SiliconBeat

Motorola Atrix

I reviewed Motorola’s Atrix smartphone in this week’s Tech Files column. What intrigued me about the Atrix are its accessories: one optional dock allows the device to turn into a quasi-laptop; another allows it to turn into a pseudo desktop PC or even an Internet-connected set-top box.

As I wrote in the review, I liked the Atrix and thought the idea of a dockable smartphone had a lot of potential. But I found the docks themselves expensive, underwhelming and their potential largely unrealized.

Since I wrote my column, a reader alerted me to another reason to dislike the docks.

One of the advantages of the docks is that with them, you can use a full version of Mozilla’s Firefox browser to surf the Web and pull up Web apps in much the same way you would on a standard PC. What I didn’t realize was that in order to use the full Firefox browser on AT&T’s data network, AT&T requires users to pay its extra $20 a month tethering fee. (H/T here to blog site These Are the Droids.)

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I did an extra column today on the FCC’s announcement that it would make “net neutrality” the official policy of the U.S. Here’s a few links I came across if you want a deeper dive:

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Congratulations are in order to those who worked hard to promote the cause of an Open Internet. Last month I Interviewed Marvin Ammori, general counsel for the Free Press, which was one of several groups leading the charge. At the time, Kevin Martin had recommended the Federal Communication Commission vote to punish Comcast for blocking some types of Internet traffic.

On Friday, the FCC voted to do that, by a vote of 3 to 2, which was much closer than I had expected. Comcast won’t have to pay any fines. Still, it marks the first time the FCC has officially voted in favor of such a policy, and that’s good news for all of us.

In a press release on Friday, Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, issued the following statement:

“The FCC’s bipartisan decision to punish Comcast is a major victory. Defying every ounce of conventional wisdom in Washington, everyday people have taken on a major corporation and won an historic precedent for an open Internet.

“Today’s order makes it clear that there is nothing reasonable about restricting access to online content or technologies. Moving forward, this bellwether case will send a strong signal to cable and phone companies that such violations will not be tolerated.

You can find the original Comcast complaint filed by Free Press here.