NTT showcases next-gen 802.11ac wireless LAN solution, hopes for near-term commercialization

NTT DoCoMo’s never been one to back down from the future , and some might say this carrier is actually already living in 2012. You know — Land of the Rising Sun and all. At any rate, its latest foray into what’s next came at the Wireless Technology Park in Yokohama, where it demonstrated a fully-functional 802.11ac prototype wireless system

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NTT showcases next-gen 802.11ac wireless LAN solution, hopes for near-term commercialization

Spotify partners with Virgin Media to stream music to UK TVs, smartphones

Spotify , the Rhapsody of Europe, may still be an unfamiliar brand stateside , but the service just inked a deal with Virgin Media to bring streaming music to Virgin’s broadband customers, set-top boxes, and mobile phones in the UK. The deal will bundle Unlimited (

Visualized: a zettabyte

Remember the good old days when a gigabyte was considered a lot of space ?

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Visualized: a zettabyte

ICANN to vote on domain name expansion, ele.vation and wolf.pack ready to assualt your browser

It may be Sunday where you are, but it’s bright-and-early on Monday in Singapore. That’s where a monumental vote is about to go down, with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (or ICANN , for short) set to vote on expansion plans for domain names

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ICANN to vote on domain name expansion, ele.vation and wolf.pack ready to assualt your browser

US funds shadow networks, builds ‘internet in a suitcase’ for repressed protesters

Whether a repressive government , a buggy DNS server or a little old lady is behind your internet outage, it can’t be much fun, but the US government sympathizes with your plight if you’re dealing with reason number one. The New York Times reports that the US State Department will have spent upwards of $70 million on “shadow networks” which would allow protesters to communicate even if powers that be pull the traditional plug — so far, it’s spent at least $50 million on a independent cell phone network for Afghanistan, and given a $2 million grant to members of the New America Foundation creating the “internet in a suitcase” pictured above. It’s a batch of mesh networking equipment designed to be spirited into a country to set up a private network.

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US funds shadow networks, builds ‘internet in a suitcase’ for repressed protesters

Today’s World IPv6 Day: Google, Bing, Facebook and others test out new addresses for 24 hours

Described as a “test flight” of IPv6 , today marks the biggest concerted effort by some of the web’s marquee players to turn us all on to the newer, fancier web addressing system. Internet Protocol version 4 has been the template by which we’ve addressed everything connected to the web so far, but that stuff’s now nearing exhaustion, so the future demands a longer, more complex nomenclature to tell our smartphones, tablets, printers, and other webOS devices apart.

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Today’s World IPv6 Day: Google, Bing, Facebook and others test out new addresses for 24 hours

Skype goes down globally again, Microsoft starts wondering if it bought wisely

Uh oh, Skype’s experiencing its second big outage in the space of just a couple of weeks, as we’re hearing reports from the UK, Netherlands, and yes, even Bulgaria, claiming the online communications service is down. Our own Skype clients are currently unable to move past the “Connecting…” status note, both on Mac OS X and Windows 7. While we’ve confirmed it in Europe, the issue seems to be affecting people all over the world

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Skype goes down globally again, Microsoft starts wondering if it bought wisely

Chaufr lets you shout searches, yell URLs at Chrome

Generally, shouting commands at the internet isn’t going to get you very far but, if you’re just yelling a few destinations and search terms, Chrome extension Chaufr can take you where you need to go. A previous add-on, Speechify, let you speak to fill input fields, but couldn’t help you actually navigate the web

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Chaufr lets you shout searches, yell URLs at Chrome

The Protect IP Act: Google’s Eric Schmidt squares off against RIAA and MPAA

Protecting intellectual property sounds like such a noble cause that you’d have to be a anarchistic free-market extremist to be against the idea, right?

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The Protect IP Act: Google’s Eric Schmidt squares off against RIAA and MPAA

NC governor will let cable-backed bill restricting municipal broadband become law

We’ve repeatedly hammered Time Warner Cable (and its big-cable cronies) for crying to the North Carolina legislature about municipal broadband . TWC claims it can’t compete with taxpayer-backed ISPs such as Wilson, NC’s Greenlight — and that it shouldn’t have to.

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NC governor will let cable-backed bill restricting municipal broadband become law

Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion becomes official

It was pretty much known about since last night, but Microsoft and Skype have now obliterated any lingering doubt in the matter: the Redmond-based software giant will acquire the internet telephony company for a cool $8.5 billion in cash.

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Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion becomes official

Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood Hotels reward your loyalty with free WiFi

Free WiFi is practically a given at coffee shops and motels, yet lots of luxury hotels hit you with an extra $10 – $15 a day to ride their waves of wireless internet. Good news is, well-heeled world travelers won’t be paying those fees much longer, because several high-end hotel chains are now giving temporary tenants complimentary wireless internet. Loyalty program members for Hilton, Hyatt, and Starwood Hotels get online gratis if they have Gold or Platinum status, while Marriott lets all who sign up for its rewards program get WiFi for free

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Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood Hotels reward your loyalty with free WiFi

PSA: AT&T DSL and U-Verse landline internet caps begin tomorrow, if you can see this website

Tomorrow is May 2nd, 2011, and you know what that means — tomorrow is the day that AT&T will impose data caps on DSL and U-Verse Internet, and begin tallying up overage fees. At least, that was the plan on March 18th — when the company formally announced 150GB DSL and 250GB U-Verse caps — but even if you’re a paying customer who chows down several hundred gigabytes in a month, you may not have to worry about paying extra right away. AT&T specified that folks like yourself will have access to an online tool to self-police your usage before the company even begins to calculate the cost of your formerly all-you-can-eat bandwidth buffet, and as you can see in the picture above, the tool isn’t quite ready for public consumption across the entire country

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PSA: AT&T DSL and U-Verse landline internet caps begin tomorrow, if you can see this website

Xcom Global’s international MiFi rentals getting cheaper, Eurotrips making a comeback

No sense in beating around the proverbial bush — we’re huge fans of Xcom Global’s business model, and frankly, we’re saddened that every single nation in the world isn’t yet included in its list of supported countries. For those hearing the name for the first time, you’ll be doing yourself a solid by catching up with our review of the service, which enables jetsetters to rent MiFis or USB WWAN devices for international destinations before taking off

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Xcom Global’s international MiFi rentals getting cheaper, Eurotrips making a comeback

Tweet_Fit tweets while you sweat to the oldies (video)

The Shake Weight it is not, but as 21st century workout solutions go, Tweet_Fit certainly has the potential to get people talking — or, at the very least, tweeting . Developed by a UK design student, the connected gym accessory attaches to the end of a standard dumbbell and sends updates to your Twitter account when you start and stop your workout

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Tweet_Fit tweets while you sweat to the oldies (video)

HP TouchPad hits the FCC

Much of the report expectedly remains confidential, but HP was at least kind enough to repeatedly mention “TouchPad” in its latest FCC filing, which saves us a bit of digging, and presumably means that the webOS tablet remains on track for a US launch fairly soon — sometime in June, last we heard . Might it also get a few more cloud-based additions before then? Perhaps HP will have more to say at its Veer-focused event that’s already scheduled for May 2nd.

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HP TouchPad hits the FCC

Airpiano on sale now, conduct a symphony of soft synths with the wave of a hand (video)

When last we saw the Airpiano way back in 2008 (ah, the halcyon days when people still cared about Spore ) it was just a proof of concept, hacked together by interface design student Omer Yosha. Now you can finally order your own online for €1,099 (about $1,607) if you’re in Europe, or €1,149 (about $1,680) if you dwell anywhere else on this little, blue marble we call Earth.

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Airpiano on sale now, conduct a symphony of soft synths with the wave of a hand (video)

Acer Iconia Tab A500 review

Last month, the Motorola Xoom was the only officially sanctioned Android 3.0 tablet available in the United States. Now there are four — the T-Mobile G-Slate arrived last week, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 this week, and the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer will soon hit US shores.

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Acer Iconia Tab A500 review

Coalition of companies creates WebM Community Cross License initiative

When Google unveiled its WebM open source media format and declared it to be the one codec to rule all others , there were those who decried its usefulness and felt that H.264 should inherit the earth. WebM’s power converted some of those staunch detractors, and to rally more to to the VP8 / Vorbis cause, 17 companies have now formed the WebM Community Cross-License (CCL) initiative by inter-mingling their WebM-related IP resources

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Coalition of companies creates WebM Community Cross License initiative

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer goes on sale in US, immediately sells out at Amazon

The US had to wait for its Eee Pad Transformer launch a little longer than the rest of the world, but it’s finally gotten its wish today and consumers’ reaction seems to have been nothing short of voracious.

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ASUS Eee Pad Transformer goes on sale in US, immediately sells out at Amazon