In an effort keep the troubled LightSquared

from the brink of defaulting on its debt, its founder will step down from the company. While it doesn't look immediate, (people "familiar with the negotiations" are using the word "eventually") it's Philip Falcone'

s latest attempt to extend a debt-term violation that expires this morning. According to the same sources, if the initial extension is okayed, Falcone and LightSquared's lenders are aiming for a greater period of around 18 months to repay $1.6 billion in loans and pass the FCC's requirements

for its network. The company's board is still deliberating on whether to accept the deal, which would stop the company filing for bankruptcy protection. Unfortunately, it looks like those new 4G network dreams just got hazier.

LightSquared founder Philip Falcone to step down 'eventually', attempts to dodge the bankruptcy bullet

originally appeared on Engadget

on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.

If Amazon's been your internet safe haven from the ravages of sales tax

, you may want to sit down. As part of a settlement with the great state of Texas, Bezos' baby will start collecting the state's requisite 6.25-percent sales tax on July 1st. The settlement resolves the online retailer's ongoing dispute with the Lone Star state

, which claimed that Amazon owed $269 million in back taxes. In addition to taking up collection, Amazon has agreed to create at least 2,500 jobs and invest a minimum of $200 million in capital investments, though it admits no fault, and believes "the assessment was without merit," according to its latest SEC filing. Grouped in with Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota and Washington, this agreement makes Texas the sixth state to collect sales tax from Amazon -- and California, Nevada and Arizona will join the collection club in due time. Check out the source links below for the Texas Comptroller's official statement and more reading on Amazon's tax agreements across the nation.

Amazon to collect sales tax, create 2,500 jobs in Texas

originally appeared on Engadget

on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.

Undeterred by the fact that even humans struggle to interpret certain gestures, Huawei says it's allocating a chunk of its growing R&D budget

to new motion-sensing technology for smartphones and tablets. The company's North American

research chief, John Roese, told Computerworld that he wants to allow "three-dimensional interaction" with devices using stereo front-facing cameras and a powerful GPU to make sense of the dual video feed. Separately, the Chinese telecoms company is also putting development cash into a cloud computing project that promises to "change the economics of storage by an order of magnitude." Roese provided scant few details on this particular ambition, but did mention that Huawei has teamed up with CERN

to conduct research and has somehow accumulated over 15 petabytes of experimental physics data in the process. Whatever it's up to, Huawei had better get a move on -- others are snapping up gesture recognition

and cloud

patents faster than you can say fa te ne una bicicletta with your hands.

Huawei throws R&D dollars at gesture control, cloud storage, being more 'disruptive'

originally appeared on Engadget

on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.

Hot on the heels of a recent update for its Twitter app, BlackBerry users can now grab a refreshed version of everyone's favorite check-in network. While there's no news of the beleaguered phone manufacturer offering up free Butterfingers

(yet), the geographical social app has cranked up the app's load speeds and also transplants its notifications to your BlackBerry inbox. It's all looking to be a pretty tasty NFC

carrot to dangle in front of BlackBerry World attendees later this week in Orlando. If you're Florida-bound (and even if you're not), you can grab the update from from the source below.

Foursquare adds NFC to its BlackBerry app, hopes you'll touch base

originally appeared on Engadget

on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.

For fans of HD and / or nature documentaries, the BBC Planet Earth

series is the unquestioned champion, and to provide a proper followup the Brits are improving it the only way they know how: doing it live. What the broadcaster calls its "most ambitions global wildlife series ever" will air simultaneously in 140 countries (more on that bit later) starting Sunday May 6th, then every Thursday and Sunday for three weeks. The plan is to track animals in seven different locations around the world in real time as they struggle for survival and broadcast it all in HD. One segment features Top Gear's Richard Hammond following a pride of lions across southern Kenya, while another will track black bears in Minnesota. The bad news? If you're in the US or Canada you're not on that 140 country list and won't be seeing any of this live. We're not sure if there's time to make this a campaign issue in the 2012 presidential election but we figure that, or at least bugging BBC America (while we're on the subject -- where's our global iPlayer

?) is worth a try. Check after the break for a press release with all the details on where and when it is airing, as well as a trailer.

Continue reading BBC's Planet Earth returns as a live simulcast next week -- but not in the US (video)

BBC's Planet Earth returns as a live simulcast next week -- but not in the US (video)

originally appeared on Engadget

on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.

As much as it'd be interesting to see Windows Phone running on a $21,000 gold-plated cigar lighter

, that's probably never going to happen. According to the UK's Financial Times, Nokia has been trying to hive off

its luxury Vertu brand for months already, and has finally found a suitor with the right cash / sense ratio. Although still far from a done deal, we're told that venture capitalist firm Permira is willing to contribute up to $265 million to Nokia's needy coffers -- which might sound like a lot, but is mere costume jewelry to a manufacturer that just lost $1.7 billion

.

Nokia could sell luxury Vertu brand to VC firm for $265 million

originally appeared on Engadget

on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.

Ever wondered if you could control your house's climate, security, and appliances -- along with your PCs and peripherals -- using Microsoft software? That day may soon dawn, as its Research arm

has started testing its home automation

software, called HomeOS, in twelve domiciles over the past few months. The budding system views smartphones, printers and air conditioners as network peripherals, controlled by a dedicated gateway computer. The project even has a handful of apps in play, which perform functions like energy monitoring, remote surveillance and face-recognition

. This growing list of applications, available through a portal called "HomeStore", will allow users to easily expand their system's capabilities. So how does it all work out in the real world? Head past the break, and let Redmond's research team give you the skinny.

Continue reading Microsoft Research wants to automate your house, introduces HomeOS

Microsoft Research wants to automate your house, introduces HomeOS

originally appeared on Engadget

on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.

It's taken a bit longer than we expected, but following Apple's acquisition

of app search engine Chomp, the Android option has now been cut out from its homepage. We're now left with the choice between iPhone and iPad categories, alongside existing shortcuts for popular freebies and apps on sale, in a few efforts to cut through Cupertino's 600,000-strong

app selection. Hit up the source to give it a run for yourself.

Apple spits out Android option from Chomp app navigator

originally appeared on Engadget

on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.

AT&T's LG Nitro HD

is one of those rare devices your writer has actually used. We carried it as our daily driver during this year's CES

and were won over by that gorgeous screen, speedy LTE and its thin and light design. Unfortunately our experience matched those in the review

: herky-jerky performance and battery life that meant we were always on the lookout for a power point. Of course, you can't have amazing battery life without doubling its thickness, but would you have taken that compromise? We're asking you: how would you change it?

How would you change the LG Nitro HD?

originally appeared on Engadget

on Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds

.