Google patent application reveals broadband dreams

Apparently Google has put some thought into this idea of bringing super-fast fiber-optic broadband to Kansas City.

The company has applied for a patent for "general edging systems and methods," which the application bills as "a low-impact, convenient, time-efficient and cost-saving optical fiber deployment technology."

The application describes a flat, perhaps bendable strip of "edging" that carries fiber-optic lines or coaxial cables tucked within. The edging could be slipped into a shallow slot, perhaps along a fence or driveway or dug into a lawn, or it could be camouflaged to fit into the garden or patterned to look nice if exposed.

Another idea in the application: the edging could come in several sections that snap together. Or it could be made hollow with a sealed tube through which fiber-optic lines could be blown after the housing is installed.

Nobody ever accused Google for not thinking big, and perhaps the patent application sheds some light on how ambitious it thinks Google Fiber can go beyond Kansas City, Kan. and Mo. Everybody loves the tremendous data capacity of fiber-optic lines, but so far it's mostly been economical only for long-haul lines where its installation expense pays off.

Cheaper and faster installation could make it more economical to bring fiber-optic lines all the way to people's houses (fiber to the home, or FTTH). That would make it easier for Google to fulfill its dreams of fast, cheap Internet access everywhere. The Kansas City testbed will have speeds of 1 gigabit per second -- something like 100 times what higher-end plans today offer -- and there was a report last year that Google Fiber could extend to Europe.

In Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt's speech at Mobile World Congress this week, he said, "By 2020, fiber networks will be deployed in nearly every city," and of course he expects Google services to be riding atop those networks.

It's unclear just how much Google hopes to profit directly from Google Fiber. Faster Net services mean more searches, more advertising, and more customers for Google Apps, so -- like Android -- Google Fiber can be seen as an ennabler for Google's current businesses.

Google won't comment on its specific plans, but Google Fiber project leader Kevin Lo said in 2011, "This is a business for us. We expect to make money. We don't expect to lose money ... This thing has to make economic sense, and it does."

Building and operating Net infrastructure also could give Google a bit of moral high ground, or at least bargaining power, in its struggle to keep telecommunications companies from trying to get Google, with data-intensive services such as YouTube, to shoulder some network infrastructure costs. With Google Fiber, the company becomes a network operator, too.

Google bears the brunt of telcos' criticism of "over-the-top" players who send data over networks and generate an outsized portion of the profits. Some of that concern was on display at Mobile World Congress, for example from Sunil Bharti Mittal, president of Indian wireless network operator Airtel.

"When somebody watches YouTube on a mobile phone and ends up [with a] big bill, he curses under his breath at the telecom operators. But YouTube is consuming a massive amount of resources on our network. Somebody's got to pay for that," he said. YouTube should pay operators an "interconnect charge" to fund the network improvements, he said.

Schmidt expressed sympathy for the operators' plight.

"I'm very sensitive to these arguments because i think they're true," Schmidt said. "It's very difficult to be a telecom operator right now. You have a tough regulatory environment [which means] It's difficult to raise your data plan [prices]. You have to [upgrade] your equipment to 4G. You have customers who are busy using enormous amounts of the bandwidth that's so scarce for you. Governments, in addition to regulating you to death, charge huge fees for new spectrum" for wireless services.

"We at Google are critically dependent on this infra building out. We're trying to be respectful of the very real problem that the operators have," Schmidt said.

Google's patent application describes a flat, perhaps flexible strip 50mm to 70mm wide and 1mm to 5mm thick that would carry fiber-optic lines. It could be left aboveground, buried partially, or buried fully.

How to, uh, turn Windows 8 off

Shutting off Windows used to be a simple matter of clicking the Start button and choosing the "Shut down" option. But the Windows 8 beta has no Start button. So how do you shut it down?

Microsoft has concocted a series of manuevers and keyboard shortcuts to shut down the new OS. Though slower and clumsier than going through the Start button, the new steps at least let you fully turn Windows 8 off.

The most basic way to shut down Windows 8 is through the Charms bar.

In the Metro interface, hover your mouse over the Zoom icon that appears in the lower right corner of the screen. The Charms bar should then pop up displaying several icons. Moving your mouse up the screen will reveal the names of each icon, including Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings. Click the Settings icon and then the Power Icon. You should see three options: Sleep, Restart, and Shut down. Clicking Shut down will close Windows 8 and turn off your PC.

You can more quickly reach the settings screen by pressing the Windows key and the i key. From there, clicking the Power button will give you access to the same three options mentioned above.

Another alternative is to sign out of your account and then shut down. You can either click your account photo or image at the top or press Ctrl/Alt/Del. Click the option to sign out. That will bring you to the opening screen for Windows 8 which you then need to pull up to access your login screen. The Shut down icon will be in the lower right corner. Click it to reveal the options for Sleep, Restart, and Shut down.

One more option is to switch to the Desktop and press Alt/F4. That will bring up a dedicated Shut down screen where you can choose to put the PC to sleep, restart, or shut down completely. You just need to make sure to save all your work and close all your applications first before you shut down using this method.

Laptop users have yet another way to shut down Windows 8 through the Power settings. Right-click on the hot corner that appears in the lower left of your screen--you can access this from the Metro UI or the Desktop. You should see a popup menu appear with a variety of Windows features, such as Network Connections, System, Device Manager, and Control Panel. Click the option for Control Panel.

Click the category for Hardware and Sound and then click the link for Power Options. From here you can set Windows to shut down if you press the power button or simply close the lid of your laptop.

Though you have several ways of shutting down Windows 8, none of them are quick or convenient. Even with the Start button gone, why didn't Microsoft include a more user-friendly way to close Windows 8?

With the new OS, Microsoft has set up a new hybrid boot-up process that lets you boot up more quickly. But to achieve this faster speed, Windows 8 actually needs to go into hibernation mode rather than a full shut down.

By moving the Shut down option to a more remote spot, Microsoft may be assuming that people will let their PCs hibernate instead of shutting them down completely. But I think users will be thrown by the lack of an out-in-the-open Shut down button.

There's still plenty of time for Microsoft to tweak Windows 8 between now and its final release. Let's hope that a more direct Shut down option is one of the beneficiaries.

Avnet bags Big Blue cloud badge

Distribution heavyweight Avnet Technology Solutions will look to help resellers succeed in the cloud market after bagging the IBM Cloud Builders Certification.

The badge will form part of the firm's SolutionsPath programme which contains four strands designed to help VARs build practices in cloud; storage and data management; datacentre optimisation and virtualisation; and unified communications, collaboration and mobility.

The cloud strand, dubbed CloudReady, aims to help partners skill up and start selling through training schemes, technology bundles and professional services.

Stephen Ennis, EMEA services business development director at Avnet, said: "The CloudReady practice encompasses a series of workshops, assessment services, briefings, universities and playbooks designed to help business partners architect cloud solutions based on the best technology services and solutions.

"This IBM certification endorses Avnet's and IBM's desire to help business partners quickly and successfully develop specialisation and take advantage of rapidly expanding markets while reducing the associated risks and costs."

Mozilla Firefox users can watch who is spying on them on internet

Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, has unveiled a new add-on for the popular web browser that gives users an instant view of which companies are "watching" them as they browse, the Daily Mail reported on Friday. 

The move comes the same week that Google pushed ahead with its controversial new privacy policy, built to provide even more data for Google's $28 billion advertising business - despite concerns that the harvesting of private data might be illegal in many countries. 

The Collusion add-on will allow users to "pull back the curtain" on web advertising firms and other third parties that track people's online movements, says Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs. 

Google's business is built on advertising - the company earned $28 billion from its AdWords service in 2010. 

Google's new privacy policy allows it to "streamline" data from Android phones, YouTube, Gmail and web browsing to target its adverts even more precisely towards individual web users. 

Mozilla's Firefox is the world's second most popular web browser, a position under threat from Google's own Chrome browser. The Collusion add-on is an official Mozilla product, and was unveiled at the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference this week by Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs.

Verizon to offer shared family data plan by midyear

Verizon customers looking to save a few dollars on data should get their wish this year in the form of a shared family plan.

Answering questions at a Deutsche Bank conference on Monday, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said the carrier will launch a family data plan by midyear (PDF). Specifically, Shammo referred to data sharing as "having the ability to connect more devices without having to in essence pay more for a bundle."

Many families would be happy to share budget-friendly data plans among their notebooks, smartphones, and tablets. Data plans for each separate device can easily cost $30 or more, making them very expensive or simply out of reach for the average family. But Verizon's concept extends a bit further into the future.

"Let's just take a household," Shammo said at the conference. "So you have a family; they have tablets; they have notebooks; they have their smartphones. Then you have to start thinking about then you have a washer and dryer, you have a refrigerator, and people are going to want to start to communicate with all of those devices. So when you think about connecting the devices to the network, it's more than just a smartphone and a tablet."

The CFO did caution that the move to shared data plans would require changes in account billing, meaning the option won't necessarily be available for everyone from day one.

"This is going to be a long-term migration into where we want to get data plan sharing, but this will be more of a 4G play for us and I think it will be critical for us," he explained.

Or course, Verizon doesn't want to lose money on such a plan, especially by migrating a lot of customers in one shot. So stretching out the move to family data plans helps ensure that the carrier doesn't take a hit all at once. But Verizon realizes that adding more devices to its network will ultimate benefit it.

"The fact is is that we need to give the consumers the ability to add devices as innovation continues on 4G LTE," Shammo added. "So we need to give the people ability to connect as many as they want. So it's not going to be all about a net add. It's more about revenue growth from the devices that are put onto the network."

The news confirmed earlier comments from Shammo that Verizon was looking into how best to implement a shared data plan.

Such family plans could certainly benefit data-hungry customers. I pay $30 a month for my iPhone's data plan but I own a Wi-Fi-only iPad. I also pay for a Virgin Mobile 3G account for my notebook but only in months where I use it.

Coughing up $90 a month for occasional data access for all three strikes me as too pricey, especially since I could instead opt for a tethering plan for my iPhone. But paying $50 or $60 a month for all three might be feasible.

And as Shammo said, such plans would eventually be profitable for the carriers since more users would likely opt for 3G/4G tablets, notebooks, and other gadgets, adding more devices to their networks.

Of course, if more devices hop onto the networks, the carriers face the ongoing challenge of managing the extra data. But that's another likely reason why Verizon will start slow and ramp up its family data plan over time.

Windows XP slide continues; Mac OS X posts record gain

On the heels of yesterday's launch of Windows 8's preview, new statistics show that Microsoft's decade-old Windows XP again plummeted in usage share and will be surpassed by Windows 7 in June.

According to Internet metrics firm Net Applications, Windows XP lost 1.8 percentage points last month to drop to a 45.4% share. The decline was the largest since December 2011, and the fourth time in the last 12 months that the aged OS lost around two points of share.

Windows XP also reached a milestone in February, for the first time accounting for less than half of all machines running Windows. Of the PCs powered by Windows, 49.4% of them ran XP.

Meanwhile, Windows 7 continued its charge, gaining 1.7 percentage points to end February with 38.1% of the desktop operating system usage share.

Assuming their paces hold steady, Windows 7 will take the top spot from XP in June, and has an outside shot of doing so in May.

It couldn't come too soon for Microsoft, which has been reminding customers that XP will stop receiving security updates in April 2014, and aggressively pushing Windows 7 as the next logical move.

Microsoft's problem-plagued Vista -- the 2007 edition that never managed to capture more than 20% of the market -- lost about one-tenth of a percentage point, dropping to 8.1%.

Windows overall share receded slightly to 91.9%, the fourth straight month that the operating system has grown share, stayed flat or lost less than two-tenths of a percentage point. The last time Windows dropped by more than half a percentage point was October 2011.

The Wednesday release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview will not immediately affect share numbers -- it's not expected to ship until this fall -- but if the radically-revamped OS catches on, it could mean the end of Windows 7's climb.

Vista, for example, peaked the same month that Microsoft launched Windows 7 and has been sliding ever since.

Windows XP users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8, assuming their PCs meet the low-level system requirements of the latter: a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. Most analysts, however, expect XP owners, especially businesses that still rely on the old OS, to migrate to Windows 7 rather than that edition's touch-centric successor.

During February, only 0.02% -- or two PCs out of every 10,000 -- ran Windows 8 Developer Preview, the September 2011 edition that Microsoft opened to all comers.

The next few months will show whether users are trying out Windows 8, and possibly predict its future adoption.

Three years ago when Microsoft delivered the public beta of Windows 7, that OS's share jumped to 0.2% the month after the preview's debut, and reached half a percentage point within four months. By the time Windows 7 shipped in October 2009, it had acquired a respectable 2.2% share.

The beta of Windows Vista was adopted by far fewer users, and the edition accounted for just 0.9% of all operating systems the month after it shipped. Vista didn't reach Windows 7's launch-month performance until a month and a half later.

If Windows 8's pre-release adoption rate is on Vista's scale Microsoft might be in trouble. However, if the Consumer Preview's usage share quickly climbs, the company may have another hit on its hands.

Like Windows 7, Apple's Mac OS X gained ground in February, growing its share by more than half a percentage point and ending the month with 6.9% of the usage market. It was the Mac operating system's biggest one-month increase in Net Applications' tracking history, and put Apple within spitting distance of its October 2011 record amount of usage share.

Amongst Macs, OS X 10.7, aka Lion, again boosted its share; in February, the mid-2011 edition accounted for 38.9% of all Apple desktop operating systems in use.

Snow Leopard, or OS X 10.6, retained its lead over Lion, however. The 2009 version powered 43.4% of all Mac desktops and notebooks.

Apple has also announced a 2012 operating system upgrade, dubbed OS X Mountain Lion, that it will deliver in late summer. If experts are right, and Apple offers a Mountain Lion upgrade free of chargeto some Mac users, that edition's share could climb much faster than either past for-a-fee OS X versions or even Windows 8.

Net Applications calculates operating system usage share with data obtained from more than 160 million unique visitors who browse 40,000 Web sites that the company monitors. More OS share data can be found on the company's site.

Google releases Android interface design stencils

Google has released Android 4.0 design stencils to help developers create mock-up user interfaces in double quick time.

Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich brought a host of new features but the most noticeable was a change in the user interface with new icons, buttons and interface controls. Now Google has offered designers the chance to download stencils so that they can create interface mock-ups using Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop and Omni Omnigraffle.

Google has been placing increasing importance on the look and feel of Android applications. Recently the firm released a style-guide so developers can achieve the right tone with their instructions.

However Google's release of design stencils is a move to show that developing applications on its Android operating system need not be an extraneous process. Plus it should help developers use 'Android standard' icons and interface controls from a very early stage of development.

Google's Android had come in for some criticism due to its mish-mash of user interfaces from several versions of the operating system. However now that the firm has integrated both tablet and smartphone operating branches into Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, it needs to encourage uniformity in design across devices with different screen sizes.

Now Google needs to not to make any major user interface design changes with upcoming versions of Android, as rumours are claiming that Android 5.0 will be released before the end of the year.

Adata launches 1.35V DDR3 modules for overclockers

Adata has released an 8GB DDR3 1600MHz memory module running at 1.35V.

Adata might not be as well known as Corsair, Kingston or Crucial, however the firm is one of the biggest DRAM and NAND vendors around and is starting to push further into the performance DRAM market. Its latest product, a 8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 module, is part of the firm's XPG Overclocking brand and claims to provide headroom by running at 1.35V.

Both Crucial and Kingston have memory that runs at 1.35V to promote energy efficiency, however Adata's units are being marketed in the same way that TDP-binned chips are often spun by retailers as having more overclocking headroom. Typically DDR3 modules run at 1.5V.

Alex Wu, DRAM project manager in Adata's Product Planning Department said, "The new XPG Gaming V 2.0 1600G 8GB single and 16GB dual kit memory modules use voltage of only 1.35V, with 9-11-9-27 timing, and are compatible with the latest [Intel] X79 four-channel platform. They provide gamers with the opportunity to significantly upgrade their RAM all the way to 64GB, in order to experience faster operation and performance of desktop computers."

Adata mounted the memory chips on an eight-layer PCB and slapped on a lifetime warranty for everyone except those who live in Germany, France and Austria. Those punters get only a 10 year warranty.

Ubuntu unleashes 12.04 ‘Precise Pangolin' beta

The Ubuntu Linux Team has taken the wraps off the first beta release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) desktop, server, cloud, and core products.

Codenamed "Precise Pangolin", Ubuntu 12.04 offers a number of new features and a few bug fixes including a new set of images for the ARMv7 "hard float" Application Binary Interface (ABI), denoted as armhf. The team confirmed that Ubuntu 12.04 for ARM will be based on armhf.

Ubuntu 12.04 includes technology that allows GPUs to go into a very low power consumption state when the GPU is idle and is now enabled by default for Intel Sandy Bridge systems.

This latest Ubuntu beta also offers a way to quickly search and access any desktop application's and indicator's menu, called the HUD, can be accessed by taping the Alt key and entering characters.

Another nifty feature is that Unity settings can now be configured by the System Setting panel, and Nautilus support has been added to the Unity launcher.

Support for Clickpad devices has been beefed up so that now when a button is pressed on the trackpad surface, a second finger may be used to drag the cursor.

On a slightly lighter note, the default music player has been switched to Rhythmbox.

In addition the CD image size has been adjusted to 703MB to squeeze in "every bit of package goodness" onto the installation CD images.

Along with Ubuntu 12.04, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and Ubuntu Studio were also released in Beta 1 status.

To upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 1 from Ubuntu 11.10, check out the beta release upgrade notes.

Raspberry Pi PCs are hard to find

IN THE WAKE of the sell-out launch of the Raspberry Pi PC, uncertainty reigns over when the thousands of geeks who have placed orders will actually get their sweaty paws on the miniature marvels.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation points out that the devices are available at either Element14, er, Farnell, or RS Components, but warns that punters should "please be patient".

A post on the Element14 website sums up the public mood pretty well. It says, "RaspberryPi.org gone quiet - any news? I suspect after a long sleep they are having a stiff word with Farnell & RS."

Element14 reports that its initial stocks sold out more or less immediately following the launch, saying, "We've seen incredible levels of interest. Our initial stock has-amazingly-already sold out! Those of you who have already pre-ordered will receive an email in the next few days about your delivery timeline, and we will be one of the first sites to have more Raspberry Pi's in stock for those who haven't ordered yet."

Meanwhile, over at RS Components the company is asking would-be Raspberry Pi owners to register and "express an interest" in the devices. Once you've registered you will be notified when the devices finally ship from China. "We are expecting to receive our first deliveries very shortly, so will be in touch soon with ordering instructions," RS Components reports.

We have asked the Raspberry Pi Foundation to comment, but at the time of writing, all we have heard back is a deafening silence. But then again it did say they were going to the pub after the launch, so maybe that explains it.

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/165Zc)

Hadoop upgrade will handle even bigger data

With a planned upgrade to its Hadoop distributed data processing technology, the Apache Software Foundation intends for the platform to run across much larger clusters and take on larger workloads, an Apache official said Thursday.

A key goal for the upcoming 0.23 release of Hadoop, which could eventually be called version 2 or 3, is to have it run across 6,000-node clusters; it currently has run on 4,000-node clusters, said Arun Murthy, vice president of Apache Hadoop at Apache and a founder of Hortonworks, which offers Hadoop technologies and services. Release 0.23 is currently alpha quality; it is due for more formal release later this year.

Hadoop has become popular for mining large data sets. Plans call for Hadoop 0.23 to run across 6,000-machine clusters, each with 16 or more cores, and process 10,000 concurrent jobs. Users will get more work done, Murthy said in a presentation at the O'Reilly Strata conference in Santa Clara, Calif. Performance, he stressed, is something users "can never have enough of."

Other capabilities eyed for the upgrade include HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System) federation as well as high availability for HDFS. MapReduce, which is the programming model and software framework in Hadoop, will be improved as well. Called "Yarn," the MapReduce upgrade "is the first to take Hadoop and make it a much more general data processing system," Murthy said. Yarn is "a high-performance rewrite of MapReduce," with twice the throughput on large clusters, said Eric Baldeschwieler, Hortonworks CTO. Also, wire protocol compatibility planned for the 0.23 release will enable server and client upgrades to be done independently.

Also at Strata on Thursday, MarkLogic and Hortonworks announced integration between Hortonworks Data Platform and MarkLogic's operational database platform. The integration will allow users to combine MapReduce with MarkLogic's real-time interactive analysis and indexing on a single, unified platform, MarkLogic said. The arrangement is intended to help users better accommodate big data workloads. MarkLogic will certify its Connector for Hadoop against Hortonworks Data Platform.

Who Needs Facebook? Zynga Preps Zynga.com, 'Gaming Graph'

On Thursday, Zynga officially took the wraps off Zynga.com, the "Project Z" the company promised that will offer a direct relationship with gamers.

In an interesting twist, Zynga also announced a pair of partners that will be launching their own social games on the Zynga platform, placing Zynga, in some sense, in competition with Facebook as a gaming destination.

Zynga.com–the "Project Z" the company talked about last October–will go live in beta form in early March, although executives did not give a specific date. Five games will debut on the site, including CastleVille, CityVille, Hidden Chronicles, Words with Friends, and Zynga Poker. In addition, users will be able to play Row Sham Bow's Woodland Heroes and a game from MobScience.

Although Facebook attracts 845 million monthly active users, Zynga's user base includes 140 million monthly users. The difference? Zynga users, by definition, play games; it's not likely that all of a user's Facebook friends, however, do.

That distinction made sense to Philip Holt, chief executive of Row Sham Bow. "For us, we're a small independent company that's been in business less than a year. For everyone we talk to in the space, the challenge is user acquisition," he said.

"We think of ourselves as a direct-to-consumer company, versus a Facebook company," Holt said.

It's unclear what effect Zynga.com will have on Facebook. What is clear is that Zynga's revenue contributes heavily to Facebook's bottom line:12 percent of Facebook's 2011 revenue, according to its S1 filing.

"We're thrilled to see Zynga use our login and payments platform to expand the possibilities for people to play games in more places with their friends," said Sean Ryan, director of games partnerships at Facebook, in a statement.

And Zynga is prepping tools to help Facebook users migrate over to Zynga.com–and stay there. All of a user's Facebook friends who play CastleVille, for example, will show up in your version running on Zynga.com. Zynga has also built in new tools and features to find gamers playing your social game in the way that you play it, said Reed Shaffner, the lead product manager of Zynga.com. Progress made on Facebook will also be reflected on Zynga.com.

"On Facebook, you've built up a rich social identity, and we don't want you to compromise it," Shaffner said.

"We just want to think of Facebook as a social graph for your life, and we're building a gaming graph for your play," Shaffner added.

The Zynga.com tools will suggest new "zFriends," or Zynga friends, together with a popup window that shows you which friends are online, and what games they're playing. Player profiles will break down your favorite games, but also perform "analytics" of your recent activity, including a user's most helpful zFriends, and how often they play a certain game.

One of the requests Zynga has received from users concerns how fast users can progress; Shaffner said that acquiring a certain item from a friend or merely finding it in the game world can take days. Now, users can post to a "social stream" to request items or just drop into a live chat to talk or send gifts.

Zynga, naturally, wants to bring on other social games onto the platform. "Given it's our own gaming destination, I think it's fair to say that we want as many games on here as we can possibly have," Shaffner said.

It's also just a "matter of time" before the Zynga.com platform is moved to the mobile space, added Manuel Bronstein, the general manager of Zynga Direct.