13May / 2014

The Bizarre Failed Weapons That Led to the Stun Gun

Stun guns themselves certainly aren’t perfect solutions to the problem crowd control. But compared to what came before it, the modern stun gun seems downright civil.

iPhone tops JD Power satisfaction survey

The iPhone has once again received high marks on J.D. Power’s 2014 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Satisfaction Survey, getting the highest satisfaction rankings of any device at the four major U.S. carriers. Both Apple and chief rival Samsung were ranked “Among the Best” at Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, and were well above the average ranking at three out of the four.

Price is becoming an increasingly important factor when purchasing a device. More than one-fifth of smartphone owners now say that price is main reason they chose their current device. However, customers reported lower levels of satisfaction with devices purchased for their lower price, and were less likely to purchase from that manufacturer again than if they had purchased the device for product-related reasons, like operating system.

What was your main factor in picking up an iPhone? Are you likely to stick with it the next time you buy a phone? Let us know below in the comments.

Source: J.D. Power

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/FSUaPHVV0ws/story01.htm
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05May / 2014

How Location Scouts Find The Places That Look Like Somewhere Else

For filmmakers, Los Angeles is basically infinite. It is a mega-city that contains every other city within it—indeed, seemingly every other Earthly landscape is hidden somewhere in plain sight—whether it’s a street that looks like Manhattan or a county park that literally looks like another world. In Los Angeles, something as simple as an empty parking lot can be transformed into a virtual window, a portal or gate through which film or TV crews can pull distant visions of another location. Around that corner could be Chicago, London, or even Seoul.

Verizon pushes FCC to reconsider restrictions on upcoming spectrum auction

Verizon isn’t taking too kindly to proposed regulations on an upcoming spectrum auction, and is hoping the FCC will change its ways before the sale opens next year. The auction, which will have extremely valuable 600MHz spectrum up for grabs in mid-2015, is expected to have restrictions imposed on it to limit big players like Verizon and AT&T from taking it all for themselves.

The FCC is proposing that the auction have rules that will limit any one company from picking up more than a third of the spectrum available in any given market. The goal is to open up the doors for smaller players like T-Mobile, Sprint and regional carriers to pick up the much-needed low-band spectrum, which is usually unobtainable because of the high bids larger carriers can put in.

Verizon has spoke to members of the FCC this week to express its displeasure with the potential rules, saying that it’s putting unfair restrictions on larger carriers, even though the likes of Sprint and T-Mobile have the means to place large bids for spectrum:

“T-Mobile and Sprint are large corporations with established, well-financed corporate parents. They and their parent corporations are more than capable of paying substantial amounts to acquire spectrum in the incentive auction if they choose to do so.”

Verizon claims that Sprint and T-Mobile, owned by SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom, respectively, could easily pay what Verizon and AT&T have for these airwaves. Though the FCC’s goal is to distribute some of the low-band spectrum to smaller carriers, it also has to consider the fact that it needs to raise at least $7 billion in the auction to pay the broadcast companies that are giving up the spectrum. An auction without Verizon or AT&T may drastically limit the amount of money raised by the auction, even though it is putting up 30MHz of spectrum for grabs.

Source: Reuters