TechLines will be streamed live right here in this post at midday today. We’re also keeping on eye out for tweets with hashtag #tlines to incorporate comments and questions into the live event. More »
This Thursday at the “Techlines: Email is dead” event, a panel of industry experts will be talking about the future of digital communication. It’s going to be an interesting discussion about exactly what role email has to play in our lives in the future. More »
Yes, your eyes are deceiving you, LG’s not licensed the StarTAC design. Phew. That telescopic antenna doesn’t just harp back to ye olden days though, it also receives a digital TV signal, one of the first US DTV devices. More »
The first thing that stands out about Sprint’s exclusive LG Lotus is it’s shape. Few, if any, flip phones possess a square shape a full QWERTY keyboard in a true clamshell design. The hardware design was inspired by makeup accessories every woman on the planet carries around, but despite its target audience, the Lotus hardware is nice hardware for anyone who make text messages their priority. galleryPost('lotushands', 3, '');
Planning an expedition to the uninhabitable continent soon? Didn’t think so. But still, this biofuel-powered Concept Ice Vehicle is pretty cool, with a prop in the back and three ski feet to ride on; it even has a spiked front foot for braking action and an ice radar for navigation. galleryPost('lotusciv', 3, '');
newVideoPlayer("sQuba_Jalop.flv", 463, 387,"");This is the sQuba, a concept—but very real—car devised by James Bond fanatic Frank Rinderknecht who, when he’s not channelling the spirit of 007′s gadget mentor Q, designs classic concept cars for a living. The amphibious two-seater has been made from a Lotus Elise, with three electric motors replacing the petrol engine—one powers the back wheels, while the other two work the specially designed propellers.
Lotus makes a sexy car on their own, but teaming up with die-cast maker Hot Wheels they’ve really outdone themselves. A 1:5 scale model created for SEMA, one of its most distinctive characteristics is the exposed centre spine which incorporates switches and gear linkages while supporting that massive wing you see sticking out the back. Mostly men want nice cars to attract women and get them sex. This car is so hot it can skip the finding a woman part. [jalopnik and motorauthority] More »
The fat lot of nothing done about Comcast’s alleged-but-shiftily denied P2P blockage has been kicked over by a hot plate of lawsuit action. Filed by Comcast customer John Hart in the most consumer-friendly state around, it hits them for “breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violating the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act.” That’s all legal speak for “Comcast is a lying liar and they suck a lot for misrepresenting their services.”
Comcast maintains it only “delays” traffic and is “not blocking anything,” swearing stuff will get to where it’s going eventually—traffic shaping, which a lot of ISPs do. But according to the AP and EFF, they’re actually forging packets telling both ends of a connection the other side doesn’t want to play, killing it like innocent children on a playground.
Hart’s seeking class-action status for the suit, disclosure of traffic shaping—or blockage, as it were—in ads and a ban on blocking applications. All reasonable, though if goes class action and prevails, it won’t probably won’t look so reasonable to Comcast’s coffers. [Ars Technica, Flickr] More »
The fact that Comcast was caught by the AP blocking BitTorrent last week wasn’t much of a surprise (even if it was a disappointment), but more people have done self-tests and discovered they’re possibly blocking even more application traffic. The EFF found that not just Gnutella—another file sharing app—was being blocked, but Lotus Notes, an app businesses use to share calendars, emails and files over the net had its traffic interfered with as well. It’s fine to piss off a bunch of file sharers, but when Comcast starts making sure that a CTO can’t get the files off his work machine, that’s a different story altogether. Net Neutrality, we need you! [EFF via Ars Technica] More »
