Verizon 4G LTE Announcement – More Cities Now With Coverage

Verizon Wireless has just released a list of more cities and areas that are now covered under their 4G LTE service. It’s nice to see that some of these areas being covered now are mid sized towns. This is a great sign that 4G is not too far off from reaching rural communities and small towns. Keep in mind that some of the cities listed below already had 4G but have been expanded even more.

• Fayetteville / Springdale / Rogers, AR
• Albany, NY
• Tucson, AZ
• Ithaca, NY
• Bakersfield, CA
• Rockland / Westchester, NY
• Salinas / Monterey / Seaside, CA
• Syracuse / Central, NY
• Fort Collins, CO
• Cincinnati, OH
• Washington, DC
• Columbus, OH
• Atlanta, GA
• Altoona, PA
• Tampa, FL
• Johnstown, PA
• Boston, MA
• Memphis, TN
• Worcester, MA
• Ogden, UT
• Baltimore, MD
• Provo, UT
• Lansing, MI
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Omaha, NE

via:bbos

NYPD Creating A Social Media Division

Chances are Twitter and Facebook aren’t the first places you think of when it comes to tracking down criminals. Recognizing that social media plays a key role in our society today, the NYPD has formed a new social media unit to help find criminals based on their online activity.

The new unit will track activity on MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook to try and get the inside scoop on things like troublesome parties, gang activity, or other criminal activity. The hope would be that some of those issues could be stopped before they happen.

According to the NYPD, social media has been key in solving several crimes in the past, where criminals have bragged about committing the crimes online, or have had online fights that have turned into real-world bloodshed.

Social media also played a part in the recent riots in London, with people using the sites to organize as well as to notify police where riots were so they could be stopped.

What do you think about the police having a social media unit? Is it a good idea?

[via NY Daily News]

Apple, RIM win big as ITC reverses earlier decision in Kodak patent case

The International Trade Commission on Thursday reversed an earlier decision in a patent case that could cost camera maker Kodak hundreds of millions of dollars from Apple and RIM. Kodak had filed suit against both firms, claiming that their mobile devices infringed on multiple patents owned by the Rochester, NY-based company. An initial ruling in favor of Kodak was under ITC review, and the commission on Thursday reversed parts of the decision that had previously been ruled in Kodak’s favor. Other parts of the original ruling were sent to be examined by a judge of administrative law, and a final ruling is scheduled to be made on August 30th.

Read

via:BGR

Cablevision increases free Optimum Wi-Fi to 15Mbps across NY/NJ/CT

Cablevision’s Optimum Wi-Fi service, free for subscribers, has been extremely popular in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut tri-state area, giving customers access to fast Wi-Fi from tens of thousands of locations. Today, Cablevision is announcing that the company has bumped up speeds at all Wi-Fi locations to 15Mbps down and 4Mbps up — the same speeds home subscribers get with entry-level Optimum Online service. Over 500,000 people use Optimum’s free Wi-Fi service, and this move makes Optimum’s Wi-Fi faster than any 3G or 4G network, barring Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network, which we’ve seen trump those numbers from time to time. Additionally, Cablevision previously partnered with Time Warner and Comcast to allow customers of all three providers to roam onto all three provider’s Wi-Fi networks, so this change affects Time Warner and Comcast subscribers as well which is great. The full press release is after the break, and the new download and upload speeds are already available across the tri-state area.

CABLEVISION HITS THE GAS PEDAL ON OPTIMUM WIFI – NOW DELIVERING UP TO 15 MBPS DOWNSTREAM AND 4 MBPS UPSTREAM OVER NATION’S LARGEST AND MOST ADVANCED WIFI NETWORK

Downstream Speed Of Optimum WiFi Now Matches Company’s Flagship Residential Service, And Far Exceeds 3G and 4G Cellular Networks

BETHPAGE, NY, June 14, 2011 – Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) today announced that it had significantly increased the speed of its Optimum WiFi network, which spans tens of thousands of outdoor access points and thousands of indoor locations across the New York metropolitan area. Optimum WiFi, available to the company’s Optimum Online high-speed Internet customers at no additional charge, now delivers up to 15 megabits-per-second (Mbps) downstream and up to 4 Mbps upstream, matching the downstream speed of its flagship wired high-speed Internet service, and far exceeding the network’s previous speeds of up to 3 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream. Optimum WiFi is dramatically faster than cellular data over 3G and 4G networks, and more than three times as fast as the nation’s average residential wired broadband service.

“This is a huge enhancement for our customers and a significant step forward for mobile online access. With this increase, Optimum WiFi not only blows away 3G and 4G cellular data speeds, it’s three times faster than the average wired residential broadband service across the country,” said Kevin Curran, Cablevision’s senior vice president of wireless product management. “With awareness and usage continuing to increase, we think this is the perfect time to hit the gas pedal on Optimum WiFi and deliver unbeatable speed on the nation’s largest and most advanced WiFi network, by geographic coverage.”

“This new higher speed Optimum WiFi is like 4G on steroids,” commented Berge Ayvazian, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading. “It offers a better mobile Internet experience to consumers

and mobile professionals virtually anywhere in Cablevision’s market who have become increasingly dependent on and enabled by wireless broadband to access their media content, multi-player gaming and business applications in the cloud.”

More than 500,000 Optimum Online high-speed Internet customers have already accessed the Internet when away from their home or small business connections over Optimum WiFi. The Optimum WiFi network spans tens of thousands of access points focused on high-traffic outdoor locations like downtown areas, commuter rail platforms and parking lots and parks. Additionally, in partnership with Optimum Business, Cablevision has activated WiFi access points inside more than 7,000 businesses that subscribe to the company’s high-speed Internet and phone services as a free value-added enhancement benefiting both the businesses and their customers.

Top outdoor usage areas for Optimum WiFi continue to be downtown areas and commuter rail station parking lots and train platforms. Cablevision has submitted formal proposals to both the MTA and NJ Transit, in response to Requests for Proposals, to extend Optimum WiFi access to commuter trains across the New York Metropolitan Area as well. Top indoor locations wired in partnership with Optimum Business are restaurants and health clubs. Cablevision has also expanded the reach of its own WiFi network by interconnecting with WiFi deployments by other cable providers Comcast and Time Warner Cable, so customers of all three companies can roam freely across these three distinct WiFi networks and enjoy a superior mobile data experience.

More information on Optimum WiFi, including detailed coverage maps, is available at http://www.optimumwifi.com.

via:BGR

NYTimes David Pogue Pokes Fun at the PlayBook (video)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=100000000775221&playerType=embed

Ahhh David Pogue. I don’t know whether I should kiss you or kick your ass for this one. I guess we’ll see what happens the next time we meet. Check out the video above for a little NY Times video skit which shows off the BlackBerry PlayBook hardware, and points out some of its awesome features as well as its current shortcomings, which I hlghlighted in our BlackBerry PlayBook Reviews. Be sure to sound off in the comments on this one!

via:cb

T-Mobile and AT&T to Finally Offer Wireless Reception in NY City Subways

Back in August we reported that Transit Wireless LLC with help from Broadcast Australia  investment in the company was back on track to deliver wireless coverage to NY City subways. Now according to an article by BusinessWeek T-Mobile USA and AT&T have signed a 10 year agreement with Transit Wireless that will give them access to their network being built in the NY City Underground Subways.  This will give T-Mobile and AT&T customer access to cellular reception underground.  The agreement has not been made official but according to their source the agreement may be announced in the next few days.

Source: Intomobile

The Associated Press Releases A News BlackBerry APP

Today the associated press released two new BlackBerry news apps for the BlackBerry. One of the Applications is called AP Movil America Latina, and the second app is the AP Mobile world edition. Now users can enjoy their news content in more languages. To download the application simply search for AP on App world.

For AP Mobile En Español click here[qrcode pix=150]http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/896[/qrcode]

For AP Mobile world edition click here[qrcode pix=150]http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/895[/qrcode]

Features:

• Configure Categories: Users can pre-select and organize news categories for quick and easy access.
• Set Local Preferences: Users can select one or multiple locations by zip code and get news from their local trusted source
• Ranked Stories: Users can view stories by the most highly rated
• Send to a Friend: Users can text or e-mail a story or image to a friend
• Send to Facebook: Users can post stories to their Facebook page to facilitate discussion
• Save Stories: Users can save stories to read later in the dedicated ‘Saved Stories’ category.
• Read Offline: Users can read stories offline, without depending on a network connection.

Press Release below:

The Associated Press Expands Audience with New Mobile News Applications for BlackBerry Smart Phones

New “Super Apps” Localize Coverage for Worldwide Users by Tailoring News and Language to Region

New York, NY, Sept. 28, 2010 – The Associated Press, the world’s leading source of news and information, today launched two new mobile “Super Apps” for BlackBerry® smart phones – AP Móvil América Latina, bringing users global news in multiple languages around the world, and a new version of AP Mobile, world edition. Both apps are available for free on BlackBerry App World™ (www.blackberry.com/appworld ).