Hold the phone: The Justice Department today said it wants to withdraw or postpone its antitrust case against the proposed merger between AT&T and rival T-Mobile now that the two companies pulled their application with the Federal Communications Commission to approve the deal. The companies took back their FCC application two weeks ago after the commission’s chairman came out against the $39 billion deal. The companies have said they will seek approval from a federal judge who has scheduled a February trial on the Justice Department’s case, and will file another FCC application later. Read the full story from The Associated Press here.
Game on: OnLive, the startup whose technology streams high-end video games online, is expanding its service to tablets and mobile devices. The company, which has gained traction among gamers but has yet to reach a mass market audience, says it will stream console-quality games on tablets and phones using a mobile application. The company’s streaming technology is similar to what Netflix and others use to let people watch movies online. But the process is much more complex with video games. That’s because games cannot be compressed into smaller files, like movies are, before they are sent over a broadband connection. Since they are interactive, video games require an immediate reaction to the player’s actions, so that the character on screen responds immediately to the player pulling a trigger or swinging a tennis racket. OnLive’s technology lets its servers communicate with players’ gadgets in real time.
The real curiously strong mint: The Maine guys known for creating colorful geysers from Diet Coke and Mentos candies say they’ve set a distance record for a vehicle with soda-and-candy-powered propulsion. Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz created a single-seat rocket car powered by 54 bottles of Coke Zero and 324 Mentos. They say the Mark II traveled 239 feet, improving upon last year’s 220 feet with only half the fuel. They posted video of a 209-foot attempt online, which you can see here. Voltz says they incorporated a simple piston-and-cylinder mechanism to get the vehicle moving. He says it’s powerful enough that people shouldn’t try the experiment at home.
