Want to find out what Google is up to?  Find out by watching their two day intense developers conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco May 19-20.  This will be broadcast on the Google YouTube channel and you can check out the agenda for the conference on the site.  This is an intense, deeply technical conference for developers of applications and software, and it is sure to address all the things that could take Google to the next level in daily use for mobile applications and cloud computing.  So if you want a glimpse of the future, tune in!

So what’s the buzz about Apple and the IPad?  How will this change the internet?  So far, the IPad rates really high for facilitating productivity anytime, anywhere. Internet, wireless, word processing, data – they all can be done on the IPad.  The wireless version will be the first to go on sale, followed by a a model with wireless and 3G access in late April.  With this much flexibility, this changes the way people approach the internet – flexibility, and wireless connections will be much more in demand.  A keyboard dock and a power adapter to charge the device from an electrical outlet will be available in May.  The present limitations are that you cannot edit Microsoft Word, and you cannot view Flash videos.  That could change with future models. Look for life, work, and communication to get more interesting!  Wireless will certainly become more of a way of life.

When I wanted to find high speed internet providers in my area, I went to the web and looked them up online.  It’s easy enough to find out about AT&T and Verizon, and search where they provide service.  I can also find my local cable company.  I enjoy finding blogs that compare many different companies side by side, because this saves me the trouble of clicking back and forth.  First I find out who really delivers in my community, and compare speeds and costs.  I also looked to see if there is anything included, such as modems, activation, or extra services like Wi-fi. I made my choice based on solid information, knowing what I wanted, and finding the best possible cost.  Speed is essential to me, so I was pleased to find all the rebates and bundles available with high speed plans.  It’s really great to be able to combine high speed internet with high quality digital television and telephone.

In a news article published in the Chicago Tribune’s Business section on January 29, 2010, Southwest Airlines has announced it will be offering high speed internet Wi-Fi service to it’s customers on their Boeing 737′s.  It is estimated that Wi-Fi will be available to Southwest’s customers by early 2012.  Southwest has been slower than some of it’s competition in embracing this service because to the airline giant, price matters.  It did not want to pass along a service to it’s customers that wasn’t perceived as a good value, and available vendors had priced things a bit too stiffly for Southwest’s liking.  The airline hasn’t published any pricing as of yet, but they have communicated to the public that it will be a great value, just like their airfares.

With high speed internet becoming available everywhere, it pays to check into what deals internet providers are offering.  Happy flying!

Have you decided it’s time to shop around and compare internet service providers in your area? As you begin, you may realize that you don’t understand the difference between DSL, cable internet, satellite and fiber optics. While that may appear to be a dilemma, the process need not have to be that difficult. We can help by giving you a brief lesson on high speed internet jargon. Equipped with knowledge, you can begin assessing side by side comparison of providers and packages available to you. Don’t forget to check out the savings available through bundled services. You may also want to speak with some of your neighbors to see which providers they have service with, and how they feel about their high speed internet and other bundled services.

The term broadband refers to a high speed internet connection that is delivered via a DSL connection or cable. This is how I was explaining it to my wife this morning as a blank look came over her face. I said, “Baby… we have it!” But, to put it in simple terms, maybe it is best I back up a bit and tell you about its predecessor… Dial-up. Remember plugging in the phone line to your computer? This was the famous T6 line that had restrictions in regards to speed and the amount of information that could pass through.

Now, enter High Speed Broadband which almost makes Dial-up obsolete. The most common analogy used in explaining Broadband are two roads. One road is a dirt road, and one is a multi-lane highway of instant information.

Now, this isn’t NEWS per say… but, it seemed like it this morning. In my wife’s defense… it was before she had her coffee.

Many ISPs, including giants like Time Warner, will give you $20 of credit on your bill for referring each friend to their service. Of course, there is a catch. You must consider that when refering a frined, you want to make sure that you are satisified with your service. Also, when you are referring a friend, you are giving out a friend’s information to be contacted within 24-48 hours. Unless your friend signs up for service and maintains that service for 60 days, then you don’t receive the credit. Also, you won’t receive the credit for 90-120 days, so you must maintain your service to get the credit. When using Refer-A-Friend specials, make sure that your friend will not only be happy about being contacted, but will also sign up for service.

Worldwide high speed internet subscribers increased up to 410.9 million. Regardless of the economic downturn, the numbers for the subscribers still rises up to 3.47 per cent on the last 2 quarters of 2008. The research conducted by Point Topic showed that, Western Europe leads the continental penetration at 25 percent, followed by North America at 21 percent and South and East Asia at 15 percent. In terms of the number of subscribers, China and the USA are leading the way followed by Japan. In terms of the most popular internet connection, DSL (ADSL, SDSL) is currently on the lead and the most popular option.

The broadband industry has turned us all into chicken littles. Back in the day (in the 1990′s) many people used to worry about the internet “running out” of bandwidth. That is not exactly the case with mega giants like Time Warner Road Runner Internet constantly improving technology. I remember being made to feel guilty about large downloads. People would say “If this growth continues, soon no one will be able to download anything!” Well, it turns out that we were wrong. My download size has increased, the number of people on the internet has increased, but bandwidth has increased even more! There is no longer talk of the whole system coming to a grinding halt.

I can’t find any exact statistics on this, which is driving me crazy because I love statistics in every way! However, I don’t think that this dismal prediction about downloads was just paranoia. At the time and given predicted growth rates of the industry and download rates it was quite reasonable that we would “run out” of bandwidth soon. I guess the broadband industry really came to the rescue there, because goodness knows that no human is going to give up his/her greedy ways to conserve scarce, shared resources.

What role do broadband providers like Bell South play in todays internet addicted population? I see internet addiction as a big, and increasing, problem these days. I have to say, I suffer from a touch of it myself. There was an (all too true) article in a joke newspaper that I read the other day that was about how an internet outage would make us all more productive. I also hear that kids now spend over 20 hours per week online. Back in MY day, I was lucky if I spend 20 minutes a week!

So, do broadband providers have any responsibility here? Well, much as we all like to blame others for our problems, I don’t really think we can point the blame at broadband internet. Sure, it’s easier to become addicted to broadband than to dial-up. Broadband, in general, is always on and always convenient. With dial-up, you at least have to rejoin the “real world” when your sister needs to call her boyfriend for the 5th time that day (again, I’m thinking of back when we used dial-up in the 1990′s) I guess the price of convenience is the possibility for overuse; I’d say it’s a fair price.

Internet that’s everywhere and super quick has a lot of advantages.  Many people race to get the latest gadget, little mini supercomputers that are always online, with good reason. With the dawn of mobile high speed internet providers, you can leave your computer at home and access your data from anywhere. Why tie your data to a desktop, when with broadband access it can be online, which means it’s anywhere you are.

This is called virtualization and it’s more places than you might think. Google already lets you access documents and mail from any computer. Microsoft already lets you keep traveling profile, but is also designing an operating system that will go with you, wherever you go. Eventually you will be able to take all of your favorite movies and music from anywhere, without dragging around clunky video or music players, and worrying about how to plug things in. This is the future of broadband, and it’s going to be everywhere!

In Japan, fiber optics has been reaching speeds of 100 Mbps, unheard of in the USA, since 2007. In China, 2.5 million new users went online with fiber optic connections last year, according to the USA Today article. South Korea has a population that is 85% connected to the web and a significant portion are connected through fiber optics at speeds 22 times what we reach in the USA. France’s connection is eight times faster than ours. Verizon FiOS has recently introduced a 50 Mbps fiber optics package, which is a start and, according to USA Today, 303,000 American homes joined the fiber optics crowd last year alone. More than one million American homes now use fiber optics to access the web, a promising trend.

As information flies throughout the world on fiber optic connections, it will change the way we work, the way we go to school and the way we are able to learn about and interact with our world.

Faster by far than anything else that DSL, dial-up cable or satellite can provide, fiber optics is less expensive to lay down than copper wire, making it easier for fiber optics infrastructure to expand quickly. Current fiber optics connection, download and upload speeds, while beyond the upper limits of other Internet technologies, are merely scratching the surface of what fiber optics are capable of delivering. It is estimated that, with the proper investment and infrastructure in place, terabytes of information could be sent down a fiber optics line in seconds.

High Speed Internet Providers Give Us Access To The Most Amazing Tools On The Internet. The digital age has expanded the reach we have across the entire world. Our circle of friends, contacts, and even employees are no longer limited to the physical neighborhood. Not only has the internet enhanced our ability to communicate, but ISP’s give us access to the best research tool ever invented. When was the last time you looked something up in an encyclopedia? It has probably been a very long time — at least a decade for me. That is because if i want to spell something or define a term or learn more about something, the internet gives me responses in a fast and furious fashion compared to the old world. All we need now is for our US broadband providers to keep up with the rest of the world in terms of speed at an affordable price.

It is no mystery that the US Broadband Market is facing a congested network as more and more people sign up for service. The congestion problem is huge since it would take a mammoth effort on the part of the ISP’s as well as the US government to upgrade the infrastructure already laid out across America. Some have even joked that the Peregrine Falcon will be a faster way to send messages than through your traditional high speed internet provider. Nortel came up with a solution that has not been deployed, but will be huge. They have come up with a proprietary technology that will allow data transfer speeds 4x to 10x faster through the existing US infrastructure. That is huge. We really have to love innovation.