Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

DISH Network will be first to bring you* 1080p resolution HD content through broadcast means.  Say goodbye to the 720 garbage you’ve been forced to watch and bask in the 1080p you should have had all along.  Available tomorrow is “I am Legend” video on demand will be in full 1080p.

The asterisk after “you” above means you may not actually be “you”.  According to Electronista:

The upgrade in resolution isn’t available for all subscribers but will be a no-charge addition for anyone who owns an HD DVR capable of playing MPEG-4 video. A software upgrade will be pushed out at the same time as the 1080p service that enables playing the video format, though no mention is made of supporting the HD resolution for recording regular TV shows.

No word on how smooth the image will be or if it’s compression means we’ll be seeing chopped action.  Either way, it is a step in the right direction.

Read [Electronista]

The alleged takeover of the City by the Bay may sound totally rare, but, unfortunately, it has happened before that disgruntled employees take to modern technology as a means for revenge.

City tech employee Terry Childs, allegedly modified the city system so that he was the only one with top level clearances. The city is still in a tizzy trying to regain control of their new fiber optic municipal network that handles everything from the mayor’s email to electronic court records. Childs, who was arrested on Sunday, is still being held on $5 million bail, after allegedly refusing to hand over the passwords. He at first did supply some, but they turned out to be bogus.

It isn’t even clear why he did what he did, although it’s been said that in days leading up to his arrest, his behavior towards his colleagues was becoming erratic. A new security chief had been brought in to oversee the group’s security, and over the past few weeks some evidence of tampering had been found. It was escalated to the police, who in turn brought in their own forensics team to investigate their network.

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AT&T CFO Rick Lindner has let slip a semi-confirmation regarding the arrival of the much anticipated next-generation iPhone.  Widely believed to be announced during Steve Job’s keynote address at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on June 9th, the next iPhone is expected to run on the AT&T’s recently upgraded 3G network.  Lindner’s comments regarding the iPhone indicate that pricing has not yet been determined, which leaves the door open to continued rumors of a subsidized version of the device:

“There’s not been a product announcement. There hasn’t been any pricing decision made. That’s yet to come,” he [Lindner] said.

Other popular smartphone devices, including RIM’s Blackberry devices and the Motorola Q are offered on all major networks at reduced prices, in exchange for a long term contract commitment.  Rather than profiting from the device sale, the carrier added packages or services to the plan, including data access and MMS messaging, to recoup the cost of the handset.  At its introduction, the iPhone bucked this convention by offering a full price handset and cheaper, unlimited data packages, a condition set by Apple. 

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Western Digital has just unleashed their My DVR Expander external hard drive.  This WD drive is certified to work as an external storage device for Dish Network DVRs.

The hard drive line sports 500GB of storage, which in TV terms, is 300 hours of standard definition content and 60 hours of high definition content.  The drive will definitely work with the Dish set top boxes.  However, on top of the device’s $149.99 price, you will have to pay a fee to activate the USB port on your set top box.

Western Digital is hoping to expand the compatibility of such external drivers to other TV providers.

Via [CrunchGear]

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sealed separate agreements with Verizon and AT&T for a combined contract price of $970.5 million.

Under the Department’s agreement with Verizon, Internet protocol (IP), security services and emergency communications services will be provided by Verizon to the Department of Homeland Security. This would greatly help the Department’s response time in a disaster situation. The deal would enable Verizon to assist the 22 agencies of the Department to combine their IP network.

This deal would add up to the previously won 10-year, $20 billion contract won by Verizon which would provide a full range of telecommunications and related network services to the whole organization of the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, the deal with AT&T calls for the company serving as the secondary network service provider in the Eastern and Western region of the U.S. Their deal will cost the Department of Homeland Security around $292 million.

Read [Reuters]

AT&T is currently working on a plan that will make their 3G wireless customers very happy. The recent announcement was a little but of a teaser, but one that should be worth the wait, as they are promising increased speed on their 3G network, offering up to 20Mbps by 2009.

Assuming the goal comes to light, this would mean the speeds would be about five times faster than what users are experiencing today. The plan would involve AT&T making the move to HSPA release 7 and according to statements from AT&T mobility chief Ralph de la Vega, this would require little hardware modifications and should make a smooth transition. Here’s hoping it all works out as planned, with potential 20Mbps speeds, mobile TV and over-the-air downloads may actually become enjoyable.

Via [Treo Central]

Sometimes a good partnership will come to an end, no matter how strong and stable your company is, it will tend to suffer some major setbacks no matter how you try to avoid it. Take the case of the recent falling out between Qwest and Sprint Mobile. After rescuing Qwest a few years ago when it folded up its cell phone services, Sprint is now about to lose one of its major outlets for its cell phone services. Ironically, Qwest will be turning to one of Sprint’s competitors, Verizon Wireless for its mobile services needs. But that’s just the way business works, right?

Anyway, with the new agreement, Qwest customers will have the option to either purchase Verizon’s full mobile services as a bundle with Qwest’s landline services or separately. Existing Qwest subscribers of Sprint’s mobile services will have until February to enjoy the Sprint-Qwest services, after which they will be given the option to migrate to the new Qwest-Verizon mobile service partnership. Both Sprint and Verizon use the same CDMA infrastructure so migration would not be a problem at all. But users who are interested with the new Verizon service can opt to subscribe even before February.

Read [Reuters]

A new HP iPAQ smartphone has just received the FCC kiss of approval, and we find that might actually be a member of the HP iPAQ 900 smartphone series, to be called HP iPAQ 910 for the AT&T network.

Now while this new smartphone has a slightly intimidating facade, not to mention that it’s colored in an aggressive black, it’s interesting to note that this phone is not just about business. It’s also about the other, equally important things in your life that make you happier, like a built-in GPS system, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Quadband GSM connectivity and support for expandable micro SDHC cards. And take a look at that screen. That’s 2.5 inches of QVGA real estate for you right there, so you can make the most of framing for the built-in 3-megapixel camera.

Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional reinforces this device’s status as a business machine, while a Marvell PXA270 420MHz processor can be found powering it under the hood. As of this time’s writing, this item is not yet available for release yet. So stay tuned for the latest as we update you with info as they become available.

Via [SlashPhone]

Add this one to the rumor mill: T-Mobile will be getting its first 3G networks up and running by May, and will roll out UMTS network support for other markets shortly thereafter. On top of the list of markets that will be getting 3G network support is New York, while Phoenix barely makes it at 27th. But this is not about the numbers. If this rumor holds true, then a lot of people would be happy - T-Mobile might be able to sell more handsets because it can now offer those that have 3G network support. And customers will have more choices now; if they can afford to upgrade to 3G then why not? You think this has anything to do with the other rumors concerning a June release of a 3G capable internet device, though? It could be.

All in all, we can expect to see T-Mobile’s 3G network to roll out in 27 markets. The list:

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I have often passed a parcel of property that I’d love to buy knowing that sometime or another it would be a great investment. Immediate timing is not always right for an acquisition but down the road it could be perfect. This is just the position that Dish Network has found itself in. Was it by chance or was it a calculated bet? 

Recently, blocks of wireless airwaves came up for auction since the analog TV will soon go all digital. In a surprising turn of events Dish Network partnered with Frontier Wireless won a block of one-way communication licenses. 

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