PATREONItems tagged with ting
As we mentioned yesterday, mobile service providers are in a dogfight for our business and all of a sudden are offering sweet deals left and right. We feel like the prettiest belle at the ball, and more suitors are lining up. Ting is an MVNO using Sprint’s network and offers simple service options and a range of devices that runs from very inexpensive to “ouch”. You can also bring your own device with you when you sign up for the service. Sampling of available devices on Ting In a blog post, Ting’s Michael Goldstein, in as deadpan a style as you can communicate in the written form, said, “Current customers do not need to weigh a move to a new plan. New customers...
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What if you're an up-and-coming mobile carrier, needing to make yourself evident to those who are blitzed with ads from the dominant players? If you're Ting, you create a $100,000 "ETF Payout" fund, and you encourage people to join your network while promising to use some of that fund to pay for their early termination fee. This story is more than a concept; it's true. Starting on 2/1, the Ting $100,000 ETF payoff page will go live. Continuing through the end of the month, Ting will be paying off the early termination fees (ETF) up to $350 per line for anyone that’s ready to ditch their mobile contract and come over to Ting. Ting is a no-contract carrier, so the ETF payment comes in the...
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Well bully for Ting; the MVNO announced its latest product roadmap, and there are lots of goodies coming down the pike. First off, Ting has scored the Samsung Galaxy SIII (pictured below), which it will launch in tandem with its LTE service. Ting uses Sprint’s LTE network, so users will get smoking fast mobile broadband wherever Sprint customers enjoy it, and they can do so on a nicely appointed smartphone. The SIII has a delightfully large 4.8-inch display (1280x720), runs Android 4.0 ICS, and sports a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor, 8MP HD camera, 16GB of storage, and 1GB of RAM under the hood. The phone can also function as a mobile hotspot for up to ten devices and enjoys Samsung’s...
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Does America really need another mobile provider? Perhaps. You may remember the name "Tucows" from early downloading days of the '90s. Now, you'll be familiarizing yourself with a slightly different project of theirs. The company just introduced "Ting," a new mobile service that'll run on Sprint's network and enable yet another option for those seeking a contract-free mobile provider. "What people are forced to put up with from mobile service providers just doesn't make sense. It's too complicated, too opaque, too adversarial, too expensive and frankly too inhuman," said Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows. "We're changing that. Ting is a mobile service that makes sense." Ting has a very different approach...
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AMD is revealing a new technology brand today to highlight some recent advances made in the company's stream and GPU computing initiatives. The new brand is aptly named ATI Stream.ATI Stream is essentially a amalgamation of all of ATI's previous initiatives like Close To Metal (CTM), Compute Abstraction Layer (CAL), and Brook+ (AMD’s modified Brook open source compiler), encompassed under a single brand. The goal, as NVIDIA has done to some degree with CUDA and PhysX, is to not only take ATI Stream mainstream, but to also better serve the enterprise and HPC spaces with easier access and standardized programming tools. ...
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Synopsis: When the new Core i7 processors arrive sometime later this month, pricing for the flagship Core i7 Extreme 965 will be set at $999, the Core i7 940 at $562, and the Core i7 920 at $284. Expect enthusiast-class X58 based motherboards to sell for around $300 give or take a few dollars depending on the number of features. Ultimately, we can't help but be impressed by the new Core i7 processors. The performance, power profile, and overclockability are all very good even at this early stage. Intel clearly has another exceptionally strong product in their line-up that will undoubtedly appeal to PC enthusiasts and multimedia professionals...
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Global Cloud Computing Customers, Partners Leverage Quad-Core AMD Opteron Processors to Increase Business Opportunities, Enhance Service Quality and Deliver Energy-Efficient Solutions- AMD Demonstrates Optimum Cloud Computing Platform at Microsoft PDC 2008 - LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- October 27, 2008 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that it is providing its Quad Core AMD Opteron processor for Windows Azure Compute Service, the cloud service operating system which is featured this week at PDC, as well as its selection as a key processor partner for cloud computing solutions by leading global web-based companies such as STRATO and DAUM Communications. Cloud Computing Environments (CCE) provide an...
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Emblazon this with a big "rumor" label, but according to The Register, Microsoft may be caving into OEMs. As we know, OEMs can offer users of certain versions of Windows Vista a downgrade to XP. For some OEMs, this can mean they will actually downgrade the PC for you, prior to shipment. For others, this means an XP install CD with your shipment.According to The Register, while partners originally had up until January 31 2009 to provide the Windows XP Professional recovery media with machines running Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate, they now have until July 31, 2009. However, this comes to them from an "unnamed reader." In that case, this is even...
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As anyone with a teenager knows, text messaging is quite popular among those in that age range. And a recent Nielsen Mobile survey has concluded that not only has text messaging become the most popular form of communication using a cell phone, the group that texts the mosts (go figure) is in the 13 - 17 year range.The study determined that in the period from Q1 2006 - Q2 2008, the number of monthly calls per user has remained stable, at around 200. But the number of text messages have skyrocketed from 65 per month in Q1 2006 to 357 per month in Q2 2008. And take a look at the distribution of text messages per age group:Average Number of Monthly Calls vs. Text Messages Among...
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IBM Opens Four Cloud Computing Centers to Meet Growing Demand in Emerging MarketsWorld's Largest Network of Cloud Computing Centers Brings Skills Closer to Clients and Opportunities ARMONK, NY - 24 Sep 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today opened four new cloud computing centers in emerging markets. They are in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Bangalore, India; Seoul, Korea; and Hanoi, Vietnam, where there is an increasing demand for Internet-based computing models and skills to help companies compete in highly competitive environments. With previously opened centers in both emerging and mature markets, IBM now has 13 cloud computing centers, the world's largest network of expertise on cloud computing.At a time when...
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Either these hospital workers have a strange fetish or ... well, we actually can't think of an alternative. Two University of New Mexico Hospital employees were fired after it was discovered that they have been posting photos of patients' injuries to MySpace. The workers were using their cell phone cameras. A hospital supervisor received an anonymous tip about them on Tuesday and launched an inquiry. The MySpace page could only be accessed by the employee's MySpace friends, as the profile was set to private, a small measure of comfort. Additionally, the identifying features of the patients were omitted, so no one could be identified --- but neither could the hospital inform any of the victims...
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Do you remember that half a billion dollar Microsoft ad campaign we told you about a couple of months ago, architected to improve the image of Microsoft and Windows Vista? Well, the first two ads in the campaign have hit, and if nothing else, they've got people talking.The first ad featured Jerry Seinfeld stumbling upon Bill Gates shopping in a Shoe Circus store for discount shoes. There's some wacky banter between the two, a few funny moments, and an Easter egg or two (am I the only one that noticed Bill's mugshot on the platinum card?), but basically nothing Microsoft or technology related comes up, except for an off the wall question from Jerry at the very end.The brand new second ad...
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Sony has been dealing with the fallout from overheating batteries for a couple of years now, so it should be used to the fire drills associated with running damage control on overheating products. That practice should come in handy, as the latest hot potato form Sony is an entire line of overheating laptops. In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Sony has issued a voluntary recall of about 73,000 units of its VAIO TZ-series notebooks that were sold in the U.S. between July 2007 and August 2008. The potentially affected models are:VGN-TZ100 seriesVGN-TZ200 seriesVGN-TZ300 seriesVGN-TZ2000 series Today's press release states:"Hazard: Irregularly positioned wires near the...
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You'll probably remember the portent of things to come: New York State's new sales tax on Internet retailers, which went into effect in June. Both Amazon.com and Overstock.com have sued over the tax, in fact, which was written so as to apply "physical presence" to retailers who had affiliates (generally, web sites advertising for the retailer) based in New York. Formerly, only retailers which an actual brick-and-mortar presence in a state were required to collect sales tax. New York legislators went so far as to nickname the new tax the "Amazon tax." The announcement was made to Newegg customers residing in New York in an email on Friday. The email said:Dear Valued Newegg Customer, As a result...
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In the final IDF keynote address on Wednesday, Vice President and General Manager for Software and Solutions at Intel, Renee James, spoke about the "digital revolution" and what sort of opportunities the recent advances in Intel technology will enable. Just as the Pentium processor helped shepherd in multimedia on the PC, multi-core processors are opening the door further for HD and 3D worlds on computers. James stated that all of Intel's platforms will be multi-core by 2010. As an example of the kind of real-world, immersive environment recent processor improvements are enabling, James showed a preview of Ubisoft's FarCry 2, which is due out this November....
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Antec Enters the Mobile Computing MarketCBB Certified Components Enable System Builders to Locally Build a TrulyCustomized LaptopFremont, CA - August 19, 2008 - Antec, Inc., the leading global provider of high-performance components for the gaming, PC Upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today announced that it is launching a new line of standard components for the mobile computing market. These interchangeable components-known as common building blocks and developed according to a common set of specifications initiated by Intel-continue Antec's legacy as a pioneer in standards-based computing components and extend its reach into the fast-growing portable computing market. The announcement marks...
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Starting next month, Intel will start adding its new "Remote Wake" technology into some of its motherboards. Before you yawn, and think "Wake-on-LAN" (WOL), and say "so what"... This ain't your granddaddy’s remote wake. Today, if your home PC goes into sleep mode and then someone tries to call you on your PC-based VoIP service, the call will not go through, because as far as the service is concerned, your PC is off. Intel's about to change that paradigm by allowing VoIP call to wake up sleeping PCs. In fact, it's not just limited to VoIP--it is being applied to remote access, P2P content delivery, and probably a whole bevy of other scenarios that haven't been announced yet. "To reduce consumer...
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It's always amusing to read blog comments and hear just how unpopular Microsoft is. Of course a 90+ percent market share in their core business would seem to indicate a certain level of popularity, but apparently popularity is measured in a different way than simple arithmetic. It really doesn't matter if your average websurfer likes the guy on the left or the guy on the right in the Apple ads, because as we all know, hate is free on the Internet. But it's beginning to cost big companies big bucks to indulge in Microsoft hate in the boardroom. Google hated Microsoft enough to sink a billion dollars into moribund AOL in 2005, likely simply to keep Microsoft from getting any sort of toehold in...
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Practical optical computing is like unicorn hunting to researchers. It promises all sorts of wonderful effects like superfast speeds and less waste heat. But messing about with photons instead of electrons posed challenges that seemed insurmountable, especially the limit on the size of the conduit needed to carry it. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have come up with a way to at least partially overcome this hurdle by compressing light to fit inside spaces formerly thought impossible. Not only would compressed light make possible smaller optical fibers, but it could lead to huge advances in the field of optical computing. Many researchers want to link electronics and optics,...
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IBM Invests Nearly $400 Million on Cloud Computing Centers in U.S. and Japan TOKYO and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC - 01 Aug 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a massive expansion of its cloud computing capabilities, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create two ultra-sophisticated delivery centers that will power the cloud-like computing model that the next era of computing will demand.Revolutionary Data Center in North Carolina IBM will spend $360 million to build its most sophisticated, state-of-the-art data center at its facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. Built from the ground-up with IBM's New Enterprise Data Center design principles, the center will provide...
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Whoah there. That would be news. Santa Clara-based NVIDIA, makers of graphics processors that are near and dear to the heart of computer gamers everywhere, has been making quite a bit of news lately -- most of it bad. On the plus side, they were rumored to be working on a deal with Apple to supply a custom platform using Intel processors. But as we told you here earlier, they've also been stung by a $200 million charge to replace laptop chips that were damaged by packaging material. Now Digitimes is reporting that NVIDIA is planning to stop making chipsets altogether, and concentrate solely on their GPU business. The loss of its chipset business is expected to have a significant impact on Nvidia's...
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VISUAL COMPUTING INDUSTRY LEADERS LINE UP TO SPONSOR NVISION 08Christie, EVGA, HP, Microsoft, and PNY Technologies Head Up Key Sponsorships of First-Ever Visual Computing Mega-Event SANTA CLARA, CA–JULY 22, 2008–NVIDIA today announced the key sponsors for NVISION 08, the premier event for visual computing professionals and enthusiasts. Leading the list of sponsors and key contributors for the conference are Christie Digital Systems, EVGA, HP, Microsoft, and PNY Technologies. NVISION 08 will be held August 25-27, 2008 in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, and will serve as a gathering point to share, learn, and create for this important industry which is redefining all aspects...
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