Wednesday, June 12, 2013

EE now offering flat-rate unlimited broadband and call packages Mobile





EE's 4G may grab the headlines, but the company's also offering land line phone and internet services with a (Kevin) Bacony-twist. Now, the network is coaxing existing customers away from rival ISPs like Virgin and BT with six new unlimited broadband and call packages. The £5-per-month basic tier will give you unlimited ADSL and weekend calls, while bluer bloods can fork out £29 a month to get unlimited fiber (up to speeds of 76 Mbps), unlimited calls to landlines and 1,000 free mobile minutes each week. We've added a chart for comparison after the break, assuming you don't reach for your wallet every time you see a product pitched by the guy from Footloose.

Bing Maps adds 270TB worth of Bird's Eye imagery, its largest update yet





If you thought the 215TB of satellite imagery Bing Maps added last year was hefty, think again. In what is the largest installment of Bird's Eye shots yet, the mapping folks in Redmond piled on a whopping 270TB of high-res flyover images to their database yesterday. Some of the more notable (read: gorgeous) additions include overviews of Rome and Milan in Italy, Stavanger in Norway and Kaanapali in Hawaii. Aside from the new visuals, Bing also added a couple of improvements to its Venue Maps with an expanded points of interest list and a new "Report a problem" system so users can inform Bing if a location is marked incorrectly. So go on, head over to the source, select any of the amazing locales and take a little free trip to the other side of the world.

Thorough Google Glass teardown reveals 570mAh battery capacity





Among the handful of Google Glass teardowns (and attempts at doing so) out there, this one by Star Simpson and Scott Torborg is one of the most thorough. The pair deconstructed the eyewear down to components so small they fit on a dime, using considerable force to tear through glue and plastic. Peeling back the cover of the battery enclosure revealed a non-replaceable 2.1 Wh (570mAh) single-cell lithium polymer unit. Simpson and Torborg note that while they do not recommend dismantling Glass (it's hard enough to get your hands on one), they didn't encounter major hurdles when they did and even managed to put it back together in working order. Most of you are familiar with what Google Glass looks like by now, but if you want to see all its parts individually, hit the source below.

Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 4D headphones ears-on Hands-on





In keeping with its propensity toward acronymed products, Mad Catz today showed off its F.R.E.Q. 4D headphones. The peripherals are notable for a couple of reasons: first is that the company dumped the line's mic arm for an internal version -- without, the company promises, sacrificing sound quality. Even more notable are the included ViviTouch actuators, which bring rumbling feedback directly to your ears, so you can feel those explosions where it really counts.

We tried the headphones on, and while they were pretty comfortable, we can't say that we were particularly impressed with the promised rumbling delivered via a bass test. Perhaps it was the sound being used -- or that the headphones are still in beta -- but ultimately we didn't feel all that much. We're sure Mad Catz will have that figured out for the final version -- if not, however, they may just serve as cool-looking head massagers.