networks

There's big, then there's really big, and then there's colossal, which might be a good word to use when describing a near 46,000-pound Lego X-Wing that made a triumphant debut Thursday in New York's Times Square.

The full-size replica, about 42 times the size of the Lego "Star Wars" X-Wing (#9493) set available on store shelves, celebrates the debut of Cartoon Network's "The Yoda Chronicles," which premieres on May 29 at 8 p.m. … Read more

Eighteen months after a national launch, San Francisco-based startup Nextdoor is making its neighborhood-only social networks accessible from iPhone and giving people a quick-response way to spread urgent alerts or exchange messages with neighbors.

Nextdoor plays host to nearly 13,000 neighborhood networks spread across all 50 states in the U.S., with each one private to members in the area who must verify their address before they join.

The service, which has raised around $50 million in funding, is partnered with more than 100 police departments to provide people with information on pressing city matters. It has particularly high … Read more

With high-quality digital cameras on every smartphone and apps that make your pictures even better, just about anyone can be an accomplished photographer. Sure, you may not be an accomplished photographer in any serious sense, but you can certainly upload your images to photo-sharing sites to get them out to the public and receive feedback to make your shots even better.

As most people know, there are a number of popular services already out there that let you take your shot, add effects and other enhancements, then upload it for all to see. But the other thing that's great … Read more

Pandora listeners can now easily share their favorite tunes with their Facebook friends.

The Pandora Web site and the iPhone and Android apps now let you automatically publish your music listening activity to your Facebook Timeline. On the Web site, simply click on the Publish button under the current tune and choose the Publish to Facebook command. Tapping on the Menu item on your iPhone or your Android device gives you the same choice.

You can set various options to determine what get's shared. Your Facebook friends can then discover which tunes you listen to and which ones get … Read more

There's more to 802.11ac than we've seen so far.

Quantenna Communications announced today the first 802.11ac chipset, called QSR1000, with a ceiling speed of up to 1.7Gbps, which is 400Mbps faster than the current cap of any 802.11ac router, such as the Asus RT-AC66U or the Trendnet TEW-812DRU.

The QSR1000 achieves this new speed by supporting the new 4x4 MU-MIMO 802.11ac standard. In other words, it's the first quad-stream Wi-Fi chipset. Up to now, all existing Wi-Fi devices have only used a single-stream, dual-stream, or three-stream setup. (Read more about Wi-Fi standards here.) … Read more

After unveiling an extensive revamp for the Google+ news stream on desktop, Google is now updating what users see when accessing the social network with their cell phones.

The Web giant announced Tuesday that it's working on "improving the look and feel of Google+ on the mobile Web."

The redesign includes making posts now appear as "cards" in the stream, which is supposed to make them easier to read and share. The social network also changed the way Profiles and Pages look to include cover photos and larger tap targets.

AT&T customers should be able to use any mobile video chat app before too much longer.

Preloaded video-chat apps will work over AT&T's cellular network for all customers, regardless of device or data plan, by the end of 2013, according to a statement from AT&T.

Customers with unlimited data and an LTE device should expect to be able to use video chat apps from Apple, Samsung, and BlackBerry over the AT&T network by mid-June.

Here is the full statement from AT&T:

For video chat apps that come preloaded on … Read more

QR codes haven't exactly set the world on fire, yet most people know what they are, and most phones can scan them, either out of the box or with a third-party app.

The Findables Case takes that idea to heart by emblazoning a unique QR code on each hard-plastic shell, the idea being to use that code to share information about yourself or help recover your lost phone.

In other words, your case can now take the place of your business card, while at the same time offering good Samaritans a means of contacting you (that doesn't involve poring through your address book).

When someone scans the code, they'll see one of three profiles (chosen by you via a companion app or the Findables Web site): Business, Social, or Lost.… Read more