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EE flips the switch on its faster 4G network in London

EE’s been conducting closed trials of LTE-Advanced technology since last year , so imagine the red faces when Vodafone reported earlier this month that its own faster 4G network was about to go live in three cities. EE’s now being forced to play catch-up, but it’s well on its way today after flipping its LTE-A network live in parts of central London, including Kensington, Old Street, Shoreditch, Soho, Southbank and Westminster. This 4G+ network, as EE brands it, should cover the whole of Greater London by the middle of next year, before rolling out to other big cities like Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester later. While standard LTE can deliver a theoretical maximum download speed of 150 Mbps, LTE-A doubles that to a maximum speed of 300 Mbps (though real-world speeds tend to be around half the max). In EE’s case, this is achieved by combining spectrum from the 2.6GHz band with its existing 1800MHz network (a process known as carrier aggregation). While everyone should see speed improvements due to increased network capacity, only smartphones with a Cat 6 LTE radio capable of tuning into the 2.6GHz band will be able to enjoy the top speeds. Currently, the only Cat 6 devices EE have to offer are the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Galaxy Note 4 , though there are compatible handsets available to buy elsewhere. Filed under: Wireless , Mobile Comments Source: EE

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EE flips the switch on its faster 4G network in London

It’s official: Lenovo owns Motorola

The cash has been handed over, the contracts are signed and the lawyers are sipping champagne, which can only mean that Lenovo’s deal to buy Motorola has been completed. The purchase makes Lenovo the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, and the Chinese company has been quick to promise not to meddle. The outfit has pledged to keep Motorola based in Chicago, and CEO Rick Osterloh will keep his job at the head of the table. What will change, is that Motorola will now be able to sell its devices in Lenovo’s Asian and European strongholds, which should help the pair meet its pledge to sell 100 million smartphones and tablets this year. The pair have also pledged to return Motorola to profitability by mid-2016, which seems a lot more plausible with a stable of devices that include the Nexus 6 , Droid Turbo and Moto 360 . Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Google , Lenovo Comments Via: Re/code Source: Lenovo

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It’s official: Lenovo owns Motorola

LG’s New Smartphone Display Has the World’s Thinnest 0.7mm Bezel

The best way to maximize the screen real estate on a smartphone without turning it into a massive phablet is to whittle away as much of the wasted space around the display as possible. And with its new 5.3-inch full HD LCD panel, LG has managed to reduce the size of the display’s bezel to just 0.7mm—which is thinner than a credit card. Read more…

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LG’s New Smartphone Display Has the World’s Thinnest 0.7mm Bezel

Beyond gaming, the VR boom is everywhere—from classrooms to therapy couches

Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock Welcome to Ars UNITE, our week-long virtual conference on the ways that innovation brings unusual pairings together. Today, a look at how virtual reality excitement is happening beyond the world of gaming. Join us this afternoon for a live discussion on the topic with article author Kyle Orland and his expert guests; your comments and questions are welcome. When Oculus almost single-handedly revived the idea of virtual reality from its ‘90s vaporware grave, it chose the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo as the place to unveil the first public prototype of the Rift headset. The choice of a gaming convention isn’t that surprising, as the game industry has been the quickest and most eager to jump on potential applications for VR. Gaming has already demanded the majority of the attention and investments in the second VR boom that Oculus has unleashed. But just as the Rift itself is the result of what Oculus calls a “peace dividend from the smartphone wars,” other fields are benefiting from virtual reality’s gaming-driven growth. Creators all over the world are looking beyond entertainment to adapting head-mounted displays for everything from psychotherapy, special-needs education, and space exploration to virtual luxury car test drives, virtual travel, and even VR movies. The well-worn idea of “gaming on the holodeck” may be driving much of the interest in virtual reality, but the technology’s non-gaming applications could be just as exciting in the long term. Read 42 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Beyond gaming, the VR boom is everywhere—from classrooms to therapy couches

Are Brushless Cordless Tools Worth the Cost?

Brushless motor technology has been the rage in cordless power tools the last couple of years. Every major manufacturer now sells a brushless lineup of tools, but is it worth it for you? Read more…

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Are Brushless Cordless Tools Worth the Cost?

Study: Solar Energy Will Be as Cheap as Fossil Fuel Energy by 2016

A new study on solar energy from Deutsche Bank bears very good news . Thanks to technology and innovation, solar energy will be just as cheap as energy from fossil fuels by 2016. That’s basically tomorrow, and it’s awesome. Read more…

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Study: Solar Energy Will Be as Cheap as Fossil Fuel Energy by 2016

MPAA, movie theaters announce “zero tolerance” policy against wearables

Biblioteca de Art A movie theater industry group and the Motion Picture Association of America updated their anti-piracy policies and said that “wearable devices” must be powered off at show time. “Individuals who fail or refuse to put the recording devices away may be asked to leave. If theater managers have indications that illegal recording activity is taking place, they will alert law enforcement authorities when appropriate, who will determine what further action should be taken,” said a joint statement  from the MPAA and the National Association of Theatre Owners, which maintains 32,000 screens across the United States. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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MPAA, movie theaters announce “zero tolerance” policy against wearables

It came from the server room: Halloween tales of tech terror

It’s never a good day when the Halon discharges in the server room. Keith4048 It all began when the monitors started bursting into flames. Well, at least that’s when I knew I had walked into a tech support horror story. Back in the day when the cathode-ray tube was still the display of choice and SVGA really was super, I was working as a network engineer and tech support manager for a government contractor at a large military research lab. I spent two years on the job, and I learned in the process that Murphy was an optimist. The experience would provide me with enough tech horror stories and tales of narrow escape through the most kludged of hardware and software hacks ever conceived to last a lifetime—and to know that I would much rather be a writer than work in tech support ever again. Of course, all of us have tech horror stories to tell, especially those of us who were “early adopters” before the term was de rigueur. So we’re looking for you, our readers, to share yours. The most bone-chilling and entertaining of which we’ll publish tomorrow in honor of Halloween—that day each year when some people change their Twitter handles to pseudo-spooky puns, and others just buy bags of candy to have ready for the traditional wave of costumed home invaders. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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It came from the server room: Halloween tales of tech terror

Google Gives Bookmarks an Overhaul with Bookmark Manager for Chrome

Chrome: What was formerly known as Google Stars— before it was pulled from the Chrome Web Store —is now the Bookmark Manager extension, which makes bookmarks more powerful with improved search, bookmarks by topic, and the ability to share them anywhere. Read more…

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Google Gives Bookmarks an Overhaul with Bookmark Manager for Chrome

YouTube Finally Supports 60FPS, And It Looks Awesome

Earlier this year, YouTube announced plans to support videos running at 60 frames-per-second —plans that would make a huge difference for footage of video games. Today, the video network has finally started rolling out the new service, and you can already tell that this is going to be wonderful. Read more…

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YouTube Finally Supports 60FPS, And It Looks Awesome