8:39 PM
The Army reported that the number of suicides by active-duty members of the Army dropped slightly last year, from 162 in 2009 to 156 in 2010, possibly helped by the massive push the Army made to hire hundreds of mental health and substance abuse counselors and to get soldiers to seek mental health care. Unfortunately, suicides in National Guard and Reserve units went from 80 in 2009 to 145 in 2010:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/19/AR2011011902969.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Yale researchers found that they could predict the outcome of decisions by eavesdropping on the activity of a *single brain cell*. Research has identified areas of the brain involved in the choice between taking an immediate reward or deferring for a larger but delayed payoff, and the activity of a single brain cell indicates what decision will be made:
http://opac.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=8155
Canadian satellite company is going to launch a network of 78 inexpensive, small, low-flying (620 miles above the Earth) satellites that will provide worldwide mobile broadband coverage. The network is designed for enhanced coverage, fast launch and better network capacity (each satellite can transfer 12 Gbps). They say that they can use cheaper, more standard electronics due to their low elevation, unlike the MEO satellites used by Google-backed rival O3b:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/satellite-company-aims-relieve-terrestrial-mobile-broadband-network-congest/2011-01-20
Clearwire hoped to raise $2 bil by auctioning their spectrum, but unfortunately for them all the big companies aside from T-Mobile have dropped out of the auction. T-Mobile says that it is also looking at LightSquared for LTE, which
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1925446320110120?feedType=RSS&feedName=cyclicalConsumerGoodsSector&rpc=43
T-Mobile's CEO unveiled their turnaround plan to revitalize their company. One interesting tidbit is that 10% of their churn is due to T-Mobile customers leaving to get the iPhone. He also said that T-Mobile's 3G spectrum at 1.7 GHz is the major barrier to their getting the iPhone, since the iPhone doesn't support the 1.7 GHz band:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-ceo-humm-unveils-turnaround-plan-says-10-churn-caused-iphone/2011-01-20
Google is having a major shuffling of duties at the top levels--Larry Page will become CEO on April 4, Eric Schmidt will be Executive Chairman focused on deals (acquisitions) and partnerships, and Sergey Brin will focus on new products (that really is suited to his interests). I remember having dinners with Sergey often (Larry attended a few times) when they were just grad students at Stanford and hadn't even started working on what became Google, and then seeing them through the process when they were starting Google...amazing that now Larry will be CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/update-from-chairman.html
Google confirmed that 300,000 Android devices are being activated every day, with searches from Android devices (how Google makes its money) up 10x from last year:
http://www.androidcentral.com/google-confirms-300000-android-activations-day
Verizon's HTC Thunderbolt will be able to support simultaneous voice and data over LTE--I thought that all LTE phones would do that, but apparently some early LTE phones will not support simultaneous voice and data:
http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/19/verizons-htc-thunderbolt-will-support-simultaneous-voice-and-data-over-lte/
Google is testing an option that would allow users to port their phone numbers to Google Voice--this would be a great way for people to preserve their home phone numbers:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/19/google-voice-now-lets-you-port-your-own-phone-number/
Nintendo's 3D version (no 3D glasses needed) of their DS system will get a *lot* of attention when it is released on March 27. One thing I hadn't read about until now is that it has 3 cameras and the 2 outer cameras allow the 3D DS to take photos in 3D!
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=055&ACCT=0000100&ISSUE=1101&RELTYPE=IN&PRODCODE=00000&PRODLETT=EC&CommonCount=0
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/19/AR2011011902969.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Yale researchers found that they could predict the outcome of decisions by eavesdropping on the activity of a *single brain cell*. Research has identified areas of the brain involved in the choice between taking an immediate reward or deferring for a larger but delayed payoff, and the activity of a single brain cell indicates what decision will be made:
http://opac.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=8155
Canadian satellite company is going to launch a network of 78 inexpensive, small, low-flying (620 miles above the Earth) satellites that will provide worldwide mobile broadband coverage. The network is designed for enhanced coverage, fast launch and better network capacity (each satellite can transfer 12 Gbps). They say that they can use cheaper, more standard electronics due to their low elevation, unlike the MEO satellites used by Google-backed rival O3b:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/satellite-company-aims-relieve-terrestrial-mobile-broadband-network-congest/2011-01-20
Clearwire hoped to raise $2 bil by auctioning their spectrum, but unfortunately for them all the big companies aside from T-Mobile have dropped out of the auction. T-Mobile says that it is also looking at LightSquared for LTE, which
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1925446320110120?feedType=RSS&feedName=cyclicalConsumerGoodsSector&rpc=43
T-Mobile's CEO unveiled their turnaround plan to revitalize their company. One interesting tidbit is that 10% of their churn is due to T-Mobile customers leaving to get the iPhone. He also said that T-Mobile's 3G spectrum at 1.7 GHz is the major barrier to their getting the iPhone, since the iPhone doesn't support the 1.7 GHz band:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-ceo-humm-unveils-turnaround-plan-says-10-churn-caused-iphone/2011-01-20
Google is having a major shuffling of duties at the top levels--Larry Page will become CEO on April 4, Eric Schmidt will be Executive Chairman focused on deals (acquisitions) and partnerships, and Sergey Brin will focus on new products (that really is suited to his interests). I remember having dinners with Sergey often (Larry attended a few times) when they were just grad students at Stanford and hadn't even started working on what became Google, and then seeing them through the process when they were starting Google...amazing that now Larry will be CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/update-from-chairman.html
Google confirmed that 300,000 Android devices are being activated every day, with searches from Android devices (how Google makes its money) up 10x from last year:
http://www.androidcentral.com/google-confirms-300000-android-activations-day
Verizon's HTC Thunderbolt will be able to support simultaneous voice and data over LTE--I thought that all LTE phones would do that, but apparently some early LTE phones will not support simultaneous voice and data:
http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/19/verizons-htc-thunderbolt-will-support-simultaneous-voice-and-data-over-lte/
Google is testing an option that would allow users to port their phone numbers to Google Voice--this would be a great way for people to preserve their home phone numbers:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/19/google-voice-now-lets-you-port-your-own-phone-number/
Nintendo's 3D version (no 3D glasses needed) of their DS system will get a *lot* of attention when it is released on March 27. One thing I hadn't read about until now is that it has 3 cameras and the 2 outer cameras allow the 3D DS to take photos in 3D!
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=055&ACCT=0000100&ISSUE=1101&RELTYPE=IN&PRODCODE=00000&PRODLETT=EC&CommonCount=0