There’s no easy answer to erasing a staggering trillion-plus dollar deficit in a federal budget, but you’ve got to start somewhere — and Obama’s looking at the nation’s wireless carriers as cash cows just waiting to be milked. The President’s proposed budget for 2010 calls for an increase in spectrum license user fees from $50 million to $200 million, with further increases to $550 million over the course of the next decade, all of which would be on top of the billions carriers have already shelled out in spectrum auctions. A good way to bring in some extra cash? Yeah, probably, but considering that carriers will be more than happy to pass the increases on to consumers, let’s just be straight: it’s a tax. [Via El Reg ] Filed under: Cellphones , Wireless Obama’s proposed 2010 budget juices carriers for more cash originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read  |  Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

This may look like a beloved iMac, but make no mistake, it’s just a shell of its former self. CGCC forum member Logicdustbin decided to gut the all-in-one and replace its innards with a Sega Dreamcast and 15-inch LCD monitor. The result? The iCast, a beautiful homage to simpler times. Hit up the video after the break to see this Fronk-en-shteen in action, playing a game that’ll assuredly prepare our children for a post-apocalyptic world. [Via hack a day ] Continue reading Apple iMac murdered, reborn as all-in-one DreamCast mod Filed under: Gaming Apple iMac murdered, reborn as all-in-one DreamCast mod originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Feb 2009 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read  |  Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

What you might’ve missed about Sir Howard becoming Emperor of Sony is that it means he won the war to reorganize it —meaning Sony’s stuff could become awesome again. There’d been rumors of a drastic shakeup at Sony involving the slaying of “sacred cows.” This is likely it, since Sir Howard wants to drag Sony out of slavish, single-minded production of hardware into a more unified direction that’s focused on software and connectivity, where Sony’s always been, to put it lightly, shitty

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Sony is rumored to be following up its Cyber-shot H50 with the DSC-HX1, a 20x superzoom cam that shoots 1080p video, a competitor to Canon’s already announced SX1 .

Global publishing giant Hearst, the name behind newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle and magazines like Esquire and Popular Mechanics , is planning a wireless e-reader with a large screen. (Yes, this is the same company that brought you the E Ink edition of Esquire .) While Hearst has been silent regarding exact product specifications, we do know that the device will feature a 8.5×11ish screen to appease publishers used to large page layouts, and Hearst will allow the device’s “underlying technology” to be adopted by other publishers (we’re assuming that means without licensing fees). According to Fortune , we’re likely to see the device this year. And with Sony giving up their early lead in the e-reader world, it’s none too soon that the Kindle will get some friendly marketplace competition—even if Hearst isn’t openly chasing after the book market. If high costs of producing paper goods are hurting the media, I’m not sure it makes sense to get into the game of something more expensive to read from today — when such a device already exists from Amazon — even if it saves them a few bucks tomorrow. Oh yeah, and magazines are better in color (on LCD or paper). [ Fortune ]

In an MTV interview with John Koller, head of PSP marketing in the US, Sony should have set the record straight on those nasty PSP 2 rumors . But they didn’t. MTV Multiplayer: Ok.