Comment Re:Does anyone care either way? (Score 1) 134
The stations that switched to digital eliminated RDS to make room for HD2/HD3 subchannels.
Maybe some, but certainly not all of them. WBEZ Chicago kept its RDS when it added HD.
Comment Motorola F3 (Score 1) 519
It's $25 unsubsidized retail. Pop in your SIM and go.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875209145
Comment Re:It's all FUD by a researcher trying to get noti (Score 1) 260
The ONLY wireless OEM hack I have ever seen is the one where you blast mp3 files to bluetooth devices with the codes set to 0000 or 1234.. and that was to a BMW. Unfortunately it did not allow me to take control and steer the car or control the brakes. It did allow us to play audi adverts to the guy.
Where'd you find a BMW with factory A2DP?
Comment It's called "renter's insurance" (Score 1) 825
Get renter's insurance. Seriously. I don't think I ever had a policy priced at more than $100/year. If you also have a reasonably late-model car you can usually get a "multi-policy discount" that's greater than the cost of the renter's policy.
Surveillance equipment is just something else to be stolen if there's a breakin.
Comment Re:Phones which can not make phone calls (Score 1) 274
"dumb"phone defects are sometimes dealt with over-the-air, or the user brings the phone back into the store to re-flash or exchange it for an updated model. Returned phones are re-flashed in a distribution center and sent back to stores for exchange as refurbished models.
It's *very* rare that a phone cannot be reflashed at all - Not only would the hardware is scrap if a software defect is found, but each and every phone would have to be contracted for a specific carrier and market before it's manufactured. When was the last time you saw a model of phone that was 100% identical between two carriers?
Comment Re:A movie comes to mind. (Score 4, Informative) 274
The reason they could find your location before GPS was a thing called triangulation. They could (and still can on phones without GPS) check your signal strength to various towers to figure out where you are because they know the geographic location of all the towers.
Your description is correct, but that's not triangulation, it's trilateration. From signal strength one can derive a distance but not a direction. The technique is drawing circles of to see where they meet, rather than drawing lines to see where they cross.
Civilization V To Use Steamworks 295
sopssa writes "2K Games today announced that Civilization V will be using Steamworks for online matchmaking, automated updates, downloadable content and DRM for the game. Steam's Civ V store page is also available now, revealing some new information about the game. There will be an 'In-Game Community Hub' for online matchmaking, communication, and for sharing scenarios between players. While including Steamworks might put some people off, it might also indicate better online gameplay than in the previous Civilization games, where it was almost impossible to have a good game without playing with just friends."
Comment Re:Not Quite (Score 3, Insightful) 853
Sorry buddy, but that relationship is commercial. Therefore any announcements of that relationship is an advert.
Wow. Here in the land of normal people, we *welcome* the announcement of these commercial relationships. It's called "full disclosure". Would you rather *not* know who a commentator is taking money from?
Comment Re:Not ground level, but not not too high (Score 5, Funny) 467
Damn straight. Preferably with a drink and a patio umbrella.
Comment Re:So (Score 1) 284
Again, last time I looked into it AT&T would detect the smart phone on their network regardless of whether it was bought separately and add the $30/month data plan to your bill for you.
I've had various unlocked smartphones on AT&T's $20 featurephone data plan for three years now. Smartphone "detection" is a myth.
Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Comment Re:why devote the love... (Score 2, Interesting) 708
As an aside who thinks Avatar looks like dances with wolves(only with blue aliens)?
James Cameron, for one
Comment Re:Free market (Score 2, Interesting) 555
AT&T enforces tethering fees on WinMo by locking the "internet sharing" app to use a different GPRS APN than the phone itself uses. No extra $, no access to the magic APN, no tethering. Of course, if you buy an unlocked (ie unbranded retail, not SIM-unlocked AT&T) WinMo phone, you can just configure internet sharing to use the usual APN, and everything is hunky dory.
With Droid I'd imagine it'll be easier. There are already several tethering solutions for G1 that should work just as well for Droid.
Comment Re:they could still do it if they wanted (Score 1) 745
You know, I've carried a Windows Mobile phone for two years and never once used copy/paste.
Comment Re:To be, or not to be (Score 1) 495
The ability to make anonymous phone calls shouldn't be seen as such an evil.
The way to make anonymous cellular phone calls is to pay cash up-front for a SIM, not to bypass the network's billing system. Anonymity is hardly an excuse for theft of services.
