Wayne Rash

In an effort to speed up a product release after the shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech, MobileSphere has announced an emergency SMS notification service earlier than planned. “The timing was increased due to the need that arose from last weeks tragedy,” said Tracy Wemett, who handles public relations for MobileSphere in an e-mail to eWEEK. […]

Cingular Communications/AT&T is announcing a pair of new HSDPA-capable laptop data cards that work globally, and will work with any laptop computer having either an ExpressCard slot or a USB port. The ExpressCard version started shipping on April 25, while the USB card starts shipping in about a week. Both cards are part of AT&Ts […]

Colleges and universities across the United States are moving quickly to adopt text messaging as their first line of emergency notification, experts said. The rush to find ways to send tens of thousands of SMS messages to student cell phones was only intensified this week by the tragic events at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Va. […]

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion announced late April 19 that it has determined the apparent cause of the shutdown that stopped e-mail service to BlackBerry users throughout North America earlier in the week. According to a statement from the Waterloo, Ontario-based company, the shutdown on April 17 was related to a software upgrade that went […]

BlackBerry users can breathe a sigh of relief today, April 18, now that their BlackBerry devices are back up and running. However, its not clear that all e-mail messages that formed a massive backlog on RIMs servers have been delivered yet. Blackberry service for most North American users went out around 8 p.m. EST on […]

The inability of students and others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., to make cell phone calls during the April 16 shooting tragedy added to the chaos surrounding the events of the day, students and others have reported in media interviews. Many students reported being unable to gain access to the wireless phone system either […]

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission has begun action on two items involving broadband deployment in the United States. The first is a Notice of Inquiry into whether broadband services are being provided to all Americans in a timely and reasonable fashion. The second is a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on methods of collecting information needed to […]

Cisco Systems in the summer of 2007 will begin shipping new third-generation wireless cards that add an additional connectivity option to its Integrated Services Router. The new cards, which can be purchased in either CDMA or GSM versions, are designed to work either as a backup to an existing land-line WAN or as the primary […]

When the Virginia Tech Hokies football team takes the field, 18 of the players are connected to a computer that sits quietly on the sidelines. Every hit, every tackle and every fall is recorded in a Sybase database that keeps track of head impacts. Eventually, the data being gathered on the Virginia Tech football players […]

Cell phones with push-to-talk capabilities are available throughout most of the United States from Sprint Nextel and Cingular, but they have not been available in Alaska until now. On April 10, Kodiak Networks announced that Cellular One has offered its push-to-talk service to Cellular One customers in all of the areas it serves in Alaska, […]

BURLINGTON, Mass.—iRobot has taken a major step in encouraging the development of autonomous household robots with its Create device. The Create includes the chassis and brains of an iRobot Roomba, along with an interface device that allows it to communicate with the outside world. The vacuum cleaner parts have been removed to make room for […]

ORLANDO, Fla.—If there was an overriding theme to the Spring edition of the 2007 CTIA trade show, it was entertainment. What buzz existed was all about phones that show movies, television shows, or play music in one or another format or means of delivery. The Apple iPhone, despite its near total absence from the show, […]