Why AT&T desperately needs T-Mobile.

Article first published as AT&T: Desperate and Out of Time? on Technorati.

When AT&T announced it was acquiring T-Mobile In March, 2011, it made quite a few people unhappy. After getting past the grumbling of T-Mobile customers who like T-Mobile, not AT&T, the grousing of Sprint who vehemently objects, and the grumpy media in general., and several other companies hate the takeover.

Most people assume that it's just another mega merger, big AT&T wants to take over a smaller T-Mobile to expand their customer base by almost 60 million to compete with Verizon, etc. Sure, that doesn't hurt, but that isn't the real reason.

The real reason is one simple word:   SPECTRUM.


AT&T has run out of it, they are in very serious trouble, and are desperate for T-Mobile. How desperate? A deal fact sheet says:

“In the event the transaction does not receive regulatory approval satisfactory to AT&T and the transaction does not close, AT&T will be required to pay a breakup fee of $3 (billion), transfer to T-Mobile certain AWS spectrum that is not needed by AT&T for its initial LTE roll out, and provide a roaming agreement to T-Mobile on terms favorable to both parties”.

That's right. AT&T loses $3 Billion, and additional spectrum. 

Think of wireless spectrum like a pipe. If the amount of water you need to flow is more than you can fit through the pipe, you have problems.

Problems for AT&T started with the iPhone. Wireless data / web usage on the AT&T network went up 8000% in 4 years. Unfortunately, unlike other carriers, AT&T has considerably lagged in the expansion and development of their network, (pipe), and they were not prepared for the ravenous data usage of iPhone users. The problem has only gotten worse.

In short, they need more pipe.

It was painfully evident during Apple's 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference. Steve Jobs was embarrassed when the WiFi network he had planned to use as the primary access wasn't working as planned... he then tried using AT&T as a backup option, he got "CANNOT ACTIVATE CELLULAR NETWORK . Steve Jobs has also considered dropping AT&T six times in the past.

Carriers can get more spectrum, (pipe) in 2 ways.

#1. They can buy it from the FCC in bidding auctions with other carriers bidding on it as well. If the carrier wins and gets more spectrum, they then have to pay more money to build out their network with more towers, upgrades, etc. This takes alot of time, and this is one commodity AT&T doesn't have.


#2. You can buy out another carrier (T-Mobile) with a compatible network, and combine network resources. This is what AT&T is trying to do.

By taking over T-Mobile, it gives them the time they need to focus on further expansion of their LTE network.

Please leave comments, I would love to hear from you.

Steampunk Gadgets - Turn Art Deco Into Art Techno

Article first published as Steampunk Gadgets - Turn Art Deco Into Art Techno on Technorati.

What do the movies: Time After Time,  Wild Wild West,  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow, Around The World In 80 Days, Young Sherlock Holmes, and Kate & Leopold have in common?


How about the Gnomes in World Of Warcraft, the most successful MMORPG game ever created, boasting 20 million players worldwide?


They are all
STEAMPUNK THEMED.

Audiences are captivated by the unique romance of the steampunk genre, and marvel at the quirky gadgetry. What if you could own real life working gadgets like that?

They do exist, you just have to look. For example:

Looking for a unique cell phone? Ask your carrier if they have this little Steampunk themed little number!

Richard "Doc" Nagy, steampunk contraptor, technical artist, and self proclaimed jackass-of-all-trades, is the genius behind the website Datamancer. He says "I don't just build products. I create heirlooms."

That's an understatement. Just one look at the "New Yorker" keyboard will make you gasp, and you will find yourself staring in amazement at the one of a kind steampunk laptop.

Another website, Gadgetsin has an 8GB steampunk USB Flash Drive with glowing quartz crystal, while another site ETSY sells their version of a 2GB Steampunk copper USB flash drive.


Steampunk goes beyond flash drives. How about a mouse? A Russian "hardware modder" created this one of a kind hand made steampunk mouse.


PopGive has quite unique Steampunk Jewelry.


How about some music? Rock out playing this steampunk themed stratocaster.

Remodeling your home? How about some Steampunk designed switchplates?



What exactly IS "Steampunk"? It's a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; in other words, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne or real technologies like the computer but developed earlier in an alternate history.

Leave comments and feedback, I would love to see your opinions!

Cell Phones Carcinogenic - WHO says so?

Article first published as Cell Phones Carcinogenic - WHO Says So? on Technorati.

The WHO (World Health Organization) has classified radio frequency electromagnetic fields as "possibly" carcinogenic to humans, based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use.


Over the last few years, there has been mounting concern about the possibility of adverse health effects resulting from exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by wireless communication devices. The number of mobile phone subscriptions is estimated at 5 billion globally.

From May 24–31 2011, a Working Group of 31 scientists from 14 countries has been meeting at IARC in Lyon, France, to assess the potential carcinogenic hazards from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.


One similar study of past cell phone use (up to the year 2004), showed a 40% increased risk for gliomas in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10‐year period).

We all love our phones, so let's see if there are things we can do every day that will make it just a bit safer to use. Some are quite obvious, but make sense:

* Keep calls as short as possible. The longer you talk, the more radiation you are absorbing.

* Use a Bluetooth earpiece. While still a radiating wireless device itself, Bluetooth radiation is a miniscule fraction compared to a cell phone. Bluetooth signals only travel a maximum of 35 feet, while cell phone signals have to carry for miles.

* Use a hard wired earpiece. Remember the pre-bluetooth days? It may have been the healthiest way to use a cell phone, and whether we want to admit it or not, the audio quality is better, they are lighter, thinner, less bulky that most bluetooth earpieces... if it wasn't for that darn wire catching on doorknobs and everything else in between.

* Send SMS TXT messages instead. Go ahead and add that unlimited texting package to your plan. Texting is more convenient, you can carry on a conversation in places that would disrupt or annoy others around you, plus you don't have anyone else listening in on your intimacies.


* Buy a phone with the lowest SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) of <0.6 W/kg. All cell phone manufacturers publish the SAR rating for every model phone they produce. Granted, they burry it in the fine print or deep in the specs list, but it is there.

* Don't use a mobile phone in an enclosed space. Places like elevators make the phone work harder to get a signal OUT, thereby causing more radiation into YOU.

* Before making a call, make sure you have good signal strength, for similar reasons, if the signal strength is poor, the phone will be cranking out the highest radiation to maintain the connection.


* Radiation Blockers make it worse. We have all seen these sticky little things you put on your phone to supposedly block the radiation, well even if they DO work, it makes things worse by making the cell phone work harder, put out more radiation to reach the tower, thereby defeating the entire purpose of the radiation blocker.


* Don't hold your phone directly against your head. Try to use your speaker phone if it won't disrupt anyone around you, or hold the phone a little away from your ear. For example, in the Apple iPhone manual, it says:
“when using iPhone near your body for voice calls or for wireless data transmission over a cellular network, keep iPhone at least 15 mm (5/8 inch) away from the body, and only use carrying cases, belt clips, or holders that do not have metal parts and that maintain at least 15 mm (5/8 inch) separation between iPhone and the body."

* It is recommended that individuals who have medical implants, like pacemakers, etc., must keep their cell at least 300mm (11.8") away from the implant.

* When all else fails, use a landline or payphone

I would love to hear your comments.
You can also follow me on Twitter @TheCyberati

The Ghost In The Machine - Microsoft Haunts Android Success

Article first published as The Ghost In The Machine - Microsoft Haunts Android Success on Technorati.

That's a snazzy slick super cool new Android device you have there! Most likely, you chose it because Android is a new open source OS based on Linux, and you wanted some independence from the usual iPhone / Blackberry / Microsoft Windows Phone options. Not so fast.

Microsoft actually has their hand in your pocket. Welcome to "Microsoft Android".

Impossible you say? Android is from Google, and has nothing to do with Microsoft? Just like Voldermort, it seems Microsoft has gone over to the dark side, the "Ghost In The Machine", haunting the success of Android.

For those who aren't well versed about Android, allow me a moment to fill in a few quick details. You see, Android was a relatively new OS. Android is actually a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. Google Inc. purchased the initial developer of the software, Android Inc., in 2005. Android's mobile operating system is based on the Linux kernel. Google and other members of the Open Handset Alliance collaborated on Android's development and release, and the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is tasked with the maintenance and further development of Android. The Android operating system is the world's best-selling Smartphone platform. 

STOP RIGHT THERE. The last sentence above is the only excuse Microsoft needs for an all out attack. In an effort to delay the success of Android, and profit from it at the same time, Microsoft decided to get a "FEE" for every Android device sold.

How is this all even possible? How does a company, any company, up and decide they are going to get a fee? Simple.

Either an Android device manufacturer pay Microsoft a "patent fee", or Microsoft will sue them. Whether valid or not, just the prospect of a massive company like Microsoft with infinitely deep pockets taking you to court... smaller companies simply roll over and pay the fee. That's protection money. Some are saying that this is basically mafia behavior. Can you say Mafiasoft?

Most people have no idea, but behind the curtain, Microsoft actually is making more money from Android than they are on their own Windows Phone OS. Mr. Walter Pritchard, a Citi analyst, revealed that Microsoft extracts a $5 "patent fee" from HTC for every Android device they sell. Microsoft is also suing other Android makers, and is seeking $7.50-$12.50 per device.

Going back to almost since Linux was created, Microsoft has argued that it infringes on Microsoft Intellectual Property, and as a result, Microsoft has often sought, some say bullied, royalties from businesses who base their products on Linux.

Because Microsoft is upping their offensive with Android, there are whispers and rumors that Microsoft and Apple may tussle a bit in new court action as well.

The problem, is that large tech companies, such as Microsoft, have purposely vague, huge patent portfolios. This vagueness overlaps with some other large company's vague portfolio, and BAM. You have the decision to go to court, threaten to go to court, or... extract a fee and label it "licensing fee" or "patent fee".


As an Android device owner, I can just hear you now...
"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."


I would love to know what you think.
Please leave comments and share this post with your friends.

You can always find me on Twitter @TheCyberati

Medical CyberBots May Be Crawling Around Inside You.

Article first published as Medical CyberBots May Be Crawling Around Inside You on Technorati.

It may sound like something straight out of The Matrix, but advances in robotic miniaturization have made it a reality. It isn't a future concept anymore.
"They're Here!"

Example: Israeli researchers from Technion (Medical Robotics Laboratory at the Israel Institute of Technology) created "ViRob", with a diameter of just 1 millimeter wide, 14mm long, it was designed to crawl through vessles and cavities. It can deliver a dosage of medication to a precise location in the body, or pull a microcatheter deep inside where it would normally not have been able to reach previously.

Photo credit: Medgadget.

Researchers can also use ViRob to deliver drugs in lung cancer patients, as well as take tissue samples from different areas inside the body.

As development progresses, it will be possible to add miniature tongs, video camera, and other extra functions as needed. ViRob is just one of many different types of medical microbots being developed.

Research is under way to make nanobots even smaller, much smaller... down to a MOLECULAR level. The NANOBOT. When this happens, we will have hundreds of medical cyberbots patrolling our bodies, carrying out routine tasks such as scouring the insides of our arteries to remove plaque, all but eliminating heart attacks, atherosclerosis, and much more.

Mollecular bots could assemble other bots while inside the body as needed for specific tasks.


A first wave of molecular bots could detect cancer cells, target them, and remove them before cancer can get started, while a second wave delivers anti-cancer medication to the exact spot where the cancer cells were just targeted and removed.


While this is truly an amazing thing, a benefit to mankind, it also brings with it some very ugly and serious ethical questions...


Who will be able to afford this? Only wealthy individuals, or will the common peasant in a third world country be able to have it as well?

Some doomsayers may go so far to say thing such as: If mankind eliminates cancer and heart attacks, people start living much longer, world population increases beyond any normal conditions, famine and world starvation kick in because we can't produce the quantity and volume of food to feed everyone.


You can always reach me directly on Twitter @TheCyberati. I would love to know what YOU think. Please leave comments, please share this Technorati post with your friends.