Newegg terminates supplier relationship over counterfeit Core i7 CPUs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading PowerHouse eMonitor lets you manage power use down to the circuit

PowerHouse eMonitor lets you manage power use down to the circuit originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Members of MIT's Bits and Atoms lab visited Afghanistan some time ago. While there, they showed locals how to turn pieces of board, wire, a plastic tub and some cans into reflectors for a wireless network. The result? Fab Fi.

The project resulted in 25 simultaneous live nodes being up in the city of Jalalabad and residents being able to enjoy a stable connection all over the place. Locals are even expanding the network by adding more reflectors and routers. There are some difficulties in actually obtaining the routers though, but the MIT crew—now dubbed the Jalalabad Fab Lab—are helping resolve those by shipping routers over.

On the surface this is a tale of some clever University MacGyvers, a small place in Afghanistan, and a makeshift Wi-Fi network, but the greater idea is that people came together to provide a new method of communication to an area where Skype calls and quick Google searches weren't a common luxury. Sure, now the area is exposed to time wasters and Internet porn, but it's also been provided some new opportunities to learn and explore. [Free Range International via Futurismic via Boing Boing]

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As someone who’s followed the wireless industry closely for years, one of the most interesting announcements to come out of the iPad keynote were the wireless plans. The wireless industry in the U.S. has been one of the least consumer-friendly industries for years (just consider the fact that consumers regularly pay as much as $1,000 per megabyte for text messages). There has been a slow change in how the wireless industry prices data, however, and the iPad’s data plans with AT&T highlight this.

This change first drew my attention when the Kindle was originally released with unlimited data access built into the price. This was a sea change in how cellular data is sold, as the cost basically became transparent for the customer. That’s not to say the customer isn’t paying for it, you are, but there’s no monthly line item that you are aware of. Now, the Kindle, and other e-book readers that offer similar services, are something of an extreme example because of the very small amount of data that’s actually used to send a book to the device. The iPad, however, shows that this isn’t an isolated incident.

Let’s take a close look at the iPad’s mobile data plans. For $15 per month you get 250MB of data transfer and free usage of AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspot network. For twice that amount you get “unlimited” data (read 5GB per month as is standard in the wireless industry) plus access to AT&T’s WiFi network. Despite what many are saying, that $15 plan is actually a pretty good deal for many people. For example, I’m a heavy iPhone user, so the first thing I do every morning is pull out my iPhone and check my RSS feeds. I have it in my hand and am usually accessing the Internet for hours every day. Despite that, I regularly use less than 200MB of data each month. This is possible because I, like most people, have access to high-speed WiFi networks at home and work, where I spend most of my time.

Throw in the free access to AT&T Wi-Fi networks and I imagine that most users can get away with that 250MB of use per month without too much trouble. That means that for the first time people can get everywhere access to almost the entire Internet for the same price that dial-up cost a few years ago. Of course for tech geeks like us we’re going to be afraid that we’ll blow past that 250MB pretty quick and probably spring for the $30 per month plan. Even here, however, we’re getting a pretty great deal compared to the $60 per month that cellular companies regularly charge for unlimited data for your computer, even dinky little computers like netbooks.

Perhaps even more important, however, is the fact that these data plans are available on a prepaid basis and can be cancelled at any time. Up until now, in order to get the privilege of paying $60 per month for 5GB of data for your netbook you would have to pay a couple hundred dollars for a modem. If you want that modem for free you’re stuck signing a contract for two years. The fact that I can get an iPad with 3G capabilities, and then buy service on a month-to-month basis as necessary is pretty great.

The iPad’s data plans are in fact a major competitive advantage for the device. For other companies to compete effectively in this space they’re going to not only have to put together a device that matches the iPad’s hardware and software experience, but that also matches its connectivity experience. This isn’t going to be easy in the short term, and it’s a clear example of how Apple has been able to leverage its relationship with AT&T to get a pretty great deal for consumers (as long as you don’t live in New York or San Francisco). In the long term you can bet that companies like Verizon, Sprint, HTC and Asus are going to be forced to match or beat the pricing and structure of these plans, and that’s going to be a win for all of us, no matter what device we use.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: • How AT&T Will Deal with iPad Data Traffic • With The iPad, Apple Takes Google To the Mat • Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s iPad Hits Right Notes

F orce10, the networking gear maker founded in 1999, filed for an initial public offering today, as part of a rush of companies seeking to hit the public markets while the window seems open. IPO filings are up more than 900 percent in 2010 according to Renaissance Capital, which tracks the IPO market. Despite its relative youth for an IPO filer this year, Force10 represents not a hot new startup seeking access to the public markets, but a grizzled 11-year-old veteran trudging toward an IPO because it simply has to exit, and no buyers have emerged,

At least 13 venture firms firms have invested more than $205 million in Force10 within the last five years alone. The company is seeking to raise $143.75 million through its offering. But given the amount of time its investors have waited, a history of losses, a complicated balance sheet thanks to a series of transactions, and a slew of larger competitors, Force10’s IPO looks a bit like a shotgun wedding.

Force10 sells telecommunications networking gear as well as 10 gigabit Ethernet gear for the data center. It’s the data center market that’s growing most for Force10, although the opportunity to provide aspects of the core network and backhaul components for telecommunications providers as they switch to all-IP architectures is another mid-term opportunity.

Three years ago, after a $60 million Series F round of funding, Om wondered when Force10 would file to go public. But any company that didn’t make it before the fall of 2008, and was stuck staying private thanks to the economic freeze and the credit crunch. In 2009 it purchased Turin, a maker of wireless backhaul gear. It reported pro forma sales (which combined Force10 and its Turin acquisition) of $199.2 million in 2009 and a loss of $76.3 million.

Force10’s IPO may not reflect the return of the big ticket technology IPO as much as it reflects a lack of buyers for the business and the chance to get an exit while IPOs are possible. Instead of comparing it to Tesla, the electric vehicle maker that recently filed to go public, or Silver Spring, a smart grid startup that is expected to file soon, a better comparison would be Calix, the telecommunications gear maker that has raised a similar amount of money in its long history, and filed late last year. Given that too many hot IPOs can overshadow older candidates, perhaps it’s better for Force10 that popular online businesses such as Yelp or Facebook are holding off on IPOs this year.

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