Verizon's LTE Network Will Improve Gaming, Interactive Video Performance, Battery Life

The Verizon Wireless fourth-generation Long Term Evolution network will boost typical downlink speeds to 5 Mbps to 12 Mbps, and uplink speeds to the 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps range, but latency performance also will improve by a factor of about four, making the LTE network a much-better platform for multiplayer games and interactive multimedia applications.

Video applications such as video sharing, surveillance, conferencing and streaming in higher definition will benefit from the new network's capabilities.

The LTE air interface also reduces signal interference that historically has degraded end user experience and reduces power requirements, leading to longer handset battery life. Because of the 700-MHz frequencies used to support LTE, in-building signal strength will be higher than currently is possible with 3G network signals.

Verizon Wireless will be the first mobile service provider and among the first in the world to launch a fourth-generation Long Term Evolution network, starting with 25 to 30 markets in 2010, covering approximately 100 million people; and extending to cover Verizon's current 3G footprint in 2013.

User Choice or Imposed Limits: What is Best Way to Manage Bandwidth?

Should the internet treat all data equally, regardless of whether it is part of a multi-gigabyte video file or a short email? Gareth Morgan asks the question in an article at New Scientist.com, after interviewing Johan Pouwelse, a peer-to-peer researcher at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Though many will reflexively object, Morgan says one way to deal with demands placed on the network by very-active users is to bill for consumption of bandwidth, not for access at certain speeds. That charging principle would allow people to alter their own behavior, rather than imposing fixed limits to use.

Nearly two years ago, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) censured network operator Comcast for trying to impose restrictions on "bandwidth hogs" who use BitTorrent and other file-sharing software. These systems eat up huge amounts of data capacity, and so can degrade the service to other customers, he says.

But the key problem remains unresolved: when large numbers of customers want to access the internet simultaneously, how can traffic be managed in a way that prevents those who are transferring huge multimedia files clogging up the network?

Pouwelse suggests that a different kind of charging tariff could help. Instead of charging customers on the basis of download speeds, network operators should charge users and content providers according to how much data they download or upload. "They could do that without interfering with traffic, in an entirely net neutral way," he says.

This proposal would be opposed by internet giants such as Google and Facebook, who generate large volumes of web traffic and so could face higher charges. But with high-speed broadband stimulating an ever-growing appetite for bandwidth, some way must be found to fairly share out the internet's limited resources.

Bandwidth hogs eat away at principle of net neutrality - tech - 16 April 2010 - New Scientist

GPS Using Augmented Reality

Augmented reality adds a layer of information to images viewed by a smartphone camera. So it was only a matter of time before some people figured out that if an iPhone can be mounted properly on the dashboard of a car, the right AR software can be used to enhance the normal GPS navigation functions the native GPS feature of the phone would provide.

As an aside, I notice that Microsoft-powered smartphones now offer a navigation service, but it requires a monthly recurring fee. Since that feature can be used for no incremental cost on an Android phone, I don't see that remaining a viable long-term competitive alternative.

People in competing firms often gnash their teeth when Google disrupts an existing business by giving away something valuable "for free." And that is what Google is doing by giving away turn-by-turn navigation services without requiring users to buy a monthly recurring subscription. Garmin obviously cannot be happy about that.

On the other hand, Google apparently had to spend quite some time and money creating richer data for its service, primarily because creation of a turn-by-turn navigation feature apparently cannot be created simply by importing satellite data, but also requires actual recording of the positions of vehicles as they drive around.

It's not as though Google is simply licensing software or database services from a third party; it had to create new data to enable the feature.

Lots of AR applications add metadata of questionable value. But features related to travel and transportation seem to be exceptions. It often is quite useful to be able to ascertain where the nearest subway station is, or whether the road sign you just read actually goes to the place you want to go, even though that information was not on the road sign.

FCC Has National Broadband Authority, Say 2 Former FCC Commissioners

Former FCC chairmen Reed Hundt (D) and Michael Powell (R) say that, contrary to much speculation, the Federal Communications Commission continues to have the authority it requires to set in motion the "National Broadband Plan."

Both Powell and Hundt agreed that the FCC still has jurisdiction on the Broadband Plan and net neutrality and that there isn’t “Armageddon” because of the DC Circuit ruling on the Comcast complaint.

Powell pointed out that Title II reclassification would have a “destabilizing nature” to the industry because it would change decades-long policy and that it would frustrate investments made under the current regulatory environment (for example the $23 billion investment Verizon made on their “FiOS” service).

The argument that the FCC now "lacks jurisdiction," though incorrect, is being used to advance the notion of wider and more-disruptive changes in the basic regulatory framework governing broadband access services.

Post Tech - The Full Video: Ex-FCC heads Hundt and Powell discuss broadband policy

FCC National Broadband Plan Does Not Require Title II, AT&T Says

Robert Quinn, Senior VP, federal regulatory, for AT&T, argues that the FCC does not need to redefine broadband as a Title II telecommunications service in order to implement its proposed national broadband plan, particularly its changes to the Universal Service Fund.

The "Open Internet Coalition" including  Google, Sony, Public Knowledge and the Free Press have been arguing for that classification as necessary for the plan's recommendations.

AT&T filed an analysis with the FCC Monday saying it thought the commission still has "all the authority it needs" to migrate the Universal Service Fund from phone to broadband service or to implement the online privacy recommendations. "The FCC has all the authority it needs to go out and do the things it has identified in the national broadband plan," Quinn argues.

He said suggestions that the court decision could significantly impede the broadband plan were overblown, and that classifying it as a more regulated Title II (common carrier) service would chill investment, which could adversely impact broadband deployment.

"I think at a time when we need more than anything else is infrastructure investment, I think it would provide a huge disincentive for entities to invest in this space," Quinn says.

Quinn said, ultimately, Congress may need to step in and clarify the scope of the FCC's broadband oversight, but that in the meantime the FCC has authority over changes to universal service, protecting proprietary customer information online and making broadband accessible to disabilities, for example.

Goats at Google

As it did last year, Google has a herd of goats mowing the grass at its headquarters. I like goats. 

more photos

Cablevision, Time Warner Cable, Comcast Federate New York Hotspots

Federation nearly always is good for widespread adoption of any application. Email and text messaging provide recent examples, as usage exploded once messages were made interoperable. But one can point to any number of other examples, including railroad, telegraph and telephone services, each of which benefitted from interoperability.

A positive usage effect likely will happen for cable public hotspot users as Cablevision Systems Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Comcast Corp. have agreed to allow their broadband Internet subscribers to roam freely across the Wi-Fi deployments of all three major cable operators in the New York metro area.

The agreement will allow customers of those companies to use Wi-Fi for no additional charge in places like Madison Square Park in Manhattan, areas of the Jersey Shore and the Hamptons on Long Island.

In key ways, the agreement attempts to keep pace with public hotspot access offered by Verizon Communications and AT&T. The issue isn't so much the public hotspot access as such, but the fact that cable modem, DSL and wireless dongle services now typically come with "no additional charge" Wi-Fi hotspot access. So any provider that can offer free Wi-Fi at more locations has an advantage retaining and acquiring fixed broadband access customers.

Verizon to Debut Droid Incredible April 29

To the extent that Verizon Wireless is looking for a device that takes the "Droid" one step further,  it probably has one in the coming HTC "Droid Incredible," with many of the features of Google's "Nexus One" phone.

Verizon and HTC say the new device will cost $199.99 after a a $100 mail-in rebate on April 29 with a new two-year contract.

DROID Incredible by HTC is the first Verizon Wireless phone that takes advantage of Qualcomm’s 1GHz superfast Snapdragon processor, and it’s the first available phone from Verizon Wireless to include an 8 megapixel camera.

Shortly after the phone becomes available, customers will be able to enjoy two of the latest exclusive apps from Verizon Wireless, NFL Mobile and Skype mobile.

The new Droid features Android 2.1, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; unified
Flickr, Facebook and Twitter updates; an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, a 3.7-inch WVGA (480x800) AMOLED capacitive touch display and an optical joystick for smooth navigation.

The device features a proximity sensor, light sensor and digital compass; integrated GPS and Wi-Fi
(802.11 b/g) as well as a 3.5 mm headset jack.

The Incredible will be available for pre-order online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning on April 19 and it will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on April 29.

Incredible customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless "Nationwide Talk" and an "Email and Web for Smartphone" plan. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access. Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.

HTC is the same company that makes Google's Nexus One.

Google Beats First Quarter Estimates

Google's first-quarter profit rose 37 percent, exceeding analyst estimates on both the earnings and revenue lines, suggesting that at least at Google, online advertising has picked up in the first quarter of 2010.

“Google performed very well in the first quarter, with 23 percent year-over-year revenue growth driven by strength across all major verticals and geographies,” said Patrick Pichette, Google CFO.

Google reported revenues of $6.77 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, an increase of 23 percent compared to the first quarter of 2009.

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.44 billion, or 66 percent of total revenues in the first quarter of 2010. This represents a 20 percent increase over first quarter 2009 revenues of $3.69 billion.

Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.04 billion, or 30 percent of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2010. This represents a 24 percent increase from first quarter 2009 network revenues of $1.64 billion.

Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $3.58 billion, representing 53 percent of total revenues in the first quarter of 2010, compared to 53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 52 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $842 million, representing 13 percent of revenues in the first quarter of 2010, compared to 13 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Ning Lays off 40% of Staff, to Refocus on Paid Users

In a significant shift, Ning has laid off more than 40 percent of its staff (shrinking from 167 people to 98 people) and announced it no longer provide access to free social networks, concentrating instead on "for fee" customers. After 30 days as Ning's new CEO, Jason Rosenthal says "my main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services business."

"Our Premium Ning Networks drive 75 percent of our monthly U.S. traffic," and those customers will pay for many more services and features," says Rosenthal.

"Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning," he says.

The announcements by the Palo Alto social networking company came about a month after co-founder Gina Bianchini was replaced as CEO role after five years in that job.

Ning was founded in 2004 by CEO Bianchini and Netscape Communications Corp. founder Marc Andreessen. It has raised more than $100 million from Lightspeed Ventures, LinkedIn Corp. founder Reid Hoffman, Legg Mason and Allen & Co.

The company offers a platform aimed at offering customizable tools that lets users create their own social networks.

The company makes money by selling Google-brokered ads on social sites and by selling premium services, including the ability to eliminate Google ads, which can be replaced with ads sold by users.

The move could provide a boost to other providers, including firms such as Zerista, which specialize in social networks that feature 250 members or fewer, especially networks that benefit from mobile access and sharing. Zerista also offers paid support for larger social networks that could include 100,000 members, though.

GMail Gets Drag and Drop

Those of you who use Microsoft Outlook or Exchange won't be excited, but those of us who do use GMail with Chrome or Firefox browsers now can "drag and drop" file attachments into email messages.

It's just a small enhancement, but an enhancement that will shave a few seconds, and  few mouse clicks, off the attachment process.

It's also an example of how application "disruption" typically happens these days. Attackers generally start out "low" on the functionality scale, offering an alternative that generally does not have all the functionality of the market-leading application.

The attacking applications tends to be derided as "okay for consumer use" or "just a toy" in other cases, but that isn't the point. Over time, features get richer and the differences between the attacking application and the market leading application begin to narrow. At some point the attacking app starts to compete head to head with the leading app in one or more customer verticals.

And that is what this smallish new feature is, another small step towards feature parity.

75% of Twitter Users Use 3rd Party Services

Twitter says it has 105.8 million registered users, is adding 300,000 new users every day and sees activity by 180 million users every month.

About 75 percent of its visitors don’t go to Twitter.com, but to services built by third-party developers. That is significant because traffic counts based solely on the Twitter.com site vastly undercount actual Twitter activity.

That shows the power of third-party developers! 

Mobile Advertising, Commerce to Explode with Strong Smartphone Growth

Research and Markets forecasts that U.S. mobile Internet users will rise to 158 million in 2015, while smartphone owners will rise to 194 million in the same year. That is fairly significant growth, given the current estimate of about 46 million U.S. smartphones in use, suggesting more than a tripling and nearly a quadrupling of the user base in the next five years.

As a result, the firm believes revenues from mobile advertising will grow about 37 percent at a compound annual growth rate, while mobile commerce grows at 65 percent compound rate between now and 2015.

Smartphones Have Outsize Impact on Mobility Business

Despite the fact that smartphones have only about 19 percent share of the U.S. handset market, they have outsize importance simply because smartphone use is growing so fast, implies growth of mobile broadband revenue and is key to the hopes new suppliers have for cracking the handset market.

Browsers were used by 29.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.4 percentage points), while subscribers who used downloaded applications made up 27.5 percent (up 1.8 percentage points).

Some 18 percent used social networking sites or blogs, up 2.9 percentage points to 18 percent of mobile subscribers. About 13 percent report they listened to music on a mobile device. About 22 percent say they played games on their mobiles., up about half a percentage point.

Some 234 million Americans age 13 and older were mobile subscribers, while 45.4 million people owned smartphones in an average month during the December to February period, up 21 percent from the three months ending November 2009.

In an average month during the December through February 2010 time period, 64 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.9 percentage points from November 2009 levels, says comScore.

Those differences also are reflected in market share of feature and smartphones. In the broader feature phone market, Motorola has 22 percent share, LG 22 percent, Samsung 21 percent, Nokia nine percent and Research in Motion eight percent.

In the smartphone market RIM has 42 percent share, Apple 25 percent, Microsoft 15 percent, Google nine percent and Palm five percent. Google grew the most over the quarter ending in February, gaining five share points. Apple's share was flat and Microsoft lost five points.

Apple iPad Ignites War Over Market That Might Not Exist

With rumors that Google, Nokia, Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Acer, Dell, Lenovo all are working on tablet devices in the same class as the Apple iPad, I suppose it has to be said that those companies do not want to take a chance on Apple having discovered a new mobile device category, and not moving early enough to participate in the segment's growth.

It's just that nobody has yet proven what the market is, or how big it might be. But nobody seems to want to take a chance that a market exists, and that Apple will stake out leadership before anybody else can mount a challenge.

That is not to discount Microsoft's historic interest in the tablet segment of the market, but simply to point out that, up to this point, the segment has not gotten much traction, perhaps because "different interfaces to the same functions" has not resonated. Microsoft's approach has been to envision a PC with a tablet design.

Apple's approach is more similar to that of the Kindle and iPad "touch," though, more a media reader and entertainment-driven Web appliance than a 'notebook with a different interface.'

The range of rumored interface, operating system and featured applications illustrates what happens when suppliers try to position a new device mid-way between smartphones and netbooks and notebooks.

Hewlett-Packard is said to be debutting a slate computer that it will offer by midyear. H.P.'s slate will have a camera and ports for add-on devices, like a mouse.  Apple's iPad appears to dispense with those options.

Under the hood, the iPad is powered by what might be called a "smartphone" processor, while others likely will try to use "netbook" processors.

Google might try to power its slate using Android software, which was originally designed for mobile phones.  Those hardware and software choices show some of the issues involved when trying to create a new class of devices mid-way between netbooks and smartphones.

Then there is the matter of "niche" to pursue. Apparently the first the idea was to create a device for designers and architects, but lately the company is thinking of a broader market of consumers and so would include e-books, magazines and other media content on the device.

Nokia is said to be designing an e-reader. The point is that there is so far no clear consensus about what the category is, how people will use the devices, or whether there is only one large, or multiple more specialized categories, to be satisfied. That accounts for the diverse choices about featured applications, processors and operating systems, among other choices.

All for a market that nobody knows exists, for sure.