Google Fiber, the super-fast, fiber optic-based Internet and TV service that launched in Kansas City last year and Austin, Texas, last week , now has a third city on its steadily growing target list: Provo, Utah. Google announced the move in a corporate blog post just a short while ago. As part of the deal, Google will buy out a city-owned fiber optic network called iProvo. Described as “troubled” in the press release put out by the Provo municipal government, the network had been on the block for about 18 months. Provo apparently issued about $39 million in bond debt to pay for it, but has never been able to run iProvo in a financially sustainable way. The result is that the network has been a bit of a financial albatross around the neck of local taxpayers. Selling out to Google appears to have taken care of that problem, while at the same time Google has promised to finish building it out and to upgrade it to the 100 Megabit 1 Gigabit per second speeds that have been promised in Kansas City and Austin. But as I said to the people of Austin, be patient, Provo. These things take time .
Read MoreIf you have young children, you probably know Club Penguin: A massively multiplayer game owned by Disney that’s a runaway hit with kids. At its Kelowna, Canada, headquarters this week, the company took members of the media behind the scenes and explained its efforts to preserve parents’ trust that those kids are safe. “We believe Club Penguin is a safe start to social,” said Chris Heatherly, Disney Interactive’s VP and GM, who replaced Club Penguin founder Lane Merrifield last October. Heatherly and other Club Penguin employees described the site as a social destination, similar in some ways to Facebook, which officially does not allow users under the age of 13 (not that that has ever stopped anyone). Facebook’s 13-plus rule derives from laws like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which outlawed the online collection of personal information about the under-13 set. So, for Club Penguin’s primary audience of 8- to 12-year-olds, moderators manually screen out usernames that contain players’ real names and ask for parents’ email addresses — not players’ — during registration. The company announced an upgrade to its “Safe Chat” technology, which screens out words, phrases and slang, not to mention players’ “dictionary dancing” attempts to circumvent the filter by combining words that sound like banned words. For example, to prevent bullies from saying “you’re gay,” the company also blocks out phrases like “you’re grey.” But the effectiveness of auto-moderation based on whitelisted and blacklisted words is limited, company reps said. Social tech director Marc Silbey gave the example of the word “beach,” which some players have tried to use in lieu of the banned word “bitch.” Trying to censor phrases that sound like “you are a beach,” Sibley said, can also ensnare harmless sentences like “you want to come to the beach?” The new upgrade, officially called “dynamic validation,” feeds the entirety of what kids type into a real-time search engine that tries to divine meaning and appropriateness. Silbey said about 80 percent of what Club Penguin players type is ultimately ruled “safe,” and that the new technology can automatically validate 90 percent of that without the need for a human moderator’s judgment.
Read MoreGoogle on Tuesday confirmed that it has selected Texas’ capital city as the next market for its high-speed Internet service. Just days after rumors began to circulate that Austin was the likely candidate for the next rollout of Google Fiber, the company made things official this afternoon. Google will begin connecting homes in Austin by mid-2014, although details about pricing and service tiers have yet to be disclosed. As is the case with the first rollouts in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., the ultra-high-speed Internet service—it’s 100 times faster than the average broadband connection—will also facilitate a 200-HD channel fiber TV package. At present, Google is offering its 1,000 MB/sec data service and the Google Fiber TV package for $120 per month.
Read MoreChase Carey minced no words when it comes to Aereo. Addressing broadcasters gathered in Las Vegas for the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention, the News Corp. president and CEO said that if broadcasters fail to win their lawsuit against Aereo, News Corp. would pursue a subscription model and abandon its broadcast signal. "We won't just sit idle and allow our content to be actively stolen," Carey told the NAB audience. "It is clear that the broadcast business needs a dual revenue stream from both ad and subscription to be viable. We simply cannot provide the type of quality sports, news and entertainment content that we do from an ad-supported-only business model. We have no choice but to develop business solutions that ensure we continue to remain in the driver's seat of our own destiny. One option could be converting the Fox broadcast network to a pay channel, which we would do in collaboration with both our content partners and affiliates." Alleging that Aereo is pirating broadcast content, broadcaster owners have sued Aereo, but so far have had no success in halting the service. Last week, a New York appeals court upheld a lower court decision and refused to grant broadcasters an injunction against the service, which "rents" tiny TV antennas to subscribers in order to stream local TV signals to them over the Internet. Broadcasters aren't giving up. They can go to trial on the merits early next year, ask for an en banc reconsideration by the full appeals court or pursue a political solution. Carey seemed to suggest broadcasters would continue with legal courses of action, as well as take their case to lawmakers.
Read MoreChase Carey minced no words when it comes to Aereo. Addressing broadcasters gathered in Las Vegas for the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention, the News Corp. president and CEO said that if broadcasters fail to win their lawsuit against Aereo, News Corp. would pursue a subscription model and abandon its broadcast signal. "We won't just sit idle and allow our content to be actively stolen," Carey told the NAB audience. "It is clear that the broadcast business needs a dual revenue stream from both ad and subscription to be viable. We simply cannot provide the type of quality sports, news and entertainment content that we do from an ad-supported-only business model. We have no choice but to develop business solutions that ensure we continue to remain in the driver's seat of our own destiny. One option could be converting the Fox broadcast network to a pay channel, which we would do in collaboration with both our content partners and affiliates." Carey's threat, if carried through, could cripple the network-local station broadcast model. While that might seem an extreme solution, News Corp. isn't the only network to consider a radical solution. Soon after Carey delivered his bombshell, Univision and CBS threw their support behind Carey. Univision chairman Haim Saban offered this statement. "To serve our community, we need to protect our product and revenue streams and therefore we too are considering all our options, including converting to pay TV," Saban said.
Read MoreFirms that buy and enforce patents make life hard for technology companies. A new San Francisco startup hopes to turn the tables. Unified Patents plans to recruit companies for a collective effort to deter patent lawsuits or legal threats against its members. The first to join United are Internet giant Google and NetApp, which makes data-storage hardware. But the venture plans to set itself apart by also recruiting small tech companies, which often have trouble defending themselves. Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Read MoreSo it’s increasingly looking like Austin, Texas, is going to be the second market for Google Fiber. Having yesterday sent out invitations to a bunch of reporters about a “ very important announcement ,” speculation quickly turned to Google Fiber, the one-gigabit service that is about 100 times faster than speeds available from almost any service provider — almost — in the U.S., along with pay TV service. Local TV station KVUE, an ABC affiliate, finally nailed down the story , citing sources in the city government. (See the video below.) And Engadget briefly spotted overnight an empty post on a Google blog with the headline “Google Fiber’s Next Stop: Austin, Texas,” which was quickly taken down. So that pretty much answers what the important “something” is. And it certainly makes sense. Austin is certainly the kind of mid-sized community that could benefit from the speed of Google Fiber. There are several tech companies either based in or with significant corporate presences there, including Dell, Apple and Samsung. But it’s probably going to be a long process before anyone in Austin has the superpipes installed at their house. If Google follows the same path it did in Kansas , it has to first get approval from local regulators to offer pay TV service. In Kansas City, that process started months before Google made its big announcement. Then it has to select local neighborhoods where it will build out the network. Again, if it follows the same process it did in Kansas City (notably on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border), it will hold a competition, pushing different sections of town to campaign for the distinction of being among the first. In one case, the Colorado-based venture capitalist Brad Feld bought a house in a Google-Fiber ready neighborhood, and then held a contest, the prize being getting to live in the house . Once the neighborhoods have been selected, its a matter of waiting on the construction itself to get done, and that will take some time. Hint to Austin residents: Here’s a site you’re going to want to become familiar with: The Google Fiber status update dashboard , where you can either enter your address or click through on a map to see which parts of town are up and running. It’s worth noting that it’s been nearly nine months since the initial announcement in Kansas City, and as yet no installations are expected to begin before the fall of this year. So, Austinites, be happy that you’re benefiting from Google’s big experiment. But be patient, because it’s probably going to take a while.
Read MoreGoogle and the city of Austin, Texas, will be making what they call a “very important announcement” next week — at least, according to a batch of invitations that have been sent to reporters in the last few hours. VentureBeat is speculating that the company will reveal the next city selected to become part of the Google Fiber project, which the search giant started in the Kansas City area last year. Or that Austin might become the home of the latest Google campus. In case you missed it, Google’s idea with Google Fiber is to offer smoking-fast 1 gigabit broadband Internet connections — almost but not entirely unique in the US — along with pay TV service , all via its own fiber optic lines. One reason that it’s probably not Google Fiber is that months before Google made its formal announcement about the service, it first petitioned local regulators to allow it do so, and it was widely covered by the media . (Cable TV rights are, in most states, regulated at the city or county level.) There hasn’t been a peep about regulatory approval for Austin. What else might it be? A new building? Maybe. There are plenty of tech companies, including Apple and Dell, with big presences in Austin. Or maybe just free Wi-Fi for a few neighborhoods. Google did that in New York City — not the whole city, mind you, just the neighborhood surrounding its massive office in the Chelsea section of Manhattan — earlier this year, and even got Mayor Bloomberg himself to show up at the announcement. If Google Fiber it is, it may mean that Google is simply announcing its intent to start a process that will include seeking local regulatory approval. Indeed, Austin has been campaigning to be among the next cities to which Google brings its fiber pipes. Here’s a short video in support of that effort starring game developer and space tourist Richard Garriott .
Read MoreGoogle and the city of Austin, Texas, will be making what they call a “very important announcement” next week — at least, according to a batch of invitations that have been sent to reporters in the last few hours. VentureBeat is speculating that the company will reveal the next city selected to become part of the Google Fiber project, which the search giant started in the Kansas City area last year. Or that Austin might become the home of the latest Google campus. In case you missed it, Google’s idea with Google Fiber is to offer smoking-fast 1 gigabit broadband Internet connections — almost but not entirely unique in the US — along with pay TV service , all via its own fiber optic lines. One reason that it’s probably not Google Fiber is that months before Google made its formal announcement about the service, it first petitioned local regulators to allow it do so, and it was widely covered by the media . (Cable TV rights are, in most states, regulated at the city or county level.) There hasn’t been a peep about regulatory approval for Austin. What else might it be? A new building? Maybe. There are plenty of tech companies, including Apple and Dell, with big presences in Austin. Or maybe just free Wi-Fi for a few neighborhoods. Google did that in New York City — not the whole city, mind you, just the neighborhood surrounding its massive office in the Chelsea section of Manhattan — earlier this year, and even got Mayor Bloomberg himself to show up at the announcement. If Google Fiber it is, it may mean that Google is simply announcing its intent to start a process that will include seeking local regulatory approval. Indeed, Austin has been campaigning to be among the next cities to which Google brings its fiber pipes. Here’s a short video in support of that effort starring game developer and space tourist Richard Garriott .
Read MoreNathan Stoll’s grandmother was an Avon lady for 50 years, and he wants to reimagine that role for the social media age. “Recommendations are an ancient thing; it’s different than reviews,” Stoll said in a recent interview at the headquarters of his startup, Luvocracy . “It’s part of the way we think. It’s someone you know and trust saying: ‘Go get that.’” Luvocracy CEO Nathan Stoll For his grandmother, selling cosmetics door to door was never about the money, Stoll said. It was about the satisfaction of knowing that her recommendations worked. Even though there are lots of websites for finding pretty pictures of products people like — Pinterest, Wanelo, Houzz, Fancy, OpenSky — Stoll thinks he has arrived at a new angle on social shopping. The invite-only site, which Stoll created with Beauty.com co-founder Roger Barnett, aims to create a marketplace around recommendations. It “closes the loop” on social recommendations by making everything on the site directly purchasable, Stoll said. New items are personally vetted by a team of “shopping assistants.” Here’s how it works: A Luvocracy member recommends a product. Then shopping assistants find the best price and availability for the product and publish it on the site. Other users, who are following the person or the category, find the product and buy it. The original recommender gets a cut. Eighteen-month-old Luvocracy is actually more established than you might think
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