Vegas

At last! A sci-fi brothel near Vegas

Techies have more money than anyone but the bloated, floating egos on Wall Street.

Who, then, could not admire the enterprise that is melding the carnal joys of the brothel with an atmosphere that will make the most nervous nerd feel at home?

The Alien Cathouse is the name of a soon-to-be sci-fi brothel just northwest of Vegas. The way the Las Vegas Review-Journal teases it, this pulsating brainwave will offer "girls from another world."

Whether this world will be Chico or the Planet Cha-Cha-Muluumba is not yet known.

What is clear is that this is the work … Read more

Solar begets solar at Amonix factory

Talk about walking the walk when it comes to solar energy.

Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) manufacturer Amonix has built a factory and office space that uses solar panels as the sole power source, the company announced Wednesday.

The 214,000 square-foot facility uses eight of the company's MegaModule CPV solar systems, to serve the entire power need for the production plant and some connected office space. The system supplies "100 percent of the North Las Vegas facility's energy needs," according to Amonix.

Of course, it should be noted that this plant is located in Nevada, an area … Read more

Sprint CEO: Wireless industry can help our troubled economy

SAN DIEGO--Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Dan Hesse said the wireless industry can help get the troubled economy back on track.

"Mobile has a direct and powerful impact on efficiency, productivity, and the economic performance of any business in this country," Hesse said during his keynote address at the CTIA Enterprise & Application conference today.

Hesse, Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead, and AT&T head of mobility Ralph de la Vega reunited for another round of keynote addresses at CTIA. Unlike the last CTIA gathering in March, the executives were scheduled to speak in separate addresses, avoiding the … Read more

Google good news: Nevada's yes to driverless cars

Those nice, but slightly odd, people at Google must feel rather put upon this week. Everyone seems to be after their blood (although the evidence as to whether they have any is still incomplete).

So, in the spirit of searching for some good news for the Googlies, I managed to find something that will uplift their robotic spirits.

The state of Nevada has, so Forbes tells me, passed a bill that requires its Department of Transportation to create rules and regulations for driverless cars.

You will be aware, unless you have been in an Estonian prison for the last couple … Read more

Pantech reveals 1.5 GHz dual-core phone

While Pantech has a relatively modest presence in the U.S., it has a number of impressive handsets in Korea. One such offering is the Vega Racer, which claims to be the world's first 1.5GHz dual-core smartphone. That's certainly a lot of power in a tiny device--it uses Qualcomm's MSM8660 Snapdragon chip, 1GB of RAM, and an Adreno 220 GPU. It's also not a petite handset, looming large with a 4.3-inch LCD. Other features include an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera.

We're still in the dark regarding pricing, availability, … Read more

Google looks to unleash robotic cars in Nevada

In yet another sign that scientists and researchers have never watched a sci-fi movie in their lives, Google wants to install and test its self-driving cars in Nevada with the hope of one day criss-crossing the nation's urban roadways with them. While the move could eventually help keep drunk drivers off the streets of Las Vegas, Reno, and Pahrump, it also means the Silver State could be the first to fall to our onrushing robot overlords.

If you thought Paris Hilton and her ilk got stupid, falling-down hammered in Las Vegas before today's announcement, clear the decks if Google receives the permission it's seeking from local government. After a testing period, the self-guided vehicles would allow passengers to talk on the phone, text, tweet, and be carried to the inevitable Robo-Human Slave Conversion Camps in safety and--especially in Vegas--drunken comfort. … Read more

AT&T not surprised by level of iPhone defectors

Just how many subscribers have ditched AT&T since the carrier lost its exclusive hold on the iPhone to Verizon?

AT&T is mum on specific numbers, but a top executive has offered this hazy assessment: the company isn't surprised by the level of defections.

Speaking yesterday at a Morgan Stanley technology conference in San Francisco, Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, said his company hasn't seen any surprises in customer defections and that "everything is pretty much within our expectations," according to a Webcast of his … Read more

Digital City: CES 2011 special edition

In case you missed our special live Digital City show from the CNET stage at CES 2011, now you can catch it here. Dan is joined by G4TV's "Attack of the Show" co-host Kevin Pereira , plus CNET's Jeff Bakalar and Rich Brown, for a discussion ranging from post-apocalyptic cell phone reception to high-tech digital name tags.

Bonus: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time!

CES: Optimism back as economic worries fade

LAS VEGAS--Few tech industry professionals truly relish the annual trip here each January for the ritual that has become CES, the largest and most important event on the tech calendar. But this year, for the first time in awhile, they were able to get back to complaining about long cab lines and bad food rather than layoffs and budget cuts during their week in the desert.

"Double the energy and enthusiasm at CES compared with last two years," said NPD Group analyst Samir Bhavnani on his Twitter account Friday, summing up a week that lacked a signature announcement … Read more