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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
China to make Shanghai global yuan hub by 2015 (Reuters)
SHANGHAI (Reuters) ? China intends to establish Shanghai as the global centre for yuan trading, clearing and pricing over the next three years as part of broader plans to make the commercial hub an international financial centre by 2020.
The plan for Shanghai's financial innovations through 2015, published jointly by the country's economic planning agency and the Shanghai government on Monday, set goals on a wide range of areas aimed at further developing Shanghai, though some analysts said many of them appeared ambitious.
"This anticipated pace of development looks a bit quick to me," said Frances Cheung, a strategist at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong.
China wants to transform Shanghai into an international financial centre on par with the likes of New York and London by 2020. That goal was set in 2009 by the State Council and analysts have taken it as a broad deadline for liberalizing the currency.
The state economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, outlined a series of goals under the 2015 yuan plan.
These included making the daily yuan mid-point published by the central bank in the onshore yuan market serve as the benchmark for both domestic and foreign yuan trading markets.
Currency traders interpreted the statement partly as a message from Beijing that the yuan's movements, which have increasingly been influenced by the offshore market over the past few months, should be decided by the government.
"There have been recent developments that have put Hong Kong's offshore market in the spotlight from time to time, such as its pricing of the yuan quite differently from the onshore market," said a trader at a European bank in Shanghai.
"In this sense, the NDRC statement is published at a sensitive time and means the government once again wants to emphasize that it has the final say in the value of the yuan."
The plan also aims to make the government-backed Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor) the benchmark for yuan credit everywhere and targeting to more than double the annual non-forex financial market trading volume to 1,000 trillion yuan by 2015.
While the plan lacked details on how China would achieve these targets, analysts were skeptical on the feasibility of some of the planks in the platform.
"Shibor is not even a very well established benchmark onshore," Cheung said. Markets currently use the government's seven-day repurchase rate as the lending benchmark.
Analysts said the NDRC's plan gave no fresh insight into how quickly China would liberalize its capital account, a crucial step in Shanghai's attempt to become a global money hub.
China has taken a series of measures over the past two years to invigorate the offshore yuan market in Hong Kong as part of a longer-term plan to promote the use of the yuan overseas and make it a fully-convertible and international reserve currency along with the U.S. dollar.
Earlier this month, Britain said it was teaming up with its former colony to secure London a top spot as an offshore trading centre for the yuan.
The NDRC's plan would not threaten Hong Kong's current position as the main offshore yuan centre, analysts said.
"Promoting Shanghai as an onshore yuan centre complements Hong Kong's growing role as an offshore yuan center, and should help to strengthen the circle of onshore-offshore yuan flows underpinning the yuan trade settlement process," said Donna H J Kwok, economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.
China will also encourage overseas companies to sell yuan-denominated shares in its domestic stock markets, but the plan did not give a detailed timetable.
Authorities have been discussing launching a so-called "international board" on the Shanghai stock exchange for listing foreign companies' shares, seen as a centerpiece for the 2020 goal, but the city's mayor said this month that the time was not currently right for its launch.
Shanghai will explore M&A opportunities involving overseas stock exchanges to increase its global clout, the NDRC's plan said without elaborating.
(Additional reporting by Zhou Xin in Beijing, Saikat Chatterjee in Hong Kong and Lu Jianxin in Shanghai; Editing by Jason Subler)
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Acer K330
The Acer K330 ($600 street) is one of the first examples of what's rapidly turning into a new category of projectors. Much like most palmtops, it's built around red, green, and blue LEDs and a DLP chip. However, it's bigger and brighter, with a 500 lumen rating, and it offers a claimed WXGA (1,280 by 800) native resolution. It is, in short, a capable business projector. Acer also touts it as a home entertainment projector that you can set up quickly to watch movies or play games and then store away when you're not using it.
If the overall description sounds familiar, it may be because the K330 is so similar to the Optoma ML500 ($650 street, 3.5 stars), another sub-3 pound, 500 lumen projector. When I reviewed the ML500, I pointed out that both the price and brightness were modest by traditional sub-3 pound micro projector standards, and suggested that you could think of it as a budget priced micro projector. With the K330, and other similar projectors on the way, the budget micro projector is looking more and more like a significant category.
Basics
The K330 weighs 2.9 pounds?a bit more than the ML500 but light enough to carry around without a second thought?and it measures 1.8 by 8.6 by 6.6 inches (HWD). It comes with a soft carrying case that's large enough to hold the projector as well as its cables and credit card size remote.
Setup is standard, with the back panel offering a suitable array of connectors, including a VGA port for a computer or component video, an HDMI port for a computer or video source, and a composite video port. In addition, there are two miniplug jacks for AV input and audio out, both an SDcard slot and a USB Type A port for reading files from a memory card or USB memory key, and a mini USB port for connecting to a computer to transfer files to the 2GB internal memory,
The memory options help add to the projector's portability by letting you leave your computer or video source at home. According to Acer, the K330 can read more than 20 file formats, including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel files (up to Office 2010); PDF files; video files (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and 5 other formats); image files (BMP and JPG); and audio files (MP1, WAV, and 7 more).
Brightness and Data Image Quality
The 500 lumen rating may sound anemic compared to lamp-based portable projectors, like the Editors' Choice NEC Display Solutions NP-M300WS ($1,099 direct, 4 stars), with its 3000 lumen rating. However, perception of brightness is logarithmic, so a 500 lumen image looks much more than one sixth as bright as a 3000 lumen image. As a practical matter, the K330 was bright enough to let me run my tests using the 2-meter (78-inch) wide image size I normally use with standard projectors, rather than the smaller images I wind up with when testing palmtops.
The projector also handled our suite of DisplayMate tests reasonably well. As with the ML500, however, I saw scaling artifacts?unwanted extra patterns added to patterned fills, like an area filled with dots?at the claimed native resolution. This simply shouldn't happen.
Scaling artifacts in an LCD or DLP display show up when the display has to add or drop pixels in an image to make it match the number of pixels in the display. The native resolution is supposed to tell you how many pixels are in the display, which also tells you what image resolution you need to use to avoid scaling. As with the ML500, the artifacts suggest that the K330's native resolution isn't 1,280 by 800. When I asked Acer about the artifacts, a company representative said he would check into them, but as of this writing, he has not offered any explanation for them.
Fortunately, the artifacts show only on images with fills of closely spaced dots or lines over a large area, so they won't be an issue for most people for very many images. However, the scaling is also likely responsible for the slight soft focus that I also noticed with text and fine details. On the plus side, the projector did well on most other tests, with suitably neutral grays indicating good color balance, and vibrant, well saturated colors.
One major surprise is that I saw little to no rainbow effect with data images. Rainbow artifacts are a potential issue for any single-chip DLP projector, because of the way the projectors create color. I'm fairly sensitive to the effect, but with the K330, I didn't see it in data images at all. I saw it in video images, but only occasionally and even then fleetingly enough that I might not have recognized them as rainbow artifacts if I weren't so familiar with the rainbow effect. Unless you're even more sensitive to seeing the rainbows than I am, they simply won't be an issue with the K330.
Video Image quality and Other Issues
Image quality for video is best described as usable. It's not something you'd want for a full-scale home theater, but it's appropriate for the kind of casual home use that Acer suggests the projector can be used for. Note, however, that although the K330 claims support for 3D, it's limited to PC-based 3D only.
The one noteworthy issue I saw besides the occasional rainbow was moderate loss of shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas). The projector handled skin tones reasonably well, and I didn't see any motion artifacts, posterization (colors changing suddenly where they should change gradually), or other obvious problems.
It's worth mention also that the 2-watt mono speaker is loud enough to fill a small conference room, which is far better than most small projectors can manage. And don't overlook the savings you get on total cost of ownership with an LED light source. The 20,000 hour lifetime means the LEDs will last the life of the projector, so you won't have to shell out any money for replacement bulbs.
The Acer K330's mix of small size, low weight, brightness, and image quality makes it a more than reasonable pick if you need a highly portable projector. It should also be of particular interest to anyone who tends to avoid DLP projectors because of rainbow artifacts. The scaling artifacts keep it from being an Editors' Choice, but even with that problem it's attractive enough that if you're looking for a small but reasonably bright micro projector, the Acer K330 belongs on your short list.
More Projector Reviews:
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Rough seas shut down cruise ship search, salvage efforts
A 17th body is recovered from the Costa Concordia, but at least 16 more people are missing as weather hampers efforts to remove a half-million gallons of fuel. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports from Isola del Giglio.
By msnbc.com news services
Published 11:55 a.m. ET
GIGLIO, Italy -- Inclement weather on Sunday has shut down search and salvage efforts at the site of the Costa Concordia cruise ship wreck off the island of Giglio near the Tuscan coast.
The ship shifted more than one inch overnight, and rescue divers were pulled from the water and are waiting for better conditions, NBC News has learned.
On Saturday, divers searching the submerged sixth floor deck found a woman?s body ? the 17th body found since the ship ran aground on Jan. 13. Sixteen people are still unaccounted for.
Related: 17th body found on Costa Concordia
Separately, a body found on the ship?s deck on Jan. 28 was identified as Erika Soria Molina, 25, of Peru. Molina was wearing a service uniform, and studied tourism in Peru and was born in the Andean city of Cuzco, southeast of Lima, the Associated Press reported.
High winds and rough seas delayed plans to begin pumping 500,000 gallons of fuel off the Concordia. That effort will likely continue midweek. A barge carrying pumping equipment that was attached to the capsized ship was withdrawn after strong winds and high waves worsened conditions for the divers working on the huge wreck.
DigitalGlobe
The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 15 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.
The operation, aimed at preventing an environmental disaster in the pristine waters off a marine nature reserve, could take up to one month to complete.
On Monday, Costa is expected to present a waste disposal plan, NBC News has learned. Furthermore, the company is considering offers for ship removal. The company is weighing bids and is expected to make its decision -- based on method and costs -- in two months. The removal could take up to 10 months.
The Costa Concordia disaster is expected to trigger the most expensive maritime insurance claim ever, and has set off a legal battle in which U.S. and Italian lawyers are preparing class-action and individual lawsuits against the operator, Costa Cruises.
In a bid to limit the fallout, Costa, a unit of Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise ship operator, has offered the more than 3,000 passengers $14,460 each in compensation on condition they drop any legal action.
Related: Passengers on wrecked ship offered $14,460
The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest, suspected of causing the accident by steering too close to shore, and faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation was complete.
The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, has also been questioned by prosecutors but the company itself has not been implicated in the investigation at this stage.
NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Screen actors get their say in Oscar race (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? After months of talking and weeks of voting, Hollywood's actors finally name their picks for the best performances in the films and TV shows of 2011 at the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.
The SAG honors, which are closely watched in the race for Oscars, follow the Golden Globe, Critics' Choice and other awards given by media watchers, as well as acknowledgements from the U.S. Producers Guild and Directors Guild, which represent their respective professional groups in industry matters.
"The Artist," a romantic tale of a fading actor whose career is eclipsed by the woman he loves just as talkies are putting an end to silent pictures, has won top awards from many of those groups including the Directors Guild on Saturday night and will look to do as well with SAG voters on Sunday.
But "Artist" faces stiff competition from civil rights-era drama "The Help," which comes into Sunday night's awards with more nominations, four, more than any other movie, as well as from George Clooney-starring "The Descendants".
The actors in all three of those movies, along with the performers in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" and the ladies of comedy "Bridesmaids," will compete for the night's top honor, best ensemble cast in a film.
The SAG Awards are a key barometer of which films and actors have a good chance at winning Oscars, the world's top film honors given on February 26 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, because performers make up the largest voting branch of the academy.
In other SAG races, Clooney, playing a father struggling to keep his family together, squares off against Jean Dujardin of "Artist" fame and Brad Pitt for his role as a numbers-crunching baseball executive in "Moneyball." The other two nominees in that category are Demian Bichir in the little seen "A Better Life" and Leonardo DiCaprio for "J. Edgar."
The SAG race for best actress is seen as a tight one among Meryl Streep playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady," Viola Davis as a maid in "The Help" and Michelle Williams for her turn as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn."
Rounding out that category are Glenn Close in a gender-bending role as a butler in "Albert Nobbs" and Tilda Swinton as a troubled mother in dark drama, "We Need to Talk about Kevin."
SAG also hands out awards for best supporting roles in movies, and it honors performances in TV dramas, comedies and mini-series. But because of SAG's importance in the Oscar race, the film categories are most closely followed.
The SAG Awards air on U.S. TV on Sunday night from Los Angeles on cable networks TNT and TBS.
(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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Iowa State stuns No. 5 Kansas, 72-64 (AP)
AMES, Iowa ? Royce White had 18 points and nine rebounds as Iowa State upset fifth-ranked Kansas 72-64 on Saturday, snapping the Jayhawks' winning streak at 10 games.
Melvin Ejim added 15 points for the Cyclones (15-6, 5-3 Big 12), who had lost 13 straight to Kansas since their last victory in 2005.
White, a 39 percent free thrower shooter in Big 12 games, hit a pair to put Iowa State up 64-59 with 1:47 left. Kansas threw the ball away and Chris Babb drained a 3 to give the Cyclones an eight-point lead with 55.6 seconds left.
Tyshawn Taylor led five players in double figures with 16 points for Kansas (17-4, 7-1), which hadn't lost since Dec. 19 against Davidson. Thomas Robinson had 13 points, but he committed five turnovers and the Jayhawks were outrebounded 36-23.
Iowa State students celebrated the biggest win of coach Fred Hoiberg's tenure by storming the floor.
This was Kansas' toughest true road test of the year so far ? and it ended with the Jayhawks' first true road loss of the season.
Kansas caught the Cyclones napping to start the second half and took its biggest lead to that point, 45-39, thanks to an 11-0 run. But big man Anthony Booker brought Iowa State back, sinking a rare 3-pointer to put the Cyclones ahead 50-49 with 12:13 left.
Neither team could get much going over the next 6 minutes, but Tyrus McGee's three-point play gave Iowa State a 56-53 lead with just over 6 minutes left. Robinson then blew an open dunk and White hit two layups ? one a reverse he spun off the glass ? to make it 60-55 Iowa State with 3:42 left.
White also had five assists, and Scott Christopherson finished with 14 points for the Cyclones.
Iowa State fed off the energy of its second sellout crowd of the year and jumped on the Jayhawks early.
Booker drilled a 3 and Babb followed with a steal and layup that put Iowa State ahead 19-11, prompting Kansas coach Bill Self to call timeout.
Kansas finally took a 31-29 lead on an impressive scoop through traffic from Taylor with 3:31 left before the break. Iowa State rallied to grab the halftime advantage, 37-33, despite committing 13 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
The Cyclones led in part because of their defense on Robinson. He was 1-of-6 shooting in the first half and traveled three times trying to free himself up for shots in the paint.
Kansas certainly knew what Iowa State was capable of after the Cyclones threw a scare into the Jayhawks in Lawrence two weeks ago.
Iowa State led at halftime back on Jan. 14 and pushed its lead to as many as 12 points before Kansas stormed back for an 82-73 win. The Cyclones might have been able to pull off that upset had they shot better than 2 of 15 from 3-point range in the second half.
Iowa State didn't let the opportunity pass by this time around ? and it now has a marquee win that will look great on its resume come March.
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Tamron and Kenko bring third-party glass to the Micro Four Thirds bash
The fresh trend of Micro Four Thirds shooters is on the rise, thus it shouldn't come as a surprise that more glass-makers are jumping on the MFT bandwagon. Joining the likes of Panasonic, Olympus and Kodak as part of the Micro Four Thirds Group, is a trifecta of third-party lens manufacturers: Tamron, Kenko Tokina and ASTRODESIGN. Following closely behind rival Sigma, the newcomers are looking to make a dent in the four-thirds universe. Better late than never, right? There's still no sign of these optics being available for you to stack in your camera bag, but the news just came in, so it shouldn't be too long before you can get some extra glass for your shiny new GX1.
Continue reading Tamron and Kenko bring third-party glass to the Micro Four Thirds bash
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Samsung SyncMaster S23A550H
Samsung monitors have long been known for their style and solid image quality, and the SyncMaster S23A550H ($259.99 list) continues the trend. This 23-inch beauty delivers outstanding color quality and great dark grayscale performance, and does so without using much power. However, it only has one digital input and is short on features.
Design and Features
Fans of Samsung's Touch of Color design will appreciate the S23A550H's Rose Black finish, which happens to be the same finish used on the Samsung SyncMaster T220D. The 23-inch 1,920-by-1,080 TN+ panel is framed by reddish black bezels that are covered with clear trim and are slightly curved, giving the monitor a sense of style and preventing it from appearing too box-like. The Samsung logo appears on the lower bezel as well as on the back of the monitor. The 7 pound glossy black cabinet measures 1.5 inches at its thickest point and is supported by a clear round base with piano black trim. The mounting arm provides tilt adjustment, but lacks height and swivel movement. It also has a cover that unsnaps, so you can tuck cables away and keep them out of sight.
Input connections are sparse; you get an HDMI port and a VGA port, and that's it. A secondary HDMI port, like the one on the ViewSonic VX2753mh ($349.99 list, 4 stars), would make it much easier to connect to a gaming box or external Blu-ray player. In keeping with the clutter-free motif, a rounded cover snaps onto the back of the cabinet to hide the cable connectors.
There are six touch sensitive buttons on the right side of the lower bezel. In addition to the power switch, there's a Menu button that launches the on-screen display (OSD) menu, an ECO button that doubles as a navigation button, a brightness button that is also used for menu navigation, an input source/navigation button, and an Auto Adjust button for use with an analog signal. Pressing any button activates on-screen labeling above each button with icons that show you what the button does, making it easy to work your way through the menu system.
Picture settings include Samsung's Magic presets; MagicAngle lets you select one of six viewing angle modes optimized for your viewing position. For example, if you lean way back on your chair to the point where you look up to see the screen you can choose one of the Lean Back modes. There are also modes for standing and viewing from the side, but side angle viewing is already quite good on this monitor. You will get a better picture if you happen to be standing or sitting at an off angle, but the best all-around picture comes with this feature disabled and the monitor positioned for optimal viewing.
MagicBright consists of five presets offering brightness and contrast level settings that are optimized for specific applications. Standard mode gives you the best picture for everyday use and Cinema mode is useful for watching movies in a dimly lit room. Colors in the Game mode are way too oversaturated, and the Dynamic Contrast mode offers automatic brightness and contrast control depending on the content and is a bit sharper than Standard mode. Users can create their own preset using the Custom mode.
When enabled, MagicColor enhances skin tones and punches up colors in Full mode, while Intelligent mode enhances everything except skin tones. Both MagicColor settings produce slightly oversaturated colors and cannot be used when the MagicAngle feature is enabled. You can also tweak Red, Green, and Blue color levels, color temperature, and gamma settings.
The ECO button takes you to a screen with several neat power saving options; there's an ECO Motion Sensor setting that when enabled will put the monitor into power saving mode if no motion is detected. You can choose one of five time intervals (5, 10, 20, 30, or 60 minutes) for the sensor and have the screen turn off or go dim if no motion is detected during the selected time frame. You can also select one of three ECO Saving modes (Off, 75 percent, 50 percent). When set to Off the panel uses only 19 watts of power, which is great for a 23-inch panel, but not quite as good as the 24-inch Lenovo LS2421P Wide ($219.99 direct, 4 stars) (16-watts). Changing the setting to 75 percent knocks power usage down to 18 watts with only a slight decrease in luminance, while the 50 percent setting brings it down to 14 watts with a more noticeable loss of luminance. All things considered, I'd suggest leaving the ECO Saving mode off as this mode offers the best picture and doesn't use much power anyway. Either way, the S23A550H's low power characteristics and useful power-saving options earn it our GreenTech stamp of approval.
Performance
The S23A550H produces inky blacks, which in part helps it to deliver bold, well defined colors. The panel had no trouble displaying every shade of dark gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test, although light grays were a bit washed out at the bright end of the scale. Colors scaled evenly from dark to light on the Color Scales test and there was no noticeable tinting or oversaturation. Small text was sharp and easy to read at 5.3 points (the smallest font on the DisplayMate Scaled Fonts test), and as mentioned above, viewing angle performance was quite good from the sides. There is, however, some color shifting when viewed from the top and bottom angles.
Although the S23A550H lacks the necessary ports to be considered a gaming monitor it does have a speedy 2-millisecond (g-g) pixel response and does a fine job of displaying fast motion sequences. I hooked the monitor up to my PS3 via the HDMI port and fired up the fast action racing game Need for Speed Carbon and did not detect any blurring or ghosting while zipping through the city streets at a high rate of speed. The Cohen Brothers True Grit in HD, streamed via Netflix, looked great on the 23-inch screen, which delivered natural-looking skin tones and crisp colors.
If you're looking for a 23-inch monitor that delivers bold colors and deep blacks, the Samsung SyncMaster S23A550H is right up your alley. You don't get many ports with this model, and its light grayscale performance could be better, but it'll save you a few bucks on your utility bill and bring a touch of style to your desktop. That said, the Editors' Choice Lenovo LS2421p Wide offers equally impressive performance and energy efficiency, comes with a four port USB hub, and gives you a slightly bigger screen. It's around $30 cheaper, too.
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the AOC e1649Fwu with several other monitors side by side.
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Scientists: Haiti, DR may facing big quake period (AP)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti ? Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic could be in for a period of periodic powerful earthquakes, according to a scientific study released Thursday.
The study says Haiti's 7.0-magnitude earthquake two years ago is likely to be the first of several quakes of a similarly powerful magnitude.
The Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake caused widespread damage in the Haitian capital and surrounding cities. Officials say the disaster killed 314,000 people and toppled thousands of crudely built homes.
"The 2010 Haiti earthquake may mark the beginning of a new cycle of large earthquakes on the Enriquillo fault system after 240 years of seismic quiescence," lead author William Bakun of the U.S. Geological Survey wrote. "The entire Enriquillo fault system appears to be seismically active; Haiti and the Dominican Republic should prepare for future devastating earthquakes."
The authors document a series of four major earthquakes of magnitude 6.6 and higher that struck Hispaniola, the Caribbean island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The phase began in 1701, near the site of the 2010 quake, and ended in 1770.
There was no evidence of significant earthquake activity on the Enriquillo fault system in the 240 years from 1770 until the 2010 disaster, except for an earthquake in 1860 that likely occurred offshore, the study said.
The possibility that a newly active period has begun underscores the need for Haiti and the Dominican Republic to focus on building seismic-proof structures, Bakun said.
"Whatever information people have to guide reconstruction efforts in Haiti ... is certainly useful," Bakun said by telephone from Merlo Park, California.
The study appears in the February edition of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
Moderate quakes have struck the Dominican Republic in recent weeks but there were no reports of damage.
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Accused Pentagon shooter Melaku pleads guilty (AP)
ALEXANDRIA, Va. ? An ex-Marine from Virginia pleaded guilty Thursday and has agreed to serve a 25-year prison sentence on charges that he fired a series of overnight pot shots in 2010 at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and other military targets as part of what prosecutors called a campaign to strike fear throughout the region.
Prosecutors also revealed Thursday new details about Yonathan Melaku's intended next target: Arlington National Cemetery, where he was arrested before he was able to carry out a plan to deface gravestones there.
As part of Thursday's plea deal, Melaku, 24, of Alexandria, pleaded guilty to destruction of U.S. property, use of a firearm in an act of violence and intention to injure a veterans' memorial, namely the cemetery. Prosecutors and Melaku's lawyer agreed to a 25-year sentence as part of the deal, and U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said he would agree to the sentence as well.
Formal sentencing was delayed until April so a pre-sentence report can be prepared and Melaku's lawyer can request a mental-health evaluation for his client.
Prosecutors also released a video, made by Melaku, that was part of the evidence in the case, in which Melaku is seen firing shots at the National Museum of the Marine Corps as he drives by from I-95, where the museum is easily visible. In the video, Melaku shouts "God is Great!" in Arabic and talks about targeting the museum and "turning it off permanently."
The overnight shootings in October and November of 2010 twice targeted the Marine Corps museum and once each targeted the Pentagon and military recruiting stations in Woodbridge and Chantilly.
The shootings raised a high level of concerns, prompting authorities to suspect they were related and conducted by an individual with a grievance against the military in general or the Marines specifically.
But the shootings went unsolved until this summer, when Melaku ? a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ethiopia ? was spotted by police on Fort Myer and ran off, leaving a backpack behind. He was later caught and arrested at Arlington National Cemetery. The incident prompted a massive security scare in and around the Pentagon.
In the backpack police found spent shell casings; five pounds of ammonium nitrate, a common material in homemade explosives; two cans of spray paint; and a notebook in Arabic that contained references to Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and the "path to jihad."
Melaku eventually admitted to authorities that he planned to desecrate grave markers in the cemetery by spraying Arabic graffiti on them, and to deliberately leave the ammonium nitrate behind.
Nobody was hurt in any of the incidents, but Melaku has been ordered to make $111,000 in restitution for the damage he caused to the buildings, including the Pentagon.
Though no one was hurt, FBI spokeswoman Jacqueline Maguire called the case serious, and credited investigators for arresting Melaku before he did worse. She noted that a search of Melaku's home produced evidence that Melaku was looking to build a homemade timer.
The defense lawyer, Gregory English, said he has no doubt that his client is legally sane, but said a proper mental-health diagnosis may help his client become a better person while he serves his sentence.
English, himself a former Marine, said after the hearing that his personal experience suggests it's possible that some sort of post-traumatic stress or dispute with the Marines may have triggered Melaku's actions rather than any desire to support al-Qaida or the Taliban.
"The facts of the case and what his parents are saying to me about the young man suggests these actions are totally out of character," English said.
Dana Boente, the top assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which prosecuted the case, said authorities have no evidence that Melaku suffers from any serious mental-health disorders or that his years in the Marine reserves provided a motive for the crime. He said Melaku never served overseas.
Boente called the crimes "a campaign of calculated and sustained attacks against military installations and memorials in northern Virginia."
Melaku did not speak during the hearing, except to answer a series of questions from the judge with a soft-spoken, "Yes, sir" and a final "guilty, sir" to formally enter his plea.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Millions Upon Millions Sold: Apple?s Blowout Quarter Puts Android Partners to Shame
There's no slowing the Apple sales train. The company released its first-quarter earnings results to shareholders on Tuesday, blowing away analyst expectations and beating sales records across multiple categories.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/q0bJanilKio/
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Don't be fooled by good economic news
Unemployment is going down. Consumer debt is going up. Even the housing market is showing signs of improvement. But the US economy is far from recovery mode.
We have a wintry landscape here in Baltimore?or what is left of one. But forget the weather, happy days are here again.
Skip to next paragraph Bill BonnerBill has written two New York Times best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. With political journalist Lila Rajiva, he wrote his third New York Times best-selling book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, which offers concrete advice on how to avoid the public spectacle of modern finance. Since 1999, Bill has been a daily contributor and the driving force behind The Daily Reckoning (dailyreckoning.com).
Recent posts
At least, that is what you might think from reading the newspapers. Unemployment is going down. Consumer debt is going up. Even the housing market is showing signs of improvement.
Gold is rising ? investors seem to think inflationary pressures are building. The 10-year T-note yield is back over 2%. And stocks are having their best January in 15 years?
And now, once again, the commentariat is talking about a ?recovery? from the Great Recession.
But we?ll give it to you straight, dear reader. There wasn?t any Great Recession and there won?t be a recovery. You don?t recover from what ails the US economy. You die. Then, a new economy can be born.
Still, there are many recovery sightings. But so far, the recovery itself remains as elusive as Bigfoot.
Here?s Bloomberg, with more details:
A decline in unemployment and pickup in manufacturing point to accelerating US growth. Some economists say the numbers may not be as good as they look.
One reason: the severity of the economy?s plunge in late 2008 and early 2009 after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed threw a wrench into models used to smooth the data for seasonal changes, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nomura Securities International Inc.
?The impact of the financial crisis does seem to have affected seasonal factors for several indicators,? Andrew Tilton, a senior economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a telephone interview from New York. It ?might tend to make things look a little better in the early winter and look a little worse in the spring time.?
Most economic data are adjusted for seasonal changes to facilitate month-to-month comparisons. Without those changes, for example, construction would always pick up in the summer, when the weather is milder, and decline in the winter.
The adjustment process is unable to distinguish between a one-time shock, like Lehman?s demise, and a recurring issue that would need to be smoothed away. For that reason, the mechanism gives some data a leg up from about September through about March before turning negative the rest of the year.
The economy contracted at an average 7.8 percent annual pace from October 2008 through March 2009, the worst back-to-back quarters in the post World War II era. The 18-month recession ended in June 2009.
The adjustment process ?has been knocked out of whack by the financial crisis,? Ellen Zentner, a senior US economist at Nomura in New York, said in a telephone interview. ?The model ends up adjusting for a growth pattern that isn?t there. The sudden drop-off in economic activity in late 2008 is not a pattern, it doesn?t happen late every year. It was a one-off event.?
In effect, the models are over-compensating?trying to make sense of the big collapse of ?08-?09 by treating it as though it were a seasonal adjustment issue. If the winter weather were so severe as to cause such a big drop-off, the machines reason, we must move the bar lower next year. Then, even a modest improvement will look spectacular.
But Goldman?s economists estimate that unemployment will average 8.5% this year ? almost unchanged from last year. That is not a recovery. And we have to wonder?what will power the ?recovery? analysts believe they seem coming?
Not household spending. Households don?t have any money to spend. What then?
Nothing. There will be no recovery. Instead, the US economy is in the process of zombification and ossification?which is what happens when the feds refuse to allow dead-men industries to die.
Ottmar Issing, of the European Central Bank, is on the case:
?The problem of ?too big to fail? is that it has made society ? more precisely, the taxpayer ? hostage to the survival of individual financial institutions?the taxpayers? billions committed to rescue supposedly systemic institutions has dealt a big blow to confidence in the free market system?and has in turn become a threat to free societies.?
Well, yes. Now, the game is rigged. The fix is in. The zombies are dealt the aces. The rest of us get a bum hand.
But wait?didn?t the US government make a profit from its loans to the banks? Didn?t the banks pay back the money? Didn?t taxpayers come out ahead?
Oh dear reader, please stop?we can?t stop laughing. We?re afraid we might pull a muscle.
Imagine a bartender. He realizes that his customers have been handing out IOUs all over town ? including to him. And he also knows his customers can?t pay. People are beginning to wonder?they?re beginning to discount the IOUs. A crisis is coming?
What does he do? He lends the customers more money and buys the IOUs from the other merchants! Naturally, the value of the IOUs goes back up. Because now, holders know they?ll get their money. Even the value of the IOUs owned by the bartender go up. Wonder of wonders, he has even made a profit on the deal!
Happy days are here again.
Which reminds us of Hemingway?s conversation between Bill Gorton and Mike Campbell.
Bill asks; ?How did you go bankrupt??
Mike answers: ?Two ways. Gradually. Then, suddenly.?
We?re still in the ?gradually? phase. Stay tuned?
Bill Bonner
?for The Daily Reckoning
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on dailyreckoning.com.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/bEsM1MHTuR4/Don-t-be-fooled-by-good-economic-news
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Sprint's move to roaming agreements sends AT&T to angry town
With the Home Market Rule a thing of the past, AT&T suggests this move will merely be the tip of the iceberg for Sprint, as the carrier may now essentially piggyback on the investments of other providers. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is currently set to hear arguments on the matter this spring, and AT&T hopes the Court will "reject the FCC's market intervention." In the meantime, according to Ma Bell, Sprint's actions are, "Nice work, if you can get it." These are fighting words, indeed.
Naturally, Sprint isn't taking these accusations lying down. In response, it states, "It's disappointing, but not surprising, that AT&T wants to challenge a consumer's right to access email, the Internet and other mobile broadband services wherever they may travel in the U.S." Those interested can read the text in its entirety after the break.
Continue reading Sprint's move to roaming agreements sends AT&T to angry town
Sprint's move to roaming agreements sends AT&T to angry town originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/DF-FM2LtNE8/
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Nook Simple Touch gets USB host mode support via hack, plays nice with low-power devices (video)
Nook Simple Touch gets USB host mode support via hack, plays nice with low-power devices (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |XDA Developers | Email this | Comments
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/q_Wjr5piU3g/
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Researchers use lasers to supercool semiconductor membranes, blow your mind
Turns out, when a one millimeter square membrane of gallium arsenide is placed parallel to a mirror in a vacuum chamber and bombarded with a laser beam, an optical resonator is created between them that oscillates the membrane. As the distance between the gallium arsenide and the mirror changes, so do the membrane's oscillations. And, at a certain frequency, the membrane is cooled to minus 269 degrees Celsius -- despite the fact that the membrane itself is being heated by the laser. So, lasers can both heat things up and cool them down simultaneously, and if that confuses you as much as it does us, feel free to dig into the science behind this paradoxical bit of research at the source below. In other news, left is right, up is down, and Eli Manning is a beloved folk hero to all Bostonians.
Researchers use lasers to supercool semiconductor membranes, blow your mind originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkTG Daily | Niels Bohr Institute | Email this | Comments
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/5A1w3KfWQko/
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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Verizon Communications ...
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL ? January 23, 2012 ? Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Verizon Communications ( VZ), Google inc. ( GOOG), Apple Inc. ( AAPL), AT&T Inc. ( T) and Sprint Nextel Corp. ( S).
Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513
Here are highlights from Friday?s Analyst Blog:
Earnings Preview: Verizon
The largest U.S. mobile service provider Verizon Communications ( VZ) is slated to release its fourth quarter and fiscal 2011 earnings on January 24, before the opening bell. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at 54 cents for the fourth quarter, representing a year-over-year decrease of 0.27% while for fiscal 2011 it stands at $2.17, representing a substantial increase of 18.49% from the prior year.
With respect to surprises, Verizon had a 1.27% average positive earnings surprise in the trailing four quarters.
The company did not release any financial forecast for the fourth quarter during its third quarter conference call. Notably, Verizon is expected to add 200,000 subscribers in both FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services for the fourth quarter as it cleared the FiOS installation backlog, which stemmed from the severe storm in the East Coast in September and the 14-day labor strike in August last year.
For fiscal 2011, Verizon expects revenue and earnings per share to grow 4%?8% and 5%?8% year over year, respectively.
Third Quarter Flashback
Verizon?s third quarter adjusted earnings of 56 cents per share matched the Zacks Consensus Estimate and was a penny above the year-ago earnings. The storm in the East Coast and the 14-day labor strike in the Wireline segment enhanced the operating cost by $250 million and hurt profitability in the third quarter.
However, on a GAAP basis, earnings more than doubled on strong smartphone sales. Revenue improved during the quarter and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate on continued strength in the wireless segment. Wireless revenue advanced on the back of strong data revenues and subscriber growth. Rapid expansion of 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) services, strong adoption of Google inc. ( GOOG) Android smartphones and the sale of Apple Inc.'s ( AAPL) iPhone led to the strong upside in wireless subscribers.
Despite the solid momentum for FiOS fiber-optic network, Wireline revenue dipped on lower global wholesale and other businesses. The penetration rate of both FiOS Internet and FiOS TV accelerated to approximately 35% and 31%, respectively.
Agreement of Analysts
Estimates reflect a negative bias for both the fourth quarter and fiscal 2011 over the last 7 and 30 days. For the fourth quarter, 2 and 16 analysts out of 27 made downward revisions in the last 7 and 30 days, respectively. For fiscal 2011, out of the 30 analysts, respective 2 and 18 made downward revisions in the last 7 and 30 days.
None of the analysts made positive revisions for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2011.
The analysts made downward revisions primarily based on the iPhone subsidies, which will likely limit Verizon?s margins and profits in the fourth quarter. Although the fourth quarter iPhone sales more than doubled from the prior quarter, Verizon expects the device to impact wireless gross margin by 500?600 basis points (bps).
The wireless margin is now expected to be in the range of 42% to 43% for the fourth quarter versus 47.8% reported in the third quarter. In addition, the iPhone does not support Verizon?s new high-speed 4G network that uses the LTE technology. Further, Verizon faced a number of failures exiting fiscal 2011. Verizon Wireless had experienced three service outages in its new 4G network last month, denting its reputation for network quality.
Moreover, the analysts believe that persistent access line losses in wireline, competitive pressures from its largest rivals AT&T Inc. ( T) and Sprint Nextel Corp. ( S), high promotional and restructuring expenses would further limit the earnings upside potential.
The analysts believe these negative attributes offsets Verizon?s strong subscriber count and average revenue per user, which is driven by increased penetration of smartphones and iPhones that recorded astounding performance in the U.S. market.
Magnitude ? Consensus Estimate Trend
The magnitude of revisions for fourth quarter remained stable over the last 7 days at 54 cents, but lowered from 56 cents over the last 30 days.
Similarly, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2011 remained static at $2.17 over the last 7 days and was down by 3 cents over the last 30 days.
Neutral Recommendation
We believe Verizon is on track to meet its revenue and earnings targets based on the introduction of new smartphones, tablets and data devices in the Wireless segment as well as continued strong FiOS fiber-optic network and strategic services in the Wireline business. Additionally, the new iPhone 4S, successful integration of Terremark and the recent acquisition of CloudSwitch would boost the company?s growth prospects.
We are currently maintaining our long-term Neutral recommendation on Verizon.
Want more from Zacks Equity Research? Subscribe to the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5515.
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Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.
Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.
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About Zacks
Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978 by Leon Zacks. As a PhD from MIT Len knew he could find patterns in stock market data that would lead to superior investment results. Amongst his many accomplishments was the formation of his proprietary stock picking system; the Zacks Rank, which continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Register for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5518.
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Read the full analyst report on VZ
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Paula Deen Abdicated Personal Responsibility (ContributorNetwork)
COMMENTARY | When Paula Deen, self-proclaimed queen of all food Southern-style, announced Jan. 18 that not only does she have Type 2 diabetes but she is going to be a spokeswoman for the pharmaceutical company that produces the diabetes medication she takes, the public was only partially surprised. After all, the recipes she cheerfully shared with her audience never lacked in calories or cholesterol.
Perhaps to soften the blow that felt a lot like being duped by this woman who so many have cheerfully invited into their homes via television and Deen's cookbooks, she announced she would be donating some of her compensation from her new business partner to the American Diabetes Association, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
There was little surprise the food Deen has touted could lead to the development of Type 2 diabetes. The surprise, as I see it, was she had been diagnosed with the condition three years earlier and not only had not disclosed it but continued without change to promote the high-fat, high-calorie foods and recipes to her audiences.
Susan Levin, dietitian and director of nutrition education with the organization Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, writing for TheProvince.com, finds a kernel of hope in Deen's future and her ability to do right by her viewers by changing the previously heavily meat-and-fat laden recipes with more vegetable and whole grain ingredients. Any positive attention brought to the topic of the association between diet and the development of type 2 diabetes can only bring good things.
But it would have also been helpful if Deen had explained how the food she regales and cooks is part of the reason she developed diabetes. I could hold the woman in some positive esteem if she would explain why she hid her diagnosis until it was financially lucrative to let the cat out of the bag.
Maybe if there weren't three more years of food and recipes touted to her audiences, without any serious caveats or concern for the health of her viewers, maybe then I could feel as if Deen were accepting some personal responsibility for her inactions. As it stands, I can only see a person driven by greed.
Smack dab in the middle of the baby boomer generation, L.L. Woodard is a proud resident of "The Red Man" state. With what he hopes is an everyman's view of life's concerns both in his state and throughout the nation, Woodard presents facts and opinions based on common-sense solutions.
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Air Force launches military satellite into space
A Delta IV rocket lauches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Complex 37 carrying a United Launch Alliance Wideband Global Positioning satellite Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, as seen from the Ocean Club in Port Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Florida Today, Malcolm Denemark)
A Delta IV rocket lauches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Complex 37 carrying a United Launch Alliance Wideband Global Positioning satellite Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, as seen from the Ocean Club in Port Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Florida Today, Malcolm Denemark)
Members of the media photograph the liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. The rocket is carrying another satellite in the Wideband Global SATCOM series for the Department of Defense. (AP Photo/Florida Today, Craig Bailey) NO SALES
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. The rocket is carrying another satellite in the Wideband Global SATCOM series for the Department of Defense. (AP Photo/Florida Today, Craig Bailey) NO SALES
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? The Air Force has sent into space a satellite that is expected to improve communications with military drones in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Officials say a Delta 4 rocket carried the WGS 4 satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:38 p.m. Thursday.
It's the fourth in a series of military satellites that have been put into place since 2007. The next one is expected to be ready to launch next year.
WGS stands for Wideband Global SATCOM. The satellites are replacing aging Defense Satellite Communications System spacecraft and have 10 times the speed and capacity of the older satellites.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Is '5G' mobile broadband just around the corner? IMT-Advanced explained (Digital Trends)
With Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint racing to bring 4G LTE services to customers (and T-Mobile having long marketed its hot-rodded HSPA+ as 4G technology) it might seem the 4G mobile broadband is on the verge of going mainstream. But what if we said these technologies were really just a sort of ?4G Lite,? and the real 4G was just around the corner ? and up to 10 times faster than what mobile operators are touting as 4G today. Would you be interested?
That?s exactly what?s happening. At its meeting this week in Geneva, Switzerland, the International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations agency focused on communications technology, has just approved the specifications for IMT-Advanced.
?IMT-Advanced marks a huge leap forward in state-of-the-art technologies, which will make the present day smart phone feel like an old dial-up Internet connection,?" said ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Tour?, in a statement. ?Access to the Internet, streaming videos, and data transfers anytime, anywhere will be better than most desktop connections today.?
Sound good? We thought so.
What is IMT-Advanced?
IMT stands for ?International Mobile Telecommunications. For the last 25 years or so, the ITU?s IMT standards have helped shape the way mobile services have developed worldwide. IMT-Advanced isn?t a specific technology like HSPA+, WiMax, or LTE?rather, it?s a specification and list of requirements for high-speed mobile broadband service. Communications developers still have to build gear that meets the specs, and they can do that any way they like. Once their technologies have been proven to meet the requirements, they can get the official IMT-Advanced designation. 
Right now two technologies have been found to meet the IMT-Advanced criteria: WirelessMAN-Advanced and and LTE-Advanced. WirelessMAN-Advanced is an evolution of the 802.16e technologies that serve as the basis for today?s WiMax services (WiMax is essentially a friendlier marketing term). As the name implies, LTE-Advanced is a further refinement of existing LTE technology that brings it into full compliance with IMT-Advanced requirements.
Just as with WiMax and LTE today, there will be likely be competing technologies bringing IMT-Advanced capabilities to consumers. Right now, LTE-Advanced would seem to have the upper hand, primarily because the vast majority of wireless operators around the world have worked to standardize on current LTE technologies, and that ought to give them a leg up on moving to LTE-Advanced. However, there are networks ? like Sprint and Clearwire along with others in South Korea, Russia, Belarus, and Nicaragua ? that have chosen to run with WiMax technology.
What will IMT-Advanced bring?
The main benefit of IMT-Advanced will be bandwidth, but we?ll simplify that to speed.Today, most mobile data users rely on 3G technologies, and typical download rates are around 2 Mbit/s downstream, and far less upstream ? something like 200 Kbit/s. Given the right conditions, 3G technology can hit 14.4 Mbit/s downstream and 5.76 Mbit/s upstream. Tweaks to the systems and HPSA+ services like those operated by T-Mobile can push that theoretical limit to 42 Mbit/s downstream ? and T-Mobile hopes to be able to crank that up again to 82 Mbit/s downstream in order to compete with LTE services.
Mobile technologies implementing the IMT-Advanced requirements will blow all those technologies out of the water. IMT-Advanced is to offer a nominal data rate of 100 Mbit/s downstream while moving, even at high speeds relative to a base site. That means users in cars, trains, and even planes should be able to receive mobile broadband service in the neighborhood of theoretical maximums for current ?4G? mobile broadband technology. And it gets better: if you?re not moving, IMT-Advanced technologies should be able to deliver a theoretical maximum of 1 Gbit/s, which is ten times more bandwidth.
If all that seems like technical gobbledegook, think of it this way: With IMT-Advanced technology, it should take about 20 seconds to download a full-length (44 min) standard-definition television episode to a smartphone. Want high-definition? It?ll take less than a 90 seconds. How about a whole album of music? Roughly one minute at full CD quality, no compression. That?s faster than most users? fixed-line broadband connections to their homes.
How will all that bandwidth be used?
Like current WiMax and LTE technologies, IMT-Advanced 4G connectivity can be used for a broadband connection to homes or businesses. Since those connections won?t be moving, fixed-point connections should enjoy lots of bandwidth, assuming providers want to offer affordable service plans. For folks who can?t get cable, fiber, or high-speed DSL connections (or just don?t like the strings providers attach to those services) IMT-Advanced technologies might be a viable alternative, particularly in rural areas and other communities under-served by existing broadband providers.For mobile users, IMT-Advanced holds out the possibility of significantly raising or perhaps eliminating those pesky data caps imposed by mobile operators. As LTE users are already discovering, data caps can be a significant impediment to use: Some users of Verizon LTE have reported they could potentially blow through a month?s worth of LTE data service in less than an hour of Internet use.
The notion that raising the bandwidth capabilities for mobile networks could raise or eliminate data caps might seem counter-intuitive: After all, U.S. mobile operators (particularly AT&T) have long been complaining that they have trouble keeping up with the data demands of their customers.
When will IMT-Advanced reach the streets?
The ITU?s formal adoption of the IMT-Advanced specification doesn?t do much for getting the technology deployed. The ITU doesn?t develop or build telecommunications gear itself. Furthermore, despite its role within the United Nations and broad international support, ITU requirements aren?t considered binding standards. The ITU is just one standards body among many: the WiMax Forum, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers also play roles in solidifying telecommunications technologies. In other words, implementation details still need to be hashed out amongst other standards bodies, licensing issues resolved, and then telecommunications developers can start working to build gear and adapt their existing technologies to support IMT-Advanced. Bottom line, it?s going to be at least a couple years before IMT-Advanced starts to trickle into the marketplace.For now, when AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are trying to peddle their latest 4G services, just remember ?real? 4G is just around the corner ? although, when it gets here, we?re sure mobile operators will be tempted to call it ?5G.?
?
Image credit: Shutterstock /?hxdbzxy
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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