New Jersey,United States

Six months after launching trials of its new 4G Long Term Evolution network, Verizon Wireless has reported wireless data speeds faster than its own and competitors' existing networks. The recorded speeds are also faster than any competitors' promised 3G network speeds.

Trials in Boston and Seattle show the LTE network is able to hold peak download speeds of 40 to 50 megabits per second and peak upload speeds of 20 to 25 megabits per second, the New Jersey-based wireless carrier announced Monday.

A really exciting new bill was introduced to Congress last week by Bernie Sanders of Vermont.  The bill lays out a plan to install 10 million solar roofs and 200,000 solar water heaters over the next 10 years through tax rebates and incentives.  The installations would equal 30 GW of clean energy or the equivalent of 30 nuclear power plants.

Abigail Ticker in Smithsonian Magazine:

Wireless carriers are going head-to-head in what is turning out to be a pricing war. The two largest U.S. carriers -- AT&T and Verizon Wireless -- have cut subscription prices this week.

New Verizon Wireless smartphone customers will no longer be able to surf the web without a data plan as of Monday, when new rates take effect. But new voice plans will cost $30 less.

The company, a joint venture between Verizon Communications and the Vodafone Group that has the largest U.S. mobile network, will require a data plan on all its new 3G smartphones.

A New Jersey company says it has developed "the world's first sex robot," a life-size rubber doll that's designed to engage the owner with conversation rather than lifelike movement.

At a demonstration at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas on Saturday, the dark-haired, negligee-clad robot said "I love holding hands with you" when it sensed that its creator touched its hand.

A New Jersey federal judge denied a request by payment processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. for a temporary restraining order against VeriFone Holdings Inc. for allegedly misleading customers about their legal spat, the companies said Wednesday.

A subsidiary of VeriFone, the maker of point-of-sale equipment where consumers swipe their cards, sued Heartland, the company that actually processes the payments, for patent infringement in early September in federal court in Northern California.

From Nature:

U.S. colleges and universities are graduating as many scientists and engineers as ever, according to a study released on Oct. 28 by a group of academics. But that finding comes with a big caveat: Many of the highest-performing students are choosing careers in other fields. The study by professors at Rutgers and Georgetown suggests that since the late 1990s, many of the top students have been lured to careers in finance and consulting.