I’m not really into Fallout 3 , but the popular video game begins with the idea of starting in a “sheltertown” before journeying into the wasteland. Fallout shelters since the beginning of the Atomic Age have usually been nothing more than just holes in the ground, but the Vivos “ultimate underground shelter network” is one that I would be glad to stay in. Not that I want some sort of global disaster to occur. I am just saying that the accommodations look much better than a bunker with shelves of canned food. According to Vivos: Complexes will be deep underground, airtight, fully self-contained shelters designed to survive virtually any catastrophe, or threat scenario including natural disasters, a nuclear blast, chemical and biological weapons, or even social anarchy. I have included a video of Fox News talking to the head of Vivos, and he says that he has built these 10 million dollar complexes underground in the Mojave Desert. That is about 100 miles from a major city, or ground zero for a nuclear strike, theoretically.

The service in New York provided by AT&T is known to be terrible with poor reception and constant dropped calls. If you are a frequent visitor to New York or a resident you feel the hatred for AT&T’s cell phone service. With the completed 850MHZ 3G upgraded network in New York AT&T is hoping this will solve wireless reception issues. With as much as 30% of iPhone calls previously dropped in New York this network expansion should dramatically decrease the amount of calls dropped. Since the update there have been reports stating that voice quality has improved 47% since last quarter.

This interesting Sprint EVO commercial has just hit the tubes — and the TVs, as well. For the network’s red-hot-though-as-yet-unlaunched device, the marketing folks have decided to make some pretty grandiose comparisons. Let’s gloss over whatever the narrator is saying, which is something along the lines of, “First isn’t later; it’s now.” If you have any idea what that means, you get a prize.* *Not really. Moving on to the imagery, we first see a prehistoric-looking wheel rolling into a velocipede, which tumbles into a locomotive standing on end. This turns into a domino chain of famously game-changing, ground-breaking inventions knocking into one another. A phonograph knocks over a microscope (we’re hoping this isn’t intended to be chronolgical), which bashes into a typewriter and a dangling cluster of lightbulbs. A telephone, a camera, an automobile and a wall of televisions also line up for our consideration.

With the introduction of Verizon’s 4G data network, LTE, the company plans to return to the old days of tiered data pricing. This would be a relief for customers wallets and data usage. With annoying 5GB data caps on current “unlimited” data plans this is another pro. Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam announced tiered pricing at Barclays conference in New york earlier this week. McAdam stated that tiered pricing would make more sense and be more economical for consumers. McAdam said this is due to the number of devices that people would be connecting at once to the network. This would benefit the network by slowing the amount of data traffic and babying customers off unlimited data plans. These unlimited data plans have led to capacity problems for networks like AT&T

After eight months of waiting, Deutsche Telkom and France Telecom have merged their UK operations to form Britain’s largest communications company, now know as Everything Everywhere. The 50:50 joint venture will merge the corporate operations and network resources of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK to create an umbrella company that will continue to operate the two distinctive brands. Combining the best of both Orange and T-Mobile UK, the newly merged Everything Everywhere now boasts: 713 retail stores, 16,000 employees, and a customer base of 30 million — which exceeds that of rival O2. Hit the jump for the full press release. ORANGE AND T-MOBILE UNVEIL JOINT VENTURE NAME, TEAM, VISION AND PLANS Companies outline vision to give customers instant access to everything, everywhere Everything Everywhere: One company, running two of Britain’s most famous brands – Orange and T-Mobile Best for customers: Scale of new company allows delivery of best value, best choice, best coverage and best quality in the industry Biggest Network: Plans for a single super-network that will give bigger and better coverage for customers, with a smaller impact on the environment Benefits begin this year: Roaming across both networks due later this year, at no additional cost to the customer Boost for Sales: Biggest operator retail presence on the high street with over 700 stores today Brilliant Service: Focus on quality, to ensure customers receive the very best service, helping people discover more from their mobile Acceleration in new markets: New assault on business market, continued leadership in wholesale, and focus on new revenue streams One Team: New Leadership Team announced to take the company forward London. 11 May 2010

Set top boxes seem to get more and more popular these days, and it is no wonder since folks have been conditioned to get things instantly as well as on-demand, leading to an ever increasing pace in our lifestyle which has side effects such as unwanted stress as well as being in a rush all the time. Well, Western Digital surely doesn’t help slow down your life, as it introduces its WD TV Live HD media player that boasts network capability and Full HD 1080p resolution support, making it the first network media player that is compatible with Windows 7 in the market. The WD TV Live HD media player is pretty easy to use, as virtually anyone is able to play media stored on USB and network drives, through any PC on the home network, alongside content from popular websites, all in the comfort of your living room and on the biggest screen in your home. Makes perfect sense to upgrade that TV now, eh? With the help of Windows 7 Play To feature, users are able to initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the WD TV Live HD media player and home entertainment systems using just about any Windows 7-based PC on their network. As long as your media file is compatible as well as accessible from the PC, you can play it straight to the WD TV Live just by right clicking on the file name in the folder or directly from within Windows Media Player 12 while selecting WD TV Live HD media player as the playback device of choice. Of course, current WD TV Live owners will need to make sure their device is updated to the latest firmware before they are able to take advantage of the Windows 7 Play To feature

In the midst of Verizon building it’s 4G network up and now using the 700 MHz spectrum acquired through the last FCC auction, T-Mobile is now considering building it’s own 4G network as well to compete with the times. The company will be doing so by using LTE (Long Term Evolution tech.), a company that owns investments in the sattelite company SkyTerra. It is said that T-Mobile’s 4G network will be covering most of the nation by the year 2015, which is quickly approaching. The FCC has given LTE the go-ahead to do such a feat, and has placed restrictions on how much may be used of the network by both AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sarah Collins is freelance journalist and student at Northwestern University. She also writes for Texas Monthly , A.V. Club Chicago , Chicago Parent , Venus Zine , and Punknews . It only takes knowing one Lost fan to understand the addictive power of television. But not everyone has the time or energy to hunt for hints about who is good, evil, or dead this week.

In February we reported that legendary angel investor Ron Conway was raising a small seed fund for SV Angel from outside investors – which is notable because for the last decade or so he has only invested his own money in startups. Today Conway came by our studio for an unscheduled talk and right off the bat announced that the new fund is now closed, and that over demand led the SV Angel team to double the size of the fund to $20 million. Around fifteen investments have now been closed in the new fund. Conway also spoke about the big trends in tech right now. There are three “megatrends” as he puts it – real time data, the social web and flash marketing

It’s just a tech preview, but our favorite high end Media Center maker, Niveus , is showing off Project Snowbird at NAB this week. Niveus hopes its PC client will help cable and satellite providers bring more premium HD content to the PC. This version was copying and streaming content from a Dish Network DVR and works with Sling’s protocol, DLNA and DTCP-IP — you remember it right, the CableLabs certified DRM for IP transport ? Also baked in is Microsoft’s PlayReady so envisioning playing the content on a Zune HD or in Media Center aren’t too unfounded either.

A video response to Iggy the cat pawing the iPad yesterday has solved internet’s biggest dilemma. Yes, cats are better than dogs. Though kudos to Chloe the corgi for recognizing pure evil and barking like mad. [ Kotaku ] More

Here we go open source fans, the first debut of MeeGo 1.0 running on Intel silicon — an Acer Aspire One netbook (the 532h , from the looks of it) with a Pinetrail processor to be precise — sporting a simplified UI that looks to have inherited far more Moblin DNA than Maemo. You’ve got tasks, appointments, most-used apps, and a quick-launch bar all up front. We’re also seeing 3D gaming support; Zones, Applications, People, Internet, Media and Settings tabs; and real-time social networking integration for Twitter, Facebook, and instant messaging with task bar alerts. Can’t wait to see how the MeeGo user experience translates to a smaller, say, 4.8-inch Moorestown device or the TI OMAP -based followup to the Nokia N900 later this year. Until then, check the video after the break. Update : Second video added showing MeeGo running on a TV, an unidentified smartphone (!), and digital coupon machine. It’s worth mentioning that this is Intel’s take on the MeeGo UI and Nokia’s will likely look much different. [Thanks, Atlantian, pdexter] Continue reading Intel gives MeeGo 1.0 its first public performance (video) Intel gives MeeGo 1.0 its first public performance (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:44:00 EST

Why would Amazon have to spend $1.7m on security for Jeff Bezos ? Crazed Nook fans? Whatever the reason, it appears Amazon stepped up $500,000 extra on security between 2008 and 2009 for their bald CEO. More

Raising funding is hard any way you slice it, but the emergence of cause-base resources is helping pave the way for ethical startups that might have otherwise gone unseen. A few years ago we featured 13 seed funding options for entrepreneurs . Since then a few investment groups have come forward with a different approach. One such funder is the education-focused incubator Startl . Sponsor As mentioned in Fred Wilson’s latest blog post , Startl is similar to seed fund incubators like Techstars and YCombinator except that its a nonprofit organization focused specifically on advancing new learning experiences. While the program offers a mobile app design bootcamp in New York , it’s Startl’s 3 month accelerator program hosted by Philadelphia-based DreamIt Ventures and Ideo design firm that will allow entrepreneurs to learn the ins and outs of creating an education-based business. DreamIt celebrated a graduation and demo day in August and the new Startl program will be folded into the next cycle of DreamIt participants

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On , a column about consumer technology. One of the conundrums facing device makers today is how to add wireless connectivity to their products. E-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook use internet access primarily for selling you more content, so it can be completely subsidized. Laptops, on the other hand, can consume large amounts of data, and so plans can run $60 per month and have capped bandwidth, even at that price. Apple and AT&T’s iPad pricing scheme attempts a compromise: a $15 prepaid for a minimal 250 MB per month that could serve the needs of many users (especially with a Flash-less browser and sideloaded video delivery), along with the option of a $30 unlimited plan. For many users, though, there is another option: bring your own broadband. Last year, Novatel Wireless’s MiFi, launched in the U.S.