700MHz Auction Starts Today!

Say "goodbye" to TV over the air, and hopefully "hello" to a faster, more competitive, easier to use data environment.
It all depends on who wins this auction, and the FCC will be posting info on their site.
With the USA falling farther and farther behind every other industrialized country in terms of broadband reach AND speed of our network (coupled with the fact that with no true competition in the ISP arena thanks to a collusive market, we pay more for less), it's getting more and more depressing to think that we invented the damn thing (the internet that is ... I know I know CERN and all that other mess... but come on).
This auction could be a watershed moment in the history of telecommunications. It could radically change how we consume data, how we pay for it. It could help spread fast cheap access to even the most disadvantaged or rural.

Or it could get gobbled up by some mega-corp and we'll continue to pay more for less, subsidizing these industries with tax dollars, paying for horrible service, and languishing behind the rest of the world.

I'll push it even farther. This could seal our irrelevance to the rest of the world. There, I said it.

Anywho, check out the auction at the FCC site, and if you really want to learn more about the players involved, and what impact this could have on us Amuricans, Gizmodo had a great write up that you should check out.

iTunes Hack for FREE RINGTONES

Just posted up on Engadget...

If you read my last story on this, it's just ridiculous to me that ringtones should cost extra on the iPhone. It's another example of them fundamentally missing the market.

If Apple had said "Those other companies make you PAY for ringtones, with Apple the music IS your ringtone!" or some other such nonsense, he could've driven so much more business to the iTunes music store. Instead Apple/AT&T are trying to shear a sheep that's already been shorn (I know that was meta).

The fact that music costs about .99 a song anywhere you go (except eMusic!), and ringtones cost about $1.99, is retarded (and I mean that in the classical sense of the word as in "to retard progress of the music/cellphone industry").

Anywho, there's a story up at Engadget telling us how to get around their 99 cents extra charge:

To get this to work, we hear you only need to rename an AAC track to .M4R, then double click it and iTunes
will automagically load it into iTunes for you. Next time you plug in
your iPhone to sync up, just check off the song in the Ringtones tab
and voila, instant tone gratification.

Read the rest here @ Engadget!

***EDIT***

Having read this over now, it doesn't look like this will work for music purchased through iTunes (which has copy protection on it, but should work fine for unprotected songs (like the ones you rip off CD's).

Also while I'm schilling for Engadget, they've posted a story up regarding your rights, and what protections you have when it comes to making your own ringtones.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: Is it Illegal to Make My Own Ringtones @ Engadget

Cingular (AT&T) Waiver Ruled "Unconscionable" By Circuit Court

"Like many companies, Cingular has a little thing in their contracts saying that if you use their service, you void your right to a class action lawsuit and instead have to go through "mandatory binding arbitration," which is basically an extra-judicial corporate court exempt from many of the basic laws and procedures and rights of real court."

This is a step in the right direction for those of us wanting a little more control over what services we use. I for one can't wait until companies like at&t, Verizon, and Sprint are finally sued over not allowing us to unlock our phones.

read more | digg story

Why isn't Stephen Hawking using this?

Now this is cool! I've been playing with this for the last hour.
AT&T has posted an online demo of their Text-to-Speech engine, and you can download what you type into it.

Here's a series of phone alerts I tried out for that "voice of the sci-fi computer" feel.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR!

So Much FUN!
someaudioguy some audio guy voice over voices text to speech software voice acting computer speaking narration announcer