By Jordan Valinsky 4/25 10:19am

Metro Tech

~Waiting on the world to change. (Photo: Flickr)

MTA Debuts Cell and Wifi Service at 30 Stations to Distract You From Late Trains

Now social media editors can finally afford to leave their desks and shower. The MTA is announcing later today that it’s rolling out cell and Wifi service to 30 additional subway stops, including Times Square, Columbus Circle, and Rockefeller Center. Prior to today, the only stations that offered the free service included the C & E platform at 23rd Street, two stops on the L line, and several platforms at the 14th Street station. Read More

By Steve Huff 12/20/12 12:36pm

Strange Bedfellows

Let us praise the lowly tater. (flickr/graibeard)

Taters on a Plane: Boeing Engineers Use Potatoes To Test In-Flight Wifi

The list of things that go well with potatoes is almost endless. We can prove that by noting that now that list even includes wifi. Boeing engineers, in an effort to improve wifi transmission during flight, have been using tons of potatoes to test connectivity and signal distribution.

Boeing uses truckloads of Idaho’s finest because humans apparently have a lot more in common with potatoes than just a tendency to sit there on the couch: Read More

By Jessica Roy 12/05/12 8:08am

Linkages

(Photo: Caters News Agency)

Booting Up: Trampoline to Work Edition

The Gmail app for iPad and iPhone got an upgrade. [Gmail Blog]

Despite the cluttered app market, half of all revenue from the app store goes to just 25 developers. [The Register]

Techstars company Karma has launched its $79 4G mobile hotspot that rewards users for sharing their connection. [TechCrunch]

If the Curiosity Rover can last eight more years, it will get a friend. NASA plans to send another rover to Mars in 2020. [BBC]

Why walk or drive to work when you could trampoline? [The Guardian]

By Jessica Roy 11/19/12 8:34am

Linkages

So close to this, you guys. (Photo: Pinterest, duh)

Booting Up: Even a Billion Dollars Isn’t Cool Edition

Actually, being in the billion dollar startup club kind of sucks. [New York Times]

Any person with children who purchases a computer in the U.K. will be forced to apply anti-porn safety controls to it, because there’s absolutely no way kids who want to look at porn will be able to get around that. [Daily Mail]

Cisco balls so hard they just dished out $1.2 billion in cash for Meraki, a wifi startup. [TechCrunch]

How did nerds impact the election? Turns out 30,000 Redditors registered to vote after President Obama linked to a voter registration page in his AMA. [The Atlantic]

According to U.S. search results, Americans care more about Twinkies than the Israel/Gaza conflict. We are all the worst. [Virtus Machina]

By Steve Huff 10/18/12 10:21am

Survey Says

We don't know who Sharptooth is, but he isn't well-liked.

Wifi Names Are the New Rude Post-Its and Political Bumper Stickers

The august and proper BBC News has taken a look at a new and lurking scourge found in thickly settled neighborhoods throughout the world: passive-aggressive wifi names.

Many wifi users stick with something simple, like “Home” or the name of their router (“NETGEAR01″), but wifi networks in some neighborhoods reveal a world of what the BBC aptly terms “bite-sized self-expression.”

The BBC reports that these expressions may be used to embarrass or complain about the neighbors: Read More

By Jessica Roy 9/28/12 9:33am

Apple in Your Eye

Mr. Cook (Photo: News.au)

Tim Cook Apologizes for Terrible iOS 6 Maps, Doesn’t Even Mention Wifi Issues

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the meeting when Tim Cook decided a product he’d overseen was terrible enough to warrant a public apology. The (faux?) humility, the palpable disappointment.

In a letter published to the Apple website and addressed to customers, Mr. Cook apologized for the frustration that the widely-panned Apple maps has caused.

However, tech journalists everywhere are still waiting for an apology from Mr. Cook for having such a boring story dominate the news cycle, as well as giving Google a reason to act ever more smug. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 8/27/12 11:12am

Tech People Things

Pics or it didn't happen. (Photo: Instagram, via TechCrunch)

San Francisco Coffee Shop Has Been Incepted by Instagram

TechCrunch reports that the fancy-pants Four Barrel Coffee–which doesn’t deign to offer Wifi–recently posted a list of rules for patrons. It was promptly posted on Instagram. The luddite baristas then posted an updated list of rules, adding, “No posting this on Instagram, you hipster.” The sign was, once again, promptly posted on Instagram.

If someone posts a screenshot of the TechCrunch post on Instagram, then the entire Internet will disappear in a cloud of self-referential smoke.

By Jessica Roy 8/24/12 10:55am

Internet Wants to Be Free

(Photo: Shutterstock)

Wall Street Journal Blanketing Most of Manhattan with Free Wifi

These days, newspapers will seemingly stop at nothing to boost their bottom line. Those Weekender ads are notoriously obnoxious, and we’re getting awfully tired of deleting the identification key at the end of a New York Times URL to get around the paywall. But the Wall Street Journal has finally devised a marketing scheme that we can get behind: instituting free wifi throughout our fine city (oh, and in San Francisco). Read More

By Jessica Roy 8/22/12 2:46pm

Summer Fun

(Photo: Fan Pop)

Asses Now Equipped With Wifi

Just because you want to simulate living in ancient Galilee times doesn’t mean you won’t want to check your email while doing so. Kfar Kedem park in Israel has outfitted donkeys with wireless routers so that users can check into “My Ass” on Foursquare. Ah, ain’t the future grand?