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Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Google

Google celebrates its first year of WiFi

Google celebrates its first year of WiFiIt's been a year since the folks at Google successfully knocked off WiFi in Mountain View California. Transmitting all those great 802.11 b/g signals to the grateful residents, businesses and visitors at absolutely no charge at all. They are still trucking along on the San Francisco wireless deal with EarthLink and the city to give all residents free connections to the internet, but who knows when that will all be resolved.

Nevertheless, Google is on a mission to provide top notch WiFi networks, but what exactly does it take? Well, in Mountain View there are over 400 mesh routers that cover 12 square miles and 25,000 homes, with 15,000 unique users per month. Traffic over this free network has risen 10% every month and handles 300 gigabytes of data each day and 95% of the routers are being used every single day.

Here's to hoping that Google someday manages to blanket San Francisco, and a few other cities with WiFi.

Where would you like to see Google create their next free WiFi Network?

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Google

Waiting for San Fran WiFi

san francisco wifi waiting periodIf you have been one of the patiently waiting San Francisco residents to hear the outcomes of the wireless city network, you might have to wait a little longer.

Earthlink seems to be having doubts about building a wireless network in the city causing the municipal WiFi proposal in San Francisco to get delayed until at least August. With a vote by officials now scheduled for September 11th. The original proposal for city wireless signals to be sent through the air was put together in 2004 and saw Earthlink being the supplier for the paid service, and Google chipping in to offer a special free service to residents and travelers in the area. The plan did see some snags including quality, privacy and health concerns.

San Francisco isn't the only place that Earthlink has held back plans, they have completely scaled back nationwide amidst doubts that the company can make enough money in the municipal sector.

Filed under: News, Web services

When the lights go out in San Francisco the web goes with them

Connection resetYou may have noticed that some of your favorite websites went dark Tuesday afternoon. That includes LiveJournal, TypePad, Wired's blogs (but not Wired's main web site).

Turns out that's what happens when there's a major power outage in San Francisco where more than a few tech companies happen to be located.

More than 30,000 electric customers in the area lost power after an underground explosion. And while you would think big customers like oh, I don't know, Netflix would have a system in place to switch to a backup server if the main server goes down, the site was out for most of today.

While power hasn't been restored to all customers yet, several sites that were offline earlier today are back up and running, including Craiglist and Netflix. But this is the second time this week that we've heard of a massive internet outage. Coincidence? We certainly hope so.

Filed under: Internet, Video, Blogging, Web services, Social Software

Dev Chair : Web 2.0 and future of desktop blogging clients


With all the new and shiny Web 2.0 applications coming out, one may easily be convinced that desktop applications are breathing their last breath. At least that's what Google would like you to think about Google Apps, and its chances against rival Microsoft Office.

On the blogging front, most of the popular blogging systems (Blogger, Vox, TypePad, WordPress, etc.) have incorporated some degree of rich/WYSIWYG editor to make life easier for bloggers. Some of them integrate with other Web 2.0 applications (e.g. Vox with Flickr and YouTube, Flickr with blog systems) to allow users aggregate their disparate content. Does this mean the slow death of desktop blogging clients?

Read more →

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, OS Updates, Macintosh, Apple

Apple WWDC 2007 dates set

apple worldwide developers conferenceJune 11-15th will see San Francisco packed with Developers heading to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. The five-day event will see developers and IT professionals attending conference session after conference session about working with the latest Apple developer tools. There will be sessions on choosing and using the latest APIs to make the most of OS X, and how to create mind-blowing, effective user interfaces. Attendees to the conference will get the chance to work side by side with Apple engineers who are responsible for OS X features, ensuring that developers get all of their questions answered from the best possible individuals. This is a not-to-be-missed event for those hardcore OS X developers, web developers, software developers, system administrators, and IT managers out there. Ticket prices range from US$1,295 to $5,180 for a pack of 5 tickets.

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Social Software

Find parking with ParkMatch

find parking with parkmatchLooking for a parking spot can prove tedious, time consuming, and extremely expensive, especially in a large city. ParkMatch intends to change all that. The site allows users to find and list parking locations. Through ParkMatch, parking spots can be rented out during the times you know that it won't be used. Parking owners simply determine the times in which the spot will be available. Advertising the dates, times, and prices that suit the spot. Users register to use the site and pay confidently using PayPal.

So, the next time you know you are going to be in a crowded area, for a large event, you might want to check in with ParkMatch to see what's available in that area. It's going to most likely save you both time and money from the sometimes high costs of public parking locations during large events. Currently the service is only available for San Francisco users.

Filed under: Business, Developer, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!

Widget lovers unite for Widgets Live!

widgets live conferenceAre you a widget lover? You know all those cool little tools that can be added to desktops and webpages to show the weather, sports scores, news, and horoscopes. The widget world is growing strong, major players and individuals are creating some very neat modules, widgets and gadgets. GigaOm founder Om Malik, and Niall Kennedy have teamed up to organize a conference called Widgets Live! The new conference is aimed at the emerging widget economy, and being held at the Marines Memorial Club in San Francisco. Widgets Live! Is set to be a conference where developer's, business leaders and content producers can get together and understand how widgets, gadgets and modules can communicate and syndicate content effectively. The Widgets Live! Website has not released speakers, panels, or a session list, but judging from this unique niche, and logo collage on Niall's website, we could guess that the list of participating companies might include Google, MSN, AIM, WordPress, Six Apart, Netvibes, Apple, MySpace, and Yahoo. Tickets are set at $100, and can be purchased online.

So, out of all the widgets, gadgets, and modules out there, which ones do you find the most useful?

UPDATE - the Widget Live! schedule has been posted.

Filed under: Audio, Business, Utilities, Web services, Apple

Apple Showtime coming September 12

apple showtimeIt looks as though Apple could be releasing their much anticipated iTunes movie store program. Cnet released details that some members of the press and analysts received an invitation to attend a special event on September 12th in San Francisco, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts. Not many details were apparently attached to the invite, but the word is that it looks like the iTunes movie store could be launching, and the iPod could see another model released to support better video playback.

[via cnet]

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services

Municipal WiFi capacity gets a boost

municipal wifiPhiladelphia, San Francisco, and New Orleans are some of the cities that will be enjoying a boost in their citywide WiFi networks care of their provider.

WiFi equipment provider, Tropos Networks, a major municipal WiFi supplier based in Sunnyvale, California, announced that they will be providing a 50% boost in capacity. This means that many service providers will be able to increase bandwidth drastically for users, which is much needed these days to the ever expanding world of video and multimedia content online.

The specific equipment needed for the boost will be out in October, and there will be a test phase rolled out to unspecified customers.

[via cnet]

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Web services, Google, Yahoo!, Social Software

The Future of Web Applications Conference

future of web applicationsCarson Workshops is running a two day conference on the development of technology you will be using tomorrow in San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, on September 13-14. This isn't a no name conference either! There will be some big-hitters speaking at the event, including:
  • Kevin Rose from digg
  • Mike Arrington from TechCrunch
  • Mike Davidson from Newsvine
  • Jeff Veen from Google
  • Tantek Celik from Technorati
  • Cal Henderson from Flickr
  • Matt Mullenweg from Wordpress
  • Evan Williams from Odeo
  • Tom Coates from Yahoo!
  • Ted Rheingold from Dogster
  • Carl Sjogreen from Google Calendar
  • Steve Olechowski from Feedburner
  • Ryan Carson from DropSend and Amigo
The speakers will be spilling the beans on how their successful applications were built, with a ton of practical advice on how to create your very own masterpieces or the future of web 2.0 technologies. If you are hanging out in the San Fran area, or feel like taking a trip, September 13 - 14 is the time to go for sure.

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