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Telstra Shows Off 21Mbps eHSPA Modem On NextG Network
Posted by Nick Broughall at 1:30 PM on November 6, 2008
Telstra's been talking up their NextG network for some time as the world's fastest, and for good reason. At 14.4Mbps, it currently is the world's fastest, although there aren't a lot of devices on the market that take advantage of that speed (most HSDPA phones and modems run at 7.2Mbps).
But, at the company's annual Investor Day briefing today, they unveiled a new modem produced in conjunction with Qualcomm, Ericsson and Sierra Wireless, to blow the current network's 14.4Mbps speeds out of the water. The new modem will be capable of 21Mbps, which is the speed Telstra will be taking its NextG network to early next year, with trials starting next month.
The technology, called enhanced HSPA (or eHSPA), will not only offer much faster speeds than are currently available, but will also improve network efficiency and offer increased capacity for all the consumers that will flock trickle over to NextG.
Of course, knowing Telstra, when they do launch this super-fast modem, they'll also price it beyond the reach of us mere mortals. But still, for wireless internet that covers most of Australia and offers near ADSL2+ speeds, you'd expect to pay a premium of some kind, wouldn't you?
[Telstra]
Near-instantaneous porn downloads will soon be possible in Japan thanks to a speedy new, widely available, fibre-optic service from ISP KDDI. The service will offer upload and download speeds (each way) of up to one gigabit per second. The service goes online October 1 for single family homes and low-rise apartment buildings for about $US56 a month, and will be considerably higher than the current 100 megabits per second norm most Japanese citizens already enjoy today. If the outcome of the 2008 election doesn't get me to move to another country, these currently untouchable download speeds just might. [
The Department of Homeland Security's been researching a sensor system that tries to predict "hostile thoughts" in people remotely for a while, but it's just spoken up about developments and renamed the system "Future Attribute Screening Technologies," FAST, which sounds really non-intimidating. It was called "Project Hostile Intent." But check out the technology's supposed powers for a re-think on how intimidating it sounds: it remotely checks people's pulse rate, breathing patterns, skin temperature and momentary facial expressions to see if they're up to no good.
So, you have a army-sized stockpile of weapons in your basement for protection against the coming apocalypse. That's good, being prepared is key. But what happens when you are overrun with zombies in the aftermath? They may be slow, but they can still get you in a swarm. That means you need an more efficient way to reload--and the FAST (Fast And Smooth Transition) system can help you do just that. Basically, it is a magazine for your magazines.
The inexorable march of solid-state drive technology continues forward with news from Micron Technology (one of the worlds leading semiconductor suppliers) that they're going to produce SSD's with a read speed of 250MBps. That's more than twice the speed of the drives 
Buffalo's upcoming internal and external BD recorder units can burn both single or double-layer BDs up to a sizzling 8x speed, and DVD ±R up to 16x. Of course Blu-ray technology is going to improve, probably following a similar pattern to DVD burning tech. But here's a funny: these drives use Panasonic SW-5584 units inside... and the speed may actually outstrip the currently fastest 
So, this is what 320 kph looks like on a small scale. And what this RC-controlled car sounds like is a gazillion very angry bees all chasing after Michael Caine. Powered by nitromethane, the car is attached via cable to a pole situated in the middle of a circular track. Round and round the car goes, getting faster and faster, until it reaches 320kph—and the buzz reaches such a pitch that you think the bees are after you. Awesome. [
DOCSIS 3.0 is the 
