idl3mind.net

AT&T’s cellular Internet access will be more than five times faster in 2009 than it is this year, the company’s mobility chief Ralph de la Vega said today at Morgan Stanley’s annual Communications Conference. The executive says that the company’s HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) network will be improved from the theoretical peak downloads of 3.6 megabits per second common across most of the network today to about 20 megabits per second in 2009.

In spite of the increase in speed, the improvement won’t require a major reworking of AT&T’s existing cell tower infrastructure and will primarily involve a software upgrade for the network, de la Vega explains. He adds that an interim HSPA upgrade to 7.2 megabits per second is already “in the labs” and that the company’s Option network cards are already capable of the 7.2Mbps speed.

This quick ramp-up in speed is why AT&T isn’t concerned about the expansion of Sprint’s Xohm and the unified Clearwire WiMAX service, he says. Although WiMAX will be available this year and is considered 4G, AT&T’s time-to-market for its upgraded 3G will allow it to offer competitive speeds across a wider area sooner than the new challenger.

The company official also reiterated AT&T’s plans to offer 700MHz 4G access through the Long Term Evolution standard by approximately 2010, when peak downloads should near the 100-megabit mark. Verizon also plans 700MHz LTE of its own but plans to launch slightly earlier, unveiling an early network in late 2009.

Both the improved 3G as well as 4G are considered essential by most experts for broadband-level services on cellular networks, including two-way video calling, permanent video downloads, and real-time online apps such as multiplayer games. De la Vega acknowledged that AT&T would have to shift its emphasis from traditional calls to Internet features in the process.

“The future is all about data,” according to the AT&T senior official.

[via]

You’ve made it. You’re in the big city, living the dream. In an apartment the size of a small bathroom. With no kitchen in sight. Enter the Hansen Living Instant Kitchen ($TBD). This all-in-one unit contains everything you need — oven, gas jets, electric power, refrigerator and sink. Installation involves wrangling it up two flights of narrow stairs and hooking it up to a water supply and plugging it into an electric outlet. [via]

[via]

I’ve been playing Guitar Hero III quite a bit since the St Patrick’s Day parade on 3/17/2008 this year.

Just doing some surfing around on YouTube, these videos came across my path, and I just wanted to share them. They are both videos of Through Fire and Flames by Dragonforce. One is of this badass college kid playing TFaF on expert on GH3. The other is someone that composed TFoF in some sort of emulated Mario Paint composer program. Both are very impressive. I’m in awe of both individual videos.

There was an interruption in internet service yesterday from approximately 1:45 PM CST to approximately 8:00 PM CST. We lost upstream connectivity because there was a large fiber distribution cut in an area outside of Jackson.