Apple Will use 802.11ac WiFi Standard This Year

According to Apple Insider, Apple is planning on adopting the new 802.11ac wifi standard across their product line this year. 802.11ac has a max speed of over 1 gigabit per second, more than three times faster than the current wireless N. Broadcom will be releasing 802.11ac chips soon that feature better range and power efficiency than existing chips. Don't forget that you'll need an 802.11ac capable router to harness the full 802.11ac speed.

Google SIM Cards Found in Spain?

Google-branded SIM cards have been found in testing with Nexus S devices in Spain, fitting with previous rumors of a Google-based cell service. Google currently offers VoIP calling and free texting through their Voice service, but expanding to a full-fledged carrier would be a major update. Currently Google is testing their own ultra-high speed fiber internet service in Kansas City, and is working on offering that same service in other parts of the country.

WRAN (And how it's going to cover the Earth with internet)

The IEEE 802.22 WRAN standard has been finalized to allow the use of white space—the part of the wireless spectrum in between TV channels—for internet access. This will allow 22Mbps “Super WiFi” to blanket a theoretical 62 mile radius using just one transmitter. As noted by Ars Technica, only 307 stations would be needed to cover the entire United States under optimal (but not realistic) conditions. It’s unknown how long it will take to become ubiquitous, but combined with LTE, WiMAX, and WiFi hotspots, a constant data connection anywhere in the world is becoming a very real possibility.

[Ars Technica] via iFans

iPhone 4.0 OS Features

Some of the new features in the 4.0 iPhone OS are:

• Multitasking (Double-Tap home button, you can run up to 4 apps simultaneously)
• BlueTooth Keyboard
• 5X Digital Zoom
• Change Homescreen wallpaper
• SMS Reminders
• Sync IMAP Notes
• Tap-to-Focus Video
• Web Search Suggestions
• Find & Delete Mail Search
• Larger Fonts for Mail
• Wake on Wireless
• Changeable image size in mail messages
• Background Audio
• VoIP (AT&T is going to hate Skype)
• Background location
• Local Notifications
• Faster App Switching
• Folders*
• Enhanced Mail Application
• Can have 2,160 apps installed instead of 180
• iBooks for the iPhone (With Free Winnie The Pooh)
• In-App encryption
• Game Centre
• MultiPlayer Matchmaking & Invite Friends Option
• iAd
• HTML5

Incompatible with 1st gen iDevices, 2nd gen will have limited features.

Woah, they even changed some of the icons for the default apps.

Pandora radio is now fully background-aware so you can exit the app and still listen to music!

Multitask with 4 different apps at once! Amazing

Skype behaves just like your standard calling in the new OS! Same style notifications too (Note: You can also receive skype calls when your phone is locked) You can also exit the app and run another one, just like standard calling.

The enhanced mail application has a unified inbox & better searching

*Folders is just like categories for those of you that have jailbroken your iPhone/iPod Touch

NOTE: iPod Touch users still have to pay, free for iPhone users

Broadband Plan

Sick of slow Internet connections? The federal government hears you.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Monday unveiled some details of its broadband plan, which aims to speed up Web connections and make high-speed Internet available to more Americans.

The commission plans to use educational programs and an expansion of broadband Internet infrastructure to give 90 percent of Americans high-speed Internet access at home by 2020.

Currently, only 65 percent of Americans have high-speed Internet access at home, which the FCC says is a detriment to economic growth. The proposal will make the U.S. "the world's largest market of high-speed broadband users" and will create jobs, the FCC says in a news release.

The plan would also lower health care costs and improve home energy efficiency by making information available digitally, the FCC says.

Other details of the plan remain unclear. The FCC will release its entire proposal at a meeting Tuesday.

The FCC also wants to speed up overall connections, which are often criticized as slow by global standards.

Its goal is to give 100 million households access to Internet connections that transfer 100 megabits of data per second.

The average U.S. Internet speed today is much slower -- only 3.9 megabits per second, according to the Internet monitor Akamai.

The U.S. has only the 18th fastest Internet connections in the world, behind countries like South Korea, which leads the world with 14.6 megabit-per-second data transfer rates, Akamai says.

Each community in America also will get access to at least one "ultra-high-speed" connection at a library, school or military base. Those connections will reach speeds of 1 gigabit per second, the FCC said in the news release.

The country's broadband plan was required as part of President Obama's 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated $7.2 billion to broadband-related initiatives.

The FCC's upcoming broadband plan will be "revenue neutral," according to an executive summary of the plan released Monday. The FCC will auction off 500 megahertz of spectrum to pay for some expenses, such as extending broadband networks to rural areas.

Other programs will be paid for with improved efficiencies, the FCC said.

The plan has been delayed, and it is criticized by some as doing too little.

Speaking at South by Southwest Interactive, a technology conference in Austin, Texas, Derek Turner, the research director for the nonprofit group Free Press, said the broadband plan does not do enough to reduce the cost of high-speed Internet connections, which he said is the biggest barrier to adoption.

Still, he said, he is hopeful that the federal government can address the issue.

"I'm actually very hopeful for some positive outcomes," he said at the conference, "because I've seen stranger things happen in Washington."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski framed the plan as a boost for the economy.

"The National Broadband Plan is a 21st century roadmap to spur economic growth and investment, create jobs, educate our children, protect our citizens, and engage in our democracy," he said in an FCC news release.

"It's an action plan, and action is necessary to meet the challenges of global competitiveness, and harness the power of broadband to help address so many vital national issues."

The plan places some emphasis on the mobile Internet and indicates that the U.S. wants to be a leader in that emerging space.

via CNN

Why didn't we think of this???

This is just one of those things that makes you wonder "Now why didn't I think of this?"

New iPod Touch 3g Features

Now that the rest of the world has stopped crying about the new iPod Touch not having a camera, there is some good news:

• The third generation iPod Touch has a better screen. When you play videos or surf the Internet, you will notice that the colors are crisper and the screen doesn't wash out as much.
  
• The 3rd gen iPod Touch has a faster processor, 50% faster than the previous 1st & 2nd generation processors to be exact.
  
• iPod Touches are now cheaper, the 8gb model is only $199, 32gb is $299, and 64gb is $399. It seems that Apple has decided to drop the 16gb model. (I don't understand why, I personally would have dropped the 8gb model myself)

Not much in the new iPod Touch, but still an upgrade

ilsystemwiper

ilsystemwiper is an awesome free utility. What it does is it clears all your data on shutdown. For instance, I have ilsystemwiper clean out my temp files, recycle bin, cookies, IE history, & tons of other stuff. That way, my computer doesn't get bogged down with all this stuff.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/systemwiper.html