connection

AT&T, General Motors to sell 4G LTE-connected cars next year

BARCELONA, Spain--General Motors cars rocking their own 4G LTE connection will hit the road next year.

AT&T and GM's OnStar service unit struck a deal to bring millions of connected cars to the market, starting with the 2015 fleet, which comes out late 2014. GM said most Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac cars will get wireless connections.

It's the latest win for AT&T, which has been particularly aggressive in going after the connected car business, a lucrative one in which the company believes it can eventually generate a billion dollars in revenue. Furthermore, the … Read more

JustConnected just can't compete

With the dominance of Facebook in the social-networking space, other players are trying to get in on the act, which is not a bad thing. It's good to have options, and competition keeps the major players in check. JustConnected tries to compete against Facebook, but its glitchy performance and lack of participants keep it from truly making a mark.

To use JustConnected, you'll need to sign up for an account, which you can do from the app itself. As with most social-networking services, it does require a bit of information, including your first and last name, birth date, … Read more

Facebook Connect issue wreaks havoc on the Web

Facebook had a temporary glitch this afternoon that pulled people from different Web sites to a Facebook error message when they tried to access an account that was linked to the social-networking site.

TNW's Alex Wilhelm first tweeted about this at 4:15 p.m. after trying to read an article from a news site: "Reading article. Dragged from two diff sites to Facebook, which displays what appears to be a permissions error. Wa?"

The issue, which was related to Facebook Connect, was resolved around 4:40 p.m.

Facebook issued this statement shortly after, saying it … Read more

Connected but private: Transporter aims to be your off-cloud Dropbox

The cloud may be the future of all things storage, but the present is more complicated: it can be expensive, potentially insecure, and you're left trusting a third party with all your data.

That's what inspired The Transporter, a Kickstarter project started by former employees of Drobo. Transporter aims for something more secure and distributed, while still being sharable. The concept largely works like Dropbox, with a Transporter folder that lives on your desktop and syncs with files stored on the physical Transporter drive (which resides someplace you designate). You can easily give others access to specific folders, … Read more

Twitter experiencing intermittent connectivity issues

Twitter is experiencing a service disruption this afternoon that is causing intermittent connectivity for users on the microblogging site.

Twitter's performance and availability status indicated a sharp decline during the past hour or so, especially in the United States and parts of Western Europe.

"Some users may be experiencing issues accessing Twitter," Twitter said in a status update. "Our engineers are currently working to resolve the issue."

The disruption hits Twitter less than a week after the site was hit by "intermittent problems" that caused many users' feeds to produce odd news feed-page … Read more

Time Warner Cable, Netflix at odds over 'Super HD,' 3D

Time Warner Cable and Netflix are reportedly talking to each other about partnering on the streaming provider's content delivery network (CDN), but the cable provider isn't too pleased about the service.

Speaking to Multichannel in an interview published yesterday, a Time Warner Cable spokesperson criticized Netflix for only delivering its higher-quality high-definition service, Super HD, and 3D videos to customers whose cable providers have signed up with Netflix's Open Connect.

"While they call it Open Connect, Netflix is actually closing off access to some of its content while seeking unprecedented preferential treatment from ISPs," the … Read more

Livio demonstrates FM Connect Web-connected FM radio tech

LAS VEGAS--Livio, a company that has made a name making it easier and safer to interface with the apps on your phone, is now working to make it easier and safer for drivers to interact with your favorite terrestrial radio stations, and has announced that it is developing a new technology called FM Connect.

While listening to a Livio Connect-enabled FM radio that is paired via Bluetooth to a smartphone running the Livio app, users gain the ability to communicate with the broadcaster or access rich data at the touch of a connect button.

For example, if an advertisement for … Read more

Want free wireless? Check out T-Mobile's 4G Connect-powered laptops

T-Mobile unveiled a program today that allows consumers who buy certain laptops or tablets to access a free cellular connection.

The program, called 4G Connect, includes a built-in connection in select laptops, Ultrabooks, and tablets. The cell connection is free, but there are some catches. Consumers only get 200 megabytes of data each month, and free cellular connection lasts 12 or 24 months, depending on the manufacturer.

The Dell Inspiron 14z Ultrabook and the Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dm1 are the first two devices to get 4G Connect.

4G Connect represent a new way to sell wholesale capacity to companies. Manufacturers are … Read more

Netflix brings 3D, 'Super HD' video to some customers

After months of rumors, Netflix has finally announced a "Super HD" streaming option as well as a handful of 3D additions to its video library. Super HD is Netflix's higher-quality version of its standard 1080p HD format.

But there's a catch: Only Netflix customers who are signed up with ISPs that use Netflix's Open Connect network will have access to both Super HD and the new 3D titles. Netflix debuted Open Connect in June, saying it could lower costs and improve content delivery.

"Leading-edge ISPs around the world such as Cablevision, Virgin Media, British … Read more