Filed under: ATT, EDGE, HSDPA

We’re getting reports from all over that AT&T customers are having trouble with 3G and EDGE data. A majority of the complaints are coming from the Midwest / Chicago areas, where things seem to be down entirely, but we’ve also heard from folks as far away as Florida. Team Engadget hasn’t hit any snags in New York or Vegas where we’re currently situated, but let us know if you’re having troubles wherever you might be — and what color crayon to use for this fancy “threat level” printout we’ve got pinned to the wall.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Original post by Paul Miller

A “squishable” soft caterpillar-like robot developed by Tufts University will be DISPLAYED in February and March at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The creepy robot, called the Softbot II, will be part of an exhibition called “Design and the Elastic Mind.”

Original post by Mike

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

Tidy, huh? If you’re an iMac or Apple Studio Display owner then you’ll see the immediate appeal of this LowKey Stand from Macessity. Constructed of 0.1085-inch thick steel “power-coated” to match your rig, it neatly hides your new slim Apple keyboard from view. There’s also a powered 4-port USB port up front which helps to offset the stand’s $60 price a tad.

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Software, Linux

While Android steals the overwhelming majority of attention, the LiMo Foundation has been plodding along creating a Linux-based mobile standard of its own with the backing of industry heavyweights like NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, and Nokia’s new baby, Trolltech. That effort is finally starting to bear some fruit, with California-based Azingo announcing Azingo Mobile, now officially the world’s first LiMo-based software stack. Targeted squarely at handset manufacturers, the platform is divided into four segments — Entertainment, Internet, Productivity, and Communications — that together form the basis for a modern, kick-ass handset with Linux roots. It’s available for immediate licensing, though there’s no telling how long it’ll take before we actually see it on the street.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Carbon nanotubes have a ton of promise, and we’ve seen a lot of prospective applications for the tech, but researchers at Stanford, working with Toshiba, have managed to demonstrate the first use of nanotubes in chips that run at commercially-viable speeds. The chip features 256 ring oscillators and packs over 11,000 transistors in just one hundredth of a square inch. When wired with the nanotubes and powered up, the chip ran at speeds between 800MHz and 1.06GHz — not desktop speeds, to be sure, but still promising. The team says that while the experiment bodes well for the future, we shouldn’t expect any direct applications yet — but you know we’re dreaming of tiny implantable supercomputers anyway.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It might interest you that shortly before Google went public in 2004, Larry, Sergey and CEO Eric Schmidt made a 20 year pact. According to an interview in Fortune magazine, the trio says, “We agreed the month before we went public that we should work together for 20 years.” If the promise is carried to fruition, Schmidt will be 69, Page 51, and Brin 50 before they’re eligible to retire. Of course, none of this is legally binding. But isn’t a gentleman’s agreement more desirable in a world where “do no evil” is a fundamental axiom? Sure, dreamers.

[Via Reuters]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Handsets, Android

Stick this one firmly in the rumor category, since all the verbiage that’s been thrown around about this story still traces back to one single source: a slightly ill-informed article done up in MarketingWeek in the UK. The article cites unspecified “senior industry sources,” and goes on about how this is Dell and Google working closely together on what is more or less the “Gphone.” Since we have no reason to believe Google is going to jeopardize its Android OS by getting extra-friendly with one specific manufacturer, the primary weight we can give to this rumor is that fact that Dell picked up a former Motorola executive, Ron Garriques, to run its Global Consumer Group early last year. Other rumors have cropped up over the years about Dell moving in this direction, so it certainly wouldn’t signal the apocalypse if a Dell-branded Android phone does show up at this rumored unveiling at 3GSM, but giving how early on Android is at the moment, we’ll believe it when we see it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Sprint, Misc

We knew full well that a contactless payment trial would soon be underway in the city by the Bay, and now it’s finally ready for use by 230 guinea pigs. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of details on the Samsung handsets and the technology itself, but we do know that the program is being closely watched in hopes of it operating quite smoothly. If indeed that happens, it could be “expanded,” presumably allowing others in the area to have their bank account dinged with the swipe of a cell each time they need a lift. Furthermore, a video clip at CBS5 shows the pilot phone being used to snag some totally nourishing grub from Jack in the Box. Hungry for more? Hit up the read link to take a peek yourself.

[Thanks, Hans]

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Original post by Darren Murph