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Archive for the 'Satellite Phones' Category

Globalstar: Wait for It

Posted by Sam Churchill on January 27th, 2010

Satphone provider Globalstar, anxious to put out some good news amid their failing voice transponders, today displayed the company’s new second-generation satellites nearing completion at the Thales Alenia Space satellite manufacturing facility in Rome, Italy.
Globalstar expects to begin launching its second-generation constellation this summer with the first of four launches (of six satellites [...]

360 Degree Haiti Video

Posted by Sam Churchill on January 22nd, 2010

Immersive Media Company, today announced the availability of 360-degree, interactive, online video footage of the earthquake devastation in Haiti, free of charge to relief agencies. The interactive videos can be seen on the Immersive Media website, with an initial sampling of location sites in Port-au-Prince, and new videos being captured and made available on an [...]

Red Cross: Text Donations $22M

Posted by Sam Churchill on January 19th, 2010

The American Red Cross has received more than $22 million in U.S. text-message donations for Haiti earthquake relief, far outpacing the charity’s previous record of $400,000 for emergency relief using similar technology.
“It’s truly an unprecedented amount for a text campaign,” said American Red Cross spokesman Roger Lowe.
The $22 million is roughly one-fifth of the [...]

Round Two Stimulus: $4.8 Billion for Broadband

Posted by Sam Churchill on January 16th, 2010

On January 15, 2010, both the NTIA and RUS released separate Funding Availability for $4.8 Billion in Broadband Grants (pdf). The agencies announced the rules in two separate Notices that promote each agency’s distinct objectives.

This is the second and final round of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) and the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP).
The [...]

Santa’s Helpers

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 23rd, 2009

An 85-foot-tall blue spruce from Arizona has become the Capitol Christmas Tree. TracktheTree.com, a web portal designed by SkyBitz, provided real-time tracking of the Capitol Christmas Tree Caravan, during its 21-day, 4,167-mile circuitous journey from Arizona to Washington DC.

The technology behind the tracking application is SkyBitz’s GLS210, a small box that contains electronics, antennas and [...]

Robot Crosses Atlantic – Underwater

Posted by Sam Churchill on November 20th, 2009

“Dead Zones” are growing off the West Coast and elsewhere, affecting fisheries and the ecosystem. Dead zones are areas in the ocean that have become so oxygen-starved that most marine animals flee the area or die (webcast).

These low oxygen conditions, commonly called hypoxia, had never been seen in Oregon prior to 2002, but have [...]

ComDev: Global Ship Tracking via Microsat

Posted by Sam Churchill on November 11th, 2009

COM DEV USA, a subsidiary of COM DEV International, today announced that it has been awarded a contract valued in excess of US$7 million to provide passive microwave equipment for a US Government space program. It follows a contract announced last month relating to the third spacecraft in the same program.
Their subsidiary company, exactEarth, offers [...]

T-Mobile: Faster HSPA Now

Posted by Sam Churchill on November 11th, 2009

T-Mobile USA has announced the availability of their webConnect Jet, a 3G-enabled USB mobile broadband modem for laptop users that includes a built-in microSDHC memory card slot.
The 3G webConnect Jet is available free from T-Mobile (with a two-year data plan). T-Mobile’s Unlimited HotSpot WiFi access is also included as part of the company’s data [...]

CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan

Posted by Sam Churchill on October 21st, 2009

Nobody’s innocent in this shit. — Body of Lies

Terry Gross today examines the CIA’s secret drone program in which remotely controlled, unmanned planes target terror suspects in Pakistan and elsewhere. She interviewed Jane Mayer, a political journalist based in Washington, D.C. who wrote about the program in the October 26 issue of the New Yorker.

Unlike [...]

AT&T/TerreStar: Dual-mode Satphone

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 30th, 2009

AT&T has announced a dual-mode satphone that will combine AT&T’s cellular connectivity with Terrestar’s satellite network, using one phone number and one device.

The TerreStar Genus dual-mode smartphone, about the size and shape of a Blackberry, gives users the option to access the TerreStar satellite network when the AT&T cellular wireless network is unavailable.
The dual-mode [...]