Day: January 16, 2013

FCC adds spectrum to Wi-Fi—but you likely need a new router to use it

Jason Alley The Federal Communications Commission last week said it will add 195MHz of spectrum to Wi-Fi’s 5GHz band. This move is designed to relieve congestion in Wi-Fi networks, particularly in areas of widespread simultaneous usage like airports and sports stadiums . It could help your home network too, but not right away—routers available in stores today may not be able to use the new spectrum at all . Finding out definitively whether today’s routers will support the new spectrum is difficult, partly because the FCC still has to issue specific rules governing its use. We’ve hit up router vendors and other industry people to find out whether software updates might let current routers access the new spectrum. While the results were a bit muddled, it seems safe to say no one is guaranteeing today’s routers will get the benefit of the new 195MHz. Even the latest routers supporting the ultra-modern 802.11ac standard may be left behind. Cisco refused to comment at all, telling us only “Cisco has not made any announcements about this so cannot discuss at this time.” Buffalo told us “the chip vendors will need to work on it” and that “they will at least to have to make changes to the hardware driver. … The magnitude of that change will determine if Buffalo is able to use the same hardware.” Read 21 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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FCC adds spectrum to Wi-Fi—but you likely need a new router to use it

Facebook’s Open Compute Project splits up monolithic servers with help from Intel, more

As much as it’s important to have every component of a PC stuck together in a laptop, that same monolithic strategy is a major liability for server clusters: if one part breaks or grows obsolete, it can drag down everything else. Facebook and its Open Compute Project partners have just unveiled plans to loosen things up at the datacenter. A prototype, Atom -based rackmount server from Quanta Computer uses 100Gbps silicon photonics from Intel to connect parts at full speed, anywhere on the rack. Facebook has also garnered support for a new system-on-chip connection standard, rather affectionately named Group Hug, that would let owners swap in new mini systems from any vendor through PCI Express cards. The combined effect doesn’t just simplify repairs and upgrades — it lets companies build the exact servers they need without having to scrap other crucial elements in the process. There’s no definite timeframe for when we’ll see modular servers put to work, but the hope is that a cluster’s foundations will stay relevant for years instead of months. Continue reading Facebook’s Open Compute Project splits up monolithic servers with help from Intel, more Filed under: Intel , Facebook Comments Source: Open Compute Project

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Facebook’s Open Compute Project splits up monolithic servers with help from Intel, more

AT&T now offering FaceTime over Cellular on all tiered data plans

It’s been a slow process, but AT&T is gradually making FaceTime over Cellular (Apple’s video chat service) available to more people. The feature was introduced with iOS 6, but it was up to carriers on how they wanted to implement the service — if at all. AT&T chose to offer it to only shared data customers at first, to ensure that the carrier’s network could handle the additional load. Finally, the top GSM operator in the US has announced that it will now allow the feature on all tiered data plans, and it should be rolling out to customers over the course of the next two weeks. There’s still no word on grandfathered unlimited plans, but don’t get your hopes up on that happening any time soon. To get the full explanation, head to the source link below. Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , Apple , AT&T Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: AT&T

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AT&T now offering FaceTime over Cellular on all tiered data plans

“Once-in-a-century” ISON comet could be visible from Earth during the daytime

Last year, astronomers using the Russian International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) spied something intriguing just beyond the orbit of Jupiter: a cometary body so large, and with a trajectory that will bring it so close to the Sun, that it could potentially be visible from Earth in the middle of the day (not unlike Comet McNaught, pictured above, was in 2007), and outshine the Moon at night. More »

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“Once-in-a-century” ISON comet could be visible from Earth during the daytime

Microsoft Is Finally Bringing XBLA Games to Windows 8 and RT (Updated)

This has been a long time coming. Microsoft Play just added has (see update below) 15 Xbox Live Arcade games to Windows 8 and RT through the Windows Store. And it’s about time. More »

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Microsoft Is Finally Bringing XBLA Games to Windows 8 and RT (Updated)

Finally, proof that all movie trailers use the same color palette

The contrasting colors orange and blue appear together so often in movie posters and videogame box art as to inspire countless blog posts , tumblrs , and even their own entry on TV Tropes . Intrigued by the entertainment industry’s orange/blue affinity, Edmund Helmer — a masters student studying statistics at Stanford — decided to visualize the use of different hues in film trailers. The end result is as telling as it is beautiful. More »

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Finally, proof that all movie trailers use the same color palette

New features, new fixes: OS X Server’s six-month checkup

It has now been roughly half a year since the release of Mountain Lion . If Apple sticks to its new yearly release cadence for new OS X versions, that means we’re probably about halfway to OS X 10.9. That doesn’t mean the OS has stood still, though—two point updates have since tweaked the operating system’s functionality and stability, and this is even more true of OS X’s buttoned-up cousin, OS X Server . While Windows Server rarely picks up major new features outside of service packs, OS X Server is like the client version of OS X in that it sometimes takes a couple of point updates for its features to stabilize. Since July, we’ve received two point updates for OS X Server, and they’ve changed things around enough that it merits revisiting our original guide and pointing out what has changed. We’ll be focusing on the major user-facing changes here, but for a complete list of everything that has been changed and fixed you may also want to look at the complete release notes for OS X Server 2.1.1 and 2.2 . Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New features, new fixes: OS X Server’s six-month checkup

Cheesecake Factory has 3,120 calorie dish

The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s annual list of “food porn”–items that have more calories in them than one might expect–identifies Cheesecake Factory’s Bistro Shrimp Pasta as a particularly bad offender. “It’s like eating three orders of Olive Garden’s Lasagna Classico plus an order of tiramisu for dinner,” CSPI said. Some in the food and beverage industries have dubbed the Washington-based group the “food police”. More than one-third of Americans are obese. One of my first memorable experiences in the U.S. was visiting a Cheesecake Factory, ordering a salad, and receiving 8lb of shredded lettuce suspended in a curiously solid hillock of oil and ranch dressing. Cheesecake Factory pasta on annual list of caloric “food porn” [Reuters]

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Cheesecake Factory has 3,120 calorie dish

Researchers Develop Solid But Flexible Electrolyte For Bendable Batteries

hypnosec writes “Korean scientists have developed a ‘fluid-like’ polymer electrolyte used in lithium-ion batteries that would pave way for flexible batteries and flexible smartphones. The discovery was made by a joint team of researchers that was led by Professor Lee Sang-young of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. The new electrolyte, though flexible, is made of solid materials hence making the batteries more stable than the lithium-ion batteries used today.” Paper, but full text is paywalled. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Researchers Develop Solid But Flexible Electrolyte For Bendable Batteries