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Filed under: GPS

Details are understandably scarce at the moment, but Navigon is apparently taking its 1+ year old 5100 navigation unit to the max. The predictably titled 5100 max has reportedly just seen its way into the FCC’s lair, and we’re told that it’ll feature a 4.3-inch display, Bluetooth, text-to-speech and lifetime traffic / Zagat ratings. As for price and availability? We’ll have to wait for the official word from Navigon on those bits. In the meanwhile… Rockford or Chicago?

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Wireless

The FCC doesn’t exactly have a track record of swiftness when it comes to reviewing mergers, but it looks like that little election thing might have lit a couple grey suits on fire — FCC chairman Kevin Martin says that the agency is aiming to finish looking over the Sprint / Clearwire and Verizon / Alltel deals by the end of the year. That’s right before a new administration takes over and potentially gums up the process, so we’re guessing it’ll be approvals all around, since rejecting the bids would result in some fun lawsuits for everyone, but we’ll see how things shake out.

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Peripherals

Up until now, the words “Zink” and “Polaroid” were all but married together, but a breakup fit for The Hills is about to go down courtesy of the all-too-promiscuous Dell. Over in the deep waters of the FCC, we’re seeing a new Dell printer that utilizes the ink-free Zink technology. The PZ310 WASABI is yet another handheld printer that comes bundled with a single stack of printing paper, Bluetooth technology for printing from your mobile / BT-enabled PC, a USB port for traditionalists and a Reprint button for obvious reasons. As with everything in the FCC, the agency is never kind enough to hand over any preliminary pricing / release information, but it ought not be long now before Dell starts shipping these things without even telling anyone.

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: GPS

Ever since TomTom’s latest ONE navigator hit back in April, we’ve been left waiting, wondering when the next ONE XL would ever surface. Thanks to the FCC and its all-knowing database, we can confidently say that the unimaginatively named ONE XL II (what, ONE XXL was taken?) is well on its way to a US release. The user’s guide doesn’t give us much in the way of actual specifications, but based on the magnificently taken external photographs, we suspect this one will be more evolutionary and less revolutionary. Not that you couldn’t guess that from the name, but whatever.

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Robots

Hide the children, folks. We’ve just uncovered some atrocities, and we don’t think they’re appropriate for the preschool-and-under crowd. The FCC is performing unspeakable acts of torture upon this Step n’ Shine “Snuggle n’ Shine” bear, and we think it’s time the public knew about it. More gruesome pics after the break.

Chris: “We’re going to ask you one more time: where is the spurious 2400MHz radiation coming from?” or “Repeat after me: Bounce has a fresher scent than Snuggles. That’s all you have to do.”
Paul: “How about now, huh? Do you still ‘wuv us vewwy much?’ Didn’t think so.”
Don: “I see you, Tickle Me Elmo. You won’t get away with this!”
Josh T.: “Reaction to Build-A-Bear’s new competitor was mixed.”
Nilay: “Where is the one they call ‘Teddy Ruxpin’?”
Josh F.: “This was to be my final hit, but let’s be clear about this. There’s final hits and final hits. What kind was this to be?”Continue reading Caption contest: Teddy bear torture — the photographs the FCC didn’t want you to see

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Source: Paul Miller

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Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Portable Audio

Hmm, Hov, you may want to check the fine print on whatever deal you’ve got with Moto, because these Jay-Z-branded MOTOROKR S7-HD Bluetooth headset aren’t exactly big pimpin’ — and compared to Dre’s big ol’ cans, they look downright sad. Of course, the FCC’s legendarily nasty product photography isnt helping here, but even A2DP stereo support and the integrated mic can’t salvage this mess — was this really worth unretiring for?

[Via Crave]

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Cellphones

It looks like the FCC’s investigation into Comcast’s questionable traffic management is turning up a number of interesting details, the latest of which comes from AT&T’s Robert Quinn, who told FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell that, “use of a P2P file sharing application would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user’s service could be terminated.” Quinn was apparently quick to add, however, that AT&T hasn’t yet kicked anyone off the network for using P2P. Still, Commissioner McDowell apparently intends to use AT&T’s statement to argue against the FCC’s forthcoming order that contends Comcast secretly downgraded P2P traffic, saying that Comcast’s throttling of traffic isn’t as bad as AT&T blocking it all together. The merits of that argument aside, as TechDirt points out, given that AT&T’s beef with P2P is that it makes use of “continuous (rather than bursty) transmissions at high data rates,” their position does open up a number of interesting questions about streaming apps like Pandora, which are similarly data-intensive but, last we checked, still working just fine on AT&T’s network.

[Via Tech Dirt]

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Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Gaming

TomTom’s two-way, Dash-like HD Traffic GPS device has been helping European drivers help each other for some time now, and it looks like it could now possibly be headed to the US as well, although that’s still not quite a sure thing. It has cleared one of the major hurdles on that trip though, with it recently sailing through the FCC with flying colors. No word on any changes to the device itself though, so we can presume that, if and when it gets here, you’ll still get the same 4.3-inch LCD, 1GB of storage and all-important SIM card as our European friends, which promises to help stack up the unit with 5x the traffic updates and 10x the road coverage of typical traffic systems.

[Thanks, Rich]

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Source: Donald Melanson

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