AT&T shared a little bit of what goes into a portable network cells they put up at special events where bandwidth needs will be extraordinary. Remember, AT&T’s network is about 80% iPhones so this is important stuff. The setup above was what they used to cover a recent Los Angeles festival (read: Coachella).

This isn’t a test network; AT&T’s been honing their skills since they got caught with their pants down at SXSW in 2010 (back when AT&T was the only US iPhone carrier). Since then, with their mobile response team, they’ve been able to keep their network up and running at huge events with the addition of these ‘kits’ above.

The  network performance stats for this setup – some of which are staggering:

• Carried approximately 83 GB of data traffic during the peak hour on our in-event network
• Carried a combined 6,054 GB (or more than 6 terabytes) of data on our in-event network during the two weekends of the music festival (24-hour traffic totals, Friday-Sunday for two weekends).
• About 50 engineers were involved in planning, construction or onsite 24/7 monitoring.

Both the super multi-beam antenna and five-beam antenna are AT&T innovations that were conceptualized by L.A.-based AT&T engineers Bob Mathews and Gary Chow who discuss their work in the videos below:

Shown in this photo is AT&T’s super multi-beam antenna (mounted to a mast on the far left). The super multi-beam antenna has two rows with nine beams each – 18-beams total – and can handle as much as 18 times the network traffic capacity of a traditional single-beam antenna. Below the super multi-beam antenna is a five-beam antenna – which can handle as much as five times the network traffic capacity of a traditional single-beam antenna – and a single-beam antenna. The far left COW has a set of five-beam antennas mounted to it as well as a single-beam antenna. The far left COW, along with the middle COW and the right COW provide the radios needed to support coverage at the event. The vehicle next to the right COW (center right overall) supports the microwave dish that is used to bring increased backhaul to the event. The vehicle to the far right is an AT&T Mobile Command Post, where engineers on-site can meet to discuss network traffic movement and implement solutions at the event.

Seth and Mark were traveling back from Google I/O this week, but Scott and Zac sat down to discuss what Google’s announcements mean for Apple and next month’s WWDC.

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9to5Toys scours the net each day to bring our US readers the best deals in consumer electronics. Below are the absolute hottest deals going on right now. Most of these promotions are only available for a limited time, so be sure to lock in these savings if you see something you like.  Check back often as we are constantly posting new deals.

Also bookmark 9to5Toys.com/Daily-deals for 35+ of the top daily deals across most of the biggest shopping sites in the US including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and many more.

For the first time ever, Gameloft is offering two of its top-rated iOS games, N.O.V.A. 3 and Gangstar Rio, for free.

N.O.V.A 3 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance is a fast-paced firstperson shooter sporting console-like graphics while Gangstar Rio puts gamers in the shoes of a gangster having to kill and steal their way to the top of the gang world.  After this weekend, both games will go back to their retail prices of $5-6 each.

Moshi, launched some of the nicest Lightning cables we’ve seen yet. Moshi’s new Lightning cable is aluminum-encased and made to match the black and slate and white and silver tones of the iPhone 5. The best part is the fact that Moshi is selling the 3.25ft cable for just about the same price as Apple: $20

Meanwhile, Specials.9to5toys.com has 50% off Slickwraps Apple device covers. We reviewed and loved them for iPhone and MacBooks.

Other great deals on gear we love:

• Seagate HDD 4TB for NAS w/ NCQ interface: $150 shipped (29% off)
• Logitech Bluetooth keyboard for Apple iDevices $30 Shipped
• Madden 25th Anniversary Edition preorder w/ 1 year of NFL Sunday Ticket free $100
• Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display 13” 2.9GHz i7, 512GB storage: $1800 shipped ($300 off)
• LaCie 1TB Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Hard Drive (Refurb) $160
• Amazon ‘Digital Games Mayhem’, save up to 80% off hundreds of PC Digital Downloads
• Virgin knocks 15% off of iPhone 4 8GB ($297) and 16GB 4S ($382) with $30/month unlimited data plans
• Save 60% on Monster Jamz, the ‘virtually indestructible’ earbuds: $35 shipped
• Nest Learning Thermostat (1st Gen.) $179 shipped (Reg. $250)
• Dead Space 3 $30, Nintendo 3DS XL $180
• OtterBox iPhone 5 Armor Series water/drop/dust/crush proof case $65 Shipped (35% savings)

Apple might have just ruined everyone’s weekend plans by pulling the provocative “Bang with Friends” iPhone app from the App Store.

BWF, which is the “anonymous, simple, fun way to find 
friends who are down for the night,” says Apple has banned it from the App Store, but that it is “working with Apple to get BWF back into the App Store shortly.”

Presumably, users who already installed the app can continue to do whatever one would do with such an app, and Android’s Wild Wild West approach to the Google Play Store almost guarantees it isn’t going anywhere for phablet users.

If you still find that you just can’t get no satisfaction, you might try using FaceTime or maybe even Google’s new Hangouts for iOS app.

Cofounder and CEO Colin Hodge told Valleywag that he’s working with Apple to get the app, which recently crossed the million user mark, back in the iPhone’s warm embrace.

Just don’t accidentally dial your parents while you have those candles lit and Drake playing in the background.

Sticher Radio, home to over 15,000+  live radio shows and podcasts, updated its iPhone app today with a new Car Mode feature that makes controlling the app even easier while driving. The new simplified UI features large, easy to see buttons and can be accessed at any time with a tap of the Stitcher logo at the top of the app. It works in both portrait and landscape orientations and is definitely a welcomed improvement for the nearly 60% of its users that Stitcher says listen to the app while in a vehicle.

The updated app also comes with a redesigned front page, one-tap access to search and Sleep timer, and a number of other performance improvements:

What’s New in Version 5.3.0

New! Car Mode for iPhone. A simplified interface that allows you to safely and easily control Stitcher while driving in both portrait and landscape orientations. Tap the Stitcher Logo at top of any screen to select car mode.

Improved! Redesigned Front Page, bringing you breaking news headlines from your favorite media sources.

Improved! Easier one-tap access to the shows you’re looking for via search.

New! Listen to archives of your favorite shows either newest first or chronological order.  To play episodes of your favorite shows in order, tap an episode on the episodes tab. To reverse the order to chronological, tap “Playing Next” then select the playlist order button.

New! Sleep timer quick access via the player screen – tap the equalizer icon while listening to set the sleep timer.

Improved! Faster playback start up for shows you’ve already started listening to.

Improved! Now it’s even easier for new users to get started with our new wizard.

Improved! Improved memory management and bug fixes.

Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Justin Timberlake are just a few of the artists over the past year to offer full-length, high quality streams of their newest albums on iTunes in the days before release. The latest to follow in the trend is award winning electronic music duo Daft Punk with a full length stream of the group’s 74-minute “Random Access Memories” album hitting iTunes earlier this week. While it’s often suggested the streams help to fight piracy of the albums before their release, we’ve discovered Apple is ironically making it easier than ever to grab a high quality version of the stream right from its website.

By using a tool to monitor HTTP requests (like HTTP Scoop), users can easily find the URL where the stream is hosted and save the full, high quality MP4 to their computer. By simply navigating to the URL where the stream is hosted, you can download the whole album for free. The same hole exists for an album from The National that is currently being streamed.

The whole album is available as an easy download and while it does come with Apple’s FairPlay DRM to prevent it being played on other devices, we imagine (hope!) this gets pulled fairly quickly.

Many have called artist’s decision to stream their album in entirety on iTunes a play at combatting piracy in the days up to album’s launch. The idea being, since it’s going to leak anyway, offering a high-quality stream of the album will tempt most into going to iTunes and possibly preorder while they are there. It’s of course possible to rip a slightly lower quality version of the stream using software, but Apple shouldn’t be making it this easy to download the full quality file.

Apple’s streaming security is especially important in light of the upcoming iRadio streaming app that’s coming to iOS 7. We imagine that the labels will want to make sure holes like this are closed.

Just as the Defense Department granted iOS devices approval for use on military networks, TheStreet reports that the U.S. Air Force plans on saving around $50 million through its purchase of iPads. The savings will mainly be due to the ability to cut weight on flights by replacing traditional flight bags and come over a ten year period:

“We’re saving about 90 pounds of paper per aircraft and limiting the need for each crew member to carry a 30 to 40 pound paper pile [of flight manuals],” said Major Brian Moritz, EFB program manager, in a phone interview. “It adds up to quite a lot of weight in paper.”

Removing the need to print and distribute thousands of flight manuals, however, equates to an even greater cost saving. “It comes out to just over $5 million a year,” noted Moritz. “With fuel savings, it comes out to $5.7 million annually in pure cost. When you look at $5.7 million a year, over 10 years, that’s well over $50 million.”

In February of last year the Air Force revealed plans to purchase up to 18,000 iPads as a replacement to traditional flight bags, although at the time it was considering other tablets and looking for the lowest cost of entry possible.

According to the report, the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command now currently has around 16,000 iPads in use with another 2,000 spread across other Air Force members. 

Even the simple “CTRL F” word search function, for example, is a huge time saver, something that could be crucial in an emergency. “Say that you have an engine problem or an engine fire over the North Atlantic,” said Moritz. “Having a device that you can use the search function and quickly pick out key words will drive you to a deeper level while you’re pushed for time.”

Like any electronic device used by the military, security is of paramount importance. “The camera and the Wi-Fi are turned off unless the device is in a pre-determined, undisclosed location where its OS certificates can be updated,”

Update: Apple provided the following comment to AllThingsD on the approval:

“With iPhone and iPad being tested or deployed in almost every Fortune 500 company, Apple continues to scale across enterprise with nearly 30,000 companies globally developing and distributing iOS apps for corporate use by their employees,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told AllThingsD. “The FIPS 140-2 certification and STIG approval demonstrate our ongoing commitment to deliver a secure platform to our enterprise and government customers around the world who deploy iOS devices on their networks.”

Following reports earlier this month that the Defense Department was in the process of approving iOS 6 for nonclassified communications and widespread use by government agencies, Bloomberg reports today that Apple has officially been granted approval for use on U.S. military networks.

The Pentagon already approved Samsung devices powered by the company’s Knox security software and BB10 ahead of today’s approval of iOS 6.

In February the US Defense Department confirmed plans to open its networks to 100,000 new devices from Apple and Google by February of next year. At that time the Pentagon said its networks had about 470,000 BlackBerrys, 41,000 Apple products, and 8,700 Android devices.

A number of U.S. agencies switched from BlackBerry to iPhones over the last year, while earlier reports indicate Samsung is attempting to attract more government and corporate customers with a new team of security experts and former RIM employees as well as a water and dust proof variant of its flagship S4 dubbed the Galaxy S4 Active. Today’s security approval will increase the number of agencies allowed to deploy iPhone and iPads on government networks for nonclassified communications.

Corning, the company that currently supplies glass for Apple’s iOS devices, yesterday introduced its second generation glass substrate with the commercial launch of Corning Lotus XT Glass. While we initially expected Corning’s recently announced Gorilla Glass 3 might end up in an iOS device, the second generation Lotus XT Glass could be a prime candidate for LCD and OLED displays on future Apple devices.

The end result for consumers, according to Corning, is an easier method of manufacturing “faster, thinner, brighter, and higher resolution” displays.

The Corning Lotus Glass platform enables organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and liquid crystal displays (LCD) that use either low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) or oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes. The result is an energy-efficient, immersive display device that features high resolution, fast response times, and bright picture quality.

Corning Lotus XT Glass also offers the advantages of Corning’s proprietary fusion process while meeting the stringent cost requirements of the mobile device and IT display market. Its superb surface quality supports the backplane characteristics required for the vibrant colors and clarity OLED and LCD transmissions are known for.

Apple is widely believed to use Corning’s Gorilla Glass in its iOS devices, although the company has never specifically confirmed as much.

Corning will be showing off its next-gen Lotus XT Glass in Vancouver from May 21 to May 23 at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) Display Week event.

CW’s Xbox app

During a presentation with advertisers, CW Network president Mark Pedowitz announced that the network would be expanding its content offerings to new multimedia devices. This strategy will include a spot as an app on the Apple TV set-top-box’s home screen.

The network confirmed this to MacRumors:

It’s a dedicated CW app that will work like our Xbox and mobile and tablet apps – no cable authentication required, full episodes of our shows available next day after air, ad-supported.

Notably, as noted in the above quote, the CW content will be ad-supported.

CW currently streams its content to software on Microsoft Windows devices such as the Xbox. Apple recently added Hulu Plus and sports content to the Apple TV, and the current generation Apple set-top-box has sported YouTube and Netflix integration since launch.

Apple is also rumored to be nearing a content deal for Apple TV with HBO.

CW currently hosts various TV episodes in addition to some original content. The network lists its show offerings on its website.