The New York Times is asking what the primary wireless technology of the future will be: Traditional wireless carriers operate their services primarily with cell towers, but offer Wi-Fi as a secondary option to bear some of the load. Upstarts FreedomPop and Republic Wireless do the opposite. They offer services that rely primarily on Wi-Fi networks, and in areas without Wi-Fi, customers can pull a signal from regular cell towers. "They demonstrate just how disruptive a Wi-Fi-first operator can be, and just how much cost they can take out."

Plenty of budget-conscious consumers want cheaper cellphone bills and do not mind making the leap to a phone service powered primarily by Wi-Fi. The majority of Republic Wireless customers opted for a $10 plan (a traditional wireless contract costs around $100 a month--comparison of family cell phone plan prices) which includes a combination of Wi-Fi and cellular services. In other words, the traditional cellular infrastructure will not go away, but may become the second option, not the first. "There are many, many implications to cellular being relegated to a backup position."

In major cities, the Wi-Fi-first network makes sense. While sitting around offices and apartments, Wi-Fi can handle the job just fine. But once people start moving around, it is not so simple. The benefit of a cell service is that your phone can switch among multiple towers while you are on the go. This process is called handover, which Wi-Fi was not originally designed to handle. Although 802.11r, SyncScan, and other enhancements attempt to address this limitation.

Big players are looking to enter the fray as well: Last month, Cablevision announced a phone service that would be powered entirely by Wi-Fi, for $30 a month, while a traditional wireless contract costs around $100 a month. Google has also been working on a cellphone service that relies heavily on Wi-Fi.

Nokia's up-and-coming "Here" maps and navigation app, available for free for anyone running Android 4.1 or above, is no longer in "beta" hitting version 1.1, and has added 3-D venue maps and improved routing. It now displays 3D maps for shopping centers and airports in 70 different countries and allows navigating through multiple floors with a sliding bar. Nokia also dialed back the interface in several different areas to preserve the screen real estate for the map content.

Despite being in "beta" for several months, and only becoming available on the Play Store in December, Nokia's Here maps and navigation has grown to be one of the best alternatives to Google Maps on Android. A big part of its popularity is due to including one-click region-wide downloadable offline maps, with turn-by-turn voice navigation, for free. Whether you are on a carrier with patchy coverage, use a cheaper cellular plan and depend on WiFi for data, or just want to be sure you'll get properly rerouted when you miss a turn in an area with little or no coverage, offline maps, points-of-interest and navigation can be a killer feature, which Google does not offer. When you do have data coverage, the Here app also offers reviews for restaurants and traffic information using Nokia's venerable own Navteq traffic information, similarly used by Google Maps and most other navigation services.

Today is the deadline for an agreement reached between the Federal Communications Commission and wireless carriers back in 2013. Starting today, once you've paid off your contract or owned a pre-paid phone (or other device, like a tablet) for a year, all major US carriers must unlock your phone for you if you ask. Carriers also have to tell you when your phone is eligible to be unlocked, and they have to unlock phones for deployed military personnel.

Rules around locking and unlocking phones have gone back and forth. For a while, it was illegal to unlock your phone without express consent of your carrier. In 2014, the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act made it legal again. And this latest deadline makes it illegal for providers to say no if you ask to unlock a phone you've already paid for. This change gives power back to the people to freely use the phones they already own.

Here's more information on how to unlock your phone on the big four U.S. carriers, including how to verify that your device is eligible, caveats in the fine print, and alternative carriers you can bring your device to. The FCC also has useful information about the process.

Apple has announced its plans to re-purpose a 1.3 million sq ft facility in Mesa, Arizona, into a $2 billion data center which will also play host to all the company's data operations across the globe. It will employ 150 full-time personnel, and will also result in between 300 and 500 construction and trade jobs. The facility was previously leased to GT Advanced Technologies, an Apple supplier producing sapphire glass which declared bankruptcy last year when Apple declined to use the sapphire in their products due to failing in drop tests.

The repurposing of the Mesa, Arizona facility seems like a move inspired by negative circumstances that turns into opportunity for most of those involved - Apple gets something to do with property it already purchased, as well as a new HQ for its growing data business, while Arizona gets a renewed commitment to employment and the local Mesa economy. Apple's investment includes a pledge to power the new facility completely using energy derived from renewable sources, and Arizona has some of the best solar potential in the world.

Coincidentally, Corning unveiled "Project Phire" at an investor meet in New York yesterday. A new glass it claims is 'almost' as scratch-proof as Sapphire, while just as resistant to shattering as Gorilla Glass 4 in drop tests. Corning didn't give a timeline on when Project Phire will be available to manufacturers.

The world's first hotel staffed almost entirely by robots and controlled by the latest in computer technology is slated to open, yes, in Japan. The hotel will initially be staffed by 10 robots working alongside humans to provide a wide range of services from manning the reception desk to carrying bags and cleaning rooms. The management hopes to eventually "have more than 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots."

In addition to the robots, the 72-room facility will feature high-tech gadgetry. Instead of traditional air conditioning, for example, rooms will feature radiation panels that will automatically detect body heat and create a "comfortable indoor environment with no unevenness." Hotel guests will also be able to access their rooms using facial recognition technology instead of room keys. The Henn-na is planned to be built in two stages, with the first stage opening July 17. A second stage will consist of an additional 72 rooms and is due to be completed the following year.

The world's first Ubuntu phone goes on sale next week in an attempt to carve out a place for the Linux-based OS in the mobile space. Canonical said the limited launch is aimed at "avoiding the pain faced by other platforms" that tried to push their handsets to the mass-market too early, and they must work hard to get the Ubuntu Phone noticed. It will also be giving handsets to a select group of "enthusiastic Ubuntu and bq users" in London today.

Unlike the failed Ubuntu Edge concept, which was sold as a desktop/phone hybrid, the Aquaris E4.5 is more typical smartphone hardware. Parrino believes the phone's selling point will be Scopes. Scopes are full screen menus that show content stored both on the phone and on services you use. "On Ubuntu content and services are delivered directly to the screen without hiding them behind apps and the app icon grid," said Parrino. He played down the prospects for Ubuntu for Android.

A new version of the Raspberry Pi single-board computer has been unveiled in London today, boasting more memory and a new processor that is six times faster than its predecessor. The Raspberry Pi 2 is available to buy today from element14, priced at $35.

It is the same size as the previous version, but comes with a Broadcom BCM2836 ARMv7 quad core processor, and runs at 900MHz with 1GB of RAM. It offers complete backward compatibility with the existing Model B+. All cases and third-party add-on boards are also fully compatible with the new Raspberry Pi. The new model has an expanded number of input/output pins, making it possible to connect up to four USB devices - including some powered devices such as hard drives - as well as multiple sensors, connectors and expansion boards.

However, Raspberry Pi faces growing competition. Rivals include the Arduino, Intel Galileo, Gizmo 2, BeagleBone Black and Hummingboard.

Fireplaces may no longer invoke the same kind of warm memories they used-to. While a fire in the hearth may look good, it's bad for the heart and lungs. It's also becoming illegal. An onslaught of new research linking fireplace smoke with heart attacks and lung disease, coupled with stricter air regulations, daily bans on wood-burning, and higher insurance rates may soon erase that Norman Rockwell fireplace scene from real estate brochures. Air districts in California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and in China and Greece are asking the public not to burn wood. Utah even proposed a near-complete ban on wood burning, but retracted the measure after overwhelming public opposition. While a low-tech solution, it is an inexpensive way to cut emissions. "We've spent 50 years trying to control air emissions from every source, but this one has gone unregulated."

Wood burning creates on average 5 tons of PM2.5 emissions each day in Southern California, about four times the amount of PM2.5 from all the power plants. These tiny pollutants get sucked into the deepest part of the lungs, the alveoli, interfering with oxygen exchanges, causing lung disease, emergency room visits, heart attacks and even premature deaths, and only an industrial type of face mask can block them. People with asthma or respiratory diseases, children or the elderly should not be in a room with a wood-burning fire, even after it has been extinguished. In many areas, wood smoke is the single biggest source of air pollution in the winter months. While newer EPA-approved stoves emit up to 90 percent less pollution than traditional stoves, even the cleanest wood stove is 60 times more polluting than a natural gas furnace. Many lower-income residents, who burn wood as their sole source of home heating, cannot afford the approx. $3,000 upgrade. The EPA estimates there are 10 million wood stoves in operation in the United States, with 65 percent of them older, inefficient conventional stoves.

Apart from the introduction of twist-off caps, glass bottles have remained impervious to innovation for centuries-mainly because there's nothing wrong with them. Except they're fragile and awfully heavy. That's the insight behind Paperboy, a new brand of wine packaged in cardboard bottles.

The container is made mostly of industrial paper waste that's 80 percent lighter than its glass cousin, so it takes less fuel to transport. Even with fuel prices dropping, gas and oil remain a huge expense for businesses. The packaging is molded from paper pulp (think of the material used in egg cartons) and lined with a plastic bladder, made by GreenBottle. Benefits include lighter weight, extra insulation keeping drinks cool longer, no risk of breaking, and cardboard is easier and more efficient to recycle than glass.

Beer manufacturer Carlsberg says they are also working on cardboard beer bottles, but unlike other cardboard bottles their design won't have a plastic bladder on the inside. Instead, the 100% biodegradable & recyclable cardboard will be treated with a coating on the inside to prevent beer from seeping through. They aim to release them in the next three years.

New Chinese rules will require foreign firms to hand over their source code for most computing and networking equipment. Companies would also have to set up research and development centers in the country, get permits for workers servicing technology equipment and build "ports" which enable Chinese officials to manage and monitor data processed by their hardware. The regulations initially apply to firms selling products to Chinese banks but are part of a wider initiative.

It comes at a time of heightened tension between the USA and China over cybersecurity. Beijing has considered its reliance on foreign technology a national security weakness, particularly following former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's revelations that US spy agencies planted code in American-made software to snoop on overseas targets. It was also alleged that the US National Security Agency spied on Chinese firm Huawei, while the US Senate claimed that the Chinese government broke into the computers of airlines and military contractors.

US business groups called the rules "intrusive", saying they would force technology sellers to create backdoors for the Chinese government, adopt Chinese encryption algorithms and disclose sensitive intellectual property. They have asked the Chinese government to delay implementation of the regulations.