By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

For years now people have complained about a “hidden” Comcast cap. Reports indicate that today Comcast is set to confirm the rumors over an upcoming 250 GB cap. Tell me: do you prefer knowing, or not knowing?

While this is bound to raise hackles among consumers, compare this to Frontier’s recently implemented cap: 5 GB. Ouch, that’s pretty much nothing. With companies such as Disney and Netflix pushing consumers to use more bandwidth, we seem to have an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

The “Day of Reckoning,” is Oct. 1st, as Comcast announced.

We’ve listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive. Today, we’re announcing that beginning on October 1, 2008, we will amend our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) available at http://www.comcast.net/terms/use/ and establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month per account for all residential customers.

The good thing is there’s no mention of overage fees. It seems this just quantifies the “hidden” number that Comcast never clarified before. That said, it seems most won’t run into this, as most people didn’t run afoul of the “hidden” value before and get their service terminated.

And no mention of any other DMCA-related add-ons. To be honest, I’ve been wanting to see clarity around their “hidden” cap for some time.

Of course, as I pointed out, more and more uses for broadband are being created, and thus, as time goes on, some may actually run into this cap. Probably not now, but someday. Something to think about.

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

When I was at CNET we were obsessed with “Rascals” or personal mobility scooters. We would send away for literature and post pics on our office doors. Don’t ask me why. But I couldn’t help but marvel at this new concept design for a new and much improved mobility device.

This concept design by Ji-Hoon Hong features an adjustable seat that can rotate and elevate. It also has indicator lights and a more aerodynamic body shape.

Alice: Makes getting old look zoomy and it doesn’t say “meet me at the mall” nearly as much. What do you think?

Current “Rascal” Model

New and Improved Design

Source: tuvie

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

You’ll recall I wrote that a Swedish newspaper took an iPhone to a lab for tests on its antenna. However, noting that the iPhone used in the tests had been performing well, the paper asked for some volunteers with misbehaving iPhones, so they could repeat the test.

Peter Planstedt and Stephanie Semic gave their iPhones to the paper to test. The repeat tests showed the same results; none of the three tested phones had problems related to their antennas.

According to the paper:

Charlie (Orlenius) tests Peter’s iPhone a little extra and checks the TIS value also at frequencies on the outer edges, to see if the 3G connectivity problem shows up there. But the results are good there as well. The phones of Peter and Stephanie have no problems with the 3G communication in the test chamber. They send and receive signals in a fully normal manner. They do not disconnect earlier than the other we have tested when the signal becomes weaker.

- There is nothing unusual or strange with the performance of the antennas. If these mobiles do not keep the connection with the network like they should, the reason is not the antennas or how they are mounted, says Charlie.

Of course, it doesn’t rule out issues in other areas of the iPhone. Users around the world are still complaining, and not about speed, as Wired’s test focused on, but about dropped calls, missed calls, and no service at all when other phones work fine.

Here’s another real-life example: I was in a hospital today getting some tests. Along with my iPhone 3G I had a Motorola Q9h and a Nokia. All the phones dropped into EDGE in the building.

However, when I tried to make a call with the iPhone, it failed twice. I also received a call that was dropped. Meanwhile, my Q9h and Nokia were working fine, even getting emails while the iPhone couldn’t even browse.

So it seems the issues are not limited to 3G, but network sensitivity to either 3G or EDGE. All based on empirical evidence mind you, though not in a lab. Hopefully, there will be some solution from Apple soon. I love the phone, but am growing weary of all the issues. Seeing a problem in EDGE mode as well: makes me lose hope for a fix.

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

The glass and mercury thermometer is still going strong in some households, but today there is hope for a safer and more digital alternative. The Vicks Forehead thermometer is a simple device that scans body temp from the temple to the forehead and even changes color when it detects a fever. A special temperature sensor measures heat from the temporal artery to provide super-fast results. Green is good, yellow caution, and red = no school today for you! No word on pricing and availability yet, but look for it in a drugstore near you. Great design!

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Longtime readers know I am not a fan of Apple products. But, I have embraced the iPhone, and despite the hype and fanboys and even my own anti-Apple bias, I consider the iPhone UI and integrated App store so evolved, no phone comes close.

Case in point, the beautiful Nokia N85. I have used many a Nokia and love the Zeiss optics, and the overall ease of the phone as a phone, and the camera as a pretty damn good camera. The N85 takes things up a notch, especially if you like to play games.

It comes with N-Gage gaming and 10 pre-loaded games, plays music, has a built-in FM transmitter, and built-in GPS. The camera is now 5 megapixels with the stunning Carl Zeiss optics as before, and and the integrated LED flash helps capture still images and DVD-quality videos at 30 fps. The 2.6″ OLED screen is bright and modern. Price: $600 - $650

We Say: Ouch on the price, but it’s still a sweet camera phone.

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Alltop.com is a great site run by my startup hero Guy Kawasaki. If you haven’t been yet, the site basically aggregates top blogs and websites around a topic. If you have an iPhone, bookmarking an Alltop site is a must.

Here are some great Alltop bookmarks:

Tech
http://tech.alltop.com/

Gadgets
http://gadgets.alltop.com/

Mobile
http://mobile.alltop.com/

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

I’m in the market for a new iPod doc and clock combo. My current unit won’t work with the iPhone 3G, and to be honest, I could use a little more room on the nightstand. The CVT i3101 is an iPod/iPhone/Doc/Clock that is also wall-mountable. And at $99 the price is right.

Product Page
100miligrams via fosfor

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Leaks, leaks, leaks. Assuming this one is true, we now know pretty much what the HTC Dream, codenamed the T-Mobile G1, will look like. Or rather, we pretty much have confirmation of what the HTC Dream will look like.

According to the AndroidGuys blog, the above diagram (click to enlarge) is the HTC Dream. What brings more credibility to this is the similarity between the above and the FCC diagrams we saw earlier, as well as the leaked video.

The phone’s back prominently displays the Google logo, showing off the well-known brand name.

Details on the more are as follows (naturally, take everything with a grain of salt): More