Filed under: Computers

As the FCC auctions off an unused spectrum of airwaves, the winner may be forced to provide free wireless internet for most of the country. No date or terms for the auction have been set, but the government’s deal requires that free service on the 25 MHz spectrum reaches at least half the in five years and 95 percent within ten years. The agreement, proposed by FCC chairman Kevin Martin, also stipulates that the bidder must filter out obscene content for allowing the winner to use the remaining portion of the spectrum for commercial purposes.

“We’re hoping there will be increased interest in the proposal; and because this will provide wireless broadband services to more Americans, it is certainly something we want to see,” said FCC spokesman Rob Kenny.

CTIA, the principal trade group for wireless companies, is unenthusiastic about the proposal, taking issue with the provision that the service must be free. Prior to this proposal, there has been little interest in this portion of the spectrum, as wireless carriers preferred the 700MHz airwaves auctioned a few months ago.

A startup company called M2Z previously asked to use the airwaves for free, providing free wireless with a content filter and garnering revenue from advertising that would be shared with the government. The FCC turned M2Z down, saying the company needed to bid against other carriers, but Martin’s proposal is very similar. The next step is a June 12^th meeting where more details are expected to be hammered out. [Source: AP Business and Yahoo! News]

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Filed under: Gaming

N-Raged… see what we did there? Sigh. Anyway, Nokia’s strategy of handset lock-in has its N-Gage subscribers in a fit. Seems somebody didn’t read the EULA and now is upset that they must re-purchase N-Gage titles when they switch Nokia handsets. The terms and conditions do state that, “Content shall be… limited to one private installation on one N-Gage compatible Nokia device only.” Forever. Come on Nokia, we’re all for reading, but purchased games should at least be transferrable to newly purchased, substitute Nokia devices. After all, that’s what you claim for music downloaded from your forthcoming Comes with Music service. Don’t turn N-Gage v2 into another sidetalkin’ fiasco.

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Filed under: Gaming, Robots

Sure, it’s been done before, but that doesn’t make the idea of a robotic arm controlled by a Wiimote any less exciting, especially when the arm is actually responsive. That feat is aided considerably by the fact that this latest setup was developed by an engineer from National Instruments, who made use of some of the company’s LabVIEW hardware and a specially-designed Bluetooth adapter to control the arm at the flick of a wrist (or using the Wiimote’s buttons). Check it out in action in the video after the break — don’t worry, no one gets hurt.

Continue reading Wiimote used to control robotic arm, effectively this time

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Filed under: TV

What we’re watching tonight:

• ABC (720p) has The 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 8 p.m.
• ESPN HD (720p) has Game 6 of Pistons/Celtics at 8:30 p.m.
• CW (1080i) tosses in ‘WWE: Smackdown!‘ at 8 p.m.
• Sci Fi (1080i) has ‘Battlestar Galactica‘ at 10 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has ‘What Not to Wear‘ at 9 p.m. and ‘10 Years Younger‘ at 10 p.m.
• History (1080i) presents ‘Shockwave‘ at 10 p.m.

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There is nothing quite like spending a quiet afternoon on a comfortable chair, surfing on your favorite websites. This makes the Surf Chair very suitable for such activities, allowing you to just laze while enjoying the latest webcomics or movie reviews without a care in the world. The monitor, while not the largest in the world, is suspended in front of the user and can be adjusted to suit your viewing angle. It would have been nice to see some sort of folding tray attached to this workstation, but I guess the designer didn’t want to run the risk of having you spill some drinks on it by accident.

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Filed under: Gaming

Now that we know what Guitar Hero IV’s drums will look like, it seems Activision is saying “We don’t need no stinkin’ replicas!” for the game’s guitar controller design. Spotted in Guitar Hero: World Tour’s debut trailer, the new axe appears to be a black or cherry non-Gibson, non-Fender, non-anything instrument of random design. We’re not surprised, as Activision is surely gun-shy after all those lawsuits and what-not.

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Filed under: Computers

Wired had you covered if you were wondering how to become a Batman-esque superhero with a belt full of fancy gadgets. But what if you wanted to take on a more fanciful and imposing set of powers like those of the sleek metal-suited Iron Man? Well, Berkeley Bionics has started taking orders for prototypes of their Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) exoskeletons.

Berkeley Bionics has spent the last several years developing and working to perfect their exoskeletons, which augment both a person’s lifting strength and endurance. With the HULC device, a person can carry up to 200 pounds without seriously impeding their mobility while using up to 15 percent less oxygen to bear the weight, increasing the length of time a person would be able to haul such a load.

The military is clearly the intended target of the demonstration video, but the technology also has value to the medical community — the exoskeleton may one day help those with mobility disorders escape the confines of a wheelchair. [Source: Berkley Bionics, Via: New Scientist]

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Filed under: Gaming

We’ve still got a few weeks left to see how we’ll do going up against the Nintendo-made workout routines of the Wii Fit, but we can tell you that we’ve had some mixed results early on. We’ll do a full wrap-up later, but for now some initial notes.

We were off to a pretty good start in the first couple of days — but be warned, you do need plenty of space where you intend to work out, especially as you get started in the strength training. We were a little surprised at just how much space was needed at times, so unless you’ve got plenty of it you may end up like us, spending plenty of time shuffling and reshuffling the balance board back and forth.

Players (exercisers?) are rewarded with more reps and new routines as they log hours, and if you’re unfit (like we are) even some of the beginner exercises will undoubtedly reveal all those atrophied muscles (especially the push-ups / side-plank and jackknife routines, which are killers). Wii Fit’s use of a plain, clearly visualized trainer makes learning the exercises — and even the more complicated yoga poses — easy for newbs. More after the break.

Continue reading Wii Fit: feelin’ the burn (part 1)

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Guess here’s more nitty gritty on the Philips X800 after receiving the nod of approval from the almighty FCC. Guess several things are confirmed now, including Chinese character input as well as an English-Chinese dictionary. It does come with EDGE connectivity, but that’s as far as it goes since 3G and Wi-Fi have been ruled out. A 2 megapixel camera, a microSD memory card slot and a 240 x 400 resolution touch screen display rounds off the list of features. If anything, this will probably confirm initial reports of it being released just for the China market. Ah well, all we need to do now is wait for an official announcement.

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Whoa, hard to believe its been three years since the last internationalized version of Engadget launched, but we’re back and have a number of new sites in the pipeline — kicking off with Engadget in Polish!

Why Polish, you ask? Well, besides the fact that we had some amazing talent waiting in the wings to blow it out, it’s also a smaller (dare we say underserved?) market to soft-launch in that allows us to work out the kinks as we prepare to do even more international versions of Engadget in the coming weeks and months.

So if Polish isn’t your bag, just hang tight, you’ll be seeing even more localized Engadgets soon enough. And if it is, head on over and welcome our Polish team to the fold!

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