What is it about these sheiks that they always get the biggest houses, the most expensive and the fastest cars, not to mention women they get. It looks like the first airline to allow in-flight calls coming from passenger mobile phones is the Dubai-based Emirates. The first call was permitted on an Airbus A340 heading to Casablanca.

So far using your own cellphone on a plane was prohibited because it could have interfered with the plane’s electronics, but the Emirates have built a system to prevent such problems. By the end of the year the company promises to allow you to use data services on your mobile phone or sending text messages.

From what I’ve heard in-flight calls may not be allowed during night flights, but this is something the crew decides.  Passengers will also be requested to keep their phones on “silent” mode while cruising and that’s obviously a good thing.

Source (photo by cicadajet)

Ladies and gents the winners of the 700 MHz Spectrum auction have been announced and the big winners are Verizon and AT&T. Verizon managed to get most of the C Block, leaving Google to bite the dust, but rumors say the big G never wanted it and participated just to see the reserve price met and the open access rules followed. The other big winner was AT&T that manage to score a big portion of the B Block.

via Engadget

Tata Communications teamed up with Telsima to create what is supposed to be the largest commercial WiMax network, in India. Right now more 5,000 customers are connected and the plans are to secure nearly 250,000 retail customers by the end of the 2009.

Rumors say that the network will include 110 cities for enterprise customers and 15 cities for retail. Meanwhile only people living in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh and Kolkata are happy because the WiMax network is already live in their area.

Press release

You may want to forget your WiFi connection as soon as the Australian invention dubbed GiFi is going to go mainstream. Researchers from the Melbourne University are working together to develop a wireless chip that could speed things up a little bit, to 5 Gbps, that uses the existing CMOS technology, has a 0.04-inch wide antenna, consumes less than two watts of power and would be very cheap to produce. Rumors say only $10.

The first tests of the 5mm chip that works on the 60GHz frequency showed that it works for distances up to 10meters right now, but they are confident it will replace WiFi by 2009.

Can you imagine that at 5 Gbps a full HD movie transfer would take just a few seconds?

TheAge

Wi-Fi Rail develops an impressive project to bring Wireless Internet for subway passengers in San Francisco. The tests at stations and on a special stretch of track in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system showed that the technology is able to deliver 15Mbps speed both upstream and downstream. That’s amazing because the broadband could serve a lot of travelers.

The system proved reliable in speed tests at 65 miles per hour and the workload isn’t affected by the number of passengers. Wi-Fi Rail tested the public interest in wireless Internet in four regular hotspots in subway stations from San Francisco. The result was a number of 6,400 members in less than six months.

If the subway Wi-Fi network will be successful, Wi-Fi Rail intends to roll out such networks on rail systems around the world.

The ultimate geek stuff I discovered is the Wi-Fi T-shirt detector. It detects signal strength for 802.11b and 802.11g networks. The Wi-Fi Detector T-shirt is 100% cotton and features a removable decal that contains the Wi-Fi display. When you get nearby a hotspot the T-shirt will display a glowing animation.

As I see it this “gadget” could be an uniform for desperate geeks who can’t stay out of a network. The high-tech fashionable T-shirt works on three AAA batteries that go into a battery pack hidden inside a little pocket. This T-shirt priced at $29.99 can be purchased from ThinkGeek.

via ExtremeTech

I know that uploading the photos to your favorite website or into the computer can be a boring operation. It happened many times for me to forget the photos in my camera just because I didn’t feel like doing it. Not it appears a solution called Eye-Fi wireless SD card.

The Eye-Fi card is a regular 2GB storage card with built-in Wi-Fi. It features a software that automatically upload photos when it reach a wireless hot-spot. If you get this gadget, you will surely forgot about cables and card readers. The cool thing about this card is you can upload the photos to your favorite social websites using the Eye-Fi Service. It works in a 90+ feet outdoors range and 45+ feet indoors range. To easily transfer the photos you need to have a free access Wi-Fi network or to have the passwords. The Eye-Fi card doesn’t work in commercial hot-spot like Starbucks for example.

You can buy the 2GB Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card for $100. It could be on your Christmas list, because the price is fair and it delivers a lot of functionality for your camera.

Product page

BT Group, formerly British Telecommunications, plans to persuade its British customers to turn their home wireless “hubs” into public hotspots. Succeeding in this plan, BT will be able to compete with the mobile phones operators to deliver Internet services on the go.

There are around 10,000 to 11,000 hotspots in the country. Increasing the number for a nation-wide network would boost the sales for BT’s Fusion phone that supports fixed-line telephony, mobile networks and of course supports wireless connections. For the customers will be great benefits as they will make cheaper calls over the Wi-Fi connection. Also, BT’s Broadband costumers who would participate at the project will have free access to the network across the country.

“It won’t take over overnight, but over time wi-fi will chip away at the mobile network,” said Gavin Patterson, BT’s managing director for consumer operations.

Already important investors like Google and Skype expressed their intention to collaborate for the project. Although BT’s plan seems very good, I tend to think it will be developed only in the big cities, at least in the next five years. First of all, not everybody will share the connection (security issues, connection speed problems etc.). Secondly, the costs to maintain such an infrastructure are too big. I am not a pessimist, but I am a little reserved about its success.

via Yahoo News

RCA Jet Stream is a media player, if you would thought about anything else. Nothing spectacular, but let me explain you why this would be interesting. The RCA Jet Stream has a tiny OLED screen, offers 1GB of storage, an FM tuner, and battery life of 12 hours. We don’t want to neglect its in-fashion design.

Besides all this, the MP3 player comes along with two wireless ear buds. The wireless headphones don’t use the regular Bluetooth but the Kleer wireless technology. As Engadget sustains this technology takes on Bluetooth because of lower power consumption. It is said the battery lasts 10 times as long as Bluetooth headsets. However the range for this Kleer wireless technology is only 5-6 feet.

The device went to FCC for tests. It will probably hit the market somewhere at the beginning of 2008, although there are no official announcements. RCA Jet Stream and the wireless headsets will be retailed for $129, says Engadget.

via Engadget

Verizon Wireless has announced its USB727 Modem. The device is manufactured by Novatel Wireless and it is the first broadband modem that feature built-in microSD slot for data storage. The USB727 Modem supports 4GB storage, but microSD card is not included.

It works with almost all types of devices that feature a USB port. Also, it is compatible with most operating systems including indows (Vista, XP, 2000), Mac and Linux. The USB Wireless Broadband Modem has an integrated dual-band diversity antennae system with flip-up antenna to maximize data speed performance and provide a strong network signal reception. VZAccess Manager Software was included in the package for easy access at the USB727’s features.

The price tag for USB727 is about $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and new two-year agreement with Verizon Wireless. To get Broadband Access service for Internet browsing, e-mail and intranet access, Verizon’s customers will be charged with $59.99 monthly.

via Everything USB