6:58 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/05/texas.fort.hood.shootings/index.html
Research is going on in the UK to utilize antenna arrays worn by combat troops to provide covert short-range person-to-person battleground communications. This could enable squads of soldiers to share video, surveillance data and tactical info via helmet-mounted visors:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/313860/Futuristic+communication+for+troops.htm
The Galactic Suite Orbital Hotel plans to a space hotel operating in orbit by 2012. The cost of three nights Space Resort (plus a two-month training course on a Caribbean island beforehand) will be $4.4 mil. At least 43 people have already reserved their place, with over 200 expressing an interest:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/11/galactic-suite-orbital-hotel-taking.html
A contest requires that a machine climb 2,953 feet (900 meters) up a cable, and LaserMotive's robot climbed to the top in about 4 minutes, then did it again right afterwards, earning at least the $900k second-place prize. It is amazing that they beamed ~400 W of laser power to a moving target 1 km away:
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2009/11/General-Science-Robot-goes-all-the-way-in-space-elevator-competition/?wnnvz=cIpb87iV1KLzkFCg
Forbes found that there were 28 billionaires in China in March and now the their economy has recovered there are *79* billionaires in China. The economy has resulted in the US having the biggest losses of billionaires of any country--more than 100 billionaires in 2008 are no longer billionaires in 2009:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/11/forbes-finds-79-billionaires.html
Cablevision's 3Q profit more than tripled and the free WiFi they give to customers is credited for beating back Verizon's fiber optic FiOS TV:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9H6qjjTW8hcwpwDgRhZxL3rVIegD9BOAAAG0
T-Mobile said that a software fault on one of its back-end systems was responsible for millions of its customers to have no cell phone service for hours:
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2252572/software-glitch-causes-massive
This bad publicity comes right when T-Mobile had to announce that they lost 77,000 subscribers last quarter:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-loses-77-000-subs-q3/2009-11-05?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
40% of T-Mobile phones sold this quarter will be smartphones:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-cto-40-4q-sales-will-be-smartphones/2009-11-04?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
Verizon will be selling the Android 1.5-based Droid Eris smartphone for $99. HTC says that the Droid Eris phone may be able to be upgraded to Android 2.0 in the future:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-launches-holiday-handset-blitz/2009-11-05?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
The BlackBerry phones have been gaining market share steadily and now RIM is going to buy back $1.2 billion of their stock:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aAEfWm7GzC34
The majority of Sprint's 394,000 wholesale additions last quarter was from new Kindle customers...but unfortunately for Sprint, Amazon will now only offer Kindle devices that run on AT&T:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/amazon-stops-selling-sprint-powered-kindles/2009-11-05?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
Brazilian man shocked his mourning family by showing up at his funeral! Relatives had identified him as the victim of a car crash, and the man didn't hear about his funeral until it had already started!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/04/ap/strange/main5524578.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines