Tech Today w/ Ken May

Fellow road warriors, we bring you good news: starting today, T-Mobile customers across 55 markets — including Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, Pittsburgh, Miami, and many more — will have immediate access to a faster HSPA+ “4G” network. This means anyone with compatible devices can achieve theoretical download speeds of up to a whopping 42Mbps, as opposed to just 21Mbps from the good ol’ days. But of course, only time will tell whether this upgrade will deliver its promise — you may recall that even AT&T's LTE demo last week delivered “realistic” download speeds of up to just 28.9Mbps, when in theory it should be capable of hitting up to 100Mbps.

Anyhow, if you want to soldier on and be a guinea pig an early adopter, then help yourself to ZTE’s Rocket 3.0 USB modem stick starting tomorrow — the entry price is $99.99 after a $50 mail in rebate, but tied to a two-year broadband plan of 2GB or higher; or you can opt for the contract-free price of $199.99. Hit the press release after the break for the full list of activated markets.

Continue reading T-Mobile flips on 42Mbps HSPA+ across 55 markets, launching Rocket 3.0 modem stick tomorrow

T-Mobile flips on 42Mbps HSPA+ across 55 markets, launching Rocket 3.0 modem stick tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E-reader manufacturers are doing their darnedest to get their devices to behave more like the old fashioned books we’ve all since abandoned, but we won’t be happy until we can roll one up and stuff it in our back pockets, paperback-style. Sony’s working hard to make that dream a reality — the company showed off some new bendable display technology behind closed doors at last week’s SID conference in LA, including a color unit and the extremely flexible black and white e-paper display seen above, which can be bent to a 5mm curvature radius. The 13.3-inch sheet has a 1,600 x 1,200 (150ppi) resolution and is powered by organic TFTs. Sony showed off and bent the thing at the show, reportedly to the cheers of the crowd in attendance. Clearly they’re all as excited as we are to make some really expensive e-paper airplanes. For more shots of the bending process, consult the source link below.

Sony shows off, folds up super flexible organic TFT display originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 22:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Metamaterials could make it possible to transmit wireless power while avoiding the complications associated with microwaves or lasers, engineers at Duke University say. More

Facebook recently launched a new security wall to block scammers, but many are worried these measures won’t stop spam from spreading and that determined con artists will simply find new ways to get at unsuspecting users.

We’ve all seen suspicious posts on Facebook–a friend’s curiously impersonal message that’s riddled with odd typos, the irresistible app offering a chance to see who has viewed your profile, and more. These scams are sometimes obvious and easy to avoid, other times nefarious and simple to fall for. Despite Facebook’s security features, safe social networking rests in the user’s own hands.

We’ve put together a list of some of the most common Facebook scams and what happens if you fall for them. Take a look through the slideshow (below) and vote for the worst scam. Then, view our slideshow of 9 Facebook privacy tips to beef up your personal social networking safety.

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More on Facebook

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Facebook Scams You Need To Know About: The 9 Most Common Hacks And Attacks

I used to love playing with the Tesla Coils at the mall but never wanted to fork over the cash for one. Now this helpful guide will show me how to build my own Tesla Coil right at home. However please be careful:

Bring it outside for its first run, as it really isn’t safe to run anything this potentially powerful indoors, there is a high risk of fire. Flip the switch and enjoy the light show. My NST, at 9Kv at 30mA, makes the coil give off 6 inch sparks.

Link

Original post:
How To Build a Tesla Coil

Not only is The Musalman written by hand—at a time when printed newspapers are dying like sick lepers—it's produced by a team of only four scribes. And it's not just handwritten—it's transcribed in calligraphy. These people work. Hard. More

(YouTube link)

“Fano flow” is a term used for some of the strange ways non-Newtonian fluids move. From the YouTube page:

In the so-called ”tubeless” syphon, a fluid can be made to flow up through an unsupported liquid column above the free surface of the liquid. One way to achieve this is by slowly withdrawing and raising a syringe from a pool of the liquid below.

In the so-called ”open channel” syphon, after initially commencing the
flow of an elastic fluid from say a beaker, the fluid will continue to
flow up the side and over the lip of the beaker for sometime despite the level of its free surface having fallen considerably below the top of the beaker. In this way the slightest spill will cause the beaker to partly empty in what is commonly refereed to as a ‘’self-syphoning” effect.

-via TYWKIWDBI

More here:
Fano Flow

Nicholas from the Participatory Culture Foundation sez,

Miro 4 has just been released!

We believe the open media world can be just as integrated and usable as the closed, top-down, DRM’ed systems of companies like Apple. And we want to prove it.

Miro, free and open-source, is now a full alternative to iTunes and Windows Media Player:

* Syncs music and video to Android phones and tablets

* Buy music and apps from Amazon and other stores inside Miro

* Stream and share music and video on your local network

* Gorgeous, totally new UI

* Works with your iTunes library, so it’s easy to try Miro and see if you like it

* A very fast bittorrent client

* Powerful video player supporting and converting almost any format

Basically, it rules.

Android is going to be 50% of the smartphone market by the end of the year, but millions of Android users are still using iTunes, software that explicitly refuses to sync to their devices. That seems a little crazy doesn’t it?

We think Miro 4 can change that.

Miro 4

(Thanks, Nicholas!)

(Disclosure: I’m proud to volunteer on the board of directors for the Participatory Culture Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Miro)

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Miro4: open, cross-platform iTunes replacement that does BitTorrent, podcast channels, and synchs to everything

Want to make some plastic? Take a vat of the common bacteria E. coli and feed it a bunch of sugar. Over a few days, it will secrete a non-natural chemical used to make everything from tupperware to spandex. More

Old-fashioned sports trading cards came with a piece of gum (they actually were a bonus for buying the gum). The next generation of trading cards comes with a LCD screen and 20 minutes of video about the player! Oh, they are still made mostly of cardboard, but will hold 2GB of storage. How do you get them?

The special video cards will be limited edition inserts in Panini’s Totally Certified Basketball card line. The packs will include normal cards as well. Apparently, you will never know if you are getting a video card or not. A pack of five cards is about $20.

Read more at SlashGear. Link

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High Tech Sports Trading Cards