The FCC has announced (pdf) that they’ll be holding a public hearing on “broadband and the digital future” on July 21, at 4PM EST, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The FCC has recently held hearings on network neutrality at both Harvard University and Stanford University. This particular hearing will instead focus on competition and broadband deployment. Perhaps someone in attendance can ask them why it took the better part of a decade to realize we should have accurate broadband penetration data before making policy decisions.
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What do you do when your company once ruled the Internet, but years of incompetence and an inability to adapt to a changing market results in tens of millions of customers defecting? If you’re AOL, you apparently raise prices. AOL is informing dial-up customers that as of July 27, they’ll be raising the price of dial-up service from $9.99 to $11.99 per month. “This plan is still a great value,” an e-mail to customers claims, “saving you at least $3 to $10 per month over comparable plans from other major Internet service providers.”

While AOL still makes $2 billion a year from its dial-up business, they’ve made it clear they want to be an advertising and portal juggernaut instead of a connectivity provider. A price hike simply expedites the already bloody subscriber mass exodus. You can apparently stay at the $10 rate if you don’t call for software support. CNET seems to believe the price hike is a work of genius, disguised as the work of an idiot:

Having not seen AOL make a solid business decision for a better part of the last decade, it seems more likely that Time Warner is simply trying to speed up AOL’s “evolution” from carrier to ad engine in preparation for a sale.
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The New York Times notes that the city’s new $500 million high-speed wireless secure data network can, among other uses, expedite the disposal of dead opossum. The city’s NYCWIN network, built by Northrop Grumman, includes some 400 cellular antennas (see pic) covering 95 percent of the city, with nineteen city agencies developing about 53 unique applications for the UMTS-based network. State Technology Magazine has a bit more detail on the network’s surveillance uses.
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Given that it’s alleged that AT&T funnels absolutely all of your phone and Internet data directly to the NSA without a warrant or oversight, their marketing decision to make light of those worried about privacy in a new ad for online billing has bloggers complaining (see Boing Boing, GigaOM, Consumerist) about poor taste. Honestly it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, though AT&T’s marketing probably should have chosen a different subject to make light of given the national debate.

Besides, I always say that if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got no reason to fear the government shock troops in their shiny black body armor — currently downstairs embedding an HSDPA-supported monitoring chip in junior’s skull.
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RealNetworks today announced that they’ll be offering their library of music without DRM in the MP3 format. The move takes aim at Apple by not only matching Apple’s pricing (US$.99 per song, or $9.99 per album), but by allowing store users to listen to an entire song for free instead of the iTunes method of offering just a thirty-second snippet. Users also submit reports stating that Rhapsody has partnered with Verizon to provide Rhapsody subscriptions to Verizon Wireless customers, though wireless customers will still deal with DRM:

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As demanded by Canadian regulators, last week Bell Canada finally offered “proof” that their decision to throttle the bandwidth they provide wholesalers (without telling them) was necessary because their network was just so congested. As I noted at the time, the only problem was that the “proof” actually shows their network isn’t all that congested, something the majority of our forum regulars (some of whom work in the industry) can attest.

Ars Technica has a nice writeup suggesting that if the data shows anything, it shows that Bell Canada could easily and inexpensively upgrade the network to handle what modest DSLAM congestion exists:

Of course all indications are that this isn’t about congestion at all, but is an anti-competitive move aimed at killing off competing ISPs. If Bell throttles competing wholesalers, nobody can offer a superior, un-throttled competitor to Bell Canada’s Sympatico service — and throttling legit P2P competitors certainly helps Bell’s video store. It makes you wonder how many other claims of congestion armageddon could be laughed off in North America were we to see actual data instead of marketing department and lobbyist hyperbole.
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Canadian consumers are finally getting the iPhone a year later than their friends to the south. However, customers are annoyed by how expensive and restrictive Rogers’ service plan is. Not only must users sign a mandatory three year contract, but for the same $75 AT&T customers pay, Rogers users get a third less calling time, half as many text messages, and a 750MB cap. From a report on Fortune:

iPhone users in the States have traditionally used nearly five times the data consumed by average AT&T subscriber, and double the average smart phone user. The full rate plan is attached, and shows that Rogers users have their choice of 400MB ($60), 750MB, ($75) 1GB ($100) or 2GB ($115) caps. Ah, the benefits of limited competition.

This should surprise nobody given the way Rogers runs their terrestrial network. The operator was one of the first cable operators in North America to implement caps and overage fees (charging as much as $5 per gigabyte), and has a history of throttling both VPN and encrypted network traffic to keep P2P users at bay.
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On the heels of Charter’s decision last week to suspend their use of NebuAD user tracking ad technology, I’m seeing hints that CenturyTel may be doing the same thing. In addition to reworking their privacy page, the company is e-mailing customers who ask to inform them that plans to implement the gear have been “delayed.” Carriers are concerned after Congress showed hints they could be investigating the technology because it potentially violates several Federal wiretap and privacy laws. From an e-mail to a subscriber:

Of course, an employee at one ISP tells me NebuAD is promising ISPs that they’re developing a new opt-out system that is IP-address based. The current cookie-based system only stops targeted ad delivery; it doesn’t opt the user out of browsing tracking (potentially running afoul of three laws). Should NebuAD’s new opt-out mechanism please Congress (something I’m sure lobbyists are already working on), you will see these plans revisited.
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If you like Star Trek and enjoy the occasional bit of liquid refreshment, then this just might be the bottle opener for you. Who would have thought that the shape of the Enterprise could lend itself so marvelously to a simple bottle opener. It looks good, but the price is a tad high considering the fact that it only opens bottles and is just begging to be borrowed and not returned by one of your friends.

Price: About $26 [Firebox via Coolest Gadgets]

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The Jelly Bean Gun is not a whole lot different to any of the endless variety of launchers out there, but I have to say that the idea of launching sweets sky-high is very appealing. It looks like a potentially dangerous project, so if you don’t know what you are doing it is probably best to admire from afar. [Make]

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By Jonathan Kimak

So you want a portable charger for your phone or mp3 player but the solar powered iPod is years away from reality. Instead you could try the Dance Charge.

A company called GotWind worked with music company Orange to create the Dance Charge. Weighing 180 grams the charger wraps around your arm and uses the kinetic energy from your body’s movement to power the battery. You can then plug in your phone or other electronic device to the charger to power it up.

The Dance Charger isn’t available for sale yet, but a prototype is being used at the Glastonbury Festival and will hopefully survive the mosh pit.

When it does come out and you use this and can only charge your phone up to 1 bar of power after a day’s worth of movement, it’s probably a sign that you need to get out of the office more often.

VIA [ Crave.Cnet ]

By Jonathan Kimak

Headphones have always been a good friend of the gamer. They keep the parents, girlfriend, neighbors or pets from ruining a perfect moment by shouting/barking “Turn that damn game down” just as you were about to execute a perfect headshot. Many times you had to sacrifice comfort for functionality or vice-versa. But the AudioFX Pro 5+1 gaming headset hopes to give you everything you need, including comfort.

They do look rather comfy and the 5.1 surround sound is a really nice feature. Bonuses to the design are the included force feedback effect and LED lights on the side that indicate the volume level. It’s a USB headset and has a price tag of $79.94. Be sure to use the mute mic button if you still live at home and you don’t want to be caught on YouTube being chastised by your mom and laughed at by millions of others.

[ eDimensional ] VIA [ Everything USB ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I love my Nikon D70 as much as I did when I first took it out of the box the day it was released. But I have to admit that over the years I’ve become jealous of more recent Nikon DSLR models which feature considerably larger LCD displays. Rumors about the new D700 have got me itching to upgrade, but that’s unfortunately an expensive solution to the problem. If you’re in the same boat but can wait until tomorrow, Uniden will be releasing the UNX-8507 which is basically a 3X magnifying glass you can place over your camera’s LCD display allowing you to get a closer look at the image you just snapped.

The magnifier features a rubber housing which allows it to be placed over the LCD on the back of any digital camera (be it an SLR or a P&S) and also ensures it’s not going to scratch your display. While I don’t necessarily recommend relying on just the LCD preview to proof your shots (a DSLR can provide far more valuable image data with histograms and such) it could be particularly handy for those with poor vision. And like I already mentioned, it should be available tomorrow for about $47.

[ Uniden UNX-8507 Magnifier ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Of course, maybe you’re one of those people who thinks that a high-tech pair of night vision goggles strapped to your head actually makes you look cool. (See previous post.) But not necessarily cool enough to warrant dropping thousands of dollars on a pair, just so you can see who’s knocking over your garbage cans at night. In that case you might be interested in these Eyeclops Night Vision Goggles from Jakks Pacific. While they’re actually designed for kids, they apparently use real infra-red technology to provide up to 50 feet of visibility even in complete darkness. Now I’m sure they don’t perform as well as military-spec night vision gear, but with a supposed price tag of just $79.99 this Fall, who cares?

And seriously, if you thought The Great Office War couldn’t get any more awesome, imagine if all the lights were off and everyone had to play while wearing these.

[ Gearlog - Jakks Eyeclops Night Vision Goggles ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Have you ever wanted the ability to see what’s going on at night, but without looking like a dork because you have a set of night vision goggles strapped to your head? Enter the Infra-Red Personal Night Viewer which seems to do everything your standard set of night vision goggles does, except that it can be carried in your hand.

In order to see the illuminated results the viewer has a built-in 3.5 inch, 500 line resolution display that shows things in black and white, instead of the green hue traditionally associated with night vision gear. Or, you can hook it up to an external monitor via a composite video connection. It has 32 brightness steps so the image an be adjusted based on the ambient light conditions and is powered by 8 AA batteries. (Or a Nickel Metal Hydride battery pack.)

It’s available from Spycatcheronline.co.uk for about $800.

[ DV Infra-Red Personal Night Viewer ]