FCC approves Google's white space wireless database

\ Google may have been on pins and needles while the FCC scrutinized its white space wireless database over the spring, but it can relax this summer -- the FCC has given the database the all-clear. The approval lets Google serve as one of ten go-to sources for white space devices needing safe frequencies in the US. It also lets those with interference-prone devices, such as wireless microphone users, register the airwaves they consider...

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Samsung Galaxy S4 cases by Urban Armor Gear hands-on

As one of the premier designers and manufacturers of rugged smartphone cases, Urban Armor Gear (UAG) has released a quartet of cases for the Samsung Galaxy S4. Available in four different colors, the covers feature a patented design with a hard outer shell and soft, impact-resistant core. I spent some quality time with the UAG Aero and Navigator cases for the Samsung Galaxy S4. Finished in dark blue and white respectively, the duo...

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The After Math: Microsoft fits new Windows, Sony pushes the limits of a smartphone screen

Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week's tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages. In recent weeks, we've covered BlackBerry, Google, Nokia, Apple, Sony and (at least gaming-wise) Microsoft, but this week, the Redmond company returned to dominate tech news, showcasing a new version of Windows 8 (and RT) at its annual Build conference. It's tried to fix some of the operating system's early criticisms...

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 stops by, poses for the camera

The budget 7″ Android tablet market has been enjoying quite a lot of attention from a number of manufacturers and the latest device to join in on the fun is a refresh of one of the very first small tablets – the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0. The third-generation of 7″ Galaxy Tab has just hit the shelves and it feels nicely polished and put together. It’s not quite the performance champion, sporting the little known Marvell chipset with 1.2GHz dual-core...

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BSkyB wins trademark case against Microsoft over SkyDrive name

While many can tell the difference between Sky TV services and Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage, that's not necessarily true for everyone. A British court certainly thinks there's room for confusion: it has ruled that SkyDrive infringes BSkyB's trademarks on the Sky name in both the UK and the European Union. The presiding judge didn't believe that Microsoft's use of the "sky" prefix was absolutely necessary, and she showed evidence...

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Wireless Charging Plate can charge both your Lumia and your toothbrush

Wireless charging is slowly gaining traction with smartphone makers. But here’s an unexpected use – it can also help with your dental hygiene. No, really – inquisitive Reddit user el_n00bo_loco decided to put his electric toothbrush on top of a Nokia Wireless Charging Plate (like the one we reviewed the other day). It’s good to see that a £55 / €68 charging gadget can be used for more than just charging your phone. The Charging Plate uses the...

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Vine app now available on Kindle Fire

After releasing on the Google Play Store recently, the Vine app is now available on Kindle Fire. The app requires Android 4.0 and above, so can work on every version of the Kindle Fire, except for the very first model. For those who are not aware, Vine is a new social networking service for sharing short, six second videos. It used to be known as the Instagram of videos, until recently when Instagram itself added support for videos....

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 hits our office, hands-on video is inside

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is arguably the most interesting of the latest generation Samsung slates. It’s an affordable dual-core tablet running on the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS and the 1280 x 800 pixel resolution isn’t as big an issue as it is on the 10″ screen of the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0. Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz is on top, of course, full of useful apps and services. The SamsungGalaxy Tab 3 8.0 is a thinner, lighter and S-Pen-less...

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Inhabitat's Week in Green: cardboard bicycle, robo raven and a steampunk Lego ship

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Summer is finally upon us, and polluting companies are feeling the heat as President Barack Obama announced a groundbreaking climate action plan this week that calls for cutting CO2 emissions and building more resilient communities in the face of climate change. Meanwhile, innovators around the world are...

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Apple trademarks new FaceTime logo, settles on green

There's certainly been a lot of brouhaha surrounding the new design language Apple introduced for iOS 7 at WWDC. Some (ourselves included) feel it's modern and fresh while others loathe the brighter palette and simpler, flatter icons. A lot can change between now and the launch of iOS 7 this fall, but if Apple's recent trademark filing is any indication, FaceTime's new logo / icon -- which consists of a stylized white video camera...

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University of Michigan activates antimatter 'gun,' cartoon supervillians twirl moustaches anew

At the University of Michigan, an international team of physicists has begun experimenting with its tabletop-sized super laser, modding it into an antimatter "gun." It's not quite a black hole-firing pistol, but we're slightly terrified nonetheless. Up until now, machines capable of creating positrons -- coupled with electrons, they comprise the energy similar to what's emitted by black holes and pulsars -- have needed to be as large as they...

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Washington Post reveals new PRISM slides, offers greater clarity into the US' surveillance operation

PRISM: The surveillance story that started with four leaked slides from the Washington Post, today gets a bit clearer. The publication has revealed four more annotated slides about the once-secret NSA operation, along with detailing the various levels of scrutiny from the FBI and NSA that happen before, during and after approved wiretaps take place. It seems that many of the measures make sure the warrantless data mining of US citizens occurs...

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UK consumers say the Galaxy S4 is the fastest smartphone with best battery life

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has won two award from UK consumer research company Which?. It found that Samsung’s Android flagship is not only the fastest smartphone currently on sale, but also the one with the best battery life. Which? determined this by running the Geekbench 2 benchmark on selected smartphones. The Galaxy S4 got on top with 3188 points with the HTC One sitting in the second place with 2798. We also confirm this in our own benchmark...

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Alt-week 6.29.13: DARPA's robot finalists, the IRIS solar mission and empathetic computers

Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days. Sure, DARPA is slightly sinister, but it's so into robots that we're willing to let that slide. In fact, last year it launched the DARPA Robotics Challenge, and it just announced the top six nine seven teams to advance. But if just the idea of figuring out robotics frustrates you, NC State's face tracking program literally gets that, and NASA just...

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PSA: Google Play Music All Access $8 promotion ends soon

Listen, we're all for waiting until the last possible minute, but that time is now. If you happen to be looking for a deal on Google's fancy new music service, the clock is ticking. Once June 30th rolls around, Google Play Music All Access's $7.99 price tag will bump up to the standard $9.99 a month. That's a full $2 a month more for access to those millions of unlimited songs. You can sign up at the source link below -- that same page can also...

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 drops in for a hands-on

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is the largest member of the new Tab 3 lineup, and it has stopped by our studio for a quick hands-on before it gets whisked away for a full review. The Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is one the first Samsung tablets to run on Intel’s new Atom Z2560 chipset, and we’re eager to see how it fares under Samsung’s Android Jelly Bean build with TouchWiz optimizations. The Atom processor is of the dual-core 1.6GHz variety, and is joined...

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U-Turn: BlackBerry PlayBook won’t get BlackBerry 10 update

Today is certainly not a good day for the BlackBerry fans. Earlier CEO Thorsten Heins reported disappointing earnings results for the last quarter. The company did manage to increase its revenue, but it didn’t meet profit expectations, in fact its operating loss is $84 million. Because of the bad financial report the company’s stock tumbled down over 25% at time of writing. During the financial results conference call BlackBerry delivered another...

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Nokia films European Man of Steel premiere with Lumia 925

Don’t worry – no spoilers here! If you haven’t seen Man of Steel yet you should know that Nokia had arranged some product placement deals with the movie producers and has even arranged to have a first-class ticket to the European premiere of the movie. Along with starts Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner comes the Nokia Lumia 925 and, more importantly its 8.7 MP PureView sensor. Nokia made...

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We take the Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 4.3 ROM for a spin, here’s the video

When Google’s Hugo Barra announced at the Google I/O 2013 that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be offered directly from the Play Store as a “Google Play Edition” device running stock Android, many people got really excited. Later on, HTC also jumped on the bandwagon with the HTC One, giving you a choice between two excellently spec’d smartphones that offer the Nexus experience. As planned, the devices went on sale on June 26 and almost immediately,...

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The major overhaul of the Asha platform focuses around the so-called Fastlane, which is why the latest promo video revolves around it. The Fastlane keeps track of all your recent activity, opened apps go there, along with contacts you’ve called, calendar events (birthdays, to-dos) and social network posts. Nokia’s putting quite a lot of effort in the PR campaign of the Asha 501, and it seems that the company may have bigger plans for the...

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Google issues a small update for Gmail on Android, brings back the delete button

The last update Google made to Gmail for Android was quite substantial and included a lot of user interface changes. One of them was the removal of the Delete button, which caused a hurricane of negative feedback. Today, Google has responded by bringing back the Delete button in a small update for its mail client on Android. Other than that, the latest version of the Gmail (v4.5.2) includes an undisclosed number of bugfixes as well as the feature...

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Nokia Wireless Charging Plate and Fatboy Pillow review

Nokia was among the first manufacturers to include Wireless Charging tech into its smartphones and has a rather cool line of Wireless Charging accessories. We have two of them here at HQ and they work together nicely to carry out their out-the-way no-wires-needed assignments with style. The Wireless Charging Plate and Fatboy-made Wireless Charging Pillow go very well together. The Wireless Charging Plate is the soul of the operation...

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