Game-Capable Mobile Sales to Swamp Game Consoles, Handhelds

Sales of game consoles and hand-held gaming devices will be swamped by sales of game-capable mobile devices over the next four yeas, according to analysts at iSuppli.

That probably does not mean that mobile devices will displace the existing game console market, anymore than tablet PCs will replace laptops or smartphones will replace laptops. More likely is the creation and growth of new use cases for mobile devices that extend gaming, but in ways adapted to the form factor and user interface a mobile offers.

FT.com / Technology - Industry split over net neutrality

Facebook, Ebay, Skype and Amazon say they are opposed to the Google-Verizon agreement about network neutrality, which makes "best effort" access the way broadband will be sold to consumers, but which also exempts wireless networks from the rules and allows application providers to create their own tiered, quality-assured services if they choose.

As part of the deal, Verizon gives up the right to create its own quality of service tiers for broadband access.

But the application providers also seem to object to creation of new managed services that are not classic "Internet access" services, much as a single pipe now supports Internet access, multichannel video services or business services with all sorts of quality assurances.

The area of disagreement seems to involve some differences of of opinion over regulation of networks and services of various types.

Lots of networks these days use IP technology. The public Internet, private business and organizational networks, plus separately-regulated video entertainment services are examples.

Each traditionally have been regulated using entirely different rules and principles, and at least one issue here is which models of regulation are "best," going forward.

The opponents do not want Internet access to regularly be available in a "best effort" and quality-assured or optimized versions. The Google-Verizon compromise preserves the best effort access, but does allow for development of private network or managed services.

One analogy, though many will not like it, is that opponents of the compromise do not want to see creation of a "two-tier" or "multiple-tier" access regime, while proponents of the compromise do not want to foreclose development of new managed services that are more akin to cable TV or private business network services than best-effort Internet access.

FT.com / Technology - Industry split over net neutrality

AT&T Says Google-Verizon Internet Plan is a Reasonable Framework

AT&T Inc.’s wireless chief said he largely supports a proposal from Google Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. for Internet regulation that would exclude mobile Web services from most oversight.

The proposal is a “reasonable framework” for the industry and demonstrates that carriers and Internet companies can reach agreements on Web policies, Ralph de la Vega said today at the Oppenheimer & Co. Technology, Media & Telecommunications Conference in Boston.

AT&T Says Google-Verizon Internet Plan `Reasonable' - Bloomberg

IGoogle Small Business Blog Launches

Google has created the "Google Small Business Blog," billed as a central hub that brings together all the information about Google products, features and projects of specific interest to the small business community.

The site gathers in one place details about templates for creating video ads on YouTube, tips for employees using Gmail or how to respond to the business reviews on your Place Page, you can find all of this helpful information right here in one place, Google says.

Introducing the Google Small Business Blog - Google Small Business

Plastic Logic cancels Que E-book Reader

Plastic Logic has canceled its Que e-reader product, which debuted in January and was expected to ship this year.

“We recognize the market has dramatically changed, and with the product delays we have experienced, it no longer make sense for us to move forward," the company said.

The e-book reader market already has gotten quite competitive. In all likelihood some suppliers are going to reassess their tablet PC plans as well.

Plastic Logic cancels Que e-reader

How News Consumption is Shifting to the Personalized Social News Stream

The social network of a reader is quickly becoming their personalized news wire.

Over the last five years, a revolutionary shift has taken place in the way many people consume news. We have gone from consuming news through traditional media and news websites to having the news broadcast to us by our social network of friends. In fact, 75 percent of news consumed online is through shared news from social networking sites or e-mail.

How News Consumption is Shifting to the Personalized Social News Stream

Half of Mobile Users to Be Web-Enabled by 2013

85.5 million mobile users will access the web from their mobile devices in 2010, more than eMarketer earlier had forecast.

In 2013, penetration will reach the halfway mark, and by 2014, 142.1 million users, representing 54 percent of the U.S. mobile user population, will access the internet using mobile browsers or applications.

Half of Mobile Users to Be Web-Enabled by 2013 - eMarketer

Majority of U.S. Mobile Users Rely on Smartphones, Rather than Feature phones, to Access Mobile Web

Smartphones now have surpassed feature phones as the devices U.S. mobile users rely on to access the mobile Internet, Nielsen reports.

Android the Only Smartphone OS Gaining Market Share?

In the U.S. market, at least, Android devices seem to be the only class of devices, sorted by operating system, that has gained market share over the last six months, Nielsen reports.

Android and iPhone Users Seem More Loyal Than BlackBerry Users

Users of iPhone and Android devices seem to be more loyal than BlackBerry users, a new analysis by Nielsen suggests.

Based on "next desired smartphone" responses, existing iPhone and Android users are more likely than BlackBerry users to want to stick with the same operating system when they buy their next devices.

Gowilla says it has "not yet" been approached by Google about a potential acquisition, though there is some speculation that could be in the offing as Google ramps up its efforts in the social media and social networking areas.

Google Docs Gets New File Conversion Feature

Google has announced a new file conversion feature in Google Docs that lets you convert files that are already uploaded to your document list into a Google Docs format, as opposed to only being able to do so upon upload.

For example, you can convert PDFs to text using Google’s Optical Character Recognition technology. The changes make it easier for users to use Google Docs and then export content in ways that are compatible with Office and other productivity suites.

Files that can be converted include:
For spreadsheets: .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, .tsv, .txt, .tsb
For documents: .doc, .docx, .html, plain text (.txt), .rtf
For presentations: .ppt, .pps
For OCR: .jpg, .gif, .png, .pdf

To use the feature, simply right click on the file and click 'make a Google Docs copy'

Google Docs Gets New File Conversion Feature | jatiN mahindrA doT coM

Revamped Google Images Now a Bandwidth Hog?

Google's redesigned "Google Images" is intended to allow searchers to discover more images faster. My own anecdotal experience with image search is not entirely conclusive, yet.

Google Web Search Help does have a complaint from a school in New Zealand with 1,200 students. Their Google Image Search data usage has more than doubled their weekly bandwidth fees, the post claims.

That's a pretty startling result.

Google Images Redesign Doubles Schools Bandwidth Bill | jatiN mahindrA doT coM:

Google "Caffeine" Promises 50 Percent Fresher Results

Google's latest search indexing system, "Caffeine," promises search results that are 50-percent fresher than Google used to be able to provide under the old indexing system. In a world where real-time and near-real-time content is boosted by applications such as Twitter, that's important.

"Whether it's a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before," the Google Blog notes. Google noted that faster indexing is needed in part because with the advent of video, images, news and real-time updates, the average webpage is richer and more complex, and user expectations simply are higher.

Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish.

The old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available.

With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.

Caffeine lets Google index web pages on an enormous scale, processing hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day, Google says.

Tiered Access Pricing the Result of Google-Verizon Net Neutrality Deal?

Well, yes, in a manner of speaking, but probably only in the sense that "cable TV" or multichannel video entertainment services are sold.