Samsung Advances Toward 5G Networks

Lapses of security were negligible compared with errors that let terrorists thrive.

Room for Debate looks at whether a court rejection of race preferences could create a more progressive future.

What I learned about being a writer from composing thank-you notes.

F.C.C. Advances Plan for Faster In-Flight Wi-Fi

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed auctioning off the rights to use newly available airwaves to provide better in-flight Wi-Fi connections, as the government agency seeks to improve the speed and lower the cost of Internet service on commercial flights.

The commission’s proposal is the first step toward a goal that it is likely to take a couple of years, at least, to reach: providing in-flight Internet service that can match or exceed the capabilities that most Americans have at home or can find in coffee shops.

The new format would use a more reliable system of contact between a plane and the ground, agency officials said, and should allow providers to offer more consistent service that is many times faster than the service that many Americans have in their homes.

Although it will be at least a couple of years before the new service is available, federal officials and people in the broadband business expressed excitement that the new format could free airline passengers from being captive to the expensive and rather slow Wi-Fi that is currently available on only some domestic flights.

“The reality is that we expect and often need to be able to get online 24/7, at home, in an office or on a plane,” Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. chairman, said at a meeting where the commission voted 4 to 0 to begin the necessary steps. “This will enable business and leisure travelers aboard aircraft in the United States to be more productive and have more choices in entertainment, communications and social media, and it could lower prices.”

The agency’s plan calls for the sale of one or more licenses to allow an Internet service provider to share certain airwaves with satellite communications companies. Those airwaves would then be used for an air-to-ground system of connections that employs cellphone towers.

Before the auction, the agency will have to decide how many licenses to grant in the 500-megahertz block of spectrum and what engineering rules will be required to prevent interference between the various services. The agency’s action Thursday kicks off the process by requesting public comment.

Roughly a quarter of daily domestic flights have Wi-Fi service, according to Routehappy.com, which tracks travel information. Another 12 percent of flights have trial service or offer service on a given route depending on the aircraft used. But it is not always easy to tell when booking a flight whether it will have Wi-Fi service, said John Walton, director of data for Routehappy.

In-flight service is now usually limited to about 3 megabits per second, per plane — barely half the speed of the average household DSL connection and one-third the average wired broadband speed. The new system will be faster in part because it will operate on a different band of spectrum, and in part because of the way it transmits signals.

Currently, there are two types of in-flight broadband service: satellite-based and air-to-ground. Satellite systems use antennas mounted on the top of planes to communicate with satellites. Air-to-ground systems send signals between a ground-based network and an antenna on the bottom of a plane.

The new system would share the 14.0-14.5 gigahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum, a 500-megahertz band that is far wider than the current 4-megahertz band used in air-to-ground systems. All of that means that the new system would be capable of transmitting data at up to 300 gigabits per second in combined service to all aircraft aloft.

“Air-to-ground connectivity is inherently less expensive than satellite systems,” said Mary Kirby, editor in chief of Airline Passenger Experience magazine. “The industry knows that they need to meet consumer demand for increased connectivity. It’s quite literally become the cost of doing business.”

Not everyone is so enthusiastic. The Satellite Industry Association said it had filed with the commission “detailed technical analyses that demonstrate that the proposed air-ground service would cause interference into the satellite services.”

Those services have first rights to the airwaves in question, which are used by media, public safety and American military customers for essential communications, the association said. Companies like Boeing, which makes satellites as well as planes, also oppose the proposal.

Jessica Rosenworcel, a commissioner who supported getting the proposal under way, said it was clear which way the requirements for connectivity were moving.

“In our hyperconnected age, we need and expect access to connectivity and content anytime and anywhere,” Ms. Rosenworcel said. “The world simply does not wait for us to get off the plane.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 10, 2013

An earlier version of this article characterized incorrectly the possible speeds of in-flight broadband Internet service under a proposal being considered by the F.C.C. The proposal envisions a combined service speed of up to 300 gigabits per second, to be shared among all the aircraft using the system at a given moment; individuals would not be able to access a 300-gigabit connection. The error was repeated in a picture caption. The earlier version also miscalculated a comparison of 300 gigabits per second to the average home broadband connection speed. The average home broadband connection is roughly 10 megabits per second in the United States. A 300-gigabit connection would be 30,000 times the average home speed, not 30 times.

Poker Web Site Advances Online Gambling

LAS VEGAS — As the nation’s first legal, pay-to-play poker Web site embarks on a 30-day trial period, players from every state and Europe are logging on, even as casino companies, tech developers, regulators and lawmakers alike examine the technology for strengths and flaws.

Station Casinos, a local company with 16 properties in the Las Vegas Valley, took ultimatepoker.com online on Tuesday. The company hopes to bring some clarity to the debate among gambling officials and lawmakers about online gambling.

At issue is whether the company can verify that the site’s users are over 21 and in Nevada, using identification and geolocation software, among other tools. Visitors to Nevada can register to play before arriving in the state.

Opponents have expressed concern about minors using the site.

The site’s activation accelerated a race that started this year when Nevada passed a law that legalized online gambling, beating New Jersey by a matter of weeks.

Bo Bernhard, executive director of the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, called the site a milestone.

“It’s the first online casino — in the state that developed the modern casino resort,” Mr. Bernhard said.

About 30 hours after the site opened, Tom Breitling, the Ultimate Poker chairman, crowed about being “first out of the gate” and said he was surprised to see “pent-up demand” as poker players expressed interest in the site.

Mr. Breitling also pointed to the “huge responsibility” that came with being first, as dozens of companies hope to open similar Web sites in Nevada and other states.

Keith S. Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, said “the Internet poses risks for problem gambling,” and pointed to data from Europe that suggests that frequent gambling on the Internet is associated with problem gambling, or addictive behavior.

Mr. Whyte said he wants to see online gambling in the United States unfold with controls like those in Europe, including software that tracks gambling behavior online and displays for user information like account balances and time spent playing. He said that Nevada’s legislation did not have such requirements.

“Nevada is in some ways playing with fire,” he said.

A. G. Burnett, chairman of Nevada’s Gaming Control Board, said that comments and observations would be gathered from users and Ultimate Poker during the 30-day trial. The board will decide whether the site should be allowed to continue operating and, two weeks after that, the Nevada Gaming Commission will make the final decision.

The same procedure is followed for every new game introduced in Nevada casinos, Mr. Burnett said. Approving a form of gambling that takes place over the Internet, instead of in a bricks-and-mortar casino, means “we’re entering into a different world.”

“Everybody’s going to be trying to test it, hack it, get into it,” he said.

Nearly two dozen companies have obtained licenses to participate in some aspect of online gambling, including MGM Resorts International, Bally and Caesars, often through subsidiaries or in partnership with other companies.

Despite a Slowdown, Smartphone Advances Are Still Ahead

The iPhone 5 that Apple introduced last week with only incremental changes seemed to signal that the industry has entered an era of technological bunny hops.

Faster chips, bigger screens and speedier wireless Internet connections are among the refinements smartphone users can count on year after year in new models, most of them in familiar rectangular packages. They are improvements, to be sure, but they lack the breathtaking impact the first iPhone had, with its pioneering fusion of software and touch screens.

“Since then, it has been kind of incremental,” said Chetan Sharma, an independent mobile analyst. “It does not feel like there is a big shift.”

But big innovations in smartphones are not a thing of the past. Incremental improvements can add up over a span of years, providing the computing horsepower to enable big advances in software. Breakthroughs in smartphone materials, software and even batteries could lead to substantial changes in how smartphones look and function in the years ahead.

One of Apple’s most intriguing recent efforts to redefine the iPhone is Siri, the voice-activated virtual assistant that it introduced in October with the iPhone 4S. The feature has the potential to change how consumers retrieve information on their iPhones, giving them the ability to find information on the Web with natural voice commands and to perform other tasks. The product, though, has been criticized for its inaccuracies.

As Apple continues to improve Siri, Google, the maker of the Android phone operating system, improves on its voice search products. Google and some of its mobile phone partners have also moved toward replacing the credit card with the smartphone using a technology called near-field communications that lets users make payments wirelessly at cash registers.

That system has been slow to take off because most merchants do not support it yet. Apple is taking a more cautious approach to new mobile payment systems, offering a feature in its new iPhone software called Passbook for storing electronic versions of store payment, gift and loyalty cards.

Technology analysts say smartphones could again see big changes akin to the one Apple introduced in 2007. Wearable computers are a source of fascination among many Silicon Valley companies, especially at Google. The company has put tremendous effort behind Project Glass, eyeglasslike frames that can display texts, e-mails and other information from a smartphone on a miniature screen in front of the wearer’s eye.

Google has said it plans to release a version of the technology for developers that would cost $1,500 in the first half of next year and a consumer version sometime after that.

Although it could take years of work before the technology reached mass market prices, researchers and some intrepid technology companies said they believe wearable computers could be crucial to unlocking a new category of applications called “augmented reality.” Virtual objects and information could be overlaid on the real world. Imagine visiting ancient ruins and seeing, through a pair of glasses connected to a smartphone, how the site looked before its decay. People could eventually play augmented reality games that could involve laying virtual ambushes around corners in the real world.

“A lot of people are thinking about augmented reality as a possible game changer in mobile computing,” said Tobias Hollerer, a computer science professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who is researching the field.

Changes in materials could also allow for more radical designs for smartphones and peripherals that connect to them. Corning, a company that makes the glass used in iPhone and other smartphone screens, has developed a flexible product called Willow Glass. Paul Tompkins, director of commercial technology at Corning, said the thin and strong glass could give designers a way to make devices that have more curves conform to a part of the body. A wrist device, for example, could display much of the information that’s now on a smartphone.

“We’re really working hard on that with a couple of companies,” he said. “You can achieve more organic designs.”

Then there are seemingly mundane technical breakthroughs that could take away some of the more vexing aspects of smartphones, like the need to worry constantly about keeping them charged. In 2010, Apple filed a patent application for a small fuel-cell power supply that could potentially give the iPhone and iPad enough juice to last for weeks without the need to plug them in.

State of the Art: As Pay-by-Phone Advances, Square Takes Another Leap — State of the Art

And if those squealing rugrats don’t believe us, we can crack open the history book to 2012, the dawn of the twilight of cash and credit cards. That was the year when, for the first time, paying for things in stores required nothing more than saying your name to the cashier.

But first, some history. In 2010, a company called Square invented a credit card reader in the shape of a tiny white plastic square. It pops into the headphone jack of your iPhone, Android phone or tablet. Together with a beautiful, simple app, it lets you swipe people’s credit cards (meaning scan them, not steal them).

Suddenly anyone can accept cards: baby sitters, cabdrivers, farmer’s market vendors, piano teachers, personal trainers, bake salers, carpenters and lawn-mowing teenagers.

Square takes 2.75 percent of each transaction. Unlike traditional credit card arrangements, there are no monthly fees or minimums, setup costs or variable percentages. There aren’t even equipment costs; the headphone-jack reader is free. There truly are no other costs or catches. (My column online has a link to my full review.)

The Square went viral. Today, the company says that two million Americans are happily swiping away.

Where there’s a hit, there’s a copycat, or a whole litter of them. It’s the same idea each time — you get a free plastic attachment for your phone’s headphone jack — with differences only in rates and target markets.

Intuit offers something called GoPayment, with a rather huge phone attachment and a complicated rate structure. (It advertises a 2.7 percent rate, but the fine print reveals that you’ll pay 3.7 percent for reward cards, American Express and corporate cards.)

A company called mPowa is aimed at big companies that want the money to flow directly into their own accounts — not be deposited first into a holding account, as Square, Intuit and others do. PayAnywhere’s notable feature is that it takes the lowest cut of all: 2.69 percent.

And then there’s the elephant that’s just barged into the room: PayPal. Its rate is a hair lower than Square’s (2.7 percent), and its reader is a triangle instead of a square. The reader is more stable than the Square when you swipe the card, but it’s relatively giant. (I’ll review some of these services in more depth on my blog, Pogue’s Posts.)

All right, we get it: The little-guy-accepting-cards racket is heating up. But to Square, that’s all been just a warm-up act. The main event is even more disruptive. It’s a little something — a big something — called Pay With Square.

You walk into a shop or cafe. The cashier knows that you’re on the premises, because your name and thumbnail photo appear on his iPad screen. He rings up your items by tapping them on the iPad.

And now the magic moment: To pay, you just say your name. The cashier compares your actual face with the photo on the iPad’s screen, taps O.K., and the transaction is complete. No cash, no cards, no signatures — you don’t even have to take the phone out of your pocket.

It’s glorious for you, because it’s so much faster and less fussy than the old ways of paying. It’s fantastic for the merchant, because lower friction (hassle) means more sales. The merchant’s iPad Register app also offers a clear, useful “analytics” screen, showing how much of what was sold when. All of this is free for both you and (except for the usual 2.7 percent Square fee) the merchant.

You set up the phone app by choosing your photo and linking your credit card. Using GPS, the app automatically lists shops and cafes near you that offer the Pay With Square system. If you turn the phone 90 degrees, you see them as pushpins on a map. Square says that 75,000 merchants already accept Pay With Square.

I tried out Pay With Square in a San Francisco coffee shop. I tapped its name and then tapped Open a Tab (a one-time operation).

At the counter, I asked for a mocha and a muffin. While the employee went to get the muffin, I peeked around at his iPad, which was on a countertop mount. To my surprise, it showed photos of two other customers — all of us had the Square app on our phones. The register app uses GPS and other location services to know when these people are in the shop.

When the cashier returned, I said, “I’m David.” He said, “I know,” tapped the screen, and that was it. I’d paid just by saying my name.

Last month, Square upgraded the system to make it even juicier for you, the customer. Now merchants can offer first-visit discounts, 10th-visit rewards and other bonuses; these offers show up on your phone app in the list of nearby merchants.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 20, 2012

The State of the Art column on Thursday, about advances in mobile payments, misspelled the name of a company involved in the technology. It is mPowa, not mPower.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 19, 2012

A caption with an earlier version also described incorrectly how Pay With Square works. Customers with the app on their smartphones are recognized automatically, without the need to swipe a card. (The picture was of a regular Square transaction using an iPad.)

State of the Art: As Pay-by-Phone Advances, Square Takes Another Leap — State of the Art

And if those squealing rugrats don’t believe us, we can crack open the history book to 2012, the dawn of the twilight of cash and credit cards. That was the year when, for the first time, paying for things in stores required nothing more than saying your name to the cashier.

But first, some history. In 2010, a company called Square invented a credit card reader in the shape of a tiny white plastic square. It pops into the headphone jack of your iPhone, Android phone or tablet. Together with a beautiful, simple app, it lets you swipe people’s credit cards (meaning scan them, not steal them).

Suddenly anyone can accept cards: baby sitters, cabdrivers, farmer’s market vendors, piano teachers, personal trainers, bake salers, carpenters and lawn-mowing teenagers.

Square takes 2.75 percent of each transaction. Unlike traditional credit card arrangements, there are no monthly fees or minimums, setup costs or variable percentages. There aren’t even equipment costs; the headphone-jack reader is free. There truly are no other costs or catches. (My column online has a link to my full review.)

The Square went viral. Today, the company says that two million Americans are happily swiping away.

Where there’s a hit, there’s a copycat, or a whole litter of them. It’s the same idea each time — you get a free plastic attachment for your phone’s headphone jack — with differences only in rates and target markets.

Intuit offers something called GoPayment, with a rather huge phone attachment and a complicated rate structure. (It advertises a 2.7 percent rate, but the fine print reveals that you’ll pay 3.7 percent for reward cards, American Express and corporate cards.)

A company called mPowa is aimed at big companies that want the money to flow directly into their own accounts — not be deposited first into a holding account, as Square, Intuit and others do. PayAnywhere’s notable feature is that it takes the lowest cut of all: 2.69 percent.

And then there’s the elephant that’s just barged into the room: PayPal. Its rate is a hair lower than Square’s (2.7 percent), and its reader is a triangle instead of a square. The reader is more stable than the Square when you swipe the card, but it’s relatively giant. (I’ll review some of these services in more depth on my blog, Pogue’s Posts.)

All right, we get it: The little-guy-accepting-cards racket is heating up. But to Square, that’s all been just a warm-up act. The main event is even more disruptive. It’s a little something — a big something — called Pay With Square.

You walk into a shop or cafe. The cashier knows that you’re on the premises, because your name and thumbnail photo appear on his iPad screen. He rings up your items by tapping them on the iPad.

And now the magic moment: To pay, you just say your name. The cashier compares your actual face with the photo on the iPad’s screen, taps O.K., and the transaction is complete. No cash, no cards, no signatures — you don’t even have to take the phone out of your pocket.

It’s glorious for you, because it’s so much faster and less fussy than the old ways of paying. It’s fantastic for the merchant, because lower friction (hassle) means more sales. The merchant’s iPad Register app also offers a clear, useful “analytics” screen, showing how much of what was sold when. All of this is free for both you and (except for the usual 2.7 percent Square fee) the merchant.

You set up the phone app by choosing your photo and linking your credit card. Using GPS, the app automatically lists shops and cafes near you that offer the Pay With Square system. If you turn the phone 90 degrees, you see them as pushpins on a map. Square says that 75,000 merchants already accept Pay With Square.

I tried out Pay With Square in a San Francisco coffee shop. I tapped its name and then tapped Open a Tab (a one-time operation).

At the counter, I asked for a mocha and a muffin. While the employee went to get the muffin, I peeked around at his iPad, which was on a countertop mount. To my surprise, it showed photos of two other customers — all of us had the Square app on our phones. The register app uses GPS and other location services to know when these people are in the shop.

When the cashier returned, I said, “I’m David.” He said, “I know,” tapped the screen, and that was it. I’d paid just by saying my name.

Last month, Square upgraded the system to make it even juicier for you, the customer. Now merchants can offer first-visit discounts, 10th-visit rewards and other bonuses; these offers show up on your phone app in the list of nearby merchants.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 19, 2012

An earlier version of this column rendered the name of a mobile payment company incorrectly. It is mPowa, not mPower.