April 3rd, 2008
Those crazy Comcast folks. What will they think of next? They’re offering a screaming fast internet connection, aimed at small businesses and, I’m assuming, rich individuals. That’s six times faster than their previously fastest option. They say
“At 50 million bits per second, a 4-gigabyte Hollywood movie can be downloaded from the Internet in less [...]
April 2nd, 2008
This just isn’t fair. CrunchGear reader windexh8er writes in to gloat:
I live in Minneapolis, and my Intarwebs will be getting much faster!
Well good for you, braggart. Our own Devin just got hooked up here in Seattle with a 30Mbps pipe, yet I, living just less than a half mile or less from Devin get a [...]
March 27th, 2008
Our cup runneth over! Comcast is now working with BitTorrent, Inc. The two companies struck a deal that will see Comcast stop blocking BitTorrent traffic while simultaneously upgrading its capacity to handle all that bandwidth.
The AP reported last fall that Comcast was selectively blocking BitTorrent [upload] traffic; the FCC later discovered the same practice, which [...]
March 26th, 2008
In order for Sprint and Clearwire to really get this WiMax thing underway nationwide, they’re going to need some pretty substantial moolah — like $3 billion.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, would put up as much as $1 billion, while No. 2 Time Warner Cable would add [...]
March 18th, 2008
A lot of shows had their seasons cut short during the writers strike. Apple is giving those customers who stuck with their iTunes subscriptions an attaboy by crediting them for however many episodes got nixed. So if your favorite show got shortened by, say, six episodes, then six free episodes off iTunes is what you’ll [...]
March 18th, 2008
Not to frighten everyone, but word is Comcast is going to put cameras on its set-top cable boxes to know who in your house is watching what.
It’s on the surface not much of a Big Brother fright but more of a personalization tool. The idea is that the camera would be attached to software that [...]
March 16th, 2008
Japan joins France and the UK in threatening file sharers with being kicked off the Internet. The relevant industries have been pressuring Japanese ISPs for some time now to do something about the rampant, awful problem of online piracy. The ISPs have agreed and will now ban nefarious users from their networks if they detect, [...]
February 29th, 2008
Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel’s new CEO and the man in charge of turning the troubled company around, said in a conference call yesterday that Sprint’s still exploring the possibility of a WiMAX partnership with Clearwire.
“Sprint has an enormous asset—nearly 100 megahertz of un-utilized spectrum—and we have the opportunity to have a three-year head start with [...]
February 27th, 2008
Aren’t we supposed to take a hands-off approach to the market? Like, whatever happens, happens? That’s what I thought.
ReadWriteWeb today has a counter argument to Chris Anderson’s everything will be free thesis, only it’s among the weakest counter arguments I’ve ever read. The gist—free does not equal good. Good can mean a quality product, something [...]
February 26th, 2008
Net Neutrality is important, and the FCC is rattling its sabers at ISPs like Comcast who’ve taken part in “traffic shaping” schemes, or favoring certain packets over others.
At a hearing at Harvard, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said, “The commission is ready, willing and able to step in if necessary to correct any practices that are [...]
February 19th, 2008
BitTorrent users were never likely to take Comcast’s measures lying down.
Developers of various BitTorrent applications are working on a mechanism that will defeat (or hopes to defeat) Comcast’s packet interruptions. When Comcast users begin to seed, Comcast injects an RST flag that kill the upload. So Comcast users can download (from non-Comcast users) but [...]
February 15th, 2008
Rarely do I give Comcast praise, but today I feel I must. The cable company monopoly will be adding six new HD channels to its catalog in March, just in time for my birthday, and they’re good ones! Well, most of them.
Those of you who are still using standard definition need to seriously think about [...]
February 15th, 2008
I realize Doug posted the transcripts about his recent disaster with Comcast, but I thought this video was a good representation of how things unfolded. It’s hilarious that the only discernible thing Doug says in this video is bullsh*t.
via Consumerist
February 14th, 2008
So I had to wait an extra day for some reason, but last night I got my Take Two upgrade for my Apple TV up and running. I rented an HD movie (The Simpsons, for those who’re curious) and it looked and sounded great. The 5.1 Dolby Surround was flawless and the video looked just [...]
February 13th, 2008
More Comcast fallout for your Wednesday afternoon. The ISP told the FCC yesterday that, yes, it does slow down Internet traffic for the greater good. The corp recently updated its TOS to reflect the fact that it shapes traffic. So that, in and of itself, isn’t new or exciting. The blowback that’s developing is, however.
A [...]
February 8th, 2008
Comcast, America’s most beloved ISP, has reacted to an FCC investigation into its alleged traffic shaping by updating its terms of service for the first time in two years. The new TOS says it “uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards” to prevent “spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other [...]
