LOTD for September 29

Very interesting Navy recruiting presentation calling MySpace kids an “alien life force” and talking about how the Iraq war has made today’s youth less patriotic and less likely to join the military:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/omg-navy-calls-.html

Homeland security counter-terrorism funding used for hovercraft for public safety water rescues:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070928/LOCAL18/709280701

Texas A&M’s biodefense lab has had horrible security breaches with infectious diseases over the past 3 years:
http://www.theeagle.com/stories/092607/am_20070926040.php

It sure sounds to me that this former iRobot engineer stole iRobot material to form his Robotic FX company, which recently won a $280 mil contract. Admitting to shredding CDs and wiping a hard disk (with the wiping software running as US Marshalls raided his home), plus being followed as he dumped electronic components in a box labeled “iRobot” sounds pretty big to me:
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/09/25/former_irobot_engineer_says_he_might_have_been_framed/

Interesting article about the WiMAX spectrum owned by schools and nonprofits–I didn’t realize that 2/3 of Clearwire’s spectrum was from schools and nonprofits!
http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/iwon-com/news-story.asp?guid=3A4C2412-4858-454C-A694-BB738E8DC445

Microsoft gave into complaints and has extended the life of XP another 5 months:
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/09/microsoft-buckl.html

LOTD for September 28

University of Hawaii Regents approve the controversial Navy Applied Research Lab…bringing up to $10 mil a year to that center. I know a lot of people involved with that, so if it ever gets really going I’d love to have a customer or partner there! The EE faculty there for years has been talking to me about collaborating with them.
http://starbulletin.com/2007/09/28/news/story03.html

Apparently our border crossing with Canada is not too secure:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/border.security/index.html

RF-to-baseband transceivers simplifies 16e design:
http://rfdesign.com/next_generation_wireless/news/rf-baseband-transceivers-wimax-design-0927/?cid=rfd092707

Apple software update has disabled unlocked iPhones, and regular iPhones have been losing contact info and music due to the update:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7017660.stm

Dispute between Apple and Orange (France) may prevent iPhones from entering the French market before the holiday season. Orange doesn’t like how Apple wants more than 33% of the revenue from iPhones:
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2007/09/27/afx4163827.html

Sprint accused of deceptive practices by a lawsuit over how they extended contracts:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/09/27/ap4163803.html?partner=alerts

I’m amazed that this woman survived after being trapped in her car for 8 days:
http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070928/D8RUOMV00.html

YouTube is setting up special channels for charity:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aa.zKu218._s

American University alumni prank leads to $1.5 mil lawsuit over newsletter article:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09092007/news/regionalnews/gay_hanky_pranky_spurs_1_5m_al.htm

LOTD for September 27

Insurance companies have turned from skeptics about global warming to believers that global warming will result in catastrophic weather disasters:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/26/AR2007092602070.html

The Army Research Lab has come up with an UWB radar that can see through walls and concealing foliage and detect IEDs:
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/8074

AT&T’s negotiations to buy Dish Network appear to be getting serious:
http://www.thestreet.com/s/att-echostar-talks-heat-up/newsanalysis/techtelecom/10381691.html?puc=_cnnmoney&cm_ven=CNNMONEY&cm_cat=Free&cm_pla=Feed&cm_ite=Feed&puc=cnnmoney&

NextWave and Huawei are conducting compatibility testing in San Diego and Henderson (Nevada) right now between NextWave’s 16e chipsets and Huawei’s infrastructure equipment:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/nextwave-broadband-and-huawei-conduct-interoperability-testing-mobile-wimax?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Equipment providers are hoping that Google wins some 700 MHz spectrum…they cannot wait for a brand new wireless network with all new equipment to be built nationwide! It is interesting that the FCC rules would make WiMAX and LTE not ideal for the 700 MHz spectrum:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0%2C1895%2C2189197%2C00.asp

FCC’s chair is trying to pull back from the open access provisions in the 700 MHz spectrum auction:
http://rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070926/FREE/70926006/1005

I cannot believe that Nokia is partnered with Ferrari and is now offering an cell phone that costs $25k!
http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/detail.php?id=3327

The Air Force used Halo 3 as a recruiting tool! And 13-year-old got to participate even though the video game is rated M:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=25945103

LOTD for September 26

The Army is blocking all e-mail and web traffic that goes through Time Warner servers (including people using Roadrunner):
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/army-blocks-tim.html

First nuclear power plant application in the US for 29 years–this one is for South Texas, but other applications are expected soon for Virginia, Charlotte, Chicago, and other areas:
http://www.snl.com/irweblinkx/file.aspx?IID=4057436&FID=4916766

Stanford physicists came up with a new theory for circuit design based on quantum physics (based on the quantum spin hall effect) that drastically reduces the heat generated and can create a whole new generation of computer chips:
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/8070

GD-Lockheed get $921 mil extra for Win-T to increase development and speed things up:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/program_receives_boost_0926/index.html

Sprint won a $70 mil patent suit vs. Vonage, plus they get 5% of Vonage’s revenues:
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/09/jury-says-vonag.html

Motorola demonstrated 16e mobile handoffs in downtown Chicago:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/motorola-demonstrates-worlds-first-wimax-802-16e-mobile-handoffs-downtown-chicago?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Frontline, AT&T, and Verizon have all protested the FCC 700 MHz auction rules:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137658-c,legalissues/article.html

This lady will coat your cell phone or iPod in 24 karat gold:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/woman-coats-ipods-cellphones-in-gold-303593.php

LOTD for September 25

DHS records are kept for 15 years on the travel habits of Americans (flying, driving, and cruising), who they travel with, the personal items they bring, and what books they travel with:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102347.html?hpid=topnews

The UAV helicopter will get to the field earlier than planned:
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3053547&C=america

The former head of ARPA (what is now DARPA) had some interesting things to say:
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9035398&pageNumber=1

The US Africa command won’t actually live in Africa…they will be in Germany:
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=49013

$2 mil in earmarks from the DoD is going to study yoga, bioenergy, and alternative medicines…run by Broadcom’s Chair and his wife. I’m sure their big campaign contributions had nothing to do with the earmarks…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a5wBTQVASIso&refer=home

WiFi mesh networking solution demonstrated for both rail and military applications (even under high mobility!):
http://rfdesign.com/next_generation_wireless/news/rail_military_applications_0925/index.html

Echostar (Dish Network) bought Sling Media (Slingbox):
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3ib429a97580f60ae2b843a8c6da7c20a1

Microsoft is looking to buy a stake in Facebook as part of its strategy to avoid falling further behind Google:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119065193646437586.html

Facebook is in similar trouble now to what Myspace had before on predators going after minor via their site:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/24/NY-blasts-Facebook-over-predators-subpoenas-docs_1.html?source=NLC-GOV&cgd=2007-09-25

Unisys (they have a $1 bil security contract) is in trouble for not detecting the hacking of Homeland Security computers, where the information stolen was sent to a Chinese language website:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/24/FBI-investigates-Unisys-over-US-government-hack_1.html?source=NLC-GOV&cgd=2007-09-25

I think 7 law firms have now filed class action lawsuits vs. Orbcomm (related to statements before Orbcomm’s IPO). The IPO was to raise money for GEN2…
http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/newsheadlinebysymbol.jsp?symbol_search_text=ORBC

More on the $916 Armani phone, with haptics:
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/09/25/samsungs-armani-phone-has-a-surprise-a-haptic-feedback-ui/

Two women robbed a gas station…dressed as ninjas with swords and daggers:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/female-ninjas-a.html

LOTD for September 24

PDF files can pose a dangerous risk to computers running Windows XP:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9038099

Up to 100,000 Vista laptops made in Germany were shipped with the Stoned virus, whiich both Vista and the Bullguard antivirus software failed to remove:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/17/vista_hit_by_stoned_angelina/

The Australian military paid $1.1 mil last year for boob jobs, tummy tucks, nose jobs, and other cosmetic surgery for their troops:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22464068-5006010,00.html

Apparently the US military has a similar plastic surgery benefit–though I’m surprised at how many liposuction procedures our military is paying for. The rumors that some recruiters tell female recruits about the free boob jobs as a recruitment enticement is pretty disturbing, but I’m (almost) sure that isn’t true:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/07/26/040726ta_talk_schaler

UMB specification published, the CDMA2000 upgrade has a peak download rate of 288 Mbps, upload rate of 75 Mbps, uses OFDMA, SDMA, MIMO, and beamforming:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/cdg-and-3gpp2-publish-umb-spec?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Very interesting article discussing why Google wants to form its trans-Pacific cable consortium:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=41918&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Note: I remember when Yahoo! was the established company and Google was just starting…now, Google is worth $174 bil and Yahoo! is worth $35 bil…

NextWave lost $59.5 mil in their last quarter, a big increase from previous losses:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/press-release-nextwave-wireless-announces-second-quarter-2007-financial-results?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Myspace is coming out with a cell phone version:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-myspace24sep24,1,3253828.story?coll=la-headlines-business

Time Warner is trying to find someone to buy the US AOL dial-up business (they already sold it off in Europe):
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/19/aol_us_sale/

AT&T is trying finally going to start delivering on HSUPA:
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2007/09/21/att-hsupa-soft-launch/

So far I’ve counted 5 law firms who have filed class action lawsuits vs. Orbcomm:
http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_ge.jsp?news_id=iwr-0306028&feed=iwr&date=20070924

MIT student (who is from Hawaii) was arrested outside of Logan Airport…Boston officials were not amused at the device strapped to her chest with LEDs blinking, plus the play-doh she was carrying that looked like plastic explosives:
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V127/N40/simpson.html

LOTD for September 21

The nuclear power plant shut down after an earthquake in Japan just had a big fire break out in it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7003975.stm

Mysterious disease has been killing off China’s pig herds, and China’s slow rate of providing information about this might have been to preserve its pork and pork product exports the article states:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7003975.stm

Note: 2 people in Vietnam died after eating infected pork according to Vienamese media.

Kite-sized UAV is being used to protect endangered Hawaiian monk seals and coral reefs:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070918/ap_on_sc/debris_monitoring

MIT has been working on a strap-on exoskeleton that would give super-strength for lifting…but unfortunately it is hard to walk with it now:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/exoskeleton-0919.html

Boeing’s virtual border fence has a significant software glitch, homeland security is now witholding payment:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/virtual-border-.html#more

Red tape currently prevents military commanders from actually using their UAVs in Iraq:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/the-american-mi.html

New study by the Congressional Budget Office, given the current White House plan for Iraq, leads to an estimate of the Iraq military expenses reaching $2 trillion:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/is-40-billion-a.html

Homeland Security gave a sole source contract to try to use the work being done by a Russian mind control lab:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/09/mind_reading?currentPage=all

The British have a toy-sized remote-control craft that hovers above streets to film what is going on:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2452224.ece

Cool (and scary) YouTube video here shows this mini-robot in action, including how it can zoom in on a sunbather in a bikini:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/british-polices.html

Diary by a soldier in Iraq:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/iraq-diary-welc.html#more

Both Verizon and Vodafone will likely converge on the same 4G standard, LTE. I didn’t realize that the EV-DO folks and the HSPA folks could both migrate to LTE:
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=134382

Google is planning a multi-terabit undersea communications cable across the Pacific Ocean for launch in 2009:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=41910&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Google may be planning to buy spectrum in the upcoming UK auction:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2174104,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=4

New phone charger standard would allow for the same charger to work with all cell phones, plus the connectors for headsets and data cables would be standardized:
http://www.news.com/Pros-seem-to-outdo-cons-in-new-phone-charger-standard/2100-1041_3-6209247.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news

Discussion about whether or not unlocking cell phones is legal:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6978110.stm

Cellular coverage is coming for NY subways…the stations will be wired for cell phone use but the subway tunnels will not:

16-year-old girl and her family (they live in Dallas) are suing Virgin Mobile for stealing her Flickr photos and using it in their Australian advertising campaign without her consent. The big problem is that the tag line is derogatory…and her church friends saw the ads when they were touring Australia:
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/strange/article_212104922.shtml

LOTD for September 20

Spray-on tests for IED makers:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/09/spray-on-test-f.html

$600 mil contract signed for a new metal structure around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2787018,00.html

NextWave is giving up on the Japanese market, saying that it would be too hard to try to make a profit there:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jiWgt5eg1T_4WJ5SWl–PMl0Z5DA

Ericsson has its first HSPA module for notebooks and other client devices, 7.2 Mbps downlink/2 Mbps uplink with the mini-PCI card, trying to get HSPA access going before WiMAX is here:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ZBLAUHCKIXCMSQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=201807392

The impact of the iPhone on Verizon was felt for 2 weeks (more customers switched to AT&T from Verizon than switched to Verizon), then the customer flow was back to Verizon as usual:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1924156220070919?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&sp=true

Ofcom plans to let current 2G cellular operators to use their spectrum
(900 MHz and 1.8 GHz) for 3G:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7004426.stm

Orange will have the iPhone in France, just as O2 has it in the UK and DT in Germany:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200709200810DOWJONESDJONLINE000547_FORTUNE5.htm

Intel talks about its upcoming rollout of WiMAX, innovation to Centrino Duo, and a new category of Internet-connected devices that will make smartphones a niche product:
http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/8333.html?rfp=dta

Intel previewed their 45nm power-saving chips, available later this year:

Note: It is interesting to read that AMD is going to a tri-core desktop processor, as apparently customers don’t have to buy the quad-core chips from either AMD or Intel.

picoChip got an investment from Sansung as part of its $27 mil D-round:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/picochip-receives-strategic-investment-samsung?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

The head of the U.S. Copyright Office, who is in charge of deciding which parts of the DMCA are okay or not, doesn’t even have a computer at home:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9779996-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Lawsuit over “booth babes” used by IT companies and the alleged harassment they suffered:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/20/38OPentinsight-end-booth-babe-culture_1.html?source=NLC-ENTERPRISEINSIGHT&cgd=2007-09-24

LOTD for September 19

Think-A-Move has created robots that allow robots to be controlled through vocal commands, keeping hands free:
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2007/October/RobotCont.htm

The same technology could be used for vocally-controlled wheelchairs:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/tongue-kung-fu/wheelchairs-could-be-tongue+controlled-+-just-like-my-favourite-button-274152.php

Lots of news about the air Strike by Israel to destroy an alleged nuclear facility in Syria (being set up by North Koreans):
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123666

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2461421.ece

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/17/2034301.htm?section=world

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5huUBnG1swmDpqMV6Kk7vOIuZ0dzA

Israel used the F-15E (they bought 21 of them for just over $2 bil) for the raid, specially modified (by Elisra) for Israeli needs:
http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/aircraft/f-15i/F-15I.html

Very interesting story about the analysis being done on IEDs:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/post.html#more

US Air Force unveils its micro UAV:
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2006/08/15/208395/us-air-force-batmav-micro-uav-details-unveiled.html

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/09/05/2912198.htm

US Army bought 3000 small robots (for $280 mil) from Robotic FX to clear caves and search for explosives in the warzone, iRobot claims Robotic FX stole its stuff:
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3040081&C=america

Bad news that the counter-IED jammers have been so successful that now Iraqi IEDs have gone so low-tech (copper wires) that they are not detectable anymore:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/iraq-diary-jamm.html#more

Officers don’t have to tour the battlefield anymore…they can take “virtual tours”:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3a94cc2e1f-da56-4628-b4c7-abdc1d916aa2

The FCS UAV family includes the Organic Air Vehicle (OAV), it can become a sentry for troops:
http://www.defense-update.com/features/du-2-04/mav-oav.htm

DARPA and the Air Force signed a MOU on a project to build a hypersonic vehicle that takes off and lands like an aircraft (HTV-3X, called the Blackswift). $1 bil for 2 prototypes is pretty pricy…no wonder why the Air Force resisted signing on. The Blackswift is supposed to do a barrel roll at Mach 6 for no real technical reason…Tony Tether decided he wanted it to be able to do so:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/blackswift-is-b.html#more

Video of why soldiers stay way behind when robots try to disarm IEDs:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/video-fix-ied-1.html#more

Israel-based InRob Tech plans to use its advanced military wireless and remote control systems for civilian applications. Their first product is a new hot water heating control unit (can be programmed to provide specific quantities of hot water at specified times of the day):
http://www.inrobtech.com/news_details.asp?id=47

Digging robot based on the European mole is being built by researchers to try to seek out survivors at disaster sites:
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12657-mechanical-mole-could-seek-out-disaster-survivors–.html

Apple’s new Video Nanos broke existing hacks and locked out Linux users…for a few days until these hackers cracked Apple’s code:
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/09/new-ipods-lock-.html

British perspective on the announcement that O2 will have the iPhone in the UK…O2 must have been really desparate because they apparently agreed to give Apple *40%* of the call revenue from the iPhone! 40%!!! No wonder Vodafone passed on the iPhone!
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=41893&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

WiFi-enabled BlackBerry also has GPS capabilities:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/new-blackberry-8820-t-hits-hot-spot-wi-fi?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

IBM announced a system-on-a-chip breakthrough for multi-band cell phones, reducing cost, heat, power, signal loss, and dropped calls if it works:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2007/09/ibm_announces_s.html?source=NLC-REALITY&cgd=2007-09-19

12 governors sent an open letter to Congress requesting that the H-1B cap and the green card cap be raised:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2007/09/12_governors_ca.html?source=NLC-REALITY&cgd=2007-09-19

Microsoft is pushing Silverlight to compete with Adobe’s Flash:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2007/09/microsoft_guns.html?source=NLC-REALITY&cgd=2007-09-19

Big problem raising capital for satellite companies…apparently, the satellite sector’s investment money has been invested in subprime loans, which are tanking now:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=41889&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Google is rumored to be looking to make a 3G Gphone–if they do 3G at launch they will use Qualcomm chips, if they do EDGE at launch TI will be used:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/google-now-mulling-3g-for-gphone/2007-09-19?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Google introduces Gadget Ads…draggable between websites:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003642647

GodTube is the fastest growing internet site in the US:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=41892&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Longest phone call lasted over 40 hours!
http://www.phoneyworld.com/newspage.aspx?n=2990

LOTD for September 18

Amazing bottle is able to clean and purify water, perfect for disaster recovery and military applications, is able to filter out viruses without chemicals:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=3R3S1NAZ1X2NVQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/09/12/nwater112.xml

Growing interest in using nuclear power for desalination, with primary target market the Middle East (do we really want to promote more nuclear power use there?):
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2007/09/14/analysis_mideast_turns_to_nukes_for_water/2447/

“unfathomable” information security breach results in nearly all Connecticut’s government bank accounts being vulnerable, social security numbers for dozens of Connecticut’s taxpayers vulnerable…Accenture has many big contracts from Connecticut but I’d hate to be their sales person when those contracts are over!
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/8014

QinetiQ demonstrated their water-jet-propelled fast unmanned seacraft:
http://www.qinetiq.com/home/newsroom/news_releases_homepage/2007/3rd_quarter/sentry.html

The Army is worried about suicide truck and car bombs, so it funded inventor Charles Marsh, who came up with basically an elephant trap for unauthorized vehicles:
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12656-invention-truckbomb-trap-.html

Note: A link for the full patent application is included in the article. If you look at the 2nd invention discussed it sounds like Landroid–robots communicating and working together has apparently been done at MIT.

More information on the swarms of robots is at this MIT page, the work was funded by SPAWAR:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/jamesm/swarm.php

3G iPhone with GPS coming early next year:
http://www.thestreet.com/s/faster-apple-iphone-due-next-year/newsanalysis/techtelecom/10379941.html

AT&T is apparently planning to offer WiMAX service in the Southern part of the US, using 2.3 GHz spectrum from its BellSouth acquisition for DSL-replacement WiMAX:
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=133853

Microsoft lost BIG in its EU anti-trust ruling, here is some analysis:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/17/With-Microsoft-ruling-a-precedent-for-IT-in-Europe_1.html?source=NLC-GOV&cgd=2007-09-18

T-Mobile bought former AT&T Wireless affiliate SunCom for $1.6 bil:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119002404130929604.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Broadcom joined the Linux Mobile Foundation:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/broadcom-joins-limo-foundation?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Willie Lu has talks about his 4G Mobile Forum (I actually went to 3 of his previous conferences and spoke at 2 of them):
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ctialive/story/open-here-comes-4gmf/2007-08-31-0?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Note: By the way, Willie is a friend of mine and I even got him to teach classes for me at SCU. I’ll be contacting him in a day or so to inquire about opportunities for my new company with his commercial contacts.

Analysts predict that MetroPCS will end up buying Leap Wireless by Thanksgiving:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070918-9999-1b18leap.html

The Silicon Valley WiFi project is behind schedule:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137233-c,wirelesstechnologyservices/article.html#

Disney Mobile’s MVNO seems to be struggling, as most MVNOs:
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/09/disney-dis-cfo-.html

More Vista problems reported:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2007/09/vista_mysteries.html?source=NLC-NOTES&cgd=2007-09-17

August sales figures show the effect of the $50 price cut for Xbox and $100 price cut for PS3…Wii still dominates, Xbox sales up (about 100,000), and PS3 sales finally went above the Game Boy Advance (but PS3 sales were less than the previous month despite the cut):
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/23/july-npd-wii-climbs-to-the-top-ps3-overcomes-100k-hump/