metal-to-metal scraping, or something, and it’s widespread.”

Mission managers added the inspection to the spacewalk schedule on Friday but stated that it is still unclear as to the level of damage. Kirk Shireman stated that there are backup motors and controllers for each rotary joint. Shireman is the deputy space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA is continuing to look into the problem as Derek Hassman who is the lead space station flight director stated “As long as we can get it into an attitude that’s reasonably good for power generation, combined with what the other SARJ can produce, we wouldn’t have any significant power impacts that we couldn’t deal with.”

X Prize Cup Rocket Goes Up In Flames

Washington (EON) - Armadillo Aerospace’s mod lunar lander prototype went up in flames on Sunday during its final launch attempt at the X Prize Cup backed by NASA.

The event took place at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico and unfortunately for Armadillo Aerospace, the the year-long quest to win the air and rocket show ended up in flames.

This is the second year ina row that the Armadillo team ended up losing their quest to win the $350,000 in prize money from NASA. The team is backed by millionaire video-game programmer John Carmack.

There were no injuris according to Brett Alexander, the X Prize Foundations executive director for space prized. The rocket craft was not totally destroyed but ended up in flames.

Alexander quoted Carmack as stating “Today is officially a bad day.”

A total of $2 million in potential prized makes up the Lunar Lander Challenge from NASA’s Centennial Challenges program.

Peter Diamandis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the X Prize Foundation stated “From the field we heard a little bit of a boom and there was a hard start on the engien of some type.”

“I would expect that next year there will be more than one team competing, but I don’t know. I do know now that all $2 million is still on the table. So there’s an incentive for those that are still pushing…and an incentive for us to hold the Cup and have a great event,” Alexander explained at a post-Lunar Lander Challenge press conference.

YouTube Competitor Hulu Launches Private Beta

Boston (dbTechno) - NBC Universal and News Corporation launched a new joint venture not too long ago to compete with the popular video site YouTube. Their site is called Hulu and the private beta for it has kicked off to allow for premium video content to the masses.

NBC Universal and News Corp. launched the private beta as of Monday, October 29th. The interface of Hulu is apparently very slick as this appears like it will give a great deal of competition to the YouTube service.

Hulu is a distribution network basically for premium content with many partner websites including MSN, AOL, Comcast, Yahoo, and MySpace. Hulu is going to offer videos for free along with their own Hulu branded players.

NBC and News Corp. has also cut a deal with Sony to make their television shows available on Hulu.com as well along with MGM TV shows and movies.

There are some things going against Hulu such as the fact that its co-founder NBC is launching their own ad-supported video-on-demand service called NBC Direct this coming fall.

Hulu though is going to launch with a wide range of old and new content with such shows as The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Battlestar Galactica, and others leading the way. New shows are added at midnight Hawaii time on the day they air.

Guitar Hero 3 Makes Midnight Launch On Consoles

Boston (dbTechno) - Guitar Hero III made its long awaited and highly anticipated release on Sunday morning for its big midnight release as fans waiting Saturday night to be the first to pick up the game on either the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, or PS2.

The full setlist for the game has also been revealed with the game set to release on the PC and Mac on November 12th.

There are 74-songs in total on Guitar Hero III making for the biggest setlist to date for this game. On the Xbox 360 and PS3 there are also expected to be added songs through micro-transactions as songs will be sold online over Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network.

3,000 stores were announced by Activision to take part in the midnight launch as it went on sale at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has gamers taking on various famous musicians in the game including Slash from Guns N’ Roses and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.

Bret Michaels from Poison is also featured.

Guitar Hero III features for the first time online play in co-op and battle form.
Many Best Buy and GameStop locations took part in the midnight release.

Over 250,000 Apple iPhones Are Unlocked

Seattle (dbTechno) - Apple had admitted that about 18% of all iPhones sold or over 250,000 units have been unlocked from the AT&T network and are being used on other cellular networks.

Apple COO Tim Cook made the amazing revelation this past week stating that 250,000 iPhones sold thus far have been unlocked. This is a very high number considering that the phone is supposed to be exclusive to the AT&T network.

This is based on the fact that 1.4 million iPhones have been sold since they launched back in June in the U.S.

The comment in regards to the number of unlocked iPhones came during the fourth-quarter fiscal 2007 earnings conference call by Apple on Tuesday.
Revenue and earnings were great for Apple as they took in $6.22 billioni in sales, up 29% over the quarterly $4.84 a year ago. Profits were also up 67% to $904 million.

Apple has been trying to keep people from unlocking the iPhone and with a versioni 1.1.1 upgrade disabled unlocked iPhones. Hackers though di dnot give up and have fought this updating the software once again to keep the Apple iPhones working on any network you please.

Vonage Settles With Verizon, Ends Lawsuit

Boston (dbTechno) - Vonage made the announcement Thursday that they have settled a patent lawsuit with Verizon Communications which could cost Vonage up to $120 million.

Vonage shares dropped 7 cents per share on Thursday before the announcement was made. This was a 4% drop. Later in the day though following the announcement Vonage shares shot up 80% to $2.75.

Back in March a jury in Virginia found that Vonage infringed on three Verizon patents. Verizon was awarded $58 million in damages plus a royalty on future sales of the VoIP service.

An appeals court sent it back to trial in September. If Verizon wins the rehearing Vonage will pay Verizon $120 million to end the lawsuit.

“We’re pleased to put this dispute behind us and believe this settlement is in the best interests of Vonage and its customers,” Sharon O’Leary, Vonage’s chief legal officer, said in the prepared release announcing the deal. “This settlement removes the uncertainty of legal reviews and long-term court action and allows us to continue focusing on or core business and customers.”

The patents cover the translation of domain names and IP addresses to telephone numbers when internet calls get sent through a normal everyday phone set-up.

Facebook Goes Mobile On BlackBerry Devices

Boston (dbTechno) - Research in Motion made the announcement on Wednesday that new software they have released will allow for Facebook to be easily used on BlackBerry devices.

The software applications is called Facebook for BlackBerry and will use many of the powers of the BlackBerry to make Facebook work on a mobile device like never before.

Users will be able to have instant mobile access to the social-networking features of Facebook right through the e-mail capabilities of BlackBerry.

The new software will allow for streamlined and optimized mobile access to Facebook using a BlackBerry. This streamlined content will be fast-loading and will allow user sto send and view Facebook photos, pokes, and wall posts right over the network.

“Facebook is one of the fastest growing web destinations among BlackBerry smartphone users and it has become an important element in the evolving fabric of personal communications,” Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion, said.

The first carrier un the U.S. to provide the new Facebook software will be T-Mobile, it will come as a free download.

Congress Demanding NASA Air Safety Data Released

Washington (dbTechno) - Congress is coming forward and demanding that NASA release their air safety data they have compiled in regards to the safety of flying in the U.S.

The reports coming out state that over the past three years NASA interviewed over 24,000 pilots. The survey was completed last year at the cost of $8.5 million. The strange thing about this though is that once it was completed they refused to publish any of the results and requested that all who worked on the project to delete the files pertaining to it.

According to reports the survey found safety problems with air carriers occured far more frequently than what was originally thought. The fact that NASA does not want to reveal any of the data though has many displeased.

Prof. Jos Krosnick of Stanford University stated “I was flabbergasted by that. What they said to us over and over again was that a lot fo things go wrong that they believe increase the risk of accidents - that could be cheaply and easily solved.”

NASA stated that “The release of the data could affect public confidence and hurt the commercial welfare of air carriers.”

Congress has now launched a formal investigation into the matter. Democratic Congressman Bart Gordon stated “This is a matter of safety. We need to know that information, the American public needs to know that information.”

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