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Google offers a better benchmark for Santa Cruz broadband policy


The color scheme is optional.

Santa Cruz County is moving closer to slashing red tape for broadband projects to the level urged by Google Fiber, in its talks with other cities in California and elsewhere in the U.S. That’s not to say that Google has any interest in putting a fiber system anywhere on California’s central coast. Nor that new broadband infrastructure rules are a done deal here. Not by a long shot. But it’s to the point where it’s more useful to compare Santa Cruz County to Google’s fast track than to the normal course of broadband construction in California.… More

Expect the unexpected from giants' battle for air supremacy

A year ago, if anyone had said that Google and Facebook would be fighting each other to acquire drone manufacturers and technology, you might have rightly called that person crazy. Loony, even. But that’s what’s going on now.

Google announced this week that it bought Titan Aerospace, a New Mexico-based maker of drones. That follows stories more than a month ago that Facebook was in the process of buying it.

Titan’s drone technology will be used by Google both for imaging purposes and to bolster Project Loon, which is aimed at bringing Internet connectivity to parts of the world that can’t be economically reached by conventional means.… More

AT&T wants Google's deal in San Antonio, but not for anything in particular

6 April 2014 by Steve Blum
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Oh, all right. You can have a press release too.

AT&T is about to get the same lease terms in San Antonio that Google got. On Thursday, the city council will look at a draft agreement that would give AT&T almost exactly the same access to city property to install fiber huts that it offered Google last month.
If you lay the Google fiber hut site master lease and the draft of the AT&T version alongside each other, they match word for word, except for the rental rates charged and a couple other minor details.… More

Microsoft CEO chooses long chase over head on attack

Winning depends on the pitch staying playable.

The launch of Microsoft Office apps – Excel, Word, Powerpoint – for the iPad has been hailed by some as a turning point for the company and a bold leadership stroke by new CEO Satya Nadella. If anything, the excitement is a fair measure of Microsoft’s problem: the best it can do is port thirty year old software to the market leader’s tablet.
Ironically, Excel and Powerpoint were originally developed for the Mac OS.… More

To nimby or not to nimby is the dilemma for Seattle and Portland broadband upgrades

4 April 2014 by Steve Blum
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Not every emerald city has a wizard to rely on.

Broadband doesn’t arrive by magic. It needs stuff. Like poles and towers and boxes that don’t necessarily match the neighborhood decor. That simple fact is often lost on nimby homeowners who want to be able to watch four channels of Netflix HD movies at once, but don’t want a small, green box planted anywhere nearby.

Seattle and Portland are two cities where it’s difficult, if not impossible, to install telecoms street furniture.… More

Wealthy city discovers Google Fiber has the power to say no, too

Google plays through when Overland Park misses its tee time.

Google Fiber’s take on cherry picking seems to be to leave rich but stroppy communities to the tender mercies of cable and telephone companies, while building where the municipal welcome wagon drives out to meet them. Overland Park, a Kansas City suburb with lots of prosperous people and good paying jobs, appears to have to permanently gone to the back of the fiber construction line – if not out of it completely – because the city council dragged its feet when it came time to sign a contract.… More

Sony picks in-house OS for wearables and survival


Used to be staying alive was innovation enough.

Google’s try at adapting its Android operating system to specifically support wearable devices isn’t getting much love from manufacturers. Following Samsung’s lead, Sony has decided to make its own Android mod for wearable products, instead of using Google’s Wear platform. It’s a necessary gamble if Sony still wants to be Sony.

The company is trying to remake itself into a mobile-oriented, innovative brand. Like it used to be when Sony launched the Walkman 35 years ago.… More

Tizen out to prove one invisible OS is as good as another

21 March 2014 by Steve Blum
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Enough treats to attract developers.

Samsung is following Google into the wearable operating system space. Its Android alternative – Tizen – now has a software developer kit available specifically for wearable devices, including, of course, the Samsung Gear smart watch. The release came close on the heels of the announcement of 64 winners of the $4 million app development challenge the Tizen Foundation launched last year.

The contest was particularly aimed at HTML5 developers, who were offered $50,000 bonuses on top of the regular prizes, which ranged up to $250,000.… More

San Antonio makes a fast move for Google fiber

14 March 2014 by Steve Blum
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Open the gates. It’s Google.

Wasting no time in working through Google Fiber’s checklist, the San Antonio city council approved a master lease agreement yesterday that would give Google the right to build 40 or so fiber huts – 12 by 26 foot shelters for the electronic equipment that powers fiber-to-the-home systems – on city property at an annual lease rate of $2,250 per site.
“It will probably be difficult to overstate the importance of this vote – akin to turning on the lights in San Antonio” said councilman Ron Nirenberg.… More

Google publishes broadband manifesto for cities

9 March 2014 by Steve Blum
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In Kansas City, my crews don’t wait for inspectors, the inspectors wait for them. We work with communities that make it easy for us. If you make it hard on us, enjoy your cable connection.
Milo Medin, head of Google Fiber, 24 October 2013.

If you want Google to run fiber through your city, be prepared to clear the path. That’s the message Google delivered to the 34 cities that it’s considering for the next round of fiber to the home build-outs last month.… More