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NYC

LinkNYC is the ultimate phonebooth replacement for modern cities and I want it

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Image byEdward Blak used under creative commons license

See that sleek advertising billboard? It's actually a modern day replacement for the 1960's telephone booth. Meet LinkNYC. 

Each big beautiful device delivers 1 gigabit of glorious WIFI(serving hundreds of WIFI users simultaneously). To deliver this much high speed goodness, CityBridge is laying thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable).

 Since it is replacing the old style phone-booth's it's only fitting that the LinkNYC station also allow anyone to make free unlimited calls to anywhere in the US thanks to a deal with Vonage. Call's can be made via the built in speaker and mic or via your own headset (plugged in) . 

What if your device is dead? Are you out of luck? Not you're not. Each device has a power only USB plug which means you can use the station to charge your power-hungry smartphone or tablet. 

And each device has a touch screen tablet that can be used to browser the internet or lookup city services. 

There are over 200 LinkNYC stations currently deployed and more are on the way. I know some readers are freaking out. How can a city force tax-payers to subsidize something like this? Well they aren't. These kiosks are self funded through advertising and may even generate a little extra income for the city. The revenue is from advertising shown on both sides of the kiosks.

The solution is packaged by SideWalk Labs which is a wholy owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. 

And that my friends is how a modern tech savvy city does it. Democratizing technology while being cost neutral to the city. 

AT&T brings free solar charging to NY City

technologyEdward Kiledjian
Image by Jimmy_Joe under Creative Commons License

Image by Jimmy_Joe under Creative Commons License

AT&T is bringing back their solar street charging stations to NY city which will make thousands of tourists and locals happy. Your happiness should last until September when AT&T scoops up these stations and prepares them for winter hibernation.

45 of these will be distributed accross New York City (double the 2013 number). These are completely free and available to everyone (not just AT&T customers). 

The stations so have an internal battery which means they will charge your power hungry phone or tablet even at night.

Find these selfie saving devices in the following 5 burrows:

Manhattan:

  • Central Park
  • Marcus Garvey Park
  • Coenties Slip
  • Old Slip
  • Mannahatta
  • Pier 15
  • East River Esplanade
  • Bowling Green Park
  • South Street Seaport
  • Edgar Plaza
  • Union Square
  • Governor's Island

Queens:

  • Flushing Meadows Corona Park
  • Rockaway Beach

The Bronx:

  • Orchard Beach

Brooklyn:

  • Brooklyn Bridge Park
  • Coney Island
  • Brighton Beach

Staten Island:

  • South Beach
  • Midland Beach

You can read the details on AT&T's special webpage (link).

New York City Payphones getting a new lease on life

TravellingEdward Kiledjian

Payphones of yesteryear get a new lease on life in New York city as WI-FI hotspots.  This interesting program is starting with 10 locations  but the hope is to expand it to 12000 locations in all 5 city boroughs.

Since they are using standard WIFI, each access point will cover about 100 feet and will be an incredibly useful feature for tourists.

This effort is being spearheaded by the mayor Bloomberg as part of his NYC Digital Initiative.

 

Current locations

MANHATTAN 

 

  • 402 W Broadway near Spring Street
  • 458 7th Ave. near 35th Street 
  • 28 West 48th St. between 5th and 6th avenues
  • 1609 Broadway near 49th Street
  • 410 Madison Avenue near 48th Street
  • 1790 Broadway near 58th Street
  • 230 West 95th St. near Broadway

 

QUEENS

  • 30-94 Steinway St. near 31st Avenue

BROOKLYN

  • 2 Smith Street at Fulton Mall
  • 545 Albee Square at Fulton Mall

 

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