Not like Congress has anything more pressing on its plate right now, but the suits on Capitol Hill have somehow found time to poke their noses in yet another minute aspect of our personal lives — lighting. All jesting aside, it was starting to look like those old, power-hungry incandescent bulbs wouldn’t have a second chance at life. If you’ll recall, a bill was passed way back in 2007 to kill ‘em off by 2012, but Republicans were attempting to reverse things in order to give Americans a bargain option in the years ahead. Despite a 233 to 193 vote in favor of the repeal earlier this week, the necessary super majority wasn’t reached. Not willing to be left in the dark, those adamant about getting it turned around shoved it into something else as an amendment late Friday, which did indeed get the oh-so-coveted stamp of approval. Translation? GE has a production line to reactivate, STAT.

Light bulb efficiency passes through US House, incandescent bulbs flicker in celebration originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite our commander-in-chief’s seemingly undying allegiance to BlackBerry, it looks like the federal government could be ready to make a break from RIM. According to a Washington Post article published yesterday, a number of agencies within the federal government are questioning their attachment to the standard-issue BlackBerry devices, and allowing government employees to bring in their own preferred methods of communication — among other things, Congress now allows the use of iPads and iPhones on the House floor and use of BlackBerrys at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has dropped from 1,000 to 700 in the past year. What’s more, the General Services Administration is currently shifting 17,000 employees to Gmail, a move it says could reduce expenses by 50 percent in the next five years. Likewise, the USDA will also move its email services to the cloud with Microsoft’s services, claiming $6 million in annual savings. Now, we doubt Obama’s going to turn a blind eye to RIM entirely, but he has been getting awfully cozy with that iPad.

BlackBerry finally sees competition within US government originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 16:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve heard Sony explain itself at length regarding the gigantic PlayStation Network breach, but this might be the most useful version of the story yet — it’s the one that Sony’s Kaz Hirai is forwarding to US Congress members concerned about your personal information. The official PlayStation.Blog has the full English document up on Flickr for your perusal, and we’ll warn you it’s much the same tale — Sony says all 77 million PSN and Qriocity accounts have had information stolen, but the company’s still not sure exactly which pieces have gone missing, whether credit card numbers are compromised or no, or who could be behind the hack. Sony does say, however, that it had 12.3 million credit card numbers on file, and 5.6 million of them from the US, and that investigators found a file on one of the servers named “Anonymous” with the words “We are Legion” inside it. Hard to draw many conclusions from that.

Sony responds to Congress: all 77 million PSN accounts compromised, finger pointed at Anonymous originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 12:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We didn’t exactly need any more evidence that the LG Revolution would be the first Android phone to support Netflix, but a new, seemingly authentic Verizon document posted by an Android Central forum member has now all but confirmed that fact. What’s more, considering that Verizon touts Netflix as one of the phone’s main features, it seems safe to assume that the app will also come pre-installed for your convenience. As you can see, Verizon also says that the phone is “coming soon,” which is unfortunately about as specific a release date as we’ve seen so far. Wondering what’s in store? Then you might want to check out the hands-on we did with the app back at Mobile World Congress in February.

Verizon document suggests LG Revolution will have Netflix pre-installed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Could Toshiba’s nameless Honeycomb tablet finally have a proper name? Thanks to a helpful tipster, we now have our clearest indication yet. Toshiba just filled a trademark application for the name “Thrive” last week and, as you can see above, it clearly describes the goods and services being trademarked as a tablet computer. What’s more, it seems that the company’s also gone on a bit of a domain name buying spree as of late, with it snapping up a number of “Thrive” variations including ToshibaThrive.com, ThriveTablet.com, ThriveToshiba.com and TabletThrive.com (none of which actually go anywhere just yet). Of course, this isn’t the first possible moniker for the tablet that’s cropped up. The name “Antares” surfaced way back at Mobile World Congress, which could account for the ANT model name we also spotted, although it certainly sounds more like a codename than “Thrive” does to our ears — and, as far as we can tell, Toshiba hasn’t attempted to register a trademark for Antares (or any other names recently, for that matter).

[Thanks, Babyfacemagee]

Trademark filing, domain names suggest Toshiba’s tablet might be named ‘Thrive’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know how ebooks are gradually taking over paper books as the most popular format for the consumption of the written word? Well, that’s bad, mmkay? Publishers, librarians, and booksellers are losing their jobs and It’s all entirely the iPad’s fault. Forget the Kindle’s millions of sales, the iPad did it. In a technophobic rant to rival all technophobic rants that have come before it, Illinois Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. accuses the iPad’s popularity for the current level of unemployment in his nation, before proceeding to sculpt a rickety argument about how the First Amendment to the US Constitution is being exploited for the benefit of China. See his tirade on video after the break.

Continue reading The iPad is taking away American jobs, Jesse Jackson Junior’s sanity (video)

The iPad is taking away American jobs, Jesse Jackson Junior’s sanity (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC confirms Flyer tablet will get Honeycomb… sometime originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Manufacturers are constantly optimising the driving range for electric vehicles, and sure enough, a Japanese startup recently made a breakthrough with its first prototype. Dubbed the SIM-LEI, this cute four-wheeler from SIM-Drive sips juice off a Toshiba 24.9kWh lithium ion battery, and can go from zero to 100km/h (62mph) in just 4.8 seconds, with maximum speed topping at 150km/h (93mph). What’s more impressive, though, is that SIM-Drive managed to squeeze out a driving range of 333km (207 miles) on a JC-08 cycle (a standardised test that simulates driving in congested Japanese city traffic), putting the LEI well ahead of its competitors on the chart — Nissan’s Leaf does about 100 miles, for instance. Sadly, mass-production won’t kick off until 2013, which should hopefully let the others do a bit of catching up with this remarkable newcomer.

SIM-Drive’s SIM-LEI electric car achieves 207-mile driving range in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a lot of folks out there drinking and driving, and Congress sees DUI checkpoint location apps as enablers of all that cruising and boozing. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats have decided to use their powers of political persuasion to address the issue and ask Google, Apple, and RIM to pull such apps from their respective stores. The letter didn’t name names, but Reid and co. want offending software yanked or “altered to remove the DUI checkpoint functionality” to prevent checkpoint circumvention. Of course, the creators of one such app, PhantomAlert, claim it provides such information to deter drunk driving by letting users know the risk of getting caught (yeah, right). RIM agreed to comply with the congressional request while Google said no thanks, but mum’s the word out of Cupertino — time will tell if Apple gets on the banning bandwagon too.

Senator Harry Reid calls for DUI checkpoint app removal: RIM’s game, Google isn’t, Apple’s undecided originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s always one. Back in the winter of 2009, Senator Kerry made public his request for Fox and Time Warner to keep the Bowl Games online, and one Chuck Schumer took to writing an open letter to Steve Jobs regarding the iPhone reception woes that eventually led to a dedicated press event (mostly) disputing the matter. Now, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is urging the FCC and DOJ to “take a close look at the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger,” noting that the outcome would undoubtedly have a huge impact on consumer choice, price and service in the wireless industry.

Of course, it’s not like these two wouldn’t be doing just that in the coming months, but it’s good to see a fire starting early in Congress to make sure due diligence is done. Having a carrier that provides service to 42 percent of all US wireless subscribers has the potential to seriously shift the economics of things, and potentially more interesting are the implications of a rejection. In fact, many are suggesting that AT&T will likely have to sell off major assets and promise expansion to rural / poor areas in order to gain approval, which ties in nicely to Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead’s own comments regarding concessions. We’re also hearing that regulators could take as long as 18 months to fully investigate, and you can bet we’ll be following the play-by-play as it all unfolds.

Senator asks DOJ and FCC to do their jobs, provide friction for AT&T / T-Mobile tie-up originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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