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Boeing’s In-Flight Internet Preparing for Takeoff
Posted by Alex Grahmann Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Wireless / WiFi,
Several tech-minded journalists were invited this week to take Boeing’s new broadband service for an test flight. The on board service, dubbed Connexion, would service the plane with 20Mbps of bandwidth. Taking advantage of the connection would cost anywhere between $10 and $30, depending on the type and length of the flight. While this all may sound wonderful, especially for those living the traveler’s high-tech lifestyle, the down side is that none of the major airlines have shown any official interest in purchasing the service. In the era of budget and service cuts in the airline industry, it may be a while until we can join the mile-high web surfing club.
Read More 
| PC World
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Google Still King Of Searches; AOL, Ask Jeeves Gaining
Posted by Devin Categories: Corporate News, Internet,
According to research conducted by Nielsen Netratings, Google is still king of the mountain in internet searches, but it appears AOL and Ask Jeeves are gaining ground. Google still has a comfortable lead over its competitors with a 47% market share, followed by Yahoo(22%), MSN (12%), AOL(5%) and Ask Jeeves (2%). AOL and Ask Jeeves have a long way to go before posing a threat to Google, but they are gaining steadily. During the second quarter of 2005, searches performed on AOL rose 15% and those performed on Ask Jeeves rose 16% while those on Google only rose 6%.
“Google’s performance has remained consistent, so it appears AOL and Ask Jeeves are gaining at the expense of those below them,” said Nielsen analyst Ken Cassar, noting that because of Google’s massive user base, it is harder for the company to gain share than it is for the competition. “It’s far too early to say that Google needs to watch its back, but a resurgent AOL makes the game a lot more interesting,” he said. The survey results indicate that AOL might be on the right path as it moves toward providing more free content on the Web, said Cassar.
Read More | Top Tech News
Debate Over Cost of Web-Surfing to Businesses
Posted by Alex Grahmann Categories: Internet, Misc. Tech,
Ken ?Caesar? Fisher, a writer for Arstechnica.com, is challenging recent claims made by Websense, a web-filtering service, on the amount of money lost by businesses due to employee web-surfing. Websense has reported that $178 billion dollars is lost every year, which works out to around $5000 per adult employee. However, Fisher points out several weaknesses in the wording and data produced by Websense, specifically that many of the conclusions are drawn from ?beliefs? of managers, rather than firm data. With the growing availability and usability of internet access in the workplace and such huge numbers being thrown around, any article which balances the story is worth the read.
Read More | ArsTechnica
Latest Gear Live Videos
Slashphone has a pic of an interesting concept phone. The thing has an enormous screen for web browsing, and the keyboard folds out to reveal what appears to be a full QWERTY keyboard, trackpad, and a number pad. I’m not sure how practical this would be as a phone, but for a PDA/web browsing terminal on the go I might be interested in one. Not too confident on how I would fit it in a pocket though.
Read More | Superphone concept
In yet another innovative move Google just announced Google Moon. It’s a Google maps interface showing part of the moon, and including information about the moon landings. It’s a nifty tool and I highly encourage everyone to check it out. Make sure to zoom in all the way for a cool easter egg!
Read More | Google Moon
Adisasta has jumped on the bittorrent bandwagon by developing a Windows Mobile/Pocket PC bittorrent client. While I do think this is a nifty innovation and surely serves a purpose for someone, I am at a loss as to what most people would use it for. Bittorrent is highly bandwidth intensive and most people are using a PocketPC over a weak WiFi antenna or chained to a mobile phone over Bluetooth. Do they honestly expect people to need to access large bittorent files while on the go? Since bittorrent is usually used for very large files I’m also wondering if they plan to have the users carry around an array of SD cards to store their content on. I read a while back that bittorrent made up 30% or more of internet traffic - will the same be true of tomorrow’s 3G cellular networks now? The one faint glimmer of hope for this technology is for Podcasting - it does seem conceivable to me that II might want to grab the latest podcast on the go and that is a small enough file to perhaps make this practical. Well if you do have the need to bittorrent from your PDA then head on over to Adisasta and give them $20 and they will hook you right up!
Read More | WinMobile Torrent via PC Magazine
How Google Maps Got Me Out Of A Traffic Ticket
Posted by Edwin Soto Categories: Features, Internet, Misc. Tech,
In January of this year, I was pulled over by a traffic officer for “disobeying a steady red”, a.k.a. running a red light. I pleaded “Not Guilty” to the charge, and today - nearly six months later – I went to court to find out the fate of my ticket violation. Check out how Google Maps saved me some serious cash - and points on my license!
Click to continue reading How Google Maps Got Me Out Of A Traffic Ticket
When Verizon first started deploying their Fios internet service a year ago, many lamented that it was only being done in remote locations of the country. It now looks like Fios is ready to hit the big time, as Verizon will be bringing it to New York City. The NYC deployment will begin in Bayside, Queens. Verizon has stated that they do not have the technology to serve the multi-dwelling homes yet. Something tells me that this is more of a business decision than a technical one. Some of those Manhattan apartments are really old. Getting fiber to each unit would be a nightmare.
Read More | NY Daily News
This morning I was treated to a headline I never thought I would see. A women named Amaka Anmajemba has been sentenced by Nigerian courts for taking part in a $242 million spam fraud campaign involving a Brazilian bank. I’m a little surprised - I have great spam prevention measures in place but one or two of the nigerian businessman’s offers for free money makes it into my spam box once in a while. I’m honestly surprised that both the Nigerian government was able to track one of them down and that enough people fell for it for them to make $242 million.
Read More | Reuters
Here in Seattle we are blessed with a very technology centric culture. With companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon, and Real Networks headquartered here we have a healthy geek population. This technology centric approach has even touched our local news stations: King 5 has started a group blog composed of it’s news staff including reporters, producers, photographers, and meteorologists. They have taken a bit of a leap of faith and enabled open commenting. This is a pretty gutsy move for a TV station to make and it’s going to be interesting to see how it works out.
Read More | Blogger King
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